Homegrown terrorists’ arraigned in court
MIAMI – Seven young men arrested in an alleged plot against the Sears Tower were part of a group of “homegrown terrorists” who sought to work with al-Qaida but ended up conspiring with an informant, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Friday.
Outlining an alleged plot to bomb the Sears Tower in Chicago and a federal building in Miami, Gonzales told a Justice Department news conference: “They were persons who for whatever reason came to view their home country as the enemy.”
Gonzales stressed that “there was no immediate threat” in either Chicago or Miami because the group didn’t have the materials it was seeking. FBI Deputy Director John Pistole concurred, saying, “This group was more aspirational than operational. . .
Civil Rights Attorney Indicted
Stephen Yagman, the prominent civil rights attorney who has zealously challenged police brutality for more than a quarter century, has been indicted on charges of income tax evasion, it was announced today.
A 19-count indictment, returned by a federal grand jury on June 1, was unsealed this morning after Yagman, of Venice, completed representing a client in an unrelated trial.
The 61-year-old lawyer surrendered and is expected to make his first court appearance this afternoon in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. . .
CLICK
Can’t get a title more simple than that – “Click”. So, maybe this will be a simple way to sum things up – this movie is “Back To The Future” meets “It’s A Wonderful Life” meets “A Christmas Carol”. Got it? Okay, then “click”, I’m done.
Well, there’s a little more. Things got off to a slow start – Adam Sandler, in desperate need of a hit, plays Michael Newman, an overworked Dad with no time for family. He’s got two cute kids and, to put it mildly, one hot wife played by Kate Beckinsale. Wow, this lady can bring it. Every outfit looks like it’s “workout time”, and this woman has given birth to two kids! Now, why would a Dad like Mr. Newman ever need to spend every working hour at his architect job when he has Kate Beckinsale and two charming kids at home? At the risk of going overboard, she’s not only incredible looking, she’s sweet and understanding and, apparently, ready to hop in bed at a moment’s notice. As for the kids, they’re attentive and ready for Dad’s help and guidance. (more…) Thursday, June 22nd, 2006
How hard can it be to cancel an AOL account?
More than 800,000 people canceled their AOL accounts last quarter. So it must be easy to cancel right? Not always.
Two weeks ago, Vincent Ferrari tried to cancel his 5-year-old account—he’d heard from others in the blogosphere that AOL customer service could be awful. So he recorded the conversation with a representative named John. Here is the transcript of the conversation . . .
Vincent Ferrari will be on the show at 4:00
Latinos Rattled by Ohio Sheriff’s Mission
Local authorities across the country complain that they bear the financial burden of illegal immigration, yet they lack the power to enforce immigration law. In Butler County, Ohio, Sheriff Richard Jones is on a mission to tackle the problem. And he’s frightening the local Hispanic population.
Jones’ hero is John Wayne; a near life-sized poster of the actor hangs next to his desk. With a similar swagger, Jones is on a mission to prod, cajole, even shame federal officials into action. In the parking area outside the county jail, two new signs proclaim “Illegal Aliens Here,” with an arrow pointing inside. . .
Sheriff Jones will be on the show at 5:00
California’s Global Warming Pollution Up 85% Since 1960
Global warming pollution in California jumped 85% between 1960 and 2001, according to The Carbon Boom, a new analysis of government data released today by Environment California. Increased carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the combustion of oil, primarily for transportation, and natural gas, primarily for electricity and heating, were responsible for 61% and 38% of this increase, respectively.
“When you find yourself in a hole, the first thing you should do is stop digging,” said Bernadette Del Chiaro, advocate with Environment California. “To protect future generations from the effects of global warming and to spur clean energy solutions, we need to stop this trend of increasing pollution.”
Existing energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies could substantially reduce global warming pollution. In the face of inaction at the federal level in regulating global warming pollution, California state legislators have introduced a law that would reverse this trend, bringing pollution reductions within the next decade. The bill, AB 32 (Nunez/Pavley), would reduce global warming pollution 25% by 2020 through a mandatory statewide cap. . .
Dan Jacobson, legislative director for Environment California will be on the show at 6:00
Wednesday, June 21st, 2006
MySpace.com Sued by 14-Year-Old Girl
News Corp. and its subsidiary MySpace have been hit with a lawsuit by a 14-year-old girl who was allegedly sexually assaulted by an adult that she met on the popular social-networking site.
Filed Monday in the District Court of Travis County, Texas, the suit claims that MySpace and News Corp. were fully aware that sexual predators were getting in touch with children on the site, but did nothing to stop it.
The suit seeks damages both for fraud and negligence in misrepresenting the site’s security measures to protect children and teens. The suit also seeks damages against 19-year-old Texas resident Pete Solis for alleged sexual assault and emotional distress. . .
Adam Loewy, lawyer for the 14 year old girl will be on the show at 4:00
MySpace plans new age restrictions
NEW YORK - MySpace.com is planning new restrictions on how adults may contact its younger users in response to growing concerns about the safety of teenagers who frequent the popular online social networking site.
The site already prohibits kids 13 and under from setting up accounts and displays only partial profiles for those registered as 14 or 15 years old unless the person viewing the profile is already on the teen’s list of friends.
Under the changes, announced Wednesday and taking effect next week, MySpace users who are 18 or over could no longer request to be on a 14- or 15-year-old’s friends’ list unless they already know either the youth’s e-mail address or full name. . .
Southern San Andreas fault waiting to explode: report
LONDON (Reuters) – The southern end of the San Andreas fault near Los Angeles, which has been still for more than two centuries, is under immense stress and could produce a massive earthquake at any moment, a scientist said on Wednesday.
Yuri Fialko, of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at La Jolla, California, said that given average annual movement rates in other areas of the fault, there could be enough pent-up energy in the southern end to trigger a cataclysmic jolt of up to 10 meters (32 ft).
“The observed strain rates confirm that the southern section of the San Andreas fault may be approaching the end of the interseismic phase of the earthquake cycle,” he wrote in the science journal Nature. . .
A Cold Case, a Haunting Mystery
SAN LUIS OBISPO — One warm Friday night in late spring 10 years ago, Kristin Denise Smart and three other young women started walking from their dorms at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. They were headed for the neighborhoods of apartment complexes and overpopulated “Animal House”-like bungalows that border the campus. They were looking for a party.
It was Memorial Day weekend. Kristin’s first year away at college was coming to a close. The 19-year-old from Stockton would have considered that something to celebrate. As far back as February, she’d written to another student that “school seems like it is never going to end.”
Kristin, who earned A’s and Bs in high school, had struggled in a couple of her college courses. She had expressed doubts, in anguished conversations with her parents, about whether Cal Poly was right for her. . .
Kristin Smart’s father, Stan Smart will be on the show at 6:00
Florida Man Busted For Puppy Assault
Perv allegedly told cops, “It’s my dog…what’s the problem?”
JUNE 21 - The adorable mixed-breed puppy pictured below looks pretty good considering what the poor animal’s just been through. According to the Martin County Sheriff’s Office, a witness Monday observed a man “lying on his back” with a white dog on top of him in a wooded area in Stuart, Florida. In this troubling (and very graphic) arrest affidavit, a sheriff’s deputy – who responded to an animal in distress call – describes Enrique Garcia’s infliction of pain upon a petrified pooch. When approached during the assault, the 31-year-old degenerate stated, “It’s my dog,” and asked, “What’s the problem?” Garcia, pictured in the above mug shot, was charged with sexual bestiality and animal cruelty. His 28-pound victim, who is about four months old, was examined by a veterinarian and found to be in good condition. The puppy is now in the custody of the Humane Society and will be placed in foster care, according to a sheriff’s spokesperson. . .
Tuesday, June 20th, 2006
House GOP Leaders Delay Immigration Bill
In a move that could all but bury President Bush’s high-profile immigration legislation, House Republican leaders announced today that House committee chairmen will hold off on negotiating a final bill until completing a series of provocative field hearings on immigration legislation through the month of August.
The announcement was the clearest sign yet that House Republicans have largely given up on passing a broad rewrite of the nation’s immigration laws before the November elections. House GOP leaders said today they would hold the hearings even before naming negotiators to work out a compromise between the House’s get-tough approach on illegal immigration and the Senate measure that couples border security with a new pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants already in the United States. . .
Congressman Ed Royce will be on at 5:00 to explain this new development
Iraqi: Soldiers killed in ‘barbaric way’
BAGHDAD, Iraq – U.S. forces on Tuesday recovered the bodies of two American soldiers reported captured by insurgents last week. An Iraqi defense ministry official said the men were tortured and “killed in a barbaric way.” Al-Qaida in Iraq claimed responsibility for killing the soldiers, and said the successor to terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had “slaughtered” them.
The claim was made in a Web statement that could not be authenticated. The language in the statement suggested the men were beheaded. . .
As obvious as the question seemed, nobody had really calculated how many more people the Senate’s immigration bill would add to the U.S. population when the Senate opened debate on the issue last month.
So when a think tank analyst projected more than 100 million over the next 20 years—raising the U.S. population by a third, or nearly three Californias and perhaps even twice that—it landed like a perfectly timed statistical bomb.
Now, as the bill moves forward, the debate isn’t just about the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants already living in the county—but the tens of millions of new legal immigrants the legislation might produce in the future. . .
To his mother, standing nearly 100 feet below, it seemed like hours.
“There was nothing I could do,” Sophia Castillo, 24, said from her parents’ south Stockton home Monday. “He was so far up there.”
Reuben, 6, died Sunday after falling from the Giant Wheel ride at the San Joaquin Fair. Reuben, who recently had finished kindergarten, was riding alone in an unlocked, gondola-style car. He became frightened after the ride stopped to let people below off and tried to climb out while near its peak, witnesses said.
Now the family is asking whether something could have been done to prevent the boy’s death. They say Reuben should have been placed in a car with a nearby group of children instead of alone, and they question whether the ride’s lack of restraints and locking doors made it easier for him to fall.
The family also believes the Spanish-speaking ride operator would have been able to react more quickly had he understood English. Castillo said she screamed at the operator to bring her son’s car to the bottom after Reuben’s panic set in. The operator didn’t understand her, she said. . .
Many illegals entered U.S. with visas
Nearly half of the 10 million to 12 million illegal aliens now in the United States entered the country legally, but never left.
Carrying visas and U.S.-approved border crossing cards, they were inspected by immigration officers at 300 sea, air and land ports of entry and many—according to a year-old U.S. Customs and Border Protection policy—were told to “Have a nice day.”
A little-noticed study by the Washington-based Pew Hispanic Center says 45 percent of America’s illegal alien population—4.5 million to 6 million—carried legally issued border crossing cards for short-term visits or business and tourist visas for longer but temporary stays. . .
Nosy Nitpicker, or a Needed Enforcer of Neighborhood Values?
How you view the recent news about a Santa Ana man who pleaded guilty to selling cars from his house may depend on which side of South Broadway you live on.
On the east side, Tim Rush says he’s “ecstatic, and doing a jig.”
For more than a year, Rush had regularly complained to city officials about problem neighbors, particularly Pedro Reyes Rios, whom he nicknamed the “Cal Worthington of South Broadway.” Reyes was selling cars parked on the street and in his yard. . .
Tim Rush will be on the show at 6:00
Monday, June 19th, 2006
World Cup Tickets to Help Fund Ballot Measures
SACRAMENTO — In a new twist on political fundraising, Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez is selling World Cup soccer-match tickets to raise money for measures on the November ballot — including, possibly, a measure to adjust lawmakers’ term limits.
For $25,000, corporations can send representatives to Berlin to attend three World Cup matches with Nuñez, an avid soccer fan. The package includes the match tickets, three nights in a hotel, travel to the soccer stadium and tickets for pregame parties, but not the airfare to Europe.
The international fundraiser will generate money for Nuñez’s Committee to Protect California’s Future and pay for efforts to help pass ballot propositions. Nuñez supports the five-measure, $47-billion infrastructure bond package placed on the November ballot by the Legislature and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. . .
Three-strikes fight creates advocate
Michael Wayne Riggs, the former Banning man who served nearly 10 years of a life sentence for stealing a $20 bottle of vitamins from a supermarket, isn’t finished fighting California’s three-strikes law.
Riggs, 54, an early three-strikes convict, was sentenced to 25 years to life in 1996 for stealing the vitamins the previous year, when he was a drug-addicted parolee living in his car.
In prison, Riggs studied law books and wrote legal papers. He never beat the three-strikes law in court, even though one appeal he wrote drew comments from justices of the U.S. Supreme Court. . .
Tension Builds Between L.A. Mayor, Angelides
Tension between Antonio Villaraigosa and Democratic gubernatorial nominee Phil Angelides surfaced Friday as the Los Angeles mayor declined to say whether he backed his own party’s candidate to unseat Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The rift between two of California’s top Democrats became clear just after they appeared with Magic Johnson to celebrate the opening of a Starbucks on Crenshaw Boulevard.
Minutes after Villaraigosa’s tepid remarks on his candidacy, Angelides refused to take a stand on Villaraigosa’s plan to take over the Los Angeles public schools. . .
Former Antiterror Officials Find Industry Pays Better
WASHINGTON, June 17 — Dozens of members of the Bush administration’s domestic security team, assembled after the 2001 terrorist attacks, are now collecting bigger paychecks in different roles: working on behalf of companies that sell domestic security products, many directly to the federal agencies the officials once helped run.
At least 90 officials at the Department of Homeland Security or the White House Office of Homeland Security — including the department’s former secretary, Tom Ridge; the former deputy secretary, Adm. James M. Loy; and the former under secretary, Asa Hutchinson — are executives, consultants or lobbyists for companies that collectively do billions of dollars’ worth of domestic security business.
More than two-thirds of the department’s most senior executives in its first years have moved through the revolving door. That pattern raises questions for some former officials. . .
Friday, June 16th, 2006
President Bush has refused to meet with border law enforcement officials from Texas for a second time. His response to their request came in the form of a letter Monday, angering both lawmakers and sheriffs.
In fact, some Republican members of Congress, upset by what they call the administration’s seeming lack of concern for border security, are preparing to hold investigative hearings in San Diego and Laredo, Texas, early next month.
Members of the House subcommittee on international terrorism and nonproliferation hope to expose serious security flaws that could potentially lead to terrorist attacks in the country, said Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, who is a member of the panel and has pushed for the hearings. . .
Lawsuit Accuses Compton School Police of Sleeping on Duty
Police officers assigned to protect Compton schools against vandalism and other campus crimes have been asleep at the wheel, quite literally, according to photographs and sworn testimony in a racial discrimination lawsuit.
The photographs appear to show several uniformed school officers in the driver’s seats of parked squad cars with eyes shut and, in some cases, heads leaning back.
The pictures emerged in a suit against the Compton Unified School District, which operates the 34-member police department. The case was filed by a white ex-officer and two Latino officers who contend that they were treated differently from black colleagues within the predominantly African American department. . .
GOP, governor not on same page
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger distanced himself from his fellow Republicans on Thursday on one of the main issues holding up the state budget: whether the state should provide health care for all children, including those who are undocumented immigrants.
Republicans in the Legislature say they won’t vote for a spending plan if it includes about $22 million the governor is proposing for county health insurance programs that cover all children, including those who are undocumented. Republicans also oppose another $1.8 million Democrats added as a first step toward allowing all children to qualify for state health care programs that serve low- and moderate-income families.
At a news conference Thursday, Schwarzenegger agreed with Democrats that the state should provide coverage to children regardless of their immigration status. . .
Prosecutors call accused father disengaged with child
Nearly six years after his 4-year-old daughter plunged to her death from an Inspiration Point cliff, Cameron Brown went on trial for her murder Thursday with the prosecutor labeling him an uninvolved, reluctant father and his defense attorney saying Brown adored the girl.
“Never in a million years would he deliberately and premeditatedly murder her,” Mark Geragos said of Brown, 44, who faces life in prison without parole for Lauren Sarene Key’s murder, which carries the special circumstances of lying in wait and killing for financial gain. . .
