Man faces DUI charges - again

Four years after a popular Los Gatos High senior died in an alcohol-related crash that stunned the tight-knit community, the driver convicted in his death has been arrested again - on suspicion of drunken driving.

Brian Ricks was arrested Jan. 28 in Santa Barbara County - 1 1/2 months before his 21st birthday, when his probation was to end for a manslaughter and drunken driving conviction in 18-year-old Eric Quesada's death.

"I'm not surprised, by any means," said Kellin Dunne, a passenger along with Quesada when Ricks drove into a telephone pole. "I feel insulted and disappointed by him. He got it easy and he got to go to rehab. He was given every opportunity to succeed. I feel like he was an accident waiting to happen again, which is sad."

In the aftermath of Quesada's death, the Los Gatos community rallied to address the issue of teen drinking and driving and drug use by creating drug- and alcohol-free activities.

Ricks, a University of California-Santa Barbara student and the son of a Los Gatos cardiologist, allegedly had a blood-alcohol content of 0.26 percent when he crashed his vehicle into a tree at an apartment complex in Isla Vista. The legal limit in California is 0.08 percent.

Ricks, who was extradited to Santa Clara County early this month and is being held at Elmwood Correctional Facility in Milpitas, has a court hearing April 9 for violation of probation. He faces possible probation, rehabilitation, county jail or the youth prison system, according to his attorney.

"Brian understands he's violated probation and is very remorseful about that," said San Jose attorney Eric Geffon. "Brian realizes that he's got a drinking problem and did not have it as under control as he thought."

Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney David Soares said confidentiality laws prevent him from releasing details on the case.

Quesada's family declined to comment on Ricks' arrest.

Ricks was 16 on Nov. 26, 2002, when he crashed a Chevrolet Tahoe into a telephone pole on Hicks Road after leaving a party police had broken up. Three high school students were in the vehicle with Ricks that night. Quesada, a high school senior at the time, was killed and Dunne injured. The third passenger was uninjured.

Dunne, now 20 and a student at the University of San Diego, still suffers from crash-related injuries.

Ricks pleaded guilty in the case and was sentenced to one year in juvenile hall and 18 months at a rehabilitation camp.

In the Santa Barbara crash, Ricks allegedly nearly hit a patrol car while trying to extricate his vehicle from the tree. University police arrested him and charged him with driving under the influence.

Ricks was released from the Santa Barbara County jail, apparently without having informed police he was on probation.


http://www.sandiegodrunkdrivingattorney.net

http://www.sandiegodui.com

Yes. If you have a prior and/or high enough BAC.

An Escondido man was charged with murder 3/29/07 for a fatal hit-and-run accident in Solana Beach that killed a 40-year-old bicyclist.

If convicted, Brian Stephen Carnes, 41, faces a maximum sentence of 15 years to life in prison, prosecutor Brenda Daly said.

Carnes was arrested 90 minutes after the March 16 accident on suspicion of causing a hit-and-run accident while intoxicated.

Daly filed the murder charge based on Carnes' previous drunken-driving conviction and his blood-alcohol level at the time of the accident.

Victim Jeannie Franklin was riding south in the northbound bike lane on North Highway 101 near Solana Vista Drive when she was hit by Carnes' SUV when it crossed into her lane, according to authorities. The noon-time collision sent Franklin into a small tree, where the Solana Beach resident died despite quickly getting medical assistance from a doctor.

Carnes remains held in jail in lieu of $500,000 bail.


http://www.sandiegodrunkdrivingattorney.net

Those wacky Laguna Beach kids can't seem to stay out of trouble.

Laguna Beach star Jessica Smith was reportedly arrested on Monday, March 26 and charged with suspicion of felony driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs after an accident she was involved with on a San Diego freeway.

The 19-year-old -- who appeared in all three seasons of MTV's Laguna Beach reality series -- crashed a 1999 Volkswagen Beetle into the back of a 2003 Acura MDX after she was unable to slow down in time, stated a California Highway Patrol report according to Tuesday's The Orange County Register. In addition, the report said Smith's "level of intoxication, unsafe speeds and wet roadwayds" were all conditions that led to the accident.

Roy Hernandez, the Acura's driver, reportedly sustained minor injuries in the collision as did Smith's passenger, 20-year-old Lindsay Cooper.

Smith was being held at the Orange County Jail Women's Intake Release Center in lieu of $100,000 bail, according to The Register. Following a Wednesday arraignment at the Harbor Justice Center on Wednesday, Smith was released from jail on Thursday morning and charged with two misdemeanor counts of driving under the influence, TMZ.com reported Thursday.

Since she was not charged with a felony, "sources" told TMZ.com that Smith's bail was reduced from $100,000 to $5,000 -- but she was still unable to pay it until Thursday -- accounting for the extra day behind bars. Under the terms of Smith's release, she has reportedly been ordered to not drink alcohol (which she shouldn't be allowed to do anyway since she's a minor) as well as attend one AA meeting per week until her arraignment on Wednesday, April 25.

http://www.sandiegodrunkdrivingattorney.net

Becoming dependent on alcohol has long been known to run in some families, which added to the social stigma attached to this complicated condition.

To scientists, apparent heritability suggests some genetic component underlying vulnerability to alcohol problems is being transmitted from generation to generation.

In light of advances over the past 10 years in technologies for discovering and analyzing the functions of genes, researchers are now increasingly able to get at the biological roots of complex disorders such as substance abuse and addiction.

The power to examine patterns of inheritance in large populations, and to survey hundreds of thousands of tiny variations in the genomes of each of those individuals, enables investigators to pinpoint specific genes that exert strong or subtle influences on a person's physiology and his or her resulting risk for disease.

Alcoholism does not have a single cause, nor is its origin entirely genetic. Genes can play an important role, however, by affecting processes in the body and brain that interact with one another and with an individual's life experiences to produce protection or susceptibility.

Dealing with these effects apart is challenging, and to date fewer than a dozen genes that influence one's risk for alcoholism have been identified, although more surely exist.

Known genes vary or alter an individual's vulnerability to alcohol, but many are common in the general population and may have wider effects on drinking habits, on other addictions or problematic behaviors, and on disorders such as depression and anxiety.

Genes involved in our responses to alcohol and understanding their effects may thus illuminate a broader array of conditions, too. Biological processes can build and reinforce alcohol addiction, and will most certainly help to better target existing treatments and devise new ones to break alcohol's hold.

Genes powerfully influence a person's physiology by giving rise to some 100,000 different types of protein, each of which has a direct role in the daily functioning of the body and brain or in regulating the activity of other genes. The strong connection between variations in basic physiology and an individual's susceptibility to alcohol problems is well illustrated by the very first gene to be identified as affecting the risk of developing alcohol dependence.

Decades ago researchers began investigating the widely observed tendency of persons from Chinese, Japanese or other East Asian backgrounds to become "flushed" when they drank an alcoholic beverage. Blood tests on subjects displaying this effect showed increased levels of acetaldehyde, a breakdown product of alcohol, which resulted in an uncomfortable sensation of warmth in the skin, palpitations and weakness. By the 1980s investigators traced the reaction to an enzyme involved in alcohol metabolism, aldehyde dehydrogenase, and eventually to the gene that encodes it, ALDH1. The enzyme breaks down acetaldehyde, but slight variations in the gene's DNA code in these subjects caused the enzyme to work more slowly. When these individuals ingested alcohol, the acetaldehyde--which may be toxic in high doses--was building up in their bodies.

This ALDH1 gene variant has since been found to be common in Asian populations--seen in 44 percent of Japanese, 53 percent of Vietnamese, 27 percent of Koreans and 30 percent of Chinese (including 45 percent of Han Chinese)--yet it is rare in people of European descent. As might be expected, people with this slow-metabolizing gene variant also have a decreased risk, by up to sixfold, for alcoholism, so it is an example of a genetic variation that can protect against developing the disorder.

For help with an alcohol-related driving problem in San Diego, a San Diego drunk driving arrest, or a San Diego DUI:

http://www.sandiegodrunkdrivingattorney.net

http://www.sandiegoduihelp.com

http://www.sandiegodui.com

Officer Armando Plascencia has heard the excuses, and he doesn't buy any of them.

"Officer, I'm here to pick up a friend who's had too much to drink."

"I just live around the corner."

"I have to be at home early in the morning."

Plascencia, 35, has spent enough time patrolling the streets to sniff out an inebriated driver from a sober one and figure out which drivers are lying about their sobriety.

Good luck trying to pull a fast one on an officer who made more than half of the Orange Police Department's DUI arrests last year – 325 to be exact – and set a record for the number of arrests in a year by a single officer in Orange County.

"I don't think that there's anybody that works any harder than Armando," said Lt. Jeff Burton, who supervises Orange's DUI team. "That's a lot of DUI arrests. He's definitely set the bar very high for anyone who comes in after him."

Plascencia, who earned a Medal of Merit from the department in February, will be recognized by Mothers Against Drunk Driving California on March 31 in Sacramento.

In April, MADD's Orange County chapter will give an award to Plascencia, along with 35 other officers who each made more than 100 DUI arrests in 2006.

"Insofar as DUIs are concerned, officers, both police and California Highway Patrol, are our first line of defense in that effort," said Gail Butler, executive director of MADD's local chapter. "They play a pivotal role in keeping our streets safe."

Standing 6 feet 4 inches tall with an NFL lineman's build, Plascencia is hard to miss. He's had people approach him in Old Towne and tell him he arrested their friends.

But the officer's intimidation factor doesn't seem to stop people from drinking and driving.

Last year, 626 people were arrested on suspicion of DUI in Orange. In 2005, 118 people were killed or injured in alcohol-related crashes – about 11.4 percent of the total number of people killed or injured in crashes.

A few years ago, the Police Department got a grant to hire two full-time officers who would focus on curbing DUIs. Teams of officers hired from a select group of candidates continued to challenge one another over the years, Burton said.

Plascencia surpassed his own goals, arresting an average of five to six people on weekend nights and three to four people on weekdays. He was recently promoted to a motorcycle officer.

"Armando is a very conscientious officer, and he always has been," Burton said. "He's a quiet individual, but he brings a real good spirit to people around him."

The goal wasn't setting a record but getting impaired drivers off of the road, Plascencia said.

He patrolled all parts of the city, concentrated on areas with bars and responded to crashes that may have involved alcohol. Not all drivers that the DUI team pulled over – up to 1,000 – were cited on suspicion of drunken driving, but Plascencia encountered a handful of people he had arrested before.

The worst was arresting intoxicated parents who drove with their children in the car, he said. The parents also faced child-endangerment charges.

"They're not only putting themselves and the public at risk but their kids, too," he said.

Plascencia said it is frustrating knowing that people he arrested could easily be on the streets again. For example, he arrested a person in November and caught him again the next week.

"I would like to see stricter penalties," he said. "If people feel it in their pocketbooks, they second-guess themselves (about driving while intoxicated). As far as jail time, multiple offenders need to be there longer. They need to get the hint."

Plascencia, who grew up in the San Gabriel Valley, said he hopes to retire one day and become a major-league baseball umpire.

On his success, he says: "I couldn't do it by myself. That record doesn't reflect me but the support of my department."


http://www.sandiegodrunkdrivingattorney.net

VISTA, Calif. -- An Escondido man with a previous conviction for driving under the influence pleaded not guilty Tuesday to striking a female bicyclist with his car and fleeing the scene of the fatal crash.

Brian Stephen Carnes, 41, faces about seven years in prison if convicted of hit-and-run causing death, gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and driving on a license that was suspended because of a previous DUI.

The collision in a marked bike lane on northbound Highway 101 near Solana Vista Drive around 11:45 a.m. Friday took the life of 40-year-old Jeannie Franklin.


An SUV struck the rear of the bicycle ridden by Franklin, who died at the scene, sheriff's Sgt. Randy Webb said.

The married woman lived near the site of the crash, the sergeant said.

An off-duty sheriff's senior-patrol volunteer who witnessed the crash jotted down the SUV's license plate, and Carnes was arrested about 90 minutes after the crash when he arrived at his apartment complex on Rock Springs Road, according to Webb.

The sergeant said the vehicle had front-end damage and had just been washed.

"It's a tragic, tragic case where a woman was riding a bicycle and lost her life," Deputy District Attorney Brenda Daly said.

The prosecutor was not sure when Carnes previous DUI violation took place, but said it was "years ago."

Judge Adrienne Orfield set bail at $205,000 and scheduled a preliminary hearing for April 3.

http://www.sandiegodrunkdrivingattorney.net

http://www.sandiegoduihelp.com

http://www.sandiegodui.com

St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa was arrested for drunk driving early Thursday morning.

At approximately 12:00 a.m. (et), undercover officers saw La Russa's dark blue Ford SUV stopped at an intersection. The vehicle sat through two cycles of green lights and an unidentified driver behind La Russa's car was forced to drive around the vehicle.

At that point, officers approached the vehicle and found La Russa slumped over in the driver's seat with the engine running. After not responding to repeated knocking on the windows, a patrol officer was summoned and La Russa finally responded.

The officer noted the odor of alcohol on La Russa's breath and the Cardinals manager was asked to step from the vehicle for standard sobriety tests.

At that point, it was determined that there was probable cause to arrest La Russa for driving under the influence of alcohol, a misdemeanor. He was arrested and transported to the Palm Beach County Jail.

Breath samples provided by La Russa showed his blood alcohol content at .093.

"The St. Louis Cardinals and Major League Baseball have been made aware of the announcement made by the Jupiter, Florida Police Department regarding manager Tony La Russa and we take these matters very seriously," the organization said in a statement.

"The Cardinals organization remains supportive of Tony and we understand that he has enlisted representation to advise him through any pending legal process."

"The Cardinals apologize for any embarrassment and or distraction this reported occurrence has created towards the team and its loyal fans."

http://www.sandiegodrunkdrivingattorney.net

DUI cases can be won
DMV Hearings Can Be Won

Some people think that if their blood or breath test was 0.08% or more, they will automatically lose their license. This is not always true.

It certainly is not true for those who hire an attorney to timely request a hearing within 10 days of the arrest/detention date.

Sure, the DMV is required by law to immediately suspend the driver’s license of anyone arrested for (not convicted of) DUI who (1) has a .08% breath reading, or (2) takes a blood test (which will be analyzed later), or (3) refuses to take any test. This "stop & snatch" law means immediately -- on the spot: the license is grabbed and the DUI suspension is legally effective the moment the officer signs the notice (whether or not you receive it).

You have to then fight to get your license back. It can be done.

Did you know there are a number of legal & technical arguments, strategies and timely objections which could effectively avoid a suspensio n?

Did you know there are scientific defenses, including but not limited to the failure to strictly comply with the California Code of Regulations, which can and do result in suspensions being set aside?

I can find a failure of government agencies to follow the rules set forth in Title 17 of the California Code of Regulations which has resulted in successful challenges to DMV suspensions in many of my cases. (See http://www.sandiegoduihelp.com/victory.html.)

A DUI Specialist can also help you through the process in ways that will reduce any suspension imposed by as much as 75%.

San Diego DUI Lawyer Rick Mueller exposes outrageous memo telling San Diego DUI prosecution blood draw witnesses how to testify:

San Diego DUI blood drawers take blood from the person arrested for a San Diego DUI and must account for proper procedures used for the collection, handling and storage of the blood, including identification of the blood sample, etc.

The credibility of the forensic staff witness and the validity of these procedures are critical in a San Diego DUI or San Diego DMV case.

In a case San Diego Drunk Driving Attorney Rick Mueller did, he obtained an amazing internal San Diego DUI memorandum from a San Diego DUI blood drawer.

These are the exposed instructions in that SDPD memorandum and potentially given by the San Diego Police Department to their blood-drawing/laboratory technicians testifying in a San Diego DUI trial:



"COURT TESTIMONY

You will be asked your name.

You do not have to remember drawing [blood from] the particular defendant. Just say you draw many patients each day you work and it is impossible to remember each one.

You may be asked how you draw the blood. It is the standard procedure you follow for ALL blood draws, EXCEPT that you use a NON-ALCOHOLIC antiseptic wipe (Benzalkolium) to cleanse the phlebotomy site. You ALWAYS follow the same procedure for every blood draw. The blood is drawn into grey top tubes provided by the San Diego Police Department. The tubes contain an anticoagulent (Potassium Oxylate) and a preservative (Sodium Fluoride). You check the tube for the presence of a loose, slightly pink powder before you use it. After you fill the tube with blood, you invert the tube 10 times to mix the blood with the anticoagulent/preservative. You will always mix any tube with an anticoagulent 10 times (you count the inversions). The important things to remember is that you always follow the same procedure, so even though you don't remember this particular individual, you know that you drew the person following our standard procedure.

The suspect is identified by the police officer and, when possible, you check the ID or ask the suspect their name. The police officer completes the label with the suspect's name, DOB, etc. You put your name, date, draw time, and place on the label and place the label on the grey top tube. You then place the grey top tube in the plastic chain-of-custody tube, put the cap on it, and seal it with the sealing tape provided by the SDPD. You then hand it to the officer and he takes charge of it.

"H:\My Documents\San Diego Police Dept\Forensic Staff\Court Testimony.doc"


These instructions on what to say in a San Diego DUI trial are given to law enforcement witnesses testifying under oath in a San Diego county court of law and at the San Diego Department of Motor Vehicles.

San Diego DUI blood or San Diego DUI laboratory technicians are essentially told how to testify and what to say, not as to what they actually did -and not what they know - in an actual San Diego drunk driving case.


San Diego DUI Lawyer Rick Mueller can be reached at rick@SanDiegoDUI.com.

Or visit http://www.SanDiegoDUI.com .

Bernalillo County sheriff's deputies have arrested a man on suspicion of driving while intoxicated, marking his 28th such offense. Joseph Brill, 53, was driving on a revoked license when deputies saw him park in a driveway in a northeast Albuquerque neighborhood and fall out of his pickup truck Wednesday evening. He smelled of alcohol and had bloodshot eyes and slurred speech, according to a criminal complaint.


Deputies said they tried to give Brill a field sobriety test but he could not complete the test. He then refused to give a breath test.


Deputies also found an open container of beer in his truck.


"People like Joseph Brill will never get it. They don't care," Sheriff Darren White said. "He needs to go to prison, and that's the way we're going to insure he does not drive a car drunk."


According to the complaint, Brill had 27 prior DWI offenses with at least 14 convictions before his arrest Wednesday. Records also show that he has had his license revoked five times and has spent nearly four years in New Mexico jails and prisons on DWI charges.


At the time of his arrest, he was on parole for two of the convictions, according to records.


Linda Atkinson, executive director of the Albuquerque-based DWI Resource Center, said she had never seen someone with 28 DWI arrests.


"It's pretty disgusting to see someone who can continue to defy the odds with a history like that," she said.


Brill was being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center on a $100,000 bond. His case will be heard in state district court because it is a felony.


Under New Mexico law, the maximum sentence for a seventh or subsequent DWI is three years in prison, a $5,000 fine, alcohol treatment and lifetime driver's license revocation.


http://www.sandiegodrunkdrivingattorney.net

http://www.sandiegodui.com

SAN DIEGO DUI & San Diego Drunk Driving alert:

San Diego County DUI police are making a countywide crackdown on San Diego drunk drivers this weekend, calling it "Operation Green Mile."

San Diego DUI Officers said they will be on patrol in large numbers, with many of them undercover in San Diego county bars, and others at San Diego DUI checkpoints.

San Diego DUI police said the stepped up San Diego drunk driving patrols will mainly be in Carlsbad, Pacific Beach, downtown San Diego, and near the border.

San Diego DUI police said they plan to have extra San Diego DUI enforcement officers on patrol for several weeks, through the spring break period.

http://www.sandiegodrunkdrivingattorney.net

Good vibrations caused bad driving, court hears

VANCOUVER
A British Columbia man offered a novel defence at his impaired driving trial to explain why his car was weaving on the freeway, causing him to be pulled over by police.

Kristopher Lind said it wasn’t the 10 beers and a double cocktail he’d consumed earlier.

He said his attention wasn’t fully on his driving because his wife was using a vibrator bought that day at a sex show in Vancouver.

“Would it be fair to say that you found this distracting?” asked defence lawyer Bruce Ralston.

The accused, a 28-year-old car rental employee from Langley, agreed.

“She was really enjoying it,” Lind testified.

He recalled he and his wife had been to the sex show on Jan. 16, 2005, where they bought some lingerie and a vibrator. After the show, they went with another couple to two strip clubs and a nightclub.

Lind denied Thursday that he was driving while drunk. The judge will give his verdict March 28.

http://www.sandiegodrunkdrivingattorney.net

http://www.sandiegoduihelp.com

Search warrant, court order in CHP probe sealed

The California Highway Patrol has searched the Rancho Cordova home of one of its own lieutenants as part of a criminal probe into CHP contracts.

Yet a Sacramento Superior Court judge has sealed the search warrant file from public scrutiny -- and sealed his own court order that sealed the records as well.

Charity Kenyon, an attorney representing The Sacramento Bee, has filed a motion urging the court to immediately unseal the search warrant and court order, saying statewide Superior Court rules were not properly followed.

"Law enforcement is investigating law enforcement in secret," she said.

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Gary Ransom issued a search warrant on Jan. 11, giving CHP officers permission to search the home of Lt. Gregory H. Williams.

Williams was put on leave last fall after an investigation into $600,000 in contracts for license plate scanning systems, which are used by CHP officers to spot stolen cars.

CHP investigators are reviewing a $101,116 contract for five such systems awarded to Miner Fabrication, a company operated by Williams' daughter Krystal and son-in-law Chad Miner. Miner Fabrication acted as a reseller for PIPS Technology Inc. and also supplied brackets to mount the scanning cameras on CHP cars.

Williams has never commented on the probe, but his daughter has said neither of them did anything wrong.

CHP officers executed the warrant at Williams' home on Jan. 18 and a report about the search was returned to court Jan. 25.

But, after a Bee reporter learned of the warrant and started asking questions, Ransom ordered all records about the Williams search sealed between Feb. 28 and March 5, court officials said.

CHP spokeswoman Fran Clader said the court sealed the records "so as to protect the evidence already obtained and to ensure the ongoing investigation is not compromised."

Kenyon's motion asserts the court's actions have undermined public access to court records.

The California Rules of Court recognize that the public and news media have the right to be notified about motions to seal court records. The rules give the public and the media a right to argue in court against any motion to seal any court records.

Kenyon's motion states that the public was not notified of plans to seal the Williams warrant.



http://www.sandiegodrunkdrivingattorney.net

WASHINGTON - All prescription sleeping pills may sometimes cause sleep-driving, federal health officials warned Wednesday, almost a year after the bizarre side effect first made headlines when Rep. Patrick Kennedy crashed his car after taking Ambien.

It’s a more complicated version of sleepwalking, but behind the wheel: Getting up in the middle of the night and going for a drive — with no memory of doing so.

The Food and Drug Administration wouldn’t say exactly how many cases of sleep-driving it had linked to insomnia drugs, but neurology chief Dr. Russell Katz said the agency uncovered more than a dozen reports — and is worried that more are going uncounted.

Given the millions of prescriptions for insomnia drugs, Katz called the problem rare, and said he was unaware of any deaths. But because sleep-driving is so dangerous — and there are precautions that patients can take — the FDA ordered a series of strict new steps Wednesday.

First, the makers of 13 sleep drugs must put warnings on their labels about two rare but serious side effects:

Sleep-driving, along with other less dangerous “complex sleep-related behaviors” — like making phone calls, fixing and eating food, and having sex while still asleep.
Life-threatening allergic reactions, as well as severe facial swelling, both of which can occur either the first time the pills are taken or anytime thereafter.

Next, doctors this week will begin getting letters notifying them of the new warnings.

Later this year, all prescription sleeping pills will begin coming with special brochures called “Medication Guides” that spell out the risks for patients in easy-to-understand language.

Sleep-driving made headlines last May when Kennedy crashed his car into a security barrier outside the U.S. Capitol after taking Ambien and a second drug, Phenergan, which also acts as a sedative. He has said he had no memory of the event.

Ambien isn’t the only insomnia drug that can cause sleep-driving — any of the class known as “sedative-hypnotics” can, FDA’s Katz stressed Wednesday.

To lower the risk of a sleep-driving episode, he advised patients to never take any prescription insomnia drug along with alcohol or another sedating drug, or take higher-than-recommended doses of the pills.

“We really want people to know these things can occur, and these sleep behaviors can be perhaps to a large extent mitigated by behaviors the patients can control,” he said.

Some of the insomnia drugs may be riskier than others, so FDA also recommended that manufacturers conduct clinical trials to figure that out.

The drugs are: Ambien; Butisol sodium; Carbrital; Dalmane; Doral; Halcion; Lunesta; Placidyl; Prosom; Restoril; Rozerem; Seconal; Sonata.

Fewer than one in 1,000 patients in studies of Ambien reported somnambulism — a scientific term that includes the sleep behaviors flagged by the FDA — said Lisa Kennedy, a spokeswoman for manufacturer Sanofi-Aventis SA, who is not related to the congressman. The side effect has remained similarly rare since widespread sales began, she said.


http://www.sandiegoduihelp.com

http://www.sandiegodrunkdrivingattorney.net

http://www.sandiegodui.com

Your Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) level is measured in "proof."

You can blow a .08% nearly 4 feet away from a Breath Machine's mouthpiece.

Your San Diego office chair is a bar stool.

Your last San Diego DUI Breath Test machine printed the result: "No F***ing Way".

Your birthday is a holiday in Ireland.

Your name is San Diego police code for "Has-Been-Drinking".

You have to go to San Diego court to find out what happened last night.

You walk into a new San Diego bar and the bartender already knows what you drink.

You spill so much alcohol while drinking at home that your dog slurs its barks.

EDCO needs 2 trucks to pick up the recycling from your house on garbage day.

You are half Scotch and you aren't even Scottish.

You define a Problem Drinker as a San Diego bar patron who won't buy you a round.

Your liver has retained a San Diego lawyer.

Your personal trainer is a San Diego bartender.

You would have passed the San Diego DUI Field Sobriety Tests if you hadn't mistaken the San Diego DUI Breath Test Machine's mouthpiece for a trumpet.

You have ten ice cube trays in your San Diego freezer and they’re all empty.

You have made cocktails with ice chiseled from the inner walls of your freezer.

When the guy at the door yelled, “Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms,” you assumed it was someone bringing more supplies.

You inform the San Diego DUI officer that gravity is the only law you feel compelled to obey.

You take San Diego pub crawls very literally.

Crying in your beer increases its alcohol content.

You’ve invented a Sesame Street drinking game so you can spend more time with your kids.

You start your morning by reaching to the night stand, picking up your phone, pressing re-dial, and apologizing to whoever answers.

Some bastard always manages to slip a Mickey Finn in your 30th drink.

You regularly shout constructive criticism to the winos holding cardboard signs on street corners, e.g.: “It’s too political! You’re alienating half your demographic!”

All your finest athletic feats were executed after six or more drinks.

Your golf bag contains more beer than clubs.

You complain to friends that you “got really sober last night.” ¸

Your friends accuse you of “acting weird” whenever they meet you sober.

You want to rid the world of booze—one drink at a time.

You fall off the wagon and it backs up and runs you over a couple times.

You’ve flunked the wine-tasting class at the local free university four times this year but still keep giving it the ol’ college try.

You don’t get “falling down drunk,” you get “gravity-challenged.”

You don’t call them birthdays, you call them “a-free-shot-at-every-bar-I-can-reach-in-the-next-24 hours-days.”

You think the only thing worse than warm flat keg beer on Sunday is no warm flat keg beer on Sunday.

You know that in Heaven the bars open at 6am and close at 5:59am and in Hell it’s the other way around.

You’ve convinced your boss that your cologne is called “Eau de Cheap Scotch.”

You can identify most of the bars in town by the underside of their barstools.

You try to buddy up to the arresting officer by offering him a drink from the open container between your knees.

You’ve gotten so loaded you cursed the DJ for refusing to play “Muskrat Love.”

Youv’e tried to lay down on the ceiling.

Bouncers have a special headlock named after you.

Gin is your tonic.

You joined AA because you heard you could get sponsorship for your drinking.

Your first tree fort had a wet bar.

You’ve never been out of the country, but you frequently visit Twevlepackistan.

You like to think your friends call you a “big, fucking sponge” because you can absorb so much alcohol.

Your donated blood is only given to people over the age of 21.

Your best friends and worst enemies are all bartenders.

Your favorite dive is so dark you can’t tell when you’re blacked out.

Your dentist is afraid to drill in your mouth for fear of an unexpected spark.

“Taking the edge off” usually means waking up on your lawn.

You’ve stopped drinking, but only when you’re asleep.

When making punch, you dilute the rum with vodka.

Your plan to move to New Orleans during hurricane season is based entirely upon the possibility of getting “trapped” in a bar.

You can judge what time it is by looking at the shelf you’re buying drinks from.

The bars send out a search party when you don’t show up at opening time.

You use your cuff links as curb feelers.

You’ve stepped on your own fingers.

Everyone thinks you’re bilingual.

You’ve told a priest, “Make it a triple this time, and hold the wafer.”

You walk into a new bar and ask to see the finance manager.

You have a reserved parking space in front of two different liquor stores.

Your birthday is a holiday in Scotland.

You favorite brand of vino comes with the disclaimer, “No grapes were harmed in the making of this wine.”

The fire marshal fines you every time you yawn near an open flame.

You get so loaded it takes two trips to get it all home.

You walk into a new bar and they already know what you drink.

You invented a drinking game for A.A. meetings.

You match your outfit to the liquor you plan on drinking.

You buy a lamp because you need a hat.

FEMA declared you a national disaster.

You’re not sure when Mary Ann snuck out your apartment last night, but you figure it was about the same time Mrs. Howell snuck in.

You resolve to call your local councilman and complain about the city’s ill-advised policy of putting lampposts in the middle of the road.

Uncontrollable vomiting, falling out of a tree and a heavily overdrawn bank account may very well be elements of “the most awesome weekend.”

You call an ex-friend at 3am to ask what he meant by that remark last July.

You receive divorce papers from your liver and it wants full custody of the kidneys.

You were genuinely excited about Cingular’s “More bars in more places” promise until you found out they were talking about cell phones.

You don’t have to imagine what a spilled gin and tonic sucked from a shag rug tastes like.

You stub out your glass in the ashtray and ask the bartender to fill up your cigarette.

You drank so much beer last night you single-handedly wore out a fresh urinal cake.

All your character witnesses are in the drunk tank.

You have attempted to wring out a rum cake.

The cops set up a DUI checkpoint in your driveway.

The rattlesnake that bit you yelped.

You once woke up with a new job.

Your menage a trois fantasies include a bartender.

Your DNA is shaped like a corkscrew.

Your streetside recycling company has to bring an extra truck.

The ATF has a You division.

You catch yourself rambling on about Thunderbird’s “delicate, yet audacious bouquet.”

You swallow your mouthwash because it reminds you of spearmint schnapps.

You drink tequila to get the taste of rum out of your mouth. And visa versa. For hours at a time.

You’d never steal a fellow drunk’s drink, but you do occasionally “adopt orphans.”

Your local liquor store let’s you put bottles on layaway.

You’ve attempted seppuku with a cocktail sword.

You have to go to court to find out what happened.

You’ve talked the monkey on your back into chipping in on bar tabs.

You’ve been 86’d from detox.

The only time Shane MacGowan looks sober is when he’s standing next to you.

You see nothing ironic in chasing your daily vitamins with a water glass full of whiskey.

Your office chair is a barstool.

You own three beer bong patents.

You only drink socially, except when you’re alone.

You can’t stand tomato juice but love those Bloody Marys.

You don’t need to hire a personal trainer to encourage you to start running because cops do it for free.

Your PhD. thesis in political science was titled, “I Could So Outdrink Ted Kennedy.”

You get indignant if a wedding reception has a cash bar. Especially if the reception was hard to sneak into.

The simple act of returning an empty keg can spiral into an big emotional scene.

You started taking scuba lessons when you learned that the Titanic went down with 500 cases of Bass Ale.

If a party runs out of booze, you sock the host and drink his nosebleed.

Your wife asks you to pick up a canned ham, and you show up with a case of Hamm’s in cans.

Interventions have become so frequent that you just leave the folding chairs set up in your living room.

The arresting officer tells you that you have the right to remain silent and you waive that right so you can finish singing Enter Sandman.

You know how to say “Where are my pants?” in seven languages.

You have a lot of respect for that 80-year-old guy at the end of the bar, but you know from experience that he’s a dirty fighter.

You go on week-long benders just so you’ll have a cool story to tell at your AA meetings.

You got in a fist fight with a wino over how long a bottle of Thunderbird should be allowed to “breathe”.

You’re willing to go on the wagon, so long as it’s heading for a bar.

You got pissed off when you forgot whatever you were drinking to forget.

You have so much alcohol in your system that your cabbie has to be HazMat certified.

If a wino jumped off a building, you’d bravely leap forward to break the fall of his bottle.

You install shag carpet because it’s easier to hang on to.

Embalming fluid would be an improvement.

Your last Breathalyzer reading was “No Fucking Way.”

Distilleries fight over the billboard nearest to your place of residence.

The state has installed a Breathalyzer interlock device on your shoes.

You drew up a living will that states very clearly that you do not want the booze tube removed under any circumstances.

Your friends often substitute “Good night” with “Hey, you can’t sleep here.”

When you donate blood they store it in oak barrels.

You openly commit crimes just to learn new pruno recipes.

Your name is police code for Public Intoxication.

You’re fairly sure a letter to Dear Abby signed “Want To Leave the Bum, But Can’t” was written by your liver.

Your favorite drinking game is Do A Shot Every Time You Do A Shot.

Your idea of a seven-course meal is a six-pack and a pizza.

TV beer ads have started addressing you by name.

Someone offers you palm wine and you think they’re out of glassware.

You brush your teeth with bourbon. It hasn’t helped cut down on cavities, but who cares?

When a panhandler asks, “Can you give me a quarter for some beer?” you reply, “Okay, but I want to taste it first.”

You know heavy drinking makes you smarter because you can never remember doing anything stupid while blacked out.

You have a split personality—every time you meet someone with booze you want to split it with them.

You were so drunk at the office Xmas party that you kissed your own wife.

You’ve never been to Afghanistan or Pakistan, but you’re a frequent visitor to Imtoodrunktostan.

You become sexually aroused by the tapping of a keg.

You know you can use Jagermeister as cough syrup. And visa versa.

Your 86s are passed down to your grandchildren.

You have a sweet tooth for alcohol—in fact, your whole mouth likes it.

You spill so much booze at home your dog slurs his barks.

Your credit history is composed entirely of bar tabs.

When you get a cold you get a bottle of whiskey, do shots, and it’s gone — not the cold, the whiskey.

You’re always shaking hands, even when there’s no one else around.

Whenever you bend your elbow your mouth snaps open.

When your boss asks you to work overtime you demand time and a fifth.

You get held up almost every time you go home — in fact it’s the only way you can get home.

You’d be happy to go on the wagon if you could find one with a bar.

Your favorite bar is four blocks away — six blocks coming back.

When you order a hound for the rouse.

The Red Cross uses your blood to sterilize their instruments.

You’re half scotch, and your ancestors aren’t from Scotland.

You know how to handle your liquor — with both hands.

You hate the very sight of liquor, which is why you hide it in your stomach.

You can tell what bar you’re in by the bottoms of their tables.

A liter of scotch isn't enough to invite a friend over for a drink.

Your first science fair project was a still.

You know most the of people in a bar and can’t remember one of their names.

Anyone who kisses you must legally wait half an hour to drive.

They have to mix your blood with tonic water before giving it to anyone.

You’ve filed assault charges against a coffee table.

When you’re out in the street, you are literally “out” in the street.

You think of drinking beer as “sobering up,”

You can say “Whiskey, please” in 34 languages, but can’t understand “Last call” in English.

Your liver takes sides against you during an intervention.

You know better than going near an open flame while you’re bleeding.

Your bed looks a helluva lot like a park bench, and your bedroom looks a helluva lot like a park.

You need a blood transfusion to legally enter a dry county.

Your flask is spring-loaded.

You judge cologne by its bouquet and finish.

Your liver is in the Federal Witness Protection Program.

You enjoy cooking with wine, and sometimes you even put it in the food.

You’ve only been drunk once in your life, and so far it’s lasted twenty-three years.

You liver has a restraining order on you.

You can tell the difference between a bottle of Jack and a bottle of Jim by the sound they make hitting the back of your head.

Alcoholism doesn’t run in your family—it takes its own sweet time.

You’ve been cut off during communion.

You wonder why they call it Southern Comfort when they know damn well there is nothing comfortable about being handcuffed in the back of a squad car.

Growing-up means buying better booze, getting older means getting used to the cheap stuff again.

You miss the old days when you were younger than the cop that finds you sleeping in a dumpster.

You were excited about the Olsen twins turning “legal” until you realized they still aren’t old enough to buy you a drink.

You resent it when people call you a raving alcoholic, because you’ve never been to a rave in your life.

You keep a bottle of liquor next to your bed so you can have breakfast in bed when you wake up.

You consider anything less than 80 proof a chaser.

You’ve eaten 87 packets of honey mustard because on the label it lists “white wine” as an ingredient.

You have convinced yourself that you’re not drinking
alone so long as your friends Jack, Jim and Johnnie
are over.

Your wardrobe is divided into Summer, Winter and
Things You Woke Up Wearing. The third category
includes a number of thongs.

Your BAC is measured in proof.

You measure time by drinks, as in: "Hold on a shot, the movie doesn't start for another four bourbons."

To you "Last call!" sounds just like "Please don’t leave! We love you and you're charming wit!"

You don’t use cologne or aftershave because you have a moral objection to alcohol going anywhere but down your throat.

You’d exercise more but when you sweat it smells like booze and that makes you thirsty.

You always finish your drinks because there are sober people in China.

When you come home to find your house burglarized the first thing you check is your liquor cabinet.

You'll join A.A. when they start serving cocktails at the meetings.

Your ATM is a Dumpster full of recyclable cans.

You'll sleep through a train wreck, yet spring awake to the sound of a bottle top turning.

You can order a beer in 17 different languages but don’t know how to pronounce “Perrier.”

When a cop asks, “Have we been drinking?” you reply, “Do you really think I’d drink with the likes of you?”

You freak out when you wake up in your own bed.

You’d have passed the sobriety test if you hadn’t mistaken the Breathalyzer for a bugle.

Your waking thought is, “Wow, look at all the gum stuck to the bottom of the table.”

You got in trouble at work because your standard greeting is, “Hey, let’s do a shot!”

You cursed the St. Bernard who rescued you because he had the nerve to bring only one lousy liter of brandy.

You can hear someone whisper “free beer” from three blocks away.

You consider a bottle of cheap whiskey and two shot glasses a very romantic gift.

You hate it when men give you flowers because, hey—you can’t drink flowers.

You dream of the beautiful day when all races, religions, creeds and colors finally get it together and pitch in to buy you a case of decent scotch.

You show up to brewery tours wearing fins and a snorkel.

You tell your friends your dog’s name is “Time For A Beer Run” but you call him “Hurry Up.”

The tooth fairy left you shots of Rumpleminze.

You’ve convinced yourself your liver isn’t distended—it’s pregnant. With a new liver.

You play the same song 20 times in a row at top volume at three in the morning and are certain the neighbors don’t mind because, you know, it’s such a kick-ass song.

You think the porcelain hat looks good on you.

Your idea of karaoke is falling off the stage while yelling “Rock and roll!” into the microphone.

Your house is four times farther from the bar on the way back.

Your alarm clock is synchronized with the nearest liquor store’s opening time.

You have threatened to murder and marry the same person in the span of a single happy hour.

You are the answer to the question, “What kind of idiot pukes in a bidet?”

While in the drunk tank your friends tried to sneak you a fifth of Beam in a cake.

You’re personal trainer is a bartender.

You’ve known Jack Daniels so long you refer to him as John.

You watch Behind the Music and think “That’s really not that much alcohol.”

The bartender is in the weeds and you’re the only person in the bar.

You refuse to play Golden Tee because there is no beer cart girl.

Think box wine is great; eagerly awaiting box whiskey.

You get cut off in absentia.

You won’t rent an apartment that doesn’t have a bar and liquor store within two blocks.

You’re favorite cocktail is one quarter vodka, one quarter vodka, one half vodka and topped up with vodka.

You get angry when guys who can’t hold their liquor keep stepping on your fingers.

You get nervous when there are only three bottles of liquor left in your house.

You forget how pants work.

You’re not angry about the fly in your drink, you’re angry he didn’t chip in on the tab.

You’ve never taken a lesson, but after eight drinks you’re pretty damn sure you can play the piano. And break dance. At the same time.

You hate it when your lightweight drinking buddies get so drunk you can barely see them.

You’ve put a dozen vampires into A.A.

You shake the same person’s hand five times between last call and getting booted out.

You’re entire life’s savings equals a case a cheap beer and bottle of rotgut bourbon. And you’re very excited by the fact.

You think Jim Beam is a utility company because it keeps shutting off your lights.

You never blackout. You just take a lot of “loud vertical naps.”

You have never taken a drink of a non-alcoholic beverage without thinking, “Man, a splash of booze would fix this right up.”

You’ve apologized to people you don’t remember meeting for things you don’t remember doing in places you don’t remember going.

You think of plate glass windows as more suggestions than guidelines.

You can’t walk a straight line unless the floor is moving.

You dressed as a wino for halloween and no one noticed.

Half the bartenders in town know exactly which porch to leave you on.

Your tapeworm joined a 12 Step program.

You attempted to have a keg delivered to your cell in the drunk tank.

Your paychecks are deposited directly into a bar’s bank account.

Instead of “Good morning,” the first words out of your mouth are “Have you seen my trousers?”

You were looking forward to your court-mandated alcohol classes until you found out there wasn’t any actual alcohol involved.

You hang an open umbrella from your drinking hand to catch the spillage.

Long Islands are your cup of tea.

The words “Last Call” physically hurt you.

Detox leaves a mint under your pillow.

You fall down a well and send Lassie to the liquor store.

Bartenders call you when you’ve been absent for more than two days.

Lawn sprinklers are sometimes your alarm clock.

You wake up in a strange city not knowing how you got there, and the three other guys don’t know either.

You need help getting the breathalyzer in the right hole.

You lost a fistfight with yourself.

It takes two shots of schnapps to wash the taste of Breathalyzer out of your mouth.

You like to stop for a drink on the way to the fridge to get a beer.

You went on vacation for two weeks and the owner of your regular bar had his boat repossessed.

You’ve asked a bartender to “freshen up” your shot glass.

Bars call in their off-duty bartenders when you walk in the door.

You’ve asked a waiter: “What sort of wine goes with vodka?”

When buying floor tile, you press your face against it to see how comfortable it would be to sleep on.

You get into a loud, enraged argument, then realize you’re alone.

After your fifth drink, you’re like Don Juan with the ladies: They Don Juan nothing to do with you.

You suspect that water, taken in small quantities, isn’t all that dangerous.

You occasionally have meals with your wine.

You wake up every morning at the crack of ice.

You drink to forget you drink.

You distrust camels, or anyone else who can go a week without a drink.

People get drunk by shaking your hand.

You never eat breakfast on an empty stomach.

Beer is the reason you get up every afternoon.

The only drinking problem you have is the two-hands/one-mouth thing.

Your house is so messy because it spins like a top every time you lie down.

You drink to steady yourself, and sometimes you get so steady you can’t move.

You never walk, you just occasionally stagger in a straight line.

You get angry because there’s always so much booze left at the end of your money.

You think that drunks are a lot like chess players, only drunk.

You forgot your fishing pole on your fishing trip and didn’t notice.

You’ve been laid out on more floors than Johnson’s Wax.

Your liver has hired an attorney.

You wish all the world’s parking lots could be somehow turned into lush rain forests, because, you know, it’s hard to hide from cops in a parking lot.

Your favorite bar installed a seat belt on your barstool.

The glass isn’t half empty or half full. It just needs to be topped off.

You don’t fall off the wagon—you leap off it while chugging a bottle of cheap bourbon.

You have two personalities: Mr. Responsibility and Mr. I-Think-I’ll-Call-All-My-Old-Girlfriends-While-I'm-Blacked-Out.

The word “rent” loses all meaning after your fifth drink.

You’re so good at “drinking to forget” that you sometimes forget how to walk.

Whenever someone in a suit spills your well bourbon it magically transforms into top shelf scotch on the way to the floor.

You laugh at funerals but weep like a baby whenever you hear about a beer truck overturning.

You’d rather be a bus driver than an astronaut because, hey, there ain’t no beer where they’re going.

You don’t mind when your wife finds you stinking drunk in a bar, because then you can hit her up for a free drink.

Pink elephants get drunk and they see you.

You can get drunk on Scotch tape.

You’re not a hard drinker. It’s the easiest thing you do.

You like to have a drink between drinks.

You’d join AA but your always too drunk too memorize the pledge.

Your sleep number is 151 . . . proof.

You quit drinking once, and it was the worst afternoon of your life.

You won’t eat an olive unless it’s sterilized in gin.

You think Beethoven’s Fifth is a bottle of schnapps.

You’re living a champagne lifestyle on a beer budget. Except you don’t like champagne so you just drink lots and lots of beer.

Gin rummy sounded like a fun game.

You’re stalked by alcoholic vampires.

You have never screwed a cap back onto a liquor bottle.

Your friends pretend to be bartenders, just so you’ll pay attention to them.

Your personal mantra is, “Where there’s a swill, there’s a sway.”

You suffer from barthritis— every night you get stiff in another joint.

You don’t recognize the difference between “waking up” and “coming to.”

You donate a pint of blood and the hospital has to card the patient they give it to.

Your liver enters itself in a Tough Man competition.

You wear Hawaiian shirts because it’s tougher to see vomit stains on them.

Going out drinking with you is covered by your friends’ insurance.

As a child your dad helped you learn math by first explaining a four-count.

Your personal math system is based on the number six, i.e.: “I’ll take a twelver of Big Macs, with a sixer of those without cheese.”

You use visualization techniques to master beer bongs.

In high school, you were voted most likely to drink in grade school.

2 for 1 is your lucky number.

A perfect date is soft music, a bottle of wine and moi.

A couple times a year you go on a “non-bender.”

Before you go out each night you consult a psychic hotline to determine which bartenders will be pouring strong.

Peeling the label off a beer bottle arouses you.

You feel a tinge of pride when someone refers to you as a “shameless alcoholic.”

You’ve discovered that teaching your dog to shoplift from liquor stores was not nearly as hard as teaching him to distinguish between Grey Goose and McCormick’s.

You were against going to war with Iraq until you found out those poor fuckers aren’t allowed to drink.

The first thing you thought when you woke up yesterday was, “Wow, look at all that gum stuck under the bar!”

Your girlfriend left you because you accidentally cried out “Glenfiddich” while making love.

Your beer back comes with a tap.

You conduct weekly “assisted short-term flight” experiments every weekend. With the help of various bouncers.

You’re regularly mobbed by autograph hungry alley winos.

You were the first person in line at the flu clinic because you heard they were giving away free shots.

You like tequila with a lime — or dirt, or a hamster or whatever, so long as there’s tequila involved.

You come home sober and your dog bites you.

The cafeteria in the detox center has a sandwich named after you.

You can’t recognize your best friend unless he’s leaning against a bar. With a drink in his hand. Drunk.

You like a splash of coffee in your morning whiskey.

You can blow a .08 BAC from twenty feet away.

You take swim trunks to brewery tours.

You’re kept awake at night by the sound of your liver crying.

You prefer cold showers because the ice in your drink doesn’t melt as fast.

You’re shocked and confounded to discover they actually sell Coke without Jack Daniels.

When a cop asks you to walk a straight line, you ask, “Which one?”

You tried getting out of a DUI by putting a beer label on your arm and telling the cop you’re off the booze and on the patch.

You woke up on New Years Eve with the resolution of finding out which bars open earliest.

Get mad when your family calls you a
wino because they know damn well you prefer whiskey.

You’re definition of a problem drinker is guy who won’t buy you a round.

You hate the person you become when you black out, because, you know, that fucker drinks all your beer.

You know hangovers only last a day, but a good drinking story lives on forever.

You don’t like to think of it as blacking out. You prefer to think of it as exercising the lizard brain.

The only useful thing you got out of an A.A. meeting was learning how to identify your enablers. Because, hey, those guys are most likely to buy you a drink.

You distrust any wine that doesn’t give you a decent hangover.

A good drinking buddy will bail you out of jail, but a great drinking buddy will be sitting in the cell beside you, saying, “Man, that was awesome!”

The last words you remember each night are, “Hold my beer and watch this!”

You’re disappointed when you go to a funeral and there’s no keg.

You refer to your mouth as your “booze hole.”

You’ve told Jehovah’s Witnesses, “Of course, I want to go to Heaven. I’m sure it’s awesome. God does pick up the tab every night, right?”

You once got so drunk you dreamed you got fired and broke up with your girlfriend — and it all came true!

You regularly ask bartenders, “So, how are the spill mats looking tonight? Anything good in there?”

Someone tells you they don’t drink anymore, and you bravely respond, “Don’t worry about it, buddy, I’ll take up your slack!”

You prefer vodka that comes in the handy plastic squeeze-size bottles.

The bartender asks for your I.D. just to see how long it'll take you to find your pants.

Two weeks into the bender you found out “Drink Canada Dry” was a corporate slogan, not a challenge.

For the money you’ve spent on Thunderbird, you could have bought the car.

You know that vodka is tasteless going down, but memorable coming up.

You say when your drunk what you think when you’re sober.

You know the best beer in the world is the one in your hand.

Beer does not make you fat. It makes you lean— against bars, poles and tables.

You always drink Irish Coffee for breakfast because it contains all four adult food groups: fat, sugar, caffeine and alcohol.

You don't drink anymore . . . of course, you don't drink any less, either.

Your bartender never has to ask, “Do you want another?”

You recognize that vomiting is just the body’s way of making room for another round.

You distrust camels or anything else that can go a week without a drink.

You're favorite method of dieting is the “Slim Jim”: Ultra Slim-Fast shakes made with Jim Beam.

Absolut wants to run an ad featuring a picture of your liver in the shape of a bottle.

You only drink to get rid of hangovers, and sometimes it takes all night.

You know if you give up drinking you won’t actually live longer — it’ll just seem like longer.

You spend ninety percent of your paycheck on drinking and waste the rest.

You fell down two flights of stairs and didn’t spill a drop.

You don’t mind blacking out because it makes Sunday confession much less embarrassing.

When you wake up hungover you’re afraid you’ll die. Half an hour later you’re afraid you’ll live.

You wonder why people need friends when you can just sit in a room and drink all day.

You believe the only Absolut(e) in life is vodka.

You went on a diet, swore off drinking and bar food, and in fourteen days you lost two weeks.

Booze may not be the answer, but it helps you to forget the question.

You exist in a perfect Zen circle: you drink because your wife nags and she nags because you drink.

You got so drunk on St. Patrick’s day it seemed like every other day.

You must have a drink by eleven, it’s a deed that must be done. If you can’t have a drink by eleven, you must have eleven by one.

If a man gave you a fish and you’d eat for a day. If he taught you to fish you’d sit in a boat and drink beer all day.

If it weren’t for the olives in your martinis, you’d starve to death.

When your spirits get low, you use a straw.

You’d go on the wagon, but can’t find one with a bar.

You always cook with wine. Sometimes you even add it to the food.

You drink a bottle of wine everyday. Unless you’re sick. Then you drink two.

You refer to grapes as “wine eggs.”

You can walk into a 7-11 at 2am, look at the cheese dog that’s been mutating on the grill since 8am and think, “Man, that looks tasty!”

You know liquor gets better with age, because the older you get the more you like it.

You only drink to steady your nerves. Sometimes you get so steady you have to be carried out.

You drink to make other people appear cool enough to hang out with you.

Quitting drinking is the easiest thing in the world. You’ve done it a thousand times.

You have a reserved parking space at four different liquor stores.

You woke up feeling really strange, then realized you didn’t have a hangover.

With a bottle of Passport Scotch and a suitcase of Stroh’s you can go on vacation without ever leaving your house.

You never drink anything stronger than vodka before breakfast.

You make a point of never drinking before noon. Which is convenient, because you’re never up before three in the afternoon.

One of your hobbies is sitting down and calculating exactly how much liquor your next paycheck would buy at the liquormart. Just out of curiosity, of course.

Your co-workers start whispering with concern when you don’t come in with hangover.

Your boss tells you to “Shape up or ship out,” and you reply, “You mean like a cruise ship? Are the drinks expensive on cruise ships?”

The whole terrorism deal became very clear to you when you found out muslims aren’t allowed to drink.

You wish you were closer to Jesus, especially when he’s doing his wine to water thing.

A cold cement floor looks comfortable and inviting.

You wish temperance leagues still sang anti-drinking religious hymns outside bars, because, you know, it’d be a very funny thing to watch while getting hammered.

You think alcohol-fueled automobiles are the wave of the future because, hey, it certainly works for you.

You think a wrong number is an adequate excuse to go on a bender.

“Going out for a beer or two” sometimes means waking up in Vegas three days later.

You hated Ted Kennedy until you realized he can probably outdrink you.

You always confuse the words picture and pitcher, especially when someone says, “Hey, take my picture.”

You happen to share the same home town, ethnicity, lifestyle, opinions, occupation or whatever-the-hell of whoever happens to be buying the drinks.

You consider vodka a chaser.

Your roommates say good morning to you and you haven’t been to bed yet.

You volunteered to work for free for NASA when you heard about the gas clouds in space containing billions of gallons of alcohol.

You know a bottle of Jack under your bed is worth a million bottles in the liquor store after midnight.

You have told a bartender: “I didn’t hear anyone yell last call. How could I? I was in the bathroom, vomiting in your urinal.”

Half the bouncers in town know exactly how much you weigh.

You know that time is never wasted when you’re wasted all the time.

You use Calvin Klien’s new aftershave, but don’t really care for the aftertaste.

You refer to your mouth as your “booze hole.”

You wish bartenders would spend more time ‘tending’ and less time ‘barring.’

The first thing you say when you walk in a bar is, “I’m not still 86’d, am I?”

You’d go to Mass more often if they weren’t so stingy with the wine.

When you were in high school you had a poster of W.C. Fields on your bedroom wall.

You drank ten bottles of wine last week and didn’t need a corkscrew once.

You prefer Hamm’s and eggs for breakfast, minus the eggs.

The rotgut whiskey you buy is so disgusting you have to drink the first half the bottle just so you’ll be drunk enough to put up with the taste of the second half.

Whenever someone starts reading a bottle of Jack Daniels you say, “Quit cheating!”

You don’t sniff the cork, you chew it.

Your career is interfering with your drinking.

You get so drunk Coor's Light starts tasting like beer.

You heard you get drunker at higher altitudes so you always drink on top of the dumpster.

Your alarm clock is a San Diego garbage truck.

You’ve worked out a devious plot to steal Einstein’s brain. So you can drink the alcohol it’s stored in.

You masturbate to the liquor ads in Playboy.

You show up at the flu clinic to investigate rumors of "free shots."

You have a born-on date tattooed on your beer gut.

You hold a bottle of hair spray and say, "Man, if you were ice cold."

You're addressed by three separate liquor store owners as "the guy who paid for my houseboat."

You often confuse the word breakfast with Bloody Marys, i.e., "What are we going to have for Bloody Marys this morning?"

You know that liquor is especially tasty when it comes from the secret hiding place in your roommates's closet.

You can, in a pinch, construct a fully-operational keg tap from a cigarette lighter, two clothespins and lots of love.

You get in a heated conversation with your San Diego barstool neighbor about the proper way to vomit from a moving vehicle.

At 1:30 a.m. you proclaim: "the party isn't over until the fat lady says no!"

You need a cosigner to open a San Diego bar tab.



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Parents, community often don’t take problem of teenage drinking seriously

When Trish was in high school, she never touched a drop of alcohol.

It didn’t interest her.

So it’s hard to understand how, a year after graduating, alcohol would bring her to within feet of crashing a car through a house and land her in jail.

“I knew my life was really messed up,” she said.

Trish, who asked that her real name be withheld to protect her identity, needed to come to terms with the fact that she was one of thousands of underage drinkers who end up injured, dead or in jail each year.

Many experts believe it’s not only young people who don’t see the problem – parents and members of the community don’t take underage and excessive drinking seriously enough.

“As a society, we’ve got to do a far better job persuading our citizens and our young people that alcohol use in a dead end, that they are playing Russian roulette, not only with their own lives but with the lives of friends, neighbors and loved ones,” said Stacia Murphy, president of the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence.

This year, hundreds of communities are targeting underage drinking during April, which is Alcohol Awareness Month.

“In past years, they have focused on the children or teenagers, this year they are taking on the entire community,” said Michele Moore, prevention coordinator for the Mental Health Center of North Central Alabama, which is leading the effort in Limestone, Morgan and Lawrence counties.

Organizers are putting up billboards in the communities, making pre-prom posters and underage drinking posters for the schools, as well as other projects, Moore said.

The upcoming spring break – a week notorious for high school and college binge drinking and all that goes with it – is a good time to start talking about the problem.


Trish’s story

Trish was an athlete in high school and never considered drinking.

“I played basketball, track and golf and I was really competitive,” she said. “My parents drank and so did their friends, but I didn’t see much point in it.”

Trish earned a basketball scholarship for her freshman year at college. It didn’t take her long to see that while she was a standout player in high school, she wasn’t going to be one in college. Still, she met a lot of friends at school and they began partying on Saturday nights. The weekend partying stretched into weeknights.

Her grades steadily declined and she was eventually cut from the team.

One night after getting drunk at a party, Trish headed for another party to meet some friends at about 1 a.m. in the car her parents bought her.

“I don’t really remember why I lost control,” Trish said. “I told the police and my parents that I had a blow out.”

A chain-link fence stopped her car about 20 feet from of a house.

“I just freaked,” Trish said. “I didn’t know what to do. I knew I was drunk. I got out of the car and ran home. I took a shower and called some guys I knew to try to help me get the car moved. When I heard a knock on the door, I thought it was them, so I opened it. It was the police.”

Trish was charged with driving under the influence and reckless driving and she had to pay for the fence she damaged. At the suggestion of her parents, she dropped out of school and went home. She started going to Alcoholics Anonymous, but for the wrong reason.

“I mainly did it because my lawyer said it might help when I was sentenced,” she said. “But, I ended up staying.”

She’s enrolled in courses at a North Alabama college, getting decent grades and not drinking.

“The first time I went to college, I wanted to be a teacher and a coach, but I don’t know if I can really do that now (because of her police record),” she said.

Now 21 and legally able to drink in Alabama, Trish did not foresee the dangers of underage and excessive drinking. Her parents didn’t see it either. Both of them drank, often too much, while entertaining friends at home, Trish said.

“I never thought about it becoming a problem,” she said.

To some parents, the thought of teenagers drinking a beer with friends isn’t that alarming — especially when their teenager is in college. Some parents who drank when they were young view it as a right of passage into adulthood.

What they probably don’t know is that drinking alcohol greatly increases the chance that a teen or young adult will be the victim of a car crash, homicide or suicide – the leading causes of death for their age group, experts say.



Spring break

That teenagers require a strict no-use policy and tighter supervision became clearer to many parents in 2005.

On May 30, an 18-year-old high school senior from Mountain Brook, an affluent suburb of Birmingham, disappeared while on a senior class trip to Aruba. Natalee Holloway has never been found. Authorities say she is most likely dead.

After a night of excessive drinking, she was last seen leaving a bar about 1 a.m. in a car with three young men. Some theorize she was raped, murdered and her body disposed of while others believe she died of alcohol poisoning and her body was disposed of.

Whether it is class trip, prom night or spring break, teenagers need to know that drinking isn’t the only way to have fun, said Randy Haveson, nationally renowned alcohol and drug counselor who has appeared on CNN, FOX News Channel and numerous shows across the country.

“There are alternative spring-break functions going on at more and more colleges across the nation,” he said. “Many sororities and fraternities are jumping on the bandwagon. Delta Zeta has a national campaign to go to the Gulf for a week and help build houses for people whose houses were destroyed in the hurricane. The students pay $250 bucks to attend and they live in dorms or in tents for a week. They meet people and have a great time, without drinking.”

Haveson, 47, of Atlanta is a therapist and a recovering alcoholic and drug addict from Atlanta, who uses what he’s learned to try to teach others.

“I started drinking and smoked my first joint when I was 15,” he said. “At 17, I had my first cocaine and I did a lot of drugs in between there. When I was 24, I had just gotten a letter from San Diego State University expelling me for the second time and two weeks before that I had lost my pizza delivery job. I wondered how did it get here. I was trying to decide, do I want to slit my wrist or my throat? I reached out for help and started turning things around. I got bachelor’s degree and my masters and stayed sober. Unfortunately, I had to learn the hard way.”



News for students

Today, Haveson speaks to students in elementary schools, high schools, and colleges and to parents and other groups nationwide.

“The main message I teach is that you are a product of the choices you make,” Haveson said. “I talk about my own addiction and how it started with one then two then five and quickly it got out of hand. No one taught me how to make good decisions.”

He also tells students about tolerance, progression and blackouts and other medical aspects of drinking along with the warning signs of addiction.

“I ask how many of them like roller coasters, and a bunch of them will raise their hands,” Haveson said. “I ask them if they would like to go on a great rollercoaster with lost of curves and dips, and a bunch of them will raise their hands. Then I tell them that 1,700 die a year on the rollercoaster but it’s great, it’s so much fun, and 250,000 get injured, sometimes they just break a bone or crack their head open, but sometimes they end up in a wheelchair. Then I ask them, ‘Do you still want to get on the rollercoaster?’”

He doesn’t just tell students to say no. He teaches students how to say no – no matter what age. If they want to drink, he teaches them how to drink responsibly with a program called Party with a Plan, an alcohol education, risk-reduction program using his 0-1-2-3 guideline.

“It means sometimes 0 is best option if haven’t eaten or you have been sick or you are under 21,” Haveson said. “I tell them if they are under 21, drinking is not a good idea because if they get pulled over and blow a .02 (in a police breath test), they get a DUI. If they want to be a teacher or a coach or a lawyer within the next 10 years, they can forget it.

“If they decide to drink, then it should only be 1 per hour and they should drink no more than 2 times per week. That’s because three or more times a week can lead to addiction.”

Telling children or teenagers to “just say no” doesn’t work for many, he said.

“When someone sticks a joint in their face, they have to know how to say no. For example, you could teach them to say, ‘I’ve got to go out to dinner with my parents tonight and they’d notice if I was high.’ It gets them out of the situation,” Haveson said.

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Gonzales, Mueller admit FBI broke law

WASHINGTON -

The nation's top two law enforcement officials acknowledged Friday the FBI broke the law to secretly pry out personal information about Americans. They apologized and vowed to prevent further illegal intrusions.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales left open the possibility of pursuing criminal charges against FBI agents or lawyers who improperly used the USA Patriot Act in pursuit of suspected terrorists and spies.

The FBI's transgressions were spelled out in a damning 126-page audit by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine. He found that agents sometimes demanded personal data on people without official authorization, and in other cases improperly obtained telephone records in non-emergency circumstances.

The audit also concluded that the FBI for three years underreported to Congress how often it used national security letters to ask businesses to turn over customer data. The letters are administrative subpoenas that do not require a judge's approval.

"People have to believe in what we say," Gonzales said. "And so I think this was very upsetting to me. And it's frustrating."

"We have some work to do to reassure members of Congress and the American people that we are serious about being responsible in the exercise of these authorities," he said.

Under the Patriot Act, the national security letters give the FBI authority to demand that telephone companies, Internet service providers, banks, credit bureaus and other businesses produce personal records about their customers or subscribers. About three-fourths of the letters issued between 2003 and 2005 involved counterterror cases, with the rest for espionage investigations, the audit reported.

Shoddy record-keeping and human error were to blame for the bulk of the problems, said Justice auditors, who were careful to note they found no indication of criminal misconduct.

Still, "we believe the improper or illegal uses we found involve serious misuses of national security letter authorities," the audit concluded.

FBI Director Robert S. Mueller said many of the problems were being fixed, including by building a better internal data collection system and training employees on the limits of their authority. The FBI has also scrapped the use of "exigent letters," which were used to gather information without the signed permission of an authorized official.

"But the question should and must be asked: How could this happen? Who is accountable?" Mueller said. "And the answer to that is, I am to be held accountable."

Mueller said he had not been asked to resign, nor had he discussed doing so with other officials. He said employees would probably face disciplinary actions, not criminal charges, following an internal investigation of how the violations occurred.

The audit incensed lawmakers in Congress already seething over the recent dismissals of eight U.S. attorneys. Democrats who lead House and Senate judiciary and intelligence oversight panels promised hearings on the findings. Several lawmakers — Republicans and Democrats alike — raised the possibility of scaling back the FBI's authority.

"It's up to Congress to end these abuses as soon as possible," said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee. "The Patriot Act was never intended to allow the Bush administration to violate fundamental constitutional rights."

Rep. Pete Hoekstra, top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, said the audit shows "a major failure by Justice to uphold the law."

"If the Justice Department is going to enforce the law, it must follow it as well," said Hoekstra, of Michigan.

The American Civil Liberties Union said the audit proves Congress must amend the Patriot Act to require judicial approval anytime the FBI wants access to sensitive personal information.

"The attorney general and the FBI are part of the problem, and they cannot be trusted to be part of the solution," said ACLU's executive director, Anthony D. Romero.

Both Gonzales and Mueller called the national security letters vital tools in pursuing terrorists and spies in the United States. "They are the bread and butter of our investigations," Mueller said.

Gonzales asked the inspector general to issue a follow-up audit in July on whether the FBI had followed recommendations to fix the problems.

Fine's annual review is required by Congress, over the objections of the Bush administration. It concluded that the number of national security letters requested by the FBI skyrocketed in the years after the Patriot Act became law. Each letter issued may contain several requests.

In 2000, for example, the FBI issued an estimated 8,500 requests. That number peaked in 2004 with 56,000. Overall, the FBI reported issuing 143,074 requests in national security letters between 2003 and 2005.

But that did not include an additional 8,850 requests that were never recorded in the FBI's database, the audit found. A sample review of 77 case files at four FBI field offices showed that agents had underreported the number of national security letter requests by about 22 percent.

Additionally, the audit found, the FBI identified 26 possible violations in its use of the letters, including failing to get proper authorization, making improper requests under the law and unauthorized collection of telephone or Internet e-mail records.

The FBI also used exigent letters to quickly get information — sometimes in non-emergency situations — without going through proper channels. In at least 700 cases, these letters were sent to three telephone companies to get billing records and subscriber information, the audit found.

___

On the Net:

The report is at: http://www.usdoj.gov/oig/reports/FBI/index.ht m

Justice Department: http://www.usdoj.gov

FBI: http://www.fbi.gov

Padilla prosecutors misplace videotape

MIAMI

A videotape showing Pentagon officials' final interrogation of al-Qaida suspect Jose Padilla is missing, raising questions about whether federal prosecutors have lost other recordings and evidence in the case.

The tape is classified, but Padilla's attorneys said they believe something happened during that interrogation that could explain why Padilla does not trust them and suspects they are government agents.

Padilla attorney Anthony Natale said in court papers that the March 2, 2004, interrogation at the Navy brig in Charleston, S.C., could contain information the government conveyed to Padilla that ''directly impacts upon his relationship with his attorneys.''

Prosecutors and the Pentagon have said they cannot find the tape despite an intensive search.

Authorities made 88 video recordings of Padilla being interrogated during the 3½ years he was held at the brig as an ''enemy combatant,'' officials said. Eighty-seven tapes have been given to the defense, leaving only the last session unaccounted for.

''I don't know what happened to it,'' Pentagon attorney James Schmidli said during a recent court hearing.

U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke was incredulous that anything connected to such a high-profile defendant could be lost.

''Do you understand how it might be difficult for me to understand that a tape related to this particular individual just got mislaid?'' Cooke told prosecutors at a hearing last month.

Padilla, a 36-year-old U.S. citizen, is scheduled to stand trial April 16 along with two co-defendants on charges of being part of a North American terror support cell.

When he was arrested in 2002, Padilla was initially accused of mounting an al-Qaida plot to detonate a radioactive ''dirty bomb'' in the United States, but the criminal case does not include those allegations.

Padilla's lawyers sought the brig tapes, medical records and other details about his incarceration to back up claims that he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from his long isolation and repeated interrogations.

The judge ruled Feb. 28 that Padilla is competent to stand trial.

Miami criminal defense lawyer David O. Markus said the missing tape makes the government agents look like ''Keystone Kops.''

''You can't help but be suspicious,' ' Markus said. ''It's the government's burden to prove a case beyond a reasonable doubt. When it 'loses' evidence, defense lawyers are right to cry foul.''

Padilla's attorneys have also accused the Bush administration of mistreating and even torturing Padilla at the brig, before he was transferred to civilian custody. Justice Department and Pentagon officials have repeatedly denied those claims.

While in the brig, Padilla was represented by New York attorneys Andrew Patel and Donna Newman. Patel remains on the defense team, and neither he nor Natale responded to telephone and e-mail messages seeking comment about the lost tape. Pentagon officials also declined to comment Friday.

Stephanie Pell, one of the Padilla prosecutors, said more than 150 hours of interrogation tapes have been given to defense lawyers. She said the lost tape was actually on a DVD that did not get transferred onto a format used by the Padilla defense team.

''It's somehow buried in the massive amount of information that we have turned over to defense,'' Pell said.

The judge ordered prosecutors to give defense lawyers a written summary of notes taken by agents during the interrogation session. But Natale said there may be more tapes missing and other interrogations that were not recorded.

Defense lawyers say brig logs indicate that there were 72 hours of Padilla interviews that either were not taped or for which tapes may be missing. Natale said it seems unlikely that any interrogation session with Padilla was not videotaped ''when he was videoed taking showers.''

Pell said that figure may be a miscalculation due to a misreading of the logs or mistakes in the handwritten entries. And not every Padilla interview was taped, she said.

''We do not believe there is 72 missing hours,'' Pell said. ''We can't provide what we don't have.''




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Time change to impact DUI test


For three weeks, there's going to be an extra wait before people suspected of driving drunk can be given breath tests in 17 New Jersey counties.

Daylight savings time will begin Sunday. But the Alcotest 7110 breath-analyzing machine is not programmed to recognize daylight savings time until April 1.

The state Attorney General's office said that police officers will have to wait an hour after bringing in a suspect before starting the testing procedures. That way, the time on the machine will match the time of the arrest. The hour wait would be on top of a 20-minute wait always required before giving the tests.

It's not clear whether such a change might help or hurt the suspects.

Evan Levow, a Cherry Hill lawyer who specializes in drunk driving cases, told The Star-Ledger of Newark for today's editions that it could be worse in the case of drivers who had "a proverbial one or two for the road." In those cases, more alcohol would be absorbed into the body with the extra time.

But Robert Pandina, director of the Center for Alcohol Studies at Rutgers University, said there's an equal chance that the extra time for metabolism of alcohol would mean that a suspect's blood-alcohol level would drop in an hour.

Starting April 1, police can return to their normal procedure for breath tests.

The guidelines do not apply to the four counties that still use the old Breathalyzer machine.

The state Supreme Court has scheduled a hearing for April 4 on whether the Alcotest is more reliable than the older device.



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SDSU frat house takes on new MADD philanthropy

The Phi Kappa Psi fraternity will hold a tournament called "Champions of the Blacktop" to raise money for its new philanthropy, Mother's Against Drunk Driving, from noon to 4 p.m. on Sunday at Hardy Elementary School.

Phi Kappa Psi chose MADD to honor the death of Whitney Young, who was killed in a drunk driving accident near the San Diego State campus last fall.

"She was actually a really close house friend of ours," said Phi Kappa Psi President Riki Meier, an international business junior, "so we felt it would be good if the beneficiary was Mothers Against Drunk Driving."

MADD is a non-profit organization that was founded by Candy Lightner, a mother who lost her daughter to a drunk driver. MADD works to educate the public on the dangers of drunk driving and sponsors DUI legislation to implement tougher laws. It has existed for 27 years.

"Since MADD started, there has been a 40 percent decrease in the number of traffic fatalities," said Paula Birdsong, the state executive director of MADD. "But in the last couple of years, we've seen a leveling off. And, so we've kind of stepped up our information as well because people have become too complacent, thinking the problem is over when it's not."

The Boys and Girls Club of America has been the Phi Kappa Psi philanthropy in the past. The members have been doing community service work for them since Tuesday, and their last day is tomorrow.

The Greek community will hold its second new member series at 6 p.m. on Monday in Montezuma Hall.

Brett Sokolow, a higher education attorney who specializes in sexual misconduct and campus security, is scheduled to speak at the series.

His first program, titled "What You Don't Know About Hazing Can Kill You," begins at 6 p.m. and is a speech aimed at identifying what constitutes hazing and talking about hazing practices within college organizations throughout history.

"Hazing is caused by students wanting to forge bonds of trust and respect," said Sokolow, the president of National Center for Higher Education Risk Management.

"There are ways to form bonds of trust and respect through positive building rituals rather than negative, abusive rituals."

The second program, "Drunk Sex or Date Rape: Can You Tell The Difference?" begins at 8 p.m.

Sokolow said he plans to draw on his legal experience to facilitate an interactive jury exercise where the audience "hears" a trial based on a real sexual assault case.

"All of these things are about getting Greek organizations to be about something other than drinking and partying," Sokolow said, "about finding some other connection to the community that's given value and meaning."

Sokolow said he will be offering healthy alternatives to hazing that would still build lasting bonds and friendships.

"Brett has presented this program at over 1,000 colleges and high schools with resounding success," said Doug Case, coordinator for the Center for Fraternity and Sorority Life in an e-mail addressed to chapter presidents.



Film seller's dream inspires Phi Kappa Theta members

Motivational speaker Richard Novey reached out to Phi Kappa Theta fraternity during a student-leadership program on Feb. 28 at Scripps Cottage.

Novey finances for films and has been involved in the sale of worldwide films for the past 17 years.

Novey said his dream began in a London library while reading a book about what people did for a living, and he wondered if he could start a business of his own producing films. When he returned to Los Angeles, he started trying to make his dream happen.

"You just have to put your name out there," Novey said. "You have to keep making the phone calls and keep saying to people, 'Look, I want to be involved, what can I do?'"

Phi Kappa Theta member Neema Saedian said he was moved by Novey's talk.

"It was actually pretty inspiring because he really makes you want to think about your future," said Saedian, a business freshman.

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WASHINGTON – Former White House aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby was convicted Tuesday of obstruction, perjury and lying to the FBI in an investigation into the leak of a CIA operative's identity.

Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, was accused of lying and obstructing the investigation into the 2003 leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity to reporters.

He was acquitted of one count of lying to the FBI.
Libby had little reaction to the verdict. He stood expressionless as the jury left the room.

The verdict was read on the 10th day of deliberations. Libby faces up to 30 years in prison, though under federal sentencing guidelines likely will receive far less.

U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton ordered a pre-sentencing report be completed by May 15. Judges use such reports to help determine sentences.

Libby faced two counts of perjury, two counts of lying to the FBI and one count of obstruction of justice. Prosecutors said he discussed Plame's name with reporters and, fearing prosecution, made up a story to make those discussions seem innocuous.

Libby's defense team said he learned about Plame from Cheney, forgot about it, then learned it again a month later from NBC newsman Tim Russert. Anything he told reporters about Plame, Libby said, was just chatter and rumors, not official government information.

Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald said that was a lie. But Libby's defense team had argued that it would be unfair to convict Libby in a case where so many witnesses changed their stories or had memory problems.

Libby's defense attorney, Theodore Wells, said he would ask the court for a new trial by April 13. Such requests are common following criminal convictions.


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