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The Missouri Supreme Court has thrown out the results of a blood test on an unwilling suspect in a routine drunken-driving stop, ruling the officer should have obtained a judge’s warrant for the test.

Shocking, isn’t it? But good on the Washington Times for exposing the money grab behind the “public safety” campaign to mandate the devices for first-time DUI offenders. A bill that would withhold up to 5 percent of each state’s highway funding unless that state requires such as device in the cars of all convicted drunken drivers was introduced in the Senate in February by Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg, New Jersey Democrat, and last month in the House by Rep. Eliot L. Engel, New York Democrat. For the past 18 months, lobbyists for “ignition interlocks,” as they are called, have jockeyed...

Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., is the lead player in a legislative effort, already endorsed by a handful of other senators, that would spend $60 million to develop a program that would charge consumers for the costs of installing drunk-driving interlock devices in vehicles. The proposal, S.510, was introduced this week in the U.S. Senate by Udall, who was joined by Sens. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, Bob Corker, R-Tenn., Al Franken, D-Minn., Amy Klobuchar D-Minn., West John D. Rockefeller, D-W.Va., Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I. The legislation actually doesn't call for the technology to be installed in...

GAINESVILE, Fla. (KTLA) -- The former president of a Gainesville, Fla. chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, or MADD, is facing DUI charges, according to the Gainesville Sun. 48-year-old Debra Oberlin was pulled over last week after officers reportedly spotted her driving erratically. She blew a .234 and a .239 on a pair of breathalyzer tests, the Sun reports, well over Florida's .08 legal limit. Oberlin apparently told officers she'd had four beers. Oberlin has not commented. She was the president of Gainesville's MADD chapter for three years. The chapter closed in 1996 due to a lack of funds.

On Feb. 11, 2006, in Iraq, I was honored to meet a model Marine by the name of Cpl. David Stidman. He did two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan. Commendably, he also left his post to come home and care for his ailing father, Dwayne Stidman, who tragically was hit and critically wounded by a drunken driver last May.Three months later, on Aug. 2, 2010, Cpl. Stidman was killed. Not on the battlefields of the Middle East, but on his home streets of Texas while still caring for his father and family. And not by a drive-by shooter,...

A campaign to create a new category of driving while intoxicated is being promoted at the Capitol as one way to curb growing problems in Texas' system of punishing drunken drivers. Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo, among the supporters of the change, said the idea behind a new offense of "driving while ability impaired" — DWAI — would cover drivers whose blood-alcohol content is between 0.05 and 0.07

The evening of Jan. 16, 1920, hours before Prohibition descended on America, while the young assistant secretary of the Navy, Franklin Roosevelt, drank champagne in Washington with other members of Harvard's Class of 1904, evangelist Billy Sunday preached to 10,000 celebrants in Norfolk, Va., : "The reign of tears is over. The slums will soon be only a memory. . . ." Not exactly. Daniel Okrent's darkly hilarious "Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition" recounts how Americans abolished a widely exercised private right -- and condemned the nation's fifth-largest industry -- in order to make the nation more...

The Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control began sending underage operatives into stores in the 1990s in an attempt to buy alcohol, usually beer. But in the past year, they began targeting another beverage: alcoholic energy drinks. The rising popularity of the drinks with teens fueled the change, said Robert Simmons Jr., an ABC special agent. They pose a special problem because they look like their non alcoholic counterparts, making them easy to slip past distracted or uninformed cashiers and fool parents and sometimes even police, he said. But with as much caffeine as several cups of coffee and twice...

DUI Charges Against 54 Dropped Prosecutors say a Polk County sheriff's deputy may have taken shortcuts in handling investigations. By Jason Geary THE LEDGER Prosecutors have abandoned charges against 54 people accused of driving under the influence, citing concerns about a deputy's shortcuts in writing reports and conducting blood alcohol tests. Deputy Tex Thomas has made about 124 arrests for DUI since he began working last year for the Polk County Sheriff's Office. In a deposition, Thomas spoke about preparing reports by cutting-and-pasting words from previous DUI reports as a "template" rather than starting with a blank page. Prosecutors also...

Was wondering if anyone had any real information as to whether Ted Kennedy had ever actually been awarded anything from MADD at the state or national level. I have found info that Mark Shriver had, but not Ted. Need to verify if he ever has, any real info would be of great help. Have spent a couple hours researching already at various sources.

Beer summit sparks fight between MADD and alcohol lobby @ 2:37 pm by Eric Zimmermann President Obama's beer summit might have created a media frenzy, but not everyone was excited about the message it sent about drinking. Placing alcohol at the center of a political firestorm has sparked a war of words between Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) and the pro-alcohol lobby. Nancy Raynor, the President of the Delaware chapter of MADD, told radio station WDEL this weekend that the beer summit may send an inappropriate signal to young people. "It's a well known fact that young people tend to...

A former Muscatine County judge has pleaded guilty to his third drunken driving charge. James Weaver, 55, of Blue Grass, Iowa, is set to be sentenced Aug. 6, court documents indicate. Iris Frost, the case’s special prosecutor, will ask for incarceration, a letter in Weaver’s file indicates. Weaver’s attorney, John Wunder, could not be reached for comment. Weaver was arrested in March. He had a blood-alcohol-content level more than two times the legal limit for driving in Iowa, court documents say. Weaver had two prior drunken-driving convictions from 2002 and 2004. He received a disability retirement as a judge based...

A word of caution before you head out for the long Memorial Day weekend: It's also No-Refusal Weekend. Which means? Well, if Dallas police pull suspect you're drinking and driving, you'll be stuck with a butterfly needle attached to a vacuum-packed container, and two vials' worth of your blood will taken and tested. And, no, you can't refuse the test; hence the name, as discussed in our cover story on the very subject last month.

President Obama's troubling nominee to head the National Highway Traffic Safety AdministrationEarlier this month, President Barack Obama nominated Mothers Against Drunk Driving CEO Chuck Hurley to head up the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).Hurley's pending appointment is bad news for social drinkers, motorists, and anyone interested in freedom of movement and less hassle on the roadways. Hurley is an anti-alcohol zealot, and a longtime proponent of just about any highway regulation that's sold under the guise of public safety. He's a supporter of primary seat belt laws, which allow police to pull motorists over solely for seat belt infractions....

WASHINGTON (AP) - A top official with Mothers Against Drunk Driving is President Barack Obama's choice to lead the federal agency that oversees safety and fuel efficiency standards for automakers. Chuck Hurley was nominated today to become administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. He's served as MADD's chief executive officer since 2005 and has worked for the National Safety Council and Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

The state senate has approved a measure calling for sobriety checkpoints.Professor David Hanson of the State University of New York in Potsdam says Texas is not alone in banning checkpoints. "A number of individual states have decided sobriety checkpoints violate their own state constitutions." Many believe the checkpoints violate the U.S. Constitution's protection against unreasonable searches and seizures, but Houston mom Valerie Lalime, whose 13-year-old daughter Lilly was killed by a drunk driver, says checkpoints work during holiday periods. "The research has shown that there is a decrease in the number of drunk driving accidents." Bill Lewis of MADD says...

That Daryl Fleck , 55, may not have intended to drive when he was found sleeping drunk in the driver’s seat of his vehicle, parked in his home lot at 11:30 p.m. “is immaterial,” Judge Terri Stoneburner argued in a Minnesota Appeals Court decision that upheld Fleck’s drunk driving conviction. Under Minnesota’s Driving While Impaired statute, 169A.20, it is illegal for any person with a blood-alcohol concentration in excess of .08 to “drive, operate, or be in physical control of any motor vehicle.” Stoneburner argues in accordance with State v. Starfield : “Physical control is meant to cover situations where...

Surrounded by flashing red and blue lights, the man in red leather sandals lifted one foot off the ground and waited as the deputy kept time. Then, finding that the man had failed the sobriety test, the deputy pulled the man's hands behind his back and shackled them. The man stood in a strip mall parking lot where he pulled over after an undercover deputy noticed him swerving in and out of his lane on Military Trail and he struck the median, said Sheriff's Cpl. Scott Yoder, who assisted with the arrest. The undercover deputy charged the driver with cocaine...

She quietly pleaded guilty to drunken driving and was sentenced on the day President Obama was inaugurated. But it may be another two years before Cook County Judge Sheila McGinnis is disciplined by the authorities who oversee Illinois judges - if they discipline her, according to the executive director of the Illinois Judicial Inquiry Board. McGinnis on Tuesday dodged a potential one-year jail term when she admitted drunkenly crashing her Chevrolet sport utility vehicle into the back of a family-of-four's minivan May 9 in Tinley Park. With the attention of the Southland and the world focused on Washington, D.C., Judge...

Drew University, like many colleges, is working harder to deter underage drinking, but that didn't stop students younger than 21 from drinking heavily at campus parties Labor Day weekend. "The parties are in dorms, on top of buildings, wherever people find an ample place where they're not going to be bothered," said 18-year-old Dean Shtainhorn of Millburn, who admitted to experimenting with alcohol. The Madison campus is not unlike colleges across the country dealing with the problem of underage alcohol consumption and binge drinking. That is why Drew University president Robert Weisbuch said he joined the Amethyst Initiative, a national...

The DUI Exception to the Constitution” Posted by Lawrence Taylor on May 9th, 2005 In the course of various postings concerning MADD, I have received emails suggesting that they are a civic-minded organization which does not deserve my criticisms. As I have said on many occasions, I believe them to be a well-intentioned group of "true believers" — who, like most zealots, have a rigid and narrow focus and are ignorant of the harm they cause to others. And in other posts I have tried to explain the nature of that harm. Many years ago, I was invited to give...

CHICAGO – Ann Marie Getz had already been twice convicted of driving under the influence when, behind the wheel of her Lincoln Continental and allegedly drunk, she ran a stop sign this month in central Illinois and smashed into another car. A mother and two kids in the Chevy Impala that Getz hit died. And yet the 43-year-old Streator woman was able to present a valid Illinois driver's license to investigators.

At age 18, an American can enlist in the military, vote, sign a contract, get married, have an operation -- hey, in California, a 14-year-old can have an abortion without telling her parents -- but he cannot buy a beer. Not legally, anyway. It makes absolutely no sense, and it is shameful that my generation, which won the right to vote at age 18, continues to infantilize people who are allowed to make life-and-death decisions on every issue, save one. We believe in rights -- except for college-age kids -- even if they are serving in the military. Enter the...

What happens when presidents from more than 100 of the nation's best-known colleges call on lawmakers to consider lowering the drinking age from 21 to 18? Well, a brigade of hyperbolic mommies start screaming at them, that's what. In the Amethyst Initiative, college presidents have offered a rational, if counterintuitive, plan. Let's stop treating young adults like wards of the state. Mothers Against Drunk Driving (naturally) replied: No debate allowed. There is plenty of empirical evidence suggesting that the drinking age of 21 is counterproductive. To begin with, it bars parents from educating their own children about alcohol and, like...

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...

El Camino teens face heavy emotions brought about by drunken-driving dramatization OCEANSIDE – It was an elaborate hoax, but 36 students at El Camino High pulled it off with potentially life-saving consequences. The result was a soberingly realistic dramatization about the dangers of drinking and driving, delivered with surprising professionalism. Many juniors and seniors were driven to tears – a few to near hysterics – May 26 when a uniformed police officer arrived in several classrooms to notify them that a fellow student had been killed in a drunken-driving accident. The officer read a brief eulogy, placed a rose on...

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...

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...

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...

Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Warren Moon has been charged with driving under the influence stemming from a traffic stop in late December. According to police, Moon was driving an SUV with expired plates when he was pulled over early on Dec. 28 in Medina, Wa. A police officer smelled "intoxicants" in the vehicle, and Moon refused a field sobriety test and a breath test. He was arrested for investigation of DUI and driving with a suspended license and released later the same day by the Kirkland Police Department.

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...

More Texas jurisdictions are turning to forced blood draws to convict those suspected of DUI. Jurisdictions within Texas are expanding programs where police use force to draw blood from motorists accused of driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI). Last week, El Paso announced it had joined Harris and Wilson Counties in a "no refusal" program specifically designed to streamline the blood drawing process. It works as follows. An accused motorist is arrested and taken downtown. While being videotaped, he will be asked to submit to a breathalyzer test with officers specifically avoiding any mention that blood will be taken...

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...

Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) was founded in 1980 with the mission “…to stop drunk driving and support the victims of this violent crime. ” That’s a big, if not impossible goal, “to stop drunk driving”. One way MADD is trying to stop drunk driving this holiday season is through their “Tie One on for Safety” campaign. According the the Leaf Chronicle (12.10.07), the Tennessee office of MADD is distributing over 10,000 red ribbons state-wide to raise drunk driving awareness. According to the article, the red ribbon campaign has three stated goals 1. “high visibility of officers, meaning many officers...

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...

CHEYENNE -- A state trooper lost his job last week for “flagrant and inappropriate” methods he used during an April 7 bust that netted $3.3 million. But that hasn't slowed efforts by the U.S. attorney's office to seek forfeiture of the cash in civil court. Wyoming U.S. attorney spokesman John Powell said it's unclear whether Peech's actions will be a factor in the case, or how they might influence a judge's decision. “We're not going to stop pursuing the forfeiture action at this time,” Powell said. The decision to press forward with the forfeiture has heightened questions about the dismissal...

Michelle Dallacroce was hopping mad when she received a letter from Mothers Against Drunk Driving demanding she change the name of her organization, Mothers Against Illegal Aliens. "I couldn't believe it," Mrs. Dallacroce said. "I don't know who would be confused by this. We don't even have the same acronym." Mrs. Dallacroce, president of the Phoenix-based advocacy group, received a certified letter Oct. 10 stating that MADD owns the rights to the name "Mothers Against" and giving her 10 days to stop using it. "While we do not oppose the name of your organization as a whole, we cannot permit...

A 27-year-old woman was arrested after she was seen holding her 5-year-old son out the front passenger window of a slow-moving sport utility vehicle Wednesday night, Pinellas Park police said. At a different point, Christina Adams was seen leaning out the window and holding her son's hand, making him keep up with the moving vehicle as it traveled in a neighborhood in the vicinity of 66th Avenue and 43rd Street about 11:45 p.m., police said. There was a witness in each instance, police said. When the vehicle was stopped, Adams appeared to be extremely drunk and was belligerent, police said....

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...

LANSING, Mich. (AP) - A federal judge says forcing non-drivers in Michigan to submit to preliminary breath tests without a search warrant is unconsitutional. U.S. District Judge David Lawson issued an injunction Wednesday blocking enforcement of a state law that penalizes pedestrians under 21 who refuse such a test. The American Civil Liberties Union says Michigan is the only state in the country that requires pedestrians to submit to a breath test without a warrant. The ACLU filed suit on behalf of four college students who had to blow into portable breath testers. Defendants in the case include the Michigan...

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...

"Pre-emptive war" got us into a real mess in Iraq. So maybe we ought to think twice before adopting similar measures when it comes to traffic law. Specifically, when it comes to an idea floated by Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) to require that all new cars be fitted with an ignition interlock that can detect alcohol in the driver's system -- and shut the car down if it does. Several large automakers (including GM, Ford, Toyota and Honda) also support the idea -- and are working on ways to get these things into new cars, maybe within the next...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Amtrak is trying to gin up new business by offering $100 in free alcohol to customers on some overnight trains. The national passenger rail company is making the unusual offer to promote a new high-end service being offered on a trial basis for certain sleeper car trips. Members of Amtrak's guest rewards program—the railroad equivalent of frequent fliers—can get a $100 per person credit for alcohol between November and January. The offer of free drinks comes on top of the dinner wine that is already included in the cost of a ticket for GrandLuxe trips on the...

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...

WASHINGTON – Alcohol-related deaths on U.S. roads rose to their highest level in 14 years in 2006, while the overall number of people killed in traffic crashes declined slightly but still topped 43,000, according to preliminary government estimates Friday. The Transportation Department said that drunken driving deaths rose 2.4 percent to 17,941 after a slight decline in 2005. It was the highest level since 1992 when 18,290 deaths were reported. Alcohol-related fatalities accounted for 41 percent of all traffic deaths, which dropped less than 1 percent last year to 43,300. Annual auto deaths have hovered around 43,000 for the past...

A city police officer who recently received an award from Mothers Against Drunk Driving has been charged with drunken driving, authorities said. Specialist Charles Beebe's SUV was pulled over Wednesday in Aurora, Ind., after a motorist reported that he had forced two vehicles off the road, the arresting officer's report said. Beebe failed a field sobriety test and agreed to a chemical test. His blood-alcohol content was 0.08 percent, the point at which a motorist is considered legally drunk in Indiana, according to the arrest report. Beebe, 54, pleaded not guilty Thursday in Lawrenceburg, Ind., and was released on $1,500...

In the first four years of Operation Iraqi Freedom, 563 Americans under the age of 21 were killed in the line of duty. These citizen soldiers were old enough to vote, old enough to put on military uniforms, and old enough to die for their country: They were old enough to do just about anything, except drink a red-white-and-blue can of Budweiser. Apparently they weren’t grown-up enough to enjoy that privilege. That’s because when it comes to alcohol, the United States is more like Indonesia, Mongolia, and Palau than the rest of the world: It is one of just four...

It's been 20 years that America has had a minimum federal drinking age. The policy began to gain momentum in the early 1980s, when the increasingly influential Mothers Against Drunk Driving added the federal minimum drinking age to its legislative agenda. By 1984, it had won over a majority of the Congress. President Reagan initially opposed the law on federalism grounds but eventually was persuaded by his transportation secretary at the time, now-Sen. Elizabeth Dole. Over the next three years every state had to choose between adopting the standard or forgoing federal highway funding; most complied. A few held out...