Taxpayer Rape - The Education Industry Lines their Pockets

In 2011, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie succeeded in tying the pay of school superintendents to enrollment, with a maximum salary aligned with Christie’s pay – $175,000.

Education Administrators have raped the taxpayers

• K through 12 Administrators are lining their pockets while their schools sink into a lower Hell of illiteracy, drop outs and fired teachers.
• Public college administrators often pull down $400,000 a year plus housing and car "allowances"

With California’s public school system facing economic uncertainties – even with the passage of a tax increase under Proposition 30 – some of the most financially troubled districts have been elevating the payroll for top administrators, a review of district data shows.

In the 2012-13 school year, a record 188 districts – with about 2.6 million students – have landed on a special California Department of Education list designed to sound the alarm on possible financial peril.

California Watch reports that one is the Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation’s second-largest district, which has been buried under a cumulative $2.8 billion deficit for the past five years and has eliminated more than 12,000 teaching and staff positions.

Los Angeles Unified pays Superintendent John Deasy $384,948 a year, about five times the salary of the average teacher. Deasy turned down an increase in his base pay, from $275,000 to $330,000, when he became superintendent in 2011, but accepted the raise in 2012.

Since 2009, the district has raised its superintendent’s salary 32 percent.

Also in the financial basement is the South Monterey County Joint Union High School District. Between 2010 and 2012, average teacher pay dropped 13.5 percent, from $86,703 to $75,018.

But after a takeover of the district in 2009, state officials awarded a $24,606 pay boost, also to be paid by the district, to top administrator John Bernard.

The resulting salary of $201,606, which remains in place for new State Administrator Daniel Moirao, is more than the base pay of Tom Torlakson, the state superintendent of public instruction, and Gov. Jerry Brown, who get $143,571 and $165,288, respectively.

A California Watch examination of 40 of the largest districts on the financial watch list revealed that 21 have raised their superintendents’ salaries since 2009. Some of the raises are modest – a small percentage. But others are more dramatic. Among them:

• The Riverside Unified School District – which has made $100 million in cutbacks since 2008-09 – raised Superintendent Richard Miller’s total pay for the current school year from $267,208 to $314,963, including benefits, a boost of 18 percent. Since 2009, the district has raised its superintendent’s salary more than 14 percent.
• The Lynwood Unified School District, which projects a 2012-13 operating deficit of $6.8 million, raised its superintendent’s base pay by about 23 percent, from $200,000 to $245,000, two years ago. Counting benefits, district chief Edward Velasquez makes $287,681.
• The Alvord Unified School District in Riverside has seen the superintendent’s pay and benefits increase from $192,375 in 2009-10 to $249,060 this fiscal year, a boost of nearly 30 percent. Teacher salaries range from $57,136 to $113,460.

Last year, voter approval of a tax increase under Prop. 30 relieved pressure from schools that were facing steep budget cuts. But the initiative, spearheaded by Brown, comes amid a national debate over high salaries for superintendents.

In February 2011, against heavy opposition, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie succeeded in tying the pay of superintendents to enrollment, with a maximum salary aligned with Christie’s pay – $175,000.

And the rape of the taxpayer goes
on and on and on.

Districts with more than 10,000 students can apply for a waiver to pay its superintendent slightly more.

“In these hard economic times, superintendent salaries in New Jersey are costing taxpayers more than $100 million per year,” the governor’s office said in announcing the reforms. The state estimated an initial savings of nearly $10 million.


New York is pursuing similar legislation for school district superintendents across the board. Currently, the state caps the salaries, at $166,572, only of those who head the state’s 37 regional education agencies.

No such efforts to cap salaries are under way in California.



For the full article go to California Watch.

Superintendents' salaries increase

School district	Percent increase	2009-10 salary	2012-13 salary
Los Angeles Unified**	32	$250,000.00	$330,000.00
Alvord Unified	29.5	$192,375.00	$249,060.00
Garvey	23.2	$178,930.00	$220,382.00
Lynwood Unified**	22.5	$200,000.00	$245,000.00
Desert Sands Unified(c)	17.2	$238,905.00	$279,884.00
Murrieta Valley Unified(a)	15.3	$210,374.00	$242,626.00
Riverside Unified	14.8	$274,409.00	$314,963.00
Walnut Valley Unified	14.3	$266,666.00	$304,773.00
South Monterey County Joint Union High**	13.6	$177,492.00	$201,606.00
Buena Park Elementary	12.8	$227,857.00	$257,119.00
Santa Ana Unified	12.5	$295,810.00	$332,785.00
Centralia Elementary(d)	10.5	$179,406.00	$198,247.00
Folsom Cordova Unified	9.6	$246,578.00	$270,263.00
Fairfield-Suisun Unified(b)	8.8	$309,742.00	$337,116.00
Ramona Unified	8.1	$212,608.00	$229,725.00
Coachella Valley Unified	7.2	$234,797.00	$251,619.00
Paso Robles Joint Unified **	6.8	$161,813.00	$172,767.00
San Ysidro	4	$181,793.00	$189,113.00
Val Verde Unified	2.7	$257,260.00	$264,225.00
Lake Elsinore Unified	1.7	$260,970.00	$265,330.00
Palm Springs Unified	1.7	$258,455.00	$262,902.00

Liberals vote to keep Hetch Hetchy underwater

Liberal Hypocrisy
San Francisco blocks effort by environmentalists to drain and restore Hetch Hetchy in Yosemite

• Liberal Democrats on the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission vote 5 to 0 to block the restoration of Hetch Hetchy in Yosemite.

As a Conservative conservationist I would love to see all of Yosemite fully restored and protected.  It appears liberal Democrats in San Francisco disagree.

In a move that could be the political death knell for environmentalists' efforts to drain Hetch Hetchy Reservoir in Yosemite National Park, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission has approved a plan to block the draining of the famed reservoir unless the 26 cities and water districts in San Mateo, Santa Clara and Alameda counties that receive Hetch Hetchy water give their approval.

The 5-0 vote, which came after 13 minutes of discussion at a low-profile commission meeting on Tuesday, means that unless the move is overturned by a lawsuit, environmental groups can no longer hope to drain the reservoir simply by winning approval from the voters of San Francisco reports the Contra Costa Times.


Today's Jackass Award goes to
the Democrats of San Francisco. 

The reservoir in Yosemite and the Tuolumne River that flows into it are the main water source for 2.5 million Bay Area residents. Although San Francisco owns and operates the system of pipes, dams and tunnels, only one-third of the users of the water live in San Francisco. The other 1.7 million live on the Peninsula, in parts of San Jose and Alameda County.

Environmental groups who favor draining the reservoir reacted strongly.

"They've given veto power to non-San Franciscans. That's wrong," said Mike Marshall, executive director of Restore Hetch Hetchy. "It's like giving Apple computer customers a say in how the products are built. The folks on the Peninsula are customers, and the folks in San Francisco are the owners. They sell water to the customers."

Marshall said his group may sue at some point to try to overturn the new rules. He said he supports a vote of the 1.7 million people who receive Hetch Hetchy water outside of San Francisco, or a statewide vote, on the future of the water system, but not giving veto power over San Francisco voters' decisions to the 26 city councils and water districts whose citizens receive Hetch Hetchy water.

(Hetch Hetchy.org)

Hetch Hetchy Valley - Now Underwater
A beautiful glacial valley in the northwest corner of Yosemite National Park in California. It is currently completely flooded by O'Shaughnessy Dam to provide water to San Francisco.

A national park destroyed to better serve the liberals of San Francisco
and the Bay Area.

Legislature hides info on payments made to them

The State Legislature says:  "Go screw yourself."

• State Senate and Assembly refuse to release information on payments to legislators.

State legislators billed taxpayers more than $450,000 for on-the-job driving in the last legislative year, but officials won't say where the lawmakers went.

The Legislature began reimbursing members for work-related travel in their personal cars, including trips from their home to the Capitol, in Dec. 2011, after a program providing state-leased cars to members was cut by the Citizens Compensation Commission. The change saved taxpayers nearly $240,000 in its first year, a Sacramento Bee analysis found.

The mileage reimbursements varied significantly by member, however. Some legislators declined to seek reimbursement, while others received large sums for driving thousands of miles for legislative or other official business. While some of the members logging the most miles represent vast, rural districts within driving distance of the Capitol, others from geographically compact districts in Southern California also racked up thousands of dollars in reimbursement costs.

The state Senate and the Assembly have denied a public records request from The Bee to review mileage logbooks legislators submitted when seeking the 53-cents-a-mile reimbursements for car travel related to work in the last legislative year. Officials in both houses cited "concerns regarding privacy, security and legislative privilege" in letters explaining why they are withholding the individual logbooks. Both houses did provide monthly claim sheets filed by legislators, which show overall miles and reimbursement totals that had already been provided to The Bee electronically.

Phillip Ung, policy advocate for California Common Cause, criticized the decision, calling it a sign that the Legislative Open Records Act "continues to be the least transparency-promoting law in the state of California."

"I think if legislators are going to be asking the public to reimburse them for their gas, the public has the right to know where these members are driving," he said.

Peter Scheer, executive director of the First Amendment Coalition, also said he does not think information contained in the logbooks merit exemptions based on the concerns cited by the Legislature. He said the logbooks could help the public judge "whether their legislators were submitting accurate and fair reimbursement requests or are they instead abusing the reimbursement privilege to pass on to taxpayers what should be a personal expense."

Read more here: http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2013/01/legislature-wont-say-where-legislators-drive-with.html#storylink=cpy

"Lock your doors and load your guns"

"Lock your doors and load your guns"

San Bernardino City Attorney Jim Penman

A 50% increase in murders and a shrunken police force. 

The gunshots ripped through a house party here, an hour before midnight on New Year's Eve, wounding three and killing one. It was a brutal, if fitting, cap to a year that left this city bloody and broke.

Five months after San Bernardino filed for bankruptcy - the third California city to seek Chapter 9 protections in 2012 - residents are confronting a transformed and more perilous city.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that after violent crime had dropped steadily for years, the homicide rate shot up more than 50 percent in 2012 as a shrinking police force struggled to keep order in a city long troubled by street gangs that have migrated from Los Angeles, 60 miles to the west.

"Lock your doors and load your guns," the city attorney, James Penman, said he routinely told worried residents asking how they can protect themselves.

This is one of the prices that cities often pay for falling into bankruptcy: the police force is cut, crime skyrockets and residents are left trying to ensure their own safety.

"Lock your doors and load your guns"
San Bernardino City Attorney Jim Penman told a town hall meeting that residents should lock their doors and load their guns because the bankrupt city’s police department would be unable to protect them.

City Attorney: "Lock your doors, load your guns"

San Bernardino, CA Second Poorest City in U.S.

A little over a year ago, this city's falling crime rate was a success story. An aggressive gang-intervention effort helped cut the homicide rate by nearly half since the 2005 peak, and in 2011 the program was held up by the National League of Cities as a model for other cities to follow.

But nearly all that progress was erased last year as San Bernardino collapsed under the weight of the same forces that have hit cities all over California and threaten to plunge still more of them into insolvency: high foreclosure rates that eroded the city's tax revenue, stubborn unemployment, and pension obligations that the city could no longer afford.

Stockton, which filed for bankruptcy in June, has followed a similarly grim path into insolvency, logging more homicides last year than ever before. In Vallejo, which filed for bankruptcy in 2008, cuts left the police force a third smaller, and the city became a hub for prostitution.

In San Bernardino, a city of about 213,000 people, dozens of officers have been laid off since the bankruptcy filing, leaving the police force with 264 officers, down from 350 in 2009. Those who remain call in sick more often, said Police Chief Robert Handy. Emergency response times are up. Nonemergency calls often get no response.

At the same time, as part of a plan to reduce the state prison population, nearly 4,000 criminals who would once have been sent to state prison have been put in the custody of San Bernardino County law enforcement authorities. Some have been released, putting more low-level criminals back on the streets of San Bernardino, Hardy said, and adding to the challenges already faced by the police.

"All of our crime is up, and the city has a very high crime rate per capita anyway," Handy said. "I can't police the city with much less than this. We're dangerously close as it is."


California city to file for bankruptcy

Violence increasing

As lawyers wrangle in court over San Bernardino's plan to cut $26 million from its budget and defer some of its pension payments, city officials say there is little more they can do to turn back the rising tide of violence.

Mayor Patrick Morris said he was even looking into eliminating the Police Department entirely, and relying on the county Sheriff's Department for law enforcement, which could save money. Many other city services, he said, have already been cut "almost into nonexistence."

"The parks department is shredded, the libraries similarly," Morris said. "My office is down to nobody. I've got literally no one left." (Morris' son now serves as a volunteer chief of staff for the mayor's office.)

With the city unable to provide, residents have begun to take more responsibility. Volunteers help with park maintenance, work at the city animal shelter and, in some cases, even replace broken streetlights.

Neighborhood watch groups have also grown in number in the last year, as they did in Vallejo and Stockton after those cities filed for bankruptcy. There are now more than 100 groups and counting, up from 76 last year. Handy said the groups would play a "huge part" in fighting crime, especially given the cut to the police.

In less affluent parts of the city, though, community groups have had less influence. On the West Side, traditionally a gang-controlled area, one resident, Elisa Cortez, said that almost all the neighbors on her block had recently moved in, and that she did not know them.

On a recent Saturday, Cortez repeatedly called the city about a stray dog that lay dead on the sidewalk just outside her house. No one came. "We can't get a hold of anybody to get rid of it," she said.

Salary doubts

The city is still doing regular trash collection - at least for now - if not dead animal removal. But after 15 years driving a garbage truck in the city, Carlos Teran does not know if the city will have enough money to pay him next month. His payroll is now month-to-month, he said.

Teran owes more than $200,000 on a house in Bloods gang territory that is now worth closer to $50,000, he said.

Up the street, a tree-lined avenue with views of the nearby foothills, four candles marked the spot where a gang member was killed in a drive-by shooting. Across the street, metal thieves have gutted one of the foreclosed homes that dot the neighborhood, ripping air conditioners and electrical boxes off the walls long before the police responded.

"It's scary," said Teran's wife, Elizabeth. "You hear gunshots. You have to watch your surroundings."
Some of Teran's co-workers, even the ones who have not been laid off, have left San Bernardino. The Terans, who both grew up in the city, have considered doing the same, walking away from their underwater mortgage and moving their five children to a place where they can leave the house wearing their blue soccer shirts without fear.

But they have decided to stay. Teran is the block captain for a neighborhood watch group that also cleans up a park every month. Like other residents in the rougher parts of San Bernardino, he said he knew the area well enough to feel safe here.

"I know people say this is a shameful city, one of the worst places to live, one of the worst cities to raise your kids," Teran said. "But down deep in my heart, I love this city. And one day it will turn around."

Read more: San Francisco Chronicle

Amtrak lost $5.79 for each passenger - Now comes the Bullet Train

California already has Amtrak  -  No Bullet Train is needed. 

A Government Run by Idiots
In 2013 Amtrak California will lose $5.79 for each passenger.

• If the insane and overpriced Bullet Train ever manages to come on line it will pull passengers from the existing Amtrak service causing Amtrak to lose even more money.
• But no one dares ask questions.  It might upset the free flow of billions in corrupt money to businesses and unions building the Bullet Train.

Amtrak's San Joaquin line, the Valley's only passenger train service, posted record ridership in 2012, attracting more than 1.1 million passengers last year.

The record number of people riding the rails comes even as controversy continues to boil over plans to run high-speed trains through the region from San Francisco to Los Angeles.

The Fresno Bee reports that despite the rising ridership and revenue from ticket sales, the San Joaquins -- along with Amtrak's other California lines and many others across the country -- remain money-losing propositions. In its 2013 budget projections, the National Railroad Passenger Corp. -- the formal name for Amtrak -- estimated a loss of $5.79 for every passenger riding on the San Joaquin trains.

The proposed California Bullet Train will lose millions every
year of operation.  But worse, it will draw passengers away
the the already money losing Amtrak train service.

Of 45 Amtrak passenger train lines across the U.S., only five make money. Among the money losers, only three lose less per passenger than the San Joaquins.

The San Joaquins, along with the Pacific Surfliner and Capitol Corridor trains, are run by Amtrak under contracts with Caltrans' Division of Rail, which subsidizes the service. Caltrans supports the San Joaquin Corridor to the tune of about $90 million a year.

Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/2013/01/01/3119238/amtraks-san-joaquin-line-posts.html#storylink=cpy

The Amtrak San Joaquins -- six daily trains northbound and six southbound between Bakersfield and the Bay Area and Sacramento -- also saw revenue from ticket sales rise in the 2012 fiscal year to about $38.7 million. That's a boost of about $3 million, or 8.3%, over 2011.

The growth in ridership on the Valley trains corresponds to similar increases seen by Amtrak nationwide -- a record 31.2 million passengers, said Christina Leeds, an Amtrak spokeswoman.

Much of the growth nationwide was in the Northeast Corridor and on the West Coast. Three of Amtrak's six busiest corridors were in California -- the Pacific Surfliner trains that run from San Diego to San Luis Obispo, the Capitol Corridor line that links Sacramento to San Jose, and the San Joaquins, which saw a 7.2% jump in ridership.

Amtrak attributes the growth to improving passenger services including e-tickets and WiFi aboard its trains, and travelers who are weary of high fuel prices for automobiles as well as congested highways and airports.

Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/2013/01/01/3119238/amtraks-san-joaquin-line-posts.html#storylink=cpy

(Fresno Bee)

San Diego Mayor Stops Pot Shop Crackdowns

San Diego Mayor Filner stops medical marijuana prosecutions

• Mayor stands up to Obama's drug war insanity.

Even insane Democrats can see the light at times.  Democrat San Diego Mayor Bob Filner ordered a halt Thursday to the prosecution of marijuana dispensaries in the city by directing the end of targeted code enforcements against the shops.

 .

The move comes two days after he promised medical marijuana advocates that he would take on City Attorney Jan Goldsmith over the issue to which Goldsmith responded that Filner need only assert his authority over the police and neighborhood code compliance departments to end the prosecutions.

Filner sent a Thursday letter titled “Stop the Crackdown on Marijuana Dispensaries” to Kelly Broughton, director of the Development Services Department, which oversees code compliance. He told him to stop code enforcement against marijuana dispensaries and to stop forwarding such cases to the City Attorney’s Office for prosecution reports the San Diego Union Tribune.

 .

Filner inferred in the letter that other violations unrelated to marijuana could still be pursued at the dispensaries.

 .

“To be clear, if there are general code enforcement or health and safety issues arising from these businesses, you are expected to enforce those laws against these businesses in the same manner you would any other business,” Filner wrote.

 ,

More than 200 medical marijuana collectives have been closed down in San Diego and Imperial counties since U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy and her colleagues announced in 2011 sweeping enforcement actions aimed at distributors in California.
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Some closures were attributed to settlements with the City Attorney’s Office — before and after medical marijuana activists in the city failed to qualify a regulate-and-tax initiative for the November ballot.

_________________________________________________

Feds Sentence Aaron Sandusky to 10 Years for Medical Marijuana

• A victim of the insane Obama Justice Department

A Southern California man was sentenced Monday to 10 years in federal prison for operating medical marijuana dispensaries, even though they are legal in the state.

Rancho Cucamonga resident Aaron Sandusky, 42, ran three Inland Empire dispensaries known as G3 Holistics. “I want to apologize to those with me and their families who have been victimized by the federal government who has not recognized the voters of this state," Sandusky said in court Monday. His G3 dispensaries served 17,000 medical marijuana patients, according to marijuana advocacy group Americans for Safe Access.

If Obama knew how to read he would know that
states have the right to run their own affairs.

"It's really sad that Justice Department is able to find the resources to repeatedly undermine President Obama's campaign pledges not to interfere with state medical marijuana laws," Tom Angell, chairman of marijuana advocacy group Marijuana Majority, told The Huffington Post.

The U.S. Attorney's office had sent Sandusky letters in October 2011 warning that the stores violated federal law, and, in response, Sandusky closed two of them. The next month, federal agents raided the remaining store, in Upland, twice. They seized marijuana plants and $11,500 in cash, effectively wiping out Sandusky's business.

With medical marijuana legal in California since 1996, but illegal under federal law, Sandusky's case came down to the ruling of U.S. District Judge Percy Anderson. Because of the amount of marijuana involved, Sandusky received the mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison.

California's four U.S. attorneys launched a crackdown on the state's marijuana dispensaries in 2011, and hundreds of retail stores have shut down. In September 2012, the feds began to focus on shutting down pot shops in LA, where more than 700 dispensaries operate.

"We have had more than 90 percent compliance with owners shutting down when warned, and we'll continue to shut down more," Mrozek told HuffPost.

Democrats want to register your ammo

Liberal Assembly-dumbass Nancy Skinner

Left-wing Liberal Trash Assemblywoman from Berkeley wants to register your ammo


Socialist Democrats in the People's Republic of California stood on the bodies of murdered children to increase their control over guns and ammo.

Now Democrats want to register your ammo.  Idiot Democrats naturally do not bother to explain that the horrible killing of children in Connecticut was done with guns and ammo purchased legally.  So how registering your ammo would have any impact is a mystery.  But facts have nothing to do with liberalism.  Liberalism is about feeling good.  Not facts.
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State and local leaders held a moment of silence Monday to pay respects to the 26 victims of the Sandy Hook shooting. "It is easier in California to buy bullets than to buy alcohol, cigarettes, or Sudafed cold medicine," said State Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner (Socialist - Berkeley).

Her proposal would require ammunition dealers to be licensed, require buyers to present ID, require that all sales be reported to the Department of Justice with local law enforcement notified when transactions involve large quantities, and it would ban conversion kits that allow high-capacity magazines.

Constitutional Federalist Assemblyman Tim Donnelly of Twin Peaks says that won't work. "None of these measures, had they been in place, would have done a single thing to prevent what happened," he said.

In fact, Donnelly is readying a different proposal to get to have at least one anonymous person at each school armed. "We haven't had a single hijacking since 9/11 and I think it's in large part due to the presence of air marshals. So, why don't we have a school marshals program?" he asked.

(ABC - KGO News)

Huell Howser dies at 67

It is a sad day in California.

Iconic TV host Huell Howser has died, according to KCET.

Howser, who hosted several public television programs including California's Gold, was 67.

He died Sunday night of natural causes, said Ayn Allen, communication manager for KCET, which produces California's Gold.

"This is a tremendous personal and professional loss to his friends and colleagues, as well as his legions of fans," the station said in an emailed statement. " "Huell elevated the simple joys and undiscovered nuggets of living in our great state. He made the magnificence and power of nature seem accessible by bringing it into our living rooms. Most importantly, he reminded us to find the magic and wonderment in our lives every day."

A tribute to Huell Howser of California's Gold

The statement applauds Howser for bringing attention to previously obscure parts of the state and showing the wonder of them.

"From pastrami sandwiches and artwork woven from lint to the exoticism of cactus gardens and the splendor of Yosemite--he brought us the magic, the humor and poignancy of our region," the statement says. "We will miss him very much."

He retired in November, amid speculation that he might be ill, but he didn't provide details at that time.

Howser moved to Los Angeles in 1991 from his native Tennessee, according to his website, Huell Howser Productions.

The Tennessee native and Marine Corps veteran began his television career in Nashville on commercial television. After stints in New York City and Los Angeles, Howser joined public television station KCET in Los Angeles.

"California's Gold," after 19 years in production, has been called unslick and charming. His shows are often sprinkled with Howser uttering "That's amazing!"

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/01/07/5097913/california-gold-host-huell-howser.html#storylink=cpy

Democrat wants a Homeless Bill of Rights

Democrats say that a bankrupt California should provide the homeless "safe and affordable" housing

• Free crap for everyone . . . don't worry, some other guy somewhere will pay the bill.

California law protects its residents from discrimination based on sex, race, religion and sexual orientation.

Now a state lawmaker is pushing to add another category to the list: homelessness.

New legislation titled the "Homeless Bill of Rights" by Democratic Assemblyman Tom Ammiano of San Francisco is meant to keep communities from rousting people who have nowhere to turn.

The measure is sure to be controversial in cities such as Sacramento, which has battled for years over "tent cities" for homeless people, and San Francisco, where voters passed an ordinance barring sitting or lying on sidewalks.


The heart of Assembly Bill 5 would give legal protection to people engaging in life-sustaining activities on public property. Among other activities, it specifically mentions sleeping, congregating, panhandling, urinating and "collecting and possessing goods for recycling, even if those goods contain alcoholic residue."

Ammiano declined to comment to the Sacramento Bee on Thursday about the bill.  His measure also would give homeless residents the right to sleep in cars that are legally parked, to receive funds through public welfare programs, to receive legal counsel when cited – even for infractions – and to possess personal property on public lands. Local officials could not force the homeless into shelters or social service programs..

The bill states that homeless Californians have the right to safe, affordable housing and 24-hour access to clean water and safe restrooms, but Paul Boden, a spokesman for one of its sponsors, said the measure is not meant to require cities and counties to add new facilities.

Boden and other advocates of AB5 say that existing laws to sweep the homeless from public view are similar to Jim Crow laws of decades ago in the segregated South, and to "anti-Okie" laws of the 1930s that prohibited bringing extremely poor people into California.

The measure "would require local governments to leave people in peace who are not committing crimes," said Boden, who describes his group as a collective of West Coast social justice organizations.

Boden said homeless people routinely tell him they have been harassed for sleeping, loitering or sitting down, and the bill's supporters maintain that constitutes an attack on basic civil rights.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/01/04/5091499/california-lawmaker-proposes-homeless.html#storylink=cpy

Sepulveda Basin Park leveled by Army Corps of Engineers



Big Government Stupidity  -  U.S. Army Corps leveled the Sepulveda Basin Park in order to 'Restore' it

• The morons at the Corps claim they leveled the park to stop drug dealing and gay cruising.
• The Corps kept their plans hidden from the public.

As a Conservative Conservationist I watch in horror at the stupidity of people killing their own habitat.  The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers joined in on this insanity by leveling the area around the Sepulveda Basin Wildlife Reserve in Los Angeles.

It completely leveled as many as 80 acres at the lush reserve along the Los Angeles River. It caught the San Fernando Valley Audubon Society, environments and others who enjoy visiting the park  completely off-guard.

An area that just a week ago was lush habitat on the Sepulveda Basin's wild side, home to one of the most diverse bird populations in Southern California, has been reduced to dirt and broken limbs — by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Head of the Army Corps of Engineers
(AP file photo)

Audubon Society members stumbled upon the barren landscape last weekend during their annual Christmas bird count. Now, they are calling for an investigation into the loss of about 43 acres of cottonwood and willow groves, undergrowth and marshes that had maintained a rich inventory of mammals, reptiles and 250 species of birds.

Much of the area's vegetation had been planted in the 1980s, part of an Army Corps project that turned that portion of the Los Angeles River flood plain into a designated wildlife preserve.

Nearly all of the vegetation — native and non-native — had been removed. Decomposed granite trails, signs, stone structures and other improvements bought and installed with public money had been plowed under.

The Army Corps gave the public little clue about its plans for the region, which makes the devastation that much worse for environmentalist. The Army Corps said an environmental impact report wouldn't be necessary, because its effort would not significantly disturb wildlife and habitat, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The Audubon Society said on its Facebook page the corps' “vegetation management project" promised to carefully remove non-native trees and shrubs from the area and also remove dead limbs and debris along Haskell Creek. Instead whole swaths of the wildlife area were completely bulldozed, including lots of native foliage like mature Cottonwoods and Willows. A pond was completely filled in. A smooth hiking path through the area is a muddy road scarred by tire tracks. The group called it "a mechanized blitzkrieg assault."


Destruction of Sepulveda Basin by Army Corp of Engineers
Recently the Army Corp of engineers devastated the Sepulveda Basin destroying the environment for local and migrating birds. This video shows the destruction of one of the most beautiful location of the San Fernando Valley.

Army Corps Deputy District Cmdr. Alexander Deraney told the Times that "somehow, we did not clearly communicate" its plans to environmentalists and community groups. He promised the corps would "make the process more transparent in the future."

A 61-page document that local environmental groups never saw outlined plans to mow down plants in the region, spray herbicides for two years to keep out invasive species and then seed native plants in the fourth year, according to The Daily News.

The Audubon Society complains this will change a "naturally evolving, low maintenance habitat dominated by diverse native vegetation into an unnaturally open mono-culture of salt grass, will require many years for the habitat to recover, and will create a large, unsightly scar on the Wildlife Area."

The other reason given for razing the area is that authorities say it has been host to drug dealing, homeless encampments and gay cruising.

Deborah Lamb, environmental coordinator for the Corps' Los Angeles District office, wrote in an e-mail to the Audubon Society (obtained by The Daily News):

"The overall intent is to comply with Corps' policy regarding the Dam structural integrity and improve the safety of the area by eliminating hiding places for lewd activity and homeless camps, and reduce crime in the area by making the area more visible to LAPD patrolling the area."

(laist.com)

  

 

This is what remains of a large tree destroyed by the Army Corps of Engineers in the Sepulveda Basin Wildlife Refuge. The San Fernando Audubon Society is up in arms over the razing of more than 80 acres of the refuge over the past week.