To prevent layoffs on the heels of a sharp decline in advertising revenue, Freedom Communications--the parent company of The Orange County Register--today offered voluntary severance packages to employees, according to sources.

"If not enough people opt out, then there will be layoffs," a veteran of the paper told the Weekly.

The package under consideration includes two weeks of pay for every year of service, plus $50 for every $1,000 of base pay and 26 additional weeks of paid health insurance.

Dozens of employees--perhaps as many as 50 or more--need to accept the package to prevent the company from taking more drastic steps. The company delivered the news through department supervisors. There was no companywide meeting.

"People were initially shocked, followed by a feeling of, 'Well, I'm not surprised given the downsizing going on in the industry,'" said a Reg employee.

In July, new Freedom Communications CEO Scott Flanders announced that he was re-organizing the company's newspaper divisions to cut costs.

A company spokeswoman did not return a call for comment at the time of this post.

Ironically, the Irvine-based company is willing to push out (much needed) veteran employees while spending millions of dollars a year to launch journalistically questionable spin-offs such as Squeeze OC and OC Post.

Protest the failing war on drugs at noon on Friday, Sept. 29, at the Federal Courthouse in Santa Ana.

Yesterday in Modesto the DEA raided the California Healthcare Collective, a medicinal marijuana dispensary.

From the Americans for Safe Access (ASA), a pro-medipot NPO:

The Modesto medical cannabis dispensary California Healthcare Collective (CHC) was raided Wednesday by a task force made up of local and federal agents. Law enforcement conducting the raid included the Modesto Police Department (MPD), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Police allegedly seized 60 pounds of dried marijuana, 30 pounds of edibles, two pounds of hashish, $16,000 in cash, two vehicles, and multiple firearms, in the raid on the dispensary. In addition to the dispensary, police raided the homes of multiple dispensary staff. According to local news, a total of seven search warrants were issued.

Those arrested include two operators and two staff. Generally, dispensary staff volunteer their time in exchange for free medicine. All face life in prison for conspiracy to manufacture and distribute marijuana.

Modesto initiated a ban on dispensaries in December 2005; however, the banning ordinance contains a provision allowing for non-profit groups to exist. CHC claims to be just such a non-profit. Regardless, the City of Modesto and the DEA worked together to bring down this dispensary. As a result, ASA is organizing statewide protests. Our own Ronald Reagan Federal Building in beautiful downtown Santa Ana will host its own gathering of those willing to stand in support of the Modesto Four, organized by local boy Adam G.

"It's a joke," says Adam. "The DEA had no business being there. Patients are testifying it was a clean operation. They went to see their doctor for a recommendation to pursue alternative therapy that is legal in this state. Just like acupuncture. Just like aromatherapy." In fact, Adam and ASA believe this move further jeapordizes marijuana patients, many of whose lives are already at risk. "Right now patients in Modesto are suffering," says Adam. "They're forced to go elsewhere to get their meds, either far afield or to the black market—which is dangerous. You can't trust anyone; you could get robbed. Who's suffering? The terminally ill. Patients with chronic pain."

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

1) Attend the protest at Ronald Reagan Federal Building, 411 W. Fourth Street, Santa Ana, tomorrow (Friday, Sept. 29) at 12 noon. CLICK HERE FOR MAP

2) Print out fliers with information on the Modesto raid to distribute at the event (or just around) - CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD FLIER

3) Call Adam at (949) 315-1097 or email adamwithasa@gmail.com to help make signs. If you're making your own signs, Adam recommends "nothing profane. Nothing illegal. Pro-medical marijuana, stop the drug war, keep the DEA out of our lives, leave the sick and dying alone. Stuff like that."

Make Signs, Not War

"For the last 50 years people have been sitting on their asses because they're afraid of the Federal Government. People need to get tuned in and get out there to protest; they don't understand that the power is with the people, not the politicians. The quicker people get up and do something, the quicker something happens."

–Adam G., Americans for Safe Access

Smith: Sad (AP)

Hot off the Associated Press:

Anna Nicole Smith's 20-year-old son died from a lethal combination of methadone and two antidepressant drugs, a U.S.-based pathologist who conducted a private autopsy said Wednesday. Toxicology tests showed Daniel Smith had methadone, Zoloft and Lexapro in his system when he died Sept. 10 in a hospital room in the Bahamas where his former Playboy playmate mother was recuperating from giving birth to a daughter, according to Cyril Wecht.

Wecht, one of the nation's premier dead-guy checker-outters, was hired by Smith to conduct a private autopsy on her son.

Not to get terribly self-referential, but this incident reminds me of a comment I made recently on OCBlog in regards to their lame attempt to ridicule Cassie DeYoung for (gasp) attending a fundraiser. Their problem: this particular event had such speakers as Attorney General Bill Lockyer, State Parks Commission Chairman Bobby Shriver and Joel Reynolds, senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council. All are vocal opponents of the 241 toll road extension that would violate San Onofre State Beach like a billionare violating a stripper.

I act like Foothill-South is not a form of traffic relief. That is the particular lie I am trying to debunk today, and that is what my information is focused on. And saying Foothill-South is an OPTION for traffic relief is like saying methadone is an OPTION for heroin relief. It might take the sting away, but it just doesn't quite do the job, does it?

Apparently poor Danny Boy agreed with me; hence his decision to reinforce his methadone troops with antidepressant reinforcements. Unless it wasn't his decision...

Okay, enough unhealthy speculation from this particular boy (who is feeling much happier now, thanks - just say no to antidepressants!). But, considering Daniel's death in the same room where his mother had just given birth to a daughter, queering up what ought to have been a celebratory time, I can for the first time sincerely and sorrowfully say: poor Anna Nicole Smith!

Here's the background: On Tuesday, Orange County DA spokeswoman Susan Kang Schroeder took the extraordinary step of sending an agencywide email that not only challenged the ethics of LA Times reporter Christine Hanley, but also urged county prosecutors to use "extreme caution" when dealing with her.

Schroeder's Sept. 26 email is available here.

Today, Steve Marble, editor of the Orange County edition of the Times, defended Hanley, who has spent several months investigating Schroeder and her husband, Mike Schroeder, a top adviser to DA Tony Rackauckas and Sheriff Mike Carona. Marble called Susan Kang Schroeder's actions a "shocking personal attack" by a public official.

Here's Marble:

Susan Kang Schroeder's letter to her staff about our reporter Christine Hanley was full of errors and misstatements. It was a shocking personal attack, and particularly inappropriate coming from the public official responsible for press relations at the district attorney's office. It is also worth noting that the letter falls into a running pattern of attacking reporters engaged in investigative work. Christine is a veteran reporter and The Los Angeles Times has complete confidence in her integrity.

Sources say Times management sent a private communication to DA Rackauckas, calling Schroeder's email a "serious breach of ethics" and requesting a meeting.

Early Wednesday evening, Schroeder confirmed that the DA has agreed to a one-on-one meeting with Marble. How much progress can be made is unclear. Rackauckas relies heavily on Schroeder for media strategy and rarely deviates from her stance. And for her part, Schroeder isn't backing down.

She issued the following statement:

I like and respect Steve Marble. I regret that he is forced to defend a reporter whose actions are indefensible. I gave Ms. Hanley a 22-hour written notice to give her side of the story. She declined. I detailed specific misconduct by her in my letter to the Orange County prosecutors who work in my office. I am puzzled that the content of the letter would be "shocking" to Mr. Marble. On multiple occasions I have met with him to discuss Ms. Hanley's actions and to implore him to investigate her conduct.

I would hate for the readers to be left with the false impression that Mr. Marble was ambushed with any of the facts I included in my email yesterday. But instead of conducting an investigation into her actions, the LA Times has made a sweeping, general denial. During the 26 hours they spent before responding to my letter, they did not entertain even the possibility that any of the allegations could be true. Instead, the Times resorted to calling me names and attacking my integrity.

The Times claims that I have engaged in "a running pattern of attacking reporters engaged in investigative work." If so, why have I cooperated and offered quotes to other media outlets and publications that have written unflattering and negative things about the District Attorney's Office and me? Is "investigative work" within the Times a euphemism for fabricating facts, breaking promises, and behaving unethically?

We are very disappointed in the Times' response, but we are always hopeful that they will stop being defensive, cease in the name-calling, investigate the facts, and agree to change their behavior. The Orange County District Attorney looks forward to meeting with Mr. Marble.

And the rest of the country thinks LA has all the fun.

We live in era in which many resources are dwindling, but there's still one thing California has in abundance: rich people. According to a review of tax records for the years 1999-2004, done by the NewTithing Group of San Francisco, California has 407,000 households with $200,000 or more in adjusted gross income, and those households also have a total of $1.04 trillion in investment assets (and that's not counting pensions or real estate holdings). That makes California number 1 in big money households, with almost twice as many as the state in second place, New York. And according to a story in this morning's San Francisco Chronicle, the rich are different from you and me-- well, from me, at least-- because California's rich are cheap bastards.

From the Chronicle:

Despite ranking first in wealthy people, California ranks 21st among states for actual gifts per wealthy filer as a percentage of assets. Affluent Californians donated an average of $19,000 per household -- 0.74 percent of their investment assets and 3.24 percent of their adjusted gross income. Using the percentage of assets as a measure corrects for cost-of-living differences.

In Utah, the most-generous state, gifts per wealthy filer averaged $38,000, which came to 1.63 percent of assets and 7.4 percent of adjusted income. Utah's population was 62.4 percent Mormon in 2004, according to the Salt Lake Tribune. Mormon adults are expected to tithe 10 percent of their incomes to the LDS church.

Wealthy people in Oklahoma, Nebraska, Minnesota and Georgia were the next most-generous.

[…]

"If wealthy Californians were as generous as affluent households in the most-charitable five states, California giving would increase by $3.7 billion," said NewTithing director Tim Stone.

If I were Mr. Stone, I wouldn't be counting on that extra $3.7 billion showing up anytime soon.

Just a little something to remember the next time that someone tells you government social programs should be replaced with good ol' private charity.

The on again, off again war between the Los Angeles Times and the Orange County District Attorney's media affairs office is on again. Today, DA spokeswoman Susan Kang Schroeder sent an agencywide email "warning" staff about Times investigative reporter Christine Hanley. Schroeder claims that Hanley is "unethical," "reckless," "harasses people and their families," and wastes taxpayers dollars by filing "frivolous" public records requests. She advised prosecutors to use "extreme caution" with the veteran reporter.

The email comes months after Hanley began research for an indepth profile on Schroeder and her husband, Orange County GOP heavyweight Michael J. Schroeder, an insurance company owner and top adviser to both DA Tony Rackauckas and Sheriff Mike Carona. (He is also the former chairman of the California Republican Party and close pals with Congressman Dana Rohrabacher.) The Schroeders have said they would not cooperate for any article written by Hanley.

At the time of this posting, Hanley said she was preparing a formal response. (Check this website for any updates.) However, a Times OC source told the Weekly that Schroeder's email is "ridiculous and an obvious preemptive strike." Other sources at the paper claim that the GOP power couple has complained to Times management about Hanley and the possibility of a hostile profile for more than six months.

Here's a copy of the Schroeder warning:

----- Original Message -----
From: Schroeder, Susan
To: AllStaff@da.ocgov.com
Sent: Tue Sep 26 12:02:00 2006
Subject: WARNING -- UNETHICAL LA TIMES REPORTER CHRISTINE HANLEY

Dear colleagues:

We are lucky in Orange County because the Orange County press corps, for the most part, sets the gold standard. They are ethical, hardworking people who have an important job to do. The media often helps us find witnesses, solve crimes, and help inform the public that justice is done.

Unfortunately, in every profession there are bad apples. Christine Hanley is a reporter for the Los Angeles Times. She was recently assigned to cover our office. She used to cover our office four years ago. She has engaged in repeated unethical behavior including the manufacturing of facts. She is reckless and does not care about the truth. She has been repeatedly confronted about her false stories. She refuses to change.

You should exercise extreme caution in all contacts with her. Because of her past unethical practices, some attorneys in our office refuse to talk with her. I have listed a few of her "greatest hits." I have plenty more examples in greater detail. If you would like to learn more, please feel free to contact me.

In the interest of fairness and balance, I gave Ms. Hanley the opportunity to respond to the issues I set below. She refused to participate.

1. In January 2002, she requested an interview with the District Attorney. He initially declined. Christine Hanley pursued the interview. She promised that she would be the only person involved in the story and she would be fair and balanced. As a result, she was granted an exclusive. She broke both ground rules. When confronted about the violation of the ground rules, she first said her editors "made (her) do it." When told that her position was unacceptable and unethical, she changed her position and stated that she never agreed to the ground rules in the first place.

2. In June 2003, Christine Hanley wrote a story comparing "four Orange County prosecutors" to gang members when there were no such facts supporting the article. She also wrote "it is not clear who reported the shooting" when she could have learned the truth through a simple phone call. The deputy district attorneys in the story had done nothing wrong. When confronted with the truth, she was unremorseful and defensive.

3. In September 2005, Christine Hanley wrote a story accusing our office of obstruction of justice and prosecutorial misconduct. She based this story on a grand jury transcript which was available to her and to the public. There was no excuse for this fabrication because the grand jury transcript directly stated facts contrary to her position. When confronted with the factual errors, she first denied there were errors. When she realized that she could not deny the factual errors because of the transcript, she admitted that she did not have time to read the entire transcript. She offered to write an article correcting the factual errors. She even requested permission from her editors to do so and was granted permission. She was granted an hour-long interview with one of the deputy district attorneys accused of the obstruction of justice and misconduct so she could finally get her facts right. She failed to write the story correcting the facts.

4. Christine Hanley harasses people and their families if she decides she does not like them. She does not like our office because we have brought attention to her factual errors and unethical behavior. She frequently harasses our office and the County requesting nonexistent documents. Her requests are insulting and harassing. She often does not even bother picking up many of her so-called urgent demands. More importantly, it costs thousands of taxpayer dollars to process her requests. A few weeks ago, she even went as far as contacting and harassing my family members. Hanley most recently submitted another public records request in September 2006. The action occurred a few days after we complained to the LATimes and after the LATimes was warned that this letter was going out. Her frivolous actions have cost the County thousands of dollars.

5. Ms. Hanley threatens you with legal retaliation if she does not like what you are doing. She will try to get you into legal trouble if you have the audacity to challenge her ethics or dare to bring attention to her factual errors. In May 2006, she emailed the LATimes attorney and County Counsel alleging that I was "spending awful lot of county time ..." responding to her articles. Instead of seeking the truth and abating her unethical behaviors, she accused me of wasting taxpayer dollars and engaging in illegal activities for sending her emails challenging the facts contained in one of her articles and her breach of ethics.

Finally, beware of the Trojan horse invitations. Be very cautious about agreeing to go to lunch, dinner or drinks with her. If you insist on paying your own way (like I always do as a practice with reporters) she will accuse you of putting that on the County's expense account. If you do accept and allow the LATimes to pay, she may accuse you of being unethical for accepting influence.

She cannot be trusted to keep her word or to cover our office accurately or fairly. Please exercise extreme caution when speaking with her. She will seem friendly in the beginning. If you have further questions about this or want to know what you should do in dealing with her, please do not hesitate to call me.

Susan Kang Schroeder
Public Affairs Counsel
susan.schroeder@da.ocgov.com
Office 714-347-8408
Cell 714-292-2718

CLICK HERE to read The Times Orange County's response to Susan Schroeder's letter.

It was such a good story that David Letterman worked it into last night's monologue. And before Letterman, there was our own Matt Coker pointing out the story on the Weekly's ur-blog, A Clockwork Orange. The story: according to London's Daily Mirror, Arnold Schwarzenegger had taken his commitment to the environment to a previously unimagined level and gotten rid of his beloved Hummers. Even though this election year has seen Arnold undergo a revival tent's worth of conversions on a wide range of issues, it still seemed almost too good to be true-- the equivalent of Dracula selling his coffin or Dr. Frankenstein swearing off used body parts. And as it turns out, there's nothing "almost" or "seems" about it-- the story was just too good to be true.

Both the L.A. Times and the San Francisco Chronicle have looked into the cavernous depths of Arnold's garage and discovered that he still has four Hummers. Four-- that pretty much gives him a lock on the insecure-male-desperately-trying-compensate vote.

Speaking of desperate, this is just another black mark for the Mirror, which only a few years ago, was on its way to being a very respectable newspaper. In 2002, the Mirror was hailed for demonstrating a newfound devotion to fact-driven, hard news reporting under the direction of its editor, Piers Morgan. That devotion, alas, only lasted two years. In 2004, Morgan was fired after it emerged that the Mirror had faked some photos of British troops abusing Iraqis. After such a disgrace, where can someone like Morgan find work? America, of course. American TV, to be specific. Piers Stefan Pughe-Morgan was the obnoxious English judge on NBC's American Idol knockoff, America's Got Talent. From editor of one of his country leading newspapers to being the Simon Cowell-lite on a third-rate American talent show who is most famous for making a 12 year old contestant cry-- it's not as good a story as Arnold Schwarzenegger giving up his Hummers, but it is true.

Having previously suppressed, ignored, and dishonestly redacted scientific reports that proved politically inconvenient, the Bush administration has taken the next logical step.

The Environment News Service reports:

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is closing its Headquarters Library to the public, as well as its own staff, effective October 1. The decision, formally announced Wednesday in a Federal Register notice, cites lack of funding for the closure.
The Headquarters Library collection contains 380,000 documents on microfiche, including technical reports produced by EPA and its predecessor agencies, a microforms collection that includes back files of abstracts and indexes, 5,500 hard copy EPA documents, as well as more than 16,000 books and technical reports produced by government agencies other than EPA.

This shutdown is the latest in a series of agency library closures during the past few weeks, government watchdogs said, and as with the other library collections, the books, reports and research monographs in the EPA Headquarters Library have been boxed up and are currently inaccessible to anyone.

"EPA is busily crating up and locking away its institutional memory," said Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility Executive Director Jeff Ruch, noting that more than 10,000 EPA scientists and other specialists are protesting the library closures as hindering their ability to do their jobs. "Despite its 'Don't Worry, Be Happy' public statements, EPA has no coherent plan let alone a timetable for making these collections available."

The agency has not said when any of the materials at the library will again become available to its staff or the public either via the Internet or through inter-library loans. It has no dedicated funds for digitizing hard copies, making microfiche available online or re-cataloguing the tens of thousands of documents that will be relocated to large storage areas called "information repositories."

Ruch criticized EPA for failing to at least issue public notice for its closures of its regional libraries in Chicago, Dallas and Kansas City. The three libraries provide services for the general public in 15 states and 109 tribal nations.

But the library closures have generated interest from Congress and House Democrats have asked the Government Accountability Office to investigate the effects that the EPA library closures will have on access to environmental information and the impacts on scientific research, regulatory quality and enforcement capability.

Think of it as streamlining-- you don't have spend time pretending your own experts don't know what they are talking about, if no one can read their reports in the first place

There are now 171 cases of people sickened by E. coli tainted spinach from Salinas Valley. But don't worry, the Schwarzenegger administration has a plan.

True, the source of the infection hasn't been identified yet, though the Sacramento Bee reported last week,

The spinach-packaging company in the cross hairs of an investigation into a nationwide E. coli outbreak has struggled to manage its wastewater and is in violation of a state water disposal permit, according to public records and state officials.

But those violations, disgusting though they may be, may not be at the root of the problem.

And we do have a fairly good idea of where this particularly virulent strain of E. coli, known as E. coli O157:H7,in question may have originally flourished. Writing in the New York Times, Nina Planck explains,

It's not found in the intestinal tracts of cattle raised on their natural diet of grass, hay and other fibrous forage. No, O157 thrives in a new — that is, recent in the history of animal diets — biological niche: the unnaturally acidic stomachs of beef and dairy cattle fed on grain, the typical ration on most industrial farms. It's the infected manure from these grain-fed cattle that contaminates the groundwater and spreads the bacteria to produce, like spinach, growing on neighboring farms.

The fecal matter on cattle farms should be contained in "waste lagoons", but those shit pits often leak into waterways or allow their contents to seep into the groundwater.

So which does the governor's plan focus on? Strict enforcement in the spinach fields, or trying to secure the fields from outside infection? Neither. Susan Kennedy, the governor's chief of staff, intends to hold meetings to discuss "best practices" in shit-free spinach growing, but no concrete plan has emerged from any such meeting yet. But the action-hero governor isn't waiting on best practices, he's already sprung into action and proposed a plan: an advertising blitz.

The Bee reports:

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said he plans to promote California spinach in a commercial to help the industry rebound from the E. coli bacteria scare.

"We have to help the industry because every so often something like this happens, and we all have to really work together to help them again to get back because they are losing millions of dollars every day," Schwarzenegger said.

If that sounds more like the governor is more concerned with spinach sellers making money than the public health, there may be a reason for that.

David Murdock owns the company that distributes the charmingly-named Natural Selection foods, the brand that has been sickening people across the country. David Murdock is a good friend of Schwarzenegger's. How good? The L.A. Times' Robert Salladay notes that "Murdock and his company, Castle & Cooke, and its executives have donated $304,600 to Schwarzenegger's various campaigns since 2002."

The green of that much money could make spinach look good to any politician, let alone a champion fundraiser like Schwarzenegger, no matter how green around the gills it is making those who eat it.

Over at Rising Hegemon, Attaturk notices a slight variation in the covers on this week's Newsweek. See if you can spot the difference.

Yep. That's right. The editors of the international editions of Newsweek simply don't understand the tremendous importance of Annie Leibovitz reminiscing about her life and work. Those editors prefer instead to focus the reader's attention on the resurgence of the Taliban and the current carnage outside Kabul with some downbeat story, "Losing Afghanistan". Fortunately, the editor of the U.S. edition of Newsweek realizes that United States didn't get to be "the greatest nation in the country"* by paying attention to its problems (especially when there's an election coming up).

(* "The United States, for all its faults, is still the greatest nation in the country."-- the immortal words of Spiro T. Agnew, Richard M. Nixon's first vice president, and still the only vice president to plead No Contest to bribery charges after being forced to resign from office.)