Trowbridge will be sorely missed

BY: B. Keith Plunkett

Sheriff Toby Trowbridge

The news broke yesterday morning. I'll admit it was quite a shock to me that Madison County Sheriff Toby Trowbridge would not seek re-election this year. Those who have known the Sheriff since his youth have said that he was destined for this job. I've even been told he would sometimes dress as a law enforcement officer for Halloween in his younger days. His dedication to law and order and the brotherhood of officers that do that job well is unwavering.

The dealings I have had with the Sheriff over the course of my time living and working in Madison County have been extremely pleasant. His committment to his job sets the bar high for the person that will step into his shoes in 2012. He is well liked by his officers, and with 70 percent of the vote in the last elections, it is pretty obvious he is respected by the voters of Madison County. If current Census estimates are correct, Madison County has seen an increase in population of 24.7 percent in the past 10 years. Despite that phenomenal growth, and despite the county's close proximity to Jackson, crime has remained low. That's because of Trowbridge's leadership.

He has had a great working relationship with the Board of Supervisors during a time when the board has seen a great deal of political and managerial upheaval. His ethics are without reproach. A welcome thing following the way former Sheriff Jessie Hopkins left office.

The Sheriff and his wife Jenny are hard working and dedicated to their community and their church. In the past Jenny has given her time and efforts towards numerous causes. She is a previous director of the Flora Area Chamber of Commerce, and has recently giver her time to organize and promote the "Don't Forget Your Child" campaign. DFYC has been helpful in reminding busy adults not to leave their children behind in vehicles during the sweltering Mississippi heat. (Yes, apparently we have become that busy.) I have had the priviledge of witnessing their generosity at the Trowbridge home during a church event sponsored by she and Toby for the youth at Damascus Baptist Church where they open their home and their hearts frequently. The care they show is not about public relations.

Sheriff Trowbridge has never really quite cared much for being the celebrated center of attention, putting the work first. The media has never had an easy time getting anything more out of him than he thought he should give to inform without jeapordizing his officers or the cases they were working. When the blood began to swirl in the water over the ACLU and boycotts from black residents over profiling and roadblocks a few years ago, he simply said it wasn't up for debate and continued to do his job. His leadership has been calm and steady. We can only hope the next Sheriff has half his demeanor.

So, Toby is leaving the job. I am surprised. But, I would be willing to bet that he certainly will not be giving up on the good things he and his wife do for Madison County and the Flora community. His dedication to protect and serve runs too deep for that.

MDEQ Promotes Drug Take Back Events

The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) is encouraging Mississippians to participate in the upcoming drug take back events sponsored by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) this Saturday, September 25 from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. People may bring unwanted solid prescription and overthe-counter medicines so they may be disposed of safely. Liquid medications, such as cough syrup will not be accepted.

Law enforcement agencies in Mississippi that are participating in the event and the addresses of the drop-off locations are as follows:

Brandon Police Department
1455 West Government Street
Brandon, Ms 39042

Gulfport Police Dept. Operations Bldg.
2810 34th Avenue
Gulfport, Ms 39501

12th Circuit Court Narcotics Enforcement Team
Forrest Countyn Multi-purpose Bldg.
962 Sullivan Drive
Hattiesburg, Ms 39401

Olive Branch Police Department
First Baptist Church 9235 Pigeon Roost Road
Olive Branch, Ms 38654

Pascagoula PoliceDepartment
Jackson County Civic Center
2902 Shortcut Road
Pascagoula, Ms 39567

Pass Christian Police Department
Pass Christian Public Library
111 Hiern Avenue
Pass Christian, Ms 39571

Pearl Police Department
Pearl Police Department Lobby
2422 Old Brandon Road
Pearl, Ms 39208

Terry Police Department
Terry Community Center (on side of Post Office)
104 Madison Street
Terry, Ms 39170

Warren County Sheriff’s Office
1000 Grove Street
Vicksburg, Ms 39183

Warren County Sheriff’s Office
Vicksburg Factory Outlet Mall
4000 S. Frontage Road
Vicksburg, Ms 39183

The event does not restrict drop off to only residents of the sponsoring community; therefore, residents may drop off unused medications at any nearby event site.

Unused drugs that are stored around the home may present a danger to people as well as to the environment when disposed of. Removing unused medications from the home can help prevent intentional misuse and unintentional poisonings of children and pets. However, dumping the medication down the drain or flushing it down the toilet can become a source of water contamination. Research is continuing into whether such water contamination adversely impacts human health or aquatic life.

Additional information on the take back events nationwide is available on the DEA’s website: http://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/takeback, and information on pharmaceuticals as pollutants can be found at: http://www.epa.gov/ppcp/

Cops Grants for Cities and Counties include money to Ridgeland and Madison County

Miss. cities, counties share cops grants

Twenty local governments, including Madison and Rankin counties and Ridgeland, will split $630,000 in federal law enforcement grants.

The grants come from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program.

"Each of these grants is intended to assist law enforcement in Mississippi to fight illegal activities, promote public safety and prosecute crimes," Sen. Thad Cochran said in a statement announcing the grant recipients.

The grants are as follows:

• City of Vicksburg/Warren County — $52,471 to purchase one police vehicle with patrol accessories.
• City of Meridian/Lauderdale County — $47,613 for the city to purchase technology to combat drug-related crime and for the county to enhance its communications capabilities.
• City of Greenville/Washington County — $47,747 to purchase equipment to improve data-gathering and communications equipment for the city and county.
• Cities of Olive Branch and Southaven — $37,597 for Olive Branch to establish a full-time traffic enforcement unit and Southaven to purchase mobile work stations for patrol units.
• City of Laurel/Jones County — $30,421 to purchase equipment for city and county law enforcement.
• City of Grenada/Grenada County — $19,135 to purchase equipment.
• City of Starkville/Oktibbeha County — $11,885 for the city and county to purchase Tasers.
• City of Tupelo — $23,620 to purchase Tasers and related equipment.
• City of Holly Springs – $21,078 to enhance officer safety, retention and equipment.
• City of Ridgeland – $10,240 to retrofit and equip a previously owned Federal Emergency Management Agency trailer to become a mobile command center.
• Leflore County — $31,468 to purchase video cameras for patrol units.
• Jackson County — $26,759 to purchase police radios and portable navigation systems for the aerial department.
• Marshall County — $21,676 to purchase and outfit a used patrol vehicle.
• Lowndes County — $19,808 to replace outdated equipment.
• Tunica County — $16,893 to upgrade patrol units with digital recording mobile systems.
• Lee County — $15,996 to update technology and improve data keeping.
• Lamar County — $13,529 to purchase new equipment and upgrade existing equipment.
• Rankin County — $11,810 to purchase portable radios.
• Panola County — $11,511 to purchase technology upgrades, including hand-held radios, laptop computers and website development.
• Madison County — $10,838 to purchase in-car laptops.

CL

Mississippi Senate kills inmate early release bill

The Associated Press

A bill that would have allowed certain inmates to earn time toward early release died Tuesday in the Senate.

The House bill’s original intent was to give the state Parole Board discretion on the revocation of certain convicts’ parole. But Senate Corrections Committee Chairman Willie Simmons, a Democrat from Cleveland, said his committee inserted the early release language.

Simmons said changing the law would save Mississippi about $3 million because fewer inmates would be in state-funded correctional facilities.

Simmons said certain inmates wouldn’t be eligible, including sex offenders and habitual offenders.

Sen. Joey Fillingane, a Republican from Sumrall, spoke against the bill because he said it would also let drug dealers earn time for early release.

“If you want to be on record as letting drug dealers out early, vote for the bill,” Fillingane said.

Several senators who had voted for the bill changed their votes after it was clear the bill would fail. The same proposal died earlier in the House.

Pennsylvania Woman Tied to Plot on Cartoonist

By CHARLIE SAVAGE

A Pennsylvania woman who called herself JihadJane was tied Tuesday to an alleged assassination plot against a Swedish cartoonist who depicted the prophet Muhammad atop the body of a dog.

In an indictment unsealed Tuesday, federal prosecutors accused Colleen R. LaRose, an American from the Philadelphia suburbs, of linking up through the Internet with militants overseas and plotting to carry out a murder.

Ms. LaRose, 46, was arrested in Philadelphia in October, but her case was kept under seal. Although the indictment does not identify the target, a law enforcement official said her case was linked to the arrests Tuesday of seven Muslims in Ireland in connection with a scheme to kill the cartoonist, Lars Vilks. A group linked to Al Qaeda had put a $100,000 bounty on his head for the cartoon, which the group perceived as an insult to Islam.

European news reports said Irish police, who arrested the four men and three women, had coordinated the operation with the United States.

A police statement issued Wednesday in Dublin said the Irish arrests followed a joint investigation by police in Ireland, the United States and “a number of European countries,” and that the suspects were being held at four police stations in an area about 100 miles south of Dublin, under a law that allowed for them to be held for up to seven days for questioning.

The New York Times

Obama advisers set to recommend military tribunals for alleged 9/11 plotters

Move seen as a precursor to closing Guantanamo Bay Military Prison and move detainees to U.S. soil

By Anne E. Kornblut and Peter Finn

President Obama's advisers are nearing a recommendation that Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, be prosecuted in a military tribunal, administration officials said, a step that would reverse Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.'s plan to try him in civilian court in New York City.

The president's advisers feel increasingly hemmed in by bipartisan opposition to a federal trial in New York and demands, mainly from Republicans, that Mohammed and his accused co-conspirators remain under military jurisdiction, officials said. While Obama has favored trying some terrorism suspects in civilian courts as a symbol of U.S. commitment to the rule of law, critics have said military tribunals are the appropriate venue for those accused of attacking the United States.

If Obama accepts the likely recommendation of his advisers, the White House may be able to secure from Congress the funding and legal authority it needs to close the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and replace it with a facility within the United States. The administration has failed to meet a self-imposed one-year deadline to close Guantanamo.

The administration officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said the president's legal advisers are finalizing their review of the cases of Mohammed and four alleged co-conspirators. Asked about the process, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said that "no decisions have been made."

Washington Post

Safety Is Issue as Budget Cuts Free Prisoners

By MONICA DAVEY

In the rush to save money in grim budgetary times, states nationwide have trimmed their prison populations by expanding parole programs and early releases. But the result — more convicted felons on the streets, not behind bars — has unleashed a backlash, and state officials now find themselves trying to maneuver between saving money and maintaining the public’s sense of safety.

Jessica R. Cooper, a Michigan prosecutor, urges a more careful approach to releasing prisoners.

In February, lawmakers in Oregon temporarily suspended a program they had expanded last year to let prisoners, for good behavior, shorten their sentences (and to save $6 million) after an anticrime group aired radio advertisements portraying the outcomes in alarming tones. “A woman’s asleep in her own apartment,” a narrator said. “Suddenly, she’s attacked by a registered sex offender and convicted burglar.”

In Illinois, Gov. Patrick J. Quinn, a Democrat, described as “a big mistake” an early release program that sent some convicts who had committed violent crimes home from prison in a matter of weeks. Of more than 1,700 prisoners released over three months, more than 50 were soon accused of new violations.

An early release program in Colorado meant to save $19 million has scaled back its ambitions by $14 million after officials found far fewer prisoners than anticipated to be wise release risks. In more than five months, only 264 prisoners were released, though the program was designed to shrink the prison population by 2,600 over two years.

The New York Times

ATF seizes 30 toy guns in Oregon, infuriating local business owner

CORNELIUS, Ore. - A local business owner is flabbergasted after a shipment of 30 toy guns for his store was confiscated by ATF agents in Tacoma.

Brad Martin and his son, Ben, sell the Airsoft BB guns from their store in Cornelius where they’ve been in business for seven years.

The Martins said they buy their stock from Taiwan because the merchandise is less expensive. But the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives seized a shipment of 30 in October. That shipment is worth around $12,000 and the ATF is promising to destroy the entire shipment.

Special Agent Kelvin Crenshaw said the toys can be easily retro-fitted into dangerous weapons.

"With minimal work it could be converted to a machine gun," Crenshaw said.

Brad Martin is furious about the loss of money, for sure, but also in what he now thinks as a loss of his time and the use of government agents to seize toy guns.

"All this manpower, all this time, all this taxpayer money, [it is] wasting my time and my profitability,” Martin said. “[Just] to seize 30 toy guns!"

Ben Martin disagrees that the toy guns could ever be considered dangerous.

"To say these are readily convertible to machine guns is absolutely preposterous,” he said. “The round wouldn't go into the firing chamber and even if the firing pin did strike the primer the gun would basically blow up in your face.”

ATF said it also seized the toys because they are missing the blaze orange tips required on all imported toy guns.

The Martins said they've received shipments before from Taiwan that were missing the orange tips and were simply asked by customs agents to drive up to Tacoma and paint the tips orange themselves. They are wondering why it is an issue now.

KOIN Local 6

Four 'shake and bake' meth labs discovered in Ridgeland

A search warrant Madison County deputies and Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics agents served at a Ridgeland man’s residence last Thursdaym turned up four “shake and bake” methamphetamine labs, according to MBN Director Marshall Fisher.

Madison County Herald