CrimeFreeLancaster.org is being seen as stock house for crime-prevention programs that range from the audiences of parents, teaches, those active in communities and even legal professionals such as a Pittsburgh attorney.  One can go here and find basic information in order to prevent crime as well as intervention and treatment information.

The site expands its borders past Lancaster County and even Pennsylvania with state and national programs.  They have also designed a kids page in order to target children.  This could be the beginning of a new age way of fighting and preventing crime.

This past Halloween weekend a more strict law in regards to drunk driving went into effect in Michigan.  Motor vehicle operators who are caught behind the wheel and have a blood alcohol content (BAC) of .17% will face stiffer penalties and fines.  T he current standard level of intoxication is a BAC of .08.  This new standard of .17 BAC is what is considered ‘Super Drunk’ or ‘High BAC’.  If arrested under this new law, a criminal penalty will be added.  The new law also will add a criminal penalty per 100 milliliters of blood, 210 liters of breath, or 67 milliliters of urine.
Senate Bill 1134 and House Bill 4289 which deals with this was signed into law on January 9, 2009 and took full affect on Sunday October, 31st in Michigan.  Along with the introduction of this new law, a change has been made so that local prosecutors will not be dealing with such cases.  They will be now handled by the Genesee County prosecutor.  According to Rick Aro, Fenton Police Chief, arrests will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis in order to determine if the new statute is appropriate to use. “Potentially, the county prosecutor could be inundated with these cases,” said Aro. “We’ll look at each case and decide whether to go to the prosecutor or charge as we have in the past.”

Other rules for the new law include that the High BAC statute will only be used on first offenses.  The penalties for an OWI(second offense) or OWI (third offense) is more severe than the penalties of the Super Drunk statute.  Other requirements of law include the following:

• drivers license suspension
• use of an ignition interlock device while driving on a restricted license
• participation in an alcohol rehabilitative program
• requires law enforcement officers to impound a vehicle not equipped with the proper ignition interlock device

Now more than before, it is going to be very crucial to engage and experienced Michigan criminal attorney as soon as possible when arrested for drunk driving in Michigan

A lot of couples are now jumping on the opportunity to end their marriages that held off on it previously because they did not want to go through a contested-divorce process.  Some supporters of the law feel that this will make an emotionally draining event easier to handle while preserving families.  Critics on the other hand feel that it makes divorce too easy for married couples to through in the towel instead of working through difficult times.

Read more about divorce in the U.S.

• Top reasons for divorce in the U.S.
• Social media & divorcing
• New York is following the crowd in no-fault divorce

Top reasons for a divorce

• Money
• Infidelity
• Lack/poor communication
• Change in priorities
• Problems in the bedroom (this one is really lame, and a cover up of something else gone wrong)
• Addictions
• Failed expectations ( let’s not get married in order to “be complete”)
• Abuse (physical, emotional, sexual)

Before you sit down and say I do on that special day… way way way before doing so consider doing some of the below.

• Spend some time getting to know you and alone:  A of people are chronic relationship people that “don’t do well alone”.  Even more the reason to make sure you slow down in life and get comfortable being alone.  Marriage is a nice, no, amazing addition to who you are or your life… but its not something that is supposed to “complete” anyone.  You alone are complete, and until one realizes and feels that, you may want to do the stag dance.  Once this is a concrete, heart understanding of who you are, you would have diminished a lot of problems that most relationships and marriages are doomed to.

• Once the above is done have a general idea of deal breakers.  Stick to this.

• Personally make it a point to always be improving yourself and aware of who/where you are in live and where you want to be.  That way when you mix in another person, you will know if they fit into your life and who you want to be.
The list goes on and on but these are some great starting points.  Divorce (in most cases, there are some situations that this does not cover) isn’t some inevitable statistic.   It’s the end of some poor choices, not paying attention to all of the signals and forcing a square peg in a round hole.  Once you get a grip on yourself and loving who you are fully you will make room for a healthy relationship and take away the potential of so many relationship hardships.

Love

Now this may be a little bit out there and loopy but I have an idea.  I’m no Arkansas divorce lawyer or marriage guru but here me out.  How about this, instead of investing in a backup plan such as divorce insurance, you invest on just making it work.  I don’t know say, spend time and what ever money you need to get to know yourself both as an individual and then a spouse.  Things of such nature.  It seems as time goes by there are too many safety nets and conventions built to support the idea of a failed marriage.  Imagine if people put as much energy into supporting the success of marriage as they did the possible failures. 

How do Public Defender offices work?

The entire public defender system is overlooked by a chief public defender.  From their, the office is further segmented into divisions and headed by a chief and selected assistant pblic defenders, investigators and clerks.  Overseeing the office as a whole would be a coard who is responsible for evaulating the system.    According to Caprice Cosper who is the director at the Office of Criminal Justice Coordination stated that 4 divisiosn are within the plan.  The four hopeful divisions are Misdemeanor Mental Health, Appellate, Felony Trial and Juvenile Trial.

So what would this mean for the future?

This type of established Public Defenders Office will provide a judge the opportunity to appointa private attorney to an indigent (one who cannot afford an attorney) client.  Thusly, a new hybrid system will be born where judges have the choice to select a court-appointed attorney or qualified legal representation from the public defenders office.

So… is this a good idea after all?

Supporters of the public defender office say it will attract top lawyers, have more access to legal resources and be easy for the county to monitor.  Those in favor stand behind the idea that you can potentially higher quality attorneys and access to better investigators.  Some, Such as the 3^rd Precinct Commissioner Steve Raddick supports it because it can help those who cannot afford legal representation in Harris County.

Those who appose a public defenders office worry that it could wind up being a similar situation as that found in public defender offices across the nation.  This is a system that easy to bread overworked and underfunded attorneys.  Former president of of the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association feels similar stating that “in a perfect world, if you get a public defender system with enough money, it would be fine, but there is always going to be a shortage of money.

Other concerns are that of a power play in which the wealthy are able to hire high-powered attorneys to overpower government lawyers.

It would be interesting to get the take on the issue from Collin County criminal defense attorneys and lawyers from surrounding areas in Texas.

Attorney General Bill McCollum’s bill proposal also makes room for defendeant’s immigration status to be held in question when bond maounts are being set and for higher level charges to be brought against illegal immigrants by prosecuters.
A major point of differentiation from Arizona’s immigration law, is that citizens would NOT have the authority to sue law enforcement agencies for failing to enforce the law. Rather, this would be the responsibility of the Attorney General’s office. A couple of other points are that the bill would:
• make it illegal to employ immigrants and a violation of Florida criminal law that could require an attorney to defend.
• businesses would have to use the Federal E-Verify program prior to hiring anyone
• make it a specific point to prohibit racial profiling.

As can be expected, Immigrant advocacy groups already chimed in about the bill. The executive director of Florida Immigrant Advocacy center in Miami has already criticized the bill in a statement that said the passing of such a bill would augment the current confusion and chaos in the system.

Prop 8

Normally, only the party being “hurt” by the rulling is granted the right of standing or the right to appeal. This situation is playing out a bit ordinarilly since Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Jerry Brown were against the stay and the appeal of Judge Vaughn Walkers Rulling. A case will have to be made to the Ninth Circuit explaing why those who are not affected by Judge Walkers order has the right to appeal.

And so the wait for equality in marrige continues…