Word: caught
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...Sentencing Commission, which was created in 1984 to help ensure that people convicted of similar crimes end up with similar prison terms, has finally shortened its recommended penalties for crack cocaine. Crack offenders have traditionally been treated more severely than those caught with powdered cocaine, a disparity that has weighed heavily on the minority community: last year 82% of crack offenders were black, while 72% of powder-cocaine offenders were white or Hispanic. The new federal sentencing guidelines, which took effect Nov. 1, are expected to drop the average prison term for crack offenders from a little over 10 years...
...mandatory minimum sentences Congress set in the '80s for drug trafficking. Back then, crack cocaine was associated with inner-city violence and drug-addicted babies, while the powdered version of the drug was considered yuppie nose candy. Congress cracked down so hard on crack that users who get caught with five grams of the stuff - about five Sweet'N Low packets' worth - get a minimum of five years in prison, which is more than the statutory maximum for simple possession of any quantity of powder cocaine, heroin or any other controlled substance. If that sounds draconian, the disparity...
...wasn't Pelosi able to make the agreement stick? In one sense it's simple - a very expensive lobbying war between business and the unions. Democrats, long torn on trade, were caught in the middle, and ended up having to answer to more than just their leadership on Capitol Hill...
...tendency she shares with her husband: the hope that she can admire untenable proposals made by other Democrats - like the recent tax reform proposed by Congressman Charles Rangel and Governor Eliot Spitzer's proposal to give illegal immigrants driver's licenses - without actually supporting them. She was caught on the latter in the debate and roundly hammered. But this sort of fudgery is not unusual among politicians. Edwards took the same admiring-but-not-quite-supporting position on driver's licenses when he was interviewed by ABC's George Stephanopoulos a few days later. In fact, other Democrats - except Christopher...
...Analysts speculated that the Mungiki were also flexing their muscles ahead of elections due next month. Brutal police crackdowns began in June after officers were shot dead in a slum as they investigated Mungiki violence. Young men shaved off their dreadlocks or fled the city for fear of being caught up in the arrests...