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Texting behind the wheel impairs driving skills more than being drunk or high on drugs, according to new research. Reaction times deteriorated by over one-third, which was worse than alcohol at the legal limit or driving under the influence of cannabis.

SAN JUAN -- A Mission police officer has been suspended indefinitely after a Saturday morning arrest for allegedly driving an unmarked police car while drunk, officials said. This is at least the third arrest on suspicion of driving while intoxicated for Officer Martin Flores Villarreal, 40, of Mission, and at least his second while driving an unmarked Mission police car, according to court records and Trooper Johnny Hernandez, a local spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety. The first two charges, in 2004 and 2006, were both dismissed, court records indicate. Villarreal is suspended from the department indefinitely and...

If you’re not a convicted drunk driver, should you still be required to have an in-car breathalyzer fitted (at your expense, ‘natch) to your next new vehicle? Apparently, some automakers — including GM and Toyota — think so. They and a few others are working together under the auspices of something called the Driver Alcohol Detection System for Safety, which is a $10 million federal “research program” that is trying to develop just such technology for mass introduction a few years from now. At the moment, the only people who have to deal with (and pay for) in-car Breathalyzers are...

Heather Squires was the designated driver. Never exactly a fun thing, but a college buddy of her husband's was driving up from Tucson to celebrate his acceptance into law school. So when her husband, Jason, asked, Heather said yes. It's not safe to be the designated driver these days, either. At Chuy's in Tempe, Heather's brother and her husband and the soon-to-be-law-school student knocked off four pitchers of beer. Everybody was having a great time. Around 9:30 p.m., they decided to head home. So they piled into Jason Squires' new pickup truck. As planned, Heather drove. They didn't get very...

BY ALFONSO A. CASTILLO | alfonso.castillo@newsday.com May 28, 2008 Standing before a backdrop of mug shots of 81 men and women arrested for driving while intoxicated over Memorial Day weekend, Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi billed the display as "The Wall of Shame." But several of the wall's members said Wednesday that the only thing shameful was Suozzi's attempt to publicly humiliate them, their families, and potentially cost them their livelihood before they get their day in court.

The businessman was meeting with clients for lunch at Mimi's Café when he noticed the woman. Sitting a few tables over with her 4-year-old boy, she seemed groggy — yet she was drinking a mimosa. It got worse. The woman ordered a glass of white wine, then another. She was so out of it, the businessman would later write in a statement to police, that she looked ready to fall asleep at the table. When the woman paid her bill and left the restaurant, the businessman was right behind her, cell phone in hand. When she ran a stop sign...

Anyone who refuses to submit to a blood-alcohol breath test this weekend will be required to have his or her blood drawn, authorities said Tuesday in reminding residents of a new program scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. Friday. District Attorney Susan Reed said the ‘No Refusal Accepted' program is scheduled to continue through 7 a.m. Tuesday. A registered nurse will be on duty both at the San Antonio magistrate's office and the detention center to draw blood from anyone arrested on suspicion of drunken driving who refused at the scene to take a breath test. Prosecutors will assist with...

The Texas Department of Public Safety is withholding trooper dashboard camera video taken during the arrest of Texas representative Mike Krusee. Using the Texas Public Information Act, KXAN requested the video after the state lawmaker from Williamson County was arrested for DWI earlier this month. A state trooper pulled him over after he noticed him driving erratically in northwest Austin. The license plate on his vehicle also had expired last December. Elected state officials all have personalized license plates. Therefore, the trooper would have known he was pulling over a state official before asking for identification. A spokeswoman for the...

GEORGETOWN, Texas (AP/KXAN) -- A state lawmaker who helped pave the way for major toll road projects and stiffer drunken driving penalties now faces a DWI charge. Rep. Mike Krusee of Williamson County is the Republican chairman of the House Transportation Committee. He was charged with first-offense driving while intoxicated after a state trooper noticed his car moving erratically in northwest Austin Wednesday night. The license plate on the vehicle also had expired last December. Elected state officials all have personalized license plates. Therefore, the trooper would have known he was pulling over a state official before asking for identification....

State Representative Mike Krusee, R- Williamson County, was swerving between lanes in his black BMW on the frontage road of U.S. 183 Wednesday night, according to officials and an arrest affidavit. A Texas Department of Public Safety trooper arrested and charged Krusee in for driving while intoxicated. Krusee was booked into the Williamson County Jail at 11:15 p.m. Wednesday and was released at 8:55 a.m. today, officials said. His bail was set at $1,000. Trooper Michael Scheffler wrote in the arrest affidavit that he followed Krusee down U.S. 183, after he noticed the swerving, and saw that Krusse had expired...

A Brooklyn, N.Y., company is marketing a breath mint that may be so curiously strong it is raising eyebrows of concerned consumers. It’s called "AntiPoleez," and is advertised as a way to eliminate bad breath caused by alcohol, tobacco and food, My FOX New York reports. Critics say the name and marketing angle could promote alcohol abuse, leading people to believe they can pass a police breath test, or encourage underage kids to drink alcohol and attempt to cover it up. The company’s president denies that is the intention of his product. The Swiss president of the company, RNY Group,...

Police: Clinton Aide to Plead Guilty Mar 24 10:24 AM US/Eastern NASHUA, N.H. (AP) - A senior adviser to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton has agreed to plead guilty to drunken driving after the arresting officer was ordered to Iraq making a trial on a more serious charge impossible, police said Monday. Under the plea, Sidney Blumenthal, a journalist and former White House adviser to President Clinton, will lose his right to drive for 16 months. Now an unpaid adviser to Hillary Clinton's campaign, Blumenthal, 59, was arrested Jan. 7, the day before the New Hampshire primary, and charged...

ORANGEBURG, SC (AP) - A Midlands police chief was arrested for falling asleep at the wheel at a traffic light. It happened in Orangeburg County. In 2005, Kenneth McCaster was an Orangeburg County deputy. He got shot in the arm while on patrol. McCaster spoke about the suspect in court. "It was just tough to see him stand there and almost kind of pretend that it's someone else's fault." McCaster became Santee's police chief last December. Now he's the one blamed for something. The highway patrol says a trooper drove up to the intersection of Highway 601 and Russell Street...

NASHUA, N.H.—A senior adviser to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton has agreed to plead guilty to drunken driving and will lose his right to drive for 16 months, police said. Sidney Blumenthal of Washington was arrested Jan. 7, the day before the New Hampshire primary, and charged with aggravated drunken driving. Police said Blumenthal was traveling 70 mph in a 30 mph zone. The case had been set for trial last week, but Blumenthal has agreed to plead guilty to a reduced driving while intoxicated charge, said Nashua police Capt. Peter Segal. In addition to the suspended license, police...

The newspaper accounts included regiment information and blood alcohol content. Silhouettes were used when photos were not available.

KELSO, Wash. -- When a man who was suspected of drunken driving in Longview refused to give blood and urine samples he was taken to a hospital. His lawyer says he was held down kicking and screaming for a blood draw. And a tube was inserted into his bladder to withdraw the urine. He sued Cowlitz County. A settlement was reached Friday in which he was paid $15,000, without authorities admitting they did anything wrong. The 37-year-old man, Matthew Clifford Arthur, was on probation at the time of the arrest in November and was required to undergo screening for drugs...

MOCKING SID ON YOUTUBE Clinton aide's DWI trial is postponed By ANDREW WOLFE Telegraph Staff awolfe@nashuatelegraph.com Documents related to the Blumenthal DWI charge. NASHUA – A judge agreed Tuesday to postpone the trial of a Clinton campaign adviser accused of speeding through Nashua while intoxicated. Sidney Blumenthal, 59, of Washington, D.C., had been scheduled to stand trial on an aggravated DWI charge Thursday in Nashua District Court, but his case has been postponed to April 7, at his lawyer's request, court documents show. Blumenthal's lawyer, retired Hudson police Capt. Ray Mello, of Nashua, could not be reached for comment...

Finally, common sense prevails in dealing with the state's laws on driving under the influence of liquor and drugs. A bill steeped in election-year, get-tough-on-crime grandstanding has quietly gone to the burial ground for bad bills in the state Legislature. It failed to make it out of the Senate Transportation Committee before Tuesday's deadline. Senate Bill 6402 would have required people convicted of a DUI infraction to put fluorescent-yellow license plates on their cars for one year after having their driving privileges restored. Who knows why overreaching bills even get a hearing in Olympia, as this one did last week...

A Clinton campaign adviser will skip arraignment on an aggravated driving while intoxicated charge and is scheduled to stand trial next month, Nashua District Court records show. Sidney Blumenthal, 59, of Washington, D.C., was arrested after midnight Jan. 7, a day before the New Hampshire primary. Sgt. Michael Masella said he spotted Blumenthal’s rented Buick heading north on Concord Street in the area of Greeley Park, allegedly at about 70 miles an hour.

NASHUA, New Hampshire (AP) – A senior adviser to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton was arrested and charged with aggravated drunken driving a day before the New Hampshire primary. Nashua police say Sidney Blumenthal was arrested early Monday morning after an officer pulled over a car traveling 70 mph in a 30 mph zone. Blumenthal, 59, is a journalist and former White House adviser to President Bill Clinton who is now serving as an unpaid adviser on Hillary Clinton's campaign.

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A senior adviser to Hillary Clinton was arrested in Nashua, N.H., on charges of aggravated driving while intoxicated the day before the Jan. 8 primary, according to an article Saturday in the Nashua Telegraph. The Telegraph reported that Sidney Blumenthal was given a field sobriety test by a Nashua officer who pulled him over for going 40 miles over the 30-mph speed limit at about 12:30 a.m. Jan. 7. The officer reportedly smelled alcohol and arrested Blumenthal following the sobriety test. He refused to take a breath test.

In Fairbanks, Alaska, it's illegal to serve liquor to a moose. By contrast, in Ohio it's legal to serve booze to a fish, but not if you get it drunk. Ever since the repeal of Prohibition, alcohol laws in this country have been a bit nutty. Take the business of bars. Some states mandate sitting, while others require standing at the bar to drink. Texans may take up to but not more than three sips of beer while standing. Some jurisdictions require the interior of public drinking establishments to be visible from the street; others specifically prohibit that. In Iowa...

Five members of a Maryland family died late yesterday when their minivan was hit head-on by a pickup truck going the wrong way on a Toledo, Ohio-area interstate, according to the Toledo Blade. Bethany Griffin, 36, and Jordan Griffin, 10, of Parkville, Md., to the northeast of Baltimore, were pronounced dead at the scene, along with Lacie Burkman, 7, and Haley Burkman, 10, police sources told the Blade. Lacie and Haley Burkman are from Redford, Mich., according to the Associated Press. Six-month-old Vadi Griffin was pronounced dead after being taken to St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center. Danny Griffin, 36, of...

Drunken drivers, consider yourself warned: The cops will be out for blood. Motorists on Fort Worth roads who refuse to take a breath test after being stopped for suspected drunken driving on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day will have their blood drawn to determine whether they are impaired. "If you refuse to take that blood test, we are going to ask for a warrant from a magistrate and come back and take your blood," said Fort Worth Police Chief Ralph Mendoza. "Basically, we are going to get our evidence one way or the other." For the first time,...

Court testimony earlier this month that a repeat drunken driver was a skilled X-ray technician and should be spared a seven-year prison sentence did not disclose that the man has not been licensed in his field for almost two years. Hector De la Torre’s state license as a medical radiologic technologist expired Dec. 31, 2005, Stephanie Tijerina of the Texas Department of State Health Services said Wednesday. On Dec. 6, after hearing testimony from Dr. Juan Rocha and others in the medical field, state District Court Judge Benjamin Euresti placed De la Torre on probation so he could return to...

BROWNSVILLE — A repeat drunken driving offender whose seven-year prison sentence was suspended got out of jail after serving just 36 days, records show. Hector de la Torre, 34, was released Dec. 6, the same day state District Judge Ben Euresti Jr. reconsidered the seven-year prison sentence he gave De la Torre for violating probation from a 2004 drunken driving arrest, court records show. Euresti suspended the sentence and reinstated probation. The revised sentence included a condition that De la Torre spend 60 days in jail, minus time already served, the court records show. He was released the same day...

A conviction for driving under the influence of alcohol is something many people try to conceal, even from their families. But now the bleary-eyed, disheveled and generally miserable visages of convicted drunken drivers here, captured in their mug shots, are available to the entire world via a Web site. The hall of shame is even worse for drunken drivers convicted of a felony. A select few will find their faces plastered on billboards around Phoenix with the banner headline: Drive drunk, see your mug shot here. The Web site and billboards, which began last month, are the brainchildren of Andrew...

LOS ANGELES - Kiefer Sutherland was sentenced Wednesday to 48 days in jail for racking up a second drunken-driving arrest in three years and immediately reported to a city lockup. The star of the Fox TV drama "24" was being processed at the Glendale city jail, said Officer John Balian. Sutherland, 40, who pleaded no contest in October to driving with a blood-alcohol level above the legal limit of .08, appeared in court with his attorney and politely answered the judge's questions, said Assistant City Attorney Dan Jeffries. His request to serve his time at the Glendale city jail was...

Careful about doling out glasses of spiked eggnog to the college-aged kids in your family this Christmas. A glassful could cost you your license, even if no one gets near a car. North Carolina is taking bans on booze to a new level as part of a passel of legislation that also bans alcohol inhalers and changes requirements for ankle bracelets for boozers: "As of Saturday, people can lose their driver's licenses for providing alcohol to anyone under 21. The penalty is important because many underage drinkers get alcohol from friends or family members, said Craig Lloyd, the executive director...

Investigative reporter Wendy Saltzman discovered more than 100 law enforcement officers have been arrested in Georgia for driving under the influence. Her investigation found some of them asked for favors, some wrecked department cars, and some were given special treatment. "I think that is outrageous frankly," said police psychologist Dr. Anthony Stone. "I can't imagine their being fit for duty, because almost by definition they have a drinking problem," Stone said. Habersham County Sheriff’s Captain Freddie Chapman has been arrested 4 times on alcohol related charges spanning back to an underage alcohol violation in 1988. His offenses also include three...

Vallejo -- Openly gay Vallejo City Councilman Gary Cloutier won the mayor's race by four votes, elections officials said this afternoon, just hours after the councilman apologized for his weekend arrest for public intoxication after drinking too much at a bar in Palm Springs. Cloutier beat former Solano County supervisor Osby Davis by a hair-thin margin of 5,722 to 5,718 votes, according to final results from the Nov. 6 election. Assistant registrar of voters Lindsay McWilliams said he expects to certify the results as final on Monday. The mayor's race has been in a virtual dead heat since Nov. 6,...

October 31, 2007 - A fourth person is dead because of a grinding crash Monday night in Newark. Delaware State Police investigators report the driver of the Honda, Matthew Wilson, 23, died Tuesday night because of his injuries. The sole survivor of the BMW, Hector Villa Gran-Merida, 18, is out of a coma, but still in critical condition. The driver of the BMW, Israel Palmero Merida, 17, did not have a drivers license. Police believe drunk driving and speeding led to the horrific crash that killed four people and critically injured one other in Newark, Delaware Monday night. Around 9:45...

On a May night in 2005, Debra Bolton, a lawyer and single mom from the Washington suburb of Alexandria, Virginia, was leaving the Café Milano in Georgetown after socializing with some friends. She had driven her SUV only a few hundred yards before she was pulled over by D.C. police for driving with the headlights off. She told the officer the parking attendant at Café Milano probably had turned off her vehicle's automatic light feature. Not mollified, the officer asked Bolton to step out of the car, walk in a straight line, recite the alphabet, stand on one foot, and...

HONOLULU (AP) - Another actor on the hit TV series "Lost" was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving early Thursday by Honolulu police—the fourth actor on the ABC series to run into trouble with the law while filming in Hawaii. Daniel Dae Kim, who plays Korean tough guy Jin-Soo Kwon, was taken into custody before 3 a.m. local time, police said. He was booked at the downtown police station and released after posting bail. Wearing a solid-white polo shirt and shorts, Kim hid his head from cameras as he was escorted by police officers to a waiting vehicle after his...

There have been an increasing number of police departments allowing their officers to draw blood samples from motorists under suspicion of a DUI/DWI. This takes place on the roadside as opposed to a hospital where there are trained medical professionals. It seems like a recipe for disaster to allow officers to do blood draws when they do not have adequate medical training. This has proven true in Arizona recently where a lawsuit has been filed to stop this practice. According to Scripps News, a man developed a persistent infection at the site of a blood draw administered by a Pima...

TAMPA - Had a few drinks before getting behind the wheel? Think again. That harmless-looking minivan in the rearview mirror might be the neighbors on patrol. That's how Mothers Against Drunk Driving pitched its latest plan to get impaired drivers off the roads. Called the Traffic Observation Program, the pilot program is slated to begin in Hillsborough County and may become a statewide initiative, according to Don Murray, Florida's executive director for MADD. The plan: Recruit 20 volunteers armed with donated cell phones and send them out in the middle of the night to watch for telltale signs of drunk...

WAVERLY, Ohio (AP) — Nearly 100 drunken-driving suspects in this southern Ohio town avoided convictions or jail time last year after making voluntary $1,000 donations to the police department, county records show. More than a third of the drunken-driving cases filed by Waverly police in Pike County Court last year were dismissed, according to a report published Sunday in The Columbus Dispatch.

SACRAMENTO -- Having already laid down the law for his two teenage daughters, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation Thursday that will prohibit the rest of Californians under age 18 from using cellphones, text message devices and laptop computers while driving. Read more at: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/la-me-cellphones14sep14,1,4297013.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

The executive director of the state Democratic Party took a leave of absence Thursday after he was arrested on a count of third-offense DWI. John Daniel “Danny” Ford, 31, was arrested Thursday by city police, Parish Prison booking documents said. Besides being suspected of driving while intoxicated, Ford was cited for driving over the median, failure to signal and reckless operation of a vehicle, booking documents said. Ford, 143 Cloud Drive, is out of jail on a $20,000 bond, documents show. Ford will step down temporarily from the Democratic Party’s top administrative job at a time when the fall election...

SARASOTA -- The company that manufactures the state's drunken-driving breath-test machines must turn over the computer code that runs the machines or face stiff fines, a county judge has ruled. Defense attorneys have argued that having their experts examine the Intoxilyzer 8000's "source code" is the only way to ensure the machines correctly calculate a driver's blood-alcohol content. The Intoxilyzer 8000's first glitch was discovered in April, a month after it was implemented, when state officials realized it failed in certain situations. The state then upgraded the software in machines across the state. In Manatee and Sarasota counties, more than...

Texas and other border states have suffered as a result of illegal immigration for years. And we've received zero help from the northern states until some of that pain and suffering began to “migrate” north into their backyards and have a negative effect upon them. But that’s what we’ve learned to expect from the more self-centered segment of our U.S. population in the north/northeast. Ha! And so now it seems that they are on board with us and, hey, better late than never. Welcome aboard! We luv ya! So now that most of the nation is on the same page,...

The New Mexico chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving has plenty to celebrate. The organization on July 25 held a grand opening for its new headquarters Downtown and received a $400,000 grant from the state Traffic Safety Bureau to monitor DWI cases in six counties, including Bernalillo, said Terry Huertaz, executive director of MADD New Mexico. The organization will hire five full-time court monitors to track DWI cases at random and to gather data for an annual report, Huertaz said. "We're hoping our presence in the court will be a positive thing. We're not there to find something corrupt, but...

By FRANK ELTMAN Associated Press Writer MINEOLA, N.Y. (AP) - A man convicted of murder in a drunken driving crash pleaded not guilty Friday to a new charge that he tried to foil a DNA test by slipping someone else's saliva into his mouth. Martin Heidgen's attorney protested that his client was being targeted by prosecutors unhappy that Heidgen did not get the maximum sentence in the crash, which killed a wedding chauffeur and flower girl. Heidgen was indicted Thursday on a charge of evidence tampering. Prosecutors said a DNA sample ordered during his trial revealed the presence of not...

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On This Day In History July 18, 1969: Incident on Chappaquiddick Island Shortly after leaving a party on Chappaquiddick Island, Senator Edward "Ted" Kennedy of Massachusetts drives an Oldsmobile off a wooden bridge into a tide-swept pond. Kennedy escaped the submerged car, but his passenger, 28-year-old Mary Jo Kopechne, did not. The senator did not report the fatal car accident for 10 hours. On the evening of July 18, 1969, while most Americans were home watching television reports on the progress of the Apollo 11 lunar landing mission, Kennedy and his cousin Joe Gargan were hosting a cookout and party...

Al Gore's son, Albert Gore III, has been arrested. Al Gore III was pulled over for speeding Wednesday morning when police discovered drugs in his car. Al Gore III was pulled over for doing 100 mph when police discovered illegal drugs and several prescription drugs in the vehicle. Police reportedly found Marijuana, Xanax, Vicodin, Valium, and Adderal in the car. Al Gore III had a similar run-in with officials back in 2003 when he was sent to rehab after police spotted him driving in freezing cold weather with his sunroof down. Police stopped him and found Marijuana in the car.

CULPEPER, Va. (AP) - Two people police say were hoping to avoid drinking and driving chose instead to head home on horseback, and ended up under arrest anyway. Culpeper police officers Lonnie Myers and Tim Chilton heard a disturbance last Thursday around midnight and found Culpeper residents Eric Kyff and Lauren Allen arguing, Sgt. Scott Jenkins said. Kyff and Allen, who appeared to be intoxicated, wanted to "travel home several miles by horseback to avoid drinking and driving," Jenkins said. Kyff, 39, took off along a nearby set of railroad tracks but was stopped shortly after by Chilton, police said....

JANESVILLE, Wis. — A driver who was stopped for speeding and tested over the legal limit for blood-alcohol content, but was not arrested, was killed less than three hours later Monday when his car hit a tree, according to police. Janesville police records indicate that Jason Stacy, 29, was seen speeding and driving erratically downtown shortly after 1 a.m. According to an analysis of police records by WISC-TV in Madison, Stacy was stopped and given a Breathalyzer test that indicated a blood-alcohol level of 0.12 percent. The legal limit in Wisconsin is 0.08. Stacy was ticketed for imprudent speed and...

SYRACUSE - A Syracuse man convicted of driving drunk for a seventh time since 1982 was sentenced Wednesday to 20 years to life in prison by a judge who blasted his “lethal disregard� for others. “I don't think there is anything I can do to protect the public from you and your conduct except to put you away for a long time,� Onondaga County Judge Joseph Fahey said as he sentenced 43-year-old Ronald Daggett. “It is inconceivable to me that someone involved in a drunk driving fatality could go out and pick up six more drunk driving convictions over the...