Donations to Anthony Bologna Children’s Fund, c/o Washington Mutual Bank, 845 Laurel St., San Carlos, CA 94070 or checks may be made payable to the Bologna Family Fund, c/o Wells Fargo Private Client Services, 420 Montgomery St., Seventh Floor, SF, CA 94104.
AP Weighs in on Bologna Murders, Still Nothing from L.A. Times
SAN FRANCISCO—The scene repeats itself every day on city streets: A driver gets stuck bumper-to-bumper, blocking the intersection and another car’s ability to complete a left turn.
San Francisco authorities say that was enough to prompt Edwin Ramos to unload an AK47 assault weapon on a man and his two sons, killing all three.
The murders immediately sparked public outrage, which only intensified when authorities revealed that Ramos, 21, is an illegal immigrant who had managed to avoid deportation despite previous brushes with the law. . .
Governor set to slash state workers’ pay
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger plans to sign an executive order next week intended to temporarily reduce pay for 200,000 state workers to the federal minimum wage of $6.55 per hour to preserve cash until lawmakers reach a budget deal, according to a draft copy of the order obtained by The Bee.
The governor’s order also would terminate about 22,000 retired annuitants, temporary workers and seasonal employees, as well as impose a hard freeze that blocks the hiring of roughly 1,700 new employees per month.
Administration officials said the Republican governor expects to take the action Monday, when the budget will be four weeks late as Democrats and Republicans continue to spar over how to resolve a $15.2 billion shortfall. . .
Why you want this tax hike
By Antonio Villaraigosa
In 2005, I asked Angelenos to join me in re-imagining their city as a dynamic world capital defined by its flexibility and mobility, not by traffic and smog.
I challenged them to imagine communities connected not by bigger, wider highways but by a real network of public transit options—rapid buses, trains and subway lines—connecting every neighborhood in our county’s 88 cities.
I asked them to imagine cleaner and greener neighborhoods where we each pitch in to combat global warming and create a more sustainable city. . .
Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008
Hurricane Dolly makes landfall in Texas
BROWNSVILLE, Texas (CNN)—The eye of Hurricane Dolly reached land Wednesday afternoon on South Padre Island, Texas, the National Hurricane Center said.
The storm was packing steady winds of 100 mph and gusts reaching 120 mph, the center said in its 2 p.m. ET advisory.
The storm, the second of the Atlantic hurricane season, had moved out to 35 miles east of Brownsville, Texas, by 1 p.m. CT (2 p.m. ET), the center said. Earlier, it had been just 30 miles from the city. . .
Seniors at Risk: Sex Offenders, Parolees Living at Nursing Homes
Hundreds of thousands of senior citizens are at risk because they are living among registered sex offenders, parolees and residents with violent histories, according to a nursing home watchdog who studied residents at nursing homes, assisted living homes and long term care facilities.
“What is shocking is we have now found 1,600 registered sex offenders across the country [in facilities with seniors],” said Wes Bledsoe, who is set to testify tomorrow at a Congressional hearing on predators in these facilities. Bledsoe tracked the number of offenders living at these homes over the past four years by matching addresses from sex offender registries with a database of care facilities from Medicare.
Bledsoe said that in many of these cases the offenders are young adults who are often placed in the facilities because of disabilities or behavioral problems. . .
White House drops opposition to housing bill
WASHINGTON – President Bush dropped his opposition Wednesday to legislation aiming to calm the chaotic housing market despite his objections to a $3.9 billion provision. The House was expected to vote on the bill Wednesday, and it could become law as early as this week.
Under the bill, the government would help struggling homeowners get new, cheaper loans and would be allowed to offer troubled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac a cash infusion.
The Bush administration and lawmakers in both parties teamed to negotiate the measure, which pairs Democrats’ top priorities — federal help for homeowners facing foreclosure and $3.9 billion for neighborhoods hit hardest by the housing crisis — with Republicans’ goal of reining in mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac while reassuring financial markets of their stability. . .
Royce Pushes for Solutions to Lower Gas Prices
Today, Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA) joined his Republican colleagues on the steps of the U.S. Capitol to unveil the “American Energy Act.” Royce is an original cosponsor of this legislation which will increase the supply of American-made energy, improve conservation and efficiency, and promote renewable and alternative energy technologies.
“High gas prices are hurting the pocketbook of families across America. Family budgets are strained. I am pushing for short and long-term solutions to lower gas prices and to address our future energy needs,” said Royce.
The current moratoriums on new forms of domestic energy production are driving up energy costs and they risk sinking the economy. This legislation will open up our deep water resources, open the Arctic coastal plain, allow for development of our nation’s oil shale, and cut red tape to allow for the construction of new refineries – refineries that haven’t been built in over 30 years in this country. Just last week the Chairman of the Federal Reserve said the oil market was so tight that only a one percent increase in supply could result in a ten percent decrease in price. . .
Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008
Officials try to explain suspect’s release
Man charged with killing man, 2 sons was jailed in March
Authorities couldn’t fully explain Monday how an alleged gang member and suspected illegal immigrant was able walk out of jail in San Francisco – three months before police say he shot and killed a father and two sons.
Edwin Ramos, 21, appeared in court Monday on charges stemming from the June 22 slayings of Anthony Bologna and his sons Michael and Matthew. Police say the three were shot near their home in the Excelsior district when Anthony Bologna, driving home from a family picnic, briefly blocked the gunman’s car from completing a left turn down a narrow street.
Ramos is scheduled to enter a plea in the case on Wednesday. . .
SEN. JOHN EDWARDS CAUGHT WITH MISTRESS AND LOVE CHILD!
Vice Presidential candidate Sen. John Edwards was caught visiting his mistress and secret love child at 2:40 this morning in a Los Angeles hotel by the NATIONAL ENQUIRER.
The married ex-senator from North Carolina – whose wife Elizabeth continues to battle cancer—met with his mistress, blonde divorcee Rielle Hunter, at the Beverly Hilton on Monday night July 21 – and the NATIONAL ENQUIRER was there! He didn’t leave until early the next morning.
Rielle had driven to Los Angeles from Santa Barbara with a male friend for the rendezvous with Edwards. The former senator attended a press event Monday afternoon with L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on the topic of how to combat homelessness. . .
Immigration law means a borderline existence for U.S. wife of Mexican
Stuck in Tijuana traffic, Heather Suarez fixes her strawberry blond hair, applies her makeup and listens to country music on the car radio. This morning, she sings along.
For Heather, 29, every day is a struggle. The native of rural Kentucky didn’t know how drastically her life would change after she fell in love and married Evaristo Suarez, an illegal immigrant. . .
State’s school dropout rate a real catastrophe
By Alan Bonsteel
ALL of us who live in an Information Age are familiar with “GIGO” – Garbage in, garbage out. On July 17, the California Department of Education took GIGO to a new extreme, when it announced at a news conference a new computer system for tracking dropouts that uses phony data from Day One, and gives the schools written advice on how to come up with ever more excuses for disappearing kids that will make it look like our dropout rates are falling.
Until my organization, California Parents for Educational Choice, blew the whistle in 1998, the CDE reported a high-school dropout rate of 3.2 percent. We petitioned the State Board of Education, and proved that the real dropout rate – based on hard numbers of students enrolling and graduating – was 32percent, or 10 times what the CDE was admitting to. . .
Alan Bonsteel will be on the show at 6:00
Monday, July 21st, 2008
Slaying suspect once found sanctuary in S.F.
The man charged with killing a father and two sons on a San Francisco street last month was one of the youths who benefited from the city’s long-standing practice of shielding illegal immigrant juveniles who committed felonies from possible deportation, The Chronicle has learned.
Edwin Ramos, now 21, is being held on three counts of murder in the June 22 deaths of Tony Bologna, 48, and his sons Michael, 20, and Matthew, 16. They were shot near their home in the Excelsior district when Tony Bologna, driving home from a family picnic, briefly blocked the gunman’s car from completing a left turn down a narrow street, police say.
Ramos, a native of El Salvador whom prosecutors say is a member of a violent street gang, was found guilty of two felonies as a juvenile – a gang-related assault on a Muni passenger and the attempted robbery of a pregnant woman – according to authorities familiar with his background. . .
Obama Meets Iraqi Officials in Baghdad
BAGHDAD — Senator Barack Obama arrived in Baghdad on Monday, meeting with Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki and other senior Iraqi politicians, as an Iraqi spokesman said that the government was hopeful that foreign combat troops would withdraw in 2010.
Mr. Obama, on the latest leg of his first overseas tour as presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, arrived in the Iraqi capital in the early afternoon with an American delegation after first stopping in the southern Iraqi city of Basra.
Mr. Obama met with Mr. Maliki; the United States ambassador to Iraq, Ryan C. Crocker; the Iraqi national security adviser, Mowaffak al-Rubaie, and other Iraqi officials at the prime minister’s residence in the Green Zone. . .
FBI Probes Don Perata and Lobbyist
The FBI is investigating state Sen. Don Perata’s role in the hiring of a Washington lobbyist to push for a road project sought by a major Perata contributor, documents show.
At the urging of the powerful Oakland Democrat, local agencies in 2000 hired former Georgia Rep. Dawson Mathis to lobby the Federal Aviation Administration regarding a multimillion-dollar expressway that today links Oakland International Airport with the Harbor Bay Business Park in Alameda.
The park’s developer, Ron Cowan, has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Perata and other politicians, and for years he had sought this access road. . .
Friday, July 18th, 2008
Legislature considers raiding voter-approved funds
SACRAMENTO — Legislative leaders are drafting a complicated scheme to help close the state’s massive deficit by raiding funds voters have set aside for transportation and local government services, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Thursday, adding that it probably would force a state sales tax hike.
“It is not a good idea,” the governor said in an interview with The Times. But Schwarzenegger, anxious to get a budget passed before the state experiences a cash crisis, did not rule out signing off on such a plan.
During the half-hour interview in his office, the governor offered a broad outline of the proposal being discussed in closed-door budget negotiations. Schwarzenegger, who seemed exasperated by his inability to fix California’s fiscal dysfunction five years into his governorship, cited the borrowing plans to bolster his point that the state’s budget system was in need of reform. . .
Mayor Villaraigosa: LAUSD dropout rate even higher
Sharply disputing a state report, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Thursday said he believes the dropout rate at Los Angeles schools is even worse than the dismal 33 percent estimated by state officials.
Villaraigosa, who previously used the dropout-rate issue as leverage to take control of a handful of schools, said the new state figures released Wednesday did not take into account all relevant factors.
For example, he said, the state report did not count students who dropped out before ninth grade. . .
For Some Ohioans, Even Meat Is Out Of Reach
A generation ago, the livelihood of Gloria Nunez’s family was built on cars.
Her father worked at General Motors for 45 years before retiring. Her mother taught driver’s education. Nunez and her six siblings grew up middle class.
Things have changed considerably for this Ohio family.
Nunez’s van broke down last fall. Now, her 19-year-old daughter has no reliable transportation out of their subsidized housing complex in Fostoria, 40 miles south of Toledo, to look for a job. . .
Cubans heading to U.S.—via Mexico
HAVANA — In the face of a U.S. crackdown on illegal immigration in the waters between Cuba and Florida, Mexican authorities have reported a surge in detentions of Cubans as quick-moving smugglers shift their routes westward.
Under a 1995 proviso of U.S. immigration law known as the “wet foot, dry foot” policy, Cubans who reach U.S. territory are entitled to legal residency. With the Florida Straits under the gun, much of the traffic has been rerouted to bring migrants to Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula and then guide them overland to the U.S. border—where they are detained on illegal entry charges for just a few days.
Even before summer’s high season of human trafficking, more than 1,000 Cubans had been detained in Mexico by late June, compared with 1,359 in all of 2007. More than 11,500 made it to the U.S. border last year, 33% more than the previous year and almost double the number who arrived via Mexico in 2004. . .
THE DARK KNIGHT
The latest retelling of the Batman story came out with little fanfare three years ago when “Batman Begins” debuted. As I said then, it was a pleasant surprise and one of my favorites that year. I was reminded again how good it was, and why it received so little attention, when I turned on the TNT network last night and there was the last incarnation of the Batman story, “Batman and Robin”, with George Clooney and Arnold Schwarzenegger. That was a stinker – no wonder they gave up the franchise for eight years.
Well, three years ago Director Christopher Nolan reinvented the comic book “hero” by going back to the story’s roots. Since it was a fine film, and made a fair amount of cash, there had to be a sequel. How do you top yourself?
If you believe all the hype, he has. Me, I’m not so sure. But I’ll say this – plenty of thought went into this storyline, beginning with the concept that because Batman is so successful beating back the bad guys invading “Gotham City”, it’s time for a whole new class of criminal. Enter “The Joker”, who is really far more of a madman than a criminal. (more. . .)
