After Iowa: Candidates’ Records on Juvenile Justice and Education Issues

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The first leg of the 2012 presidential race ended in a virtual dead heat between Republican candidates Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum, with the former Massachusetts governor edging the former Pennsylvania senator by a mere eight votes in Tuesday’s Iowa caucuses. With several primaries scheduled for the month of January, the results of Iowa’s contest may be just the beginning of a long and potentially tumultuous road to establishing a Republican challenger to President Obama this November. In regards to juvenile justice and education issues, both Romney and Santorum have figured prominently in establishing reform measures within their respective states. Romney served as the governor of Massachusetts from 2003-2007, overseeing an overhaul of the state’s Juvenile Justice Advisory Committee during his first year in office. In 2003, the American Civil Liberties Union criticized Massachusetts officials for failing to comply with the Disproportionate Minority Confinement provision of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Provision Act [JJDP] of 1974.  In response, the Romney administration outlined a complete reorganization of the state’s Juvenile Justice Advisory Committee [JJAC], a State Advisory Group established by a 2002 addendum to the JJDP Act.

New Year’s Resolutions: Hannah, 16

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Hannah Greer, 16, Pope High School

“I was clean for nine months until this month, when I slipped up and drank some whiskey. I’ve been to jail four times. My drug of choice, it’s embarrassing to say, was cocaine. Finally, it hit me that if I could go without it in jail, I could go without it at home. “My resolution is not to go backwards at all next year.

New Year’s Resolutions: Nick, 17

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Nick McCullough, 17, Pope High School

“I have a good head on my shoulders and for starters, I won’t do what I normally would do on New Years, which is smoke weed. I want to go to college and I have my mind set on that now. I am the captain of my hockey team and pretty much always have been. I like to be a leader instead of having a lot of people looking over me. I’m not crazy about being under people’s rule, so even this (drug court) is a big deal for me.

New Year’s Resolutions: Dylan, 15

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Dylan Hamilton, 15, Pope High School

“I started smoking marijuana two years ago. I was skipping a lot of school, hanging with the wrong crowd, living the wrong life. This coming year, I just want to be clean and able to relax and do my best in school so I can start preparing for college. I’m a grade behind where I should be and I’m trying to make that up now. “There were some wasted years, for sure.

JJIE Joins Investigative News Network

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The JJIE.org is the newest member of the Investigative News Network, a consortium of more than 60 non-profit newsrooms in North America. “We are excited about having JJIE and Kennesaw State University as part of the network,” Kevin Davis the CEO and Executive Director of the INN said in a press release. “Juvenile justice issues are chronically underreported by the mainstream media and we are delighted to help bring high quality and persistent coverage of this important area.”

The INN counts among its members the Washington, D.C.- based Center for Public Integrity, National Public Radio, OpenScerets.org and the Alicia Patterson Foundation, New York-based ProPublica, the Berkeley, Calif.-based Center for Investigative Reporting and Minneapolis-based MinnPost.com to name a few. The stated mission of the Los Angeles-based INN is to help member "non-profit news organizations produce and distribute stories with the highest impact possible, and to become sustainable nonprofit organizations." “Joining the INN collaboration is a logical step in the JJIE.org’s movement into a national news organization covering youth justice issues,” said JJIE.org Executive Director Leonard Witt, who calls juvenile justice the civil rights issue of our time.

Home for the Holidays for Two Brothers, Part Two

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Erin Dale, a probation officer in Cobb County, Georgia’s juvenile drug court, has never come across a kid who started using marijuna as young as Zach Dykes. “Seven years old,” Dale said. “Pre-teen, like 11 or 12, is the earliest I’d seen before Zach.”

Zach, 17, is currently in the Cobb County, Ga. Juvenile drug court program. Up until this April, the Hillgrove High School senior had smoked marijuana on and off – mostly on – since he was 7.

For Once, Two Brothers Behind Bars Come Home For Christmas, Part One

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No one is 100 percent sure what Christmas in the Dykes’ house will be like this year. But Zach Dykes, 17, a senior at metro Atlanta’s Hillgrove High School, is pretty sure it’ll be better than last year’s. It almost has to be. Zach was in the Cobb County Youth Detention Center on drug charges until Christmas Eve last year. His older brother, Robbie, 23, was in prison, serving an 18-month prison sentence on a drug conviction.

Did the FDA Ignore Earlier Reports of Elevated Arsenic Levels in Juices?

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When Consumer Reports publisher Consumers Union announced its findings related to an investigation of arsenic levels in several popular fruit juices last month, the uproar was instantaneous. Released just two months after an episode of “The Dr. Oz Show” brought the issue to the public forefront, the Consumer Reports investigation aroused a nationwide debate, raising questions about the safety of juice products as well as Food and Drug Administration standards. What remains mostly unpublicized, however, is that several groups contacted the FDA about elevated arsenic and lead levels in fruit juices earlier this summer – a full two months before “The Dr. Oz Show” episode about arsenic levels in apple juices originally aired. “Right now, there are no standards for juices for arsenic at all, or even heavy metals,” said Judy Braiman, founder of the Empire State Consumer Project,  an advocacy group established in 1986. Braiman’s organization conducted an independent study analyzing heavy metals levels, including arsenic and lead, in several juice products in July, which found arsenic levels higher than the FDA’s established standards for drinking water in several apple juices and sauces.

Kentucky Newspapers Fighting for Release of Unedited Child Abuse Records

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Earlier this week, The Lexington Herald-Leader and the Louisville Courier-Journal filed separate motions in an attempt to get the state’s Cabinet for Health and Family Services to release full case files involving child deaths and near-deaths as a result of abuse or neglect. The motions came following the cabinet’s release of more than 300 pages of heavily edited internal reviews on Monday. The redacted files omitted or censored the names of not only children that were killed or injured, but in some instances, the names of suspects and counties in which the abuses occurred. Wednesday, the Louisville Courier-Journal filed a motion in the Franklin Circuit Court requesting that the Cabinet for Health and Family Services be held in contempt for editing the files. That same day, the Lexington Herald-Leader asked Judge Phillip Shepherd to make the cabinet produced unabridged copies of social worker reviews from 2009 and 2010.