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To all, please promote the Luau it support's our post

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 17:10:43 +0000

To all, please promote the Luau it support's our post, send this flier to you friends, Try to attend.

LUAU 4342 West Ave. L, Quartz Hill (661)943-2225

THE QUARTZ HILL VFW POST 3000 IS HAVING ITS ANNUAL LUAU ON SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2010. DINNER IS 4PM TO 6PM SERVING PORK & BRISKET PLUS SIDE DISHES. (TICKETS FOR DINNER ARE $8.00)

THERE IS A SILENT AUCTIONS FOR AIRLINE TICKETS, VACATION IN CANCUN, MEXICO,
LAUGHLIN STAY 3 DAYS AND 2 NIGHTS AND A RAFFLE FOR OTHER GREAT PRIZES.

THE BAND “FLASHBACK” WILL BEGIN AT 6PM AND PLAY UNTIL???

DRESS FOR THE EVENT OR DRESS CASUAL,
YOUR CHOICE.

THE LUAU IS OUR BIGGEST FUNDRAISER OF THE YEAR. WE USE THE FUNDS FROM THE LUAU ARE USED TO : “assist needy veterans and their widows and children, organize memorial services for deceased veterans and promote patriotism. We work with our community to make this a better place to live.”

YOU WILL HAVE FUN, ITS OUR BEST PARTY OF THE YEAR. COME AND ENJOY OUR NEW PATIO!

This video should be seen by every American -

Thank you veterans!

"If" George Bush were an idiot

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 15:29:03 +0000

If George Bush was an idiot...

If George W. Bush had doubled the national debt, which had taken more than two centuries to accumulate, in one year, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had then proposed to double the debt again within 10 years, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had criticized a state law that he admitted he never even read, would you think that he is just an ignorant hot head?

If George W. Bush joined the country of Mexico and sued a state in the United States to force that state to continue to allow illegal immigration, would you question his patriotism and wonder who's side he was on?

If George W. Bush had put 87000 workers out of work by arbitrarily placing a moratorium onoffshore oil drilling on companies that have one of the best safety records of any industry because one company had an accident would you have agreed?

If George W. Bush had used a forged document as the basis of the moratorium that would render 87000 American workers unemployed would you support him?

If George W. Bush had been the first President to need a TelePrompTer installed to be able to get through a press conference, would you have laughed and said this is more proof of how inept he is on his own and is really controlled by smarter men behind the scenes?

If George W. Bush had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to take Laura Bush to a play in NYC, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had reduced your retirement plan's holdings of GM stock by 90% and given the unions a majority stake in GM, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had made a joke at the expense of the Special Olympics, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had given Gordon Brown a set of inexpensive and incorrectly formatted DVDs, when Gordon Brown had given him a thoughtful and historically significant gift, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had given the Queen of England an iPod containing videos of his speeches, would you have thought this embarrassingly narcissistic and tacky?

If George W. Bush had bowed to the King of Saudi Arabia , would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had visited Austria and made reference to the nonexistent "Austrian language," would you have brushed it off as a minor slip?

If George W. Bush had filled his cabinet and circle of advisers with people who cannot seem to keep current in their income taxes, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had stated that there were 57 states in theUnited States , would you have said that he is clueless.

If George W. Bush would have flown all the way to Denmark to make a five minute speech about how the Olympics would benefit him walking out his front door in Texas , would you havethought he was a self important, conceited, egotistical jerk.

If George W. Bush had been so Spanish illiterate as to refer to "Cinco de Cuatro" in front of the Mexican ambassador when it was the 5th of May (Cinco de Mayo), and continued to flub it when he tried again, would you have winced in embarrassment?

If George W. Bush had misspelled the word "advice" would you have hammered him for it for years like Dan Quayle and potatoes as proof of what a dunce he is?

If George W. Bush had burned 9,000 gallons of jet fuel to go plant a single tree on Earth Day, would you have concluded he's a hypocrite?

If George W. Bush's administration had okayed Air Force One flying low over millions of people followed by a jet fighter in downtown Manhattan causing widespread panic, would you have wondered whether they actually get what happened on 9-11?

If George W. Bush had failed to send relief aid to flood victims throughout the Midwest with more people killed or made homeless than in New Orleans , would you want it made into a major ongoing political issue with claims of racism and incompetence?

If George W. Bush had created the position of 32 Czars who report directly to him, bypassing the House and Senate on much of what is happening in America , would you have approved.

If George W. Bush had ordered the firing of the CEO of a major corporation, even though he had no constitutional authority to do so, would you have approved?

So, tell me again, what is it about Obama that makes him so brilliant and impressive? Can't think of anything? Don't worry. He's done all this in 15 months -- so you'll have two years and nine months to come up with an answer.

Every statement in this email is factual and directly attributable to Barrack Hussein Obama. Every bumble is a matter of record and completely verifiable.

LET'S SEE HOW MANY OF YOU FORWARD THIS...

Mile long sniper shots Iraq

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 17:31:37 +0000

Verizon - new customers get lost

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 17:20:38 +0000

Recently I tried to add internet service to the ranch. I was told there is no way to know for sure if I can get it until I connect a phone line. All of my adjacent neighbors had it so I though for sure I would. I added a phone line and then proceeded to attempt to get internet through it. They said no way, we're not adding any more new internet connections to your area (far West Antelope Valley/Neenach). I complained to the public utilities commission about this. If they're going to give Verizon a exclusive concession to service our area, then they should service our area or get out. Has anybody else come across this situation? It is my understanding that it is a new/recent phenomenon. I have been wondering if they might have gotten wind that 4G is around the corner and they just don't want to invest to add any more land line capacity? Someone else told me that they sometimes shut down new capacity when they know they will install FIOS. I wish that was the reason. Does anybody know what's going on inside Verizon Lancaster? Has anybody else run across this and if so is there any advice you can offer on how to proceed to get internet access from Verizon?

Inside the AVRCD

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 14:45:01 +0000

Copied from Topix

miracle man
Lancaster, CA
#1
Tuesday Jul 27

Inside the AVRCD
Antelope Valley Resource Conservation District president Kathleen burr has a reputation of missing AVRCD meetings and of being nasty and abrupt to the public. She has accused the public of “stalking” her because someone revealed her secret AVRCD/Dustbuster meetings.
Kathleen has missed over forty percent of the meeting’s in the last two years.
Kathleen has hired her gardener Manny Gonzales as an AVRCD nursery employee. no public disclosure. He covers her gardening and other needs on the weekends. No public disclosure of outside relationship..
Kathleen has hired her niece (?) Debra Gillis as AVRCD executive director. Despite freedom of information requests. Kathleen will not disclose any relationship. Stating that it is no one’s business
.
*AVRCD financials list a contract worker getting anywhere from $3,000 to $6,000 a month. According to the IRS code and the CCR's a contract worker is not to use your equipment, NOT give direction to employees, and not have anything to do with the running of an entity and is to be separated from the daily running of the business. If any of these criteria is not met then this is considered an employee and taxes shall be extracted as payroll taxes..
Then why is Debra Gillis Listed as an Executive Director (Source: letter head), does she get 1099ed, Why does she get bonuses. Why does she get paid for holidays. and why according to your Financials is she double dipping.(Source: various financial statements)
*Debra Gillis seems to have some idea of how to do her job, but spends most of her time protecting sister Danette and doing Danette’s work. Debra is paid $30.00 per hour..
Kathleen has hired another niece (sister of Debra Gillis) Danette Gordon as business manager. Again despite freedom of information requests, Kathleen will not disclose ant relationship saying that it is no ones business.
*Danette Gordon was hired without a vote of the board and the job was listed obscure internet location that wasn’t public domain.
*Danette Gordon has no apparent education, training, or business experience
. Danette spends very little time at the AVRCD office and stays at home while on the clock. Kathleen keeps Danette’s pay secret but Danette makes about $30.00 an hour.
*Danette has made complaints against workers at the AVRCD bank ( B-of-A) and accounting agency (Berky and Cox) saying that the workers were “mean” and they made her “stomach hurt.” stomach troubles seem to be an issue with Danette.
*Mr. Gordon (unemployed handyman and husband of Danette) kathleen has hired to repair buildings after Danette said she supposedly advertised on the internet and found none were qualified as her very own husband, this despite the bad economy and thousands of unemployed in the A.V. valley. Danette did not show the AVRCD board any applications or bids besides her husbands. No internet ads made by Danette for work have been found.(Interesting that his bid was the exact amount of the project budget.)

The Government's New Right to Track Your Every Move With GPS

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 14:21:03 +0000

The Government's New Right to Track Your Every Move With GPS

Buzz up!40 votes

By ADAM COHEN
Government agents can sneak onto your property in the middle of the night, put a GPS device on the bottom of your car and keep track of everywhere you go. This doesn't violate your Fourth Amendment rights, because you do not have any reasonable expectation of privacy in your own driveway - and no reasonable expectation that the government isn't tracking your movements.

That is the bizarre - and scary - rule that now applies in California and eight other Western states. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which covers this vast jurisdiction, recently decided the government can monitor you in this way virtually anytime it wants - with no need for a search warrant. (Read about one man's efforts to escape the surveillance state.)

It is a dangerous decision - one that, as the dissenting judges warned, could turn America into the sort of totalitarian state imagined by George Orwell. It is particularly offensive because the judges added insult to injury with some shocking class bias: the little personal privacy that still exists, the court suggested, should belong mainly to the rich.

This case began in 2007, when Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents decided to monitor Juan Pineda-Moreno, an Oregon resident who they suspected was growing marijuana. They snuck onto his property in the middle of the night and found his Jeep in his driveway, a few feet from his trailer home. Then they attached a GPS tracking device to the vehicle's underside.

After Pineda-Moreno challenged the DEA's actions, a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit ruled in January that it was all perfectly legal. More disturbingly, a larger group of judges on the circuit, who were subsequently asked to reconsider the ruling, decided this month to let it stand. (Pineda-Moreno has pleaded guilty conditionally to conspiracy to manufacture marijuana and manufacturing marijuana while appealing the denial of his motion to suppress evidence obtained with the help of GPS.)

In fact, the government violated Pineda-Moreno's privacy rights in two different ways. For starters, the invasion of his driveway was wrong. The courts have long held that people have a reasonable expectation of privacy in their homes and in the "curtilage," a fancy legal term for the area around the home. The government's intrusion on property just a few feet away was clearly in this zone of privacy.

The judges veered into offensiveness when they explained why Pineda-Moreno's driveway was not private. It was open to strangers, they said, such as delivery people and neighborhood children, who could wander across it uninvited. (See the misadventures of the CIA.)

Chief Judge Alex Kozinski, who dissented from this month's decision refusing to reconsider the case, pointed out whose homes are not open to strangers: rich people's. The court's ruling, he said, means that people who protect their homes with electric gates, fences and security booths have a large protected zone of privacy around their homes. People who cannot afford such barriers have to put up with the government sneaking around at night.

Judge Kozinski is a leading conservative, appointed by President Ronald Reagan, but in his dissent he came across as a raging liberal. "There's been much talk about diversity on the bench, but there's one kind of diversity that doesn't exist," he wrote. "No truly poor people are appointed as federal judges, or as state judges for that matter." The judges in the majority, he charged, were guilty of "cultural elitism."

The court went on to make a second terrible decision about privacy: that once a GPS device has been planted, the government is free to use it to track people without getting a warrant. There is a major battle under way in the federal and state courts over this issue, and the stakes are high. After all, if government agents can track people with secretly planted GPS devices virtually anytime they want, without having to go to a court for a warrant, we are one step closer to a classic police state - with technology taking on the role of the KGB or the East German Stasi.

Fortunately, other courts are coming to a different conclusion from the Ninth Circuit's - including the influential U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. That court ruled, also this month, that tracking for an extended period of time with GPS is an invasion of privacy that requires a warrant. The issue is likely to end up in the Supreme Court.
In these highly partisan times, GPS monitoring is a subject that has both conservatives and liberals worried. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit's pro-privacy ruling was unanimous - decided by judges appointed by Presidents Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

Plenty of liberals have objected to this kind of spying, but it is the conservative Chief Judge Kozinski who has done so most passionately. "1984 may have come a bit later than predicted, but it's here at last," he lamented in his dissent. And invoking Orwell's totalitarian dystopia where privacy is essentially nonexistent, he warned: "Some day, soon, we may wake up and find we're living in Oceania."

Cohen, a lawyer, is a former TIME writer and a former member of the New York Times editorial board

Road Rage 101

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 20:48:47 +0000

Road Rage 101

Gas prices

Sun, 22 Aug 2010 17:03:40 +0000

Gas prices.com

PICTURES FROM LONDON--Behead those who slander Islam

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 14:55:31 +0000

PICTURES FROM LONDON ....

Makes you wonder doesn't it...can you imagine having a Christian demonstration against Islam in downtown Baghdad ?

View the pictures below and decide how you really feel about the future of the Western World. These pictures are of Muslims marching through the STREETS OF LONDON during their 'Religion of Peace Demonstration.'

Why would anyone think that we should be at war with such nice, peaceful Muslims?!
You need to forward this one to everyone! These pictures tell it all!
Muslims have stated that England will be the first country they take over!
These are pictures not shown on American TV or in American Newspapers , but were forwarded by a Canadian who thought All Christians ought to know.

Mass Muslim Marriage in Gaza - UNBELIEVEABLE!!!!!

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 14:49:00 +0000

And I am supposed to be tolerant of this.????? Not in this lifetime.

This is really messed up.

Mass Muslim Marriage in Gaza - UNBELIEVEABLE!!!!!

It's sad to think about those who are born into the Muslim religion... Obama was raised as a Muslim and I definitely feel sorry for him for that reason.

Mass Muslim Marriage in Gaza

Poor kids - what a terrible fate to be born as a girl in a Muslim country

Muhammed married a six year old bride. But Islam has evolved in 1500 years. In Hamas land, in 2009, the brides are almost seven.

Mass Muslim Marriage in Gaza

450 Grooms Wed GIRLS Under Ten In Gaza
By Paul L. Williams, Ph.D.
Thelastcrusade.org

A gala event has occurred in Gaza .

Hamas sponsored a mass wedding for four hundred and fifty couples.
Most of the grooms were in their mid to late twenties; most of brides were under ten.

Muslim dignitaries including Mahmud Zahar, a leader of Hamas, were on hand to congratulate the couples who took part in the carefully staged celebration.

We are saying to the world and to America that you cannot deny us joy and happiness, Zahar told the grooms, all of whom were dressed in identical black suits and hailed from the nearby Jabalia refugee camp.

Each groom received a gift of 500 dollars from Hamas.

The pre-pubescent girls, dressed in white gowns and adorned with garish make-up, received bridal bouquets.

We are presenting this wedding as a gift to our people who stood firm in the face of the siege and the war, Local Hamas strongman Ibrahim Salaf said in a speech.

The wedding photos tell the rest of the sordid tale.

The International Center for Research on Women now estimates that there are 51 million child brides now living on planet earth and almost all in Muslim countries.

Twenty-nine percent of these child brides are regularly beaten and molested by their husbands in Egypt ; twenty six percent receive similar abuse in Jordan .

Every year, three million Muslim girls are subjected to genital mutilation, according to UNICEF. This practice has not been outlawed in many parts of America .

Charlie O'Loughlin for Water Board 2010

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 14:09:16 +0000

Charlie O'Loughlin for Water Board 2010

Sempra Energy Rosamond Project

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 13:28:57 +0000

Generation

Sempra Generation provides power to key wholesale electricity markets in North America.

The company owns and operates power plants which are among the cleanest and most advanced in the western United States. These plants use clean-burning natural gas to produce electricity that is sold to utilities, power marketers and large energy users.

Sempra Generation also develops renewable energy generation projects.

Learn more about the company, the management and the projects.

Download Fact Sheet

Rosamond Project overview

Draft Environmental impact report

Rosamond Permitting

About Sempra Energy

About Solar Power 101

100 - 200 MW Photovoltaic Solar Project

• Pre-certified eligible for California's Renewables Portfolio Standard August 2009
• Submitted proposals to California Electric Utilities in response to August 2009 RFOs for renewable energy resources
• Permitting Status
• Filed Kern County permit applications for General & Specific Plan Amendment, Zoning Change, Conditional Use Permit and Easement Vacation in January 2010
• Conducted environmental surveys and studies, addressing biological/habitat, cultural resources, geotechnical, drainage, noise, air quality and greenhouse gas emissions
• Kern County is the lead agency for the CEQA process
• Kern County issued its Draft EIR on July 16, 2010
http://www.co.kern.ca.us/plannin-q/pdfs/...osamondSGS 00 cvr-toc.pdf
• Public comments are requested by August 24, 2010
• Kern County Planning Commission hearing scheduled for September 9, 2010

Rosamond Solar Contact Information

SGS Antelope Valley Development, LLC c/o Sempra Generation 101 Ash Street, HQ-14A San Diego, CA 92101-3017

Local (661) 456-4529
Toll-Free (877) SEMPRA1 or (877) 736-7721

Rosamond Solar@SempraGeneration.com

www.semprageneration.com/rosamond.htm

Crews battle blaze in race to save homes in Palmdale, Leona Valley

Sun, 15 Aug 2010 02:05:40 +0000

Crews battle blaze in race to save homes in Palmdale, Leona Valley
Daily News Wire Services
Posted: 07/30/2010 0900 AM PDT

A house catches on fire from a fast moving wildfire on Thursday, July 29, 2010 in Leona Valley. About 2,000 homes in the community of Leona Valley and parts of Palmdale areas were under evacuation Friday, according to Los Angeles County Fire. (AP Photo AP/Dave Mills)

PALMDALE — Hundreds of firefighters worked Friday to keep an 8,000- acre wildfire from reaching homes in the west Palmdale and Leona Valley areas.

A forecast high around 98 degrees with breezy conditions in the Palmdale area Friday was expected to pose a challenge for crews on the fire lines. Firefighter safety was to be a top priority during briefings this morning.

"We're looking at winds from 15 to 25 miles per hour, with local gusts to 35," National Weather Service meteorologist Todd Hall said.

The Crown Fire broke out about 2:20 p.m. Thursday, sent flames leaping 50 feet at times overnight, and prompted evacuations of more than 2,000 people in Leona Valley, Anaverde, and Rancho Vista.

A command post was established at Pelona Vista Park, where media briefings were conducted. At the 7:30 a.m. briefing, Los Angeles county fire Deputy Chief Michael Bryant, who is the incident commander, said the fire had grown to 8,000 acres, and was considered about 5 percent contained.

About 750 firefighting personnel were assigned to the effort to extinguish the flames, Bryant said.

Winds gusting to 25 mph helped fan the flames. Firefighters also were facing high temperatures and low relative humidity, he said.

Bryant said firefighters were working to protect major power lines in the area that serve Southern California. He said aircraft were being brought in Friday, including a DC-10 airplane.

The cause of the fire was under investigation, but it could have been sparked by "workers at the area of the origin yesterday in Agua Dulce ... working on a tire rim to remove that rim," Bryant said.

Several structures were damaged near Elizabeth Lake Road, including three single-wide trailers, a single-family home, two garages, an "unknown" building, three outbuildings and a hay barn, Bryant said.

Bryant said some "communication infrastructures" were damaged, such as antennas and electronic repeater dishes, but communication capabilities for the firefighting effort were not affected, he said.

"A fire of this magnitude is generating its own environment, with winds to 20 miles per hour," Los Angeles County Fire Department Inspector Matt Levesque said earlier. "Fifty-foot flames are not out of the ordinary."

Two firefighters sustained "very minor" injuries during the Crown Fire, an L.A. County fire captain in Agua Dulce said.

No mandatory evacuations were ordered, a sheriff's department official said.

Carmela Burke of the American Red Cross said about 200 evacuees were at Agua Dulce Elementary School in Agua Dulce and Marie Kerr Recreation Center in Palmdale.

Burke said early Friday county officials told her a total of more than 4,000 people in the Palmdale area were asked to evacuate their homes.

The evacuation information was sent out by reverse 911, county fire officials said.

Southern California Edison had crews standing by, waiting for clearance to go into burned areas, Edison spokeswoman Cathy Hart said.

"We had an estimated 10 to 15 distribution poles down on Elizabeth Lake Road," Hart said. "We might have localized outages in the fire area, but they're not confirmed."

No significant damage to transmission towers had been reported, Hart said, noting the fire moved across a major transmission corridor in the Leona Valley area.

"Those lines were de-energized Thursday evening, to reduce danger to firefighters," Hart said. "De-energizing the lines did not cause outages."

Pilots and crew for four tanker planes, two Skycrane helicopters, as well as county and city fire helicopter crews were assigned to the firefighting effort.

Most firefighting aircraft were grounded overnight with the exception of immediate structure protection and life safety needs, Levesque said. A Firehawk helicopter crew deployed several times through the night along Elizabeth Lake Road to make periodic drops, Levesque said.

The county's Firehawk is a combat Blackhawk helicopter converted for firefighting.

Fire departments, dispatchers, and firefighters across the Southland were being advised Friday to check with their battalion commanders and their e- mail for information about relief staffing plans for the Crown Fire.

A spot forecast for the Crown Fire near Palmdale issued by the National Weather Service called for an upper level ridge to bring low humidities and warm temperatures to the burn areas Friday.

Eye-level winds were expected to be generally southwest and gusty up to 20 miles per hour, with winds stronger over ridge tops. Although humidity levels made moderate recovery overnight, they were expected to fall back below 20 percent later Friday.

Lancaster pushes ahead with solar energy

Sun, 15 Aug 2010 02:02:26 +0000

Lancaster pushes ahead with solar energy
By Kevin Modesti, Staff Writer
Posted: 07/12/2010 07-00 PM PDT

One of the many solar panels that will be going up at Jet Hawk stadium to announce details of “Solar Lancaster," a partnership with Solar City to make solar power a more viable option for residents and businesses. (Photo by Gene Blevins/LA Daily News)

Happily sharing an outdoor stage with the High Desert sun, city officials and alternative-power executives on Monday announced an effort to make Lancaster a green-energy trailblazer by offering what they call affordable solar energy to Antelope Valley homeowners and businesses.

The "Solar Lancaster" program, an agreement between Lancaster and Foster City-based SolarCity, is described as one of the nation's first public-private alternative-energy partnerships.

It is expected to be formalized at a Lancaster City Council meeting Tuesday night.

In a news conference held on a 90-degree morning under appropriately sunny sky at home plate of Lancaster's minor-league ballpark, Mayor R. Rex Parris and a local Toyota dealer signed contracts to become Solar Lancaster's first residential and commercial customers, respectively.

"You have to be a dummy not to do this," Parris said with a laugh, citing the potential for residents to achieve long-term savings on electricity costs through discounts, federal tax credits and utility rebates.

Monday's event came two months after Lancaster announced a deal with SolarCity to install solar-energy equipment at six city-owned buildings - including City Hall, the performing arts center and Clear Channel Stadium - under a power-purchase agreement expected to save the city $7 million in 15 years.

And it preceded the scheduled unveiling today in Lancaster of an energy-efficient "home of the future" model, product of a partnership among the city, KB Home and China-based technology and electric-car manufacturer BYD.

Under the plan, homeowners and businesses would install solar panels on their properties to generate their own electricity.

Lancaster, a north Los Angeles County town of about 145,000, wants to be known as the Alternative Energy Capital of the World.

"The goal is to produce more energy ... than we consume," Parris said. "I want to be the first city that does that, for a lot of reasons. One is bragging rights. But two, the cost of energy is going to be so astronomical in the future that the cities that are able to do that will have a competitive advantage.

"When I first set out to accomplish that, I didn't think it was possible - I thought I was talking out of my butt a little bit. Now, for the first time, I realize it's not only possible, it's doable today."

Proponents say Lancaster is an ideal place to try.

The city's much-touted 300 days of sunshine a year create both a problem - high air-conditioning costs - and a partial solution - plentiful solar power.

Economic Development/Redevelopment Director Vern Lawson said the city's solid finances allow the council to pursue "progressive" projects.

Also, with a 17 percent unemployment rate, Lancaster could use the jobs solar-energy projects might create.

Alternative-energy initiatives are more often associated with liberal politicians, while the Antelope Valley is better known for conservative leadership. Parris angered non-Christians in January when he said Lancaster is "growing a Christian community." The city faces a lawsuit against its policy of opening government meetings with sectarian prayers.

But Parris said Lancaster's interest in promoting solar power should be no surprise.

"Words like `conservative' are just words. We're a community of faith. But we're also a community of science," Parris said in an interview, alluding to the roles of Edwards Air Force Base and the local aerospace industry in the space program.

The solar program, Parris said in the news conference, "is an example of what happens when government partners with business with the goal of creating something magnificent instead of being an obstacle."

City officials and SolarCity executives said they're working together to simplify the process of going solar by handling permit and rebate paperwork for customers.

Jim Hawse, owner of Sierra Toyota in Lancaster, said he was a skeptic about solar power but it made sense when he looked for ways to cut electricity cost at his expanded dealership.

Hawse said current federal and Southern California Edison rebates will halve what would have been a $2.4 million price to install 2,800 solar panels on the dealership and parking-structure roofs. He said after paying off the price in five to seven years, his electricity costs will shrink to zero from $15,000-20,000 a month.

UCLA Professor J.R. DeShazo, an expert on environmental policy, regulation and economics, said Lancaster's effort to push solar power could entice customers because of rising electricity rates and communities' interest in reducing reliance on unrenewable resources.

"I think anytime a local government is trying to make businesses aware of innovative energy technologies that can lower their cost and also lower local utilites' peak-period demand, that's a good thing," DeShazo said.

SolarCity said the program offers a discounted cash price and financing options. The cash price for a residential project would typically range from $7,500 to $30,000. In a three-bedroom house with an electricity bill of $200 a month, a new solar system would generate enough electricity to cut the bill to about $60.

SolarCity said it will give a $500 cash bonus to each customer if the program gets more than 50 participants by Sept. 30.

The company has set up a Lancaster office to run the program.

Information is available at solarlancaster.org.

Teen charged as adult in 11-year-old girl's fatal stabbing in Littlerock

Sun, 15 Aug 2010 01:58:30 +0000

Teen charged as adult in 11-year-old girl's fatal stabbing in Littlerock
Daily News Wire Services
Posted: 08/05/2010 0333 PM PDT

LANCASTER — A 16-year-old boy accused of fatally stabbing an 11-year-old girl and critically wounding her 14-year-old sister in the high desert community of Littlerock was charged today as an adult.

Lonnie Liner is scheduled to be arraigned Aug. 12 in Lancaster Superior Court on one count each of murder and attempted murder, along with the allegation that he used a knife in the commission of the crime.

The teen is accused of attacking Dahial Lanarus, who was pronounced dead by paramedics sent to a home in the 10300 block of East Avenue R-14 about 7:45 a.m. Tuesday.

The girl's sister was critically wounded.

Authorities said the teenage suspect was arrested near the crime scene later the same day.

Man sentenced for crossbow murder of former NASA employee

Sun, 15 Aug 2010 01:56:35 +0000

Man sentenced for crossbow murder of former NASA employee
Daily News Staff and Wire Services
Posted: 08/05/2010 02033 PM PDT

LANCASTER — An ex-convict who killed a retired Edwards Air Force Base employee with a crossbow in a random attack was sentenced today to life in prison.

Arseller Curtis Scott, 39, killed Angel Martinez, 62, on March 13, 2008.

Martinez was taking an evening walk when he was hit "square in the heart" by an arrow in a "completely random" attack at Avenue K and 13th Street East, Deputy District Attorney Ryan Williams said after the June 7 verdict.

"They had nothing to do with one another," the prosecutor said of the defendant and the victim, adding that Scott had "gotten into an argument with what is essentially his stepdaughter" before the killing and then "went out and murdered a random stranger."

Along with Martinez's murder, jurors convicted Scott of vandalism and dissuading a witness involving a separate crime on June 8, 2008. The jury acquitted him of robbery and assault with a deadly weapon involving that latter incident.

Scott has a 1990 strike for robbery, according to the prosecutor.

Lancaster Superior Court Judge Hayden Zacky sentenced Scott to 64 years and four months to life behind bars.

THIS IS HOW WE FIX CONGRESS AND THE SENATE!!!

Fri, 13 Aug 2010 23:31:53 +0000

THIS IS HOW WE FIX CONGRESS AND THE SENATE!!!

A Fellow American

I am sending this to virtually everybody on my e-mail list and that includes conservatives, liberals, and everybody in between. Even though we disagree on a number of issues, I count all of you as friends.. We are promoting a "Congressional Reform Act of 2010". It would contain eight provisions, all of which would probably be strongly endorsed by those who drafted the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

I know many of you will say, "this is impossible". Let me remind you, Congress has the lowest approval of any entity in Government, now is the time when Americans will join together to reform Congress - the entity that represents us.

We need to get a Senator to introduce this bill in the US Senate and a Representative to introduce a similar bill in the US House. These people will become American hero's.

Thank you on behalf of future generations of Americans,

.Congressional Reform Act of 2010

1. Term Limits: 12 years only, one of the possible options below.A. Two Six year Senate terms
B. Six Two year House terms
C. One Six year Senate term and three Two Year House terms

Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work.

2. No Tenure / No Pension: A congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office.

Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work.

3. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security:All funds in the Congressional retirement fund moves to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, Congress participates with the American people.

Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, server your term(s), then go home and back to work.

4. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan just as all other citizens.
Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work.

5. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.

Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work.

6. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.

Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work.

7. Congress must equally abide in all laws they impose on the American people.
Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work.

8. All contracts with past and present congressmen are void effective 1/1/11.

The American people did not make this contract with anyone serving in Congress, Congress made all these contracts for themselves.

Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career.. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work.

If you agree with the above, pass it on to all in your address list. If not, just delete..

Bruce Preston
214-697-4573

2 missing miners feared dead at Nevada gold mine

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 19:42:37 +0000

Aug. 12, 2010 3:08 PM ET
2 missing miners feared dead at Nevada gold mine
SCOTT SONNERSCOTT SONNER, Associated Press Writer THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
*
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Aug. 9, 2010 5:46 PM ET

RENO, Nev. (AP) — Rescuers at an underground gold mine in northeast Nevada are searching for two missing miners feared to be dead in an accident in a ventilation shaft.

Officials for Barrick Gold say the accident occurred early Thursday at the Meikle mine, about 55 miles northwest of Elko and 275 miles northeast of Reno.

Greg Lang, the president of Barrick's North America Region, says operations have been shut down and the missing miners' family members have been notified.

The Toronto-based company has not confirmed any deaths, but Lang referred to the search as a "recovery effort" directed by the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration.

He says while they don't have all of the facts, "what we do know about the incident is not encouraging."

Research ties waist size to mortality

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 19:30:27 +0000

DAILYNEWS COM
TUESDAY, AUGUST 10, 2010
By Carla K. Johnson
The Associated Press
CHICAGO - If your pants are feeling a bit tight around the waistline, take note: Belly bulge can be deadly for older adults, even those who aren't overweight or obese by other measures.

One of the largest studies to examine the dangers of abdominal fat suggests men arid women with the biggest waistlines have twice the risk of dying over a decade compared to those with the smallest tummies.

Surprisingly, bigger waists carry a greater risk of death even for people whose weight is "normal" by the body mass index, or BMI a standard measure based oil weight and height.

"Even if you haven't had a noticeable weight gain, if you notice your waist size increasing that's an important sign." said lead author Eric
Jacobs of the American Cancer Society, which funded the study. "It's time to eat better and start exercising more."

Other research has linked waist size to dementia, heart disease, asthma and breast cancer.

Bulging bellies are a problem for most Americans older than 50. It's estimated that more than half of older men and more than 70 percent of older women have bigger waistlines than recommended. And it's a growing problem: Average waistlines have expanded by about an inch per decade since tire 1960s.

To check your girth, wrap a tape measure around your waist at the navel. No fair sucking in your bulge. Men should have a waist circumference no larger than 40 inches. For women, the limit is 35 inches.

The new study, appearing in Monday's Archives of Internal Medicine, is the first to analyze waist size and deaths for people in three BMI categories: normal, overweight and obese. In all three groups, waist size was linked to higher risk.

About 2 percent of people in the study had normal IiMI numbers but larger than recommended waists. Jacobs said the risk increased progressively with increasing waist size, even at waist sizes well below what might be considered too large.

The study used data from more than 100,000 people who were followed from 1997 to 2006. Nearly 15,000 people died during that time.
The researchers crunched numbers on waist circumference, height and weight to draw conclusions about who was more likely to die. Study participants measured their own waists, so some honest mistakes and wishful fudging could have been included, the authors acknowledged.

Four extra inches around the waist increased the risk of dying from between 15 percent to 25 percent. Oddly, the strongest link- 2,5 percent - was in women with normal BMI.

People with bigger waists had a higher risk of death from causes including respiratory illnesses, heart disease and cancer.
The study was observational, a less rigorous approach that means the deaths could have been caused by factors other than waist size. But the researchers did take into account other risk factors for poor health, such as smoking and alcohol use.
Some older adults gain belly fat while they lose muscle mass, Jacobs said. so while they may not be getting heavier, they're changing shape and that's taking a toll.

A tape measure, or a belt that doesn't buckle the way it used to, "may tell you things your scale doesn't," Jacobs said. Fat stored behind the abdominal wall may be more harmful than fat stored on the hips and thighs. Some scientists believe belly fat secretes proteins and hormones that contribute to inflammation, interfere with how the body processes insulin and raise cholesterol levels.

But Dr. Samuel Klein, an obesity expert at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, is skeptical about that theory. Removing belly fat surgically doesn't lead to health improvements. That may mean it's simply a stand-in for some other culprit that is causing both belly fat and poor health. Klein wasn't involved in the new research.

Klein said the new study, while showing a link between waist size and mortality, doesn't pinpoint exactly how much belly fat is dangerous for normal. overweight and obese people.

AV water litigants work out accord

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 03:20:08 +0000

AVPRESS
AUG 11 2010
AV water litigants work out accord
By ALISHA SEMCHUCK
Valley Press Staff Writer

PALMDALE - Most litigants in an 11-year-old Antelope Valley water rights case told the court that limiting pumping to 150,000 acre-feet of water per year from local wells could protect the underground
aquifer from running dry.

That number differs , by 40,000 acre-feet from the estimate of Los Angeles County Waterworks Districts and four water agencies .represented by the Westlake Village law firm of Lemieux & ONeill, which believe the maximum annual pumping of groundwater should be capped at 110,000 acre-feet, including return flow the water that seeps back into the ground after being used to irrigate crops or lawns, along with
the sources of natural recharge such as rain.

ACCORD: Document recommends watermaster

"That's a big surprise, isn't it, that the people who have overpumped the basin decided there's more water they can pump?" said attorney Wayne Lemieux, who represents Littlerock Creek Irrigation District, Palm Ranch Irrigation District and two mutual water companies.

"People are playing around with other week since March with attorney James Waldo of Seattle in the role of mediator, the document stated.

"A technical analysis effort was the primary assignment of Bill West, one of the mediation team members," the document stated.

"Bill's 25-year background as a natural. resources scientist, prior to becoming a lawyer, was valuable in developing a quality product," the document stated, noting that five technical papers were prepared by a group of mediation principals to aid the group's decisions.

The accord also recommended a watermaster - a group that would monitor the groundwater pumping and determine if the 150,000 acrefeet limit needed to be lowered, with their recommendation to come in 10 years.

"The Antelope Valley Accord represents a comprehensive physical solution to the groundwater management challenges," the document stated.

"The Waldo group seems to believe that you can negotiate the condition of the planet," Lemieux said.
"We believe scientists have to give testimony and make a decision"

"We felt that the 150,000 total sustainable yield number was a good starting point in which the accord outlined methods for future studies and methods for validating the total sustainable yield number," said Chad Reed, general manager of the Quartz Hill Water District.

"It was a whole package deal. Some things we might not have negotiated as hard on in order to obtain other items that we thought were more beneficial to Quartz Hill Water District customers.

"The 150,000 number was higher than what we went in believing it should have been. However, there were other items during the negotiation process that favored Quartz Hill Water District and seemed more crucial.

"One of the big things we felt more comfortable on is that we would prove over a period of time, with additional science, the total sustainable yield. We currently are pumping anywhere from 165,000 (acre-feet) to 170,000 acre-feet per year, and with the speed that the trial is progressing, we could potentially spend at least another 10 years on this, which will have impeded the-Valley's water supply even more."
.
Reed said several times during the negotiations among the Waldo group, leaving pumping at the 170,000 mark was proposed.

"We, as a district, felt that would be more damaging to the (groundwater) basin to not take steps immediately (by setting) a number that had been recognized by other experts in the field as viable," Reed said.

Regarding the proposed watermaster, Reed said the accord calls for milestones to be reached detailing what the monitoring plan involves and when it will be implemented "to accurately measure the water storage capacity in the Antelope Valley Groundwater Basin."
Lemieux still expressed some doubts. .

"The Waldo group will tell you, `We've created a watermaster, a group of interested parties to make the decision based on evidence within the next 10 years or so,'" Lemieux said.
"These are the people that overpumped the basin. Why should we believe they'll make the right decision? Why should we wait 10 years when the court is ready to act right now?

"Supposedly they are going to ramp down to correct number over a long period of time so nobody gets hurt. That sounds like what Congress is trying to do, rather than face the fact that they overspent."

"We worked hard to acquire a good, solid scientific number, and we asked the other side to share their science with us so we can be convinced."

asemchuck@avpress.com