Joe Baker was released after serving about 10 years of a 24 year sentence from a Puntarenas Prison for exploiting underage children.
Updated on 5/27/10 – TicoTimes Editors note: Joe Baker has a Facebook account, please NO THREATS, but might want to let him know how you feel….
In June 1999 Costa Rica passed a law against the sexual exploitation of minors. “With this law, we say to foreigners who want to come here to abuse our children that they will find a jail cell waiting for them,” said then President Miguel Angel Rodriguez at the signing ceremony.
Rodriguez later added that those convicted under the law would serve the full sentence with no chance of appeal or early release.
In July, 2007, President Oscar Arias toughened the country’s laws against sexual exploitation of minors, banning possession of child pornography and extending the statute of limitations for sex crimes against minors. The government finally had become particularly sensitive to suggestions that foreign tourists came to Costa Rica to sexually exploit underage children, and wanted the world to know that pedophilia has serious consequences and will not be tolerated. Read more... (583 words, 2 images, estimated 2:20 mins reading time)
This voracious predators (Lionfish) now threatens the Caribbean coast
Back in June, 2009, Costa Rica scientists were ranting and raving how they discovered a new species of Lionfish, and almost a year later they now have second thoughts.
As protesters, protested at the Corte Suprema de Justicia on Earth Day, of why Corte Suprema gave a green light to reopen a Gold Mine that threatened water contamination and wildlife, eco-scientists on the Caribbean coast are trying to figured out how to education people on a new threat, the tropical Lionfish.
The Lionfish are also known as the Turkey Fish, Scorpion or Fire Fish. They are notable for their extremely long and separated spines, and have a generally striped appearance, red, green, navy green, brown, orange, yellow, black, maroon, or white.
This predatory fish from the Pacific Ocean has invaded the Caribbean region and threatens everything from coral reef ecosystems to the local economies. Limon, Costa Rica’s economical strong hold because of its port, the remainder of the coast pretty much relies on tourism generated income of fishing and diving. One group has called Lionfish, “A plague of Biblical proportions,” that may cause the Caribbean region to suffer. Read more... (559 words, 2 images, estimated 2:14 mins reading time)
Protesters will protest the reopening of the Crucitas Mine after the owners got a major victory over environmentalists.
The Costa Rican Supreme Court (Sala IV) ruled last Friday that a small Canadian mining company can proceed with its open-pit gold mine, striking down complaints from environmental groups that the project was destroying virgin forest.
“After reviewing the official studies we did not find that this mining project will negatively affect the environment. So the project will go ahead,” Vanlly Cantillo, a court spokeswoman said.
For years the Crucitas mine near the border of Nicaragua was closed until last weeks court ruling allowed it to open, a victory against environmentalists who had complained that the mine owner Infinito Gold Ltd (IG.V) would be breaking the law by cutting down trees in forests that are home to such wildlife as the endangered great green macaw and other precious birds.
Crucitas will be Costa Rica’s first major gold mine with a capacity to produce 85,000 ounces of gold annually. An U.S capital investment of $66 million was raised to start the mine with an indicated resource of 1.2 million ounces of gold, according to the company’s website. Obviously, Costa Rica Minister of Energy and Mining helped spearhead the permits, and will receive a few million in revenue. Read more... (388 words, 1 image, estimated 1:33 mins reading time)
Unlike last years Costa Rica's poteadores and licensed taxis quiet protest, this weeks students protest over an arrested corrupt traffic policeman on campus sparked a riot were many were arrested,
This week an event took place that may became a disappointment in what the future of Costa Rica’s society and culture may be. A few weeks ago we wrote about how the new Traffic Laws were causing problems with its loopholes and in some cases corruption (bribes) when an online chatter wrote, how an illegal passing cost her $100 to an open palm traffic policeman.
It appears we were not the only ones that pointed out these problems; obviously government stepped up their efforts to combat this. The Fuerza Pública officers and Judicial agents were operating some sort of sting operations to those officers who they suspect were accepting bribes. When numerous complains were filed against one officer, and when that officer was confronted, he took off running into San Pedro’s Universidad de Costa Rica.
Okay, this is a good thing … catching a corrupt person who is representing the law. Read more... (496 words, 1 image, estimated 1:59 mins reading time)
Penny Arcade sums up bandwidth throttling.
If you’ve ever wondered why it takes so long to download or load certain Webpages or other files to your computers - it’s all determined by the bandwidth of the connection between your computer and your and/or others Internet Service Providers (IPS).
Bandwidth is a rate of data transfer that is measured in bits per second (bps). Your ISP makes its money by renting little “chunks” of that high-speed connection to consumers who don’t want to spend thousands of dollars each month for a dedicated Internet connection. Since 2008, bandwidth usages has jumped up 100-fold.
For those that do not understand “Net Neutrality,” it is the way internet traffic is treated in terms of bandwidth usage. Right now, internet consumers don’t have to pay more to watch a YouTube video than you do to check your email, even though a YouTube video eats up a ton of more bandwidth and, in reality, costs your ISP more for you to watch. IPSs and major websites, like Google, Facebook and Microsoft pay millions a month for their bandwidth usage.
Obviously, websites owners and majority of consumers support net neutrality as they do free speech. Read more... (730 words, 1 image, estimated 2:55 mins reading time)
