Chicago police announce arrests in gang and drug cases - Chicago Tribune

Driving past a street corner adorned with three spray-painted tributes to young men shot and killed on the streets, Chicago police officers jumped out of their cars and pulled a suspected drug dealer from an apartment.

The scene that played out Thursday morning is a result of an initiative that Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced last month that calls for dozens of officers from several specialized units on West Side and South Side Chicago, which account for a quarter of the city's homicides.

For weeks, the undercover officers have been buying heroin in this West Side area, while other officers have been watching to see where the seller goes, whom he pays, who hands him more drugs and what that person does with the drugs and money he's handed.

That led to 17 arrest warrants for people suspected of dealing drugs in the neighborhood and on Thursday — with The Associated Press and a local television station in tow — they went out to round up suspects. By Thursday afternoon, they said the roundup that began a few days ago had led to the arrests of 11 of the 17 suspects. Most of them were arrested on drug conspiracy charges.

“The key is to get them working in concert,” said James O'Grady, the commander of the department's narcotics division, who likened the operation to a grocery store where a manager oversees the clerks and baggers. He said it doesn't matter if they are selling one bag or 50, “they're all part of the conspiracy.”

And that, he said, means more prison time than had they been arrested simply for possession for sale.

Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy, who announced the initiative with Emanuel, said the areas where police would focus their attention were those that have seen both a thriving illegal drug trade but the worst gang violence.

Thursday's roundup followed a similar one targeting gang members late last month, and police say that by targeting those areas they hope that they will drive down violent crime, an issue that has become of particular concern as statistics from late 2011 and January of this year have shown an increase in homicides.

The lethal mixture of drugs and violence was as obvious as the words scrawled on the sidewalk outside the house where one of the suspected drug dealers was captured.

“They worked on this corner, they did,” said Adolph Leggin, 66, motioning to two of the three names he recognized as local drug dealers who were shot to death last year.

McCarthy has said that the undercover operations would be part of a wider effort that will include more uniformed patrols, including foot patrols, in areas to make sure the open-air drug markets don't reestablish themselves.

That is a marked difference, he said, from the department's since-disbanded Targeted Response Unit, when the Mobile Strike Force would swoop into the neighborhood, make arrests and then leave.

O'Grady said residents will now see that the police are committed to their neighborhood.

“We want them to know we're not just an occupying force, (that) we are there every day, that they can depend on us,” he said.

The effort is just a few weeks old, clearly not enough time to determine if what is being done will bring down the crime rate in a significant way as Emanuel and McCarthy hope it will.

Tio Hardiman, executive director of CeaseFire, an anti-violence group, was skeptical that the effort will have the long term effect on the targeted neighborhoods.

“It's been tried before and we wish police the best,” said Hardiman. “At the same time we have to have other solutions than just increased police presence and mass arrests.”

But Leggin said he is encouraged by what he's seen so far in the weeks since police focused their effort on the community where he's lived for more than 50 years.

“I come home now and I see nobody (dealing drugs) on this corner,” Leggin said.

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Wal-Mart, global warming cases will get hearings before Supreme Court - Los Angeles Times

Supreme Court: High court agrees to hear Wal-Mart, global warming cases - latimes.com div.thumbnail span.credit { font-weight: normal !important;}div.article div.articlerail ul li.relatedTitle, div.storygallery div.storyGalleryRail ul li.relatedTitle { font-size: 12px !important;} Mobile Site Subscribe/Manage Account Print Ads Place an Ad LAT Store Jobs Cars Real Estate Rentals More Classifieds   NATION HOME Breaking Crime L.A. Apps Weather Traffic Obits Community Crosswords Holiday Guide Wine Club Local L.A. Now Politics Crime Education O.C. Westside Neighborhoods Environment Obituaries FindLocal U.S. Politics Now Top of the Ticket Science & Environment Obituaries Religion World Afghanistan & Pakistan Africa Asia Europe Iran Iraq Latin America Mexico Under Siege Middle East Business Money & Co. Technology Personal Finance Small Business Company Town Jobs Real Estate Cars Sports Lakers Clippers Dodgers Angels NFL Ducks/Kings USC UCLA Soccer High Schools Scores/Stats Entertainment Movies TV Music Celebrity Arts & Culture Company Town Calendar Envelope Books FindLocal Health Booster Shots Fitness & Nutrition Medicine Mental Health Healthcare Reform Breast Cancer Diabetes Living Home Food Image Books Parenting FindLocal Brand X Magazine Your Scene Cars Travel California Hawaii Mexico Las Vegas Europe Asia Australia Travel & Deal Blog Destinations Opinion Editorials Op-Ed Letters Opinion L.A. More Corrections Readers' Rep Photos Video Blogs Data Desk Comics Puzzles & Games Community Mobile Site Subscribe/Manage Account Print Ads Place an Ad LAT Store Jobs Cars Real Estate Rentals More Classifieds Weekly Ad In the News: dwp Gay marriage Kennedy Center Honors College bowls Box office Wal-Mart, global warming cases will get hearings before Supreme Court The Supreme Court agrees to take up two cases of interest to corporate America: whether a sex-discrimination lawsuit against Wal-Mart can proceed as a class action, and whether courts can put limits on carbon emissions from power plants. Share Related Interactive: Major Supreme Court cases High court ruling on Arizona act could shape immigration law Supreme Court questions broad use of exception in sunshine law to withhold documents Stories Wal-Mart will buy controlling stake in South African company to get foothold in the country High court handling of Wal-Mart appeal will have wider implications By David G. Savage, Reporting from Washington December 6, 2010|8:41 a.m.

E-mail Print Text Size sc-dc-1207-supreme-court-20101206 The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear two major appeals from corporate America seeking to block mass lawsuits, one involving a huge sex-discrimination suit against Wal-Mart and the other a massive global warming suit brought against several of the nation's top power producers.

In both instances, the justices said they will consider blocking the mass lawsuit from proceeding toward a trial.

In the Wal-Mart case, the justices will decide whether the retail giant can be sued for sex bias in the largest workplace class action in the nation's history. A federal judge and the U.S. court of appeals in San Francisco cleared the lawsuit to proceed as a class action on behalf of 1.5 million women who were employed at Wal-Mart in the past decade.

The lawsuit contends women were regularly paid less than men and denied promotions. In its appeal, the company argues that the lawsuit should not proceed as a class action because hiring and promotion decisions are made in its 3,400 stores.

The issue of when a suit can proceed as a class action is of great interest to corporate lawyers and the trial bar. If a single suit can speak for thousands of employees, companies feel pressure to offer a settlement rather than risk a potentially crippling jury verdict.

The global warming case will decide whether judges and courts can put limits on carbon emissions on the theory that this pollution is a public nuisance. Eight states, including New York, California and Connecticut, joined with environmentalists and launched a lawsuit against the power producers in the Midwest, arguing that their coal-fired plants were contributing to climate change.

Environmentalists said they took the issue to court because Congress was not likely to take up the climate change issue and set limits on greenhouse gasses. They won a significant preliminary victory when the U.S. appeals court in New York cleared the suit to proceed.

But the power industry, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Obama administration joined in urging the high court to stop the lawsuit. They argue that the global warming issue and limits on carbon emissions should be decided by Congress and the White House, not by judges acting on lawsuits.

The two cases, Wal-Mart vs. Dukes and American Electric Power vs. Connecticut, will be heard in the early spring and decided by July.

david.savage@latimes.com Copyright © 2010, Tribune Interactive

E-mail Print Digg Twitter Facebook Read This Later   Comments (9)Add / View comments | Discussion FAQ jdw2010 at 10:01 AM December 06, 2010

I wonder if these are the same environmentalists that protested nuclear power to death, such a two faced argument. When will the hippies realize you need to supply base power SOMEHOW? Wind, Solar, Hydro, etc. are not applicable for base power needs. That leaves Coal, Natural Gas, and Nuclear as primary power generation with Coal being the cheapest and Nuclear being the cleanest (in terms of greenhouse emissions). Wake up people, you can only squeeze so much blood from a stone.

jav1231 at 9:56 AM December 06, 2010

In regards to "climate change," it's the job of the courts to interpret law through the prism of precedent and the Constitution. NOT to create law. This should be a slam dunk. Hopefully.

carlsherylmorris at 9:46 AM December 06, 2010

Come on, Libs...  What you want to accomplish is not Constitutionally allowed...  Things you're trying to make lawful.. or unlawful,  needs to come from Congress...  I think the whole country is sick and tired of the courts trying to run the country..  IT IS NOT within their scope of authority...  How did you Libs ever get to thinking the way that you do???

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PREVIEW-U.S. court term has free-speech, immigration cases - Reuters

* First term for Justice Elena Kagan, an Obama appointee

* Nine-member court remains closely divided

* Conservative majority with four liberals

By James Vicini

WASHINGTON, Oct 3 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court will consider important cases on anti-gay protests at military funerals, violent video games and immigration law during its new term that begins on Monday.

The nine-member high court will open its 2010-11 term with a new member on the bench, Justice Elena Kagan, who was appointed by President Barack Obama.

Kagan succeeded Justice John Paul Stevens, who retired in June. She probably will not change the court's balance of power, which is widely seen as remaining closely divided with a five-member conservative majority and four liberals.

The conservative Republican appointees are Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.

Besides Kagan, the Democratic appointees on the left are Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor, the court's first Hispanic who was appointed by Obama last year.

"While the conservative credentials of the Roberts court have been well-established by now, this term may tell us something more about its particular brand of conservatism," said Steven Shapiro of the American Civil Liberties Union.

He said the term could show whether the current court is more concerned about corporate rights and less concerned about states' rights than the court under the previous chief justice, the late William Rehnquist.

One of the term's most closely watched cases will be argued on Wednesday when the justices consider whether free-speech rights protect anti-gay protests by members of a small Kansas church at funerals for U.S. military members killed in Iraq.

Fordham University law professor Benjamin Zipursky said a U.S. appeals court overextended free-speech rights and interfered with a father's right to hold a peaceful, dignified funeral for his son who died in Iraq.

MISTAKE OF JUDGMENT

"Let's hope the Supreme Court corrects this serious mistake of judgment and misapplication of law," he said.

Another major free-speech case will be argued in November, when the justices consider a California law banning the sale and rental of violent video games to minors.

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