Haitian Migrants Sent Back to Haiti

Director of Immigration Jack Thompson said the 187 men, 54 women and three children did not test positive for cholera.

“They were in good condition from our standpoint. There were one or two persons who were dehydrated but they were overall in good health,” he told the Nassau Guardian newspaper.

Sub-Lieutenant of the Royal Bahamas Defence Force, Origin Deleveaux, said the number of Haitians seeking to enter the country illegally spikes during December because some believe surveillance is lax during the festive season.

“We step up patrols around this time because this is when a lot of them make that trip and attempt to land in The Bahamas,” he said.

According to statistics, 1,093 Haitian migrants have already been apprehended here for the year.

This compares to 718 caught in 2009, and 1,258 apprehended in 2010.

Haitian President Michel Martelly has asked citizens to “stay off the high seas in boats at risk, thus endangering their lives in the desperate purpose to go illegally to a new home in search of opportunities.”

His appeal came after the bodies of 38 Haitian migrants were found dead just off the eastern tip of Cuba.

Cuban authorities said the boat carrying the migrants began taking in water and got stranded at sea. Another 87 people were rescued.

Jazz Tap Ensemble

They crowded into the Music Center for live holiday themed music and dance with 24 performing groups representing many cultures around LA.

This three hour family-friendly extravaganza was very festive, the performers were talented and the audience was enthralled by the spectacular performances.

Agape Love Ensemble brought the pavilion audience to its feet – Had them clapping, singing and feeling good.

Other performers included The City of Angels Community Children’s Choir, Versa Style Dance Company (hip-hop dancers), Kwan Gyu Lim Dance Company (Korean fan dance), Mt. Rubidoux Seventh Day Adventist Church Choir, Adaawe (Afro-Cuban drumming – All women’s ensemble), Jazz Tap Ensemble, Palmdale High School Choir and more…

Los Angeles County Arts Commission Publicist, Lucy Pollak stated that the seasonal event typically seats approximately 7,000 for this holiday celebration.

The Pavilion seats approximately 3,000, so as guests leave, others waiting in line were ushered in to fill the vacant seats.

The first three thousand filled the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, while others waited patiently in lines stretched through the courtyard for their chance to enter the Pavilion.

With LA having its rough 2011 budgetary challenges, this admission-free event continues as a holiday gift to the people of the County every December 24 since 1959.  Sponsored by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, the original event back in the 1950’s was the brain of the late Kenneth Hahn.

The Los Angeles County Arts Commission is the executive producer of the Holiday Celebration, both the live three-hour show at the Music Center and the one-hour special drawn from the live show and broadcast nationally.

Since 1965, public television station KCET has broadcast the show live in Southern California.

Check out www.lacountyarts.org for more details.

He’s a contemporary Gospel singer and an actor who can be seen on the upcoming drama “The Family Guardian”

Sixteen year-old Matthew J. will star in “The Family Guardian” which is produced and directed by Lee H. Jordan. The inspirational drama, which was screened at the Black Twin Cities Film follows 17 year-old Elizabeth, played by Lexee Crystal Harris, who finds herself pregnant and alone. Matthew J. Johnson plays the young teen father.

The talented singer/actor has also performed in the Minneapolis stage play “Revelation Judgment Day,” where he played Thomas – a singing angel and will be performing on Saturday December 31, 2011 at the Glendale SDA Church for their New Years Eve service.

But for life coach Teri Johnson, whose personal journey through an imperfect life now inspires others to reach for the lives they’ve always wanted, the negative “nevers” of the disappointing hand life may have dealt you is where the healing starts. By confronting a never-ending and unproductive cycle of negativity, the elusive joy of the holiday season can be found not just now but every day of the year, says Johnson, author of the newly released book, Overcoming the Nevers (www.overcomingthenevers.com).

“You never thought you’d get divorced, but you did. You never dreamed you would find yourself in an abusive relationship, but you are. You never thought you would need to lose 200 pounds, but you do. And you never thought you’d be 45 years old without a job, losing your home and drowning in debt, but you are,” says Johnson.

“We start to believe lies about ourselves, such as “I’m not good enough” or “I’m undeserving.” We escape our pain and these toxic feelings into unhealthy behaviors and addictions. There is freedom from the struggle; there is hope in discovering the truth; there is a way to fall in love with who we are to experience a joy-filled season, and more importantly a joy-filled life.”

Johnson’s tools for overcoming the “nevers” that drag many down during the holiday season are:

• Acceptance: Do you have the strength to make the changes necessary to turn a situation around through an attitude of acceptance? Or will you remain powerless, remain in the state of non-acceptance and let everything around you dictate how you feel? The journey starts with accepting that you can’t change others, but you do have power over your own life.

• Surrender: What we surrender ourselves to ultimately becomes our god, what we turn to or upon which we rely. The question then is: What are we surrendered to? Is it something firm, solid and long-lasting or something that hurts us in the end?

• Joyfulness: Hold tight to your unique gifts and talents to enrich your own life and impact the lives of those around you. Build on what you’re good at, what makes you special and what makes you feel good about yourself.

• Discovery: Confronting the truth about who we are deep inside helps us overcome our painful past and discover the basis for those “nevers.”

• Faith: Until we accept love for ourselves from God, from others and towards others, the healing will not begin. Embracing love is an ongoing process that starts with learning to like yourself and with a willingness to accept your imperfections.

Johnson advises that the process of confronting internal struggles and the “nevers” of life isn’t easy, but no treatment program, no diet and no New Year’s resolution can be successful without breaking down the essence of individual struggles and making the necessary adjustments to attain the life you deserve.

“If the life you are living is full of unacceptable and disappointing things and you don’t want to spend another year like this, the only thing holding you back right now is your own confusion, self-doubt and anger,” she says.

“You don’t have to keep doing what you’re doing or feeling what you’re feeling, but you do need to come to terms with yourself and surrender yourself to faith that there is a better way.”

The Spirit Awakening Foundation will present its 4th Annual Voices of the Unheard: Epiphany benefit performance at 3 p.m., Sat., Dec. 3, at The Lost Studio Theater in Los Angeles.

The show will highlight inspiring works written by people, who live or formerly resided in probation camps within the juvenile justice system.

The mission of the organization is to assist teens and youth in the fulfillment of their spiritual identity, and to generate inspirational stories of transformation for the screen, stage and television.

Graham, who has appeared in numerous television shows including “Picket Fences,” “Chicago Hope,” “General Hospital,” and movie “American Pie,” also went through challenging times as a teen trying to find her own voice and wrote the one woman play titled “Spirit Awakening.”

“That was the vehicle I used to come back to myself,” says Graham. “During my teenage years, my challenge was more internalized about liking myself.”

Proceeds from the fundraiser will go towards satellite writing programs in Culver City, East LA, South Central and Lancaster.

“Formerly detained youth or foster youth in the juvenile and justice system – will have a place to go for mentoring, self growth and self awareness, writing courses, job referrals, peer mentorships,” says Graham.

The evening’s special guests include: Rev. Michael Bernard Beckwith (Founder and Spiritual Director of Agape International Spiritual Center), Frances Fisher (Titanic), Stephani Victor (actress/athlete) and Debra Wilson (Mad TV).

For tickets vist www.brownpapertickets.com or www. Spiritawakening.org.

LA ROMANA, Dominican Republic

While attacks on journalists covering drug trafficking are common throughout much of Latin America, they are rare in the Dominican Republic, although the country has become a conduit for drugs bound for the U.S. and Europe. Silvestre’s death, which prompted a police investigation that quickly yielded arrests, opened a window into the country’s growing narco-culture, with allegations of corruption that circled back to the slain journalist himself.

Carlos Lauria, senior Americas coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists, expressed alarm at the killing despite the allegations of possible wrongdoing by Silvestre that emerged after his slaying.

“Unfortunately, the trend, not only in the Americas but in the world, is that most of these crimes (against journalists) go unpunished,” Lauria said.

Police so far have arrested five people in the case but not the alleged mastermind. He has been identified as Matias Avelino Castro, the 40-year-old owner of a resort hotel on the Samana peninsula as well as other businesses, said Frank Soto, the prosecutor leading the investigation.

Avelino is an alleged drug trafficker who goes by the name “Daniel” or “Daniel the Big Gun of Samana” and was the subject of the story planned for Silvestre’s loosely edited magazine, The Voice of Truth, and his TV show by the same name, Soto said.

In recent months, authorities had been investigating an alleged drug trafficker in Samana whom they knew only as “Daniel.” Police and drug enforcement agency didn’t know his real identity until they began looking at Silvestre’s killing and learned what the journalist had been about to publish, said Maximo Baez, a police spokesman.

Police have since started to unravel Avelino’s alleged drug ring in Samana and La Romana, which is about 155 miles (250 kilometers) from the capital Santo Domingo, Baez and other officials said.

German Miranda, director of the anti-money laundering division of the attorney general’s office, said they have seized control of a number of bank accounts and begun tracking assets that Avelino allegedly obtained through drug sales. Among those, he said, are a 26-room, high-end boutique hotel at Las Galeras in Samana and a 50-room hotel and sports complex that has not yet opened in San Cristobal, about 18 miles (30 kilometers) west of the capital.

No one answers the phone at the larger hotel, which has been searched by police and may be confiscated if authorities determine it was paid for with drug proceeds, Miranda said.

Among Avelino’s alleged business partners is Jose Rijo, a former major league pitcher, who has been questioned repeatedly in the case but has not been detained. Rijo, who pitched for the New York Yankees and Oakland Athletics, did not return messages seeking comment.

Avelino, apparently fearing that Silvestre was about to reveal his real name, allegedly arranged for the journalist to be kidnapped and he was fatally shot while resisting being forced into a car, Soto said.

Silvestre knew he had a high-risk story on his hands. “He said this was going to be a big deal,” said the journalist’s brother, Juan Silvestre.

Before the slaying, Silvestre was perhaps best known in the Dominican Republic for being accused of defaming a prosecutor by accusing him of taking bribes in his twice-monthly paper, which had a print run of about 100 copies. As a result of that complaint, Silvestre spent six days in jail before he paid a bond and was released. The case was pending when the journalist was killed.

Dominican authorities were critical of his work.

Soto said that Silvestre, 59, was apparently playing a dangerous game, taking payments from drug traffickers to publish accusations against perceived enemies in the sensationalist pages of his paper.

Information about these alleged payments came from several people interviewed during the investigation, Soto said. Prosecutors have evidence that in the last two years, Silvestre received $13,000 and $6,600 in separate payments, he said.

Some of Silvestre’s journalist colleagues are also critical, accusing him of being sloppy at best.

In the magazine’s last edition, published in July, Silvestre used 31 of 44 pages to describe four alleged drug trafficking groups and their alleged links to government and justice officials. The story carried an accusatory tone and did not include any type of sourcing.

“Silvestre showed me his magazines and (TV) show and I told him, ‘Silvestre, this is not journalism,”’ said Aurelio Henriquez, president of the Dominican Journalists Association.

Silvestre faced repeated accusations of slander and defamation.

“He was a character who was constantly in court,” said Jose Polanco, the prosecutor who filed a complaint against Silvestre in May after the magazine accused him of drug-trafficking ties. Polanco denies the allegations.

The 6-foot (1.8-meter) tall Silvestre never studied journalism, but in 1975 he launched a daily TV program where in a casual shirt and with a strong voice he strongly criticized government officials and business owners for alleged corrupt practices.

In 1982, he launched his bimonthly magazine to denounce corruption but left several years later for the United States because of economic problems. While in the U.S., Silvestre was arrested three times on unrelated charges, including shoplifting and drug and weapon possession.

He returned in 2005 and resumed the magazine’s publication.

Silvestre caught the public’s attention in 2010 when he transmitted on his TV program a video of police officers executing a robbery suspect. Authorities later used the video in their investigation.

Lauria, at the Committee to Protect Journalists, said any allegations that Silvestre’s reporting was tainted should be investigated and the results made public. But he also cautioned about speculating on journalists’ alleged corrupt activities if concrete evidence is not presented.

He said that recently in Mexico, just hours after a female reporter was found beheaded, prosecutors accused her of having ties with drug traffickers without presenting much evidence.

“That was really irresponsible,” Lauria said. “It’s important that a thorough, complete, exhaustive investigation is conducted.”

The proposal, however, dealt only in broad strokes with battleground issues such as taxation and environmental regulations that cause interest groups to dig in for a political fight.

“Everyone has their trophy, everyone has their agenda, and they start shooting at each other before we even sit down,” Newsom, a Democrat, said.

By concentrating on steps such as creating a single economic development office high in state government and marketing California overseas to expand exports, supporters hope Newsom’s approach can generate momentum toward progress on tougher issues during the next six months.

The report recounted the struggles of California’s economy, which has lost a million jobs in five years. It also detailed strengths that could underpin new growth, including a culture of business innovation, access to export markets, an educated workforce, and a solid foundation in the emerging “clean economy” for products with environmental benefits.

Aspects of the plan drew praise from the California Chamber of Commerce, California Labor Federation, the state chapter of the National Federation of Independent Businesses and the California Association for Local Economic Development.

CalChamber CEO Allan Zaremberg said his group appreciated Newsom’s emphasis on international trade, regulatory reform and “the priority Sacramento policy makers must place on doing no more harm to our economy.”

Shortly after he was elected last year, Gov. Jerry Brown asked business leaders for ideas on how to boost job growth in technology and manufacturing. Brown attended at least one of the panel meetings with chief executives that fed into Newsom’s report. Several of its recommendations were part of Brown’s campaign platform.

Brown “will continue to work closely with (Newsom) to expand California’s job creation agenda,” Gil Duran, a spokesman for Brown, said Friday. He called the idea for a cabinet-level office focused on job creation a positive suggestion that Brown will discuss with Newsom and legislative leaders.

Newsom is working with Assembly Speaker John Perez, D-Los Angeles, to send a bill creating that office to Brown’s desk by September.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, said he was looking forward to working with Newsom on steps to foster job creation and link education to the economy. Steinberg still hopes to pass legislation to streamline business regulations and assess their costs and benefits. His previous effort was shelved during spring budget negotiations with Republican lawmakers.

Newsom’s proposal also calls for new or improved economic measurements, such as evaluating the benefits of various tax incentives. Some of those incentives were designed to lure companies to relocate to California but don’t encourage the 95 percent of job growth that comes from startups and expansion of companies that are already in California, he said..

Republican lawmakers also found much to like in the proposal.

“I’m glad to have help _ this is right out of our playbook,” said state Sen. Bob Dutton of Rancho Cucamonga, the Senate Republican leader. “This is not a partisan issue.”

The proposal by Newsom lays out the broad strokes of a plan to set the state on a course toward job growth. Among its elements:

_ Emphasize innovation and manufacturing, particularly by small, agile companies serving global supply chains. Encourage expanded exports of both goods and services.

_ Re-establish a state presence in foreign markets to promote trade, starting with a privately funded office in China within 180 days, then one in Brazil.

_ Remove thickets of “onerous and inconsistent regulations, slow bureaucracies and misaligned policies” that slow California businesses and impose barriers to global competition, without weakening standards.

_ Plan education and job training with economic development in mind, emphasizing the skills workers will need for “new economy” jobs.

Business leaders appreciate the plan’s emphasis on speed, measureable results and regular revisions to address changing conditions, said Carl Guardino, president of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, which represents some of the world’s largest technology companies.

The group paid $45,000 toward developing the report, about two-thirds of its cost.

Guardino praised Newsom’s willingness to learn from others about better ways to foster economic development. Some fellow Democrats criticized Newsom for accompanying Republican lawmakers on a job-growth tour of Texas this spring, but “there’s a lot of stuff out there we can learn,” Guardino said.

A group representing manufacturers congratulated Newsom for trying to make California more attractive to high-wage businesses, and expressed hope the effort would change past practices of picking winners, such as renewable energy, for state support at the expense of other industries.

The group is “anxious to start helping,” said Gino DiCaro, spokesman for the California Manufacturing and Technology Association. “The essentials that any company needs for growth are simple: predictable costs, competitive costs, adequate infrastructure, access to skilled workers and regulatory certainty,” he said.

Hard work lies ahead as Newsom, a business owner and former San Francisco mayor, steps to the forefront of the economic push _ his first major policy move since he was elected to statewide office.

California remains mired in a sluggish recovery, with most counties at double-digit unemployment. A University of the Pacific economic forecast on Friday projected the state rate will stay above 10 percent through 2013, and federal data for the second quarter showed the national economy still sputtering.

Post editor Col Allan sent a memo to staff Friday asking them to comply with the request from company lawyers.

Allan wrote that as the scandal at News Corp.’s News of the World tabloid unfolded in the U.K. “we knew that as a News Corporation tabloid, we would be looked at more closely.”

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder plans to meet on Aug. 24 with some Sept. 11 family members about an FBI inquiry into allegations that News of the World journalists attempted to bribe a former New York City policeman to get phone records of victims of the terrorist attack.

The FBI probe is in its preliminary stages and it is unclear if it will look at News Corp. properties beyond the U.K. tabloid.

A News Corp. spokeswoman declined to comment further.

Allan told Post employees that the request was made “in light of what has gone on in London at News of the World, and not because any recipient has done anything improper or unlawful.” In a separate communication, News Corp.’s lawyers told Post staffers that “given what has taken place in London, we believe that taking this step will help to underscore how seriously we are taking this matter.”

On Friday, the chair of the British parliamentary committee investigating the scandal said he was writing to News Corp.’s deputy chief operating officer, James Murdoch, as well as two former employees to gain clarity on a dispute over Murdoch’s testimony last week.

The dispute centered on when Murdoch, the son of News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch, was made aware of an email that indicated the practice of intercepting voicemails was widespread at the News of the World, which the company closed two weeks ago. Murdoch said he wasn’t aware of the email until late 2010. But two former News Corp. employees dispute his claim.

Over the last few weeks, details emerged that indicated the phone-hacking was much more widespread than once thought, and targeted not only celebrities and politicians but also a 13-year-old murdered girl.

On Thursday, a charity co-founded by Sara Payne, the mother of an 8-year-old girl murdered by a pedophile in 2000, said that Payne was also a target of a private detective employed by the shuttered tabloid, who was jailed for the hacking in 2007.

News Corp. owns the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal in the U.S., the Sun and Sunday Times in the U.K., more than 140 papers in Australia, as well as Fox News Channel, TV stations and the 20th Century Fox movie studio.

The findings are part of a 22-nation poll Wednesday by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center.

The annual Global Attitudes Project poll found that despite Western Europe’s doubts about the American projection of power, the United States retains a positive image in most of the countries surveyed. That continues a trend that began when Barack Obama became president in January 2009.

The poll also found widespread sentiment that China’s growing military power was a bad thing. But it produced a more mixed picture of China’s economic rise with more people in 13 countries saying that it was a good thing than those with a negative view. In Britain, for instance, 53 percent of respondents said China’s economic growth was good, while 71 percent said its growing military might was bad.

Despite the bullish view of China’s rise in Western Europe, respondents in other regions had a different estimation. Just over a third of Turkish respondents thought that China would supplant the United States and 60 percent of Japanese respondents and 54 percent in Lebanon said China never will replace the United States as the leading power.

Though the United States was viewed favorably by a majority of respondents in most of the countries, there were some notable exceptions. The U.S. image continued to erode in Turkey, where only 10 percent of respondents expressed a favorable view. The ratings were similarly negative in Pakistan at 12 percent and in Jordan at 13 percent.

Views of Obama ranged greatly. Confidence in the U.S. president was sky-high in some countries, like Germany (88 percent), but rock bottom in others, like Pakistan (8 percent).

China also was viewed favorably in most countries but had positive ratings below 40 percent in Turkey, India, Germany, Japan and others.

Just over half of American respondents had a positive view of China, while only 44 percent of those from China thought positively of the United States, a drop of 14 percentage points since last year’s poll. The sample in China was disproportionately urban and Pew estimates that it represents about 57 percent of the adult population

Interviews were conducted mostly face-to-face, although telephone interviews were used in the U.S., Britain, France, Germany, Spain and Japan.

Sample sizes ranged from 700 people in Japan to 3,308 in China.

The poll was conducted March 18 to May 15 in the United States and 21 other countries. The margin of sampling error ranged from plus or minus 2.5 percentage points in China to 5 percentage points in Israel.

The Los Angeles Times reports Wednesday that math professor Tihomir Petrov failed to appear for a pretrial conference hearing last week in Superior Court in San Fernando and a warrant was issued for the sum of $35,000.

Authorities say Petrov was captured on videotape in early December after school officials concealed a camera nearby after discovering puddles of what they believed to be urine at a professor’s door.

Petrov faces charges of two misdemeanor counts of urinating in public.

The inmate crews provide a vital work force in a state where wildfires burn hundreds of homes and tens of thousands of acres in a typical year and have become even more important as budget cuts have reduced the number of seasonal firefighters employed by the state.

It’s the largest such program in the nation, with inmates making up nearly half of California’s wildland firefighters. But it’s endangered by Gov. Jerry Brown’s plan to shift responsibility for tens of thousands of lower-level offenders from state prisons to county jails to save the state money and to comply with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that upheld a lower court in ordering California to reduce overcrowding in its prison system.

Brown’s plan targets lower-level offenders, the same inmates who generally qualify for the prisoner fire camps.

Officials say the program will not be affected this fire season because the inmate shift has not yet been funded. They are hoping county sheriffs will send inmates to the camps in future years, but say that’s uncertain.

“It’s a tough issue,” said Oscar Hidalgo, a spokesman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. “We’re doing everything we can to maintain it, either through the counties or even looking very closely at eligibility for those inmates and if we can somehow retain those inmates in fighting fires.”

Concern over the program’s future comes as the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection deals this year with a $31 million budget cut that eliminated 730 seasonal state firefighters, leaving 2,400.

That means there will be three firefighters on each of the department’s fire engines during the peak fire season, down from four, said spokesman Daniel Berlant. The department will keep its 3,300 full-time firefighters despite the budget cuts.

The department’s full-time and seasonal firefighters operate fire engines, bulldozers, helicopters and airplanes. But it is the inmate crews that do the dirty, exhausting work of cutting and scraping fire lines with hand tools.

“They go on the front line on the fires. Their job is to go around the perimeter of a fire and clear brush, so we put a doughnut ring around the fire so there’s nothing left to burn,” Berlant said. “They really are the backbone of firefighting.”

Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, South Dakota, Washington and Wyoming are among states that use inmates to fight fires.

But California’s inmate firefighter program is larger than many states’ entire prison populations, said Alison Lawrence, a policy specialist with the National Conference of State Legislatures.

From the first permanent firefighting camp in 1946, California’s program has expanded to 39 state-operated camps and another five run by Los Angeles County. Two of the state’s camps are staffed by female inmates and two by juvenile offenders.

Most inmates earn $1.45 a day when they are in training or doing community work projects. They earn $1 an hour when they are called out to fight fires. Many also qualify for two days’ credit toward earlier release for each day they spend in the camps.

There are no recidivism studies on fire camp graduates, but Correctional Capt. Rae Stewart, who coordinates the program, said most benefit from the self-discipline, teamwork and vocational training.

“I’m a little older, but you see a lot of kids come in here, they’ve never worked before,” said 53-year-old David Leach, who has spent the last 2 1/2 years as an inmate firefighter based northeast of Redding in Shasta County. “They come in here and develop a good work ethic.”

Leach is due to be paroled next month to Los Angeles County and already has a job waiting with a tree service company, building on skills he learned as a firefighter.

Chris Anderson, 38, earned an associate of arts degree and several water treatment licenses during his 4 1/2 years in a firefighting camp, licenses he expects will win him a job when he gets parole in 70 days.

“Behind the walls, it’s a lot more stringent, there’s a lot more politics,” said Anderson, of Red Bluff. “These are guys who are just trying to go home and improve their lives.”

The corrections department allowed the inmates to speak with The Associated Press on the condition that they not be asked about their crimes.

In an average year, the inmate firefighters perform three million hours of emergency work and five million hours of community service in total.

The camps cost the corrections department about $47 million annually, Stewart said, but save an estimated $80 million annually for the work they provide, compared to a non-inmate earning $10 an hour.

Berlant said the program costs his agency another $77 million annually, but saves millions of dollars compared to what it would cost to hire professional firefighters at $12 to $14.55 an hour.

Corrections Secretary Matthew Cate said this spring that he hopes county sheriffs continue to send inmates to the fire camps under the law Brown signed in April. Brown sought the realignment to help cut the state’s budget deficit and remove up to 40,000 inmates over three years from the nation’s largest state prison system, now 162,000 inmates.

The law would give counties responsibility for adult offenders convicted of non-serious, nonviolent and non-sexual offenses. It also is the administration’s primary answer to the U.S. Supreme Court’s order last month that California reduce its prison population by 33,000 inmates within two years to improve the medical treatment for prisoners.

County sheriffs will have to find places to put all those inmates, Cate said, and under Brown’s proposal would have the money to continue sending them to fire camps.

Each of California’s 58 sheriffs could respond differently to the influx of inmates, potentially leaving the fire camps short-handed, said Merced County Sheriff Mark Pazin, president of the state sheriffs’ association.

“It gets into those unintended consequences of realignment,” Pazin said.

State Sen. Doug La Malfa, R-Willows, fears the state could lower its standards for inmate firefighters in an attempt to maintain the program if sheriffs decide not to send many of the lower-level offenders they will inherit back to the camps.

Corrections officials said nine inmates walked away from fire camps last year, which is typical for an unfenced facility.

Map of California

The 14-member California Citizens Redistricting Commission was established by voters under Proposition 11 in 2008 in response to gerrymandering by lawmakers. Voters favored switching to an independent commission to draw legislative maps after state lawmakers used the process for decades to protect their own incumbents and their parties.

Supporters hoped the new process would encourage the election of more moderate politicians and thus reduce political gridlock, but experts say it’s too soon to tell how much of an impact the new maps will have.

Republicans and Democrats will also face another voter-approved wild card _ the open primary system in which voters, regardless of registration, can select candidates from any party.

“I think a big factor in the low registration and low voting rates in California among some communities is disenchantment with the political process. And a big source of that disenchantment is the fact that people feel that politicians have chosen their voters instead of the other way around,” said Maria Blanco, a commissioner from Los Angeles. “The measure of success will be whether we see more people … willing to participate in the political process.”

The process is being closely watched because California has one of the few citizen-led panels in the nation. It also has implications for the state’s legislative and congressional districts. The commission will release the first draft of maps Friday and hand in a final version in August.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, most state maps have their political boundaries drown by the Legislature or commissions appointed by the parties or governors. Arizona’s model comes closest with five commissioners selected at random.

California’s commissioners were chosen from an initial field of about 30,000 applicants and reflect the state’s racial and political diversity. There are five Democrats, five Republicans and four decline-to-state or registered with another party.

The panel will draw the maps for all 120 state Senate and Assembly districts, the state’s 53 congressional districts and for the districts represented on the five-member Board of Equalization, which collects state sales taxes, vice taxes and fees, and hears appeals on tax disputes. Last November, voters rejected a ballot initiative that sought to eliminate the commission.

Paul Mitchell, president of Redistricting Partners, a consulting firm in Sacramento, said the public will like some of what it sees, but not everything.

“On the input, I would give it high marks _ the public nature of it, the hearings. You’ve got extremely smart people on the commission. They’re doing the right things,” Mitchell said.

“My belief though is it’s not going to meet the expectations of the public. Maybe the public had expectations that they voted for these sets of initiatives and the result was going to be that they were going to have all these districts be square boxes and every district was going to be competitive _ and that’s not happening.”

Mitchell said the maps may not create as many competitive districts as some might think because the commission is grouping similar communities together, which means people who share the same political values will likely be in the same district. Majority Democrats who are hoping for Republicans to become more moderate might be disappointed, he said.

“I don’t think redistricting is going to motivate them to the middle _ except in a rare case,” Mitchell said.

Tony Quinn, an expert on California political races, disagreed and said the new lines will likely shake up the makeup of the state Legislature. Previous gerrymandering of political boundaries had left the state with oddly shaped districts and little turnover between the parties.

Because the commissioners are paying no attention to incumbents or party registration, Quinn said “incumbents of both parties are going to be displaced and pushed around some.” He believes the new maps will create more competitive districts, giving Democrats a shot at taking over two-thirds of the state Legislature, a critical threshold for passing taxes without Republicans.

On Thursday, the Service Employees International Union California announced the launch of a new political action committee called Golden California Committee to try to elect more moderate Republicans. The union is hoping to get help from new boundaries.

“Our legislators are harangued by talk show hosts like John and Ken and pressured by D.C. ideologues like Grover Norquist and have forgotten who they really answer to: their constituents,” said Bob Schoonover, president of SEIU Local 721 and a Los Angeles Republican.

Quinn, co-editor of the California Target Book, which analyzes state legislative and congressional races, said while the Assembly and congressional maps look good, the Senate maps need to be cleaned up. For example, he said one Senate district runs from Lodi, a conservative agricultural community in the Central Valley, to Marin County, a liberal hotbed.

Blanco cautioned that the new map is only a draft.

The maps will try to string communities together but will need to follow the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965 in response to the civil rights movement. The maps also will reflect a population that has migrated from the coast to the state’s interior.

“There’s no doubt you’re going to see maps that aren’t gerrymandered,” Blanco said.

Think for a minute. I’m willing to bet that you know, or have known, someone who is a victim of intimate partner violence. Not surprising given the fact that domestic violence can take many different forms: physical, emotional, sexual and economic. It affects women and men of every age, race and class. It can happen to anybody—even you.

African American women seem to get the worst of it. According to The Institute on Domestic Violence in the African American community, African-American women experience intimate partner violence at rates 35% higher than their White counterparts and 2.5 times the rate of men and other races. In addition, African Americans account for a disproportionate number of intimate partner homicides. In 2005, African American accounted for almost 1/3 of the intimate partner homicides in this country.  These are staggering statistic that reminds us that too many of our mothers, sisters, wives, brothers and friends are trapped in a never-ending cycle of generational violence.

As African Americans, our lives often seemed marred by violence. We see it in our homes, in our schools, and in our streets. Too many of us see hitting, punching, and screaming as normal reactions to conflict, and it’s not.  I was raised to understand that I never put my hands on anyone and I should never allow anyone to put their hands on me. It’s almost a quaint notion in a society that has somehow come to believes that women can “give as good as they get” and “deserve” to suffer if they get out of line. Somehow, we have forgotten to love and cherish each other. We’ve forgotten that real women don’t hit and real men walk away from a volatile situation, no matter how hard that chose may be. We will never get anywhere as a community if we can’t stop hurting each other — spiritually, emotionally and physically.

I work with women who are victims of domestic violence and the number one question I get is, “why don’t they just leave?” It’s not a question with an easy answer.

• Many fear that they cannot survive emotionally without their partner.  I once had a woman tell me that, “I wasn’t starved for money or for courage, I was starved for love, and I’d accept anything to get it.”
• Many feel that they can’t survive financially without their partner.
• Many do not want to break up their families.
• Also, for many, violence may be all they know, and they convince themselves that what they are going through isn’t really that bad.
• Then there is the very real threat of more violence and even death. Many times, when a partner threatens to kill their mate if they leave they are not kidding.

As African American women, we need to make our voices heard and demand respect. It is not okay to kill, maim, burn or defile us in anyway. It is not okay to take us from our babies, and force us to leave motherless children who will never be whole again. The appalling treatment of so many of us should not be treated as business as usual. It should not be rationalized as something that we deserve. It should not be ignored.  We can close or eyes and try to pretend that intimate partner violence is not that bad, or deny it is even happening, but the invisible often materializes at the most inconvenient times, reminding us that some things cannot be wished away. We must stand up for those who we cannot see, but who we know need us the most.

till next month…

Angela N. Parker is a writer of stuff. You can visit her Under the Hill blog at http://angelanparker.blogspot.com/ and her Writer’s Blog at http://theparkerverse.blogspot.com. Please send any questions/comments to aparkeronline@yahoo.com.

The reason? Smoke from dirty stoves or open flames. Some 3 billion people live in homes where food is cooked on stoves orover fires burning fuels like wood, dung, charcoal, or agricultural waste. These fuels produce toxic fumes, and in poorly ventilated homes, the mix of chemicals can reach 200 times the level that the EPA considers safe to breathe. It can cause lung cancer, pneumonia, cataracts, low birth weight, even death. According to the World Health Organization, smoke from dirty stoves and fires kills almost 2 million people each year, most of them women and children. It kills more than twice as many people as malaria.

Impact on climate

The impact goes beyond people’s health. Burning these fuels produces carbon dioxide, methane, and black carbon, which contribute to climate change. And cutting down trees for fuel causes natural habitats to dry up, forests to disappear, and soil to erode.

Roughly half of our columns come from our Board of Contributors, a group whose interests range from education to religion to sports to the economy. Their charge is to chronicle American culture by telling the stories, large and small, that collectively make us what we are.

We also publish weekly columns by Al Neuharth, USA TODAY’s founder, and DeWayne Wickham, who writes primarily on matters of race but on other subjects as well. That leaves plenty of room for other views from across the nation by well-known and lesser-known names alike.

On average, women and girls in developing countries spend up to 20 hours a week searching for fuel — time they could spend going to school, running a business, or raising their families. And if they live in areas of conflict, leaving home to search for fuel puts them at great risk of assault or rape.

All of this presents a major challenge — but it can be solved. If we can get cleaner, more efficient cookstoves in wider use throughout the developing world, we can save lives, cut back on carbon emissions, and create new economic opportunities for millions of women.

Fortunately, the technology for clean cookstoves already exists. Several companies are already producing them, and countries like India, China, and Mexico have begun to introduce them in national programs. But the uptake has been slow, because there hasn’t been a widescale effort to coordinate these efforts, or to make the stoves affordable in the developing world.

Multiple supporters

That’s why we are excited about the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, a partnership led by the United Nations Foundation that brings together governments, multilateral, private sector, and nonprofit organizations.

The Alliance will drive research and development efforts to make new stoves that are more durable, affordable, and tailored to the cooking needs of specific cultures. It will help bring down costs, trade barriers, and other obstacles that have prevented cookstoves from being used widely. And it will promote the benefits of clean stoves, to encourage more families to start using them. A major goal for the Alliance is for 100 million households to take up clean cookstoves by 2020.

Reaching this goal will save lives and reduce pollution. It will also give people, especially women and girls, a new tool to create new economic opportunities for themselves. With the right training and a small upfront investment, women can start new businesses selling, repairing and distributing clean stoves.

As we celebrate the mothers in our own lives, let us help millions more by contributing to this cause. Currently, five federal agencies are working with more than 60 foreign governments, nonprofits, international organizations and businesses to take action around this issue. Experts are laying out strategies. Knowledge is being shared. And resources are being committed. But the Alliance is always looking for more governments, nonprofits and private companies to partner with.

By supporting these efforts, we can work to improve health around the world, generate economic opportunity, and fight climate change — and that would be a Mother’s Day gift to remember.

Hillary Rodham Clinton is U.S. Secretary of State and Julia Roberts is the new Global Ambassador for the Alliance for Clean Cookstoves. Please visit http://cleancookstoves.org/ for more information

Attorneys Edward Chernoff and J. Michael Flanagan argued that the new evidence against Dr. Conrad Murray should be barred from the trial because it arrived too late.

Deputy District Attorney David Walgren said that would be absurd and called the situation the defense team’s own fault for refusing to delay the trial when he and the judge suggested it.

Among the new expert opinions proposed by prosecutors is that Jackson could not have caused his own death by swallowing the powerful anesthetic propofol because it is not absorbed through the intestines.

At a preliminary hearing earlier this year, the defense posed the idea that Jackson, desperate for sleep, swallowed the drug while his doctor was out of the room.  Propofol is normally is administered intravenously for surgery.

Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor said he would not exclude the expert testimony and declared he prosecution was not trying to “sandbag” the defense by disclosing the witness so close to the possible end of jury selection next week.

“This case involves sophisticated scientific issues,” Pastor said, adding it was likely that new theories would arise during discovery of evidence.

“I’m not surprised by the situation,” the judge said. “I anticipated these problems when I was advised that this case was going to proceed within 60 days after the preliminary hearing.”

Murray, who has pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter in the death of the pop superstar, has insisted on moving forward quickly.

Walgren said the prosecution, which originally listed 11 anticipated expert witnesses, has cut that down to four, most of them new.

“When the first experts got into this, it was not anticipated the defense would go with the theory that Michael killed himself,” the prosecutor said. “This is a situation they created … It was always our theory that Dr. Murray was incompetent, untruthful and caused the death of Michael Jackson.”

With the new defense theory in play, prosecutors had to seek new scientific experts, he said.

Flanagan said he and Chernoff now need additional experts to respond to the newly added prosecution witnesses.

Chernoff was scheduled to report back to the judge later Friday. He said he would consult with Murray to determine whether to request a delay.

Jury selection, which began with a panel filling out written questionnaires, is set to continue May 4, with opening statements the following week.