Of more immediate concern: California Fires Flare as Tanker Fleet Grounded
Sorry to have withheld these from you for so long:
"California girl’s brain-death ruling back in court" Associated Press October 04, 2014
SAN FRANCISCO — An attorney for the family of a California teenager who was declared brain dead says doctors have found signs of brain functions and is seeking an unprecedented court order declaring her alive.
Attorney Chris Dolan said Thursday doctors at the nonprofit International Brain Research Foundation made the findings after running a series of tests on Jahi McMath, 13, at Rutgers University last week.
The discovery came months after three doctors declared Jahi brain dead, and Alameda County issued a death certificate. The teen had undergone surgery on Dec. 9 that went awry.
Jahi’s mother has pushed for keeping her daughter’s organs functioning on life support, first at Children’s Hospital in Oakland and later at an undisclosed medical facility in New Jersey, where the family now lives.
On Thursday, Dolan showed video clips to a small group of reporters that he says proves Jahi is still alive. One clip shows her twitching her foot after her mother asks her to move it. Another shows hand movement in apparent response to her mother’s commands.
Philip DeFina, chief executive and chief scientific officer of the International Brain Research Foundation, said Jahi has responded to commands many other times. ‘‘There is a consistency to it,’’ DeFina said.
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Related: 21st-Century Schiavo
Not nearly as much pre$$ attention.
"Calif. dog owner sentenced to prison in fatal mauling" Associated Press October 04, 2014
LANCASTER, Calif. — A pit bull owner whose dogs fatally mauled a woman was sentenced Friday to 15 years to life in prison for second-degree murder.
The case against Alex Donald Jackson was one of the few where a dog owner has been charged with murder for failing to control pets known to be dangerous. He will be eligible for parole after serving 15 years.
Pamela Devitt, a 63-year-old retiree, was on the home stretch of her daily walk in the high desert town of Littlerock in May 2013 when four of Jackson’s dogs leaped a fence and attacked her in the street.
She was alone, didn’t have a phone, and no one was nearby. By the time help arrived, she had been bitten 150 to 200 times from head to toe and an arm was severed. She died from blood loss.
Jackson, 31, was initially arrested when deputies searching for the dogs discovered a marijuana-growing operation in his house. He was later charged with murder when Devitt’s DNA was found on his dogs’ bloody fur. The dogs were put down.
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Related: A Lulu of a Post
"San Francisco to pay $15M in fatal park hit-run" Associated Press October 02, 2014
SAN FRANCISCO — The city will pay $15 million to the family of a San Francisco woman who was fatally struck by a city pickup truck last year while she lay with her baby in a public park.
The city’s Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the legal settlement Tuesday to 35-year-old Christine Svanemyr’s widower, Vegar, and their child, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Svanemyr was relaxing with her 11-month-old baby and dog in the grass at Holly Park in the city’s Bernal Heights neighborhood on Sept. 5, 2013, when she was run over by a city Recreation and Park Department truck.
The parks gardener who was driving the truck, 58-year-old Thomas Burnoski, was charged with vehicular manslaughter and felony hit-and-run. The city fired him, and his criminal case is ongoing.
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Related: "Two highway crashes hours apart in Southern California each killed five people, including teens returning from an amusement park, officials said Saturday (AP)."
"Santa Monica using $1m to evaluate its happiness | Associated Press September 15, 2014
SANTA MONICA, Calif. — Santa Monica has miles of sparkling blue ocean, clear skies, warm temperatures, and shimmering beaches. But there’s also loads of traffic and a high cost of living, two things that recently prompted the real estate blog Movoto to rate Santa Monica No. 2 on its list of America’s Most Stressed-Out Suburbs.
To do something about that, the city of 92,000 applied last year for a Bloomberg Philanthropies Mayors Challenge grant, proposing that it create a ‘‘Wellbeing Project’’ to determine just how much the city’s residents really like living there.
Related: Michael Bloomberg awarded honorary UK knighthood
I'll bet that felt good.
Santa Monica and four other cities beat out 300 others in securing a $1 million grant.
This week, officials will begin asking residents how involved they are in community activities, if they know who to turn to in times of crisis, if they know their neighbors, how healthy they are, how lonely they might be, and how good an education they believe their children are receiving.
Looks like an invasion of privacy to me.
Then, officials will examine what changes are needed to make life better.
Yes, tyranny is always about making life better.
‘‘It’s really about trying to get a much clearer understanding of who the people of Santa Monica are, what they are doing and what we can do on a local government level to help ensure people are thriving,’’ said Julie Rusk, assistant director of community and cultural services.
Some of the other four cities that won grants are going the more traditional route. Houston, for example, plans on building a better trash-collection system.
Residents of Santa Monica cite traffic jams, homelessness, and the high cost of living as problems that make the community not quite as pleasant as outsiders think.
Then I will be sure not to visit.
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Time for me to fly:
"Hot air balloon dips into California sea; 3 saved" Associated Press October 07, 2014
ENCINITAS, Calif. — A romantic ride in a hot air balloon turned into a rescue operation, with lifeguards and surfers saving three people after the basket dipped into the ocean off a Southern California beach.
A man was proposing to his girlfriend during their sunset ride Sunday when the balloon drifted off course and hovered over the water near Cardiff-by-the-Sea. A crowd of people watched as the balloon drifted toward the beach in northern San Diego county and skimmed the water.
Eric Barretto said he and his fiancee threw a rope to the water below and several surfers pulled the balloon to shore.
The pilot kept the balloon inflated while it was tugged onto the beach.
In Albuquerque on Sunday, a mass ascension of hundreds of hot air balloons was put off on the second day of the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta.
Winds between 300 and 400 feet above ground level were faster than officials would have preferred.
The balloon flights were resuming Monday.
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Time to pop this post.
