56 immigration arrests at McDonald’s in Nevada
RENO, Nev. – Federal agents arrested several dozen employees in raids at 11 McDonald’s restaurants in northern Nevada Thursday as part of an ongoing investigation into illegal immigration.
Agents for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement made at least 56 arrests in Reno, Sparks and Fernley after serving 12 court-ordered search warrants at the 11 restaurants plus the headquarters for a franchise corporate office in Reno, agency spokesman Richard Rocha said.
“They are people suspected of being in the country illegally. As far as I know, they were all McDonald’s employees,” Rocha told The Associated Press. . .
Spector retrial may be in spring
Despite the judge’s insistence on a quick hearing to plan a retrial, Phil Spector probably will not face a jury again for the alleged murder of actress Lana Clarkson until next spring, attorneys for the record producer said Thursday.
Spector, 67, had been tried for murder in the slaying of Clarkson, who was found shot to death in his Alhambra home Feb. 3, 2003, but a mistrial was declared Wednesday when the jury announced that it was hung. Ten jurors believed that Spector was guilty, two did not, jurors said in post-trial interviews. Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley’s office immediately announced that it would retry Spector.
Roger J. Rosen, who had been Spector’s lead counsel for much of the trial, pushed Wednesday for a 60-day delay before a retrial is discussed. But Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler ordered the parties back to court Oct. 3. . .
New citizenship test more star-spangled than ever
Think you know American history? Well, what did dollar-coin lady Susan B. Anthony do?
If you answered that she sewed the American flag, like one college student did on Thursday in Houston, you’d fail at least one question in the new citizenship test just announced by the government.
The new exam, several years and $6.5 million in the making, is designed to give would-be Americans a better sense of U.S. history, civics and foundational principles, placing less emphasis on memorization. . .
INTO THE WILD
Ever want to just “get away”? I mean really get away – without a trace? Christopher McCandless did – just after his graduation from Emory University, the kid basically gave his parents the finger and took off. At first, I thought this must be the 1960’s, there was something about the clothes, the language, but, no, this happened between 1990 and 1992. The story is mostly true, based on first a magazine article, and then a book, now it’s a film by Sean Penn. Emile Hirsch plays McCandless, but not for long. What I mean by that is that he changes his name to “Alexander Supertramp” for the purposes of his travels, which take him to Arizona, South Dakota, Mexico, California, and ultimately to Alaska, where he goes “into the wild”. (more…)
Thursday, September 27th, 2007
Spector mistrial isn’t end of case
Jurors failed to reach a verdict in the Phil Spector murder trial Wednesday, forcing a mistrial and further frustrating a district attorney’s office still haunted by the murder acquittals of O.J. Simpson and Robert Blake.
Legal experts said the hung jury, coming after 5 1/2 months of trial and 12 days of deliberation, demonstrated the power of wealth, and to a lesser extent, celebrity, in California courts.
“Money makes a difference. This comes down much more to money than fame,” Loyola law professor Laurie Levenson said. . .
Poll: Simpson Divides Whites, Blacks
WASHINGTON (AP) — Far more whites than blacks say O.J. Simpson will be tried fairly in his armed robbery case and think he is guilty, according to a poll released Thursday that underscores the nation’s racial divide over its justice system and the tarnished celebrity.
While 70 percent of whites said they believe this month’s charges against Simpson are true, only 41 percent of blacks said so, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll. And while 73 percent of whites said they believe he will have a fair trial, only 36 percent of blacks agreed.
“Go all over the country and it’s just like that, unfortunately,” said Robert Wright, 66, a Falls Church, Va., accountant who said he believes he has been questioned by police because he is black. “A black person is likely to get treated and charged differently than a white person. . .
O.J. Simpson’s Girlfriend Stands by Him
MIAMI (AP) — In her 1993 high school yearbook, Christie Prody wrote that her future plans included “moving somewhere tropical” and buying a luxury car. She’s living at least part of her dream as O.J. Simpson’s longtime girlfriend.
That’s not to say it’s all come up roses for Prody, 32, and the 60-year-old former football star. Police have occasionally been called to domestic spats between the pair. She has also been arrested for misdemeanor marijuana possession and for animal cruelty after a cat left alone in her apartment starved to death.
But the blonde who grew up outside Minneapolis hoping to be a psychiatrist has stuck it out with Simpson for more than a decade. She showed up in court in Las Vegas last week when he appeared on charges of robbery, kidnapping and other offenses stemming from a hotel-room confrontation with sports memorabilia collectors. . .
Senate Democrats yesterday retreated from forcing a debate about giving illegal-alien students a path to citizenship in the middle of the defense bill, although Majority Leader Harry Reid promised to find time before the end of the year for a vote on the proposal.
“We will move to proceed to this matter before we leave here. I”m going to do my utmost to do it by November 16,” Mr. Reid, Nevada Democrat, said last night.
The proposal faced strong opposition from Republicans who objected to mixing immigration with the defense bill and who vowed to filibuster to defeat the measure if Democrats insisted on bringing it up now. . .
Wednesday, September 26th, 2007
Mistrial declared in Spector case
The murder trial of Phil Spector ended today with the jury unable to decide if the legendary music producer had killed an actress he had known for only a few hours before her body was discovered in the foyer of his Alhambra mansion.
On its 12th day of deliberations, the jury of nine men and three women told Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler that it could not reach a verdict and was split 10 to 2. The jurors spoke in the hushed downtown Los Angeles courtroom where the shaking Spector, 67, has been on trial since the end of April.
It was the latest celebrity trial in Southern California to end without a conviction. Spector will likely be tried again. . .
Judge to rule next week in Craig case
MINNEAPOLIS – A judge considering Idaho Sen. Larry Craig’s request to withdraw his guilty plea in an airport sex sting said Wednesday he probably wouldn’t rule in the case until late next week, well past Craig’s self-imposed deadline to resign from the Senate.
Hennepin County Judge Charles Porter heard arguments from Craig’s attorneys and the prosecutor in the case, then said he wouldn’t rule immediately.
Craig said earlier he planned to resign Sept. 30, then left the door open to remain on the job if he could successfully reverse his plea. . .
The Ultimate Global Warming Challenge
If you think it’s a no-brainer that humans are causing catastrophic global warming, here’s your opportunity to earn an easy US $125,000.00!
That’s right, the prize money has increased as we seek warming advocates’ price threshold!
The prize has gone unclaimed for 51 days . . .
Tuesday, September 25th, 2007
Telemundo reassigns mayor’s girlfriend
Television newscaster Mirthala Salinas, who was suspended without pay for two months in August after her affair with Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa became public, is scheduled to return to work Monday. But she won’t be taking up her old job as a fill-in anchor on evening newscasts for KVEA-TV Channel 52.
Instead, executives with the Spanish-language Telemundo network confirmed Monday that Salinas would be sent to the station’s Inland Empire bureau in Riverside as a general assignment reporter, a notable fall for a one-time rising star who has become one of the most recognizable faces in local Spanish-language television.
Telemundo President Don Browne delivered the news Monday to workers at KVEA’s Burbank headquarters. Browne also told the station’s news staff that they would undergo ethics training this week by faculty members from the Poynter Institute, an authority on journalism practices. . .
Overseas trips by California lawmakers, Schwarzenegger
Here are some of the overseas trips taken by California officials during the past 12 months, the dates, participants and the sources of funding. Lawmakers who contribute some of their own money often do so from their campaign accounts, which are created with cash from political donors:
— Trip to South America to study solutions for greenhouse gas emissions, Nov. 9-22, 2006. Participants: Sens. Alan Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, Mike Machado, D-Linden, and George Runner, R-Lancaster; Assembly members Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles, Rick Keene, R-Chico, John Laird, D-Santa Cruz, Lloyd Levine, D-Sherman Oaks, Sharon Runner, R-Lancaster, and Lori Saldana, D-San Diego; Susan Kennedy, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s chief of staff; and representatives of the California Energy Commission and Public Utilities Commission. Source of funding: California Foundation on the Environment and Economy. . .
RB lawyers represent key player in Simpson case
For most attorneys, touting your stuff in the national spotlight is the ultimate publicity dream.
So when the opportunity arose last week for Redondo Beach attorneys Mark Haushalter and Ryan Okabe, they seized it – even though it meant taking center stage in the latest O.J. Simpson court circus.
“With all the media spotlight, it’s exciting, but it’s a great opportunity to let people see that a local firm, completely dedicated to its clients, can be out there with the big boys,” Okabe said. . .
Monday, September 24th, 2007
A million L.A. trees: Will they take root?
Monica Barra went to South Los Angeles last month to attend a jazz festival. She went home with a free tree, a one-gallon African sumac that she lugged around on a Sunday afternoon past the shops and restaurants of Leimert Park.The college senior took the tree on an impulse, though each tree recipient was required to fill out a “pledge to plant,” a form smaller than an index card and a signature feature of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s plan to plant 1 million trees across Los Angeles.
Six weeks later, Barra’s leafy friend has yet to make contact with the soil. Because Barra has no land of her own, the tree sits in her apartment in Redlands, roughly 60 miles from Los Angeles. . .
Anatomy of a Plot
What really happened that night in Vegas? New details of the alleged scheme by O.J. Simpson and an unlikely group of buddies paint a fuller picture of what went down.
Sept. 22, 2007 – Clarence Stewart was having a tough Thursday afternoon. The Las Vegas mortgage broker and golfing buddy of O.J. Simpson’s, known to friends as C.J., was squiring Simpson’s daughter Arnelle around town in his Lincoln Navigator as she tried to finish last-minute planning for the wedding of O.J.’s best friend, Tom Scotto. But Simpson himself kept interrupting—peppering Stewart’s cell phone with calls every 20 minutes or so. There were some guys in town who had stolen property belonging to Simpson, O.J. had told his friend earlier, according to Stewart’s attorney, Rob Lucherini. “O.J.’s calling, saying ‘C.J., I need you to help me’,” Lucherini told NEWSWEEK.
With each call, Simpson grew more insistent. Stewart, concerned, dispatched a friend of his—a laborer and sometime bartender named Charles Cashmore—to the Palms, the hotel where O.J. was staying. Somebody needed to calm Simpson down. Stewart was also worried about O.J.’s alcohol intake. “[Stewart] said, ‘You’ve been drinking too much. Slow down’,” Lucherini says. At one point, Arnelle intervened, Lucherini says, and the two Simpsons argued over the phone. (Simpson attorney Yale Galanter declined to discuss evidence in the case; Arnelle Simpson didn’t respond to a request for comment. . . 
Initiative seeks more nuclear plants in region
San Diego County has two of the state’s four nuclear reactors, and it could get more if enough voters support a statewide petition that seeks to overturn California’s prohibition on new plants.
The initiative, which needs more than 400,000 signatures to qualify for the November ballot, is championed by Orange County Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, R-Irvine, as a way of generating more electricity without producing more carbon dioxide, which scientists link to global warming.
California anti-nuclear groups are resisting the assemblyman’s attempt to paint nuclear power as green technology. They have already defeated a similar bill that DeVore submitted to the state legislature and say they will do the same for his initiative. . .
Gang-tax measure approved for ballot
The Los Angeles City Council moved Friday to ask voters in February to approve a $30 parcel tax on every city property owner to raise funds to fight gangs.
In a 12-0 vote without comment, the council instructed the City Attorney’s Office to craft language for a ballot measure on the plan.
The move comes despite public opposition this week from City Controller Laura Chick, who has vowed to fight the measure if the council sends it to voters before her audit of city gang programs is completed. . .
