Police found such a small amount of crack cocaine in James V. Taylor’s car that investigators described it as unweighable. It was enough for a 15-year prison sentence in Missouri, where the courts make an enormous distinction between crack and powder cocaine. Missouri and several other states followed the federal government’s lead in creating such disparities decades ago, but now federal law has changed and prisoner advocates say it&# ... Jump to full article >>

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The law and justice are on the side of Gov. David A. Paterson’s plan to start collecting state taxes on tobacco products sold by the state’s Native American nations. That doesn’t mean the governor won’t have to be very careful in the way he follows through with that pledge. Paterson said last week that he had been warned by his own State Police that “violence and death” could be the result of any effort to go against the Seneca and On ... Jump to full article >>

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To investigate the burden which extradition places on Britain’s criminal justice system, The Sunday Telegraph spent a week in the country’s sole extradition court. Of the 100 or so extradition hearings held every week at City of Westminster magistrates’ court, some involve career criminals or accusations of major crimes. But in many cases defendants appear bemused to find themselves in court over relatively minor matters, offences they did ... Jump to full article >>

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TIVAT, Montenegro — “This is better than St. Tropez,” Milo Djukanovic, the prime minister of Montenegro, exclaimed as he took in a display of yachts berthed in this mountain-shrouded bay on the eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea. Hardly. But if Mr. Djukanovic and a group of foreign businessmen supporting him have their way, the port of Tivat, now just 20 percent complete, could become a new playground for the super-rich and the centerpiece o ... Jump to full article >>

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Louisiana State Police are assisting in the investigation of a state office whose top official resigned suddenly on Friday, officials said Saturday. Murphy J. Painter, veteran commissioner of the Louisiana Office of Alcohol and Tobacco Control, quit Friday without any official explanation. State Revenue Secretary Cynthia Bridges made the announcement in a one-sentence news release. [caption id="attachment_6891" align="alignleft" width="300" capt ... Jump to full article >>

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A statewide association of convenience store owners said the recently enacted taxes on cigarettes and tobacco have chased as much as one-third of that business into American Indian reservations, border states or other tax havens. The state cigarette tax rose July 1 to $4.35 a pack from $2.75 a pack. A tax increase on other tobacco products took effect Aug. 1. The increase brings the price of cigarettes in the state to the highest levels in the na ... Jump to full article >>

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