By WILLIAM KELLY, Daily News Staff Writer -- With the defeat of Mitt Romney, Connie Mack, Adam Hasner and possibly Allen West, Tuesday night wasn’t a happy occasion for local Republicans. But there’s some salve for the wound. The town’s new state representative is Republican Bill Hager of Boca Raton. Hager, who has represented District 87 since 2010, bested Democrat Tom Gustafson in their contest to represent the newly drawn District 89, which runs along the coast from Riviera Beach to Boca Raton. http://www.palmbeachdailynews.com/news/news/national/boca-lawyer-bill-hager-is-palm-beachs-new-state-re/nSzqG/ … [Read more...]
‘Rachel’s Law’ Protects Police Informants
November 2, 2012 By
Young people arrested for drug offenses are often coerced by cops into becoming informants. The father of an 18-year-old murdered by dealers tells The Fix of his campaign for change. Earlier this fall, the New Yorker profiled Rachel Hoffman, a 23-year-old from Tallahassee, Florida who was arrested for minor drug possession and then coerced by cops into becoming a confidential informant in a sting operation. She was killed by dealers in May 2008. Since then, her parents have been fighting to alert the public to law enforcement's widespread use of confidential informants (CIs) in order to rack up drug arrests. By some counts, up to 80% of all drug-related arrests in the US involve CIs that were recruited after committing non-violent, usually drug-related offenses. Typically, Rachel Hoffman had been arrested for possession of pot and ecstasy pills. Less typically, she was white: young … [Read more...]
