Bush speech to set election-year agenda
President George W. Bush will look to his State of the Union address on Tuesday to lift his political fortunes and those of his Republican allies in a high stakes election-year with control of Congress up for grabs.
The president’s speech will be delivered to a joint session of the U.S. Congress, where Democrats have been criticizing Bush on a range of issues that include the Iraq war, Hurricane Katrina relief and a domestic spying program.
Coming off one of the toughest stretches of his presidency and as his job approval ratings hover in the high 30s to low 40s in most polls, Bush is expected to highlight domestic priorities like energy, health care and economic growth.
He will also express optimism on Iraq, support for Iranians who want greater freedom and his views about the need for spreading democracy in the Middle East and elsewhere.
KFI will broadcast President Bush’s State Of The Union Address today at 6p !
Former priest, convicted child molester, placed in hotel
A convicted child molester and former priest released from prison last week has been moved into a downtown motel, prompting some to question why a high-risk sex offender isn’t living in supervised housing.
Edward Anthony Rodrigue, 69, registered his new address Monday morning with the San Bernardino Police Department as the Sahara/Paradise Motel at Fifth and H Streets.
A top state parole official said Rodrigue was moved to the motel because it was the “best possible location,” although he could not say why. But neighbors, city leaders and Rodrigue’s brother said they hope the arrangement is temporary.
Tom Rodrigue said the motel will offer little supervision for his brother. He’s also concerned that vigilantes will have easy access to him in such a public place.
“I was told (by parole officials) he was going to go into a group home. When there were no rooms available, the only place that would take him was the place where he’s at,” Tom Rodrigue said. “Apparently, it’s extremely hard to place pedophiles.”
On Monday, investigators with the city attorney’s office took fliers with Rodrigue’s information door-to-door at the Sahara and also posted them at other motels and homes in the neighborhood.
Rodrigue did not answer a knock at his door. No one answered a knock at the Sahara office.
Forget smog, secondhand smoke a pollutant in California
California became the first state to declare secondhand smoke a toxic air pollutant Thursday, putting tobacco fumes in the same category as diesel exhaust, arsenic and benzene because of its link to breast cancer.
The unanimous decision by the state Air Resources Board relied on a September report that found a sharply increased risk of breast cancer in young women exposed to secondhand smoke. It also links drifting smoke to premature births, asthma and heart disease, as well as other cancers and numerous health problems in children.
“If people are serious about breast cancer, they have to deal with secondhand smoke. That’s what this is all about,” said Dr. Stanton Glantz, director of the Center for Tobacco Control, Research and Education at the University of California, San Francisco.
“This is a seminal, international document,” Glantz said. “It’s impossible to underestimate what a big deal this is.”
The report by scientists at California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment drew on more than 1,000 other studies of secondhand smoke and blamed the fumes for 4,000 deaths each year in California from lung cancer or heart disease alone
Accuser Says He Hid Abuse by Priest
The man whose accusations could finally land admitted molester Michael Edwin Wempe in jail took the witness stand Monday and testified that he hid his abuse by the priest from everybody, even his mother.
The 26-year-old man, identified in court only as Jayson B., said that, at first, he thought it was normal that the priest touched his genitals. “It was Father Mike,” he testified. “It was really difficult to think that anything he did could be wrong.”
But he became disturbed when the abuse escalated to oral copulation, said Jayson B., who wept through most of his testimony.
“I said, ‘What are you doing?’ ” Jayson B. testified. “And he said that I was a special boy and he loves me.”
Wempe is accused of molesting Jayson B. from 1990 to 1995, beginning when Jayson B. was 11, while the priest was working as a chaplain at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
Cardinal Roger M. Mahony assigned Wempe to the hospital after sending him to residential therapy for treatment of pedophilia.
Wempe originally faced criminal charges for molesting Jayson’s two brothers, but he walked out of jail a free man when the U.S. Supreme Court in 2003 barred retroactive prosecution of decades-old abuse allegations. Weeks later, Jayson B. came forward with his allegations. Wempe subsequently admitted molesting the brothers, but he denies touching Jayson B
