Crack Cocaine

ONE OF OUR MOST infamous contemporary laws is the 100-1 difference in sentencing between crack cocaine and powder cocaine. Under federal drug laws, prison sentences are usually tied to the quantity of drugs the defendant trafficked. For example, selling 5,000 grams of powder cocaine (about a briefcase full) gets a mandatory 10-year prison sentence, but so does selling only 50 grams of crack cocaine (the weight of a candy bar).

Los Angeles police raided a hotel Thursday on the outskirts of Chinatown, arresting eight suspects in an alleged crack cocaine ring that provided a stark look at how even homeless people with only pennies to their name can fuel a burgeoning drug trade.

Gary PHILLIPS and Jervey Tervalon were shooting nothing more potent than the breeze when they hit on a notion. The writers had found themselves sitting on yet another panel, sorting through urban Los Angeles' all-too-familiar miasma of troubles -- gangs, drugs, joblessness and a very particular mounting rage that can eventually explode into riot.

Both sides in the drug case against a councilwoman agreed Thursday to postpone until June 16 a hearing on whether to retry Rita Rogers, 55, on crack cocaine charges. A Riverside County jury deadlocked in March on whether Rogers conspired with her son to make and sell crack cocaine. The same jury returned guilty verdicts on all three counts against the councilwoman's 30-year-old son, Joseph Raymond Rogers, including charges of manufacturing and possessing crack cocaine with the intent to sell.

The Riverside County district attorney's office agreed to postpone a decision Thursday on whether to retry Perris Councilwoman Rita Rogers on drug charges. A jury in March deadlocked on charges that Rogers, 55, conspired with her son to make and sell crack cocaine. The same jury returned guilty verdicts on all three counts against the councilwoman's son, Joseph Raymond Rogers, 30, including charges of manufacturing and possessing crack cocaine with intent to sell.

A judge declared a mistrial Tuesday in the case of a Perris councilwoman after a Riverside County jury deadlocked on charges that she conspired with her son to make and sell crack cocaine. Marita "Rita" Gaye Rogers, 55, sat silently as Superior Court Judge Helios J. Hernandez announced that the jury was unable to reach a verdict after deliberating for more than three days.

A Riverside County jury was unable to reach a verdict Monday in the trial of a Perris councilwoman charged with conspiring to make crack cocaine, but the jury could be asked to continue deliberating today, court officials said. Marita "Rita" Gaye Rogers, 55, is accused of helping her 30-year-old son run a drug operation out of her Mead Valley home. Jurors reached a verdict on charges against the son, Joseph Raymond Rogers, a decision scheduled to be read today, Superior Court Judge Helios J.

A 96-year-old woman said she does not know how the crack cocaine that deputies found on her got into her wheelchair. Julia Roberts of Kings Mountain was charged with possession of crack with intent to sell and deliver, and with possessing a crack pipe, sheriff's officials said. She was freed pending a hearing.

As chamber of commerce executives go, Stebbins Dean hasn't had an easy job. For more than a decade, he has tried to burnish this city's lackluster image, proclaiming its oft-hidden virtues to doubting CEOs around the state and country. Each headline seemed to add insult to his cause: Fresno -- the arson capital of the West. Fresno -- the nation's No. 2 city for auto theft. Fresno -- America's worst smog. On Tuesday, the city's fervent huckster became the subject of his own tarnished headline.