Monthly Archives: May 2017

Editor:

We all know that prisons are an essential function of the criminal justice system. After all, this is where we house people who have broken the law. The problem with Kerry Drakes column from last week is, firstly, privatization is not a bad thing and, secondly, our criminal justice system is in serious need of reform.

When we look at the fact that half of the people who are in prison are placed there for the crime of hurting themselves with drug use, we need to ask ourselves if this is any of our business. It is my belief that I own myself, not the government, and with that belief, if I choose to destroy my own life by getting hooked on crack, that is my choice and no one elses.

If there is no victim, there should be no crime. Now I know that typically when I talk about legalizing all victimless crimes, people will scream, But, the children!

When is the last time you saw a drug dealer in an elementary school? And how many of us teach our children that drugs are horrible and will ruin your life? It has always been puzzling to me how someone can hold a rifle and die for our country at the age of 18, but if they want to have a beer he or she can also be thrown in jail.

Also, when Drake writes about privatization being a horrible thing, I dont believe he understands the cost to taxpayers when it comes to housing inmates. On average, it costs the tax payers $40,000 to house an inmate for one year.

So if someone breaks into your home and steals your possessions, not only are you out what has been taken from you, but now for the 10-year period that criminal could wind up in prison you are also paying for their stay.

A stay where they can have television and all the niceties that they probably had at home. The only difference is that they cant leave the walls of the prison. And if they werent a violent offender before, prison gangs and prison lifestyle often force the individual to become violent.

Furthermore, when Drake talks about private prisons only being around to make a profit as being an evil thing, he neglects the fact that businesses are supposed to do that. What business opens up and has a business plan to lose millions of dollars? Why is it so horrible idea to Drake that someone makes money?

He constantly puts forth rather socialist agendas because he doesnt understand capitalism at its core. For all those who think socialism is this wonderful thing, please tell me what went wrong in Venezuela?

Why is the adult unemployment rate in France 25 percent? Why is Sweden trying to get away from it? The more progressive and socialist a country becomes, the more destitute the people of a country become it is that way everywhere socialism has been tried.

Patrick Ballinger

Evanston

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Letter: 'Drake's Take' doesn't make cut - Uinta County Herald

PIERRE (AP) Roughly two years after an American Indian tribe began an ambitious push to open the nation's first marijuana resort in South Dakota, a consultant who helped pursue the stalled venture is heading to trial on drug charges.

Jury selection starts Thursday in the case of Eric Hagen, a consultant who worked with the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe on its operation about 45 miles north of Sioux Falls. Hagen was indicted on state marijuana charges months after the tribe destroyed its crop amid fears of a federal raid.

Here's a look at key information about the trial:

Whats going on?

Hagen and fellow consultant Jonathan Hunt, officials with Monarch America, a Colorado-based company in the marijuana industry, were charged last year after assisting the tribe.

The Santee Sioux began a marijuana growing operation after the Justice Department outlined a new policy clearing the way for Indian tribes to grow and sell marijuana under the same conditions as some states that have legalized pot.

State Attorney General Marty Jackley warned against the idea from the outset. The tribe ultimately destroyed its crop in November 2015 after federal officials signaled a potential raid.

Jackley announced charges against Hagen and Hunt about nine months later. Hagen, 34, of Sioux Falls, has pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy to possess, possession and attempted possession of more than 10 pounds of marijuana.

He faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison on both the conspiracy and possession counts and 7 1/2 years on the attempted possession count. Hunt last year pleaded guilty to a drug conspiracy count after agreeing to cooperate with law enforcement.

Court documents say Hunt ordered marijuana seeds from a company in the Netherlands that were shipped surreptitiously to the tribe's office in 2015. Authorities say he and others cultivated the plants at the Flandreau grow facility before they were burned.

Legal issues

The state doesn't have jurisdiction over the tribe. But prosecutors argue that state courts have jurisdiction over non-Native Americans who commit "victimless" crimes in Indian Country, so Hagen can be prosecuted. Hagen's defense has argued that the federal government has jurisdiction.

The defense

Hagen's defense against the indictment is that the marijuana belonged to the tribe. Mike Butler, Hagen's attorney, said Jackley doesn't have jurisdiction to charge the tribe, so perhaps the prosecution is "an offshoot of his frustration that he couldn't impose his will on the tribe."

"The tribe voted to enact a law. The tribe paid for this stuff. The tribe ultimately voted to burn it. Not my client," Butler said. "It was the tribe's exclusive possession in this case."

Butler said law enforcement was fully informed and involved from the beginning of the venture. He pledged to appeal if Hagen is convicted.

"This is a one-of-a-kind prosecution," said Tim Purdon, a former U.S. attorney for North Dakota. "That doesn't mean it's a bad one. It's just, this is truly groundbreaking."

The project

When tribal leaders initially touted their plan to open the resort on tribal land in Flandreau, President Anthony Reider said they wanted it to be "an adult playground."

They projected as much as $2 million in monthly profits, with ambitious plans that included a smoking lounge with a nightclub, bar and food service, and eventually an outdoor music venue. They planned to use the money for community services and to provide income to tribal members.

Reider said after the marijuana was burned that federal officials had concerns about whether the tribe could sell marijuana to non-Indians, along with the origin of the seeds used for its crop.

Purdon, now a partner at the Minneapolis law firm Robins Kaplan, said that if Hagen is convicted, it would put a "huge chill on non-Native consultants working with tribes who are interested in exploring medical or adult use cannabis."

The tribe

Reider this week called the prosecutions of Hagen and Hunt "very unfortunate," saying that the tribe originally reached out to Monarch America about the project.

He said the Santee Sioux have looked into the possibility of growing marijuana again, but said they're waiting for more clarity at the federal level with President Donald Trump's new administration.

The grow facility hasn't been used since the marijuana crop was burned, Reider said.

"It's unfortunate that we were unable to be successful with the project," he said. "We were hoping with the revenues to do a lot of positive things for the tribe and the local community."

Read more from the original source:

Flandreau tribe's cannabis consultant to face trial - Brookings Register

18 May 2017, 1:44 p.m.

Jail for former Elmore man who tracked 'pretty victims' via Facebook.

Related: Elmore man jailed for child pornography offences

A FORMER Elmore man who went through strangers' letters in order to find them on Facebook and choose "pretty victims" to stalkhas been sentenced to eight yearsin prison.

Australian Federal Policeinitially charged Steven Burke with child pornography crimes after seizing electronic devices fromhis home in December 2015.

The devices contained hundreds of thousands of child exploitation files, the County Court was told on Thursday.

Burke, 39, who had beenpreviously convicted in Bendigo of child pornography offences, downloaded the files from programs which he used to access the "dark net" and encrypt them so that they would be undetectable.

After he was released on bail, police investigating also foundphotos and videos he had taken of teenage girlsand women who were naked and in different stages of undress in their bedrooms on the devices.

They arrested him again in May 2016, finding him witha phone which had access to the internet and a USB stick which contained child exploitation materialand which violated hisbail conditions.

Steven Burke stalked a number of women and girls. Photo: Jacky Ghossein

Burke admitted to police he "perved" on peoplein their homes and took videos of them on his phone for his own sexual gratification.

He went through strangers' mail and looked their names upon social media website Facebook, the court heard, and targeted"pretty victims".He took more than 100 photos of some victims.

The man admitted he visited one woman about 50 times over six months. He also planned tostalk one of the customers he met at work at her home, but then went on to take 544 photos of her two teenage daughters instead.

Judge Christopher Ryan said that a sample ofmore than 400,000 child exploitation files in Burke's home involved children performing sexual acts on each other and on adults, bestiality, and disturbing animated images of children.

The depravity of the images' creator "beggars belief" he said.

Burke also admitted to loitering outside a school in St Kilda Eastand taking 15 photos of a girl, which were found to be child pornography.

Steven Burke after his sentencing in Bendigo in 2009.

The school's security guards nearly caught him on school grounds a number of times, after they found him looking inside the windows and chased him away.

Burke told a psychologist he struggled to empathise with his victims because they appeared to him as images on a screen.

He wasabused by anAnglican minister, a family friend of his parents, when he was between 12 and 14 years' old, the court heard.

Judge Christopher Ryan said that accessing and making childpornography were not "victimless crimes".

"It must never be forgotten that every child who appears in child pornography is a victim,"the judge said.

Burke pleaded guilty in Aprilto a number of charges including stalking, making, accessing and possessing child pornography, loitering in a school, and using a surveillance device to observe private acts without the person's consent.

The judge sentenced him to eight years' prison with a non-parole period of six years.

He said Burke would be on the sex offenders' register for life.

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Eight years' jail for child-porn stalker who tracked 'pretty victims' via ... - Bendigo Advertiser

(1 of ) Wells Fargo has pointed to mandatory arbitration agreements to avoid public litigation of some consumer complaints about accounts created without authorization. A bill by state Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa, would carve out an exemption in such cases. (SAM HODGSON / New York Times)

THE EDITORIAL BOARD

BY THE EDITORIAL BOARD | May 18, 2017, 12:11AM

| Updated 4 hours ago.

Wells Fargo & Co. executives probably hoped the worst was behind them when they paid $185 million to settle a case accusing the bank of opening up to 2.1million bogus accounts.

But new revelations keep coming.

Consumer groups now say as many as 3.5 million accounts were created without the knowledge or consent of Wells Fargo customers by bank employees tasked to meet unrealistic sales quotas.

And, as Staff Writer Paul Payne reported this week, employees of the San Francisco-based banking giant may have gone to astonishing lengths to fulfill those goals and qualify for bonuses.

A former employee at a Wells Fargo branch in Petaluma said his colleagues frequently rounded up day laborers at a nearby convenience store and drove them to the bank to sign them up for checking and savings accounts. My colleagues constantly went to and from this location to try to meet their sales goals, Denny Russo said in a sworn statement thats part of a shareholder lawsuit against the bank.

Russo said the practice was widespread throughout California and, when he complained to his managers, they cited tremendous pressure to increase sales.

Wells Fargo executives say the bank wants to win back the trust of its customers.

So far, however, they wont consider one thing that might help restore that trust: allowing customers to pursue their grievances in a public court rather than a private and secret arbitration proceeding.

An arbitration requirement is tucked into the fine print of account applications, a common practice among financial institutions, and Wells Fargo has had some success enforcing the requirement in court.

A bill sponsored by state Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa, would open the courthouse to victims in cases in which a financial institution has acted without a customers consent or by unlawfully using personal information a practice commonly called identity theft.

Dodd, who has firsthand experience with private arbitration stemming from a dispute over a real estate sale some years ago, says theres an implicit bias to the person paying the bill.

Despite that, Dodd doesnt want to outlaw mandatory arbitration, which he described in an interview as quicker, more efficient and less expensive than going to court. He does want to send a message to financial institutions that they must handle their customers personal information with care, and if they dont, they can be in trouble.

Senate Bill 33 could come up for a Senate floor vote as early as today. But with opposition from the California Bankers Association and other business groups that strongly favor arbitration over litigation, especially class-action lawsuits, passage isnt assured in the Senate or the Assembly.

These werent victimless crimes. Many people were unwittingly hit with annual fees, over-draft protection charges, finance charges, late fees and other costs for accounts they didnt open or authorize.

Moreover, the bank may have delayed detection of the scheme for years by steering early complaints into arbitration.

With the Trump administration trying to dismantle the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, states need to take up the slack. Dodds bill, which would create a narrow exception to mandatory arbitration, triggered only in cases of institutional fraud, is the kind of help consumers could use.

Continue reading here:

PD Editorial: Opening the courthouse door to defrauded consumers - Santa Rosa Press Democrat

Sometimes buying the best value stocks takes guts. After all, when the market punishes a stock so severely that it drives its price into value territory, it's often for a reason.

But, the market isn't perfect, and three of our writers think there are stocks out there that are worth way more than their current valuations. If you're bold enough to handle a little uncertainty in hopes of outperforming the market, you may just find tremendous returns from value stocksCelldex Therapeutics (NASDAQ: CLDX), CoreCivic (NYSE: CXW), andSeaspan(NYSE: SSW).

Image source: Getty Images.

Kristine Harjes (Celldex Therapeutics): After the hugely disappointing clinical trial failure of its brain cancer treatment candidate, investors fled from biotech Celldex Therapeutics. Share prices have cratered 90% since March 2015, as most investors lost hope for the company. What they forgot, though, was that Celldex still has some promising drug candidates in its pipeline. And -- value investors rejoice -- their collective potential more than justifies the current market cap of just under $400 million.

The baby that was thrown out with the bathwater was twofold: Celldex's opportunity centers on a pair of drugs now in stage 2 trials. One of them is called glembatumumab vedotin, or "glemba" if you want to spare yourself the tongue twist. It's currently being studied in breast cancer and metastatic melanoma, and results have been promising so far. If this monoclonal antibody treatment makes it to market (and, as a reminder, the odds are long for any drug to make it through phase 3 and FDA approval) it could reach peak sales of well over $1 billion annually. Investors will get a look at data later this year from the Metric trial, which is studying glemba as a treatment for triple negative breast cancer.

The other drug in Celldex's pipeline that I'm keeping an eye on is varlilumab ("varli"), which is being studied in head and neck, ovarian, colorectal and renal cell carcinomas, and glioblastoma. The next catalyst for varli will come in June, when Celldex expects to report data from a trial being run with the hugely successful Opdivo (a Bristol-Myers Squibb drug). Combination therapies are the key to the next generation of cancer treatments, and varli has the opportunity to tack on to the success of drugs like Opdivo and become a blockbuster itself.

Celldex sports $167 million in cash and equivalents on its balance sheet, and has no long-term debt. The company is only losing around $25 million per quarter, and partnerships with companies like Roche and Bristol-Myers Squibb are bolstering its cash balance. Management expects to have enough cash to finance operations through 2018, so there's no immediate risk to shareholders that the company won't be able to keep the lights on.

When you consider that biotechs are generally valued at around three times the peak sales of their lead drug candidates, Celldex's market cap is more than justified by either glemba or varli. This is a risky stock, so it makes sense that there's some uncertainty priced in. But with a market cap of just a fraction of the peak sales potential of just one of its two key pipeline candidates puts this stock deeply in bargain-bin territory. Admittedly, it will be a while before the thesis for Celldex proves out. if it does. However, shares right now are so deeply discounted that bold value investors would be wise to take a closer look.

Rich Duprey(CoreCivic): A stock that has nearly tripled in value in six months isn't usually going to get picked as a "value" stock, but CoreCivic isn't your usual company.

As the country's largest private prison operator, CoreCivic enjoyed a tremendous boost from the election of Donald Trump as president. Where his predecessor's Justice Department had directed government agencies to develop plans to phase out the use of private prisons, Trump's policy of cracking down on illegal immigration -- and the need for facilities to hold those caught -- caused a stock surge for CoreCivic and industry peer GEO Group.

In addition, Attorney General Jeff Sessions has struck a get-tough-on-crime posture, going so far as to say prior leniency shown toward victimless crimes like marijuana use and possession would no longer be tolerated. With government operated prisons already filled to overflowing -- the Bureau of Prisons prisoner population is already 23% over capacity -- new ones will be needed. Revenue-constrained state and local governments would have a hard time finding funds to build new prisons in their budgets, let alone getting them sited without raising storms of controversy.

However, CoreCivic has seven core facilities that are currently idle with a design capacity of 8,300 beds, plus two more non-core facilities with another 440 beds available. And, the BOP recently chose not to renew its contract on yet one more facility that offers more than 1,400 beds. It's clear CoreCivic has plenty of capacity that the government may very well need, which gives the company plenty of opportunity for additional growth.

Yet is CoreCivic a value stock? The prison operator is structured as a real estate investment trust, and it sports a P/E ratio of 18 that is below the market's average multiple of 25 -- and well below the average REIT's P/E of 91. Similarly, its price relative to next year's anticipated earnings is also well below industry and market averages. Coupled with an annual dividend of $1.68 per share that's currently yielding around 5%, CoreCivic offers value investors a solid investment that could provide a powerful total return to one's portfolio.

Brian Feroldi(Seaspan): Investors in the shipping industry have taken it on the chin over the last few years. Years of overbuilding caused shipping rates to plunge, which in turn put the hurt on the shipping lines. Things got so bad that Hanjin -- a major container line out of South Korea -- was forced to declare bankruptcy.

That backdrop caused investors to flee from Seaspan's stock, something that took me by surprise since the company's massive fleet of vessels is leased out to major liner services under long-term, fixed-fee charters. I figured that the company's contracts would help to keep it safe from the storm.

It turns out I was wrong. Hanjin was one of Seaspan's customers, so the bankruptcy has had an impact on its financials. It was also forced to recharter some of its boats at current market rates, which are terrible. The combination has caused Seaspan's revenue to dip and for profits to take a big hit. That lead the company's board to cut its massive dividend.

Thankfully, the industry at large has pulled back on new ship building activity and has increased its scrap rate. Those measures have helped charter rates to recover. That's been great news for Seaspan, and if charter rates continue to rise from here, the company's stock could certainly be poised to recover.

Seaspan's stock isn't for the faint of heart, but its reduced dividend yield of 8% looks sustainable, and there is ample opportunity for substantial share price appreciation if the shipping market has truly bottomed. That makes Seaspan a great stock for bold value investors to get to know.

10 stocks we like better than Celldex Therapeutics

When investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*

David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy right now... and Celldex Therapeutics wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.

*Stock Advisor returns as of May 1, 2017

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3 Value Stocks for Bold Investors | Business Markets and Stocks ... - Madison.com