Press Release Link

CITY MAN CHARGED UNDER CITY’S NEW

GUN OFFENDER REGISTRY ACT

Quentin Benjamin Adams, Convicted of Firearm Possession, Allegedly Failed to Register as Gun Offender by Giving False Address
Baltimore, MD – April 4, 2008 – Late yesterday, city police arrested Quentin Benjamin Adams, 18, of the 1900 block of Hillcrest Road and charged him with failing to register as a gun offender. Adams allegedly provided a false address during his required registration as a gun offender under the City’s recently enacted Gun Offender Registry Act (GORA). Adams is being held on $75,000 bail at Central Booking.

Mayor Sheila Dixon signed GORA into law September 20, 2007 and it took effect on January 1, 2008. The city ordinance requires gun offenders to register with the Police Department immediately upon sentencing and/or release from imprisonment and every six months thereafter for three years. The Police Department through the Gun Offender Monitoring Unit is charged with maintaining the registry and enforcing compliance. A gun offender who violates any of the provisions is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in prison and/or a $1,000 fine. Each day the violation continues constitutes a separate violation. The Act applies to every gun conviction in Baltimore City.

On February 4, 2008 Adams pled guilty in Baltimore Circuit Court to illegal possession of a CDS and illegal possession of a firearm and Judge Emmanuel Brown sentenced him to four-years suspend all but three-years, nine-months for the narcotics count and five-years suspended for the firearm count. Adams was required to register as a gun offender under GORA.

Court documents allege on March 11, 2008 Adams responded to the Gun Offender Registry Unit to register as a convicted gun offender, giving police a Salisbury address. On March 31, 2008 detectives from the Gun Trace Task Force responded to that Salisbury address and learned from a resident of the address that Adams never resided there and a warrant was issued for his arrest April 1, 2008. Police arrested him late yesterday and brought him to Central Booking.

A court commissioner ordered Adams held on $75,000 bail and he is being held at the Baltimore City Detention Center on that bail, awaiting a bail review hearing. A preliminary hearing date has been set for May 5, 2008 in Wabash District Court.

the full link can be found here:

http://www.stattorney.org/Press_Release/2008/442008.htm


After reading this press release, I would want to talk to a representative from the Mayor's office, if not the mayor herself, about the gun control law itself, not just how it applies to this case. I would also like to talk to someone from the Gun Offender Monitoring Unit about how realistic this new law is and what they think its strengths/weaknesses are.

Crime Story

10/9/2008

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"Buzzard" Pleads Guilty to Drug Charges
Associate of Fugitive Drug Trafficker Shawn Green and Indicted Philadelphia Kingpin Maurice Phillips Pleads Guilty to Cocaine Distribution with Street Value of $1.3 Million

By Jeffrey Anderson

Anthony Wayne Ballard, aka Buzzard, a 38-year-old man from Baltimore, pleaded guilty on Oct. 8 to major drug-distribution charges and participation in an identity-theft scam that involved a mole inside the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration.

In 2006 Ballard was stopped in Prince George's County along with Maurice Phillips, indicted kingpin of the Phillips Cocaine Organization of Philadelphia, and fugitive drug trafficker Shawn Michael Green, best known locally as a business associate of East Baltimore entrepreneur Noel Liverpool Sr., who set up Green's clothing store, Total Male II. During that stop law enforcers seized more than $900,000 cash. Green was indicted in federal court in Baltimore in 2007 on drug-conspiracy and money-laundering charges and fled. He is at large. Phillips is the focus of a federal drug-conspiracy case in Philadelphia that involves allegations of drug trafficking, money laundering through the purchase of real estate, and murder for hire. Ballard has pleaded guilty in that case as well.

Liverpool, a former Morgan State basketball and football star who has owned real estate and a number of defunct clothing stores, has never been charged or convicted of a serious crime.

On Oct. 8, Ballard pleaded guilty to moving large amounts of coke between Baltimore and the Eastern Shore from 2004 to '08. During a search on Nov. 24, 2004, at his home on Shadyside Road in Baltimore, law enforcers recovered seven kilograms of cocaine from his car and $25,000 in drug cash from the house. Later that day, law enforcers recovered more than $6,000 in drug proceeds from another Ballard residence at 922 E.43rd St.

Ballard, who also has resided in Princess Anne, in Somerset County, has drug- and gun-related charges dating to the mid-1990s. He pleaded guilty to felony drug charges in 1998, and guilty to a drug-trafficking conspiracy in Baltimore in 2001, for which he was sentenced to five years in prison.

On Feb. 9, 2006, law enforcers observed him exchanging bags with Phillips and Green late at night in a parking lot in Prince George's County. A search of two vehicles revealed drugs and approximately $890,000 in cash. Law enforcers seized an additional $34,000 from Ballard that same day. During the search Ballard presented a fraudulent Maryland driver's license. Between December 2005 and October 2007, he admits that he conspired with an MVA employee to obtain Maryland driver's licenses and personal-identification cards with the names, Social Security numbers, and dates of birth of other individuals without their knowledge.

On Jan. 8, 2008, law enforcement arrested Ballard and seized more than $80,000 in drug proceeds and a fraudulent ID card. Shortly after, he was added as a defendant through a superceding federal indictment in the Phillips Cocaine Organization case in Philadelphia, in which Ballard has agreed to plead guilty. Ballard will forfeit more than $1 million in drug proceeds seized during the separate investigation that led to his federal charges in Maryland. His plea agreement here states that the government is recommending a 17-year sentence to run concurrent with a similar sentence for his role in the Phillips Organization. He is scheduled for sentencing in federal court in Baltimore on Jan. 8, 2009.

Maurice Phillips is facing trial late next year, in a complex and chilling case that extends from Mexico to the Eastern Seaboard. Phillips and 10 other defendants, including Ballard, were indicted on a range of violent drug-trafficking charges including use of a FedEx employee's uniform to disguise an assassin hired to kill a potential witness who had been part of their drug-money laundering conspiracy. The federal government has seized a number of Phillips' houses from New Jersey to North Carolina, including a house in Prince George's County and a Baltimore residence at 4111 Boarman Ave.

Shawn Green has been a federal fugitive since he fled in early 2007. His accomplices in his drug and money-laundering schemes included his mother Yolanda Crawley, mortgage broker David Lincoln, and lawyer Rachel Donegan, who were sentenced earlier this year to two years, 15 months and probation, respectively.

--from Baltimore's CityPaper

Guest Speaker Offers Money Managing Tips to Students

By Maris Cohen

 

 

KALAMAZOO, Mich.--According to Tamera Draut, the speaker at this year’s 2008 William Weber Lecture in Government and Society, we are the first generation of the post World War II era that will earn less than our parents.

            She spoke to about forty college students and faculty in Stetson Chapel at Kalamazoo College on Friday, offering explanations for the economic decline and tips for using money wisely.  Draut wasted no time with pleasantries, however, immediately launching into why our economy was failing and how a college degree comes with no guarantees.  There was a nervous chatter among students as she rattled off alarming statistics about the grim future of the job market and rising tuition costs. The director of the Economic Opportunity Program at Demos, Draut has also written a book, Strapped: Why America’s 20- and 30- Somethings Can’t Get Ahead.

            In her lecture, Draut asserted that the disparity between the salaries of our generation and those of our parent’s generation involves the lack of one essential policy.

“We are the first generation coming of age without a social contract,” Draut said.

            Draut also attributed the sharp economic decline to events that happened decades ago.  She believes that the current American economy stems from policies created as far back as the New Deal in 1933.  During that time, Draut argued, the country’s economic plan was overcome by apathy, resulting in decades of trickle-down economics.

            Besides identifying the sources of economic turmoil, Draut also offered solutions.  She emphasized that change in our economy requires universal healthcare, education reform, more money for public spending, and a comprehensive job growth plan that involves investing in the country’s infrastructure.

            “We have to realize that markets will not regulate themselves,” she said.

            Draut was able to connect to the collegiate audience by offering tips for managing money in this difficult financial time.  These tips included being weary of credit card companies, staying in college, and moving back home after college, an option that garnered a collective groan from the audience.

            At the conclusion of the lecture, however, Draut revealed the most important tip for managing money: being and staying politically active.

            “Demand change and hold our elected officials accountable until it happens,” she said. 

             

 

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Story Analysis

This article, entitled "Financial Crisis Takes a Toll on Already-Squeezed Cities," examines the effects of the recession on those who live and work in non major cities. It is a hard news story because it is about the recent failures of the stock market and receding economy. The lede focuses on who and what this crisis affects (160 full-time & part-time city workers and volunteer/recreation programs), why it is happening (a bad year for the municipal budget due to the economic recession), and where it is happening (Duluth, Minn. and cities like it). The next sentence then elaborates on the first, explaining exactly how much debt the city of Duluth is in and what measures they have taken to try and improve their economy. The nut graph is in the third paragraph, where the writer relates Duluth's financial crisis to the recent stock market crash and how it "eats away at the core sources of municipal revenue."
The story definitely follows the structure of "The Wall Street Journal formula" because it uses Duluth's financial situation as an example of a small city being affected by a major crisis.
This story also has an interesting "ABAB" structure. For one or two paragraphs, the author discusses the economic state of the overall country, and then he switches back to talking about how the failing economy affects small cities like Duluth and Tempe, Arizona. I think that this structure is very effective for this article because she is putting a global issue into a specific context, and providing the reader with the concrete effects (160 layoffs, cuts in funding) of a global crisis.
The story ends with a "quote kicker" that expresses the grim future of American finances.
Overall, I thought that the organization of the story was very effective in communicating the small-town effects of a big issue. I also believe that the use of a specific city like Duluth made the story a lot more relatable because it allows the reader to connect with and understand the financial pressure on the town. I think that if the writer only focused on the financial effects on a place like New York City the story would not be as effective because the impact would not be so clearly visible.


The article can be found here: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/07/us/07citybudgets.html?ref=us

Palin's Performance Garners Intense Media Exposure

by Maris Cohen

KALAMAZOO, Mich.-- Gov. Sarah Palin surprised many skeptics with her candid and assertive performance last night in this year's vice presidential debate, not showing any hesitation during her face off with Sen. Joe Biden.  The debates, held in St. Louis, had been widely anticipated by the press largely because of Palin and her array of media blunders, most recently seen on The Today Show with Katie Couric.  Last night, however, Palin did not display the same indecisiveness that she had previously in other interviews, and was able to banter comfortably with Biden about the failing economy, gay marriage, and the war in Iraq.

While Biden stuck to the issues at hand, Palin focused on giving a solid performance and appealing to the audience with her honesty.

 "I may not answer the question the way you want to hear, but I'll talk straight to the American people and let them know my track record," she said.

Palin also admitted her relative inexperience to the audience.  "Oh yeah, it's so obvious I'm a Washington outsider," she said.

Although Palin did better than most predicted, Biden came off strong as well.  Biden, however, did not focus on his vice presidential opponent as he did her running mate.  He did not hesitate to criticize McCain's proposed healthcare plan and response to the failing economy.  He also emphasized the merits of his running mate, Sen. Barack Obama when discussing what to do about the Iraq war.

"Barack Obama offered a clear plan. Shift responsibility to Iraqis over the next 16 months. Draw down our combat troops...The only odd man out here, only one left out is John McCain," Biden said.

Though neither candidate emerged as the clear victor, the media interest in the story is indisputable.  Over 50 million viewers tuned in to watch Palin and Biden face off, an unparalleled figure for a vice presidential debate.

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Radar Guns Raise Concern in Connecticut

by Maris Cohen

KALAMAZOO, Mich.-- Connecticut State Police ordered a ban on hand-held radar guns yesterday, citing a possible link between the devices and cancer.
"The feeling here is to err on the side of caution until more is known about the issue," said state police spokesman Adam Berluti. "The whole situation is under review."
Officials believe that the radiation waves emitted by the device could be of concern. As a result, seventy radar guns will be withdrawn from service. State troopers will continue to use other radar units, however, that feature transmitters on the outside of their vehicles.
This decision comes two months after three Connecticut police officers took legal action against the state, claiming that they developed cancer from using the guns.
This decision is also the first of its kind to be filed by a state police agency.

--XXX--