STOCKTON, California

Courts have seen the number of sex offense cases involving juvenile offenders rise dramatically in recent years, an Associated Press review of national statistics found, and treatment professionals say the offenders are getting younger and the crimes more violent.

Some psychologists blame the increase in numbers — 40 percent over two decades — on a society saturated with sex and violence and the fact that many of the accused were themselves victims of adult sexual predators.

London

About 700 cyclists in various states of undress have cycled through central London in another leg of the World Naked Bike Ride.
The naked cyclists - and others with strategically-placed body paint, sticky tape or bum bags - were highlighting the damage caused by car dependency.

They were also promoting the environmental benefits of cycling.

Earlier on Saturday, more than 200 naked cyclists rode through Brighton and Hove in East Sussex.

The World Naked Bike Ride is now in its fourth year with more than 60 cities participating in 2007.

How do you think we could get something like this going in Flagstaff? If anything, we’re in desperate need of a Flagstaff Critical Mass.

Paris Hilton, back to jail in tears.

Europe’s seas are in a “serious state of decline” as a result of coastal development, overfishing and pollution from agriculture, warn scientists.
The continent’s regional seas will deteriorate even further unless action is taken to curb the threats, they add.

Economic growth and the expansion of the EU, the researchers suggested, had contributed to the state of the waters.

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I got an email inquiring as to what my comment tag referenced. A false guess persisted, I’m afraid. It’s from this fantastic album. I’ve never seen this on CD before, I’m not sure any exist. I haven’t looked very hard though. I’m pretty sure they’ve got a song on that early 80’s Peace/War comp with Reagan Youth.

PHOENIX

A Department of Public Safety officer faces almost four years in prison for allegedly asking a woman to expose herself during a traffic stop, authorities said Monday.

Chris Young, 28, of Williams, was charged with one count of bribery of a public servant, according to the Arizona Attorney General’s Office.

The Attorney General’s office said that Young made the proposal in April 2006 after stopping Kyle Parcell, of Temecula, Calif, for speeding on Interstate 40 in Yavapai County.

During the traffic stop, Young allegedly asked Parcell’s passenger, Myrla Ryan Brock, to expose herself with the understanding that “Young’s opinion, judgment, exercise of discretion or other action as a police officer might be influenced.”

Young is a nine-year DPS veteran. He resigned in November 2006.

PHOENIX

Five Arizona felons filed suit Thursday challenging state laws that keep them from voting because of their criminal convictions.

The lawsuit filed in federal court in Phoenix by the American Civil Liberties Union challenges a state law that denies certain rights to those who have been convicted of at least two felonies. These felons can get the right to vote only by getting permission from a judge.

China says its first and overriding priority in tackling climate change is to maintain economic development.

The remarks come in China’s first national plan on climate change.

nice plan…

ROSTOCK, Germany (AP)

Masked demonstrators showered police with grapefruit-sized rocks and beer bottles, then were driven back with water cannon and tear gas during a protest march Saturday against the upcoming Group of Eight summit in Germany.

The clashes left smoke from burning cars and the sting of tear gas drifting through the harborfront area in the north German port of Rostock. Some 146 police were hurt, 25 of them seriously.

Radicals “are smashing everything in their way to pieces,” said Karsten Wolff, a police spokesman.

The officially permitted march preceded a three-day summit beginning Wednesday in the seaside resort of Heiligendamm, where German Chancellor Angela Merkel hosts the leaders of the other G8 nations — Britain, France, Japan, Italy, Russia, Canada and the United States.

The leaders are expected to discuss measures against global warming, the fight against AIDS and poverty in Africa, and the world economy. As in previous years, the summit drew protesters of various stripes opposed to globalization, capitalism and the G8 itself.

The way to meet this challenge of energy and global climate change is through technology–George W. Bush

right….technology, once again, the cause of and solution for all our environmental problems.

US President george W Bush has seized the initiative on climate change in a move that pleased some fellow world leaders but infuriated his environmental critics.

In a striking change of tone, he says he wants America to be part of a global climate deal when the first period of the Kyoto Protocol ends in 2012.

Meanwhile the G8 Summit is taking place in Germany next week, which makes this “skepticism” all the more relevant:

“This is a transparent effort to divert attention from the president’s refusal to accept any emissions reductions proposals at next week’s G8 summit,” said Philip Clapp, president of the National Environmental Trust in America.

“After sitting out talks on global warming for years, the Bush administration doesn’t have very much credibility with other governments on the issue,” Mr Clapp added.