McManus: An elusive victory in Iraq

After almost nine years, the war ends, with questions.

With the final headlong withdrawal this month of U.S. troops from Iraq, President Obama fulfilled a campaign promise to end the war. But was the nearly nine-year mission a success?

Iraq is still struggling even to ensure its own security. Its air force has no jet fighters, and U.S. officials say it would be unable to detect incoming aircraft in time to stop them. The Iraqi army is improving, but its ability to mount complex operations remains weak. The Iraqis still have a long way to go on intelligence, training and logistics.

On the political side of things, the democratic system the U.S. fought to establish is becoming increasingly authoritarian and remains divided along tribal and sectarian lines. Its ruling coalition includes parties allied with Iran. Its minority Sunni Muslims and Kurds are worried about their futures.

At the almost perfunctory ceremony Thursday in a dusty courtyard at Baghdad's international airport to formally mark the U.S. military mission's end, no one even tried to use the word "victory."

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-mcmanus-column-iraq-war-ends-20111218,0,4878176,print.column

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Arpaio's too-Wild-West ways

The Department of Justice concluded that the Arizona sheriff helped nurture a 'culture of bias' in his department that led to discriminatory behavior and 'unconstitutional policing.'

Joe Arpaio likes to call himself America's toughest sheriff. But the Department of Justice reached a different conclusion last week about the lawman from Arizona's Maricopa County: He helped nurture a "culture of bias" in his department, it reported after a three-year investigation, that led to discriminatory behavior and "unconstitutional policing" that routinely violated the rights of Latinos.

The findings are hardly news to Latinos in that state, who were up to nine times more likely to be pulled over by deputies while driving than non-Latinos. The federal probe, first launched under President George W. Bush, concluded that Arpaio and his deputies illegally arrested and jailed Latinos and initiated immigration sweeps in response to complaints that simply referred to people with "dark skin" but made no mention of an actual crime. The report also said that in its zeal to prosecute immigrants, the sheriff's office may have failed to properly investigate 432 cases of sexual assault and child molestation.

It's a damning report, and the behavior it describes is a shameful throwback to a less enlightened era. And yet Arpaio's overzealous enforcement of immigration law is exactly what has attracted the attention of Republican presidential candidates, several of whom sought his endorsement earlier this year.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinionla/la-ed-arpaio-20111217,0,2335267.story

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Doubts on the death penalty

Even though the majority still support capital punishment, the percentage in favor is declining in the U.S. It's about time.

Back in September, much was made of the crowd's reaction at a GOP presidential debate after moderator Brian Williams noted that Texas Gov. Rick Perry had overseen more executions than any governor in modern times, and spectators burst into applause. Liberal pundits saw this as an example of the callousness of GOP voters, but we were more disturbed by the callousness on exhibit from Perry.

"I've never struggled with that at all," Perry said. Why not? Perry oversaw the execution of a man who may well have been innocent, then quashed an investigation of the matter; most people in such a situation would, we suspect, experience at least a twinge of conscience. Cameron Todd Willingham was convicted in 1992 of burning down his house and killing his three children inside, yet the forensic science and jailhouse testimony used to convict him were later discredited. Despite serious questions about Willingham's guilt, Perry signed off on his execution in 2004, then squelched an investigation of the evidence by replacing the members of a government commission just days before it was to consider a report about the shoddy science used to prosecute Willingham. The new committee chair, a close ally of Perry's, quickly scuttled the inquiry.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-death-20111216,0,5961286.story

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Lowe's pulling of ads on Muslim TV show sparks protest

Protesters gathered at a Lowe's store in a Detroit suburb Saturday, calling for a boycott of the home improvement chain after it pulled advertisements from a reality television show about Muslim families living in Michigan.

About 100 people protested outside a Lowe's store in the Detroit suburb of Allen Park, the Detroit News reported.

The show, called “All-American Muslim” is filmed in nearby Dearborn, one of largest Muslim American communities in the United States.

The North Carolina company decided to stop advertising on the show, which airs on Discovery Communications Inc.'s TLC channel, after complaints by the Florida Family Assn., a conservative Christian group that lobbies companies to promote "traditional, biblical values."

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/

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Shooting Death of NYPD Officer Raises Questions of Negligent Court System

The fatal shooting of a New York City police officer allegedly during a botched robbery by a quartet of career criminals last week might have been avoided had a local judge acted on a warrant issued in another state for the alleged gunman. It's a systems failure that experts say has become all-too-common in courtrooms across the country.

Lamont Pride, 27, who was arrested Monday and charged with the murder of NYPD officer Peter Figoski, was freed from custody in November by Brooklyn Criminal Judge Evelyn Laporte -- even though a prosecutor mentioned that he had an outstanding warrant for a shooting in North Carolina. The prosecutor then requested that bail be posted at $2,000, and soon after that, Pride was back on the streets.

Barely more than a month later, Pride was back in jail, this time charged with murdering a cop. “There's something terribly wrong when a system functions like this for years and years,” said NYPD Sgt. Ed Mullins, president of the Sergeants Benevolent Association. “There's no doubt that this would have never happened had things been done properly in court,” Mullins said, referring to the death of Figoski.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/12/18/shooting-nypd-officer-peter-figoski-raises-questions-negligent-court-system/

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Washington

Nonprofit leaders compose wish lists for Santa Claus

When the slightly overweight, jolly, bearded fellow in the always-stylish red suit drops down your chimney on Christmas Eve, what do you hope he leaves under your tree?

Most us have lowered our expectations this year. We're hoping to keep our jobs, keep our homes or keep our families together.

The most needy among us just want to have “hope.” They hope government funding won't disappear, that they can continue to operate free medical clinics, food banks and offer refuge for those in unhealthy relationships.

In that spirit, I asked the leaders of some nonprofit organizations what was on their Christmas wish list this year. Here's what they told me:

http://www.theolympian.com/2011/12/18/v-print/1917779/nonprofit-leaders-compose-wish.html

Man kills 2 Edison co-workers before turning gun on self

The employee critically wounds two other employees at the utility's information technology offices in Irwindale. He was very deliberate about whom he targeted, a source says.

An employee went on a shooting rampage at Southern California Edison offices in Irwindale on Friday, killing two co-workers and critically wounding two others before taking his own life.

The man opened fire at the utility's information technology offices about 1:30 p.m. He methodically picked off co-workers, including some Edison supervisors, a source told The Times.

"He told some people to leave and he was very deliberate about who he shot," the source said. "He did not like management."

One man was found dead next to his work cubicle. The shooter was lying nearby in an open area, a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department spokeswoman said.

A third man was pronounced dead at a hospital. The other two employees, a man and a woman, remained hospitalized in critical condition Friday evening, Sheriff's Lt. Holly Francisco said.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-edison-shooting-20111217,0,3292962.story

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'Barefoot Bandit' pleads guilty to more than 30 criminal charges

Rejecting defense claims that Harris-Moore was a psychologically crippled young man victimized by a tumultuous childhood, prosecutors in Washington state painted a picture of an ingenious criminal mastermind who taught himself to fly stolen planes and artfully set up his burglary victims to become repeat targets of future crimes.

"Not only did he keep homeowners under surveillance to determine how and when to break in, but we believe he kept the police under surveillance as well, which helped him evade capture for so long," Island County prosecutor Greg Banks said at Friday's hearing in Coupeville, Wash.

Banks said Harris-Moore, now 20, stole computers, credit cards and Social Security numbers during burglaries, then used them to order merchandise to be delivered to those same homes and offices -- only to break in again and steal it once it was delivered.

He stole a crowbar and bolt cutters from an Ace Hardware store on Orcas Island, then used the equipment to try to break into the store again later, San Juan County prosecutor Randall Gaylord told the court.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/

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Justice Department faults Seattle police use of force

The finding comes after a more than eight-month investigation into the police use of force, said Assistant Atty. Gen. Thomas E. Perez of the department's civil rights division. He was joined at a Seattle news conference by U.S. Atty. Jenny A. Durkan of the Western District of Washington.

“Our investigation has revealed that inadequate systems of supervision and oversight have permitted systemic use of force violations to persist at the Seattle Police Department,” Perez said. “Our findings should serve as a foundation to reform the police department and to help restore the community's confidence in fair, just and effective law enforcement.”

But the federal investigation did not find that police had engaged in discriminatory policing, according to a letter sent by officials to the city.

“Our investigation raises serious concerns on this issue,” federal officials wrote. Investigators noted that parts of the city believe that the police department engages in discriminatory policies because of the widely reported incidents involving violence against minorities.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/

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Death of FAMU drum major ruled a homicide

TALLAHASSEE, Fla.–Florida A&M University drum major Robert Champion was beaten to death and his case has been ruled a homicide, according to the State Medical Examiner's Office in Orlando.

The cause of death was blunt-force trauma suffered during a hazing incident involving members of the FAMU Marching 100 band, the office said in a release issued Friday. The full autopsy report is expected to be made public next week.

Champion was a previously healthy 26-year-old who collapsed and died within an hour of the hazing incident, during which he suffered multiple blows to his body so severe that he bled out into his soft tissue, according to the summary. There were no signs of drugs or alcohol in his body.

He collapsed on a bus outside an Orlando hotel after the Florida Classic football game Nov. 19. His death has set off a series of criminal and administrative inquiries, the suspension of the school's longtime director of bands, Julian White, and a rancorous political fight between Florida Gov. Rick Scott and the university's board of trustees that threatens the administration of FAMU President James H. Ammons.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2011-12-16/famu-band-hazing-death/52013732/1

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Iraqi National Pleads Guilty to 23-Count Terrorism Indictment in Kentucky

Defendant Participated in Numerous Efforts to Kill U.S Troops in Iraq with IEDs

BOWLING GREEN, KY -- Iraqi citizen Waad Ramadan Alwan pleaded guilty to federal terrorism charges today in U.S. District Court before Senior Judge Thomas B. Russell, announced Lisa Monaco, Assistant Attorney General for National Security; David J. Hale, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Kentucky; and Elizabeth A. Fries, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Louisville Division.

Alwan, 30, a former resident of Iraq, pleaded guilty to all counts of a 23-count indictment charging him with conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals abroad; conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction (explosives) against U.S. nationals abroad; distributing information on the manufacture and use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs); attempting to provide material support to terrorists and to al-Qaeda in Iraq; as well as conspiracy to transfer, possess and export Stinger missiles. Alwan was indicted by a federal grand jury in Bowling Green, Ky., on May 26, 2011.

Alwan faces a maximum sentence of life in prison under the sentencing guidelines and a mandatory minimum of 25 years in prison. His sentencing is scheduled for April 3, 2012, at noon in federal court in Bowling Green before Judge Russell.

http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2011/december/seeking-potomac-river-rapist/potomac-river-rapist-cold-case

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Working Together as a Nation to Counter Violent Extremism

This effort is based on the simple but powerful premise that our homeland security begins with hometown security. Indeed, we believe that well-informed and -equipped families, communities, and local institutions represent the best defense against terrorist ideologies. We must all be part of the effort to keep our families and communities, our businesses, our social networks, and our places of meeting and worship, secure and resilient.

http://blog.dhs.gov/2011/12/working-together-as-nation-to-counter.html

Pattern of civil rights abuses alleged in Sheriff Joe Arpaio's Maricopa County

The Justice Department charges that Latinos were illegally arrested and abused in jail repeatedly in the Arizona county and that hundreds of sexual assaults weren't investigated.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio's Phoenix-based department repeatedly arrested Latinos illegally, abused them in the county jails and failed to investigate hundreds of sexual assaults, the Justice Department charged after a three-year civil rights investigation.

Justice officials are expected to file suit in U.S. District Court in Arizona asking a federal judge to order changes in the department run by Arpaio, 79, who bills himself as "America's toughest sheriff" for his stance on illegal immigration.

The Department of Homeland Security, reacting to the Justice Department report released Thursday, revoked Maricopa County jail officers' authority to detain people on immigration charges, meaning they can't continue to hold immigration violators who are not charged with local crimes.

Arpaio said at a televised news conference in Arizona that he would try to cooperate, but that "if they are not happy, I guess they can carry out their threat and go to federal court."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-justice-sheriff-20111216,0,2949242,print.story

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Mexico admits responsibility in rape, torture of indigenous woman

She stared at the paper with her prepared remarks, pausing long before she could get out the words. Afterward, she hugged her 10-year-old daughter, and the two wiped away tears.

For the second time in a month, the Mexican government has formally taken responsibility for military abuses committed years ago, a step demanded by a series of international human rights court rulings. The gestures come at a time of heated debate over how to investigate and punish murders, torture and other violence committed by military personnel against civilians, abuses that are on the rise amid a raging war against drug cartels. The military has enjoyed relative impunity where such crimes are concerned, activists maintain.

The Rosendo case is especially compelling because indigenous women are among the most vulnerable and disenfranchised groups in the country as a result of poverty and language and social exclusion.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2011/12/landmark-case-mexico-admits-responsibility-rape-torture-indigenous-woman.html

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Britain to add troops to Summer Olympic Games security plan

As many as 13,500 British troops will help secure the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London, a military presence larger than Britain's deployment in Afghanistan.

Britain will assign as many as 13,500 troops to help secure next year's Summer Olympics on home soil, a military presence larger than the country's deployment in Afghanistan.

The troops are to provide backup for police and to help protect venues before and during the two-week global sporting event in July in London, which Defense Secretary Philip Hammond on Thursday called "the biggest security challenge this country has faced for decades."

The military contingent will be part of a massive security detail that has ballooned in cost from about $440 million to nearly $863 million. That has led to warnings that taxpayers could shell out more than the $14.5 billion budgeted as the government's contribution to hosting the Summer Games, at a time when residents are steeling themselves for drastic cuts in social spending.

But there may be little choice with the Olympics just seven months away.

Word leaked out last month that an official review of security arrangements had scoffed at the Olympic organizing committee's original plan to hire 10,000 private guards as wildly inadequate. At least twice that many would be necessary to supplement police in patrolling the athletes' village, conducting bag checks and implementing other security measures at competition venues spread across London.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-britain-olympics-troops-20111216,0,5584337,print.story

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Hunger and homelessness on the rise in U.S cities, mayors report

A survey of 29 cities by the organization of municipal chiefs found that 25 of the cities, or 86%, had seen an increase in requests for emergency food aid in the past year. Overall, the number of requests for such assistance increased an average of 15.5%, the report said.

Of the people seeking food assistance, 51% were families. Unemployment led the list of factors cited for the growing need for aid, but 26% of those requesting aid were employed.

Homelessness in the cities surveyed rose 6% overall, the survey found, with 42% of the cities reporting an increase in homelessness and 38% reporting a decrease.

Thursday's grim report by the mayors' group confirms findings released by the Census Bureau in its September report on poverty in America.

The Census Bureau found that the proportion of the population officially considered to be in poverty rose to 15.1% in 2010, up from 14.3% in 2009, marking the third consecutive annual increase. Those whose earnings put them above the official poverty line but earned less than double that threshold increased to about one in three Americans. Combining the poor and the almost-poor, the number of low- income Americans approaches half of the country's population, according to the Census.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/

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A wrong turn in terror fight

The new defense bill leans too heavily on the military in handling suspected terrorists.

The White House said this week that President Obama will sign a controversial $662-billion defense authorization that permits indefinite detention without trial for some terrorism suspects and broadens the authorization for the use of force against people and groups "associated" with Al Qaeda anywhere in the world. It's the wrong choice.

The bill, which passed the House Wednesday and the Senate Thursday, is being advertised as a compromise with the administration, and indeed it includes provisions designed to avoid a veto. But several are vague or confusing. For example, although it requires that foreign suspected Al Qaeda terrorists be placed in military custody, it seems to allow FBI agents to interrogate them. On Wednesday, FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III said that the compromise left "uncertainty as to who has the role and who's going to do what."

The FBI has proved effective in detaining and questioning terrorist suspects, just as the civilian court system has acquitted itself admirably in trying them. Congress' preference for military custody and trial by military commission disregards this proven record of success.

Two other provisions would prevent civilian trials in other ways. One would bar any use of Defense Department funds to transfer inmates at Guantanamo Bay to the United States, even for trial. Another would prohibit spending on the construction of facilities on U.S. soil to house Guantanamo inmates. As a practical matter, this means the remaining prisoners at Guantanamo will be tried by military commissions, which offer more protections than in the past but still fall short of the standards of due process observed by civilian courts.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinionla/la-ed-defense-20111216,0,2949311,print.story

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Michigan

Saginaw community police announce volunteer patrol initiative

Pakistan police rescue chained students from madrasa

Pakistani police say dozens of students were at the Madrasa Zakarya, an Islamic seminary, in Karachi. Several were reportedly chained in a basement, denied food and pressured to join the Taliban.

Pakistani police rescued about 68 students from an Islamic seminary in Karachi, several of whom were reportedly chained in a basement, denied food and pressured to join the Taliban, officials said Tuesday.

It wasn't immediately clear why the students, some as young as 12 and some in their 40s, were subjected to such treatment. But police, who conducted the raid late Monday after a tip from neighbors, told local news media that some of the students were drug addicts sent there by parents or other relatives unaware of the horrible conditions.

TV reports showed boys and men constrained by heavy chains on their ankles. Other shots showed several celebrating after being freed.

"They gave us jihad training," one of the students told television reporters. "They warned us if we ever tried to escape, we would be severely punished."

At least two staff members at the Madrasa Zakarya were arrested, although the leader of the seminary in Karachi's Sohrab Goth neighborhood reportedly escaped. The Interior Ministry has ordered an investigation.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-pakistan-madrasa-20111214,0,6305366,print.story

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Cellphone ban while driving? The tragedies behind the issue

Eleven texts in 11 minutes from behind the wheel -- then two were dead and 38 injured. A deadly Missouri incident was cited Tuesday by the National Transportation Safety Board as the panel urged a total ban on cellphone use while driving.

Such a ban (exceptions would be made for emergencies) would go far beyond what states now have in place. Currently, no state has a ban on all cellphone use by all drivers, according to the Governors Highway Safety Assn., although some prohibit cellphone use by certain drivers.

Novice drivers are banned from using cellphones while driving in 30 states and the District of Columbia. School bus drivers can't use cellphones in 19 states and D.C. when they have passengers. States are tougher on texting while driving: 35 plus D.C. ban the practice.

In the Missouri incident in August 2010, about 50 students, mostly from a high school band, were headed to a Six Flags park when they were part of a pileup that, the NTSB says, was caused by a 19-year-old driver who sent or received 11 texts directly before his pickup hit the back of a tractor truck.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/

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California DUI deaths drop to record low

California also marks the biggest single-year decline in DUI deaths in 14 years. Officials credit safety campaigns.

The number of alcohol-related fatalities on California highways dropped to a record low last year, with the biggest single-year drop in DUI deaths in 14 years, according to a federal report released Tuesday.

The drop was largely attributable to federally funded anti-drunk driving campaigns, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said.

Alcohol contributed to 791 deaths in the state in 2010, a nearly 17% decline from the 950 deaths in 2009.

"Education is the key thing we use to inform the public about the reality and dangers of drunk driving," said Officer Mike Harris, a public information officer for the California Highway Patrol. "We develop programs and different awareness campaigns. Put all those things together and it's bound to have an impact."

Trends show that DUI deaths in the state increased annually from 1998 to 2005 but have decreased every year since then.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-dui-deaths-20111214,0,3281508,print.story

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Donations sought for inmate Christmas toy-making program

Every year during the holidays, some county inmates at Pitchess Detention Center and South Facility spend hours carving out wooden toys from blocks of wood and constructing cloth dolls from plain fabric. This year, they plan to make 150 wooden cars, trucks and helicopters, as well as 1,400 cloth dolls.

Sheriff Lee Baca was expected to visit the Belvedere Early Education Center in East Los Angeles on Tuesday morning to present some of the handmade toys and dolls to children. "The labors of the instructional staff and jail inmates brighten the lives of children within our communities by providing a gift that may be the only one the child receives at Christmastime," he said in a statement.

Sheriff's officials are asking residents and merchants to donate raw materials. People interested in donating doll materials should call Gloria Welsh at (323) 568-4500, and anyone with wooden toy materials should contact Sgt. Gerri McCorkle at (661) 295-8805.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/12/jailers-make-toys-for-needy-children-during-the-holidays.html

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Dec 13, 2011

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Matters of life & death - Having to think about the unthinkable

Most people don't like to plan for dying, but in our state of denial, we leave ourselves vulnerable to conditions we would never want. Arrangements for the end of life are essential.

"I could show you case after case," said Dr. Neil S. Wenger. "I could bet you million-to-1 odds these patients would not want to be in this situation."

He was talking about patients in critical condition who are "attached to machines, being kept alive" in hospitals, many of them suffering.

A common reason for that, said Wenger, director of UCLA's Health System Ethics Center, is that fewer than one-third of us make our healthcare wishes known in advance of critical illness or injury. So if we end up comatose after an accident, or with severe memory loss in old age, we're kept alive, regardless of the cost and regardless of what our wishes might be or how grim the prognosis.

It's understandable. Nobody wants to think in advance about life ending. In our satisfied state of denial, we want to believe medical advances will keep us healthy until we die in our sleep at a ripe old age. But death doesn't always come on our terms, and failing to face up to other possibilities can put crushing burdens on loved ones — not to mention that soaring end-of-life medical costs are at the center of the national budget crisis.

http://www.latimes.com/la-me-lopez-howyoudie-20111212,0,7446994,print.column

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Supreme Court to weigh in on immigration battle

In agreeing to decide on Arizona's tough law on illegal immigrants, the justices join an intense election-year political debate.

The Supreme Court will decide in coming months whether Arizona and other states can target illegal immigrants for arrest, setting the stage for an election-year ruling that will vault the justices into the contentious political debate over efforts to crack down on immigration violators.

The announcement means that the justices will rule next year on three highly partisan issues, including a challenge to President Obama's signature healthcare law and a voting rights case in Texas. Those rulings could play an election role not seen since a 1992 ruling to limit some abortion rights energized women's rights groups and helped propel Bill Clinton into the White House.

Leading Republican candidates for president, caught between appealing to their anti-immigrant base and possibly alienating the growing bloc of Latino voters, have ramped up their debate over whether to arrest and deport the estimated 11 million people who have entered the country illegally or overstayed their visas. The Obama administration, which has deported nearly 400,000 people this year, has contested stronger anti-immigration laws adopted in several Republican-led states.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-immigration-arizona-20111213,0,1039479,print.story

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"Secure Communities" Program Is Not, says New Haven Mayor

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - New Haven Mayor John DeStefano is taking aim at a federal immigration enforcement program he says would disrupt families and damage efforts to promote community policing if it comes to Connecticut.

The program, Secure Communities, has removed some violent, undocumented felons from the country, although opponents say the records show that most of the people detained and deported had no criminal records or only minor violations.

This week, in the heart of the New Haven Latino community, the mayor stated his views:

"This is calling on the state to not honor requests for detainers from the federal government unless the individual's on the FBI Terrorist Watch List, or has been convicted of a violent crime."

http://www.publicnewsservice.org/index.php?/content/article/23803-1

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Dec 12, 2011

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Protecting illegal immigrants, state by state

Advocate groups are pursuing their own campaigns on behalf of workers, including seeking a 2012 ballot measure in California.

The failure of Congress and recent presidents to overhaul the immigration system led Arizona and other states to devise their own crackdowns on illegal immigrants. Now, immigrant rights groups are pursuing their own drives, state by state and in varied ways, to protect illegal immigrants.

Connecticut and Maryland have passed laws to charge lower in-state college tuition rates to students who are illegal immigrants. Utah has created identification cards for illegal immigrant "guest workers" and their families. New California laws will offer college financial aid to illegal immigrants and ensure that their cars are not seized if they are caught at traffic stops without driver's licenses — which they cannot legally obtain.

Most recently, a bipartisan group in California has drafted a November 2012 state ballot measure aimed at allowing hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants to come forward and pay income taxes without fear of deportation. It would also attempt to spare their employers from prosecution.

Organizers of the California ballot measure campaign were inspired largely by conservatives' success in pushing the tough enforcement measures in Arizona, Alabama and Georgia, where, among other steps, police were authorized to check immigration papers. Alabama's law requires public schools to check children's immigration status.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-immigration-states-20111212,0,3595399,print.story

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Harley riders donate bikes, other toys to kids on skid row

Harley-Davidson motorcycle riders gave away 550 new bicycles and 800 other toys to needy children at the Fred Jordan Mission in downtown Los Angeles on Sunday morning.

Some 800 Harley riders formed a caravan from Harley-Davidson of Glendale to the skid row mission at 445 Towne Ave. The toys were given to children who live in and around skid row, many in hotels.

"It's just the look on the kids' faces when they get a brand-new bicycle, it makes you feel good,” event organizer Richard Wagner said. “It's a pretty depressing place to live."

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/

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The homeless on the holidays: Some food for thought

After 6 1/2 years of being homeless, holiday abundance feels like a luxury.

My church recently compiled a cookbook of favorite recipes from parishioners. I submitted my "recipes" for canned stew and chunky soup, mainstays of the dinners I ate at campgrounds while I was homeless for 6 1/2 years and living out of my truck and a tent. I wanted to remind people about those less fortunate and that cooking in a well-appointed kitchen is a luxury, not something to be taken for granted. But my submissions didn't make the book.

A lot of people never think about how the poor live. There is plenty to eat in this country, and most of us never have to give the availability of food a second thought. This is especially true during the holiday season, when the biggest problem most Americans face is how not to overeat. But it's good to put our blessings into perspective.

I've been both well off and poor. For 5 1/2 years when I was a child, I lived with my family in West German refugee camps for persons displaced by World War II. During that time, we ate rationed food given out by Allied occupying troops. Dinner was often some type of porridge and bread, or sometimes just soup. Lunch might be nothing but cottage cheese and bread, with which I would make a sandwich. But my late parents and I, who had fled Hungary, were glad just to be alive.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-gapay-food-and-gratitude-20111212,0,2806422,print.story

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