Legal and Legislative News

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Pupil Rights Law Allows Parents to Opt Students Out of Surveys

Antidepressants Facts

by Health and Health Care in Schools

May 1, 2003

A 1998 federal law, the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA), allows parents to inspect instructional materials used in connection with any U.S. DoE-funded "survey, analysis, or evaluation."

The law, often called the "Hatch amendment" or the "Grassley amendment" for the members of Congress who introduced it, also requires schools to obtain written parental consent before minor students participate in Education Department-funded surveys that ask questions about personal or family matters.

New Furor Over Visas Reaches Hill

Computer World

by Patrick Thibodeau

May 26, 2003

Measure would curb L-1 program; H-1B cap decline approaches

Congress has been asked to set restrictions on the L-1 visa, preventing so-called IT body shops from using it as a vehicle to bring in foreign labor. But no move has been made to raise the H-1B cap, set to fall from 195,000 to 65,000 in October.

Bad Raps for Non-Hacks

securityfocus.com

by Mark Rasch

June 16, 2003

A few odd cases show that you don't have be a digital desparado to be accused of a cybercrime... particularly if you embarrass the wrong bureaucrats.

Some recent (and not so recent) cases illustrate how computer security professionals and well intentioned whistle-blowers face a genuine risk of running afoul of computer crime statutes simply for forgetting to ask the right person, "May I'," before doing a computer security assessment. Take the case of Scott Moulten, a computer security professional in Georgia. He was the principal person responsible for computer security (through a private company) for a county in Georgia. The county worked with various cities coordinating and providing 911 Emergency Response Services. When one city wanted to hook up to the county's 911 network, Moulten performed a port scan and throughput test on that city's network to see if the computers were vulnerable to exploit.

Call Don't Click

World Privacy Forum

by Pam Dixon

August 11, 2003

Why it's smarter to order federally mandated free credit reports via telephone, not the Internet

The World Privacy Forum urges consumers who qualify [1] to order a federally mandated free annual credit report [2] to call the toll free number (877-322-8228) instead of ordering their free credit report online. Calling the toll free number exposes consumers to fewer potential hazards than ordering online. [3] Consumers who try to use the official online site www.annualcreditreport.com may encounter numerous challenges, some of them potentially serious.

CPS: 20 Years After Advocate's False Allegation, Is Virginia System Safer for Innocents and Unabused Children

News Release Wire (VA)

August 19, 2003

Barbara Bryan, child/family justice advocate in the Commonwealth for years and now worldwide, observes changes in form but not substance.

Two decades after three middle school age Boy Scouts were felled by a repeat mandated vaccination, their once falsely accused mother notes no substantive features added to Virginia's child protective services (CPS) regulations to prevent the nightmare visited on them by government agents.<br><br>What is true in one state--that CPS and "family" courts are extraconstitutional and accept a reverse presumption: that the accused must prove innocence--is generally true throughout the United States and has been for years. Inducement of "more federal money" was too powerful a lure for counting the cost of liberty.

WND takes on America's lawless legal system

World Net Daily

August 20, 2003

Why many citizens fear attorneys, judges more than terrorists

I have come to fear almost everything having to do with law. Though there are many fine people in the legal profession, and though law is necessary to protect society from descending into chaos, I now fear the legal profession more than I do Islamic terror ...

Perry pardons 35 in Tulia case

Amarillo Globe News

by Greg Cunningham

August 23, 2003

A four-year legal odyssey that engulfed an entire Panhandle town in a firestorm of controversy came to an end Friday when Gov. Rick Perry pardoned 35 men and women convicted in the controversial 1999 Tulia drug sting.

The cases broke down in March when Coleman gave contradictory statements during evidentiary hearings in Tulia. The testimony led the judge to stop the hearings and recommend the cases of everyone convicted in the bust be overturned. Coleman has since been indicted on perjury charges.<br><br>"Tulia has become a model for what's wrong with the criminal justice system," said Gupta, who helped line up prominent attorneys to join the fight. "It's been so compelling nationally because of the story it tells. What is now needed is for local, state and federal authorities to examine what happened there and put into effect reforms that will keep it from happening again."

Taking a young life often means lesser sentence

The Star-Ledger

by Ana M. Alaya

August 24, 2003

A review finds the average prison time was 11 years for those convicted in child homicide cases

Charles Brown, aka Tweety Bird, an unemployed airbrush painter in Salem County with 35 arrests, repeatedly punched his 18-month-old son because the child was crying. The judge sentenced him to eight years for the boy's death. With good behavior, he will be out in six years and nine months.

Federal Land Going To Pot

CBS News.com

August 28, 2003

Rangers in Sequoia National Park have swapped their Smokey Bear hats for helmets, weapons and camouflage.

It's more than a cash crop; it's a cash cow. One plant brings $4,000 on the street. Last year, agents pulled $1.5 billion worth from federal land in California alone - a tenfold increase from nine years ago. They expect to exceed that this year.

Despite reprieves, 3,500 still on death row in the US

The Christian Science Monitor

by Amanda Paulson and Abraham McLaughlin

September 4, 2003

On the surface, this week's ruling by the Ninth Circuit court of appeals - overturning the death sentences of more than 100 inmates in Arizona, Montana, and Idaho - is the latest sign of statistical retreat for capital punishment in America.

Reflect Americans' ambivalence about a penalty that most still believe in but are more hesitant to inflict. On the one hand, legislatures are enacting tough-on-crime laws. Attorney General John Ashcroft has been an active proponent of tough sentencing. And 74 percent of Americans favor the death penalty for a person convicted of murder, according to the latest Gallup Poll in May. (The number drops to 53 percent when life without parole is an alternative.)

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