REPORTAGE REVENGE
CNN reporter criticizes TSA, finds self on terror watch list

The post-9/11 airline watch list that is supposed to keep terrorists off of airplanes has swelled to more than 1 million names, including at least one investigative reporter who had been critical of the Transportation Security Agency, which maintains the watch list.

CNN�s Drew Griffin reported on the bloating of the watch list, which an ACLU count pegged at 1,001,308 names Wednesday afternoon. Griffin�s is one of those names, he says.

�Coincidentally, this all began in May, shortly after I began a series of investigative reports critical of the TSA. Eleven flights now since May 19. On different airlines, my name pops up, forcing me to go to the counter, show my identification, sometimes the agent has to make a call before I get my ticket,� Griffin reported. �What does the TSA say? Nothing, at least nothing on camera. Over the phone a public affairs worker told me again I�m not on the watch list, and don�t even think that someone in the TSA or anyone else is trying to get even.�

The TSA, which is a part of the Department of Homeland Security, said Griffin�s name wasn�t even on the watch list, and the agency blamed the airlines for the delays the reporter experienced. The airlines, on the other hand, said they were simply following a list provided by TSA.

While it wouldn�t be much of a stretch for plenty of people to believe the TSA would exercise its revenge via watch-list meddling, an agency spokesman insists that just isn�t the case.


Louisiana police kill handcuffed 21-year-old man with Taser device

WINNFIELD, LA � At 1:28 p.m. last Jan. 17, Baron �Scooter� Pikes was a healthy 21-year-old man. By 2:07 p.m., he was dead.

What happened in the 39 minutes in between � during which Pikes was handcuffed by local police and shocked nine times with a Taser device, while reportedly pleading for mercy � is now spawning fears of a political cover-up in this backwoods Louisiana lumber town infamous for backroom dealings.

Even more ominously, because Pikes was black and the officer who repeatedly Tasered him is white, racial tensions over the case are mounting in a place that�s just 40 miles from Jena, La. Jena is the site of the racially explosive prosecution of six black teenagers charged with beating a white youth that last year triggered one of the largest American civil rights demonstrations in decades. And in a bizarre coincidence, Pikes turns out to have been a first cousin of Mychal Bell, the lead defendant in the Jena 6 case.


Tennessee police arrest man for �unlawful photography�

JOHNSON CITY, TN � Nearly everyone carries a cell phone and it�s hard to find one without a photography option. It�s convenient when you want to take that impromptu photo, but a Tri-Cities area man ended up behind bars after snapping a shot of a Johnson County, Tennessee sheriff�s deputy during a traffic stop.

The photographer says the arrest was intimidation, but the deputy says he feared for his life.

�Here�s a guy who takes me out of the car and arrests me in front of my kids. For what? To take a picture of a police officer?� said Scott Conover.

A Johnson County sheriff�s deputy arrested Scott Conover for unlawful photography.

�He says �you took a picture of me. It�s illegal to take a picture of a law enforcement officer,�� said Conover.

Conover took a picture of a sheriff�s deputy on the side of the road on a traffic stop. Conover was stunned by the charge.

�This is a public highway,� said Conover.

And it was not a place where there is a reasonable expectation of privacy as Tennessee code states. The deputy also asked Conover to delete the picture three times.

�He said if you don�t give it to me, you�re going to jail,� said Conover.

Under the advice of the Johnson County attorney, the sheriff would not comment and the arresting deputy said he didn�t want to incriminate himself by talking to us.

In an affidavit, the deputy said he saw something black with a red light which he thought was a threat. Conover was also arrested for pointing a laser at a law enforcement officer.

�At no time did I have a laser. I had an iPhone,� Conover said.

When you take a picture in the dark with Conover�s Apple iPhone, there is no flash or any light that comes from the phone that could be mistaken for a laser.


Texas inmate who didn�t pay traffic tickets dies from untreated infection

FORT WORTH, TX � Calling from a Tarrant County Jail phone in early June, Adrienne Lemons chatted with her 3-year-old son, Chase, and told her ex-husband in Louisiana that she was not getting antibiotics for an infection.

The Dallas woman, 35, was in jail because of unpaid traffic tickets. Ten days after being booked, she was taken to John Peter Smith Hospital, where she died within hours.

Lemons� relatives said that they still don�t know why she didn�t get medical help sooner. 

�It is a tragic thing that my sister goes in for some traffic tickets and comes out dead,� said her brother Shannon Woodrome, 37. �I can see an infection killing someone in the 1600s or the 1700s, but that shouldn�t happen today.�


Teachers defend tactics in hoax DUI program

OCEANSIDE, CA � On a Monday morning in May, highway patrol officers visited 20 classrooms at El Camino High School to announce some horrible news: Several students had been killed in car wrecks over the weekend.

Classmates wept. Some became hysterical.

A few hours and many tears later, though, the pain turned to fury when the teenagers learned that it was all a hoax � a scared-straight exercise designed by school officials to dramatize the consequences of drinking and driving.

Officials at the 3,100-student school defended the program. �They were traumatized, but we wanted them to be traumatized,� said guidance counselor Lori Tauber, who helped organize the shocking exercise and got dozens of students to participate. �That�s how they get the message.�