Denver woman who billed Medicaid after her father's death convicted

Font ResizeCops and CourtsBy John Ingold
The Denver Postdenverpost.comPosted: 12/18/2012 02:41:02 PM MSTDecember 18, 2012 10:23 PM GMTUpdated: 12/18/2012 03:23:05 PM MST


View the Original article

NRA promises to help prevent school shootings

Font ResizeBy PHILIP ELLIOTT Associated PressAssociated PressPosted: 12/18/2012 01:06:58 AM MSTDecember 18, 2012 10:39 PM GMTUpdated: 12/18/2012 03:39:14 PM MST
Click photo to enlarge

View the Original article

Douglas County first-grader dies of strep complications

Font ResizeBy Robert Garrison
9Newsdenverpost.comPosted: 12/18/2012 12:56:35 PM MSTDecember 18, 2012 11:3 PM GMTUpdated: 12/18/2012 04:03:48 PM MST
Blog: Daily Dose

View the Original article

Body in Westminster pond confirmed as missing man

Font ResizeLocal NewsBy John Ingold
The Denver Postdenverpost.comPosted: 12/18/2012 03:55:26 PM MSTDecember 18, 2012 11:5 PM GMTUpdated: 12/18/2012 04:05:33 PM MST

A body found in a pond near the Westminster hotel where John Lucas Edwards went missing was confirmed Tuesday as that of Edwards.

Westminster police said there is no indication of foul play. The cause and manner of Edwards' death, though, are still to be determined.

Edwards, a 36-year-old construction worker, went missing Dec. 9. He was last seen at a holiday party at the Westin Hotel on Westminster Boulevard. His truck and belongings were found at the hotel.

The search for Edwards initially focused on a pair of ponds near the hotel, but ice hindered some of the search efforts. Warmer temperatures allowed the Westminster Fire Department's dive team to look again at City Park Pond, about a ¼ mile from the hotel. On Monday, the team discovered a body in the pond.

On Tuesday, Westminster police said the Jefferson County Coroner's Office had confirmed that the body was that of Edwards.

John Ingold: 303-954-1068, jingold

View the Original article

Spirits are down but search goes on for Dylan Redwine in Colorado

Font ResizeColorado NewsBy Nancy Lofholm
The Denver Postdenverpost.comPosted: 12/18/2012 04:07:47 PM MSTDecember 18, 2012 11:17 PM GMTUpdated: 12/18/2012 04:17:07 PM MST


View the Original article

Bill Ritter said to be under consideration for Energy Secretary

Font ResizeLocal NewsBy Allison Sherry
The Denver Postdenverpost.comPosted: 12/18/2012 02:12:18 PM MSTDecember 19, 2012 2:16 AM GMTUpdated: 12/18/2012 07:16:55 PM MST


View the Original article

Jury finds Denver cop guilty of felony kidnapping, sex assault

Font ResizeCops and CourtsBy Jessica Fender
The Denver Postdenverpost.comPosted: 12/18/2012 07:08:20 PM MSTDecember 19, 2012 2:20 AM GMTUpdated: 12/18/2012 07:20:45 PM MST

Denver cop Hector Paez grasped his forehead and quietly muttered "I don't understand" as he stared at the 12 men and women who who had just convicted him Tuesday evening of felony rape and kidnapping.

His wife, and the mother of their four children, collapsed into tears.

It had been more than two weeks of trial and more than two years since Paez was first accused of arresting a woman, driving her to a secluded spot in a deserted warehouse district and coercing her into oral sex.

The rape case — a test of credibility — put the dishonest cop up against an accuser with a checkered history that includes heroin abuse and a prostitution conviction.

Jurors deliberated for less than a day before reaching the verdict that will end Paez' career as a Denver police officer and could land him in prison for up to life. 

Chief Deputy District Attorney Doug Jackson said isn't always easy to fire errant officers, let alone convict them in criminal court.

"Jurors want to believe cops are good guys, and most are," Jackson said. "This is a good day for the Denver Police Department. There are a lot of good, hard working cops in that department, and now they can get rid of Officer Paez."

The 33-year-old Paez, who was cuffed and taken into custody, will remain in jail until a status hearing Thursday. At that point, District Court Judge John Madden will decide whether he can remain free on bond until he's sentenced.

The victim said Tuesday evening that she plans to ask Madden to keep Paez locked up, saying he threatened her during the May 16, 2010 assault and also stared her down as she testified.

The verdict was an emotional moment for her, too, she said.

"I was so overwhelmed. I just fell down to my knees, thanked God and I cried," she said. "I've been called a liar. This just justified everything."

Paez could face as little as probation for the felony charges. The rape carries a penalty of up to life in prison and the kidnapping up to 24 years in prison. He was also convicted of the misdemeanor charge of providing false information to authorities.

"We're both surprised and disappointed," said defense attorney Gary Lozow. "Hopefully an appeals court will get it right."

He argued during trial that Paez kept the woman in his car to gather intelligence on her heroin dealer and drove to an out-of-the-way spot so she wouldn't be spotted by her pimp.

The woman testified she was meeting her now fiance — not a pimp — at the lightrail station where she first encountered Paez.

Jurors filed out Tuesday without comment on what evidence they found most compelling.

Jackson and internal affairs Sgt. Jaime Lucero lined up GPS tracking data from Paez' patrol car, calls that the woman overheard on his car radio following the assault and accounts from other officers to piece together Paez' actions that day.

Paez' case was plagued by delays — the biggest coming in September 2011 when evidence misplaced by investigators surfaced and prompted a mistrial.

Throughout the life of the case, Paez' wife, brother and other family members have dutifully attended hearings.

But on Tuesday, some in tears, they declined to comment on the conviction as they filed out of the courtroom.

Jessica Fender: 303-954-1244 , jfender

View the Original article

Denver woman accused of threatening middle school students with gun

Font ResizeCops and CourtsBy John Ingold
The Denver Postdenverpost.comPosted: 12/18/2012 09:16:45 PM MSTDecember 19, 2012 4:17 AM GMTUpdated: 12/18/2012 09:16:45 PM MST

A Denver mother who believed her daughter was being bullied at school drove into the school's parking lot and threatened four girls with a gun, according to an arrest document.

Monica Avila, 34, was charged Tuesday with four counts of felony menacing and one count of possession of a weapon on school grounds, also a felony. According to the probable cause statement accompanying her arrest paperwork, Avila drove into the parking lot at Lake Middle School on Thursday afternoon and confronted four girls, ages 13 and 14.

The statement says Avila began arguing with the girls about bullying. She then, while still sitting in her car, pulled out a black semi-automatic handgun and said, "Look what I have," the document states.

Avila then drove out of the parking lot and parked across the street, as the girls told adults about what happened and called 911, according to the probable cause statement.

When officers arrived, they found Avila sitting in her car. They later found a handgun in the car.

Avila is being held in the Denver County Jail on a $50,000 bond. She is scheduled to appear in court again on Thursday to be formally advised of the charges against her, according to the Denver District Attorney's Office.

John Ingold: 303-954-1068, jingold

View the Original article

Global Governance at Heart of Failed Foreign Policies

By William Pfaff Westboro Baptist Church’s Tax-Exempt Status Challenged
By Tracy Bloom The War Against Teachers in Dark Times
By Henry A. Giroux, Truthout Remember the Children
By Robert Reich
The NRA Responds to Sandy Hook Shooting, Richard Engel Is Freed, and More White House Considers Some Gun Control Mexico Creates New Police Force Instagram Soon Can Sell Your Photos to Advertisers Without Compensation or Notification A Leftist’s Argument Against Gun Control Pro-Gun Senators Call for Gun Control, NRA Takes Down Facebook Page, and More
Robert Scheer on the Connecticut School Shooting and Gun Control Watch: ‘SNL’ Honors Connecticut School Shooting Victims GOP Lawmaker’s Solution to Preventing Mass Shootings: More Guns ‘Left, Right & Center:’ School Shooting, Susan Rice Withdraws, and More
Hollywood’s Raid on Convention
By Richard Schickel Understanding Economics in Plain English
By Thomas Hedges, Center for Study of Responsive Law Regulate Dissent in Hong Kong, Jackie Chan Says
Fighting Manifest Destiny
By Jonathan Yardley
The Questions Education Reformers Aren’t Asking
Dig led by Mike Rose

Gore Vidal: His Life and Legacy
Dig led by Truthdig Staff

advertisement

-->
If I Were Another: PoemsBy Mahmoud Darwish
$20.44

advertisement

-->
The Origins of TotalitarianismBy Hannah Arendt

advertisement

-->
Women’s Raglan Hoodie$35

  Email    Print    Share

Tweet Posted on Dec 18, 2012

By William Pfaff

The first time I heard there was a “war” against Westphalia was in a talk given to the International Institute for Strategic Studies in 2003 by George W. Bush’s national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice. She said that the Westphalian system of sovereign international relations—agreed upon at that German city in 1648, as part of the treaty that ended the terrible and wasteful Thirty Years’ War—was now outdated and should be discarded. Since then, it has more and more been dismissed in academic and policy discussions devoted to new proposals for “global governance.”

The Westphalian agreement was that all nations henceforth were to be considered absolutely sovereign within their own borders. Intervention in the religious or political affairs of another state was forbidden.

This was a reaction to the war that had just concluded—or actually, the series of small wars over a 30-year period that has since been treated as a single great war involving Catholics against Protestants and Hapsburgs against Bourbons. Its best modern historian, C.V. Wedgwood, has justly said that the Thirty Years’ War “need not have happened and it settled nothing worth settling ... an object lesson on the dangers and disasters which can arise when men of narrow hearts and little minds are in high places.” The war in which Rice and President Bush shared responsibility, the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and all that followed, was precisely such a war, deserving exactly that judgment.

Rice, though, was claiming that if the Westphalian international system were replaced by an American-led alliance of democracies ruling the world, international peace would prevail. Such a system has in one or another form been America’s foreign policy objective ever since Woodrow Wilson, even while American-instigated small wars of one or another kind, or American interventions in other peoples’ wars, have dominated recent years, intended to promote democratic global governance—all of them unsuccessful in outcome, or inconclusive. Even Kosovo/Serbia remains rife with tension, their frontier policed by foreigners.

Yet “global governance” has been probably the most fashionable subject in academic and professional international relations studies. The reason is simple to identify. “Europe” has been a success. At least a success until now, notwithstanding the economic ravages of the Wall Street crisis and the banking frauds that damaged the City of London and other West European markets and economies. Politically, the EU has been successful. Otherwise, as Thierry de Montbrial, founder of the World Policy Conference—which held its fifth annual session earlier this month in Cannes—wrote in his introduction to the meeting, the past five years have not produced much to support the argument of emerging world democratic convergence.

Advertisement

The most prominent argument made, above all in Germany, with respect to the crises in the southern EU member economies, has simply proposed still more European economic and monetary unity. This despite the rise in British political and popular anti-European (and anti-euro) sentiments, which have made British withdrawal from the EU a real if still remote possibility.

These days, domestic and international politics mainly concern national issues and clashes of interest. “[R]eal asymmetric economic relations do not look like the perfect markets of text books,” Montbrial writes, adding that, “financial markets are not always rational but can experience stress or even chaos; ... economic cycles are unlikely to be abolished anytime soon; ... [and] the era of ideological enthusiasm for globalization is over.”

The most important issues of political “governance” of concern these days are those of the Egyptian constitutional referendum and who will eventually govern Egypt; the civil insurrection in Syria; and the new form taken by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in all of which both the United States and the European Union remain impotent or irresolute observers.

Rice’s vision in 2003 of an American-dominated international democratic hegemony cannot today be taken seriously. The American public is increasingly unwilling to support the kind of large-scale military actions that Barack Obama inherited from George W. Bush. The Obama government is likely to find that world domination through its own drone attacks and “lily-pad” military bases policing the Middle East and Africa unfeasible as well as internationally unacceptable.

State sovereignty in the EU has indeed been weakened but far from replaced by European federation, and that is in a society with 2,000 years of religious and cultural integration. The Middle Eastern societies—despite 13 centuries of religious unity, the great Arab caliphates and the Ottoman experience—are fragile even where state sovereignty exists and can be enforced. The George W. Bush administration idea of a “New Middle East” proved a fantasy. In the Far East, old empires are reasserting their sovereign claims. Global governance has yet to prove its relevance to any civilization except that of the post-Enlightenment West, and one can question its relevance there. Political identity remains bound to national history—the fundament of sovereignty.

Visit William Pfaff’s Web site for more on his latest book, “The Irony of Manifest Destiny: The Tragedy of America’s Foreign Policy” (Walker & Co., $25), at www.williampfaff.com.

© 2012 Tribune Media Services, Inc.

TAGS: barack obama condoleezza rice egypt eu europe foreign policy government history iraq israel military palestine politics syria united states war william pfaff



Related Entries The NRA Responds to Sandy Hook Shooting, Richard Engel Is Freed, and More First, Get Rid of the Guns Pro-Gun Senators Call for Gun Control, NRA Takes Down Facebook Page, and More Guns, of Course, but What About Mental Illness?

Email to a friend

Get truth delivered to
your inbox every week.

Previous item: Westboro Baptist Church’s Tax-Exempt Status Challenged

New and Improved Comments

If you have trouble leaving a comment, review this help page. Still having problems? Let us know. If you find yourself moderated, take a moment to review our comment policy.

Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.Get Truthdig in your inbox

Newsletter

Become a Fan

Follow Us

Subscribe

     
       #donation_div {display:none;}.popup {background:#FFF; border:1px solid #333; padding:1px;}.popup-header {height:65px; padding: 30px 40px 10px 50px;}.popup-header h2 {margin:0; padding:0; font-size:18px; float:left;}.popup-header .close-link {float:right; font-size:11px;}.popup-body {padding: 20px 70px 20px 50px;}a {color: #990000;}Close

Give the gift of independent journalism.

Support Truthdig by making a donation of at least $25 in someone's name, and we'll send him or her a signed letter of appreciation from our publisher.

With your support, we've been able to pay writers such as Chris Hedges, Col. Ann Wright, Mr. Fish and Nomi Prins.

We've sent reporters around the world, from Afghanistan to Cairo to Cuba.

Thanks to you, our mission to find and publish a range of insightful opinion and analysis from a progressive point of view continues.

Support Truthdig

HOME|Digs|Reports|Arts & Culture|Uncovered|Ear to the Ground|A/V Booth|Cartoons
Tags|Bazaar|Podcast|About Us|Contact Us|User Agreement|Privacy Policy|FAQ: Comments and Moderation | Google+ Google+
A Progressive Journal of News and Opinion. Editor, Robert Scheer. Publisher, Zuade Kaufman.
© 2012 Truthdig, LLC. All rights reserved. Web site development by Hop Studios 

View the Original article

The NRA Responds to Sandy Hook Shooting, Richard Engel Is Freed, and More

White House Considers Some Gun Control Mexico Creates New Police Force Instagram Soon Can Sell Your Photos to Advertisers Without Compensation or Notification A Leftist’s Argument Against Gun Control Pro-Gun Senators Call for Gun Control, NRA Takes Down Facebook Page, and More
Robert Scheer on the Connecticut School Shooting and Gun Control Watch: ‘SNL’ Honors Connecticut School Shooting Victims GOP Lawmaker’s Solution to Preventing Mass Shootings: More Guns ‘Left, Right & Center:’ School Shooting, Susan Rice Withdraws, and More
Hollywood’s Raid on Convention
By Richard Schickel Understanding Economics in Plain English
By Thomas Hedges, Center for Study of Responsive Law Regulate Dissent in Hong Kong, Jackie Chan Says
Fighting Manifest Destiny
By Jonathan Yardley
The Questions Education Reformers Aren’t Asking
Dig led by Mike Rose

Gore Vidal: His Life and Legacy
Dig led by Truthdig Staff

advertisement

-->
Reckless EndangermentBy Gretchen Morgenson, Joshua Rosner
$17.04

advertisement

-->
Citizen StanBy Patty Sharaf with Robert Scheer
$15.00

advertisement

-->
Organic Cotton T-Shirt$24

  Politics Today Email    Print    Share

Tweet Posted on Dec 18, 2012

NRA Responds: After taking down its Facebook page and remaining silent on Twitter for the past few days, the National Rifle Association is finally responding to the devastating mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. In a statement, the gun lobbyist organization said: “Out of respect for the families, and as a matter of common decency, we have given time for mourning, prayer and a full investigation of the facts before commenting. The NRA is prepared to offer meaningful contributions to help make sure this never happens again.” The NRA also said it would hold a press conference Friday. (Read more)

Gun Analysis, Silver Style: As the gun control debate in America intensifies, Nate Silver is weighing in with a comprehensive statistical analysis of gun ownership in this country. Some of his findings are not surprising. For example, Republicans have more firearms than Democrats, and people living in urban areas are more likely to have guns. But some of the results of the analysis are not as obvious. Gun ownership is highest among the middle class. And despite what President Obama said in 2008 about voters clinging to their guns and religion, Silver discovered that the two are not “strongly related to each other.” (Read more)

Plan B Rejected: President Obama will reject House Speaker John Boehner’s “Plan B” to avoid falling over the fiscal cliff, the White House said Tuesday. Boehner’s backup plan, in case talks with the president fail, is to extend the Bush-era tax cuts to everyone making less than $1 million. But the White House has already decided it won’t accept the proposal because it “doesn’t ask enough of the very wealthiest in taxes and instead shifts the burden to the middle class and seniors.” (Read more)

Madame Defense Secretary?: Could the United States finally see its first female secretary of defense in 2013? Possibly. With Sen. John Kerry likely to become the next secretary of state, and Chief of Staff Jack Lew expected to replace Tim Geithner as the treasury secretary, the White House is under pressure to nominate someone who is not a white male to a top cabinet position. Enter Michele Flournoy, the former undersecretary of defense for policy, who is reportedly getting a second look to helm the defense department after U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice withdrew her name from consideration for the top job at State. Flournoy was the highest-ranking woman at the Pentagon before she stepped down in January to co-found a think tank. (Read more)

Video of the Day: NBC News’ Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel and his crew have all been released unharmed five days after they were kidnapped and taken as prisoners in Syria. The journalists, who are now safely in Turkey, were released after a gunbattle that erupted between their captors and Syrian rebels at a checkpoint. Engel recounted the crew’s ordeal Tuesday morning on NBC’s “Today.”

 

—Posted by Tracy Bloom.

More Below the Ad

Advertisement

TAGS: barack obama connecticut school shooting defense secretary fiscal cliff fiscal cliff deal gun control gun ownership john boehner michele flournoy nate silver national rifle assocation nra politics richard engel sandy hook elementary school sandy hook school shooting secretary of defense syria white house



Related Entries Global Governance at Heart of Failed Foreign Policies A Leftist’s Argument Against Gun Control Remember the Children First, Get Rid of the Guns

Email to a friend

Get truth delivered to
your inbox every week.

Previous item: White House Considers Some Gun Control

New and Improved Comments

If you have trouble leaving a comment, review this help page. Still having problems? Let us know. If you find yourself moderated, take a moment to review our comment policy.

Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.Get Truthdig in your inbox

Newsletter

Become a Fan

Follow Us

Subscribe

     
       #donation_div {display:none;}.popup {background:#FFF; border:1px solid #333; padding:1px;}.popup-header {height:65px; padding: 30px 40px 10px 50px;}.popup-header h2 {margin:0; padding:0; font-size:18px; float:left;}.popup-header .close-link {float:right; font-size:11px;}.popup-body {padding: 20px 70px 20px 50px;}a {color: #990000;}Close

Give the gift of independent journalism.

Support Truthdig by making a donation of at least $25 in someone's name, and we'll send him or her a signed letter of appreciation from our publisher.

With your support, we've been able to pay writers such as Chris Hedges, Col. Ann Wright, Mr. Fish and Nomi Prins.

We've sent reporters around the world, from Afghanistan to Cairo to Cuba.

Thanks to you, our mission to find and publish a range of insightful opinion and analysis from a progressive point of view continues.

Support Truthdig

HOME|Digs|Reports|Arts & Culture|Uncovered|Ear to the Ground|A/V Booth|Cartoons
Tags|Bazaar|Podcast|About Us|Contact Us|User Agreement|Privacy Policy|FAQ: Comments and Moderation | Google+ Google+
A Progressive Journal of News and Opinion. Editor, Robert Scheer. Publisher, Zuade Kaufman.
© 2012 Truthdig, LLC. All rights reserved. Web site development by Hop Studios 

View the Original article