Drops in the bucket as Spring comes to Riverside
The city council will vote on the creation of a task force to contemplate among other things whether or not the library and museum should be expanded and renovated as separate projects. Though not heavy on ward representation and packed with mostly Mayor Ron Loveridge's peeps, the items is expected to sail on through.
Is this a truly collaborative fact-finding process or is this a way for City Hall to reroute around the concerns brought out at a joint meeting of the Metropolitan Museum Board and the Board of Library Trustees? That remains to be seen. The dates of when meetings will be held and when public input will be allowed in the process haven't been announced.
Hemet's interim city manager is keeping up with the task of the annual budget.
San Bernardino will be implementing a hiring freeze to offset a projected $7.2 million budget deficit but may still have to dip into its emergency reserve.
There's going to be a mayoral recall election in Colton and three individuals have submitted their papers to run. They will be facing off against current mayor, Kelly Chastain, who is the focus of the recall effort on June 3. If you wanted to run yourself and didn't file, you'll have to wait until the next general election.
The days of Ontario patting itself on the back for how it was addressing its homeless issues in front of the rest of the world have passed then decided that in order to be included, you had to prove that you were a local resident, meaning that at one time you had an address and/or utilities. Then they lined people out and fastened color-coded bands on their arms which would answer the following question.
Could they stay or receive forced evictions?
"Yes", "Maybe" or "No" depending on which color band they had fastened on them as the people with the bands said they were only a temporary measure.
Yesterday it began that screening process to separate "local" homeless from those who aren't. Particularly hard on homeless people there is the new rule which forbids them to have pets.
(excerpt, Press Enterprise)
Authorities announced last week that the population would be capped at 170 residents. Those who could not provide documentation or prove ties to Ontario, such as being a former resident or having family in the area, would be asked to leave, city officials said.
Some homeless activists are concerned the city has not given the vulnerable population enough time to prepare.
Hunting down documents and dealing with bureaucracy is difficult for people who by definition are rootless, said Mike Dunlap, founder of Homeless We Care.
"Homeless people already have a (hard) time getting through the day without putting them through a process like this," Dunlap said, watching the lines of camp residents waiting to make their cases. "We weren't allowed enough time to walk people through this."
Schultz said the city wants to find a long-term solution for problems at the camp, which was established for people who had been staying in the city.
The history of Grant Elementary School which is facing closure due to budget cuts and the fact that the County Board of Education's administrative headquarters is eying the land. The weekly Riverside Unified School District meeting was well-attended with parents and other supporters of the school.
In part because of a scandal in its sister county, Riverside County will be reining in its credit card spending among employees in its department.
According to the Press Enterprise, the county also didn't perform very well in an internal audit.
(excerpt)
The Riverside County audit reviewed credit card use at nine departments: Child Support Services, the district attorney's office, fire, information technology, the Office on Aging, probation, sheriff's, the Transportation and Land management Agency and waste management.
The audit's highlights included:
The Sheriff's Department did not obtain the purchasing agent's or Board of Supervisor's approval for Budget Rent-A-Car and Home Depot credit cards. Internal controls over the use of Altura Credit Union and Home Deport cards were not adequate, the audit concluded.
Of 274 Altura Credit Union purchases totaling more than $23,000, 40 lacked proper supporting documentation, the audit found.
In a written response to auditors, the Sheriff's Department's finance bureau disagreed with the report's findings, saying extensive controls were in place on the credit cards. Altura cards, for instance, are used for the travel and training needs of deputies, Sheriff's Department officials said.
The Probation Department between Feb. 2005 and April 2007 incurred $1,783 in finance charges and $210 in late fees. Other purchases lacked documentation, the audit found.
In a written response, Chief Probation Officer Alan Cogan said the store credit cards would be canceled.
The district attorney's office had proper oversight of all its credit cards but did not have board approval to use Altura Credit Union cards. As with the other departments, auditors recommended the district attorney use only the county Procurement Card program, which allows the county to pay one bank and not myriad vendors.
The CHP is paying out on an excessive force case involving a 72-year-old man.
The Los Angeles Police Department has been urged to implement changes with its SWAT Team in the wake of a report recommending among other things opening up the SWAT membership to women in an attempt to address its "insular" culture.
(excerpt, Los Angeles Times)
Those conclusions and others, included in a draft of the panel's confidential report obtained by The Times, have deeply angered several Special Weapons and Tactics Team members, who say the changes -- some of which already have been imposed -- are misguided and will probably weaken the specialized unit that is charged with handling hostage situations and other high-risk operations.
"This is a recipe for disaster," said a SWAT officer, who has served in the unit for more than a decade. "We don't get to back up and do things over. . . . These changes are going to put us and the public in danger."
Several current SWAT officers and one former team member who were interviewed for this report all spoke on condition that their names not be used, out of fear that they would face retaliation by superiors. In an agency that rarely, if ever, deals publicly with internal turmoil, the report exposes a growing rift between Bratton and the department's most storied group of officers.
The report was submitted to Bratton more than a year ago. He has denied requests by The Times to make the panel's findings public and has not shared the full contents of the report with the Los Angeles Police Commission, the civilian body that oversees the department.
It's not clear what the other changes recommended regarding the SWAT Team are because all the attention is on the "E" word. Not evil, but estrogen which in law enforcement agencies sometimes appears to be a close second.
How will the resignation of Orange County Sheriff Michael Carona impact lawsuits against the county? It might push more of those cases to settle. A bunch of those lawsuits come from individuals inside his own department.
The bullets that hit Sean Bell, his friends and his vehicle were outlined today during testimony in the trial of three New York City Police Department officers who were charged in connection with the shooting.
(excerpt, New York Times)
In photographs, they are only thin, colorful tubes, as bright and harmless-looking as something from a child’s box of toys.
But each tube, called a police trajectory rod in court testimony on Monday, represents a police bullet that tore through the doors and shattered windows of Sean Bell’s car in a barrage that killed him and wounded two friends, and the rods described, perhaps better than words, the violent and painful final seconds of Mr. Bell’s life.
The pictures, admitted as evidence in the trial in State Supreme Court in Queens, track the paths of the 20 bullets that pierced Mr. Bell’s Nissan Altima on Nov. 25, 2006, on Liverpool Street in Jamaica, Queens, when police officers fired 50 rounds at the car. Three of the detectives, Gescard F. Isnora, Michael Oliver and Marc Cooper, who together fired 46 rounds, have been charged in the killing, and have said they believed that Mr. Bell or his friends were armed and intended to shoot someone in the moments to come.
Mr. Bell was struck four times, and his front-seat passenger, Joseph Guzman, was wounded 19 times, including exit wounds. A third friend in the back seat, Trent Benefield, was wounded by two gunshots to the legs.
Former Bolingbrook Police Department Sgt. Drew Peterson is going to court to get his stuff back, as more volunteers resume their search for his wife, Stacey who's been missing nearly five months.
In other news, the whirlwind romance between Petra the swan and her significant other, a large paddle boat swan has ended amicably.
Is this a truly collaborative fact-finding process or is this a way for City Hall to reroute around the concerns brought out at a joint meeting of the Metropolitan Museum Board and the Board of Library Trustees? That remains to be seen. The dates of when meetings will be held and when public input will be allowed in the process haven't been announced.
Hemet's interim city manager is keeping up with the task of the annual budget.
San Bernardino will be implementing a hiring freeze to offset a projected $7.2 million budget deficit but may still have to dip into its emergency reserve.
There's going to be a mayoral recall election in Colton and three individuals have submitted their papers to run. They will be facing off against current mayor, Kelly Chastain, who is the focus of the recall effort on June 3. If you wanted to run yourself and didn't file, you'll have to wait until the next general election.
The days of Ontario patting itself on the back for how it was addressing its homeless issues in front of the rest of the world have passed then decided that in order to be included, you had to prove that you were a local resident, meaning that at one time you had an address and/or utilities. Then they lined people out and fastened color-coded bands on their arms which would answer the following question.
Could they stay or receive forced evictions?
"Yes", "Maybe" or "No" depending on which color band they had fastened on them as the people with the bands said they were only a temporary measure.
Yesterday it began that screening process to separate "local" homeless from those who aren't. Particularly hard on homeless people there is the new rule which forbids them to have pets.
(excerpt, Press Enterprise)
Authorities announced last week that the population would be capped at 170 residents. Those who could not provide documentation or prove ties to Ontario, such as being a former resident or having family in the area, would be asked to leave, city officials said.
Some homeless activists are concerned the city has not given the vulnerable population enough time to prepare.
Hunting down documents and dealing with bureaucracy is difficult for people who by definition are rootless, said Mike Dunlap, founder of Homeless We Care.
"Homeless people already have a (hard) time getting through the day without putting them through a process like this," Dunlap said, watching the lines of camp residents waiting to make their cases. "We weren't allowed enough time to walk people through this."
Schultz said the city wants to find a long-term solution for problems at the camp, which was established for people who had been staying in the city.
The history of Grant Elementary School which is facing closure due to budget cuts and the fact that the County Board of Education's administrative headquarters is eying the land. The weekly Riverside Unified School District meeting was well-attended with parents and other supporters of the school.
In part because of a scandal in its sister county, Riverside County will be reining in its credit card spending among employees in its department.
According to the Press Enterprise, the county also didn't perform very well in an internal audit.
(excerpt)
The Riverside County audit reviewed credit card use at nine departments: Child Support Services, the district attorney's office, fire, information technology, the Office on Aging, probation, sheriff's, the Transportation and Land management Agency and waste management.
The audit's highlights included:
The Sheriff's Department did not obtain the purchasing agent's or Board of Supervisor's approval for Budget Rent-A-Car and Home Depot credit cards. Internal controls over the use of Altura Credit Union and Home Deport cards were not adequate, the audit concluded.
Of 274 Altura Credit Union purchases totaling more than $23,000, 40 lacked proper supporting documentation, the audit found.
In a written response to auditors, the Sheriff's Department's finance bureau disagreed with the report's findings, saying extensive controls were in place on the credit cards. Altura cards, for instance, are used for the travel and training needs of deputies, Sheriff's Department officials said.
The Probation Department between Feb. 2005 and April 2007 incurred $1,783 in finance charges and $210 in late fees. Other purchases lacked documentation, the audit found.
In a written response, Chief Probation Officer Alan Cogan said the store credit cards would be canceled.
The district attorney's office had proper oversight of all its credit cards but did not have board approval to use Altura Credit Union cards. As with the other departments, auditors recommended the district attorney use only the county Procurement Card program, which allows the county to pay one bank and not myriad vendors.
The CHP is paying out on an excessive force case involving a 72-year-old man.
The Los Angeles Police Department has been urged to implement changes with its SWAT Team in the wake of a report recommending among other things opening up the SWAT membership to women in an attempt to address its "insular" culture.
(excerpt, Los Angeles Times)
Those conclusions and others, included in a draft of the panel's confidential report obtained by The Times, have deeply angered several Special Weapons and Tactics Team members, who say the changes -- some of which already have been imposed -- are misguided and will probably weaken the specialized unit that is charged with handling hostage situations and other high-risk operations.
"This is a recipe for disaster," said a SWAT officer, who has served in the unit for more than a decade. "We don't get to back up and do things over. . . . These changes are going to put us and the public in danger."
Several current SWAT officers and one former team member who were interviewed for this report all spoke on condition that their names not be used, out of fear that they would face retaliation by superiors. In an agency that rarely, if ever, deals publicly with internal turmoil, the report exposes a growing rift between Bratton and the department's most storied group of officers.
The report was submitted to Bratton more than a year ago. He has denied requests by The Times to make the panel's findings public and has not shared the full contents of the report with the Los Angeles Police Commission, the civilian body that oversees the department.
It's not clear what the other changes recommended regarding the SWAT Team are because all the attention is on the "E" word. Not evil, but estrogen which in law enforcement agencies sometimes appears to be a close second.
How will the resignation of Orange County Sheriff Michael Carona impact lawsuits against the county? It might push more of those cases to settle. A bunch of those lawsuits come from individuals inside his own department.
The bullets that hit Sean Bell, his friends and his vehicle were outlined today during testimony in the trial of three New York City Police Department officers who were charged in connection with the shooting.
(excerpt, New York Times)
In photographs, they are only thin, colorful tubes, as bright and harmless-looking as something from a child’s box of toys.
But each tube, called a police trajectory rod in court testimony on Monday, represents a police bullet that tore through the doors and shattered windows of Sean Bell’s car in a barrage that killed him and wounded two friends, and the rods described, perhaps better than words, the violent and painful final seconds of Mr. Bell’s life.
The pictures, admitted as evidence in the trial in State Supreme Court in Queens, track the paths of the 20 bullets that pierced Mr. Bell’s Nissan Altima on Nov. 25, 2006, on Liverpool Street in Jamaica, Queens, when police officers fired 50 rounds at the car. Three of the detectives, Gescard F. Isnora, Michael Oliver and Marc Cooper, who together fired 46 rounds, have been charged in the killing, and have said they believed that Mr. Bell or his friends were armed and intended to shoot someone in the moments to come.
Mr. Bell was struck four times, and his front-seat passenger, Joseph Guzman, was wounded 19 times, including exit wounds. A third friend in the back seat, Trent Benefield, was wounded by two gunshots to the legs.
Former Bolingbrook Police Department Sgt. Drew Peterson is going to court to get his stuff back, as more volunteers resume their search for his wife, Stacey who's been missing nearly five months.
In other news, the whirlwind romance between Petra the swan and her significant other, a large paddle boat swan has ended amicably.
Labels: battering while blue, City Hall blues, corruption 101, Making the grade, officer-involved shootings
posted by Five Before Midnight | 10:06 PM
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