Justice Dept. Launches Campaign Against Counterfeit Goods
Counterfeit products and stolen intellectual property are estimated to deprive U.S. workers of some 750,000 jobs every year, and more than $250 billion in lost revenue for the U.S. economy. As the holiday shopping season gets under way, the U.S. Department of Justice is sounding the alarm to consumers, with a new ad campaign urging shoppers to “Get Real.”
Launching the campaign at a White House event the day after Cyber Monday—the big post-Thanksgiving online shopping day—Attorney General Eric Holder announced the seizure of 150 domain names for sites found to be trafficking in counterfeit or pirated products. Holder was joined by White House Intellectual Property Enforcement coordinator Victoria Espinel, and Acting Deputy Secretary of Commerce Rebecca M. Blank, who announced her agency’s forthcoming report on the economic impact of intellectual property theft. Denise O’Donnell, director of the Bureau of Justice Assistance, emceed the event.
According to a fact sheet on the National Crime Prevention Council (NCPC) website: Read the rest of this entry »
Short-Staffed Federal Prisons Endanger Communities, Guards
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The union that represents correctional officers at the U.S. Bureau of Prisons says federal prisons—including the famed Supermax facility—are not safe and major steps must be taken soon to protect prison employees and the communities near the prisons.
Testifying before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security yesterday, Bryan Lowery and Phil Glover told lawmakers that budget cuts and short staffing increasingly pose a danger to officers, inmates and the 115 communities and small towns which surround the facilities.
Lowery is president of AFGE‘s Council of Prison Locals, and Glover is the council’s legislative coordinator.
Prison Staffing Hazard: Take Action Today
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Every day in the nation’s woefully understaffed and severely overcrowded federal prisons, correctional officers face hazardous and sometimes deadly conditions. In 2008, a correctional officer was murdered by inmates in a California federal prison. A look at AFGE’s Council of Prison Locals website shows that assaults against officers and inmate violence are almost a daily occurrence.
Yet, the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) is refusing to use tens of millions of dollars appropriated by Congress to hire more officers to help bring the prisons under more secure control and reduce the violence for both correctional officers and inmates.
AFGE’s Council of Prison Locals is circulating an online petition urging U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to order BOP management to use the appropriated funds to hire more officers, fire Bush-era BOP Director Harley Lappin and hire 9,000 additional correctional officers.
