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A Bay Area sex offender has admitted to the 1991 kidnapping of Jaycee Lee Dugard, who was found safe in Concord on Wednesday, California corrections officials said. It has been 18 years since Dugard was kidnapped near Lake Tahoe. The break in the case came after a parole agent brought Phillip Garrido in for questioning after he was seen with two children on the U.C. Berkeley campus, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said. Garrido brought two young children and an adult woman with him to the parole office. The meeting started as a routine meeting, but quickly changed....

A federally funded study on Megan's Law in New Jersey has found that it does not deter first-time sex offenders or help prevent convicted sex offenders from re-offending. The study is one of a limited number nationwide to empirically examine the impact of sex-offender registration and notification laws such as Megan's Law, which now can be found in every state. --snip-- some people may take better precautions to protect their children if they know there is a sex offender in the neighborhood

Neighborhood alarmed to learn ice-cream truck vendor is registered sex offender 01:13 AM PDT on Saturday, July 14, 2007 By SARAH BURGE The Press-Enterprise A group of Perris homeowners has launched a campaign to run their local ice cream man out of the neighborhood. Anthony G. Toles, his neighbors discovered recently, is a registered sex offender who has been living and driving his ice cream truck in the Villages of Avalon, a newer housing development near Lake Perris. On the Fourth of July, about 10 neighbors distributed 500 custom-printed door hangers alerting residents to "a potential threat to our children"...

"If I do escape, I promise you I will kill and rape again, and I will enjoy every minute of it." Statement to the court by convicted sexual predator Westley Allan Dodd. The motivations of sexual predators vary widely from one to the next. For some, it's the feeling of power achieved by dominating a weaker, younger person. For others, it's the innocence of a young child that generates the attraction. Still others see only an "object" with which to fulfill their twisted desires. Regardless of the forces that drive a sexual predator, the results are the same. Many of...

A nationwide pedophile protection scandal involving facilities run by Planned Parenthood and the National Abortion Federation is emerging from a two-year undercover investigation by Life Dynamics Incorporated of Denton, Texas. Life Dynamics said it recorded over 800 calls to facilities across America in which an actress portraying a 13-year-old girl impregnated by her adult boyfriend sought an abortion to hide the illegal sexual relationship from her parents and police. Many clinic workers told the caller they were legally mandated to report it to the state, but 91 percent of the 800 facilities agreed to illegally conceal it. In fact, workers...

New laws intended to make life safer for children The Ohio legislature dropped the hammer on sex offenders during the two-year session that just ended, particularly on those who prey on kids. Their work culminated last week in the passage of a law that sets tougher mandatory minimum sentences for rapists whose victims are younger than 13. Lawmakers weary of stories about abuse of children, often by repeat offenders, acted in a number of areas. While many of those efforts were already under way, the desire for stronger punishments got a boost in March when a storm erupted over Franklin...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US authorities said all 50 states have joined a national web site that lists addresses and other details of convicted sex offenders. The states of South Dakota and Oregon were added last week to the registry, which "provides real-time access to public sex offender data nationwide with a single Internet search," the Department of Justice said in a statement. The online database includes more than 500,000 convicted sex offenders who are required to register their address with local authorities. The government-sponsored site "allows parents and concerned citizens to search existing public state and territory sex offender registries...

WILLIAM Jefferson Blythe III was born on August 19, 1946, in Hope, Ark. After his mother remarried, he took the family surname, Clinton. Clinton was a good student. He enjoyed playing the saxophone and even considered a professional musical career. While in high school, a fortuitous meeting with President John Kennedy led him to choose a life of public service.

GALENA, Md. (AP) -- A Kent County man convicted of molesting two Boy Scouts in the 1980s will not have to register as a sex offender after serving a prison sentence because the crime was long ago, a judge has ruled. James Carl Combs, now 41 and living in Galena, was an assistant scoutmaster in Cecilton in the early 1980s, when he molested two boys, ages 12 and 14, a jury decided in August. The charges came about after one of the victims, now in his 30s, recalled the sexual abuse during a psychotherapy session in November, said Detective 1st...

Did you know that in California, child molesters and rapists are a protected class? It's true. Not only are California landlords banned from using the state's Megan's Law database to decline renting their properties to sex offenders, they're not even allowed to warn other tenants that these paroled criminals are now their neighbors. If they do the first, they can be fined $25,000 for housing discrimination. But if they don't do the second, they can be sued for failing to protect tenants against a known danger. Landlords are caught between a rock, a hard place and the California State Assembly's...

Sex-Offender Locator Websitehttp://www.familywatchdog.us/ by Mia T, 9.21.05           his website identifies the locations, names, employers, photos of sex offenders in your area. Just enter your address. One caveat. It may identify some sex offenders, but it doesn't locate all of them. I tested it by inputting the address of a known pair of rapists. (15 Old House Lane Chappaqua, NY 10514-2717) It failed to spit them out. I attempted to test their DC address. (3067 Whitehaven St. NW, Washington, DC 20008-3613), but the service doesn't cover that area.... deconstructing clinton… "just because I could" (viewing movie...

Residents in a Ocala neighborhood could face charges after a convicted sex offender apparently committed suicide in despair over signs labeling him a "child rapist" posted in his neighborhood, according to Local 6 News. Clovis Ivan Claxton, 38, who was convicted of sexually assaulting a child in Washington in 1991, had lived at 3230 SE. 45 Street in Ocala for about two years. Tuesday, Claxton noticed bright yellow, laminated signs displaying his picture, date of birth, address and the words "child rapist" hanging on power poles in his neighborhood. A county commissioner proposed posting such information in the community but...

Reign in sex offenders By: Rick Reiss - For the North County Times Recent child abduction-murders have riveted national attention again on the problem of convicted sex offenders. In Florida, Jessica Lunsford was kidnapped, abused and buried alive by a repeat sex offender. An Idaho girl was recently freed from a serial sex offender. This pedophile now stands accused of kidnapping, sexual abuse and the murder of the girl's Idaho family. Closer to home, outraged San Diegans protested the planned release of sex offender Douglas Badger to their community. The District Attorney's Office successfully prevented the release of Badger, for...

Megan's Law and its progeny -- the sex offender registration and notification laws on the books in all fifty states -- are godsends for those of us who prefer to live in pervert-free communities. You can't easily sell that nice new house at market value when all potential buyers are thirty seconds of web surfing away from discovering Mulberry Lane's Tattooed Little Secret. But do these laws serve any other purpose? It isn't clear that sex offender registration laws deter crimes. And however good an idea these laws may be, and however settled their constitutionality may be, it's hard to...

Megan’s Law allows the States discretion to establish criteria for disclosure, but compels them to make private and personal information on registered sex offenders available to the public. To view Registered Sex Offenders, Megan's Law, child abuse molesters information and resources to see what form of notification your state provides, please visit Megan's website and access your state's info. Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio...

Dover's police chief called teacher James Risi ``a poster boy for pedophiliac behavior'' and helped drive him out of his toney town's schools, but after he left, the boys and girls of Brockton and Chelsea called him something else: their teacher. ``It was the one thing we had all been promised, that he would never get another teaching job,'' said the mother of the 9-year-old Dover girl whom Risi traumatized. ``This is just so sad on so many levels.'' Doctors ultimately said Risi had no sexual interest in children, but the state found his record disturbing enough to eventually revoke...

Jill Simpson wishes she had never typed her San Jose ZIP code into the new online database that gives detailed information about convicted sex offenders in California. A convicted rapist lives two streets away, and three other sex offenders live in her San Jose neighborhood, one near the preschool to which she had planned to send her daughter.

Sexual predators and their locations are now available online for Californians to find out if there are degenerates in their neighborhoods. Check it out: http://www.meganslaw.ca.gov/disclaimer.htm

<p>SAN FRANCISCO - In the year since an Associated Press investigation found widespread flaws in California's sex offender registry, a state housecleaning has resulted in minor improvements to the Megan's Law database, but real reform remains elusive.</p> <p>The AP report in January 2003 found that more than 33,000 rapists and child molesters had failed to register with police as required. Attorney General Bill Lockyer agreed the system had broken down, and said it would cost at least $15 million annually to track down the missing.</p>

Across Ocala Avenue from Meyer Elementary School in San Jose, in a small house flanked by palm trees, lives Ismael Otero, a 44-year-old convicted child molester classified at high risk of attacking again. Parents at Meyer have raised no outcry about Otero, for the simplest of reasons: They don't know he's there. And it's not because school officials are keeping quiet. They didn't know either.

Report: Video Puts Suspect At Mall Where Sjodin Worked Police Sergeant: Tape Shows Rodriguez In Lot When College Student Disappeared POSTED: 7:04 a.m. EST December 5, 2003 UPDATED: 7:16 a.m. EST December 5, 2003 Authorities in North Dakota have tapes placing kidnapping suspect Alfonso Rodriguez in the mall parking lot from which authorities believe University of North Dakota student Dru Sjodin was abducted last month, a Minneapolis newspaper reported. According to a report on the Minneapolis Star Tribune newspaper's Web site, Grand Forks police Sgt. Mike Hedlund said the tapes show the 50-year-old kidnapping suspect in a Grand Forks mall...

Bloodstains matching Dru Sjodin's blood type were found in the car that police say was used by Alfonso Rodriguez Jr. to abduct her, the St. Paul Pioneer Press is reporting today. The Pioneer Press reported that "sources close to the investigation," said the blood was found in the maroon 2002 Mercury Sable Rodriguez bought at a Grand Forks dealership in June. Sources in Grand Forks, including Police Chief John Packett and State's Attorney Peter Welte, would not comment on the report when told of it Thursday night. The reported blood stains are the first major piece of physical evidence revealed...

<p>GRAND FORKS, N.D. (AP) -- The arrest of a convicted rapist in the disappearance of a college student produced no immediate breakthrough yesterday in the search for the young woman, but the police chief vowed: "Dru, we will find you."</p>

GRAND FORKS, N.D. - Volunteer searchers have turned up several "items of interest" in the disappearance of a University of North Dakota student, but nothing that has led investigators to Dru Sjodin. Police on Tuesday sifted through discarded paper, clothes and other items gathered by hundreds of volunteers - some on their knees in the snow - in hopes of finding a cell phone or other links to Sjodin (pronounced shah-deen), who was last heard from over the weekend. Police would not elaborate on the items that were found. Sgt. Michael Hedlund said they did not appear to be significant...

GRAND FORKS, N.D. -- Dru Sjodin finished her shift at the Victoria's Secret store at 4 p.m. Saturday, then did a little shopping at another store in the Columbia Mall in Grand Forks. As she walked to her car, the 22-year-old University of North Dakota senior from Pequot Lakes, Minn., used her cell phone to call her boyfriend in the Twin Cities. They talked for about 10 minutes, he later told authorities, until the call ended with a startled cry from Dru: "Oh, my God! No!" Nobody has heard from her since. A few hours later, there was a second...

Former President Bill Clinton and Memphis NAACP activist Maxine Smith will be honored with Freedom Awards by the National Civil Rights Museum. Security is expected to be tight for the event tomorrow afternoon and evening in Memphis. Museum Executive Director Beverly Robertson says the Memphis police TACT Unit will provide surveillance, working with the Secret Service and Clinton's security team. Smith is the former executive director of the local NAACP. Her involvement in civil rights began in the 1950's when she was denied admission to Memphis State University because she is black. Museum board member Greg Duckett says Smith and...

New Jersey is now posting the home addresses of convicted sex offenders on the state's Internet registry, state Attorney General Peter C. Harvey announced Friday. Last month, a federal appeals court threw out an attempt by the state Public Defender's Office to shut down the Internet registry and allowed the addresses to be placed on the Web site. On Friday, state police started posting the addresses of the offenders deemed by the courts to be the most dangerous and likely to repeat as predators. Of the 9,352 registered sex offenders statewide, 4,006 classified in those categories will have their addresses...

Arnold Schwarzenegger released the following statement today regarding the legislature and governor’s neglect of California’s “Megan’s Law,” which allows for public access to information about registered sex offenders in their community. “I am upset that the legislature would adjourn and leave Sacramento without renewing the public’s right to have access to the Megan’s Law registry of sex offenders. “Megan’s Law has been a tremendous tool for parents to keep their children safe, secure and away from predators. I endorse Assembly Minority Leader Dave Cox’s call that the governor immediately reconvene the legislature to extend Megan’s Law. “If Gray Davis and...

<p>Such an act, the court declared in a 4-3 ruling, is viewing or possessing child pornography, a crime that carries at most an 18-month jail term.</p> <p>The ruling disappointed the state Attorney General's Office, which said it may ask lawmakers to toughen the penalties for copying child pornography. Two lawmakers yesterday said they are already drafting such a bill.</p>

SAN FRANCISCO &#8211; Two dozen bills designed to bolster California's Megan's Law are struggling in the Legislature as politicians haggle over details and accuse each other of going soft on sex offenders. "Who loses are the parents and kids. Megan's Law has gotten caught between Republicans and Democrats. It's really a game of who can outdo the other, who's got the toughest law or whose does the most," said Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter. Florez thinks the most important piece of legislation is his proposal requiring law enforcement to check in with sex offenders instead of the other way around. He...

Ritter calls Bush threat to U.S. Albany-- WAMC audience unconcerned about former arms inspector's 2001 arrest By ALAN WECHSLER, Staff writerFirst published: Friday, February 14, 2003 Speaking for the first time in the Capital Region since news of his arrest on sex charges broke last month, former arms inspector Scott Ritter continued his crusade against a war with Iraq at the WAMC Performing Arts Studio on Thursday. Speaking for a half-hour and answering written questions from the audience during a live broadcast, Ritter said the biggest enemy to democracy was not Iraq or al-Qaida. It was, he said, the administration...

Requiring sex offenders to register with police has become a popular way to give the appearance of protecting people from being attacked. But appearances can be deceiving. Every state, including Illinois, has some version of "Megan's law" -- a law named after 7-year-old Megan Kanka of New Jersey who was raped and killed by a child molester. The idea is to let residents know there is a potential sexual predator in their midst. That way neighbors can keep their children away and/or watch for suspicious behavior. But the laws have raised civil liberty concerns that requiring sex offenders to register...

A former U.S. navy officer and UN chief arms inspector in Iraq yesterday lashed out at the United States, accusing it of acting against international law by seeking to use military force to topple Iraqi President Saddam Hussain and control the oil-rich country. Scott Ritter, who served as the top arms inspector in Iraq between 1991 and 1998, said more than 95 per cent of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction have been destroyed while 100 per cent of its factories producing such weapons have been neutralised and shut down. In a lecture entitled "The coming war in Iraq: how did...

http://events.publicbroadcasting.net/wamc/events.eventsmain?action=showEvent&eventID=50071   Scott Ritter General Event Information Event Category: On-Air Price: FREE ADMISSION / RESERVATIONS REQUIRED * contact the Venue listed below for ticketing information Dates and Times: Thursday, 2/13/2003 at 8:00 PM Artist/Group: Scott Ritter Description In 1998, Scott Ritter resigned his post as chief weapons inspector for the UN Special Commission (UNSCOM) in Iraq, charging that the United States was purposefully obstructing the completion of the UNSCOM mission. He now says the U.S. is intent on manufacturing phony "evidence" of arms violations as a pretext for war. An outspoken critic of the Bush administration's stance on Iraq, Ritter...

http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=104631&category=STATE&newsdate=2/12/2003   Bill would make Internet-luring a felony Albany-- Proposal would be added to last year's measure aimed at protecting minors By ELIZABETH BENJAMIN, Capitol bureauFirst published: Wednesday, February 12, 2003 Using the Internet to lure children for sexual encounters would be a felony punishable with up to seven years in prison under a proposal by Assembly Republicans. The Assembly minority introduced a similar law last year that would make it a felony for anyone to "lure or entice" a minor under age 17 into a car, building or other isolated place for the purpose of committing a sexual offense....

DUBAI, Feb 10 (IPS) - A U.S.-led attack on Iraq without the approval of the United Nations would spell doom for the world body and be another ominous sign of unilateralism in international affairs, say analysts in the region. Already, the United States has come under fire in many Middle Eastern countries for eyeing not really the weapons of mass destruction Iraq is suspected of having - but the ouster of Saddam Hussein. If and when it pushes through, such a war could become a case study to implement U.S. unilateralism not just in the Middle East, but in other...

Ritter dismisses Powell TOKYO — Former U.N. weapons inspector Scott Ritter on Thursday dismissed U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell's allegation before the U.N. Security Council that Iraq is hiding weapons of mass destruction as "unsubstantiated" and based only on "circumstantial evidence." "There's nothing here that's conclusive proof that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction," Ritter, a former U.S. Marine and outspoken critic of Washington's policy on Iraq who participated in U.N. weapons inspections there from 1991 to 1998, told Kyodo News in an interview. "Everything in here is circumstantial, everything in here mirrors the kind of allegations the U.S....

  Saturday, February 8, 2003 Ritter dismisses Powell report Thursday, February 6, 2003 at 17:30 JST TOKYO — Former U.N. weapons inspector Scott Ritter on Thursday dismissed U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell's allegation before the U.N. Security Council that Iraq is hiding weapons of mass destruction as "unsubstantiated" and based only on "circumstantial evidence.""There's nothing here that's conclusive proof that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction," Ritter, a former U.S. Marine and outspoken critic of Washington's policy on Iraq who participated in U.N. weapons inspections there from 1991 to 1998, told Kyodo News in an interview."Everything in here is...