• Past winners lead the pack for Cannes film award
• Sweden's Loreen wins Eurovision song contest
• Cannes gets happy ending with river film "Mud"

go

• 30 Minutes- Tucson Youth Poetry Slam
• Growing Native with Petey Mesquitey: Xylocopa in the Garden
• Flicks - Monsieur Lazhar

30 Minutes- Humanitarian Walt Staton Refuses Community Service Will humanitarian volunteer Walt Staton be sentenced to 600 hours in federal prison for refusing to perform 300 hours of community service? by Amanda Shauger Earlier this summer No More Deaths Volunteer Walt Staton was convicted by a federal jury of knowingly littering when he put out sealed gallon jugs of water along the heavily traversed migrant trails of the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge.

Federal Judge Jennifer Guerin imposed a sentence which included 300 hours of community service picking up garbage. Staton recently sent a letter to Judge Guerin indicating that any amount of community service or fine would go against his views as a humanitarian worker. He believes humanitarians must be free to provide aid.

He was given a hearing on Friday, December 4 to discuss this matter. A rally was held outside the federal courthouse to call attention to Staton's case- and also to call attention to the daily parade of shackled migrants who are adjudicated in Operation Streamline. A recent 9th Circuit Ruling indicated that the Tucson Federal Court is in violation of Rule 11 in its use of mass plea bargains.

Ultimately, Judge Guerin set a probation violation hearing for 9:00am Monday, December 21. She indicated that if Staton refuses community service, she will impose two hours of confinement for every hour of community service- which would mean about 25 days in federal prison.

Speakers at the December 4th rally included Attorney Isabel Garcia of Derechos Humanos; Attorney Margo Cowan of Derechos Humanos and No More Deaths; Nurse Sarah Roberts of the Tucson Samaritans and No More Deaths; Executive Director of the Arizona chapter of the ACLU Alessandra Soler Meetze, and No More Death Volunteer and convicted litterer Walt Staton.