- The game of inmate release roulette is on at the Genesee County jail in Flint, Mich. The jail
is overcrowded and while this might hint at the fact that the American legal
and correctional systems are doing a bang-up job at arresting, convicting and
holding criminals who trespass against society, it also creates a problem for
the men and women tasked with housing and policing those criminals during their
time behind bars. Life is even more unpleasant than usual at the Genesee County
jail, where there are currently 123 more inmates than are supposed to be housed
at the facility. "This jail was established for 580 people, that was for
maximum capacity, our today's count right now is 703, and these are folks that
are just packed into cells and there's standing room only by all means,"
said Genesee County Undersheriff Chris Swanson. Being so far over capacity has
caused a jail emergency and state law requires the sheriff's office to do
something about it. "We're required to reduce our population down by about
95 percent max capacity, which is about 175 inmates we have to release,"
Swanson explained. That means convicted criminals will be getting an early
release and one man who was released Wednesday told stories about sleeping on
the ground or on benches with no blankets and inside freezing-cold cells. The
early releases began Tuesday and Swanson said those who have served 85 percent
of their term or those who have a $5,000 bond are the first to be let out.
After that, it will be up to the county's chief judge to decide who else gets
to head home earlier than expected. For some odd reason, a few locals are
concerned about this unexpected development. Swanson promised that the most
violent offenders will not be among those released and suggested that the
Genesee County Sheriff's office has also contacted surrounding counties to see
they have room to help with the jail emergency in order to prevent the need for
any additional releases…………
- There may not have been any great new movies out this
weekend, but the three highest-profile newcomers did wage a close battle for
the top spot on the weekend earnings list. “End of Watch” and horrible horror
flick “House
at the End of The Street” ended the frame in a virtual tie, with “Watch” eking
out a victory by a few dollars as both films landed at $13 million and change.
Each made its debut with a so-so showing, but on a lackluster weekend that was
enough to share the top of the chart. Clint Eastwood’s latest movie that isn't
any good, “Trouble with the Curve,” was close behind with $12.8 million in its
own debut. Fourth place went to Disney’s shameless cash grab of re-releasing
“Finding Nemo” in 3D, which earned $9.5 million in its second weekend back in
theaters and has garnered $29.9 million in domestic earnings so far. Last
weekend’s top film, “Resident Evil: Retribution,” fell four spots to fifth in
its second weekend and plummeted 68 percent from its debut to make a mere $6.7
million for a two-week tally of $33.4 million. The fourth new movie in the top
10, “Dredd,” managed just $6.3 million in its first weekend for a
less-than-inspiring open. “The Master,” led by Phillip Seymour Hoffman and
offering a mildly terrifying look at the cult-ish world of Scientology-like
organizations, did well in very limited release with $5 million to earn seventh
place in its second weekend. “The Possession” continued its freefall, tumbling
to eighth place in its fourth weekend after an emaciated total of $2.7 million
to up its four-week haul to $46 million. “Lawless” claimed ninth place and made
$2.3 million. The Shia LeBouf-led project has grossed $34.5 million
domestically through four weeks. “ParaNorman” claimed the final spot in the top
10 with $2.2 million and has brought in $52.5 million in six weeks of release. “The
Bourne Legacy” (No. 11 and out of the top 10 for the first time), “The Odd Life
of Timothy” (No. 12), “The Expendables 2” (No. 13) and “The Campaign” all
dropped out from last week’s top 10………..
- Even when he’s not on the field, Tim Tebow stirs up the
drama wherever he calls home. His legions of sycophantic fans will clamor for
him to get on the field any time he’s relegated to anything other than a
starring role and his “haters” (anyone who doesn’t think he’s God in cleats)
are equally adamant that he is nothing more than a great athlete who can’t
throw the freaking football. The New York Jets knew what he was when they
traded for him and they voluntarily opened that can of worms because
theoretically, the potential benefits outweighed the potential risks. Two weeks
into the 2012 season, Rex Ryan’s crew may be asking themselves if that theory
is holding true. After two games, Tebow has not thrown a pass from his backup
quarterback role and has only recorded six runs for 33 yards – oh, and he fell
on an onside kick while playing special teams. Facing those numbers, media
members challenged Jets offensive coordinator Tony Sparano Thursday about his
offense’s poor showing against the Pittsburgh Steelers and why he didn’t use
Tebow more. Sparano snapped at the reporters, tersely telling them the thought
of using Tebow never crossed his mind in the first half when the offense was
playing well even though that directly contradicted his philosophy in Week 1. "We averaged almost six yards per play
(5.3) in the first half of the game," Sparano said. "I can't really
worry about anything that's not going through my mind at that point. Things
were going well." Unfortunately, the Jets didn’t score in the
second half and wound up on the wrong end of a 27-10 beatdown. Tebow didn't enter the game until the third
quarter and when he did, the offense went three and out. Rex Ryan has
maintained that he won't let the media dictate how much he plays Tebow and
Sparano was in even less of a mood to discuss the issue. "If you
want to talk about Miami, I'll talk about Miami. I don't want to talk about
that game. I can't help you with
that. My mind's in a different place," he snapped, referring to Sunday’s
matchup with his former team, the Dolphins. Sparano coached the Dolphins from
2008 to 2011 and was fired with three games left last season after compiling a
29-32 record. Maybe the pressure of going back to the place he was fired,
combined with the added burden of working Timothy Richard Tebow into the mix,
was simply too much……….
- One of the biggest mysteries of life has finally been explained. The world now knows where a tabby cat gets its stripes. The riddle-like answer is from the same place cheetahs get their spots. The non-riddle answer is that the same gene that is responsible for the cheetah's color patterns causes a tabby's stripes. Researcher Stephen O'Brien of the National Laboratory for Cancer Research led a study to identity mutations in this newly identified gene, which transforms a tabby's typical striped pattern into a less familiar "blotched" look. In cheetahs, similar genetic mutations smear spots into thick stripes. “What this is, is the first connection of a gene involved in pattern formation in cats to their molecular status," O’Brien said. The project allowed he and his team to discover where the mutation is in this particular gene and thereby pinpoint the reason for the pattern changes. O’Brien’s crew also contributed to the original sequencing of the domestic cat genome, which was completed in 2007. Determining the reason for coloring on a cat’s fur might seem like a colossal waste of time, but O’Brien believes the study may help researchers understand human disease and genetic development. The question of how cats have come to have such varied coats in a wide range of shades and patterns has long perplexed researchers and O’Brien’s effort was prompted by the question of what turns the mackerel pattern into a "blotched" tabby pattern, seen more often in European cats than American felines. Using a map of cat pedigrees, he and his crew were able to narrow down the genetic culprit to one region of the chromosome containing three large genes. From there, they sequenced the genomes of two groups of tabbies, one with blotched coats and the other striped ones, and narrowed the culprit further to a gene called Taqpep. The Taqpep gene has three separate mutations in the domestic cat and another in the same gene in the king cheetah, meaning the gene has mutated multiple times across cats’ evolutionary history. There may be more research ahead on the Taqpep gene, which O'Brien suspects has other functions. Surely, those other functions will shake the scientific world to its very foundation, just like this one………
- Accomplishing something that has never been done before is
awesome…usually. This is not one of those occasions, even if Mexico sending soldiers to
patrol a suburb of Mexico City for the first time to combat a rise in
drug-related violence is a history-making occurrence. The violence is creeping
ever closer to the capital and bearing that in mind, the government sent a
combined force of around 1,000 soldiers, federal police and local police to the
streets of Nezahualcoyotl on Mexico City's eastern flank, which has been
overtaken by a dispute between two rival drug cartels. President Felipe
Calderon has in many ways had his legacy defined by the fight against drug
gangs and as he prepares to leave office in December, the battle appears no
closer to being over than it has ever been. His successor, Enrique Pena Nieto,
takes office in December and it is Nieto’s home state that is at the center of
the current area of conflict. The law enforcement force was deployed at the
request of the local government in the sprawling municipality in the State of
Mexico after the murder there this weekend of Jaime Serrano, a local state
congressman and member of Pena Nieto's Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).
Locals reported being extorted by criminals identifying themselves as members
of the La Familia drug gang. Tales of being forced to pay up or test threats
that one’s family would be murdered have become commonplace in the region as
the bloody turf wars between drug gangs escalate. Resulting clashes with security
forces have pushed the estimated death total over the past six years to around
60,000 people. Those types of numbers are easier to ignore when they are
happening on the other side of the country, but they are now creeping up on
Mexico City and the neighboring State of Mexico, where just over half of the
population of the capital's urban area live. Kidnappings are also skyrocketing
through the first eight months of 2012, also in the battle for control of
narcotics and illegal goods between the Zetas and La Familia cartels. Local
leaders expressed doubt about how effective the crackdown would be, but offered
no alternative ideas for dealing with the problem………
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