July 22, 2015

Cajon Pass fire victims outraged about $1,600 towing fees: 'I didn't do anything illegal'

laura Caro thought the fire on the freeway in the Cajon Pass was bad. And then she got the bill for leaving her vehicle there.

Caro was driving her 80-year-old mother home from a doctor's appointment Friday when the North fire spread to Interstate 15 and started burning vehicles. On officers' orders, she left her SUV and fled, pushing her mom in a wheelchair through a smoky maze of stopped cars and frightened people.

Strangers gave them a lift, and Caro left her Ford Escape behind. When the Fontana resident went to get it from Gonzalez Tow in Hesperia, she was shocked: The company charged her $1,600, she said.

"It was just a nightmare," Caro said. "I didn't do anything illegal to have my car towed."

It was just a nightmare. I didn't do anything illegal to have my car towed.
- Laura Caro, who fled her vehicle during the fire
California Highway Patrol officials said Monday they were investigating numerous complaints about high towing fees from drivers who had to abandon their cars and flee for safety.

http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-0721-fire-tow-20150721-story.html

Gonzalez Tow's Facebook page was plastered during the weekend with comments about the fees, calling employees "thieves" and "bullies" and saying the company took advantage of victims.

July 22, 2015

Cops Kill Unarmed mentally ill Mother, Brag About Marksmanship Afterward

http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/dashcam-video-cops-kill-unarmed-mother-brag-about-marksmanship-afterward
Malone pleaded with the officers to let him get Small out of the vehicle.

“Let me get out there and get her out,” Malone calls out to the other officers, according to the GBI audio transcripts.

“Hold on, hold on,” one unknown officer responds.

“If she moves the car, I’m going to shoot her,” Simpson says.

Seconds later, Sasser and Simpson unleash a volley of gunfire into the face of Caroline Small.

After the shooting, Sasser and Simpson can be heard discussing their kill.

“Where did you hit her?” Simpson asks, according to a GBI transcript.


“I hit her right in the face,” Sasser says.

“I watched the bridge of her nose…I pulled the trigger and I watched it hit her at the same time I think I fired,” Simpson says.

When an EMT showed up to the scene, Simpson waved him off, trusting that his stellar marksmanship had done the job, and she was dead. However, Small was holding on for dear life, and those crucial moments could have been the difference between life and death. Small would never regain consciousness, but she didn’t succumb to her injuries until a week after the shooting.

July 21, 2015

police divers working Pier 14 killing find dead cat with microchip; owner charged

San Francisco police divers who jumped into the bay to look for evidence in the Pier 14 killing of Kathryn Steinle not only found the suspected weapon — they also located a dead cat in a bag submerged by a 10-pound weight, officials said Thursday.

Because the cat had an injected microchip, city animal control officers were able to track down and arrest the owner, who was identified as 34-year-old Adrian Erik Dumont.

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The city Department of Animal Care and Control said that the dead cat was a 2-year-old brown tabby named Kazuma and that he had been dumped in the water on the same day he was found. The agency did not release any other details about the case.

Dumont was charged with felony animal cruelty, said Max Szabo, a spokesman for the San Francisco district attorney’s office. He entered a plea of not guilty at an arraignment Tuesday and was released on $15,000 bail.

http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Bay-divers-working-Pier-14-killing-find-slain-6388941.php

July 21, 2015

woman smashes window to rescue toddler locked in hot car, 100 degrees outside

http://www.kctv5.com/clip/11693647/woman-smashes-window-to-rescue-toddler-locked-in-hot-car




'The windows were totally rolled up, all the doors were locked. She was covered in sweat,' Oropeza told KCTV 5.

The girl was deemed to be fine and was later picked up by her godmother.
A couple - believed to be the child's aunt and uncle - eventually came looking for her and were charged with endangerment.
They are said to have been in a cellphone shop while the girl was in the car.
'(They showed) no emotion at all, whatsoever,' Oropeza said.
'The only question they had for police was if insurance was going to pay to cover the window that we broke.'


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3168844/Woman-caught-camera-smashing-stranger-s-car-window-rescue-toddler-locked-inside-crying-100-degree-temperatures.html#ixzz3gUJjDhLD

July 21, 2015

$2 million payout to minorities who faced "intrusive and intimidating compliance" sheriff visits

click on this link to see what how minorities experienced "housing checks"

http://www.trbimg.com/img-51ce436b/turbine/la-122302-me-0329-avcrime-002-mrc-jpg-20130628/600/600x400


The U.S. Department of Justice launched an investigation in 2011 into allegations that minorities -- particularly African Americans -- living in federally subsidized housing in the Antelope Valley were being harassed and discriminated against by Los Angeles County sheriff's deputieshttp://www.trbimg.com/img-51ce436b/turbine/la-122302-me-0329-avcrime-002-mrc-jpg-20130628/600/600x400 and county housing agency officials.

In a complaint filed in federal court, U.S. Justice Department officials alleged that the local governments had engaged in a "targeted campaign of discriminatory enforcement against African American [housing] voucher holders in order to discourage and exclude them and other African Americans from living in the cities."

The complaint alleged that the county housing authority and Sheriff's Department subjected black so-called Section 8 voucher holders to "more intrusive and intimidating compliance checks" than their white counterparts and also were more likely to terminate black residents' vouchers.

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-antelope-valley-settlement-20150720-story.html

July 20, 2015

mother nature reclaims an unfinished nuclear power plant in Aberdeen Washington

Remains of Satsop's unused nuclear power plant
In the forested hills east of Aberdeen, Washington, two colossal towers reach for the sky; an unfinished, dystopian reminder of overzealous nuclear power expectations born in the 1970s and later scrapped in lieu of future needs. Behold the Satsop Nuclear Power Plant. Never activated or structurally completed, the 1,800 acre plant now functions as a for-rent movie set (most recently for “Transformers: Age of Extinction”), military training ground and an active business park. Demolition was slated for 1995, but nothing came of the proposal. Satsop claimed the title as one of the largest municipal bond defaults in United States history. Mother Nature slowly reclaims the concrete skeleton of big plans gone awry. Enjoy a series of photographs from the site.










http://www.sfgate.com/local/slideshow/Powerless-ghostly-remains-of-Satsop-s-unused-113259/photo-8297868.php

July 20, 2015

Trump pinatas are hit in Hispanic communities

Donald Trump is leading in some polls in the Republican race for president, but the controversial anti-immigration candidate is also taking some hits -- literally.

In Mexico, the Trump piñata is a popular item.

"They are the talk of the town," said Hector Barajas, a strategist for the Republican Party.

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Watch report: Trump pinatas arrive in Sacramento

Barajas has four of the piñatas at his Elk Grove home. His family brought them up from Mexico and they may be the first to enter California.

Barajas posted pictures on Facebook and quickly generated 115 likes.

"I've got friends coming up from everywhere saying, 'I want one, I want one, I want one,'" Barajas told KCRA 3.

The piñatas are a hit in the Hispanic community following Trump's comments during his presidential campaign announcement last month.
http://m.kcra.com/news/trump-pinatas-a-hit-in-mexico-come-to-sacramento/34209918

July 20, 2015

Mexican American laborer (working in 107 degree heat) responds to Trump

Perhaps even more popular was a video of a construction worker offering a barbed response to Trump in Spanish, all while continuing to work in 107-degree heat. “Look, asshole, this is my drug” he says, raising a mallet in one hand, “and this is my booze,” showing a hammer in the other. The YouTube clip has more than half a million views.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2015/07/19/donald_trump_john_mccain_and_immigration_the_hispanic_community_s_response.html

July 19, 2015

People get naked to save trees in Berkeley

Source: sfgate


Dozens of people stripped naked on the UC Berkeley campus today to protest what they say is an unnecessary and potentially harmful FEMA-funded proposal to clear thousands of trees in the East Bay hills.




The event was orchestrated by the Tree Spirit Project whose mission is “to raise awareness of the critical role trees play in our lives, both globally and personally.” Jack Gescheidt, who founded the project, does this partly by taking fine-art photographs of people, often naked, communing with trees and nature.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency in March allocated $5.7 million to the California Office of Emergency Services to remove eucalyptus trees as part of fire hazard abatement in Claremont Canyon — scene of a devastating wildfire in 1991 — and other nearby areas, such as Tilden Park and Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve. The funds will be distributed to UC Berkeley, the city of Oakland, and the East Bay Regional Parks District (EBRPD).

Read more: http://blog.sfgate.com/inberkeley/2015/07/18/people-get-naked-to-save-trees-in-berkeley/

July 19, 2015

State GOP worries that Trump's trash talk could hurt its image

We've got 15-16 very serious people running for president — and one clown," fumed Shawn Steel, California's representative to the Republican National Committee, the GOP's organizing body. "Trump is a pig, and he's coming in upsetting every cart he can find, throwing dishes off the table."

"Intolerable and inexcusable," declared the state Assembly Republican leader, Kristin Olsen of Modesto. "Somebody who has never been active in the party and is looking for his 15 minutes of fame."

The derision sounds personal because it is.


For years California Republicans have tried to change their party's image, to invite everyone into the pool — especially Latinos, whose enmity arose after a 1994 GOP effort to block immigrants from state services. And now, the architecturally coiffed, anger-venting Trump has cannonballed in, disrupting the presidential race with factually incorrect and caustic criticisms of immigrants from Mexico.

This is the same Donald Trump who during the last campaign promoted race-inflected allegations about the birthplace of the nation's first black president. He is a man with a penchant for brazen statements, so there is some hope among Republicans that the damage will be limited to Trump himself.
But the party's negative national image has long thwarted the state party's efforts to reboot its image, particularly among women and Latinos who are key to winning here. And Trump right now appears to be an undeniable threat to perpetuate that problem. So many Republicans are running for president that even a showman with support from less than 1 in 5 voters is running strongly enough to win an almost certain role in debates that begin next month and stretch through the fall. Having attracted so much attention already, why would he stop?

http://www.latimes.com/local/politics/la-me-pol-california-politics-trump-20150719-story.html