Syndicated Columns
Hello, FCC and FTC – Can You Hear Me Now?
It happens 2.9 billion times each month. All across this nation citizens are being pestered by privacy-invading telephone calls from either live or tape-recorded telemarketers, spammers and scammers even though there are state and federal laws against such unwanted calls. Think about this. 2.9 billion calls a month translates to 96.6 million of these annoying…
Read MoreA Message to Florida’s School Shooting Survivors
Dear students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School: The nation hears you. We have seen you on television and read your quotes. Despite the terror of losing 17 classmates and teachers to a gun wielding madman you are the most eloquent victims I’ve ever heard. Traumatized student-victims are usually whisked away, protected from public view.…
Read MoreThe FBI Needs More Dedicated Digital Detectives
Think of all the ground-breaking scientific developments that have helped in the fight against crime. Fingerprinting, blood testing and DNA profiling to name just three. Today it is way past time for another major advancement. This one must be laser-focused on the digital world in which we all exist. And it must be a fully…
Read MoreForeign-Made Goods Flood U.S Federal Prisons
Have you ever watched that recurring ABC evening news segment called Made in America? They highlight small businesses that provide lots of jobs and make competitively priced products designed to reduce our appetite for cheap foreign made goods. Stirs my patriotic juices every time I see it and it makes me wonder what would happen…
Read MoreA Call to Judges to Better Protect Children
There is way too much killing in America. Murders, accidental shootings, executions, deadly domestic abuse, despondent people who kill themselves and then there is filicide. That’s when parents kill their own child. We would like to think this sort of heinous crime doesn’t happen, but it happens way too often. A study published in the…
Read MoreDon’t Let the Media Make Up Your Mind on State of the Union.
Following President Trump’s first State of the Union I was left shaking my head at some journalist’s analysis of what was said. Especially troublesome from my crime and justice perch were reporter’s conclusions tying Trump’s mention of deadly MS-13 gang activity to all undocumented immigrants in the U.S. The Huffington Post’s coverage of the issue…
Read MoreThe Forgotten #MeToo and #Time’sUp Victims
In all the #MeToo talk about sexual harassment, assault and rape it dawns on me that one category of victim remains undiscussed, almost taboo to talk about: the victims of childhood incest. Meet Elizabeth Spalter. Buoyed by today’s open conversation about sexual crimes Elizabeth wants the world to know her story.
Read MoreWhy Suspects May “All Look Alike” to an Eyewitness
How fair are criminal trials in America? How confident should we be that prosecutors have the right perpetrator and how much weight should be put on eyewitness identification of suspects? A growing number of states are now instructing their courts to encourage jurors to ask themselves these very questions. Many studies have exposed the frailties…
Read MoreMr. Session’s Doomed War on Pot
So, the federal government is going to crack down on pot, is it? Really? How exactly is that going to work? There are, what, more than 30 states that have either decriminalized it in some way, legalized medicinal marijuana (with a doctor’s recommendation) or out-and-out agreed to make it legal for recreational use?* I’m thinking…
Read MoreFighting the Opioid Epidemic From a Behind a Computer
Anyone remember when President Donald Trump declared America’s escalating epidemic of opioid addiction was “a national health emergency” that was ripping families apart? The announcement last October may have gotten lost given sheer amount of Trump news, but that declaration allowed the government to designate federal funds to fight the deadliest drug crisis this country…
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