From the Can’t Be Too Careful Or Too Stupid file, The L.A. Times is reporting this morning that a woman put her one-month old grandson into a carry-on tray and sent him through the X-ray machine at LAX Saturday. Perhaps even more moronically is that no one in her vicinity either in a passenger or official capacity stopped her from doing it.

On Friday California and Florida halted all lethal injections after Federal Judge Jeremy Fogel decided that the method used in CA is unconstitutional. Last week in Florida the execution of Angel Diaz took over 30 minutes because executioners put the IV into the flesh on his arm rather than into a vein. Earlier this year the execution in CA of Stanley “Tookie” Williams was also botched when back up IVs weren’t connected. Of course lethal injection is used in many states because it’s supposed to be “more humane” than the electric chair but because of weak oversight and varying methods it’s received quite a bit of criticism. The wikipedia article on the practice cites the possibility of the prisoner being aware throughout the procedure as the biggest problem:

Opponents argue that the thiopental is an ultra-short acting barbiturate that may wear off (anesthesia awareness) and lead to consciousness and an excruciatingly painful death wherein the inmate is unable to express their pain because they have been rendered paralyzed by the paralytic agent.

Opponents point to the fact that sodium thiopental is typically used as an induction agent and not used in the maintenance phase of surgery because of its short acting nature. Following the administration of thiopental, pancuronium bromide, is given, to which opponents argue that it not only dilutes the thiopental, but masks any pain when the thiopental wears off since the patient is paralyzed.

Additionally, opponents argue that the method of administration is also flawed. They state that since the personnel administering the lethal injection lack expertise in anesthesia the risk of failing to induce unconsciousness is greatly increased. Also, they argue that the dose of sodium thiopental must be customized to each individual patient, not restricted to a set protocol. Finally, the remote administration results in an increased risk that insufficient amounts of the lethal injection drugs enter the bloodstream.

As far as California goes, Fogel said that “At the present time, however, defendants’ implementation of California’s lethal-injection protocol lacks both reliability and transparency” and that it is currently a violation of the eighth amendment and is “intolerable under the Constitution.”

If you’re looking for a job in the music industry, the competition’s going to be just a little more fierce in the wake of Live Nation’s firing of 79 people from newly-acquired House of Blues last Friday. Throughout the first half of the day, staff inside HOB’s Hollywood headquarters provided live play-by-play via IM to others in the tightly knit promotion industry as individuals were called one-by-one into private discussion to learn what role, if any, they would have in the new structure. But Live Nation may not be done playing Scrooge. According to sources still at the company, more cuts are expected this coming Friday with some employees already notified of their termination but not yet allowed to disclose. Rumours have also circulated that LIve Nation is not interested in the restaurant aspects of the House of Blues venues and are looking to spin off those aspects to a third party.

Update: Another source suggests that there is indeed a list circulating among the remaining management with more names of employees who will face the firing squad in the coming weeks. They’ve also revealed that there are a number of employees who have been told privately that they’re being laid off, but been asked keep quiet and to stay on for 60 days to help finish existing projects and ease the transition. Some have agreed while others chose to resign immediately. Also of interest, representatives from Motorola, a major HOB sponsorship partner, were reportedly extremely dismayed yesterday when they arrived at the Sunset office for a meeting only to discover that the sponsorships team had all been laid off and there was nobody available to meet with them.

If you are following any of the fires in the LA area today, you might want to add NBC4′s live video feed from their helicopter. It’s over the Citrus fire at the moment but I’m told they are heading over to the Moorpark fire shortly. I gotta say, the footage is pretty interesting but listening to the banter between pilot / camerman / reporter onboard is pretty nifty. They should provide a live feed of the traffic choppers too!

Boi from Troy congratulates USC’s advance into the National Championship… in Men’s Water Polo.

TJ Sullivan balks at the LA Times addressing USC Football’s loss instead of UCLA’s win.

While at LAX covering the radioactive contamination of British Airways jets, BeFrank puts airline employees in their place when they try and tell him what he can’t photograph. (note: link fixed)

LA Times is predicting snow in Long Beach, Calabasas, and Azusa.

El Chavo warns of marauding birds at Workman and Broadway. Bring an umbrella.

Mayor Sam’s Sister City takes issue with Mack Reed’s editorial on their decision to run paid content without full disclosure.

MetroriderLA finds a Netherland blogger who has deciphered the formula to a car free life, then joins Here In Van Nuys in complaining about the “crap boxes” on LA buses known as Transit TV.

I’m now receiving my local E-Policing Report/Crime blotter, so is Dig Lounge – are you? Its made me feel safer, but caused Dig Lounge to “leave outside lights on around my house all night, lock up every window, and of course I have renter’s insurance just in case.”

Eating L.A. reviews something called The 99 Cent Chef who shows how to make “Cup O’Noodles with coconut milk and asparagus or banana pudding mini-tarts (on generic vanilla wafers.)” among other delicasies made for under a buck.

In the wake of the $2.7 Million discrimination settlement that was overturned this week, the Chief of the department has officially resigned. He’ll be staying on the job until the end of the year at which point he’ll be replaced by someone who will help change some aspects of what goes on inside the department. Mayor Villaraigosa said “whether that chief is white, black, a woman, gay, lesbian — whatever it is, we want a change agent, someone who will not tolerate discrimination.” Assistant Chief Doug Berry of the Fire Prevention Bureau and veteran Battalion Chief Millage Peaks were both mentioned by the LA Times as possible replacements to Bamattre.

UPDATE: Official announcement letter is after the jump, via the LAFD Blog.
Read the rest of this entry →

“Park it right over there, soldier!”

He’ll nevereverever live down the picture above, but it only took former Massachusetts Governor and current UCLA teacher and part-time Westwood resident Michael “The Duke” Dukakis 18 years to find a modicum of redemption from his resounding defeat to Bush The First in the 1988 presidential election… in the form of parking activism.

With today’s frontpage story the L.A. Times’ Hector Becerra is reporting that Dukakis is victorious following a protracted battle against chronic “apron parkers,” drivers in the university’s vicinity who station their vehicles across driveway aprons so as to block sidewalks and streets.

“It’s a disaster,” he’s quoted as saying about the long-accepted custom — not the eternally goofy photo of him pretending to be playing tank commando. “Beyond being illegal, it’s dangerous. You get two SUVs with their rear ends sticking out into the street and you end up with a one-way road. It’s time to end it.”

And the end is near. This January parking enforcement officers are scheduled to quit turning a blind eye to this illegal practice and begin aggressively ticketing violating vehicles. And with an estimated 5,700 residents’ automobiles plus untold student-commuters scavenging for a measly 857 legal curb spaces in the village’s northern reaches that’s gonna mean chaos for the citizens and cha-ching-a-ling for the city.

Yesterday I told you that City Council was voting again to decide if they should uphold or override the Mayor’s veto of the settlement. Today, with all 15 members voting, the veto was upheld overturning the previous settlement agreement. 10 votes were needed to override, but it failed with 9-6. I’d still like to hear from the Council members who supported this settlement, but more importantly, who supported that $2.7 million figure. From UPI:

During meeting Tuesday, the council’s three black members said they would vote to override the veto because the act could be seen as racist, and because the city could lose more money if Pierce were to succeed in a lawsuit against the city. Other members said they had come to see the matter as a firehouse prank — especially after photos appeared showing Pierce participating in department-banned hazing rituals.

The council postponed a decision on overriding the veto until all Wednesday, so all members could be present.

During his appearance before the council Tuesday, Pierce said: “This is wrong. If four black firemen did it to a white fireman, I would stand up (with) the white fireman and say it was wrong.”

NBC4 TV reported last night that the Laugh Factory on Sunset will ban use of the word “nigger” by its performers. This, of course, comes after comedian Michael Richards yelled at two black hecklers with the word along with other racist comments.

In addition, Jesse Jackson and other prominent African-Americans have called for a complete boycott of the word.

While I’m glad that this incident has resulted in dialogue about existing issues of racism and the volatility of hate speech, I’m always concerned about any restrictions on free speech, as the Laugh Factory appears to be doing. Certainly, a private club can do what it wants, but comedy clubs should be the last place any sort of censorship exists.

I’m also continuously bothered by media outlets and writers pansying around spelling out all six letters of the word “nigger”, replacing it with “the ‘n’ word” or some variation of the asterixed “n**ger”. Poorly veiling the word gives it that much more allure and power, instead of deflating it into two syllables fit only for the arrogant.

I encourage all artists to follow the advice of Rev. Jackson and refrain from using the word, in spite of the chicken shit credibility and supposed cool factor it gives to their immature audiences, but flatly reject any imposed restriction of free speech.

This story has been peppering the local news for a few weeks now so chances are you’ve heard about it already, but let’s do a small recap just for the fun of it. Tennie Pierce is a LA Firefighter. One day he was in the station minding his own business eating his spaghetti and realized someone had added an extra ingredient – dog food. Pierce wasn’t so into this and took it as a case of racial discrimination and filed suit against the city. The defense argued that there was nothing racial, nothing personal about the park but rather it was just part of every day Fire Department hijinx. The City Council voted to settle and awarded Pierce $2.7 Million dollars to ease his pain. And that was almost the end of it, until a bunch of photos showed up picturing Pierce engaged in very similar “hazing” parks on other fire fighters at the stations. So it’s OK for him to do it to other people, but if anyone tries to get him back it’s racism, right? Probably not. So Mayor Villaraigosa stepped in and vetoed the settlement stating that “Given the magnitude of the recommended settlement, taxpayers have a right to demand a reconsideration with the full benefit of the facts.” Members of City Council are claiming they never saw the photos before voting for this settlement however after the photos did surface the council rejected a motion to reconsider.

Now, anyone who has friends or family who are fire fighters or has ever been to a station knows the places are one giant prank house. They have to be to keep sane. There are practical jokes being played on each other nonstop. How this guy Pierce thought he could participate and then sue when it happened to him is completely beyond me. Although it almost worked. So who voted in favor of the $2.7 Million settlement? Names after the jump…

Read the rest of this entry →

At least not in LAPD reports anyway. If you’ve been following the story of the Cardenas Arrest Video then you’ve heard the term “Distraction Strike” more than once. The video shows Officer Farrell punch the suspect in the face at least 6 times while attempting to put hand cuffs on him. In the police report of the incident these were called “distraction strikes” which is a term often used in police reports to describe a strike given to a suspect to distract them long enough for an officer to apply a technique. Well, apparently it’s being used too often says Chief Bratton. On Friday the Chief officially banned the term from reports which will cause officers to be more specific in their descriptions of use of force events. It’s important to note that the policy allowing these strikes or what kind of force is allowed hasn’t changed, just that this term is becoming a catch-all and is too vague so it can no longer be used. While this might seem like arguing semantics at first glance I’m of the opinion this is a good thing as more detail in these reports can only help as far as I’m concerned. Apparently the term is frequently being used to describe strikes applied to suspects to get them to submit to arrest which is an incorrect definition. This applies specifically to the Cardenas video, according the LA Times:

Some officials said the punches were thrown because the officers believed that the suspect was reaching for one of their gun belts. Assistant Chief Jim McDonnell said the term should not be used to describe punches to the face of a suspect reaching for a gun belt so that the arrest can be completed.

He said elimination of the term is meant to force officers to describe their actions in greater detail. Too many officers appearing before the department’s Use of Force Review Board were saying in their defense that they used distraction strikes.

With the term abolished, officers now will be asked to give a more descriptive account, McDonnell said.

And speaking of distractions and the LAPD, watch out, there’s an ass grabber on the loose!

This story is just asking for a new headline. Insert yours below.

Frozen Pigs Fly Across SoCal Freeway In Accident

(AP) LOS ANGELES – Dozens of frozen pigs were scattered across one of Southern California’s busiest freeways Monday night after a truck carrying the carcasses collided with another truck, authorities said.

The pigs were strewn over 80 feet of the Golden State Freeway near Sylmar, about 25 miles north of Los Angeles, California Highway Patrol Officer David Porter said. [full story and video]

::photo courtesy of HEATEM::

Computer crashed, RSS feed got backed up, couldn’t face the pile of unread posts, blah blah blah. Sweatin’ Bullets is back after a brief hiatus.

photo, “Death In the Port of Los Angeles”, by GaretFS via Flickr

Mel Gibson may be a dork, but X17 are unethical scum. Am I the only one offended by paparazzi staking out Alcoholics Anonymous meetings? (h/t CelebLover via Digg)

Before he became a big famous tv commercial star living off his residuals, Shane Nickerson made his living writing for blogging.la. Well, maybe I’m talking out of my ass, but Shane recently posted two of his recent commercial appearances at the Nickerblog – one for his beloved Dunkin’ Donuts, the other for Toyota.

The creators of Adult Swim’s “Tom Goes to the Mayor“, Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim, present “LA Guyz”, a mockumentary about their lives in L.A. (h/t Locke40 via Digg).

Eric Garcetti encourages residents to bring their families to his Glassel Park field office for a FREE flu vaccination on Wednesday from 9am to 11am.

LosAnjealous reviews “Hair Wars”, a Paper Magazine event held at Rudy’s Barbershop near Sunset Junction. Intern Shane has some snaps of battling styles, including the “Hairy-Copter”.

LA City Nerd thinks we deserve to be in the top 10 of our country’s best “arts destinations” – last year we were only #12. Embarassing, Nerd suggests, due to who beat us out: Columbus and Portland.

If you or any of your friends were planning to fly in or out of John Wayne airport tonight you are pretty much screwed. It seems that there was a “security breach” which caused the evacuation of the entire airport and the cancellation of an undetermined number of flights. Hundreds upon hundreds of people effected by this. So what was the “security breach”? Apparently a women told security that she saw someone take a handgun out of their waistband and put it into their carry on bag after passing through the security check point. Except nothing was found. Which means it’s probably just someone who has been listening to 6 years of “ZOMG RED ALERT!!” and was paranoid thinking that since the Democrats won the house and the senate that the US is now a safe haven for terrorists and saw some dude with a wallet or cellphone or something and just freaked. Did I mention the flights that were cancelled and the people that were stranded? I feel so much safer don’t you?

Anyone who has ever stepped into a Paul Frank store knows that some of the most sought after things they sell are the limited edition collaborations. In the past they have teamed up with The Andy Warhol Foundation, LA Artist Mark Ryden, The Elvis Presley Estate, and even Barbie and Hello Kitty. The results of those partnerships usually sold out in minutes and the only way to get your grubby mitts on them was to pay 4x retail price on ebay. Well, this weekend they are selling limited quantities of these products at the Paul Frank Store in LA (7964 Melrose Avenue – Friday and Saturday 11:00 am – 7:00 pm Sunday 12:00 pm – 6:00 pm). The sale begins Friday and ends Sunday but don’t even think about lining up earlier than 7:00am on Friday or they will kick you the hell out. And likewise if you try and buy more than one Barbie. Are you already doing backflips and checking your savings account at the thought of this? Here’s the details.