Manns Medium

When the Amber Alert program was first released and connected all law enforcement agencies, many thought that it was a great idea but with the mistaken deportation of a US teen, I believe that it should be expanded to include runaways. According to an article by Juan Carlos Llorca and Linda Stewart Ball of Associated Press titled US teen deported to Colombia could soon return , it was reported that “Jakadrien Lorece Turner, a 15-year-old Dallas girl, who ran away from home more than a year ago, was recently found in Bogota, Colombia, by the Dallas Police Department with help from Colombian and U.S. officials.”   Now the grandmother is “questioning why U.S. officials didn't do more to verify her identify.”   Common wisdom is if you give a fake name to law enforcement then you have determined your own fate and the fault falls directly at your feet. I surmise that if the Amber Alert program is extended to runaways and that information is sent to all law enforcement agencies inc...

Many times the cause of a problem will not be found in events that cover actions taken or not taken the few hours prior.   Sometimes the answer to that most elusive question will be found in the weeks and months prior.   The key reason for this assumption is the one sentence found in an article from Christopher Sherman of the Associated Press titled Texas police kill 8th-grader carrying pellet gun .   That sentence was “shortly before the confrontation, Jaime had walked into a classroom and punched a boy in the nose for no apparent reason.” Yes, there was a reason for Jaime Gonzalez punched that kid in the nose and until the circumstances surrounding that punch are thoroughly and impartially investigated the real reason for this kid bringing in and branching that pellet gun may never be really known.   Right now the focus is on whether the police action were justified, which I believe they were but it could have been handled better, and why three shots instead of a ...

On Jansing & Co this morning on MSNBC, Chris Jansing spoke about the divide between President Obama, Harry Reid and union leaders.   I tuned in to listen with the desire to find out exactly what the issue was.   When the report was complete, all that I heard which made any sense was the union’s concern over the deaths of union leaders in Colombia and the lack of enforcement.   It was then that I decided to search and discover what I could.   Here is a portion of what I found as provided by www.ustrade.gov. “The United States-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement, sometimes called the Colombia Free Trade Agreement or FTA, was signed on November 22, 2006.   It’s a comprehensive free trade agreement and when it enters into force it will immediately eliminate most of its tariffs on U.S. exports, with all remaining tariffs phased out over defined time periods, include important disciplines relating to customs administration and trade facilitation, technical barrier...