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Arnold Schwarzenegger Watch: Governor Expected to Propose College Fee Freeze
The ASSociated Press and Los Angeles Times has Gov. Expected to Propose College Fee Freeze
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is expected to propose a freeze on fee hikes at California universities next year, the first financial break for students in several years.
The 2006-2007 budget plan will propose an additional $75 million for the University of California and $54.4 million for the California State University, a senior administration official said Wednesday.
In addition, the Cal Grant program is being augmented.
Schwarzenegger’s budget plan also will add $11.9 million to raise the maximum amount of Cal Grants for students at private colleges and universities, the official said. The extra money would raise the maximum annual grant to $9,708 from $8,322.
Nunez said that move would return the Cal Grant program to its level of two years ago and “sends a strong message that California is serious about investing in our future.”
And how is the Governor paying for this largess?
The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office said in November that an unexpected jump in tax income and ongoing spending cuts will raise $5.2 billion more than previously projected. That will more than cover what had been anticipated as a $4 billion shortfall for next year and leave a reserve of $1.2 billion.
A politically-sensitive endeavor that ingratiates Schwarzenegger with middle class parents and students alike.
This will improve his relations with moderate voters who Arnold desperately needs.
One step on the long road to re-election.
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Austria Sex Billboard Watch: Images Depicting Queen Elizabeth, President Bush and President Chirac YANKED
NOTE: Sexually explicit images will be displayed in this POST.
The ASSociated Press has Billboard shows world leaders in menage a trois
Austrian chancellor yanks ‘art project’ showing British queen, Bush, Chirac
Her Majesty would not have been amused.
Neither would President Bush or his French counterpart, Jacques Chirac, over a Vienna-wide art project depicting them naked and engaged in a sexual act with British Queen Elizabeth II.
The work of “euroPART,†an independent artists’ group, the scenes being displayed on electronic billboards across the Austrian capital were also embarrassing for the government just days before the country assumes the European Union’s rotating presidency Sunday.
And this is “ART”?
Even the Austrian press is outraged. Their story in German is here.
Austrian media reported that the offending images were yanked Wednesday — just a day after they started flashing at motorists — on personal orders of Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel. A woman answering the telephone at the chancellor’s public information department who refused to identify herself said she could not confirm the report.
Leading opposition party figures suggested Schuessel was at least indirectly responsible, saying the group had received about $1.2 million in government subsidies.
Schuessel spokeswoman Heidi Glueck was quoted by the Austria Press Agency as saying the chancellor had been “unaware†of the subject matter being displayed.
Are the Austrian’s embarassed because the art was “POOR and UNORIGINAL” or because the government paid for it?
Certainly, it is in BAD TASTE – signifying NOTHING more than that.
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Los Angeles Times Watch: Fake News Release Quote on Front Page
The ASSociated Press has L.A. Times Prints Quote From Fake Release
A quote in a fake news release that was intended as an April Fool’s joke ended up in a front-page story in the Los Angeles Times. The story in Tuesday’s editions of the Times noted how successful the reintroduction of wolves had been 10 years ago, but said the predators remained controversial.
“In Wyoming, for example, Gov. Dave Freudenthal last April decreed that the Endangered Species Act is no longer in force and that the state ‘now considers the wolf as a federal dog,’ unworthy of protection,” the story read.
The Los Angeles Times has had major credibility problems the past few years. This faux paus will do nothing to improve their standing with Los Angeles newspaper readers.
The Times printed a correction Wednesday, acknowledging that the news release was a hoax.
“The reporter saw it on the Internet and had talked with the governor in the past, so she was familiar enough with the way he talks and writes that she thought it sounded authentic, and she didn’t check, which she should have,” Times Deputy Metro Editor David Lauter told the Casper Star Tribune.
“We hate when this kind of thing happens, and we correct it as quickly as we can,” Lauter said.
The fake press release was put together by Maury Jones, an outfitter in the community of Afton, as a joke for April Fool’s Day.
“I never thought I’d get this kind of reaction,” he said. “But it’s got some legs.”
The correction, For the Record, is here.FOR THE RECORD
Gray wolves — An article in Tuesday’s Section A about tensions over the federal effort to reintroduce wolves into parts of the West wrongly attributed to Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal a statement that Wyoming considered the Endangered Species Act no longer in force and “now considers the wolf as a federal dog.” The statement, which was circulated on the Internet, was purportedly from Freudenthal but was in fact a hoax.
If the Los Angeles Times wishes to be considered Pulitzer Prize caliber it should tighten up their reporting and editing – notwithstanding their LEFT bias on their news pages.
Patterico has L.A. Times Falls for April Fool’s “Press Releaseâ€
The “press release†is dated April 1, 2005.
Its author has no idea how his private e-mail ended up getting quoted as “news.†As he wrote to the local paper, which had also been fooled: “In a related story to the Wyoming Governor’s Official Declaration, Hell froze over.â€
So, if you see a banner headline in tomorrow’s L.A. Times declaring the freezing over of Hell, you’ll know where they got the story. After all, the story has been widely reported on the Internet, so it obviously meets the standards for publication in the Los Angeles Times.
Pretty sad for a major MSM publication.
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Clarence Ray Allen Watch: Asks for STAY of Execution
The San Francisco Chronicle has Next in line on Death Row seeks stay of execution
76-year-old Allen is blind and crippled, his lawyers sayLawyers for Clarence Ray Allen, scheduled to die by lethal injection Jan. 17 for ordering three murders from his prison cell in 1980, asked the California Supreme Court for a stay of execution Tuesday, saying the state-sponsored killing of a blind, wheelchair-bound and seriously ill 76-year-old would be cruel and unusual punishment.
In their brief to the high court Friday, Allen’s attorneys made arguments similar to those they presented to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger Dec. 13 in asking for clemency. They did not dispute his guilt or the proceedings at his trial, but stressed instead that he would be the oldest and sickest man California has ever executed, and the second-oldest to go to any U.S. death chamber in the last 30 years.
“To wheel Mr. Allen, a blind, aged, crippled and enfeebled man, into the execution chamber at San Quentin to be put to death would be a bizarre spectacle that shocks the conscience and offends fundamental notions of human decency,” defense lawyers wrote.
“If confined to prison for the rest of his natural life, Mr. Allen bears no practical risk of harm to anyone.”
And why do you suppose he is old and infirm?
The California justice system is NOT timely and has allowed him to live for far too many years!
State lawyers have argued that Allen’s crimes showed he was a menace even in prison, and that his age and illness should not spare him from his punishment.
“Mr. Allen has shown that imprisonment is simply no guarantee of public security,” Deputy Attorney General Ward Campbell wrote last week in urging Schwarzenegger to deny clemency. “… The fact that Allen has been able to live his life after depriving so many innocent people of theirs is no reason to show him mercy now.”
And when was Allen first convicted?
Over 25 years ago!
Allen, who once ran a security company in Fresno, became the leader of a theft ring in the San Joaquin Valley and was convicted of ordering the 1974 murder of his son’s girlfriend. While serving a life sentence at Folsom Prison, he was convicted of ordering three more murders at a Fresno supermarket in 1980, including the killing of a witness from his earlier trial. The gunman, Billy Ray Hamilton, a former fellow inmate, is also on Death Row.
BIG JAB for Allen on January 17th
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Clarence Ray Allen Watch: Petitions California Governor Schwarzenegger for Clemency
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California Driver’s License for Illegal Aliens Watch: “This is the YEAR”?
The Sacramento Bee has Sen. Cedillo says, ‘This is the year’
Will eighth time be the charm for driver’s license bill?Legislation to grant California driver’s licenses to hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants will be pushed in 2006 for the eighth year in a row – and this time the iron is hot for success, its author contends.
“The dynamics have changed dramatically, and in our favor,” said Sen. Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles.
Senator Cedillo must be living in a dream world.
This bill has NO chance to make it past California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s VETO pen.
Cedillo said the new bill will be very similar to Senate Bill 60, vetoed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in October.
But Vince Sollitto, a spokesman for Schwarzenegger, said the governor remains opposed to the license law he vetoed and bases such decisions on public interest, not political considerations.
“Nothing has changed as far as the fundamental issue,” added Assemblyman Rick Keene, R-Chico. “It’s not a matter of, ‘If I keep asking, the 10th time I’ll finally wear you down and get you to relent.’
This bill is DEAD before introduction.
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Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin Watch: Canada Blames U.S. for Gun Violence
Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin (R) is applauded by Toronto Mayor David Miller during a campaign stop to unveil the Liberal handgun policy in Toronto December 8, 2005. Canadians will head to the polls January 23, 2006.The ASSociated Press has Canada blames U.S. for gun violence
Toronto shooting is latest death in a record yearCanadian officials, seeking to make sense of another fatal shooting in what has been a record year for gun-related deaths, said Tuesday that along with a host of social ills, part of the problem stemmed from what they said was the United States exporting its violence.
The news story from the 26th, 1 Dead, 4 Hurt in Toronto Street Shooting
One person was shot to death and four others wounded Monday in a shooting on a Toronto street crowded with holiday shoppers, police said.
hey said two suspects were arrested and at least one firearm was seized shortly after the 5:30 p.m. violence near the popular Eaton Centre shopping mall.
Details were sketchy. Police did not immediately say if the two were suspected of opening fire or if the victims had been purposely targeted.
Officials said the four wounded were hospitalized, but provided no details of the injuries.
Emergency vehicles crowded around the scene, which was cordoned off with yellow police tape.
“Someone said they were shot and everyone went to the back of the store,” said Magnolia Sandoval, an employee at a camera store.
A rash of recent guns deaths in Toronto prompted Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin to announce earlier this month that his government would ban handguns if he were re-elected in the Jan. 23 elections.
This is a tragic event but to place the blame on the United States?
Paul Martin and his LEFTIE/NDP crony David Miller are great at expedient demagoguery.
Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin and Toronto Mayor David Miller warned that Canada could become like the United States after gunfire erupted Monday on a busy street filled with holiday shoppers, killing a 15-year-old girl and wounding six bystanders — the latest victims in a record surge in gun violence in Toronto.
The shooting stemmed from a dispute among a group of 10 to 15 youth, and the victim was a teenager out with a parent near a popular shopping mall, police said Tuesday.
It is now being reported that this tragic shooting is the result of Canadian gangs, Gang feud may have led to Toronto shooting: reports
A feud between rival gang members may have led to the Boxing Day shooting spree that killed a 15-year-old girl and injured six others in a downtown Toronto area bustling with shoppers, according to published reports.
Police believe the gunfire broke out Monday between two groups, with 10 to 15 people in their late teens to early 20s involved in an exchange of gunfire on busy Yonge Street near the Eaton Centre, said the reports Wednesday.
The United States bashing quotes:
“It’s a sign that the lack of gun laws in the U.S. is allowing guns to flood across the border that are literally being used to kill people in the streets of Toronto,” Miller said.
“The U.S. is exporting its problem of violence to the streets of Toronto,” he (Miller) said.“What we saw yesterday is a stark reminder of the challenge that governments, police forces and communities face to ensure that Canadian cities do not descend into the kind of rampant gun violence we have seen elsewhere,” Martin said.
Flap recommends that Mayor Miller focus on his own Toronto urban problems and stop the blame game.
Paul Martin, a CORRUPT failure as Prime Minister will never stop until he is cast out of office in the January elections.
But, if Canadians wish the Congress can always vote for visa requirements for all Canadian visitors and strict import/export controls for Canadian business.
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Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin Watch: USA – Don’t Dictate to Me
Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin Watch: C’EST LA VIE
Canadian Adscam Scandel: Canadian Government Falls on No-Confidence Vote
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Day By Day by Chris Muir
