Too bad my Globe is as dry as the desert regarding the story:
"Apology cuts jail time in Detroit mob beating" Associated Press July 11, 2014
DETROIT — A judge greatly influenced by a young man’s apology sentenced him to a year in jail Thursday for his part in a mob attack that left a Detroit-area motorist in a coma for days.
The prosecutor’s office said it would appeal James Davis’s punishment, which was below the guidelines of 19 to 38 months in prison.
Davis, 24, is one of five people to plead guilty to assault in the April 2 beating of Steve Utash in Detroit. The suburban tree trimmer was attacked after getting out of his pickup truck to help a boy who was struck while darting in front of Utash’s vehicle. Utash, 54, still is recovering from his injuries and wasn’t in court.
See: Detroit's Reginald Denny
‘‘I’d like to apologize to Mr. Steven Utash. I’d like to apologize to Detroit. . . . The city’s already got a bad name,’’ said Davis, who asked the judge for a ‘‘second chance.’’
‘‘I don’t want my whole life to be judged on one moment,’’ he said.
Wayne County Judge James Callahan said the attack was ‘‘brutality. It was criminal. It could have led to the death of Mr. Utash.’’ But he added that Davis’s remarks were ‘‘well-spoken.’’
And after serving his sentence, Davis will be on probation for four years.
Two Utash family members left the courtroom through a side door with assistant prosecutor Lisa Lindsay and couldn’t immediately be found for comment.
It was the third sentence ordered this week in the case. Wonzey Saffold, 30, was sent to prison for at least six years and four months, mostly because of his previous criminal record. Bruce Wimbush, 18, was placed on probation for three years. The sentencing of Latrez Cummings, 19, was postponed until July 17. A teenager whose case was handled in Juvenile Court is in custody until at least September.
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He was not as impressed with another lad:
"Judge’s comments stun Detroit courtroom" by Ed White | Associated Press July 18, 2014
DETROIT — A young man who participated in a mob attack on a Detroit-area motorist needed a father to ‘‘beat the hell’’ out of him as a kid to discourage him from committing such a crime, a judge said Thursday.
Yeah, except that is what he will turn around and do to his kids and on and on. I'm not saying a swift kick or swat should never be applied because kids do need boundaries, but I'm not up on the bench, either!
I suppose the same rational applies when it comes to Israel's latest genocidal foray, too.
The stunning remarks by Wayne County Judge James Callahan came as he sentenced Latrez Cummings to six months in jail.
In response to the judge’s question, Cummings, 19, said his father wasn’t around when he was growing up.
Callahan said Cummings needed a father, ‘‘someone to discipline you. Someone to beat the hell out of you when you made a mistake, as opposed to allowing you or encouraging you to do it to somebody else.’’
Cummings and four others have pleaded guilty to assaulting Steve Utash, who was in a coma for days after the April attack. The mob pounced on him in Detroit when he got out of his pickup truck to help a 10-year-old boy who had stepped in front of his vehicle.
The judge’s remarks preceded a loud, spirited exchange with assistant prosecutor Lisa Lindsay, who said the six-month sentence was too light. She said there are many young black men who were raised without a father but haven’t committed crimes. Cummings is black.
‘‘Did I ever use the term ‘black’?’’ replied Callahan, who is white. ‘‘It doesn’t matter if a person is black, white, yellow, or red.’’
I guess you got them all in there, judge.
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Also see: The Wilding Girls of Dorchester
That leads me back to Detroit:
"Life sentence in Mich. family’s deaths" Associated Press July 11, 2014
PONTIAC, Mich. — Lakshminivasa Nerusu stabbed his wife 59 times and later slit the throats of his two children when they returned to their Michigan home from school in 2008. After that, he spent nearly five years on the run in India.
On Thursday, the 46-year-old unemployed computer software programmer, who insists he was insane at the time of the killings, was ordered to spend the rest of his life in prison. But first, Nerusu listened to a judge harshly tell him that no murder case in her 18 years on the bench has so affected her.
Judge Nanci Grant told Nerusu in her Oakland County courtroom, ‘‘I think you must be wholly, completely, and vilely selfish. That doesn’t make you mentally ill, that makes you an evil human being.’’
A jury convicted Nerusu last month of first-degree murder in the Oct. 13, 2008, slayings of his wife, Jayalakshmi Nerusu, 37; daughter Tejasvi, 14; and son Siva, 12, in their Novi home, northwest of Detroit.
Nerusa was arrested in 2013 and sent back to the United States for trial.
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Related: Detroit protesters oppose Israeli assault on Gaza
Also see: Police open fire on Palestine solidarity activists at Los Angeles rally for Israel
Related(?):
"Officials: Complacency drives hike in water use" by Don Thompson | Associated Press July 17, 2014
SACRAMENTO — Some Southern California water districts became so good at saving water and building their own water storage facilities in recent decades that residents are not feeling the effects of the worst drought to hit the state in a generation.
That’s a problem.
Thinking plenty of water was available at the start of summer, residents along a coastal area doused their lawns and filled their pools, while elsewhere in the state farmers fallowed hundreds of thousands of acres.
It's Israel and Palestine all over again. Some have water, some do not.
The coastal region was cited along with the northeast corner of the state in a study released Tuesday as areas that saw significant increases in water use, even as Governor Jerry Brown called for Californians to cut use by 20 percent.
He doesn't look like he is hurting for a carafe.
The same day, state regulators moved to jolt residents into saving water by authorizing fines up to $500 for wasting water on lawns or letting hoses run while they are washing vehicles.
‘‘They’re basically reaching out and grabbing urban California by the lapels and saying you have to take this drought seriously,’’ Timothy Quinn, executive director of the Association of California Water Agencies, said Wednesday.
Unless you are part of the glitterati.
The urgency has grown after the report by the State Water Resources Control Board showed that overall statewide water consumption rose by 1 percent in May over previous years.
The increase was driven mainly by the heavily populated Southern California coastal communities that increased water use by 8 percent in May and the rural northeastern area of the state, where use jumped 5 percent.
Officials say those areas are not seeing the effects of the drought, partly because of efforts made by districts to conserve and build water storage in recent decades.
By contrast, communities that draw from the Sacramento River reduced consumption the most, by 13 percent, while those along the North Coast used 12 percent less. San Francisco Bay Area cities and Southern California cities that draw from the Colorado River decreased use by 5 percent.
Agriculture is by far the state’s greatest water user, accounting for 75 percent of consumption. Cities and suburbs use about 20 percent of the state’s water, with about half going outdoors.
Madelyn Glickfeld, director of the UCLA Water Resources Working Group, told state regulators that because Southern California water agencies have adequate current supplies and parks and street medians are still green, residents are not feeling the effects of the drought.
That disconnect was illustrated in January, when Brown urged Californians to take shorter showers, turn off faucets while brushing their teeth, and leave toilets unflushed.
The general manager of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California responded then by saying the district had ample water storage that would allow it to avoid the mandatory residential water cutbacks that state regulators ordered on Tuesday.
‘‘The fact is that urban California in particular is better prepared for this drought than it has been for any drought in its history,’’ said Quinn, the water agencies’ chief. ‘‘It has kind of shielded the water user. You don’t have water managers pushing panic buttons.’’
While approving fines for residents, the state water board also sent a message to water districts: Agencies that don’t comply with rules involving water-wasters could face fines up to $10,000 a day.
I am so sick of getting me$$ages sent by government. You?
Water regulators and suppliers said they believe residents will respond when they realize the statewide drought is real.
It is, it is! You gotta believe us. It is!
Methinks they shovel and agenda a bit too hard. At least shit puts out fires. Wait a minute. Shit also burns.
The state posted a brief video Wednesday by Lady Gaga in which she urges conservation, part of a commitment she made after being allowed to shoot a music video at the historic Hearst Castle, in which she frolicked by the 345,000-gallon Neptune Pool.
OMG! What a stinky hypocrite is that freakish product of nature.
Why is my jewspaper putting her in a news story to begin with? Talk about self-centered supremacism in all its forms!
While the water board debated mandatory cutbacks Tuesday, college student James Ho was playing on the mostly green lawn of an Arcadia park, 17 miles northeast of Los Angeles, along with 10 children he was supervising as part of an after-school day care program. Sprinklers sprayed a park bench and created a mud puddle under a bush.
Don't worry; the wealthy will still get all the water they want. This is for the rest of the rabble. We are all Palestinian now, haven't you heard?
Ho said he thinks the threat of a maximum $500 fine is reasonable to spur more conservation. ‘‘To take it seriously, you have to have a bigger punishment,’’ he said.
Then you can pay them all, agenda-pu$hing puke.
So WHEN does the LAW get TOUGH on the BANKERS and CORPORATE LOOTERS?
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With all due respect to my agenda-pu$hing and excu$e-making propaganda pre$$, the real problem has been the neglect of the water infrastructure due to corruption in California government. Sorry.
