Current Affairs

[Rogue Angel]

Charges dropped against suspect in Ramsey case by Jeff Kass
27 minutes ago

BOULDER, Colorado (AFP) - Prosecutors dropped charges against John Mark Karr, who triggered a media frenzy by confessing to killing six-year-old beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey, leaving the decade-old case cold once more.

Less than two weeks since Karr was arrested in Thailand and flown to the United States, District Attorney Mary Lacy said a DNA sample from Karr failed to match DNA traces at the crime scene and that witnesses put him elsewhere at the time of the murder.

"The DNA associated with the victim in this case does not match John Mark Karr," District Attorney Mary Lacy said.

"The family of Mr. Karr cooperated by providing circumstantial evidence that Mr. Karr spent Christmas with his family in Atlanta, Georgia," at the time of the murder in 1996, Lacy said.

After a media circus covering Karr's extradition from Thailand, featuring Karr, 41, in Thai Airways business class reportedly drinking champagne, eating pate and king prawns next to a US Homeland Security agent, the case, remains unsolved.

Karr's attorney, Seth Temin, accused US authorities of acting without proof against his client.

"We are deeply distressed by the fact that they took this man and dragged him here from Bangkok, Thailand with no forensic evidence confirming the allegations against him, and no supporting factors leading to a presumption that he did anything wrong," Temin said.

Ramsey's parents found their daughter's mutilated body in their wine cellar the day after Christmas in 1996.

US police were from the start criticized for their handling of the case, but DNA evidence was recovered, and it did not match Karr's.

Karr was arrested in Thailand on August 16 on a California warrant over charges of possessing child pornography.

Thai police said he had confessed to killing Ramsey unintentionally, and told them he was "in love" with JonBenet, who wore makeup and glamorous outfits and struck precocious poses in her appearances at child beauty pageants.

US officials tracked Karr to Bangkok after studying four years' worth of his e-mails to University of Colorado journalism professor Michael Tracey.

"I am trapped in a world that does not understand," Karr said in one exchange. "I can understand people like Michael Jackson and feel sympathy when he suffers as he has."

While his arrest has revived huge interest in the murder -- in which, at one point, JonBenet's parents were investigated as possible suspects -- suspicions arose that Karr might not be the girl's killer.

Karr's ex-wife Lara Marie Knutson has said that on the day JonBenet's body was found, she was with Karr and their three sons in the southeastern US state of Alabama.

Her 11-year marriage to Karr ended in 2001, the year Karr was charged with possession of child pornography in Sonoma County, California, north of San Francisco.

And a Thai police officer reportedly said Karr had mentioned that he had drugged and sexually assaulted the Ramsey girl before she died. However, Ramsey's family lawyer, noted that JonBenet's autopsy showed no signs of drugs and inconclusive evidence of sexual assault.

The media furor was fed by reports that Karr, who taught at a number of Bangkok Christian schools, was planning sex-change surgery.

Hong Kong's Sunday Morning Post reported that Karr was seeking treatment at the Pratunam Polyclinic, specializing in so-called gender reassignment, but the clinic was unable to confirm whether Karr had been treated by them.

Asked last week by reporters if he had killed her, Karr said: "No, I did not. It was an accident." However, the girl's body was found beaten and strangled with a garrote.

Karr also reportedly told Thai police that he had "loved" the little girl.

Karr's motive for the confession, remains fodder for speculation, along with the identity of the real murderer.

UMMMMMM.... his motive? he's a crazy asshole, how's THAT for a motive? this shit happens all the time... he was looking for media attention, and found a way to get it. Just because he didn't commit THIS crime doesn't mean he's not a sick fucker...

*sighs*... this is one of those cases that i expect will never be solved... i have been following it closely because it's a subject close to my heart. The mistreatment and abuse of children, i mean. Though it's of local interest for everyone here as well, because Patsy Ramsey was originally from here.... it's sad... no one that loved her will ever have the peace of mind that someone is paying for what they did to her... *shaking head*..... it's a sick world....

[Pickles]

Ernesto to strengthen when it hits Florida

August 28, 2006

Associated Press

People fill their vehicles and extra fuel tanks with gas in Miami as they prepare for the approaching Tropical Storm Ernesto that is threatening south Florida. (Photo by JOE RAEDLE/AFP-Getty Images)
HAVANA  Tropical Storm Ernesto hit Cuba west of the U.S. naval air base at Guantanamo Bay on Monday after killing one person in Haiti as it stayed on track toward Florida, where forecasters expect it to strengthen back into a hurricane.

Ernesto became the Atlantic seasons first hurricane on Sunday morning with maximum sustained winds of about 75 mph before weakening and moving ashore about 20 miles west of Guantanamo, with top sustained winds of nearly 40 m.p.h.  thats 1 m.p.h. above the minimum to be a tropical storm.

Forecasters said Ernesto would regain strength once it reached the warm waters north of Cuba, and Florida Gov. Jeb Bush declared an emergency, ordering tourists to evacuate the Florida Keys.

We do expect it to reach the Gulf, maybe as a Category 1 hurricane, possibly a
Category 2, said John Cangialosi, a meteorologist with U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami. Its difficult to say where it will be, but in three days were projecting it anywhere from the eastern Gulf near the Florida panhandle to the western Bahamas.

About 400 miles of the Florida coast were under a hurricane watch from New Smyrna Beach southward on the east coast and from Chokoloskee southward on the west coast. The Keys were put under a watch Sunday.

I dont want anyone to overly focus on the downgrading. ... It has a good chance to regain hurricane status, said Max Mayfield, director of the hurricane center.

NASA gave up on a Tuesday space shuttle launch and prepared to move Atlantis into its giant shelter at Cape Canaveral, Fla., if the storm continued to threaten.
Bush urged Florida residents to make preparations and not wait until the storm is upgraded. Its a familiar theme, considering seven hurricanes have hit Florida and one has brushed by in the past two years.

My suggestion: Take this storm very seriously. A hurricane is a hurricane, said Bush, urging people to have 72 hours worth of supplies.

By Monday afternoon, Ernestos poorly defined center was about 15 miles east-southeast of Holguin, Cuba, moving northwest near 10 mph. It dumped heavy rain in localized areas of eastern Cuba, but the storms winds had diminished greatly as it started moving across land, leading Cuban meteorologist Jose Rubiera said on state television.

None of the 445 prisoners being held at the U.S. base at Guantanamo because of suspected of links to al-Qaida or the Taliban were exposed to the weather. For the last three years, detainees have been kept in cells without windows or with a single window covered with a heavy steel hurricane shutter. The cells replaced the open steel cages where prisoners were initially held.

U.S. military personnel, except for guards and people in other critical jobs, were told to stay in their quarters until the storm passed, said Navy Lt. Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon, a Defense Department spokesman.

There were no reports of damage or injury in Cuba. The communist government regularly undertakes mass evacuations before tropical storms and hurricanes to minimize injury and loss of life. This time, Cubans moved cattle to higher ground, tourists were evacuated from hotels in the southeastern province of Granma and baseball games were rescheduled for earlier in the day in Havana. Train service across the country was also stopped while the storm passes.

The government changed a hurricane warning for six eastern provinces in Cuba to a tropical storm warning, and state TV urged precautions. Cattle were moved to higher ground, tourists were evacuated from hotels in the southeastern province of Granma, and baseball games scheduled for Sunday night in Havana were played earlier in the day.

The storm could return to open ocean north of Cuba as early as Monday night,
Rubiera said.

A hurricane watch also was posted for the northwestern Bahamas and a tropical storm warning was issued for the central Bahamas.

Cruise ship companies said they were diverting several liners to avoid the storm.
In Haiti, Marie Alta Jean-Baptiste, director of the civil protection agency, said one person on Vache island off Haitis south coast died in the storm, but she could not give details.

Skies darkened as wind gusts swayed palm trees in Les Cayes, 100 miles west of the capital of Port-au-Prince. People put goats and cows into shelters, and fishermen pulled nets ashore.

Forecasters said up to 20 inches of rain could fall in some mountain areas of Haiti,
raising fears of flash floods in the heavily deforested country.

The only thing we can do is just wait and keep our fingers crossed, said Frantz Gregoire, 42, owner of the Bay Club, a thatch-roofed seaside restaurant. He said he would send his workers home if the storm worsened.

Haitian officials went on the radio to warn people in coastal shantytowns to seek shelter in schools and churches and they evacuated some low-lying areas in the northwestern city of Gonaives, which was devastated by floods during Tropical Storm Jeanne in 2004.

*hopefully it will be only a tropical depression or storm*
[img]confused.gif[/img] [img]eek.gif[/img] [img]eek.gif[/img]

[Pickles]

One year later Katrina

One year. It's been one year since Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast. One year since the levees broke and the city of New Orleans drowned. One year since the poor people of New Orleans stood on their roof tops with signs that screamed "Help Us," but help didn't come until, in too many cases, it was too late.

First year anniversaries are meant to commemorate the dead and ease the grief of the living. If Hurricane Katrina had only been the worst natural disaster in American history, we could do that. But it was also one of the worst failures of political leadership--before, during, and after--in American history. And so the politicians involved have spent the past year spreading the blame around to avoid answering the question crucial for any type of healing: Why did it happen?

In HBO's magisterial When the Levees Broke, Spike Lee performs a levelheaded autopsy of the disaster. And his answer is that the political leaders did not care enough to respond quickly enough to avoid the tragedy. Governor Blanco cared more about the appearance of being in control than she did about the situation in New Orleans. And President Bush cared more about fundraisers and the concept of state rights than he did about the situation in New Orleans to preempt the Governor and send in the military before the food, water, and medical supplies ran out.

As if to underline this point, Bush used this time of mourning for New Orleans to make an impassioned appeal to continue aid for a place he cared about enough to preemptively invade: Iraq. Does the President of the United States care more about the people over there than he does the people here?

[Rogue Angel]

pfffft.... does he even know what PLANET he's on... that's the question... LOL... [img]graemlins/shhh.gif[/img]

[Rogue Angel]

this one is in my area of expertise:

Sleep apnea in middle age raises heart disease risk
Tue Aug 29, 1:02 PM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Obstructive sleep apnea in middle-aged adults may increase the risk of coronary artery disease by up to five-fold, research in Sweden suggests. However, successful treatment of the sleep apnea significantly cuts that risk.

Although evidence supports ties between sleep apnea -- that is, brief but frequent episodes during the night when breathing becomes blocked -- and coronary artery disease, a causal relationship has not been established, Dr. Yuksel Peker and his colleagues at Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Goteborg note. The concomitant presence of other illnesses further complicates the ability to delineate cause and effect.

For their study, Peker's team identified 308 middle-age individuals (ages 30 to 69 years) who had been evaluated for obstructive sleep apnea in 1991 and were free of any heart disease at baseline. Nearly one-third (n=105) patients had documented obstructive sleep apnea.

Patients were offered various standard treatments including CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure), surgery, or an oral appliance. Sleep apnea was not resolved despite treatment or offers of treatment in 65 patients.

Over the next 7 years, coronary artery disease was diagnosed in 16.2 percent of patients with sleep apnea and 5.4 percent of those without apnea. Eight deaths due to coronary artery disease occurred in the apnea group and one in the non-apnea group.

Among patients with ineffective treatment, coronary artery disease was diagnosed in 24.6 percent versus 3.9 percent of those effectively treated.

In "multivariate analysis," obstructive sleep apnea at baseline nearly quintupled the risk of developing coronary artery disease, the investigators report, regardless of age, gender, high blood pressure, diabetes, or current smoking.

However, effective sleep apnea treatment reduced the increased risk by about two thirds.

In the European Respiratory Journal, Peker's team maintains that their study "clearly suggests a causal relationship between obstructive sleep apnea and coronary artery disease."

"Even mild obstructive sleep apnea seems to have a substantial effect on coronary artery disease risk, and highly effective treatment should therefore be provided," they write.

SOURCE: European Respiratory Journal, September 2006.

*laughs a little*... anyone that has done sleep studies for 5 or 6 years will tell you that of COURSE there is a link between heart disease and sleep apnea... you look at someone's EKG that has severe obstructive apnea, and stops breathing from anywhere between 10 and 70 seconds.... and you will see premature ventricular contraction... premature atrial contraction... premature junctional beats...tachycardia... atrial fibrillation, atrial flutter, every type of heart block there is, and oh... occasionally if severe enough, they will have runs of SVT or v-tach.... ummm.. yeah... i think it probably affects the heart... LOL... [img]eek.gif[/img]

[Rogue Angel]

Ernesto strengthens, could become hurricane

Rejuvenated storm and other system spell wet Labor Day weekend in East

WILMINGTON, N.C. - Tropical Storm Ernesto continued to strengthen Thursday and could become a hurricane by the time it makes landfall along the Carolinas, the National Hurricane Center said in its latest bulletin.

The center earlier Thursday had not expected Ernesto to strengthen much beyond sustained winds of 60 mph, but by 2 p.m. ET it had reached 70 mph ? 4 mph below hurricane status.

?Ernesto could strengthen a little more and reach the coast as a hurricane,? the center said in its bulletin.

The center earlier issued hurricane watches along the coasts of South and North Carolina, and Virginia?s governor declared a state of emergency there.

The hurricane watches were issued for the coastline from the Santee River in South Carolina to Cape Lookout, N.C.

Ernesto?s outer bands reached the South Carolina coast early Thursday as the storm threatened to sweep ashore on top of thunderstorms that have been drenching the Carolinas for over a day.

Emergency declarations
The two systems were expected to make for a wet and windy Labor Day weekend in the Mid-Atlantic and even the Northeast.

In Virginia, Gov. Timothy Kaine declared a state of emergency, preparing the Virginia National Guard and state agencies to take all reasonable actions to protect residents. In Pennsylvania, officials worried about the storm reaching a dam north of Pittsburgh that was damaged by recent heavy rain there.

For residents who have long weathered hurricanes in this vulnerable region, Ernesto?s winds were of little concern. But the tropical storm?s arrival on top of the earlier storm system stalled over North Carolina heightened fears of flooding.

?We need some rain around here ? just not all at once,? said Jean Evans, a convenience store worker along North Carolina?s Holden Beach, part of the lengthy strip of coastline under the National Weather Center?s tropical storm warning.

Ernesto ? downgraded to a tropical depression over Florida, then upgraded overnight as it moved over the warm waters of the Atlantic ? was forecast to make landfall again late Thursday along South Carolina?s coast, likely near Georgetown. From there, it was on course for central North Carolina.

The Mid-Atlantic region has struggled this summer with on-again, off-again drought. But the run off from back-to-back heavy downpours, while refilling reservoirs, could also cause damaging flooding.

Central North Carolina has had anywhere from 3 to 8 inches of rain in the past day, National Weather Service meteorologist Deborah Moneypenny said.

Some power outages
Duke Energy, which serves central and western North Carolina and parts of South Carolina, reported 4,900 customers without power at 8:30 a.m. Thursday, and Ernesto?s outer rain bands had only begun to reach South Carolina.

Ernesto was expected bring another 4 to 8 inches of rain to the Mid-Atlantic states, with up to 12 inches in some areas.

?We?re taking it very seriously,? said Cathy Plaut, a Wake Forest resident visiting Oak Island for a family vacation. ?But things don?t look too bad. If that changes, we can always head out of here.?

Hundreds of National Guard troops were on alert, and officials in the Carolinas warned residents to prepare for anything.

?We know we?re going to get a lot of rain, we know this is going to be a water event,? North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley said.

Ernesto was expected to move ashore along the northern South Carolina coast Thursday afternoon or night, but a larger area will be affected because tropical storm-force winds stretched out up to 85 miles from its center.

No evacuations were ordered in the Carolinas, though both states? governors urged residents to keep abreast of forecasts.

In North Carolina, Easley activated 150 National Guard troops and the State Emergency Response Team to prepare for possible flooding and power outages. Guard troops in South Carolina were released from active duty Wednesday but remain on standby status, Lt. Col. Pete Brooks said.

Sand bags and surges
On James Island, one of a string of barrier islands on the South Carolina coast, Gerald Galbreath made two trips Wednesday to collect 24 sand bags from the fire department.

?I don?t want any water coming in and doing any damage,? he said. ?It?s just precautionary.?

?All of James Island and (nearby) Folly Beach is in a flood zone,? said Capt. Brian Pucel of the fire department. ?So even in just a good storm, a summer storm, we have flooding on the whole island.?

Forecasters said a storm surge of 3 feet to 5 feet was possible in the Carolinas, with the highest surge coming Thursday night or Friday morning around the time of high tide.

In North Carolina, forecasters said as much as 8 inches of rain was possible from Ernesto. The storm?s track looked like it would affect areas from Winston-Salem, in the north-central part of the state, to the coast.

Ernesto lost much of its punch crossing eastern Cuba and made landfall late Tuesday on Plantation Key, Fla., with 45 mph wind ? far from the 74 mph threshold for a hurricane that Ernesto briefly met Sunday.

Both Florida and North Carolina have a long history with tropical systems sweeping along the Atlantic coast. The Carolinas have encountered 10 hurricanes over the past decade, second only to Florida ? which has seen 11 during that span.

[Pickles]

LAS VEGAS, Nevada (AP) -- Polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs agreed Thursday to be taken to Utah to face charges he was an accomplice to rape by arranging marriages between young girls and older men.

Shackled at the waist, with two deputies in bullet-proof vests gripping him by the elbows, Jeffs, 50, responded calmly when addressed by Las Vegas Justice of the Peace James Bixler.

The judge informed Jeffs of the charges against him, which carry the possibility of life in prison.

Asked what he wished to do, Jeffs said in a low voice, "Go ahead and be extradited." (Watch Jeffs talk to the judge -- 2:53)

Jeffs was served in court with documents spelling out the charges filed against him by authorities in Utah.

They include two counts of rape by accomplice, which accuse Jeffs of forcing a girl to marry an older man and submit to him sexually.

One accuser said Jeffs performed a wedding over her repeated objections. After the girl continued to resist the man for a month, Jeffs ordered her to "give your mind, body and soul to your husband like you're supposed to," according to an affidavit.

"Go back and do what he tells you to do," Jeffs said, according to the affidavit.

Jeffs, believed by his followers to be a prophet, spent two years on the run and three months on the FBI's Most Wanted List before his chance arrest late Monday during a traffic stop in Las Vegas. (Watch how body language tipped off a trooper -- 2:46)

Two prosecutors from the Washington County district attorney's office in Utah were in the courtroom. Prosecutor Jerry Jaeger and Ryan Shawm said they planned to take Jeffs as soon as possible.

The Utah prosecutors agreed Wednesday with their counterparts in Arizona to seek Jeffs first because they have a stronger case and more serious charges.

Prosecutors hope Jeffs' arrest will break his hold on nearly 10,000 followers and empower them to speak out about their lives within the sect and the arranged marriages of young girls there, some just 13 years old.

In past attempts to prosecute polygamists within the sect, victims have faced powerful pressure to stay quiet from family members and their insular communities along the Utah-Arizona border that consider Warren Steed Jeffs a prophet of God. (Watch how Jeffs ruled with absolute authority -- 4:28)

Just this week, a sexual assault trial of another sect member was put on hold after the alleged victim, a woman married off at 16, refused to testify.

"They pretty much have to renounce their entire heritage to go against the prophet," said Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard. "That has got to be hard to do."

Jeffs' Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, with congregants mostly in Hildale, Utah, and neighboring Colorado City, split from the mainstream Mormon Church when the Mormons disavowed polygamy more than 100 years ago.

Jeffs took over the renegade sect in 2002 after the death of his 98-year-old father. He is said to have at least 40 wives and nearly 60 children.

Flora Jessop, a former sect member who remains skeptical about whether Jeffs' arrest will change the sect's practices, said the key to building the case against Jeffs is a willingness of victims to talk.

"It's a matter of using the window of opportunity that we have to get resources, education, help to the women and children who do want out, releasing that stranglehold of fear that he has on their minds, enough to get them help," Jessop said.

While Jeffs' arrest won't make that reluctance disappear, prosecutors say it might help encourage victims to come forward, because they can see that the church leader is being held accountable.

"It will take great courage for them to testify in these proceedings," Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff said. "We congratulate them because the message is nobody is above the law."

One day after Jeffs was arrested, the sexual assault trial of sect member Randolph Barlow, 33, was put on hold in Kingman because the alleged victim refused to testify. The charges stem from Barlow's spiritual marriage to the woman when she was 16.

"I have to have her testimony to convict Warren Jeffs," Mohave County Attorney Matt Smith told KGMN radio in Kingman. "If she's going to refuse to testify against Randy Barlow, why would anybody think I could get her to testify against Warren Jeffs?"

[Rogue Angel]

Bush assassinated? New film depicts it

British TV network defends its airing of ?Death of a President?

LONDON - A British television network plans to broadcast a dramatic, documentary-style film about a fictional assassination of U.S. President George W. Bush, the network?s head said Thursday.

The program uses actors and digital manipulation of real footage to show a fictional account of Bush being gunned down after delivering a speech in Chicago, Peter Dale, the head of More4, told a news conference.

?Death of a President,? also scheduled to be shown at the Toronto Film Festival in September, focuses on all those linked to the pretend crime ? including nearby anti-war protesters, suspects, Secret Service guards and investigators, Dale said.

More4, which is the digital offshoot of Britain?s Channel 4 network, plans to show the program on Oct. 9.

The White House declined to comment on the network?s announcement, saying it would not dignify the program with a response.

?It?s an extraordinarily gripping and powerful piece of work, a drama constructed like a documentary that looks back at the assassination of George Bush as the starting point for a very gripping detective story,? Dale told reporters.

?It?s a pointed political examination of what the war on terror did to the American body politic,? he said.

Dale said he expected the film would upset some, but defended it as a sophisticated piece of work.

?It?s not sensationalist, or simplistic but a very thought-provoking, powerful drama,? he said. ?I hope people will see that the intention behind it is good.?

?Death of a President? is directed by Gabriel Range, whose 2003 TV movie ?The Day Britain Stopped? showed what might happen if the country?s transportation network ground to a halt.


........ *HUGE grin*... i'm not sayin a word... [img]graemlins/shhh.gif[/img]

[Rogue Angel]

'Lost' Actor Arrested on Traffic Charge
Sep 5, 3:41 PM EST


The Associated Press

HONOLULU -- Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje of the hit TV series "Lost" was arrested on a traffic violation in Waikiki this weekend, police said.

The 39-year-old actor, who plays Mr. Eko on the ABC drama, was arrested early Saturday for disobeying a police officer and driving without a license. He posted $500 bail and was released after spending a little more than six hours in jail, police said.

He is scheduled to appear in district court Sept. 26.

Akinnuoye-Agbaje, who plays a former African drug lord who has taken on the identity of a priest, is the third cast member of "Lost" to be arrested for traffic violations in Hawaii, where the series is shot.

In December 2005, Michelle Rodriguez and Cynthia Watros were arrested for drunken driving. They were arrested in separate cars within 15 minutes of each other. Both pleaded guilty.

Watros, 38, had her license suspended for 90 days, paid a $312 fine and was ordered to undergo alcohol assessment and counseling.

Rodriguez, who had a previous drunken-driving conviction in Los Angeles and two speeding tickets in Honolulu, was sentenced to five days in jail and $357 in fines.

The 28-year-old actress also spent a day in jail in California after

<font color="#8B0000" size="1">[ September 06, 2006 12:52 PM: Message edited by: Rogue Angel ]</font>

[Rogue Angel]

Are red-light cameras fair to drivers?

Think again before you mash the accelerator at that yellow light, and not just for safety's sake. In more than 100 cities around the country, an electronic eye is watching you. It's not inclined to cut you any slack -- or even to give you a fair shake, as many critics see it.

Despite concerns about everything from accuracy to privacy -- even about whether they reduce accidents at all -- red-light cameras that capture offenders on film so they can be ticketed are proliferating. They're in use in Denver; Atlanta; New York City; Portland, Ore.; and Seattle. More seem to pop up every month.

There is no doubt that red-light running is a big problem. Drivers running red lights account for about 22% of traffic accidents in the U.S., according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. And that number has been growing: Deadly automobile crashes at traffic signals jumped more than 13% between 1993 and 2003, according to data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, far outpacing the nearly 7% rise in other fatal crashes during that period. A big part of that jump is caused by red-light running, the government says. The offense now kills about 900 people annually and injures 176,000 more.

While no one denies the need to stop red-light runners, there's some debate as to whether cameras truly make intersections safer.

Easy money, low manpower
The systems work like this: Cameras are usually triggered by road sensors when a car encroaches on an intersection after the light has turned red. A camera snaps a picture of the license tag and sometimes photographs the driver, too. That information is then usually forwarded to the local police department to interpret, and a citation is issued. Some systems use short video "clips" instead of a photograph. (Click here to see a cool, detailed description of how the cameras work -- and you can try running the light!)

That's work that used to tie up traffic enforcers. But freeing up police officers is hardly the only allure to towns and cities. Many (but not all) have found the traffic cameras to be lucrative as well.

Perhaps the most dramatic example is the District of Columbia's cash cow. The district likes to boast that it has reduced red-light violations at 49 intersections by two-thirds since the program started in 1999 -- but it's also raked in more than $37 million in revenue from tickets, mostly from nonresidents. (Running a red light there is a $75 fine.)

Counting D.C.'s automated speed-enforcement program, the local government has amassed some $130 million from the electronic monitoring programs, according to AAA Mid-Atlantic. That group has praised the results of the red-light cameras but has been wary of D.C.'s motives.

The troubles with cameras
These dollars come at a price, as many towns and cities have discovered. Faced with problems in the courts and other issues, several even have switched off their cameras, or at least altered the way they operate.

The picture is muddier than you might think. According to a comprehensive, 2005 study sponsored by the Federal Highway Administration, red-light cameras indeed reduced total "T-bone" crashes by 25%. But because drivers at camera-equipped intersections seem to slam on the brakes so they won't get a ticket, total rear-end crashes increased 15%, and injury rear-end crashes jumped 24%.

Rear-end crashes tended to be less severe, so the red-light cameras nonetheless do provide a "modest crash-cost benefit," the study estimated. But critics of red-light cameras say that the cameras still end up giving a financial reward to a city or town for having a poorly designed intersection that encourages red-light running.

"Our argument has been the same from the beginning: Engineering is the key. It's not an enforcement problem; it's an engineering problem," says Eric Skrum, spokesman for The National Motorists Association, a drivers' rights group.

One of the easiest ways to make these intersections safer without gouging drivers, Skrum and some others say, is simply to make yellow lights linger a little longer. A 2003 Texas Transportation Institute study found that increasing the duration of a yellow light by just 0.5 to 1.5 seconds (but not to more than 5.5 seconds in total) would decrease frequency of red-light running by "at least 50%." And though some morons would run even that light, it would still make the intersection safer, the authors concluded.

A conflict of interest?
There's money in traffic tickets. In California, a red-light ticket arriving in the mail will cost you at least $370, for example, plus a point on your driving record. And while some jurisdictions have only broken even using the traffic cameras, others have made a lot of money.

Since a camera system is complicated, a city often turns over its operation to a private company. These companies install the cameras and maintain them, sometimes in exchange for a cut of the fine proceeds of 50% or more. Occasionally, some contractors have even had a say in which intersections get the cameras, and they -- not the police -- evaluated the pictures.

The appearance of a conflict of interest is plain: The more citations get sent out, the more money a company stands to make. That's why courts, and the Federal Highway Administration, have frowned on both of these practices recently.

Leaders in Chapel Hill, N.C., decided to turn off that city's cameras in 2004 after a growing unease with the idea of subcontracting government functions to a private contractor.

But other problems have surfaced in North Carolina, where the use of private contractors has thrown the red-light camera network into turmoil statewide. A driver who received a citation in the town of High Point appealed, saying that state law requires that at least 90% of the fine go to the local school system. Instead, cities like Charlotte have used the money to pay the companies that run the camera systems. A higher court has agreed, and so Charlotte and other cities are keeping their electronic eyes shut while the case plays out.

The Federal Highway Administration recommends that contractors shouldn't be paid based on the number of citations issued or have any say in the location of cameras. In fact, governments should pay vendors based on a flat fee, or else install and run their own systems.

One of the nation's largest providers, Affiliated Computer Services, says it now works to structure its arrangements with new clients, and restructure its existing arrangements when they come up for renewal, so the company receives a straight fee for its services, and that all appearances are correct.

Still, the older system is alive. Last month, the town council of Swampscott, Mass., narrowly defeated a camera proposal that would have split the ticket revenue with the contractor that would install them. But the proposal, which could bring in $500,000 annually for the small town, will likely return this fall after a committee studies the issue, says the town accountant, Dave Castellarin.

How reliable are cameras?
In 2001, San Diego attorney Arthur Tait defended several motorists who felt they'd been unfairly nabbed by red-light cameras. He won, big time. A judge tossed out 300 tickets, saying the systems as configured were unreliable and so the results were inadmissible. San Diego shut down its cameras while it fixed the problems. Tait has now represented motorists in about 1,000 red-light camera cases and won about 94% of those cases, he estimates.

"To this day we're still finding so much wrong with the accuracy of these programs," he says. "As long as they're being run unfairly, we're going to be able to keep winning for our clients."

But digging into the complexities of how traffic cameras work (or don't) isn't easy for the average person, he concedes. "I don't like the fact that innocent people can't defend themselves without having to hire a lawyer," says Tait, who's helped set up the Web site TrafficFighters to help people fight their own tickets. More cities are switching to cameras that use videotape instead of just take a snapshot. Video footage, while not perfect, at least gives more context, he says. "Overall, video is 100 times better."

But he adds, "I think the bigger problem, and what more cities are trying to do, I believe, is ensure an extra level of government control and oversight." In other words, workers who don't have a financial interest in the traffic cameras need to be used to regularly recalibrate the devices, and roads need to be regularly closed down for road tests, he says. "San Diego has tried to do that."

That doesn't mean the city is going any easier on drivers, however.

In July, the city also passed an ordinance allowing citations to be issued after a "grace period" of just one-tenth of a second after a traffic signal turns red (instead of the previous 0.6 seconds), which will boost the number of tickets and the dollars coming into city coffers.

Privacy and due process
A few critics of the cameras have also worried about privacy and due process. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has urged a halt to the use of the cameras until due process and fairness issues can be settled. For example, efforts to reinstate red- light cameras in 2005 in Virginia Beach, Va., and in Northern Virginia died after the state House decided to let legislation expire that permitted them. Some legislators had been troubled by the fact that owners of the car could be ticketed even though a picture is only taken of a vehicle and its license plate, not the driver. "The burden of proof usually then falls on the owner to prove he or she was not driving at the time," says the ACLU. "This is a violation of the bedrock American principle that the accused be considered innocent until proven guilty."

The rights group says it's also worried about the "mission creep" of cameras in society -- that data collected may be used to do more than tag reckless drivers.

"It's only a matter of time before these cameras are used to investigate crimes other than speeding and running red lights -- I could see them being used for hit-and-runs, or evading police," adds Lee Rittenburg, whose San Bernardino, Calif., law office, Traffic Defenders, focuses on defending against traffic infractions. "It's a very slippery slope that we're on," says Rittenburg.

"No one wants traffic accidents," he adds, but "these are the modern-day robocops, these cameras."