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Theresa Marie Barslou said she voted for the first time in the November 2008 elections. Nearly a year later, her vote has come back to haunt her. Barslou, 29, of St. Paul, illegally voted as a felon on probation, states a Ramsey County criminal complaint charging her with felony voter fraud. Barslou was arrested Monday after she failed to appear last month at a court hearing. She was released the next day on $3,000 bail. Barslou is one of the 23 felons charged with voter fraud in Ramsey County since the 2008 elections, County Attorney Susan Gaertner said. During a...

An elderly woman is raped in her room, and police arrest a 21-year-old ex-convict with acute psychiatric problems. When the victim is interviewed by investigators five days later, she shakes with fear. A frail man blind in one eye is slashed in the throat by a gang member, police say. About a year earlier, the same assailant allegedly had stabbed him in the face with an ice pick. A man in a wheelchair dies of head injuries so severe that his doctor says it looked like he was hit with a baseball bat. One of the suspects is a 24-year-old...

Imagine your 15-year-old daughter being approached in high school by a 50-year-old man who bears the official title of mentor. Imagine, too, that he asks her to "walk and have a talk," leads her down a stairwell to the basement of the school, and grabs her by the buttocks, pulls her toward him, causing their genital areas to touch, grabs her hand, places it in his groin, telling her "this is what you do to me."... In your mind, imagine that the man: -- Had made inappropriate remarks to your daughter days before the assault, saying, "I want more than...

Sometimes there is nothing like a good fantasy, movies like Princess Bride, Wizard of Oz are classics for children and adults alike. Fantasy is not supposed to be a way to describe the reports filed by politician, but in the case of Charlie Rangel, chairman of the house Ways and Means committee fantasy is the only way to describe them. Much has been written about Rangel's revised financial disclosure form and all that new income that mysteriously turned up in his latest report. One of Rangel's properties that was was shown to earn income in Charlie's revised report, but in...

Anyone know what specific crime Van Jones was jailed for during the Rodney King riots. Is he on video going after Reginald Denny, the trucker beaten by a mob? Does anyone have a Mug Shot of Van Jones? Please post if so.

Michael Vick was released from federal custody Monday, with the sentence for his role in a dogfighting operation in Virginia expiring after he was imprisoned in Leavenworth, Kan., then on home confinement in Hampton, Va. There still is no indication, however, about whether he'll be reinstated by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. Goodell suspended Vick indefinitely prior to the 2007 season, and has not given a timetable for ruling on Vick's possible reinstatement. Goodell has said in recent months that he would not begin the decision-making process until after Vick's legal case concluded. He has said that Vick must demonstrate genuine...

N.Y. rulings may loom large in Sotomayor hearingBY TOM BRUNE 11:03 PM EDT, July 11, 2009 WASHINGTON - Guns. Property rights. Felons voting. As Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor prepares for her Senate hearings this week, Republicans have talked mostly about her ruling against white firefighters in their discrimination lawsuit against New Haven, and her ties to a Puerto Rican advocacy group. But Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), the top GOP member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said they also will ask her about hot-button issues arising from New York cases when that panel's hearings start Monday. Though less well-known than...

Since 2005, when it first began to crack down on the problem, the Social Security Administration (SSA) has paid out $75.8 million to fugitive felons receiving payments on behalf of other Social Security beneficiaries. According to a report issued by the SSA inspector general’s office, in one case alone, an individual with an outstanding warrant for burglary that has been pending since 1991 received $25,019 on behalf of a mentally-disabled beneficiary from 2005 to 2008. After the IG reported the case to SSA in June 2008, the fugitive felon was replaced with another more suitable "representative payee," the report said....

Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor wants to give jailbirds the right to vote. It's her opinion that the federal Voting Rights Act can be used to force states to allow voting by currently imprisoned felons.

The March 21 murder of four Oakland police officers by Lovelle Mixon, a convicted felon wanted for a recent parole violation, epitomizes the futility of “gun control,” or the banning and restricting of gun ownership for law-abiding adults. Using the officers’ tragic deaths to further an unrelated agenda — stripping away the Second Amendment rights of honorable citizens — is both harmful and distracting. Mixon was not an anomaly. Felons commit over 90 percent of murders, with the remainder carried out primarily by juveniles and the mentally unbalanced. The United States already has laws forbidding all three groups from owning...

OLYMPIA, Wash. -- For tens of thousands of convicted felons in Washington state, only one thing stands between them and the ballot box: debt. The Associated Press reported that under current law, felons can't vote until they have served their sentences, including the completion of any parole or probation, and paid all restitution and other court fees. A measure to remove that payment requirement -- opponents say it's akin to a modern-day "poll tax" -- has passed the House and awaits action in the Senate. If it becomes law, felons could simply re-register to vote once they're no longer in...

California corrections officials say the state will no longer spend the estimated $10 million a year it costs to lock up undocumented immigrants with prior convictions who reenter the country illegally after being deported. In the past, the state kept them on parole after deportation and incarcerated them for parole violations when they reentered the country illegally. But a federal court has ordered California to reduce the population of overcrowded prisons.

Mission District rally for immigrant rights Marisa Lagos, Chronicle Staff Writer Thursday, February 26, 2009 Several hundred people packed a school auditorium in San Francisco's Mission District on Wednesday evening to decry the city's treatment of immigrants, making their case in front of a panel of city officials that included representatives from the Police Department, mayor's office, school board and Board of Supervisors. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/02/26/BANN165CUH.DTL&type=printable

In his first weeks in office, President Barack Obama shut down his predecessor’s system for reviewing regulations, realigned and expanded two key White House policymaking bodies and extended economic sanctions against parties to the conflict in the African nation of Cote D’Ivoire. Despite the intense scrutiny a president gets just after the inauguration, Obama managed to take all these actions with nary a mention from the White House press corps. The moves escaped notice because they were never announced by the White House Press Office and were never placed on the White House web site. They came to light only...

Aerobics and yoga classes, workout rooms and open-air courtyards were just a few of the amenities recommended for California's hospitalized felons in a draft report for the court-appointed receiver tasked with overhauling the state's prison health care system. The recommendations called on the cash-starved state to spend $8 billion on seven new hospitals - each roughly the size of 10 Wal-Mart stores - to replace a decrepit health care system that a federal judge says is killing an average of one inmate per week. Judge Thelton Henderson said state officials were incapable of fixing the system and handed the job...

Scores of convicted felons voted illegally in the state's 2004 general election, and officials never noticed because of serious flaws in the system for tracking them, The Seattle Times has found. The Times, reviewing felony convictions as far back as 1997, identified 129 felons in King and Pierce counties who were recorded as having voted in the Nov. 2 election. Another 23 likely voted. Several methods were used to confirm the findings. Either the counties failed to flag or purge felons on the voter rolls as required by state law, or they allowed them to register without checking their status....

"Ever since we launched the statewide voter registration database back in January, 2006, we have been able to remove 160,000 invalid registrations, including a number who were signed up in more than one county, voters who had died, and convicted felons who have not had their voting rights restored," said state Elections Director Nick Handy. "But we would be the first to acknowledge that dealing with felon voters is a work in progress. Ultimately, we need state lawmakers to clear the way by passing reform legislation." The state aggressively uses reliable and current data to scrub the voter rolls four...

More than 30,000 Florida felons who by law should have been stripped of their right to vote remain registered to cast ballots in this presidential battleground state, a Sun Sentinel investigation has found. Many are faithful voters, with at least 4,900 turning out in past elections. Another 5,600 are not likely to vote Nov. 4 — they're still in prison. Of the felons who registered with a party, Democrats outnumber Republicans more than two to one. Florida's elections chief, Secretary of State Kurt Browning, acknowledged his staff has failed to remove thousands of ineligible felons because of a shortage of...

Virginia really is a battleground this year. The Democrat Governor Tim Kaine is getting as many felons back on the voter rolls as possible, while Democrats in Northern Virginia toss military absentee ballots because they lack a witness signature (where's ACORN when you need them?). From The Washington Post. Virginia Republicans opened up two fronts in the increasingly testy battle over the voting process Thursday by accusing Gov. Timothy M. Kaine of stacking the registration rolls with felons and raising concerns that county registrars were not allowing some members of the military who are serving overseas to vote. ....

A lot of talk about it but is anyone doing anything about it? Can anything be done about it by anyone before the election? Could it cancel the result's of the election?

When the election rolls around in November, a large, traditionally Democratic constituency will be missing. Many would expect this constituency to come out in droves to support Barack Obama, but this group of men will not cast their ballot for the African-American presumptive Democratic presidential candidate. These men will be noticeably absent from the polls, not because of apathy or anger or any of the other traditional voting deterrents; these men will remain away from the voting booths because they are legally prohibited due to felon disenfranchisement laws. Felon disenfranchisement laws have resulted in the loss of the right to...

RICHMOND, Va. - Undaunted by the heat, James Bailey spent his late-summer afternoons walking Virginia's bleakest neighborhoods on the hunt for ex-cons — each a potential voter who might cast the decisive ballot in this hotly contested state. Finding them isn't the hard part. It's getting them to admit that a past mistake has kept them from the ballot box. "People are really, really reluctant to say, 'I lost my rights to vote,'" Bailey said of his quest, which continued in the run-up to Monday's registration deadline in Virginia for the November election. Nationally, there are roughly 4 million released...

Undaunted by the heat, James Bailey spent his late-summer afternoons walking Virginia's bleakest neighborhoods on the hunt for ex-cons — each a potential voter who might cast the decisive ballot in this hotly contested state. Finding them isn't the hard part. It's getting them to admit that a past mistake has kept them from the ballot box... Nationally, there are roughly 4 million released felons whose convictions have cost them the right to vote at least temporarily, if not permanently. To return to the ballot box, felons must negotiate suffrage laws that vary from state to state, in many cases...

The Florida Rights Restoration Coalition and American Civil Liberties Union of Florida launched a voter registration campaign Monday targeting convicted felons whose rights have been restored. ''Our nation's future is at stake,'' say campaign ads featuring models with booking photos over their mouths. ``Your voice shouldn't be silenced by your past.'' Designed by a Miami ad agency, the ads will be displayed in minority communities across the state, including in Miami and Fort Lauderdale, and will be splashed on buses in English and Spanish. Last year, Gov. Charlie Crist and the Florida Legislature changed the laws to make it easier...

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — The Alabama Republican Party opposes a drive to register inmates to vote so they can cast absentee ballots from inside state prisons, with the state GOP chief saying Thursday there needs to be safeguards against voter fraud. State Rep. Mike Hubbard, chairman of the party, told Corrections Commissioner Richard Allen in a letter delivered by e-mail that the party supports the idea of registering more people to vote, but not when it comes to prisoners. "Furthermore, I have concerns about potential issues with how this effort is being monitored to ensure no form of voter fraud...

A San Francisco city commission has taken a defiant stand against Mayor Gavin Newsom's directive on young immigrant felons by urging officials to permit the offenders to remain in the city and help pay for their housing, job placement services and immigration lawyers. (snip)

THE Supreme Court last month voided Washington, DC's extreme gun ban as a violation of the Second Amendment. Now, across America, public defenders and other lawyers for rapists, robbers and murderers are filing motions contending that their vicious clients have a Second Amendment right to have guns. If this were correct, the Second Amendment would be a very bad thing. Happily, it's not so. The high-court opinion vindicated the constitutional right of ordinary, responsible law-abiding adults to have a handgun to protect their families, homes and themselves. It also flatly stated that this right does not apply to criminals. Federal...

Leon Quinn got out of prison in New York last year, moved to North Carolina and tried to start a new life. But employers don’t want to hire a convicted felon, and it’s hard to get your own place when you don’t have a job, he said. “It’s like we’re marked as criminals,” Quinn said. “It’s like we don’t have a say.” But, Quinn learned Saturday he does have a say, even with a felony conviction. In North Carolina, people convicted of a felony can vote, once they’ve served their time behind bars and completed the terms of their probation...

Felons Seeking Bush Pardon Near a Record By CHARLIE SAVAGE WASHINGTON — Felons are asking President Bush for pardons and commutations at historic levels as he nears his final months in office, a time when many other presidents have granted a flurry of clemency requests. Among the petitioners is Michael Milken, the billionaire former junk bond king turned philanthropist, who is seeking a pardon for his 1990 conviction for securities fraud, the Justice Department said. Mr. Milken sought a pardon eight years ago from President Bill Clinton, and submitted a new petition in June. In addition, prominent federal inmates are...

The get-out-the-vote effort in Maine broke new ground Wednesday when more than 200 inmates in the Maine State Prison registered to cast ballots. Prison officials said it was the first prisoner education and registration drive held at the facility. Deputy Warden Leida Dardis said the event, which was organized by Maine chapters of the NAACP, allowed representatives from the state Democratic, Republican and Green Independent parties to meet with prisoners in morning and afternoon informational sessions. Maine and Vermont are the only states that give people convicted of felonies the right to vote while in prison. Some states bar felons...

Presidential candidate, Senator Mrs. Bill Clinton (D-N.Y.), told a crowd of New Hampshire Democratic voters that all they need to do in order to ensure lower fuel prices is elect her president next November. “My ‘two-pronged plan’ to lower fuel prices will mean lower heating bills and driving costs,” the New York senator promised. The “supply side prong” calls for comprehensive price-controls. “Under my administration, oil profiteering will come to an end,” Clinton said. “Corporate greed feeding off of human need will be stopped. If we have to seize control of fuel producers to accomplish this—well, they’ve been warned.” The...

Source is link only.STORY.

Clinton's Tennessee committee includes 2 felonsAssociated Press - December 24, 2007 2:55 PM ET NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Hillary Clinton's 100-person Tennessee Steering Committee reportedly includes two people convicted of felonies in the 1980s. Gladys Crain of Halls was convicted in 1981 on federal charges connected with a scheme to rig bids on a state highway construction project, and former state House Majority Leader Tommy Burnett of Jamestown was imprisoned in 1984 for failure to file an income tax return. Clinton's Democratic presidential campaign did not immediately return a phone call from The Associated Press seeking comment. The Tennessean newspaper...

House Subcommitee Chairman Danny Davis (D-IL) believes it's not sufficient that federal employment be open to felons. He's pushing for job set asides for felons as well: Davis said agencies should work with federally and locally funded rehabilitation programs to hire recently released felons as a way to help them reintegrate into society and reduce recidivism. Justice Department statistics show more than 50 percent of convicted felons offend again. Davis thinks giving some of them government jobs could reduce that number. “We are contradictory in our practices,” he said. “We talk redemption, but the way we treat individuals does not...

On the September 28th Democracy Now! broadcast, hostess Amy Goodman led off the program's headlines with... Black Teen Jailed in Jena Six Case Freed on Bail In Jena, Louisiana, the seventeen year old Mychal Bell -- one of the Jena Six -- has been released on bail after ten months in prison. Bell and five other African American high school students were arrested last year for beating a white student during a schoolyard fight. The fight occurred after white students hung three nooses in a tree in the schoolyard. An all-white jury convicted Bell of aggravated second-degree battery.

WASHINGTON -- Nearly 12 percent of Army recruits who entered basic training this year needed a special waiver for those with criminal records, a dramatic increase over last year and 2 1/2 times the percentage four years ago, according to new Army statistics obtained by the Globe. With less than three months left in the fiscal year, 11.6 percent of new active-duty and Army Reserve troops in 2007 have received a so-called "moral waiver," up from 7.9 percent in fiscal year 2006, according to figures from the US Army Recruiting Command. In fiscal 2003 and 2004, soldiers granted waivers accounted...

At the Pentagon’s request, Senate defense authorizers tucked deep within a defense bill a repeal of the department’s restriction on granting security clearances to ex-convicts, drug addicts and the mentally incompetent. The repeal provision now is creating discord between the Senate Armed Services and the Intelligence committees. In its markup of the 2008 defense authorization bill, the Intelligence panel voted to delete the Armed Services provision. The fate of the provision could become a flashpoint this week as the Senate takes up the bill. The Senate Armed Services panel seeks to repeal a seven-year-old law that established mandatory standards disqualifying...

Police say Joel Garibay-Urbina used Juan Jose Rodriguez's identification to get a job. To his bosses at Pilgrim's Pride, he was Juan Jose Rodriguez -- it said so on the birth certificate and Social Security card he presented when the southwestern Arkansas chicken plant hired him six years ago. At his De Queen, Ark., home, he was Joel Garibay-Urbina -- with a wife, three kids and a mortgage under his own name. And to police officers responding to a domestic violence call, he was just the latest illegal immigrant to have two identities after an arrest. It turns out that...

Bobby Grady, a convicted felon in secure detention, didn't know for more than a year that he had a son. When he finally learned of his son's existence, it was only to discover that his parental rights were about to be legally terminated. Now, Grady wants his son. Jeffrey, a Milwaukee doctor, raised Grady's son since the boy's birth (he is being identified only by first name to protect the boy's identity in the community). The 3-year-old has had serious medical problems, which required Jeffrey and his wife to take him for treatment several times a day at some points....

Just in time for the Fourth of July, John Lott, author of the groundbreaking 1998 book "More Guns, Less Crime," has released another amazing book: "Freedomnomics: Why the Free Market Works and Other Half-Baked Theories Don't." This book provides studies and analysis proving that your every right-wing instinct is based on sound economic analysis. To wit: * Women shouldn't vote: "What changed ... that explains the growth of government? The answer is women's suffrage." * Fox News Channel isn't conservative: "Even employees of Fox News, which is widely regarded as a conservative channel, donate 81 percent of their contributions to...

CONCORD, N.H. -- Convicted tax evaders Ed and Elaine Brown have gained a new supporter: presidential hopeful Ron Paul. In an interview with RogueGovernment.com, the U.S. Representative from Texas compared the Browns to Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. He said the Browns are suffering like those leaders. The Browns are holed up in their Plainfield, N.H., home and have threatened violence against federal officials if marshals come to arrest them. They were convicted of an elaborate scheme to hide millions of dollars in income. Their protest has become a rallying cry for anti-tax activists and militia members.

At least 20 former members of Congress convicted of a range of criminal offenses continue to draw taxpayer-supported pensions each year, according to the National Taxpayers Union. Congressional pensions are not public records, and the NTU says it bases its estimates on a lawmaker's time of service, eligibility, and life expectancy. The numbers are adjusted based on factors such as cost of living changes, a former member's military service and marital status. All of the following were former members of the House of Representatives, with the exception of Durenberger, a former senator. Fauntroy was a non-voting delegate in the House...

Immigrants try to revive stalled bill By JULIANA BARBASSA -- Associated Press Writer (Published: June 13, 2007) SAN FRANCISCO (AP) As President Bush pressed lawmakers to get immigration reform back on track, immigrants across the country were marching, praying, writing lawmakers and hitting the road for Washington in a desperate push to revive the stalled measure. Before the bill collapsed in the Senate last week, most immigrants agreed it was flawed. But seeing a rare opportunity for change slipping away - and recognizing it may not come again for years - many insisted they wouldn't let it go without a...

Proving once again that US Senators do not care a whit for the American voters who elected them (senators who also appear to be suffering from some terminal stupidity virus), this less than august body voted Wednesday to allow the proposed “Z-Visa” to also be disseminated to illegal immigrants who have been convicted of terrorist and criminal acts. The Democrat-run Senate voted down Sen. John Cornyn’s (R-TX) amendment to the Amnesty Bill that would have excluded illegals who have been convicted of criminal acts, including gang activity. If passed, the Illegal Immigrant Amnesty Bill will now permit convicted felons and...

The US immigration bill faces a big vote in the Senate today as architects of the delicate bipartisan legislation seek to either limit debate or table it. Supporters of the bill face dozens of amendments from opponents. Yesterday, an effort by Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn to bar large numbers of illegal immigrants from taking advantage of the proposed programme was blocked. AdvertisementHis amendment sought to exclude anyone convicted of felonies, document fraud, identity theft, or ignored deportation orders from gaining legal status. The Senate adopted a less-sweeping alternative offered by Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy that included crimes such as...

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist's move to restore civil rights to state residents with certain felony convictions is a clear victory for the people who will get the right to vote, serve on juries and hold occupational licenses... Of nearly one million disenfranchised Floridians, about 80% will now automatically get the right to vote. They're expected to vote overwhelmingly Democratic, because they're disproportionately poor and African-American. In a state where the 2000 presidential election was decided by a hotly contested, razor-thin vote, a Republican governor appears to have given an advantage to Democrats... "There could be as many as a million,"...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Most felons released from prison will have their voting and other civil rights restored under a rule approved Thursday by Republican Gov. Charlie Crist and the state clemency board. All but the most violent felons would avoid the need to get on a long list for a hearing before the board, which sometimes takes years. The board voted 3-1 with Attorney General Bill McCollum, another Republican, strongly objecting. Crist has made it clear since before he was governor that he was in favor of making it easier for felons who have done their time to vote. He...

Saying the Maryland General Assembly has swung too far to the left, Republican leaders called on Gov. Martin O'Malley yesterday to veto four bills if they get to his desk, including measures that would provide in-state tuition to illegal immigrants and voting rights to felons. "We hear in our communities, 'What are they doing down there?'" said Del. Anthony J. O'Donnell, the minority leader from Southern Maryland. "They're giving in-state tuition to illegal immigrants? Accelerating parole to repeat drug offenders? Giving the right to vote to offenders, including those who have committed treason against the United States? Giving Maryland's electoral...

In a decision that could impact tens of thousands of current state residents, the Senate approved a bill that will allow all convicted criminals, including those found guilty of multiple violent crimes, to vote again after they have completed their court-ordered sentence. Most Senate Democrats ignored the concerns of Republicans, defeating three amendments before voting 28-19 to pass the bill on March 23. Five Democrats joined 14 Republicans in voting against the bill. On the same day, the House postponed debate on its version of the proposal, and is scheduled to resume on March 26. In the Senate, supporters of...

As part of his effort to help ex-felons get jobs and become integrated into society, Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums wants to make it easier for them to get jobs with the city, his spokesman, Mike Healy, said Wednesday. Dellums wants to end the requirement that prospective city employees disclose whether they have been convicted of a felony by checking a box on the standard employment application, according to Healy. "There may be some jobs that ex-offenders who aren't violent can come out and do if they're qualified," he said. Healy said applicants for jobs in the Police Department and some...