Some of these laws look OK, others I am not so sure. We will know how well they are received, if the population changes either way.
Californians will welcome 725 new laws on Jan. 1. Here's a glance at some of the laws taking effect when you ring in the new year:
AB 119 prevents insurance companies from charging different rates for men and women for identical coverage.
SB 782 prevents landlords from evicting tenants who are victims of domestic or sexual abuse or stalking.
AB 1844—informally known as Chelsea's Law and authored by local Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher—will increase penalties, parole provisions and oversight of sex offenders, including a "one-strike, life-without-parole penalty" for some.
AB 1871 allows people to lease out their cars when they are not being used—alleviating the need to purchase additional insurance.
AB 537 will make food stamps an acceptable form of payment at farmers markets through an EBT process.
SB 1411 makes it a misdemeanor to maliciously impersonate someone via a social media outlet or through e-mails.
SB 1317 allows the state to slap parents with a $2,000 fine if their K-8 child misses more than 10 percent of the school year without a valid excuse. It also allows the state to punish parents with up to a year in prison for the misdemeanor.
AB 715 makes a change to the California Green Building Standards code. The change will require new California buildings to be energy efficient.
SB 1449 makes the possession of up to one ounce of marijuana an infraction with a penalty of a $100 fine.
AB 12 allows foster youth to acquire state services until the age of 21.
SB 1399 allows California to medically parole state prison inmates with physical incapacitating conditions and ultimately shifts some of the cost of care to the federal government.
AB 97 bans the use of trans-fats in food facilities.
Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre's extraordinary photographs documenting the dramatic decline of a major American city
Posted by: john frum ||
01/02/2011 07:07 ||
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#1
Instead of labeling the pictures it would of been interesting if Americans would guess where those pictures were taken. I imagine the guess' would range from Eastern Europe to Chernobyl.
#3
Is no one willing to make the point about the nature of the municipal government in Detroit over the past 40 years? The confluence of unionist Democrat politics and continuous racial leadership and cronyism produced a large part of this shocking tragedy.
#4
on top of that Detroit has a huge Paleo population.
Posted by: Water Modem ||
01/02/2011 12:15 Comments ||
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#5
That they abandon libraries with the books still on the shelves and police stations with what appear to be evidence files without clearing them out tells you a lot about Detroit city government. Can't even make the effort to salvage anything of value?
#8
To put Detriot into perspective, it was only 60 years ago that it was one of the top 5 manufacturing economies in the world, had strategic port and rail infrastructure and was not only epicenter of the worlds automotive industry, but also ringed with dozens of smaller industries that supported Big Auto.
It shares an international border with a major trading partner and enjoyed a well respected educational infrastructure fed by world class acedemics. In short, they had nearly every advantage possible going for them.
Now 60 years later, or arguably 2 generations more or less, and they are an economic basket case.
#10
Sixty years after nuclear weapons were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki both cities were thriving metropolises.
Democrats are more destructive than nuclear weapons.
Just before folks in Beebe rang in the New Year, many witnessed an uncanny resemblance to the Hitchcock movie "The Birds." About 2,000 black birds fell from the sky off Windwood Drive, leaving quite the mess to clean up.
Folks Today's THV spoke with initially thought the birds were poisoned because they are what they call a nuisance around this time every year, but they are surprised to hear it is more of a mystery.
Stephen Bryant recalls, "Millions, millions fly over every night. You look up at the sky and it's just black and then last night at about 10:30 I came out here and saw a bird drop."
In a matter of hours on New Years Eve thousands of birds fell from the sky to their death.
#1
Handle them with full "Space Suits" On, and check for disease, Bird flu and such ARE communicable to Humans.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/02/2011 11:27 Comments ||
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#2
Also look for a huge number of dead Cats and dogs shortly.
(That eat the dead birds)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/02/2011 11:30 Comments ||
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#3
A U.S. Environmental Services crew in full protective gear was out there pretty quickly to collect the birds, which fell in about a one mile area. They expect to get the last of them today. Some corpses were sent for testing. At least one live bird was found, injured, silently walking in circles, not even attempting to fly. The theory is that the birds ran into a high altitude lightening storm or hail, or were blown higher into the atmosphere, where they froze or asphyxiated.
#6
An updraft would be in keeping with the weather in that part of the country. They've been having some pretty severe thunderstorms, and there was a tornado just a few days ago.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/02/2011 14:17 Comments ||
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#7
I wonder what evidence would confirm hypoxia or hypothermia as the cause of the mass die-off, so long afterward?
[Dawn] Ivory Coast on Saturday faced the threat of open conflict after a New Year's midnight deadline set by Alassane Ouattara for his rival Laurent Gbagbo to quit passed unheeded.
Self-proclaimed president Gbagbo vowed not to yield to growing pressure to cede power to Ouattara, the internationally-recognised winner of a November 28 presidential election, with both Britain and the US saying it was time to go.
The midnight deadline issued by Ouattara's camp came as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said reports had been received of "at least two mass graves" amid fears of crimes against humanity.
If Gbagbo quit before the start of the New Year, he would "have no worries", said Ouattara's prime minister Guillaume Soro.
But Gbagbo said in an address to the nation Friday that he would not cede power to Ouattara.
"We are not going to give up," Gbagbo said in a New Year's address.
He said pressure from Ouattara's camp and world leaders for him to quit amounted to "an attempted coup d'etat carried out under the banner of the international community".
West African regional military chiefs have set in motion plans to oust the strongman if negotiations by regional mediators fail, a Nigerian defence front man, Colonel Mohamed Yerimah, told AFP in Lagos.
The chiefs of defence staff from West African regional organisation ECOWAS met this week in the Nigerian capital "to put machinery in motion that if all political persuasions fail...ECOWAS will forcefully take over power from Laurent Gbagbo and hand over to Alassane Ouattara," he said.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague said London would support military intervention in principle but said any such move should first be cleared by the United Nations, aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society.
Hague said it was time for Gbagbo "to recognise that he must go".
US State Department front man PJ Crowley said Gbagbo should step down, adding, "we hope he will choose a peaceful transition".
UN human rights ... which are not the same thing as individual rights, mind you... experts meanwhile said they feared gross human rights violations being committed in Ivory Coast could amount to "crimes against humanity".
Evidence from credible sources suggested "enforced or involuntary disappearances, arbitrary detentions and extrajudicial or arbitrary executions and sexual violence had occurred and may still be occurring" in Ivory Coast, they said in a statement.
Pillay said the UN had received reports of at least two mass graves.
But she said "human rights teams have been denied access to the scenes of these atrocities in order to investigate them".
She said she had also written to Gbagbo and other key figures in his regime warning they would be held personally responsible for human rights violations.
The European Union on Friday approved sanctions against 59 people linked to Gbagbo's regime, diplomats said.
Those targeted will not be given EU visas, the sources said. Two others had been on an earlier list but were exempted after acknowledging Ouattara.
Ouattara is being protected by UN peacekeepers who on Friday were staring down a threat to storm a hotel which he has made his temporary headquarters in Abidjan.
UN Secretary General the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon warned UN troops would use "all necessary means" to resist any assault on the hotel.
Gbagbo's notorious "Street General", Minister for Youth Charles Ble Goude, on Wednesday urged Ivorian youths to rise up after the New Year to seize control of Ouattara's headquarters in the waterfront Golf Hotel resort.
The UN's chief peacekeeper accused Gbagbo's state media of "inciting hatred" against UN troops and as West African leaders promised to try once more to negotiate a peaceful settlement to the crisis.
Ouattara's once-plush hotel is protected by a small contingent of lightly armed former rebel fighters known as the New Forces and 800 United Nations troops equipped with armoured vehicles and re-supplied by helicopter.
It is surrounded by Gbagbo's well-armed regulars, the Ivory Coast Defence and Security Forces (FDS), but Ouattara's camp is more concerned about Ble Goude's threat to send thousands of unarmed youths to storm the hotel.
ECOWAS has a standby troubleshooting force of 6,500 soldiers which officials said is almost ready to deploy.
"This is the last resort but hopefully Gbagbo will be persuaded to hand over power politically without military cohesion," Yerimah, the Nigerian defence front man, told AFP.
Both Gbagbo and Ouattara claim to have won last month's presidential election, but only the latter has been recognised as president by the world community, including the ECOWAS regional group and the United Nations.
Hopes for a negotiated settlement have come to rest on the West African leaders represented by ECOWAS, who have voted to authorise military intervention if Gbagbo refuses to step aside for Ouattara.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/02/2011 00:00 ||
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#2
Obviously jus another Dictator.
One man, One Vote, One time.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/02/2011 11:33 Comments ||
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#3
An ARCLIGHT strike on the Presidential Palace would be enough to get him to step down, I'd bet. That is, if there are enough pieces of him left to find. It's hard to have a democracy in a culture that still believes the strongest man should rule.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/02/2011 14:23 Comments ||
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#4
Just for your info - Alassane Ouattare is Muslim, a stranger in Ivory Coast: both parents born in muslim Burkina Faso and him with unknown or dubious place of birth. Only a person born in Ivory Coast of Ivorian parents can be a president of the country - because of that twice the above was banned from presidential elections, in 2000 and 2005. That's first.
And second: like it or not the 2010 elections were rigged. The country is devided in two: muslim north under total control of muslim insurgents, supported by northern, muslim neighbours had to and voted en masse for their Ouattara. Obviously the Christian south mostly voted for Christian Gbagbo.
Solution: split the country in two - what's good for Sudanese goose will be good for Ivorian gander...
#6
Just for your info - Alassane Ouattare is Muslim
That's explains the international hue & cry. In particular, African Union's (highly atypical) eagerness to defend democracy (anybody knows of any non "president for life" in AU?).
Tories want clearer assurance of referendum before more powers transfered to EU. Labour joining them from the other side, want clearer EU power. Cameron in the middle. If the Coalition fails this coming year, will it be the Tories or the Left who consolidate power, or will Britain be stuck in a political morass as debt, economy and Islamicist erosions continue?
#1
The Brits can be a little slow at times. I wonder how long it will take them to realize that the Eurocrats do not have Britain's interests in mind, and only see it as a cash cow.
Mexico plans a shake-up of its corruption-ridden immigration institute, officials said, after a year that saw some of the worst atrocities against illegal migrants trekking through the country — including the mass slaughter of 72 Central and South Americans trying to reach the United States
#3
Frank, I think the mass slaughter was the one that occurred last month just outside of Matamoros. Just south of the Texas border.
Posted by: Mr. Bill ||
01/02/2011 20:56 Comments ||
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#4
more likely at Mexico's southern border. As Pappy notes, it infringes on the internal pressures
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/02/2011 21:05 Comments ||
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#5
Yes, and they're not all recent incidents. There's a years-long history of Central and South American illegals getting their clocks cleaned on Mexico's southern border.
[Al Jazeera] Faced with spreading civil unrest, the Bolivian president has scrapped a government decree that significantly raised fuel prices and provoked violent protests.
Evo Morales, the Bolivian president, presided over back-to-back government meetings on Friday aimed at crafting a strategy for quelling civil unrest in La Paz, Cochabamba and other major cities sparked by the decision to remove price controls.
Alvaro Garcia, the Bolivian vice president, filling in for Morales, had issued the decree on Sunday removing subsidies that keep fuel prices artificially low but cost the Bolivian government an estimated $380m per year.
As a result fuel prices went up by as much as 83 per cent in the sharpest increases since 1991.
"Answering to the wishes of the people, we have decided to rescind Decree number 748 and other measures that accompanied it," Morales told news hounds at the presidential palace.
"There is no justification for raising transportation fares or food prices right now."
Violent festivities
Fifteen copperswere maimed on Thursday in festivities with rock-wielding protesters near La Paz, as major cities in the Andean nation were crippled by a transport strike protesting huge fuel price hikes.
Initial reports from El Alto said coppers came under attack by rock-wielding demonstrators and responded by lobbing tear gas cannisters.
The residential area surrounding the La Paz international airport saw thousands of protesters throwing up barricades across access roads, burning tires and hurling stones at government buildings to vent their anger.
The crowds tried to set a monument to Cuban revolutionary hero Ernesto "Che" Guevara on fire, broke the doorway to the vice president's residence, torched highway toll booths and damaged offices of state-run BoA airlines and the Central Obrera union.
Morales's palace in La Paz was besieged by angry demonstrators who were also repelled by police using tear gas.
The president attempted to stem the growing public discontent late Wednesday by announcing a 20 per cent minimum salary increase, but powerful unions and civil groups still promised further strikes, marches and disruptions.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/02/2011 00:00 ||
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[11126 views]
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#1
Evo has, like Hugo will, found out that Bolivarian bullshit and private enterprise confiscation doesn't pay the bills. Hopefully, they're coup'd at the same time? Sweeeeeet
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/02/2011 0:23 Comments ||
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#2
The crowds tried to set a monument to Cuban revolutionary hero Ernesto "Che" Guevara on fire...
Man, first Uncle Joe and now Che. Not a good day to be a Dead Commie Mass Murderer with a statue...
Extremists blew up a controversial monument to Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin on New Year's night in southeastern Ukraine in an "act of terror", the local Communist Party said on Saturday.
The bust in the city of Zaporizhia, unveiled this May, caused a heated controversy in Ukraine which is still split between its nationalist west and the more Russian orientated east which fondly remembers the Soviet past.
"A criminal broke into the grounds of the Communist Party regional headquarters, and laid an explosive charge which detonated after a few minutes," the Communist Party said.
"The statue of Stalin was destroyed as a result of the blast," the Communists said in a statement. It said that the explosion inflicted serious damage on the building but there were no casualties.
The explosion took place on New Year's Eve, it said.
"By a pure chance there were no casualties. Most probably the explosive was filled with the metal items," lawmaker Oleksiy Baburin, head of the Zaporizhia Communists told a press conference.
"This is not a hooliganism but a terrorist attack," he added as quoted by Communist party press service.
The local police said in a statement that according to its information a group of several people passed the monument just a few minutes before the explosion.
"One of them climbed over the fence and fastened to the monument a shopping bag which evidently contained the hand-made explosive device," the police said, adding that those behind the blast were currently being searched.
Meanwhile, the nationalist Svoboda (Freedom) group reported that the police had already arrested its head in Zaporizhia, Vitaliy Podlobnikov, and his deputy on the youth issues, Yuriy Hudymenko, on charges of causing the Stalin monument destruction.
The same statue had been badly damaged last week in a blast claimed by Nationalist group Tryzub (Trident) which denounced Stalin as "the executioner of the Ukrainian people and an international terrorist."
Then, there had been some doubt over the true state of the statue as the Communists had draped it in a large white cloth to prevent the extent of the damage from being seen.
However there was no mystery on this occasion as pictures showed that the bust had been completely destroyed by the blast, leaving only the plinth in place.
Stalin is a hate figure for many in Ukraine who blame him for intentionally allowing the deaths of millions of Ukrainians in a 1930s famine known as the Holodomor that nationalists regard as a genocide. Soviet communists used to call those who opposed their tyranny "hooligans", and those who were not tortured and killed outright were often put in insane asylums and prisons.
#1
Damn, Joe, them Ukrainians got long memories, don't they? But ya can't blame me. I did the best I could for ya.
Yasser, get Joe and Che a coupla beers. They've had a tough day. Deal the cards, Adolph...
Posted by: The Ghost of Walter Duranty ||
01/02/2011 1:02 Comments ||
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#2
He did a good job too!. None of that humpty dumpty Stalin may be put back together again. He blew it to smitherines, and more power to him this time.Not a soul injured- they waited until everyone was clear to blow that scumbag up.
Bottom line: both governments and banks will need to sell a lot of bonds this year in order to refinance or offload previous debt. Is there sufficient liquidity for them to borrow their way out of trouble? And if not, will we see another 2008-style credit crunch bring the international finance system grinding to a halt?
#1
I'm not an "expert" on the European economy, but I see a long string of austerity options being invoked, with few of them succeeding in anything. That will follow with the total collapse of the Greek government, severe disruption to north-south economic activity in Europe, and possibly the exit of Germany and Scandinavia from either the Euro or the entire European Union. Scandinavia can stand alone, but I'm not sure of Germany. Either way, there are going to be some serious changes to the EU over the next few years.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/02/2011 17:54 Comments ||
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#2
"possibly the exit of Germany and Scandinavia from either the Euro or the entire European Union"
From your keyboard to God's eyes, OP.
Bring back the Deutsche Mark!
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/02/2011 18:51 Comments ||
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Katie Couric recently claimed that the Ground Zero mosque controversy had exposed a "seething hatred" for Muslims in America. She added that she thinks there may need to be a Muslim version of "The Cosby Show."
"'The Cosby Show' did so much to change attitudes about African-Americans in this country, and I think sometimes people are afraid of what they don't understand," she said.
Such a show is already live and going strong in Canada. It's not a new show, it's already in its fifth season: a sitcom called "Little Mosque on the Prairie" about the trials of a new imam as he and his mosque attempt to assimilate their Islamic religion into the Anglican town of Mercy. It is a popular show, but whether any hearts or minds are changed is another matter.
#1
Bat shit crazy...yes, let's have a hollywood produced show about a make believe family so that everyone can relate to said make-believe family that way folks will like the people that are blowing up their sons and daughters that much more. I thought this bitch had cancer of the ass? Now I have confirmation of where her brain's at.
Fars news agency reported Sunday that Iran's chief prosecutor suggested that the execution by stoning which Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani was condemned to over charges of adultery might be cancelled. However, he did not address the possibility that she would be executed by hanging.
According to the senior prosecutor, the case was being reconsidered and that "anything is possible". He also said that the authorities allowed Ashtiani to be interviewed by the foreign press on Saturday and that: "We aren't concerned."
Ashtiani was jailed in 2006 after being convicted of murdering her husband and having sexual relations with two other men. The punishment for adultery in the Iran is stoning.
After international outcry, Iran announced that they would reexamine the case a few months ago.
In an interview given yesterday, Ashtiani said that she would sue the two German journalists arrested in Iran two months ago charged with espionage.
Ashtiani says that the two interviewed her son against Iranian law and caused her a great deal of embarrassment. Ashtiani also refuted claims that her confession was taken from her under duress. She criticized her lawyers for politicizing her trial as well.
Iranian authorities first claimed that the two journalists entered Iran on a tourist visa but continued their work against the law.
State prosecutor Malek Ajdar Sharifi said that since their interrogation it has been revealed that the two entered Iran as tourists, then held an interview with Ashtiani's son, but didn't present credentials that would prove that they were journalists.
[Emirates 24/7] Iran hanged on Saturday four men convicted of kidnapping and killing several people in the restive southeastern Sistan-Baluchestan province, the official IRNA news agency reported.
The men identified as Mahmoud Barahui, Shahram Narui, Zohoor Ahmad Asef-Doost and Jahanbakhsh Barahui, were executed in a prison in the scenic provincial capital Zahedan.
"They took innocent people hostage, extorted money from their families and caused fear and insecurity by killing some of the hostages," Sistan-Baluchestan justice chief Ebrahim Hamidi told the agency.
The official said the group had killed three kidnapped men and a policeman.
Sistan-Baluchestan lies on a major drug trafficking route from neighbouring Pakistain and Afghanistan. Several people, including government officials, have reportedly been kidnapped by rebels and narcos in recent years.
The province has also seen several deadly bombings over the past years blamed on the Sunni turban group the Jundallah.
The four were the first hangings reported in 2011.
Iran hanged at least 171 people in 2010, according to an AFP count based on media reports. At least 270 people were executed in 2009.
Along with China, Soddy Arabia and the United States, Iran has one of the highest numbers of executions each year.
The Islamic republic says the death penalty is essential to maintain law and order and is applied only after exhaustive judicial proceedings.
Murder, rape, armed robbery, drug trafficking and adultery are other crimes punishable by death in Iran.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/02/2011 00:00 ||
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[11124 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
