Free Republic

SALEM, IN (WAVE) – A police officer is facing drunk driving charges in Washington County, Indiana and the arresting officers say he was carrying a message about drug abuse education at the time. Not only a police officer, but according to the Seymour Police Department website, he is the School Resource Officer, responsible for seven schools, acting as a mentor and providing students with a role model. It even states that he conducts lectures on narcotics and alcohol and their effects on driving. Seymour Police Officer John Newcomb (Source; Washington County, IN Jail) Witnesses say when Newcomb was taken from...

Citing "prior commitments," Democrat candidate for the US Senate from Illinois, Alexi Giannoulias, abruptly backed out of a debate with his Republican opponent about Israel and the Middle East. Curious though, "Giannoulias, his Republican opponent, Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), and other local politicians had agreed to participate in the forum months ago" and the Giannoulias' campaign had confirmed the State Treasurer's availability, according to the Jewish Telegraph Agency (JTA). The debate was arranged by the non-partisan Protect Our Heritage public action committee and 16 other Jewish organizations, including several Chicago area synagogues. Besides debating, the candidates would also answer questions...

It's ten years behind bars for a former police deputy who pled guilty to drug, weapons and embezzlement charges. There is no parole offered in the federal prison system which means 57 year old Roger Lee Holbrook of Rowan County will have to serve 85 percent of his sentence. Holbrook pleaded guilty in September last year for distributing oxycodone and a firearm charge. He pleaded guilty again in May to stealing 85 thousand dollars from the Kentucky Association of Chiefs of Police. Holbrook was a DARE officer and served the sheriff's department for 16 years.

SMITHTOWN, N.Y. (AP) ― Suffolk County's police department is dropping DARE, the widespread school anti-drug program that has faced questions about its effectiveness, the police commissioner said. Commissioner Richard Dormer said Thursday he aimed to replace DARE with another drug-prevention program, but some local lawmakers objected to the idea. With the change, set to take effect in January, the large Long Island county's police force will join a series of school districts and law enforcement agencies that have abandoned the program, formally known as Drug Abuse Resistance Education. Schools and police forces work together to offer it. After nearly 20...

When it comes to chutzpah,Iran's turning into an Olympian champion. But consider this - in the midst of on-again, off-again negotiations with both the UN and the European Union about whether Iran can resume its suspicious and suspended nuclear development program, the mad mullahs of Iran decided to thumb their noses at the world. Brazenly removing UN seals on the uranium processing equipment at its Isfahan reactor, Iran unilaterally made the important plant fully operational. As an added touch of bravado, the Iranians waited until UN surveillance cameras were in place and running so that everyone could witness their cheek....

Not even the foggiest-headed stoner would argue they want children to smoke pot. (Especially if it means children digging into one's stash.) The challenge is in dissuading kids from doing so without resorting to potentially counterproductive myths and hyperbole. Enter Ricardo Cortes. Last month, Cortes published his children's book, It’s Just a Plant, 48 cannabis-laden pages that he hoped would be taken as a welcome dose of "reality-based education." The former high school D.A.R.E. officer and Brooklyn-based T-shirt and skateboard designer says the book is intended for "six- to 12-year-olds." It still encourages kids to say "No," but stops short...

Friend Killed On Dare After Bullet Pierces Protective Vest POSTED: 4:06 pm EST December 15, 2004 OROFINO, Idaho -- A man has been charged with involuntary manslaughter for fatally shooting his friend through a protective vest on an apparent dare, police said. Alexander Joseph Swandic, 20, died of a gunshot wound to the heart Monday after donning a protective vest and asking David John Hueth, 30, to shoot him, police said. Hueth initially told police that Swandic's wound was self-inflicted, but later admitted to the shooting. The two had apparently tested the vest by propping it against a dirt bank...

OROFINO, Idaho -- A man has been charged with involuntary manslaughter for fatally shooting his friend through a protective vest on an apparent dare, police said. Alexander Joseph Swandic, 20, died of a gunshot wound to the heart Monday after donning a protective vest and asking David John Hueth, 30, to shoot him, police said. Hueth initially told police that Swandic's wound was self-inflicted, but later admitted to the shooting. The two had apparently tested the vest by propping it against a dirt bank and shooting it twice, police said. Police said the vest was designed to protect against grenade...

07.12.04 | The Government is clearly on a full frontal attack against the media. Only today we heard: -The Minister of Information said that the Cabinet “evaluated” the promotion of destabilization by the media, citing his former employer RCTV and local newspaper El Nacional as promoters of destabilization who are “minimizing” the case making it look like the Government is violating human rights. Well, asked Antonio Lopez, or his parents what they think about this. Or the Guevara brothers. Or the last person who made a phone call to Antonio Lopez. It appears the right to silence people for political...

DARE drug program could be dropped without proof of effectiveness BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) -- Drug abuse prevention programs such as DARE could be on their way out of Alabama classrooms if they can't prove that they are effective, drug treatment experts said. Federal, state and local governments have poured millions of dollars over the last decade into Drug Abuse Resistance Education, or DARE, a program that puts police into elementary school classrooms to encourage students not to use drugs. But federal and state spending on DARE - whose license tags reading "DARE to keep kids off drugs" often are...

The old failures of new and improved anti-drug education I’m at the February 2001 Teens at the Table conference, a feel-good event sponsored by a coalition of Los Angeles youth organizations and high schools. It’s designed to boost self-esteem and teach teenagers how to make smart decisions. In one of the sessions, a group of students is about to learn how easy it is to stay off drugs. It doesn’t require anything as lame as red ribbons or "Just Say No" chants. It just takes knowing what constitutes a healthy decision -- one that is all your own -- coupled...

Here's your chance, Free Republic hero. If you are really incensed about the 60 ban on political speech (...congress shall make no long banning...) then step up with your intentions to excercise your formerly constitutional right next fall, committing a federal crime in the process. And when you get convicted - and you will - your recourse will be to appeal to the supreme court. While O'Connor and company stare down their noses at you and CNN reports. Doesn't get any better than this, does it?

DARE revises strategy for reaching children Some police drop anti-drug lessons that critics call ineffective Sunday, September 21, 2003 John Futty THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH After years of examination and criticism, the DARE program is in the midst of revamping its strategy for preventing young people from abusing drugs and alcohol. But the changes didn’t come fast enough in Columbus, where the Division of Police in July announced that it was pulling its Drug Abuse Resistance Education officers from the schools. Chief James G. Jackson, a longtime critic of the program, said the division’s 10 DARE officers and one sergeant could...

Date/Time: 9/16/03 7:55:42 AM Bulletin Text: The Dare County Control Group has issued a mandatory evacuation for Dare County beginning at 12:00 p.m. today (Tuesday, September 16, 2003). Residents and visitors on Hatteras Island are urged to make final preparations and leave the area prior to noon, if possible, since Highway 12 is prone to flooding and provides the only access south of Oregon Inlet. The northeast quadrant of Hurricane Isabel will cause damage along the oceanfront as the hurricane moves closer to shore. Ocean overwash is expected as early as today, particularly along the southern beaches. Soundside flooding will...

The Truth about D.A.R.E. by Paul Armentano [March 31, 2003] If popularity was the sole measure of success then D.A.R.E., the "Drug Abuse Resistance Education" curriculum that is now taught in 80 percent of school districts nationwide, would be triumphant. However, if one is to gauge success by actual results, then America's most pervasive and expensive youth drug education program is (and always has been) a gigantic and incontrovertible flop. So says the General Accounting Office (GAO) in a scathing new report that finds the politically popular program has had "no statistically significant long-term effect on preventing youth illicit drug...

As the DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program moves out of its teenage years and turns 20, it's putting on a new face. In response to a series of negative evaluations during the mid-1990s, the popular program that started in Los Angeles in 1983 went to work to reinvent itself. Recently, findings from the new DARE were released. In this program, seventh-graders learn that using drugs is socially inappropriate, not the norm, and dangerous. They are then taught how to "just say no." According to researchers, preliminary evaluations are "promising." I wish, as the mother of a teenager, I could...

MARIETTA — Many police departments across the nation are discontinuing DARE anti-drug programs because of questions about the program’s effectiveness, but the City of Marietta program is here to stay. Marietta Police Chief Bobby Moody, a member of Drug Awareness Resistance Education’s National Advisory Board, discounts the critics who argue the program does little to lower drug use by students. “DARE is important here in Marietta, because there’s a cycle that needs to be broken,” Moody said Thursday. “Now you see second and third generations of families beaten down by drugs. My goal, and the police department’s goal, is to...

Findings of a study recently published by the prestigious Journal of the National Medical Association demonstrates that the D.A.R.E. curriculum is highly effective in prevention of smoking among elementary school-aged children. Smoking is the single most preventable cause of death. Specifically, the study found that students that completed the D.A.R.E. program were five times less likely to start smoking compared to youngsters who did not participate in D.A.R.E. This evaluation of 5th and 6th graders in Nashville, Tennessee was conducted by researchers at the Meharry School of Medicine. Researchers further found a direct correlation between knowledge regarding the risks of...

Willoughby took group's $80,000, warrant alleges Thursday, July 11, 2002 BY PETE SHELLEM Of The Patriot-News The state attorney general's office has charged the former head of Pennsylvania's D.A.R.E. program with stealing more than $80,000 from the anti-drug program and using his position to obtain free booze, food and rooms worth $32,000 from an area hotel. Agents have been scouring Harrisburg bars and contacting Roy A. Willoughby's family members and friends since issuing an arrest warrant Monday, but have been unable to find him. The money was stolen from grants to the Pennsylvania D.A.R.E. Officers Association that Willoughby helped procure...

DARE lacks oversightProgram's cost soars past $1 billion with little accounting Sunday, June 30, 2002 Jonathan Riskind Dispatch Washington Bureau Chief Even as concern has grown about the effectiveness of America's most popular anti-drug program, few questions are being asked about how much Drug Abuse Resistance Education is costing taxpayers. Or who is accountable for the spending. Neither the government officials who hand out the money nor DARE executives themselves can put a definitive price tag on it, but estimates from several independent experts range from $1 billion to more than $2 billion annually. And despite questions about whether DARE...

<p>Citing evidence that the Drug and Alcohol Resistance Education program is ineffective at altering youths’ behavior as they get older, Toledo police Chief Michael Navarre dropped DARE instruction in Toledo, Washington Local, and Catholic elementary schools.</p> <p>To take its place, he plans to develop a new anti-drug program in-house that will feature more direct interaction between police presenters and pupils.</p>