"Marijuana in car gift-wrapped, police say
COEUR d’ALENE, Idaho - A Washington state man faces felony marijuana trafficking charges after an officer found 3.3 pounds of marijuana wrapped up as Christmas gifts during a traffic stop in northern Idaho....
Kootenai County sheriff’s officials said Jason D. Palmer, 36, of Springdale, Wash., was stopped east of Coeur d’Alene because his vehicle was repeatedly changing lanes and following other drivers too closely. The officer said he smelled marijuana as he approached the vehicle.
“When I made contact at the window, the odor increased its potency,’’ the deputy wrote in his report.
Palmer told the officer he was a medical marijuana cardholder and had a small amount of “medicine’’ in the vehicle.
“I asked him what was in the presents and he stated some sweaters,’’ the deputy wrote.
A drug-sniffing dog indicated the packages contained drugs and officers opened them, court records said.
Deputies also seized $800 in cash Palmer had with him.
Palmer’s 12- and 14-year-old sons, who were in the vehicle with him, were taken into custody on suspicion of frequenting, or being in the company of someone in possession of a controlled substance. But the prosecutor said the boys would not be charged....
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"Texas electoral case difficult for high court to untangle; 4 new districts disputed; vote looms in April; House majority may be affected" by Adam Liptak | New York Times, January 10, 2012
In a separate matter yesterday, several conservative members of the Supreme Court criticized the Environmental Protection Agency for heavy-handed enforcement of rules affecting homeowners after the government told an Idaho couple they cannot challenge an order declaring their future home site a “protected wetlands.’’
Justice Antonin Scalia assailed the “highhandedness’’ of the environmental agency when dealing with private property, and Justice Samuel Alito described some of the EPA’s actions as “outrageous,’’ arguing that most people would say “this kind of thing can’t happen in the United States.’’
The EPA said that Mike and Chantell Sackett illegally filled in most of their 0.63-acre lot with dirt and rocks in preparation for building a home. The agency said the property is a wetlands that cannot be disturbed without a permit. The Sacketts had none.
The couple, who attended the Supreme Court arguments, said they had no reason to suspect there were wetlands on their property. They paid $23,000 for their property in 2005 and decided two years later to build a three-bedroom home. Workers filled in just under a half-acre of land.
Three EPA officials showed up, said they believed the land was wetlands, asked to be shown a permit, and told the workers to stop. Six months later, the EPA sent the order that triggered the court case. The Sacketts wanted to challenge that order, but lower courts have said that they cannot.
The EPA issues nearly 3,000 compliance orders a year that call on alleged violators of environmental laws to stop what they are doing and repair the harm they have caused. Major business groups, homebuilders, road builders, and agricultural interests all have joined the Sacketts in urging the court to make it easier to contest EPA compliance orders issued under several environmental laws.
Justice Anthony Kennedy wondered how far the Supreme Court should go in a ruling, noting that government agencies often threaten citations when people don’t comply with the law. “Health inspectors go into restaurants all the time and say: ‘Unless you fix this, I’m going to give you a citation.’ Fire inspectors, the same thing,’’ he said.
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Also see: High court hears Idaho case challenging EPA wetlands action
