[bassetman]

Originally Posted by poochee

Excerpts from:

State OKs anesthesia expert at execution
By Claire Cooper -- Bee Legal Affairs Writer
Published 2:15 am PST Thursday, February 16, 2006

Staying to stay on track for an execution next week, state lawyers agreed Wednesday to place an anesthesia expert in the death chamber to verify that the condemned man, Michael Angelo Morales, has been rendered unconscious before he receives the potentially painful drugs that will kill him.

The lawyers' decision appears to satisfy conditions set by a federal judge for permitting the execution to proceed as scheduled at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday.

U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel of San Jose said earlier that he would rule by the end of the day today whether to stay Morales' execution and conduct a full investigation of the way California has been carrying out lethal-injection executions since 1996.

The judge noted evidence from the state's execution logs that could indicate violations of the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment because inmates may have been conscious when they received excruciatingly painful drugs.

Fogel said the state could proceed with Morales' execution if it agreed to use only barbiturates to kill him, or if it agreed to allow a trained anesthesiologist into the death chamber to observe and examine the inmate during the execution.

In a one-paragraph filing Wednesday, lawyers from the attorney general's office said the state "will comply with the second alternative." They told Fogel they had "obtained the services of two highly qualified, board certified anesthesiologists to monitor (Morales) throughout the execution" - one primary and the other a backup to be available as needed.

The names and credentials of the experts were filed with Fogel under seal.

The California Medical Association issued a prepared statement Wednesday saying it considered physician participation in an execution - including "monitoring vital signs" or "attending or observing an execution as a physician" - to be improper.

"Capital punishment is not a medical task," said the doctors' organization, directly addressing the options set forth by Fogel.

Whether Morales' lawyers will sign off on the state's plan remained to be seen. Attempts to reach them after Fogel ruled were unsuccessful.

They have a deadline of noon today to file objections with the judge and could appeal his decision if they don't like it.

He has a clemency petition pending before Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who could act on it any time.

Rest of article at: www.sacbee.com

Bad Dr.s

[Gabriel]

...

[poochee]

Originally Posted by angelize56

Here you go poochee! They should talk to Mulder and see if he wants one in his neighborhood...he'd love to help the homeless!

Yeah right!!

[bassetman]

Originally Posted by poochee

Yeah right!!

To eat his grass!

[poochee]

Originally Posted by bassetman

To eat his grass!

[angelize56]

Originally Posted by Baklava

To eat his grass!

I didn't know he smoked weed!!

[poochee]

Is Bush trying to give California the shaft?

Bush facing levee pressure

Governor rips funding, plans to discuss it Friday with president.
By Andy Furillo -- Bee Capitol Bureau

Published 2:15 am PDT Thursday, April 20, 2006 Story appeared on '+ppn+' of The Bee');

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Wednesday "it is inexcusable" that the federal government has not responded to his emergency request to help fix California's flood-threatened levee system and that he intends to press President Bush on the issue when the two meet on Friday.

A federal failure to act on California's levees, Schwarzenegger suggested, could leave the federal government taking blame for another New Orleans-style flood disaster that is lurking just over the levee walls from Sacramento and other vulnerable Central Valley communities.

Schwarzenegger said Bush's acting secretary of the Interior, Lynn Scarlett, is "dangerously misinformed" if she believes, as reported in one press account, that the federal government is already adequately funding state levee upgrades.

The governor's comments came at a news conference two days before he is set to meet with Bush during the president's weekend visit to California, a trip that will include stops in West Sacramento on Saturday and Southern California on Sunday.

"I'm looking forward to meeting with the president on Friday," Schwarzenegger said. "It's extremely important to let the federal government, let the White House know, let the president know, how important it is for us to get help from them for our levees, because our levees are very vulnerable."

Schwarzenegger added that he thinks it is "irresponsible (for) the federal government, and I think it is dangerously misinformed, I would say ... when they come out here and they say we don't need federal help. It's inexcusable, and I think that is the message I want to get across to (Bush)."

White House press officials forwarded a request for a response to Schwarzenegger's statements to the Department of Homeland Security, whose spokesman, Russ Knocke, noted that the agency's secretary, Michael Chertoff, last month conducted an aerial tour of the state's levee system with the California governor.

"It was a fact-finding mission for the secretary," Knocke said. "He had a very important dialogue with the governor and with California officials. This is a very complex issue and one we continue to look into."

Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency over the state's levee system on Feb. 24 and sought emergency funding help from the federal government during his trip to Washington later that month. He reiterated his request for federal help during Chertoff's March 17 visit to California, but the homeland security chief was noncommittal then on responding to the state's call for monetary help.

On Monday, Scarlett visited Sacramento to obtain her own sky view of the region's swollen rivers and bypasses held back by levees that in some instances were constructed by farmers a century ago.

But in the comments that drew ire from the governor's office, Scarlett also said the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is "working with Congress" on possible long-term funding levels, "but in terms of money to upgrade levees now, they are at the levels commensurate with current needs."

Schwarzenegger, during his visit to Washington in late February, asked for an immediate $56 million in federal assistance to fix two dozen "critical erosion sites" that work crews have spotted on levees holding back rising rivers in Sacramento and elsewhere. The state is set to spend $100 million on the repairs.

He said he wants to make Bush understand "they have a tremendous responsibility to help our state and not to have the same situation happen as in New Orleans."

Friday's meeting between the governor and the president follows the failure of their paths to cross last fall when Bush visited California during Schwarzenegger's special election campaign that ultimately saw the four initiatives he supported go down to defeat.

Excerpts rest at: www.sacbee.com

[angelize56]

Wed, Apr. 19, 2006

Wash. woman found alive in Calif. landfill

Associated Press

KENNEWICK, Wash. - A Kennewick woman was pulled alive from a northern California landfill after she reportedly was carjacked and kidnapped while driving to work.

Rebecca Huston, 32, was last heard from last Wednesday evening. Friends and family began searching for her after she failed to show up for work at a veterinary clinic in Richland.

A landfill employee at the Ukiah Transfer Station in Ukiah, Calif., about 100 miles north of San Francisco on Highway 101, saw Huston's feet sticking out from a garbage pile Tuesday morning.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercu...s/14381411.htm

[poochee]

Originally Posted by angelize56

Wed, Apr. 19, 2006

Wash. woman found alive in Calif. landfill

Associated Press

KENNEWICK, Wash. - A Kennewick woman was pulled alive from a northern California landfill after she reportedly was carjacked and kidnapped while driving to work.

Rebecca Huston, 32, was last heard from last Wednesday evening. Friends and family began searching for her after she failed to show up for work at a veterinary clinic in Richland.

[bassetman]

Originally Posted by angelize56

I didn't know he smoked weed!!

How else can you explain his beliefs?

[Wino]

Originally Posted by bassetman

How else can you explain his beliefs?

HEY!! I resent that remark!! I've never met a junky, much less a pot user that screwed up.

[angelize56]

Yeah..Wino seems pretty normal to me considering what goes in and out of his body on a daily basis!

[poochee]

Bush will not declare disaster for levees
By Jim Sanders -- Bee Capitol Bureau
Published 10:20 am PDT Friday, April 21, 2006

President Bush stopped short Friday of declaring California's eroding levees a disaster situation, but ordered his administration to fast-track repairs on 29 critical Sacramento-area sites.

Announcement of Bush's action came shortly before the president was to meet in San Jose with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who had requested a disaster declaration in February.

James Connaughton, chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality and a key adviser to Bush, said disaster declarations are meant to respond to disasters - not precede them.
But Bush is treating the state's failing levee system as an emergency nonetheless, he said.

"There are numerous authorities we are utilizing here to deal with emergency situations...to put ourselves in a situation where a disaster does not occur," Connaughton said.

Repairs to 29 critical levee sites - most of them in the Sacramento area - are expected to begin quickly and be completed by November, Connaughton said. Funding remains an issue, however.

The Bush administration made no firm commitment of federal funds Friday. Initial work will begin using $23 million in state funds.

Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles, reacted angrily to the news. "What part of 'emergency' doesn't President Bush understand?" he said in a prepared statement.
He didn't get enough votes!

"The headline on this story should be: 'Bush to California: Drop Dead,'" Nunez said. "California needs federal money to prevent a Katrina-like emergency, and we need it now."

Connaughton said federal officials will continue "working with the state on a continuing plan for the sharing of costs.

Rest at: www.sacbee.com

[bill.aam]

Internet giant Google's stock has soared since it went public almost two years ago -- and that has created a windfall for state government coffers.

California took in a record $11.3 billion in personal income tax receipts in April, $4.3 billion more than it collected last April. It's almost certain that a significant chunk of April's haul came from Google employees -- perhaps one-eighth or more of the tax receipt gain.

The fact that a single high-flying Silicon Valley company is giving such a big boost to the state treasury can be determined by examining insider stock trading information filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Fourteen of Google's top executives and directors sold $4.4 billion worth of stock last year, according to Thomson Financial. That includes founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, each of whom sold about $1.3 billion worth of stock.

Google's April surprise

[bill.aam]

Hysterical.



Unfair to Stupid People