Eideard

Staging raids in 19 states, the Justice Department struck this week at one of Mexico’s most ruthless drug-trafficking organizations, a cultlike group known as La Familia Michoacana and notorious for beheading its enemies.

Calling it the largest strike ever undertaken against a Mexican drug cartel, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. announced the arrests of 303 people in the past two days, the latest action in a four-year investigation.

Law enforcement officials said the arrests and indictments would deal a major blow to a distribution network that trucked methamphetamine and cocaine to major cities in the United States, then sent cash and arms in the other direction.

La Familia controls much of the drug traffic in central Mexico and terrorizes the population there, the authorities said, torturing and killing their enemies, including police officers, and leaving the bodies in public with cryptic religious messages saying the dead suffered divine retribution.

“The sheer level and depravity of violence that this cartel has exhibited far exceeds what we, unfortunately, have become accustomed to from other cartels,” Mr. Holder said. He added: “While this cartel may operate from Mexico, the toxic reach of its operations extends to nearly every state within our country…”

In addition, Mr. Holder said, the authorities have seized more than $32 million in American currency, 2,700 pounds of methamphetamine, 2,000 kilograms of cocaine, 16,000 pounds of marijuana and 29 pounds of heroin. More arrests are expected.

“More arrests are expected.” One would hope.

The state of Nevada has one of the highest rates of homelessness in the US.

But even though there are more than 14,000 homeless people in Las Vegas, it is easy to spend a weekend in Sin City and never see signs of a crisis.

Most tourists take in Vegas from the interior of a casino – slot machines, blackjack tables, cocktail waitresses in impossibly tiny outfits.
If you are willing to pay the price of admission, a lift can transport you to more excess upstairs – rooftop pools and lavish suites.

But what if there were a lift that descended below the sunken lounges, past kitchens and utility closets, through layers of concrete, into the ground beneath the casinos?

Here, you would see another, very different, version of the city: the storm drains.

Matt O’Brien, a Las Vegas writer, has been exploring this underworld for several years. In 2007, he published a book, Beneath the Neon, about exploring the 300 miles of tunnels that criss-cross beneath the strip.

The evening I meet him, he is wearing heavy boots, and carrying a backpack and industrial-sized flashlight that could double as a weapon.

“I’ve been exploring these storm drains for more than five years,” he says, sloshing through muck and gravel that blanket the tunnel floor.

RTFA. Interesting tales.

I imagine in many ways this would compare to life in the catacombs beneath Paris in the 19th Century. Same problems. Same people. Maybe not as romantic as the Hunchback of Notre Dame or Dumas’ Mohicans de Paris.

It’s a good thing couches are too heavy to throw, because the fight brewing among therapists is getting ugly. For years, psychologists who conduct research have lamented what they see as an antiscience bias among clinicians, who treat patients. But now the gloves have come off.

In a two-years-in-the-making analysis to be published in November in Perspectives on Psychological Science, psychologists led by Timothy B. Baker of the University of Wisconsin charge that many clinicians fail to “use the interventions for which there is the strongest evidence of efficacy” and “give more weight to their personal experiences than to science.” As a result, patients have no assurance that their “treatment will be informed by science.”

Walter Mischel of Columbia University, who wrote an accompanying editorial, is even more scathing. “The disconnect between what clinicians do and what science has discovered is an unconscionable embarrassment,” he told me, and there is a “widening gulf between clinical practice and science.”

The “widening” reflects the substantial progress that psychological research has made in identifying the most effective treatments. Thanks to clinical trials as rigorous as those for, say, cardiology, we now know that cognitive and cognitive-behavior therapy (teaching patients to think about their thoughts in new, healthier ways and to act on those new ways of thinking) are effective against depression, panic disorder, bulimia nervosa, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and -posttraumatic-stress disorder, with multiple trials showing that these treatments—the tools of psychology—bring more durable benefits with lower relapse rates than drugs, which non-M.D. psychologists cannot prescribe…

You wouldn’t know this if you sought help from a typical psychologist. Millions of patients are instead receiving chaotic meditation therapy, facilitated communication, dolphin-assisted therapy, eye-movement desensitization, and well, “someone once stopped counting at 1,000 forms of psychotherapy in use,” says Baker.

RTFA. I’m looking forward to the appearance of the complete study online.

The transformation of American psychology into a profit center for psychogenic drugs manufacturers is as corrupt as any other part of our distorted healthcare system.

In a neighborhood full of families, it was the children who apparently first noticed someone new had moved into the rented yellow-vinyl house on Joliet’s far west side.

They told their parents around February that a new boy was joining their games on this quiet cul-du-sac of neat, brand-new homes and had started attending their school.

What neighbors didn’t know, but what federal authorities now allege, is that this family — husband, wife and young son — was hired in Mexico, given a car and directions to Joliet and paid to live there as part of an elaborate ploy to disguise the two-story home’s true purpose. It was to serve as a stash house for a drug ring that allegedly raked in about $10 million a year selling cocaine, most recently under the leadership of a man named “Panda.”

Federal agents and local police raided the four-bedroom Joliet home in June, finding $1.4 million in cash in vacuum-sealed baggies in the attic and, inside a black Ford pickup in the garage, 54 kilograms of cocaine, according to recently unsealed court documents. It was part of a larger bust in which 17 people were arrested and accused of using stash houses across the southwest suburbs in Bolingbrook, Hickory Hills, Joliet, Oak Lawn and Plainfield.

Federal authorities say the suburbs now rival Chicago when comparing the amount of drugs imported to the area by Mexican cartels. The most significant drug conspiracy in Chicago history, detailed last month and traced back to Mexico’s most notorious drug kingpins, operated out of stash houses dotted all over bucolic suburban neighborhoods.

RTFA. Some of it is good police work, some of it luck – as it always is.

There’s the usual neighbor saying, “Oh my God – I never would’ve suspected it.” NSS.

I happened to catch a couple of folks from L.E.A.P. at the very end of an interview on TV the other day. I don’t even recall what channel it was on.

Watch the video. Read through the information on their website. If your point of view is more worldly than Howdy Doody – take action and support their cause.

Bailey Barzano was in the care of her grandparents Sunday when a trip to Tampa International Airport turned into a potentially life-threatening episode…

At some point, Bailey handed her grandfather what looked like an unopened bag of Tropical Skittles. No one thought to ask where the candy came from. Jeffrey Ball, 40, told deputies he opened the package and handed it back to the girl…

When another relative, James Shye said he was hungry, Jeffrey Ball offered him a partially eaten bag of Skittles. Shye poured the candies into his hand. Out came pills.

The adults in the car were horrified by the implications.

They noticed that Bailey was behaving strangely and seemed lethargic. Had she ingested some of these pills?

The family drove straight to University Community Hospital in Carrollwood…

Doctors believe Bailey swallowed the controlled substance, but aren’t sure how much, Sheriff Winsett said.

The fact that she chewed the pills like candy may have slowed how quickly her body absorbed any narcotic, doctors told her mother…

Deputies are continuing their inquiry. They interviewed Bailey once, Winsett said, but hope to have better results with the help of someone skilled in questioning very young children. “She’s a beautiful 4-year-old little girl who is full of energy,” he said.

Winsett believes it’s possible someone opened the bag, dropped in the pills, then resealed it. He said his office experimented with the wrappers and found it’s not that hard to do — at least if the consumer isn’t paying close attention to the condition of the packaging. But he cautioned against blaming the maker of the candy.

“We don’t have anything to indicate that this is anything other than an isolated incident,” Winsett said.

Skittles manufacturer William Wrigley Jr. Co. said the company is cooperating with the investigation, which Winsett said includes trying to track where the bag was purchased.

Pretty scary. Let’s hope it was nothing more than an isolated incident.

On the other hand, the creep who may have fabricated the package – is still out and about.

Daylife/Getty Images used by permission

In one of the most brazen assaults since the President Felipe Calderón began his campaign against organised crime, men armed with grenades and automatic rifles opened fire on police stations across Michoacán state. The attackers, believed to be from the drug cartels, shot up a hotel where federal agents were staying – as well as six police stations.

The assaults were understood to have been revenge for the arrest of Arnoldo Rueda, an alleged ringleader of the La Familia cartel, based in Michoacán.

Police allege that Rueda directed the cartel’s operations, while its overall leaders, Nazario Moreno Gonzalez and Jose de Jesus Mendez Vargas, are on Mexico’s “most wanted” list.

Minutes after Rueda was captured early on Saturday morning in Morelia, the state capital, about 40 gunmen appeared in a convoy of vehicles to try to rescue him.

They poured rifle fire and grenades into the building where he was being held. Six federal agents were wounded before officers were able to contain the attack.

The violence then spread across the beautiful Pacific coastal state. In Zitacuaro three federal agents were killed while two soldiers were shot dead in the town of Zamora, cut down by bullets from a passing car as they walked to their headquarters.

Dozens of gunmen ambushed a convoy along a highway near the port city of Lazaro Cárdenas, wounding at least five federal agents.

Life in beautiful Old Mexico. But, fear not. The not-as-corrupt conservatives currently in power look like being voted out of office by a campaign which includes drug gangs as participants.

The always-corrupt, populist PRI is gaining back political seats in Mexico. Things should be quiet soon. Unless you oppose the power of drugs gangsters.

Have you seen this man?
Daylife/AP Photo used by permission

A doctor who has apparently gone missing after treating Michael Jackson before his sudden death is being sought by the Los Angeles police and coroner’s office.

The doctor’s car, which was left outside Jackson’s rented mansion in Bel Air, has been impounded. A police spokesman said they wanted to talk to Dr Conrad Murray, a cardiologist who practises in California, Nevada and Texas, because he had not signed a death certificate, as is normal procedure. It was reported last night that police were in contact with Murray.

Speculation was mounting that the star’s death may be linked to his longstanding use of painkillers. Family friends have confirmed he was taking drugs to help him deal with the stress of preparing for his series of London concerts.

Last night the Los Angeles coroner said initial examination of the body indicated “no foul play or external trauma”. He said a ruling on the cause of death would be deferred for detailed toxicology and neuropathology tests, which could take between four and six weeks…

Charlie Beck said the doctor’s car was seized because it may contain drugs or other evidence. Beck said officers had spoken to the doctor immediately after Jackson’s death but wanted to carry out “an extensive follow-up interview”…

Read the rest of this entry »

While fatherhood might be far from the minds of most young men, behavior patterns they establish early on may impact their ability to become a dad later in life. Excessive laptop use tops this list of liabilities, according to one reproductive specialist at Loyola University Health System (LUHS).

“Laptops are becoming increasingly common among young men wired into to the latest technology,” said Suzanne Kavic, MD… “However, the heat generated from laptops can impact sperm production and development making it difficult to conceive down the road.”

Kavic recommends placing laptops on desktops to prevent damaging sperm and decreasing counts and motility. Other tips to protect male fertility include:

* Avoiding hot tubs

* Using boxers over briefs

* Refraining from ejaculating too frequently (the recommendation is to only engage in sexual intercourse every other day around ovulation)

* Avoiding exercise that can generate heat or trauma to the genital area

* Staying hydrated and limiting caffeine to no more than two cups per day

* Avoiding drugs and excessive alcohol use

RTFA to see all of her suggestions.

Just remember – follow all of them, who’d want to have children with someone as dull as you?

Busload of Michoacan mayors and police chiefs arriving at a lockup in Mexico City
Daylife/Getty Images used by permission

Mexican troops have rounded up 10 mayors and a string of police chiefs suspected of links to drug gangs in a western state, one of the biggest single corruption sweeps in the government’s drug war.

Soldiers burst into police stations and town halls to arrest 27 public officials in Michoacan, the home state of President Felipe Calderon and the place he launched his army-led assault on drug cartels in late 2006.

The officials included a judge and a former police chief who is an aide to the state governor. The attorney general’s office said all were suspected of links to drug smugglers…

Small towns in marijuana-growing Michoacan are under siege from rival cartels who want control of rural outposts along smuggling corridors, stretching the army in sparsely inhabited mountains that hide drug plantations and laboratories.

Local officials and police are often bribed or terrorized into helping the well-armed gangs that move billions of dollars of narcotics into the United States every year.

The town of Uruapan, where the mayor was arrested on Tuesday, made headlines early in the drug war in 2006 when hitmen dumped five human heads on the dance floor of a bar.

Seems like fewer differences between Iraq and Mexico every day. I’m surprised some of the neocons haven’t yet suggested invading.

I mean some of the “official” neocons. The real nutballs suggest invading damned near everyone, everywhere, on a daily basis.