January 30, 2017

Homer City Council takes step to help homeless

Planning and zoning issues dominated discussion Monday night at the Homer City Council’s regular meeting. With temperatures falling earlier this month below zero, one proposed zoning change could mean saving lives by providing temporary shelter for homeless people facing bitter cold in winter.

Introduced by council member Shelly Erickson, Memorandum 17-017 would start discussion on a draft ordinance to change zoning regulations so that churches could provide temporary housing overnight for several days from October to April. The change would be a permitted use, meaning facilities wouldn’t have to apply for a conditional use permit and approval by the Homer Advisory Planning Commission. The memorandum passed unanimously and goes to the planning commission for further review and preparation of a draft ordinance.

The ordinance got support of several homeless advocates speaking to the council.

“We just want people to know we’re out there and support this issue,” said Lt. Christin Fankhauser of the Salvation Army, a member of the Homeless Action Committee. “We want to do what we can to take care of the less fortunate in Homer.”

Read more: http://homernews.com/news/2017-01-26/council-takes-step-help-homeless

January 30, 2017

Trump says Lockheed Martin has cut $600 million from F-35 program

Source: Washington Post

President Trump said Monday that Lockheed Martin has cut $600 million from its next lot of 90 F-35 Joint Strike Fighter planes, capping weeks of private meetings with Lockheed Martin chief executive Marillyn Hewson and public criticisms of the program’s cost.

He specified that the cost-savings would apply to the company’s next group of 90 planes but offered few details on how the program or contract would change as a result.

“What’s happening with Lockheed, number one we’re cutting the price of their planes by a lot but they’re also expanding and that’s going to be a good thing. Ultimately they’re going to be better off,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.

The president’s public back-and-forth with Lockheed began in late December when he took to Twitter to criticize the program for cost overruns. At the time, he asked aerospace company Boeing to “price out a comparable F-18 Super Hornet,” suggesting he would substitute Boeing’s cheaper plane for Lockheed’s.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2017/01/30/trump-says-lockheed-martin-has-cut-600-million-from-f-35-program/?hpid=hp_hp-more-top-stories_cp-lockheed-1118am%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.6d7668c7337e

January 30, 2017

George H.W. Bush is released from Houston hospital

Former President George H.W. Bush has been released from a Houston hospital where he received treatment for pneumonia for more than two weeks.

Bush spokesman Jim McGrath said in a statement Monday that the 92-year-old Bush is thankful for the prayers and kind messages he's received during his stay at Houston Methodist Hospital and for the “world-class care” from doctors and nurses.

Bush was experiencing breathing difficulties when he was admitted Jan. 14. During his treatment, which included a stay in intensive care, doctors inserted a breathing tube and connected him to a ventilator.

The nation's 41st president was joined at the hospital by his 91-year-old wife, former first lady Barbara Bush, who spent five days there for treatment of bronchitis until her release a week ago.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/la-en-mn-sag-awards-main-20170129-story.html

January 30, 2017

'I'm not going to do it.' Police aren't eager to help Trump enforce immigration laws

A day after Donald Trump was elected president, two detectives walked up to a building site in Koreatown. The pair was hoping to find someone who might have witnessed a motorist intentionally knocking down a construction worker.

They introduced themselves to a group of Latino workers. The workers got up and walked away.

“Trump is coming,” one of them said as he left.

To Det. Brent Hopkins, the scene was a stark illustration of the difficulties he could face depending on how far President Trump goes in enlisting local law enforcement to rid the country of people who are in the U.S. illegally.

“It is my job to investigate crimes,” said Hopkins of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Wilshire Division, who also serves on the police union’s communications committee. “And if I can’t do that, I can’t get justice for people, because all of a sudden, I’m losing my witnesses or my victims because they’re afraid that talking to me is going to lead to them getting deported.”

Read more: http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/california/la-me-trump-immigration-cops-20170130-story.html

January 30, 2017

Rep. Hunter mixed personal and campaign expenses, trips

Among tens of thousands of dollars that Rep. Duncan Hunter paid back to his campaign treasury in November were two unexplained charges to Feis Productions, totaling $230.

The charges had originally been reported as event entertainment. It turns out Feis Productions services registrations for Irish dance festivals where Hunter’s daughters compete.

“Any charges processed by Feis Productions would not and could not be be for anything related to a political campaign,” said Jim Gilmartin of Feis.

Hunter, R-Alpine, also spent campaign funds at hotels during dance competitions — one in Los Angeles, one in Orange County and one at the Arizona Grand Resort & Spa in Phoenix.

Read more: http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/watchdog/sd-me-hunter-unreimbursed-20170127-story.html

January 30, 2017

Vandals cause $50,000 damage to South San Francisco karaoke bar

A karaoke bar and cafe in South San Francisco sustained more than $50,000 in damages when it was vandalized by a group of young men, one armed with a gun, police said Monday.

The bar, E Plus Studio and Karaoke bills itself as “the most comprehensive get together facility in the entire Bay Area” with “11 theme inspired rooms with upscale settings” and private rooms that can be reserved for karaoke.

The vandals entered the business on the 400 block of South Airport Boulevard about 9:15 p.m. Friday, breaking in through a rear door, according to the South San Francisco Police Department. Several employees were at the karaoke bar when the vandals barged in and started wrecking the place, police said.

At least one assailant brandished a gun during the incident, police said. The five men police are searching for were described as being in their late teens to mid-20s, and all were wearing light-colored hoodies. They fled the business in a black van, heading south by South Airport Boulevard.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Vandals-cause-50-000-damage-to-South-San-10894330.php

January 30, 2017

Latest 'Hate Map' shows 30 groups in Southern California

“We must secure the existence of our people and a future for White Children.”

That’s the mission statement for Western Hammerskins, new Nazi group in Menifee.

“It isn’t Islamophobia when they really are trying to kill you!”

That’s the message you’ll find at the website for Bare Naked Islam, based in Marina del Rey; the words appear over an image of a burning skull and a mosque.

Read more: http://www.ocregister.com/articles/hate-742505-groups-map.html

January 30, 2017

Bill introduced to create new gender for state ID docs

State senators from San Francisco and San Diego announced Thursday a bill to create a new gender marker for people to more accurately describe what gender they feel best describes them on state-issued identification documents.

Senators Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, and Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, introduced Senate Bill 179, which would establish a “nonbinary” marker.

“Our trans brothers and sisters are under attack in far too many parts of this country and this world,” Wiener said in a statement. “Now, more than ever, California must lead on trans inclusion and ensure that our entire community can live with dignity and respect. This legislation is an overdue step forward.”

The new marker would allow more transgender, intersex and nonbinary residents to get state identification that reflects how they describe themselves, according to the senators.

Read more: http://www.sfexaminer.com/bill-introduced-create-new-gender-state-id-docs/

January 30, 2017

New legislation would stop automatic suspension of drivers licenses for those with low incomes

Senator Bob Hertzberg introduced a new piece of legislation in Sacramento Thursday that would give a break on drivers license suspensions to those unable to pay fines.

Under California’s current law, drivers will have their licenses automatically suspended if they’re unable to pay fines on small violations, such as parking tickets. But SB 185, introduced Thursday morning, states that one’s economic status shouldn’t determine their access to justice.

In addition, any previously suspended licenses must be reinstated for violators who make a good faith effort to begin payment plans.

According to a report issued last year by the U.S. Federal Reserve, 46 percent of Americans don’t have $400 to pay for an emergency expense; parking tickets can quickly exceed that amount.

Read more: http://www.sfexaminer.com/new-legislation-stop-automatic-suspension-drivers-licenses-low-incomes/

January 30, 2017

Displaced Bernal Heights marijuana dispensary finds new home in former gun shop

After being forced out of its home of a decade, a Bernal Heights medical marijuana dispensary was approved Thursday to open nearby in what was — up until 2015 — San Francisco’s last remaining gun shop.

The Planning Commission voted 7-0 Thursday night to grant a permit to the Bernal Heights Cooperative to open for business at 3185 Mission Street, the site of the now-shuttered High Bridge Arms gun shop. The gun shop closed in 2015 after the Board of Supervisors imposed tougher controls on gun sales.

Dispensary applicant Sean Killen told the San Francisco Examiner on Friday that after obtaining a permit from the Department of Public Health, which is expected, he could have the doors open as early as March 1.

Medical marijuana dispensaries can often get caught up in politically-charged debates if community members object to their presence. But in Killen’s case, opposition seemed scarce and commissioners sympathized with his eviction. Killen had joined the dispensary in 2015 in an effort to save it.

Read more: http://www.sfexaminer.com/displaced-bernal-heights-marijuana-dispensary-finds-new-home-former-gun-shop/