Poor Mojo's Newswire

University of Minnesota college student Chris Jenkins was found in the Mississippi River in February of 2003. Minneapolis Police began investigating the case, which also caught the attention of two retired NYPD detectives. Turns out, Jenkins' death was the missing part of the puzzle for Kevin Gannon and Anthony Duarte. They think Jenkins connects dozens of other deaths around the country over the last decade. The stories are the same all over the country--an athletic, intelligent, well-liked college student goes missing. Family and friends launch a massive search. Weeks or months later, the young man is discovered drowned. In more than 40 cases, the deaths are blamed on a drunken accident--except for one. The death of Chris Jenkins in Minneapolis is the only one where the cause of death was changed from 'undetermined' or 'drowning' to 'homicide.'... Because of extensive investigation by Duarte and Gannon, Jan Jenkins now says she knows exactly what happened to her son on the night he disappeared, Oct. 31, 2002. "Chris was abducted in a cargo van," she said. "He was driven around Minneapolis for hours and tortured. He was taken down to the Mississippi River and he was murdered. And after that, his body was positioned and taken to a different spot and then to a different point in the Mississippi River," she said. Gannon and Duarte say they've discovered a link between Jenkins' death and the drownings of at least 40 other men in 25 cities in 11 different states.... Gannon and Duarte have done something that no other law enforcement agency has ever done in this case -- they looked at the big picture and visited each site where the young men disappeared. "It's very disturbing," Duarte said.

NEW YORK (CBS News) ― In the wake of a CBS News report that revealed the Department of Veterans Affairs deliberately withheld critical information about the true suicide risk among veterans, Sens. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, today both called for the resignation of Dr. Ira Katz, the VA's top official for mental health. Murray, a senior member of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, says "Dr. Katz's irresponsible actions have been a disservice to our veterans and it is time for him to go." She continues, "The number one priority of the VA should be caring for our veterans, not covering up the truth."... For months, CBS News has been trying to obtain veteran suicide and attempted suicide data from the VA. Earlier this year, the agency provided CBS News with data that showed there were a total of 790 suicide attempts in all of 2007 by veterans who were under the VA's care.

12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court affirmed Wednesday that police have the power to conduct searches and seize evidence, even when done during an arrest that turns out to have violated state law. The unanimous decision comes in a case from Portsmouth, Va., where city detectives seized crack cocaine from a motorist after arresting him for a traffic ticket offense. David Lee Moore was pulled over for driving on a suspended license. The violation is a minor crime in Virginia and calls for police to issue a court summons and let the driver go. Instead, city detectives arrested Moore and prosecutors say that drugs taken from him in a subsequent search can be used against him as evidence.... Scalia said that when officers have probable cause to believe a person has committed a crime in their presence, the Fourth Amendment permits them to make an arrest and to search the suspect in order to safeguard evidence and ensure their own safety.... State law, said the Virginia Supreme Court, restricted officers to issuing a ticket in exchange for a promise to appear later in court. Virginia courts dismissed the indictment against Moore. Moore argued that the Fourth Amendment permits a search only following a lawful state arrest.