Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/430460
ByEricTucker The Associated Press WASHINGTON TheObama administration released long-awaited racial profil- ing guidelines for federal law enforcement agents on Monday. The new rules broaden an existing de- cade-old ban on profiling, but contain significant ex- ceptions that trouble some advocacy groups for minor- ities. A closer look at the changes: Q: What's new in the guidelines? A: The guidelines pro- hibit the FBI and other fed- eral law enforcement agen- cies from profiling on the basis of religion, national origin, gender, gender iden- tity or sexual orientation. They replace 2003 direc- tives from the Bush admin- istration that banned profil- ing on the basis of race and ethnicity but created an ex- ception for national secu- rity investigations. The new rules close that national se- curity loophole and widen the profiling prohibition to include a broader set of characteristics. Q. Does that mean fed- eral law-enforcement agen- cies can never take those factors into account? A. Not quite. The Jus- tice Department says law enforcement may still con- sider those characteristics if there's information link- ing a suspect of, say, a par- ticular ethnicity or gender to a specific crime. In other words, U.S. Park Police of- ficers may not stop speed- ing motorists on the basis of race, gender or national or- igin. But they can use those factors to decide which driv- ers to pull over if they've been told to be on the look- out for a fleeing bank rob- bery suspect of a particular race or gender. Beyond traffic stops, fed- eral agents may also con- sider those factors if they have information con- necting an individual of a certain gender or back- ground to a national secu- rity threat, criminal plot or immigration law violation. Q. What other exemp- tions exist? A: The primary carve- outs are in airports and at the nation's borders. Secu- rity screens by Department of Homeland Security em- ployees in airports and at border checkpoints are ex- empt from the new proto- cols, as are interdictions at ports of entry and Se- cret Service protective ac- tivities. LAW ENFORCEMENT Newpolicy widens profiling race ban By Seth Borenstein The Associated Press WASHINGTON Scientists in a lab used a power- ful laser to re-create what might have been the origi- nal spark of life on Earth. The researchers zapped clay and a chemical soup with the laser to simulate the energy of a speeding asteroid smashing into the planet. They ended up cre- ating what can be consid- ered crucial pieces of the building blocks of life. The findings do not prove that this is how life started on Earth about 4 billion years ago, and some scien- tists were unimpressed with the results. But the experi- ment does bolster the long- held theory. "These findings suggest that the emergence of terres- trial life is not the result of an accident but a direct con- sequence of the conditions on the primordial Earth and its surroundings," the re- searchers concluded in the study published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The laser-zapping pro- duced all four chemi- cal bases needed to make RNA, a simpler relative of DNA, the blueprint of life. From these bases, there are many still-mysterious steps that must happen for life to emerge. But this is a poten- tial starting point in that process. Scientists have been able to make these RNA bases other ways, using chemi- cal mixes and pressure, but this is the first experiment to test the theory that the energy from a space crash could trigger the crucial chemical reaction, said lead author Svatopluk Ci- vis of the Heyrovsky Insti- tute of Physical Chemistry in Prague. Civis said the scientists used a laser almost 500 feet long that for a fraction of a second zapped the chemi- cal soup with an invisible beam. The power was so intense and concentrated that Civis said that for less than a billionth of a second, it was equivalent to the out- put of a couple of nuclear power plants. It produced what would be around a billion kilowatts of energy for that sliver of time over a fraction of an inch, generat- ing heat of more than 7,600 degrees Fahrenheit, the re- searchers said. Some of the earliest life on Earth seemed to coin- cide with a period called the Late Heavy Bombard- ment, when the solar sys- tem's asteroid belt was big- ger and stray space rocks hit our planet more often, said study co-author David Nes- vorny, a planetary scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in Colorado. At the time, asteroids were bombarding Earth 10 times more frequently than before or after. RESEARCH Scientists re-create what may be life's first spark DAGMARCIVISOVA—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS The Prague Asterix Laser System in Prague is seen earlier this year. By Lolita C. Baldor The Associated Press WASHINGTON Greg Nelson had just turned 21 when he went out partying with friends in Southern Califor- nia and got really drunk. So, when a man he didn't know offered to let him crash in a nearby apart- ment, his friends urged him to accept. A Marine who had joined the Corps in 2007, Nelson remembers getting sick and being offered water that seemed to have white specks in it. He said the man then offered him an- other glass of water and a pill that was supposedly Motrin. What happened next is a bit of a blur to Nelson, who says he blacked out and woke up feeling like he was "in a vegetative state." He remembers the man sex- ually assaulting him, but says he couldn't move and blacked out again. Sexual assaults on men in the military happen more often than people might think. But Nelson, who left the Marine Corps in 2011 as a corporal, is one of the rare men willing to report it and talk about it openly. According to an anony- mous survey released last week by the Pentagon, nearly 1 percent of males in the U.S. military said they had experienced un- wanted sexual contact, compared to 4.3 percent of women. That equates to about 10,500 men and 8,500 women. Yet only 14 percent of assaults reported last year involved male victims. Afraid to be seen as vic- tims or as weak or gay, men in the hyper-mascu- line military culture of- ten don't feel comfortable reaching out for help or reporting sexual assaults. Over the past year, though, the services have increased efforts to reach out to male victims, urging them to come forward so they can receive treatment and so of- ficials can go after perpe- trators. The campaign urges troops to intervene in po- tential assault situations, and not just when the vic- tim is a woman. Troops are pressed to report any assault, even ones prior to their enlistment or that in- volve civilian attackers. "The question is, 'Is our population in the military ready to talk about this?'" says Nate Galbreath, se- nior executive adviser for the Pentagon's sexual as- sault prevention office. "We want to get them there. But it's going to be bit by bit. Because it's very, very hard for people to think about someone who is a soldier and is strong" as a victim of sexual assault. Military leaders turned for advice to Jim Hopper, a Harvard University expert on male sexual abuse. "In our culture in gen- eral, to be sexually as- saulted is completely the opposite of what men are supposed to experience," he says, noting a common be- lief that, "men aren't sup- posed to be sexually domi- nated, they're not supposed to express vulnerable feel- ings." While people may ques- tion how a burly infantry of- ficer or Marine could be as- saulted, often he is drunk, passed out or asleep. One Army commander recalled an incident in which one of his soldiers was drunk and woke up to find he was being sex- ually accosted by another drunken soldier. The two men ended up fighting, and it took months for Army in- vestigators to sort out the situation. In many cases, the commander said, there are conflicting stories, and in the time it takes to fin- ish an investigation victims can spiral out of control as they struggle to deal with the incident. Investigators eventually solved the case, and both soldiers ended up leaving the Army — one for com- mitting the assault and the other for discipline issues brought on by it. The com- mander spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to dis- cuss the case. According to Hopper and other experts, sex- ual assault is more about power and control than sex, and has little to do with ho- mosexual behavior. Aggres- sors almost always identify themselves as heterosexual, said Hopper. In May, Defense Secre- tary Chuck Hagel ordered the military services to in- crease their efforts to en- courage men to report as- saults. The services al- ready had started putting together training materi- als aimed at male victims. Videos included scenarios of troops drinking and discussions about when to intervene and what to do if a perpetrator is of higher rank. IN THE MILITARY Male assault victims slow to complain RAQUEL DILLON — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS This frame grab from video shows Greg Nelson as a Marine, taken from his Facebook page in La Jolla. Galactic Garden Center 22755 Antelope Blvd. Red Bluff, CA 530-527-9166 OPEN Monday-Friday 9am-7pm Saturday 10am-6pm Sunday 10am-4pm www.expresspros.com RespectingPeople. Impacting Business LookingforaJob?Wecanhelp. • Distribution Center Labor • Office Assistant • Maintenance Mechanic • Bookkeeper Call Today! 530-527-0727 243 So. 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