First-hand account of the raid

source

"Last night, I was booked to play an event about an hour outside of Salt Lake City, Utah. The hype behind this show was huge, they presold 700 tickets and they expected up to 3,000 people total. The promoters did an amazing job with the show.. they even made slipmats with the flyers on them to promote in local shops.

So, we got to the show around 11:15 or so and it was really cool. It was all outdoors, in a valley surrounded by huge mountains. They had an amazing light show flashing on to a mountain behind the site, the sound was booming, the crowd was about 1500 people thick and everything just seemed too good to be true really. Well...

At about 11:30 or so, I was standing behind the stage talking with someone when I noticed a helicopter pulling over one of the mountain tops. I jokingly said "Oh look, here comes big brother" to the person I was with. I wasn't far off.

The helicopter dipped lower and lower and started shining its lights on the crowd. I was kind of in awe and just sat and watched this thing circle us for a minute. As I looked back towards the crowd I saw a guy dressed in camoflauge walking by, toting an assault rifle. At this point, everyone was fully aware of what was going on . A few "troops" rushed the stage and cut the sound off and started yelling that everyone "get the fuck out of here or go to jail". This is where it got really sticky.

No one resisted. That's for sure. They had police dogs raiding the crowd of people and I saw a dog signal out a guy who obviously had some drugs on him. The soldiers attacked the guy (4 of them on 1), and kicked him a few times in the ribs and had their knees in his back and sides. As they were cuffing him, there was about 1000 kids trying to leave in the backdrop, peacefully. Next thing I know, A can of fucking TEAR GAS is launched into the crowd. People are running and screaming at this point. Girls are crying, guys are cussing... bad scene.

Now, this is all I saw with my own eyes, but I heard plenty of other accounts of the night. Now this isnt gossip I heard from some candy raver, these are instances cited straight out of the promoters mouth..

- One of the promoters friends (a very small female) was attacked by one of the police dogs. As she struggled to get away from it, the police tackled her. 3 grown men proceeded to KICK HER IN THE STOMACH.

- The police confiscated 3 video tapes in total. People were trying to document what was happening out there. The police saw one guy filming and ran after him, tackled him and his camera fell, and luckily.. his friend grabbed it and ran and got away. priceless footage. That's not all though. Out of 1,500 people, there's sure to be more footage.

- The police were rounding up the staff of the party and the main promoter went up to them with the permit for the show and said "here, I have the permit." The police then said, "no you don't" and ripped the permit out of his hand. Then, they put an assault rifle to his forehead and said "get the fuck out of here right now."



Now.. let's get the facts straight here.

This event was 100% legal. They had every permit the city told them they needed. They had a 2 MILLION DOLLAR insurance policy for the event. They had liscenced security guards at the gates confiscating any alcohol or drugs found upon entry (yes, they searched every car on the way in). Oh, I suppose I should mention that they arrested all the security guards for possession.

Oh another interesting fact.. the police did not have a warrant. The owner of the land already has a lawsuit against the city for something similar. A few months ago, she rented her land for a party and the police raided that as well. And catch this, the police forced her to LEAVE HER OWN PERSONAL PROPERTY. That's right. They didnt arrest her, but made her leave her own property!!!

Don't get it twisted, this is all going down in probably THE most conservative state in the USA. And this is scary.. a gross violation of our civil liberties. The police wanted this party shut down, so they made it happen. Even though everything about this event was legal. The promoters spent over $ 20,000 on this show and did everything they had to to make it legit, only to have it taken away from them by a group of radical neo-con's with an agenda.

This was one of the scariest things I have ever witnessed in person. I can't even begin to describe how surreal it was. Helicopters, assault rifles, tear gas, camoflauge-wearing soldiers.... why? Was that really necessary?

This needs to be big news across the USofA. At least in our music scene (edm as a whole)... this could happen to any of us at any time. When we're losing the right to gather peacefully, we're also letting the police set a standard of what we can get away with. And I think that's BULLSHIT!

The system fucked up last night... They broke up a party that was 100% legal and they physically hurt a lot of people there at the same time. The promoters already have 6 lawsuits ready to file with their lawyers and the ACLU is already involved.

I'm sure some pictures (and hopefully some video) will surface soon. I'll make sure to post them up here on 404, so you can see the Police State of America at work. "

Naturally I was skeptical that the US army would raid a rave, but then I saw the footage that the eyewitness was confident would surface. The video corroborates the story and shows the spotlights from the helicopters, the heavily armed soliders breaking up the event, threatening concert goers, and tackling people to the ground.

Curious to see what this was all about, I payed the ACLU website a visit to see if they had any record of cases involving law enforcement targeting legal rave events and even going so far as to try and ban soothers and light sticks from electronic music events, revealing yet another dangerous flaw in US drug policy.

The National Guard was not sent out to Spanish Fork, Utah because the crowd was violent or the event was illegal. They were there to intimidate the electronic music crowd, using authoritarian tactics in the "War on drugs" that is already causing a massive backlash against authorities from electronic music enthusiasts across the United States. Utah law enforcement and the other authorities engaged in profiling electronic music events as being rife with MDMA (colloquially referred to as X or Ecstacy), raiding legal events, and harassing event goers will soon find that these tactics will quickly fail and accomplish the reverse of their intent.

If this behavior by law enforcement in the United States continues, raves will go back underground where they started. Illegal events where proliferation of MDMA will increase exponentially and overdose victims will not be able to get the medical attention they need in a timely fashion if at all.

I have seen and been told about how legal raves are run here in Canada at indoor venues like hockey arenas; there are local police officers on hand, event security do random drug searches, and EMS is standing by to treat people for exhaustion or MDMA abuse related problems including dehydration. In the UK, event staff will frequently hand out strips to test the quality of the MDMA event goers purchase if they do to minimize the health risk. US authorities have mountains of expertise and experience to refer to from UK authorities who were the first to deal with the trend and the drug related issues when it first surfaced, and yet they seem to be completely ignoring it. When I was in high school and Irish man who was a former MDMA addict and raver came to speak to us about raves (which were just coming into vogue in North America at the time) and his experiences. Not once did he advocate authoritarian police measures in dealing with the issue. Event organizers here have lauded the police for their cooperation in keeping raves legal and safe for everyone. You will not get that sentiment in Utah, because it seems that a handful of drug arrests (or simply the potential for them) outweigh education and community building.

Raving Mad: Police State Crackdown on Youth Culture

Salt Lake Tribune article

About 60 people were arrested Saturday night when police officers busted an illegal rave in Spanish Fork Canyon.
Those arrested were cited on a variety of charges including the possession of illegal narcotics, weapons violations, DUI, illegal consumption of alcohol by a minor, disorderly conduct, assaulting a police officer and drug distribution.
The youngest of those cited was 15 years old, said Utah County Sheriff's Sgt. Dan Gilbert.
Police in Utah County have monitored several raves this summer and have grown increasingly concerned about their legality and
Related Articles
# Ravers say cops were too rough making bust
safety, Gilbert said. When detectives got word that another party was planned for Saturday, they set to work to make sure they got their point across that such activity was not welcome in their area.
"The Sheriff's Office will investigate and look into and find an illegal mass gathering going on, we will take the appropriate action to stop the party at that time," Gilbert said.
Investigators learned that no permit had been requested for a mass gathering which requires a bond and Utah County Commission approval for groups larger than 250, said Gilbert. Police learned around noon Saturday that the rave would be held in the
Diamond Fork area of Spanish Fork Canyon and assembled about 90 officers from several agencies to enforce crowd control.
Undercover officers filtered into the party when the doors opened about 9 p.m. By 11:30 p.m. police confirmed that more than 250 people were in attendance and stormed the party. During their two hours at the DJ-driven dance party, undercover officers had observed a multitude of illegal activities including the sale and consumption of drugs such as cocaine, ecstacy, alcohol, methamphetamine and marijuana.
"The sale of drugs at these parties is so prevalent that at this particular rave party, drugs were offered to local off-duty emergency medical service personnel who were contracted to be there," Gilbert said.
A 17-year-old West Jordan girl overdosed on ecstasy, police said. Most of the participants were between 15 and 30 years old and were from Spanish Fork, Springville, Provo, Payson, as well as Davis and Salt Lake counties, Gilbert said. Two security guards hired by the promotor were arrested for the possession of cocaine and ecstasy and Spanish Fork police made two DUI arrests as partyers drove out of the canyon, he said.
Most of the 400 or so ravers left peacefully.
But others were detained if they had been seen doing something illegal or showed visible signs of impairment, said Gilbert.
In a sweep of the area after the crowd had been controlled, which one raver said was executed with unnecessary force, police found a plethora of drugs and drug paraphernalia scattered on the ground, Gilbert said.
Brett George told Fox News 13 that officers stormed the party and treated attendees unfairly, including beating one man that was trying to film the bust with a video camera.
Police want parents of teenagers to know the dangers of illegal, clandestine rave parties. Gilbert said that in addition to heavy drug use, raves attract sexual assaults, violence, theft and promote unsafe driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
mwestley@sltrib.com

Damn intolerant police state bullshit. Why do the old always feel it necessary to stamp out the fun and culture of the young?

Video footage of the raid: WMV file
MOV file

Other sources:

First-hand reports
Another video in MOV format

Violence Sparks Creative Thinking on Curfew

Article Source

Violence Sparks Creative Thinking on Curfew

Long Beach opens a detention center and boosts staffing on a van to round up violators.

By Laurie Kaye, Times Staff Writer

After 19 shootings in one week, Long Beach officials put some bite into their curfew law by opening up a center last month to detain youths found by police in public places between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.

Since July 25, instead of being taken to the police station downtown, minors loitering on the streets have been placed by police into patrol cars or a van driven by two officers designated for picking up curfew violators. Each youth is given a citation and driven to a community recreation center in Silverado Park to wait in a classroom-like setting for a parent or guardian.

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In the first week, 124 youths were taken to the center. About 85% were male, and most were ages 13 to 15, said Det. Stephen Stough of the Long Beach Police Department's Youth Services Division. He has volunteered to work overtime at the center.

"We had an extremely violent week … with a lot of shootings," said Police Cmdr. Jeff Johnson, noting that about a third of those shootings involved a minor, either as victim or suspect, and that most occurred during curfew hours. Many involved gangs.

"We need to think about getting kids off of the street," Johnson said.

In response, the city started a task force, assigning two officers to work overtime driving the van and three to staff the center. Most officers are drawn from youth detective services, Johnson said.

So far, Long Beach police say parents have been supportive of the curfew law. According to Stough, about 75% of the time parents are happy to see that their children are safe and off the streets, especially in light of the recent shootings.

But there are critics.

The American Civil Liberties Union has long argued that youth curfews violate the constitutional right to free movement and criminalize everyday and non-intrusive activities like standing on the street or walking the dog, unnecessarily turning law-abiding youths into criminals at 10 p.m.

"Curfews violate rights of young people who are citizens of this country," said Alex Koroknay-Palicz, executive director of the National Youth Rights Assn., a Maryland-based nonprofit organization. He says that curfews stereotype youth and that there is no conclusive evidence that curfews reduce crime rates.

In Long Beach, however, the early signs are good: Gang enforcement Lt. Gary Morrison says that shootings have dropped about 60% since the curfew center opened and that last week there were only five. He believes that increased enforcement efforts — along with the curfew crackdown — have led to the decrease.

"Curfew enforcement was part of the puzzle," Morrison said.

Under the city's decade-old curfew law, police typically issue about 1,000 citations a year, Johnson said. In July, 300 citations were handed out, which he said was higher than usual, although the numbers always rise a bit when schools are out.

The city considered creating the shelter 10 years ago but didn't have enough officers to staff it, Johnson said. He said he was finally able to get money to open the facility by using the political pressure the shootings engendered and working in conjunction with the community center to cut costs.

The curfew center allows police to increase their efforts and keep youths separate from criminal offenders. According to Johnson, police previously faced enforcement challenges, because curfew violators could not be arrested or held behind bars with more serious suspects while waiting for someone to pick them up.

Youths would sometimes have to await parents for hours. Police occasionally were forced to contact the county Department of Children and Family Services to take custody of a minor until parents arrived.

The Police Department is working with crime prevention units, Neighborhood Watch and the city Community Relations Division to get the message out. The city is also posting signs in entertainment districts to notify youths and their parents that the curfew will be enforced.

"We are telling our officers to cite any juveniles that are out during those times" the curfew is in effect, said Officer Greg Schirmer, public information officer for the Police Department. Exceptions are made for minors who are accompanied by a parent, are running an errand under the direction of a parent, are involved in employment activities or emergencies, or are attending official school, religious or other recreational events.

Once a youth is charged, he or she must appear before a judge to determine the penalty, which may include a fine, community service or probation, police said.

Curfew laws have been around for decades and reached their height in the 1990s, according to the youth rights group. Many cities across the Southland have curfew laws.

The ordinances are generally enforced at the discretion of the police officer, and most cities use the laws to deal with minors loitering after dark. Few engage in any type of curfew sweeps.

Many cities focus on entertainment districts on weekend nights. In Lakewood, patrolled by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, officials pay special attention to the mall and movie theaters, using film attendance projections to determine the number of deputies needed to enforce curfew and asking theaters to start shows before 10 p.m., Lakewood Lt. Mark Weldon said.

Minors are usually already subject to curfews by parents and are often aware of city curfews. In Huntington Beach, for example, the curfew is widely known and police issue only about five citations a month, Lt. Craig Junginger said.

Hermosa Beach primarily warns youths and rarely issues citations, police spokesman Paul Wolcott said. Redondo Beach stepped up enforcement a year ago after encountering fights and gang activity at a local mall, City Prosecutor Alan Honeycutt said. In Santa Ana, police strongly enforce curfews along Bristol Street, with its bars and restaurants.

Times staff writer Lomi Kriel in Costa Mesa contributed to this report.

Yeah. Real creative. If they really wanted to be creative, they'd arrest the violent criminals and leave the teens alone.

A Business Built on the Troubles of Teenagers

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/17/business/17teen.html?8hpib=&pagewanted=all

The New York Times
August 17, 2005
By LOUISE STORY

Mary Ann Davies has spent more than $100,000 in the last year to send her 16-year-old daughter to one private counseling and educational program after another. She has just signed up to go further into debt, committing herself to spend another $100,000 over the next two years for a boarding school in New York that she hopes will help her daughter overcome a drug problem.

"We're saving this life," said Ms. Davies, who works in advertising in Richmond, Va. "You can't put a price on that."

More and more parents of troubled teenagers are following the same course and sending their children to special programs - no matter the cost. At the same time, the number of programs available has soared. They differ from the tough boot camps and the long-term psychiatric stays that were the main options a couple of decades ago. The new "feel good" programs combine therapy and education, often in an outdoor setting, at an average cost of $5,000 a month.

Those numbers have drawn the attention of some big money investors, who see a growing need for the kind of services these programs provide. Although there have been allegations of abuse within the industry, and those have garnered most of the media attention on the schools, officials at several companies said almost all the incidents had been at a handful of less reputable programs.

At the same time, the influx of money from investors seeking a high return on equity is worrying some traditionalists in the field, who are concerned that the bottom line may take precedence over students' needs. So far, they said, the schools are able to charge enough to make solid profits while keeping most customers satisfied.

"If you've got a child with problems, this is your most precious asset, and I don't think any parent would ever cut corners if they thought there was a way to help their child through the problem they're experiencing," said Joseph Kenary, the president of the corporate finance business at CapitalSource Finance, a lender to the Aspen Education Group, based in Cerritos, Calif., and one of the more prominent providers of programs for troubled teenagers. If the programs are "run well, if they're full, they generate a pretty attractive return on a cash-on-cash basis."

No one tracks the industry's enrollment, revenues or claims of success or failure, in part because the programs fall through the regulatory cracks and in part because the industry is still so fragmented. But financial analysts and educational consultants estimated that the number of teenagers attending such programs had quadrupled since 1995, to as many as 100,000 this year. They estimate that annual revenues now total at least $1 billion.

Venture capital firms like Warburg Pincus and the Sprout Group, a division of Credit Suisse First Boston, have found it a promising business opportunity.

Two of the larger private companies, Aspen and Three Springs, based in Huntsville, Ala., have been buying up smaller programs and founding new ones. Universal Health Services, a public company that primarily owns hundreds of hospitals, has expanded into teenage behavioral programs.

John L. Santa, a co-owner of Montana Academy, a school based in Marion, Mont., that he co-founded in 1996, and president of the National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs, said he had been approached several times by companies looking to buy the school. But he decided not to sell, even though he said he believed that most large companies had been doing a good job so far.

"You're caring for individual kids," Dr. Santa said. "You're not making widgets. There's a fear as you move into a more corporate structure, you will lose some of what we do."

In contrast with companies focusing on general education - like Bright Horizons Family Solutions, the day care provider, and Edison Schools, the charter school company - the behavioral programs are dealing with a population that presents a higher risk.

"These kids are difficult," said Andrew E. Kaplan, a partner at Quad Ventures, a private equity firm that has been looking to invest in the field for about four years. "If something bad happens at one, it may be something that's completely out of your control. You may have done everything right, and still something happens."

Officials at the programs acknowledge that their type of therapy does not work for all teenagers. Even parents who were happy with the programs said they were not sure whether their teenager had simply matured or had changed because of the experience.

The teenagers who attend these programs have often been diagnosed with attention deficit disorder or other behavioral problems and are taking medications. Some have used drugs or have been sexually abused. Many have been in trouble at school or in minor trouble with the law. Others have run away from home or stolen from their parents.

The National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs lists 140 schools and programs, about 100 more than it listed in 1999. But educational consultants, who advise parents on these programs, say the total number of programs available is now closer to 300.

Since 1990, Lon Woodbury, an educational consultant who has published a newsletter on the industry for 15 years, said he had noticed an increase of 20 to 30 percent in the number of help programs for teenagers. In June, he wrote a column saying that there was still "plenty of room" for new programs.

"All indications are that the market is still growing," he wrote. "The consensus is that increasing numbers of children are in trouble and are not growing up very well."

It is not clear, however, if more teenagers have problems than a generation ago or if more parents are sending their teenagers away for help. Educational consultants said there seemed to be less of a stigma about seeking therapy today.

Perhaps most important, more parents have the disposable income or the equity in their homes to pay the typical price of $400 a day for an outdoor program. While most parents have to pay the bills themselves, some also receive help from their school district or insurance company.

The field began to commercialize in the mid-1990's. In 1998, the Sprout Group and Frazier Healthcare Ventures of Seattle bought the majority of Aspen, a company with a handful of programs at that time but with major plans to expand. In 2002, Warburg Pincus invested $15 million in Aspen; around the same time, the company received at least $48 million in loans from CapitalSource and Caltius Mezzanine, two companies that specialize in lending to small and midsize companies.

Investors are particularly drawn to the field because it is almost entirely supported by individual payments rather than being dependent on public financing. "I've been in the private equity business for 15 years, and I don't like to invest in companies where, with one strike of a pen, you can wipe out your business," said Nader J. Naini, a general partner with Frazier Healthcare and also the chairman of Aspen's board.

Since Frazier invested in Aspen, Mr. Naini said he had been approached several times by other groups wanting to buy the company. Frazier is in no hurry to sell its share, though, he said, because he expects continued growth.

Aspen and similar companies may go public at some point, company officials said. If Aspen went public, it would have to open its books to investors, allowing them to see its profit margins and operating costs. The company has 31 programs in 11 states, up from 6 programs in 1998. Aspen has recently expanded into the obesity market, offering schools and camps for overweight teenagers.

Industry analysts estimate that the companies typically generate profit margins of 10 to 20 percent.

Kirsten Edwards, an equity research analyst at ThinkEquity Partners, a research and investment banking firm in San Francisco, said larger companies were more efficient because they could spread the cost of their curriculums, marketing and overhead as they expand.

Universal Health Services, the hospital management company, acquired 12 properties from Charter Behavioral Health Systems for $105 million in 2000. That acquisition included the Provo Canyon School in Utah, which has been around since the 1970's as a help center for teens.

The company is set to take over several therapeutic schools that were run by CEDU Education, the earliest large company in therapeutic teenage help and a branch of Brown Schools, now bankrupt. Brown, which was based in North Palm Beach, Fla., went bankrupt in March largely because of lingering legal costs from lawsuits filed by several former students, said a spokesman for McCown De Leeuw, the private equity firm that owned Brown. Universal Health's bid of $13.35 million for the properties has been accepted by the bankruptcy judge, and the sale is expected to close at the end of the month, said George L. Miller, a partner at Miller Coffey Tate in Philadelphia and the bankruptcy trustee for Brown.

Another private company, Three Springs, has seized on the market growth in the last five years, adding six new programs. Three Springs now has 25 programs, and may continue to expand.

"What we are trying to do is build a continuum," said Sharon Laney, the company's chief operating officer. "If the kid does not fit this model, we have another."

Many teenager help programs were founded by counselors and therapists wanting to start their own businesses or by people who have had troubled teenagers in their lives. Some parents of graduates of these programs - among them Joel J. Horowitz, chairman of the board and the former chief executive at Tommy Hilfiger - have been so impressed by the schools that they have started foundations to help finance the programs for those who have trouble affording them.

A new reality television show on ABC this summer, "Brat Camp," which shows a wilderness program in action, could spur even greater interest by giving more parents insights into the programs.

Ms. Davies, the Richmond mother, said she wished she had found her daughter's new school in New York sooner. The other programs her daughter attended, she said, were not the right matches - and they cost a lot of money.

For now, Ms. Davies said, she is focusing on her hopes that her daughter will have a breakthrough and realize that she needs to change. But she said she was also wondering how she and her husband would meet all the bills. Already, they have dipped into their home equity.

"We're going have to reconcile this at some point, and it's going to be tough," she said. "I don't think we have a choice."

Your teen watch too much TV or spend too much time online? We have a camp for that!

Your teen dress in a way you don't like? We have a camp for that!

Your teen listen to music you don't approve of? We have a camp for that!

Your teen overweight, ugly and unpopular? You guessed it; we have a camp for that!

President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/04/20020429-2.html

President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health
Executive Order

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and to improve America's mental health service delivery system for individuals with serious mental illness and children with serious emotional disturbances, it is hereby ordered as follows:

Section 1. Establishment. There is hereby established the President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health (Commission).

Sec. 2. Membership. (a) The Commission's membership shall be composed of:

(i) Not more than fifteen members appointed by the President, including providers, payers, administrators, and consumers of mental health services and family members of consumers; and

(ii) Not more than seven ex officio members, four of whom shall be designated by the Secretary of Health and Human Services, and the remaining three of whom shall be designated -- one each -- by the Secretaries of the Departments of Labor, Education, and Veterans Affairs.

(b) The President shall designate a Chair from among the fifteen members of the Commission appointed by the President.

Sec. 3. Mission. The mission of the Commission shall be to conduct a comprehensive study of the United States mental health service delivery system, including public and private sector providers, and to advise the President on methods of improving the system. The Commission's goal shall be to recommend improvements to enable adults with serious mental illness and children with serious emotional disturbances to live, work, learn, and participate fully in their communities. In carrying out its mission, the Commission shall, at a minimum:

(a) Review the current quality and effectiveness of public and private providers and Federal, State, and local government involvement in the delivery of services to individuals with serious mental illnesses and children with serious emotional disturbances, and identify unmet needs and barriers to services.

(b) Identify innovative mental health treatments, services, and technologies that are demonstrably effective and can be widely replicated in different settings.

(c) Formulate policy options that could be implemented by public and private providers, and Federal, State, and local governments to integrate the use of effective treatments and services, improve coordination among service providers, and improve community integration for adults with serious mental illnesses and children with serious emotional disturbances.

Sec. 4. Principles. In conducting its mission, the Commission shall adhere to the following principles:

(a) The Commission shall focus on the desired outcomes of mental health care, which are to attain each individual's maximum level of employment, self-care, interpersonal relationships, and community participation;

(b) The Commission shall focus on community-level models of care that efficiently coordinate the multiple health and human service providers and public and private payers involved in mental health treatment and delivery of services;

(c) The Commission shall focus on those policies that maximize the utility of existing resources by increasing cost effectiveness and reducing unnecessary and burdensome regulatory barriers;

(d) The Commission shall consider how mental health research findings can be used most effectively to influence the delivery of services; and

(e) The Commission shall follow the principles of Federalism, and ensure that its recommendations promote innovation, flexibility, and accountability at all levels of government and respect the constitutional role of the States and Indian tribes.

Sec. 5. Administration. (a) The Department of Health and Human Services, to the extent permitted by law, shall provide funding and administrative support for the Commission.

(b) To the extent funds are available and as authorized by law for persons serving intermittently in Government service (5 U.S.C. 5701-5707), members of the Commission appointed from among private citizens of the United States may be allowed travel expenses while engaged in the work of the Commission, including per diem in lieu of subsistence. All members of the Commission who are officers or employees of the United States shall serve without compensation in addition to that received for their services as officers or employees of the United States.

(c) The Commission shall have a staff headed by an Executive Director, who shall be selected by the President. To the extent permitted by law, office space, analytical support, and additional staff support for the Commission shall be provided by executive branch departments and agencies.

(d) Insofar as the Federal Advisory Committee Act, as amended, may apply to the Commission, any functions of the President under that Act, except for those in section 6 of that Act, shall be performed by the Department of Health and Human Services, in accordance with the guidelines that have been issued by the Administrator of General Services.

Sec. 6. Reports. The Commission shall submit reports to the President as follows:

(a) Interim Report. Within 6 months from the date of this order, an interim report shall describe the extent of unmet needs and barriers to care within the mental health system and provide examples of community-based care models with success in coordination of services and providing desired outcomes.

(b) Final Report. The final report will set forth the Commission's recommendations, in accordance with its mission as stated in section 3 of this order. The submission date shall be determined by the Chair in consultation with the President.

Sec. 7. Termination. The Commission shall terminate 1 year from the date of this order, unless extended by the President prior to that date.

GEORGE W. BUSH
THE WHITE HOUSE,
April 29, 2002.

There you have it folks, straight from the horses's (or in this case, ass') mouth. In layman's terms this means that all public school students will be screened for mental health problems and if they're found to have any problems, they will be prescribed mandatory drugs made by you guessed it, the pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer. Parents who object to this may find CPS breathing down their necks, charging them with neglect. It's happened before in New York State where state officials threatened to take children from parents who didn't make them take Ritalin after the schools, not doctors, but the schools diagnosed them with ADD.

So here we are allowing the government and schools, not even doctors anymore to diagnose children as mentally/emotionally unstable. If parents don't go along with it, they lose their children to the state.

Parents I implore you, take your children out of government schools if you love them. Educate them at home. Don't let them get swallowed up in this machine!

Wisconsin to Ban Birth Control from College Campuses

http://www.mndaily.com/articles/2005/07/27/64850

College campuses have emerged as the latest battlefield in the nation’s war on women’s reproductive rights. Wisconsin has passed a bill entitled UW Birth Control Ban-AB 343. This bill prohibits University of Wisconsin campuses from prescribing, dispensing and advertising all forms of birth control and emergency contraceptives. Wisconsin State Rep. Dan LeMahieu, R-Oostburg, introduced this bill based on the belief that “dispensing birth control and emergency contraceptives leads to promiscuity.” In reality, full access to all birth control options — including emergency contraceptives — has no effect on the level of women’s promiscuity. Instead, birth control and emergency contraceptives help prevent more than 35,000 unintended births and 800,000 abortions each year.

The bill denies thousands of women essential health-care services and reproductive choices and affects their lives and futures in many ways. With this bill, rape victims will no longer be able to turn to campus health services to obtain emergency contraceptives to prevent an unwanted pregnancy, or receive postrape counseling and education — adding even more stress to a traumatic event. Students who want birth-control prescriptions, emergency contraceptives or even information about preventive birth control are forced to seek out these services at off-campus clinics. This poses a problem not only for students who attend rural Wisconsin university campuses and might not have a clinic nearby but also for many students who attend urban campuses but do not have access to transportation, money, insurance or time to travel to an off-campus clinic. By removing the convenience of having these services on campus, students are less likely to seek out preventive birth control, which could lead to more unintended pregnancies and abortions. Emergency contraceptives are especially vulnerable to this bill because they must be taken within 72 hours to effectively prevent pregnancy, thus, adding even more pressure for students to find a way off-campus to receive the prescription.

Any rollback of women’s reproductive rights is inexcusable, but the bill is especially disturbing because it is directed at college campuses and targets a population in which there tends to be a high concurrency of sexual assaults and unplanned sexual encounters. During a time in their lives when they need full access to all birth control options the most, this bill denies women access to any options at all. College is also a time when students are transforming into young adults and are taking control of their lives and futures. Denying women full reproductive services and choices sends the message that women cannot be trusted to make decisions that affect their bodies, their lives and their futures.

In passing this bill, Wisconsin has the distinct honor of becoming the first state in the nation to limit college students’ access to full birth control options. Minnesotans should be concerned about what this bill means for their future. Not only does the bill affect the 13,000 Minnesotans who attend college in Wisconsin, but it also sets a dangerous precedent for similar bills to be introduced on college campuses across the nation in the future. Currently, University of Minnesota students have access to full reproductive services at their on-campus clinics, including emergency contraceptives, pregnancy counseling, access to birth-control prescriptions and more. However, Minnesota, as Wisconsin’s nearest neighbor, might be the next stop in the introduction of college campus birth-control-ban bills.

Women’s organizations are fighting back. The National Organization for Women, Planned Parenthood, NARAL and others have announced their opposition to college campus birth-control bans. In addition, the Minnesota chapter of the National Organization for Women has launched its Birth-Control NOW! campaign, focusing on stopping the gradual rollback of women’s reproductive rights. A recent victory for the organization was when Walgreens amended its Pharmacist Refusal Clause. This clause stated that if a pharmacist refuses to fill a prescription, usually birth control or emergency contraceptives, on the basis of his or her “moral beliefs,” the customer was sent to another store to get her prescription filled. The amended policy places this burden back on Walgreens, making the company deliver the prescription from another store to the store the customer is at, or the customer’s house, in a timely manner. This insures that women are able to receive their prescription without undue burden or distress. Actions such as NOW’s campaign and others provide some light in the dark, uphill battle for the preservation of women’s reproductive rights.

Above all, Minnesotans should train a watchful eye on the development of Wisconsin’s bill because, one semester, a similar bill might end up at the University of Minnesota’s doorstep — stripping students of the essential reproductive-rights services they now take for granted.

Kristina Shaw is vice president for the National Organization for Women, Minnesota Chapter. Please send comments to letters@mndaily.com

What the hell do these morons hope to accomplish by doing this?

Brat Camp

Brat Camp

Brat Camp is a reality show on ABC which is produced and directed by Arnold Shapiro who did the first (and IMO only real good) season of Big Brother. Brat Camp is about seven "troubled" teens who are seized from their homes, handcuffed and blindfolded and taken to the SageWalk wilderness camp Oregon in the middle of the night. Initially they're told they'll only be there a week, but this a lie. They are there for 40 days minimum.

When they arrive there, their property is taken away from them and searched, reminiscent of concentrate camp inmates during the Holocaust. The teens are put through a torturous montain hike in a blizzard and are made to learn how to build a campfire. Some of the kids suffer from asthma, but this is not attended to. They are told to "suck it up".

None of these teens deserves to be treated this way. Yes some of them have done some shocking things, like pulling a knife on a family member, but they need counseling and understanding, not torture.

If this were to be done to people over 18, it'd be a rights violation. Because they're under 18, they can be sent to this place against their will, have their property taken from them and then be kept there for as long as their parents want? What a load of shit! When is slavery going to be outlawed in this country?

What do you want to be that many of these kids will recidivate when they get back home? Some will and this is because wildnerness retreats like this do nothing for a teen with emotional problems. If anything they just make them worse because these teens' trust in their families has been violated. Now many of them will seeth with rage against their parents. Stuff like this damages teens' relationships with their families rather than helps them.