Concealed Weapons

In San Diego sheriffs will continue to review applicants for permits which will allow them to carry guns. “Despite a court ruling that struck down California’s concealed weapons statute, the San Diego county Sheriff’s Department” will continue to give out permits to those who meet the standards. People will continue to apply for permits and then those applications will be reviewed to see whether they’re capable of carrying a concealed weapon. On Thursday the ruling by a “three-judge panel of the 9^TH Circuit Court of Appeals found that the statute, as applied by the San Diego department, was overly restrictive and violate the 2^nd amendment”.  Those that don’t meet the standards will be denied their permit.  Many people in the San Diego area support this ruling and don’t have a problem with it. For example, Tony Kravic, a republican, tweeted his support for the ruling that was made on Thursday.

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-san-diego-concealed-guns-permits-20140215,0,5803926.story#axzz2tXDv9NFy

 

West Hollywood Rainbow Flag

On June 2013 there was a rainbow flag that was hung above City Hall. Now the West Hollywood City Council has responded to a growing criticism of the removal of that flag. The flag will be removing, but there will be a compromise. In order for the flag to be moved, there will be another flag hung that incorporates rainbow colors into the city logo. In a last week meeting the council members agreed to this change. On January the flag was removed due to a unanimous vote by the council. As soon as the flag was removed they got complains from the residents because 40% of the people living there identify themselves as gay or lesbian and four the council members are gay men. The new flag that will have a rainbow city logo, this logo is already displayed on city vehicles and on the vehicles of Los Angeles County sheriffs’ deputies in the West Hollywood Station.

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-west-hollywood-rainbow-flag-20140207,0,344943.story#axzz2stdFel5L

Not Defending Gay Marriage

On Thursday newly elected Virginia Attorney General Mark R. Herring announced a voter-approved ban unconstitutional and said that his office will no longer defend gay marriage. Although the state will continue to enforce the already existing laws he said his office would join sides with two gay couples that sued to overturn the ban. Herring said that this was a violation of the 14^th amendment and that the law was discriminatory. The decision made makes Virginia the key battleground between the Democrats and Republicans. Virginia has always been on the side that loses civil rights cases. He said that the people have always had to make their own stand fighting for civil rights while their leaders stood against them, but this no longer was the instance. The suit is trying to overturn all the bans that are on gay marriage and want it to be legal. People didn’t expect Herring to hurt their; they wanted the law to be upheld.

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-gay-marriage-virginia-20140124,0,7591917.story#axzz2rYXwr6WK

Crime Rate

For the 11^th year the crime in Los Angeles has dropped again in 2013. On Monday Los Angeles’s Mayor Eric Garcetti and Police Chief Charlie Beck announced that final LAPD statistics showed that crime has fallen 5.2% in the whole city. There are double-digits drop in violent crime, homicides, reported rapes, and gang violence. Although the rate of crimes have gone down there are still neighborhoods that are dangerous and hear gunshots at night. They still read about tragedies in the newspaper when they wake up in the morning. Garcetti still wants to work with the Chief to help lower the crime rate even more and make it safer for the people living in L.A. The officers are credited for the work they have done to help lower the crime rates in the community. Before this city was known as the “City of Gang Violence”, but now it’s known as the “Home of the Solution to Gang Violence”.

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-crime-falls-20140113,0,3357277.story#axzz2qEm3UCuW 

Immigration Bills

The speaker of the House John A. Boehner is trying to make immigration laws his priority. He said on Wednesday that he will soon release a document of conservative “principles” on the immigration issue that would make the Republicans pass a series of bills this year. However, Boehner is facing a lot of challenges because there are a lot of parties that are conservatives. The house Republicans oppose to the fact of giving citizenship to about 11 million immigrants who are here in the U.S illegally. It is very clear that this is not a choice the Republicans can make; it’s something that is set and will actually happen. Although the document is kind of vague it is clear that this will really help the immigrants. The document is the first step that GOP leaders are taking to consider other immigration documents by April. There are certain Republicans that are on Boehner side and do support him.

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-gop-immigration-20140109,0,5532597.story#axzz2pyZCEwjw

Gov. Brown signs 2 of 3 bills prescription drug abuse

Governor Brown said that he supports the idea of requiring coroners to report prescription drug deaths to the medical board. However, he vetoed it because of the cost. On Friday he signed two bills that aimed towards the abuse of drugs. The third bill however, he vetoed it, this could have helped the state’s medical board identify the doctors who are irresponsible and have prescribed pills to their patients that eventually died. This all started because many people were dying because of the prescribed pills by doctors or overdose suicides. People were happy about the bills because they would give” authorities better tools and broader powers to crack down on problematic doctors.” Governor Brown said that he vetoed the bill because it made an “unfunded mandate for the state, potentially in the millions of dollars.” All of these bill signing was to help and stop those doctors that prescribe pills to people that eventually kill them. This required money so they need to work on the economy first in order to make change.

http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-0928-rx-reforms-20130928,0,6850019.story

Prison Hunger Strikes

A federal court order has been issued which allows force-feeding and other steps to keep prison hunger strikes alive even if they don’t want medical attention. The state argument was that they believed that some inmates may have been force into participating in the hunger strikes and signed the paper against their will. Henderson agreed with “signing and order that would allow the state to involuntarily feed any prisoner it deems was coerced into signing a “Do not resuscitate” order, as well as those who signed such papers just before the July 8 protest began.” It will also allow involuntary feeding for those who a state doctor says are incompetent to give consent or make any medical decisions. For those inmates that were forced into participating in the human strikes they were protected from any serious harm. The motion is signed by lawyers for the court-appointed agency running prison medical care and the Prison Law Office, which represents California inmates on healthcare issues. The Prison Law Offices says that this motion should be limited and only focus on the current hunger strike. The hunger strike continued in 6 prisons with 69 inmates refusing food for 43 days while 67 others were fasting for shorter periods. Two of the prisons ended up being under medical watch.
http://www.latimes.com/local/political/la-me-ff-california-asks-judge-allow-force-feeding-20130819,0,4726207.story 

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