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New Tool Helps Public Find Local Court Civics Resources and Programs

homesafetytechpros — Thu, 13 Feb 2025 13:46:38 +0000

Federal courts regularly engage in public outreach and civics education efforts. A new interactive civics map is helping the public more easily find court educational resources and civics program information nationwide.

The tool, developed by the Federal Judicial Center (FJC), the education and research agency for the federal courts, acts as a central repository for local court-created educational resources and civics programs. It includes, for example, information about notable or historic cases and courthouse history and about recurring programs, such as courthouse tours, institutes for teachers, and civics contests for students.

Visitors can navigate across multiple display types and filtering options to view various civics offerings from different judicial districts. One view links to program information pages from the respective court website about its recurring civics programs.

Learn more about the new tool from the FJC civics education and outreach page.

Visit the educational resources section on the U.S. Courts website for additional information about the federal Judiciary’s national civics initiatives and educational activities.

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Magnet fisherman helps convict man in double murder

homesafetytechpros — Wed, 20 Nov 2024 13:34:50 +0000

Left: Bud and June Runion (Facebook). Right: Ronnie “Jay” Towns (Towns: WAGA/YouTube).

Prosecutors in Georgia scored a murder conviction thanks in part to a magnet fisherman’s discovery of a gun and victim IDs in a river nearly a decade after a double homicide.

Ronnie “Jay” Towns, 38, pleaded guilty to two counts of murder on Monday, and a judge sentenced him to two consecutive life sentences in prison, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. In January 2015, he tricked 69-year-old Bud Runion and his 66-year-old wife, June Runion, into making the three-hour drive from their Cobb County home to Telfair County to buy a 1966 Ford Mustang after seeing an ad on Craig’s List. But there was no car, and it was just a ruse to rob and murder them.

During Monday’s sentencing hearing, one of Runions’ daughters made a victim impact statement. She spoke of her parents’ generosity: They gave away scores of bicycles to children at Christmas time and during a winter storm not long before their deaths, they picked up stranded strangers and drove them home, the AJC reported.

“That’s who my parents were,” Brittany Patterson reportedly said. “That’s who we lost. My parents were not random people from Cobb County. They proudly served God and the community.”

Towns hardly acknowledged the victims’ family and did not address the court, per the AJC.

Law&Crime previously reported that on April 14, a magnet fisherman was searching for items in Horse Creek on Old Prison Camp Road in McRae-Helena when he reeled in a .22 caliber rifle, the GBI said in a press release. Two days later, the same person continued to magnet fish in the same area and found a bag containing driver’s licenses, credit cards belonging to the Runions and their phone.

The discoveries led to GBI executing a search warrant at a home about 4 miles away on Webb Cemetery Road on April 17 and a second one two days later. Agents reportedly recovered evidence from both searches, which will be submitted to the crime lab for further analysis. The press release did not say how the discoveries by the magnet fisherman led them to the house.

Atlanta’s WSB-TV reported that family members of the Runions first became concerned about the couple’s safety when they didn’t show up to babysit their grandchildren. The family reported them missing, and four days later, cops found their SUV and their bodies in a pond in Telfair County. Detectives learned the couple and Towns talked on the phone before their disappearance.

While cops arrested Towns not long after the murders, the case took so long because the original indictment was tossed, which led to appeals and another indictment in 2020, Macon CBS affiliate WMAZ reported. Then, the pandemic hit, causing more delays.

According to their obituaries, the Runions were married for 38 years. Bud Runion founded Forever Grateful Ministries.

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Federal judge’s ruling helps fuel RFK Jr.’s fluoride crusade

homesafetytechpros — Fri, 08 Nov 2024 17:01:54 +0000

Background: The Dublin San Ramon Regional Wastewater Treatment Facility in Pleasanton, Calif. on Tues. September 22, 2015 (Michael Macor/San Francisco Chronicle via AP). Inset: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (X/RFK Jr.).

Donald Trump winning the presidency this week has opened a door for erstwhile presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to try and get fluoride out of the nation’s water systems — with there being plans to let him “go wild” with ideas and regulations, according to the president-elect, despite there being “scarce” research to suggest he should, according to scientists. But the bigger boost of confidence may have actually come weeks earlier in federal court.

On Sept. 24, a federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ruled in favor of strengthening fluoride regulations in drinking water, siding with a group of advocacy and environmental groups that argued in favor of reducing the current levels of fluoride in our water systems.

“The issue before this Court is whether the Plaintiffs have established by a preponderance of the evidence that the fluoridation of drinking water at levels typical in the United States poses an unreasonable risk of injury to health of the public within the meaning of Amended TSCA [Toxic Substances Control Act],” wrote U.S. District Judge Edward Chen in his September ruling, which was obtained by Law&Crime.

“The Court finds that fluoridation of water at 0.7 milligrams per liter (‘mg/L’) — the level presently considered ‘optimal’ in the United States — poses an unreasonable risk of reduced IQ in children,” Chen said, noting that his finding, however, “does not conclude with certainty that fluoridated water is injurious” to public health.

“Rather, as required by the Amended TSCA, the Court finds there is an unreasonable risk of such injury, a risk sufficient to require the EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] to engage with a regulatory response,” Chen, a Barack Obama appointee, explained. “This order does not dictate precisely what that response must be.”

It is now up to the EPA to decide how much fluoride to suggest taking out of the nation’s water systems, according to Chen. “One thing the EPA cannot do, however, in the face of this Court’s finding, is to ignore that risk,” he warned.

An order sent out on Oct. 31 says the EPA is currently reviewing the case and weighing an appeal. Michael Connett, lawyer for the advocacy groups that were plaintiffs in the federal fluoride case, hailed Chen’s ruling as a “historic decision” after it was handed down, saying it should “help pave the way towards better and safer fluoride standards for all,” according to Reuters.

With Trump now set to become America’s 47th president, Kennedy — a Trump ally who is predicted to be a cabinet member or health adviser of some sort — says he is ready to start waging his war on fluoride starting on day one.

“On January 20, the Trump White House will advise all U.S. water systems to remove fluoride from public water,” Kennedy wrote on X earlier this month. “Fluoride is an industrial waste associated with arthritis, bone fractures, bone cancer, IQ loss, neurodevelopmental disorders, and thyroid disease.”

On January 20, the Trump White House will advise all U.S. water systems to remove fluoride from public water. Fluoride is an industrial waste associated with arthritis, bone fractures, bone cancer, IQ loss, neurodevelopmental disorders, and thyroid disease[.]

— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) November 2, 2024

Speaking to NPR on Wednesday, Kennedy reportedly confirmed that this plan was still a go, despite scientists coming forward and insisting that there is “no evidence” to support the need to remove fluoride completely from the nation’s water supplies.

“Yes, that is something the administration will do,” Kennedy said, according to Politico.

The weekend before the election, Trump told supporters at a rally in New York City that he planned on giving Kennedy the keys to America’s health care castle.

“I’m gonna let him go wild on health,” Trump said, according to reports. “I’m gonna let him go wild on the food. I’m gonna let him go wild on medicines.”

American water has been fluoridated since 1945 as a way to help strengthen teeth. Levels have been reduced over the years, but the decades-old consensus from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been that fluoride helps “create a strong surface protecting the teeth from cavities.”

“In children and adults teeth are bathed in fluoride when drinking water, giving teeth the fluoride they need all day long,” the CDC says on its website. “Acid produced by bacteria in the mouth can create holes on the surface of the teeth. Fluoride helps protect and rebuild this surface, preventing up to 25% of cavities. Build a better foundation for healthy teeth and keep your teeth stronger, longer.”

Kennedy and others have argued that there is new scientific evidence showing that fluoride poses a risk to human health, something Chen sided with in his ruling.

“At least at dosages of 1.5 mg/L or higher, fluoride is associated with reduced IQ in children,” he asserted, citing a federal review published by the National Toxicology Program, which found that higher levels of fluoride are linked to lower IQs in children.

“Subsequently, toxicology experts endeavored to put a finer point on the impact of fluoride on children’s IQ at ‘lower’ exposure levels, i.e., those below 1.5 mg/L, and conducted a pooled benchmark dose analysis to define the precise hazard level of fluoride,” Chen said.

According to his ruling, the pooled benchmark dose analysis concluded that a “one point drop in IQ of a child is to be expected for each 0.28 mg/L of fluoride in a pregnant mother’s urine.”

Chen called this “highly concerning” seeing how maternal urinary fluoride levels for pregnant mothers in the United States range from 0.8 mg/L at the median and 1.89 mg/L, “depending upon the degree of exposure,” per his ruling.

“Not only is there an insufficient margin between the hazard level and these exposure levels, for many, the exposure levels exceed the hazard level of0.28 mg/L,” Chen explained.

Currently, it is up to state and local health officials to decide how much fluoride should be added to their respective water supplies, if at all. Places like Lebanon, Oregon, and Rutland, Vermont, voted this year on fluoridation regulations, with each differing in opinions.

Lebanon, according to local radio station KLCC, saw 52% of voters reject a ballot measure this week calling for fluoride to remain in the city’s water supply. Rutland voted to keep fluoridating its water.

“It’s reassuring that they listen to the science and the history and the long-standing effectiveness that we’ve seen with water fluoridation,” Judith Fisch, a longtime dentist from Rutland who has served on the board of trustees of the American Dental Association, told VTDigger.

“I think that was the right decision for future generations,” she said.

Kennedy disagrees, telling NPR on Wednesday that even if Americans needed to consume fluoride, water wasn’t the best choice for delivering it. “It’s a very bad way to deliver it into our systems,” he said.

While some research has been done that sides with Kennedy, numerous scientists and experts have come forward to tell people to pump the brakes on his fluoride claims.

Dr. Ashley Malin, assistant professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the University of Florida’s College of Public Health and Health Professions, for example, told CNN this week that more data is needed to “better understand impacts of chronic low level fluoride exposure on adult health outcomes because that research is scarce.”

She said, “I think that health effects of fluoride on young children, particularly in the realm of neurodevelopment have been sufficiently studied such that it has now been identified that a hazard to child IQ is present. However, I would argue that more research is needed to better understand impacts of chronic low level fluoride exposure on adult health outcomes because that research is scarce.”

Athanasios Zavras, a Massachusetts professor at Tufts University School of Medicine and chair of the school’s Department of Public Health and Community Service, told the magazine Health that while the science behind fluoride is “very interesting,” there’s currently no concrete evidence or proof to supports Kennedy’s calls for its removal.

“Fluoride in small amounts is beneficial whereas fluoride in high doses is toxic,” Zavras points out. “There is no evidence to back up the claims that 0.7 mg/L of fluoride leads to any of the conditions mentioned.”

According to Connett, if the EPA were to issue a nationwide ban of fluoridation, the U.S. would join a long list of European nations where the process is currently barred, including Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland.

But that hasn’t stopped experts from speaking out against it and Chen’s ruling.

“There is nothing about the current decision that changes my confidence in the safety of optimally fluoridated water in the U.S.,” said Charlotte W. Lewis, a doctor and member of the American Academy of Pediatrics oral health section, in a statement to Health. “Water fluoridation is a public health policy based on a solid foundation of evidence. When new research is published, health experts scrutinize it to make sure it meets high standards for public safety.”

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True Calling: Ameelio platform helps inmates communicate more easily with family and get an education

homesafetytechpros — Thu, 28 Dec 2023 01:16:46 +0000

(Photo of Ameelio founders Uzoma Orchingwa, right, and Gabriel Saruhashi by Elevate Photography/ABA Journal)

As Uzoma Orchingwa began studying at Yale Law School in 2017, he kept thinking about the civic dysfunction he witnessed as a child in Nigeria. He also thought about friends he met after his family moved to West Hartford, Connecticut, who ended up being incarcerated as teenagers.

It occurred to him that law alone couldn’t solve problems with mass incarceration and that technology might help bridge the gap.

“There are a lot of predatory companies within the prison space that are making lives very difficult for families when it comes to phone calls or access to quality education,” says Orchingwa, 31, a 2022 graduate of Yale’s joint MBA/JD program. “My idea was to challenge those companies and build an alternative solution that could provide families with completely free communication but also enable them to connect with critical resources they lacked prior to incarceration.”

Orchingwa needed a technical co-founder, and after discovering a group of Yale students who were building technologies for nonprofits, he emailed Gabriel Saruhashi. The Brazilian-born Saruhashi, a double major in computer science and psychology, had worked as a summer intern at Facebook and jumped at the chance to use his skills to help Orchingwa improve the lives of people in prison.

Orchingwa and Saruhashi used their savings to launch the technology nonprofit Ameelio in March 2020. The duo offers families a free mobile app that allows them to send letters into prisons. They since have sent nearly 2 million letters to facilities nationwide, says Orchingwa, Ameelio’s CEO.

They also wanted to break into real-time communications to help families, some of whom pay up to $25 for a 15-minute phone call. They began interviewing formerly and currently incarcerated people and correctional officers to better understand challenges in the system. In June 2021, they launched what they call the nation’s first no-cost prison video calling platform.

In addition to automating the family visitation process, Ameelio’s platform allows prison staff to verify users and monitor and record calls when necessary. It has expanded to include voice calls and messaging and can be used by attorneys for confidential communication.

Prison systems in Iowa, Colorado and Maine, which comprise 35 facilities, are now using Ameelio’s platform. Beth Skinner, the director of the Iowa Department of Corrections, said after the launch that its facilities received video visits from 44 states and 12 countries.

During their research, Orchingwa and Saruhashi found that incarcerated people, particularly those in rural facilities, lack access to educational programming. This problem was amplified during the COVID-19 pandemic, when community college instructors struggled to reach their students during lockdowns, says Saruhashi, 24, who graduated from Yale in 2022. “We saw an opening to invest heavily in the education space because literally, educators were coming to us and saying, ‘I cannot talk to my students; there is no way for me to message them,’” says Saruhashi, Ameelio’s chief technology officer.

Ameelio’s platform not only facilitates virtual learning with video calls and messaging but also provides digital resources that incarcerated people can use to guide their own learning. The tech nonprofit will soon launch this service in prison systems in Mississippi and Rhode Island.

Ameelio has attracted major donors, including Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, former eBay CEO Devin Wenig and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt as well as the American Bar Endowment and tech nonprofit accelerator Fast Forward. Orchingwa and Saruhashi, who have a team of 17 employees, aim to expand to all 50 states and into the federal prison system. (In January, President Joe Biden signed the Martha Wright-Reed Just and Reasonable Communications Act of 2022, allowing the Federal Communications Commission to regulate charges for prison communication services.)

They also launched a second company in May called Emerge Career that provides job training to help incarcerated people move into high-demand jobs in the trucking industry after their release. They hope to add health care and manufacturing tracks this year.

Legal Rebels Class of 2023

Stacy Butler

Josh Blandi

Zachariah DeMeola

Sonja Ebron and Debra Slone of Courtroom5

Natalie Anne Knowlton

Uzoma Orchingwa and Gabriel Saruhashi of Ameelio

Patrick Palace

Janis C. Puracal

In This Podcast:

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