COULD THE COPS HAVE STOPPED FLOR MEDRANO’S KILLER?
In mid-November of 2009, Flor Medrano, a 30-year-old housekeeper and mother of a 3-year-old, sought protection from her murderous stalker boyfriend at the Wilshire Division of the LAPD. Two officers went home with her and watched her front door from an unmarked police car. But the killer was already inside Medrano’s apartment. He stabbed her repeatedly and fatally before the cops could reach her. [Go here for back story.]
The LA Times Joel Rubin has taken another look at the case, using police reports, DA’s office records, and police commission reports, official review findings and more
The result is a story that is both tragic and clarifying.
Rubin writes:
There seems to be no doubt that the officers tried to do right by a woman who had come to them for help. But a routine internal investigation led LAPD officials to soon question the decisions made that night. As the inquiry progressed, the early praise increasingly seemed misplaced.
Read the rest.
THE SUPREMES DECIDED MONDAY’S CASES WHILE PRACTICING THEIR STAND UP ACTS?
The Supreme Court decided a bunch of things on Monday. For instance, they ruled that, the Citizens United case notwithstanding, corporations are not people too, at least when it comes to personal privacy rights.
They kinda backed away from ruling on the kids-and-the-fourth-amendment issue that I posted about yesterday. They ruled—mostly that they weren’t going to rule, that there was no necessity to do so. (Youth Today has perhaps the best rundown on that case.)
However, Slate’s refreshingly smart Dahlia Lithwick analyzes the day in terms of the mood among the justices—and the quality of Justice Roberts’ one liners.
When Loki, the god of constitutional mischief, is in the right frame of mind, the Supreme Court can be a fantastically fun place to be. With all the talk of judicial bitterness, anger, and recriminations, it’s easy to forget how much fun life tenure can be. Today is just one of those days.
Things get off to a warm and fuzzy start as the justices hand down three unanimous opinions. Unanimous! One is a ruling in favor of an Army reservist in his employment discrimination claim. The second hands a big win to a veteran who filed his benefits claim late. And the third involves AT&T’s claim that, for purposes of the Freedom of Information Act, it should be entitled to withhold information that might violate the company’s “personal privacy.”
Now, as you may recall, oral argument did not go all that well for the company that only really wanted to be treated like a real, live boy. And so it was, perhaps, no surprise that the Supreme Court ruled unanimously today that corporations do not have such a thing as “personal privacy” for the purposes of FOIA. What was surprising was Chief Justice John Roberts’ unanimous opinion for the court, which contains more laugh lines than Two and a Half Men—and half the coke.
CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS MOVES MANY MILLIONS OUT OF PRISON REHAB PROGRAMS—BUT DOES SO, VERY, VERY QUIETLY
Michael Montgomery filed this report for California Watch over a month ago, but it largely flew under the radar. However, it deserves attention.
Here’s how it opens:
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation quietly transferred millions of dollars out of beleaguered rehabilitation programs last year to cover shortfalls in other areas like prison security.
In all, the department moved around $70 million from the adult programming budget, in addition to $250 million that was previously cut from education, drug rehabilitation and other programs, according to a report released by the Legislative Analyst’s Office.
“The department frequently and purposely reduces program services — such as offender rehabilitation programs and prison maintenance — to ‘free up’ funding to support increased prison security costs,” the report states. “This means that CDCR is not performing critical functions for which funding was specifically provided in the budget.”
Yeah, that’s smart. Cut the programs that will help keep people OUT of prison, thus lower our prison costs at the root.
Meanwhile, as the LA Times reported Wednesday, we’re housing a pile of expensively sick and incapacitated inmates. Certainly wouldn’t want the legislature to straighten its spine and vote to save money by releasing them. (Why be logical.)
AND WHILE WE’RE ON THE TOPIC OF STUCK-ON-STUPID BUDGETING…..HOUSE REPUBS CUT FUNDS FOR THE NATION’S MOST SUCCESSFUL VOLUNTEER PROGRAMS
This clip from Monday’s NY Times editorial speaks for itself:
House Republicans voted to eliminate the Corporation for National and Community Service and the $1.4 billion in federal funds it would provide to programs that encourage Americans to serve in their communities and around the nation, including AmeriCorps, Habitat for Humanity, Teach for America, City Year, Foster Grandparents and others.
If the federal funds are snatched away, some of these programs will lose matching private contributions from individuals, foundations and corporations, as well as money from localities. Some may have to close down.
Now there’s a great way to balance the budget: cut the small ticket item that actually lets us stretch our dollars. Brilliant.