Charlotte Observer Editorial
July 21, 2008

The gang legislation N.C. lawmakers passed a few days ago is welcome and vital to dealing effectively with rising gang activity, and to steering young people away from criminal activity in the first place. Both are vital to public safety. Lawmakers are wise to see that.

Congress should recognize it too. Last week, the Senate took up reauthorization of the Juvenile Justice Delinquency and Prevention act, a 1974 law that provides for programs to help prevent young people from getting into trouble and to safeguard those who while they're in custody.

Gov. Mike Easley today announced he has signed into law Senate Bill 1358, “An act to adopt a strategic approach to prevent youth involvement in street gang activity and to be entitled the ‘North Carolina Street Gang Prevention And Intervention Act.’” This new law requires the state Advisory Council on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention to review the level of gang activity in the state, develop community based intervention efforts, assess the progress and accomplishments of efforts to deal with juveniles who are involved with, or at risk of getting involved in, street gangs and make recommendations to reduce the level of gang activity in North Carolina.

Grants Will Aid In Fights Against Gangs, Domestic Violence, Juvenile Delinquency And Drug Abuse

Gov. Mike Easley today announced that the Governor’s Crime Commission awarded $20.6 million to state and local agencies to make communities safer and assist crime victims. The money will help programs that detect and deter gang activity, assist victims of domestic violence and sexual assault, prevent juvenile delinquency and fight drug abuse.

“Preventing crime, gang activity, domestic violence and child abuse requires that we work together at the community, state and federal levels,” said Easley. “These grants help our state and local agencies develop programs and get the resources they need to keep our communities safe and secure.”

Martha Quillin, News and Observer
MySpace, the Internet equivalent of the coffee bar that never closes, has agreed to take steps to make it more difficult for sexual predators to find child victims through its site.

At a news conference Monday in New York City, N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper and attorneys general from across the country announced an agreement with the popular social networking site that they hope will serve as a template for others.

The agreement, nearly two years in the making, includes a promise by MySpace to help develop tools to verify the ages and identities of its users, a measure that advocates argue will prevent underage children from setting up profiles on the site and keep predators from gaining the trust of young users by posing as people they're not.

from WRAL

New numbers from the State Bureau of Investigation show a significant drop in illegal methamphetamine labs in North Carolina since 2005.

“We've seen a significant drop and it's good for the safety of the people of the state,” State Attorney General Roy Cooper said.

The attorney general credits changes in state law, like moving medicines with pseudoephedrine behind the counter.

"Making it harder for the criminal to get the necessary key ingredient to make meth, has been the main factor in the reduction of meth labs,” he said.

Statewide the number of meth labs were cut in half from 2005 to 2007, but three of the four counties with the most meth labs are in the Triangle area.

NCDP Chair Jerry Meek made the following statement about the James Johnson case:

"No one can erase the anguish and pain James Johnson endured for 42 months as he awaited trial for crimes he did not commit. But we can all take comfort that sometimes the justice system gets it right and sometimes the falsely accused prevail."

Read the story in the News and Observer:
A prosecutor decides that James Johnson should not face trial on charges of killing a teen in 2004
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/crime_safety/story/840418.html

Pamela Hess, Associated Press

The CIA failed to fully inform Congress that it was videotaping the harsh interrogations of terrorist suspects and that it destroyed the tapes in 2005, the bipartisan leaders of the House Intelligence Committee said Wednesday.

"Our committee was not informed, has not been kept informed and we are very frustrated about that issue," said Chairman Sylvestre Reyes, D-Texas, after a three-hour closed-door meeting with CIA Director Gen. Michael Hayden. That meeting, he said, "is just the first step in what we feel is going to be a long-term investigation.

That probe will include calling other witnesses, including Hayden predecessors George Tenet and Porter Goss, and John Negroponte, the former Director of National Intelligence, said Rep. Peter Hoekstra, the panel's senior Republican. Reyes said he would also call on Jose Rodriguez, the former CIA director of operations who actually had the tapes destroyed.

Hayden acknowledged that "particularly at the time of the destruction we could have done an awful lot better at keeping the committee alerted and informed."