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Wednesday, March 25, 2015
Are compounding pharmacies likely to cut off drug dealing to states for executions?
The question in the title of this post is prompted by this notable Wall Street Journal article headlined "Compound Pharmacists Trade Group Discourages Supplying Execution Meds." Here are excerpts:
As more states turn to compounding pharmacies to supply medicines for executions, the leading trade group for compound pharmacists is now discouraging its members from preparing or dispensing drugs for this purpose.
The move reflects growing concern among some compound pharmacists that some states – in response to ongoing controversy over the supply of drugs for lethal injections – may decide to alter regulations in ways that would cause pharmacists to face legal problems, according to the International Academy of Compounding Pharmacists. "We have concerns about what may occur," says David Miller, the IACP chief executive. The trade group represents approximately 3,700 pharmacists who compound medicines, a process that involves customizing ingredients for a specific use.
Separately, the American Pharmacists Association will also consider adopting a similar position at a meeting that begins later this week, according to an official of the trade group, which represents about 62,000 pharmacists nationwide. The vast majority of APA members work for traditional pharmacies that dispense medicines manufactured by drug makers.
Until now, the IACP had not taken any position on supplying drugs for executions, but adopted this new stance after a growing number of drug makers began restricting the use of their medicines for executions. At least nine drug makers have formally taken this step, according to Reprieve, an advocacy group in the U.K. that has been pressuring companies to withhold their medicines for executions.
As a result, more states have gradually turned to compound pharmacies to supply drugs for lethal injections. To date, nine states have either used or indicated they intend to use compounded medicines for lethal injections, according to the Death Penalty Information Center....
Currently, pharmacists are permitted by law to dispense medications for executions if a licensed doctor writes a legitimate prescription, says Carmen Catizone, the executive director of the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy, which represents the state boards, the government agencies that regulate pharmacy practice. At the moment, he says there is no indication that any state legislature is considering a change to its regulations that might pose legal problems for pharmacists.
However, he explains that new policy statements may attract attention from state boards, especially given ongoing controversy over executions and the availability of medicines. "For any change in regulations or rule, the state boards would have to take action." says Catizone, "But a change in policy can be significant because it may prompt our members to take a closer look at an issue."
For his part, Miller says the IACP is concerned that state boards may decide to consider such action and, as a result, its members could eventually face legal action. "We definitely think it's a possibility," he says. At the same time, the trade group also worries pharmacists who supply drugs may face harassment if their identities become known. The IACP points to a recent episode in Tennessee where the name of a compound pharmacist was inadvertently disclosed. The IACP notes that nearly a dozen states are considering legislation to provide confidentiality.
March 25, 2015 in Baze lethal injection case, Death Penalty Reforms, Who Sentences? | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Tuesday, March 24, 2015
"The Executioners' Dilemmas"
The title of this post is the title of this timely new article by Eric Berger now available via SSRN. Here is the abstract:
Despite several prominent recent botched executions, states usually resist external pressure to improve their lethal injection procedures. This symposium contribution explores why states fail to address lethal injection's systemic risks and, relatedly, why they so vigorously resist requests to disclose execution procedure details.
This analysis is necessarily speculative; it is impossible to know for certain what drives states' behavior in this area, and motivations likely differ from state to state and from official to official. That said, a constellation of epistemic, structural, strategic, and political factors likely shape much official behavior in this area.
Examining those factors more closely can help us better understand why so many states have acted so irresponsibly in designing and implementing their lethal injection procedures. Of course, these explanations hardly excuse states' frequent indifference to the risk of pain their execution procedures create. Collectively, however, they help shine important light more generally on why state officials sometimes seem insensitive to constitutional values.
March 24, 2015 in Baze lethal injection case, Death Penalty Reforms, Procedure and Proof at Sentencing, Who Sentences? | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Saturday, March 21, 2015
Effective discussion of nitrogen gas as execution method alternative
This new Atlantic article, headlined "Can Executions Be More Humane?: A law professor suggests an untested procedure as an alternative to lethal injection," provides an interesting account of the person and story behind a novel execution method proposal. Here are excerpts:
Michael Copeland has a unique resume: former Assistant Attorney General of the tiny Pacific island nation of Palau, professor of criminal justice at East Central University in Ada, Oklahoma — and now, the proponent of a new execution method he claims would be more humane than lethal injection.
Copeland is one of the brains behind House Bill 1879 proposed by Oklahoma State Representative Mike Christian. The bill, passed by the Oklahoma House last week, would make "nitrogen hypoxia" a secondary method to lethal injection. Oklahoma State Senator Anthony Sykes will be introducing it to the senate shortly.
Copeland explained the execution method last September to the Oklahoma House Judiciary Committee at Christian's invitation. Copeland says that Christian had been suggesting the firing squad, but Copeland thought there might be a better way. Along with two other professors from East Central University, Christine C. Pappas and Thomas M. Parr, he is drafting a white paper about the benefits of nitrogen-induced hypoxia over lethal injection....
Hypoxia occurs when a person lacks an adequate supply of oxygen. "Normally, the air we breathe is 79 percent nitrogen and 21 percent oxygen," Copeland explains. Nitrogen hypoxia during an execution "would be induced by having the offender breathing a gas mixture of pure nitrogen." Copeland points out that "nitrogen is an inert gas, and therefore doesn't actually cause the death. It is the lack of oxygen that causes death."
According to Copeland, death from nitrogen hypoxia is painless. "In industrial accidents, it often happens because the victim does not know they are in a hypoxic environment," he said. "That suffocating feeling of anxiety and discomfort is not associated with hypoxic deaths." He says nitrogen-induced hypoxia is well-researched, although the ideal delivery system for an execution has not yet been established. Two ideas include a medical-grade oxygen tent around the head or a facemask similar to those used by firefighters.
The condemned person might not even know when the "the switch to pure nitrogen occurs, instead he would simply lose consciousness about fifteen seconds after the switch was made," he added. "Approximately thirty seconds later, he would stop producing brain waves, and the heart would stop beating about two to three minutes after that."...
Copeland says that conditions for lethal-injection executions will only get worse. States are scrambling to find the drugs and the health professionals to use them, and both are required for lethal injection to take place. "You have anti-death penalty zealots around the globe that protest, that bring attention to the manufacturers of these drugs," Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt told a local chamber of commerce last summer. Pruitt said that as long as activists pressure manufacturers, there will be supply issues....
From its first use in the execution of Gee Jon in Nevada in 1924 to its link to Nazi gas chambers, lethal gas as method of execution has a problematic history. American lethal-gas executions typically used hydrogen cyanide as the mechanism of death. Inmates were strapped to chairs in gas chambers and the ensuing chemical reaction would cause visible signs of pain and discomfort: skin discoloration, drooling, and writhing.
But nitrogen hypoxia would likely not produce the gruesome deaths that resulted from cyanide gas executions. Copeland says that "you don't have to worry about someone reacting differently." The condemned person would feel slightly intoxicated before losing consciousness and ultimately dying.
Other death-penalty experts are more skeptical. "It's only been partially vetted, superficially researched, and has never been tried," said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. "Using it would be an experiment on human subjects." State death rows would be strapping someone down without any idea what would happen next, he feared. "We'd need testimony from the best experts on this," Dieter says. "Right now, this is sailing through a legislature and not a peer-review process. I'm no doctor, but let's hear from them. I don't completely dismiss the idea that this could become approved or that it's as good as they say because lethal injection is in a bind."
If the bill becomes law and Oklahoma successfully executes someone using this method, it could spread from to state very quickly, Dieter says. Older methods like firing squads are a little too brutal for the American public, but something new could be accepted. If so, he says, "it could lead to an awkward spurt of executions." Copeland says he is not a death penalty absolutist. "I think the state has a unique obligation for justice — it's the state's obligation," he explains. "But I don't think the death penalty is a deterrent compared to life without parole." If we must have the death penalty, he argues, it should be humane.
Copeland thinks that it is death penalty abolitionists who have made executions inhumane by restricting access to drugs. It will only get worse. Some corrections officials at the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections agree. On February 18, they submitted a report to the state House of Representatives proposing the use of nitrogen-induced hypoxia and cited Copeland's forthcoming paper.
Copeland says that it's a logical and humane next step. "Nitrogen is ubiquitous. The process is humane, it doesn't require expertise, and it's cheap," he explained. "I think of it as a harm-reduction thing — like you'd rather people not use heroin, but if they do, you want them to use clean needles."
A few recent and older related posts:
- Is nitrogen gas the best modern execution alternative to lethal injection?
- Serious talk about a serious alternative (nitrogen) to lethal injection in Oklahoma
- As SCOTUS considers Oklahoma lethal injections, Oklahoma considers a gas chamber
- Shouldn't Congress be holding hearings to explore federal and state execution methods?
- Poll after ugly execution highlights enduring death penalty support and openness to various execution methods
- A worldly perspective on different execution methods
- Should problems with lethal injection prompt return of other execution methods?
March 21, 2015 in Baze lethal injection case, Death Penalty Reforms, Who Sentences? | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack
Wednesday, March 18, 2015
Might Utah's gov veto the effort to provide for a firing squad execution back-up plan?
The question in the title of this post is prompted by this AP piece headlined "Death Penalty Opponents Urge Veto of Utah Firing Squad Bill." Here are the basics:
Death penalty opponents are urging Utah Gov. Gary Herbert to veto a bill allowing execution by firing squad if the state cannot obtain lethal injection drugs. Ralph Dellapiana of Utahns for Alternatives to the Death Penalty delivered a petition and a letter to Herbert's office Tuesday. Dellapiana calls firing squads archaic and barbaric.
Herbert, a Republican, has declined to say if he will sign the proposal but says it could offer Utah a backup if it cannot get execution drugs. Utah lawmakers passed the bill last week as states struggle to obtain lethal injection drugs amid a nationwide shortage.
Republican Rep. Paul Ray of Clearfield sponsored the proposal and says a team of trained marksmen is faster and more humane than the drawn-out deaths that occur when lethal injections are botched.
March 18, 2015 in Baze lethal injection case, Death Penalty Reforms, Who Sentences? | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Monday, March 16, 2015
"The free-market case for opposing the death penalty"
The title of this post is the headline of this new piece from The Week magazine. Here are excerpts:
There are lots of ways to execute a prisoner. But in the U.S., at least, the 32 states that still execute prisoners have decided on lethal injection. On its face, lethal injection seems like a clinical, modern, hopefully low-pain, and usually low-key way to kill somebody. Except when it isn't, as we saw in last year's crop of botched executions.
The prolonged, evidently painful deaths of Clayton Lockett in Oklahoma, Joseph Wood in Arizona, and Dennis McGuire in Ohio were tied to experimental drug cocktails necessitated by a shortage of traditional death drugs. This shortage is due largely to a ban by European countries on exporting certain drugs to U.S. states that practice capital punishment. The free market is making a case against capital punishment. So far, the states that actively execute prisoners have been willfully plugging their ears....
With just a single dose of pentobarbital left and 317 inmates on death row, Texas is stocking up on midazolam. It's not clear if Texas can't get pentobarbital because the compounding pharmacies are refusing to sell it to them, or because they can't get the raw ingredients — the Professional Compounding Centers of America told The Texas Tribune that it stopped providing pentobarbital ingredients to its customers in January 2014.
Most compounding pharmacies aren't regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, and their products are uneven. Which compounding pharmacies are Texas, Oklahoma, Ohio, Georgia, Missouri, and other states buying drugs from? They're not saying. Why not? "Disclosing the identity of the pharmacy would result in the harassment of the business and would raise serious safety concerns for the business and its employees," Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Jason Clark explained to The Texas Tribune last month....
Providing lethal injection drugs to state prisons is so toxic that no European country will do it and no American company is willing to do it openly. Gunmakers and abortion clinics advertise their services, but pharmacies and drugmakers won't publicly associate with a form of punishment approved of by 63 percent of Americans. That's the market talking, and it's saying it wants no part of this.
March 16, 2015 in Baze lethal injection case, Death Penalty Reforms, Who Sentences? | Permalink | Comments (13) | TrackBack
Saturday, March 14, 2015
"Death of the death penalty by lethal injection shortage?"
The question in the title of this post is the headline of this notable recent Chicago Tribune column. Here is how it starts:
A reliable supply line is crucial to any business. That's no less true when the business is death. States can't carry out death sentences if their prisons can't stock the lethal sedatives needed for court-sanctioned lethal injections. And that has become a serious problem of late.
Pharmaceutical companies such as Lake Forest-based Hospira in recent years have moved — pushed by activists and overseas regulators — to keep their drugs from being co-opted in the executioners' cocktails. The well is running dry.
Just in the last week:
• Texas' pantry is quite nearly bare. The state reportedly is left with a single dose of pentobarbital because European manufacturers of the anesthetic are prohibited from allowing it to be used by prisons.
• Georgia postponed its first execution of a woman in 70 years because the blend to be injected appeared unusually cloudy.
• And Utah's legislature sent the governor a bill that would authorize the return of firing squads when the state can't get its hands on the requisite toxins.
March 14, 2015 in Baze lethal injection case, Death Penalty Reforms | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Wednesday, March 11, 2015
Utah legislature brings back firing squad as alternative execution method
As detailed in this Reuters piece, "lawmakers in Utah voted on Tuesday to bring back executions by firing squad if lethal injections are unavailable, which would make it the only state in the country to permit the practice." Here is more:
Utah used firing squads for decades before adopting lethal injections in 2004. The Republican-sponsored bill, which passed the state Senate by 18-10, was introduced amid national concerns about the efficacy of lethal injections.
The measure, approved last month by the Utah House of Representatives, says a firing squad should be used if "the state is unable to lawfully obtain the substance or substances necessary to conduct an execution by lethal intravenous injection 30 or more days" before the date set for the procedure.
Several U.S. states have had to search for new drugs for their lethal injection cocktails after many pharmaceutical companies, mostly in Europe, imposed sales bans about four years ago because they objected to having medications made for other purposes being used in executions.
Supporters of the legislation said three states - Oklahoma, Ohio and Arizona - recently carried out lethal injections that led to inmates' physical distress and drawn-out deaths, and that death by firing squad was more humane.
Republican state Representative Paul Ray of Clearfield, the bill's sponsor, said someone executed by gunfire typically dies in three to five seconds. "It's a quick bleed-out," he said.
Utah previously used firing squads, including in the execution of Gary Gilmore, a convicted murderer who in January 1977 became the first person to be put to death in the United States in 10 years, after insisting the sentence be carried out....
The last person to be executed in Utah by firing squad was Ronnie Lee Gardner in 2010. Gardner was convicted of murdering a lawyer inside a Salt Lake City courthouse in 1985.
The bill now goes to Utah Governor Gary Herbert. In a statement, a spokesman for the Republican governor said he had not yet decided whether to sign the measure.whether to sign the measure.
March 11, 2015 in Baze lethal injection case, Death Penalty Reforms | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Tuesday, March 10, 2015
Might drug shortages in Texas grind its machinery of death to a halt?
The question in the title of this post is prompted by this new article headlined "Dearth Row: Texas Prisons Scrambling to Find More Execution Drug." Here are excerpts:
Texas' prison agency is scrambling to find a supplier to replenish its inventory of execution drugs, which will be used up if the state goes forward with two lethal injections scheduled for this week and next. Prison officials only have enough pentobarbital for the scheduled executions of Manuel Vasquez on Wednesday and Randall Mays on March 18, but they don't know how they will conduct lethal injections on four others scheduled for April.
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice declined to say why it has not been able to obtain more pentobarbital from the same compounding pharmacy that provided the current batch of the powerful sedative last March. The state switched to that source several months after its previous supplier cut ties, citing hate mail and potential litigation after its name became public through an open records request from The Associated Press.
Prison officials have since waged a legal battle to keep the name of its latest supplier secret, but it's unclear how much longer they can do so after a state judge last year ordered the agency to divulge the source. That ruling is on hold pending the outcome of the state's appeal....
Although Texas, traditionally the nation's busiest death penalty state, faces the most imminent deadline for replenishing its pentobarbital supply, other states are experiencing similar problems. Texas has executed a nation-leading 521 inmates since 1982, when it became the first state to use lethal injection. It's now been nearly three years since Texas began using pentobarbital as its only capital punishment drug, switching in July 2012 after one of the chemicals in the previous three-drug mixture no longer was available.
The last 17 Texas executions, stretching back to September 2013, have used compounded pentobarbital, and the last nine from compounding pharmacies the state has refused to identify. Texas officials have insisted the identity should remain secret, citing a "threat assessment" signed by Texas Department of Public Safety director Steven McCraw that says pharmacies selling execution drugs face "a substantial threat of physical harm." Law enforcement officials have declined to elaborate on the nature of those threats.
The U.S. Supreme Court, meanwhile, has refused to block punishments based on challenges to secrecy laws. However, the high court is reviewing Oklahoma's lethal injection method, resulting in a hold on executions there, after a punishment using the sedative midazolam followed by two other drugs went awry. Oklahoma lawmakers now are considering a switch to nitrogen gas as the first alternative to injection while officials in other states are considering a return to firing squads or the electric chair.
Despite all the controversies over lethal injection protocols and problems with drug supplies nationwide in recent years, Texas has been able to keep its machinery of death humming. And because so many executions take place in Texas (basic DPIC data here), a halting of executions in that one state would functionally diminish the overall number of US executions quite significantly.
Given that Texas has a long modern history of finding ways to move forward with executions, this drug story is especially interesting and dynamic because it might lead the Lone Star State to get serious about other possible execution methods. I assume some officials in Texas are already quietly exploring the possibility of executions using nitrogen gas or firing squads, and perhaps a Texas discussion of such matters will become public at some point soon if the state struggles to secure needed execution drugs.
March 10, 2015 in Baze lethal injection case, Death Penalty Reforms | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Wednesday, March 04, 2015
Cloudy with (less of) a chance of executions in Georgia
As reported in this Time piece, headlined "Georgia Postpones 2 Executions Over 'Cloudy' Drugs," the forecast in the Peach State just got peachier for those on the state's death row as the state deals with uncertainty concerning its execution drugs. Here are the details:
Georgia's supply of lethal injection drug pentobarbital may have gone bad. Georgia indefinitely postponed two executions Tuesday to allow officials to analyze its current batch of lethal injection drugs, which "appeared cloudy" prior to an execution that had been scheduled Monday night.
The execution of Kelly Gissendaner, who would've been the first woman put to death in the state in 70 years, was called off by the Georgia Department of Corrections Monday night after the state discovered its supply of pentobarbital, a short-acting barbiturate, looked murky. Georgia officials made the decision after consulting with a pharmacist, according to The New York Times, even though state officials said that its pentobarbital supply had been tested and was cleared for use.
The state then announced Tuesday that the executions of both Gissendaner and Brian Keith Terrell, who was set to die by lethal injection on March 10 for the 1992 murder of John Henry Watson, were indefinitely postponed. Gissendaner was convicted of arranging the 1997 murder of her husband, Douglas Gissendaner.
A number of states have had trouble carrying out executions due to problems obtaining drugs.... Like many states, Georgia has turned to compounding pharmacies, which are not under federal oversight, for their drug supplies while also passing a secrecy law that keeps participating pharmacies anonymous. Georgia has not released the name of its drug supplier, and it's unclear when its current batch of pentobarbital was due to expire.
March 4, 2015 in Baze lethal injection case, Death Penalty Reforms | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Tuesday, March 03, 2015
Concerns about lethal drug creates reprieve for condemned Georgia woman
As reported in this CNN piece, for "the second time, a Georgia woman's execution has been postponed -- this time because of concerns about the drugs to be used." Here is why:
Kelly Renee Gissendaner was scheduled to die at 7 p.m. ET Monday. "Prior to the execution, the drugs were sent to an independent lab for testing of potency. The drugs fell within the acceptable testing limits," the Georgia Department of Corrections said in a statement.
"Within the hours leading up to the scheduled execution, the Execution Team performed the necessary checks. At that time, the drugs appeared cloudy. The Department of Corrections immediately consulted with a pharmacist, and in an abundance of caution, Inmate Gissendaner's execution has been postponed."
The 47-year-old was originally scheduled to die on Wednesday, but that execution was called off because of winter weather.
If I were a deeply religious person, I might be inclined to contend that some higher power is doing all it can to keep Georgia from being able to execute Gissendaner.
March 3, 2015 in Baze lethal injection case, Death Penalty Reforms, Who Sentences? | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Sunday, March 01, 2015
"The Politics of Botched Executions"
The title of this post is the title of this timely new article by Corinna Lain now available via SSRN. Here is the abstract:
For decades now, America's death penalty has been beset by serious problems in its administration, but what has finally gotten the public's attention is a spate of botched executions in the first half of 2014. Botched executions are, like the death penalty's other woes, nothing new. But having to manage the public relations nightmare that has followed these high-profile events is new, and tells a story of its own. What are the politics of botched executions? Officials have lowered the blinds so witnesses could not see what was happening inside the execution chamber, called for an "independent review" by other arms of the state, minimized concerns by comparing the execution to the condemned's crimes, even denied that a botched execution was botched in the first place.
In this symposium contribution, I recount the four botched executions of 2014 and state responses that accompanied them. I then make three observations — one about states' fealty to the death penalty, one about backlash politics, and one about the changing cultural construct of lethal injection in the United States. Finally, I surmise how state responses to botched executions (or the lack thereof) might impact the constitutionality of lethal injection and prove true the old adage about politics making strange bedfellows: the inept executioner may prove to be the abolitionist's best friend.
March 1, 2015 in Baze lethal injection case, Death Penalty Reforms, Who Sentences? | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Tuesday, February 17, 2015
Florida Supreme Court stays lethal injection pending SCOTUS case, and AG Holder urges national execution halt
As reported in this Reuters piece, "Florida's highest court put executions on hold Tuesday while the U.S. Supreme Court decides whether use of a controversial general anesthetic constitutes "cruel and unusual" punishment of condemned killers." Here is more:
The state Supreme Court stopped the execution of Jerry William Correll next week because the Supreme Court recently agreed to hear a challenge some Oklahoma inmates brought against use of midazolam hydrochloride as the first of three drugs used in lethal injections. Florida uses essentially the same formula, the court said in a 5-2 ruling.
The state switched to midazolam as an anesthetic in 2013 when some foreign drug manufacturers quit supplying other drugs previously used in executions. The Department of Corrections said 11 lethal injections have been carried out with midazolam in Florida since then. Florida courts have approved midazolam, but the nation's highest court agreed Jan. 23 to hear an appeal by 21 Oklahoma inmates in a case citing prolonged executions and signs of pain reported in that state, Arizona and Ohio.
Chief Justice Jorge Labarga wrote that if the nation's highest court rules in favor of the prisoners, "then Florida's precedent approving the use of midazolam and the current Florida three-drug protocol will be subject to serious doubt as to its continued viability."
Justices Charles Canady and Ricky Polston dissented, saying Florida should proceed with Correll's execution unless the U.S. Supreme Court stays it. Canady wrote that a stay in another state does not automatically require one in Florida, and that agreeing to review Oklahoma's use of the drug means the justices will forbid it.
Meanwhile, as reported in this piece in The Hill, US Attorney General Eric Holder suggested today that all states ought to follow Florida's lead while the Supreme Court lethal injection case is pending:
Attorney General Eric Holder called Tuesday for a national moratorium on the death penalty until the Supreme Court weighs in on the issue later this year...
Late last month, the Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal the from death row inmates in Oklahoma who are challenging the state's procedures for lethal injections. "I think a moratorium until the Supreme Court makes that decision would be appropriate," Holder said.
February 17, 2015 in Baze lethal injection case, Death Penalty Reforms, Procedure and Proof at Sentencing, Who Sentences? | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Monday, February 16, 2015
"The United States Execution Drug Shortage: A Consequence of Our Values"
The title of this post is the title of this commentary authored by Ty Alper available via SSRN. Here is the abstract:
The recent inability of states to obtain drugs for use in executions has led to de facto moratoria in a number of states, as well as gruesomely botched executions in states that have resorted to dangerous and unreliable means to obtain these drugs. The refusal of some pharmaceutical companies to provide drugs to U.S. prisons has significantly impeded the imposition of the death penalty in a number of states. Despite this, it is the anti-death penalty activists who tend to draw the attention of the media, state officials, and politicians charged with carrying out executions. The media focuses particular attention on advocates in Europe who have campaigned to pressure European drug companies to stop distribution of their products to U.S. prisons for use in executions.
This paper challenges that narrative and posits instead that it is the drug companies that have long sought to avoid the use of their products in executions, for moral and financial reasons, as well as to comply with European law. When we look back on the fourth decade of the modern era of capital punishment in the United States, we may consider it the decade that marked the beginning of the end. If so, it will not be the result of a handful of activists successfully thwarting the administration of capital punishment. Rather, it will be the consequence of U.S. states imposing the death penalty in the context of a modern world that generally abhors the practice, using a method of execution that is very much dependent on major players in that world.
February 16, 2015 in Baze lethal injection case, Death Penalty Reforms, Who Sentences? | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBack
Tennessee Supreme Court to consider electric chair as back-up execution method
I am pleased and intrigued to see, via this local article, that the "Tennessee Supreme Court will decide whether a death row inmate can challenge the state's back-up method of execution: the electric chair." Here is more about this notable litigation:
The court agreed to take the case — which stems from a Davidson County Chancery Court battle — on Friday. Arguments are set for May 6 in Knoxville. The state says that inmates who are challenging the electric chair as unconstitutional cannot do so because none of the inmates is facing that method of execution.
A group of 34 inmates previously challenged the state's primary protocol, lethal injection, and then added a challenge to the electric chair when it was deemed a back-up method.
The appeal to the Supreme Court, as well as another seeking the release of names of people involved in the execution process, come from the pending chancery court case. Once the Supreme Court decides the issues, the chancery court case will be able to move forward.
I fear that this case might resolve only whether and when a Tennessee defendant can challenge a back-up method of execution. Nevertheless, I find it notable and potential important that a state supreme court is now going to consider in any way an execution method other than lethal injection.
February 16, 2015 in Baze lethal injection case, Death Penalty Reforms, Sentences Reconsidered, Who Sentences? | Permalink | Comments (10) | TrackBack
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
Update on a decade-long (lack of) effort (not) to fix lethal injection in California
California has long been a state leader in spending lots of time, energy and money on the death penalty without achieving much. This commentary by Debra Saunders, headlined "Yes, California, there is a death penalty," provides a critical review of the lethal injection part of this story that has played out over the last decade. Here are excerpts:
What happened to California's death penalty? There has not been an execution since 2006, when a federal judge ruled against the state's three-drug lethal injection protocol. In 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld three-drug executions. It didn't matter. Gov. Jerry Brown and Attorney General Kamala Harris both personally oppose capital punishment, but as candidates promised to uphold the law. In real life, they've let things slide. Fed up, two men related to murder victims have filed suit to push the state to carry out the law.
Kermit Alexander wants to see the law work on Tiequon Cox, convicted of killing the former football player's mother, sister and two nephews in 1984 — Cox went to the wrong address for a $3,500 contract killing. Bradley Winchell is sick of waiting for the execution of Michael Morales, who raped, hammered, strangled and stabbed to death his 17-year-old sister, Terri, in 1981. Sacramento Superior Court Judge Shellyanne Chang ruled in their favor Friday after Harris challenged them on the dubious grounds that crime victims and the general public "lack standing" to sue the state.
Brown had directed the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation in April 2012 to develop rules that should pass court muster. What's taking so long? Spokesman Jeffrey Callison answered that his department has been working on "a single drug protocol" but "nationwide, there is a problem with access to execution drugs and that is complicating efforts."
California has used lethal injection since 1996 to spare condemned inmates unnecessary pain. Even still, U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel stayed Morales' execution as the judge perceived a 0.001 percent chance the convicted killer might feel pain.
In other states not headed by Hamlets, leaders have found ways to anticipate court sensibilities and keep faith with voters. Many adopted one-drug protocols. Death penalty foes responded by using their considerable muscle to bar importation and choke the supply of lethal-injection drugs. Flat-footed Sacramento stuck with the unused three-drug protocol for too long. While Brown's Corrections Department was working on a one-drug rule, Texas executed 38 killers with pentobarbital. The next time you hear the cerebral governor argue that high-speed rail is doable, remember that he couldn't pull off a legal procedure that didn't daunt former Texas Gov. Rick Perry....
In 2012, California voters rejected a ballot measure to get rid of capital punishment. Alexander and Winchell shouldn't have to sue their government to enforce the law.
As the title of this post is meant to suggest, I do not think officials in California have any real interest in fixing its execution protocol.
February 11, 2015 in Baze lethal injection case, Death Penalty Reforms, Who Sentences? | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Tuesday, February 10, 2015
As SCOTUS considers Oklahoma lethal injections, Oklahoma considers a gas chamber
As this AP article reports, now that "executions in Oklahoma [are] on hold amid a constitutional review of its lethal injection formula, Republican legislators are pushing to make Oklahoma the first state in the nation to allow the use of nitrogen gas to execute death row inmates." Here is more:
Two separate bills scheduled for hearings this week in legislative committees would make death by "nitrogen hypoxia" a backup method of execution if the state's current lethal injection process is found to be unconstitutional.
"You wouldn't need a medical doctor to do it. It's a lot more practical. It's efficient," said Rep. Mike Christian, an Oklahoma City Republican and former Oklahoma Highway patrolman who conducted a hearing last summer on hypoxia, or the depletion of oxygen in the bloodstream.
The U.S. Supreme Court currently is reviewing Oklahoma's three-drug method in a challenge sparked by a botched lethal injection last spring in which an inmate groaned and writhed on the gurney before a problem was discovered with an intravenous line. The case centers on whether the sedative midazolam properly renders an inmate unconscious before the second and third drugs are administered. Three scheduled lethal injections in Oklahoma have been delayed pending the high court's review.
Oklahoma officials concede midazolam is not the preferred drug for executions, but death penalty states have been forced to explore alternatives as manufacturers of more effective drugs refuse to sell them for use in lethal injections. Tennessee passed a law last year to reinstate the electric chair if it can't get lethal drugs, and Utah is considering bringing back the firing squad. Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt has urged legislators to consider the creation of a state compounding pharmacy to produce the drugs itself.
A fiscal analysis of the Oklahoma bill projects it would cost about $300,000 to build a gas chamber at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. A similar bill is pending in the Oklahoma Senate. Christian said unlike traditional gas chambers that used drugs like cyanide that caused a buildup of carbon dioxide in the blood, breathing nitrogen would be painless because it leads to hypoxia, a gradual lack of oxygen in the blood, similar to what can happen to pilots at high altitudes.
Four states currently allow the use of lethal gas — Arizona, California, Missouri, and Wyoming — but all have lethal injection as the primary method, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. No state has ever used nitrogen gas or inert gas hypoxia to execute an inmate. The last U.S. inmate executed in a gas chamber was Walter LaGrand in Arizona in 1999.
A few recent and older related posts:
- Is nitrogen gas the best modern execution alternative to lethal injection?
- Serious talk about a serious alternative (nitrogen) to lethal injection in Oklahoma
- Shouldn't Congress be holding hearings to explore federal and state execution methods?
- Poll after ugly execution highlights enduring death penalty support and openness to various execution methods
- A worldly perspective on different execution methods
- Should problems with lethal injection prompt return of other execution methods?
February 10, 2015 in Baze lethal injection case, Death Penalty Reforms, Who Sentences? | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Monday, February 09, 2015
"In praise of the firing squad"
The title of this post is the headline of this recent Washington Post commentary by Radley Balko. Here are excerpts:
[F]rankly, if we insist on executing people, the firing squad may be the best option. Before I explain why, I'll first disclose that I'm opposed to the death penalty, and I have no doubt that my opposition to state-sanctioned killing influences my opinions on which method of execution we ought to use. So read the rest of this post with that in mind.
If you support the death penalty, the most obvious benefit of the firing squad is that unlike lethal injection drugs, correctional institutions are never going to run out of bullets. And if they do, more bullets won't be very difficult to find. Ammunition companies aren't susceptible to pressure from anti-death penalty activists, at least not to the degree a pharmaceutical company might be. This would actually remove a barrier to more efficient executions. As someone who would like to see executions eliminated entirely, I don't personally see this as a benefit. But death penalty supporters might. And there are other benefits to the firing squad, benefits that I think people on both sides of the issue can appreciate.
Traditional lethal injection is more humane if you consider the humanity of the procedure from the perspective of everyone except the person being executed. There is now a storm of controversy about the procedure because those botched executions last year produced some really gruesome images, which were then relayed to the public by witnesses. Had the condemned men in Oklahoma, Ohio and Arizona suffered the same pain and agony, but under the cloak of a more thorough paralytic, we probably wouldn't be having this discussion. We consider a method of execution humane if it doesn't make us uncomfortable to hear or read about it. What the condemned actually experience during the procedure is largely irrelevant. The lethal injection likely became the most common form of execution in the United States because it makes a state killing resemble a medical procedure. Not only doesn't it weird us out, it's almost comforting.
By contrast, the firing squad is violent and archaic, and judging by the reaction to the bills in Utah and Wyoming, it most certainly does weird a lot of people out. And yet in only the way that should matter, the firing squad is likely more humane than the lethal injection....
This sets up a final argument in favor of the firing squad: There is no mistaking what it is. There are no IVs, needles, cotton swabs or other accoutrements more commonly associated with healing. When we hear about an execution on the news, we won't hear about an inmate slowly drifting off to sleep. We'll hear about guns and bullets. Killing is an act of violence. That's what witnesses will see, and that's what the reports will tell us has happened. If we're going to permit the government to kill on our behalf, we should own what we're doing.
This is where a critic might argue that as a death penalty opponent, I'm merely arguing for the method of execution that I think is most likely to turn people off to the death penalty. I'll be honest: I hope that's what will happen. I hope that when confronted with a method of execution that's less opaque about what's actually transpiring, more of us will come to realize that we no longer need capital punishment. But I'm not particularly optimistic that will happen. I suspect that there's a strong segment of the public (and probably a majority) that will support the death penalty no matter how we carry out executions.
Regardless of its impact on the death penalty debate, if we must continue to execute people, the firing squad has a lot to offer. It isn't just the most humane form of execution now realistically under consideration, it is the most humane from the correct perspective — the experience of the condemned. It brings no concerns about the supply of execution materials. It raises no issues about medical ethics — it doesn't blur the lines between healing and hurting. It's honest. It's transparent. And it is appropriately violent.
February 9, 2015 in Baze lethal injection case, Death Penalty Reforms, Purposes of Punishment and Sentencing | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Saturday, January 31, 2015
After adopting new execution drug laws, Ohio delays all executions for additional year
As explained in this AP article, a full year after Ohio had difficulties executing Dennis McGuire and a month after the state enacted new execution laws, Ohio officials decided to kick the execution can another year down the road by rescheduling all 2015 scheduled executions. Here are the details:
The state on Friday rescheduled executions for seven death row inmates as it tries to find new lethal drugs, meaning no inmate will be put to death in Ohio in 2015. The announcement affects six executions this year, including one set for Feb. 11 for condemned child killer Ronald Phillips, and one previously scheduled for 2016 that was pushed farther back.
The move, which was expected, follows a federal judge's previous order delaying executions while the state puts a new execution policy in place, the state said. The delays also allow the state time to find supplies of new drugs, according to the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. The new execution policy calls for Ohio to use drugs it doesn't have and has had difficulty obtaining in the past.
The delays mean that for the first time Ohio won't execute anyone in a calendar year since the state resumed putting inmates to death in 1999. The state put one inmate to death last year and three in 2013. A total of 11 executions are scheduled for 2016. Under the revised schedule, the next execution is Jan. 21, 2016, when Phillips is scheduled to die for the 1993 rape and killing of his girlfriend's 3-year-old daughter in Akron.
Tim Young, the state public defender, applauded the move, saying there was no need for executions "until we have answers to the numerous legal and medical questions posed by lethal injection."
Earlier this month, the state ditched its two-drug method after problematic executions in Ohio a year ago and Arizona in July. Ohio's supplies of those drugs, midazolam, a sedative, and hydromorphone, a painkiller, were already set to expire this year. Underscoring concerns about midazolam, the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this week ordered Oklahoma to postpone lethal injections executions using the drug until the court rules in a challenge involving midazolam.
Ohio's execution policy now calls for it to use versions of thiopental sodium or compounded pentobarbital, neither of which it has. Death penalty experts question where Ohio would find supplies of thiopental sodium, saying it's no longer available in the U.S. and overseas imports would run afoul of importing bans.
Notably, before Ohio started having major problems with lethal injection protocols, the state had become one of the most active and effective states carrying out death sentences. The state completed nearly 50 executions from 2002 through 2012, and a few years in that period it was second only Texas in the number of executions completed. But lethal injection difficulties and litigation entailed that the state could carry out only three executions in 2013, only one in 2014 and now there will be none in 2015.
I expect that Ohio officials will be try pretty hard to get its machinery of death up and running again in 2016, and it is possible a Supreme Court decision about lethal injection protocols in Oklahoma might actually end up helping the state get its execution chamber back on line. But the 140 men and one woman now on Ohio's death row (and their lawyers) should be breathing a little easier today. And it now seems that much more likely that the majority of these murders will end up just dying in prison rather than be subject to an affirmative state killing.
January 31, 2015 in Baze lethal injection case, Death Penalty Reforms, Who Sentences? | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBack
Tuesday, January 27, 2015
"The Humane Death Penalty Charade"
The title of this post is the headline of this New York Times editorial. Here are excerpts:
When the United States at last abandons the abhorrent practice of capital punishment, the early years of the 21st century will stand out as a peculiar period during which otherwise reasonable people hotly debated how to kill other people while inflicting the least amount of constitutionally acceptable pain.
The Supreme Court stepped back into this maelstrom on Friday, when it agreed to hear Warner v. Gross, a lawsuit brought by four Oklahoma deathrow inmates alleging that the state's lethalinjection drug protocol puts them at risk of significant pain and suffering.
In accepting the case, the justices had to change its name. The lead plaintiff, Charles Warner, was executed on Jan. 15 after the court, by a vote of 5-to-4, denied him a lastminute stay. That may sound strange until you consider that while it takes only four justices to accept a case for argument, it takes five to stay an execution. The case is now named for another inmate, Richard Glossip. (On Monday, the Oklahoma attorney general requested temporary stays of the impending executions of Mr. Glossip and the other two plaintiffs.)...
The justices have been here before. They upheld the constitutionality of lethal injection in 2008. But, since then, the battles over the practice have grown more warped. Many drug makers now refuse to supply their products for killing, leaving states to experiment on their inmates with other drugs, often acquired under cover of official secrecy and administered by authorities with no medical training. During a hearing last month on Oklahoma's protocol, a state witness who testified that midazolam is effective appeared to rely on the website drugs.com, not scientific studies. It would all be a laughable farce if it didn't involve killing people.
There is disingenuousness on both sides. Many who oppose the death penalty, this page included, are obviously not interested in identifying more "humane" methods of execution; the idea itself is a contradiction in terms. Nor are many capital punishment supporters concerned with how much suffering a condemned person might endure in his final moments. In the middle sit the armchair executioners who engage in macabre debates about the relative efficiency of, say, nitrogen gas.
It is time to dispense with the pretense of a painfree death. The act of killing itself is irredeemably brutal and violent. If the men on death row had painlessly killed their victims, that would not make their crimes any more tolerable. When the killing is carried out by a state against its own citizens, it is beneath a people that aspire to call themselves civilized.
I love the phrase "armchair executioners," even though I could not help reacting with a classic "Taxi Driver" response.
Recent related posts:
- Oklahoma geared up to restart its machinery of death nine months after ugly execution
- Over dissent of four Justices, SCOTUS lets Oklahoma execution go forward (... and Florida executes around the same time)
- Seven years after Baze, Supreme Court takes up another lethal injection challenge
- The SCOTUS culture of death: "Execution Case Highlights the Power of One Vote"
January 27, 2015 in Baze lethal injection case, Death Penalty Reforms, Who Sentences? | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack
Monday, January 26, 2015
The SCOTUS culture of death: "Execution Case Highlights the Power of One Vote"
The title of this post is drawn from the headline of this New York Times piece by Adam Liptak that highlights why the Supreme Court's decision on Friday to grant cert to review Oklahoma's execution protocol is so interesting and creates much death penalty drama for this coming week and the months ahead. Here is how the piece starts:
There are nine justices on the Supreme Court. It takes four votes to hear a case, but it takes five to stay an execution.
That can leave a lethal gap. A death penalty case can be important enough to claim a spot on the court's docket of perhaps 75 cases a year. But the prisoner who brought it may not live to see the decision.
In agreeing on Friday to hear a challenge to the chemicals Oklahoma uses to execute condemned prisoners, the court brought fresh attention to the life-or-death importance of a single vote. The lead petitioner in Friday's case, Charles F. Warner, was already dead. He was executed eight days earlier, after the Supreme Court refused to stay his execution. The vote was 5 to 4.
"What happened to Charles Warner was not an isolated glitch," said Eric M. Freedman, a law professor at Hofstra University and the author of a new article on the court's voting procedures in capital cases. "It was a typical, if high-visibility, example of a systemic flaw in the machinery of justice that has gone unrepaired for far too long."
The case the court agreed to hear used to be called Warner v. Gross, No. 147955. On Friday, taking account of Mr. Warner's death, the court changed it to Glossip v. Gross, No. 147955. It may change again. The new lead petitioner, Richard Glossip, is scheduled to be executed on Thursday. The other two petitioners in the case also have execution dates in coming weeks, all of them well before the court is expected to hear arguments in the case, in April.
The Supreme Court did not say on Friday whether it would stay the other three executions. In a statement, Scott Pruitt, Oklahoma's attorney general, made a pointed reference to the fact that it took only four votes to grant review. He seemed to indicate that the state was prepared to proceed with the executions.
The petitioners' lawyers will doubtless seek stays. In Mr. Glossip's case, they will have to act quickly. How the court responds will illuminate the current vitality of its fitful commitment to a procedure it sometimes uses to bridge the voting gap: the "courtesy fifth" vote to stay executions. Such votes are said to be available once the court makes a formal decision to grant review of a condemned prisoner's case.
Recent related posts:
- Oklahoma geared up to restart its machinery of death nine months after ugly execution
- Over dissent of four Justices, SCOTUS lets Oklahoma execution go forward (... and Florida executes around the same time)
- Seven years after Baze, Supreme Court takes up another lethal injection challenge
January 26, 2015 in Baze lethal injection case, Death Penalty Reforms, Procedure and Proof at Sentencing, Sentences Reconsidered, Who Sentences? | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack


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Hi everyone I am a lurker in this forum. I love it here. I wanted to let everyone know that tomorrow Saturday 25, Toletown is having a really fun day of activities on their web site. It is all FREE. If you have some time you should check out the site. There is painting, games, and other things to do. Come on over and see all the fun.
Toletown.com is the site. I hope it is okay if I let you all know about this. If not ooops. I didn't mean to step on any toes.
Hi Learningtopaint, thanks for jumping in and letting us know about that. I don't think it's a problem as long as you're not trying to sell something. ;o)
Please don't be a lurker anymore, just come chat with us and share projects that you are working on too if you would like. There's not many of us posting here as you well know, and the more the merrier! ;o)

subset: commoncrawl


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Respond to Review of Eat Asia Food
by piratechick
Review: I've only ever had the running sushi at EAT. They used to have some awesome vegetarian options on there, but the choices seem to be getting fewer and fewer. Do try the bunny-shaped doushabao - but steer clear of the fried bananas (I tried one of those and literally got a mouthful of cheap cooking oil)!
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Open Forum: The cost of defeating Obama
The GOP has lost sight of the fact their acronym ends in "P" not "D." The GOP has lost sight of humanity by blocking legislation and funds that could rebuild Minnesota literally from the ground up (our infrastructure) and provide jobs for our families.
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If you're planning to misconstrue Katy Perry's words, be advised that she won't just let it slide. In fact, she'll hit you back with some more words that aren't exactly printable.
While discussing her upcoming collaboration with BFF Rihanna, Perry told BBC Radio 1, "You know that Eurthymics song with Aretha Franklin, Annie Lennox, 'Sisters Are Doin' It For Themselves'? That's like the kind of song that I'd want to do instead of, like, 'Hips Don't Lie,' which was still a great song by Shakira and Beyonce. I mean, not 'Hips Don't Lie,' what's that duet? 'Beautiful Liar.'" Though Perry went out of her way not to insult her fellow pop stars, naturally multiple sources reported that she and Beyonce are feuding.
Apparently, this made Perry furious, because last night she unleashed some tough talk on Twitter. "F--k all y'all (press) dat thinks I dissed anyone, puhlez, u havin a slow news day or what?!" she wrote. "Get a life, cuz it's not mine! #hoodratcominout." She added, "If ya ears are filled with wax it's time to get a cleanse boo...Anywayz... (steps off of box)."
For those interested in a real celebrity feud, look no further than Jon Hamm and Kim Kardashian's never-ending war of words. [E!]


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A work of art! The castings on this pair of storks is awesome. They are small and exquisite. They are in wonderful condition. The bases are weighted for stability. One of them is a tiny bit taller than the other. One measures 5" high, and the other is 5 1/4" high. They are 3" across the base.
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Sources: Trader Joe's hunting for regional distribution center sites
- Anjali Fluker
- Senior Staff Writer- Orlando Business Journal
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The Trader Joe's store count in the Sunshine State is growing — and that means there's a need for a regional distribution center.
Real estate sources told Orlando Business Journal and sister paper Jacksonville Business Journal that the Monrovia, Calif.-based niche grocery chain is on the lookout for a site where it can build 600,000 square feet of warehouse and distribution space to supply its Florida stores and more. Sites include those along Interstate 95 between Daytona Beach and Melbourne and along Interstate 75 between North Carolina and Lakeland.
A new distribution center would eat up a good amount of industrial real estate, while creating temporary construction jobs as well as permanent distribution and warehousing jobs for the area. Additionally, it would support Trader Joe's expanding to open more stores in the area, which also would generate new jobs.
Related: 4 reasons there's so much buzz around Trader Joe's
Trader Joe's confirmed it will open stores in the Orlando area this year, though it hasn't shared an opening date. The Winter Park store could open in the spring and the store in Orlando's Dr. Phillips neighborhood has a goal of opening in the fall.
The niche grocer has a store in the works in Jacksonville Beach, OBJ's sister paper in Jacksonville reported. The grocer also announced plans to open in South Tampa and St. Petersburg, sister paper Tampa Bay Business Journal reported. Other stores are planned for Boca Raton, Delray Beach and Palm Beach Gardens, and existing stores are in Gainesville, Naples, Pinecrest, Sarasota and Tallahassee.
Be sure to check back for more updates.
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The Observation Deck
A blog of opinions on local, state and national issues
Posts filtered on Category
All eyes on Schenectady
Today's editorial: It's time for the Schenectady school board to release the investigatory report on convicted former facilities director Steven Raucci, with no redactions. _______________________ The Schenectady school board has to make a crucial choice tonight. It has to decide if it's going to embrace the process, so necessary yet potentially quite painful, of coming […] [Read More]
Schools don't work. Time to go online.
Traditional education is failing and it's time for students to get their education the same way they conduct virtually every other aspect of their lives: online. It makes no sense to continue to offer kids an analog education in a digital world, says Katherine Mangu-Ward in Reason. [Read More]
Well, Mr. Ely?
From today's editorials: The trial of Steven Raucci is over, but questions remain about Schenectady Schools Superintendent Eric Ely. _______________________ Superintendents, not facilities directors, run and otherwise set the tone in public school systems. At least they should. Accountability rests, ultimately, with the person entrusted with the top job in a school system, not whomever […] [Read More]
Education open thread
Several letter writers today opined that schools can't be entirely blamed for students' performance; much responsibility lies with parents, too. Consequently, one writer suggested, increasing school funding isn't the answer to boosting student achievement. Thoughts? [Read More]
What a time for a vacation
From today's editorials: A budget crisis prompts the governor to withhold state school aid. The budget deadline comes and goes with no spending plan in sight. The legislature's answer? Road trip. ____________________ Maybe Governor Paterson's decision to withhold $2.1 billion in school aid that districts were counting on receiving Wednesday will accomplish what an April […] [Read More]
New York's race to the bottom
Today's editorial: The state bungled the Race to the Top grant application. It should learn from its mistakes and try again. ________________ There's a classic message that grown-ups strive to teach children: It's not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game. In a competition as fierce as the Race to the […] [Read More]
New Covenant fails its test
From today's editorials: The closing of New Covenant Charter School is understandable, but it means more students, money and challenges for the Albany school district. __________________________ It could not have been an easy decision for the State University of New York Board of Trustees to close the New Covenant Charter School in Albany's Arbor Hill. […] [Read More]
Texas textbooks take revisionism too far
It would be one thing to trim Ross Perot or Ralph Nader from the history books, but putting Jefferson Davis and Abraham Lincoln on equal footing simply goes too far and tortures the truth, says Paul Thornton in the Los Angeles Times. [Read More]
An illusion of democracy
From today's editorials: A bill that would let school districts avoid recessionary belt tightening is an unfunded mandate on taxpayers. _________________ The Education Mandate Relief Act of 2010, passed by the state Senate this week, might be better dubbed The End Run Around Voters Act. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Suzi Oppenheimer, D-Mamaroneck, sounds well-intentioned […] [Read More]
Homeschooling not so radical anymore
A high pressure educational atmosphere driven by an incessant quest for higher standards and the need to continually assess performance through standardized testing has created an environment hostile to childhood learning, says Andrew O'Hehir in Salon. That's why he pulled his kids out and many others are doing the same. [Read More]
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31.6°in Darwin
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A leading Indigenous research institute has suspended its $700,000 grants program.
The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies grants program has existed for decades.
But the Institute's Principal, Russ Taylor, says funding has remained stagnant for the last few years, and it has increasing cost pressures to maintain an archive of globally-significant Indigenous cultural material.
"We have a major challenge in the fact that our archives are at risk," Mr Taylor said.
"Unless we can address and convert some of these records to digital format soon they are going to deteriorate to the point where they are going to be lost forever."
Four years ago a grant helped Dr Catherine Holmes study population movements around the Top End.
She says the program was extremely valuable.
"It would be a shame that they wouldn't be able to continue to operate those grants," Dr Holmes said.
The Institute hopes the program will resume but won't nominate a timeline.
First posted


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Today Big Brother Watches Truckers, Tomorrow He'll Watch You
In-cab surveillance cameras are putting drivers inside the corporate panopticon
In-cab surveillance cameras are putting drivers inside the corporate panopticon
The one uses cheap cameras, the other is developing (fairly) cheap lidar
Volvo looks to test a fleet of 1,000 cars that can share information about road conditions
Tailgating? You say that like it's a *bad* thing
Will Germany open even the superfast stretches to driverless cars?
A nationwide system, long kept secret, tracks cars and sometimes is used to seize them as booty
Video-game video, plus analysis, lets Corvette's Performance Data Recorder replay your driving—and improve it
The software is Google's business. It's leaving the car-building to the experts
Univ. of Michigan researchers use videogame tech to cut the cost of pinpointing a car's location
The U.S. space agency and automaker plan to begin testing autonomous vehicles starting in 2015
The first fully functional version of Google's self-driving car combines steering, braking, and brains—but no steering wheel
Before Nokia traded in smartphones, it was already dialing up technology for smart cars
They'll pick you up and drop you off, park themselves and charge themselves
Tags three consortia to figure out how to get robocars onto British roads
The ability to track the same people between different camera views could aid real-time traffic maps
New hands-free messaging device will only work if your hands are where your driver's ed teacher told you they should be
U.S. voters rejected four robo-cop proposals, making the tally 31 out of 34 over the past 23 yeares
Autos can now cancel noise from the engine and the road; what's next, the kids in the back seat?
New software uses predictive data to make better guesses about when the juice will run out
The 2015 Modeo, a modestly priced sedan, will be able to sense and avoid pedestrians
Sure, it'll also have an extra motor, 4-wheel drive and semiautonomous capability. But sonar's a little--unusual
A new predictive sensor system should help Volvo truck autonomously avoid flattening bicyclists and pedestrians
A new generation of electronic sensors could revolutionize wearable gadgets and smart retail packaging
The failings of voice recognition systems enter the smart car conversation
DLP headlights on cars can automatically shade oncoming cars
The technical and safety challenges are tremendous, says panel of researchers
It will also have more autonomy than any car available today
Insurers' data-gathering devices give enough info to determine your location, say Rutgers engineers
Radar is the key to Mercedes Benz's autonomous car
A smart seatbelt and car seat system can detect drowsy drivers based on heartbeat and breathing rhythm


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To try the thousands of add-ons available here, download Mozilla Firefox, a fast, free way to surf the Web!Close
Choose from thousands of extra features and styles to make Firefox your own.Close
|User since
|November 1, 2012
|Number of add-ons developed
|0 add-ons
|Average rating of developer's add-ons
|Not yet rated
a great add-on, thumbs up, and here's a suggestion: why not add a function wherein you can block *everything* on the web except for 1 or 2 stated sites. So instead of identifying the sites you wish to block, identify the sites you wish to allow...This review is for a previous version of the add-on (0.6.3).
To create your own collections, you must have a Mozilla Add-ons account.


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- Home
- Your Heart
- Ask Dr. T
- Heart Healthy Living
- Professionals
- About Us
- Contact Us
Your Heart
- How Your Heart Works
- Risks & Benefits
- Coronary Artery Disease and Angina
- Chest Pain
- Myocardial Infarction
- Diagnosis
- Treatment
- Questionnaires
Nitroglycerin (NTG)
Nitroglycerin is used medically as a vasodilator to treat heart conditions, such as angina and heart failure. It is one of the oldest and most useful drugs for treating heart disease by shortening or even preventing attacks of angina. Nitroglycerin comes in forms of tablets, sprays or patches.
Blood returning from the body in the veins must be pumped by the heart through the lungs and into the arteries against the high pressure in the arteries. In order to accomplish this work, the heart's muscle must produce and use energy ("fuel"). The production of energy requires oxygen. Angina pectoris (angina) or "heart pain" is due to an inadequate flow of blood (and oxygen) to the muscle of the heart. It is believed that all nitrates, including nitroglycerin, correct the imbalance between the flow of blood and oxygen to the heart and the work that the heart must do by dilating (widening) the arteries and veins in the body. Dilation of the veins reduces the amount of blood returning to the heart so that the heart does less work and requires less blood and oxygen. Dilation of the arteries also lowers the pressure in the arteries against which the heart must pump. As a consequence, the heart works less and requires less blood and oxygen.
Nitroglycerin (NTG) tablets placed under the tongue, is a very effective means of treating angina. The tablet dissolves under the tongue and may have a slightly sharp, burning or tingling taste. Tablets which have this taste when fresh but subsequently become tasteless may indicate loss of effectiveness and potency.
Ask Doctor T. Blog
Hi, I am 35 and had a heart attack 18 months ago, due to high cholesterol. As a result I needed a stent in my RCA and have been told I have very mild disease in my LAD. my cardiologist told me I suffered next to no damage to my heart musle. My cholesterol is now under control. I was and am reasonably fit and have never smoked or been over weight. I have had 3 normal...
My husband is 66 years old, 6''4', 247, has high blood pressure & gout. Otherwise healthy. just got back his Holter monitor today. We have the test results, but his Doctor...


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KozyWorld Lancaster Dual Fuel Gas Stove
Special Offer:
24 Issues of Better Homes and Gardens
Included with your purchase - a $10 value (Subscription and Rebate Info)
KozyWorld Lancaster Dual Fuel Gas Stove
Weights & Dimensions
|Product Type: Free standing
|Finish: Black
|Adjustable Thermostat Included: Yes
|Fuel Type: Gas
|Country of Manufacture: China
About the ManufacturerVent-free gas heating appliances offer low operating costs and an attractive way to reduce home heating costs. They're a smart solution for today's home heating challenges. According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), the average homeowner can save 3% on home heating costs with every degree the central heating system is set back. By turning back the central heat and using KozyWorld gas appliances for extra heat in the rooms used most often, you and your family can further reduce your total energy consumption. KozyWorld gas appliances require no electricity for burner operation, providing peace of mind and a cozy warm home during winter power outages. Each KozyWorld gas appliance features an ODS pilot system that automatically shuts the appliance off should oxygen levels drop below acceptable levels. KozyWorld vent-free fireplaces add beauty, charm and elegance to any home. They improve the winter ambiance inside your home while increasing the value of your home.
KozyWorld Lancaster Dual Fuel Gas Stove
Questions & Answers (2)
"Hi, is this stove equipped with an oxygen depletion sensor?" asked by Adrien
"Hi, what kind of gas does the stove use?" asked by Synthia
Still have questions about this product? We're here to help
Customer Reviews
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Kozyworld Lancaster Duel Fuel Gas Stove
Bruce from Belen, NM– Verified Buyer
A nice stove for a good price. No venting means easy installation. Started up first time and puts out a nice amount of heat, especially with the optional blower. Well worth the price.
OUR SKU # WMG1140Lancaster Dual Fuel Gas Stove is also sometimes listed under the following manufacturer numbers: GSD4400


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The linux prctl function allows you to control specific characteristics of a process' behaviour. Usage of the function is fairly messy though, due to limitations in C and linux. This module provides a nice non-messy python(ic) interface. Most of the ...SEVEAS/Linux-Prctl-1.5.0 (1 review) - 06 Jun 2012 13:01:23 GMT - Search in distribution
This is simple module that wraps the prctl system call. Currently only the PR_SET_NAME and PR_GET_NAME are implemented. This can be use to change the process name as reported by "ps -A" and be killable will killall. SYNOPSIS use Sys::Prctl(prctl_name...TLBDK/Sys-Prctl-1.02 - 20 Sep 2011 10:57:18 GMT - Search in distribution
The Syntax of Variable Names Variable names in Perl can have several formats. Usually, they must begin with a letter or underscore, in which case they can be arbitrarily long (up to an internal limit of 251 characters) and may contain letters, digits...SHAY/perl-5.20.2 (6 reviews) - 14 Feb 2015 18:27:06 GMT - Search in distribution
- perl5140delta - what is new for perl v5.14.0
This simple module provides two functions to set or get the signal that the linux kernel will send when the parent process dies. get_pdeathsig returns 0 when no signal has been set. set_pdeathsig(0) will clear the setting. Both functions croak on err...ZEROHP/Linux-Pdeathsig-0.10 - 11 Jun 2010 19:49:18 GMT - Search in distribution


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Kukla's Korner Hockey
Fear Of Losing?
by Paul on 12/08/12 at 02:34 PM ET
Comments (1)
from Steve Milton of the Hamilton Spectator,
So if the owners caved in to end the 1994 lockout, despite Bettman's urging to the contrary; and we're now figuring out that they tied, or even lost, the 2005 lockout because of the unintended consequences of that CBA, it casts a different light on the uncharacteristically overt emotions that the NHL commissioner and owners displayed earlier this week.
That wasn't exasperation at talks breaking down that made those voices crack and nearly break.
It was fear. (without the 'h').
Fear of losing yet again. Fear of having their self-satisfaction revealed as truly baseless, a modern-day emperor's new clothes. Fear of becoming the only big sport to strike off a championship season twice. Fear of no one outside of Canada caring, which is one of the NHL's major paranoias.
Fear of someone deep on the inside pointing out that the only real constant in the three NHL lockouts (there are all new players, a new union head and about two dozen new NHL owners since the 1994 lockout) was the one man who should have been most motivated to prevent them.
And a fear of memory. The NHL prefers us not to remember anything before today, because it always comes back to haunt them....
Like their constant insincere references, until the final year of the CBA, to the players as "partners," a word that has not been uttered in public since.
Filed in: NHL Talk, NHLPA, | KK Hockey | Permalink
Fehr of Losing.
See what I did there?
Posted by Red Winger from Sault Ste Marie on 12/08/12 at 04:16 PM ET
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About Kukla's Korner Hockey
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The Blackhawks and St. Louis Blues have played three very spirited and very close games already in their first-round playoff series. Show of hands who expects Game 4 to be any different?
When Anthony Rizzo steps in the left-handed batter's box at Wrigley Field, the enormity of the moment doesn't get to him.
Buddy Valastro, better known as the Cake Boss from the reality television series on TLC, has spent his career making some of most la
It seems like the Cubs spend all their time either talking up the future or trying to sell memories of Wrigley Field.
Pedro Strop insisted there's no bad blood between the Cubs and Miguel Montero.


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Meet Gingersnap Marigold
Monday we got a new puppy and I thought you guys would like to see her. Her name is Gingersnap Marigold, named after the first Golden Retriever we had years ago. She is a sweetie pie. I had thought of getting a Bernese Mountain Dog,they are supposed to be great protectors, but great with kids, and sometimes I get scared when Skip is out of town, but we have had great luck with these guys, so Skip wanted to stick with them. Maggie is our 12 year old dog, she is helping train Ginger. The house training is going very well, but boy you have to watch them every second, she is finding things on my floor that I didn't know was there. Pieces of string, paper, birthday candles from last week. I am going to become a fabu house cleaner (probably not).
Maggie- couldn't get her to smile today... she is thinking hey, I am way too old for that....
Both together
Boy I should have known I couldn't post pictures and make any sense. Please know that I realize my run on sentence should have commas, periods, and possibly a new paragraph, and please mentally correct my misuse of "finding things on the floor that I didn't know WERE there." I am usually not that bad. Comes from editing and re-editing my comments, lol. Hope you all enjoy the pics. I have some other ones of Santa arriving on an icebreaker to post in the next couple of days....
Absolutely adorable...all the better to make you think she won't have to be trained. But TRAIN HER. Having Maggie is a great help, but still, make time to do work with her. Follow some Chelone rules! Usually Goldens are eager to please their masters, but lately I've come across a few who are feisty and disobedient. She'll be very easy to love, I can tell!
Thanks for the advice and kind comments.
I do plan to put her in obedience training, I am getting too old to be able to yank on the leash, and would like to be able to take her for a walk down the road without getting my arm yanked out of the socket. Plus my knees aren't the best anymore:) Glad you pointed out the drooling. I was picturing the pulling babies with a little cart thing, lol. I had originally planned to get a puppy in the spring, but Skip got the urge early. It is working out okay though, I think. She already picks up sticks in the yard and carries them around. When we first got her she was sitting on the patio and as soon as she saw Maggie started jumping and playing. Maggie is the sweetest dog on the planet, and is taking the newbie like a champ. She mothers our cat, and I am sure she will do the same with Ginger. So far, it is an amazingly easy transition. No crying at night, etc. Will keep you updated.
Thanks, everyone. To answer a few questions, We are going to call her Ginger only. That name was before I gardened, and Marigolds are not a favorite, but it was part of the original name. The red thing in the pic is a throw I picked up at Sam's Club. It is so soft, Skip and I fight over who gets to use it.
I can say you haven't lived until you have removed a stick from a puppy's mouth to save its life, only to find that it is chewing on, yep you guessed it.. doggie doo. Yuck. That was right after Maggie dug into a fast food bag while I ran into the bank, ate the whole bag, including napkins, then proceeded to throw up all over the car, the house... every where but the yard. I can't th ink of the last time she did that. She must be traumatized by the puppy, and is an emotional eater, lol. I didn't know she had thrown up, so got it all over my new gloves, my car keys... clothes to take to Goodwill now have to be rewashed. My library bag... oh yuck. It has been a fun Saturday so far:)
Drema, Ginger is precious. Your pictures make me miss my Keebler. Although he was a mix, he had a lot of golden in him. To bad about the mess Maggie made. She looks like a great dog too. Are they indoor outdoor dogs?
Rebel has been wanting in again now that it is cold outside. Norma


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Homeland Security:
Various Issues Led to the Termination of the United States-Canada Shared Border Management Pilot Project
GAO-08-1038R: Published: Sep 4, 2008. Publicly Released: Sep 4, 2008.
Additional Materials:
- Full Report:
- Accessible Text:
(202) 512-8816
Office of Public Affairs
(202) 512-4800
In the years since the 2001 terrorist attacks, balancing the need to secure U.S. borders while maintaining the flow of legitimate cross-border travel and commerce has taken on an added importance. The United States and Canada share a border that extends nearly 4,000 miles, and one of the world's largest trading relationships. Each year, approximately 70 million travelers and 35 million vehicles cross the border from Canada into the United States, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Given the volume of cross-border travel and trade between the United States and Canada, border congestion and the resulting wait times have a substantial economic impact on both nations. Furthermore, according to an analysis by DHS, the heightened emphasis on border security following the 2001 terrorist attacks has lengthened processing time for travelers and cargo crossing into the United States. Recognizing the need to improve both border security and border-crossing efficiency, the United States and Canada have cooperated on various cross-border management initiatives intended to increase the flow of legitimate travel across the border while maintaining security. For example, to facilitate the travel of low-risk prescreened individuals across the northern border, the United States and Canada jointly operate the NEXUS program. The NEXUS program allows registered border residents and frequent cross-border travelers identified as low-risk individuals access to dedicated lanes and expedited processing with minimal inspection. The United States and Canada also coordinate on border law enforcement programs such as the Integrated Border Enforcement Team Program (IBET), which is a bi-national, multi-agency law enforcement initiative that (1) provides, where necessary, support to national security investigations associated to the Canada/United States border and (2) investigates illegal cross-border activities. A key collaborative effort to improve security and relieve congestion at the ports of entry across the northern border is to move customs and immigration inspection activities away from the border--a concept known as "land preclearance" or "shared border management." In December 2004, the United States and Canada announced that the two governments had agreed to move forward with a land preclearance pilot project at the Buffalo, New York-Fort Erie, Ontario Peace Bridge and at one other border crossing site along the northern border, which had not yet been determined. The land preclearance pilot project flowed from the 2001 Smart Border Declaration and its associated action plan, which was meant to enhance the security along the northern border while facilitating information sharing and the legitimate flow of people and goods, and securing infrastructure. The preclearance pilot at the Peace Bridge would involve the relocation of all U.S. border inspection operations for both commercial and passenger traffic from the U.S. side of the border in Buffalo, New York, to the Canadian side of the border in Fort Erie, Ontario. From 2005 to 2007, the United States and Canada were engaged in negotiations to implement land preclearance at the Buffalo-Fort Erie Peace Bridge ports of entry. However, in April 2007, these negotiations were officially terminated by DHS. Section 566 of the 2008 DHS Appropriations Act mandates that we conduct a study on DHS's use of shared border management to secure the borders of the United States. In accordance with the mandate and discussions with Committee staff, this report addresses the following questions: (1) What negotiations have been conducted by the Department of Homeland Security regarding the shared border management pilot project? (2) What issues led to the termination of shared border management negotiations?
From 2005 to 2007, the United States and Canada were engaged in negotiations to implement a land preclearance pilot project (also referred to as "shared border management"), which would have relocated the U.S. border inspection facility from the Buffalo, New York, side of the Peace Bridge to the Fort Erie, Ontario, side. All CBP inspections and operations would then take place before travelers and cargo entered the United States. The Peace Bridge site was selected for the pilot because it is one of the busiest commercial crossings between the United States and Canada, yet the existing border infrastructure at the Peace Bridge contributes to a number of security and border crossing inefficiencies, according to DHS. Specifically, DHS had concluded that the U.S. inspection facility, which is located near the center of downtown Buffalo, is outdated, undersized, and lacks the modern amenities a port of its size should have to operate efficiently and securely. The facility is located on 17 acres of land, as opposed to the 80 acres that CBP recommends for a large port of entry. DHS has reported that additional inspection space is needed to address these infrastructure issues, but there is no easily available land adjacent to the facility in Buffalo. On the Canadian side of the Peace Bridge in Fort Erie, there are approximately 70 acres of land available on which the U.S. inspection facility could have been co-located with Canadian inspection facilities. In April 2007, DHS officially terminated negotiations with Canada because a mutually acceptable framework for United States-Canada shared border management could not be reached. Officials from both countries agreed that negotiations were conducted in good faith, and the two governments were able to reach accommodations on several key issues raised during the negotiations, such as the approval of all of the authorities Canada sought for its U.S.-based preclearance area, and the arming of CBP officers at the preclearance site on Canadian soil. However, certain issues pertaining to each country's sovereignty and the law enforcement authorities of U.S. CBP officers operating on Canadian soil could not be resolved. These issues included concerns over arrest authority; the right of individuals to withdraw an application to enter the United States while at the land preclearance site in Canada; mutually agreeable fingerprinting processes; how information collected by U.S. officials at the land preclearance site would be shared; and concerns that future interpretations of the Canadian Charter could adversely impact U.S. authorities at the preclearance site.
Mar 25, 2015
Aviation Security:TSA's Managed Inclusion Process Expands Passenger Expedited Screening, But TSA Has Not Tested Its Security EffectivenessGAO-15-465T: Published: Mar 25, 2015. Publicly Released: Mar 25, 2015.
Mar 24, 2015
Homeland Security:Action Needed to Better Assess Cost-Effectiveness of Security Enhancements at Federal FacilitiesGAO-15-444: Published: Mar 24, 2015. Publicly Released: Mar 24, 2015.
Mar 23, 2015
Border Security:Additional Efforts Needed to Address Persistent Challenges in Achieving Radio InteroperabilityGAO-15-201: Published: Mar 23, 2015. Publicly Released: Mar 23, 2015.
Mar 16, 2015
Homeland Security Acquisitions:DHS Should Better Define Oversight Roles and Improve Program Reporting to CongressGAO-15-292: Published: Mar 12, 2015. Publicly Released: Mar 16, 2015.
Mar 10, 2015
Government Publishing Office:Production of Secure Credentials for the Department of State and U.S. Customs and Border ProtectionGAO-15-326R: Published: Mar 10, 2015. Publicly Released: Mar 10, 2015.
Mar 6, 2015
Aviation Security:TSA Should Take Additional Action to Obtain Stakeholder Input when Modifying the Prohibited Items ListGAO-15-261: Published: Feb 4, 2015. Publicly Released: Mar 6, 2015.
Feb 26, 2015
Department of Homeland Security:Progress Made, but More Work Remains in Strengthening Management FunctionsGAO-15-388T: Published: Feb 26, 2015. Publicly Released: Feb 26, 2015.
Jan 27, 2015
Supply Chain Security:CBP Needs to Enhance Its Guidance and Oversight of High-Risk Maritime Cargo ShipmentsGAO-15-294: Published: Jan 27, 2015. Publicly Released: Jan 27, 2015.
Jan 12, 2015
Federal Facility Cybersecurity:DHS and GSA Should Address Cyber Risk to Building and Access Control SystemsGAO-15-6: Published: Dec 12, 2014. Publicly Released: Jan 12, 2015.
Dec 19, 2014
Anthrax:Agency Approaches to Validation and Statistical Analyses Could Be ImprovedGAO-15-80: Published: Dec 19, 2014. Publicly Released: Dec 19, 2014.
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Lawn Care Forum
This forum is meant for the discussion of lawn care--proper maintenance, recommendations for selections, fertilizers, etc. There are also separate forums on lawn mowers and tractors.
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Eastern Research Group, Inc. Reviews
- Any Location
- Any Job Title
1 Employee ReviewsSort: Popular Rating Date
"Great people, great atmosphere "
- Comp & Benefits
- Work/Life Balance
- Senior Management
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
I worked at Eastern Research Group, Inc. full-time (more than a year)Pros
The people at ERG are genuinely nice. The environment is friendly, and fellow colleagues are there to help you, not to compete with you. The work schedule is very flexible, and if need be you can work from home on occasion. There are some wonderful, considerate people, and the company strives to help you solve personal issues.Cons
ERG's fantastic support for personal issues doesn't extend to professional issues. It is a challenge to get feedback from managers, even when prompted. This is mostly because they want to be nice, and make everyone feel comfortable, but it ultimately presents a challenge to personal development, and growth within the company. Furthermore, though ERG strives to build a strong community within the office, it's not an ideal place to build your social life outside of there. Employees for the most part have their social groups outside the office.Doesn't RecommendPositive OutlookApproves of CEO