Prisons
PA Inmate Families Complain About Mail Screening
|
Mail to inmates must be addressed to a Florida company, which scans it and stores it for surveillance purposes. The state says the change was necessary to stamp out drug smuggling by mail.
Russia Probe
Mueller Findings Expected Soon After Elections
|
Special Counsel Robert Mueller is expected to issue findings on core aspects of his Russia probe soon after the November midterm elections as he faces intensifying pressure to produce more indictments or shut down his investigation.
Prosecutors
FBI Investigates Manhattan DA Vance Over Case Handling
|
FBI agents are probing the Manhattan district attorney’s office over its handling of high-profile cases that were dropped once lawyers for the well-connected subjects made donations. One case involves Harvey Weinstein, who Vance didn’t charge with sex abuse after a Weinstein lawyer made two campaign contributions.
Drugs
Canada Becomes Highest-Profile Country to Legalize Pot
|
Canada’s start of legal marijuana sales may lead the way to a global cannabis revolution, unleashing high-quality medical research that could bolster pot’s reputation as a healthier alternative to alcohol and tobacco.
Drugs
Fentanyl Driving the Overdose Epidemic, Here to Stay
|
As governors in the hardest-hit New England, Mid-Atlantic and Midwestern states call for intensified law enforcement and stiffer penalties for fentanyl dealers, public health officials say this latest drug scourge underscores the urgent need to get more people into treatment.
Shootings
No Shootings in New York City All Weekend
|
There were no shootings in New York City last Friday, Saturday and Sunday, marking the first weekend free of shootings in at least a quarter-century. Mayor
Bill de Blasio says, “Isn’t that amazing?”
Crime Trends
Murder Total Steady, St. Louis Official Wants Tough Sentences
|
Violent crime in St. Louis is down 10 percent but the homicide rate is about the same. Public Safety Director Jimmie Edwards wants the mandatory minimum sentence for gun crime to be higher.
Guns
Study Links Gun Ownership, Fatal Police Shootings
|
Researchers at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Northeastern University found that people were 3.6 times more likely to be involved in fatal police shootings if they lived in the 10 states with the most guns.
White Collar Crime
Public Corruption Cases Down During Trump Administration
|
The federal government has filed 23.5 percent fewer pubic corruption cases, 340, during the first eleven months of fiscal year 2018 than during the previous year, reports TRAC at Syracuse University.
Media
Ex-Sheriff Joe Arpaio Sues NY Times for Libel
|
Arpaio claims an opinion piece by Michelle Cottle includes “false, defamatory factual assertions” that will hurt his 2020 campaign for the late Sen. John McCain’s seat.