TresSugar

Front Page: Los Angeles Wildfires Double in Size

TresSugar — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 06:00:38 -0700

Wildfires near Los Angeles have doubled in size. The fires have destroyed more than 50 homes as of now, but some people still refuse to evacuate. -CNN
Kidnap suspect Phillip Garrido was convicted of a similar crime in 1976, but he only served 11 years of his 50-year sentence. - Los Angeles Times
The EU has banned the manufacturing and importing of old-fashioned light bulbs with hopes of encouraging people to switch to energy-efficient fluorescent bulbs. - BBC News
Nearly one-third of cocaine seized in the US is laced with a dangerous veterinary medicine. - AP
A new study suggests that a healthy lifestyle, including a good diet, exercise, and breastfeeding, could prevent 40 percent of breast cancer cases. - The Guardian

Front Page: Fires Rage in Southern California

TresSugar — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 08:00:32 -0700

A relentless fire in Southern California has claimed the lives of two firemen, along with 18 houses. More than 6,000 homes are under mandatory evacuation orders. - LA Times
Jenna Bush has been hired as a new correspondent for the Today Show. - AP
Colombian president Alvaro Uribe has swine flu. - BBC News
Out-of-town couples are not rushing to Vermont now that same-sex marriage is legal. - AP
Kidnap victim Jaycee Lee Dugard apparently played a key role in her captor's printing business. - San Francisco Chronicle

Fear Factor: Arrested Johns Scared Away From Sex in Class

CitizenSugar — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 08:00:22 -0800

John school is a newish solution to an age-old problem: Prostitution and the men who buy it.

What does it take to get in? Solicit a prostitute on the streets of Los Angeles and get caught once (v. important, for two-timers go to jail). Once there men are yelled at for eight hours and shown, vividly, what can go wrong in the money-for-sex exchange. They see photos of men beaten up by pimps and closeups of bodies inflamed with STDs. And that's just the morning! In the afternoon, they listen to recovering sex addicts and former prostitutes tell their stories, getting a glimpse of the abuse that circulates through prostitution rings. Tuition is $600.

What's in it for graduates? A second chance in exchange for a promise (sealed with a jail threat) to change their ways. Misdemeanor solicitation charges loom overhead for one year, but are dropped for those who make it through with no arrests.

The no-nonsense, exhaustive class is meant to be impersonal, terrifying, and not at all therapeutic. And that's exactly why so many sociologists are surprised it works. Yet if a similar program in San Francisco, which cut recidivist rates by 30 percent, is any indication, it does. To find out why, read more.

Most johns are dabblers not deviants."These guys fall into one of three basic categories," a researcher who studied the San Francisco program said. "Sad sacks who are looking for a girlfriend-like experience; those who don't want to deal with the emotional component of a relationship and just want the sex; and thrill seekers. Only a very small number are actual sociopaths."

Well! There you go. Most aren't crazy. But that doesn't address (not that the justice systems cares) the underlying loneliness that sends lost men looking in the first place.

Source

East LA Weighs the Pros and Cons of Becoming a Real City

LibertySugar — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 10:00:00 -0700

A nonprofit in East LA is on a mission to incorporate the stray portion of Los Angeles County into the City of East Los Angeles. By becoming a bonafide municipality, the birthplace of Oscar de la Hoya and the lowrider car could have a formal forum for community concerns like crime and commerce, and means to provide services to residents. Right now East LA, possibly the cultural and political focal point of the entire Mexican-American community, is served by one county official that represents two million other LA county residents.

This is East LA's fourth shot at incorporation, but the first since 1974. So what has held it back? Many fear that incorporation equals increased property taxes. Small business owners also worry that they'll be forced to pay for business licenses. Proponents will have some time to convince voters, since it takes about two years to make it out of the bureaucratic process. Would you vote for incorporation?

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Majority of Students Drop Out of One LA High School

LibertySugar — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 12:15:47 -0700

LA's Jefferson Senior High School, which boasts Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ralph Bunche as an alum, also has the nation's second highest drop-out rate. Six in 10 students at Jefferson drop out. A perfect storm of factors unfriendly to education makes Jefferson a problem school.

Many of students come from transient families who have just immigrated from Mexico or Central America. Over 90 percent qualify for the school lunch program, and 45 percent are still learning English. Tons of students do not live with their parents and work to support themselves.

American inner-city schools in general get a failing grade, too - 50 percent of students at inner-city schools nation-wide do not get their diplomas. To find out how the LA school district tries to address the bleak situation, read more.

The LA school district launched a pricey marketing campaign last year to convince youth that school is cool. The school district stressed the message that high school graduates can earn $175 more per week than dropouts using commercials on hip-hop radio stations, text messages, a MySpace website, and YouTube videos. Taking a less hip approach, Jefferson also puts its ninth-graders through a week of conflict resolution and peer mediation training. Do you have any other ideas to offer this troubled school?

Source

Obama Controls Stars, Puts Together Constellation of Bucks

CitizenSugar — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 09:10:10 -0700

What do Cindy Crawford, Seal, and Dennis Quaid have in common? Nope, it's not a movie remake version of Three's Company (I wish). They were just three of the celebs who came out to a pricey, glitzy Obama fundraiser last night in LA.

For the crowd of 900, Seal performed "A Change Is Gonna Come," while the campaign sang all the way to the bank. Estimated take from the shindig where VIP dinner tickets went for $28,500 per couple? About $5 million smackers. Not bad for a night's work - public funding does seem puny when your own public is the fabulously wealthy.

Other luminaries included Don Cheadle, Samuel L. Jackson, Jennifer Beals, and Lost producer JJ Abrams. Quaid introduced Seal's performance saying, "he's here tonight to sing for the superman for everyone - Barack Obama."

Is Barack snapping up the center square for the win in this money game of Hollywood Squares? It would seem so. To find out how, read more.

A study by the Center for Responsive Politics showed that Obama has collected more than $4 million from movie, TV, and music types, Clinton took $3.4 million, and McCain? A not-so-big $636,000, with donations from Jerry Bruckheimer and Lorne Michaels.

A McCain spokesman explains his relegation to "extra" like this:

Hollywood is always an uphill climb for Republicans. I think that we're very encouraged by the support that we've been able to get from the folks in the entertainment industry, and John McCain is a great fan of a lot of the work that they do.

He did have a role in Wedding Crashers after all.

Obama is looking to share his wealth - he's asked donors to help bail Hillary out of her debt yesterday, and he's not all celeb centric - he did just downplay all the hoopla surrounding the infamous "ScarJo" emails. Does this type of fund raising keep in line with Obama's quest to abandon a "broken system" and fund his campaign by the people? What draws celebs to the Democratic party?

Source

Faster Than a Speeding Donut! LAPD Gets Tough on Fat

LibertySugar — Wed, 07 May 2008 10:00:12 -0700

Drop the donut and put your hands in the air!! That's what dietitian, Rana Parker, is telling officers in the LAPD. The police department hired her as their full time diet coach.

The Department is cracking down on overweight officers with the hope that it will make them better at their jobs and potentially save more lives. Fit officers can more easily sprint after criminals, feel better about themselves, and help improve the image of the force.

Instead of hitting up a drive-through, Parker suggests keeping energy bars, fruit, or a peanut butter sandwich in the cruiser. She works mostly with recruits, in hopes of in-multi-graining them with good eating habits.

Since police departments across the country are relaxing recruiting requirements, including body fat percentage, this policy might be necessary.

Do you think the LAPD's plan to make sure everyone in Los Angeles has a nutritionist is a good use of taxpayers' money? Could healthy officers slim down the state budgets, since taxpayers pay for their health care?

Source

Is LA a "Third World" City? Do We Need to Call Names?

CitizenSugar — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 08:03:58 -0700

Los Angeles is becoming a "Third World city," according to a new study by the Migration Policy Institute, a DC-based institute. They point to a population where immigrants make up half its workforce, a third of immigrants have not graduated from high school, and 60 percent do not speak English fluently.

The study poses the future concern that immigrants will be ill equipped to fill California's fastest-growing occupations, like computers and health care, and a looming vacuum in those industries caused by baby boomers reaching retirement age, hint that a similar pattern will spread across the US. The US Census recently predicted that by 2050, minorities will account for half of all residents across America. To see the future of LA and consider the "Third World" question, read more.

A spokesman for the Industrial Areas Foundation, a think tank that specializes in social change, asserts that Los Angeles is at a crossroads, and may illuminate the true challenge:

The question is are we going to be a 21st-century city with shared prosperity, or a Third World city with an elite group on top and most on near poverty wages?

The looming and potentially huge inequity between economic groups is something to consider, but in my mind the story also calls into question the term "Third World." I wonder if we have grown, or globalized out of a strict, hierarchical, better-than/less-than division of the world into gold, silver, and bronze countries.

Definitions of Third World point to common traits like highly dependent economies, high population growth, and widespread poverty. And, like is possible for Los Angeles, a sharply divided economic structure with crushing poverty topped by ruling elites. A wide variety of factors can get a country pegged as First, Second, or Third world.

But is it a useful taxonomy anymore? Is pegging a country as third rate, helpful? Have we come to the point where the "those other poor people over there" are actually a lot closer, and tied more intrinsically to our own lives, as to defy the hierarchy? Is it time to ditch the first/second/third, and just be the world?

Source

Is Global Warming Used to Bully People into Paying Taxes?

LibertySugar — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 15:00:37 -0700

Los Angeles is considering a plan that will help residents fight global warming and spend less time in traffic - all for the low, low price of $90 a year.

Lawmakers want to ask LA voters to chose between an additional $.09/ gallon tax at the pump, or an additional registration fee around $90 a year. The registration fee would be higher for cars, trucks, and SUVs that produce more carbon emissions. The fee would raise $400 million a year for public transit and other programs designed to relieve congestion and improve air quality.

Opponents point out that politicians can always conjure up the vague threat of global warming as a way to convince citizens to tax themselves and bail the government out of poor budget management. Because the environment could use infinite attention, opponents argue, it is a perfect tool for demagoguery.

Does being "green" mean making costly, and open-ended commitments to improving air quality? When polluting industries brag about their empty "green-washed" credentials, is it up to everyday citizens to implement real change? Is it promising that the city of traffic and smog might make sacrifices to reduce emissions? Does it count as a sacrifice if only the poor are pushed off the roads?

Source

Headline: Eight Shot at Bus Stop in LA

CitizenSugar — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 06:54:46 -0800

Yesterday afternoon, a gunman opened fire into a crowd waiting for the bus at a busy Los Angeles intersection, hitting five children and three adults. The shooting happened right after classes in a nearby school let out, and witnesses still aren't clear where the gunman was before firing, or what motivated him.

A 12-year-old girl, the most seriously wounded, is now in stable condition at Children's Hospital.

Amir Khani, the owner of a discount store nearby the incident said, "These things, on this corner, happen all the time - street fighting, gangbanging. We see a lot of things around here. It's not surprising, because it happens all the time." He went on to say that between 2 and 5 p.m. everyday, gang activity is at its highest. This is the second outbreak of street violence in the area this week, and police agree that the gunbattle involved members of a notorious gang entrenched in that area for decades.