Liberal_in_LA
Liberal_in_LA's JournalTop L.A. County sheriff's official sent emails mocking Muslims, blacks, Latinos and women
http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-sheriff-burbank-emails-20160427-story.htmlTop L.A. County sheriff's official sent emails mocking Muslims, blacks, Latinos and women
Tom Angel, who is Sheriff Jim McDonnell's chief of staff, sent the emails in 2012 and 2013 when he was the No. 2 police official in Burbank, hired to reform a department reeling from allegations of police brutality as well as racism and sexual harassment within its ranks.
"I took my Biology exam last Friday," said one of the forwarded emails, which were obtained under the state's public records law. "I was asked to name two things commonly found in cells. Apparently 'Blacks' and 'Mexicans' were NOT the correct answers."
Another email ridiculed concerns about the racial profiling of Muslims as terrorism suspects. A third included the subject line, "How dumb is dumb?" and listed 20 reasons "Muslim Terrorists are so quick to commit suicide," including "Towels for hats," "Constant wailing from some idiot in a tower" and "You can't wash off the smell of donkey."
_____
Anybody in the workplace unfortunately forwards emails from time to time that they probably shouldn't have forwarded," Angel said. "I apologize if I offended anybody, but the intent was not for the public to have seen these jokes."
UC Davis chancellor placed on leave as officials launch probe into alleged misconduct
A renowned scholar in electrical and computer engineering who became chancellor in 2009, Katehi has been widely criticized for questionable moonlighting activities and spending to cleanse the Internet of unfavorable publicity about the pepper-spraying of peaceful student protesters by campus police in 2011.
But Napolitano's letter to Katehi outlined several new issues that the president said would be examined by an independent outside investigator.
She said Katehi's daughter-in-law, who directly reports to one of the chancellor’s staff members, had received promotions and pay increases of more than $50,000 over 21/2 years. During that same period, Napolitano said, Katehi approved a pay increase of more than 20% and a title change for her daughter-in-law’s supervisor.
See the most-read stories this hour >>
Napolitano also said that an academic program employing Katehi's son as a paid researcher was recently placed under the direct supervision of the chancellor's daughter-in-law.
“It does not appear that appropriate steps were taken to address, document or obtain approval for the fact that your son now reported to your daughter-in-law, who, in turn, was supervised by one of your direct reports,” Napolitano wrote.
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-uc-davis-chancellor-20160427-story.html
Nebraska cops mourn the loss of their lil friend
Saying goodbye is never easy.
http://twitter.com/OPDOfcBossman/status/722539237875167232/photo/1
This week, officers from Nebraska's Omaha Police Department announced the untimely passing of a beloved squirrel who frequented their station's parking lot. Though the cops say her death remains a mystery, and that they are not investigating, they still took the time to cordon off the spot as if it were a little crime scene
An officer with the Omaha Police Department posted a photo of the squirrel lying dead on the ground with a yellow line drawn around its body. The photo shows a yellow police tape stretched over the scene. The tweet reads: "We are not investigating."
Another tweet shows a cop kneeling as if in prayer near the dead squirrel. Another cop shared photos of the squirrel from happier times.
Apparently, the animal was so popular that someone created a Twitter account for it called OPDSquirrel.
Stockton Residents Upset After Woman Caught Walking Dog While Driving Car
A very upset Stockton woman claims she confronted a dog owner who was walking her dog while driving a car.
In the video a dog runs alongside its owner’s car, tethered by what Amanda Brajkovich described as a rope.
"You're going to be a dog owner, a responsible dog owner, then you need to get out and walk your dog you know, don't be lazy,” said Brajkovich, a Stockton resident.
The owner of the dog, whose face we’ve blurred, though hard to hear in the video, defended herself. She claimed the dog wasn’t dragged and there was no tension on its leash.
Despite the owner’s defense, Brajkovich was furious and posted her video on Facebook warning others this kind of treatment of an animal is not acceptable.
“First thought was 'oh my god this dog is going to get hurt' you know, maybe a car's going to go past him and hit him,” she said.
Pet owners we spoke with in Stockton agree.
http://fox40.com/2016/04/25/stockton-residents-upset-after-woman-caught-walking-dog-from-car/
The shelter that gives wine to alcoholics
Giving free booze to homeless alcoholics sounds crazy. But it may be the key to helping them live a stable lifeby Tina Rosenberg
On a grey January morning at 9.15, residents of the Oaks shelter for the homeless started lining up, coffee mugs in hand, at a yellow linoleum counter. At half past the hour, the pour began. The Oaks’ residents are hard-core alcoholics. They line up to get what most people would consider the very last thing they need: an hourly mug of alcohol.
Dorothy Young, the Oaks’ activities coordinator – a stocky, always-smiling middle-aged woman who is part cheerleader, part event planner, part warden, part bartender – stood behind the counter at a tap that dispenses cold white wine. She poured a measured amount of wine into each cup: maximum seven ounces at 7.30am for the first pour of the day, and five ounces each hour after that. Last call is 9.30pm.
The pour is calculated for each resident to be just enough to stave off the shakes and sweats of detox, which for alcohol is particularly unpleasant – seizures from alcohol deprivation can be fatal. The pour is strictly regulated: Young cuts off anyone who comes in intoxicated. They won’t be given another drink until they sober up.
The Oaks is a converted hotel next to a pawnshop, in Carlington, a working-class neighbourhood on the west side of Ottawa, Canada. When residents first arrive, they tend to drink the maximum, every hour, every day. Many also drink whatever they can buy or shoplift outside the building. For most, this gradually changes. They stop drinking outside, begin to ask for fewer ounces, skip pours or have a “special pour” of watered-down wine. Two residents get several hours’ worth at a time to take up to their rooms and ration out themselves. One man gave up alcohol but gets an hourly pour of grape juice, to stay part of the group.
____
The pour is what makes the Oaks different from every other well-run facility of its kind. It solves the residents’ most urgent problem: where can I get a drink?
They are so dependent on alcohol that it’s their most basic need,” said Van Herk. “If that need is not being met, nothing else matters for them. It’s hard for other people to get their minds around how severe their addiction is – they feel like they’re going to die. But once that need is met for them, they can start looking at other parts of their life.”
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/apr/26/homeless-shelter-ottawa-gives-wine-to-alcoholics
Very long article
Struggling single mother jailed over accidental fire finds outpouring of help
Struggling single mother jailed over accidental fire finds outpouring of helpJeannetta Maclin, 23, of St Louis, was at work trying to make ends meet when her children played with a lighter. When her neighbors learned the details of her case, they called for lenience from the court: ‘The system failed this mom’
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/apr/24/jeannetta-maclin-fire-justice-system#img-1
he scene that confronted firefighters was harrowing. Two young boys who had been left home alone and found a lighter to play with had accidentally set the apartment on fire and now were unconscious due to smoke inhalation.
They managed to revive the children, and their mother was soon in jail, her police mugshot doing the rounds on local media in St Louis, Missouri, where the near-tragedy occurred in February.
But then something unusual happened.
When people in the city heard the young woman was a single mother, with no criminal record, who had left her sons at home in desperation so she could go to her low-paid job and make rent before the landlord evicted them, they took action.
Thomas Payton, an emergency medical technician who was on duty at the hospital when the boys were brought in, was just one of a number of concerned citizens who went to court on her behalf and begged for leniency for the mother, Jeannetta Maclin, 23.
“I told the judge I thought the system had failed this mom and I had come to plead for her, that she and her kids deserved a chance and this bad decision she had made should not be the one that defines the rest of her life,” Payton said.
They are stuck between a rock and a hard place and they need help, not punishment
Thomas Payton
He told the court he knew other single mothers who had faced the dilemma either of leaving the kids home alone or losing their job when they ran out of limited childcare options.
____
And in what seasoned observers regarded as a rare outcome in such a case, the judge was swayed.
First Maclin had her bail sharply reduced, and then, after her newfound community advocates and ordinary, concerned citizens helped her raise the money, she was able to leave jail in March. Then, earlier this month, the judge agreed to dismiss the child endangerment charges she faced – which could have led to five years in prison – if the young mother successfully completes courses in parenting, job skills and therapy.
--------
Though Maclin’s case took place in state court, it has served to highlight a chronic problem more common in the lower municipal courts: the practice of jailing impoverished citizens in the equivalent of debtors’ prisons, in effect for being poor. People are often held, for example, over as little as $400 following a minor traffic offense.
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/apr/24/jeannetta-maclin-fire-justice-system
Caught and arrested! Attacker in video that sparked outrage towards bystanders
The video shocked millions. It shows a woman being grabbed from behind, pushed down and dragged on the fourth floor of a Beijing hotel. What was almost as jarring was what it didn't show -- several people, including a hotel staffer, who didn't help.
The victim managed to escape, after a female passer-by came to her aid.
And now -- days after she posted surveillance footage that went viral -- the alleged attacker is in custody.
The Beijing Public Security Bureau announced Friday that a 24-year-old man was arrested the previous night on suspicion of assault and attempted kidnapping. Authorities detained him in Xuchang, which is about 465 miles (750 kilometers) south of the Chinese capital where the incident occurred Sunday night.
This arrest could provide comfort and some closure for the victim.
But it's unlikely to totally quell outrage stemming from the surveillance video posted to social media -- one that stirred anger at not just the attacker, but the hotel chain and civilians who saw it all unfold and allegedly did nothing.
Woman shouted for help
The footage apparently came from a surveillance camera about 10:50 p.m. Sunday at a Yitel hotel, a high-end division of the Homeinns chain, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency.
It shows a man in a black leather coat and jeans approach a woman who'd just gotten off an elevator. He grabs, tries to choke and pushes her before pulling her down the hallway.
At one point, she tries unsuccessfully to get back on the elevator only to be caught and dragged toward a stairway.
"A hotel staff member was seen watching her struggle without intervening," Xinhua reported, "although the woman shouted 'Help!' and 'I do not know him.'"
According to Xinhua, the woman claimed several people watched her "but they didn't save me."
"The atrocity lasted for five or six minutes in a place with security cameras, but no security guard or managerial staff came to my rescue," she said. "If I hadn't been rescued, where would he have taken me?"
http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/08/asia/china-hotel-attack-viral-video/?iid=ob_article_footer_expansion
https://www.youtube.com/?app=desktop#/watch?v=H3SOhGTJZDM
?quality=70&strip=all&w=720&h=407&crop=1
Former PA Sen. Wofford, 90, marries a man
Washington (CNN)Former Pennsylvania U.S. Sen. Harris Wofford announced Sunday that he is marrying a man 50 years his junior, almost 20 years after his wife died.
Wofford, a Democrat who was also a top adviser to John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr., announced his marriage to Matthew Charlton in a New York Times op-ed published Sunday.
"Too often, our society seeks to label people by pinning them on the wall -- straight, gay or in between," Wofford wrote. "I don't categorize myself based on the gender of those I love. I had a half-century of marriage with a wonderful woman, and now am lucky for a second time to have found happiness."
Wofford's wife, Clare, died in 1996 after battling acute leukemia. He wrote of their close bond and the balance between him, the romantic, and her, a realist.
"I assumed that I was too old to seek or expect another romance," Wofford wrote of his wife's death. "But five years later, standing on a beach in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, I sensed a creative hour and did not want to miss it."
Wofford, 75 at the time, wrote of meeting Charlton, then 25, on the beach.
"We both felt the immediate spark, and as time went on, we realized that our bond had grown into love," he wrote. "Other than with Clare, I had never felt love blossom this way before."
http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/24/politics/harris-wofford-marriage-pennsylvania/index.html
Container villagefor homeless quickly taking shape in CA city
This week will be a busy one. Monday and Tuesday will see contractors placing interior partitions into the Connex containers, turning each into four separate 10-by-8-foot rooms. Wednesday will see the boxes painted beige, which Chinn said she chose because it’s a calming color. Thursday, doors are scheduled to be delivered to the site so they can be installed Friday. Chinn’s hoping to begin moving people in May 1 — a week from tomorrow.
Ulansey said the container community is almost certain not to be a finished product by then. Windows, he said, are in incredible demand throughout the state and there’s no way to get 20 of them delivered in time. So, he said, the plan is open the community with metal screens and possibly some kind of plastic sheeting over the window holes with the understanding real windows will be installed within a week or two. Other touches — like the picnic tables being crafted by Eureka High School shop classes and wood planter boxes being built and planted by Freshwater Elementary School students — also may not be ready for move-in day.
Plenty of other pieces are still taking shape as well.
Ulansey said GECOP has zeroed in an insurance policy that seems like it will work for primary coverage, and he said HumCPR and Chinn’s foundation have a draft memorandum of understanding in the works with the city. On the surface, this appears a bit tricky. Obviously, the city will want to make sure it's indemnified from any potential liability arising out of the container project, but HumCPR and the foundation also have some concerns. “We’d like to see some protection for us, too,” Ulansey said. “If the city gets sued because of what’s happening at the marsh, we don’t want to get dragged into that, either.”
It’s also unclear exactly how operational expenses will be funded. Once the containers are fully renovated and the parking lot is fenced off, GECOP will still have to fund three full-time caseworkers to manage the site, 24/7 site supervision, bathroom and garbage services, water and electricity, insurance premiums and maintenance costs. It’s unclear exactly what those costs will come to — Ulansey referred the Journal to Chinn’s foundation for the list of costs, and Chinn sent us to HumCPR Executive Director Alec Ziegler, who said he’s out of town but could get us a rough budget on Tuesday.
http://www.northcoastjournal.com/NewsBlog/archives/2016/04/23/despite-uncertainty-homeless-container-community-project-plows-forward
Breast cancer video eludes censors masterfully
A breast cancer group has managed to put out an educational video that has registered millions of views and counting, all thanks to its clever workaround of censorship rules.
ADVERTISEMENT
It begins with a woman disrobing, only to have her breasts covered with the logos of Facebook and Instagram. How then to instruct women to perform self-exams? "We have found boobs that are not censored," says the narrator.
"Henry's." A big shirtless guy fill the screen as the video demonstrates how to look for early signs of the disease. All with "no pasties required," notes MediaPost.
The video is from the Argentinian group MACMA, reports the Mirror. Its Facebook posting has more than 7 million views, notes the BBC, and a version with an English translation on YouTube is closing in on that mark.
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2016/04/21/breast-cancer-video-eludes-censors-masterfully.html?intcmp=ob_article_footer_text&intcmp=obnetwork
Profile Information
Member since: Sat Dec 30, 2006, 02:56 PMNumber of posts: 44,397
