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A dozen sites
I'm diggin'

*1. Seven key questions about a car company bailout.

*2. Just in time for Thanksgiving, PETA posts a video of turkey abuse on a poultry farm.

*3. The Flip Cam has gone HD with a customizable cover.

4. A fun video to help you with digital conversion.

5. ProPublica's investigation into air marshals gone bad.

6. An awesome storm chaser photo blog.

7. Planet Money is a really good blog about money and finance.

8. ESPN's "The Journey of Richard Jensen" -- the comeback of a wrestler -- is an extra good video.

9. You can lay subtitles or text bubbles on video -- any video. I will be using this to teach about storytelling.

10. I now use Utterz to file audio reports. You can use your computer's mic or any phone. It's simple and would be a great reporter's tool.

11. Kare 11 investigates a local children's transplant hospital.
Sites marked with a * have been added recently.

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EDITOR'S NOTE: Al's Morning Meeting is a compendium of ideas, edited story excerpts and other materials from a variety of Web sites, as well as original concepts and analysis. When the information comes directly from another source, it will be attributed and a link will be provided whenever possible. The column is fact-checked, but depends on the accuracy and integrity of the original sources cited. We will correct errors and inaccuracies when we become aware of them.

Feds Cut Crime-Fighting Grants

In the closing days of 2007, President Bush approved a federal spending plan that includes cutting two-thirds of the federal money for targeted state and local criminal justice initiatives.

The 2008 federal grants from the Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program will go from $520 million dollars last year to $170 million this year. Rural anti-crime task forces, in particular, rely on the federal grant funding.

Stateline.org explains:

The grant program, administered by the Department of Justice, helps pay for a host of law enforcement initiatives in states and cities, including drug task forces, anti-gang units and overtime for police officers.

In Pennsylvania, for example, the money is used to pay state police to help �beef up patrols� in smaller cities when it is necessary, said Michael Kane, executive director of the state Commission on Crime and Delinquency, which distributes federal criminal justice funds in the Keystone State. In Philadelphia � where the murder rate has soared in recent years � the city uses the funds to pay for after-school programs for at-risk youth, drug treatment courts and technology to help fight crime, according to the Philadelphia Police Department.

About 60 percent of the Justice Assistance Grants go to states and 40 percent go directly to localities, often major cities like Philadelphia, according to the Department of Justice. All 50 states, as well as overseas territories such as Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, received grants last fiscal year.

The substantial drop in this year�s federal funding for the grants means �we�ll have to lick our wounds in each state and see how we can survive for a year,� said Jim Kane, executive director of the Delaware Criminal Justice Council, which distributes the federal funds to localities in that state. Kane, who is no relation to Michael Kane, said law enforcers will have to put �a finger in the dike� until funding increases.

�Let there be no room for doubt, communities everywhere will see the effects of this bill and its cuts to criminal justice funding. A cut to the JAG program is a cut to local law enforcement and victims of crime everywhere,� said David Steingraber, president of the National Criminal Justice Association, a network of state officials that is organizing efforts to restore funding next year. �Congress has just made the job of every police officer in this country more difficult.�

The association has blamed the funding shortage on members of Congress who favored pet projects over anti-crime dollars. When he signed this year�s appropriations bill, President Bush criticized Congress for including in the legislation �nearly 9,800 earmarks that total more than $10 billion,� according to news accounts.

It is unclear when states and localities will begin to feel the pinch. In Delaware, Jim Kane said it likely would be during summer, when crime tends to spike and extra assistance � such as police officers working overtime � is needed. Pennsylvania officials, however, said the diminished grants likely would not disrupt existing criminal justice programs in the short term.

A number of local law enforcement units already have expressed concern over the cuts. Drug enforcement agents in Arizona, Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan, Montana and North Carolina have warned their agencies face cuts and possible closure.

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel gives a peek of what the cuts will mean there. I suspect you will find similar stories where you live:

Statewide programs for anti-drug task forces and crime victim/witness services are in line for drastic cuts, and the Milwaukee County district attorney's office might have to eliminate jobs if federal law enforcement funding cuts approved by President Bush hold up, Wisconsin prosecutors say.

"It is a dramatic issue for 2009," District Attorney John T. Chisholm said.

"It's not a matter of calling it the sky falling. . . . The money's just not going to be there for any number of programs, including community prosecution (and) drug prosecution."

Chisholm and a spokesman for state Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen both said significant rollbacks for state law-enforcement efforts are likely if a two-thirds cut in a key federal grant program isn't reversed.

Posted by Al Tompkins 6:00 PM

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