Irvine man arrested in LAX bomb threat, closure
LOS ANGELES – A 27-year-old Irvine man claiming to have a bomb in his backpack walked up to police officers at Los Angeles International Airport on Wednesday morning and said he was going to blow up the airport, prompting the closure of the upper- and lower-level roads near Tom Bradley International Terminal during a busy holiday travel week, police said.
No explosives were found inside the backpack.
Scott Juhun Lee was arrested on suspicion of making a false bomb threat, which is a felony. Lee is being held at Twin Towers Jail in lieu of $20,000 bail. Lee, who has only two traffic tickets on his record, might also face federal charges of making a false threat. . .
Layoff threat empty for L.A. city employees
Despite dire warnings that Los Angeles city workers would face layoffs to balance a severe budget deficit, just four workers could potentially lose their jobs.
In March, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa held a press conference to say he was going to eliminate 767 city jobs – more than 1 percent of the nearly 50,000 citywide work force – and warned that layoffs were almost certain.
But while city officials did cut funding in the budget for nearly 700 city jobs, virtually all of the displaced workers have been able to move into vacant positions. . .
Old-time protest of high fuel prices might be a gas
Some people just sit around and complain about a problem (Note to self: Look in the mirror), and other people actually try to make things happen.
Once upon a time in America, people would march in the streets to draw attention to major issues—civil rights, abortion, nuclear power, war. You know, little things like that.
I remember a delightful day in Laguna Beach 19 years ago when several thousand people marched up Laguna Canyon Road to protest a housing development. Several thousand people actually banded together in a common cause. And guess what, it worked. . .
The Balloon Bill got enough votes to live! But it can still be stopped!
Take Action! Fill out a petition, and send it to Sacramento!
Watch the Jack Scott Balloon Stomp!
Although the bill has passed the Assembly Business and Professions Committee,...it’s not over. The bill moves on to the Appropriations Commitee in August.
Start letting the members know you want to Save Our Balloons!
Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008
Carona uses n-word in secret recordings
READ THE SHOCKING NEW TRANSCRIPTS
SANTA ANA Defense attorneys for former sheriff Michael S. Carona want to keep his federal jury from hearing portions of secretly recorded conversations where Carona makes sexually and racially insensitive comments.
The tapes, between Carona and former political confidante Donald Haidl, reveal Carona casually using the n-word, dropping several f-bombs, talking about his sexual conquests and making sexual remarks about other women.
In a motion filed late Monday, defense attorney Jeffrey M. Rawitz contended that Carona’s remarks – which were recorded without his knowledge – “are irrelevant … and are likely to offend and anger the jury, resulting in unfair prejudice to Carona. . .
AP Interviews: Michelle Obama Twice as Disliked as Cindy McCain
WASHINGTON — The public hasn’t taken to Michelle Obama yet, especially whites. And it’s got a question about Cindy McCain: Who is she?
People are divided over whether they like the wife of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, with 30 percent seeing her favorably and 35 percent unfavorably, according to an Associated Press-Yahoo News poll released Wednesday.
They tilt positively toward the spouse of Republican hopeful John McCain, by 27 percent to 17 percent. . .
When she arrived in Congress last fall, Rep. Laura Richardson sought out a vehicle that would match her newfound status.
She settled on a 2007 Lincoln Town Car – the choice of many representatives who lease their vehicles at taxpayers’ expense. But hers was distinct: at $1,300 a month, it was the most expensive car in the House of Representatives.
Richardson, a Democrat who represents Carson, has since become known for defaulting on two home loans and losing a third house – in an upscale neighborhood in Sacramento – at a foreclosure auction. . .
Tuesday, July 1st, 2008
What might the hands-free law accomplish?
Unless you have been living in a cave, you are probably aware that California’s hands-free cellphone laws go into effect at midnight. It appears that different agencies may enforce the law differently, according to my colleagues David Pierson and Hector Becerra in a story at The Times’ website.
First, the gist of the laws: you cannot hold a phone and have a conversation when driving, although you can touch the phone to dial. If you are 16 or 17, you can’t use a phone period. And, the law fails to address text messaging. Here’s a link to a Q&A I wrote recently on the laws.
Second, I wanted to address the most important point of such a law: will it make the roads safer? My former colleague Myron Levin, whose story in March in The Times has this juicy detail . . .
8 crack dealers shielded by S.F. walk away
An effort by San Francisco to shield eight young Honduran crack dealers from federal immigration officials backfired when the youths escaped from Southern California group homes within days of their arrival, officials said Monday.
The walkaways are the latest in a string of embarrassments for city officials who are protecting illegal-immigrant drug dealers from federal authorities and possible deportation because of San Francisco’s 1989 declaration that the city is a sanctuary for undocumented immigrants.
Until recently, San Francisco flew juvenile illegal immigrants convicted of drug crimes to their home countries rather than cooperate with the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, a practice that drew national attention when The Chronicle reported it Sunday. . .
Serious patient errors at California hospitals disclosed in state filings
SACRAMENTO — Last October, a technician at the children’s hospital at Stanford University improperly connected a ventilator hose, accidentally pumping too little oxygen into a 9-day-old infant’s lungs.
A month later, technicians at Dominican Hospital in Santa Cruz unintentionally placed a CT scan of one patient into the electronic file of another, leading physicians to remove the wrong person’s appendix.
Last March, Virginia Fahres, 76, died at Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center in Pomona after a nurse gave her two drugs, neither of which her doctor had prescribed. . .
Monday, June 30th, 2008
McCain, Obama court Hispanic voters
WASHINGTON—Presidential rivals John McCain and Barack Obama on Saturday vied for the support of Hispanics, beginning a four-month courtship of a pivotal voting constituency by vowing to revamp immigration policy.
“I come from a border state, my dear friends. I know these issues,” McCain told Hispanic elected officials. The Republican senator from Arizona said overhauling the country’s broken immigration system, not just securing its borders, “will be my top priority.”
Appearing later before the same audience, Obama accused McCain of walking away from comprehensive immigration reform. The Democratic senator from Illinois said: “We must assert our values and reconcile our principles as a nation of immigrants and a nation . . .
Brokaw needles Schwarzenegger on spending, economy
SACRAMENTO—— Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, usually a darling of the national media, found himself being told by the host of NBC’s “Meet the Press” that if he ran a private company the way he has run the state, he might have been fired by now.
Tom Brokaw, who will be moderating the program through the presidential election, put a series of confrontational questions to the governor in an interview taped in California and aired this morning.
“When you ran for governor in 2003, you ran as a fiscal conservative who would change the system, who would bring business-like techniques,” Brokaw said. “Now, you are facing a $15-billion deficit here in California. Unemployment is running at about 6.8%; you’ve got the worst housing crisis since the Great Depression. If you were the CEO of a public company, the board would probably say, ‘It is time to go. . .
Judge orders Minutemen road sign to be reposted
A federal judge has ordered Caltrans to repost the San Diego Minutemen road sign on a two-mile stretch of Interstate 5, a victory for the anti-illegal immigration group.
The Minutemen were granted a northbound stretch of the highway near the Border Patrol’s checkpoint south of San Clemente in November as part of the Adopt-a-Highway litter cleanup program.
They were reassigned to state Route 52 near Santee in January after complaints to the agency about the group’s controversial nature and the location near the checkpoint. . .
Tuesday, June 24th, 2008
Audit finds DWP chief’s yard to be overflowing
As city leaders urge residents to trim energy and water usage amid the sweltering summer months, a home audit of the chief of L.A.’s Department of Water and Power has found that even the champion of conservation is not doing enough to cut back.
Auditors last month found that lawn sprinklers at General Manager H. David Nahai’s 6,000-square-foot Deep Canyon Drive home had come on every single night for more than a year – summer or winter, rain or shine.
The watering resulted in about a foot of subsurface moisture and boosted the general manager’s average water consumption – 36,185 gallons a month, or 1,190 gallons a day – higher than most of his neighbors. . .
When the Bully Sits in the Next Cubicle
An eye roll, a glare, a dismissive snort — these are the tactics of the workplace bully. They don’t sound like much, but that’s why they are so insidious. How do you complain to human resources that your boss is picking on you? Who cares that a co-worker won’t return your phone calls?
Bullying in the workplace is surprisingly common. In a survey released last fall, 37 percent of American workers said they had experienced bullying on the job, according to the research firm Zogby International.
Unlike the playground bully, who often resorts to physical threats, the work bully sets out on a course of constant but subtle harassment. It may start with a belittling comment at a staff meeting. Later it becomes gossip to co-workers and forgetting to invite someone to an important work event. If the bully is a supervisor, victims may be stripped of critical duties, then accused of not doing their job, says Gary Namie, founder of the Workplace Bullying Institute, an advocacy group based in Bellingham, Wash. . .
One big drug test for L.A.: sewage analysis
Which city uses more cocaine: Los Angeles or London? Is heroin a big problem in San Diego? And has Ecstasy emerged in rural America?
Environmental scientists are beginning to use an unsavory new tool—raw sewage—to paint an accurate portrait of drug abuse in communities. Like one big, citywide urinalysis, tests at municipal sewage plants in many areas of the United States and Europe, including Los Angeles County, have detected illicit drugs such as cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin and marijuana.
Law enforcement officials have long sought a way to come up with reliable and verifiable calculations of narcotics use, to identify new trends and formulate policies. Surveys, the backbone of drug-use estimates, are only as reliable as the people who answer them. But sewage does not lie. . .
States do fed’s jobs on immigration
Immigration reform has become persona non grata in this town ever since comprehensive bill failed last spring. But as silent as lawmakers here are on the subject, the louder it’s getting in the states.
And if you look back to other major issues, maybe that’s what has to happen for lawmakers here to actually do something on the issue.
In the 1990s, the drumbeat for welfare reform didn’t lead to federal action until state after state passed the kind of welfare-to-work laws that President Clinton finally signed. States were beginning to demand concrete educational standards long before the Bush administration championed No Child Left Behind. . .
Friday, June 20th, 2008
Woodland Hills breaks record with 109 degree heat
LOS ANGELES —Southern California roasted Thursday in a record-breaking, end-of-spring heat wave that sent temperatures soaring past 100 degrees in many areas, posing hazards for anyone who ventured outside.
Firefighters worked in extreme heat to corral small brush fires as a strong high-pressure system cooked the air from the Central Coast south to Los Angeles and San Diego.
The National Weather Service warned people to take precautions for heat that could quickly kill children or animals left in cars. Forecasters said “red flag” warnings for fire danger would remain in effect until Saturday night because of northerly winds and low humidity levels. . .
LA mayor, Obama to meet in Miami
LOS ANGELES—Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa plans to meet with Barack Obama this weekend to discuss what role the mayor might take in the presidential campaign, his office said Thursday.
Villaraigosa was a national campaign co-chair for Hillary Rodham Clinton, but he quickly embraced Obama’s candidacy after the New York senator pulled out of the race.
Villaraigosa and Obama will meet behind closed doors Saturday in Miami, where the U.S. Conference of Mayors is holding its four-day annual meeting. Obama is scheduled to address the group over the weekend. . .
California measure targets texting while driving
Newest target? Texting.
Call it a loophole, perhaps, but California’s ban on driving while talking on a hand-held cell phone does not extend to text messaging.
Put simply, adult motorists who can’t hold a phone to their ear beginning July 1 can use the same device to type out messages.
But they’d better hurry.
Legislation proposed Thursday by Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, would add texting to the cell phone ban he championed. . .
