O.C. sheriff and wife surrender
Orange County Sheriff Michael S. Carona, his wife and his alleged former mistress surrendered today at the U.S. District Courthouse in Santa Ana, where they are facing federal corruption charges.
Carona and his wife, Deborah, entered the building about 7 a.m. They were followed at about 8:30 a.m. by Debra V. Hoffman, who was described in an indictment unsealed Tuesday as Carona’s long-term mistress. They are expected to appear in court this afternoon.
The indictment charges that Carona engaged in a broad conspiracy to enrich himself, his wife and Hoffman by trading access to his department for cash and gifts. . .
Boy started blaze, L.A. County says
A fire that charred more than 38,000 acres and destroyed 21 homes in northern Los Angeles County last week was sparked by a boy playing with matches, sheriff’s officials said Tuesday.
The disclosure about the Buckweed fire, initially blamed on downed power lines, came as firefighters continued to push forward in containing the region’s blazes and as health officials announced that strenuous outdoor exercise was no longer hazardous in most of Southern California. Authorities in all seven counties struck by the fires said air quality had improved significantly.
L.A. County Sheriff’s Department arson investigators did not name the boy believed responsible for the Buckweed fire. Nor did they give his age or the community where he and his family live. . .
Preteens Trading Fairy Wands for Fishnets
Gabby Cirenza wanted to be a referee for Halloween. The outfit she liked had a micro-mini black skirt and a form-fitting black and white-striped spandex top held together with black laces running up the flesh-exposing sides. She looked admiringly at the thigh-high black go-go boots that could be bought as an accessory. And she thought the little bunny on the chest was cute.
“Absolutely not,” said her mother, Cheryl. “That is so not happening.”
Gabby is 11. . .
Tuesday, October 30th, 2007
Sheriff Carona indicted on public corruption charges
Sheriff Mike Carona, his wife and a woman identified as his “longtime mistress” have been indicted on charges of public corruption by a federal grand jury, The Orange County Register has learned.
Orange County’s top lawman has been charged with seven felony counts that he illegally accepted money, high-priced gifts and tickets to exclusive sporting events, and made loans to his girlfriend in exchange for favors, according to an indictment expected to be unsealed today.
Carona’s former top aide, George Jaramillo, in a separate agreement, pleaded guilty to federal tax evasion and corruption charges in March and assisted the FBI and IRS in building the case against Carona. Jaramillo, a former assistant sheriff fired by Carona in 2005, is in jail on county charges. . .
Experts: Cutting plea deals could cut both ways in Simpson case
LAS VEGAS – Cutting deals with co-defendants to testify against O.J. Simpson could undercut prosecutors if they ever need to convince a jury the aging football star is guilty of serious crimes, legal experts said Monday.
But that could only happen if the case makes it past a preliminary hearing next week before a judge whose main concern will be what the evidence is rather than where it came from.
“This is a basic prosecution tactic that is very effective,” Jody Armour, a criminal law professor at the University of Southern California, said after a third Simpson co-defendant told a judge Monday that he’ll plead guilty to lesser charges and testify for the prosecution. . .
Suit aims to stop illegal-immigrant law
One of the toughest state laws targeting illegal immigrants takes effect Thursday in Oklahoma, prompting efforts by immigrants trying to block it and work by state agencies to comply.
The law makes it a felony to transport or shelter illegal immigrants. Businesses, which are barred by federal law from hiring illegal immigrants, can be sued by a legal worker who is displaced by an illegal one.
The measure denies illegal immigrants certain public benefits such as rental assistance and fuel subsidies.
“It’s clearly one of the most restrictive policies” in the country, says Cecilia Muñoz of the National Council of La Raza, a Hispanic civil rights organization. . .
Craig to argue insufficient evidence in bid to overturn plea
WASHINGTON | Sen. Larry Craig on Friday filed an outline of how he’ll continue his fight in Minnesota to withdraw his guilty plea to a disorderly conduct charge.
Craig will argue that there’s not enough evidence that he committed a crime when he was arrested in a June sex sting at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport, according to a two-page document filed Friday with the Minnesota Court of Appeals.
The Idaho Republican failed last month in his bid to withdraw his guilty plea, which stemmed from his arrest in the men’s room of the airport. . .
Monday, October 29th, 2007
Four years ago this weekend, witnesses saw a man flipping lighted matches from the window of a van—setting off the Old fire, which eventually killed four people and burned more than 200 homes in San Bernardino County.
Ever since, law enforcement officials have been trying to bring the man to justice, so far to no avail.
The frustration that has attended that investigation is a sobering reminder to authorities who have vowed to catch and punish this year’s arsonists. . .
Rethinking Fire Policy in the Tinderbox Zone
SAN DIEGO, Oct. 27 — As Californians sift through the cinders of this week’s deadly wildfires, there is a growing consensus that the state’s war against such disasters — as it is currently being fought — cannot be won.
“California has lost 1.5 million acres in the last four years,” said Richard A. Minnich, a professor of earth sciences who teaches fire ecology at the University of California, Riverside. “When do we declare the policy a failure?”
Fire-management experts like Professor Minnich, who has compared fire histories in San Diego County and Baja California in Mexico, say the message is clear: Mexico has smaller fires that burn out naturally, regularly clearing out combustible underbrush and causing relatively little destruction because the cycle is still natural. California has giant ones because its longtime policies of fire suppression — in which the government has kept fires from their normal cycle — has created huge pockets of fuel that erupt into conflagrations that must be fought. . .
Pols, voters said no to fire funds
Two of the Orange County politicians now complaining about the lack of air support for the Santiago Fire opposed firefighters’ effort to purchase new helicopters and trucks two years ago.
In fact, county officials today are sitting on more than $80 million in excess revenue from a statewide public safety sales tax adopted 13 years ago.
That surplus has been a longstanding sore spot for OC firefighters, who at times this week were so overwhelmed they had to seek refuge inside fire retardant tents. . .
Schwarzenegger says marijuana not a drug
LONDON – California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says marijuana is not a drug, a British magazine reported Monday. But his spokesman said the governor was joking.
Schwarzenegger told the British edition of GQ magazine that he had not taken drugs, even though the former bodybuilder and Hollywood star has acknowledged using marijuana in the 1970s and was shown smoking a joint in the 1977 documentary “Pumping Iron.”
“That is not a drug. It’s a leaf,” Schwarzenegger told GQ. “My drug was pumping iron, trust me. . .
Friday, October 26th, 2007
San Diego County officials decry state’s bureaucracy
SAN DIEGO —Some elected officials here are accusing state fire officials of a bureaucratic bottleneck that prevented water-dropping aircraft from immediately being used as brush fires ravaged the county.
It remains unclear whether additional aircraft could have more quickly contained the fast-moving, wind-driven blazes, but that has not stopped criticism in a region still smarting over the response to its last disastrous fire.
“Four years after the Cedar fire, the bureaucracy still was locking out assets that should have been available,” said Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista). . .
Michael Chertoff was sworn in as the second secretary of the Department of Homeland Security on Feb. 15, 2005. He was interviewed yesterday by telephone by The San Diego Union-Tribune editorial board about the federal response to this week’s wildfires in San Diego County.
Q: We want to ask you, first of all, for your overall assessment of the federal response to this tragedy.
Answer: First of all, I think that through some terrific local and state leadership we were able to synchronize our response very rapidly with state and local authorities.
I, in terms of the sheltering issues, think those are addressed, and we probably have more cops and more supplies than we need. But our sense was, better to have more and return it than have less. . .
FEMA workers play role of reporters
The White House scolded the Federal Emergency Management Agency on Friday for staging a phony news conference about assistance to victims of wildfires in southern California.
The agency — much maligned for its sluggish response to Hurricane Katrina over two years ago — arranged to have FEMA employees play the part of independent reporters Tuesday and ask questions of Vice Adm. Harvey E. Johnson, the agency’s deputy director.
The questions were predictably soft and gratuitous. . .
Mexicans Miss Money From Relatives Up North
EL RODEO, Mexico — For years, millions of Mexican migrants working in the United States have sent money back home to villages like this one, money that allows families to pay medical bills and school fees, build houses and buy clothes or, if they save enough, maybe start a tiny business.
But after years of strong increases, the amount of migrant money flowing to Mexico has stagnated. From 2000 to 2006, remittances grew to nearly $24 billion a year from $6.6 billion, rising more than 20 percent some years. In 2007, the increase so far has been less than 2 percent.
Migrants and migration experts say a flagging American economy and an enforcement campaign against illegal workers in the United States have persuaded some migrants not to try to cross the border illegally to look for work. Others have decided to return to Mexico. And many of those who are staying in the United States are sending less money home. . .
DAN IN REAL LIFE
Ironies, coincidences and lessons abound in this nauseating tale of a widower Dad. Steve Carell, maybe trying to break out of the mold of the childless loser he plays on “The Office”, now takes on the role of the parent without a clue. He’s Dan Burns, some kind of newspaper advice columnist, with three girls and a large nosy family that only wants to see him with a woman again. We start in New Jersey, where Dan has to deal with one bright daughter, one horny one, and one who was clearly too young to comprehend the loss of her mother four years ago. There’s one halfway funny moment I remember here – the horny kid’s jeans have the words “you wish” printed on her bottom. (more…)
Thursday, October 25th, 2007
Bush touring fire-ravaged areas today
Firefighters see optimistic signs, but there’s still plenty of hard work ahead in Orange County, Lake Arrowhead and San Diego. Two bodies are found in Escondido.
With the smoke clearing and President Bush in California to tour fire-ravaged communities, the painful process of counting losses—including two bodies found in San Diego County—and moving forward started today across Southern California.
The president, stepping off Air Force One tieless and in shirtsleeves, took an aerial tour from Marine Corps Air Station Miramar to a football field at San Pasqual High School in Escondido. The half-hour route took him over Rancho Bernardo, a Marine Corps helicopter pilot said. The tour covered a pastiche of flame-ravaged Southern California, including vast blackened hills and a tiled-roof mansion spared on top of a hill.
Later, the president stopped for 10 minutes at the burned home of Jay and Kendra Jeffcoat in Rancho Bernardo, where little remained other than a spiral staircase and a piece of wall bearing the turquoise-and-pink tile giving the address. Other nearby homes also had been burned, but across the street a two-story, tile-and-stucco home appeared unscathed. . .
Man accused of trying to spark a fire in Woodland Hills
Woodland HILLS - As wildfires ripped through Southern California, a 41-year-old Sun Valley man was arrested on suspicion of arson after quick-thinking Woodland Hills residents allegedly saw him lighting a fire and called 911, police said this morning.
Woodland Hills residents saw a man lighting a fire then walking away about 4:30 yesterday on a hillside near Del Valle Street and Ponce Avenue. After calling police, the residents followed him to a restaurant and waited for police to arrive.
Police booked Catalino Pineda, a day laborer from Sun Valley, into the Los Angeles County Jail where he was being held on an arson charge. Bail was set at $75,000. . .
HESPERIA - Possibilities of arson amid the many blazes tormenting Southern California have police and fire officials on edge and on heightened alert.
Their suspicions led to the death of one man and the arrest of two others in separate incidents Tuesday.
One man spotted crouching in a brushy area near Cal State San Bernardino on Tuesday fled when police sought to question him. Officers said they fatally shot him in self-defense when he twice tried to ram officers with his car. . .
Vice-President Dick Cheney nods off While Bush discusses California wildfires, and flashback to April 2006 when he slept during Chinese President Hu’s visit
Wednesday, October 24th, 2007
Arson suspect killed, another arrested
Amid worries of new blazes adding to the firestorm already afflicting the region, a man in Hesperia has been arrested on suspicion of arson, and police reported shooting and killing another arson suspect after chasing him out of scrub behind Cal State San Bernardino.
Law enforcement officials said today that they didn’t know whether either of the men had started any of the more than a dozen large fires that have devastated Southern California in recent days, including the nearby Lake Arrowhead blaze. The brush fire in Hesperia was quickly extinguished by residents.
Investigators have said that at least two of the huge wildfires, one in Orange County and the other in Temecula, were the work of arsonists. . .
Wildfires scorch Southland for third day, troublesome winds expected to calm
As officials began assessing the toll of Southern California’s ferocious firestorms Tuesday, new blazes flared up in Newhall and Acton and threatened more homes, forced evacuations and strained resources already pushed to the brink.
The fires erupted as more than 560,000 residents of San Diego County were evacuated and hundreds of homes were destroyed in a pair of wildfires in the mountain resort community of Lake Arrowhead.
While howling Santa Ana winds that had gusted up to 100 mph are expected to calm by this afternoon, forecasters said the monster windstorm’s ferocity and duration has been virtually unprecedented. . .
A relief center to behold
With abundant food from various ethnic cuisines and a sea of volunteers to distribute it and other provisions, Qualcomm Stadium is opulent compared to most disaster shelters.
SAN DIEGO —Just inside the stadium gate Monday, a young bleached-blond woman offered a drink: “Would you care for a Red Bull, sir?”
Another hundred feet on, a woman walked by carrying a sign: “Anyone distressed?” She gave directions to a crisis counseling center down the way.
There was more food than could be eaten. More help than could be used. San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders guessed there were as many volunteers as victims. . .
Senators reject legal status for children of immigrants
WASHINGTON —The Senate today rejected a bill that would have allowed young people brought to the United States as children by their illegal immigrant parents to gain legal status provided they attended school or entered the military.
The 52-44 vote, short of the 60 required, was seen as a test of the Senate’s appetite for pursuing an immigration overhaul on a piecemeal basis, as opposed to the comprehensive approach that failed this summer. The procedural vote would have allowed debate to begin.
“I believe in this bill passionately,” said lead sponsor Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), who has lobbied for the so-called Dream Act for five years and says he knows many young people who would be helped by it. “Some of their stories are heartbreaking. Many know no other country, know no other language, and now they are being told to leave by our government. . .
