Unusual News
Unions Decline Most Everywhere in U.S. Except California
UC Berkeley professor Harley Shaiken, upon seeing the latest report on union membership from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, told the Los Angeles Times last week that “reports of labor's death have been greatly exaggerated.”
But other than a faint pulse in California and similar signs of life in 13 other states, organized labor continued to show a stead decline in health. read more
4 Million Californians Will be Without a State Senator for Next Two Years
Thanks to once-in-a-decade redistricting, one in 10 Californians will be without a state senator for the next two years, while other residents will have two state senators.
Many of the newly-drawn districts now overlap the old districts, thrusting 4 million citizens into limbo and leaving their representation in the senate as an informal agreement among senators to share constituent services. read more
Secret List of Potentially Unsafe S.F. Buildings Published
The city of San Francisco has kept a secret list of buildings that are potentially unsafe, but haven't actually been classified that way and, in many cases, haven't been inspected. They say they keep it secret because they don't want to unnecessarily frighten people or unfairly point a finger at property owners.
Wanna see the list? read more
Ex-Porn Actress Told She Can’t Teach Middle School Mostly because of Lying, Not Sex
Stacie Halas, a former porn actress known as Tiffany Six, was told by a three-person board that she won’t be getting her job back as a science teacher at Richard B. Haydock Intermediate School in Oxnard.
Although the Commission on Professional Competence unanimously concluded that Halas would not be able to overcome her notoriety as a porn actress, Judge Julie Cabos-Owen singled out Halas’ “propensity for dishonesty” as a primary reason not to let her back in the classroom. read more
Parolee Who Once Pleaded for Execution on Death Row Admits Killing Mother
A killer and rapist who begged for execution in the ‘60s, but was instead paroled in 1990, confessed to killing his 90-year-old mother last week and is back in jail.
Dennis Stanworth, 70, killed two women and raped at least four others during a Bay Area rampage in the mid-‘60s noted for its brutality. He got caught, pleaded guilty and begged for the death penalty. He got it in 1966, but it didn’t stick. read more
Kaiser Patient Records Were (Are?) Stored in Indio Couple’s House and Garage
Among the competing ideas in the complicated debate over how best to secure sensitive medical records during a healthcare revolution in an uncertain digital age, one of the proffered solutions is decidedly NOT to store them in Stephan and Liza Dean’s house and garage. read more
Judge Slaps Down “Birther” Challenge to Obama in Sacramento
Laguna Niguel dentist, lawyer and full-time “birther” Orly Taitz lost yet another challenge to the legitimacy of Barack Obama’s presidency when a U.S. District Court judge rejected her petition last week to halt counting of Electoral College votes. read more
California Role Model or Common Criminal? Board Choice for School Name Sets off Storm of Controversy
Tiburcio Vasquez’ place in history has been primarily a subject for historians, but occasionally the public at large takes an interest, as did the Alisal Union School District in Salinas, which decided last month to name a school after him. Vasquez, who was hanged in 1875 for murder after 20 years of banditry, was the unanimous pick of the school board to be honored with a nameplate on the district’s newest elementary school, still under construction. read more
Court Rules Sex by Trickery Isn’t Rape if Impersonation Is of Boyfriend, not Husband
If only the man who had crawled into bed with the woman―known in the court record as Jane Doe―had impersonated a husband instead of a boyfriend, he would have been guilty of rape.
Instead, the California Court of Appeal for the Second District ruled that the state Penal Code is clear: sex-by-impersonation is only rape when the impersonator is pretending to be a spouse. read more
State Employee Posts 4,900 Comments from Work at Newspaper Online
Buried among the bribery, conspiracy and fraud detailed in the California State Auditor’s “whistleblower” report released last month is the tale of a state employee who had an overwhelming desire to comment on stories published by the Sacramento Bee. read more
95% of Drivers Fear Drugged Motorists, but Cellphone Use Is the Biggest Safety Issue
Cellphone talking and texting distractions leaped to #1 this year in a survey by the California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS), passing speeding and aggressive driving. Just over 51% of respondents listed cellphone use as the biggest problem in 2012, up from 38.8% last year and 18.3% in 2010. It was followed by speeding and aggressive driving at 22.7%, bad road surfaces (16.5%) and “other driver behavior” (15.3%). No other category received more than 10%. read more
Telecoms Meet Resistance Putting Cellphone Towers Atop Churches
The biggest problem about cellphones and churches may not have to do with remembering to turn the phones off during services.
While no one in California keeps track, anecdotal evidence indicates that a growing number of churches in the state are contracting with telecommunications companies to put cellphone towers on the roof. The result is a few more dollars for the church and added health concerns for the congregation. read more
IDs for 2,600 Families Forced into Medi-Cal from Better Program Mailed to Wrong Addresses
When the Brown administration decided to save the state some money and transfer 860,000 low-income children from the successful and admired Healthy Families program to HMOs participating in Medi-Cal, health care advocates feared that it would prove to be a wrenching experience that would provide a lower level of service to vulnerable patients. read more
18,400 Rodents, 600 Reptiles Euthanized in Private Facility after PETA Probe Revealed “Horrendous” Conditions
Somebody at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) smelled a rat in the Riverside County city of Lake Elsinore. It turned out to be 18,400 rodents and 600 reptiles crammed into a facility operated by Global Captive Breeders. read more
San Diego Testing Face Scanners that Make Civil Libertarians Nervous
It is harder to be an anonymous face in the crowd in San Diego since an unnamed law enforcement agency began using cutting-edge facial recognition software to identify crime suspects and help populate a burgeoning database with images. read more
Young People Giving up Cigarettes for a Good Chew and a Hit from the Hookah
Young Californians aren’t smoking cigarettes as much as they used to, but they’ve replaced that nasty habit with increased use of chewing tobacco, snuff, hookahs and cigarillos. read more