A View From The Brink ... the beach is backwards

Featured article * Joaquin Murieta, California's 'Headless Horseman' or Mexican hero?

Rumored to have inspired the fictional character Zorro, having an obvious similarity to the Headless Horseman and known to legend as the Robin Hood of El Dorado, Joaquin Murieta was public enemy number one to those hunting him and a Mexican folk hero for decades to come.

Of course, when establishing a legend it helps to have someone's head paraded up and down the state in a glass jar. And controversy about the official story doesn't hurt either.

But what about the facts behind the legend? The real story behind the myth?

And ultimately, which is more important?

Get the full story here --->>>

A politician under suspicion gives money back

 

California state Assemblyman Joel Anderson
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Michele Clock and John Marelius of the San Diego Times-Union report that California state Assemblyman Joel Anderson has returned more than $100,000 in questionable campaign contributions that are the object of an investigation by the state's political watchdog agency. 

The La Mesa Republican's actions will have no effect on the investigation by the state's Fair Political Practices Commission into an unusual pattern of transactions in May and June among Anderson, supporters of Anderson and three Republican county committees, said an agency spokesperson.

"We still have an open investigation," said Roman Porter, the commission's executive director. 

The San Diego Times-Union reported last month that San Diego County business supporters of Anderson, who is expected to run for state Senate, donated money to the Fresno County Republican Central Committee, which in turn donated like amounts to Anderson within days. The paper also reported that Anderson sent identical contributions of $32,400 from his 2008 campaign to three Republican committees in Fresno, Placer and Stanislaus counties, which sent similar amounts to his 2010 campaign.

Go here for the full S.D. Times-Union article --->>>

Berkeley graduates accused of espionage in Iran

American hikers Shane Bauer, left, Sarah Shourd and Joshua Fattal, right, are being held in Iran and accused of espionage.

Photo: AP/ AFP/Getty Images

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Ali Akbar Dareini of the Associated Press reports that a 'senior Iranian prosecutor accused three Americans detained on the border with Iraq of espionage on Monday, the first signal that Tehran intends to put them on trial.'

The move could set up the Americans, all of them graduates of the University of California, Berkeley, as potential bargaining chips in Iran's standoff with the West. The announcement came as Washington and Tehran are maneuvering over a deadlock in negotiations over Iran's nuclear program.

Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd and Josh Fattal were arrested July 31, 2009, after straying over the Iranian border from northern Iraq. The U.S. government and their families say they were on a hiking vacation and crossed accidentally.

Go here for the full article --->>> 

LA radio time capsule from 1991

By Thomas K. Pendergast

In 1991 I interned for KPFK radio, the Pacifica network station for Los Angeles, assisting with the news show "The Times In Review." As a final project I produced a five-minute story on the dangers of driving a taxi cab at night in Los Angeles. I was a cab driver at the time, working my way through college. 

In the months just prior to this broadcast, six cab drivers had been attacked in Los Angeles and of those three were fatally shot. At the same time in New York City, there also seemed to be a spike in violence against cab drivers. So I was assigned this story.

Recently I located the original audio cassette tape of the broadcast and had a friend make two digital copies. One is a WAV file and one is an MP3 file. 

So here is the broadcast from Sept. 12, 1991 on KPFK.

WAV file --->>>         Download Pendergastaxi

MP3 file  --->>>         TaxiStory

These great white sharks are snobs, study says

 

Photo: Courtesy Stanford University

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Peter Fimrite of the San Francisco Chronicle reports that 'the ferocious great white sharks of Northern California spend their time devouring sea lions, traveling, mating and, occasionally, touring San Francisco Bay, but they never socialize with sharks from other regions, according to a Stanford University-led study' released yesterday. 

According to Fimrite, researchers have concluded that these particular predators have been isolated from other white shark populations for so long that they are genetically unique to the world. The scientists tracked this group between 2000 and 2008 from the SF Bay Area to San Diego, Hawaii and back as the sharks followed a route that was carried out with surprising precision and under a strict time frame. 

They lived in the deep ocean near Hawaii between January and July and in Northern California between August and December. Researchers were surprised that these top hunters occasionally strayed from their Northern California feeding grounds for jaunts under the Golden Gate Bridge into San Francisco Bay, apparently in search of snacks.

The study was conducted by scientists from Stanford, UC Davis, the Point Reyes Bird Observatory and the Pelagic Shark Research Foundation. The researchers used a decoy to lure the sharks to their boat, where they took tissue samples and used a dart attached to a pole to affix satellite and acoustic monitoring devices to 179 great whites along the coast. 

Go here for the full SF Chronicle article --->>>

Halloween on Castro Street: San Francisco

Oct. 31, 2009 -- Singing "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" in front of the Castro Theatre

Photograph by Thomas K. Pendergast

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Once upon a time, in a far out land called San Francisco, local residents threw a party on Castro Street every Halloween night that was pretty fabulous by most accounts. 

     Soon the fame of this annual festivity spread throughout The City and eventually even the "bridge and tunnel people," that is, citizens from all over the Bay Area, were coming to enjoy and maybe even participate in the spectacle. 

     Unfortunately young ruffians and hooligans also started showing up and causing trouble.

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     In 2006 a shootout between rival gangs of thugs resulted in the wounding of nine people by bullets but no fatalities. The next year the party was shut down almost completely, with perhaps little more than a hundred people, some of whom held a mock funeral for the spirit that had once held notorious sway but had, apparently, departed this world.

     In 2008 the party was resurrected, brought back from the dead, so to speak. Thousands of people crowded the sidewalks and nobody got shot or stabbed, a good sign for the future of this unique celebration.

     This year was even bigger than last year but not like in the past, before things got dangerous. Nevertheless, a lot of people had a real good time.

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Go here for A View From The Brink's photograph collection of Halloween on Castro St. --->>>

Happy Halloween!

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Oct. 31, 2009  San Francisco -- 700 block of Haight St., aprox 12:25 p.m. The line was just a little too long?

Photo copyright 2009 by Thomas K. Pendergast

Richmond mobilizes in response to gang rape

 

Paul Sakuma AP -- Students walk past a sign protesting violence near Richmond high School in Richmond, Calif. Some students say they are upset about how the school is being portrayed in the media. 

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Rachel Dornhelm of National Public Radio reports that police in Richmond, California, say perhaps 10 people may have participated in the gang rape of a 15-year-old girl while dozens or more watched without calling police. 

'The victim was attacked in the Richmond High School courtyard after leaving a homecoming dance,' according to Dornhelm. 'So far, six men and teenagers have been arrested in connection with the assault and police say there will be more arrests. The crime has caused outrage across the country. Now, Richmond finds itself under the unwanted glare of a media spotlight. Meanwhile, students, teachers and parents in the city ... are mobilizing to try to heal their community.'

This week, students and teachers gathered for a community meeting in front of a painted sign that said: "We are against violence." The tone of the meeting was at times a tribute to the victim, and at times a call to action.

"Women are constantly degraded in our society," says Lorna McClellan, a teacher at the high school. "When are we going to step up, take the challenge and change it?" 

Go here for the full NPR report --->>>

Internet Turns 40 Today: First Message Crashed System

Ker Than of the National Geographic News reports that the Internet turns 40 today and was born in California with a failure, more or less. The message that started it all consisted of two letters "lo." 

'On October 29, 1969, that message became the first ever to travel between two computers connected via the ARPANET, the computer network that would become the Internet,' Than writes. 'The truncated transmission traveled about 400 miles (643 kilometers) between the University of California, Los Angeles, and the Stanford Research Institute.'

The electronic dispatch was supposed to be the word "login,' according to Than, but only the first two letters were successfully sent before the system crashed. Still, the humble greeting marked the start of a phenomenon that has become such an important part of modern life that many experts argue access to it should be a right rather than a privilege. In fact, earlier this month Finland became the first country in the world to declare broadband Internet access a legal right for all of its 5.2 million citizens. 

"I don't think it's quite on the level of food and water yet, but it's pretty close," said Jeffrey Cole, director of the Annenberg School for the Digital Future at the University of Southern California. 

For the last decade a team led by Cole has been tracking the effect of the Internet on societies around the world. 

"When we started in 1999, it was already clear that the Internet was gong to transform communications," Cole said. "What we could never have imagined is that it would transform virtually every element of business and social activity."

Go here for the full National Geographic News article --->>>

Three Strikes Law Leaves Two Families Torn

 

Mike Reynolds pets his cat outside his home in 1992, the year his 18-year-old daughter, Kimber, was shot and killed by a repeat offender. Two years later, his ballot initiative for California's three strikes law passed overwhelmingly. John Storey/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images

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Ina Jaffe of National Public Radio reports that 'fifteen years ago, California voters passed the strictest three strikes sentencing law in the nation. It doubled the penalties for second felonies that were serious or violent. The so-called third strike carries a mandatory prison sentence of 25 years to life. 

'About two dozen states have similar laws,' according to Jaffe. 'But only California counts any felony as a third strike, not just a serious or violent one. The law was the result of a deathbed promise Mike Reynolds, of Fresno, Calif., made to his 18-year-old daughter, Kimber, after she was fatally shot.'

"It may have sounded like an idle promise at the time, but I promised her that if I could do anything to prevent this from happening to other kids, I would do everything I could," Reynolds says. "And I'm still trying to keep that promise today."

Go here for the full NPR story --->>>

"Woodstock" West Fest comes to Golden Gate Park

westfest07.jpg  

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Oct. 25, 2009 -- Golden Gate Park, San Francisco: On the 40th anniversary of the year that the Woodstock festival made music history, thousands of people gathered in Speedway Meadows to be hippies for a day. They called it the West Fest. 

The weather was warm, sunny and pleasant, so sharing the love was easy. There were lots of people dancing, eating, drinking, buying stuff and two stages with bands taking turns playing. 

Go here for A View From The Brink's photo essay --->>>