Bipartisan anti-gang legislation is cruising through the legislature with virtually no opposition, even from civil liberties groups. Civil liberties advocates have questioned and threatened lawsuits over similar measures in states such as California, Washington and New Mexico that sought to create gang registries or bar suspected gang members from portions of town. But here, complaints have been muted.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/state/content/
state/epaper/2008/04/23/a13a_xgr_gangs_0423.html

Gang members seen talking to one another or standing together on public property could be fined or jailed under a new bill being pushed in the Legislature and supported by some prosecutors and Boston police. The bill would give broad authority to police and prosecutors to bring civil lawsuits against reputed gangs or their members, forbidding them to hang out together in the neighborhoods and parks that police say they terrorize.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts
/articles/2008/04/23/bill_bars_gangs_from_safety_zones/

The Constitution’s Sixth Amendment guarantees criminal defendants the right to face their accusers in court. But what happens when the accuser is not available for cross-examination at trial because she was murdered by the very person she would testify against?
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0422/p02s04-usju.html

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa made a splash when he announced plans last week for ending L.A. Bridges, an anti-gang initiative under fire since the Riordan administration for failing to demonstrate clear results. But in dropping the L.A. Bridges programs and shifting the money to his appointed “gang czar,” Villaraigosa put off yet again answering one key question: Are these programs, which last year received $13.2 million, successful in quelling violence and keeping kids out of gangs?
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-gang21apr21,1,3788343.story

A majority of US Supreme Court justices appear poised to embrace an individual rights view of the Second Amendment. But a clear consensus did not emerge during historic oral arguments Tuesday on how precisely the “right of the people to keep and bear arms” should be enforced – and limited – by the courts.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0319/p25s07-usju.html

High Court Likely To Favor Gun Rights

A Supreme Court majority appears ready to rule for the first time in the nation’s history that the Second Amendment gives people an individual right to own guns. Yet that dramatic consensus, which emerged during arguments Tuesday over a Washington handgun ban, is only part of the important debate playing out at the high court.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2008-03-17-scotus-handguns_N.htm

A gun-control case to be argued before the U.S. Supreme Court March 18 has exposed a division among state attorneys general over the meaning of the Second Amendment, the fiercely debated constitutional provision that guarantees Americans the right to “keep and bear arms.”
http://www.stateline.org/live/details/story?contentId=286562

More than 12,000 homicides by gun were reported in the United States in 2005. But the number who are wounded and survive gunshot assaults is much greater — nearly 53,000 were treated in emergency rooms in 2006, the same federal database shows.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/PrintStory.pl?document_id=2004247675&zsection
_id=2003905675&slug=wounded28&date=20080228

Across Delaware, thieves tempted by higher prices for copper are taking electrical wiring from construction sites and downspouts from homes and businesses. Copper is about $3.25 a pound, up from about 80 cents in 2003.
http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?
AID=/20080228/CROSSROADS/803010303/1006/NEWS

Kentucky lawmakers are considering a plan aimed at stopping thieves from stealing scrap metal and reselling it for money.

People hawking scrap metals would have to provide buyers with their personal information and copies of their photo IDs. Rep. Mike Denham, the bill's sponsor, said he wants to crack down on people stealing various metals - such as copper, aluminum or platinum - to fetch high prices on the resale market.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/K/KY_XGR_
SCRAP_METAL_KYOL-?SITE=KYLOU&SECTION=
HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2008-02-27-19-07-36

Arizona jurists ruled against police who looked through a car while the handcuffed driver was in their patrol unit, saying the officers weren't in danger.

The Supreme Court agreed Monday to rule on whether police officers are free to search a parked vehicle whenever they arrest a driver or a passenger.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-scotus26feb26,1,6427554,print.story?ctrack=2&cset=true

Isaiah is a soft-spoken sixth-grader with poor grades, virtually no relationship with his father, and a police record that includes attempted breaking and entering and assault and battery - the latter on his mother and sister when he was 11 years old.

He also has something else: a new lease on a young life, courtesy of a juvenile judge.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/
2008/02/26/bypassing_detention_centers?mode=PF

Mexican legislators are expected today to overhaul the country's famously ineffective justice system, implementing public trials nationwide while turning up the heat on organized crime.

The long-awaited "justice reform" bill — the result of several years of fierce debate among security experts, academics and human rights activists — would amend the constitution to include the presumption of innocence and other guarantees. It would also provide alternatives to jail for minor crimes, in an attempt to reduce overcrowding in Mexican prisons.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5569574.html

The House passed legislation yesterday that calls for billions of dollars in new financial aid for needy students to attend college and new steps to protect student loan borrowers and lower the cost of textbooks.

The bill, which passed 354 to 58, also would lead to the creation of a Web site to help families to compare the costs of schools and would require that institutions of higher education with rapidly growing tuition and fee prices report why costs are rising.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/
content/article/2008/02/07/AR2008020703973_pf.html

(This includes the John R. Justice Prosecutors and Defenders Incentive Act. The John R. Justice Act, named after the late John Justice, provides loan relief for prosecutors and public defenders. Mr. Justice, as NDAA President, started this effort in 1999.)

Members to File Friend-of-the-Court Brief in 2nd Amendment Case Before Justices

A majority of the Senate and more than half of the members of the House will file a brief today urging the Supreme Court to uphold a ruling that the District's handgun ban violates the Second Amendment.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/
article/2008/02/07/AR2008020703689_pf.html

Milwaukee County Prosecutor Named Top Assistant District Attorney in Wisconsin
Read news release

Wayne County Prosecutor's Office Establishes Deed Fraud Taskforce
February 8, 2007
Read news release

Dallas City Attorney Community Prosecution Team wins national award for work to deter gun crime
Department of Justice awards Dallas Community Prosecution Team 2006 Project Safe Neighborhood Award
Read news release