Thursday's Headlines & Surprises: Criminal Miscalculations
Categories: Moxley, News Roundups
California's New Math: The LA Times reports today that state prison officials miscalculated the sentences for not 25 or 50 or 100 but for 33,000 current inmates. According to judges, officials have been applying the "wrong formula." Writes reporter Michael Rothfeld, "The sentencing errors range from a few days to several years." California's chief deputy secretary for adult prison operations gave Rothfeld the money quote: "We believe it's a problem." Recognition is the first step, I guess. But prison industrial complex officials say the answer isn't to fire incompetent managers. Nope. They say the answer is to let them hire 85 new staffers.
Alex, I'll take Verbs for $600: Chris Caesar at the Daily Pilot decided to put everything he knew in one sentence, so take deep, deep breath and read:
"Rep. Dana Rohrabacher backpedaled Wednesday on comments he made this week that accused the Congressional Hispanic Caucus of lobbying to hold up a non-binding Congressional resolution calling on President Bush to pardon two Border Patrol agents convicted of shooting a drug smugger in the buttocks."
Hey Sheep, They're Wasting Your Dough: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the man who once guaranteed he'd clean up California's spending mess, is admitting that the state's looming budget deficit has jumped from $6 billion to more than $16 billion. (For state prison officials, here's the math: that's a $10 billion increase.) Democrats running the legislature and Schwarzenegger are all smiles, but this obscenity has the Register Opinion folks rightly steaming. In a column today, they write, "We hope Sacramento wakes up to the real blame behind the looming financial catastrophe – profligate spending beyond means, motivated by an over-reaching do-goodism, rather than trusting people to do good with their own money." Bingo.
Man Behind the Blog: KDOC's Daybreak OC today celebrated Matt Cunningham's RedCounty.com Republican blog. Cunningham told the show's Pete Weitzner (pictured) that he's been successful because he says "things people think but nobody wants to say." I guess it's that ole, Nixon era "Silent Majority" line. By the way, the folks at Daybreak, a relatively new news show, have worked out early kinks (except for nagging audio issues) and are delivering a greatly improved broadcast. I especially liked their interview with sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino, who has a way with words my southern heart loves. He said "con-fee-dent."
-- R. Scott Moxley / OC Weekly
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