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Failure to buy health insurance in the just-passed health care bill could get you five years in jail with a $250,000 fine. How can violating a law that's unconstitutional be a felony, asks Investor's Business Daily (IBD)? The passage last Saturday night of the House health care measure by a fragile 220-215 margin may well prove to be a Pyrrhic victory. In polls, townhall meetings and tea parties, Americans have shown they don't want a "reform" that costs a staggering $1.2 trillion yet fails to meet the left's desire of insuring all the uninsured. And they certainly don't want a...

Mr. Obama said, “penalties are appropriate for people who try to free ride the system and force others to pay for their health insurance.”

Health Care Reform: Failure to buy health insurance in the just-passed health care bill could get you five years in jail with a $250,000 fine. How can violating a law that's unconstitutional be a felony? The passage last Saturday night of the House health care measure by a fragile 220-215 margin may well prove to be a Pyrrhic victory. In polls, townhall meetings and tea parties, Americans have shown they don't want a "reform" that costs a staggering $1.2 trillion yet fails to meet the left's desire of insuring all the uninsured. And they certainly don't want a bill that...

JCT Confirms Failure to Comply with Democrats’ Mandate Can Lead to 5 Years in Jail Today, Ranking Member of the House Ways and Means Committee Dave Camp (R-MI) released a letter from the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) confirming that the failure to comply with the individual mandate to buy health insurance contained in the Pelosi health care bill (H.R. 3962, as amended) could land people in jail. The JCT letter makes clear that Americans who do not maintain “acceptable health insurance coverage” and who choose not to pay the bill’s new individual mandate tax (generally 2.5% of income),...

A Michigan congressman has released a report from the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation confirming that the House Democrats' health-care bill could impose penalties of up to $250,000 in fines and five years in jail for failing to buy the proper insurance coverage. "This is the ultimate example of the Democrats' command-and-control style of governing – buy what we tell you or go to jail," said U.S. Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich. "It is outrageous and it should be stopped immediately," he said today. The letter of confirmation from the Joint Committee on Taxation was signed by Chief of Staff Thomas...

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is prepared to jail any American who does not buy a qualifying health insurance plan if the healthcare bill she sponsored (H.R. 3962, as amended) is passed into law. On November 6, Congressman Dave Camp (R-Mich.), the senior member of the House Ways and Means Committee, released a letter he received from the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) in response to his inquiry as to potential penalties for failing to comply with mandates set forth in the so-called “Affordable Health Care for America Act.” The information set out in the response should be shocking,...

It has come to this, America. Democrats have decided that if you don't agree with their policies, you are to be fined. And if you don't pay the fine, you are a criminal and will be sentenced to jail. That's right, Democrats are criminalizing dissent. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has decided to leave language in her heatlhcare bill that criminalizes and prescribes jail time for any American that does not want to buy private healthcare insurance. Think of this, America. I am telling you that the U.S. Congress has decided to force you to buy the product of...

Today, Ranking Member of the House Ways and Means Committee Dave Camp (R-MI) released a letter from the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) confirming that the failure to comply with the individual mandate to buy health insurance contained in the Pelosi health care bill (H.R. 3962, as amended) could land people in jail. The JCT letter makes clear that Americans who do not maintain “acceptable health insurance coverage” and who choose not to pay the bill’s new individual mandate tax (generally 2.5% of income), are subject to numerous civil and criminal penalties, including criminal fines of up to $250,000...

PELOSI: Buy a $15,000 Policy or Go to Jail JCT Confirms Failure to Comply with Democrats’ Mandate Can Lead to 5 Years in Jail Friday, November 06, 2009 Today, Ranking Member of the House Ways and Means Committee Dave Camp (R-MI) released a letter from the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) confirming that the failure to comply with the individual mandate to buy health insurance contained in the Pelosi health care bill (H.R. 3962, as amended) could land people in jail. The JCT letter makes clear that Americans who do not maintain “acceptable health insurance coverage” and who choose...

Americans who do not maintain “acceptable health insurance coverage” and who choose not to pay the bill’s new individual mandate tax (generally 2.5% of income), are subject to numerous civil and criminal penalties, including criminal fines of up to $250,000 and imprisonment of up to five years. According to the Congressional Budget Office the lowest cost family non-group plan under the Speaker’s bill would cost $15,000 in 2016.

Thea Cox, a burglar caught stealing make-up and women’s clothes has been spared a prison sentence after a judge decided she had endured “a rotten life” as a transsexual. Thea Cox: Outside court the burglar, who was christened Timothy, blamed her life of crime on the public's reaction to her change of sex 26 years ago. Photo: SWNS Cox, 54, was originally given a suspended 12-week prison sentence for having an offensive weapon with her as she carried out four burglaries last year. She returned to the same student flats this summer and carried out two further raids – on...

Bernard Madoff's life behind bars revealed Bernard Madoff reportedly sleeps in the lower bunk in his cell and he eats pizza cooked by an inmate convicted of child molestation Christine Seib in New York Bernard Madoff shares a jail cell with a 21-year-old drug dealer and socialises with a former crime boss and an Israeli spy, according to a legal action filed yesterday in New York. Attorneys who interviewed Madoff in jail in July used information obtained from the fraudster to file a series of claims against major banks and accountancy firms, in an action that also throws light on...

Director Roman Polanski lost an appeal Tuesday to be freed from a Swiss prison ahead of his possible extradition to the United States for having sex in 1977 with a 13-year-old girl. The Swiss Criminal Court said releasing Polanski on bail or under house arrest posed a high risk of flight.

Bernie's bruising battle -- over stocks! Brawls with inmate By RICH CALDER Last Updated: 6:27 AM, October 13, 2009 Posted: 2:44 AM, October 13, 2009 Bernie "The Bruiser" Madoff got into a prison-yard tussle with a fellow inmate over -- of all things -- the stock market, eyewitnesses told The Post. And, by inmates' accounts, the 71-year-old Ponzi schemer came out the winner. Madoff, serving 150 years at the Butner, NC, federal prison, was heard last week getting into a heated debate over the state of the market with another senior-citizen jailbird.

The suburban Chicago cop who was caught on video beating a 15-year-old student for refusing to tuck his shirt last May is being accused of raping a woman while holding a pillow over her face. He also killed his ex-wife’s new husband last year by shooting him 24 times in front of their children while he was a cop for another suburban police department. He was suspended for that incident and eventually found work with the Dolton Police Department, where he ended up beating the special needs student who weighed only 140 pounds, breaking his nose and lacerating his face....

<p>Font Size:Default font sizeLarger font size BOB ZELLAR/Gazette Staff Hardin officials began construction on the $27 million Two Rivers Detention Facility in June 2006, and it was completed in September 2007. . .Related Links Related: American Police Force The Two Rivers Detention Center was promoted as the largest economic development project in decades in the small town of Hardin when the jail was built two years ago. But it has been vacant ever since.</p>

Americans who fail to pay the penalty for not buying insurance would face legal action from the Internal Revenue Service, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation. Senator John Ensign (R-NV) received a handwritten note Thursday (September 24th) from Joint Committee on Taxation Chief of Staff Tom Barthold confirming the penalty for failing to pay the maximum $1,900 fee for not buying health insurance. Violators could be charged with a misdemeanor and could face up to a year in jail or a $25,000 penalty, Barthold wrote on JCT letterhead. He signed it “Sincerely, Thomas A. Barthold.” (The PDF scanned note...

The great thing about fixing healthcare is not missing the opportunity to turn a bunch of regular people into criminals. You don't want healthcare, too damn bad. You're now a criminal. You don't have a choice. You are going to forcibly be made to enter a legal contract against your will. (This is against the law by the way). All contract law is void unless both parties entered into the contract voluntarily. There's little terms like "COERCION" and "AGAINST THEIR WILL" and stuff like that. How about someone gives you an abortion against your will? Didn't want it? Too bad....

Senator John Ensign from Nevada saying that he has received written confirmation that the penalty for not paying the fine for not getting health insurance is a misdameanor and you could face up to 1 year in jail or $25,000 fine.

PITTSBURGH -- Hundreds of inmates are apparently qualified for a "Get Out Of Jail Free" card courtesy of the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh. On Thursday, a judge revealed that up to 1,000 inmates could be released from the Allegheny County Jail before the summit next week. The move is to make room in the jail, since police expect to arrest hundreds during the summit. The judge said only nonviolent offenders will be considered. Still, that has not lessened the shock for people who talked to Channel 11 News. Channel 11 News was at the jail when inmate Timothy Spanbauer was...

BURGIN, Ky. (AP) - Rioting inmates started several fires at a central Ky. prison, and damage to several buildings was so extensive that officials have to bus some of the facility's 1,200 prisoners elsewhere, police said Saturday. State police Lt. David Jude said firefighters had extinguished the blazes set at the medium-security Northpoint Training Center in a rural area 30 miles south of Lexington. Buses started to transport the first prisoners shortly after 6 a.m., but it wasn't immediately known where they were going and whether all the inmates would have to be moved. "To me it would seem like...

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- When Sherry Johnston left a Palmer courtroom Wednesday, there were lingering questions: What will her sentence be? Where is Levi? And what's with the pink handcuffs? Turns out there's a story behind those pink handcuffs that puts Sherry Johnston six degrees of separation from one of the most infamous sheriffs in the land. Shortly after Johnston pled guilty to possessing the painkiller OxyContin with the intent of delivering it she prepared to head back to jail. That's where Court Services Officer Pierre Burkett comes in, sporting of all things pink handcuffs. Both Johnston and her attorney, Rex...

A Muslim asylum seeker has been sentenced to life in prison after killing his German-born wife because she was 'too independent', a court in Germany heard today. The 27-year-old Kurdish man, identified only as Onder B, was found guilty today of stabbing his wife in the eyes, beating her with a billiard cue and then running over her in his car. His mother-in-law had once told him to be 'strict' with her strong-willed daughter, Mujde - who was also Onder's cousin.

Frank Lay, Pace High School principal, and Robert Freeman, the school's athletic director, will appear on criminal contempt charges for offering public prayer in a public school. The administrators face up to 6 months in jail and a $5,000 fine for offering a mealtime prayer. Lay and Freeman go on trial today at a federal district court in Pensacola for breaching the conditions of a lawsuit settlement reached last year with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). By violating the court order, the two are in danger of being found in contempt of court.

Students, teachers and local pastors are protesting over a court case involving a northern Florida school principal and an athletic director who are facing criminal charges and up to six months in jail over their offer of a mealtime prayer.

A principal and an athletic director are facing criminal charges for a lunch-time prayer. Last year, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against Pace High School in Santa Rosa County, Florida. The ACLU claimed some teachers and administrators were endorsing religion, but the school chose to give in to the ACLU's demands rather than fight them in court. According to the settlement, all school employees are banned from engaging in prayer or religious activities before, during, or after school hours. Now two school officials are facing criminal charges for offering meal-time prayers at an appreciation dinner for adults...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - U.S. judges on Tuesday told California to prepare to release more than 40,000 of its 150,000 inmates to reduce overcrowding in state prisons, which suffer from massive healthcare problems. The cash-strapped state already plans to release ailing and short-term inmates for budget issues. That would clear up to 37,000 beds over two years, estimated California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Secretary Matthew Cate. But he said an order from federal judges would set a "dangerous precedent" and argued at a news conference that California had cleaned up prisons and hired medical professionals to fill chronic gaps...

. FREE Mennonite Pastor Nguyen Cong Chinh of Pleiku, Vietnam .

Here he comes again, his hands covered in heavy black mittens, his head stuffed into a net that makes him look like a beekeeper, his legs and wrists closed in shackles. Clark County Detention Center officers dress him this way because he has been known to spit, throw punches and kick. The inmate shuffles through a sliding door, a large officer follows and, nearby, other members of the jail staff step back, as if sensing danger. The inmate, seemingly unaware, tells the officer, “I don’t want a plane crashing into me, you know.” The detention officer nods and nudges him...

Bernard Madoff hires help to survive hard time (Bob Daemmrich/Polaris/eyevine) The 'Supermax' jail in Colorado where Madoff could find himself James Bone in New York Bernard Madoff has hired a veteran prison consultant to help him to find the best possible jail in which to serve his 150-year sentence for Wall Street’s biggest fraud. After his sentencing this week Madoff, now Prisoner No 1727-054, met Herb Hoelter, of the National Centre for Institutions and Alternatives, whose previous clients include the jailed Sotheby’s chairman Alfred Taubman and the financiers Michael Milken and Ivan Boesky. The draconian maximum sentence imposed by the...

CATLETTSBURG, KY (WSAZ) -- Elliott County Jailer Charles Howard will spend 12 years in prison after being convicted late Monday afternoon on a charge of 1st degree rape. The sentencing phase of his trial concluded early Monday evening with that decision. Howard was convicted by a jury in Boyd County Monday after a week long trial in which a jail inmate testifed that Howard took her to a remote area and assaulted her.

Iraqi authorities have detained five U.S. citizens in connection with the death of an American contractor in Baghdad, officials said Sunday, in what could be the first case of Americans facing local justice under a joint security pact that took effect this year. The body of Jim Kitterman, who was reportedly bound, blindfolded and stabbed, was found in his car last month in the protected Green Zone where his small construction company was based. It was an unprecedented slaying in the sprawling district and occurred at a time when blast walls are coming down and Iraqi forces are assuming greater...

A father who towed his six-year-old son on a sledge behind his 4x4 pickup truck on a busy main road to give him a 'once-in-a-lifetime experience' is facing prison. Simon Lewington, 40, was photographed by a shocked passerby pulling his son 500 yards during rush hour traffic after a heavy snow fall. Stunned police gave chase after he drove past a police station and slalomed around several cars with his son coming inches away from oncoming traffic.

The rates have been set: A bed at the Springfield Municipal Jail is $60 a night.

Craig T. Nelson said on the popular Fox News Glenn Beck show today that he was going to stop paying taxes and was willing to go to jail for it. The conversation sounded like John Galt's famous speech in the classic 1957 novel, Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.

"Within a few years of the martyrdom, Gov. Thomas Ford recognized that the events that unfolded in Carthage might transform a common county jail into sacred space...that Nauvoo and the Carthage Jail may become holy and venerable names, places of classic interest like Jerusalem." The governor was right, explained Brian Q. Cannon, a BYU history professor speaking at the Mormon History Association conference May 22 on "Long Shall His Blood ... Stain Illinois: Carthage Jail in Mormon Memory." Carthage Jail became a sacred memorial for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. SNIP And the question of...

Michael Anderson Godwin was a murderer. He was awaiting South Carolina's electric chair in 1989 when he decided to fix his TV set while sitting on his cell's metal toilet. You can probably see where this is going.Being on death row is lonely, so having a TV is important to your sanity. Godwin's was on the fritz, so he decided to multitask by trying to fix it was using the commode.The last stupid decision of his life was to bite down on an exposed wire in the plugged-in TV while sitting on the metal toilet. He was electrocuted instantly,...

ATLANTA, GA—DERONTAY ANTON LANGFORD, 34, of Fairburn, Georgia, a Fulton County Sheriff’s Detention Officer, and MITNEE MARKETTE JONES, 46, of Atlanta, Georgia, a Fulton County Deputy Sheriff, both of whom work as officers at the Fulton County Jail, were arrested today by FBI agents following their indictment by a federal grand jury on felony charges of filing a false report, making false statements to federal agents, and obstruction of justice. LANGFORD and JONES are expected to make their initial appearances before United States Magistrate Judge C. Christopher Hagy at 2 p.m. this afternoon. United States Attorney David E. Nahmias said,...

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration is asking Congress to close the big gap in prison sentences for dealing crack versus powdered cocaine, a law that critics say is unfair to blacks. Such sentencing reform efforts tend to focus on lowering the mandatory minimum sentences for crack cocaine possession, but in prepared testimony to the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs, Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer did not spell out exactly how the administration hopes to make the law more fair. "The administration believes Congress' goal should be to completely eliminate the disparity in prison sentences between crack cocaine and...

(CNN) -- An elderly grandfather was greeted with hugs and kisses from his family in Washington state after returning home from months of what he called false imprisonment in a Mexican prison. The 88-year-old's ordeal began in January, when he went to Mexico with grandson Gary Chrisman Jr. for inexpensive dental work, family members said. The pair ran into trouble in Algodones, Mexico. At a convenience store, the younger Chrisman went inside to buy soft drinks while his grandfather waited in the car. The younger Chrisman had been photographing the area and approached a woman in the store about snapping...

The scrawny Somali charged with piracy against a US cargo ship has been surviving on fruit and vegetables because he's afraid to eat the mystery meat served in jail. Abduwali Abdukhadir Muse has never before seen the grub inmates are served at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in downtown Manhattan, and is worried it may contain pork, which is prohibited by Islam. "He's hungry," said his lawyer, Philip Weinstein. "He obviously knows there's certain things he can eat, but he's unfamiliar with some of the protein. It's clearly not fish, which is a primary part of his diet in Somalia." The...

Franklin County deputies accused of tampering with inmate's food Tuesday, March 24, 2009 7:40 AM THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH Two deputies assigned to the Downtown Franklin County jail are being investigated after being accused of tampering with an inmate's food. According to sources at the jail, the deputies fed a sandwich to an inmate after having another inmate touch the sandwich with his penis. Sources also said that the deputies used a cell phone to take pictures of the incident. The Franklin County sheriff's office confirmed that the deputies are being investigated and have been reassigned to the control center, where...

For months, perhaps longer, the Montague County Jail was "Animal House" meets Mayberry. Inside the small brick building across from the courthouse, inmates had the run of the place, having sex with their jailer girlfriends, bringing in recliners, taking drugs and chatting on cell phones supplied by friends or guards, according to authorities. They also disabled some of the surveillance cameras and made weapons out of nails.

Ain't payback a bitch, Bernie? After spending his first night behind bars, mega-Ponzi crook Bernard Madoff cravenly begged the court yesterday to let him out of jail until he is sentenced this summer for running the world's biggest financial scam. Madoff, 70, was ordered into federal lockup immediately after pleading guilty to the $65 billion scam Thursday. But in an appeal filed yesterday, his lawyers argued he should be freed because he didn't run after his arrest, even though he knew he would likely die in prison. He faces as much as 150 years when sentenced on June 16. Madoff's...

Bernard Madoff jailed until sentencing after pleading guilty to $50 billion fraud Christine Seib in New York Bernard Madoff, the disgraced Wall Street financier, was today remanded in custody until sentencing on June 16 after pleading guilty to all 11 charges relating to his $50 billion (£36 billion) investment fraud, the biggest financial scam in history. The 70-year-old, who had been on $10 million bail at his Manhattan penthouse, is expected to be sent to the Metropolitan Correctional Center, a high-rise block adjacent to the US District Court where he appeared this morning. Madoff, who faced charges including perjury, fraud...

Madoff jail won't be as bad as "Shawshank," expert says * Aaron Smith, CNNMoney.com staff writer * Wednesday March 11, 2009, 4:09 pm EDT Ensconced in his $7 million home, Bernard Madoff, the accused Ponzi swindler, is probably wondering what type of prison awaits him. Madoff, who allegedly stole billions through his investment firm, could face a 150-year sentence if convicted in Federal Court in Manhattan on Thursday. He is expected to plead guilty to 11 criminal counts, according to one of his lawyers, Ira Lee Sorkin. Madoff has managed to avoid jail so far, thanks to the $10 million...

After Plea Hearing, Madoff Could Go Directly to Jail By DIANA B. HENRIQUES When Bernard L. Madoff arrives in federal court on Thursday to plead guilty to operating a vast 20-year Ponzi scheme, there is a strong chance that he will not return home. Under a $10 million bail agreement, Mr. Madoff has been confined to his penthouse apartment since his arrest on Dec. 11. As he was presumed innocent, the government had to persuade the court that he should not be allowed bail — something prosecutors failed to do at a bail revocation hearing in January. But once Mr....

PITTSBURGH — A jail warden said Sunday he will ask a judge to move an 11-year-old boy accused of killing his father's pregnant girlfriend from an adult lockup to a juvenile detention center because the jail cannot accommodate the boy. snip Patricia Papernow, a psychologist from Hudson, Mass., and expert on blended families, said tensions from combining families, as Brown's father and Houk were doing, were "pretty normal in a new stepfamily." "It looks awful from the outside and sort of unspeakable, but these are the kinds of feelings that are pretty normal in a new stepfamily," Papernow said. "You...

Six prisoners in British jails have applied to have children with their partners following a landmark European court ruling that their human rights would be breached if they are prevented from becoming fathers. The inmates, all serving long sentences and including at least one murderer, claim they or their partners will be too old once they are released and should be allowed to donate sperm now for artificial insemination. It follows a long legal battle over whether their right to fatherhood is guaranteed by the Human Rights Act. The case was brought by Kirk Dickson, 34, who is serving a...

LONDON (Reuters) – A milkman who admitted he delivered cannabis as well as pints to elderly customers to ease their aches and pains, was spared jail Friday. Robert Holding, 72, from Burnley, told police he supplied the drug to 17 customers after detectives raided his home and found nearly 6oz (167g) of cannabis in an egg crate in the van he used for deliveries. "He said he sold the cannabis to existing customers because they were old and had aches and pains," said prosecutor Sarah Statham. ... Holding, who admitted supplying and possession of the drug at a previous hearing,...