By Liz Claud
Photography Editor
1. USA Today reports that the San Francisco County Jail in San Bruno, California has installed 16 condom machines. There is now one for each inmate pod for the roughly 750 inmates in the prison.
2. It’s official. Auction shows are the next big thing on television. Due on Discovery in October: “Bidder Rivals.” In November, Spike will premiere “Auction Hunters” and Sci-Fi will feature “Hollywood Treasures,” a look inside the high-stakes world of the largest auctioneer of showbiz and pop culture memorabilia. Lastly, TLC has a nonscheduled show in the works called “Auctioneers.”
3. Time.com reporter Adam Cohen writes, “Government agents can sneak onto your property in the middle of the night, put a GPS device on the bottom of your car, and keep track of everywhere you go. This doesn’t violate your Fourth Amendment rights, because you do not have any reasonable expectation of privacy in your own driveway — and no reasonable expectation that the government isn’t tracking your movements.” Fortunately, as of now, this law only applies in nine west coast states.
4. It was reported several months ago on Truecrimereport.com that Brandon Loverde, a police officer in Orlando, Florida, allegedly assaulted an intoxicated woman at a nightclub. The really disturbing part was that she was pregnant and lactating and he really just wanted some milk. He was recently convicted and “though originally charged with felony false imprisonment, battery and disorderly conduct, he plead not contest to only the latter.” Giving up his Florida law enforcement certification was his only consequence.
5. Weekly podcast, “UhhYeahDude,” reports that registered sex offenders from the U.S. mainland are flooding Puerto Rico. Restrictions there are less strict than in the states. There are no laws barring them from living near parks or schools. Failing to register as a sex offender is only a misdemeanor in Puerto Rico, as opposed to a felony in the United States. “That and the fact that they need no passport and beachfront property can cost as little as $300 a month, older sex offenders can live off their social security checks and just party.”
6. UYD also reports on a new trend relating to a 1987 congressional law regarding care in nursing homes. The Nursing Home Reform Law was used to address evidence of widespread abuse of nursing home patients. “The states followed suit with a strong set of regulations that would guarantee the residents were free from abuse and had quality of care and real quality of life,” says Robin Grant, a national senior care advocate, who was involved in drafting some of these rules. Apparently, there are a lot of residents who request nurses based specifically on race, and because of patients’ rights a black nurse can’t legally help a man who fell to the floor. “Tension over patients’ rights and race come up occasionally in virtually every state in the U.S.,” says Steven Maag, director of assisted living and continued care at the American Association of Homes and Assisted Care for the Aging. “You have to remember, the nursing home residents grew up in the time of Jim Crow. Even in the north, they regressed back.”
7. CBSnes.com reports that DEA officer Michael Sanders is looking for nine ebonics translators in Atlanta, Washington D.C., New Orleans, and Miami to help interpret wiretapped conversations involving targets of drug investigations. Sanders said, “You need someone to say, ‘I know what they mean when they say ‘ballin.’”
8. Alan Levin from USA Today reports on an analysis of all federal aviation accident records from the past 10 years. They found that flaws in the flight simulator training that all commercial airline pilots go through are the cause of almost all commercial airplane crashes. In fact, it accounts for over half of the past 522 accidents since 2000. That is to say that the National Transportation Safety Board said habits taught in training have led to catastrophic mistakes. Things that pilots did in order to avoid crashes directly led to crashes (i.e.) altitude choices, rudder choices, and speed choices. Pilots experience these same simulations across the nation.
9. Rudy Giuliani attended a minor league baseball game between the Brooklyn Cyclones and the Staten Island Yankees at the Cyclones’ MCU Park. Rudy threw out the first pitch and then spoke to reporters. One of the reporters asked him, “Who are you rooting for tonight?” He responded, “I remember I came here the Friday before 9-11. There was a beautiful view of the World Trade Center right from where I’m standing.” Once again Giuliani proves his shameless persistence in using our most recent national tragedy as his only political platform.