"Needle exchange director arrested for having needles"

The story reads like a series of unfortunate events...

Cincinnati.com:  Norwood police Chief William Kramer said officers found Harrison "passed out in the driver's seat with her car still in drive."

A search of Harrison's vehicle also revealed a bottle cap and a piece of burnt cotton, and both a capped and an uncapped syringe, police stated in their report.

The white powder residue, which Harrison dropped to the ground after emerging from her vehicle, will be tested, Kramer said. Drug possession charges are possible pending the outcome of those tests, Kramer said.

"There was no bag with white powder in it," Harrison told The Enquirer. "If they tested anything in the car, it’s going to have heroin in it because of (my) work."

Harrison's car was filled with thousands of syringes in plastic bio-hazard bins, but no actual drugs, she said. Harrison also said she conversed politely with police, offered to show them her official identification cards, but ultimately was arrested and jailed.

"I have hypoglycemia so I get lightheaded. I pulled over to the side of the road," ate a peanut butter-honey bar and waited for it to take effect, Harrison told The Enquirer after her hearing. "The next thing I know there's cops everywhere."

CEP, as it's called, is a mobile exchange site that generally operates from a van that clearly identifies its purpose. But the van occasionally has mechanical problems, so staff work from their own vehicles so as not to interrupt services.

That's why, according to Harrison, there were needles and other supplies in her vehicle.

"If I'm carrying 1,500 needles and giant sharp (needle) containers, I'm obviously running a program," Harrison said. "There was no reason for them to take me to jail... For them, maybe it was a better-safe-than-sorry situation, but I think they should have thought about it a little longer."

George Will: The Criminalization of Politics

The impulse to ferret corruption from politics corrupts the criminal justice system when it causes overzealous prosecutors and judges to improvise novel interpretations of the law of bribery. Consider Robert McDonnell’s case.

Virginia’s former Republican governor has been sentenced to prison for actions that he could not have reasonably anticipated would be declared felonies under a dangerous judicial expansion of federal law defining bribery of public officials. Friday the Supreme Court will decide whether to review McDonnell’s conviction.

Compelling reasons for doing so are explained in friend-of-the-court briefs submitted by, among others, 31 current governors; 60 former state attorneys general (six from Virginia filed their own); 13 former federal officials, including two former U.S. attorneys general, and former legal counsels to every president starting with Ronald Reagan; and three law professors from Harvard and the University of Virginia. All agree that McDonnell’s conviction resulted from unreasonably stretching the understanding of quid pro quo corruption — you do X for me, I will do Y for you...

McDonnell had an unseemly relationship with a Richmond businessman who showered the governor with substantial gifts, loans, and perquisites. Virginia law permits state officials to accept gifts, and never during McDonnell’s trial did prosecutors suggest that he had violated state law. 

If the businessman hoped that McDonnell would take official government actions benefiting his diet supplement enterprise, he was disappointed. The Supreme Court and other courts have defined an “official act” as the actual exercise of government power. The businessman wanted certain acts — state funding for his firm, a state study to validate his supplement, and inclusion of it in Virginia’s health plan. None of these acts occurred. (read more)

"Petition to Pardon Making a Murderer Subject Gets 100,000 Signatures"

Time: Tens of thousands of people are petitioning for the president to pardon Steven Avery, the subject of Netflix’s documentary series Making a Murderer, who is serving life in prison after a 2005 murder arrest.

So far, more than 100,000 have signed a Change.org petition and more than 18,000 have signed a White House petition asking for a presidential pardon for Avery and his nephew Brendan Dassey. If the government petition collects 100,000 signatures by January 16, then the White House has to respond publicly.

Making a Murderer explores how Avery was convicted for murder in Wisconsin. He had been released from prison in 2003 because DNA evidence had exonerated him in rape charges. Netflix released the popular 10-part series on Dec. 18.

The documentary series comes after other popular true crime stories, such as HBO’s The Jinx and the Serial podcast. But unlike Serial, in which Sarah Koenig couldn’t come to a conclusion about Adnan Syed’s guilt, and The Jinx, which the filmmakers ended with Robert Durst’s seeming confession,reviewers say Making a Murderer comes down on the side of Avery’s innocence. Prosecutor Ken Kratz says the series leaves out pertinent information that proves Avery is guilty.

"Cancer ISN'T all in your genes"

"Up to 90% of cases 'could be wiped out by avoiding triggers caused by our unhealthy lifestyles'"

They said that factors in the world around us, from diet, to sunlight, cigarettes and disease, play a far bigger role in fuelling cancer than dodgy DNA.

While the advice may not seem surprising, scientists are divided about how much cancer is caused by what we do and how much is unavoidable.

The latest study involved four analyses of the causes of cancer and used some of the same data as the first piece of research.

However, it came to the opposite conclusion, suggesting that cancer incidence is far too high to be explained by simple mutations in cell division alone.

They said that, if random mutations were to blame, there would be far fewer cases of cancer than there are.

Study: Sitting for long periods doesn’t make death more imminent

You've read the warnings: "Sitting will kill you." And many of you have sought out standing desks, fearful that a chair will only hasten the end of your mortal existence.

Well, take a deep breath, relax and add this to the mix of research out there on the pros and cons of standing at work: a study published Tuesday in the International Journal of Epidemiology found that sitting is not associated with an increased risk of dying.

Researchers tracked 16 years' worth of health data from 5,132 people in the Whitehall II study cohort. Participants reported their total time sitting and how long they sat during four different situations: at work, watching television, leisure time and non-television leisure time. Researchers also tracked time spent walking daily and on physical activity.

After controlling for a number of factors, including diet and general health, researchers found the overall mortality risk for these participants wasn't influenced by how long they sat or by the kind of sitting. And the researchers cautioned that too much emphasis on not sitting shouldn't take the place of promoting physical activity.

"Our study overturns current thinking on the health risks of sitting and indicates that the problem lies in the absence of movement rather than the time spent sitting itself," study author Melvyn Hillsdon of the University of Exeter said in a statement. "Any stationary posture where energy expenditure is low may be detrimental to health, be it sitting or standing." (read more)

Barack Obama disavows Jonathan Gruber

 

"‘Breaking Bad plot’ was fantasy, says woman accused of trying to kill mother" (Update*)

"She said: “By this time, because of the messages I received from my mum and because I couldn’t cope with it and I wanted to escape from it all, I started to fantasise about trying to kill myself or my mum."

“It was as if I was thinking through it as if I was in my own TV programme or a character in Breaking Bad. I was in a really strange place in my mind.”

She said the person who wrote the emails “doesn’t resemble me”, adding: “I know how it appears, but the truth is I didn’t do anything. It’s all fabrication.

“It escalated and I had to go to work and pretend like everything was OK and I had to be at home and pretend everything was OK.

“But I was living this other life. This was my own way of coping – it was my coping mechanism. It was how I survived daily.”

Patel denies trying to murder her mother, who sits on the bench at Thames magistrates court, and acquiring a biological agent or toxin.

Patel wiped tears away from her eyes and told the jury: “I didn’t do it. I didn’t put anything in my mother’s coke.”

* Graphic designer who 'fantasised about being character from Breaking Bad' is cleared of trying to kill her mother... but convicted of acquiring biological agent or toxin.

NY Post: "Parents sued by teen don’t have to pay up — yet"

"A disgruntled New Jersey teenager lost her first bout in family court on Tuesday, when a judge refused to make mom and dad immediately fork over money to fund her private-school education."

Judge Peter Bogaard said there was no emergency need for the parents of 18-year-old Rachel Canning to open their wallets and pay for her education at Morris Catholic HS, where she’s a 12th-grade honor student, and other daily living costs.

In a potential precedent-setting lawsuit, Rachel accused parents Sean and Elizabeth Canning of throwing her out of their Lincoln Park home — but claims they should still be held responsible for paying school tuition, room, board, transportation and expenses.

Despite Tuesday’s setback, Rachel’s lawsuit is still going forward.

The teen has been living with a family friend ever since leaving home. The friend’s dad is former Morris County Freeholder John Inglesino, who is reportedly footing Rachel’s legal bill.

“For whatever reason, he’s [John Inglesino] enabling her and I don’t know why. I just know this is destroying my family,” Sean Canning said.

The dad claims he’s never been asked by Rachel’s hosts to sit down and talk about the awkward situation.

“It’s been completely through legal channels,” he said. “There’s never been talks with a middle ground.”

Could this be some sort of publicity gateway for a reality show?  Nothing is what it seems anymore. Now, where did I used to read that?

NY Post

If You Want Your Birthers...

"President Obama's uncle said at a deportation hearing Tuesday that Obama stayed with him while he was a student at Harvard Law School in the 1980s -- despite the White House having said that Obama never met the man."

Onyango “Omar” Obama, 69, was arrested for drunk driving in 2011 and faced deportation after living in the United States for five decades. The judge decided to let the Kenyan national remain in the United States.

The White House said, following Omar Obama's arrest, that he and the president had never met. The president was not close to his father's side of the family, given his father's absence in his life.

Washington Post

"Reports: Alleged trend of 'knockout game' a myth"

"Some news organizations are refuting the existence of an alleged phenomenon known as the "knockout game" that has been the subject of media warnings in recent weeks."

According to reports by CNN, the Today show, USA TODAY and others, the game takes place when young people randomly assault strangers in an attempt to knock them out with one punch.

The attacks are leading to arrests, more officers on the streets and warnings for vigilance among the public, law enforcement officials and victims advocates told USA TODAY. In New Haven, Conn., police spokesman David Hartman said police are investigating six incidents in the past month as possible "knockouts."

But police officials in several cities where the attacks have been reported say the knockout game is an urban myth, and that attacks that have received recent attention in the media have been random assaults, the New York Times is reporting.

USA Today, NYT