The Drug War Vs. Free Press

From SFGate.com:
A U.S. attorney in Southern California says she is preparing to go after newspapers, radio stations and other media outlets that advertise medical marijuana dispensaries, an escalation in the Obama administration's newly invigorated war against the state's pot industry.

This month, U.S. attorneys representing four districts in California announced that the government would single out landlords and property owners who rent buildings or land where dispensaries sell or cultivators grow marijuana. Media outlets could be next.

U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy, whose district includes Imperial and San Diego counties, said marijuana advertising is the next area she's "going to be moving onto as part of the enforcement efforts in Southern California."

Duffy said she could not speak for the three other U.S. attorneys in the state, but noted their efforts have been coordinated so far..

Duffy said she believes the law gives her the right to prosecute newspaper publishers or TV station owners.

"If I own a newspaper ... or I own a TV station, and I'm going to take in your money to place these ads, I'm the person who is placing these ads," Duffy said. "I am willing to read (the law) expansively, and if a court wants to more narrowly define it, that would be up to the court."

Seven states, including California, allow medical marijuana to be distributed in dispensaries, though more than 200 California cities and nearly two dozen counties have bans or moratoriums in place on storefront pot businesses.

Ngaio Bealum, publisher of West Coast Cannabis, said he receives a significant portion of his revenue from dispensary ads, though he has tough competition for ad revenue from alternative newspapers and even the Sacramento Bee, which began running print advertisements for dispensaries this year.

Bealum said it is "misguided for the Department of Justice to come after people who are following state law and doing well for the economy in a recession.

"We're just in doctors' offices and cannabis collectives, where you have to be 18 years old or where you have to be a patient," he said.

Alternative newspapers throughout the state have benefited from the increased business, even as other advertising sources have dwindled.

In April, the Sacramento News & Review published a supplement devoted exclusively to marijuana dispensaries.

The ads in the supplement, which have cost $2,000 for a full page, allowed the News & Review to hire additional reporters...

Dispensary ads next targets in federal war on pot
Michael Montgomery
Thursday, October 13, 2011
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/10/12/MN5N1LH0LN.DTL

Strange Disappearances at the Cursed Devil’s Gate Reservoir

http://www.weirdus.com/states/california/unexplained_phenomena/devils_gate_reservoir/index.php

This dry, brush-filled flood channel in Pasadena is appropriately named. It’s the scene of some truly diabolical events.

The grim story begins on August 5, 1956, just a few miles east of Devil’s Gate. That day, Donald Lee Baker, a 13-year old Azusan, went for a bike ride with Brenda Howell, 11, from Fort Bragg, who was visiting relatives next door. They headed for the San Gabriel Reservoir that Sunday morning, and were last seen alive that evening.

When they failed to return on Sunday night, their frightened parents notified police, who called out an all-points search for the missing children. Azusa police, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies, and hundreds of volunteers combed the suburbs and foothills of the San Gabriel Valley, while Navy frogmen plumbed the 60-foot depths of the reservoir. The only traces of the children found were their bicycles, and Brenda’s jacket.

Donald and Brenda’s disappearance was unsolved until thirteen years later, when a man named Mack Ray Edwards confessed to kidnapping and killing the pair, along with three other children. Edwards, who had helped build Southern California’s freeways, had hidden his victims’ bodies by planting them in highway land that he would pave with asphalt the next day. Convicted and sentenced to death at his own request, Edwards cheated San Quentin’s “Green Room” by hanging himself in his cell in 1970.

But two other young victims are still unaccounted for today, having disappeared in this area under even stranger circumstances. On March 23, 1957, eight-year old Tommy Bowman was hiking on a trail above Devil’s Gate with his family, when he ran a few yards ahead of the others, rounded a corner…and disappeared.

When Tommy’s family searched the brush and repeatedly called his name to no avail, a 400-member search party was sent out, complete with helicopters, mounted patrols, bloodhounds, and professional wilderness trackers. After scouring the entire area for a week, hacking through chaparral and delving crevices and holes just off the trail, the search was called off. Rumors of kidnappers and child molesters were thoroughly investigated, and discounted. Tommy’s disappearance has never been explained or solved.

Yet another child followed Tommy into oblivion just three years later. Six-year old Bruce Kremen was on a hike with his YMCA group not far from where Tommy Bowman vanished, when he began to tire and fall behind the others. Thinking the boy was winded by the exercise and the high altitude, the group leader told Bruce to return to the camp––in plain sight just 300 yards away––and rest. The adult leader then watched Bruce walk the length of the wide, marked trail. When the boy was just yards away from camp, the man rejoined the other children.

But something got Bruce Kremen in those last few steps between the trailhead and the camp. He never made it back, and was never seen again.

Again, a massive search party tore the region apart. Again, there was no evidence of kidnapping or molestation. And again, the San Gabriels claimed a young victim, leaving no clues, no suspects, no remains––and no solution to the cases to this day.

The brutal murders of Donald Lee Baker and Brenda Howell, and the eerie disappearances of Tommy Bowman and Bruce Kremen, led some people to speculate that a curse or jinx hung over Devil’s Gate Reservoir. Much of this speculation centered on the activities of one John Whiteside (Jack) Parsons, co-founder of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and resident of nearby Pasadena.

Parsons, a brilliant, self-taught rocket scientist whom Werner von Braun called the true founder of the American space program, was also a first-rank occultist. A devotee of Aleister Crowley’s teachings, Parsons joined the infamous English occultist’s Ordo Templi Orientis society in 1941, quickly taking over the group’s Agape Lodge in Los Angeles.

Parsons’ mansion on South Orange Grove Avenue in Pasadena became the center of Southern California occult bohemia in the 1940s. Notorious for its semi-public “sex magick” ceremonies, chez Parsons was for awhile the home of ex-Navy officer and science-fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard. Parsons saw Hubbard, the future founder of Scientology, as a natural magician, and worked with him in a series of strange rituals designed to create a “moonchild”––a sort of anti-Messiah that would overthrow Judeo-Christian civilization, and lead Earth into a new Aeon.

The rituals, which took place in the Southern California outback in late 1946, were said to have opened a portal to another dimension that’s since been a point of entry for all sorts of strange entities. Some occult authors have hinted that the portal is in the Devil’s Gate region, and that the negative energies and beings that pass through it are responsible for the murders and disappearances.

It’s as good an explanation as any other for these tragic, tantalizing events and enigmas.

The Epic Excess of the Pastrami Burger at The Hat in Pasadena, CA

http://aht.seriouseats.com/archives/2010/11/the-hat-pastrami-burger-review-pasadena-los-angeles-ca.html
The Epic Excess of the Pastrami Burger at The Hat in Pasadena, CA
Damon Gambuto
November 3, 2010

The Hat
491 N Lake Ave., Pasadena CA 91101 (plus locations all over the Los Angeles area); 626-449-1844; thehat.com
Cooking Method: Griddled
Short Order: A classic Los Angeles sandwich stand has blossomed into a mini-chain behind the salty goodness of their pastrami
Want Fries with That? Skip the fries (although the chili cheese fries are impressive if only for the size of the portion)—instead go for some crispy and delicious onion rings
Prices: Pastrami Burger, $6.99
Notes: The portions are sizable so go with friends and share single orders

I've made the argument before that the burger's preeminence as "the American sandwich" is a debt owed to Los Angeles' postwar burger boom. The griddled, thin-pattied, paper-wrapped present that came to define the Southern California-style burger gave rise to fast food chains that built their brand on the backs of beef and buns. The simple, sweet and salty flavor of our SoCal burgers remains one of the special tastes in my life (let alone my burger life). It's at once a return to the past and look into the future. A memory of a bygone era and signifier of an industrialized food economy.

What's also true is it's not our only burger style worthy of local pride. We've heard about the famous mess that a Tommy's Chili Cheeseburger is, but less attention has been paid to our other over-the-top option: The Pastrami Burger.

Here in Los Angeles you could find pastrami at most privately-owned fast food spots long before it became a marketing tool for a big chain. To be fair, Utah lays some claim to this meat on meat affair as well so I know some will clamor about who is the rightful owner of this burger as a regional style. Let's just say it probably originated here in Los Angeles and it can thank its popularity to pastrami-centric places like The Hat. I stopped by The Hat's Pasadena location to sample their putative "World Famous Pastrami" in the most sensitive location possible: on top of my burger.

Before I put the massive, pastrami-topped burger under the microscope I wanted sample the regular cheeseburger in the massive lab that is my stomach. The paper-wrapped classic The Hat is an exercise in Southern California-style burger disappointment. A thin, gray patty is topped with lettuce, tomato, and American cheese with the care one imagines Charlie Sheen takes in his romantic decisions. That said, certain elements were satisfying—the commercial bun was particularly good. So why such an ordinary and under-seasoned burger? The answer: pastrami.

The pastrami burger is, as Kenji revealed in his masterful Burger Lab, a bold yet balanced burger. The Hat's pastrami is sliced to almost wafer-thinness in contrast to the traditional deli pastrami cut. It's powerfully salty (we're talking "bring your water bottle to lunch" salty) and piled in a messy heap on top of the patty. The once bland burger became a salty, rich mess of flavor that delivers one of those deeply satisfying, over-the-tip mouthfuls that define great burgers. On its own the burger cuts a boring profile. The pastrami sandwich is a titch too salty to offer any competition to the great version of the sandwich (Langer's anyone?). But when combined the sandwich find its balance. It isn't any real competition to the great Southern California-style burgers, but it's a taste worth adding to your list.

The pastrami burger is, on its own, such an exercise in American excess that the only rational recourse is to embrace one's doom. I also ordered the chili cheese fries and onion rings. The former is a ridiculous helping of food that more than likely comes with a calorie density that would make a relief aid food scientist proud. It's a mass of (frozen, not fresh cut) potatoes smothered in bland chili and cheese that slowly melts on top. The only thing small about this dish is its flavor. More, in this case, much less. There is little reason to order it beyond justifying all that money you spend on Lipitor.

Conversely, the onion rings are crisp, dirty-oil perfection. They too surely go from freezer to bubbling oil, but the flavor, rather than mealy and wan, is robust and fantastic. It was one of those onion ring experiences that makes you wonder why you don't order them more.

The Hat isn't without its faults to be sure. Bland french fries and wan burger patties aren't small mistakes. That said, when adding a little pastrami The Hat delivers a burger of enough distinction that makes the argument for, at the very least, making room in the Southern California burger category.

NCAA hits USC with two-year bowl ban, scholarship cuts

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/football/pac10/2010-06-10-ncaa-sanctions-southern-cal_N.htm

NCAA hits USC with two-year bowl ban, scholarship cuts
6-10-10
Southern California is ineligible to play in the postseason for the next two football seasons after the NCAA ruled Reggie Bush received extra benefits while playing for the Trojans.

FINDINGS AND PENALTIES

Highlights of the findings and sanctions the NCAA issued Thursday against Southern California:

Found violations that included a lack of institutional control, impermissible inducements, extra benefits, exceeding coach staff limits and unethical conduct by an assistant football coach.

Placed the athletic program on four years' probation.

Banned the football team from the postseason for 2010 and '11.

Vacated 14 wins in football from the Dec. 4, 2004, UCLA game through the entire 2005 season.

Cut 10 football scholarships each for 2011-12, '12-13 and '13-14. The team can give no more than 15 new scholarships each of those years and has 75 players total on scholarship in each of those years.

Ordered USC to have no association with the players at the heart of the football and men's basketball violations, Reggie Bush and O.J. Mayo. The athletic department cannot accept money or recruiting help from them, nor can they be accorded special benefits.

Ordered USC to ban all non-school personnel, including boosters, from team charters, practices, locker rooms and sidelines. The ban extends to camps for football and men's basketball.

The above are in addition to sanctions the school self-imposed in January on men's basketball:

Postseason ban in 2010.

Vacating 21 wins for the 2007-08 season.

Trimming one scholarship each for the 2009-10 and '10-11 academic years. This leaves the team with 12 scholarships each year.

Returning $206,200 the school got for its participation in the 2008 NCAA tournament.

Cutting 20 days (from 130 to 110) the staff is allowed to spend recruiting in 2010-11.

Jack Carey, USA TODAY

The NCAA Committee on Infractions' long delay in announcing its decision in the investigation of the Southern California football and men's basketball programs did not signal a case of cold feet on the part of the committee members.
The NCAA revealed its findings Thursday after a four-year probe, and the Trojans' football program had a virtual hammer dropped on it, receiving a two-year bowl ban and a reduction in scholarships of 10 a year over the next three years, potentially crippling a team that had a run of dominance in the last decade rarely matched in college football.

USC also received four years' probation, was cited for a lack of institutional control and must vacate the victories it accrued with Heisman Trophy-winning running back Reggie Bush starting in December 2004. The school also stands to have its 2004 Bowl Championship Series title vacated.

The school announced in a statement that it would accept some of the penalties imposed by the committee but planned to appeal those it thought were excessive. It did not specify which sanctions it planned to appeal.

"We acknowledge that violations occurred, and we take full responsibility for them. However, we sharply disagree with many of the findings in the NCAA Committee on Infractions Report. Further, we feel the penalties imposed are too severe for the violations identified in the report," Todd Dickey, USC's senior vice president for administration, said in the statement.

The NCAA took no further action against the men's basketball team. The school banned it from postseason play last season and vacated its wins from 2007-08 because of violations involving O.J. Mayo, who played only that season for the Trojans.

The women's tennis team also was cited in the report for unauthorized phone calls made by a former player, but the NCAA accepted USC's earlier vacation of its wins between November 2006 and May 2009.

Allegations surfaced in 2006

But the storm clouds surrounding the football program since reports in 2006 alleged that Bush and his family received hundreds of thousands of dollars in illicit benefits from sports marketers Lloyd Lake and Michael Michaels resulted in sanctions that greet coach Lane Kiffin and his staff.

Kiffin, an assistant coach at USC when Bush played there, was hired as head coach after last season, when Pete Carroll left to coach the NFL's Seattle Seahawks.

Neither Carroll nor former Trojans basketball coach Tim Floyd was sanctioned by the NCAA. However, the report rebuked "an assistant football coach," known to be running backs coach Todd McNair, handing him a one-year show-cause penalty and prohibiting him from recruiting.

The NCAA did not find credible McNair's professed ignorance of Bush's dealings with Lake and Michaels. The pair sued Bush in bids to recover almost $300,000 in cash and gifts they said Bush and his family accepted during his USC career. They were attempting to sign Bush as their marketing company's first client.

Carroll, in a video posted on YouTube, said he supported the school's appeal and maintained, "In all aspects of the program, we were vigilant.

"I'm absolutely shocked and disappointed at the findings of the NCAA. I never, ever thought it would come to this. … I never thought there (were) any facts that supported these significant sanctions. … The university didn't know … We were not aware of any of these findings.

"The agenda of the NCAA infractions committee took them beyond the facts. The facts don't match these sanctions. This is a clear-cut case of external elements outside the university setting entering in and disrupting the process. It's time for the NCAA and the universities to come together to elevate the awareness and the understanding of the vulnerability of college athletes and their families."

Bush disagrees with findings

Vacating the victories means the Trojans no longer are recognized as the winners of the 2005 Orange Bowl, in which they dominated Oklahoma for the Bowl Championship Series title. They also vacate every win during the 2005 season, which ended with a loss to Texas in the Rose Bowl with another BCS title on the line.

However, the BCS has not yet vacated the national championship won in that Orange Bowl game.

"As a procedural matter, the BCS Presidential Oversight Committee (POC) must meet to formally consider vacating USC's championship title and the game records," BCS executive director Bill Hancock said in a statement. "If the POC takes such action, there would be no BCS champion for the 2004-05 season. The POC will meet shortly to discuss this matter.

"No action will go into effect until the appeal is heard and decided by the NCAA."

Absent a successful appeal, the BCS presidents will vacate the title, a person close to the BCS process, who did not want to be identified because the issue is not closed, told USA TODAY.

The Trojans, however, will retain their 2004 Associated Press title, awarded separately from the BCS crown in a poll after the bowls.

"The 2004 poll stands," AP sports editor Terry Taylor said in an e-mail to USA TODAY. "The poll is intended to measure on-field performance. If teams are allowed to play, they're allowed to be ranked."

Bush could lose his 2005 Heisman. "(We) will issue a statement at the appropriate time," said Tim Henning, Heisman coordinator.

Bush, now a running back with the Super Bowl champion New Orleans Saints, said in a statement: "I have a great love for the University of Southern California, and I very much regret the turn that this matter has taken, not only for USC but for the fans and players. I am disappointed by (Thursday's) decision and disagree with the NCAA's findings."

It is left to Kiffin and the current players to pick up the pieces. Kiffin said Thursday that he was not concerned about losing recruits.

"I don't think it's going to have an impact on our recruiting," he said. "We've talked to a lot of people from our team, to our signees, to recruits, and we have not felt an impact at all, because USC is still USC. We're still going to play an extremely high level of football. You can still get a great education if you come to USC.

"We think we have a great class coming in, it's been referred to as No. 1 in the country. … We're excited to add those guys to our team and stay with the goal we always talk to our players about, and that's to win every game that we play."

Linebacker Kevin Greene, a sophomore in the fall, called the developments "a shock."

"We weren't here," he continued. "We don't know what went on the years before we were here. Whatever happened before I signed my scholarship happened. I don't know what, I don't know who. All I can do is go by what I hear."

Quarterback Matt Barkley, a sophomore to be, said it would be his responsibility to lead the team.

"We know there's a possibility we won't play in a bowl game, but at the same time I came here for a degree from one of the best universities in the country and to win football games," he said. "If we play 13 instead of 14, we'll try to win all 13 of them."

In the last 15 years, Miami (Fla.) and Alabama received similar sanctions. Both programs rebounded to win national championships.

Infractions committee chairman Paul Dee said schools must carefully watch their marquee players. They're the ones who attract attention from agents and their runners.

"Your staff needs to monitor those players at a higher level," said Dee, a lecturer of law and education at Miami (Fla.), and formerly athletics director there. "High-profile players require high-profile (compliance)."

Under Carroll, USC was known for a lenient admission policy at practices. But the NCAA ruling prohibits all non-university personnel, except news media and a few others, from attending practices and camps and from standing on the sideline during games.

Floyd resigned after the allegations against Mayo surfaced and now coaches at Texas-El Paso. Mayo plays for the Memphis Grizzlies.

"We are pleased at the outcome but certainly not surprised," Floyd's lawyer, Jim Darnell, said of Floyd's exoneration. "The committee did its work and reached the right conclusion."

•Contributing: Robyn Norwood in Los Angeles; wire reports

'Inherent Vice' by Thomas Pynchon

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/arts/la-ca-thomas-pynchon2-2009aug02,0,6295118.story

BOOK REVIEW
'Inherent Vice' by Thomas Pynchon
Southern California's 1960s past reemerges from the haze in this Chandler-like tale, set in the age of cannabis.
By Carolyn Kellogg
August 2, 2009

"Inherent Vice" is Thomas Pynchon doing Raymond Chandler through a Jim Rockford looking glass, starring Cheech Marin (or maybe Tommy Chong). What could easily be mistaken as a paean to 1960s Southern California is also a sly herald of that era's end. This, of course, is exactly the kind of layered meaning that readers expect of Pynchon.

His fans tend to be drawn to either his massive, bafflingly complex efforts -- the iconic, National Book Award-winning "Gravity's Rainbow," "Mason & Dixon" and "Against the Day" -- or to the more constrained, plot-driven narratives of "Vineland" or "The Crying of Lot 49." It is the big books, with their parades of gloriously obtuse set pieces, full of slapstick and conspiracy and minutely researched ephemera, that established Pynchon as a writer worthy of intense inquiry. Yet having a plot doesn't make his work any less brilliant, any less Pynchonian. "Inherent Vice" is a perfect case in point. It has a plot. It has a main character. This clear structure will, no doubt, disappoint the big-book boosters, the obsessives who began contributing to the online wiki annotation of "Against the Day" before finishing its 1,085 pages. But maybe we should all take a hit off a fat spliff and enjoy the dirty, brainy achievement of Pynchon's "Vice."

At the center of "Inherent Vice" is Doc Sportello, a low-key private investigator living in a dingy bachelor pad in Gordita, a beach community with Venice's grit and Malibu's surfers and hills. He has little affection for nonhippie flatlanders and a love of good weed. But Doc is more law and order than his indica might indicate: His occasional girlfriend is an assistant district attorney, and he's got an enduring across-the-divide, almost-friendship with Bigfoot Bjornsen, an LAPD detective who does Cal Worthington-like TV spots on the side. It's these straight-world connections that bring Doc's ex-girlfriend Shasta Fay Hepworth to his doorstep asking for help.

In a detective fiction setup worthy of Chandler, Shasta -- a minor actress and mistress of real estate mogul Mickey Wolfmann -- tells Doc that her lover's wife, who has a lover of her own, is trying to ship Mickey off to an insane asylum so she can take control of his fortune. Doc takes the case, but before his investigation can get off the ground, he's accused of murder, picked up and released by the cops and the FBI and discovers that both Shasta and Mickey have gone missing. No client, no money, but a mystery to solve.

Weirdness and obsession

Doc does true detective work -- dressing up in disguises, following leads -- yet he's stoned most of the time and easily distracted. His world is full of Pynchonian weirdness: an ex-junkie sax player who has faked his own death and is living, unrecognized, with his band in Topanga Canyon; a surfer who ventures out too far to catch impossible waves; a lawyer fixated on the minutiae of "Gilligan's Island" and other trash TV; and Mickey's collection of pornographic ties, decorated with images of his lovers -- although Shasta is conspicuously missing.

Nearly every character has an obsession or addiction. Doc's almost constantly altered state allows the unreal to shimmer against reality like light on an ocean. Sentences appear and Doc wonders if he's said them aloud; he never finds out, and we can't be sure. A clue discovered on an acid trip is as valuable as anything learned while straight. And his cannabis-induced paranoia is only a quarter turn from his detective work -- especially when he comes across references to the mysterious Golden Fang. Doc knows the Golden Fang is a boat with a mysterious, historic past. But it also seems to be a consortium of horny Silver Lake dentists, not to mention an Asian gang connected to drugs and money, Vietnam and China.

In classic Pynchon fashion, random incidents add up to conspiracy -- maybe. Behind powerful figures loom shadowy, more powerful figures, and complex layers of knowledge lead to confusion as much as clarity. There is also a lot of sex (if little romance), many pop-culture allusions (one scene references at least two classic noir films), characters who cross over from Pynchon's other work ("Vineland," predominantly) and silly names galore.

It's easy to forget, among all his games and puzzles, that Pynchon can write razor-sharp beauty with the best of them. A page-long description of the Santa Anas demands a place next to classic passages by Chandler and Joan Didion.

In Pynchon's big books, these devastating descriptions, particularly of place, are often swept away in the tide of prose and characters. Here, in a novel that focuses on Los Angeles so sharply that Tommy's is pinpointed by its cross streets, they shine.

L.A. on his mind

Pynchon, now 72, apparently lived in Southern California in the 1960s, and the attention to L.A.'s geography implies that the region has remained on his mind. Maybe he's got a clear sense of recall -- or maybe he comes back to visit or has devoted time to exploring Google Maps' street views. Either way, his details of the city are precise.

The Internet does make an appearance in "Inherent Vice," with a reference to the pre-Web ARPAnet and a prescient sense of future connection. "Someday," a real estate agent says, "there will be computers for all this, all you'll have to do's type in what you're looking for . . . and it'll be right back at you with more information than you'd ever want to know, any lot in the L.A. Basin all the way back to the Spanish land grants -- water rights, encumbrances, mortgage histories, whatever you want." The idea reads as both hope and lament.

And yet, if "Inherent Vice" exhibits nostalgia, it is not for the Los Angeles of yesteryear but for the days when genuine mystery was possible, when Doc's acid trip could be as relevant as Det. Bjornsen's world, when complex layers could both contradict and coexist. It's a love letter to a time when obsessives couldn't get all the answers from computers, when we might embrace the unknowable.

Still, after getting pretty far out, "Inherent Vice" eventually circles back and ties up all its loose ends. It has a climactic moment, a cushiony denouement -- by gum, closure. If this stands in counterpoint to Pynchon's most acclaimed work, perhaps we should pay heed to the novel's title: "Inherent Vice" refers to a hidden defect that undermines a property's worth, a marine-legal term for a Shakespearean flaw. It could refer to Los Angeles; it could refer to the 1960s. Or it could refer to the author's work itself: With Pynchon's brilliance comes readability.

Kellogg is the lead blogger for Jacket Copy, The Times' book blog.

An All-Electric Sedan, Awaiting Federal Aid

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/27/technology/start-ups/27tesla.html

March 27, 2009
An All-Electric Sedan, Awaiting Federal Aid
By CLAIRE CAIN MILLER

LOS ANGELES — Tesla Motors on Thursday unveiled its Model S, an all-electric sedan it hails as the beginning of a generation of fossil-fuel-free cars and a profitable company.

But before that happens, the company must find the money to build the vehicle. Tesla is pinning its hopes on Washington and a $450 million government loan. The company expects to hear from the Energy Department this year.

“We are highly confident that Tesla will be selected, and it will occur this year,” said Elon Musk, the company’s chief executive, after displaying the car to customers, analysts and reporters in a gigantic hangar set up to look like a lounge at SpaceX, Mr. Musk’s rocket factory. His other venture is to build a spacecraft.

Tesla, which was founded in 2003, was heralded as Silicon Valley’s solution to the nation’s energy problem. If a struggling Detroit could not make an electric vehicle, then a Silicon Valley start-up would.

Today, Tesla is facing the same plight as many green-energy start-ups. These huge, capital-intensive projects have been paralyzed by the credit crisis, and their survival depends on federal loans that have only just started to flow.

“Silicon Valley has mocked the government for decades and is now completely dependent on it,” said Michael Kanellos, a senior analyst at Greentech Media. “They can’t get a project off the ground without these loans.”

The Model S is Tesla’s second car. Its first is the $109,000 Roadster sports car. An elite group of 300 own the car and the waiting list is 1,000 names long.

The Model S, which Tesla says would be the first mass-manufactured all-electric car, will cost $57,400, or $49,900 after tax credits. Mr. Musk said that, when gas savings are taken into account, buying a Model S will be comparable to buying a $35,000 Ford sedan. “Would you rather have this car or a Ford Taurus?” he asked, pointing to the sporty silver prototype.

The car will travel 300 miles on one battery charge, he said, and the battery can be recharged in 45 minutes. The car is big enough to carry five adults and fit two children in rear-facing seats in the trunk. There is a touch screen in the console connected to the Internet and storage under the hood.

The Model S is supposed to be ready in mid-2011, but that will depend on securing the government loan and finding a site for the auto plant. Mr. Musk said Thursday that Tesla was close to signing a deal to build a plant in Southern California.

Tesla has spent $50 million developing the Model S and needs $250 million to $300 million more, he said. Once Tesla finds a site and gets the money, it will take 24 to 30 months to begin production, he said.

Tesla has raised $186 million from investors, $55 million of it from Mr. Musk, who made his fortune when PayPal, which he helped found, was sold to eBay. Other investors include Google’s billionaire co-founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and Draper Fisher Jurvetson, the venture capital firm.

Mr. Musk has said that he underestimated the money, time and effort needed to build a car company.

Tesla hopes to receive one of two government loans it is seeking. One, a $250 million loan, would come from money Congress authorized in 2005 for clean energy projects. The first loan guarantee under the program was made to solar company Solyndra last week.

The second loan Tesla is seeking, $450 million, would come from $25 billion Congress authorized in 2007 for electric vehicle technologies.

The Energy Department has not granted any loans under that program and has been criticized for moving slowly. But the energy secretary, Steven Chu, has said he plans to distribute some of the money in coming weeks.

Tesla is also financing the development of the Model S with deposits from people on the waiting list, who can pay $40,000 to reserve one of the first 2,000 cars or $5,000 for later cars.

For those who are worried about what will happen to their deposits if the car is never produced, since the money will be spent on development and not held in escrow, Mr. Musk said: “The worst-case scenario is they would lose their money. They are at risk.”

Still, he said: “This car will be manufactured, it will come to market. You should have zero doubt about that.”

Possible mammoth tusk found on SoCal island

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gHe2dCu-DwyF6cX2Np7YvlhdnbKgD95MKN700

Possible mammoth tusk found on SoCal island
By ALICIA CHANG
1-13-9

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A complete tusk believed to belong to a prehistoric mammoth was uncovered on Santa Cruz Island off the Southern California coast, researchers reported Tuesday. If the discovery is confirmed, it would mean the tusked beasts roamed 62,000-acre Santa Cruz Island more widely than previously thought.

A graduate student at the University of California, Santa Barbara, came across the tusk while working in a canyon on the island's remote north shore earlier this month. Nearby were several rib bones and possible thigh bones, said Lotus Vermeer, the Nature Conservancy's Santa Cruz Island project director.

"We've never discovered mammoth remains in this particular location on this island before," Vermeer said.

The Nature Conservancy and a leading mammoth expert will excavate the remains next week and use radiocarbon dating to determine their age.

Santa Cruz Island is the largest of eight islands that make up California's Channel Islands. During the Pleistocene epoch, more than 10,000 years ago, the four northern islands — Santa Cruz, San Miguel, Santa Rosa and Anacapa — formed one big island that scientists call Santarosae.

Scientists theorized that mainland Columbian mammoths — ancestors of the present-day elephant — swam across the channel in search of vegetation on Santarosae. Over time, they evolved into a pygmy form to better adapt to scarce resources on the islands.

Judging by the tusk size — about 4 feet long — it might have belonged to a pygmy mammoth, Vermeer said.

The most complete skeleton of a prehistoric pygmy mammoth was excavated in 1994 on Santa Rosa Island. It's rare to find mammoth remains on Santa Cruz Island, probably because its steep terrain was inhospitable to pygmy mammoths.

In 2005, researchers discovered mammoth thigh and forelimb bone fragments on Santa Cruz. Ten years earlier, a partial tusk was unearthed. Both discoveries were from a Columbian mammoth.

Paul Collins, curator of vertebrate zoology at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, was unsure of the significance of the latest find based on pictures he has seen. Collins said it was possible the remains could have belonged to a marine mammal and said an excavation should settle the matter.

"It's very difficult to tell whether or not you're dealing with mammoth bones," he said.

On the Net:

Channel Islands National Park: http://www.nps.gov/chis

Mongols motorcycle gang arrested in federal sweep

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hrHOy4sPvBKCo0W7ItrIx-pmaE4gD93V5G3G0

Mongols motorcycle gang arrested in federal sweep
By THOMAS WATKINS
10-21-8

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Dozens of burly, tattoo-covered members of the Mongol motorcycle gang were arrested Tuesday by federal agents in six states following a three-year investigation in which undercover agents infiltrated the group.

More than 60 members of the Southern California-based Mongol Motorcycle Club were arrested under a federal racketeering indictment that included charges of murder, attempted murder, assault, as well as gun and drug violations, said Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives spokesman Mike Hoffman.

During some arrests, sharpshooters stood guard on surrounding rooftops as motorcycles were lined up and confiscated.

"It's going to be a large hit to their organization. We are arresting many of their top members," Hoffman said.

U.S. Attorney Thomas O'Brien said he believed it to be the highest number of arrests of a motorcycle gang in the nation's history.

His staff planned to ask a judge for an injunction to seize the Mongols' trademarked name, a first for federal authorities. If the order is approved, no member would be able to wear a jacket or ride a bike bearing the gang's name.

"It would allow law enforcement to seize the leather jackets right off their back," O'Brien said.

Federal and local agents had 110 federal arrest warrants and 160 search warrants that were being served across Southern California and in Nevada, Oregon, Colorado, Washington and Ohio. The sweep, dubbed Operation Black Rain, was to continue throughout the day Tuesday, agents said.

Among those arrested were the gang's former national president, Ruben Cavazos.

Hoffman said the Mongols had been recruiting members of Los Angeles street gangs to assist in their operations.

The Mongols are primarily Latino and formed because the Hells Angels refused to allow Hispanic members.

Four ATF agents infiltrated the gang and were accepted as full members, a difficult process that requires winning the trust of the gang's top leaders over a period of months, Hoffman said.

The agents were required to live away from their families in homes set up to make it look like they lived a Mongols lifestyle, Hoffman said. Four undercover women ATF agents also were involved in the operation, pretending to be biker girlfriends and attending parties with the agents; women are not allowed to become full members of the gang.

"If you go to a party all the time and you don't ever bring a girl around, it's kind of weird," Hoffman said. "Someone might get suspicious."

To be accepted in the gang, the ATF agents had to run errands and were subject to a background check by private detectives.

Outside Cavazos' home in West Covina, about 18 miles east of Los Angeles, a red, custom-modified Harley-Davidson motorbike sat outside. No occupants were home but several police and ATF agents were seen going through items in the house.

Cavazos wrote a memoir titled "Honor Few, Fear None: The Life and Times of a Mongol," published by HarperCollins in June. HarperCollins publicist Sarah Burningham in New York City said she only handles book-related issues for Cavazos, but would forward an e-mail from The Associated Press requesting comment.

Another former Mongols national president, Roger Pinney, alleged in an interview with The Associated Press that Cavazos was the problem, not the club in general.

"They were just on the verge of cleaning up their act," said Pinney, who is no longer a member and is serving probation from his role in an infamous brawl at Laughlin, Nev., in 2002 in which three people died. "It's not a club-run deal. It's individuals who are the ones who decide to commit crimes."

Pinney said he warned other club members that Cavazos was trouble.

"He was throwing all the good members out and bringing gang members in," Pinney said. "He was trying to be a drug lord or something."

Pinney doesn't believe the raid will force the Mongols off the road. "The Mongols aren't going away, and neither are the Hells Angels," he said.

Associated Press writers Solvej Schou and Greg Risling, AP photographer Ric Francis and AP videographer John Mone contributed to this report. AP writer Ken Ritter in Las Vegas also contributed.

Ode to Hodad's

http://www.roadfood.com/Reviews/Writeup.aspx?ReviewID=390&RefID=390

Hodad's - Ocean Beach, CA
Address:
5010 Newport Ave.
Ocean Beach, CA

619-224-4623 Web Site:
N/A Restaurant Type:
Hamburgers
Californian

Reviewers Ratings
Visit Again 100%
Food 100%
Atmosphere 100%
Miles Worth Driving 100 Miles
Reviewers "Must Eats" List
Double Bacon Cheeseburger Basket

Hodad’s motto, on a sign above the cash register: “No Shirt, No Shoes, No Problem!”

Here is the definitive Southern California beachside burger joint, serving truly amazing hamburgers. Available in three sizes (mini, single, and double), as cheeseburgers or bacon cheeseburgers, solo or as part of a basket with a pile of French fries, these burgers are a sight to behold. The double, which is two good-size patties, is huge beyond belief, piled inside a broad sesame seed bun with lettuce, tomato, onion, pickle, mayonnaise, mustard, and ketchup. The menu warns that all burgers come with all condiments “unless you say otherwise”; and frankly, we suggest that unless you are allergic, all the way is the only way to go.

The hamburger is presented partially wrapped in yellow wax paper, which provides a way to hoist it from the table and to keep it relatively together as you try to eat it. "That paper is your burger trough," proprietor Mike Hardin explains. "We tell people, 'Do not take the paper off! It is there for a purpose.'" The purpose is to keep the immense thing from disintegrating. Mike points around the dining room at veteran customers wolfing down not merely huge hamburgers, but doubles, which are an insanely larger bun, larger patty, and larger larder of toppings all in one package. He notes that experts all eat their Hodad hamburgers the same way. Grasping it by the paper-covered part, they gingerly rotate it around within the wrapper; and most important of all, they never let go of it once they hoist it from the plastic-weave basket in which it is served. "Eat your onion rings and French fries first. Drink your milk shake. Do whatever else you have to do," Mike says. "Then, pick up your hamburger." We did notice that the Big Kahunas of Hodad's tables – those with literally very large hands – were able to keep a semi-wrapped double bacon cheeseburger secure in one mitt while they plucked French fries with the other. But barneys who don't focus on keeping it together risk epic burger wipe-out.

Just getting to Hodad’s is a blast. Lined with palm trees, and with a gorgeous ocean view, Newport Avenue is a colorful part of the city. It is occupied by surf shops, alternative hair salons, juice bars, and high-proof bars; and this rockin’ joint fits right in! Its walls are festooned with vanity license plates from around the nation; surfboards are strung above the dining room. Seating includes hard wood booths and a counter along the wall with stools. Each booth is outfitted with a cardboard container that once held a six-pack of beer bottles. The half-dozen compartments are now used to store sugar and sweeteners for coffee.

Special thanks to San Diegan Michael Kawamoto for originally suggesting Hodad’s.

'Every big game we end up blowing it'

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/football/2008-09-14-ohiostate-lockerroom_N.htm

Buckeyes' lament: 'Every big game we end up blowing it'
By Kelly Whiteside, USA TODAY
9-14-8

LOS ANGELES — Ohio State senior left tackle Alex Boone was one of the last players to leave his locker room following his team's 35-3 loss to No. 1 Southern California, but he was still steaming on full boil.

"I can't believe we screwed up so badly," Boone said. "I feel like this is the national championship all over again, stupid penalties, stupid mistakes, roughing the passer, holding, offsides, personal fouls."

The Buckeyes lost the last two national title games to speedier, more athletic Southeastern Conference teams, including last year's mistake-filled loss to LSU. Saturday, the Buckeyes were undone by miscues in the second quarter and scored the fewest points in coach Jim Tressel's eight-year tenure. They also might have fumbled away a chance at their third consecutive Bowl Championship Series title game.

"Every big game we end up blowing it for ourselves, not to say they weren't a great team," Boone said. "I think it must be nervousness. …. Guys come out here and see 100,000 people and they start to get antsy. We can't play that way."

With a remaining schedule which includes only two teams currently ranked, the No. 14 Buckeyes (2-1) will need plenty of help to get back into national title contention by season's end. Next week, they host Troy before beginning their Big Ten schedule Sept. 27 against Minnesota. They face No. 10 Wisconsin in Madison on Oct. 4, host No. 17 Penn State on Oct. 25 and travel to Illinois on Nov. 15.

Last year, in one of the most tumultuous seasons in college football history, the Buckeyes were able to overcome a loss to Illinois in November to climb back to the title game. Even if OSU wins the remainder of its games, it might face longer odds this fall. Since the Buckeyes once again faltered on the biggest of stages, voters might be more reluctant to place Ohio State ahead of a team from the SEC with the same record.

"The only difference between this one and that one (to LSU) is we have a season ahead of us," said linebacker Marcus Freeman. "We have to turn it around and still try to win the Big Ten championship."

In the second quarter, trailing 14-3, a holding penalty on OSU guard Ben Person nullified quarterback Todd Boeckman's 21-yard touchdown pass to Brian Robiskie. On their next offensive possession, Boeckman's pass was cut off by USC linebacker Rey Maualuga, who returned the interception for a 48-yard score.

"We just shot ourselves in foot with penalties and turnovers," Boeckman said. By halftime, it was 21-3, and the locker room was as quiet as study hall.

"At halftime nobody was saying anything," Boone said. "I mean what the hell? We're Ohio State. We should be screaming and swearing everything you can think of, and guys were hanging their heads. You don't know what to say to them. You start screaming, and they just put their heads down even more."

The play of freshman quarterback Terrelle Pryor was one of the Buckeyes' few bright spots. Pryor, who alternated snaps with Boeckman through most of the game, competed seven of nine passes for 52 yards and rushed 11 times for another 40. USC was forced to respect Pryor's running ability, containing him better in the second half. "They started putting everyone outside the box so I couldn't get it outside," Pryor said.

Boeckman (14-for-21 for 84 yards) was intercepted twice and sacked four times. When asked if he would consider changing his starting quarterback, Tressel didn't seem inclined to replace his fifth-year senior with a freshman. "There's always competition for playing time," Tressel said. "I don't know about the starting spot or any of that business, but obviously we'll go back and evaluate everything."

"I thought Terrelle did a good job from a composure standpoint," Tressel said. "Being thrown in a stage like this, he probably played more than the first two weeks combined. Overall, he did a lot of good things. Obviously he's got a lot of talent, not just running. He can throw the ball in there hard."

The Buckeyes were without star running back Chris "Beanie" Wells who has an injured right foot. Redshirt freshman Dan Herron started in Wells' place and had 51 yards on 11 carries. Afterward the Buckeyes refused make excuses, but USC coach Pete Carroll said that without Wells the Buckeyes were forced to run more laterally than powering down the field.

As they headed to the bus, Ohio State seemed more resolved than defeated. "This team is (as upset) as we'll ever be," Boone said. "We're going back to work tomorrow. I won't be surprised if guys go home straight to watch film for four hours."

Added Pryor: "We'll pick it up and be fine … From now on, we won't get stopped. We won't. We're going to work hard, study more in the film room, because I don't want to feel like this again and I'm sure nobody else wants to."

New Area 51

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/air_space/4273921.html

New Area 51: Mojave's Desert Outpost Holds Space Flight's Future
With mysterious test flights, secret prototypes and next-gen spacecraft, this remote California airfield became the hotbed of rebel aerospace. Welcome to Mojave Air and Space Port, where aviation’s iconoclasts are granted the headroom to make history.
By Joe Pappalardo
Photographs by Brent Humphreys
Published in the August 2008 issue.

Two technicians in coveralls stoop to push a gleaming white plane through open hangar doors into the bright sunshine of southern California's Mojave Desert. The tailless aircraft is about 18 ft. long with a rounded fuselage and sweptback wings, tips bent upward in pronounced winglets. A pair of canards stretches 13 ft. across the cone-shaped nose. A two-seat cockpit is slung beneath gullwing doors that look like they belong on a '54 Benz coupe. Basically, the aircraft is a rocket with wings.

The techs remove the cowling that covers the plane's engine, exposing slender helium tanks and intricate connections of frosted liquid oxygen fuel lines. Two engineers in jeans and sneakers emerge from the hangar. Brandon Woodworth, 26, clipboard in hand, begins a brisk 100-item-plus diagnostic rundown.

"Check switch number nine to check thermocouples on the LOX tank," Woodworth says. "Any gripes?"

In tandem, the techs answer "no"—the temperature sensors on the liquid oxygen tank are functioning.

Woodworth nods. "Check switch number 10."

And so it goes through six pages of procedures. Then the crew tests the igniter, which emits a throaty burp, calibrates the fuel flows and tops off the tank with liquid oxygen cooled to minus 297 F. White mist curls from the nozzle as the gas boils off in the hot sun.

Meanwhile, an interloper on a Harley-Davidson pulls up on the road that parallels the chain-link fence along the airport perimeter.

Standing on tiptoe, he holds a digital camera above the fence and begins squeezing off shots of the exotic rocket plane 15 yards away. The crew ignores him. "He probably couldn't recognize anything proprietary even if he could get a picture of it," says Reuben Garcia, 34, crew chief and composite materials ace.

The shooter stows the camera, mounts his Harley and roars off. Whether tourist or aviation paparazzi, he has come to the right place to capture images from the cutting edge of aerospace. The city of Mojave—a low-rise community of 3800 people, 100 miles north of Los Angeles—doesn't look like much. The dusty main drag has two traffic lights, a cluster of fast-food franchises and one decent roadhouse, Mike's, where a mix of miners, bikers and pilots drink, shoot pool and watch motor sports on ESPN. The desert winds blow tirelessly.

But on the northern edge of town, that chain-link fence marks the boundary of the Mojave Air and Space Port, which sprawls across 3300 acres of desert. A control tower stands sentinel over three runways, the longest of which extends more than 2 miles out into the scrubby flats. Weathered hangars, some dating back to World War II, line the main runway.

What goes on inside—and above—these nondescript hangars makes Mojave the growing hub of global aerospace research and development. Bizarre aircraft, secret Pentagon programs and private spaceships take shape in these aluminum-sided buildings. Most hangar doors are shut tight. The few that are cracked open offer glimpses of pressurized tanks, technicians and mechanics in oil-smeared overalls and smooth white fuselages, emblazoned with black tattoos mandated by the Federal Aviation Administration: Experimental.

The tenant in the faded blue hangar housing the rocket plane is XCOR Aerospace, a Mojave-based outfit that in 2003 invented a helium-powered rocket-fuel pump for a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency project. Most rockets require pressurized tanks to drive propellant to the engine. In XCOR's system, helium generates the pressure that drives the pump that pulls kerosene from unpressurized wing tanks and LOX from a fuselage tank. The design has complicated plumbing, but it frees engineers to dream up a wide range of weight-conscious flying machines with unusual aerodynamics. The nascent Rocket Racing League (which plans to field flying teams that will scream around courses at 300 mph) hired XCOR to design its fleet.

The contract pays the rent, but XCOR has its sights on a bigger prize. The company will incorporate lessons learned from the project into the design of a suborbital spacecraft scheduled to launch in 2010 with a pilot and a paying passenger onboard.

XCOR is not the only company at Mojave hoping to turn spaceflight into a private business. Just 50 yards from the company's headquarters stands a row of hangars leased by Scaled Composites, the firm founded by legendary aerospace pioneer Burt Rutan. Scaled's long line of radical aircraft includes Voyager, which in 1986 became the first plane to fly around the world nonstop and unrefueled. Rutan's biggest coup: the $10 million Ansari X Prize he won in 2004 when SpaceShipOne became the first private craft to take a pilot into space, blasting 335,000 ft. above Mojave twice in six days. Behind closed hangar doors and blacked-out windows Scaled is building new space tourism vehicles for its partner, Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic.

Rocket test stands, tough enough to endure tens of thousands of pounds of thrust, are studded with precise sensors. Aerogel that resembles silver foil insulates tanks of liquid oxygen.

The New Area 51

Aerospace history is often made in isolated places where risky designs and radical procedures can be tested beyond the inhibiting scrutiny of patrons and public officials. Places where mistakes won't crash into tract housing or shopping malls. The most famous test ground was the U.S. Air Force base at Groom Lake, Nev., a secret facility that inspired iconic nicknames—the Ranch, Dreamland, Area 51 or, simply, "the remote location." For all the mystery and alien-conspiracy hype, Groom Lake legitimately secured its place in history as the birthplace of revolutionary aircraft such as the high-flying U-2 spy plane, the supersonic SR-71 Blackbird and the stealthy F-117 Nighthawk.

At its apogee during the Cold War, Groom Lake was a top-secret site where huge defense contractors worked on classified military planes. Mojave has inherited a whiff of that Dreamland secrecy. Airport officials admit cryptically that some tenants work on "black" government projects. "There's a lot of stuff that goes on I don't want to know about," says Jim Balentine, president of the airport district's board of directors. "We have tenants who don't even want to disclose who they are."

Mojave qualifies as the new Area 51 not because of large military contractors—there's only one here—but because it has lured a critical mass of small, entrepreneurial private-sector players to a freewheeling testbed that's open to anyone with the funding, brainpower and ambition to devise a new way to fly—within the atmosphere or above it.

No homeowners encroach on the deliciously long runways. Tenants can access otherwise reserved military airspace and a supersonic flight corridor, thanks to an agreement with Edwards Air Force Base, 20 miles to the east. The world-renowned, civilian-run National Test Pilot School provides a steady stream of cockpit jockeys. All this helps to make Mojave the place to go for designers with experimental aircraft to test. Long-time Mojave residents become almost jaded about seeing exotic, one-off flying machines overhead. "We look at this place as the best-kept secret in the business," says Marie Walker, longtime resident, owner of a small composite parts manufacturing firm and another member of the airport's board. "We can see the future from here."

The Spaceport That Dan Built

Mojave's earliest airport was scraped into the desert in 1935 to serve the surrounding gold and silver mines. The government appropriated it during World War II as a Marine auxiliary air station, where Corps pilots received gunnery training. When the Marines pulled out in 1961, the airfield might have slowly reverted to sagebrush if not for an aviation-obsessed rancher. Dan Sabovich, who liked to fly his V-tail Beechcraft Bonanza from his own strip on his spread near Bakersfield, Calif., had a vision for the underutilized facility. He imagined Mojave as a civilian test-flight center that would cater to experimental aviation and be run by its own elected officials who could shield the airfield from political interference and protect its spirit of adventure. Sabovich had the political savvy to match his outsize vision; in 1972, after enduring several years of his intense lobbying, the state created Mojave's special airport district.

Sabovich ran the airport until 2002; he died in 2005. But the marriage he envisioned between public spirit and private enterprise lives on. Today, most of the airport district's board of directors are tenants, pilots or both.

Two years after the airport district was founded, Burt Rutan, a young aeronautical engineer from California Polytechnic, arrived to set up the Rutan Aircraft Factory. "Trouble was, I could not afford a hangar," Rutan once told a reporter. "Dan let me have a hangar at no charge. If he had not, I doubt that Voyager would have been built."

Other aviation companies followed in Rutan's slipstream—airplane rehab artists, kit-plane makers, plane storage specialists, flight-test gurus and composite parts manufacturers.

Then, in the mid 1990s, rocketeers began to arrive. One of the first was Rotary Rocket, a com-pany founded by Gary Hudson to develop a low-cost, manned, reusable spacecraft, Roton. Hudson hired Rutan's outfit to help build a 63-ft.-high prototype that was designed to be launched like a conventional rocket, boosted by a novel rotary engine that burned kerosene and liquid oxygen. After re-entry, pilots were supposed to make helicopter-style landings using nose-mounted rotors. The ungainly, bullet-shaped craft made a few short hops, but the company itself never really got off the ground, finally folding in 2001 when contracts failed to materialize.

In November 2006 the Roton prototype was moved from the outskirts of the airport to a small park near the port's entrance. Some might see the awkward-looking rocket's prominent position as a kind of joke—a monument to failure. But Mojave's veteran rocketeers are more likely to see it as a tribute to audacity. "When the Roton was relegated to an obscure corner of the airfield, I used to feel like I had wasted three years of my life," says Hudson, who still operates rocket companies at Mojave. "Now that it's been moved, I feel pride when I see it. Prior to Rotary, few people spoke about commercial human spaceflight, only satellite launching. Now everyone does."

In 2004 the FAA certified Mojave as a spaceport, which means private firms here can launch craft into orbit. Stuart Witt, the current general manager of the airport, is trying to preserve Sabovich's mission. Like his predecessor, Witt offers cut-rate rents to startup companies, allowing them to grow. Most tenants today are subcontractors and sub-subcontractors, living off corporate patrons like Middle Ages guildsmen. "We need places like Mojave to be the kindling ground where it's okay to take risks," Witt says. "That was Dan Sabovich's genius. He saw that."

Risk is always in the air at Mojave. And in this business, the word means more than a failed public relations campaign or burst market bubble. In July 2007, at the rocket test range in a remote corner of the airfield, Scaled conducted a cold-flow test—one that does not include igniting a rocket—on a new engine component for SpaceShipTwo. Three seconds into the test, a pressurized tank of nitrous oxide exploded, killing three people and injuring three others. The FAA and California work safety regulators descended on Mojave. "It was one inspection after another," says Bob Rice, the port's operations director. After a six-month investigation, federal and state inspectors were unable to determine the exact cause of the accident. "We all learned something," Witt says. "It was an eye-opener to see government in action and, in many ways, overreaction."

In late 2007 the FAA briefly threatened to rescind Mojave's spaceport license. Instead, after inspecting the facilities, the agency instituted safety-related amendments to the license. In January 2008, the state levied $25,000 in fines on Scaled Composites. "We had done a lot of these tests with SpaceShipOne," Rutan later said. "We felt it was completely safe."

Engine tests may be routine for some companies at Mojave, but safety remains the top priority. During this firing, Protoflight’s crew ignites an engine with 15,000 pounds of thrust from a building 2000 ft. away.

Phantoms and Legends

Fortunately, the average work day at Mojave is far less dramatic. Amid the futuristic space planes and experimental prototypes, it's not uncommon to see a Vietnam-era warplane wheeled onto a runway. In a large hangar on the outskirts of the airfield, BAE Flight Systems rewires F-4 Phantoms to serve as remotely operated targets for live-fire air-to-air missile training in Florida. Essentially, the Phantoms are being prepared for suicide missions.

Inside a small hangar at the opposite end of the flight line from BAE, Jon and Patricia Sharp store their carbon-fiber kit plane, the Nemesis NXT. Patricia, who makes handcrafted composite parts, impales tennis balls on the super-sharp wingtips of the prop-driven prototype to prevent workshop bloodletting. The Sharps' previous racer broke so many speed records that the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum mounted it as an exhibit.

A few hangars away, JoAnn Painter and her husband Wen are trying to fix the radio in their fixed-wing Pietenpol Air Camper before an afternoon flight. Wen is a legend at NASA's Dryden Research Center, one of a cadre that revolutionized wingless flight. JoAnn, who sits in the cockpit wearing vintage aviator goggles and helmet, is the vice president of the airport's board of directors and the retired owner of a flight instruction school.

Above their heads, a bright white airplane circles in the azure Mojave sky. It's an experimental warplane called Ares, designed by Scaled Composites in the 1980s to replace the Air Force's tank-busting A-10 Warthog. One side of the airplane has an air intake; the other, a similar-size gap to house a 25 mm cannon. The military passed on the plane, but here it is flying again, for reasons known only to secretive Scaled.

Airplanes like this Boeing 707-330C get second lives inside the Mojave workshop hangar of Flight Test Associates; the company refurbishes airplanes for its clients to lease or resell.

A Place to Launch

At the rocket test range, not far from where the Scaled explosion occurred, a half-dozen 20-something engineers and technicians from Protoflight, a Mojave-headquartered company that designs rocket engines, scramble over a 35-ft.-high test stand. They are readying hardware for the next milestone in a complex Pentagon project. The goal: launch satellites from C-17 or C-5 cargo airplanes at altitudes so high as to be virtually undetectable to the various nations that normally track all U.S. satellite launches.

Protoflight junior engineer David Mitchell, 24, chose to come to Mojave after graduating from California Polytechnic, at San Luis Obispo, to gain hands-on experience. Protoflight recruited another employee, Terry Palmer, from an Ace hardware store in town after he impressed engineers with his plumbing advice—valued expertise for anyone dealing with liquid-powered engines. Software engineer Lyle Menzel sums up the staff's attitude: "Most places you get to work hardware on a project maybe once or twice in a career. You just don't get"—the double-tap booms of an unseen jet going supersonic interrupt him—"this at the larger companies."

Just before noon, Protoflight's crew gathers in a trailer- size, prefab building they call the control room, 2000 ft. from the stand. Three staffers sit in front of monitors running live video and audio feeds from the test site. Observers stand behind the seated staff, peering over shoulders. Today's test is ready to begin.

The building rumbles as the engine ignites, blasting 15,000 pounds of thrust across the stand's concrete platform. On the screens, a 30-ft. plume of orange fire cuts through the air. After 20 seconds at full flow, the flame disappears. In the command center there are no cheers, no backslapping, just the well-honed professionalism of staffers following protocol—shutting off fuel lines, processing data from engine sensors. For the young Protoflight crew, it's another day at Mojave.

Tent city highlights US homes crisis

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7297093.stm

Tent city highlights US homes crisis
The meltdown in the US mortgage market has led to record foreclosures and forced thousands from their homes. In few places is it worse than southern California, where the BBC's Rajesh Mirchandani reports on an extreme consequence of the downturn, but one that some observers fear could grow.
2008/03/14

Forty miles east of Los Angeles, on a patch of waste ground, is the place they call Tent City.

Sandwiched between the local airport and the railway line, this really is the wrong side of the tracks.

We are on the outskirts of Ontario, a functionally pleasant commuter-city in southern California.

Last summer, local officials established this camp as a temporary base for the city's homeless population, then around two dozen.

But word spread and now some 300 people live here. It has an air of scruffy permanence, and indeed, city officials say there are no current plans to close it down.

Varied histories

Most residents live in tents, some in mobile homes in various states of disrepair, their possessions crammed in with them or spread out on the ground.

Amenities are basic - no mains electricity, no plumbing, no drainage. Portable showers offer a chance to wash, but there is nowhere to prepare food, apart from makeshift tables in the open air.

Dogs and children scratch around in the dusty earth.

What is striking is the range of people here: whites, African-Americans, Hispanics, the old and young including some with babies. And they tell a variety of stories too.

Benson Vivier, a Vietnam veteran, said a leg operation allowed him to walk after years of being in a wheelchair. But as a consequence his disability benefits were cut, and he could not afford his rent

Others told tales of family disputes or houses burning down. Some were addicts, some fresh out of prison.

'Home or food'

But one man, who did not give his name, said he and his family were living in Tent City because they were victims of America's foreclosure crisis. It came down to "feeding my family or keeping the house", he said, "so I got rid of the house".

The property he lost is nearby in Ontario, which, in places, offers a middle-class suburban dream - green lawns, wide pavements, garages big enough for two cars.

Yet it is in an area known as the Inland Empire, where the rate of foreclosure is the third highest in the entire US.

No longer able to afford his mortgage payments, this man saw his lender repossess the property, and now someone else lives there.

"It's hard for me to see it, when someone else owns it and I am homeless with nothing," he said.

There are thousands like him across California - people whose inability to finance their mortgages has cost them their homes; many thousands more across the US.

But in Tent City, at least, he is in a minority - few are here as a direct result of the housing crash.
However, Mike Dunlap, who runs a volunteer group providing supplies to Tent City's dwellers, thinks that could change.

"People lose their homes through foreclosure," he says. "They go and live in the hotels, and the homeless people who were in the hotels end up back on the streets."

He fears that, as more people lose their homes in what appears to be a deepening housing market collapse, more former homeowners could end up in places like Tent City.

Home Prices Plunge Across California

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080313/california_homes_prices.html

Home Prices Plunge Across California
California Median Home Prices, Sales Plunge in February
Thursday March 13, 2008
By Alex Veiga, AP Business Writer

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Median home prices plunged in many of California's most populous counties in February, with Southern California leading the slide with an overall drop of 17.9 percent compared to a year earlier, according to new housing data released Thursday.

The drops reflect a deepening housing crisis in the state, which saw home values soar during the housing boom then decline sharply in most areas.

Median home prices fell this year in 15 major counties, DataQuick Information Systems said.

The median price in a six-county area of Southern California fell to $408,000 -- the lowest level since October 2004, when it was $402,500. That median is 19.2 percent below the region's peak price of $505,000 last summer, and it's 1.7 percent below January's median, the firm said.

In the nine counties of the San Francisco Bay Area, the median price fell 11.6 percent to $548,000 compared to a year earlier and 17.6 percent from the region's peak median price of $665,000 last summer. Bay Area prices were essentially flat from January.
Home sales volume also kept sliding last month.

Sales fell 39 percent from a year earlier in Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties. In all, 10,777 homes were sold in February in those six counties, up 8 percent from January, DataQuick said.

Southern California's home sales volume has hit new lows every month since September.

The nine San Francisco area counties saw a similar slowdown, as sales dropped 36.7 percent last month from February 2007.

Some 3,989 homes were sold in San Francisco, Marin, San Mateo, Napa, Alameda, Sonoma, Contra Costa, Santa Clara and Solano counties. That was up 11.2 percent from January.

Even as prices fall, buyers remain slow to dive into the market, with many waiting for prices to fall further.

Others have been unable to find affordable financing because lenders stung by soaring mortgage defaults and foreclosures have cut back on the easy lending that helped propel the housing boom.

The dynamic has worsened the prospects for many homeowners desperate to sell as falling home values drain their equity.

Statewide figures were expected later Thursday.

Officials Pick Surf Break Over Toll Road

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gF3xQ6C3I0xMnmLvXt5TWan9hsRwD8ULEMH80

Officials Pick Surf Break Over Toll Road
By GILLIAN FLACCUS
2-7-8

DEL MAR, Calif. (AP) — Surfers and environmentalists threw a roadblock in front of a proposed toll road through one of the world's best surf breaks — but backers say they will fight on.

The California Coastal Commission voted 8-2 late Wednesday against the project, which critics said would wipe out about a dozen endangered or threatened coastal species, decimate an ancient Indian burial ground and block sediment that creates world-class waves at San Onofre State Beach.

The panel's vote means that commissioners found the project doesn't meet with the legal requirements of the federal Coastal Zone Management Act and California's Coastal Act.

But toll road officials said they will file an appeal next week with the U.S. Secretary of Commerce to keep the $875 million project alive.

"It's not over yet," said Lance MacLean, chairman of the Foothill Eastern Transportation Corridor Agency. "We still believe firmly that our project as proposed provides the best traffic relief in the most environmentally sound way."

An estimated 3,000 people — surfers, environmentalists, commuters, union activists and tribal members — showed up for the marathon commission hearing, some with surfboards in tow.

Opponents hoisted signs that read "Protect Our Parks" and "Highway from Hell." They erupted in raucous cheering and dancing as the vote was tallied.

"When I look at this project, I can't believe it," Commissioner Sara Wan said before the vote. "This looks like something from the 1950s, not from now, when we know how endangered our planet is.

"I guess if you throw enough spaghetti at the wall, you hope that some of it will stick or at least prevent the majority of folks from understanding the issues."

Supporters said the turnpike was necessary to relieve crushing rush hour traffic on Interstate 5, where 125,000 cars pass each day between Orange County and San Diego. An alternative — widening the I-5 — would destroy more than 1,200 homes and businesses.

They also argued the road would increase access to the pristine beach for low-income and minority families and provide an alternate escape route in case of a wildfire.

"The area is in gridlock most of the time," said Tom Margro, the toll road agency's chief executive officer. "The fact that Southern California needs an alternative to the I-5 in this area has been known for decades."

But speakers at the hearing questioned the wisdom of intruding on the state's fifth-most popular state park and its famous surf break for the benefit of commuters. The break, Trestles, attracted 400,000 surfers last year and contributes up to $13 million to the local economy, the commission staff said.

College Parties Getting Hotter, Boozier

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=4086600&page=1

College Parties Getting Hotter, Boozier
Researchers Find Women Drinking More, Wearing Less at College Parties
By DAN CHILDS and AUDREY GRAYSON
ABC News Medical Unit
Jan. 7, 2008

One might say Megan Holmes was a regular on the southern California college party scene.

"Some nights we were out till 2 in the morning, but some were short," she said. "On average we went to at least three or four a night."

But amid the crowds of young women in revealing themed costumes and free-flowing kegs, Holmes may have been the only one at these alcohol-drenched gatherings without a drink in her hand. Instead, she carried a stack of clipboards and a Breathalyzer.

Holmes, who is now working on her doctoral degree at UCLA, was part of a team of researchers who sought to take the study of college drinking to the next level  by venturing inside a total of 66 college parties to see what was really going on. The research was published Thursday in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.

"It wasn't shocking to me because I had just graduated college so I had seen most of this stuff going on before," Holmes said. But she adds that there were some surprises.

"Most shocking to me was that women at themed parties kept dressing less and less," she said. "When I was in college there were themed parties, but I never saw girls just wearing lingerie or just a bra and panties, and that was pretty common at the themed parties I saw."

These observations - along with dozens of Breathalyzer readings and surveys completed on the scene by college partygoers - defied the typical methods of research on college drinking, which normally use questionnaires administered days or months after the bottles have been cleared and the music has stopped.

Parties Getting Wilder?

The researchers had some sobering findings, among them that revelers at smaller parties tended to drink more. This could be explained by simple mathematics; the fewer drinkers on hand, the more booze there is to go around, they said.

But lead study author John Clapp, director of the Center for Alcohol and Drug Studies and Services at San Diego State University, says the behavior of women drinkers at themed parties was particularly notable.

"One of [the] most surprising things to us was the theme-party finding that women drank more at these," he said. "We started going to theme parties like toga parties or costume parties, with highly sexualized themes and with the women wearing not very much."

"What was surprising was it was one of few places that we know of that women actually outdrank men; we're not exactly sure why. It could have something to do with fact that they aren't dressed."

Not everyone feels the findings are a surprise. As for whether young women drink more during sexualized theme parties, Peter True, a senior at Boston University, said, "Definitely. They have to be that faded to go out wearing those ridiculous clothes, I'm 100 percent sure."

"There's a direct inverse relationship between how revealing their theme is and how drunk they get," he told ABC News. "At lingerie parties they drink the most. & They have to drink more if they wear less because they have to lower their inhibitions to be seen wearing that out."

The findings of the study seem to point to a combination of sexually charged themes and the presence of alcohol - an interplay that seems to result in a daringly permissive atmosphere.

The results of the surveys that the partygoers completed as part of the study showed that while 61.3 percent of respondents reported being at the party to socialize, and 45 percent reported having fun as a main motivation, nearly 40 percent of all respondents said they were at the party to get drunk. More than 21 percent said they were there to try to meet a sexual partner.

And the graduate students involved with the research say they feel college parties could be getting even sexier - and less inhibited.

"The most surprising thing that I've seen was how sexualized the theme parties are, kind of like the way Halloween parties have changed, the kind of costumes girls wear now," said Julie Ketchie, a doctoral student researcher who is now working with Clapp on similar research. "There are these girls walking down the street, and you can see their butts hanging out of their skirts."

"The theme parties, it's kind of like 'Spring Break: Girls Gone Wild' all the time."

Drugs, Alcohol Ubiquitous Threats

Of course, not all of the gatherings the researchers attend are out-of-control, inebriated blowouts.

"Some parties can be chill - 10 to 15 people watching football game and it's a BYOB thing, versus a larger party where they have kegs and drinking games," Ketchie said.

But Clapp notes that at the most lively parties, the breath tests from some students showed that they were putting themselves at risk.

"The alcohol levels we got from Breathalyzer tests were fairly high; it would meet the definition of legally drunk at pretty much every stage," Clapp said. "We had a range, with some people really, really drunk."

Clapp and his team report that in the surveys completed by partygoers, 32 percent reported playing a drinking game, and more than 70 percent report having access to illicit drugs. While the researchers were only able to confirm the availability of illicit drugs at 12 percent of these parties, alcohol remained a major factor; nearly 90 percent of all of the party guests who took a Breathalyzer test were intoxicated, with average scores near 0.08 percent blood alcohol concentration.

And Clapp adds that the location of a party can often play a big part in how intoxicated its guests become. When drinking takes place at a bar, he says, the controlled nature of the establishment goes a long way in terms of keeping drinking behavior in check. But at house parties, discretion often goes out the window  a point to which college senior True can personally attest.

"People get pretty messed up at most places, but at bars there's actually a sort of limit to how much you can drink because of price, and good bartender will cut you off, whereas a good frat bro probably won't," he said.

And when it comes to this type of celebration, True says he believes young men and women are equally affected by alcohol-soaked parties.

"I think guys can at least on the whole hold more alcohol," he said. "But in terms of how drunk you're getting I'd say it's about even; you see a wrecked girl throwing up in [the] street and a bro passed out on the couch pretty equally."

The Science of Toga Parties

http://tierneylab.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/05/the-science-of-toga-parties/?em&ex=1199768400&en=983a4d0f8e61b755&ei=5087%0A

January 5, 2008
The Science of Toga Parties
By John Tierney

Tags: alcohol, anthropology

Field work can be hell. But thanks to the dogged researchers who attended 66 college parties in Southern California, now at last it can revealed:

Playing drinking games at a party leads to increased levels of alcohol in the bloodstream.

Fortunately, that wasn’t the only result of the investigation reported in the January issue of January issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research. The researchers say their fieldwork, which involved studying more than 1,300 people at parties, is an improvement over past studies that relied on people’s recollections of getting hammered. These researchers made observations at the parties and brought along equipment to test students’ blood-alcohol concentrations (BrACs). One of the authors, J.D. Clapp of San Diego State University, summarizes the findings:

Both individual behavior and the environment matter when it comes to student-drinking behavior. At the individual level, playing drinking games and having a history of binge drinking predicted higher BrACs. At the environmental level, having a lot of intoxicated people at a party and themed events predicted higher BrACs. One of the more interesting findings was that young women drank more heavily than males at themed events. It is rare to find any situation where women drink more than men, and these events tended to have sexualized themes and costumes.

The researchers say they’re planning to do further investigations of themed parties, and I hope they’ll consider letting a journalist accompany them (if necessary, I would go in costume). I don’t know why women would drink more at themed parties, but I do have a hypothesis: Could it be a coping mechanism for dealing with the sight of guys like John Belushi dressed in togas?

Ace Hoffman of SoCal Fires

rhoffman@animatedsoftware.com

October 25th, 2007

Dear Readers,

It's been four days since the fires started. Almost 750 square miles have burned this week in Southern California.

Almost all major roads are open today -- perhaps I should leave. But even in Phoenix, Arizona, nearly 400 miles away, the air quality is only "Moderate" right now.

The television news reporters can't remember what day it is any better than I can. And I learned something I didn't know about San Onofre Nuclear (Waste) Generating Station: It's already completely shut down for extended repairs.

My house is still closed up and the air cleaners are still running. The air is toxic throughout SoCal -- it's officially "unhealthy." There have been warnings on many different news stations to try to stay indoors.

The air in Los Angeles, 100 miles to the North, is even worse. Despite warnings, for the first time in four days I'm hearing, as I write this, children playing outside in the late afternoon sun. It must be so hard for them to have to stay in!

But the air is particularly toxic for children, because of the biological half-life of some of the chemicals everyone is breathing. HEPA filters remove approximately 99.97% of particles 0.3 microns or larger -- but there are TRILLIONS of particles in each cubic liter of air space. Even though HEPA technology was specifically designed (in the 1950s) for removing radioactive particles from nuclear research labs, HEPA filters are only partially effective. Particles smaller than about 0.3 microns go right through. That's one reason why things like radioactive Argon, Krypton, and Xenon are so dangerous -- because these are in the environment as individual atoms -- not as a large particle of dust, or even as molecules. You can't filter them out. If an accident occurs at a nuclear power plant, face masks and HEPA house filters will be virtually useless.

We opened a window for a few minutes today. I was planning to bring in a new house-full of air by putting the air cleaner right up to the window and drawing all the air directly through the filter, but it smelled just terrible out there. I'll bet a lot of the people who are outside in this can't tell when the smoke is gone, because when it goes down by half, they already think it's practically gone. And I'm sure I'm the only one in my apartment complex, out of 40 apartments, who has blocked off the doors with wet towels.

My inside air is polluted, of course, with plastics, artificial fabrics, electronic equipment and dust. I make sure to turn off the computer when I'm not using it. I leave at least one television on. I put new filters in two of the air cleaners on Tuesday, and plan to replace all the filters again next week. Most of the filters have color codes to compare a dirty one to a clean one, but I can't trust the codes because they assume dust will be one color and size and mixture, and it tends to be much lighter in color (and, I suspect, smaller) here. That means the filters get clogged before they match the color chart. I wonder if the same thing is happening at San Onofre? They might be venting radioactive waste during these wildfires! Yes, even while closed for repairs. Some of their fuel is extremely "hot" and if a fuel-movement operation is done poorly, we could have a radiological catastrophe piled on top of our wildfire-smoke catastrophe. Plus, some of their filters might be clogged with soot and ash right now, and are being bypassed or are simply ineffective. They wouldn't necessarily know, they wouldn't necessarily care, and they certainly wouldn't tell us.

We haven't lost power, but power lines, and a helicopter that was inspecting power lines, have both gone down. Nobody was hurt when the chopper went down, so it presumably was able to autorotate after an engine failure. The downing of power lines is still considered the cause of the first fire (the Witch Fire). Power lines can be placed underground, but then they are more likely to break in earthquakes and harder to repair if they do. Shorter runs between towers are less likely to snap, so the more frequent the towers, the better their resistance to earthquakes OR high winds. The taller the towers, the better their fire resistance, if the base is protected by a proper firebreak.

Almost half of the nearly 80 people reported injured so far are firefighters. A couple was found burned in their home, and four people were found burned to death in a camp that houses immigrant workers. That brings the official death toll in SoCal directly caused by the wildfires to seven.

This WILL happen again. Arsonists have promised it. High-wire transmission cables running through dry scrub brush and chaparral that isn't going to get any water any time soon have promised it. Global Warming (known as "Global Climate Change" to those who think it's just a reversible trend) IS happening. The brush and chaparral will grow like crazy during the "good" years. After growing wildly during a wet year, then, during the dry years, it drys out. Then, after a few dry years, during a Santa Ana, the arsonists will come out, and the power lines will come down.

According to Fox News, the ongoing wildfires have already released 90,000,000 tons of greenhouse gases into the earth's atmosphere, equivalent, they say, to three months of emissions from California's vehicles. Satellite images show the smoke going more than 800 miles out to sea. Then the smoke will be blown back towards us over and over for days.

Because the smoke particles are so small, many of them will spread globally. The 1600 homes and 1000 other buildings destroyed were filled with plastics and heavy metals (computers, for example, use a lot of these) so the global assault is much more toxic than "just" firewood, although there is a lot of that, too, being deposited in the air.

The reason both reactors at San Onofre are down right now is that they are undergoing costly and long-term remodeling so they can operate for two more decades. The big repair operation has started, but most of the money has yet to be spent.

THE TIME REALLY IS ***NOW** TO SHUTTER SAN ONOFRE FOREVER!

It could save trillions of dollars later. That's Trillions, with a T.

Shutting San Onofre will hardly cost California a thing. Since the project was a crime to begin with, the builders and operators should pay. The federal, state, and local officials who approved these things should be brought to trial for crimes against humanity -- like a Nuremberg Trial. How much did they know and how much did they just let slip by, without thinking?

The nuclear workers should be re-employed as renewable energy designers and builders, and they should NOT be allowed to make any more nuclear waste ever again.

Billions would be saved by an IMMEDIATE stoppage of all "repair" work at San Onofre. They call it "enhancements," "improvements," even "uprating" and "extending," but 99% of the work is the repair and replacement of worn-out parts. Tons -- literally TONS -- of pages of their manuals have to be replaced, each one by hand. (I wonder what the error rate is, and how long before the average missing or misplaced page is needed.) They are replacing steam generators, motors, pipes, pumps, valves, controls for valves, cables for the controls for the valves, holding tanks, surge protectors, and even a few light-switches.

I received an email from Australia regarding yesterday's newsletter. One of my subscribers there found the essay on a local (Australia) news media web site. I also heard from India, asking if we had a word like "Genpatsu-Shinsai" (the Japanese word which describes a meltdown during an earthquake) for a meltdown during ANY ongoing disaster: Wildfires like today, tsunamis, earthquakes, asteroids from space, terrorism, human stupidity, human error, poor design, poor construction -- whatever.

Yes, we have such a word. It's: "INEVITABLE." A meltdown is INEVITABLE if we keep running along the edge of disaster. It will happen, one way or another, sooner or later.

If we keep San Onofre open, a meltdown becomes inevitable over time. If we close San Onofre, a catastrophic accident is STILL possible, but MUCH less likely.

The cut in the number of employees would guarantee that fewer NUT-CASES will find their way into the plant. The employees would have vastly less ACCESS to "things which can cause the plant to fail" such as Control Rooms or red-hot reactors with half a million gallons of water racing through their primary and secondary coolant loops each minute, and 20 billion gallons per day going through the open-loop tertiary system. A failure at ANY of these phases can quickly lead to a nuclear disaster -- without time to evacuate. By shutting the plant down, the three main coolant loops, and thousands of other "choke-points," will be rendered irrelevant, and even when there is an accident, it is more likely to develop slowly so, people have time to escape.

San Onofre's owners have committed fraud for year after year. Yesterday they got the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to claim that San Onofre was safe during the Horno fire -- which continues to burn, but fortunately, winds have tended to be light and AWAY from the plant. As of a few hours ago, the Horno fire was about 40% "contained" and had burned 17,000 acres, and according to the Reuters article shown below was always "miles" from the nuclear reactor facility. They include administrative buildings on the East side of I-5 in the report shown below, to make it sound like the reactor has a lot of developed land between it and the flaming embers. But those embers can get picked up tornado-fashion and then be deposited in a "rain of fire" (the phrase was used by a witness to a sudden flair-up recently) on San Onofre. Thousands of clumps of red-hot embers could engulf the reactor grounds IN SECONDS, and the reactor ONLY has the STANDARD fire crew on-hand -- everyone else is "on call" but the plant would need WALL TO WALL FIRE TRUCKS to protect against a fire-storm's assault. And don't forget that fire trucks catch fire sometimes, too, and if one is burning, the one next to it can catch fire too, especially when the fuel tanks explode.

So really, despite any claim to the contrary by Mr. Dricks (who is a paid proponent of nuclear power, not a fire expert), San Onofre was -- and still is -- in grave danger.

SHUT SAN ONOFRE DOWN TODAY.

We don't need it. We're not even using it in our hour of need -- because just when it's supposedly needed -- during some other disaster -- they had yet another "planned" shutdown! This fire season was as predictable as dirt.

Dictator Bush came to San Diego for a photo-op today. The press announces that absolutely no fire aircraft will by rerouted or inconvenienced by the visit. But it turns out not to be true. One intrepid reporter points out that fire crews had to drag "a thousand feet of hose" straight up the side of a rugged mountain (which means: No escape if the winds suddenly change) specifically because water drop helicopters could not encroach on the President's personal air space (aka "exclusion zone").

When the dictator's 747 took off, it raised a huge cloud of toxic particulate matter. The stuff we're all supposed to mist down and scrape up.

Next week, a hundred thousand yard workers will raise an even bigger cloud with leaf-blowers, brooms, etc., despite repeated admonitions not to disrupt the dust that way.

One wonders how many Curies of radioactive particles San Onofre has deposited on the hills of San Diego during the 35 years it's been operating -- millions and millions.

What was not deposited in people's lungs the first time it drifted away from the plant has been given a second chance to get into our bodies.

Like the debris from a nuclear power plant, debris from nuclear bombs can ALSO get through ANY filter -- such as the bombs King George is threatening Iran with (and Iran is frantically trying to build, so they can threaten us back). Dust from Depleted Uranium weapons gets past HEPA filters too, and even though the particles are "heavy metals" they are light enough to get lofted miles into the air, and then be transported all over the planet.

Because uranium, plutonium, thorium, and most other radioactive elements are extremely reactive (corrosive), radioactive particles contribute to global warming in numerous ways, in addition to the fossil fuels used in the "nuclear fuel cycle" to fabricate parts, extract the uranium, transport materials, and so on.

It's time for a change. Our lives are at stake.

Sincerely,

Ace Hoffman
Breathing particulate matter in:
Carlsbad, CA
=============================================
Dricks' tricks won't fix SONGS' wrongs:
=============================================
SUBJECT: California nuclear reactors not in fire danger:
Wed Oct 24, 2007 7:19pm EDT
By Bernie Woodall

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Southern California wildfires moved closer on Wednesday to two nuclear reactors at the giant San Onofre electrical plant in San Diego County, but were not seen threatening operations, officials said.

"The fire does not pose a threat to the plant itself," said Gil Alexander, spokesman for Southern California Edison. Separately, officials from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission confirmed Alexander's assessment.

The fires raging in northern San Diego County on a U.S. Marine base were about a mile from the inland edge of the San Onofre complex but were still several miles from the reactors.

But even if flames approach the reactors, there is little danger a blaze will reach them because they are surrounded by acres of concrete, officials said.

"There might be a little brush but there is not much fuel for a fire," said NRC spokesman Victor Dricks. "There aren't many trees in the area."

SCE's San Onofre fire department, as well as the fire department from the Camp Pendleton Marine base, "conducted a controlled burn Wednesday to reduce fuel on the inland side of Interstate 5, should the fire reach that point. It is still a mile or more on the other side of a hill," said Alexander.

The San Onofre nuclear reactors are situated between Interstate 5 and the Pacific Ocean.

Wildfires have burned more than 1,000 homes in San Diego County, prompting the largest evacuations in state history and causing damages that are expected to surpass $1 billion.

Neither San Onofre reactor is currently operating due to maintenance work that began before the fires sparked on Sunday. Maintenance continued Wednesday and would not change the plant's schedule for returning to production, Alexander said.

TRANSMISSION CONCERN

The fire is less a threat to the plant than it is to massive power transmission lines that run to and from it, said the NRC's Dricks.

Nuclear power plants need electricity from outside to run essential safety systems and operate huge pumps that move hundreds of thousands of gallons of water used to cool the reactor even when its not operating, said Dricks.

If power lines to San Onofre cease operation -- an event that was not expected on Wednesday -- backup generators are on site that can run the cooling water pumps.

Transmission lines to San Diego Gas & Electric's service area, which lies mainly to the south of the plant, were out of service Wednesday. Lines to the north and into SCE service area are working and not in danger from fires, Alexander said.

The two reactors at San Onofre can generate about 2,250 megawatts of power, enough to serve about 1.4 million homes.

San Diego Gas & Electric, which owns 20 percent of San Onofre and therefore owns 20 percent of the power generated there, had not returned phone calls Wednesday to determine whether the lines from San Onofre to its service area to the south of the plant were working.

SDG&E is owned by San Diego-based Sempra Energy. Southern California Edison is owned by Edison International, based in Rosemead in suburban Los Angeles.

© Reuters 2006. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by caching, framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.
Reuters journalists are subject to the Reuters Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests.

Contact information for "Ace""
*************************************************
** THE ANIMATED SOFTWARE COMPANY
** Russell "Ace" Hoffman, Owner & Chief Programmer
** P.O. Box 1936, Carlsbad CA 92018-1936
** (800) 551-2726 (U.S. & Canada)
** (760) 720-7261 (elsewhere)
** www.animatedsoftware.com
*************************************************