MEXICO - Mexican Officials Arrest Suspect in Killing

NOTE:  This is from the e-newspaper, so no link to article.

"David López Jiménez accused in Jan. death of Tijuana photojournalist" by Wendy Fry, San Diego Union-Tribune  8/25/2022

Mexican federal authorities on Wednesday arrested David López Jiménez, who goes by the nickname “Cabo 20.”  He is accused of ordering the murder of Tijuana photojournalist Margarito Martínez Esquivel.

Jiménez was taken into custody in the early morning in the eastern Mexican state of Nuevo León.  Baja California state Attorney General Ricardo Iván Carpio announced the arrest at a news conference.

“He is being detained as the intellectual author of the (murder) of photojournalist Margarito Martínez Esquivel and other charges will be sought (against him),” Carpio said.  Martínez, who covered stories on security and crime in Tijuana, was fatally shot in front of his home on Jan. 17 as he left his home for work.

The arrest of the high-profile target comes just weeks before prosecutors are scheduled to present their case against three other defendants who are accused of carrying out the hit.

The prosecutor said Jiménez’s motive for ordering Martínez killed was that some photographs of Jiménez and his collaborators or family members “had been published in some news publications and social network and this caused (Jiménez) annoyance.” Carpio said Martínez happened to live in the same neighborhood where much of the criminal activity of Jiménez’s network took place, which made him vulnerable.

Carpio clarified Martínez had not been the one who published the photos that annoyed Jiménez.  The prosecutor also said one person participated in both the murder of Martínez and that of journalist Lourdes Maldonado, who was shot dead in her car in the Santa Fe neighborhood of Tijuana a week after Martínez was killed.

He said the suspect involved in both murders belongs to the same cartel as Jiménez, but stopped short of saying the two cases are connected.  He said the investigation into both murders is not yet complete.

Carpio said in addition to orchestrating the murder of a journalist, Jiménez was responsible for other street violence in Baja California.  Jiménez works with the Arellano Félix cartel, the prosecutor said.

“We are coordinating a prosecution strategy with the prosecutor’s office in the state of Nuevo León and the Republic to set a strategy that benefits the State (of Baja California).  We’re still analyzing and counting how many crimes” Jiménez will be charged with, Carpio said.

The Baja California prosecutor said Jiménez or “El Cabo 20” was trying to live under the radar in Nuevo León under a fake identity with false identification papers from Baja California Sur.

“Elements of the special forces from Sedena ([Mexico] Secretary of National Defense) and intelligence from the federal government and the Attorney General of Nuevo León participated.  Our intelligence identifies him as the main generator of violence and the person behind the disappearances of people in the city of Tijuana and in other cities,” said Carpio.

According to Mexico’s National Registry of Detentions, the arrest of “El Cabo 20” took place in the municipality of Apodaca, Nuevo León, on Avenida de la Concordia street in the Centro neighborhood, at 8:25 a.m. on Wednesday.  Carpio said there are still more people authorities are trying to arrest during the same operation, who are part of the same criminal group.

Jiménez had been arrested at least three times previously in Tijuana: in 2010 for robbery; in 2014 for vehicle theft, and in 2017 when he was captured during a criminal investigation about a large drug lab.  It remains unclear when he was released and if he was ever charged with the prior crimes.

CALIFORNIA - California Supreme Court

NOTE:  This is from the e-newspaper therefor no link to article.

"S.D.  judge confirmed as first Latina on state’s high court" by Eric Risberg AP, San Diego Union Tribune

Justice Patricia Guerrero, a San Diego Appeals Court Judge who is the daughter of Mexican immigrants, was confirmed Tuesday as the first Latina to serve on the California Supreme Court.

Guerrero was approved by a 3-0 vote of the Commission on Judicial Appointments to fill the vacancy left by Associate Justice Mariano-Florentino Cuellar, who stepped down last year.

Guerrero, 50, grew up in Imperial Valley and has worked as prosecutor, law firm partner, Superior Court judge and is on the state’s Fourth District Court of Appeal.  She will take her seat on the court after being sworn in later by Gov. Gavin Newsom, who nominated her.

Guerrero, who was praised by colleagues and members of the panel that included Attorney General Rob Bonta and Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, said she was humbled by the historic significance of her elevation to the court.

She said she stood on the shoulders of her grandparents and parents who emigrated from Mexico to give their children a better life.

“As I’ve tried to express, this is not just about me, or really even just about my parents, but it’s about so many others just like us,” Guerrero said.  “This is a story of the American Dream, the belief that with hard work, perseverance and opportunities, anything is possible.  And for that I am thankful.”

Guerrero was confirmed after a friendly hearing with no opposition.  Cantil-Sakauye indicated it would be smooth sailing for Guerrero when she opened the hearing by saying it was a joyful occasion.

Supporters praised the breadth of Guerrero’s career, her legal writing and her ability to find consensus with other judges. The State Bar Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation found her exceptionally well qualified for the state’s highest court.

“Justice Guerrero is phenomenal on multiple levels,“ said Stella Ngai, chair of the commission.  “She is universally lauded for her superior intellect, clear writing, judicial temperament, work ethic and compassion.“

Guerrero will take the place of Cuellar, who stepped down to become president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.  Cuellar was nominated to the court by Newsom’s predecessor, Gov. Jerry Brown, also a Democrat.

Five of the court’s seven members were nominated by Democrats and two by Republicans.

Newsom has made diversity on the bench a priority.  In 2020, he nominated the first openly gay justice, Martin Jenkins, who is the third Black person to serve on the court.

Guerrero’s grandfather immigrated to the U.S. from Yecora in the Mexican state of Sonora after getting a sponsor so he could become a legal permanent resident.

When her father, Jorge Guerrero, arrived in California, he picked crops and later worked in feedlots.  He wore cowboy boots to the hearing and beamed from the front row of the courtroom along with Guerrero’s husband and one of their two sons.  Her sister and several other family members sat behind them.

Guerrero said she hoped her appointment would serve as a tribute to her mother, a babysitter who recently died from breast cancer and had emphasized the importance of education and told her children there were no limitations on what they could accomplish.

Guerrero choked up as she spoke about her mother, saying she waited until the end of her remarks because she didn’t think she could get through them if she discussed her sooner.

“She taught us to be strong, compassionate, and independent,” she said.  “She showed us the importance of family.  She showed us to thank God for our blessings.  And she showed us that we should help other people when we can.  She sacrificed everything for us.”

Guerrero graduated from the University of California, Berkeley and Stanford Law School.  She funded her education through scholarships and by working half-time.

Guerrero has been on the appeals court since her appointment by then-Gov. Brown in 2017.  Before that, she was a judge on the San Diego Superior Court from 2013 to 2017.

She spent most of her career as a lawyer with the high-powered law firm Latham & Watkins, where she worked from 1997 to 2001 and again from 2003 until her appointment to the Superior Court.

She worked one year, from 2002 to 2003, at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Diego.

California will now join Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, New York and Texas in having Latina justices on their high courts. Guerrero will receive a salary of $274,000.

U-T staff writer Greg Moran contributed to this report.  Melley writes for The Associated Press.

SAN DIEGO - Lost Wallet from Antarctica

NOTE:  This article copied from the e-newspaper, therefore no link to article.

Paul Grisham and his wife, Carole Salazar, of San Carlos look over his wallet and the items inside, which were recently returned to him after being found in Antarctica. (Nelvin C. Cepeda U-T)

PERSONAL NOTE:  I am retired Navy (22yrs) as ATC (Aviation Electronics Technician Chief) and most of the squadrons I served in deployed on the USS Hancock CVA19 when it patrolled off the coast of Vietnam DMZ.

"Wallet lost in 1960s makes its way from Antarctica to S.D. owner" by Pam Kragen, San Diego Union-Tribune 2/4/2021

Navy meteorologist’s billfold found in building being torn down at McMurdo; trio of online sleuths tracks him down to return it

In October 1967, Navy meteorologist Paul Grisham shipped out to Antarctica, where he worked as a weather forecaster for a science station and airport on Ross Island.  Thirteen months later, he returned to his family in sunny California, but his wallet never left.

On Saturday, the now 91-year-old Grisham was reunited with his long-lost billfold, which was found behind a locker during the demolition of a building at McMurdo Station, the southernmost town on Earth.

Inside the recovered wallet was Grisham’s Navy ID, his driver’s license, a tax withholding statement, a recipe for homemade Kahlua and several items other so-called “ice rats” who worked at the station might recognize.  There was a beer ration punch card, receipts for money orders sent to his wife for his poker winnings at the station, and a pocket reference card with instructions for what to do in the event of an atomic, biological or chemical weapons attack.  There was never any cash, as there was nothing to buy at the station.

The brown leather wallet arrived by mail in good condition with all its contents intact following a weekslong journey of emails, Facebook messages and letters between a group of amateur sleuths working to trace its owner.  After 53 years, Grisham said he can’t even remember losing his wallet on the continent he calls “The Ice,” but he’s grateful for the efforts that enabled its return.

“I was just blown away,” said Grisham, who lives in San Carlos with his wife of 18 years, Carole Salazar.  “There was a long series of people involved who tracked me down and ran me to ground.”

The team who found Grisham were Stephen Decato and his daughter Sarah Lindbergh, both of New Hampshire, and Bruce McKee of the Indiana Spirit of ’45 nonprofit foundation.  It was the third lost Navy item the trio has recently returned to families.  Last year, Decato got upset when he saw someone’s personal Navy ID bracelet for sale in a shop.  He decided to buy the bracelet and, with his daughter’s help, find the owner and return it.  Lindbergh found the Facebook page for McKee’s veterans tribute organization and he posted a notice online that helped trace the original owner.

Before he retired six years ago, Decato worked for an agency that does snow cap research in Antarctica.  When two wallets were found in the demolition at McMurdo last month, Decato’s former boss remembered the bracelet story and shipped both wallets to New Hampshire in hopes they could do some more detective work.  Once again, Lindbergh reached out to McKee, who contacted Gary Cox of the Naval Weather Service Association, of which Grisham is a member.  The second wallet belonged to a man named Paul Howard who died in 2016, but his family was grateful to receive it.

“If it was my dad’s possessions, I would have treasured it as I think they will,” said Lindbergh, whose grandfather served in the Navy.  “It was a feel-good thing to do and both my dad and I have gone to bed thinking that another family was as happy as we are.  My grandpa would be so proud and my dad is proud to have things in their rightful places.”

Looking back on the 13 months he spent in Antarctica, Grisham said it was an unusual, memorable and sometimes tedious experience that he most remembers for the unremitting cold.  The average daily temperature was 25 degrees Fahrenheit, but in the winter months, it dropped as low as -65 degrees during his stay.

“Let me just say this, if I took a can of soda pop and set it outside on the step, if I didn’t retrieve it in 14 minutes it would pop open because it had frozen,” Grisham said.

Raised in Douglas, Ariz., Grisham enlisted in the Navy in 1948.  He started out as a weather technician, then moved up to weather forecaster and was promoted to the rank of lieutenant in Antarctica.  His job took him to duty stations in Guam, Hawaii and Japan, and he served twice aboard aircraft carriers in the Pacific.

He spent four years aboard the aircraft carrier [USS] Bennington in the 1950s and ’60s, and a two-year stint on the carrier [USS] Hancock during the Vietnam War.  He was onboard the Hancock in April 1975 during the fall of Saigon, when the ship’s flight deck crews had to push empty helicopters overboard to make room for new ones touching down with evacuating U.S. military personnel and refugees.

In between those shipboard assignments, Grisham was assigned duty in Antarctica as part of “Operation Deep Freeze,” where the Navy provided logistical support to civilian scientists on the frozen continent.  At the time, Grisham was in his mid-30s and married with two toddlers.

“I went down there kicking and screaming,” he said.

Grisham said it’s hard to grasp the vastness and remoteness of Antarctica.  It’s the size of North America and the journey to get there by ship from New Zealand is 1,100 nautical miles.  Most of Antarctica is covered with ice up to 10,000 feet thick, but McMurdo Station is one of the few places that sits on an exposed landmass of volcanic rock.  During Antarctica’s summer months, which are our winter months, Grisham said there were as many as 1,100 workers at the station.  But during the Antarctic winter, the onsite staff shrunk to 180 because sea ice and sub-freezing temperatures make travel and supply runs impossible.

During the winter, all of the food was canned and workers passed the time playing cards, chess, the backgammon-like game of acey-doucey and bowling at a two-lane alley.  His sole luxury was a daily after-work martini.  Once a week he talked to his wife, Wilma, via a voice relay through two shortwave radio operators.  The year’s highlight was a morale-lifting visit from Sir Edmund Hillary, the New Zealand mountaineer who crested Mount Everest in 1953.  He’d traveled to Antarctica that year for a climbing expedition.

In 1977, Grisham retired from the Navy and settled in Monterey, where Wilma passed away in 2000.  A year later, while vacationing in Paris, he met Salazar, who lost her husband, Gil, in 1995.  They struck up a conversation on the bus to Orly Airport and five weeks later he came to visit her in San Diego.  They married in 2003 and have four adult children between them, including Carole’s son Vic Salazar, who was a longtime local TV anchor for KNSD 7/39 (now ABC7).

McKee, with Indiana Spirit of ’45, said he’s delighted to know that Grisham was pleased at the return of his wallet.  An Air Force veteran himself, he knows the value of military mementos.

“I have a deep love for those that serve and their stories,” McKee said.  “Something such as an old wallet can mean so much to someone with the memories that item holds.”

NAVAL BASE SAN DIEGO - USS Bonhomme Richard Fire

NOTE:  This was copied from the e-newspaper therefore no link to article.

"17 sailors, 4 others hurt in fire aboard naval ship" by Andrew Dyer, Union-Tribune San Diego 7/13/2020

The fire caused a huge plume of smoke that prompted warnings about air quality in National City and other areas nearby.

Navy and fire officials are investigating a three-alarm fire on board the amphibious assault ship [USS] Bonhomme Richard at San Diego Naval Base that injured 17 sailors and four civilians Sunday morning and blazed throughout the day, causing smoke plumes throughout the region into Sunday evening.

The cause of the blaze and the extent of damage were not known Sunday night, but Rear Adm. Philip Sobeck, commander of Expeditionary Strike Group 3, said the Navy believes the fire began in a lower cargo hold, a deep V area, where marine equipment and vehicles are stored.

The 17 sailors and four civilians were hospitalized and the injuries were not considered to be life-threatening.  Sobeck said he believes most suffered smoke inhalation and heat exhaustion and all are in stable condition.

In total, about 1,000 sailors are assigned to the ship; 160 sailors were aboard Sunday morning.  They were evacuated, the Navy said.

The fire was reported shortly after 8:50 a.m., according to San Diego Fire-Rescue officials.  Witnesses reported hearing an explosion.  Throughout the day, fumes and smoke that turned black, gray and white billowed from the ship.

The city of National City issued an advisory around 2:30 p.m. urging residents to stay indoors due to potential health effects of the smoke plume.  One National City business only allowed to operate outdoors due to COVID-19 public health orders — Machete Beer House — announced on Instagram it was closed for the day due to the plume.

The San Diego County Air Pollution Control District issued an advisory: “In areas where you smell smoke it is advised that you limit physical activity.  If possible, stay indoors to limit your exposure to fine particulate matter.”

Sobeck said the fire was not fueled by oil, hazardous materials or electrical causes.  It is a Class Alpha fire, he said, meaning it was fueled by paper, cloth, rags or other materials in a standard fire.  He added he is not concerned about the air quality or toxicity around the fire.

Sobeck said there was no ordnance on board.  There are a million gallons of fuel on board, he said, but that is “well below” any heat source.

The explosion people heard in the morning was likely caused by a change in air pressure, he said.

Earlier, at least a dozen fire engines and trucks were near the pier, with at least six ambulances staged inside.  The fire department said 150 firefighters were assigned to the blaze and a fire investigator was dispatched.

All Navy ships in port in San Diego were directed to provide fire parties to assist in firefighting efforts, according to Mike Raney, a Navy spokesman.

Two other ships, the guided-missile destroyers [USS] Fitzgerald and [USS] Russell, were moored near the [USS] Bonhomme Richard but were moved early Sunday afternoon to berths farther away from the burning vessel.

Federal Fire San Diego Division Chief Rob Bondurant said in a statement around 4:15 p.m. that two teams were still fighting the blaze on the ship.

“Federal Fire is rotating their crews aboard the ship with U.S. Navy firefighting crews from the waterfront to fight the fire in order to find the seat of the fire and extinguish it,” Bondurant said.  “Also, Navy Region Southwest tugs are also continuously combating the fire from the bay.”

By Sunday evening, significant progress was made, Sobeck said.  Sailors were fighting the fire inside the ship, he said, putting firefighting agents directly onto the blaze.

He said all sailors are trained in boot camp how to fight fires.

“The sailors across this waterfront are absolutely doing a magnificent job,” he said.  “They are fighting (for) their ship and saving their ship.”

He said he did not know the extent of the damage, but he anticipates the Navy would be able to repair the ship.

“We’re absolutely going to make sure it sails again,” Sobeck.

Meanwhile, warnings about air quality and safety issues persisted into the early evening, as fire crews continued spraying water on the smoking ship.

A shelter-in-place alert went out around 5:30 p.m. asking all personnel who are not first responders but who are north of Pier 5 to take shelter until further notice.  The Navy also was not letting any watercraft beyond the San Diego-Coronado Bay Bridge.

Sobeck said the Navy was just trying to put a perimeter around the fire.

“It’s an ashy fire; there’s nothing toxic in there,” Sobeck said.

Earlier in the day, San Diego Fire Chief Colin Stowell said via text that the Navy would have a strategy and plan to fight the fire, and told CNN that the ship could burn for days.

Stowell wrote that it is very difficult to get access and make an “offensive attack on a fire below deck.”

“Heat cannot ventilate out,” Stowell wrote.  “(There are a) lot of dynamics with a ship fire, different from a structure fire.”

The ship was in drydock at General Dynamics NASSCO in San Diego last year and has been undergoing further maintenance pierside at San Diego Naval Base.  Its last deployment was in 2018.

Such vessels are used to deploy Marines in amphibious landings.  During operations, the ships conduct flight operations with helicopters and jet aircraft, such as the AV-8B Harrier and its replacement, the F-35 B Lightning.

While deployed, these ships carry more than 2,000 sailors and Marines.

Eric A. Dukat, a retired Navy commander who is now an associate professor in the College of Maritime Operational Warfare at the U.S. Naval War College, told The New York Times that sailors are thoroughly equipped to handle fires on ships.

“Everyone gets trained to be a firefighter, flooding stopper — all the damage control — and that’s because when you’re out at sea, there’s nobody coming to you,” he said.

Dukat, who worked as a damage control assistant aboard the Wasp, said fires on ships present a unique hazard because of the rising heat inside the vessel and the intense steam that’s produced when water is used.

In 1967, a fire on the aircraft carrier [USS] Forrestal killed more than 130 sailors after a rocket accidentally fired on the flight deck and ignited several explosions.

The episode has been used as a lesson on how to tackle safety procedures aboard Navy vessels, Dukat said.

The [USS] George Washington, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, caught fire in 2008 when oil was improperly stored on the craft.  At least 37 sailors were injured in the fire that took 12 hours to put out and cost $70 million in repairs.

Photojournalist Sam Hodgson and staff writer Karen Pearlman contributed to this report.

PERSONAL NOTE:.  I served in the U.S. Navy for 22yrs (ATC retired), Viet Nam Vet, Naval Air.  When at sea deployed aboard USS Hancock (CVA 19), also was stationed with squadrons at Naval Base San Diego.

SCRIPPS - Gets Additional $50M

"Gates Foundation gives $50M to Scripps" by Gary Robbins, San Diego Union-Tribune 1/29/2020

NOTE:  Article copied from e-newspaper therefore no link to article.

Money intended to fight tuberculosis, malaria as well as other threats to global health

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is giving Scripps Research $50 million to fight two of the world’s biggest killers — tuberculosis and malaria — and to help the La Jolla institute gear up for other global health threats, such as China’s deadly coronavirus.

The money will be shared with Scripps’ drug development division, Calibr, which has had success in creating therapies for malaria and HIV, both which have ravaged parts of Africa and southeast Asia.

Calibr researchers also are working on an injectable anti-malarial drug that’s meant to prevent people from contracting a disease that kills roughly 1 million people a year, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa.  By comparison, tuberculosis annually kills 1.5 million, which is roughly the population of San Diego.

The foundation — which has a heavy focus on global health — began investing in Calibr in 2014, giving the institute $30 million to speed up drug development.

Calibr later merged with Scripps Research, which conducts basic research, work that is essential to identifying new drug candidates.

The new gift raises the Gates Foundation’s total support to Calibr and Scripps to $135 million, making the foundation — created by Microsoft’s co-founder and his wife, a former general manager at the software giant — one of the largest private supporters of life science research in San Diego over the past six years.

“Our basic science and drug development gives us the capabilities of a pharmaceutical company,” said Arnab Chatterjee, Calibr’s vice president for medicinal chemistry.

“We can test drugs in patients.  That helps us get a jump on diseases that are happening across the globe, but which can show up on your doorstep in weeks.”

That’s exactly what has happened with the Chinese coronavirus.  It began infecting people in central China in mid-December and soon spread to at least 13 other countries, including the U.S.

Individual cases have been reported in Orange and Los Angeles counties.  And San Diego County health officials are examining if a case has been confirmed in a local hospital.

Many Scripps Research scientists quickly shifted their attention to studying aspects of the coronavirus.  They included immunologist Kristian Andersen, who has taken on a central question in the outbreak: Does the coronavirus get transmitted when people have symptoms of the virus or when they don’t?

“If it occurs when people are symptomatic it would be easier to contain because you could isolate those who get it,” Andersen said.

Scripps scientists work broadly across the fields of health and medicine, studying everything from HIV, tuberculosis and cancer to Lyme disease and influenza.

In recent years, Calibr has come up with five potential drug candidates for problems as different as malaria and parasites.

Most drugs don’t make it beyond the test stage.  And those that do can be of limited effect.

“The vaccines for malaria only work 30 to 40 percent of the time, which is why we’re working on a chemical drug that could be injected,” Chatterjee said.  “We think it would be more efficient and efficacious.”

Scripps has had breakthroughs in the past.  Its scientists played a lead role in developing Surfaxin, an FDA-approved drug that’s given to premature babies with certain breathing problems.  The institute also invented Tafamadis, a medicine the FDA approved last year to treat a form of cardiomyopathy.

The key to more success involves Scripps’ growing relationship with the Gates Foundation, said Matt Tremblay, Scripps’ chief operating officer.

“The foundation has people spread all over the world, where they really see what the problems are,” Tremblay said.

“They share that with our basic scientists, and with our drug developers, who will have different perspectives.  This is a model that works.”

IRAN - Protests Over Downing of Ukrainian Jetliner

NOTE:  This article was copied from the e-newspaper, therefore no link to article.

"Iranian rage over downing airliner intensifies" by Jon Gambrell, San Diego Union-Tribune 1/14/2020

Security forces appear to fire on protesters with live ammunition

Popular anger swelled Monday in Iran over the accidental shoot down of a Ukrainian jetliner and the government’s attempt to conceal its role in the tragedy, as online videos appeared to show security forces firing live ammunition and tear gas to disperse protests in the streets.

Iranians, already suffering under crippling U.S. sanctions, expressed shock and outrage over the plane crash that killed scores of young people.  They also decried the misleading statements from top officials, who only admitted responsibility three days later in the face of mounting evidence.

The country began last week engulfed in mourning after a U.S. drone strike killed Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who led Iran’s regional military interventions.  Then on Jan. 8, it responded with a ballistic missile attack on two bases housing U.S. troops in Iraq, although there were no casualties.

U.S. commanders at the base said Monday they believe the attack was intended to kill American personnel, an act that could have pushed the two powers to outright war.

Hours after that barrage, as it braced for a U.S. counterattack that never came, Iranian forces accidentally shot down the Ukraine International Airlines jetliner, killing all 176 people aboard shortly after it took off from Tehran for Kyiv.

For a growing number of critics — from ordinary citizens to notable athletes and artists — the events have revealed a government that is incapable of following through on its incendiary rhetoric and willing to mislead its own people about a national tragedy in order to avoid embarrassment.

Those sentiments first boiled over late Saturday, shortly after the Revolutionary Guard admitted shooting the plane down by mistake.  A candlelight vigil at a university rapidly turned into an anti-government demonstration.

“They are lying that our enemy is America! Our enemy is right here!” students shouted.

On Sunday night, protesters massed in Tehran’s Azadi, or Freedom, Square.

Videos sent to the New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran and later verified by The Associated Press show a crowd of demonstrators near Azadi Square fleeing as a tear gas canister lands among them.  People cough and sputter while trying to escape the fumes, with one woman calling out in Farsi: “They fired tear gas at people!  Azadi Square!  Death to the dictator!”

Another video shows a woman being carried away in the aftermath of the violence, a trail of blood visible on the ground.  Those around her cry out that she has been shot in the leg.

“Oh my God, she’s bleeding nonstop!” one person shouts.  Another shouts: “Bandage it!”

Photos and video after the incident show pools of blood on the sidewalk.

Tehran’s police chief, Gen. Hossein Rahimi, later denied that his officers opened fire.

“Police treated people who had gathered with patience and tolerance,” Iranian media quoted Rahimi as saying.  “Police did not shoot in the gatherings since broad-mindedness and restraint has been the agenda of the police forces of the capital.”

President Donald Trump has openly encouraged the demonstrators, even tweeting messages of support in Farsi and warning the government not to fire on them.

Trump, meanwhile, added to the controversy over his justification for killing Soleimani, saying Monday that “it doesn’t really matter” whether it was in response to an imminent threat to the United States.

In a tweet, Trump criticized Democrats for trying to determine whether Iranian attacks the administration has said were planned by Soleimani against U.S. targets were imminent.

“It doesn’t really matter because of his horrible past,” Trump wrote.  The administration has held Soleimani, as head of Iran’s Quds Force, responsible for orchestrating Iran’s use of proxy forces in terrorist attacks throughout the Middle East, and the deaths of hundreds of U.S. soldiers over the years, long before the threat it has said justified the Jan. 3 U.S. drone strike that killed him.

In a separate tweet, Trump emphasized Soleimani’s past actions rather than the threat of future attacks.  “The Democrats and Fake News are trying to make terrorist Soleimani into a wonderful guy, only because I did what should have been done for 20 years,” he wrote.

Trump promoted a manipulated image of Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) wearing a turban and a headscarf in front of an Iranian flag, claiming it showed “the corrupted Dems trying their best to come to the Ayatollah’s rescue #NancyPelosiFakeNews.”

Many Democratic lawmakers and some Republicans have questioned the administration’s claims about the immediacy of the threat — and the targets — and charged that it has failed to provide full and accurate information about an action that brought the U.S. and Iran to the brink of war.

Gambrell writes for The Associated Press, The Washington Post and
The New York Times contributed to this report.

SAN DIEGO - North Park Institution Closes

NOTE:  This article was copied from the e-newspaper, therefore no link to article.

"Last stand for newsstand" by Peter Rowe, San Diego Union-Tribune 12/5/2019

Paras, a North Park institution for 70 years, will close Dec 29, a victim of Internet, its owner says

Todd Viter didn’t notice the large signs when he walked into Paras Newsstand to buy Wednesday’s Los Angeles Times.

Then someone told him what they said: “Store Closing/ Everything Must Be Sold!”

“I’m shocked,” said Viter, 51, learning that owners Ken and Ann Gabbara plan to close Paras by year’s end.  “I love the history stuff he has — the World War II magazines and stuff about after World War II.  I’m disappointed.”

For 70 years, this shop near the corner of University Avenue and 30th Street has sold cigars, gum, newspapers and magazines.  Magazines by the ton.  There are now about 2,500 unique titles on Paras’ racks, the county’s largest stockpile of current periodicals.  For readers like David Harrell, a fan of railroad monthlies, and Edgar Hall, a Soap Opera Digest devotee, there’s no place like Paras.

To wander the crowded aisles is to immerse yourself in hobbies, vocations, passions.  Turn a corner and there’s every conceivable publication for anglers: Ice Fishing, Sportfishing, Pacific Coast Sportfishing, Fly Fisherman, Bassin’.  A nearby shelf holds some of Harrell’s favorites: Trains, Railway, Locomotive, Great Train Stations, Passenger Train Journal, Railfan & Railroad, Tramways & Urban Transit: The International Light Rail Magazine.

“Some of the bestsellers are magazines about cars, planes, boats, guns and the literary stuff,” said Kent Snyder, a Paras employee.  “Then there are the weeklies — you know, the tabloids.”

After Snyder’s hiring in July 1986, some mornings he’d find impatient fans of The Globe and The National Enquirer lined up outside the door.

“The little old ladies would be standing out on the corner,” Snyder.  “The owner would say, ‘Just a minute, ladies.’”

At Paras, these mob scenes are history though the store still carries History, National Geographic History, All About History, Current History.  There are still regulars who come in for newspapers and magazines they can’t find elsewhere, but nearly as many consumers buy candy or coffee.  There’s also a steady flock of browsers who use their cell phones to snap photos of intriguing covers, then seek those publications online.

“We tried hard, we put up a good fight,” said Ken Gabbara, who bought this shop with his wife in 2007.  “But Mr. Internet is winning the war and there’s nothing I can do about that.”

‘Another family’

On this site in 1949, Frank Hill opened a cigar and notions shop.  Four years later, he sold the place to Chris Paras, who began stocking reading material.  By the 1970s, Paras boasted an impressive selection of out-of-town newspapers.  Visitors from Miami popped in to buy the Herald, New Yorkers to peruse the Post and the Times, Chicagoans the Tribune, Seattleites the Post-Intelligencer.

Most of those newspapers are no longer delivered to Paras, as publishers encourage far-flung readers to subscribe to digital editions.  The magazine inventory, though, continued to swell, prompting Paras to expand in 1995 and again in 1996.

“Even with the Internet, the business has been pretty steady,” Snyder said.  “It’s only in the last couple of years that it’s gone down.”

Besides North Park, there were Paras newsstands in Ocean Beach and La Mesa.  In 1987, the Paras family sold the North Park shop to two brothers, Michael and Rocky Attallah.  Twenty years later, they sold to the Gabbaras.

The couple added snacks, souvenirs, candles, jewelry and other items to the store.  But the backbone of Paras — pronounced like the French capital, Paris — remains the many, many magazines.

This is the place if you want the latest issue of Sea Classics, Classic Boat, Wooden Boat, Good Old Boat or just plain Boat.  Where enthusiasts scope out Guns & Ammo, Gun Digest, and Precision Rifle Shooter.  Where do-it-themselfers pick up Old House Journal, New Old House, Home & Design, House & Garden, Homes & Gardens, Southern Home and San Diego Home/Garden.

And it’s where Edgar Hall has been buying Soap Opera Digest for the last 15 years.

“I’m not going to be happy about this,” Hall said of the impending closure.  “I’ve gotten to know the staff here.  It’s almost like having another family.”

One final Sunday

Like video rental stores, newspapers, shopping malls and other institutions upended by online competition, Paras Newsstand’s inefficiencies are part of its charm.  A No.  6 bus stops right outside the shop’s open door, and the driver yells a good-natured gibe at Ken Gabbara.  Street people wander in, buying the occasional coffee, chocolate bar or sticks of incense.  David Harrell, 83, knows he could buy the Los Angeles Times at newsboxes close to his downtown residence, but he’d rather take the bus to Paras.

“I don’t like the street machines at all,” he said.  “Sometimes, you lose your money.”

“We’ve formed a lot of good relationships,” said Ken Gabbara, 66.  “We’re very lucky.”

Gabbara said he’s still making ends meet at Paras, but the store’s profits are shrinking while he and his wife’s health issues are expanding.  He’d like to find a buyer for this store, but now plans to stay open only through Dec 29, the Sunday after Christmas.

“I want everyone to be able to pick up their Sunday papers,” he said.

On the walls of Paras, above shelves holding the John Wayne Ultimate Puzzle Book, Hawaii Weddings and Dapper Dan, some of the many stories written about this institution are framed.  The headline on one: “We’ll Always Have Paras.”

Not sure.  Nor, it seems, will we always have a place to buy the latest Paris Review, Cuba Plus, New Eastern Europe, Sactown, Tahoe, Salt Lake, Los Angeles or San Diego Magazine.

CALIFORNIA - Gas Price Inquiry

"Newsom wants inquiry into gas prices" by John Myers, San Diego Union-Tribune 10/22/2019

NOTE:  This was copied from the e-newspaper, so no link to article.

Governor’s request to Becerra comes after report on cost to drivers

Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday asked the state attorney general to investigate whether California’s leading oil and gas suppliers are involved in price-fixing or other unfair practices related to high pump prices.

The request, which Attorney General Xavier Becerra’s office said it would accept, comes amid growing frustration with high prices charged in communities across the state.  The investigation has the potential to trigger the most consequential review of California’s gas prices in years.

“Simply stated, name-brand gas retail outlets in California are charging more for a gallon of gas compared to their unbranded, hypermart competitors,” Newsom wrote in the letter.  “There is no identifiable evidence to justify these premium prices.”

Newsom’s request came on the heels of a report released by the California Energy Commission on the cost of retail gasoline in California.  The document, prepared after the governor asked the agency in April to examine the issue, concluded that the state’s drivers spent $1.5 billion more than those in other states for gasoline in 2018 — even though there was no determinable difference in the gasoline being sold by different retailers.

“The name-brand stations, therefore, are charging higher prices for what appears to be the same product,” wrote commission officials.  “The CEC received no response from the name-brand retailers in response to a request for information to support their product claims.”

In May, state officials concluded that “market manipulation” may explain the mystery surcharge imposed on California drivers.  They promised additional details this month, though Monday’s report leaves a number of questions unanswered.  Those unknowns included why so many residents choose higher-priced fuel instead of cheaper alternatives available in some locations.

“Consumers may be purchasing higher-priced gasoline brands for convenience, credit card acceptance or other reasons,” researchers wrote.  “However, if competitors decide collectively to fix prices, this may be unlawful.”

Severin Borenstein, a professor at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business who has been studying what he calls the “mystery surcharge” on gas sold in California, applauded Newsom’s decision.  “It’s really time to find out the reason,” he said Monday.  “Consumers have spent many billions of dollars over the years.”

Borenstein’s research found that even after accounting for the state’s high gasoline taxes and unique environmental rules that impose stricter refining standards, Californians still paid roughly 40 cents per gallon more by the end of 2018 than did drivers in other states — double what it had been in most years since 2015.

The state’s average price for a gallon of regular gasoline on Monday was $4.14 and San Diego County’s average price was $4.12, according to AAA.  The national average was $2.65 per gallon.

State energy commission officials said in their report that refinery challenges, refining standards and occasional shutdowns or incidents at individual locations do not explain the cost differential.  And the report concluded the most noticeable uptick had been in prices paid at retail gas stations since 2012 operated by companies that include Chevron and Shell.

“These price increases occurred without significant changes in the overall market share of these brands at the retail level,” the report said.

Researchers found Chevron’s retail gasoline sales in California resulted in almost $1.6 billion in revenue in 2018, more than double what those sales generated earned in 2010.  Shell’s total retail sales hit $818 million in 2018, up from $421 million in 2010.

A Chevron spokesman referred questions to an oil industry group.  A request for comment from Shell wasn’t immediately returned.

While energy commission officials wrote they “found no evidence of unlawful activities” by major oil companies, they also acknowledged they lacked the expertise to conduct a more thorough investigation — a shortcoming apparently resolved by Newsom’s request for Becerra to get involved.

“The mystery surcharge adds up, especially for cost-conscious, working families,” the governor wrote in his letter to Becerra.  “If oil companies are engaging in false advertising or price fixing, then legal action should be taken to protect the public.”

Catherine Reheis-Boyd, president of the Western States Petroleum Association, said the industry trade group is reviewing the CEC report.  But she said it was important to note California’s fuel taxes and standards, which are more strict than other states, account for the first $1.07 per gallon at the pump.

“Everyone has to have a seat at the table to ensure policies provide adequate, affordable, reliable energy to the communities we serve,” she said.

While California is known for its environmentally conscious fuel standards, the state was the seventh-largest producer of crude oil in the country in March.  The oil industry is a powerful force in California politics, working to halt legislation in the Assembly earlier this year that would have limited new oil and gas production around homes and schools.

But Newsom has expressed a desire to take on the oil industry during his first year in office.  In July, he fired the state’s top oil and gas regulator for doubling the state’s fracking permits this year.

“This is the first time a governor has requested an investigation and prosecution by the attorney general in modern history into the oil industry,” said Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog, which has criticized the oil industry.  “I think it’s a pretty big step.”

Myers writes for the Los Angeles Times.  The Associated Press contributed to this report.

PUBLIC HEALTH - University of California San Diego

"UCSD set to create school of public health" by Gary Robbins, San Diego Union-Tribune 10/19/2019

NOTE:  This article was copied from the e-newspaper, therefor no link to article.

Program will focus on fighting disease, address dearth of health workers

UC San Diego is expected to receive permission today to create a $100 million school of public health capable of spotting and fighting disease worldwide, assessing how pollution from wildfires affects specific communities, and evaluating mobile medical devices.

The program also will address California’s emerging shortage of health workers, including a projected need for 160,000 home care employees over the next decade.

The proposed school was unanimously approved Wednesday by a committee of the University of California Board of Regents, with final authorization scheduled to come today.  The move could become part of a much larger public health initiative.  Planners have told regents that they eventually may be asked to green-light similar programs at the system’s campuses in Irvine, Merced, Davis and San Francisco.

UC Berkeley and UCLA already operate nationally ranked schools of public health.

“Medical schools train physicians to treat individual patients,” said Dr. David Brenner, UC San Diego’s Vice Chancellor for Health Sciences.  “We also need to be concerned about people’s lives and needs across populations.  That’s what we’ll do.  It is a missing piece.”

UC San Diego is one of the 10 largest research universities in the country and is broadly involved in public health.

The university is studying e-cigarettes, which have emerged as a public health concern due to a mysterious illness tied to vaping.  It also is examining the relationship between sedentary behavior and heart disease in Latinos.  UC San Diego engineers spent months talking to families and social workers about how to design robots that care for people with dementia.  The school’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography is analyzing how sea spray affects climate, which in turn can affect people’s ability to breathe and sleep if the air becomes too hot.

And the school is trying to figure out why a disproportionately large number of people at a village in Italy live to be 100 or older.

UC San Diego’s supporters include Florida billionaire-inventor Herbert Wertheim, who gave the campus $25 million last year to begin developing a school of public health.  He also might help the campus come up with the additional $75 million it needs in private donations to flesh out the program, which eventually will feature a new building.

The university will ask regents to name the school after the 80-year-old Wertheim, who told the Union-Tribune on Wednesday: “We need to find ways to prevent disease and to better help people who already have things like diabetes and hypertension.  The ideas David (Brenner) has been coming up with are fantastic.”

Wertheim is an optometrist and engineer who is credited with helping millions of people to avoid developing cataracts and macular degeneration by creating eyewear that better screens out ultraviolet and blue light.

He believes that schools should draw together people from many disciplines to tackle major problems.  That’s the approach being taken by UC San Diego, which says it will collectively exploit the research talent it has in its separate schools of medicine, pharmaceutical science, and engineering, as well as Scripps and the San Diego Supercomputer Center.

The move is “the next logical step in the evolution of our public health programs, initiatives, clinics, undergraduate degree program and existing faculty expertise,” UC San Diego Chancellor Pradeep Khosla said in a statement.

“With a focus on public health, we can define the future where medicine, biology, engineering and public policy come together.  We can look at how we, as human beings, can live in a better society and create better health outcomes for each and every one of us, regardless of our socioeconomic background.”

San Diego State University already has a school of public health, and Cal State San Marcos has a department in this same broad area of science.

“I don’t see any overlap.  They will all be contributing to the workforce,” said Dr. Wilma J. Wooten, the public health officer for San Diego County.

The new program also was embraced Wednesday by Stephen Welter, vice president for research at SDSU.

“Both institutions have unique strengths that can be brought to bear on the public health issues facing San Diego and the world,” Welter said.

SPORTS - Women’s World Cup

NOTE:  This was copied from the e-newspaper, therefore no link to article.

"Press: U.S. thrives on pressure" by Kevin Baxter (Lyon, France), San Diego Union-Tribune 7/2/2019

Stakes will be high against determined English side today

Christen Press has a theory as to why the U.S. women’s national team has been so successful.

“The team rises to the occasion,” she said Monday.  “Throughout the history — watching the team, being on the team, playing for the team — we’ve done a great job at flipping pressure and making it inspiration, making it motivation.

“When the stakes are the highest, when the games and the tournaments are the biggest, you have to find another level in yourself to win.  And if you don’t find it, you don’t win.”

In that case Press and her teammates might have to push all the way through the penthouse today when they meet England in a Women’s World Cup semifinal, where the stakes will definitely be high and the opponent the most determined they’ve faced in this tournament.

“It’s win or go home at this point,” goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher said.

First the U.S. must regroup.  After cruising through a three-game group stage in which they set a World Cup record with an 18-0 goal differential, the Americans gutted out a pair of 2-1 victories in their first two games of the elimination rounds.

Coach Jill Ellis called the last one, an emotional win against the host French in Paris, “the most intense match I’ve ever been a part of.”

The U.S. players have said there’s no chance of a letdown today though they admitted last week’s quarterfinal against France, one they had mentally prepared for all year, felt like a final.

England appears headed in the other direction.  Unimpressive in their first two games of group play, the Lionesses have taken off since then, shutting out Japan — a finalist in the last two Women’s World Cups — then eliminating Cameroon and Norway by identical 3-0 scores in the knockout stage, going 371 minutes without conceding a goal.

Statistically it’s a dead heat: The U.S. is ranked No. 1 in the world, England is No. 3.  The two teams are unbeaten in this tournament, are 1-2 in goals scored and 1-2 in fewest goals allowed.  The U.S. has scored in the opening 12 minutes of each of its five games; England has scored in the first 14 minutes four times.

England has also matched the Americans in confidence and cockiness in the tournament, all the while observing proper English manners.

“They’re the best team in the world without a shadow of a doubt,” coach Phil Neville said of the U.S.  “Their record is phenomenal.  But I never worry about the opposition.  We concentrate on what we can do.

“That’s what we’ve been saying to the players.  Don’t get to the semifinals and have any regrets.  Don’t get to the semifinals and think afterward I should’ve, could’ve, would’ve.  Get to the semifinal and get out there and play your best.  I want to see smiles and I want to see freedom and I want to see us play like we can.”

The U.S. and England also have arguably the two best players in the tournament in versatile English right back Lucy Bronze and U.S. forward Megan Rapinoe, who figure to be matched against one another for much of today’s game.

Rapinoe has all four U.S. goals in the knockout rounds and five for the tournament, tying her with teammate Alex Morgan and England’s Ellen White for the World Cup lead.  White has scored in each of England’s last three games.

Where the U.S. has a huge edge, however, is in experience.  Though the team includes 11 World Cup debutantes, it also has 12 World Cup champions and six players who have played in multiple World Cup finals.

The Americans, three-time world champions, are unbeaten in 15 consecutive Women’s World Cup games, winning the last 10.

England’s women have never won a major international tournament, falling in the semifinals of the 2015 Women’s World Cup and 2017 European Championships.

“Looking back to 2015, we never really expected to get to that semifinal,” said England captain Steph Houghton.  “We know we are in a better position now and we can be calm and collected.  The key is for us to carry on doing what we are doing well.

“If we do the things we are good at, we have a great chance.”

England has lost just one of three games against the U.S. since 2016, playing the Americans to a draw to win the SheBelieves Cup in March, a result Neville still considers significant.

“That game gave us great confidence and belief, the way we were playing, the style of playing,” the former Manchester United defender said.  “But I suppose the real thing that came out of March was that we won that tournament.  Because you go to tournaments to win.

“We were the ones that stood on that platform.  We were the ones that held up the trophy.  And that gives us great confidence.  When you win something and you stand on that platform, it gives you the taste of wanting to do it again.  And this time the prize is even bigger.”

So while the U.S. is focusing on raising its play a level and winning today, the English have already decided what their World Cup victory — one they’ve been planning for the last year — will mean.

“Twelve months ago we set out our objectives,” Neville said.  “All I wanted my players to say was that they wanted to win the World Cup.  But they said they wanted more, to create a name people would relate to, badass women.

“They were thinking bigger and that really knocked me out of my stride.  I think we’re getting to that legacy moment.”

kevin.baxter@latimes.com
Women’s World Cup
U.S. vs.  England
(semifinal)
Today: Noon at Lyon, France
On the air: Ch.  5/69

CALIFORNIA - Real Gun Control

#StandAgainstNRA

NOTE:  This was copied from the e-newspaper, therefore no link to article.

"Background checks required for ammo" from AP, San Diego Union-Tribune 6/26/2019

California has among the most stringent gun laws in the country, and on Monday a far-reaching new initiative to curb violence will require background checks for every ammunition purchase.

Gov. Gavin Newsom and other proponents said it will save lives, but opponents are suing in hopes of eventually undoing a law they said will mostly harm millions of law-abiding gun owners.

Voters approved the checks in 2016 and set an effective date of July 1.  Ammunition dealers are seeing a surge in sales as customers stock up before the requirement takes effect.

“In the last two weeks I’ve been up about 300%” with people “bulking up because of these stupid new laws,” said Chris Puehse, who owns Foothill Ammo east of Sacramento.

Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence spokeswoman Amanda Wilcox appeared with Newsom at a news conference Tuesday and said the checks are “the kind of thing that could have prevented” last week’s fatal shooting of rookie Sacramento police Officer Tara O’Sullivan.

Prosecutors charge that Adel Sambrano Ramos fatally shot the 26-year-old officer using one of two rifles assembled from parts to create assault weapons that are illegal in California.  Wilcox and other supporters said ammunition background checks can help authorities discover so-called ghost guns that aren’t registered with the state.

The state Department of Justice, which will administer the background check program, estimates there will be 13.2 million ammunition purchases each year.  But 13 million will be by people who already cleared background checks when they bought guns in California, so they are already registered in the state’s gun owners’ database.

They will pay a $1 processing fee each time they pick up bullets or shotgun shells.

Store clerks will run buyers’ identification through that database and a second database of those who bought guns legally but are no longer allowed to own them because of certain criminal convictions or mental health commitments.  Those who pass get their ammo on the spot.

But the Democratic governor and Robyn Thomas, executive director of the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, said there are still some issues that must be addressed.  People who bought rifles or shotguns before 2014 and anyone who bought a handgun before 1996 are likely not in the state’s registry.

Wilcox said owners of unregistered weapons will have to pay $19 for a one-time background check that can take days to complete and is good for a single purchase within 30 days.  Wilcox said that should encourage owners to register their firearms.  Buyers will also have to get their ammunition through registered dealers, ending a practice that allowed bullets to be ordered online.

CALIFORNIA - Apology to Native Americans

NOTE:  This was copied from the e-newspaper, therefore no link to article.

"Newsom apologizes to Native Americans" by Taryn Luna, San Diego Union-Tribune 6/19/2019

Governor cites state’s history of violence, calls it ‘a genocide’

Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order Tuesday apologizing on behalf of the citizens of California for a history of “violence, maltreatment and neglect” against Native Americans in a rare move that some tribal leaders said could begin a healing process for their communities.

“California must reckon with our dark history,” Newsom said.  “We can never undo the wrongs inflicted on the peoples who have lived on this land that we now call California since time immemorial, but we can work together to build bridges, tell the truth about our past and begin to heal deep wounds.”

Newsom offered an in-person apology during remarks at a blessing ceremony at the site of the future California Indian Heritage Center in West Sacramento.  The Democratic governor said he had been discussing a formal apology with advisers for several months and decided to take action Tuesday when more than 100 tribal leaders from all over the state visited Sacramento for an annual meeting.

“It’s called a genocide.  That’s what it was.  A genocide.  (There’s) no other way to describe it and that’s the way it needs to be described in the history books,” Newsom said.  “And so I’m here to say the following: I’m sorry on behalf of the state of California.”

The governor’s order references an 1851 address from the state’s first chief executive, former Gov. Peter Burnett, in which he tells lawmakers to expect “a war of extermination” to continue “until the Indian race becomes extinct.”

A year earlier in the Legislature’s first session, lawmakers approved an “Act for the Government and Protection of the Indians” that allowed Native Americans to be sold into indentured servitude for minor offenses and separated children from their families.  The state spent the equivalent of more than $1 million in currency at the time to subsidize militia campaigns against the native people, according to the governor’s office.

California’s American Indian population declined from about 150,000 to 30,000 between 1846 and 1879, wrote Benjamin Madley, an assistant professor of history at UCLA, in a 2016 op-ed calling for the state to acknowledge the genocide .  Madley is the author of the 2009 book “An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe, 1846-1873.”

Daniel Salgado, chairman of the Cahuilla Band of Indians, said Newsom’s formal apology is a recognition of a long history of what happened to native people in California.

“People can say it should have come a long time ago but I appreciate that this governor is stepping up and taking that first step in what we believe is a healing process,” Salgado said.  “In any kind of relationship, there’s recognition of a wrongdoing, an apology and a healing starts to take place.”

Newsom’s office said the state has never formally apologized for actions against Native Americans.

The governor is also calling for a Truth and Healing Council to hear testimony and clarify the historical record on the relationship between the state and California Native Americans.  Christina Snider, Newsom’s tribal adviser and a member of the Dry Creek Rancheria Band of Pomo Indians, will lead the council and delegates from California’s tribes will work her to issue a draft report on its findings by Jan. 1.

Asked if the state should provide more formal reparations for California Native Americans, Newsom said he hadn’t engaged in those conversations and believed the council would provide a forum to discuss future steps.

Abby Abinanti, chief judge of the Yurok Tribal Court, said she hopes the council will serve as a model for other states.

“It’ll be a long process, an education process,” Abinanti said.  “Truth is a good thing.  Healing is a good thing.  We’re at a time and place in the world where it’s essential for us to try to do those things.”

Sitting in a circle of plastic chairs under an oak tree with the governor, tribal leaders shared stories of past trauma at the hands of settlers.  Some cried and sang songs.

Several expressed optimism that Newsom would continue a meaningful dialogue and work collaboratively with Native Americans.

Erica Pinto, chairwoman of the Jamul Indian Village, reminded him that her people judge actions more than words.

“It’s healing to hear your words, but actions will speak for themselves,” Pinto said.  “I do look forward to hearing and seeing more of you.”

Luna writes for the Los Angeles Times.

CALIFORNIA - In Wake of Horse Racing Deaths

NOTE:  This has been copied form the e-newspaper, so no links to article

"Governor backs measure to expand racing board powers" by John Antczak, San Diego Union-Tribune 5312019

In wake of horse deaths, bill would allow prompt suspension of meets

Gov. Gavin Newsom said he’s supporting legislation that would give the California Horse Racing Board authority to quickly suspend a meet license when necessary to protect the health and safety of horses or riders.

The announcement Thursday follows the deaths of 26 horses at Santa Anita since Dec.  26.

“The recent horse fatalities in California are unacceptable,” Newsom said in a statement.  “We must hold the horse racing industry to account.  If we can regulate horse race meets, we should have the authority to suspend licenses when animal or human welfare is at risk.”

The legislation, SB469 by state Sen. Bill Dodd, would allow the board to immediately suspend a license without the usual legal notice at least 10 days in advance of a vote, or the 48-hour requirement in the case of so-called special meetings.  The bill has cleared the Senate and now goes to the Assembly.

“Santa Anita Park has led the way in implementing historic reforms that modern racing requires,” Stefan Friedman, a spokesman for track owner The Stronach Group, said in an email.

“We are committed to working with Governor Newsom and to continue the progress we have made to date with owners, trainers, jockeys and all other stakeholders who are prioritizing horse and rider safety,” he said.

Santa Anita’s current meet ends June 23.  On Nov. 1-2, it will host the Breeders’ Cup, considered the biggest two-day event in U.S. horse racing.

Los Alamitos, in Orange County, will then race for three weeks before Del Mar [San Diego] opens it summer meeting July 17.

After the summer meet in 2016, during which 17 horses died, Del Mar invested $5 million in upgrading the track surface and added more veterinarian oversight.  Track officials also reduced racing days in order to have more time after the San Diego County Fair to make the track safe.

Fatalities at Del Mar dropped by 70.6 percent over the past two summers.

The rate of deaths at Santa Anita began drawing notice during the winter when the track east of Los Angeles received unusually heavy rain, bringing scrutiny of the condition of the surface.

Most of the deaths occurred before the track temporarily suspended racing in early March and limited training.

Before racing resumed March 29, Santa Anita instituted medication limits and provided additional track veterinarians to monitor training hours.  The racing board also increased veterinarian, steward and investigator staffing time.

In the meantime, the Los Angeles County district attorney opened an investigation and animal-rights activists have protested at the track.

The most recent death was on May 26, when a 9-year-old gelding was euthanized after injuring a leg in a race a day earlier.  It was the third horse death in nine days.

Among the array of new measures aimed at improving safety, The Stronach Group invested $500,000 in a scanning machine to detect injuries.

In addition, no race-day medications are allowed except for the anti-bleeding medication Lasix, which will be phased out in stages.  Medications for horses in training require a diagnosis from a state-qualified veterinarian, and transparency of veterinarian records has been increased.

Timed, high-speed workouts require permission at least 48 hours in advance so that veterinarians can try to identify at-risk horses.

The group also said it would continue working with independent track surface experts.

Antczak writes for The Associated Press.  U-T staff writer Bryce Miller contributed to this report.

AGAIN - STEM School Highlands Ranch Shooting

Why, why do we (citizens) allow this to continue?  Why do some people believe the NRA LIE that more guns will protect us and weapons of war belong on our streets?  #StandAgainstNRA

NOTE:  This is copied from the e-newspaper, so no link to article.

"Colorado community mourns hero" by Kathleen Foody & P. Solomon Banda, San Diego Union-Tribune 5/9/2019

Student was fatally shot after pinning gunman to wall in effort to protect his classmates

When a gunman burst into his high school classroom, Kendrick Castillo did not hesitate.

The 18-year-old immediately charged, pinning the attacker to the wall before Castillo was fatally shot protecting classmates, witnesses said.  As he charged, so did two other students.  One of them, Brendan Bialy, wrestled the gun from the shooter’s hand, and the students subdued him.

It was a moment that encapsulated some of the accumulated horrors of the past 20 years: School shootings, once unthinkable, have become common enough that some students now fight back.

A second shooter was captured by an armed security guard.

Authorities said these acts of bravery helped minimize the bloodshed from Tuesday’s attack, which also wounded eight people.

“We’re going to hear about very heroic things that have taken place at the school,” Douglas County Sheriff Tony Spurlock said Wednesday.

The attackers were identified by law enforcement officials as 18-year-old Devon Erickson and a 16-year-old who prosecutors identified as Maya McKinney but whose attorney said uses male pronouns and the name Alec.  The two allegedly walked into the STEM School Highlands Ranch through an entrance without metal detectors and opened fire in two classrooms.

Nui Giasolli was in the classroom during the attack, expecting to have a fun end-of-year session analyzing comedic effect in the 1987 film “The Princess Bride,” when Erickson walked in late, which he often did.  She said she didn’t think much of it, until he shut the door, pulled out a gun and told the class, “Don’t anybody move.”

Giasolli froze and went blank.  Then she thought it must be a joke.  She heard her teacher say something like, “Gun.  Get down.”

Then she said Erickson started shooting, and Giasolli saw Castillo and several others lunge to try to get the gun.  She ducked under a desk.  She didn’t see any hesitation from Castillo, she said.  If he had any hesitation, she said, “he threw it out the window.”

When she saw the shooter pinned down, she ran.

Castillo sprang into action against the shooter “and immediately was on top of him with complete disregard for his own safety,” said Bialy, a close friend of Castillo’s who has signed up to join the Marines.

Giasolli wants people to remember those who stepped up to save their classmates, especially Castillo.  “He is the definition of what it means to be a hero,” she said.  “He gave his life to make sure everyone else would get to go home.”

In a tweet Wednesday, President Donald Trump offered his condolences.  In the past, he has advocated for “hardening” schools by adding security measures and for arming teachers to deter shootings.

Because the attack happened only miles from Columbine High School and just weeks after the shooting’s 20th anniversary, questions quickly arose about whether it was inspired by the 1999 massacre.  But investigators offered no immediate motive.

A member of the school’s robotics club and a relentless tinkerer, Castillo had an infectious smile and gentle sense of humor, according to friends.  He worked part-time at a local manufacturing company that had offered him a job after an internship because he was such a standout employee.

“To find he went down as a hero, I’m not surprised.  That’s exactly who Kendrick was,” said Rachel Short, president of the company, Baccara.

Cecilia Bedard, 19, had known Castillo since elementary school and said he was always friendly, modest and excited to help people.  He made a point of always joining his father at Knights of Columbus fundraisers and bingo nights.

“He was amazing,” Bedard said.  “He was honestly the sweetest kid I ever met.  Never said a mean joke.”

Bialy smiled as he recounted the struggle with the shooter to reporters, saying that he wanted to focus on the positive.  “They completely and utterly failed in a matter of half a minute,” he said of the attackers.

“What I saw yesterday was the absolute best of people,” he added.

Bialy would not identify the third student who helped subdue the gunman, but the family of Joshua Jones put out a statement saying he was shot twice while disarming one of the attackers.

Most of the wounded admitted to hospitals have been discharged.  Two remained hospitalized Wednesday, one in fair condition and one in good condition, said Wendy K. Forbes of Littleton Adventist Hospital.

The security guard who detained the second armed suspect was employed by Boss High Level Protection, a company started by a former SWAT team leader who responded to the Columbine shooting.  The owner, Grant Whitus, told The Associated Press the security guard is a former Marine who ran to the area of the shootings and confronted one of the armed students in a hallway.

The guard drew his weapon and apprehended the person, Whitus said.

“He doesn’t even realize how many lives he saved by stopping a school shooting,” Whitus said.

About 2,000 people held a vigil at a nearby high school Wednesday night to honor the victims and survivors of the attack.

McKinney, like Erickson, was a student at the school.  Neither suspect was previously known to authorities, Spurlock said.

Erickson made his first court appearance Wednesday and kept his head down.  His black hair, streaked with purple dye, covered his face as he nodded in response to most of District Court Judge Theresa Slade’s questions.  At one point, the judge requested a verbal answer to whether he had any questions about the proceedings.  Erickson simply replied “No.”

McKinney, who has a short brown haircut, made eye contact with the judge and answered questions in a clear but quiet voice, saying “Yes, your honor” and “No, your honor.”

District attorney George Brauchler said he has not decided whether to file adult charges but added that McKinney is old enough to be charged as an adult without a judge’s review.

Formal charges were expected to be filed by Friday.  Brauchler said he could not discuss any motive or weapons used in the attack.

A message left at a phone number listed for Erickson’s home was not immediately returned.

Josh Dutton, 18, said he was close friends with Erickson in middle school but had not seen him for four years while attending a different high school.  On Sunday, he spotted Erickson at a local light rail station and said he was shocked at how much his friend had changed.

Erickson wore all black and was significantly thinner and did not seem interested in talking.

“He said he’d just turned 18 and he owned rifles,” Dutton said.

The shooting took place exactly a week after a gunman killed two students and wounded four at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte.  In that case as well, one of the fatalities was a student who charged the attacker.

The Colorado attack unfolded nearly three weeks after neighboring Littleton marked the anniversary of the Columbine attack that killed 13 people.  The two schools are separated by about 7 miles in adjacent communities south of Denver.

Brauchler said the community remains resilient in the face of multiple shootings, including Columbine, the 2012 theater shooting in the Denver suburb of Aurora, and the 2013 shooting at Arapahoe High School.

The attacks are “aberrant acts” although they might seem otherwise to the rest of the world, he said.  “Who we are is a kind, compassionate, caring people, and this does not define us.”

Foody and Banda write for The Associated Press.  The Washington Post contributed to this report.