[quote author=latimes.com]
Some affluent areas qualify for tax breaks intended to benefit the poor
By Jack Dolan, Los Angeles Times
Among the advantages for those who live in multimillion dollar houses on the hillside in Los Feliz are celebrity neighbors, sweeping views of the downtown skyline, the Griffith Observatory in their backyard and designation by state tax authorities that they are economically disadvantaged.
That means tens of thousands of California businesses can claim tax breaks worth up to $37,400 each for hiring some of Los Feliz's rich residents, through a program that provides benefits to companies for hiring welfare recipients, ex-convicts, military veterans and the chronically unemployed.
It's impossible to say how many neighborhood residents or employers have benefitted from the tax breaks — city officials refused to release the names and addresses of the people hired under the program, citing a concern for their privacy.
But the officials acknowledged that because of the way the state measures impoverished communities, the tax breaks meant for residents of California's most economically distressed neighborhoods can also be claimed for white-collar professionals living in upscale Westwood, parts of Silver Lake and the stretch of the Venice seaside that was home to Dennis Hopper.
The California Senate this year passed a bill that would eliminate the tax break based solely on where potential employees live and direct the savings to companies that set up job training programs in middle schools and high schools. The California Chamber of Commerce opposes the measure, saying it would effectively eliminate the state's biggest economic incentive program; businesses claim hundreds of millions of dollars worth of the hiring credits each year.
While the debate continues in Sacramento, neither side is talking much about how the existing system has extended taxpayer largess to companies that hire residents of some of Los Angeles' privileged enclaves.
"Disadvantaged is the last word that comes to mind when I think about Los Feliz," said Alex Boyd, 25, standing at the top of North Vermont Avenue, where two houses are currently listed for nearly $3 million each.
A block away, on Glendower Avenue, two more are on the market for $7.5 million. Last year, actor Charlie Sheen listed his nearby home for $3.7 million.
The hillside neighborhood north of Los Feliz Boulevard is on the state's map of Targeted Employment Areas because it lies within a census tract — typically several square miles that includes 2,500 to 8,000 people — where at least half of the residents are in households that earn the state's median income of $47,493 or less. The area south of Los Feliz Boulevard, though not poor, has lower property values and considerably more people.
Local authorities issue vouchers for the tax breaks to businesses (including the Los Angeles Times) in state-designated Enterprise Zones, typically offices and industrial parks in such areas as downtown Los Angeles, where the state is trying to encourage development.
In Los Angeles, about 90% of the 23,118 vouchers issued last year were based on the employees' home address, which is easier information for businesses to get than data on a new hire's criminal history, and easier than asking if they have recently been on welfare, said Clifford Weiss, a deputy director of the city's Community Development Department. But using addresses alone may mean including people the tax credits were never meant to serve.
In densely populated cities, census tracts are too big to say much about the economic status of the individuals living within them, said Public Policy Institute of California researcher Jed Kolko, an expert on the tax credit program.
"Neighborhoods like Los Feliz and Silver Lake have a fairly low income, on average, but also include a wide variety of people who wouldn't be considered disadvantaged in any sense," said Kolko, who has a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard. Kolko lives in a San Francisco census tract where residents qualify for the tax break. "I don't think I'm the sort of person intended as a target."
Weiss said it would be an "invasion of privacy" for him to provide addresses of employees for whom hiring credits have been issued in recent years, but he insisted the vast majority of the credits have gone to businesses that hired people living in "the places you would expect."
He acknowledged that the map of qualifying neighborhoods in Los Angeles contains some census tracts that seem distinctly out of place.
"There are some locations, some census tracts on this map that look peculiar," he said, referring to a tract just south of the Bel-Air Country Club that includes UCLA's Westwood campus, where unemployed students drag down the median income.
"I think this money should go to neighborhoods that really deserve it," said cosmetic surgeon Alexander Z. Rivkin, who has a clinic across the street from a bustling Whole Foods Market on Gayley Avenue, in the heart of the Westwood tract. "Median income is just not good enough; I think it's too blunt an instrument."
Cindy Parker, who sells Prada and Dolce & Gabbana frames at an optometry shop on Weyburn Avenue, said, "Uh, no, I don't think many disadvantaged people live around here."
Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) is sponsoring the bill to eliminate the hiring credit and put the money into job-training programs. His spokeswoman, Alicia Trost, said she used to live in one of the designated neighborhoods, on "one of the nicest streets in Oakland."
Despite evidence that many well-to-do people live in Targeted Employment Areas, dozens of business leaders, including lawyers and tax consultants who specialize in helping corporations claim tax credits, have sent letters to Steinberg and other legislators, arguing that changing the system would be devastating to the poor. Most of the letters say exactly the same thing: "Elimination of the TEA specifically targets the residents of low-income neighborhoods, with some of the highest levels of unemployment, poverty rates and crime in California."
Craig Johnson, president of the California Assn. of Enterprise Zone administrators, who has strongly opposed Steinberg's bill, acknowledged that using census tracts to identify disadvantaged neighborhoods is too broad and would allow businesses to claim tax breaks for hiring highly paid professionals.
"That's a valid concern and one we take seriously," Johnson said, suggesting that the employment areas be smaller and the hiring credit limited to new employees making no more than the median income for the county.
A salary cap could eliminate the possibility of tax breaks going to the fashionable residents near Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Venice, where a steady stream of customers arrived at the 3 Square Cafe on a recent morning in BMWs and other luxury vehicles, perusing a menu that includes litchi and passion fruit prosecco for $9 per glass.
The cafe sits at roughly the geographic midpoint of the Venice zone designated as disadvantaged. Dennis Hopper's compound, which went on the market for $6.2 million following his death in May, sits a few blocks north. The white sand of Venice Beach begins a few blocks to the south.
"I'm a big believer in tax breaks for the disadvantaged," said waitress Kelsey Jessup. "But it's hard for me to justify them for the people in here."
_http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-tax-breaks-20100816,0,5673931.story[/quote]
[quote author=latimes.com]
New Site Lets Students Gamble on Their Grades
KTLA News
LOS ANGELES -- A new website is giving higher education a Vegas twist, allowing college students nationwide to bet on their own grades.
The site, Ultrinsic.com, lets students bet on whether they can achieve or exceed a certain grade, with bets starting at $25.
The student puts up some of the money, and the company fronts the rest -- more for A's, slightly less for B's, and so on. The amount is also moderated by other information like the student's past academic record and the difficulty of the class.
If the student makes the grade, he or she gets to keep all the money. If they fall short of the mark, the company keeps the money the student contributed.
Students can also bet on the fact that they'll fail a class, buying something called "grade insurance."
Ultrinsic will be up and running this month, and, for now, accepts bets from students at 36 colleges across the U.S.
The website has created some controversy, but Ultrinsic insists it isn't encouraging online gambling -- which is illegal in the United States.
Co-founder Jeremy Gelbart says the system is an "investment" for students rather than a "bet," and that it will help students do better by giving them more immediate incentives.
Some educators worry the site will exacerbate so-called "grade grubbing" -- an obsession with letter grades they say is already a problem on college campuses.
That, in turn, could push professors to artificially inflate grades to avoid more nagging from students.
Alexander C. McCormick, director of the National Survey for Student Engagement, says he's also worried that gambling on grades could encourage more cheating.
The site was launched last year at the University of Pennsylvania and New York University.
Some of the schools it will expand to this year include George Washington University, Georgetown University, Howard University and American University
_http://www.latimes.com/features/odd-news/ktla-betting-on-grades,0,1443377.story[/quote]
[quote author=news4jax.com]
Man to 911: I Need Ride To Liquor Store
57-Year-Old St. Johns County Man Charged With Misusing 911
ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. -- A St. Johns County man was arrested after police said he called 911 to ask for a ride to the liquor store.
Police said 57-year-old George McMurrain had already called 911 twice Saturday night when he called to ask for a ride to buy alcohol.
That's when an officer went to the Budget Inn on Anastasia Boulevard to arrest McMurrain.
Dispatcher: This is 911.
Suspect: I need a, I need a -- a ride.
Dispatcher: You need a ride?
Suspect: Yes, to the liquor store.
Dispatcher: Um.
Suspect: Sheriff said she'd give me a ride.
Dispatcher: OK, you're going to have to call somebody else, sir. You called 911. We can't come give you a ride.
Suspect: Even the sheriff said she'd give me a ride.
Dispatcher: The sheriff said they'd give you a ride to the liquor store?
Suspect: That's correct.
Dispatcher: Wrong.
McMurrain is charged with misusing 911. An officer said he also saw a small amount of marijuana while arresting McMurrain, who is also charged with possession of less than 20 grams of marijuana. [/quote]
[quote author=news4jax.com]
Man Fakes Death To Avoid Court Date
SALEM, Mass. -- A Massachusetts man is accused of going to extremes to get out of a court case.
Officials said Michael Rosen faked his own death, complete with death certificate.
But officials said the document was full of mistakes, raising a big red flag.
Rosen, 42, an unemployed painter, was due in court on several warrants.
Instead of attending his hearing, he pretended to be his brother and presented county clerks with a death certificate for Michael Rosen, said Lt. Conrad Prosniewski with the Salem Police Department.
A suspicious probation officer, who had just spoke with Rosen, noticed the death certificate didn't look quite right.
The cause of death was listed as cardio-respriratory arrest, and the document contained several misspellings.
"I don't know what to tell you," said Rosen's roommate, Daniel Sheehan.
Sheehan said Rosen, 42, took off in his Jeep a couple days ago. He hasn't seen him since.
"He's creative," neighbor Barbara West said. "If he could just learn to spell, he'd be all set, I suppose."
Rosen now faces forgery charges on top of those outstanding warrants.
_http://www.news4jax.com/news/24672560/detail.html[/quote]
[quote author=snopes.com]
Man's bid to change name to Boomer the Dog denied
Associated Press
PITTSBURGH - AURORA, Colo. - A judge has denied a Pittsburgh-area man's petition to legally change his name to Boomer the Dog.
Forty-four-year-old Green Tree resident Gary Guy Mathews says he filed for the name change in June because he's a fan of a short-lived NBC television series called "Here's Boomer," which featured a dog that rescued people.
Common Pleas Judge Ronald Folino denied the request late Wednesday. He says it could have resulted in "confusion in the marketplace," including in business records and public documents. He also says the name could confuse an emergency dispatcher during a crisis.
Mathews' phone was busy Wednesday night, and he couldn't be reached for comment on the ruling. [/quote]
[quote author=seattletimes.nwsource.com]
Dead man gets ticket for parking too long in 2-hour zone
A parking enforcement officer unknowingly gave a parking ticket to a dead man in the driver's seat of a car Tuesday afternoon.
By Jill Kimball
Seattle Times staff reporter
A parking-enforcement officer unknowingly gave a parking ticket to a dead man in the driver's seat of a car Tuesday afternoon.
The officer had marked cars with chalk at about 9:30 a.m. Tuesday and returned just after noon to find one car with a chalk mark still parked in the same place. The zone where the car was parked, on the 1700 block of Airport Way South, was a 2-hour parking zone. The driver, a 36-year-old man, was seemingly asleep in the driver's seat. The officer rapped on the window to wake him and tell him to move the car, but she got no response. The officer assumed the man was a sound sleeper and put a $42 parking violation on the car's windshield.
About a half-hour later, police got a call from the man's girlfriend, who with a friend had found his car. She'd called a car dealer to get the vehicle's GPS position, police said. The girlfriend found all four doors unlocked, the sunroof open and the man unresponsive.
Seattle Fire medics pronounced the man dead at the scene.
The cause of death is unknown, Seattle police said, and there was no sign of violence. Fire Department medics said the man probably had died early Tuesday morning, hours before the parking-enforcement officer marked the car's tire.
The man's girlfriend said she had last seen him at about 9:45 Monday morning, according to a police report. She'd tried to call his cellphone at about 12:30 p.m. that day, but when the phone picked up all she heard was music before the call was disconnected. When she tried to call back, she got the man's voice mail and assumed the phone's battery had gone dead.
A witness reported seeing someone moving around in the car Monday, when it was apparently parked in the same place. Later that day, around 4 p.m., the same witness returned to see a man apparently asleep in the driver's seat. When the witness returned at noon Tuesday, he saw the same car still parked on the block and the man in the same position.
The man's girlfriend and some friends drove around Monday night trying to find him or his car, but had no luck.
Police never found the man's keys, wallet or cellphone in his clothes or anywhere in the car.[/quote]
[quote author=seattletimes.nwsource.com]
State may see push for circumcision after evidence shows health benefits
There may be a new push for circumcision in Washington, following a review of national guidelines for the procedure.
By Cassandra Brooks
Seattle Times staff reporter
There may be a new push for circumcision in Washington, thanks to a review of national guidelines for the procedure.
Less than a quarter of all infant boys in Washington are circumcised — one of the lowest rates in the nation.
"The evidence is quite convincing that circumcision has significant health benefits in reducing heterosexual transmission of HIV, HPV and herpes," said Matthew Golden, director of the Public Health — Seattle & King County HIV/STD Program. "The older idea that there isn't enough scientific evidence to support circumcision is no longer true."
During the past five years, three independent randomized clinical trials on adult heterosexual men in sub-Saharan Africa have all shown the same result: Those who were circumcised were 60 percent less likely to acquire HIV, or human immunodeficiency virus.
These results prompted the World Health Organization and the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS to incorporate circumcision into their global HIV-prevention strategy. Particularly in southern and eastern African countries, these organizations are now encouraging infant and adult male circumcision.
But the results from these studies don't necessarily translate to the United States. In Africa, HIV is most prevalent in the heterosexual population, while in the U.S., it's most prevalent in homosexual men, who account for nearly half of the nationwide cases and more than two-thirds of the cases in Washington state.
Risk of HIV aside, data collected during the trials also showed reduced risks of genital herpes and HPV, the leading cause of cervical cancer. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), one in six Americans carry the herpes virus and almost half will encounter HPV, or human papillomavirus, in their lifetime.
"Most parents really want to do what's best for their kids," said Judith Wasserheit, professor of global health and medicine at UW. "But for most people when they deliver a child, they're not thinking about the child's risk of HIV or other STDs when they are 17, 18 or 19 years old."
The reasons why circumcision, in which all or part of the penile foreskin is removed, may help reduce STDs, sexually transmitted diseases, remains unclear. Some doctors and scientists suggest that the moist region below the foreskin is a more favorable environment for the virus or that the foreskin may increase a man's susceptibility to abrasion and infection during intercourse.
Currently, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and CDC guidelines, last revised in 2005, don't recommend routine circumcision, citing a lack of evidence that the procedure is medically necessary.
As a result, Medicaid doesn't cover the procedural cost in many states, which may have contributed to the slow but steady nationwide decline in circumcision rates over the years, according to the National Hospital Discharge Survey.
Washington has one of the lowest rates of infant circumcision, 23 percent, compared to 56 percent nationwide. For those on Medicaid, which doesn't pay for the surgery in Washington, the rate is only 9 percent.
Both the AAP and CDC have been scrutinizing the latest scientific data and hope to come out with new recommendations later this year.
"I think it's pretty clear if you look at the literature over the last 10 years, its moved toward supporting some medical benefit," said Douglas Diekema, professor of pediatrics at Seattle Children's hospital and a member of the AAP circumcision task force. "Whether it's enough to support routine circumcision, I'm not sure, but there might be a slightly stronger recommendation from the AAP."
"We're looking at all the best available science in updating our recommendations," said Jennifer Horvath, spokeswoman for the CDC.
The CDC is coming up with guidelines for infants, as well as adult homosexual and heterosexual men — an important distinction since for adults the surgery is much riskier, requiring anesthesia.
Once the new guidelines are published, King County health officials hope to distribute materials in multiple languages to providers, parents and guardians about the risks and benefits of circumcision. If the guidelines come out in favor of the procedure, circumcision rates likely will increase in the state of Washington, particularly if Medicaid begins paying for it, Golden said.
Regardless of which side of the issue the AAP and CDC fall on, the recommendations will be completely voluntary, so for parents and individuals can decide based on what they think is best for their child.
"These are completely personal decisions and there are a lot of religious, social and cultural considerations," Wasserheit said. "Nobody is trying to force anyone to get circumcised."
Health-care providers stress that condom use and sexual education are vital in preventing the spread of viral STDs and that circumcision does not in any way provide full protection.
But the evidence that the procedure helps reduce the risk is overwhelming, Golden said.
"All three studies in different regions of Africa showed the same medical benefit for circumcision," he said. "If you had a vaccine that was 60 percent effective for preventing HIV, wouldn't you deploy it?"
_http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2012632000_circumcision16m.html?prmid=obinsource[/quote]
Gluten cum Capsaicin Syndrome
Thanks for the laugh!
