Expanded Brownfields Program Supports Redevelopment in Alaska

This article also appeared on pp. 7–8 of the Summer 2018 print edition.The Environmental Protection Agency’s Brownfields Program support the redevelopment of property which may have contaminants from prior use. Anchorage, Mat-Su Borough, and Kodiak Island Borough are current recipients of Brownfields funds. This year Congress increased grant limits under the Brownfields Program and expanded eligibility requirements. Alaska Native villages and corporations that received a contaminated facility from the U.S. government under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) are now eligible for Brownfields grants.Redevelopment projects / Increased grant limits / Kodiak, Anchorage and Mat-Su grants / Eligibility expanded / Reference

Sexual Assaults in Anchorage

Originally published in the Alaska Justice Forum 22(4): 2-3 (Winter 2006).This study examined the characteristics of all sexual assaults reported to the Anchorage Police Department from 2000 through 2003. Key descriptive findings are summarized. * Victims tended to be young and female, with Native women victims in over 45% of reported sexual assaults. * In a majority of the assaults – over 62% – the assailant was not a stranger to the victim. The most common non-stranger relationships included friends and acquaintances. * A majority of the assaults occurred indoors, with 45% taking place at the residence of one or both of those involved. * Sixty-five percent of victims had used alcohol prior to the assault and 74% of suspects had also. * While assaults occurred all over the Municipality of Anchorage, they happened with more frequency in Spenard, Fairview, and Downtown

Prison Visitation Policies in the U.S. And Alaska

This article examines prison visitation in Alaska and nationally based on a 2012 survey of prison visitation policies for all 50 states and in the federal prison system.[Introduction] / Family Visitation and Virtual Visitation / Alaska's Visitation Policies / Topics for Future Study / SIDEBARS / Questions from Prison Visitation Policies: A Fifty State Survey / Alaska Prison Visitation Resource

Divine Foreknowledge and the Problem of Evil: Four Views

This paper examines the issues of divine foreknowledge and the Problem of Evil from the standpoint of four different theological systems: Open Theism, Arminianism, Molinism, and Calvinism. The author summarizes each view’s understanding of divine foreknowledge and then explains how this understanding applies to the view’s refutation of the Problem of Evil

Benefit vs. Cost of Alaska Criminal Justice Programs

A shorter version of this article appeared on p. 5 of the Winter 2018 print edition. / The report discussed in this article, "Alaska Results First Initiative: Adult Criminal Justice Program Benefit Cost Analysis" by Araceli Valle (2017), can be found at https://scholarworks.alaska.edu/handle/11122/7961. See also the accompanying article, "Expanded View of Recidivism in Alaska" by Araceli Valle, at https://scholarworks.alaska.edu/handle/11122/8091.The Alaska Results First report released by Alaska Justice Information Center (AJiC) in October 2017 shows the benefit to cost ratio (monetary return on the state’s investment) for Alaska's adult criminal justice programs, provides tools for assessing how changing the cost structure and delivery method can impact benefit to cost ratios, and provides a new eight-year study of Alaska recidivism rates. This article briefly summarizes the report and provides an introduction to an accompanying article about the report's findings on recidivism in Alaska.Benefits and costs / Calculating recidivism / New information from Alaska RF / Referenc

When Mental Illness Becomes a Police Matter

This article also appeared on p. 8 of the Fall 2017 print edition.Mental illness is not a police matter in and of itself and most people with mental illness (MI) are not involved in the criminal justice system. When police do interact with an individual with MI, care needs to be taken not to label the person as the problem but to focus on behavior that causes harm to self and others.Interactions usually not violent / Hard to quantify / Reference

Separating True V0's from Combinatoric Background with a Neural Network

A feedforward multilayered neural network has been trained to "recognize" true V0's in the presence of a large combinatoric background using simulated data for 2 GeV/nucleon Ni + Cu interactions. The resulting neural network filter has been applied to actual data from the EOS TPC experiment. An enhancement of signal to background over more traditional selection mechanisms has been observed.Comment: 9 pages LaTeX using elsart.sty and psfig, 5 ps figures. Submitted to NI

The challenge of synthetic drugs in East and South-East Asia and Oceania

The demand for synthetic drugs in East and Southeast Asia and Oceania continues to rise, while rapid economic integration is creating new opportunities for transnational criminal groups to expand the illicit drug trade, warns the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in this report released by the Global Synthetics Monitoring: Analyses, Reporting and Trends (SMART) Programme. This report analyses recent trends and developments of the synthetic drugs market in the region, comprising both amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS) and new psychoactive substances (NPS), which are designed to mimic the effects of substances under international control. The report also highlights the harmful impact of the illicit trade in synthetic drugs on development and the evolving challenges for governments in their efforts to respond to the threat. East and Southeast Asia and Oceania is one of the world\u27s largest synthetic drug markets, and is dominated by methamphetamine in crystalline or ice and tablet (referred to as yaba or yama locally) forms. The illegal synthetic drug trade in the region is also expanding and diversifying with increasing availability of NPS. Moreover, the availability of precursor chemicals in the region increases the risk of diversion for methamphetamine production. &nbsp

Introduction

Given the violence in Darfur and the ensuing international reaction, the Fordham International Law Journal decided to publish a special issue on Darfur. It is timely in light of the continuing violence in the Darfur region. This article serves as the Introduction to the special issue