GOP Officials Say Craig May Resign
WASHINGTON (AP) – Idaho Sen. Larry Craig is considering resigning, Republican officials said Friday, after days of public and private pressure stemming from his arrest in June in an undercover vice operation in an airport men’s room.
Idaho Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter already appears to have settled on a successor—Lt. Gov. Jim Risch—Republican officials in Idaho said Friday.
Craig pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct on Aug. 1, and while he has since said he did nothing wrong, the episode has roiled the Republican party and produced numerous calls for him to step down. . .
Jack McClellan Leaves California
LOS ANGELES, CA. (Crime Library) Jack McClellan is a man without a state.
The admitted pedophile says he’s being forced out of California by a permanent restraining order that prohibits him from going within 10 yards of any minor, making it impossible to do such ordinary things as enter a fast food restaurant.
“I can’t go into a Carl’s Jr. because I’m afraid there might be kids in there,” he told Crime Library. “I stay away from Burger King and McDonald’s because they have the kiddie area. There’s nothing more I can do now, I have this Orwellian order like I’m a hardcore sex offender. . .
Anaheim Union school trustee resigns
ANAHEIM – Trustee Harald Martin resigned from the Anaheim Union High School District board Thursday under intense public criticism for his outspoken stance on illegal immigration.
Martin submitted a letter to the superintendent, saying he would resign effective Saturday. He made no immediate comment during the meeting – ongoing at press time – but told The Orange County Register on Wednesday that he was considering stepping aside to spare the district the $550,000 cost of a special election to replace him.
“My ego is not so big that I would want the district to bear the cost … because of me,” he said. . .
Thursday, August 30th, 2007
Audio of Craig arrest reveals new details
Craig said on the recording, released Thursday by the Minneapolis Police Department, that he may have touched the officer’s foot with his foot while they were in stalls. “You said our feet bumped; I believe they did,” Craig said, adding that he was scooting over. “Next thing I knew, underneath the bathroom divider comes a card that says ‘Police.’”
The Republican senator from Idaho also said he placed his hand underneath the stall to pick up a paper, not to solicit the officer. . .
Pressure Mounts on Larry Craig to Resign
Pressure on Larry Craig continues to mount as the national Republican Party apparatus builds an intense behind-the-scenes effort to suggest and perhaps order a resignation from the embattled Idaho senator.
Staffers for the senator told FOX News that they expect no public statement from Craig on Thursday. But the Republican National Committee and White House are actively discussing Craig strategy — debating how much pressure to apply on the senator, who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge in connection with a police sting operation into lewd conduct at a men’s airport restroom in Minnesota.
If Craig does not resign on Thursday, sources say the RNC may publicly call for his resignation. No decision has been reached on that, but the option is being weighed. . .
Holly Ashcraft: I Would Never Kill A Child
LOS ANGELES Holly Ashcraft, a USC student who has been accused of murdering her newborn son by dumping him in a trash bin told a police detective that she had thought about disposing of a baby before, but would never kill a child.
The videotaped interrogation was played during the testimony of LAPD Detective Moses Castillo, who took the witness stand this morning at the preliminary hearing for Ashcraft.
Ashcraft, 22, has been charged with murder and child endangerment in connection with the infant found in October 2005 by a homeless man sifting through garbage behind the 29th Street Cafe, a popular USC hangout. Castillo interviewed Ashcraft on the tape just before her arrest. . .
Wednesday, August 29th, 2007
GOP Senators Says Craig Should Resign
WASHINGTON (AP) – Two Senate Republican colleagues, including John McCain, called Wednesday for Sen. Larry Craig to resign. The White House, too, expressed disappointment in the case of the Idaho Republican caught in a men’s room undercover police operation.
Arizona Sen. McCain and Norm Coleman of Minnesota, the state where Craig was arrested, became the first senators to join Rep. Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich., urging Craig’s resignation.
McCain told CNN the decision was Craig’s to make, “but my opinion is that when you plead guilty to a crime, you shouldn’t serve. That’s not a moral stand. That’s not a holier-than-thou. It’s just a factual situation. . .
Teamsters threaten suit over plan to open border to Mexican trucks
WASHINGTON – The Teamsters union said Wednesday it will file suit to block a controversial Bush administration plan to open the border to long haul Mexican truck traffic as early as Saturday.
Union officials said their attorneys have been told by government lawyers that the administration expects to receive approval from the Department of Transportation’s inspector general to begin the program Friday.
Union officials said their attorneys have been told by government lawyers that the administration expects to receive approval from the Department of Transportation’s inspector general to begin the program Friday. . .
Tuesday, August 28th, 2007
BOISE, Idaho (AP) – Under fire from leaders of his own party, Idaho Sen. Larry Craig on Tuesday said the only thing he had done wrong was to plead guilty after a complaint of lewd conduct in a men’s room. He declared, “I am not gay. I never have been gay.”
“I did nothing wrong at the Minneapolis airport,” he said at a news conference with his wife, Suzanne, at his side.
Craig’s defiant news conference came as Senate Republican leaders in Washington called for an ethics committee review into his involvement in a police sting operation this summer in the airport men’s room. . .
Men’s room arrest reopens questions about Sen. Larry Craig
Sen. Larry Craig, who in May told the Idaho Statesman he had never engaged in homosexual acts, was arrested less than a month later by an undercover police officer who said Craig made a sexual advance toward him in an airport men’s room.The arrest at a Minnesota airport prompted Craig to plead guilty to disorderly conduct earlier this month. His June 11 encounter with the officer was similar to an incident in a men’s room in a Washington, D.C., rail station described by a Washington-area man to the Idaho Statesman. In that case, the man said he and Craig had sexual contact.
The Minnesota arrest was first reported Monday by Roll Call, a Capitol Hill newspaper. . .
READ THE POLICE REPORT HERE
City Attorneys Want Harassment Lawsuit Dismissed
Lawyers for the city of Los Angeles will head to court to see if they can get the suit filed by firefighter Tennie Pierce dismissed.
Pierce claims he was harassed by colleagues who fed him dog food.
The city is arguing that Pierce has not produced enough evidence to prove his claims of discrimination, and are asking that Pierce’s lawsuit be dismissed.
Pierce filed suit against the city in 2005 claiming that he was mistreated by his colleagues, fed dog food in one case and that his supervisors did nothing to stop the hazing. The City Council voted last year to give Pierce $2.7 million to settle the case, but Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa vetoed the deal after photos surfaced of Pierce participating in the hazing of a fellow firefighter. . .
Monday, August 27th, 2007
Jack McClellan Says He Has to Leave the State
After a self-proclaimed pedophile was hounded out of Southern California over the weekend, bloggers sent up a nationwide call Sunday for help tracking his movements.
Jack McClellan, previously from the Snohomish County town of Arlington, in recent months had been living out of his car in Southern California. A judge there on Friday permanently barred him from going within 30 feet of places where children gather.
“I have to leave the state, really. I can’t live here under this Orwellian protocol,” Jack McClellan told television station KABC for a report that aired Sunday. “It’s nightmarish. . .
Police Eye McClellan in Unsolved Washington Murder
LOS ANGELES, CA. (Crime Library) — Police officials in Washington said they will investigate the possibility that self-professed pedophile Jack McClellan could have committed the unsolved 2005 murder of a 10-year-old girl who was kidnapped on her way to school.
In his now-defunct pedophile web site, “Seattle-Tacoma-Everett Girl Love” McClellan provided a link to a news story on the death of Adre’anna Jackson and also listed area where she disappeared in a portion of his site labeled “Seattle-Vancouver Street Prostitution Guide.” He has professed attraction to a child actress who looks similar to Jackson and left his home state of Washington after the start of a billboard campaign to find the killer. McClellan now lives out of his car in Los Angeles and has a restraining order barring him from going within 10 yards of any minor within the state of California.
“We would be interested in any name anybody gives us on any unsolved case, which is the basis for the posters and billboards,” said Lakewood police Lt. David Guttu. “We’ll look at it. We have to do the basic investigation, starting with, was he in the area at the time?” Lakewood is a Tacoma suburb, about 90 minutes south of Arlington, where McClellan lived. McClellan, 45, traveled up and down coastal Washington, taking photos of young girls in public and posting them online as part of a pedophile guide to finding the best child-watching areas in the state. . .
Michael Vick Says He Has Found Jesus
RICHMOND, Va. — Following an appearance in federal court Monday during which he pleaded guilty to a federal dogfighting conspiracy charge, suspended Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick said he took responsibility for his actions and apologized to his teammates, fans and bosses within the Falcon’s organization and NFL.
“I apologize for all the things I’ve done and allowed to happen,” Vick said during a press conference about an hour after he entered his guilty plea. Admitting to being uncomfortable with public speaking, Vick said he was “speaking from the heart.”
In a separate press conference in Atlanta later Monday, the Falcons said they would not cut Vick immediately because of salary-cap issues. The team intends to pursue the $22 million in bonus money that he already received in a $130 million contract signed in 2004. . .
Friday, August 24th, 2007
Budget siphons gas sales tax revenues from mass transit
For a state with so many traffic problems, transportation ended up getting little respect when lawmakers forged a budget compromise in Sacramento.
The budget takes $1.3 billion of the sales tax on gasoline revenues away from local transportation agencies to balance the general fund budget.
The cuts could imperil a variety of transit projects, most notably the Exposition Line light rail from downtown L.A. to the Westside, extending the Orange Line busway from Warner Center to Chatsworth, and building the Gold Line from Pasadena to San Bernardino County, said Roger Snoble, chief executive of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. . .
Judge reins in pedophile McClellan
A self-proclaimed pedophile was ordered today to stay at least 10 yards away from any child in the state by a judge who extended a temporary restraining order for three years.
Jack McClellan, 45, also must stay away from areas where children are found, including parks, playgrounds and schools.
Today’s hearing was to determine the future of the temporary order, issued Aug. 3 by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Melvin Sandvig in Chatsworth. McClellan’s attorney, Robert Wilson, had asked the court that the case be continued, but that was denied. . .
Nicole Richie’s 82 minutes in jail
Now that’s what you call fast service.
Reality TV star Nicole Richie was released by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department after serving just 82 minutes of her four-day sentence for driving under the influence of drugs.
Authorities said her sentence was radically cut under guidelines the Sheriff’s Department uses to deal with chronic overcrowding in its jail system. The county is under a federal order to reduce overcrowding, resulting in the release of thousands of inmates who serve just a fraction of their sentences. . .
Should city bail homebuyers out?
Housing experts painted a grim picture of Los Angeles’ real-estate market Tuesday as City Councilman Richard Alarcon called for city, state and federal funds to help bail out city homeowners who can’t pay their mortgages.
Warning that the region is embroiled in a foreclosure upheaval, Alarcon said he’s also considering asking lawmakers to declare a state of emergency to direct state and federal money to counseling and loans for people about to lose their homes.
“We’re in a crisis. We don’t need bureaucrats who are going to sit on their thumbs and not get things done. Who do we go to in federal government to ask for emergency assistance to help solve this crisis?” Alarcon asked city housing officials Tuesday during an emergency hearing on foreclosures. . .
SUPERBAD
Be afraid, be very afraid. We’re pretty much done with the summer movies now, for the next month or so, studios will “dumping product”, that is, getting rid of plenty of duds. I opted to go back a week and take a look at last weeks top box office hit. At this point, thanks to the internet, it’s hard not to hear about a film well before its release. Well, it’s starting to affect me. This movie simply had too much hype – things like “brought to you by the guys who brought you “The 40 Year Old Virgin” and “Knocked Up”, it’s the “summer’s funniest movie”, blah, blah. Just let me see for myself – telling me that someone got lucky with one or two movies doesn’t convince me they have another hit. Besides, “brought to you by the guys…” can mean almost anything, including the fact that two of the fifty some odd producers on those films have helped finance this one. (more…)
