Officials deem sex offenders’ home unfit for neighborhood
ALTADENA - Following an outpouring of community outrage, six high-risk sex offenders installed this month at a home in an isolated Altadena neighborhood will be relocated by the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, officials announced Thursday.
By Monday, all of the men will be moved from the single-family home on Risinghill Road, said representatives for Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael Antonovich and state Assemblyman Anthony Portantino, D-Pasadena, who worked together to bring about the change.
“Placing one next door to a family with young children would be irresponsible,” Antonovich said. “You don’t give an arsonist matches and then place them on parole. . .
New High In U.S. Prison Numbers
More than one in 100 adults in the United States is in jail or prison, an all-time high that is costing state governments nearly $50 billion a year and the federal government $5 billion more, according to a report released yesterday.
With more than 2.3 million people behind bars, the United States leads the world in both the number and percentage of residents it incarcerates, leaving far-more-populous China a distant second, according to a study by the nonpartisan Pew Center on the States.
The growth in prison population is largely because of tougher state and federal sentencing imposed since the mid-1980s. Minorities have been particularly affected: One in nine black men ages 20 to 34 is behind bars. For black women ages 35 to 39, the figure is one in 100, compared with one in 355 for white women in the same age group. . .
Immigration: No Correlation With Crime
Despite our melting-pot roots, Americans have often been quick to blame the influx of immigrants for rising crime rates. But new research released Monday shows that immigrants in California are, in fact, far less likely than U.S.-born Californians are to commit crime. While people born abroad make up about 35% of California’s adult population, they account for only about 17% of the adult prison population, the report by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) showed. Indeed, among men ages 18 to 40 — the demographic most likely to be imprisoned — those born in the U.S. were 10 times more likely than foreign-born men to be incarcerated.
“From a public safety standpoint, there would be little reason to limit immigration,” says Kristin Butcher, an economics professor at Wellesley College and one of the report’s authors.
The new report even bolsters claims by some academics that increased immigration makes the United States safer. A second study, released earlier this month by Washington-based nonprofit Immigration Policy Center, found that on the national level, U.S.-born men ages 18-39 are five times more likely to be incarcerated than are their foreign-born peers. And, while the number of illegal immigrants in the country doubled between 1994 and 2005, violent crime declined by nearly 35% and property crimes by 26% over the same period. The PPIC even determined that on average, between 2000 and 2005, cities such as Los Angeles that took in a higher share of recent immigrants saw their crime rates fall further than cities with a lower influx of illegals. . .
Spanking Raises Chances of Risky, Deviant Sexual Behavior
THURSDAY, Feb. 28 (HealthDay News)—Researchers have uncovered another damaging consequence of spanking: risky sexual behaviors, or even sexual deviancy, when the child grows up.
“This adds one more harmful side effect to spanking,” said Murray Straus, a spanking expert who was expected to present the findings of four studies at the American Psychological Association’s Summit on Violence and Abuse in Relationships in Bethesda, Md., on Thursday.
“I think that it’s pretty powerful,” said Elizabeth Gershoff, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan’s School of Social Work. “It’s across several studies and across different forms of either risky or deviant sexual behavior. . .
SEMI-PRO
The first thing you may notice about this movie is that Will Ferrell stole one of Phil Spector’s wigs. You know, the blonde afro one, he wasn’t wearing that his last trial, so he didn’t need it anyway. Will Ferrell is the latest Jim Carrey clone – keep putting him in the “dumb but lovable” roles until people stop showing up. That usually leads to people adopting a “love him or hate him” attitude, just as happened with Carrey. As for me, I still like him. But he slipped half a notch with this movie. (more…)
Thursday, February 28th, 2008
Temperature Monitors Report Widescale Global Cooling
Over the past year, anecdotal evidence for a cooling planet has exploded. China has its coldest winter in 100 years. Baghdad sees its first snow in all recorded history. North America has the most snowcover in 50 years, with places like Wisconsin the highest since record-keeping began. Record levels of Antarctic sea ice, record cold in Minnesota, Texas, Florida, Mexico, Australia, Iran, Greece, South Africa, Greenland, Argentina, Chile—the list goes on and on.
No more than anecdotal evidence, to be sure. But now, that evidence has been supplanted by hard scientific fact. All four major global temperature tracking outlets (Hadley, NASA’s GISS, UAH, RSS) have released updated data. All show that over the past year, global temperatures have dropped precipitously.
A compiled list of all the sources can be seen here. The total amount of cooling ranges from 0.65C up to 0.75C—a value large enough to wipe out most of the warming recorded over the past 100 years. All in one year’s time. For all four sources, it’s the single fastest temperature change ever recorded, either up or down. . .
‘Virtual Fence’ Along Ariz.-Mexico Border Delayed Three Years
PHOENIX — Homeland Security officials have told federal lawmakers that the “virtual fence” along the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona doesn’t meet contract requirements for detecting border intrusions and some of its technology will have to replaced by this summer.
Agency officials, testifying Wednesday before the oversight panel of the House Homeland Security Committee in Washington, D.C., said plans to expand the system to the Yuma, Ariz., and El Paso, Texas, areas will be pushed back three years to 2011 because of technological deficiencies.
The 28-mile virtual fence will use radars and surveillance cameras to try to catch people entering the country illegally. . .
9/11 Redux: ‘Thousands of Aliens’ in U.S. Flight Schools Illegally
Thousands of foreign student pilots have been able to enroll and obtain pilot licenses from U.S. flight schools, despite tough laws passed in the wake of the 9/ll attacks, according to internal government documents obtained by ABC News.
“Some of the very same conditions that allowed the 9-11 tragedy to happen in the first place are still very much in existence today,” wrote one regional security official to his boss at the TSA, the Transportation Security Administration.
“Thousands of aliens, some of whom may very well pose a threat to this country, are taking flight lessons, being granted FAA certifications and are flying planes,” wrote the TSA official, Richard A. Horn, in 2005, complaining that the students did not have the proper visas. . .
Idea to toll motorists headed to LAX is called costly
Charging a toll on motorists driving to Los Angeles International Airport might not be worth the effort, according to a study reviewed Wednesday by the Los Angeles City Council’s Transportation Committee.
A series of security cameras, signs and a “fast pay” system to electronically collect fees would be needed to make a so-called congestion pricing plan effective, but such equipment would cost $40 million to $80 million, according to the Los Angeles Department of Transportation.
Annual labor and maintenance costs of the system would be “significant” as well. While already popular in London, Stockholm and Singapore, congestion-pricing programs are not considered profitable until 10 to 15years after they start, according to the LADOT report. . .
Health Net ordered to pay $9 million after canceling cancer patient’s policy
One of California’s largest for-profit insurers stopped a controversial practice of canceling sick policyholders Friday after a judge ordered Health Net Inc. to pay more than $9 million to a breast cancer patient it dropped in the middle of chemotherapy.
The ruling by a private arbitration judge was the first of its kind and the most powerful rebuke to the state’s major insurers whose cancellation practices are under fire from the courts, state regulators and elected officials.
Calling Woodland Hills-based Health Net’s actions “egregious,” Judge Sam Cianchetti, a retired Los Angeles County Superior Court judge, ruled that the company broke state laws and acted in bad faith. . .
Wednesday, February 27th, 2008
Of Pillows, Protectionism, and That SNL Parody
CLEVELAND—Halfway into the 20th—and potentially final—Democratic presidential debate, this much is clear: Hillary Clinton opted to come with a much tougher tone tonight than she did last week in Texas, protectionist sentiment rules the day in Ohio, and Barack Obama takes great umbrage at the notion that his opposition to the Iraq war was “just a speech.”
Getting the biggest reaction in the press filing room, though, was the postmodern touch offered by Clinton, who objected to receiving the first question twice in a row at the outset, and invoked a Saturday Night Live skit from last weekend as evidence of a pro-Obama media bias.
“Maybe we should ask Barack if he’s comfortable or needs another pillow,” she said. . .
Forget global warming: Welcome to the new Ice Age
Snow cover over North America and much of Siberia, Mongolia and China is greater than at any time since 1966.
The U.S. National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) reported that many American cities and towns suffered record cold temperatures in January and early February. According to the NCDC, the average temperature in January “was -0.3 F cooler than the 1901-2000 (20th century) average.”
China is surviving its most brutal winter in a century. Temperatures in the normally balmy south were so low for so long that some middle-sized cities went days and even weeks without electricity because once power lines had toppled it was too cold or too icy to repair them. . .
U.S., Riverside County team to target criminals who’ve been deported once already
Riverside County authorities announced Tuesday an alliance with the U.S. attorney to prosecute international gang members who have already been convicted of a violent crime and deported and have returned illegally to the United States.
Riverside County District Attorney Rod Pacheco said about 250 such gang members are believed to be in Riverside County and pose a unique threat.
“A local gang, in one sense, is a little easier to deal with. You know them,” Pacheco said. “An international gang takes on a completely different flavor … they have a reach across borders. These particular gangs know no limits … these are very, very deadly and dangerous gangs. . .
ALTADENA – More than 150 concerned residents gathered at the Loma Alta Park gym Tuesday night to demand the removal of a halfway home for six violent sex offenders from their quiet neighborhood.
The residents, from a secluded pocket of about 225 houses in northwest Altadena called The Meadows, voiced their complaints to county and state officials in attendance, who promised their support but reminded the crowd that they could only act within the limit of state and federal laws.
The sex offenders appear to be in compliance with state laws mandating they live at least 2,000 feet from parks and half a mile from schools. . .
Tuesday, February 26th, 2008
Poll Finds a Fluid Religious Life in U.S.
WASHINGTON — More than a quarter of adult Americans have left the faith of their childhood to join another religion or no religion, according to a survey of religious affiliation by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.
The report, titled “U.S. Religious Landscape Survey,” depicts a highly fluid and diverse national religious life. If shifts among Protestant denominations are included, then it appears that 44 percent of Americans have switched religious affiliations.
For at least a generation, scholars have noted that more Americans are moving among faiths, as denominational loyalty erodes. But the survey, based on telephone interviews with more than 35,000 Americans, offers one of the clearest views yet of that trend, scholars said. The United States Census does not track religious affiliation. . .
WASHINGTON — Over the opposition of the nation’s lenders, Senate Democrats are seeking a change in the bankruptcy law that they say could keep hundreds of thousands of hard-pressed borrowers in their homes.
The proposal, part of the Foreclosure Prevention Act embraced by leading Democratic lawmakers, would allow judges to ease the terms of mortgage loans during bankruptcy proceedings.
Lenders contend that the measure—which could be debated on the Senate floor as early as today—could force them to raise mortgage rates to cover the costs of loans that would not be fully repaid. They are backed by Republicans, who have proposed more modest changes. . .
They’re Republican red, and true blue to Obama
DELAWARE, OHIO — Chatter bounces off the bare walls and checkered linoleum floor as Josh Pedaline and other Barack Obama supporters burn through their call sheets.
A map of Delaware County splays across a tabletop. Another table is laden with cookies, pretzels and other snacks. Volunteers sit elbow to elbow, pecking at cellphones and pitching the Illinois Democrat in advance of Ohio’s March 4 primary. The scene is a typical campaign boiler room.
Except that four of the 13 dialing away are lifelong Republicans, including Pedaline, 28, who reveres Ronald Reagan and twice voted for President Bush. . .
Monday, February 25th, 2008
Kenya Photo Worth Several Sharp Words From Clinton, Obama Camps
A two-year-old picture of Barack Obama dressed in traditional Somali garb has sparked a new war of words between the Democratic presidential front-runner and rival Hillary Clinton, whose aides say they can’t confirm or deny whether her camp is the source of the photo.
The photograph shows the Illinois senator outfitted as a Somali elder during his 2006 visit to northeastern Kenya, part of a five-country tour of Africa. It appeared at the top of Monday’s Drudge Report, and was said to have been provided by Clinton staffers over the weekend.
Now both campaigns are suggesting that the other should feel some sort of shame over the flap. According to Obama aides, the Clinton campaign is sinking to “shameful fear-mongering.” Clinton’s campaign chief retorted that she can’t figure out why Obama would be “ashamed” of having the photo out in the public. . .
In Painful Past, Hushed Worry About Obama
DALLAS — There is a hushed worry on the minds of many supporters of Senator Barack Obama, echoing in conversations from state to state, rally to rally: Will he be safe?
In Colorado, two sisters say they pray daily for his safety. In New Mexico, a daughter says she persuaded her mother to still vote for Mr. Obama, even though the mother feared that winning would put him in danger. And at a rally here, a woman expressed worries that a message of hope and change, in addition to his race, made him more vulnerable to violence.
“I’ve got the best protection in the world,” Mr. Obama, of Illinois, said in an interview, reprising a line he tells supporters who raise the issue with him. “So stop worrying. . .
ONTARIO – Nobody knows the exact population of Tent City, but the area has swelled beyond expectations.
The dusty, undeveloped city-owned parcel at Cucamonga Avenue and Jefferson Street is filled with tents, campers and makeshift shelters.
“It took on a life of its own,” Mayor Paul Leon said. “It didn’t occur to us it would grow to this size this fast, which reflects the need.
The area, just west of L.A./Ontario International Airport, was created in July as a haven for the city’s homeless. . .
Calif. senator says car pool lane should be open to everyone
SACRAMENTO—A California state senator is proposing legislation that would let the owners of gas-guzzling vehicles drive in the car pool lane, but the lawmaker doesn’t expect it to pass.
Sen. Jim Battin, R-La Quinta, says his legislation would let “polluting, flashy, fuel-sucking” vehicles drive in car pool lanes if their owners buy carbon offset credits.
In a press release Friday, Battin mocked the state’s efforts to reduce global warming. He says he bought a $45 carbon offset certificate after a newspaper scolded him for driving a gas-guzzling sport utility vehicle. . .
Friday, February 22nd, 2008
Thanks to Daniel from LBReport.Com for playing paparazzi last Tuesday at the Sex Offender Clown Building in Long Beach.
Click on for more pics of J&K trying to “interview” one of the resident clowns.
