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Jews
in the News
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Like you, we're pleased when members of our community are
praiseworthy, and are disappointed when they are blameworthy.
Whether
it's good news or bad news, we'll try to keep track of what's being said in
general media about our fellow Jews.
Our news spotters are Dan Brin in Los Angeles, Donald H. Harrison in San Diego,
and you. Wherever you are, if you see a story of interest, please send a
summary and link to us at sdheritage@cox.net.
To
see a source story click on the link within the respective paragraph.
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Home
May 2007
Jews in the News by month
Go to June 2007 editions
Please click the date below to go directly to that day's entry, or scroll down.
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Tuesday, May 1
*A new novel by Michael Chabon imagines the Jews having been
resettled in Alaska. Scott Timberg has a
profile of the author in today's Los Angeles Times.
*Doctors Robert J. Lefkowitz of Duke University, Solomon H
Snyder of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Ronald M. Evans of the Salk
Institute were jointly awarded the Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and
Biomedical Research for their work on the roles of neurotransmitters and
hormones in cellular activity. The
story is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) is sponsoring legislation with
Republican Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah to provide an additional seat in
the House of Representatives for both Utah and the District of Columbia. The
Associated Press
story ran in today's Hartford Courant. That newspaper
also had another Associated Press
story quoting Lieberman as saying that unless the two major political
parties are more civil toward each other, a third party effort to de-polarize
politics may result.
*Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Amir
Peretz were excoriated by the Winograd Commission for "severe failures" in
the conduct of the Second Lebanon War. There are calls for them to resign. Steve
Erlanger and Isabel Kershner of the New York Times News Service have the
story in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Critics of former CIA Chief George Tenet say a story in his book that
Richard Perle wanted the U.S. to take revenge against Iraq immediately after
9/11 is being disputed because of discrepancies in Tenet's time line.
Josh Getlin has the
story in the Los Angeles Times.
*Robert Rosenthal, an American bomber pilot who later served as part
of the legal team that prosecuted Nazis at the Nurenberg trials, has died. An
obituary appears in today's Los Angeles Times.
*San Diego First Lady Rana Sampson, wife of Mayor Jerry Sanders, has
been named by the Girl Scouts of the San Diego-Imperial Counties as one of 10
local "Cool Women of 2007." She consults widely on fighting crime. The
story is in Diane Clark's column in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Paul Wolfowitz, contending he is the victim of a "smear campaign"
fought to hold onto his job as president of the World Bank. U.S. President
George W. Bush reiterated his support for him. The
story by Jeannine Aversa of the Associated Press appears in today's San
Diego Union-Tribune.
Wednesday, May 2
*Eitan Cabel, a junior minister from the Labor party, resigned
from Israel Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's Cabinet in protest of
Olmert's continuing leadership in the wake of the damaging Winograd Report on
the 2nd Lebanon War. The story by Joel Greenberg of the Chicago Tribune
is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Comedian
Billy Crystal has
been selected as the tenth recipient of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor,
according to officials at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The
story is in the Public Eye section of today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Kalooki Nights, a humorous novel by Howard Jacobson about growing
up Jewish near Manchester, England, drew a mixed
review from novelist Jennifer Gilmore in today's Los Angeles Times.
*Sen. Joe
Lieberman, the Connecticut independent and one of President George Bush's
most vocal war backers, says in the debate over funding, he hopes Congress won't
spend anymore time " trying to send a message... then you begin to jeopardize
funding for the troops." The Associated Press
story is in today's Hartford Courant.
*LoveMusik by Harold Prince is not an easy play to categorize, but
at its core is a story about the relationship between Three Penny Opera
composer Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya. Patrick Pacheco provides a
background
story on the play in today's Los Angeles Times.
*Fred Zeidman, a longtime Texas friend of President George W. Bush,
was not surprised by Bush's veto of the war spending bill even in the face of
public opinion polls showing Americans want the war over. "He is not going to
let public opinion interfere with what he thinks is right for the United
States," Zeidman said. The
story by Michael Abramowitz and Peter Baker of the Washington Post is
in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
(return to top)
Thursday, May 3
*U.S. Sen. Norman Coleman of Minnesota, a Republican who doesn't approve
of the President's war plans, but doesn't like the Democratic pull-out
legislation either, describes the atmosphere in Washington as "toxic" in the
wake of the President's veto of congressional legislation on Iraq funding. A
story by Naom H. Levey and Janet Hook is in today's Los Angeles Times.
*The use of force by Los Angeles police on journalists covering a
demonstration at MacArthur Park has prompted Police Chief William J. Bratton to
promise an investigation. KPCC-FM News Director
Paul Glickman suggests a police review of policies and procedures is in
order to assure the safety of the media. The
story by Anna Gorman and Stuart Silverstein is in today's Los Angeles
Times.
*Israel Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni has told Israel Prime Minister
Ehud Olmert that he should step down in the wake of the Winograd Commission
findings on the 2nd Lebanon War. Steven Erlanger of the New York Times
News Service has the story in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Daniel Hirsch, president of the anti-nuclear group Committee to
Bridge the Gap
*U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn)
says the U.S. government needs to find ways to stop terrorists from recruiting
and communicating by Internet. His Senate Homeland Security and Governmental
Affairs Committee has been holding hearings on the issue. David Lightman has the
story in today's Hartford Courant.
*Dr. Carolyn Robinowitz, president-elect of the
American Psychiatric Assn., has voiced approval of plans by the Food and Drug
Administration to require labels on certain anti-depressants that tell not only
the possible dangers but the possible benefits of taking the drugs. Denise
Gellene has the
story in the Los Angeles Times.
*Amichai Shai, head of Israel's
international crimes unit, said fugitive Knesset member Azmi Bishara is accused
of advising his fellow Arabs across the Lebanese border, how to increase the
harm to Israel in the 2nd Lebanon War. The Associated Press
story is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
(return to
top)
Friday, May 4
*Sara Caplan,
testifying in a special hearing into alleged evidence tampering in the case in
which record producer Phil Spector is being tried on charges of
murdering actress Lana Clarkson, said she saw a defense lawyer pocket what might
have been a fingernail. Matt Krasnowski of the Copley News Service has the
story in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Composer Eran Cohen,
whose music was in Borat, the movie starring brother Sasha Boron
Cohen, will have a composition commissioned by the
Turan Alem Kazakhstan Philharmonic Orchestra. The
story is in today's Los Angeles Times.
*He loves playing cool jazz on the double
bass or the piano, and Israelis are very excited about Ariel Lanyi,
who is only 9 years old.
Marshall Thompson has the
story in today's Los Angeles Times.
*Brian Levin,
director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State San
Bernardino, has expressed disappointment
*A San Diego Union-Tribune
editorial pokes fun at Assemblyman Lloyd Levine (D-Van Nuys) for what
it describes as his propensity to "microregulate our lives." In particular the
newspaper does not like a bill requiring minors to get a doctor's note before
they go to tanning salons.
*Thousands rallied yesterday in Rabin Square in Tel Aviv demanding the
resignations of Ehud Olmert as Israel's prime minister and Amir Peretz
as defense minister in the wake of the Winograd Commission report which was
highly critical of their performances in the Lebanon II War. Joel Greenberg of
The Chicago Tribune has the
story in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Eugene & Lee Salek, retirees living in the senior community known as
Ocean Hills Country Club in Oceanside, have won $38 million in the California
Lottery. Lola Sherman has the
story in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter
spoke yesterday at the University of California Irvine and was well received.
Before the speech, Emily Shaaya and other members of Anteaters for Israel
distributed leaflets disagreeing with the views he expressed in Palestine:
Peace Not Apartheid. The school's nickname is "The Anteaters." Dave
McKibben has the story in today's Los Angeles Times.
*Anti-Semitic vandalism appeared on the window of the office of Los Angeles
City Councilman Jack Weiss. Mayor Antonio
Villaraigosa and other officials condemned the hate crime. Steve Hymon has
the
story in today's Los Angeles Times.
* World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz told the committee
investigating the pay raise received by his girl friend that the bank's rules
governing compensation packages are unclear. The Associated Press story
is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
(return
to top)
*
U.S. Senators Russell Feinstein of Wisconsin and Ron Wyden
of Oregon
are
questioning a U.S. State Department report that lists The Sudan as a
U.S. ally in the war against terrorism. Josh Meyer has the
story in today's Los Angeles Times.
*Rabbi Leonard Heiman of Congregation Beit Tikva of Santa Fe, N.M, won
front page coverage in the Santa Fe New Mexican for one of his non-pulpit
talents: he is an expert bridge player. The
story was written by
David Miles.
*The murder trial of record producer Phil Spector will
resume on Monday with or without his chief defense lawyer, a Superior Court
judge has decided. The Associated Press
story is in the regional briefs section of today's San Diego
Union-Tribune.
* Adonis Irwin was arrested by Los Angeles police in
connection with the vandalism with swastikas of the office of Los Angeles City
Councilman Jack Weiss. Steve Hymon reported the
story in today's Los Angeles Times.
*Attorney Howard L. Weitzman tried to argue that heiress Paris Hilton
was a person with unique problems, but Superior Court Judge Michael T. Sauer
would have none of it. He sentenced Hilton to 45 days in county jail for
violating probation by driving with a suspended license. The
story is in today's Los Angeles Times.
*A
World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz fights to retain his job, more than
700 of the bank's employees have signed a petition calling for an end to
corruption and a demonstration that the bank practices what it preaches.
The Reuters
story is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Superior Court Judge David P. Yaffe nullified the
City of Los Angeles' living wage ordinance, saying that the City Council should
have respected a referendum to put the issue on the ballot. Joe Matthews
and Steve Hymon have the
story
in today's Los Angeles Times.
(return
to top)
Sunday,
May 6
*The celebrity preacher Aimee Semple McPherson wasn't above
blaming the nation's troubles on Jews and other scapegoats, but in private she
supposedly took Milton Berle
as a lover. A new biography by Matthew Avery Sutton is the subject of a
review by Michael Joseph Gross in today's Los Angeles Times.
*Ian Campbell, the general director of the San Diego Opera, says the
mission is not only to entertain but also to "advance the knowledge" of
audiences. Valerie Scher has the
story in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Donald Cohen, executive director of the Center on Policy
Initiatives, believes that San Diego's Centre City Development Corp. should
place more emphasis on building housing that low-income wage earners can afford.
The
story by Lori Weisberg is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Bruce Cutler, attorney for Phil Spector, is big, brash and right
at home in high profile trials. A
profile by Greg Krikorian appears in today's Los Angeles Times.
*Two biographies of Albert Einstein—one by Walter Isaacson, the
other by Jurgen Neffe—are pondered by Scott LaFee in a
story in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
* Senior citizens who remember carefree youths at Camp Cayuga are gathering
in San Diego to honor nonagenarian Ruth Fineman, who co-owned the camp
with her husband. Ozzie Roberts has the
story in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Sanford
Levinson of the University of Texas and Robert Levy of the CATO
Institute have been instrumental in getting the courts to reconsider the Second
Amendment, guaranteeing the right to bear arms. Adam Liptak of the New
York Times News Service has the
story in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Mark Regev, a spokesman for Israel's Foreign Ministry, said Israel
is not surprised by a recent statement by Khaled Mashaal of Hamas to prepare for
a "hot summer" of battle with Israel. Regev said Israel has no illusions
about the real goals of Hamas. Diaa Hadid of the Associated Press has the
story in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*U.S. Sen.
Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) delivering the weekly radio address for Democrats,
called on President George W. Bush to work with the Congress to find a way to
"fund the troops and change the mission" in Iraq. The Associated Press
story is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Sandi Shore, daughter of stand-up comic Sammy Shore, has been
training comedians at the Comedy Store in La Jolla. The
story by Lee Grant is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
(return
to top)
Monday,
May 7
*Morris Casuto, regional
director of the Anti-Defamation League, is among the people
quoted in a touching story about the fight of Brian Bennett against Lou Gehrig's
disease. Bennett is a Catholic educator who has been a close friend to the
Jewish community sometimes at personal risk. The
story by Helen Gao is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
Roger Rosen, USC law professor Jean Rosenbluth, Spector lawyer
Robert
Shapiro, Loyola Law School professor Laurie Levenson, defense
attorney
Bruce Cutler, character actor Stanford Blatch, attorney Sarah
Caplan,
defense pathologist Michael Baden, and attorney Leslie Abramson
(who is quoted as saying "You want me not to be Jewish now?") and, oh
yes, the defendant, Phil Spector. Peter Y. Hong has the
story of the latest round of the trial in today's Los Angeles Times.
*Suppose you lived in a quiet cul-de-sac
neighborhood and were told that the streets are for vehicles, so keep your
children from playing on them and don't socialize with your neighbors out there
either. How would you feel? When Steve Rubinstein received
such a message from his homeowner's association in south Carlsbad, he complained
that such rules smacked of Big Brotherism. Logan Jenkins devoted a
column to the controversy in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
* "The Scroll" by artist Ruth Weisberg is a 90-foot-long mixed media
drawing that mixes autobiography, Jewish history and tradition. It will be
the centerpiece of a new exhibit opening at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los
Angeles tomorrow. Scarlet Cheng has the
story in today's Los Angeles Times.
(return
to top)
Tuesday, May 8
*Author
Naphtali Bendavid's book on the efforts of the Democratic Congressional
Committee to wrest control of the Congress from the Republicans—The Thumpin'
— focuses on the efforts of U.S. Rep. Rahm Emanuel. David L. Ulin's
book review is in today's Los Angeles Times.
*The state attorney general's office has found that San Diego District
Attorney Bonnie Dumanis had acted within her proper authority when she
decided that shootings by sheriff's deputies of four Latinos were lawful.
The
story by Greg Moran is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Joan & Irwin Jacobs donated $1 million to support the upcoming
exhibit at the San Diego Natural History Museum of the Dead Sea Scrolls, but
other corporate sponsors also are lining up. Manny Cruz has the
story in this
month's San Diego Metropolitan.
*San Francisco resident Lisa Katzman was forced to move from her home
after her neighbor's house collapsed and damaged hers. A San Francisco
Chronicle
news photo by Katy Raddatz is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Archaeologist Ehud Netzer of Hebrew University has located the tomb
of King Herod. The Associated Press
story is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Former U.S. Rep. Lynn Schenk (D-San Diego) is one
of several female attorneys profiled in
an article by
Joe Tash in San Diego Metropolitan pegged to the Lawyers Club, which she
helped to found, celebrating its 30th anniversary. Schenk's husband Hugh
Friedman also is mentioned.
*U.S. Rep. Brad Sherman
(D-Sherman Oaks) has a bill to authorize construction of housing units for
disabled veterans. The problem is by limiting eligibility to just this
group, the bill may fail federal non-discrimination standards. The
story by Mary Engel is in today's Los Angeles Times.
*Diane Ogden, a music talent coordinator, testified in the murder trial of
record producer Phil Spector that he used a gun to force her to disrobe
and go to his bedroom before trying to have sex with her. Matt Krasnowski
of the Copley News Service has the
story in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*California State Sen.
Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) believes it is improper to use derogatory
words like "idiot" in state laws, so is backing a language clean-up measure that
would refer to people with very low IQs as "mentally incapacitated." The
Sacramento Bee
*Pushing for the dismissal of embattled World Bank President Paul
Wolfowitz, some European governments are willing to permit the United States
to pick the next president, if the U.S. persuades Wolfowitz to resign. The
New York Times News Service
story by Steven R. Weisman is in today's
San Diego Union-Tribune. A
cartoon
on Wolfowitz by Steve Breen is in the newspaper's opinion pages.
*Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaraslovsky
was one of the architects of a restructuring program for governing the state's
most populous county. Susannah Rosenblatt has the
story in today's Los Angeles Times.
(return
to top)
Wednesday, May 9
* U.S. Sen.
Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) attached an amendment creating penalties for
gasoline companies that price gouge to a bill that would require automobile
companies to improve average mileage per gallon of gasoline from 25 miles to 35
miles. The
story by Richard Simon is in today's Los Angeles Times. Boxer also is
seeking legislation to make certain that gasoline pumps register true volumes at
the pump. Elizabeth Douglass has that
story in the Los Angeles Times.
*U.S. Rep. Susan Davis (D-San Diego) is
introducing legislation to repeal some legislative preferences for a private
toll road company that wants to speed traffic between Orange County and northern
San Diego County. Terry Rodgers has the
story in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel
(D-IL) says the Congress plans to send another bill to President George W.
Bush that would tighten the reins on the conduct of the war in Iraq. The story
by Noam N. Levey is in the Los Angeles Times.
*U.S. Rep. Bob Filner (D-San Diego), chairman of the House Veteran
Affairs Committee, reacted favorably to a report calling for an overhaul in how
returning service personnel are treated for post traumatic stress syndrome.
The
story by Rick Rogers is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*A group of short stories written by playwright Arthur Miller before he
died has been collected in a book, Presence: Stories, that is the subject
of a
review by Tim Rutten in the Los Angeles Times.
*Archaeologist Ehud
Netzer says he has little doubt that the tomb he found really is that of
King Herod. Ken Ellingwood of the Los Angeles Times has the
story.
*San Diego State University students are mourning the death of Shirley
Jennifer Poliakoff, an Alpha Phi sorority member who was found dead in her
apartment Sunday morning, May 6. Shanee Warden and Nicole Bissett have the
story in today's Daily Aztec, SDSU's student newspaper.
*U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Penn.) said a legislative bargain is in the
works under which the U.S. first would establish stronger border protection
measures before regularizing the immigration status of people already in this
country. The New York Times News Service
story by Julia Preston is in
today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*The judge in the Phil Spector murder trial has declined to level
sanctions against the defense team for being late in disclosing evidence. The
Associated Press
story is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Los Angeles) has introduced legislation to ban
the federal government from selling off or commercially leasing the Veterans
Administration campus in West Los Angeles. Protecting the campus is also a
priority of U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Los Angeles County Supervisor
Zev Yaraslovsky. The story by Martha Groves is in today's Los
Angeles Times.
*Adonis Irwin, accused of placing swastika stickers on the office of Los Angeles
City Councilman Jack Weiss, has been charged with committing a hate
crime. A
story is in today's Los Angeles Times.
*Howard L. Weitzman,
attorney for hotel heiress Paris Hilton, is appealing her 45-day
sentence for violating the terms of her probation on a drunk driving conviction.
Hilton fans meanwhile are appealing to California Gov. Arnold Shwarzenegger to
pardon her. The
story by Andrew Blankstein and Richard Winton is in today's Los Angeles
Times.
*The San Diego Union-Tribune calls in an
editorial for the resignation of World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz.
(return
to top)
*Michelle Berman of the Santa
Barbara Museum of Natural History says toxic algae off the Southern California
coast is poisoning some whales, dolphins and porpoises. Kenneth Weiss
reports the
story in today's Los Angeles Times.
*Former San Diego Mayor Susan Golding has accepted a
position as chief executive officer and president of the San Diego Child Abuse
Prevention Foundation. Columnist Diane Clark
reports in today's San Diego Union-Tribune that Golding is succeeding
a woman who once served as an aide in her honor's City Hall office.
*U.S..
Sen.
Bernard Sanders was the lone
"no" vote on a bill approved by the Senate 93-1 to give the Food and Drug
Administration more power to regulate pharmaceuticals both before and after
going to market. Sanders expressed disappointment that the bill did not
also permit Americans to import lower-cost pharmaceuticals from other countries.
The
story by Robert Pear of the New York Times News Service is in today's San
Diego Union-Tribune.
*Stephanie Jennings and Elizabeth Grosvenor were the
latest women to testify in record producer Phil Spector's murder trial
that he threatened them with a gun. Defense lawyers brought up that one of
them had been paid by a tabloid newspaper to tell her story and the other had
been convicted of embezzlement. Matt Krasnowski of the Copley News Service has
the
story in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Los Angeles) has asked the National
Academy of Sciences to convene experts to help Congress deal with a conundrum:
some members would like to promote the use of liquified coal as a substitute for
Middle Eastern petroleum, but others are concerned that mass conversion will be
more harmful to the environment than coal. Richard Simon and Janet Wilson
have the
story in the Los Angeles Times.
(return
to top)
Friday, May 11
*White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten was given a
difficult assignment by President George W. Bush: Find common ground with the
Democratic Congress on funding the war in Iraq. Carl Hulse and Jim
Ruttenberg of the New York Times News Service have the
story in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Legislation by U.S. Rep. Susan Davis (D-San Diego) to repeal an
exemption in federal law that helped backers of a proposed Orange
County-Northern San Diego County toll road won approval on a 30-27 vote of the
House Armed Services Committee. The
story by Terry Rodgers is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Attorney Howard Dickstein who represents some of California's gaming
tribes said a proposal to turn the state lottery over to a private company could
result in the tribes stopping their payments to California for exclusive gaming
rights within certain areas. Ed Mendel has the
story
*Dan Glickman, chairman of the Motion Picture Association of America,
says because of smoking's addictive effects, a proposal is under study to give
"R" ratings to movies that otherwise would be "PG" if they include scenes with
characters smoking. Frank Ahrens of the Washington Post has the
story in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*U.S. Rep. Sander Levin (D-Mich.) believes an investigation of
violence against trade unionist in Colombia is necessary before any trade
agreement with that country can be fast-tracked. Congress seemed more
disposed to speedy consideration of trade agreements with Panama and Peru,
although some Democrats told Democratic Whip Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) they
would like time to read the fine print of such trade agreements before they come
to the floor of the House for a vote. Molly
Hennessy-Fiske
has the
story in today's Los Angeles Times.
*Israel's Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni in a meeting with Egypt's
President Hosni Mubarek laid plans for a visit of Arab ministers to Israel
to discuss a Mideast peace proposal offered by Saudi Arabia. Michael
Slackman and Mona El-Naggar have the
story in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Theodore Maiman, who developed the laser 47 years ago, has died at
age 79. John Johnson Jr. wrote the
obituary in today's Los Angeles Times.
*Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, in testimony just made public,
said that the Israel Defense Forces did not fight well in Lebanon, but that the
war was necessary. Amy Teibel of the Associated Press has the
story in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner said he will
scrutinize very carefully All State Insurance's plans to increase homeowners'
insurance premiums by 12 percent for the company's 900,000 customers in the
state. Blaming wild fires, the company also said it would cease selling any more
homeowner insurance in California. Marc Lifsher
and Kathy M. Kristof have the
story in today's Los Angeles Times.
*Bryanna Schwartz, co-editor of the The Nexus, the student
newspaper of Westview High School in the Rancho Penasquitos area of San Diego,
is building herself quite a resume for a future job in journalism. The
newspaper won "best of show" at a recent national high school journalism
convention. The
story by Blanca Gonzales is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune
*When record producer Phil Spector met the woman he is accused of
murdering, Lana Clarkson, at an exclusive lounge at the House of Blues, the
hostess did not know who he was and tried to deny him entry, a prosecution
witness testified. Matt Krasnowski of Copley News Service has the
story in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*U.S. Reps. Robert Wexler and
Debbie Wasserman Schultz,
both Florida Democrats, sharply questioned Attorney General Alberto Gonzales
during a hearing yesterday of the House Judiciary Committee. Wexler was
concerned that Gonzales declined to tell the panel who had initiated the firing
of eight U.S. Attorneys around the country, including Carol Lam of San Diego.
Wasserman Schultz complained the Justice Department has not pursued voter fraud
cases in Florida. Richard B. Schmitt has the
story in today's Los Angeles Times.
(return
to top)
Saturday, May 12
* U.S. Rep. Howard Berman (D-Los Angeles) says the
feeling permeates Congress that the public expects action on undocumented
immigration, which he called a "national crisis." Jerry Kammer of the
Copley News Service has the story in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Duke University law professor Edwin Chemerinksy, ACLU
attorney Mark Rosenbaum, and Los Angeles City Councilman Jack
Weiss provide a chorus of approval for Los Angeles Police Chief's actions in
the wake of an incident in which police officers were videotaped beating
protesters at MacArthur Park, but there is discontent among rank-and-file police
officers over the chief's approach. Patrick McGreevy and Matt Lait have
the
story in today's Los Angeles Times.
*District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis was accused by Chula Vista City
Councilman Steve Castaneda of trumping up criminal investigations of him to aid
the reelection campaign of his rival Chula Vista Mayor Cheryl Cox. Dumanis
had no comment. The
story by Tanya Mannes is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
Meanwhile, in his
column in the same newspaper, Logan Jenkins awarded a "brick" to the
district attorney's office for its handling of a minor case at Mira Costa
College in Oceanside.
*Ranaan Eliaz, a former director at the Israeli National Security
Council, has written a fine background piece about the Jewish roots of French
President-elect Nicolas Sarkozy, which can be found on the
website of the
Australian Jewish News.
*Death has taken screenwriter Bernard Gordon, 88, who led
the protest against the awarding of a lifetime achievement Oscar to Elia Kazan
because of Kazan's cooperation with Senator Joseph McCarthy's discredited
Communist hunts.
An
obituary by Valerie J. Nelson is in today's Los Angeles Times.
*Don Harrison and the San Diego Jewish World were announced to the
readership of the San Diego Union-Tribune in Sandi Dolbee's Weekly
Offerings
column today under the subheading "Worthy of Note." We thank her for
the kindness.
*A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held yesterday for the
Hertzberg/Davis Forensic Science Center, named for
former Assembly Speaker Robert Hertzberg and former Gray Davis.
But delays have prevented the operation from moving into the building.
Patrick McGreevy and Stuart Pfeifer have the
story in today's Los Angeles Times.
*Dan Hirsch, co-chairman of the Santa Susana
Field Laboratory Working Group, expressed support for a bill by U.S. Rep. Elton
Gallegly (R-Simi Valley)
extending federal benefits to workers who can link their cancer to exposure at
Rocketdyne's Santa Susannah Field Laboratory, a one time DOE facility.
Gregory W. Griggs has the
story in today's Los Angeles Times.
*Gary & Jerri-Ann Jacobs reportedly are closing escrow on a $50
million complex of four homes in Del Mar, a real estate transaction that may be
the largest in San Diego history.
Roger Showley has the
story in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Brian & Rebecca (Feen) Kanefsky are married today because their
mothers decided to do some online prospecting with JDate.
Nicole Neroulias of Religion News Service has the
story in today's San Diego Union-Tribune. A
companion
article polled readers on their Jewish mothers.
*Barry Scheck, co-founder of the Innocence Project, hailed the decision
of a judge in Oklahoma who freed 22-year inmate Curtis E. McCarty after hearing
evidence that a since-fired Oklahoma City chemist may have tampered with
evidence. Henry Weinstein has the
story in today's Los Angeles Times.
*Gary Weinstein, president of the Alpine Library Friends
Bookstore, says the group which raises money for the library, is about to lose
the space where rent was free and is now looking for a new home. Sharon A.
Heilbrunn has the
story in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
(return
to top)
Sunday, May 13
*Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Commerce Secretary
Carlos Gutierrez head the administration team which President George W. Bush has
fielded to negotiate the immigration issue with the Congress. In his
weekly radio address, Bush reported consensus is nearing. The Associated
Press
story is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Janet Horwitz Colman, a former student and teacher
at Dorsey High School as well as the founder of the school's alumni association,
has found a treasure: a 1928 photo of the school's namesake, Susan Miller
Dorsey, the first female superintendent of Los Angeles City Schools.
Cecilia Rasmussen tells the
story.
*San Diego Port Commission Chairman Steve Cushman, commenting on
foundering lease negotiations between the Port and Gaylord Entertainment, said
"We gotta put Humpty Dumpty back together again." The column by Gerry
Braun is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Aaron Feldman, owner of Sunroad Enterprises, is at the center of a
controversy over whether San Diego's city government showed favoritism to his
company by allowing the construction near Montgomery Field of a 180-foot
office tower, 20 feet higher than the Federal Aviation Administration says is
prudent. The
story by David Hasemyer is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Robert Friedman, chairman of the Real Estate Disposition Corp. of
Irvine, had a big day at the San Diego Convention Center yesterday where more
than 1,200 people attended an auction of foreclosed properties. The
story by Emmet Pierce is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Travel guide book guru Arthur Frommer celebrates his 50th
anniversary in the industry. The Associated Press story by
Beth J. Harpaz is in today's San Diego
Union-Tribune.
*Tamar Galatzan, a candidate in the upcoming
election for Los Angeles School Board, has been pummeling incumbent Jon M.
Lauritzen his opposition, later changed to support, for charter schools in South
Los Angeles. Galatzan favors them. The
story by Howard Blume is in today's Los Angeles Times.
*Richard Steve Goldberg, who had been on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted
list on charges of child molestation, was arrested in Montreal, Canada, where he
was living under an assumed name. The
story by Patrick McGreevy is in today's Los Angeles Times.
*Lisa Rolen was working for the Santa Barbara News-Press when she
read a book on the Holocaust and realized that a contributing factor was
German citizens not speaking up against abuses. With that in mind, she
quit the newspaper that once won a Pulitzer Prize but today is considered a
disgrace. Columnist Lou Cannon wrote the story in today's Los Angeles
Times.
*Howard Lederer, the four-time poker champion who some people like to
call the "professor," tried out the role at Harvard University where he lectured
on game strategy. The Wall Street Journal story by Neil King Jr. is
in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Monica Lewinsky, or at least the memory of her famous affair in the
White House with President Bill Clinton, is an unspoken factor in Hillary
Clinton's run for the White House. Patrick Healy of the New York Times
News Service has the
story in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Former Mideast Peace Negotiator Dennis Ross says no peace is
possible if the environment beyond the table—in the society itself—is not
accounted for. Columnist Robert J. Caldwell suggests with Hamas using a
Mickey Mouse character to teach children to hate Jews, peace between
Palestinians and Israelis may be far off. His
column is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Lynn Schenk, a member of the California High Speed Rail Authority,
is praising Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger for taking a stand in favor of
improving inter-city transportation in California. Schenk is a former
congresswoman and one time chief-of-staff to the man Schwarzenegger ousted in a
recall election, Gov. Gray Davis. Her
column is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Louis Vener, who helped to preserve a 1929 La Jolla Shores home, will be
among the "People in Preservation" honorees at an upcoming banquet sponsored by
the Save Our Heritage Organization (SOHO). Roger Showley's
story about the efforts by Louis & Tammy Vener is in today's San
Diego Union Tribune.
*Whether it's a Republican like Mike Antonovich or a Democrat like Zev
Yaraslovsky, members of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors are
likely to attract campaign contributions from the same people, many of whom have
business before the county, according to a
story by Jack Leonard and Doug Smith in today's Los Angeles Times.
(return
to top)
Monday, May 14
*Edgar Bronfman Jr., chief executive and chairman of the Warner Music
Group, has been mum on the controversy over whether record companies should
decline to market songs with obscene lyrics or which preach violence. Marcus
Franklin of the Associated Press has the
story in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*A book review by of Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policemen's
Union by Phillip Booth appeared in the May 13 edition of the St. Petersburg
(Fla) Times. Bruce Lowitt who lives in that area passed
the review along.
*Apropos of the logo at the top of this column, it was 59 years ago today
that David Ben-Gurion declared the independence of the area of Palestine
partitioned by the United Nations to serve as a Jewish state. In a memorable
ceremony in Tel Aviv on May 14, 1948, he named the new state "Israel." Israelis
celebrate Independence Day, Yom Ha'atzmaut, on the 5th day of Iyar, according to the lunar
Hebrew calendar.
*Stephen Feinberg, founder of Cerebrus Capital Management, proposed
purchaser of Chrysler Corporation for $7.4 billion, is described as a reclusive
individual who avoids publicity. Kimi Yoshino and
Martin Zimmerman have the
story in today's Los Angeles Times.
*Attorney Barbara Lichman once told City of San Diego
officials that Sunroad Enterprises temporarily would keep its controversial
building near Montgomery Field at 160 feet, pending a company study of whether a
180-foot height would pose a risk to aviation. The company subsequently
decided to go ahead with the higher height. Lichman's letter was included in a
chronology of the case reported by David Hasemyer in today's San
Diego Union-Tribune.
*Dr Norman Mann once persuaded a Christian colleague, Dr. George Bremner,
to volunteer with him at a dental clinic in Kiryat Malachi, Israel, a city that
was formerly a partnership region for San Diego's Jewish community. When
Bremner died last month, an obituary quoted Mann and others about Bremner's good
works abroad and here in San Diego, where he had lived up to his vow never to
turn away a patient for financial reasons. That April 24
obituary by Michael Kinsman provided Bremner an opportunity to do another
good deed from beyond the grave, as it were. Kinsman followed the newspaper's
style of referring to people who are not MD's as "Mr." rather than as "Dr.,"
prompting so many complaints that the newspaper's ombudswoman Carol Goodhue
instituted an examination of that policy. he result: dentists also will be
identified in the San Diego Union-Tribune with the title "Dr." before
their names. Goodhue's discussion of the case is in her
column in today's San Diego
Union-Tribune.
*Israel's Defense Minister Amir Peretz announced that no massive
retaliatory strike at Gaza is planned now, despite increasing Qassam missile
attacks from that Palestinian territory. His announcement came as Fatah
and Hamas factions within Gaza were skirmishing with each other. The
story by Ibrahim Barzak of the
Associated Press is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune
*Robin Duboe Siegle, business manager of the National
Conflict Resolution Center, added her tribute to Catholic School educator Brian
Bennett in today's
letters-to-the-editor of the San Diego Union-Tribune. She was
commenting on a
May 7 story by Helen Gao which focused on Bennett's upbeat attitude despite
his affliction with Lou Gehrig's disease.
(return to top)
*Joel
Bellman, an aide to Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaraslovsky,
said the Board of Supervisors will meet in closed session today to discuss the
case of a woman who died after officials at Martin Luther King Jr.—Harbor
Hospital ignored her as she writhed in pain on the floor in the hospital's
admitting area. The
story by Charles Ornstein is in today's Los Angeles Times.
*From his prison cell in Israel where he is serving 35 life sentences, Mohammed
Irman smuggled out a book, Engineers of Death, about his bomb-planting
Hamas cell that set off the explosions at the Cafe Moment and at Hebrew
University, killing 35 persons, including Marla Bennett of San Diego.
Dion Nissenbaum and Mohammed Najib of
MCT News Service have the
story in today's San Diego Union-Tribune. In San Diego,
Linda Bennett, Marla's mother, told San Diego Jewish World that she
was bewildered how someone could smuggle a book out of a high-security prison.
She added that she had not made up her mind if she wanted to read the killer's
words.
*U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) predicted the United States would
withdraw its military forces in 2008, even if it results in a "Rwanda-style
bloodletting." The
story by Eric Black is in today's Star Tribune of Minneapolis-St.
Paul.
*Former "Hollywood Madam" Heidi Fleiss and actor Tom Sizemore have
settled out-of-court her harassment suit against him. The City News
Service
story is in today's Los Angeles Times.
*U.S. Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer
were on the dissenting side of a 5-4 decision restoring capital punishment
in a death penalty case that had been set aside by the U.S. Ninth Circuit of
Appeals. The
story by David G. Savage is in today's Los Angeles Times.
*The state Senate has approved a bill by Sen. Carole Migden (D-San
Francisco) which would award California's electoral college votes to whatever
candidate wins the most popular votes in the election for president. The
bill, intended to prevent a candidate who didn't win the popular vote from
becoming president, now heads to the Assembly. The
story by Steve Lawrence of the Associated Press is in today's San Diego
Union-Tribune.
*Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert planned to meet today in Jordan
with King Abdullah II to discuss the Arab peace initiative. The meeting will
take place against a backdrop of increasing violence in the Palestinian
territories between Hamas and Fatah factions. The Associated Press
story is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Israel's Vice Prime Minister Shimon Peres was interviewed today on
the general Middle East situation by David Makovsky of the Washington
Institute for Near East Policy. Here is
a link.
*U.S. Sen. Charles
Schumer (D-N.Y.) was nonplussed by the resignation of Deputy Attorney
General Paul McNulty in the aftermath of the controversial firing of eight
United States Attorneys. He said it was "ironic" that McNulty, who tried
to level with a Senate committee investigating the firings, was let go, while
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who "stonewalled" the committee, remains in
power. A
story by David Johnston of the New York Times News Service is in today's
San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Prosecution witness Kathy Sullivan testified in the murder trial of
record producer Phil Spector that he once displayed a gun in her
presence, but didn't threaten her. She said the gun was so big, and
Spector so small, that he "looked like Elmer Fudd." Matt Krasnowski of
Copley News Service has the
story in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Assemblyman Todd Spitzer (R-Orange County), who has sharply
criticized Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez
has been reassigned to the smallest legislative office in the State Capitol
Building, an office some have nicknamed the "doghouse." The Associated
Press
story by Samantha Young is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*The board of the World Bank will decide the fate of its president, Paul
Wolfowitz, at a meeting today. Prospects for Wolfowitz's continued
tenure dimmed when a special panel issued a report saying he had broken the
rules in arranging a hefty raise for his girlfriend, Shaha Riza. The Associated
Press
story by Jeannine Aversa is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
(return to top)
Wednesday, May 16
* Is billionaire New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg thinking of
financing his own run for the presidency as an independent. U.S. Sen.
Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) thinks it's a possibility. Scott Martelle has the
story in today's Los Angeles Times.
*Los Angeles County Court Commissioner Sam Bubrick is 90, but his
friends of the bench and bar wouldn't let him retire, even if he wanted to.
Valerie Reitman has the
story in The Los Angeles Times.
*San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders says he really does know Aaron Feldman,
notwithstanding his previous quote to the contrary to an investigative reporter
for the San Diego Union-Tribune. The acknowledgment of his acquaintance
with the developer of the controversial high rise building near Montgomery Field
may be found in a column by Gerry Braun in today's
San Diego Union-Tribune.
The controversy over the building drew nine
letters to the editor in the same newspaper.
*Legislation by U.S. Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wis.) legislation to
cut off funds for the Iraq War next March has won the endorsements of Senators
Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Barrack Obama (D-Ill.), the two leading Democratic
presidential candidates. Noam N. Levey has the
story in today's Los Angeles Times.
*Los Angeles Deputy City Attorney Tamar Galatzan appeared to have
been elected to the Los Angeles City School Board in a successful challenge to
incumbent Jon M. Lauritzen. Howard Blume and Duke Hefland have the
story in today's Los Angeles Times.
*Israel's Prime
Minister Ehud Olmert told
Jordan's King Abdullah II that he is ready to meet with the leaders of the Arab
world, but his comments were overshadowed by gun battles in which Hamas members
executed eight police officers belonging to Fatah. The Associated Press
story by
Ibrahim Barzak and Karin Laub is in
today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Bernie Rappaport, chairman of Vistans for Civic Pride and
Safety, is campaigning in favor of a June 5 local ballot measure that would
change the status of Vista from a general law city to a charter city.
Matthew Rodriguez has the story in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Commenting on the death of Jerry Falwell, Brian Schaefer, coordinator
for J-Pride, an organization of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Jews,
said the former Moral Majority Leader's "hateful speech" had to be combated. A
roundup
story is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune. Elsewhere, Reform
Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, told the
Los Angeles Times that Falwell often used religion to divide people, but he
was genuine about getting people to express their religious faith. The
story by Stephanie Simons is in today's Los Angeles Times.
*Former Deputy Attorney General James Comey told a Senate committee that in 2004
Alberto Gonzales tried to get then-Attorney General John Ashcroft to sign a
surveillance program authorization while he was recuperating in an intensive
care room following surgery. Ashcroft refused, but Gonzales put through the
authorization anyway, Comey said. U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY)
said the incident suggests Gonzales has minimal regard for the rule of
law. The Copley News Service
story by Dana Wilkie is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
Meanwhile, the plan of current Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty to step down
by summer's end prompted U.S. Sen. Arlen Spector (R-Penn.) to comment
that under Gonzales, working for the U.S. Department of Justice is embarrassing.
The Associated Press story by Lara Lakes Jordan is in today's San Diego
Union-Tribune.
*Record producer Phil Spector walked out of his mansion and said, "I
think I killed somebody," his chauffeur Adriano De Souza testified at Spector's
trial on a charge of murdering Lana Clarkson. Matt Krasnowski of the
Copley News Service has the
story in today's
in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Harvey Weinstein, whose Weinstein Co. has five films to show at the
Cannes Film Festival, explains why he undertakes the considerable expense of
exhibiting there: "If you got it, flaunt it," he advises. The story
by John Horn is in today's Los Angeles Times.
*White House spokesman Tony Snow said "all options are on the table" when asked
if President George W. Bush would support the removal of embattled Paul
Wolfowitz as president of the World Bank. The Washington Post
story is
in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
Thursday,
May 17
*The trial
balloon for New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's possible run as a
self-financed independent for the presidency received more loft when U.S. Sen.
Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) told a reporter he would be "open" to
supporting the mayor. Christopher Arnott has the
story in today's Hartford Courant.
An Associated Press
story involving Lieberman in the Hartford Courant reports speculation
that demands that Patsy Papandrea resign her membership in the Democratic State
Central Committee for forwarding a racist and anti-Semitic e-mail—a
communication that she thought was a joke and for which she later apologized—may
be less motivated by the e-mail's content and more by Democratic furor over her
support of Lieberman in last year's election against official Democratic nominee
Ned Lamont.
*It's not that judges don't like having the office of the district attorney
sharing the South Bay courthouse in Chula Vista; it's just that they need the
room for more courts. Now, District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis has
announced she'll have the offices moved to a building across the street.
Ray Huard has the
story in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the Federal Reserve, has been signed
as a consultant by Pacific Investment Management Co. Walter Hamilton of
the Los Angeles Times has the
story.
*In retaliation for the continuing Qasam missile attacks on Sderot,
Israel Air Force fighters fired two rockets at Hamas targets in Gaza
yesterday, killing four Hamas members, but Palestinians were killing each other
at an even more furious rate: 18 killed in fighting between the Fatah and Hamas
factions. Joel Greenberg of the Chicago Tribune has the
story in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Peter Kahane, pianist and conductor of the Los Angeles Chamber
Orchestra, is returning to his position after a two-month hiatus that was due to
hypertension. The
story is briefly reported in today's Los Angeles Times.
*Robert Klein, chairman of the state stem cell research committee,
said the State Supreme Court's decision to refuse a challenge to the
constitutionality of stem cell research, guarantees its future in California.
Mary Engel has the
story in today's Los Angeles Times.
*U.S. Sens.
Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) were among the 20
non-Republicans who voted against a proposal by Democratic Senators Russell
Feingold of Wisconsin, Harry Reid of Nevada and Christopher Dodd of
Connecticut to set next March as the cutoff for funding the Iraq War.
David Lightman had the
story in yesterday's Hartford Courant.
*Dr. Mario Z. Rosenberg, a gastroenterologist, was among three doctors
arrested yesterday on accusations of bilking insurance companies for unnecessary
surgeries. The Associated Press
story is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), reacting to a list of 26 U.S.
Attorneys that had been considered for firing by the Justice Department, says it
shows how "amok" the processes were under Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. The
Washington Post
story by Dan Eggen and Amy Goldstein is in today's San Diego
Union-Tribune.
*Adriano de Souza, chauffeur to murder defendant Phil Spector,
said in a second day of testimony that he was afraid for his life after the
record producer told him he thought he may have shot someone. Matt
Krasnowski of the Copley News Service has the
story in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*
Paul Wolfowitz announced he will resign as president of the World
Bank on June 30, ending the controversy over whether he inappropriately arranged
salary increases for his girlfriend, Shaha Riza. {A
letter to the editor on this subject is below.}
Friday, May 18
*Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said in Chicago that he did not think the growing number of defaults on mortgages would have much effect on the economy, and he cautioned members of Congress not to be too sweeping in proposals for reforming the mortgage lending system. U.S. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) are among legislators who have proposals on the issue pending. The story by Jeremy W. Peters of the New York Times News Service is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Michael
Eisner, former chairman
of Disney, has a new project: marketing 90 second serial videos that can be
received on cell phones. James Hebert has the
story in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*The immigration bill that U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff
helped to broker with Congress has bipartisan support from Senators like
Arlen Specter (R-Penn.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif), has
procedures for immigrants here illegally to become legal; requirements for a
border fence; sanctions against employers of illegal immigrants, and a
declaration that English is the official language of the United States. The
story by Jerry Kammer and George Condon Jr. of Copley News Service is in
today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders has decided to issue a stop-work order
against the 180-foot Sunroad Enterprises building owned by Aaron Feldman
because its height might prove an obstacle to aviation at Montgomery Field.
Jennifer Vigil's
story is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*A court hearing was held to decide whether Vice President Dick Cheney, Karl
Rove, Lewis "Scooter" Libby and Richard Armitage violated Valerie
Plane's civil rights by disclosing that she was a CIA agent. The
Associated Press
story is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Bad news for teen fans of the Veronica Mars television show on
CW. "It's over," according to CW Entertainment President Dawn
Ostroff. Karla Peterson's
column is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*U.S. Senators Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Dianne Feinstein
(D-Calif.) say they will call for a no-confidence vote in Alberto Gonzales as
attorney general. Among those expected to vote in favor of the non-binding
resolution, based on their statements, are Senators Arlen Specter
(R-Penn.) and Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) The Associated Press story by
Laurie Kellman is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert visited Sderot to tell residents
they shouldn't feel alone; Israeli jets meanwhile flew over targets in Gaza in
retaliation for continued Qassam missile attacks on Sderot. The Associated Press
story by Sarah el Deeb is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
In other news, Palestinian Masseb Bashir was charged with gathering information
for a conspiracy to assassinate Olmert. He gained access to Israel while
working for Doctors Without Borders, according to an Associated Press
story in the Hartford Courant
*San Diego's Old Globe Theatre is tackling Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of
Virginia Woolf, a daunting task in the wake of the definitive performances
on film by Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Anne Marie
Welsh has the
story in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*President George W. Bush, saying he was "sorry" that Paul Wolfowitz
had to resign as president of the World Bank, said he would soon have a new
nominee for the position. Jeannine Aversa of the Associated Press has the
story in today's San Diego Union-Tribune. Steve Breen also had
an
editorial cartoon
on Wolfowitz's resignation in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
Saturday, May 19
*Connecticut
Attorney General Richard Blumenthal shared his ideas with the House
Judiciary Committee on ways to lower gasoline
prices. Meanwhile, a senator from his state, Joseph Lieberman,
commented
"You can try to make the oil companies be fair with their
pricing, but the real solution is more long-range, more comprehensive."
David Lightman has the story in today's Hartford Courant.
*A bill by state Sen. Christine Kehoe (D-San Diego) that would take some
of the glamour out of Alan Bersin’s job as chairman of the San Diego
Regional Airport Authority was approved by the state Senate on a 30-7 vote. The
measure would eliminate $172,000 in annual salaries for board members, and cap
them instead at $900 per month per official. A
story by Steve Schmidt is in today’s San Diego Union-Tribune.
*White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten has been in some tough
negotiating sessions with the congressional leadership over provisions of a
military funding bill for Iraq. The
story by Shailagh Murray
of The Washington Post is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is famous for saying as little as
possible on the bench. Since October 2004, when transcripts began
identifying justices by name, he has spoken only 284 words. In comparison,
Justice Stephen Breyer has spoken 35,000 words just since January. The
Associated Press story is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Economist and author Paul Erdman, whose book The Swiss Account,
has been credited with helping the World Jewish Congress investigation into
Nazi accounts stolen from Jewish victims, has died at 74. An Associated
Press obituary ran in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) has introduced legislation
that would bar the Veterans Administration from commercially developing its
medical center complex in West Los Angeles. U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Los
Angeles) previously introduced similar legislation in the House. The
story by Martha Groves is in today's Los Angeles Times.
*San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders says the city
will investigate what went wrong, not who to blame, in the city failing to act
immediately to stop construction of a 180-foot high building owned by Aaron
Feldman that the FAA believed would interfere with aviation at Montgomery
Field. The
story by Jennifer Vigil is in today’s San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Assemblyman Mike Feuer (D-Los Angeles) and Los Angeles City Councilman
Jack Weiss have been successful in their campaign to persuade CalTrans to
clear brush along the
freeways before the state enters its summer brush fire season. Steve Hymon
has the
story in today's Los Angeles Times.
*Tension is on the rise at the University of California Irvine where an
anti-Israel exhibit sponsored by Muslim students was the backdrop for an
incident last Monday in which a Muslim student said he was followed and nudged
by an unmarked car driven by an FBI agent. The local FBI office said it
was investigating. The
story by H.G. Reza is in today's Los Angeles Times
*Chess master Gary Kasparov and other demonstrators were prevented by
Russian authorities from boarding a plane in Moscow for Samara, where a meeting
between Russia and the European Union is being held. The Associated Press
story is in the briefs section of the San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Bernard Kouchner, son of a Jewish father and Protestant mother, has
been appointed France's Foreign Minister by President Nicholas Sarkozy,
prompting members of Kouchner's Socialist party to call for his expulsion for
working in the Conservative's government. The
story by Molly Moore of The Washington Post is in today's San Diego
Union-Tribune.
*Risa Levitt Kohn, curator of the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit coming
soon to the San Diego Natural History Museum, was a source for a preview
story about the exhibit by Religion and Ethics Writer Sandi Dolbee in
today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Matthew Levitt, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy,
and Yale University Press are being sued by Dr. Laila Al-Mayarati for
suggesting in the book,
Hamas: Politics, Charity and Terrorism in the
Service of Jihad, that the charity she heads, KinderUSA, is linked to
terrorism. Greg Krikorian has the
story in today's Los Angeles Times,
*Psychologist Robert Reiff, 93, a former
president of the community psychology division of the American Psychological
Association, has died in San Marcos. The
obituary by Michael Kinsman ran in today’s San
Diego Union-Tribune.
*The gentrification of the Venice section of Los Angeles is driving out the
artists who once gave the area a seedy fame. Many people don't want to
lose the artists, and Steve Soboroff, president of Playa Vista, has been
exploring whether there is a way to create an artists quarter. Martha Groves has
the
story in today's Los Angeles Times.
*U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Penn.) says architects of the compromise
legislation on immigration are still open to suggestions on how the bill can be
strengthened so that it does not appear to be a blanket grant of amnesty for
undocumented aliens. The
story
by Nicole Gaouette is in today's Los Angeles Times.
*A three-judge panel of the U.S. Ninth District Circuit Court has
backed actress Elizabeth Taylor in a suit brought against her by
members of the Orkin family, who said a Vincent Van Gogh painting Taylor
purchased rightly belonged to them as descendants of a woman from the Nazis
stoles the painting. The Reuters
story is in today's Los Angeles Times.
*Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has dropped his efforts to
put the Los Angeles City School Board under his direct control. With him
at a news conference were two School Board members who had opposed his efforts,
Board President Marlene Canter and Board Member Julie Korenstein. The
story is in today's Los Angeles Times.
*Now that Paul Wolfowitz has agreed to resign as president of the
World Bank, a debate is shaping up whether the United States should continue to
have the right to name the president of that institution, with Europe naming the
president of the International Monetary Fund. Peter S. Goodman and Mary
Jordan of The Washington Post have the story in today's San Diego
Union-Tribune.
(return to top)
Sunday, May 20
*Bertolt Brecht and other German Jewish intellectuals who migrated to Los
Angeles with the coming of Hitler are featured in Weimar on the Pacific,
a book by Ehrhard Bahr. A review by Jonathan Kirsch is in today's Los
Angeles Times.
*Michael Chabon's creation, detective Meyer Landsman in The Yiddish
Policeman's Union, is described as one of the most exciting fictional
detectives to come along since Sam Spade or Phillip Marlowe. The
book review by Michiko Kakutani is in
today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*U.S. Rep. Susan Davis (D-San Diego) is accused in the San
Diego Union-Tribune's "America's Finest Blog" of being the "exact opposite"
of a straight talker in terms of her opposition to the proposed toll road
between northern San Diego County and Orange County. The
story in today's edition is by Chris Reed.
*Although San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis created a
unit last year to investigate public corruption, there has been only one
prosecution to date. Gerry Braun has the story in today's San Diego
Union-Tribune.
*Songs by Bob Dylan as interpreted by jazz singer Barb Jungr are
evidence that the La Jolla Music Society is not just presenting classical music
anymore. Valerie Scher has the
story in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Harvey Fierstein will be bringing his Torch Song
Trilogy to the Diversionary Theatre for a 25th anniversary revival of the
story about a drag queen and lovable mensch. The
story is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Former President Jimmy Carter had called George W. Bush the "worst" president
in U.S. history. Among his numerous criticisms of Bush was that he has no
peace process in place in Israel. The Associated Press
story is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Paula Jacobs, regional director of the American Jewish Committee,
has a
letter to the editor in today's San Diego Union-Tribune supporting
immigration reform. In the same column of letters, Edgar D. Hopida, local public
relations director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, argues
that it is not anti-Semitism but "fear of displacement" that fuels Arab
opposition to Israel.
*Hans Jovishoff, an advocate for seniors and frequent critic of San
Diego city government, has died at 93. The
obituary by Michael Kinsman is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Lael & Jay Kovtun were the honorary chairs, and son Gordon
& Annika Kovtun the chairs, of the 29th anniversary celebration of the
Mingei International Museum. Burl Stiff has the
story in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Art critic Robert L. Pincus hails a new sculptor on the scene, Sharon
Levy, whose masters of arts thesis, "The Wood," is on display in the Marcuse
Gallery of the University of California San Diego. The
story is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*On a family trip to Amsterdam, travel writer Mary McNamara confronted the
problem of explaining the Holocaust to her young children while visiting the
Anne Frank House. Her
story is
in today's Los Angeles Times.
*An
editorial in today's San Diego Union-Tribune lays out the reasons the
newspaper hopes U.S. District Court Judge Barry Ted Moskowitz will rule
in favor of the Bajagua project to prevent Mexican sewage
from flowing across the U.S. border.
*Eli Pariser, executive director of the liberal group MoveOn.org
is one of several political activists who forecast an expanded role in the
showing of political ads by such major web sites as My Space and YouTube.
The
story by Scott Martelle is in today's Los Angeles Times.
*Israel's Defense Minister Amir Peretz vowed continued air strikes on
Hamas fighters in Gaza to suppress the rocket fire that has been plaguing the
Israeli city of Sderot. The retaliatory attacks have prompted Fatah and Hamas
factions to call a cease fire against each other. Sarah El Deeb of the
Associated Press has the
story in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaraslovsky
described himself as "dumbfounded"
by a "shocking" videotape which showed a dying patient writhing in pain in
the admitting area of King-Harbor Hospital without anyone showing any concern.
The
story by Charles Ornstein of the subsequent investigation is in today's
Los Angeles Times.
*Retiring Point Loma High School teacher Larry Zeiger advises the
Jewish Culture and Wit Club with 15 students, only one of whom is Jewish.
In fact, the first name of the president is Jesús,
and the vice president is named Christian. Columnist Lee Grant has the
story in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer
(D-Calif)
*Stanley Chodorow,
a professor emeritus of UCSD, has been mentoring San Diego Independent
Scholars, a group of people from non-academic professions, who enjoy doing deep
academic research. Cathy Robbins, a member of the group, tells how it
works in a
story on the Voice of San Diego website.
*Relations between U.S. Reps. Susan Davis (D-San Diego) and Darrell Issa
(R-Vista) are at an all-time low because of their differences over a proposed
toll road that would cut through Camp Pendleton to link Northern San Diego
County and Orange County. Dana Wilkie has the
story in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Two teenagers were arrested for "tagging" the Anne Frank
House in Amsterdam. Police said the vandalism did not appear connected to
anti-Semitism. The Associated Press
story in the World Briefs column of The San Diego Union-Tribune.
*In retaliation for the rocket attacks on Sderot,
Israel's Air Force fired a missile at the home of Hamas lawmaker Khalil al-Haya,
killing eight persons, according to Palestinian reports. Al Haya was away
attending an Egyptian brokered truce meeting between the rival Hamas and Fatah
factions of Palestine. The Associated Press
story by Sarah El Deeb is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Keri G. Katz has been selected by San Diego County Superior
Court Judges to serve as a court commissioner to hear traffic cases. The
story by Greg Moran is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Roman Polanski stopped his news conference in Cannes, accused
journalists there of asking "empty questions" and suggested the blame may lie
with computers. The
story is in the public eye column of The San Diego Union-Tribune.
*What is Sandi Richman wearing today?
You may not care but for trend-enslaved buyers for fashion outlets
throughout the country, the answer can be big news. Leslie Earnest has the
story in today's Los Angeles Times.
*Intellectual property attorney Michael Rosen, president of the
Republican Jewish Coalition in San Diego, has been elected secretary of the San
Diego Republican Party. Logan Jenkins tells the
story in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Penn) says it is possible Attorney General Alberto Gonzales will resign before a non-binding resolution of censure comes before the U.S. Senate. Specter is expected to vote in favor of such a resolution. The Associated Press story by Hope Yen is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Text messaging can really run up the phone bill as teenager Sofia
Rubenstein, 17, of the Washington D.C. area learned when she received an
invoice for over $1,100 from her phone company. Margaret Webb Pressler of
The Washington Post has the
story in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Deborah Szekely, founder of the Golden Door Spa and Rancho La
Puerta, was awarded an honorary doctorate during commencement ceremonies at San
Diego State University. The
story by Arthur Salm is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
Tuesday, May 22
*
Hall of Champions founder Bob Breitbart has some new memorabilia of Ted
Williams' for the museum's collection on San Diego athletes. Williams, the
Boston Red Sox slugger who was a high school student in San Diego, apparently
sent the material in 1993 to Barry Lorge, but the package somehow got lost. It
was found by workmen in the rafters of the Old Cracker Factory. The item
leads the
column by Diane Bell in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) has signed on as a cosponsor of a
bill by Sens. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) and John McCain (R-Ariz) to
implement various policies for the reduction of greenhouse emissions. The
Associated Press
story is in the StarTribune of Minneapolis-St. Paul.
* Donald M. Ginsberg, a ranking expert on superconductors, has died
at 73. The
obituary by Jeremy Pearce of the New York Times News Service is in today's
San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Former NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin is just one of the people in
Washington who have felt the sting of Senator John McCain's temper, according to
an article by Ralph
Vartabedian and Michael Finnegan
in today's Los Angeles
Times.
*Disney Chief Executive Officer Robert Iger said he was "appalled"
that Palestinian television features a Mickey Mouse-like figure, Farfour,
calling for the destruction of Israel. He said his company talked to the
Palestinian government about the issue but was not responsible for the
Palestinians' decision to remove it from the air. An Associated Press
story by Gary gentile is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*A Qassam
missile launched from Gaza killed an Israeli woman standing next to her car in
Sderot and strikes by the Israel Air Force in Gaza killed five persons
described as terrorists. The New York Times news service
story is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*James
McElroy, the attorney who represented the late Philip Paulson in a suit to
remove the Mount Soledad Cross from city land, has been awarded fees of $962,673
by U.S. District Court Judge Gordon Thompson Jr. Awaiting court hearing,
meanwhile, is a follow up case in which the American Civil Liberties Union
represents the Jewish War Veterans in challenging the constitutionality
of the cross being on now-federalized land. Greg Moran has the
story in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*A bill by state Sen. Christine Kehoe (D-San Diego) to reform the
San Diego Regional Airport Authority would strip the power of Sheriff Bill
Kolender and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to make appointments to the board,
and instead have the board selected by the County of San Diego, City of San
Diego and other local governments. The
story by Rob Davis was posted today on the Voice of San Diego.
*Simcha Catering, which will handle kosher events, has been launched
by Lisa Richards, owner of the Picnic People. A
profile by Jennifer Davies is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Pfizer's Chief Financial Officer Alan Levin has resigned. The
company is reducing its work force by 10 percent. The Associated Press
story by Wallace Witkowski is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Singer Adam Levine of Maroon 5 takes listeners into the "seamy,
bitter, obsessive side of romance" in his new release
"It Won't Be Soon Before Long"
Ann Powers says in a
review in today's Los Angeles Times
*U.S. Reps. Adam Schiff (D-Calif) and Artur Davis (D-Ala),
both former federal prosecutors, have introduced a resolution to censure
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. The bill was an element in a
story by James Gerstenzang in today's Los Angeles Times.
*Leah Silverman's production in Los Angeles of David Henry
Hwang's Yellow Face was criticized as "flat footed," but otherwise
reviewer Charles McNulty found the play which deals with racial identity issues
well worthwhile. In his
story, McNulty noted that an actor's apparent non-Asian identity is handled
with an explanation he is a Jew of Russian Siberian Asian stock.
*Defense attorneys in the murder trial of record producer Phil Spector
grilled his chauffeur, Adriano DeSouza, about whether the Brazilian
immigrant may have misunderstood when Spector allegedly said he thought he might
have killed actress Lana Clarkson. The
story by Matt Krasnowsi of the Copley News Service is in today's San
Diego Union-Tribune.
*U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) says disclosure that the
anti-diabetes medication Avandia could increase the risk of heart attack is the
"latest reminder that FDA isn't effectively
monitoring the safety of drugs." He has scheduled hearings into the issue.
Karen Kaplan and Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar
have the
story in today's Los Angeles Times.
*UCSD Prof. Miles Kahler, in a
commentary in today's San Diego Union-Tribune, says it's too bad that
in the wake of the resignation of World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz
that the United States continues to have the right to appoint the president.
Many such appointments were undistinguished, Kahler writes.
Wednesday, May 23
*New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg
has announced a plan to require all licensed taxicabs in New York City to become
fuel-efficient hybrid vehicles by 2012. The
story is included in a national roundup column in today's San Diego
Union-Tribune.
*U.S. Sen. Benjamin Cardin (D-Maryland) has been hampered in an effort to
honor the late author Rachel Carson on her 100th birthday. A senator from
Oklahoma, Tom Coburn, said the Silent Spring author hampered the use of
helpful pesticides. The Washington Post
story is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*U.S. Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Illinois) said although congressional
Democrats were unsuccessful getting a deadline to end the war in Iraq, the
inclusion in the bill of mandates for the Iraqi government to meet "ends
the blank check of more troops, more money, more time and more of the same."
The Associated Press story by David Espo is in today's San Diego
Union-Tribune.
*Comedian Al Franken who is preparing to run as a Democrat for the U.S.
Senate against incumbent Norm Coleman of Minnesota is worth between $4.3
million and $9.9 million, according to required disclosure documents. The
Associated Press
story by Frederic J. Frommer was in yesterday's StarTribune of
Minneapolis and St. Paul.
*One fourth of the American Muslim population under 30 believe there are
circumstances justifying suicide bombings, with one poll analyst suggesting they
believe in such tactics for the fight against Israel. Most of the U.S.
Muslim population oppose suicide bombings in all circumstances. The Associated
Press
story is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*The San Diego Union-Tribune, in an
editorial, says the violence within the Gaza Strip and its emergence as a
fortified base for attacks against Israel, is killing any chances for
Palestinians to achieve a larger independent state.
*Former State Department official Edward S. Walker Jr., in a
column in the San Diego Union-Tribune, suggests that as long as Hamas
is in power in the Gaza Strip, it will rachet up violence whenever peace with
Israel beckons. He recommends reading Natan Sharansky's book The
Case for Democracy.
*Chauffeur Adriano DeSouza stuck by his story that record producer Phil
Spector told him, "I think I killed somebody," the night actress
Lana
Clarkson died of gunshot wounds. Matt Krasnowski of Copley News Service
has the
story in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Although a fire to the First United Methodist Church of San Diego caused
considerable damage to the structure in Mission Valley, Temple Emanu-El
plans to continue meeting without interruption in a chapel on that campus.
The Reform congregation has been renting the Methodist facilities during the
reconstruction of its own sanctuary in the Del Cerro area of San Diego. Sandi
Dolbee and Joe Hughes have the
story in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
Thursday,
May 24
*Frida Birnbaum of Hackensack,
N.J., has done what few other women of 60 would consider: with the help of
in-vitro fertilization, she gave birth to twins. A
photo from the Hackensack University Medical Center is in today's San
Diego Union-Tribune.
*Philanthropist Eli Broad donated $6.5 million to Alliance for
College-Ready Public Schools, a group promoting Charter Schools in Los Angeles.
The
story by Joel Rubin is in today's Los Angeles Times.
*U.S. Rep. Stephen Cohen (D-Tenn.) questioned Monica M. Goodling,
former Justice Department liaison to the White House, about the religious creed
of her law school founded by evangelist Pat Robertson. The
story by Maura Reynolds is in today's Los Angeles Times.
*A package of bills to benefit veterans—including one calling for closer
monitoring of possible brain injuries from bomb concussions—has been shepherded
through the House of Representatives by U.S. Rep. Bob Filner (D-San
Diego), chairman of the House Veteran Affairs Committee. The
story was in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*The family of murder victim Ronald Goldman is entitled to any money that
O.J. Simpson's attorney may be holding for him, a Superior Court judge has
ruled. The
story is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan says sharp
increases in the value of Chinese stocks are unsustainable and that a
contraction in their prices is likely. The Bloomberg News
story is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Israel Defense Force pilots kept up their retaliatory attacks on
Gaza in response to the missiles aimed at Sderot from inside the Palestinian
territory. Meanwhile Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime
Minister Ismail Haniyeh met to see if they could agree on a cease fire with
Israel. The
story is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) has called for the Justice Department and
the Federal Communications Commission to block the acquisition of XM Satellite
Radio Holdings by Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. The Reuters
story is in today's Los Angeles Times.
*U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) pronounced himself disappointed
by the most recent trade talks between China and the United States. The
Associated Press
story is in today's Los Angeles Times.
*U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Penn.) is part of a bipartisan coalition
that meets regularly to steer the Immigration Reform bill through the Congress.
The Associated Press
story is in today's Los Angeles Times.
*In what may prove a key ruling, the judge in record producer Phil Spector's
murder trial said a forensic expert for the defense withheld evidence found
at the crime scene. The
story by Matt Krasnowski of Copley News Service is in today's San Diego
Union-Tribune.
*A recall campaign against Los Angeles City Councilman Jack Weiss got
off to a shaky start when City Clerk Frank Martinez ruled that the papers had
not been properly served. The
story is in today's Los Angeles Times.
*A controversial civil rights attorney,
Stephen Yagman, is a defendant in a high profile federal tax evasion case.
Joe Mozingo has the
story in today's Los Angeles Times.
Friday, May 25
*U.S. Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, both
California Democrats, have introduced legislation to require foreign ships
calling in U.S. ports to curb smokestack emissions. Shipping has an adverse
impact on efforts by local Air Pollution Control Districts to meet federal smog
standards, Boxer said. The
story by Mike Lee is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Julie Dubick, policy director for Mayor Jerry Sanders, and her
husband, attorney Mitch Dubick, an attorney for Higgs Fletcher & Mack
were the subject of an inquiry by City Attorney Mike Aguirre in the Sunroad
Enterprises case. The reason: Mitch Dubick once filed a suit in behalf of
Sunroad Enterprises owner Aaron Feldman in a quickly resolved issue with
the Internal Revenue Service. Aguirre wants correspondence from the
mayor's office to track if Feldman ever received special treatment. The
story by Jennifer Vigil is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Supposedly, no
one can contribute more than $2,300 to a congressional campaign, so therefore
the playing field is fairly even, right? The House of Representatives on a
382-37 vote approved legislation dealing with the practice of "bundling" in
which a single person goes around and collects many checks from other people
then presents them to campaign committee, magnifying his or her influence.
Now such bundling would have to be reported on disclosure forms. U.S. Rep.
Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill) praised the legislation, while Rep. Barney Frank
(D-Mass.) said it didn't go far enough. A
story by Mike Dorning of the Chicago Tribune is in today's San
Diego Union-Tribune.
*U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) says Attorney General Alberto
Gonzales has "lost the confidence of many of us in the United States Senate,"
but President George W. Bush says he still supports Gonzales. The
story by David Johnston and Eric Lipton of the New York Times News
Service is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Defense Attorney Marc Friedman described animal rights arsonist
Kevin Tubbs as a gentle young man whose depression over losing his girlfriend to
another pushed him into violent acts, but a federal judge in Eugene, Oregon,
sentenced the defendant to over 12 years imprisonment. The Associated
Press
story is in today's Los Angeles Times.
*Irwin Jacobs, co-founder of Qualcomm, will address doctoral
graduates at the University of San Diego's commencement ceremonies tomorrow.
The story is in a briefs
column of today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Israel's Defense Force arrested a Cabinet minister and other members of
Hamas, and also bombed a shack near the residence of Palestinian Prime Minister
Ismael Haniyeh in an effort to persuade the Palestinians to stop rocketing
Sderot. The Associated Press
story by Ali Daragmeh is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Sen. Carl Levin, chair of the Armed Services Committee, reflected the
ambivalence he and many fellow Democrats felt about the Iraq War budget passed
last night on a 80-14 vote. Opposed to the war, he could not bring himself
to vote to stop funding while U.S. troops were "in harm's way." A
story utilizing the Associated Press and New York Times News Service is in
today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Attorney Richard Rothschild of the Western Center on Law and Poverty
hailed a decision by a state appeals court striking down the earning ceiling of
$1,078 a month for people to be eligible for free health care. The
story by Tony Perry is in today's Los Angeles Times.
*U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) is receiving treatment for a
tick bite so it won't develop into Lyme Disease. The
story is in today's Los Angeles Times.
*Accountant Menachem Shoval wants to build an Orthodox shul and some
soccer fields he owns in a rural part of Poway. However, neighbors have
built a gate across the public right of way. The courts have sided with
him, but the city has dragged its feet in removing the gate. The
story by Lisa Petrillo is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*The works of Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster
are among the prize possessions of cartoon collector Charlie Roberts of
Oceanside. Harvey Kurtzman of Mad Magazine also is
represented. Linda McIntosh has the
story in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*The California Assembly on a 42-23 vote passed legislation forbidding
cities from passing ordinances that prohibit landlords to rent to illegal
immigrants—a response to an attempt by the City of Escondido to do just
that. Assemblyman Todd Spitzer, R-Orange, was among those voting against
the legislation by Assemblyman Charles Calderon, D-Whittier. Spitzer said
it could prevent landlords from making legitimate inquiries about tenants'
backgrounds to see if they are able to pay the rent. The Associated Press
story is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*The Metropolitan Transit Authority increased fares for rail and bus
passengers higher than Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa had proposed.
This provoked a quarrel between the mayor and County Supervisor Zev
Yaraslovsky. The story by
Rong-Gong Lin II and Jeffrey L. Rabin
is in today's Los Angeles Times.
Saturday, May 26
*Two new biographies of
Hillary Clinton—one by Washington Post journalist Carl Bernstein—thus far
have caused little in the way of a political stir, despite being issued in time
for the buildup to the 2008 presidential race. The story by Stephen Braun
is in today's Los Angeles Times.
*Lowell Blankfort paid
tribute to his golfing buddy, former U.S. Ambassador to Kuwait Frank E.
Maestrone, who has died at 84. The diplomat, who helped draft the Second
Sinai Withdrawal, had all but disappeared from public view in his
retirement when Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990 made him an interviewee in
great demand, Blankfort recalled. An obituary by Tanya Sierra is in
today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Fannie Lee Chaney, whose slain Civil Rights worker son James Chaney, was
murdered in Mississippi in 1964 along with two New Yorkers Michael Schwerner
and Andrew Goodman, has died at age 84. Emily Wagster Pettus of the
Associated Press has the
story in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-California) is objecting to a plan by
the Bush administration to relocate the Naval Special Warfare Command from the
Naval Amphibious Base in Coronado to Little Creek, Virginia. The
story by Paul M. Krawzak of the Copley News Service is in today's San
Diego Union-Tribune
*Immigration attorney Jonathan Ginsburg
says a law under consideration by the Senate would wipe out an exemption for
exceptional individuals to jump to the head of the line of those waiting to
become U.S. citizens. Would such a change have prevented Albert
Einstein from coming to America? Anthony Faiola of The Washington
Post has the
story in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Entrepreneur Irwin Jacobs—not the same man as the Qualcomm
co-founder of the same name—has become a central figure in a legal
controversy over whether Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott received personal gifts from
vendors. Jacobs has several companies, including one that builds
recreational boats. The Associated Press
story is in the Los Angeles Times.
*Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald says in court documents that I. Lewis
"Scooter" Libby, former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, should
serve jail time for his conviction for lying to investigators about the source
of leaks that exposed Valerie Plame as an undercover CIA agent. The Associated
Press
story by Matt Apuzzo is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Some antiwar activists were furious at the congressional Democrats who voted
for the compromise funding bill for the Iraq War, because it didn't include a
deadline for U.S. troop withdrawal. Among them was Eli Pariser of
MoveOn.org. The
story by Richard Simon was in today's Los Angeles Times.
*The sudden closure of private Harborside School in downtown San Diego has left
some parents upset, including Joel Saltzman who complained of a "lack of
creative thinking" on the part of the governing board. David E. Graham has
the
story in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Billionaire investor Sam Zell's move to purchase the Tribune Co.,
which owns the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times among other
media outlets, had advanced with the company buying back stock from shareholders
to clear the way for the deal. The Associated Press story by David
Carpenter is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
Sunday, May 27
*Randy
Cohen, vice president of Americans for the Arts, says the impact of
the arts on the American economy is important. In 2005, for example, they
accounted for
$166.2 billion in
spending and 5.7 million jobs. Laurence Arnold of Bloomberg News has the
story in today's San
Diego Union-Tribune.
*Psychologist Leonard Eron, who warned parents that their
children could suffer from watching too much violence on television, has died at
87. An
obituary by Patricia Sullivan of The Washington Post is in today's
San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Deborah Messing plays the lead in a new TV series, The Starter
Wife, about a woman who must cope with normal life after she is dumped by
her high-powered Hollywood executive husband. The
story by Mary McNamara is in today's Los Angeles Times.
*Alan Nevin, chief economist with the California Building
Industry Association, said an economic model by UCSD student Rob Gertz that San
Diego will face its worst foreclosure rates on homes over the next three years,
is well conceptualized and executed, but that he nevertheless expects
foreclosures to "spike" and then settle back to normal rates. The
story by Roger Showley is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Aida Oceransky, a Mexican Jew of Ukrainian origin now living
in Spain, says Spaniards are manifesting a revival of interest in Sephardic
culture. The
story by Michael Levitin
is in today's Los Angeles Times.
*Black and White, a novel by Dani Shapiro about an artist who
used her daughter as a subject for drawings that were somewhere between high art
and pedophilia, has drawn a favorable
review from Scott Eyman in today's San
Diego Union-Tribune.
*The chairman of the California Horseracing Board, Richard Shapiro,
has hired a contractor to the board, Darrell Vienna, to train his own
horses, prompting conflict-of-interest questions. The
story by Nancy Vogel is in today's Los Angeles Times.
*Civil Rights attorney Carol Sobol has noted that one of the police
officers involved in the May Day melee at MacArthur Park—Cmdr. Louis Gray—also
was involved in a 2000 incident at Parker Center in which non-lethal force was
used on demonstators, causing hundreds of thousands of dollars in lawsuits.
Patrick McGreevy and Richard Winton have
the
story in today's Los Angeles Times.
*Syndicated columnist Gene
Weingarten of the Washington Post has invented a new phrase "Googlenopes"—word
combinations that even the powerful Google search engine can't find
because they don't exist until someone like Weingarten writes a column.
His first example: "unintelligent Jew."
His
column appears in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
Monday, May 28
*Public relations consultant Jack
Berkman has announced an anonymous donor has contributed $150,000 to permit
the Harborside Charter School to finish its semester. The
story by Tony Manolatos is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Judy Bernstein, San
Diego-area staff member for the International Rescue Committee, is filled with
admiration for
Daniel Akech Thiong,
a former "Lost Boy of the Sudan" who
earned bachelor's degrees in theology and mathematics from the University of San
Diego. Dean Calbraith has the
story in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Margy Feldman, president and chief executive of Jewish Big Brothers/
Big Sisters reports that 90 percent of the children the group sends to
Camp Max Straus are members of families who live below the poverty line.
The
story by Amy Kaufman is in today's Los Angeles Times.
*Gabe Cohen, an outfielder for UCLA, has been selected by Pac-10
coaches as a co-newcomer of the year along with USC shortstop Grant Green. The
story by Gary Klein is in today's Los Angeles Times
*New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has sponsored the transformation of
the city government's television channel from a hodgepodge of televised meetings
to a lively presenter of "The Secrets of New York." Its star, Kelly Choi,
is a journalist and former model. Erika Hayasaki has the
story in today's Los Angeles Times.
*Harold
Goldstein, executive director of the California Center for Public Health
Advocacy, was shocked when he heard a description of Burger King's Quad-Stacker
which includes
four meat patties, four slices of cheese and eight slices
of bacon. There ought to be a law to require restaurants to explain the
nutritional content of such offerings, he says. The
story by Michael Stetz is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*TreePeople founder Andy Lipkis said the recent big fire at Griffith
Park did some beneficial work that others were unwilling to do: remove some
invasive species from the area. The
story by Deborah Schoch and Ashraf Khalil is in today's Los Angeles
Times.
*The Blessings of a Broken Heart
by Sherri Mandell has been adapted into a new play by Associate
Director Todd Salovey.
The
story by Anne Marie Welsh appears in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Adam Mendelsohn, a spokesperson for California Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger, says a bullet train to link California's cities is not a top
priority. But David Crane, a member of the California High Speed Rail
Authority, isn't giving up. He wants a meeting with House Speaker Nancy
Pelosi and U.S. Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, all
California Democrats, to work out a financing plan. The
story by George Skelton is in today's Los Angeles Times.
*Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert,
under domestic pressure to do something about the continuing rocket attacks on
Sderot, declared that as Israel retalliates "no one is immune"—which some
observers took as a warning that targeted assassinations of top Hamas leaders
may be in store. The
story, based on Associated Press and New York Times News Service material,
is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*U.S. Senators Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and Kay Bailey Hutchison
of Texas, Republicans on opposite sides of the immigration debate, have said
they believe they can work out a compromise. The
story by Molly Hennessy-Fiske is in today's Los Angeles Times.
*Marcia Zerivitz, chief curator and founding executive director of
the Jewish Museum of Florida in Miami Beach,
recommends to the new Haitian museum that
it not be overly concerned with establishing the provenance of some items
brought by immigrants. If nothing else, the art works' history can start with
their arrival. The Associated Press
story by Jennifer Kay is in today's Los Angeles Times.
Tuesday, May 29
*Frieda Birnbaum, 60, has returned
with her two new babies from a maternity ward to her home in Saddle River, N.J.,
saying everyone is feeling "fine." The Associated Press
story is included in a column of briefs in today's San Diego
Union-Tribune.
*Richard Blum, husband of U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, has
holdings in URS Corp., a company that is now purchasing Washington Group
International for $2.6 billion to create an engineering and construction
powerhouse. In the past Feinstein has been accused of a conflict of
interest for being on a military constructions appropriations subcommittee which
approves military contracts, including those with URS. Feinstein has
denied any conflict. The
story
by Evelyn Iritani is in today's Los Angeles Times.
*Retired Israeli Gen. Shlomo Brom, in a paper published by Tel Aviv
University, concludes there is no sure-fire way to suppress the firing of
Qassams from Gaza short of Israel reoccupying that territory—which would force
Israel to once again become responsible for Gaza's 3 million inhabitants.
The Associated Press
story by Karen Laub is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*With the third installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean so
successful at the box office, there is little question that Jerry Bruckheimer
is planning a fourth installment. The
story by Josh Friedman is in today's Los Angeles Times.
*As president of Disney, Michael Eisner commanded a global empire
with 125,000 employees. After his ouster in 2005, he has adjusted to
downsizing. His small office in Beverly Hills has just five employees.
The
story by Laura M. Holson of the New York Times News Service is in today's
San Diego Union-Tribune.
*U.S. Sen. Carl Levin (D-Michigan), appearing on television's Face
the Nation, disagreed with Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama
who said troop reductions are possible in September after General David Petraeus
submits a report evaluating the effect of the recent troop surge. Levin
said there's no reason to wait until then; "we've got men and women dying in
Iraq right now." The
story by Robin Fields is in today's Los Angeles Times.
*Radio talk show host "Dr. Laura" Schlesinger had sold out
audiences for two nights at the 1,523-seat East County Performing Arts Center,
but otherwise attendance at its events has been disappointing. Liz Neely
has the
story in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*A side issue in the Phil Spector murder trial is the question of
what impact the trial will have on the reputation of Henry Lee, an ace
criminologist who has been accused of removing evidence from the scene where
Lana Clarkson's body was found. The
story by Matt Krasnowski of the Copley News Service is in today's San
Diego Union-Tribune.
*Bataan Death March survivor Lester Tenney was among World War II
veterans at the La Costa Glen retirement home relating war experiences on
Memorial Day. The
story by Chris Moran is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*The mammoth compromise bill continuing funding for the War in Iraq and
other Defense and Veteran related issues was stripped of a provision sought by
California Democrats to prohibit the administration from leasing or selling the
Veteran's Administration property in West Los Angeles. U.S. Rep. Henry
Waxman (D-California) said the removal of that provision at the behest of
the Bush administration was "an unfortunate setback." The
story by Martha Groves is in today's Los Angeles Times.
Wednesday, May 30
*Pakistani businessman Abdul Rehman
Jinnah, accused of funneling illegal campaign contributions to U.S. Senators
Barbara Boxer (D-California) and Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) collapsed in court
during a hearing into the amount of bond he should post. The
story by Greg Krikorian and Robin Fields is in today's Los Angeles Times.
*Israel's former Prime Minister Ehud
Barak was the top-placing candidate for the leadership of the Labor party.
He will face a runoff with retired admiral Ami Ayalon for the position
from which Israel's Defense Minister Amir Peretz will depart. The
story is in the World Briefs column in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Dr. Marc Eckstein, medical director for the Los Angeles Fire
Department, said procedures are being tightened to assure that regulatory
agencies receive reports on any instances of alleged or proven medical
malfeasance on the part of paramedics. The
story by Rich Connell and Robert J. Lopez is in today's Los Angeles
Times.
*Mario Feferbaum,
president of the Foundation for the Memory of the Holocaust, said his Buenos
Aires museum soon will exhibit the passport carried in Argentina by mass
murderer Adolf Eichmann. The Associated Press
story by Bill Cormier is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*The California Assembly approved by a 44-29 vote
legislation to require certain guns sold in the state to automatically stamp a
serial number on bullet cartridges—a procedure which sponsor Assemblyman Mike
Feuer (D-Los Angeles) said could provide a trail of evidence to a killer.
The
story by James P. Sweeney of the Copley News Service is in today's San
Diego Union-Tribune.
*Supreme Court Justice Ruth
Bader Ginsburg read her dissent in a 5-4 decision in which the majority
ruled that a woman who claimed to have suffered from wage discrimination hadn't
filed her claim in a timely manner. Ginsburg, who received support from
fellow Jewish justice Stephen Breyer, argued that the pattern of
discrimination can be secretive making it impossible to gather sufficient facts
to file a claim within the 180-day period. The
story
by Linda Greenhouse of the New York Times News Service is in today's
San Diego Union-Tribune. Another version of the
story by David G. Savage is in today's Los Angeles Times.
*Pulitzer Prize winning food critic Jonathan Gold doesn't make a
tsimmis about it, but he says a key to success in his business is to be obsessed
with quality. A
story by Dan Laidman of the Copley News Service is in today's San Diego
Union-Tribune.
*Jerry Gumpel, attorney for Baja Acquisitions, declined to comment to
news media about his client's acquisition of the 46-acre Baja Studios near
Rosarito Beach where the movie Titanic was made. Nevertheless,
Diane Lindquist was able to piece together a
story in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Judge Mandel Himelstein lowered from $1,000 to $660 the fines and
fees that students will have to pay for holding a party in the mid-city area
where the noise level was deemed excessive. The
story by Sherry Saavedra is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*U.S. Rep. Tom Lantos (D-California), chairman of the House
International Relations Committee, said sanctions against Sudan, while welcome,
could have saved many lives if they had been applied before. In the Darfur
region, "the genocide continues without stop," Lantos said. The
story by Michael Abramowitz and Colum Lynch of The Washington Post is
in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Lou Lupin, an attorney for San Diego-based Qualcomm, said it will
challenge the verdict of a federal grand jury that the cell phone company
infringed upon three patents owned by Broadcom. The jury awarded the
latter company $19.6 million in damages. The
story by Jeff St. Onge and Bill Callahan of Bloomberg News is in today's
San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Brian Morgenstern, a Circuit City employee who saw the video that
led to the arrest of suspects allegedly planning an attack on Fort Dix, said he
hesitated before alerting federal authorities to his suspicions because he
didn't want to violate anyone's right to privacy. The Associated Press
story by Geoff Mulvihill is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner recommended that
insurance companies charge employers 14.2 percent less on their premiums without
adversely impacting coverage for employees. The
story by Dean Calbreath is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Economist Robert J. Samuelson
criticizes those politicians who on the one hand decry global warming and on the
other fulminate against high gasoline prices. Among those he singles out
is U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) His
column is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Ben Silverman of Reveille Productions is expected to be named the
new entertainment chief at the National Broadcasting Corporation. The Associated
Press
story is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
Another version by Meg James is in today's Los Angeles Times.
*Los Angeles Coroner Dr. Louis Pena, testifying in Phil Spector's
murder trial, said actress Lana Clarkson did not kill herself. The
story
by Matt Krasnowski of the Copley News Service is in today's San
Diego Union-Tribune.
*Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas were to meet in an effort to curb the growing violence between the
two countries. The
story is in the World Briefs column in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Barbra Streisand has canceled her concert next month in Rome, citing
production delays. The high prices at the concert ranging from $200 to
$1,200 per ticket had prompted protests in Italy. The
story is in the "Public Eye" column of today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Robert Zoellick, former chief trade negotiator, has been tapped by
President George W. Bush to be president of the World Bank, replacing Paul
Wolfowitz. The Associated Press
story
by Jeannine Aversa is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
Thursday, May 31
*Rabbi Yonah Bookstein, a rabbi who
works with University of California Irvine students, says anyone overtly Jewish
on that campus is liable to be harassed, but UC Irvine Chancellor Michael Drake
said during a forum at Shir Ha Ma'alot Synagogue that he cannot intervene
against "free speech." The
story by H.G. Reza is in today's Los Angeles Times.
*Elizabeth Dervan, 16, and Amanda Fink, 17, are organizing a
dance-a-thon and silent auction at Polytechnic School in Pasadena for Darfur
refugees. As Jews aware of the Holocaust, they said they feel a responsibility
to do what they can to prevent genocide. The
story by Martha Groves is in today's Los Angeles Times.
*Will the compromise immigration legislation prompt an increase in immigrants
seeking to come to the United States illegally, with the idea of forging
documents to "prove" they had been residents prior to January 1, 2007?
U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-California) didn't directly answer this
question, but defended the compromise that moved the legislation forward.
The
story by Jerry Kammer of the Copley News Service is in today's San Diego
Union-Tribune.
*In Norfolk, Virgina, U.S. District Court Judge Jerome B. Friedman
has ordered that
Majed Talat Hajbeh be freed from
prison because he had been held for nearly four years for violating immigration
laws and in all that time no country could be found to deport him to. The
Associated Press
story is included in a column of briefs in today's San Diego
Union-Tribune.
*U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg received mixed
reviews in a San Diego Union-Tribune
editorial. The newspaper agreed that a law restricting the time
people may file a discrimination claim may need fixing. But, it said,
that's up to Congress, not up to the Supreme Court.
*Jonathan Greenberg, superintendent of the Perris Union High School
District, says a high-speed, alcohol-influenced crash on Interstate 15 that took
the lives of three students and critically injured another during a senior class
trip, is "breaking our hearts...kids are just heartbroken." The
story by Kristina Davis and J. Harry Jones is in today's San Diego
Union-Tribune.
*The works of photographer Arthur Lavine are on display at two
venues: The Museum of Photographic Arts and the Four Walls Gallery in North
Park. A
review by Neil Kendricks is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Adam Levine of Maroon 5 needs to get out of bed more, writes
reviewer Erin Glass, who is clearly uninspired by Levine's sex life. Her
review is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Connecticut) is on tour of U.S.
military facilities in Iraq. One of the first questions a soldier asked
him in a forum was when the troops could leave. The
story by Leila Fadel of MCT News Service is in today's San Diego
Union-Tribune.
*In the latest battle between Qualcomm and Broadcom, the former is accused
by the latter of having hidden documents that were at variance with Qualcomm's
testimony in another case and which might have affected the outcome of a trial
which Broadcom won anyway. Lou Lupin, an attorney for Qualcomm,
said in an apology to the judge in the case that the failure to produce the
documents was inadvertent. The
story by Kathryn Balint is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*New York Times television critic Joanne Ostrow describes The Starter
Wife, a new USA television offering starring Debra Messing of
Will-and-Grace fame, as "six
hours of divorcée porn, cable-style."
Her
review is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Former Congressman Lionel Van Deerlin of San Diego writes in his
column in the San Diego Union-Tribune about a new Creation Museum
that opened in Petersburg, Kentucky, devoted to a literal interpretation of
Genesis. Among high-tech exhibits is one suggesting that the Grand Canyon was
created by the sudden flood of water at the time of Noah.
*Martin Nissenbaum and Richard Shapiro, partners in Ernst &
Young, were among four defendants accused in an indictment unsealed in Manhattan
federal court of attempting to defraud the Internal Revenue Service by creating
phony tax shelters for clients, then having the clients pretend to withdraw from
the bogus shelters by claiming that the September 11, 2001 terror attacks forced
them to reconsider their investments. The Associated Press
story by Larry Neumeister is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
*Coroner Dr. Louis Pena, testifying in the Phil Spector murder trial,
acknowledged under cross-examination that it could not be said from the angle of
bullet penetration whether victim Lana Clarkson was shot by someone else, or by
herself. But he continued to insist that the case was a homicide. The
story by Matt Krasnowski of the Copley News Service is in today's San
Diego Union-Tribune.
*Dr. James W. Weinstein of the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in
Hanover, N.H., concludes in a new study that some back problems are better
treated with surgery than with drugs and physical medicine. The
story by Thomas H. Maugh II is in today's Los Angeles Times.