truesee's Blog

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0810/40533.html

Pelosi strikes confident note on midterms: 'I'm not nervous at all'

"I don't spend a whole lot of time thinking about what the president's employees say about one thing or another," Pelosi said of Gibbs' remark.

"We feel very confident about where we are, whether that's well known to that gentleman [Gibbs] or not," she added later.

House members begin their district work periods on Monday.

Pelosi was reticent when asked how she would have voted on the $33 billion supplemental appropriations bill for Afghanistan and Iraq, which passed the House 308-114 on Tuesday.

Amanpour noted that 102 Democrats voted against the measure this year, or 70 more than last year. Many were members of the leadership or committee chairmen.

Members who voted against the bill have said that there was less pressure than last year from Democratic leadership to support. Pelosi had said in advance that it would be "a different kind of vote." 

Pelosi explained on Sunday that there were "varying degrees of expression" in the 'nay' votes.

"How does this [the war] figure into our protecting the American people? Is it worth it? That's the question," she said.

She also responded to Vice President Biden's recent estimate that a 2011 drawdown could amount to "as few as a couple thousand troops."

"I know it's not going to be turn out the lights and let's all go home on one day," she said. "But I do think the American people expect it to be somewhere between that [a full-scale withdrawal] and a few thousand troops."

In discussing ethics charges against Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.), Pelosi gave no personal opinion.

"What we have done is to wait and see what the [House Ethics] Committee decides. I respect what they do. I'm totally out of the loop. It is independent. It is confidential, classified, secret, whatever."

http://www.tampabay.com/components/video/private-jailer-gets-jailed-after-smacking-boy/326273844001/2652468001

Study finds divorce is contagious

Stephanie Hayes

Times Staff Writer
Aug 01, 2010 07:34 PM

[KATHLEEN FLYNN | Times]Dennis Deocampo, left, talks with Melissa Smith and Gabriel Chee, at a divorce support group at Peabody's in Tampa.

The divorcees field the same old joke, usually from the mouths of smug married friends.

"They think we have something catching," said Carla Tempesta. "They kind of tend to avoid us."

Tempesta helps lead a Tampa Bay support group of 200 divorced people, so the jokes aren't too shocking. Then again, neither were the results of new research that kind of, well … confirmed the smug married joke.

Divorce is contagious.

It's not exactly the black plague, but the concept is pretty intuitive. The report, "Breaking Up Is Hard To Do, Unless Everyone Else Is Doing It Too," comes from researchers at Harvard, Brown and the University of California at San Diego.

"These social networks, they have influence on everything," said James Fowler, one of the study's authors. "Our health, who we marry, our economy, our political behavior. Most of the research shows we tend to do what our friends do."

The report, which tracked thousands of people from Framingham, Mass., for 32 years, offers a few revelations:

• Divorce can spread between friends, siblings, co-workers. It can even go two deep — your friends' friends can affect your marriage.

• You're 75 percent more likely to get divorced if a close friend is divorced.

• Having children helps. Every child makes you less susceptible to being influenced by divorced friends. It takes five children to completely negate the virus effect.

• Popular people are less likely to get divorced. Divorcees have deeper social networks and remarry other divorcees.

Half of all U.S. marriages will end in divorce during the first 15 years, according to the Census Bureau, and the examples are all around. Al and Tipper Gore separated in June after 40 years of marriage. The next week, their daughter Karenna Gore Schiff announced her own separation from her husband, which had happened quietly months earlier. And if you want supershaky anecdotal data, just watch any of the Real Housewives.

"Women are especially outgoing," said Howard Iken, a lawyer with the Divorce Center of Tampa Bay. "The genders approach divorce totally different. Men curl up in a hole and get ready to die when it's approaching and don't talk with anyone. Women talk with a thousand other women. There's no such thing as a group of women where half of them haven't used a divorce lawyer or know of people who are getting divorced. A lot of times they egg each other on."

Ask Dennis Deocampo, a computer consultant from Wesley Chapel.

He didn't have friends during his marriage, he said. But his wife did.

"A couple of her sisters went through a divorce," said Deocampo, 41. "A couple of her personal friends were going through a divorce. I think this whole divorce thing really got into my ex's head once she started talking to one of her friends who was going through a divorce."

Carla Tempesta split from her husband three years ago. They had moved to Clearwater from New York after losing a family member in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The grief strained the marriage, eventually to its demise.

She didn't have friends egging her on, but she can see patterns.

"A lot of my ex-husband's friends are divorced," said Tempesta, 47. "We weren't the first. And shortly after we divorced, a couple that we were very close friends with in New York split up, too."

She has a new circle now, other divorcees she met in the support group. They go to $5 burger night at the Green Iguana, sip beers at Peabody's in New Tampa, spend Sundays at the beach.

She's dating another divorcee, which the study found is common.

"We're totally in love and we make everybody sick," she said. "My boyfriend likes to say he knows what he did wrong the first time."

If the study sounds scary, it has a silver lining. Your own relationship can benefit from a friend's rocky road.

"People have a choice in what kind of relationship they have," said Fowler, one of the authors of the study. "Some of it is out of their control and some of it is in their control. We should try as much as possible to help our friends have happier relationships."

After her own divorce, Tempesta counseled her sister through a cracking marriage.

In the end, her sister decided to stay married and work it out.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/aging/social-security-turns-75/1112183

Cops break from lunch to stop car thief

July 31, 2010 10:12 PM

Officers who were in line at a restaurant waiting to pay for lunch cut short their break Friday night and caught a teenager who had just stolen a car from the restaurant's parking lot, Chicago police said tonight.

WEEKEND INVESTOR JULY 31, 2010

The New Credit-Card Tricks

Just months after historic legislation banned certain billing practices, card issuers have dreamed up new ones designed to trip up consumers.

 

JESSICA SILVER-GREENBERG

The Wall Street Journal 

Whomever President Barack Obama taps to head the new Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection could find it difficult to keep ahead of the credit-card industry.

The Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009, known as the Card Act, was intended to reshape the contours of consumer finance. Among other things, it forces card issuers to give customers more notice about interest-rate increases and restricts certain controversial billing practices such as inactivity fees.

Bloomberg News The Card Act forces issuers to give customers more notice about interest-rate increases, and restricts certain controversial billing practices such as inactivity fees.

Yet some of the biggest card issuers in the U.S., including Citigroup Inc., J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Discover Financial Services, are already rolling out a slew of fees designed to recapture some of their lost income, in part by skirting the new rules. Some banks may even be violating the law outright, say consumer advocates.

"Card companies are figuring out how to replace old fees with new ones," says Victor Stango, an associate economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and a professor at the University of California, Davis, who has been analyzing how the Card Act will affect consumer banking. "It's a race between regulators writing ever-more-complex laws and credit-card companies setting up ever-more-complex fees." 

The banks have a big gap to fill. The Card Act is expected to wipe out about $390 million a year in fee revenue, according to David Robertson, the publisher of industry newsletter Nilson Report. On July 16, during its second-quarter earnings call with analysts, Bank of America Corp. Chief Financial Officer Charles Noski warned that the Card Act and other regulatory changes would prompt the bank, the nation's largest in assets, to write off up to $10 billion in the third quarter. 

"If you have every major issuer saying that we are losing our shirt, then that speaks volumes," Mr. Robertson says. "Proportionately, these fees should be understood as almost inconsequential compared to the losses." 

So the banks are getting aggressive. According to a July 22 report from Pew Charitable Trusts, a nonpartisan research group, the industry's median annual fee on bank credit cards jumped 18% to $59 between July 2009 and March 2010. At credit unions, annual fees soared 67% to $25. During the same period, the median cash-advance and balance-transfer fees jumped by 33%. 

All of these increases are perfectly legal, of course. Banks and other issuers would have a difficult time extending credit to consumers, even at high interest rates, if they couldn't augment those revenues with fee income. "We're coming out of a deep recession that issuers are still working through," says Peter Garuccio, a spokesman for the American Bankers Association. 

But some banks may be going too far. In a July 7 letter to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which regulates many of the biggest U.S. banks, a coalition of consumer groups including the National Consumer Law Center, the Consumer Federation of America and Consumer Action flagged several "potential violations of the Credit Card Act." 

Other banks are ramping up their marketing of so-called professional cards. These are like corporate cards but can carry the same terms as consumer cards—and aren't covered under the new law. In the first quarter of this year, issuers sent out 47 million professional-card offers to U.S. households, up from 13.2 million in the corresponding period last year, according to research firm Synovate. 

"This can be a very easy way around the Card Act," says Josh Frank, a senior researcher at the Center for Responsible Lending, a consumer group. 

The upshot: Borrowers must be more vigilant than ever—even before they make their first charge on a new credit card. 

'Saddled With Late Fees'

Alan Condon of Woodstock, Ga., says he carefully reviews his card statements each month, and even read the Card Act—all 33 pages—after it was passed in May 2009.

Josh D. Weiss for The Wall Street Journal Alan Condon, a self-employed computer programmer in Woodstock, Ga., is one of many who was hit with a fee that was made illegal upon by the Card Act. 

Among other things, the Card Act stipulates that late-payment fees shouldn't be triggered on a Sunday or holiday, when there is no mail delivery. 

The rule "is clearly meant to offer cardholders some semblance of relief so that they don't get saddled with late fees for making a reasonable payment on the next business day," says Chi Chi Wu, a consumer credit lawyer at the National Consumer Law Center. 

Mr. Condon says he was shocked when he opened his credit-card statement dated June 18 and saw that Discover had charged him $39 for a late payment—and had upped his interest rate on future purchases from 17% to 24.99%. He says the company considered him late because he paid on June 14, instead of June 13, a Sunday.

"I just got mad," says the 56-year-old computer-software developer, who says he had never before been late on a Discover payment.

"We were in compliance with the Card Act," says Discover spokesman Matthew Towson. "The law states that if a creditor does not receive or accept payments on weekends or holidays, then the date is extended. But we accept payments seven days a week." 

Nevertheless, Discover reviewed Mr. Condon's account at The Wall Street Journal's request and decided to waive the late fee and reduce Mr. Condon's interest rate to its earlier level.

The Card Act also stipulates that issuers can't jack up rates on existing balances unless a cardholder is at least 60 days late. But there is a creative maneuver around that: the so-called rebate card. 

Citibank rolled out rebate-card offers to some of its customers last fall, offering to refund up to 70% of finance charges when customers pay on time. The problem: Rebate offers aren't governed by the Card Act, and an issuer can revoke them suddenly and hit cardholders with high charges.

The net result is the same as raising rates—and because it is perfectly legal, customers have little recourse. "Rebates on finance payments may seem like a good deal, but you could end up with a very high interest rate suddenly," says Mr. Frank, of the Center for Responsible Lending. 

"The rebate offer is clear, transparent, and we believe fully within the spirit of the Card Act," says Citigroup spokesman Samuel Wang. 

Shortening the billing cycle is another new tactic some banks may be using. The Card Act requires companies to provide a window of at least 21 days from when a statement is mailed and when payment is due. 

Yet the National Consumer Law Center and Consumer Action say they have received complaints from borrowers who allege that their billing cycles have been shortened to fewer than 21 days.

"Since the passage of the act, we've heard from numerous borrowers alleging that they are shortchanged on billing cycle time," says Joe Ridout, a consumer-services manager at Consumer Action.

Read more: http://www.sunherald.com/2010/07/30/2371376/woman-with-broken-leg-calls-911.html#ixzz0vLgXN1Rm

Arizona Prison Break: MURDERERS Escape From Kingman Prison

AMANDA LEE MYERS | 07/31/10 07:51 PM |

PHOENIX — Police were using helicopters and dogs Saturday to search for three convicted murderers who escaped from a northwest Arizona prison, kidnapped two semi-truck drivers at gunpoint and used the big rig to flee.

Department of Corrections spokesman Barrett Marson said the men escaped Friday evening by cutting a hole through a perimeter fence at the medium-security Arizona State Prison in Golden Valley, about 90 miles southeast of Las Vegas. They should be considered especially dangerous because of the nature of their convictions, he said.

Officials identified the escapees as Tracy Province, 42, who was serving a life sentence for murder and robbery; Daniel Renwick, 36, serving 22 years for second-degree murder; and John McCluskey, 45, serving 15 years for second-degree murder, aggravated assault and discharge of a firearm.

Province is from Illinois, and Renwick and McCluskey are from Arizona.

Flagstaff police Sgt. James Jackson said a woman identified as Casslyn Mae Welch, 44, met the men and helped in their escape, and at about 5 a.m. Saturday, the group kidnapped two drivers of a semi-truck in Kingman and forced them at gunpoint to drive two hours east to Flagstaff.

The group left the drivers, unharmed, in the truck at a stop just off Interstate 40 and then fled in an unknown direction, Jackson said.

"The truck drivers were lucky to get away unscathed," he said. "I mean, they've been convicted of murder and they're escaping from prison."

Authorities urged anyone with information on the escaped prisoners to use caution and call police immediately.

The escapees were last seen wearing orange prison jumpsuits.

Management and Training Corp. of Centerville, Utah, operates the prison. The company operates seventeen correctional facilities in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Idaho and Ohio, according to its website.

Maxine Waters ETHICS CHARGES: Democratic Rep May Face Public Trial

LARRY MARGASAK

07/31/10 08:27 AM 

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.)

WASHINGTON — A second House Democrat, Rep. Maxine Waters of California, could face an ethics trial this fall, further complicating the election outlook for the party as it battles to retain its majority.

People familiar with the investigation, who were not authorized to be quoted about charges before they are made public, say the allegations could be announced next week. The House ethics committee declined Friday to make any public statement on the matter.

Waters, 71, has been under investigation for a possible conflict of interest involving a bank that was seeking federal aid. Her husband owned stock in the bank and had served on its board.

New York Democrat Rep. Charles Rangel also faces an ethics trial this fall on charges that include failure to disclose assets and income, nonpayment of taxes and doing legislative favors for donors to a college center named after him.

Both Waters and Rangel are prominent members of the Congressional Black Caucus and the trials would be an embarrassment for the group. Dual ethics trials would also be a major political liability for Democrats, forcing them to defend their party's ethical conduct while trying to hold on to their House majority.

While Rangel is a former chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, Waters is a prominent member of the House Financial Services Committee.

Waters came under scrutiny after former Treasury Department officials said she helped arrange a meeting between regulators and executives at Boston-based OneUnited Bank without mentioning her husband's financial ties to the institution.

Her husband, Sidney Williams, held at least $250,000 in the bank's stock and previously had served on its board. Waters' spokesman has said Williams was no longer on the board when the meeting was arranged.

Waters has said the National Bankers Association, a trade group, requested the meeting. She defended her role in assisting minority-owned banks in the midst of the nation's financial meltdown and dismissed suggestions she used her influence to steer government aid to the bank.

Story continues below

"I am confident that as the investigation moves forward the panel will discover that there are no facts to support allegations that I have acted improperly," Waters said in a prior statement.

The committee unanimously voted to establish an investigative subcommittee to gather evidence and determine whether Waters violated standards of conduct.

Waters, like Rangel, could settle her case by arranging a plea bargain with the ethics committee. So far she has decided instead to fight.

___

Online:

House ethics committee: http://ethics.house.gov

Felicity police captain accused of tampering with evidence

Jennifer Baker

Cincinnati Enquirer

July 30, 2010

FELICITY - A veteran police captain facing up to five years in prison if he’s found guilty of a drug-related charge of tampering with evidence was released from the Clermont County jail on $100,000 professional bond Friday.

Delmas Gee Pack, 42, was effectively stripped of his police powers when he appeared earlier in Clermont County Municipal Court.

Judge James R. Shriver prohibited the 16-year law enforcement official from possessing any weapons while the criminal case is pending.

Pack is scheduled to return to Clermont Municipal Court for a preliminary hearing Aug. 5. At that time, more details of what he is accused of doing might be released. 

So far, authorities have been mum on why Pack was arrested at the Felicity police station Thursday and charged with misdemeanor tampering with evidence in a multi-agency investigation.

Clermont County Sheriff A. J. “Tim” Rodenberg and Cmdr. John Burke of the Warren County Drug Task Force referred questions Friday to the Clermont County Prosecutor’s Office. Prosecutor Don White and Assistant Prosecutor Woody Breyer did not return multiple calls.

Pack also did not respond to a message for comment left at his New Richmond home.

Several of his relatives attended his arraignment but declined to talk with reporters.
Pack appeared handcuffed and wearing an orange jail uniform as he faced the judge. He expressed surprise when his bond was set so high.

Felicity Police Chief Ray Hesler attended the brief hearing and spoke privately with Pack’s family afterward.

In an interview at the Felicity police station later, he noted that some accused murders in Clermont County aren’t given such high bonds.

“It just blows my mind,” he said.

The dismayed chief said he was shocked when several investigators arrived to take Pack into custody Thursday.

His arrest came after an investigation by the Clermont County Narcotics Unit, which is overseen by the sheriff, the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation, the county prosecutor’s office and the Warren County Drug Task Force.

The sheriff’s office has received several complaints in past years regarding the confiscation of contraband drugs that were not turned over to the property room, authorities have said.

Pack, Hesler said, is accused of taking evidence, but Hesler refused to elaborate on what kind.

“They set him up in a sting operation,” the chief said. “They are saying he took some evidence. There is a lot I think about it, but I just can’t say it. It will cause me a lot of trouble.”

It is likely that Pack, who works about 30 hours a week at the police department earning $12 an hour, will be placed on unpaid leave, Hesler said. The chief expects to discuss that with the Felicity City Council at its next meeting Thursday.

Felicity’s mayor did not return a call for comment Friday.

Hesler is the only full-time sworn officer on the department that patrols the tiny village of 932 people covering 0.3 square miles along Ohio 133. There are 11 part-time officers.

The chief said he thinks Pack is the victim of complaints because he comes down hard on offenders.

“I have known this guy since he was knee-high,” Hesler said of Pack. “He is an aggressive officer and a lot of people hate him because he is.”

Just last week, the chief said, Pack was responsible for capturing two armed men who barged into a Washington Township home and stole cash, cell phones and several bags of marijuana.

Pack stopped the suspects’ vehicle and found the drugs and clothing identical to what was worn during the home invasion.

“They would not have caught the guys otherwise, I can guarantee it,” Hesler said. “He saw them coming over the guardrail.”

Reaction to Pack’s arrest was mixed Friday among residents out and about in downtown Felicity during lunchtime.

“I bet there’s a lot of people surprised,” said Linda Tess, 38. “He didn’t seem to be a cop to me. You could talk to him. The only thing I didn’t like was he didn’t like anyone standing in the street talking. He’d run you off.”

Jamie Clark said he won’t believe the allegations against Pack until they are proven in court.

“I think he’s a pretty good guy. He’s one of the friendliest cops here,” said Clark, 41.

The Enquirer/Leigh Taylor Felicity police officer Delmas Pack appears for a bond hearing before Clermont County judge James Shriver at the Clermont County courthouse on Friday, June 30, 2010. Pack, who is charged with tampering with evidence, was given a $100,000.

Would-be pot buyers robbed at gunpoint, cops say

BILL NOVAK

The Capital Times

Friday, July 30, 2010 11:10 am

NOLAN CLAY

Oklahoman   

July 30, 2010

A dead baby's mother hugged her boyfriend last year, called him a wonderful person and said she still loved him even though he had just admitted to her that he shook their girl to death.

Left: Willis Joe Lambert Jr. Right: Latrice S. Russell

LINK TO VIDEO

http://www.newsok.com/lambert-russell-conversation/multimedia/video/309199951001

"I love you, and I pray that you get better," Latrice S. Russell told her boyfriend as Oklahoma City police secretly recorded the parents' conversation. 

She did tell him she was mad. 

At her sentencing Wednesday, a judge watched a recording of the June 10, 2009, conversation made after detectives separately talked to the parents. "I'm appalled," Oklahoma County District Judge Don Deason told her. 

The judge ordered Russell to serve 20 years in prison and 10 more years on probation for enabling child abuse. She had sought only probation. 

Her boyfriend, Willis Joe Lambert Jr., 38, already is serving life without the possibility of parole. He pleaded guilty in March to first-degree murder. He told police he "just lost it" when the baby, Rachael M. Lambert, resisted getting dressed for bed in their Oklahoma City home. The girl was 6 months old. 

Prosecutors charged Russell, 34, because she knew her boyfriend was a convicted child abuser. Lambert had spent almost 10 years in prison for abusing their son, Issac Lambert, in 1998 when the boy was a month old. Russell let him move back in with her in 2008 after his release from prison. 

Russell told the judge Wednesday she thought Lambert was a changed man. 

"He wasn't talking the same talk. He wasn't walking the same walk," she said Wednesday. "He was just different. It wasn't the same at all. I was convinced he was changed. He was going to church and praising God for a second chance.... I believe that everybody deserves a second chance." 

Police reported Lambert went to prison for child abuse in 1999 after admitting he placed a rag over Issac's mouth in 1998 because the boy was crying. Police reported Issac suffered injuries from lack of oxygen and also was found to have had several broken bones. 

Russell pleaded guilty in May to enabling child abuse. The judge told her Wednesday, "For whatever reason, you took him in. I can't fathom that.... While you are not completely responsible for her death, you are in large part."

The father confessed to police he shook Rachael about 9 p.m. June 8, 2009, reports show. He told police he discovered she wasn't breathing about 4:30 a.m. June 9, 2009, when he awoke to use the bathroom.

Russell admitted Wednesday that the evening Rachael was hurt she was at a girls' party where sex toys were sold. She said she and Lambert smoked marijuana after she returned home.

Police detectives put the parents in the same room after the father had confessed. Minutes before, a detective told the mother Rachael had been abused, and the baby's death had been ruled a homicide.

In the police recording, Lambert wept as he described how he shook their daughter because the girl was resistant to getting on clothes after a bath. He said he grabbed the baby and told the baby to be still. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to do it. I swear I didn't," he said.

Russell scolded her boyfriend for confessing to police to Rachael's death. She said he should have asked for a lawyer. "I'm mad... because now they're in here on me like, 'You knew... you knew he was abusing,'" she said.

She told her boyfriend, "You got some things you need to deal with. You're such a wonderful person. You are. You are so wonderful. I can't believe... It's OK. It's OK. It's OK. You're gonna be all right, and I am, too. Just know, we still love you. But you gotta, you gotta, you gotta deal with some things. OK? Completely." 

At one point, he asked to hold her one last time. She resisted at first, then hugged him. She let him hug her twice more. 

They end their almost 18-minute talk with a kiss. Her last words to him were, "I'll pray for you.

Lambert & Russell conversation

Jul 29 

Excerpts of a conversation recorded by OKC police between Willis...

Oklahoma City mom gets 20 years for enabling child abuse

Police recording captures conversatio

Here is an excerpt from the police recording of two parents, Willis Joe Lambert Jr. and Latrice Russell, after the father admitted killing their baby girl 

Russell: "I never would have thought, Will. Never. Maybe I was just blind to the fact. I don't know.... You're so good with the kids...."

Lambert: "I messed up." 

Russell: "Yeah, babe, you did mess up.... from here you're going to jail." 

Lambert: "Yeah. I know. I know. I know." 

Russell: "I gotta go on with my life, Will. I'm just telling. I know, but... I love you to death but... " 

Lambert: "I know, Latrice, you got to. Will you come see me?"

Russell: "I don't know.... " 

Lambert: "Please come see me, please?"

Russell: "Right, now, I have no say.... I will come see you, eventually."

Read more: http://www.newsok.com/oklahoma-city-mom-gets-20-years-for-enabling-child-abuse/article/3480710?custom_click=lead_story_title#ixzz0vEDP1zUl

 Priest who blessed Morales found with cocaine 

LA PAZ (Reuters) - The Aymara priest who blessed Bolivian President Evo Morales at an inauguration ceremony four years ago has been arrested in possession of 530 pounds (240 kg) of cocaine, police said Thursday.  

Anti-drugs police in the Andean country found a cocaine laboratory in the home of priest Valentin Mejillones. His son and a Colombian couple were also detained. The stash of liquid cocaine seized in the raid was valued at $240,000.  

Mejillones told local media he had been tricked by the Colombians, and Vice President Alvaro Garcia said Morales had not chosen the priest to preside at the traditional swearing-in ceremony at the sacred Tiwanaku ruins.  

"He was a person who moved within the Andean religious structure," Garcia told reporters. "Whether he's a priest or not, if he's committed a crime, he won't get any kind of protection when he faces justice."  

Morales, an Aymara Indian and former coca farmer, was sworn in as Bolivia's first indigenous president in 2006.  

On the eve of his inauguration at the presidential palace, he donned a ceremonial red poncho as Mejillones presented him with a staff of command representing the 36 nationalities of Bolivia's indigenous majority.  

Bolivia is the world's third-biggest cocaine producer, but limited coca cultivation is legal and leaves of the plant are commonly chewed or brewed in a tea to ward off the effects of altitude. 

(Reporting by Carlos Alberto Quiroga; writing by Helen Popper; editing by Mohammad Zargham)

LINK TO SLIDE SHOW

http://www.reuters.com/article/slideshow/idUSTRE66T3SW20100730#a=1