Tsunami Death Toll at 117,000
Up to 5 million people around the tsunami-struck Indian Ocean region do not have access to the basics they need to stay alive – clean water, shelter, food, sanitation and health care, the U.N. World Health Organization said, saying it needed $40 million dollars to get those supplies to victims. The increase in the death toll came after Indonesia reported nearly 28,000 newly confirmed dead in Sumatra, which was closest to the epicenter of last weekend’s massive earthquake and was overwhelmed by the tsunami that followed. Some 60 percent of Banda Aceh ,the main city in northern Sumatra was destroyed, the U.N. children’s agency estimated, and 115 miles of the island’s northwest coast – lined with villages – was inundated. Another zone where officials have hardly begun to get a sense of the human cost was India’s remote Andaman and Nicobar islands, just northwest of Sumatra, where entire villages were wiped out. With only 400 bodies found so far, the region’s administrator said Thursday that 10,000 people were missing. Read the story here.
McDonald’s eyes PETA-friendly option
Controlled-atmosphere killing, or CAK, is a USDA-approved method of slaughter that is described by animal welfare experts as “the most stress-free, humane method of killing poultry ever developed.” The CAK method puts the birds to sleep quickly and painlessly. According to the animal-rights group, McDonald’s said some of its EU suppliers are already using CAK technology and a feasibility study for the U.S. will be ready this summer. A PETA spokesperson said McDonald’s is the first corporation to seriously consider CAK technology and they are hopeful that McDonald’s will spur an industry-wide shift. McDonald’s is “committed to animal welfare leadership and to working with our suppliers and recognized experts on animal welfare issues” Anna Rozenich, a spokeswoman for the fast-food restaurateur, told CNN/Money. According to PETA, chickens are currently exempt from animal cruelty laws and are routinely killed by shackling the birds upside down by their feet, slitting their throats and immersing them in boiling water, all while still alive. Read the story here.
Tsunami Disaster’s Health Toll
What can we expect to see over the coming days, weeks, and months? How can we cope with our own feelings? What should we say to our children? WebMD asked several experts:
—Randall D. Marshall, MD, director of trauma studies and services for the New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York State Office of Mental Health; and associate professor of clinical psychiatry, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. Marshall has expertise in the diagnosis and treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and has studied and written about the role of psychological trauma in anxiety disorders, psychotherapy of traumatized individuals, and the biology of PTSD.
—Phyllis E. Kozarsky, MD, professor of medicine and director of the Travel Well Clinic in the division of infectious diseases at Emory University School of Medicine. Kozarsky specializes in clinical tropical medicine and travelers’ health. With the CDC, she conducts international surveillance of travel-related morbidity and emerging infectious diseases. Read more here.
Wednesday, December 29th, 2004
Congratulations to Jason Wilkes of Anaheim and Thomas Esterkin of Van Nuys, they are this weeks winners of the Bright Monday event.
Congressman David Dreier “handwrote” a letter to him constituents detailing “an important and ambitious agenda” for the 109th Congress. As you might guess, this letter leads you to think that he is the second coming of the great Rep. Tom Tancredo. Read the letter here(.pdf file).
Boaters Pull Victims From Water Off Thai Island
A pair of Californians said they did not think twice about risking their lives to rescue some 50 tsunami victims who were floating off the island of Phukhet in Thailand. Julie and Casey Sobolewski of Carlsbad told NBC’s “Today” show they were sailing with a friend when the tsunami struck on Sunday. A lot of smaller wooden boats broke apart, but their craft was spared. “The waves just came across a sandbar they were heading to, and hit the boats,” said Julie Sobolewski. “They came apart, and all the people in the boats were floating in the water, screaming for help.” The couple, along with their friend John Hinkey, started pulling people into their sailboat. At one point, Casey jumped in a dinghy and went out to rescue more people. He said he went for the children first, then went to a large rock where five others were stranded. “Most of the older people were pointing toward children holding onto debris and buckets,” said Casey Sobolewski. “They were about 100 yards, 200 yards from the area, so I made the children my first priority. Read the story here.
Asia Death Toll Near 77,000; Illness Feared
The international Red Cross warned that the toll could eventually surpass 100,000. The race was on to try to prevent an outbreak of diseases and to curb food shortages among millions of homeless – which the U.N. health agency said could kill as many as the waves and quake. Sri Lanka said it was getting its first reports of measles and diarrhea. Paramedics in southern India began vaccinating 65,000 survivors against cholera, typhoid, hepatitis A and dysentery, and authorities sprayed bleaching powder on beaches where bodies have been recovered. “Even those people who (didn’t lose homes) can’t get food. Nothing is available,” said Father Raja Perera, of St. Mary’s Roman Catholic church in Sri Lanka’s second largest city, the hard-hit southern resort of Galle, where refugees from ravaged homes crowded into churches, Buddhist temples and mosques. Read the story here.
Animals May Have Sensed Tsunami
Wildlife officials in Sri Lanka expressed surprise Wednesday that they found no evidence of large-scale animal deaths from the tsunamis -indicating that animals may have sensed the wave coming and fled to higher ground. An Associated Press photographer who flew over Sri Lanka’s Yala National Park in an air force helicopter saw abundant wildlife, including elephants, buffalo, deer, and not a single animal corpse. Floodwaters from Sunday’s tsunami swept into the park, uprooting trees and toppling cars onto their roofs – one red car even ended up on top of a huge tree – but the animals apparently were not harmed and may have sought out high ground, said Gehan de Silva Wijeyeratne, whose Jetwing Eco Holidays (search) ran a hotel in the park. “This is very interesting. I am finding bodies of humans, but I have yet to see a dead animal,” said Wijeyeratne, whose hotel in the park was destroyed. Read the story here.
Freeway Project to Extend 405’s Carpool Lanes
Caltrans is embarking on a major widening project along the San Diego Freeway in West Los Angeles that will create uninterrupted carpool lanes from the Santa Monica Freeway south to Irvine – and has left nearby residents with divided views over the undertaking. The $167-million project will add one carpool lane in each direction along a four-mile portion of the 405 between the Marina and Santa Monica freeways, a stretch considered one of the busiest in California. The effort, which began Nov. 3 and is expected to be completed by the winter of 2007, has generated complaints from some residents whose neighborhoods adjacent to the freeway are being transformed. Caltrans has acquired 41 properties, mostly homes, and part of 34 others. Some residents complain that the demolition of half the homes on their street has ruined the close-knit neighborhood. The project, financed with federal and state funds, is the latest step in Caltrans’ effort to create a continuous network of carpool lanes on most freeways in Southern California, which already has the largest system of carpool lanes in the nation. Read the story here.
Tuesday, December 28th, 2004
Many sex offenders unable to find work
The poorer communities in the San Gabriel Valley have a disproportionate number of sex offenders paroled within their city.
Consider: Seven of the poorest areas have five times as many sex offenders as 10 of the wealthiest areas in the Valley.
Azusa, Baldwin Park, Covina, El Monte, South El Monte, West Covina and La Puente and its surrounding county areas have 409 registered sex offenders living among a combined population of 304,400-plus residents, according to the Justice Department database.
Read the full story here.
Jake Goldenflame returned via phone on today’s show. Jake is an author, convicted child molester and registered sex offender that runs a prison outreach program for other sex offenders. While Mr. Goldenflame is an admitted child molester, he’s very reasonable when it comes to what should be done with these guys when they’re ready to get out of jail. If you don’t want him there . . .he doesn’t want to be there.
California Secession?
Today, Move On California founder Jeff Morrissette joined the show.
If you entered for Bright Mondays yesterday before Midnight, tune in today @ 5:00 to find out if you’ve won! (See details on how to enter NEXT week’s drawing below)
Also, start thinking about who the biggest boob was in 2004, as we will be taking your nominations between 5-6pm for “BOOB OF THE YEAR”.
Monday, December 27th, 2004
At Least 23,000 Die in Tsunami
MADRAS, India – The death toll from a massive undersea earthquake that triggered a wall of water crashing through Asia climbed to more than 23,000 today as officials braced for more deaths and a Herculean cleanup.
Millions of people were reported homeless in a wide swath from Indonesia to the Indian subcontinent. Whole villages were missing and the wreckage was too extensive for any reasonable estimate of the cost beyond many of billions of dollars. It will likely take years to rebuild.
Read the full story here.
Yard Display’s Neighbors Wish for a Silent Night
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., Dec. 25 – Silent night it wasn’t.
At 6 o’clock on Friday, as a crystalline blue dusk descended over the desert valley, Chris Birkett began his nightly Christmas extravaganza, turning his modest house and yard into “Winter Wonderland,” a blazing filigree of up to 150,000 lights forming Santas, reindeer, “Nutcracker” characters, snowflakes, stars and American flags, under puffs of soap bubbles and sprays of artificial snow.
With it came blaring Disney music and narration that echoed up and down the quiet residential block: “Do you believe in magic? Look to the sky and make a wish. Star light, star bright, I wish I may, I wish I might.”
The family next door wishes he would just shut up.
Read the full story here.
Mexico, U.S. ignore illegal immigration
By Jill Stewart
Forgive me if I missed the media coverage of the international dustup between Democratic state Sen. Gloria Romero of Los Angeles and the Mexican government the other day. The media downplay stories they perceive as “blaming the victim,” particularly on the hands-off topic of illegal immigration.
Romero has gone against the tide before. Now she’s rattling cages over the 28,672 foreigners in California prisons who cost taxpayers a staggering sum to feed and house, one-half of whom are illegal aliens from Mexico.
Read the full article here.
Thursday, December 23rd, 2004
Holidays Inspire a Rush to the Border
Every year at this time, the restaurant kitchens and vegetable fields of California empty out. Prayers are said to San Cristofo, money is removed from mattresses, and Mexicans head home. The United States-Mexico border is broken, say United States immigration and customs officials. And at no time is the stress on the border more visible than the holidays, when immigration and customs officials say they are most overwhelmed. At the San Ysidro crossing here, on one side of the toll gates, immigrants head back to Mexico for the holidays, their pickup trucks and vans packed with washing machines, teddy bears and cheap lawn furniture. On the other side, customs agents probe gasoline tanks and dashboards with mirrors on sticks, while drug-sniffing dogs ferret through the upholstery in search of drugs bound for American cities like Los Angeles and New York to fill the New Year’s Eve demand. Read the story here.TSA modifies pat-downs to exclude breasts
Under the new guidelines, screeners will not be able to pat-down a passenger’s breast area unless the handheld metal detector goes off or if there is an irregularity in the passenger’s clothing outline, said TSA spokesman Dave Steigman. Steigman said that under the new policy, passengers will have their sides patted down. Once that is done, there will be a limited torso pat-down from front to back, from a line below the chest area to the waist. Screeners will pat the entire back. He also said people in wheelchairs will not have to get out of their wheelchairs for the pat-downs. The screening will be done while they are seated, using the wand and explosive trace detection machines, he said. Read the story here.
Dreams, steroids, death: A ballplayer’s downfall
For years, the message had been clear to Rob Garibaldi, a kid with major-league tools but minor-league size: Get bigger. Fast. Garibaldi heard it from the coach/nutritional supplement salesman who started him on legal weight-gaining substances at age 16. He heard it from University of Southern California trainers who handed him two shopping bags of supplements on a recruiting visit and told him he needed to put on 20 pounds. He heard it from pro scouts who said he just didn’t quite fit the physical profile they were looking for in big league baseball. Garibaldi’s response was to use steroids, and his parents and his psychiatrist say it was the extensive use of those drugs that led the once-vibrant young man down an increasingly troubled path that ended in a derailed baseball career, depression and months of emotional turmoil before he ultimately committed suicide at the age of 24. Read the story here.
Wednesday, December 22nd, 2004
Congratulations to Carol Brasher of Mission Viejo, and Ralph Tomaselli of Upland, on winning the first of many Bright Monday events. Stay tuned to learn how you can participate in Bright Mondays. Remember, no purchase necessary, you just have to show you participated somehow. Take a picture of you at a gas station or even fax over a business card of the gas station, use your imagination.
Jury Hears Testimony in Blake Murder Trial
Robert Blake’s wife was shot by someone standing at a distance from her and the two wounds she suffered to her cheek and shoulder were both fatal, a medical examiner testified Wednesday in the actor’s murder trial. Dr. Jeffrey Gutstadt said that the absence of soot and “stippling” marks around Bonny Lee Bakley’s wounds indicated that the shooter was more than 1 1/2 feet away when the gun was fired. He also said the damage from the shots made it unlikely that paramedics could have saved her life. “It would not be an instantaneous death,” he said, suggesting it would have taken perhaps as little as three minutes but up to 15 minutes for her to die. “It is unlikely that in this case they would have been able to save her life,” the witness said. Read the story here.
Congressman Darrell Issa Supports Save Our License Initiative
Congressman Darrell Issa, through the Rescue California Leadership Committee, is mailing Save Our license petitions to every voter who returned a Gray Davis Recall Petition. In his letter to supporters, Issa outlines the failure of the Congress to set standards for driver’s licenses, Gil Cedillo’s reintroduction of a bill to give licenses to illegal aliens and the recent study that shows illegal immigration costs California taxpayers $9 billion dollars a year. Read more here.
Woman who helps bury forsaken newborns wins lottery
All too often, the ring of Debi Faris-Cifelli’s cell phone means there is another abandoned newborn at the morgue, another forsaken child for her to name and bury in a shoebox-size coffin under a white cross in the California desert. Last week, however, Faris-Cifelli, who has had to rely on donations, grants and fund-raisers to give babies a decent burial, got a very different call. She had won the California lottery. The jackpot: $27 million. “Maybe it’s the children saying ‘Thank you’ for taking care of them when nobody else would,” Faris-Cifelli said, bubbling with laughter. “It’s a gift and one for which we feel an awesome responsibility.” Read the story here.
School Yuletide Observances Shift Into Neutral
Beverly Hills elementary school students pretended to travel around the world to show how holidays are celebrated in China, Israel and Mexico. In Del Mar, students at a “Winterfest” program sang “Frosty the Snowman” but not “Silent Night.” And at an Altadena elementary school, students performed “Jingle Bell Rock,” “Feliz Navidad” and “Oh Hanukkah.” In many parts of the country over the last month, conservative Christian groups have lashed out against what they say are practices that dilute Christmas from a profound religious celebration to a bland “holiday season.” But across Southern California, school officials say the combination of ever-more-diverse student populations and the threat of lawsuits by all sides leaves them little choice. Read the story here.
