Ruben Salazar Files, Hot Salsa Sales, Lawmakers With Threats and More

SHERIFF LEE BACA MAY (OR MAY NOT) RELEASE RUBEN SALAZAR FILES THIS WEEK

Filmmaker Phillip Rodríguez has filed a public records act request for the files relating to the death of Ruban Salazar, which have been kept sealed by law enforcement for forty years. The LA Times’ Robert Lopez, who plans to write a book on the topic has also requested the files. (Rodríguez is working on a documentary about Salazar.)

Baca has stalled for a very long time on the Salazar files. Finally earlier last year the sheriff asked Mike Gennaco of LA County Office of Independent Review to examine the boxes and boxes of Salazar files.Gennaco says he finished. So……..

NPR has the rest of the story, plus Frank Sotomayor has the back story.

PS: By chance, I talked to Phillip about the film last night and, judging by what he has discovered already, this sounds like it will be an important documentary that fills in a crucial part of California history.

But he needs the files. It’s been 40 years. It’s time.

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DANGEROUS THREATS

Okay, before anybody starts revving their engines the answer is NO, the following NY Times editorial is not a threat to your or anybody else’s free speech. This calls for censuring not censoring.

Here’s how it opens:

Representative Denny Rehberg, a Republican and Montana’s House member, boasts that he brings Made-in-Montana solutions to Washington. His latest, proposed last week in a speech advocating states’ rights to the State Legislature, is to put a judge “on the Endangered Species List.”

The congressman had in mind Judge Donald Molloy of the Federal District Court for Montana, though he didn’t name him, because of a ruling the judge made reinstating protection of the Endangered Species Act for gray wolves. He did not mean that Judge Molloy should be protected and nurtured, which is the actual purpose of the species law.

Mr. Rehberg’s spokesman said: “Denny did not threaten anyone, let alone a federal judge. Nor would he.” But to the judge’s children, writing in protest on Sunday in The Independent Record, a daily newspaper in Helena, Mont., the words made a threat, “either veiled or outright,” and that was “not acceptable.”

Taking Mr. Rehberg’s spokesman at his word, the idea that a judge should be singled out in political retribution because a congressman doesn’t like his rulings is outrageous. As the judge’s children wrote, a judge has “a constitutional responsibility to interpret and apply the laws that Congress enacts, based on the facts and law presented in the courtroom, and not on public opinion….”

Read the whole thing.

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JUDGE RULES ALL SIX BELL CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS WILL BE HELD TO ANSWER

Jeff Cottleib at the LA Times has the story. Here’s a clip:

A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge Wednesday excoriated six current and former Bell City Council members as he ordered them to stand trial for allegedly looting the city treasury and to stay away from City Hall, a directive that will complicate the city’s efforts to dodge financial crisis.

“The allegations are, in my opinion, appalling,” Judge Henry J. Hall said. “These people may not be involved in the running of that city in any shape or form.”

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HOMEBOY INDUSTRIES SALSAS AND CHIPS ARE SELLING BRISKLY AT RALPH’S MARKETS

Betty Hallack at the LA Times has the story. Here’s how it opens:

The chips are falling into place for Homeboy Industries.

The hottest-selling snack item at 256 Ralphs deli sections across Southern California in the first weeks of February wasn’t pretzels, or cheese puffs, or pita or bagel crisps. According to the Compton-based supermarket chain, the No. 1 seller was Homeboy Industries’ tortilla chips and salsa.

Homeboy Industries, the Los Angeles nonprofit founded by Father Gregory Boyle to help former gang members and convicts turn their lives around, launched its line of chips and salsa at Ralphs last month as part of an effort to revive its hard-hit finances. The high hope is that they might be the start of Homeboy’s version of Newman’s Own — the company created by the late Paul Newman that transformed salad dressing into social enterprise….

I’ve got some Homeboy salsa in my ‘fridge right now. Getting more on the weekend. Yum!

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SENATOR SCOTT BROWN TALKS ABOUT CHILDHOOD SEXUAL ABUSE (HIS OWN) ON 60 MINUTES

I may not agree with all his politics, but I like and respect Scott Brown more all the time. Talking about childhood sexual abuse takes guts for either gender, but particularly for men.

We owe much gratitude to Senator Brown whose telling of his personal story, which will appear on Sunday’s 60 minutes, will help make it possible for other male victims to finally confide in friends and family , and thus more fully heal.

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ANNE GUST BROWN ENDS MAD SPECULATION AMONG PRESS CORPS ABOUT FIRST DOG

The Sacramento Bee broke the…um….story.

The rumors had been circulating for weeks about Sutter, the corgi that Gov. Jerry Brown has been watching for his sister Kathleen Brown. This afternoon on the east steps of the state Capitol, Brown’s wife Anne Gust Brown put the rumors to rest: Sutter is officially the “first dog.”

Gust Brown, Brown strategist Steve Glazer and a fair share of the Sacramento press corps analyzed the news in great detail with Sutter, who rolled on the lawn and sniffed well-wishers.

Naturally, the Governor tweeted happily about the decision.

(And, no, this isn’t a social justice story, it’s a critter story.)

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Photo by Lawrence K Ho, for the LA Times