Odds and ends from the Republican National Convention
California delegates to the Republican National Convention began their week of parties with a round or two of “Big Apple” martinis at Bowlmor Lanes in Greenwich Village on Sunday evening. Hosting the event was U.S. Rep. David Dreier, who is serving as parliamentarian for the convention by virtue of his post as House Rules Committee chairman. It’s the biggest responsibility the parliamentarian has – to make sure people have a good time,” said Dreier, greeting guests in a “Team Dreier” bowling shirt and declaring himself “the party animal of New York.” Late-evening entertainment included a performance that offended some guests, as lingerie-clad women swung in aerobic and erotic poses from sheets and ropes hung from the ceiling. Read the story here.
Suspect in slaying of Mexican senator arrested in Santa Ana
SANTA ANA - A suspect in the slaying of a senator from the northern Mexican state of Durango has been arrested in the United States. Jorge Salazar Solis, 37, was arrested this week by federal immigration agents and local police at a home in Santa Ana, officials said Friday. Salazar and his brother, Arnulfo, are suspects in the July 24 shooting death of Sen. Jose Manuel Diaz Medina in a family dispute, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency said. Read the story here.
Timeline at center of Peterson trial
Recently uncovered evidence in Scott Peterson’s double-murder trial appears to support prosecutors’ version of key events on Dec. 24, 2002, despite some news reports to the contrary. The evidence—a time-stamped ATM receipt—may help cement prosecutors’ timeline for that day, a Bee simulation suggests, despite stepped-up attacks by Peterson’s supporters. At issue is whether Peterson lied about the first leg of his alibi. Authorities say he did, to improve the believability of his now-famous Christmas Eve fishing trip. The prosecution analysis of phone records, testimony and Peterson’s alibi provides only 10 minutes for 8-months-pregnant Laci Peterson to finish mopping the floor, change clothes, begin walking her dog and be abducted before the dog appeared alone in front of the couple’s Covena Avenue home. Read the story here.
Monday, August 30th, 2004
Voting Results For Illegal Driver Licenses
Senate Drivers License For Illegal Votes
Assembly For Drivers License For Illegal Votes
Contact Cruz Bustamante here.
Businesses take pledge not to hire illegal immigrants
As the pot continues to boil in inland cities over illegal immigrants and the employers who hire them, a local publisher and several residents are taking action. Frustrated with the government’s seeming inability to stop illegal immigration, Temecula resident Rick Reiss, 39, and Nancy Knight, the editor of a local monthly newspaper, got together and began laying the groundwork for a registry of local businesses who follow legal hiring practices. “I was trying to come up with something that people can do individually,” Reiss said. The idea occurred to him, he said, when he recently refinanced his home to make several improvements. Read the story here.
Lawmakers Defend License Bill
Illegal immigrants seeking a California driver’s license under new legislation would face tougher background checks than most U.S. citizens, including screening by federal anti-terrorism authorities and the required submission of fingerprints, bill sponsors said Saturday. The Immigrant Responsibility and Security Act, which lawmakers approved in the final hours of the legislative session Friday, would require background checks by the state Department of Justice, the FBI and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Doctors, lawyers and teachers undergo similar scrutiny during licensing, said the bill’s author, Sen. Gil Cedillo (D-Los Angeles). Criminal records would disqualify applicants for a license. Read the story here.
Peterson Prosecution Focuses On Internet Surfing
Defense lawyers in Scott Peterson’s murder trial began Monday trying to poke holes in the prosecution’s theory that Peterson began hatching a plot to kill his pregnant wife several weeks before he allegedly carried out the plan. Testimony has returned to the details investigators found on his computers as prosecutors try to prove Peterson researched the San Francisco Bay area before he dumped his dead wife’s body there. Lydell Wall of the Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Department returned to the stand Monday. Last week, Wall testified about search engine results he found on some of five hard drives from computers seized from Peterson’s home and office. Wall’s cross-examination began in August, but was delayed until last Thursday when he said Peterson searched sales ads for used boats on Dec. 7-8, 2002, just weeks before his wife vanished. Peterson also searched numerous Web sites for fishing information, currents in San Francisco Bay and details about boat ramps in the area. Read the story here.
Radio show hosts’ list includes Dreier
Two popular radio talk-show hosts are planning the “political human sacrifice’ of a Republican they deem weak on illegal immigration, and they’ve got a longtime area representative in their sights. Rep. David Dreier, R-Glendora, is on the short list of potential targets for John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou – hosts of “The John & Ken Show’ on top-rated Los Angeles talk station KFI- AM – who say Republicans in Congress are standing idly by as undocumented immigrants wreak havoc on the state’s economy and clutter up freeways, prisons, hospitals and schools. Read the story here.
Friday, August 27th, 2004
Toy In Candy Bag Appears To Depict 9/11 Attack
A bag of candy shocked a local grandmother and will most likely shock you. The toy inside looks like a plane flying right into the Twin Towers. Now, that toy is off some local store shelves because of our story. It doesn’t stop there, though. That grandmother was surprised, again, when she read the numbers imprinted on the toy. Until Thursday afternoon, the little toys were on sale to kids around Central Florida—two towers with a jetliner in between that appears to be crashing into one of the buildings. They come in packages along with candy. Read the story here.
Potential Bryant Jurors Arrive at Court
Potential jurors began arriving at the county courthouse Friday, the first step toward choosing 12 people who will decide whether NBA star Kobe Bryant is guilty of sexually assaulting a resort worker last summer. Many arrived by car, though one rode her bicycle up to the courthouse despite a chilly breeze and streets wet with overnight rain. Some appeared to know each other, chatting and laughing as they walked up the circular driveway. All are from Eagle County. Inside, the approximately 500 jury candidates were to fill out 82-item questionnaires that defense attorneys, prosecutors and their consultants have agonized over for weeks. The media has been barred from the courthouse until opening statements begin, probably Sept. 7. After 14 months of sordid headlines and days of hearings, determining what questions to ask prospective jurors is critical to both sides as they begin jockeying to seat jurors they believe are sympathetic to their arguments. Read the story here.
Border agents put on happy face
U.S. Customs and Border Protection wants to put a new face on the inspectors who handle 650 million visitors and immigrants arriving each year at the nation’s ports of entry – a happy one from officers with good posture and friendly words, such as “Have a nice day.” CBP Commissioner Robert C. Bonner announced the new initiative yesterday, saying the move would ensure that the agency and its personnel practice the highest of standards in professionalism. “U.S. Customs and Border Protection is the guardian of this country’s borders, but it is also the face of our nation and the U.S. government to all who enter,” Mr. Bonner said in announcing the program. Read the story here.
Child poverty soars in L.A.
The number of children living in poverty in the city of Los Angeles rose by more than 10 percent last year—to nearly one in three children—outpacing a national increase in the ranks of poor and uninsured Americans, the Census Bureau reported Thursday. The city’s overall poverty rate was far higher than that for the county, the state or the nation, and the sudden leap in child poverty increased concerns after two steady years with the level at just over one in four. “It certainly is alarming,” said Janis Spire, executive director of the Alliance for Children’s Rights, a legal advocate for poor and abused children in Los Angeles. “It’s a mind-boggling statistic, with very real and serious consequences for our children and our future.” Read the story here.
Thursday, August 26th, 2004
Immigrant worker amnesty may cost $29B
Poorly educated and often unskilled, illegal immigrants cost the federal government $10 billion annually, and the net cost would nearly triple to $29 billion if they became legalized, according to a report released Wednesday. The report, by a group that advocates tighter border controls, debunked the conventional wisdom that illegal immigrants don’t pay payroll taxes. More than half of them work “on the books” and they pay about $16 billion annually in federal taxes, but they receive far more in federally subsidized services about $26 billion, the report said. Read the story here
Wednesday, August 25th, 2004
The Costs of Illegal Immigration
A new study from the Center for Immigration Studies is one of the first to estimate the impact of illegal immigration on the federal budget. Based on Census Bureau data, the study estimates that households headed by illegal aliens used $10 billion more in government services than they paid in taxes in 2002. These figures are only for the federal government; costs at the state and local level are also likely to be significant. The study also finds that if illegals were given amnesty, the fiscal deficit at the federal level would grow to nearly $29 billion. Read the story here.
Investigator: Peterson Call Casts Doubt On Fishing Timeline
Scott Peterson made a telephone call from home on Christmas Eve 2002 more than 35 minutes after he claims he left that day to go fishing, a detective testified Wednesday. Testifying at Peterson’s murder trial, Investigator Steven Jacobson of the Stanislaus County District Attorney’s Office described numerous calls placed by Peterson from his cell phone on Dec. 24, 2002. Peterson says he left his Modesto home that morning about 9:30 a.m. for a solo fishing trip on San Francisco Bay and returned home that evening to find his pregnant wife, Laci, gone. He said she was cleaning the house and preparing to walk the couple’s dog when he left. Read the story here.
Draft G.O.P. Platform Backs Bush on Security, Gay Marriage and Immigration
Adraft Republican Party platform distributed last night to delegates takes conservative stands on several social issues that sometimes divide the party, including abortion, stem-cell research and a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. But it also supports the expansion of legal immigration, a position that is already drawing opposition from some in the party’s conservative base. Roughly half of this year’s Republican platform is devoted to foreign policy and national security. “President Bush has confronted unprecedented challenges, including a world scarred by terrorism,” its preamble begins. “The president’s leadership has achieved successes once deemed impossible to realize in so short a period of time.” Read the story here.
Tuesday, August 24th, 2004
GOP Convention- Illegal Alien Cover-up EXPOSED!
This is an article from a very well-respected source that details why the GOP won’t address the Illegal Alien Invasion. Read the article here.
Domino Effect Feared From Closures of Emergency Rooms
Los Angeles County, which has lost six emergency rooms in a little over a year, is on the brink of a far more serious problem, facing more closures that could jeopardize emergency care for tens of thousands of residents, according to public officials and independent analysts. The next round of cuts is expected to target large, heavily used emergency rooms at private hospitals. If they proceed as expected, they will reduce by a further 10% to 15% the county’s emergency room capacity, which already has lost the ability to serve 75,000 patients in the last 14 months, hospital and healthcare officials say. “We’re cutting off limbs to stay alive,” said Jim Lott, executive vice president of the Hospital Assn. of Southern California. Public officials and some healthcare economists warn that further closures of large emergency rooms could set off a chain reaction. As uninsured patients move from closed emergency rooms to others that are already under financial strain, those facilities too could close.
No ‘Perry Mason Moment’ During Frey Cross-Examination
Scott Peterson’s former mistress testified Tuesday in his double murder trial that Peterson never tried to persuade her not to go to police about their affair, and acknowledged that he was never violent with her during their several-month affair.For the second day, defense lawyers cross-examined Amber Frey after jurors heard five days of taped telephone calls between Frey and Peterson. In the calls, the former fertilizer salesman romanced Frey while denying his involvement in the disappearance of his pregnant wife, Laci, insistently proclaiming his love for the missing woman. After months of recordings, police told Frey she could stop the tapes. “They didn’t get anything incriminating on him,” defense lawyer Mark Geragos said. Read the story here.
