I hope you're sitting down. For one thing, checking a blog while standing up is just ... weird.
BYE-BYE RENT CONTROL? LA Times - A June 3rd ballot proposal could end the practice of rent control in California. Lawyers and landlords are both circling. If you prick a landlord, does it not bleed?
PEDESTRIAN KILLED IN HUNTINGTON BEACH: OC Register - Not that it's a slow news day at the Reg (it is); I just wanted to point out an innocent death in Huntington Beach not caused by a police officer. A twentysomething young man is believed to have been crossing Beach Blvd. against a red light. Which is when one is usually struck and killed.
IDENTIFICATION IN CAMP PENDLETON DEATH: OC Register - A Marine found dead early Sunday, the second Marine death reported from the base this week, has been identified.
"Lance Cpl. Johnathon K. Goffred, 22, a Johnson County, In. native was an infantry rifleman serving with the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment at Camp Pendleton, according to a press release issued today by the United States Marine Corps. He joined the Marine Corps June 8, 2005, and returned from a combat deployment to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom last year."
COSTA MESA EUTHANIZES D.A.R.E. PROGRAM: Daily Pilot - Costa Mesa is no longer willing to pay the cost of what is arguably an ineffective program. Drug and alcohol resistance and education in school seems like a redundancy to many; after all, what else IS school anyway? And for those without parents to instill such values - well, often those parents teach through bad example far more than their kids will learn in some program, the enjoyment of which will have them branded as a narc and a pussy.
"THE DISASTROUS FOOTHILL SOUTH TOLLWAY": LA Times - Our neighbor to the north might have a problem acknowledging R. Scott Moxley's reporting on the Sheriff Carona scandal (not to mention the New York Times), but they got this right: Governor Schwarzenegger's support of the 241 toll road is incomprehensible.
"Maybe Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was trying to make up for planned cuts to state parks. Otherwise, it's hard to imagine what could have led to his recent support for the Foothill South toll road."
January 29, 2008 08:00
About four years ago, I was a sub teacher up in L.A. County, and I remember an interesting conversation with an L.A. County Sheriffs deputy, responsible for the S.T.A.R. program (i.e., the L.A. County Sheriff's version of D.A.R.E.).
Not only did I tell him about research indicating that D.A.R.E. (and similar programs) was ineffective in stopping kids from drug abuse/addiction, but I also recounted a personal story told to me by (ironcially enough) a young teacher, who happened to be one of the first "graduates" of D.A.R.E. when it started. She told of how on the day of her D.A.R.E. graduation, she had taken speed and sniffed glue, and was flying higher than a kite. She did eventually get help for her addiction and turned her life around, but she stated that it was a 12-Step program--not D.A.R.E.--that helped change her life (at this point I assured the deputy that I wasn't pro-drug usage, but rather that I was concerned and wanted to see an anti-drug program for reaching children, that was more effective than either D.A.R.E. or S.T.A.R.).
The deputy's response was both cynical and pleasantly shocking. He told me that he was aware of the research, and if he had his way, the D.A.R.E./S.T.A.R. programs would NOT be run the way they were, because one hour per month was NOT going to be effective in stemming the daily, dysfunctional influence that kids were subjected to from family, friends and the media, and thereby help them resist using drugs. Futhermore, as far as he was concerned, the only reason D.A.R.E./S.T.A.R. existed, was more for public relations than as a way to fight drug addiction/abuse.
I thanked the deputy for his candor, and in a somewhat joking manner told him that his "secret" (i.e., opinion) was safe with me. After that, we then proceeded to trash OC Sheriff Mike Carona. ;-)