Law & Information

New legislation will, for the first time, require the cruise industry to report crimes that occur in international waters, according to an article in USA Today. The nation’s largest anti-sexual assault group, RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network), has argued for some time now that crime on-board cruise ships is a bigger problem than has been reported.

The group has lobbied, and Congress has passed, the Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act. It requires that an alleged sexual assault victim be given the RAINN National Sexual Assault Hot-line as well as a rape exam and medications to prevent sexually transmitted disease. Ships will be required to install peep holes on cabin doors and will be required to report all crimes to the FBI. A trained forensic medical examiner must be on-board each ship who can handle forensic evidence.

This will make reporting a sexual assault on-board a cruise ship much easier that it’s been in the past. Too often vacationers let their guard down on cruise ships. When an assault occurs, the cruise line has no interest in implicating itself and often fails to collect basic evidence from the victim. Without evidence, and with a perpetrator who is ferried off the ship, there is little chance of convicting a rapist or violent criminal.

Still unresolved is the issue of the complexities from different countries that are involved in international cruises. The ship may be registered in one country, while the alleged perpetrator is a citizen of another.

The hot-line number is 800-656-HOPE. Online one can contact the group through online.rainn.org. The bill was promoted by Rep. Doris Matsui and Sen. John Kerry.

Some 274 new laws are scheduled to take place in Florida beginning Thursday, July 1, that will affect almost everyone, according to the Florida Sun-Sentinel.

For those teenagers who like to drink, and nearly half say they do, adults will face more serious charges if they supply the alcohol. As we’ve seen so many times, teens go to house parties where adults allow and even encourage drinking, only to die in a car accident leaving the party. House Bill 33 stiffens the penalties for anyone caught giving alcohol to underage drinkers. After the second offense, the party host would be subject to a first-degree misdemeanor.

Lawmakers wanted to make the offense of being a party host a more serious offense after Diane Santarelli was charged with partying with the kids. Two teens who were intoxicated left her house party and died in a car crash. She was charged with manslaughter, but the law just was not there for the jury to convict, so she was acquitted. This new law gives juries what they need to jail the offending parent.

Another law will allow heavier trucks on our Florida Roads. HB 1271 authorizes the Florida Department of Transportation to permit trucks that weigh up to 88,000 pounds, up from the current weight limit of 80,000 pounds. Critics say trucks are already big enough, especially when they collide with passenger vehicles, and an increase of 10 percent makes driving more dangerous. 263 Floridians died in truck collisions in 2008.

Among other laws, students in sixth grade will now be required to take a civics course beginning in 2012. Students will have to learn about the different branches of government and the U.S. Constitution. That is a good thing.

Most people can name all of the American Idol judges but cannot name even one justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.

You may recall that Delta Airlines temporarily mixed up two nine-year-olds, sending each one to the wrong cities. The children were connecting through Minneapolis-St. Paul in June, according to The Florida Times-Union. Because of a paperwork switch, the girl ended up in Boston instead of Cleveland, and the boy ended up in Cleveland instead of Boston. These were unaccompanied minors so they were traveling alone and the airlines are supposed to act as chaperons, making sure they leave one plane and are routed correctly to another. In both cases, the adults in charge failed to check the paperwork.

The boy told a local television station the airline was nice and apologized, fed him, and gave him donuts.

Delta’s policy prevents children, ages 5 to 14, from being booked on the last flight of the day in case a flight is canceled. And there are requirements for identification for the child and adults present at both the drop off and the pickup point.

Children age five and younger cannot travel alone, and ages five through 7 can travel alone only on nonstop and through flights. Families may be able to get a gate pass to bring the child through security to the departure gate.

There is no information from Delta on how often a mix-up such as this happens.

The families received an apology and the children were sent to their final destinations safely with the full cost of the ticket refunded as well as credits given to the family for future travel. This story had a happy ending, which is great for everyone involved, including the airline.

This unique sentence handed out by a judge is proving to be very effective. First-time shoplifters are sentenced, by Judge Peter Miller of Putnam County, to sitting and walking in front of the store and holding a sign saying “I stole from this store.”

Miller decides to forgo incarcerating the thieves for 30-days. He believes this embarrassment may ultimately do more good. For up to four hours, the offender must sit in front of the store with his sign. So far, Judge Miller has imposed this sentence on up to 2,000 first-time offenders and he says it must be working because he doesn’t see too many of them coming back after a second offense. The State Attorney’s office believes the sign is a very effective deterrent.

But the assistant public defender in Putnam County, Mack Brunton, says his office doesn’t care for the sign. They have even looked at challenging the sign-carrying over the years. Even he admits it does have a deterrent effect, especially when parents walk by any Palatka store and can point out the offenders to their children.

Judge Miller believes this form of punishment works because Palatka is a small enough community where everyone knows everyone. It might not be as effective in a larger city. And he doesn’t let the offender show up with dark glasses. If they do, they have to repeat the sentence.

Miller knows it’s working as a deterrent to crime. He tells Florida Trend, “I’ve had people tell me, ‘just put me in jail instead,’ and that’s when I know it’s working.”

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday, June 17, ruled that the state can widen the beach without paying compensation to beachfront property owners. A Miami Herald article reports that the issue was brought before the high court by six homeowners in the Florida Panhandle. They argued that when the state widened the beach, it changed their property from ocean front private property to an ocean view property, simply overlooking a now public beach.

But the justices voted 8-0 confirming a lower Florida Supreme Court decision that the beach-widening project did not amount to the “taking” of property. Justice John Paul Stevens abstained from voting because he owns a waterfront condo in Ft. Lauderdale slated for a beach-erosion project where sand is brought in to offset erosion of the beach.

Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection believes that adding sand to offset erosion provides storm protection for upland properties, restores plant and animal habitat, and creates recreational areas of the beach which draws to Florida about 27 million visitors a year, but the U.S. Constitution says the government is supposed to pay “just compensation” when private property is taken for public use.

The six homeowners said that replenishing the beach made the value of their property decline and they wanted Florida to compensate them for taking their property which is supposed to run to the water line at high tide.

There is nearly seven miles of storm-battered beach that is supposed to receive new sand from Destin through neighboring Walton County. It is to be designated as public property rather than private property of the homeowners forcing them to lose their exclusive beach rights.

Delta Airlines is apologizing for a switch of youngsters that sent them to the wrong cities last year, according to a Florida Times-Union article. The children were minors and in the custody of the airline’s unaccompanied minors program. Delta blamed the mix-up on a paperwork swap that incorrectly routed the children on wrong connecting flights in Minneapolis-St. Paul.

The boy ended up in Cleveland instead of Boston, and the girl was sent to Boston instead of Cleveland.
The girl has been identified by a Boston television station as Kieren Kershaw, 9, who was heading from his home in Spokane, Washington to Boston to visit his grandparents. The young girl was also alone. Kieren said the airline employees apologized and fed him and gave him donuts.

Do you have rights as an airline passenger? Since airline deregulation in the late 1970s all of your rights are in the small print on the back of your airline ticket. You are entering into a binding agreement when you buy that ticket.

Kieren’s grandfather, Larry Kershaw, said the airline failed to even ask the boy’s name to match the paperwork, after they are being paid to watch him. He asks how you can mix up a boy and a girl.

Delta Airlines admits the children were in their custody at the time. An investigation is underway.

Delta has made some amends. Besides apologizing to the families, the airline sent the children to their final destination at no cost, refunded the children’s tickets, and gave the family credits for future travel. And don’t forget the donuts.

You may be aware of a rift over trucking between the U.S and Mexico. President Bush had opened up the border with a demonstration pilot project that was supposed to open up U.S. roadways to trucks from Mexico. But safety advocates argued that the trucks in many cases, didn’t meet the minimum expectations of safety. U.S. labor feared it would lose jobs to Mexican drivers.

Then the opening was stalled in 2007.

Last March, Congress cut off the pilot program which stopped a select number of trucks from Mexico from crossing the border. When it stopped funding, the Mexican government, in retaliation, slapped a $2.4 billion in tariffs on about 90 U.S. products. Mexico argued that the North American Free Trade Agreement of 1995, was supposed to open cross-border trucking.

The Obama administration is hinting that it may decide to re-open the U.S. border to trucks from Mexico with some new conditions. The Office of the Inspector General says the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration must improve the safety of Mexico-domiciled trucks.

In a report issued last September, the Office of the Inspector General says there needs to be a sufficient database to allow the monitoring of Mexican carriers for safety as well as drivers. nd there needs to be a U.S. presence at the border to conduct meaningful bus inspections. With about $400 billion in bilateral trade between the two countries from fruit and vegetables to toilet paper, expect to see trucks from Mexico soon moving freely throughout the U.S. Let’s just hope that Congress insists they do so safely.

Source:http://www.todaystrucking.com/news.cfm?intDocID=23341

The investigation has concluded into the deadly September 12, 2008 collision of a commuter train with a freight train in Chatsworth, California that killed 25 and injured 135. As previously thought, the engineer was texting a message to young engineer fans from his phone as he passed a stop signal.

The engineer was killed in the head-on crash of two trains traveling at 40 mph. The National Transportation Safety Board concluded that all of the mechanical systems appeared to be working properly.

The 16-month investigation also concluded that the collision could have been avoided had an automated system that stops trains when humans fail, been installed.

Lawsuits filed against Metrolink, Veolia Transportation, Inc. and Connex Railroad LLC hope to show that authorities were aware that the engineer had engaged in this behavior previously, but was never disciplined or fired him.

The crash and subsequent investigation has renewed calls for an automated technology that can stop trains in the event of human error. Metrolink has plans to install a $201 million positive train control system by 2012. The NTSB recommends that all commuter trains install cameras and audio recorders to monitor train operators. And the 15-hour work day that is occasionally required of engineers and conductors, has raised concerns with NTSB board members.

In October, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law legislation that bans texting while driving. Florida texting ban legislation to be introduced this year may mean that our state joins California, Louisiana, Minnesota, New Jersey, Connecticut and Washington State, which have all banned text messaging while driving motor vehicles.

Source:http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-metrolink22-2010jan22,0,5862623.story

The American Trucking Association (ATA) is encouraging the federal government to focus on safe driver behavior as a top priority in its 2010-2015 Strategic Plan.

The ATA is the largest national trade association for the trucking industry. It made these safety recommendations as part of its progressive safety agenda adopted in 2008. In comments filed January 5, 2010, ATA tells the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) that distracted driving, speeding, and aggressive driving are dangerous behavior that become more so when congestion worsens and the number of trucks carrying freight on U.S. highways increases. ATA says to stress driver safety, states should focus on driver licensing and graduated driver licensing for teenage drivers. ATA also supports programs that educate and enforce such as Ticketing Aggressive Cars and Trucks (TACT).

ATA encourages states to reinstate a national maximum speed limit of 65 mph for all vehicles and governing the speed of all Class 7 and 8 trucks manufactured after 1992 to 65 mph or less.

These safety recommendations echo some safety recommendations in the annual report from the Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety. The group takes a close look at areas that need stronger enforcement – text messaging, graduated driver licensing (GDL) programs and ignition-interlock laws for drunk-driving offenders. Newly added to the set of 15 model laws includes seat belt use, booster seat and motorcycle helmet measures. The group also recommends setting a minimum age for a learner’s permit at age 16, and requiring an applicant for an unrestricted license to be age 18.

Given that car accidents in Florida and throughout the United States are the leading cause of death of teenage drivers, raising the driving age will cause much controversy but would also save lives.

Source:http://www.examiner.com/p-455200~ATA_to_NHTSA__Highway_Safety_Resources_Should_Focus_on_Driver_Behavior.html

Early Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected campaign spending limits on corporations with a 5-4 vote that opens the floodgates to what many fear could become corporate-sponsored elections. The Justices struck down a long-standing ban on corporate spending on candidates. Since 1907, the nation’s campaign finance laws have prevented corporate spending on candidates up for election.

In 1947, that ban was extended to unions and in 2002, the McCain-Feingold bill further extended the ban to cover loopholes, including restricting corporate-funded election ads 30 days before an election.

Judge Anthony Kennedy wrote the decision for the court saying that the marketplace of ideas includes corporations, which represent a significant segment of society. He suggested that government interference might amount to censorship since the First Amendment guarantees free speech. I didn’t know corporations had a right to Free Speech. Sounding like a frightening chapter out of the book, The Corporation, which outlines how our laws give corporations rights and privileges, but corporations have none of the downside of personhood. A corporation can’t be charged with murder, even though some of its actions can lead to the death of others.

The Center for Media & Democracy and Public Citizen, both advocacy groups, are circulating a petition, Americans Before Corporations, to pass a constitutional amendment to restore humans to the center of the political process, not corporations.

Public Citizen has prepared a video on what is it planning in response to the Supreme Court’s decision. Their Web site with the petition is Don’t Get Rolled. No one imagined we would ever need to specify that laws belong to people not corporations. The case before the court was Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.