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Unequal Justice
Providing equal justice for poor and rich, weak and powerful alike is an age-old problem. People have never ceased to hope and strive to move closer to that goal. — Griffin v. Illinois, 351 US 12, 16 (1956)
Executive Summary | Criminalization of the Poor | Bail Reform | Modern-Day Debtors' Prisons |Conclusion | Table of Offenses | Methodology | Bond Schedules
Over 30 years ago in Bearden v. Georgia, the United States Supreme Court issued a seminal ruling that to imprison someone because of their poverty and inability to pay a fine or restitution would be fundamentally unfair and violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Yet today, courts across the United States and Nebraska routinely imprison people because of their inability to pay. This practice has been termed a "modern-day debtors' prison." This practice happens at various points in the criminal justice system. First, it can happen to people who are awaiting trial. Individuals are forced to sit in jail while their case proceeds because a bail amount has been set beyond their ability to pay while those with financial resources regain their freedom to go to work, school and be with their families while awaiting trial. Second, some people who have been adjudicated and found guilty end up in jail even though they were not sentenced to jail time because they are unable to pay a fine and are imprisoned instead to "sit it out."
The end result of these systems: a maze with dead-ends at every turn for low-income people.
In this report, the ACLU of Nebraska presents the results of its investigation into Nebraska's modern-day "debtors' prisons" and bail practices. The report shows how, day after day, low-income Nebraskans are imprisoned because they lack the ability to pay bail or pay fines and fees. These practices are illegal, create hardships for those who already struggle, and are not a wise use of public resources. Debtors' prisons result in an often fruitless effort to extract payments from people who may be experiencing homelessness, are unemployed, or lack the ability to pay.
The ACLU of Nebraska investigated the imposition of bail as well as the imposition of court fees and fines. Our survey focused on the four largest counties (Douglas, Lancaster, Sarpy and Hall), using open records requests, court record review, interviews with people involved in the system with additional in-court observations in Douglas, Lancaster and Sarpy Counties.
Nebraska doesn't have as many problematic practices as found in other jurisdictions. Some states have notorious abusive practices such as private bondsmen who use dangerous tactics to apprehend low-level offenders, staggeringly high interest rates and late fees that make it nearly impossible to ever pay off court costs, and additional fees for serving jail time or applying for a public defender. Therefore we believe Nebraska is well positioned to reform our system to remedy the harms currently being inflicted on people who are poor.
Human Costs
Read about Nebraskans impacted by fines and fees in our criminal justice system.
Being held in jail comes with devastating human costs for low-income Nebraskans. Being held in jail while awaiting trial means one is more likely to be found guilty and more likely to receive a stiffer sentence. People who are in jail—whether pretrial or whether sitting out a fine—face significant disruption to their lives. Before they even get to trial, Nebraska defendants charged with nonviolent offenses spend an average of 48 days behind bars. Being imprisoned has a destabilizing impact on their jobs, their children, and their wellbeing. These burdens fall on people who were already struggling and at risk. It is well documented that racial disparities exist at every stage of our criminal justice system. This research shows a clear and disturbing overrepresentation of people of color behind bars in Nebraska as well.
Waste of Taxpayer Money and Resources
Incarcerating low-income people prior to trial or requiring an indigent defendant to sit out a fine costs much more than counties actually recoup. Our study revealed that over half of the county jail populations were pretrial people—Nebraskans presumed innocent but unable to afford bail to go home. At the same time, several counties are facing overcrowded jails and are burdened by paying other counties to take their inmates. Indigent defendants sitting out a fine are doing so at taxpayer expense—it costs between $80-90 per day per inmate, depending on the county involved. The annual costs to run the jails in our four largest counties will reach over $73 million in 2017. Both practices strain county budgets and burden taxpayers unnecessarily.
Jailing the Poor Creates a Two-Tiered System of Justice
Bail should be limited to people who pose a true risk to public safety or who present a concrete flight risk. All other defendants should be allowed to go home on their own recognizance. Instead of an individualized assessment of dangerousness and flight risk, Nebraska is reflexively placing a cash bail amount for most defendants. This means the wealthy go home while the poor remain behind bars, though studies show there is no rational basis to treat the poor more harshly. Similarly, when a wealthy defendant is sentenced to pay a fine, they can do so and go on their way while a poor defendant without the means to write a check must sit in jail. Nebraska deducts $90 per day served from court fines, so even a nonviolent misdemeanor offense can result in many days in jail. These practices mean the poorest defendants are punished more harshly than those with money.
The ACLU of Nebraska has made recommendations to judges, police and policymakers to remedy the serious abuses that have resulted in a system of unequal justice. These recommendations are based on proven models in other jurisdictions and seek to ensure that all people—regardless of their economic position—are treated fairly and equally.
Criminalization of the Poor
Nearly two centuries ago, the United States formally abolished the incarceration of people who failed to pay off debts. However, recent years have witnessed the rise of modern-day debtors' prisons—the arrest and jailing of poor people for failure to pay legal debts they can never hope to afford, through criminal justice procedures that violate their most basic rights. Some people sit in jail while still presumed innocent—only because they don't have the money to post bail.
An overwhelming majority of Nebraska jail inmates are deemed indigent. As we examined how court processes impact people who are poor, we found that the system often punishes defendants simply for not having money. Poor defendants in the criminal justice system are much more likely to experience incarceration because they lack the resources to pay fines or post bail, not because of the severity of their alleged crime.
This report looks at the monetary bookends of the criminal justice system: first, how bail is set when one is first arrested and second, what happens when one is found guilty and ordered to pay a fine and court fees.
Arrestees are presumed innocent and, for most offenses, may be allowed to go home to their family while they wait for their trial. They can do so if they post bail, which is set in the form of a cash amount. Immediately upon arrest, before a defendant is seen by a judge for an individual assessment, the bail amount is determined by a "schedule" that provides set bail amounts for particular offenses. These schedules vary widely from county to county. After the amount is set, a defendant may also go in front of a judge and request a lower amount. This report will first describe the current bail practices in Nebraska and how they impact the poor.
People who are found guilty of misdemeanors and traffic offenses are often not sentenced to do time—they are given a sentence of a fine, including court costs. Court costs can vary from $49 to $500. For example, if a defendant calls a witness they will ultimately be asked to pay the witness fee. In reality, many indigent people end up serving time behind bars simply because they cannot afford to pay those costs. This practice is known as "debtors' prison," and it is pervasive throughout the state. The report will also look at fines and fees collection and how it impacts the poor.
Both of these practices are economically inefficient since taxpayers pay thousands of dollars for defendants to sit in jail for days, weeks, and months. Debtors' prison is a particularly illogical practice since the court costs and fines imposed ultimately do not generate income—rather, taxpayers pay for inmates to be incarcerated.
These practices don't just impact the defendant and taxpayers—they ultimately affect the families and children of the defendant. Voices for Children Nebraska documented that one in ten children in Nebraska have a parent behind bars, and the effects of this experience often lead to economic and psychological instability for the child. Parents who cannot post bail or who are sitting out a fine in jail may lose their job, fail to meet a crucial bill deadline, and face eviction or loss of utilities. These all impact the entire family's likelihood of financial stability and success.
These burdens fall on those who were already poor to start with, as those in the criminal justice system tend to be low income. "People convicted of felonies tend to be financially worse off before arrest and conviction than those not connected to the criminal justice system, and defendants tend to have higher unemployment rates than nondefendants…Nationally, the earned annual income of two-thirds of jail inmates was under $12,000 in the year prior to arrest."
For this study, the ACLU examined court records from the four largest counties in Nebraska (Douglas, Lancaster, Sarpy and Hall) and personally observed county court arraignments and sentencings in the three largest counties (Douglas, Lancaster and Sarpy). In addition, we interviewed criminal defense attorneys across the state and other stakeholders. Through this research, we repeatedly found people sitting in jail simply for being poor and not being able to pay a couple hundred dollars in bail, fines or fees.
This practice is out of step with clear caselaw. The Department of Justice has begun to intervene in cases involving the criminal courts' imposition of financial burdens on the poor and has stated, "incarcerating individuals solely because of their inability to pay for their release, whether through the payment of fines, fees, or a cash bond, violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment." In March 2016, the Department of Justice issued guidance to all judges, calling for reform. The DOJ has enunciated several principles relevant to current Nebraska practices, including:
Courts must not employ bail practices that cause indigent defendants to remain incarcerated solely because they cannot afford to pay for their release.
Courts must not incarcerate a person for nonpayment of fines or fees without first conducting an ability to pay determination and establishing that the failure to pay was willful.
Courts must provide meaningful notice and, in appropriate cases, counsel when enforcing fines and fees.
Courts must not use arrest warrants or license suspensions as a means of coercing the payment of court debt when individuals have not been afforded constitutionally adequate procedural protections.
The report suggests ways Nebraska can come into compliance with the Department of Justice's guidelines. The good news is that Nebraska doesn't have as many problematic practices as many sister states. Some states have practices such as private bondsmen who use dangerous tactics to apprehend low-level offenders, high interest rates, late fees that make it nearly impossible to ever pay off court costs, and additional fees for serving jail time or applying for a public defender. While our system needs a significant overhaul, we are thankfully free of many of the shocking abuses documented in other states. Nebraska is well positioned to take immediate steps to protect the rights of people who are poor trapped in a cruel maze created by our criminal justice system.
Bail refers to the amount of money a person has to pay to be released from jail after being arrested. Usually, a defendant pays ten percent of the total bail amount set by the judge. For instance, if $50,000 is set as bail, the defendant must pay $5,000 to go home.
Money bail should only be required when the prosecutor, after an individualized hearing, demonstrates the defendant's release poses a significant danger or flight risk. As the Department of Justice has said, "Bail that is set without regard to defendants' financial capacity can result in the incarceration of individuals not because they pose a threat to public safety or a flight risk, but rather because they cannot afford the assigned bail amount." The presumption should always be in favor of release.
Over half of those in Lancaster, Sarpy, and Hall County jails on the days of our study had not been convicted of a crime.
Current Nebraska law limits bail to those cases where a defendant might leave the jurisdiction or might hurt someone while free: "Any bailable defendant shall be ordered released from custody pending judgment on his or her personal recognizance unless the judge determines in the exercise of his or her discretion that such a release will not reasonably assure the appearance of the defendant as required or that such a release could jeopardize the safety and maintenance of evidence or the safety of victims, witnesses, or other persons in the community."
Unfortunately, from our research it appears Nebraska courts aren't routinely enforcing this presumption of release based on individualized factors. Instead, courts are treating all defendants the same based on the alleged crime rather than the defendant's personal circumstances, or they are reflexively complying with requests for high bail amounts made by prosecutors.
The fallacy of our current bail system is that a mere dollar amount does nothing to ensure public safety or the guaranteed appearance of a defendant for trial. For example, a wealthy criminal defendant charged with a more serious crime may be able to post bail because he has financial resources. Meanwhile, a criminal defendant living in poverty who poses less risk must stay behind bars. Under this system, the only guaranteed outcome is the over-criminalization of people in poverty.
One's wealth isn't an indicator of how likely he or she is to appear in court for her court date. In fact, studies have shown that people released on their own recognizance without any money bail appear in court more often and defendants released on cash bail actually have higher failure to appear rates. It appears that Nebraska judges may currently impose bail not due to a fear of actual flight risk to another jurisdiction to avoid prosecution but simply due to a fear the accused may not show up for court dates. While a failure to appear imposes inconvenience and cost on the court system and witnesses, a failure to appear is not the same as fleeing.
Our current bond and fine systems criminalize poverty. Pretrial release programs which screen people for risk factors and can assess the level of supervision needed, are more effective at assuring someone appears in court than simply rewarding the person who can come up with a set amount of money. For one person, $100 is the same as $10,000 for another. One night in jail can mean the loss of a job, housing, and custody of children. If a bond requiring money is set, the primary factor considered by the court must be the person's ability to pay. Our current system discriminates against the poor.
Joe Nigro, Lancaster County Public Defender
Many defendants do not show up for court because of unavoidable child care or work conflicts or because they were fearful and confused about the process. These issues can be resolved without using pretrial detention, and Nebraska has already had firsthand experience on how to ensure appearance in court. From 2009 to 2010, the Nebraska State Bar Association implemented a pretrial reminder pilot program in 13 counties and proved that a simple reminder postcard significantly lowered the number of people who failed to appear for court.
Some Nebraska counties currently offer a pretrial release that is contingent upon technological surveillance methods, including interlock devices on vehicles to test the driver's alcohol usage and ankle monitors. Pretrial surveillance raises independent privacy and fairness concerns. Not only is it intrusive, it has often proven to be ineffective. For these reasons, most individuals who are pretrial should not be subjected to such monitoring. But for certain people, these devices could be among the least restrictive conditions necessary to ensure their return to court. Currently, however, all these devices come with a price tag that must be borne by the defendant, which only exacerbates the inequalities of the cash bail system. Officials in Lancaster County's pretrial release program indicated they make every effort to provide no-cost technology options for defendants when the county is able to do so, though indigent defendants don't have these options across the state. To the extent the state could devise a system that reliably determines the rare individuals who require pretrial monitoring, the fact that many rural counties have no such technology-based solutions raises concerns about disparate justice.
The Vera Institute reports that, nationally, 60% of jail inmates are pretrial, meaning either they have been denied bail or, more frequently, are unable to post bail. Out of our sample, we found that over half of inmates in Nebraska are pretrial defendants who are not convicted and presumed innocent. The ACLU believes that money bail should not be imposed unless the court concludes both that (1) the arrestee can afford the bail amount and (2) that less restrictive, nonmonetary conditions would be ineffective on their own. The presumption should always be in favor of releasing people with the least restrictive conditions needed, and money bail must be considered the most restrictive condition short of detention. An individual may only be held, with or without bail, if the court, after an individual assessment, has concluded by clear and convincing evidence that the defendant poses an imminent threat to public safety that no other condition or combination of conditions can reasonably protect against.
Being free on bail affects the ultimate outcome of the case. Several scholarly studies have found that comparable low-risk defendants who are detained for the entire pretrial period are up to five times more likely to receive a lengthier sentence than similar defendants who posted bail. Those held pretrial are also statistically more likely to be rearrested even if held only for a few days—our money bail system is actually promoting future criminal behavior.
Detention has devastating consequences beyond the disposition of the case. The psychological impact of being held in jail for even a few days can be severe. The World Health Organization has found that jail suicides often happen within the first few hours of incarceration due to the sudden isolation, the shock of imprisonment, and the individual's uncertainty about their future. Nebraska is not immune from these tragedies—one database of recent jail deaths includes several entries for our state, most of which occurred while the defendant was in jail for four days or less.
Even those found innocent—or whose charges are dismissed—are punished by our current bail system. The bail money is returned to these people, but the court system still retains ten percent for court costs. In other words, a defendant whose family managed to put together a $50,000 bail will welcome him home when he is vindicated by a jury, but they will still lose $5,000 as a court cost.
To construct a snapshot of the pretrial jail population in Nebraska, on four random days in the summer of 2016 we acquired the jail lists of the four most populous counties: Douglas, Lancaster, Hall, and Sarpy. As more fully described in the Appendix, this meant we were able to capture individual inmates' criminal charge, race, amount of time in jail, and bond amount.
When an inmate had more than one charge, we recorded and categorized that inmate by the most serious charge for which they were awaiting trial. If defendants were being held pretrial for more than one charge, we calculated the total amount of money they would need to post to be released that day.
When categorizing the severity of the charges, we divided crimes into the nine categories in the Appendix. See the Appendix for a full explanation of methodology.
Through court observations, and reviewing bail schedules and jail lists, we discovered many current practices in Nebraska do no comply with the law.
Many defendants are incarcerated for nonviolent crimes. An average of 17.5% of the pretrial defendants in the surveyed counties were in jail for nonviolent drug offenses. 11.4% were theft and shoplifting charges, and 7.3% were traffic related charges. In total, over half of the pretrial population were accused of nonviolent offenses. Notably, Hall County's nonviolent pretrial population was the largest at 66.7%.
We found that all pretrial defendants spend an average of fifty-five days in jail before their trial or the acceptance of a plea deal. The waiting period is shockingly long even for nonviolent offenders, who spend an average of forty-eight days in jail. The amount spent to house each inmate varies by county. In Douglas County, it is estimated to cost $83.40 per day per inmate and Corrections is 19% of their 2017 budget. Hall County taxpayers pay approximately $88.00 per detainee per day and Corrections is 25% of their 2017 budget. The extent to which our county jails are overcrowded with low-level arrestees—who are presumed innocent—is demonstrated by the fact that both Sarpy and Douglas Counties are paying other counties to house their overflow inmates.
"First and foremost, we must ensure that we are in compliance with federal law when it comes to imposing fines and court costs on defendants. We should not be infringing upon people's civil rights and incarcerating nonviolent offenders simply because they are poor and cannot afford to pay. We are in support of the ACLU's efforts of reform."
Mary Ann Borgeson, Chair of the Douglas County Board of Commissioners
We also reviewed bail schedules, which are generally used for the initial period following an arrest; a defendant picked up after hours, on a weekend or on a holiday can still be released without seeing a judge if she has the cash listed on the bail schedule for her crime. These schedules are set by each of the 12 judicial districts, and the bail amounts vary widely based on geographic location. See the Appendix for bail schedules from each judicial district.
Examples of discrepancies from county to county include:
DUI in the First Judicial District (Gage, Saline, Nemaha counties) will bail out at $3,500, while a DUI in the Third Judicial District (Lancaster County) needs only $2,500.
Class I misdemeanors have bail at $10,000 in the Fifth Judicial District (Saunders, Seward, Platte, Hamilton counties) in comparison to $5,000 in the Fourth Judicial District (Douglas County).
Driving on a suspended license requires $2,500 in the Third Judicial District (Lancaster County) but no bail need be posted in the Fifth Judicial District (Saunders, Seward, Platte, Hamilton counties) for the same charge.
Domestic violence charges—even misdemeanors—automatically jump to $50,000 in the Second Judicial District (Douglas County) while other counties track the seriousness of the charge.
Bail amounts automatically increase for non-residents in the First Judicial District (Gage, Saline, Nemaha counties) and Tenth Judicial District (Kearney, Adams counties).
Officers have the discretion to release anyone without bail in the Second Judicial District (Sarpy County) except in cases of domestic violence and violations of protection orders. Residents may be released without bail in all cases if the arresting officer feels it is not necessary in the Tenth Judicial District (Kearney and Adams counties) and the Eleventh District (Dawson, Lincoln, Red Willow counties).
Only a few bail schedules emphasize the expectation that requiring a bail is limited to circumstances involving public safety or flight risk: Seventh Judicial District (Madison County), Eighth Judicial District (Howard and Brown counties), Twelfth Judicial District (Scotts Bluff, Box Butte, Cheyenne counties).
In addition, we found that people of color were disproportionately represented in the pretrial populations in comparison to the demographics of the county in which they were incarcerated.
In Lancaster County, whites compose 87% of the population, Blacks compose 4% and Hispanics compose 6%. In the Lancaster pretrial jail population, 59.1% are whites, 21.8% are Blacks and 8.2% are Hispanics.
In Hall County, the population is made up of 92% whites, 2% Blacks and 26% Hispanics. In the Hall pretrial jail population, 47.6% are whites, 20.6% are Blacks, and 25.4% are Hispanics.
In Douglas County, whites compose 81.1% of the population, 11.5% Blacks and 12.2% Hispanics. In the Douglas pretrial jail population, 39% are whites, 47% are Blacks and 10.7% are Hispanics.
In Sarpy County, the population is composed of 89% whites, 4% Black and 8% Hispanic. In the Sarpy pretrial jail population, 67.4% are whites, 16.3% are Blacks and 12.8% are Hispanics.
The racial disparities we discovered extend to the amount of bail as well. The average bond for a nonviolent offense was $40,251 on the days we studied and $73,772 for a violent offense. If you are Black, Hispanic or Native American, you can expect your bond to be $14,572 more than the average bond for a nonviolent offense and $13,109 more for a violent offense. This disproportionate treatment of people of color in the pretrial context shows how the court system systematically disadvantages people of color. Nebraska's racial disparities are not an anomaly; studies across the U.S. have demonstrated that money bail specifically has a disproportionate impact on communities of color.
Interviews with criminal defense attorneys across the state suggest that the findings from the four surveyed counties are likely a fair representation of Nebraska's pretrial system as a whole. Attorneys identified the final essential problem of high bail amounts: they can result in defendants pleading guilty simply to go home. "My clients regularly do the cost-benefit analysis," reported one public defender. "They can't post bail, and the trial date is a month away. The defendant knows if they plead guilty today to a misdemeanor, it's 'just' a little charge on their record and they can go home. What they don't factor in is what happens on the next charge they might have. The next judge sees this person has a criminal record and accordingly decides to nudge the bail amount up a little more, creating a vicious cycle. I've had clients with a viable defense who just threw in the towel so they could get back to their job, their children, and their lives."
We were also struck in our court observations by how unrepresented defendants are treated while appearing before the judge and prosecutor. Without an attorney to advance arguments for a low bail, these defendants frequently did not even know how to articulate the request for release on their own recognizance or on a reasonable bail amount.
Increased incarceration leads to an increase in spending taxpayer dollars on people who are presumed innocent in the eyes of the state, many of whom are not a risk to society but are too poor to post bail. Our current bail practices hurt Nebraskans who are presumed innocent, have devastating impacts on their families, and are fiscally burdensome for counties. This is why the ACLU, along with professional associations and county officials around the country, are calling for immediate reform.
Examples of Reform
Pretrial defendants should not be incarcerated merely because they are poor and cannot gather enough money for bail. Not only is it unfair to the defendant, but it costs taxpayer money to have inmates sitting needlessly in jail. Many legal professional and criminal justice organizations have issued a call for the abolition of wealth-based bail similar to those used in Nebraska, including the American Bar Association, the National Association of Pretrial Services Agencies, the American Jail Association, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the American Probation and Parole Association, the Conference of Chief Justices, and the National Association of Counties.
There are reforms that court systems can adopt to effectively decrease the pretrial jail population and the number of indigent defendants incarcerated because they cannot post bail. Research shows that money is not an incentive for people to appear in court, and a growing number of systems have begun to adapt practices that allow the release of people who otherwise could not make even a small monetary bail.
Washington DC has a progressive pretrial release system that was implemented twenty years ago that allows 90% of their pretrial defendants to be released without paying money. It constructed a system that includes a twenty-four hour service where pretrial officers meet with the defendants and public defenders and conduct an individual interview to determine the chance of them committing a crime on release or failing to appear in court. This recommendation is given to the judge in court the next day, who usually follows it, in a process that takes less than five minutes.
Kentucky's justice system has a 70% pretrial release rate. Only 4% of those arrested receive money bail. They use one statewide agency that assesses the risks of all defendants arrested so recommendations are consistent, yet individualized, and a majority of those arrested are released without paying bail.
Similarly, the federal system requires that "the judicial officer may not impose a financial condition that results in the pretrial detention of the person." This law requires a more individualized assessment of factors that include employment, previous criminal record, the defendant's character and the amount of evidence in the case. These factors are used to determine the public safety risk and the chance the defendant would return to court. The score results in one of three outcomes: no bail, bail, or release on conditions.
Reforming Nebraska's Bail System
We propose the following reforms to aid Nebraska's court systems in reconstructing their pretrial release processes so defendants are not incarcerated simply because they lack the financial resources to post bail.
Blue-ribbon commission of experts
Establish a blue-ribbon commission of judges, attorneys, legislators, probation officers, law enforcement and civil rights advocates to evaluate best practices in modern bail systems. The topics for the Commission's study should include: the best risk assessment tool that takes into account local factors; the options of pretrial supervision and monitoring via technology such as GPS monitors or check-ins with pretrial case managers; the current practice of bail schedules; increasing public defender funding to ensure presence of defense counsel at initial appearance.
Localized actuarial risk assessment
The judicial branch should develop an actuarial risk assessment for defendants in custody awaiting their initial appearance in court that calculates one's public safety risk while taking multiple factors into account which follow the best practices that have been tested in other jurisdictions. When such risk assessments are carefully created with local validation, with scrutiny to ensure no racial bias, with transparent data collection and scoring and which does not substitute for an individualized determination of release, they can ensure an expanded pretrial release program.
Citation in lieu of arrest
Police should use citation releases in lieu of arrest whenever possible, using best practice in-field tools to determine if a defendant needs to be taken into custody.
Appointment of counsel
Judges should ensure the appointment of counsel at hearings before imposition of bail.
Clerks of the Court should adopt reminder systems by postcard, phone call, and/or text message to reduce the number of failures to appear.
The judicial branch should collect and publish performance measures. Data showing the effectiveness of pretrial detention vs release will aid future policymakers.
Modern Day Debtors' Prisons
Fines and fees collection practices are another set of justice system procedures that punishes defendants for being poor. Defendants who are charged with a misdemeanor or infraction are usually sentenced to pay a fine within the statutory limits, plus at least $49 in court costs. The dollar amount defendants are ordered to pay can vary significantly. Judges are not required to impose these fines and costs—state law only provides that they "may" impose fines and fees as part of the sentence. Unfortunately, our survey suggests that few judges are exercising their discretion to waive or reduce fines and fees based on individualized assessments. As a result, it has become the norm to impose both fines and costs in nearly every case, and many people leave court with financial burdens that they cannot pay.
"…it shall be the duty of [the court] to discharge such a person from further imprisonment for such fine or cost…"
Neb. Rev. Stat. 29-2412
The defendant is typically given a month or two to make payment to the court. If the person realizes in advance that they cannot pay their fines and fees by the deadline, they can appear in court and ask for more time. Interviews with criminal defense attorneys across the state indicate that many judges will extend the deadline for payment and may do so several times in an effort to work with the individual who faces difficulty paying fines and fees. However, if the judge loses patience after several extensions or if the defendant ultimately is unable to secure the resources and make payment, a warrant is issued, and they are arrested. People who are unable to pay are arrested without another hearing in front of a judge. These people are simply left to sit in jail at the statutory rate of $90 credit per day served.
This practice of making people come to court to ask for an extension of time for payments presents additional obstacles for the poor and leads to the jailing of people for reasons that do not advance public safety. In practice, some people have difficulty getting transportation back to court or cannot easily get time away from work or child care obligations to come back to request an extension of their time to pay. Some people forget their deadline for paying. Some are not aware it is a possibility to show up to court to ask for more time.
Once a warrant is issued, there are significant negative consequences for the poor. Research has shown that people with an outstanding warrant will avoid visiting a hospital, attending school, or maintaining a job for fear of being picked up by police. If a defendant is arrested unexpectedly, the defendant has no opportunity to make arrangements for their children's care and may result in the taxpayer incurring the additional burden of caring for children whose parent is behind bars. The arrest may cause the defendant to lose her job or miss paying a bill—eviction, joblessness, and further financial instability are the result. The experience of being in jail—even for just a few days—can have significant and far-reaching effects on the defendant's physical and mental wellbeing that destabilize the individual and their entire family. These negative consequences have a disparate impact on people of color due to the racial wealth gap.
A modern-day debtors' prison should not exist at all in Nebraska in light of our clear state law protections, long-standing United States Supreme Court case law, and recent federal guidance. Neb. Rev. Stat. 29-2412 provides that if a defendant is unable to pay a fine because of their financial circumstances, "…it shall be the duty of such court or judge, on his or her own motion or upon the motion of the person so confined, to discharge such a person from further imprisonment for such fine or cost, which discharge shall operate as a complete release of such fine or cost." The court's burden to determine whether a defendant can pay is clear: the judge should inquire into an ability to pay prior to imposing any financial penalty and no defendant should be incarcerated for nonpayment of fines and fees owed without another hearing in front of a judge. In our months of court watching, we did not witness even one judge inquiring into a defendant's ability to pay prior to imposition of fines and fees.
We conducted 50 hours of county court watching in Douglas, Lancaster and Sarpy counties over the period of four months. We observed both arraignments and sentencing for misdemeanors under a total of ten different judges. We noted whether an attorney was present and whether the judge inquired into one's ability to pay.
In addition to hours of in-person court observation, we looked at the same four counties' jail lists and studied the court records of the sentenced inmates to identify any defendants serving time for unpaid fines.
Finally, we interviewed attorneys and indigent individuals from various counties about their experiences with facing a fine they couldn't pay. For a complete description of our methodology, see the Appendix.
In court, we observed several concerning patterns:
Out of months of observations where people were sentenced to fines and fees, we saw no inquiries from the judge asking if the defendant was able to pay the sentenced amount. We witnessed only one situation where court costs were waived.
Out of months of observations, we only observed four people who had an attorney present during the imposition of a monetary fine and court costs.
We found court records for many defendants were incarcerated for failing to pay fines and costs.
In each county, we witnessed "pay or stay" sentences, where a defendant, without an attorney present, was told if she did not pay money that day she would be forced to sit out her fine in jail.
Rights advisories were sometimes given in an abbreviated fashion that did not adequately warn the defendant of the consequences of pleading guilty. Notably, there was frequently no mention of immigration consequences. In at least one court, we saw a "group advisory" where the judge read off the advisory at the top of the hour and then never repeated it, despite the fact many defendants arrived later and never heard the advisory. We did not witness a single rights advisory that informed people that they could request a waiver of fines or fees upon a demonstration of inability to pay.
In some counties, community service is offered as an alternative to sitting out a fine. Lancaster County has the most robust community service program, with options including evenings and weekends to permit a defendant to meet their court obligations with flexibility. Defendants in Lancaster County "earn" $10 per hour of community service towards their fine.
Community service can be problematic for many people. People with no ability to make financial payments are also often without reliable transportation or child care. People with disabilities find there are few options that they would be able to access. Rural defendants rarely have any community service option, according to our interviews of criminal defense attorneys in greater Nebraska. Even the Lancaster County program presents public policy concerns since the $10 per hour rate was not set by state statute or even regulation—it is simply the practice and has not been revised upward to account for inflation for over 13 years.
Community service can be an alternative for some people who are willing and capable of discharging their court fines, but the bottom line is clear: no one should be forced to sit in jail, perform labor, or otherwise be punished for not having the money to pay fines or fees.
Sentenced to Jail Without an Attorney
Nebraska law only requires the provision of a public defender if the defendant is facing jail time. We frequently observed judges rebuffing people's inquiries about getting an attorney with statements such as, "The prosecutor isn't seeking jail time and I'm not going to sentence you to any time, so you don't qualify for a public defender." As discussed above, many of these people ultimately do end up in jail when they can't pay their costs—and yet they never had an attorney by their side. "I've sometimes run across a former client in jail or in court and asked them how they ended up there," one public defender mentioned. "They tell me they couldn't pay, and they weren't allowed to call me because they were just swept up off the streets since they were considered to be in contempt of court. No one ever alerts the public defender when this happens; they started and ended without even a chance to discuss their options with counsel."
Shockingly, most defendants were advised of the charge against them, pled guilty, and were sentenced to a fine without any inquiry into their ability to pay—and with no attorney present—in a single one-stop-shop process taking less than five minutes.
End Result: Modern Day Debtors' Prisons
This system means that poor people are punished not for their offense but because of their poverty. This is arbitrary, unconstitutional, and financially ruinous for the individuals as well as the counties. It is fiscally imprudent for judges to impose fines and costs against indigent defendants. Instead of gaining money from the fine or court costs, taxpayers have to pay for defendants to be incarcerated. For example, Sarpy County finds itself considering the massive expense of a new jail, even though their own expert has pointed to one problem being the number of inmates who are serving debtors' prison sentences. Beyond the jail costs, it is a drain on police resources when they are used in executing warrants for misdemeanor nonviolent offenders who simply are late in making a payment.
Nebraska has many successful models from sister states to look to as we end our debtors' prison practices. For example, Ohio created a statewide bench card to walk judges through the appropriate inquiry to determine indigency before imposing court costs or fines. Michigan changed its court rules to ensure proper procedures to eliminate poor people sitting out a fine in jail. Colorado passed a state law banning the practice of jailing people who are too poor to pay a fine. Some of these reforms have been advanced by forward-thinking public policy makers, while some have come about after expensive protracted litigation. Nebraska should make immediate changes to its debtors' prison practices to avoid change mandated by class action lawsuits.
Reforming Nebraska's Fee System
We propose the following reforms to aid Nebraska's court systems in reconstructing their fines and fees practices so defendants are not incarcerated simply because they lack the financial resources to pay.
Amend state law
The Legislature should amend Neb. Rev. Stat. 29-2412 to prohibit assessment of fines, fees or costs until the judge has held an individual hearing on ability to pay with appointed counsel present.
Consider ability to pay
Judges should change court processes so every defendant's ability to pay is considered before imposition of fines, fees and costs. Consideration should include but not be limited to the defendant's present employment, earning capacity and living expenses, dependents, outstanding debts and liabilities, public assistance, etc. Fines, fees and costs should not be imposed if the payment will subject the defendant or the defendant's dependents to substantial financial hardship.
Bench card
The Nebraska Supreme Court should create guidelines for determining an inability to pay and policies for assessing fines, fees and costs. Courts in Ohio and Biloxi, Mississippi have created a model bench card to walk judges through the process of determining indigency that could be a model for future Nebraska practice.
Judicial training
The judicial branch should train all judges and other court personnel about federal and state laws that prohibit incarceration of defendants who are too poor to pay fines, fees, and costs as well as train all judges about their statutory authority to waive all non-mandatory fees when the defendant is indigent.
Judges should ensure the appointment of counsel at hearings before imposition of fines, fees, and costs as well as when a person is reported for nonpayment.
Community service standards
The legislature should review the statutes relating to community service to ensure uniformity in its application across the state and ensure that community service is not imposed on defendants who lack transportation or the physical ability to participate in such work.
Court date reminders
The Clerks of the Court should institute proven, effective methods of reminding people of court dates via text message and/or postcard in order to reduce missed court dates.
The judicial branch should collect and publish data regarding the assessment and collection of fines, fees, and costs, how collected funds are distributed, broken down by race and type of crime. Tracking should separately show imposition of fines, restitution, fees, and costs.
Nebraska's state motto is "Equality before the law." We need to work toward a system where all citizens are treated equally when they are charged with a crime or punished with a fine, regardless of their financial circumstances.
We look forward to further study of these issues, as this report did not reach a study of similar practices' impact on people charged with more serious crimes, the use of debtors' prison tactics in juvenile court, how the suspension of drivers' licenses impacts defendants, and other aspects of our current system. As described in the Appendix, our survey was limited to only the most populous counties on randomly selected days; a comprehensive statewide survey is needed.
As one commentator noted, "it violates fundamental and longstanding principles of equality and fairness at the core of our legal system to keep a human being in a cage because of her poverty."
Across the country, the ACLU has brought lawsuits to challenge court practices that burden the poor. Successful class action lawsuits are occurring across the country, often with the help of the U.S. Department of Justice as an interested party. In Jennings, Missouri, the city has reached a $4.7 million settlement to pay to people who were unjustly jailed for their inability to pay fines and court costs. Changing our state systems will require time and resources, but we can devote the effort to change voluntarily or await expensive litigation to force reform.
Our criminal justice system does not need to trap people who are poor in what amounts to modern-day debtors' prisons.
With courts, prosecutors, criminal defense attorneys, policy makers and our community stakeholders working together, we can—and we must—work together to reform practices and reduce disparities to ensure justice for all.
Table of Offenses
CODE#
Municipal violations
City ordinance offenses such as trespassing, loitering, criminal mischief, terroristic threats, destruction of property, interfere with official duties, disturbing the peace, possession of alcohol, tampering with evidence or witness, disorderly conduct, lewd conduct, pandering
Any traffic offense, including DUI, driving under suspension, no insurance
Drug related charges including distribution, manufacture, possession, and paraphernalia, drug tax stamp
Theft/Fraud/Forgery
Shoplifting, bad check, forgery, theft in any amount
Any burglary charges
Violation of supervision/status offense
Violation of probation, violation of parole, fugitive, habitual criminal, failure to appear, escape, bench warrant
Weapon offense excluding use of a weapon against a person – that would be captured by "violent" category: includes possession of weapon or ammunition by a felon, possession of illegal weapon
Sexual assault, sex offender failure to register, possession of child pornography
Violent offense include murder, manslaughter, robbery, kidnap, carjacking, use of weapon, aggravated assault, arson, assault, stalking, violation of protection order, domestic violence, child abuse, motor vehicle homicide
Bail Study
To study bail practices, we requested data from four counties on randomized dates: Lancaster County on June 9, Hall County on June 29, Sarpy County on July 1 and Douglas County on September 12. We used open records requests to obtain the list of people currently housed in each jail, eliminated all people serving a sentence and all people being held on an ICE or extradition hold, and categorized all remaining pretrial individuals. Approximately one-half of every county was pretrial. Other holds such as ICE or extradition holds were less than 2% of the jail populations.
There were some pretrial detainees whose bond amount or charge was not available in court records. They may have been on a hold for extradition or ICE, or the data may have just been missing. We eliminated those detainees from our survey. 1.2% of the sample size was missing data and therefore not included in the final data in this report.
Other than the exceptions described above, we were able to research every single pretrial detainee in Hall, Sarpy, and Douglas for our sample days. We used a random sample of one-half of the pretrial detainees in Lancaster County. On the randomized dates, the pretrial populations studied were as follows: 840 in Douglas, 141 in Sarpy, 63 in Hall and 110 in Lancaster, for a total of 1,154 pretrial detainees.
We then used Nebraska's online court records system JUSTICE to examine the pretrial individuals' court record. We recorded all pending charges, the person's race, the booking date and the bond amount.
There was one anomaly in our gathering of race data: Sarpy County's jail list did not include any Hispanic inmates. They apparently classify all Hispanics as white. We consulted with the Nebraska Latino American Commission and then decided to proceed by categorizing Hispanic inmates by surname and their perceived race in the booking photo. While this posed a level of discomfort, we did not wish to omit the Hispanic representation from Sarpy County.
As shown in the Appendix, we grouped crimes into nine categories that clustered similar offenses together. We ranked those offenses from the least serious municipal violations such as loitering and trespass to the most serious offenses involving violence such as assault, child abuse, and murder. This permitted us to then rank the seriousness of the charges pending against the pretrial population. Throughout the report and in the graphs, "nonviolent" meant offenses from the first six categories and "violent" means any offense involving a weapon, a sex offense, or a violent offense.
Many individuals had multiple charges. For example, an individual pulled over for speeding might be found to be intoxicated and during her arrest, she might have punched the arresting officer. This hypothetical driver started with a low-level Category 2 traffic offense (speeding and DUI) but her assault of the officer means she would be rated the highest Category 9 violent offense in our final label for her case.
Some individuals had two open court cases—in other words, not just multiple charges in one court filing but several separate docketed cases. For example, a shoplifter who managed to post his initial bail might have gotten out, been re-arrested for driving on a suspended license, and now be sitting in jail on two separate cases with two separate bail amounts. For those individuals, we calculated the total amount that they would need to post to go home that day to arrive at their current bail amount.
In addition to calculating bail amounts through the aforementioned process, we conducted interviews with criminal defense attorneys. We interviewed private attorneys whose clients hired them in a criminal defense case, public defenders, and attorneys who were appointed by the court to provide indigent defense. We interviewed 21 attorneys whose practices stretched from Scottsbluff to Falls City.
Debtors' Prison Study
Between June and September 2016, law students and undergraduate pre-law students watched approximately 50 hours of court proceedings in Douglas, Lancaster, and Sarpy counties. Due to the distance from our office, we did not conduct any court observation in Hall County. Our observations were of ten different county court judges who were currently presiding over arraignments and sentences—the judges were not selected for observation, but rather were simply whoever was assigned to the courtroom on the days of observations.
The court observations were conducted after each observer was trained by two attorneys and taken to court with an attorney to train in person. A matrix was provided for the observers that captured name, charge (if available), whether an attorney was present with the defendant, whether the judge provided a rights advisory, whether the rights advisory included a specific warning about immigration consequences, whether the judge made any inquiry into the defendant's ability to pay before imposing court costs or fines, and the sentence.
In addition to the in-person court observation, we also used court records from the same random sample days from the four counties in our bail reform. We separated the jail populations into "pretrial" and "sentenced" for the bail study. For the purposes of the debtors' prison study, we then used the JUSTICE database to examine the charge for those serving a sentence.
Identifying those sitting out a fine for inability to pay was difficult due to differences in each county's practices. For example, some defendants who missed the deadline to pay court costs and fines were listed as serving a sentence for "Failure to appear," or "Failure to pay," while others were simply listed with the underlying charge and no indication this was sitting out a fine. We used JUSTICE to review court records for all defendants listed as "Failure to appear" and "Failure to pay" to determine whether it was a debtors' prison incident.
Interviews were conducted to supplement the data we collected through court proceedings. We interviewed approximately 20 individuals who we observed in court by contacting them after their arraignment and/or sentencing to learn more about individual cases. We also asked about debtors' prison practices while interviewing the criminal defense attorneys we interviewed for bail reform. Finally, we interviewed approximately 10 civil practice attorneys who primarily handle bankruptcies and work with people in financial crisis to inquire about their clients' experiences with court-ordered fees and costs. The personal stories shared throughout the report were from people we met during the observation sessions or whose attorneys referred their client to the ACLU.
Bond Schedules
Bond schedules can be found on pages 43-71 of the PDF of the full report.
pdfunequal_justice_2016_12_13.pdf
pdfunequal_justice_fact_sheet_2016_12_13.pdf
pdfstories_unequal_justice_2016_12_13.pdf
The Prison Lawsuit: David vs. Goliath
ACLU Files Court Challenge to State of Nebraska's Execution Protocol
Nebraska Is Illegally Obtaining and Storing Execution Drugs in...
End Mass Incarceration
ACLU Statement on Dept. of Corrections Issuing of a Death Notice
ACLU Applauds Introduction of Bill Limiting Solitary Confinement...
I spent my 16th Birthday Alone in a Cell
ACLU of Nebraska Applauds Introduction of Bill Addressing High...


Happy Chinese New Year 2016! This year it is not only the Year of Monkey in the Chinese zodiac, but the year of the Fire Monkey! Celebrate with these funny memes. Or, to learn more about the history of Chinese New Year and the science behind lunar calendars, click here.
Happy Chinese New Year 2016! This year it is not only the Year of Monkey in the Chinese zodiac, but the year of the Fire Monkey! Celebrate with these funny memes.


text:
Home Nokia Nokia Announces X5-01 and X6 8GB Models at Connection Event in Singapore
Nokia Announces X5-01 and X6 8GB Models at Connection Event in Singapore
Nokia has just announced a pair of new handsets during the Nokia Connection event in Singapore. We're talking about the X5-01 model and a new version of the X6, dubbed Nokia X6 8GB. The first device fits somewhere between Nokia X3 and Nokia X6, being a handset focused on music, as shown by its features: loud speakers, dedicated music keys, Ovi Music support and more.
This is also a social networking phone with an original square-ish form factor and support for Twitter, MySpace, Hi5 and Facebook. Its full QWERTY keyboard will help you text and e-mail with ease, while on the go. Also, the photo taking segment is handled by a 5 megapixel camera with 4X digital zoom and an LED flash.
Nokia X5-01's internal memory is 200MB and we learn that the handset is bundled with a 2GB microSD card and supports cards of up to 32GB. The battery on this device is also impressive, providing 16 days of standby functioning or 24 hours of music playback on a single charge. There's also an innovative side to this phone: you can spin it to switch to a new random track and shake it to reveal unread messages from friends.
The device will debut in Indonesia in Q3 for EUR 165 and reach the rest of the world afterwards. As far as Nokia X6 8GB is concerned, this device was available at first in a 32GB version, followed by a 16GB one and now this "baby version", that will ship during Q3 2010 for EUR 225 (before taxes). Here's a promo video for the X5-01:
[via conversations.nokia.com]
Nokia X5-01 price
Nokia X5-01 specifications
Nokia X5-01 video
Nokia X6 8GB
Previous articleNokia N9 MeeGo QWERTY Slider Leaked in Teaser Clip (Video)
Next articleAT&T HTC Aria Gets Announced, Specced Officially in Unboxing Clip (Video)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
## UcsFPHub
Unicontsoft Fiscal Printers Hub -- a REST service to provide remote access to locally attached fiscal devices

[![Build Status](https://dev.azure.com/wqweto0976/UcsFP20/_apis/build/status/Default?branchName=master)](https://dev.azure.com/wqweto0976/UcsFP20/_build?definitionId=4)
[![Download stable UcsFPHub-0.1.49.zip](https://img.shields.io/badge/stable-UcsFPHub--0.1.49.zip-brightgreen)](https://github.com/Unicontsoft/UcsFiscalPrinters/releases/download/UcsFPHub-0.1.49/UcsFPHub-0.1.49.zip)
[![Download beta UcsFPHub-latest.zip](https://img.shields.io/badge/beta-UcsFPHub--latest.zip-blue)](https://github.com/Unicontsoft/UcsFiscalPrinters/releases/download/UcsFPHub-latest/UcsFPHub-latest.zip)
[![MIT license](https://img.shields.io/:license-mit-blue.svg)](https://github.com/Unicontsoft/UcsFiscalPrinters/blob/master/LICENSE)

### Description

Unicontsoft Fiscal Printers Hub repository builds the standalone `UcsFPHub` service executable that can run as a background process or an NT service and can provide shared access to some or all of the fiscal devices that are attached to a particular client workstation.

The wire protocols implementation is provided by the parent `UcsFP20` component and supports serial COM ports connectivity to locally attached devices as well as TCP/IP (LAN) connectivity to remote ones. Most locally attached fiscal devices can be auto-detected on startup or on demand by the `UcsFPHub` service too.

You can use a settings file to allow and configure fiscal printers sharing, including the available endpoints on which `UcsFPHub` service is accessible as a JSON based REST service (local TCP/IP ports), a Service Broker queue (through Microsoft SQL Server connection) or a MySQL message queue (through as custom Poor Man's Message Queue™ implementation).

![Config Form](res/ss_ucsfphub_main.png)

### Command-line options

`UcsFPHub.exe` service executable accepts these command-line options:

Option      | Long Option       | Description
------         | ---------         | ------------
`-c` `FILE`    | `--config` `FILE` | `FILE` is the full pathname to `UcsFPHub` service configuration file. If no explicit configuration options are used the service tries to find `UcsFPHub.conf` configuration file in the application folder. If still no configuration file is found the service auto-detects printers and starts a local REST service listener on `127.0.0.1:8192` by default.
`-i`           | `--install`       | Installs `UcsFPHub` as NT service. Can be used with `-c` to specify custom configuration file to be used by the NT service.
`-u`           | `--uninstall`     | Stops and removes the `UcsFPHub` NT service.
`-s`           | `--systray`       | Starts hidden with the application icon in the system notification area only.
|              | `--console`       | Starts as a console application (no GUI) with output to console.

### Configuration

The service can be configured via an optional `UcsFPHub.conf` file in JSON format. Not using a config file defaults to sharing all auto-detected devices on local COM ports and starting a REST endpoint on 127.0.0.1 port 8192/tcp that is accessible locally only.

Here is a sample settings file:

```json
{
    "Printers": {
        "AutoDetect": true,
        "PrinterID1": {
            "DeviceString": "Protocol=DATECS;Port=COM2;Speed=115200",
            "Description": "Втори етаж, счетоводството"
        }
    },
    "Endpoints": [
        {
            "Binding": "RestHttp",
            "Address": "0.0.0.0:8192"
        },
        {
            "Binding": "MssqlServiceBroker",
            "ConnectString": "Provider=SQLNCLI11;DataTypeCompatibility=80;MARS Connection=False;Data Source=SQL-PC;Initial Catalog=Dreem15_Personal;User ID=db_user;Password=%_UCS_SQL_PASSWORD%",
            "SshSettings": "Host=ssh.mycompany.com;User ID=ssh_user;Password=%_UCS_SSH_PASSWORD%",
            "QueueName": "POS-PC/12345",
            "QueueTimeout": 5000,
            "SyncDateTimeAdjustTolerance": 120
        },
        {
            "Binding": "MysqlMessageQueue",
            "ConnectString": "Driver={MySQL ODBC 8.0 Unicode Driver};Server=localhost;Database=MyAppDatabase;UID=root;PWD=%_UCS_MYSQL_PASSWORD%",
        },
    ],
    "Environment": {
        "_UCS_FISCAL_PRINTER_LOG": "C:\\Unicontsoft\\POS\\Logs\\UcsFP20.log",
        "_UCS_SSH_PASSWORD": "s3cr3t"
    }
}
```

`%VAR_NAME%` placeholders are expanded with values from current process environment. The `Printers` collection lists available fiscal devices while the `Endpoints` array defines where the service will be accessible from for new client connections. The `Environment` collection can be conveniently used to setup values in the service's process environment.

Currently the `UcsFPHub` service supports these endpoint bindings:

Binding                 | Description
----                    | -----------
`RestHttp`              | (Optional) Starts a REST service to listen on HTTP endpoint on local IP and TCP port. (See [`PROTOCOL.md`](PROTOCOL.md) for protocol description)
`MssqlServiceBroker`    | (Optional) Starts a Service Broker service on a Service Broker queue in a designated SQL Server database. (See [`db/combined-SQL-Server.sql`](db/combined-SQL-Server.sql) stored procedures installation script)
`MysqlMessageQueue`     | (Optional) Starts a listener on a custom message queue in a designated MySQL database. (See [`db/combined-MySQL.sql`](db/combined-MySQL.sql) tables and stored procedures installation script)
`Local`                 | Always registers a local out-of-process COM server on `UcsFPHub.LocalEndpoint` file moniker. (Accessible via `GetObject("UcsFPHub.LocalEndpoint")` in VBScript/VBA).

With this flexible configuration options it is possible to setup none, one or several `RestHttp` endpoints to listen and be accessible on different IP addresses/TCP ports. Similarly you can setup several `MssqlServiceBroker` queues in different SQL Server databases to simultaneously share all (or some) locally attached fiscal devices.

Currently the `UcsFPHub` service checks these environment variables:

Variable                          | Description
----                              | -----------
`_UCS_FISCAL_PRINTER_LOG`         | Set to `c:\path\to\UcsFP.log` to log client connections/requests and communication with fiscal devices
`_UCS_FISCAL_PRINTER_DATA_DUMP`   | Set to `1` to include data transfer dump in `_UCS_FISCAL_PRINTER_LOG`
`_UCS_FISCAL_PRINTER_FLUSH_LOG`   | Set to `1` to force flush log file to disk after each append
`_UCS_FISCAL_PRINTER_USE_XMLHTTP` | Set to `1` for PROXY protocol to use `MSXML2.XMLHTTP` instead of `MSXML2.ServerXMLHTTP` for http requests
`_UCS_SSH_PLINK`                  | Set to full pathname to `plink.exe` to spawn when setting up SSH tunnels
`_UCS_RC4_SALT`                   | Set to correct string to decrypt passwords in external .ini files
`_UCS_FP_HUB_AUTO_UPDATE`         | Set to full path and filename of an external bootstrapping executable

### Device strings

The device strings are meant to configure the connection that is used for communication with the fiscal device. Each device string is a list of entries (`Key=Value` pairs) separated by a semi-colon which is a very similar concept to a database connection string.

Here is a short list of entries supported, all of which are optional unless marked required:

Key              | Type   | Protocol | Description
----             | ----   | -------  | -----------
`Protocol`       | string |          | (Required) See [**Available protocols**](#available-protocols) below
`Port`           | string |          | Serial port the device is attached to (e.g. `COM1`)
`Speed`          | number |          | Baud rate of serial port used (e.g. `9600`)
`Persistent`     | bool   |          | Keep serial port open after operation complete (default `No`)
`IP`             | address |         | IP address on which the device is accessible in LAN (e.g. `192.168.10.200`)
`Port`           | number |          | TCP port to connect to (e.g. `4999`)
`Timeout`        | number |          | Protocol timeout for complete command execution (e.g. `15000` ms)
`ConnectionTimeout` | number |       | Connector timeout for connection attempt (e.g. `3000` ms)
`RowChars`       | number |          | Total number of characters printable on paper roll (default to auto-detected)
`CommentChars`   | number |          | Maximum number of characters available for a comment row (default to auto-detected)
`ItemChars`      | number |          | Maximum number of characters available for product name (default to auto-detected)
`MinDiscount`    | number |          | Minimum percent discount (default `-100`)
`MaxDiscount`    | number |          | Maximum percent discount (default `100`)
`MaxReceiptRows` | number |          | Max number of rows on the receipt supported
`CodePage`       | number | ESC/POS  | Code page to use when encoding strings to/from the device (e.g. `1251` or `866`)
`MaxPaymentLen`  | number | Datecs   | Max number of symbols in a payment name (default `16`)
`PingTimeout`    | number | Tremol   | Timeout for replay from fast online check (default `200` ms)
`DetailedReceipt`| bool   | Tremol   | For each PLU print quantity, price and  total on separate lines like on invoices (default `Off`)
`PrintVat`       | bool   | Tremol   | Include total VAT by tax groups in footer like on invoices (default `Off`)
`DelayPrint`     | bool   | Tremol   | Spool receipt data to device before printing (default `On`)
`BufferPrint`    | bool   | Tremol   | Buffer receipt data (default `Off`)

### Available protocols

Here is a complete list of implemented protocols with corresponding tested and supported models:

Protocol         | Manufacturer | Tested models  | Other supported models
----             | ------------ | -------------  | ----------------------
`TREMOL`         | Tremol Ltd.  | M20            | All
`DATECS`         | Datecs Ltd.  | DP-25, FP-650  | A models, B models
`DATECS/X`       | Datecs Ltd.  | DP-25X         | X models
`DAISY`          | Daisy Ltd.   | CompactM       | All
`INCOTEX`        | Incotex Ltd. | 181, 777       | All
`ELTRADE`        | Eltrade Ltd. | A3             | All
`ESC/POS`        | Tremol Ltd.  | EP-80250       | All ESC/POS "kitchen" printers
`PROXY`          | Unicontsoft  | UcsFPHub       | All

### REST service protocol description

All URLs are case-insensitive i.e. `/printers`, `/Printers` and `/PRINTERS` are the same address. Printer IDs are case-insensitive too. Each fiscal device is identified by `:printer_id` which can be either its serial number as reported by the fiscal device or an alias assigned in the service configuration.

See [`PROTOCOL.md`](PROTOCOL.md) in root on the repo for each REST service endpoint description and sample usage.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
package lib.morkim.mfw.app;

import lib.morkim.mfw.repo.Repository;

public interface RepoAccess {

	public abstract Repository getRepos();
	public abstract void setRepos(Repository repo);

}


To access your violation to make a payment. Please enter your E-ZPass Transponder Number in the first box, and the Letter ID in the second box.
To access your Unpaid Toll to make a payment. Please enter the Serial Number in the first box, and the Toll Date (YYYYMMDD) in the second box found on your invoice.


text:
Q: How do a pass multliple returns from a function to a a structured variable in swift (OSX) I'm trying to take two return values from one function, and put them into a variable that has a defined structure.
I know I'm not doing it right because I'm getting an error.
What is the correct way to do this? - or am I barking up the wrong tree?
struct aWord {
    var letters: [Character] = []
    var word: String = ""
}

let myDictinary = ["cheese", "tree","pea","fleas","house"]

var chosenWord: aWord

func pickWord() -> (letters: Array<Character>, fullWord:String) {
    var x = UInt32(myDictinary.count - 1)
    var n = Int(arc4random_uniform(x))
    var chosen = myDictinary[n]
    var word : [Character] = []

    for letter in chosen {
        word.append(letter)

    }
    return (word, chosen)

}

chosenWord = pickWord()

println(chosenWord.word)

The error message I'm getting is for the line chosenWord = pickWord() :
(letters: Array, fullWord: String)' is not convertible to 'aWord'

A: chosenWord is a struct, pickWord returns a tuple. You can't just store a tuple into space meant for a struct. Either declare chosenWord to be a tuple (with the appropriate types) or make pickWord return aWord.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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text:
Latest Pants on Fire! Fact-checks in Corrections and Updates
stated on November 8, 2022 in a tweet:
"Maricopa County intentionally reduced the polling places."
By Maria Ramirez Uribe • November 9, 2022
stated on October 14, 2022 in Instagram post:
"Peer-reviewed paper" shows "Fauci created COVID-19"
By Michael Majchrowicz • October 27, 2022
stated on September 14, 2022 in a photo on Facebook:
If Jeff Bezos' net worth reaches $1 trillion, "he could literally end world poverty and give everyone $1 billion and he will still have $91.5 billion left."
By Sara Swann • September 16, 2022
stated on September 13, 2022 in an Instagram post:
"The sun is not 93 million miles away … it is local and under a firmament dome."
TikTok posts
stated on August 8, 2022 in a TikTok video:
A "Delta Force" seized a shipment of weapons headed to the IRS.
By Jeff Cercone • August 11, 2022
Mick McGuire
stated on March 24, 2022 in an ad:
Ketanji Brown Jackson has "a weak record — defund police, abolish ICE and now a completely open border policy."
By Tom Kertscher • March 25, 2022
J.D. Vance
stated on February 19, 2022 in an interview with Steve Bannon:
Says Joe Biden risks war with Russia because Vladimir Putin doesn't "believe in transgender rights."
stated on February 5, 2022 in a TV segment graphic:
The "top ten most unhealthy U.S. cities" are San Francisco; Seattle; Portland, Oregon; San Diego; Honolulu; Washington; Austin, Texas; Irving, Texas; Portland, Maine; and Denver.
stated on January 19, 2022 in a video:
"Ashli Babbitt Tried To Stop Antifa False Flag On Jan 6th"
By Bill McCarthy • January 21, 2022
stated on December 31, 2021 in a video on Facebook:
Walgreens refrigerators are scanning shoppers' hands and foreheads for "the mark of the beast," and that "if you don't have the mark later on, you won't be able to buy."
By Madison Czopek • January 11, 2022
stated on September 21, 2021 in a blog post:
"The CDC and county health officials have obtained 2020 Census records to enhance their vaccination enforcement protocols."
Erin Marie Olszewski
stated on July 25, 2021 in a Facebook post:
"Don't believe the hype that Florida" COVID-19 "numbers are up. It's a blatant lie."
By Tom Kertscher • July 27, 2021
stated on May 18, 2021 in an Instagram post:
"The minions from 'Despicable Me' are based off of these Jewish children tortured by Nazis during the Holocaust."
By Ciara O'Rourke • May 20, 2021
stated on May 2, 2021 in a Facebook post:
Says Nikki Haley "white-washed" her name because she thought it "would give her a better chance than the name Nimrata Randhawa."
stated on March 18, 2019 in a Facebook post:
After learning some officers are Jewish, "Ilhan Omar says police shouldn't exist."
stated on March 17, 2021 in a YouTube post:
Video shows Joe Biden faked an interview in front of a green screen.
Sherri Tenpenny
stated on February 9, 2021 in a Bitchute video:
"Some people are going to die from the vaccine directly. But a large number of people are going to start getting horribly sick and get all kinds of autoimmune diseases."
By Daniel Funke • March 4, 2021
stated on December 9, 2020 in a tweet:
"No candidate has ever won both Florida and Ohio and lost."
By Amy Sherman • December 10, 2020
stated on November 17, 2020 in a fundraising email:
Says Georgia's secretary of state won't let the people recounting ballots check the signatures for fraud.
By Jon Greenberg • November 18, 2020
stated on November 9, 2020 in a post on the Geller Report:
A CNN video shows "HAMMER / Scorecard Voter Software Fraud in Real Time"
stated on November 1, 2020 in a campaign rally:
Says his supporters were "protecting" Joe Biden's campaign bus in Texas.
By Miriam Valverde • November 1, 2020
stated on October 20, 2020 in email threat to Florida Democrats:
Says "we will know which candidate you voted for."
By Amy Sherman • October 21, 2020
stated on June 27, 2020 in a Facebook post:
A photo shows Donald Trump embracing Jeffrey Epstein in the back of a limousine.
By Ciara O'Rourke • July 8, 2020
stated on July 4, 2020 in a Facebook post:
"Covid is never going away! This is the beach today in Raleigh, North Carolina."
Says NASCAR announced that driver Bubba Wallace mistook a serpentine automotive belt for a noose in his garage stall.
By Samantha Putterman • June 22, 2020
stated on May 11, 2020 in a Team Trump Facebook Live:
"Clearly, the Obama administration did not leave any kind of game plan for something like this."
By Victoria Knight • May 14, 2020
Says Kobe Bryant tweeted, "I have information that will lead to the arrest of Hillary Clinton."
Says the pens Nancy Pelosi used to sign the articles of impeachment cost "$2,025 per pen."
Says Rudy Giuliani filed for Nancy Pelosi's impeachment.
By Ciara O'Rourke • June 28, 2019
stated on June 4, 2019 in a Facebook post:
Says a photo taken in England shows "thousands of English Trump supporters" celebrating the president's visit.


text:
Top Cinderella Teams To Enhance Your March Madness Betting
Written by Ryan Knuppel on March 9, 2016
NCAA Basketball Betting News
We have seen a few conference tournaments come to an end. Those are the teams each year during March Madness, who are identified as the Cinderella teams more often that not. Let's take an early look at the NCAA tournament, and identify Cinderella Teams that would enhance your March Madness odds at MyBookie.ag this season.
Top March Madness Cinderella Teams To Bet On
Florida Gulf Coast had its #OneShiningMoment in 2013. Watch: https://t.co/L6ZoQuWtG2 pic.twitter.com/ZGdNNxyo5Q
— NCAA March Madness (@marchmadness) March 9, 2016
Florida Gulf Coast
One of the biggest Cinderella tams for March Madness this season is Florida Gulf Coast. We have heard about this program a couple seasons ago. Remember Dunk City? The Eagles are back in the tournament. The version this season are 19-13 this season, and won the Atlantic Sun Conference tournament. The Eagles 4-4, but they are playing their best basketball of the season. Look for the Florida Gulf Coast Eagles to be a good bet in March that could enhance your March Madness betting!
Out of the MAAC, the Gaels of Iona are playing their best basketball. The Gaels went through Siena and Monmouth to win the conference tournament. Iona is scoring just shy of 80 points per game, which is one of the top 40 teams in the country. The top scorer for Iona has been guard A.J. English, with more than 22 points per game. He can really score, and will be tough to guard in the postseason. Look our for the Iona Gaels once March Madness begins next week.
The Northern Iowa Panthers have GOT to be on this list. The Panthers are the winners of the Missouri Valley Conference tournament. This is the same Panthers team that upset both the Iowa State Cyclones and the North Carolina Tar Heels on the season. Somehow, someway, the Panthers finished fourth in the Missouri Valley. After wins over Southern Illinois, Wichita State and Evansville, they are in the Big Dance. Look for Ben Jacobsen and the Northern Iowa Panthers during your March Madness betting!
Sure, the Chattanooga Mocs can be part of the Cinderella term. The Mocs are really, really good at basketball. The Mocs lost just five games all season. Those losses came at Iowa State, at Louisiana-Monroe, at Furman Paladins, at Western Carolina, and at home against UNC Greensboro. Chattanooga is a great defensive team, that has the ability to slow down teams in the tournament. A good Cinderella team this March Madness is the Mocs of Chattanooga.
One of the smartest teams in the NCAA tournament will be the Bulldogs of Yale. The winners of the Ivy League, the Bulldogs went 22-6 on the season. The top scorer for Yale has been Justin Sears, with more than 16 per game. Yale is making their first NCAA tournament since 1962, and you better believe they are hungry to be the Cinderella. In a season when you never know what will happen, a good risk to take is betting the Bulldogs of Yale. There you have it. We have identified Cinderella Teams that May Enhance Your March Madness betting! Best of luck with you betting at MyBookie.ag!
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Last January in Manhattan, at the memorial service of a colleague who died of an AIDS-related illness, Joseph Bostic lost feeling in his legs and had trouble standing. A friend, Keith Cylar, hailed a cab, crumpled some bills into the driver's palm and sent Mr. Bostic home to Brooklyn. Two months later, Mr. Bostic died of heart and kidney failure related to H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS. Within three weeks, Mr. Cylar, too, was dead of heart disease related to the virus.
The loss of these two men - both of them AIDS activists who had lived with H.I.V. for years - shocked many who had nearly forgotten the days when attending funerals and memorial services was a constant, unsettling ritual. In the United States, death rates from H.I.V./AIDS have sharply dropped in the past eight years as new medications have made the disease manageable for many patients.
But among African-Americans like Mr. Bostic and Mr. Cylar, AIDS is still a killer.
In 2002, almost twice as many blacks with AIDS died compared with whites, a gap that has been increasing since 1998. Researchers say the reasons include late diagnoses and inferior care, along with complications because blacks are more likely than whites to suffer from other illnesses.
As a result, health experts say, many blacks in the United States have far more in common with their counterparts in Africa than they do with white patients.
"The area my clinic's in is essentially a suburb of the third world," said Dr. Joseph C. Gathe Jr., an infectious-disease physician in Houston and director of a nonprofit AIDS clinic. "It's a shame no one seems to know that the problem in Africa looks like the problem in inner-city Houston, Chicago and New York."
Though African-Americans make up just over 12 percent of the United States population, they accounted for 54 percent of the 40,000 new diagnoses of H.I.V./AIDS in 2002, the most recent year for which statistics were available, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Of the estimated 385,000 people living with AIDS, 42 percent were African-American. For them, the disease leads disproportionately to death.
Among black men ages 25 to 44, the death rate from H.I.V./AIDS was more than six times greater than for whites. For black women in the same age group, the numbers are even more startling: the death rate is more than 13 times greater than for whites. The most common method of transmission has been from infected sexual partners, followed by transmission through injected drugs.
The experiences of Mr. Cylar, who was 45, and Mr. Bostic, who was 51, help explain why managing the disease is so precarious for many African-Americans.
"Though Keith was well educated, had private health insurance, a wonderful doctor and was consistent with the dosing of his medication, he experienced in his own life what many of our clientele experience," said Charles King, who with Mr. Cylar founded Housing Works, a New York City nonprofit organization that provides services for homeless people living with H.I.V./AIDS.
"Keith had severe asthma and in childhood spent more days in bed or in the hospital than in school," said Mr. King, who was Mr. Cylar's partner for nearly 15 years. "He also dealt with many of the particular problems that occur with black gay men." Mr. Cylar endured chronic depression and had used drugs in the past as an escape from anger, Mr. King said.
"With the H.I.V., the asthma and the medications," Mr. King said, "there was not a day that Keith didn't know physical pain."
Mr. Bostic had led a troubled life: he served three prison terms for a total of 17 years, the first one for manslaughter, and ended up homeless and H.I.V. positive in 1999. Less than a year later, he turned his life around and co-founded the New York City AIDS Housing Network, a nonprofit organization in Brooklyn for low-income people living with H.I.V./AIDS.
But dealing with his disease was difficult. Mr. Bostic could barely make ends meet on his salary from the struggling organization and had health insurance only some of the time. His friends say he took H.I.V. drugs, which are expensive, off and on rather than consistently.
"Joe wasn't taking his medicine regularly," said Shirlene Cooper, a friend. "He was very intelligent, but when the medication is so toxic that it makes you sick and you can't function, you get tired of taking it."
Dr. Daniel Kuritzkes, director of AIDS research at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, says he believes there are two very different and unequal tracks of H.I.V. treatment and care in the United States.
"In the ideal track,'' Dr. Kuritzkes said, "a person discovers they are H.I.V. infected, seeks medical care, has regular follow-up and avoids complications by taking a regimen reliably, which he or she is able to tolerate. There is every expectation that this person will lead a normal life."
But others follow a more dangerous path. "These are the patients that come to the hospital with full-blown AIDS as their initial diagnosis," Dr. Kuritzkes said. "They may have limited access to care because of finances or because other social or medical problems interfere. By and large, the deaths are among this group, which tends to be African-American."
According to a new survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation, African-Americans are more likely to say they have been tested for H.I.V. in the past year than Latinos or whites. But some research has shown that they are also more likely to learn that they are infected at a later stage, when the disease is harder to treat.
Jay, who asked to be identified only by his middle name because acquaintances do not know he is infected with H.I.V., says he believes he contracted the virus in the late 1980's from a dirty heroin needle. But his condition was not diagnosed for another six years, after he contracted a case of shingles so severe that he had to be carried up and down the stairs of his home.
"I had so much heroin and cocaine in my body that I couldn't feel anything, so I had no idea if I was sick or not," said Jay, 54, who says he has been off drugs for 11 years and now owns a small business in Chicago.
Once they do find out they have been infected with the virus, African-Americans receive life-sustaining treatment less often than whites, according to several research studies. Part of the problem is tied to an inability to pay: African-Americans with H.I.V./AIDS are more likely to be uninsured or underinsured than whites. According to the government AIDS Drug Assistance Program, antiviral drugs cost at least an average of $12,000 a year per patient.
In June, the Bush administration announced that it was moving $20 million into the AIDS Drug Assistance Program, which helps obtain medications for those who cannot pay for them. But the National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors and other organizations believe that 10 times that much money is needed to close the gap.
Even when insurance and income are the same, evidence is mounting that blacks receive lower-quality medical care than whites. A study two years ago by the Institute of Medicine, an independent research group, found that African-Americans were less likely to be given the most sophisticated treatments for H.I.V. than whites, even when money was not a factor.
For those who do get the care and medication that they need, other medical problems - and the medications needed to treat them - can get in the way of H.I.V. treatment. African-Americans have a shorter life expectancy than whites and higher rates of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, stroke, some forms of cancer, sexually transmitted infections, asthma and other illnesses.
"African-Americans have a higher incidence of common illnesses other than H.I.V., so the reality is that most of the people who I see with H.I.V. don't have H.I.V. as the only thing wrong with them," said Dr. Kimberly Y. Smith, an assistant professor of medicine at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago and an attending physician at an outpatient H.I.V. clinic. "We have more hypertension, diabetes and cardiovascular disease, and at younger ages. This makes treatment more complex."
Karen, a black woman who contracted H.I.V. from a former boyfriend, says she laughed when she first heard AIDS referred to as a manageable disease. Since the virus was diagnosed in her in 1992, she has battled numerous side effects of antiretroviral medication, including kidney stones, weight loss and severe nausea. She has also required surgery to remove her appendix, gall bladder and an ovarian cyst, and she takes medication to control endometriosis.
She says she is poor and struggles to pay for her medication. "I am trying to stay positive with this disease and with these drugs, but I'm losing organs right and left," said Karen, 42, who is a single mother and lives in a city in the Northeast. She asked that her last name and city not be identified to protect the privacy of her son.
"Sometimes it's hard for me to stay on the medications, because I feel better when I'm off the drugs," she said. "I've had stomach pain so bad that I couldn't get out of bed and I could eat only baby food. The pain of the kidney stones was like giving birth to triplets. I've got so many things wrong with me that I'm like a carnival ride. I know that the drugs are working, and I don't mean to sound ungrateful. But it is a struggle to stay on them because of how it affects your quality of life."
Those who treat AIDS patients and others who are infected with the virus are acutely aware of that struggle. Phill Wilson, director of the Black AIDS Institute in Los Angeles and a friend of Mr. Bostic and Mr. Cylar, said he was stricken by their deaths. Mr. Wilson was infected with H.I.V. in the mid-1980's. "Black people are continuing to die of AIDS though you don't hear much about it," he said, "and every time another one of us dies, it feels like you are one less person closer to being the one who is next."
Dr. Valerie E. Stone, a physician at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston who has treated H.I.V./AIDS patients for the past two decades, sees the toll among her patients. She says she is increasingly alarmed about the death rates among blacks.
"However, it is now clear that management of this very complex disease is much more difficult than just taking pills, particularly for my African-American patients who often have very difficult life challenges," she said. "So now when I go to these international AIDS meetings and hear that the problem is solved here, I get incredibly angry. This epidemic is out of control in the black community. There is no magic bullet."


It seems there is an issue with ToolBox application (Ultra ESB 1.6.1). I am trying to set JMS Message properties for JMS client for sample 701.
When I have removed JMS message property is work. Can you please let me know the toolbox is really support JMS message property?


text:
Q: How do I order associated objects with searchlogic in views? Hello again great knowledge masters of stackoverflow,
once again the small coder apprentice tabaluga is in need of help
The Goal : make the username sortable in the view. The difficulty is, that I am Querying Profiles in the controller ( Profile.username doesn't exist but Profile.user.username does). How Do I accomplish that? My Code so far
model code
Class User < Activerecord::Base
   attr_accessible :username
   has_one :profile
 end

 Class Profile < Activerecord::Base
   belongs_to :user
 end

controller code
@search = Profile.search(params[:search])

view code
<%= order @search, :by => :user_username %>

okay, the view code doesn't work (obviously) how can I pass the associated object in the view code and convert it to a symbol?
Thanks in advance :)
p.s. EDIT I just figured out, that this code actually works, sorry for bothering :)

A: You could try creating a named_scope in your Profile model which sorts the profiles by user before feeding into your search. Something like:
named_scope :sorted_by_user, { :include => :user, :conditions => ["ORDER BY user.username"] }

Then
@search = Profile.sorted_by_user.search(params[:search])


Summary: It is a time of chaos and war. The Lion and Dragon Clans have declared war upon the Crane and Mantis. The fighting was bloody and costly. Finally, the Emerald Champion asked the remaining clans to strike against the warring clans' ability to continue the fight. Now all the Great Clans are at war. But the Emperor has a plan to end the fighting, and it involves a minor, troublesome minor family nestled in the Asai Valley, far in Crane territory.


text:
Performance List
SEC Cross Country
Cross Country to Host LSU Invitational
by Jordan Bergeron
Complete Meet Info +0
BATON ROUGE – The LSU men's and women's cross country teams continue their 2013 season Saturday when they compete in the only home meet of the season while playing host to the LSU Invitational at Highland Road Park.
The meet will be held at Highland Road Park with the women running the 5k course at 8:05 a.m. CDT and the men racing the 8k course at 9:15 a.m.
Junior Andria Aguilar (22:02.90 6k) and junior Philip Primeaux (27:53.10) look to continue their impressive performance on the course, both finishing 10th overall at the LSU Invitational a year ago.
Both the Tigers and Lady Tigers notched a solid season debut at the Mountain Dew Invitational in Gainesville, Fla., while earning eighth and 10th place finishes, respectively.
The Tigers and Lady Tigers hope to build on last week's effort, where eight runners bested their previous personal bests. Along with Primeaux (25:41.64), junior Philip Dempsey (27:10.84), sophomore Aaron Koenck (27:31.99), junior Bryan Mutell (27:18.44), sophomore Travis Pope (26:26.83) and junior William Wiesler (26:17.57) all achieved this feat in the men's 8k, while junior Michelle Mobley (25:23.26) and sophomore Morgan Schuetz (23:53.81) also conquered their previous bests in the women's 6k.
Cross country coach Khadevis Robinson realizes the benefits of competing near his athletes' school.
"They know the course. They are used to the course," Robinson said. "Being at home will help keep them on the same schedule as far as for sleeping in the same bed, eating the same foods, and waking up at a certain time. They won't have to overthink it."
The Tigers will be competing against 10 other schools in the meet, including in-state opponents Dillard, Loyola-New Orleans, University of New Orleans, Nicholls State, Southeastern Louisiana and Southern. Joining the in-state schools are regional schools such as Delta St., Jackson State, Jacksonville State and Mississippi College.
After competing in the LSU Invitational on Saturday, the Tigers and Lady Tigers will remain in Louisiana for another week, heading to Lake Charles to compete in the McNeese Cowboy Stampede on Sept. 28. The meet will be held at Enos Darbonne Recreation Complex.
Cross Country Racks Up LSWA Honors
McDonald Wraps Up Cross Country Season at NCAA Championships