CM PRESS # 421

BREAKING NEWS--UPDATE AND CORRECTION TO GENDER

Friday--7/11/08--1:23 PM--According to the Daily Pilot, the deceased was a 39-year-old woman who appears to have commited suicide by dousing herself with gasoline and setting herself on fire. (The CM PRESS did spot a gasoline container near the body, but we didn't see any signs of fire). LINK

FRIDAY--7/11/08--6:30 AM---DEAD MALE FOUND IN STREET IN 900 BLOCK OF SPRINGFIELD (near Cheyenne) IN MESA NORTH.

Body was found in gutter and perpendicular to gutter in front of a house with two gardener's trucks in the driveway.

Deceased, age unknown, but most likely an adult, and who appeared to be wearing shorts and T-shirt, was lying on his back. Could have been white, Hispanic or Asian. From the CM PRESS's location outside the police lines, we could see no visible causes of death.

No other details known other than that a CMPD officer said the department was conducting a criminal investigation and refused to answer any questions.

Developing...

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ITEMS OF INTEREST AT NEXT CITY COUNCIL MEETING (LINK)

A. Westside Bluffs Condo/Apartments

At its July 15, 2008 meeting, the City Council will consider whether to uphold or overturn a no-Planning Commission approval for the Nexus project on the Westside Bluffs. See CM PRESS # 405 of June 24, 2008 for details of this project.

B. Let voters decide on fees/taxes?

Also at the July 15, meeting, the Council will vote on whether or not to put two measures on the ballot for the November 4, 2008 election. If these measures are on the ballot...

Voters will be asked:

1. Do you approve of increasing business license fees in Costa Mesa?

2. Do you approve of increasing the transient occupancy tax (TOT)? *

MAIN PRO ARGUMENT: Both of the above are lower than in other communities and if raised will bring in millions of dollars to the City's coffers.

MAIN CON ARGUMENT: The business climate is bad right now and raising either of these will hurt businesses in Costa Mesa.

*FYI--The transient occupancy tax is really a hotel tax. Hotels would have to pay a tax based on the number of guests they have. When this tax was last presented to the voters it failed.

But, it did so because of a poor campaign of explaining what it does and also because its proponents wanted the money to go into the general fund instead of just being used for parks. The former requires a 2/3 majority and the latter only requires a simple majority. It is expected that if the Council puts this on the ballot, that taxes raised by this measure will once again be earmarked for the general fund.

IF THE CITY DOESN'T RAISE MONEY, SERVICES WILL HAVE TO BE CUT (?)

Some are arguing that if these two measures aren't put on the ballot and if voters don't pass them, that the City will have to cut services.

Exactly which services would have to be cut has not been said, and there are many citizens of Costa Mesa who feel that the City is now providing services that should be cut.

Here's just two examples. The City is providing free day care on school campuses when school is out for the day, and the City is paying to pick up shopping carts. And, it goes on and on. It's ten grand for this little thing and forty grand for this other little thing.

Frankly, the citizens of Costa Mesa are being nickel dimed with all sorts of fluff and then when those such as the CM PRESS say we need to reorder our priorities to make some basic changes to our city that will save lives and money in the long run--such as buying up and razing gang infested slums--we are told that we have no money.

So, each year, the crime increases and instead of fixing the problem by removing slums, we hire ever more police officers. And, it's not just the salaries of the police officers that we then pay. We have retirement plans and medical plans and on and on. And, the police officers need more police cars and more equipment.

And, the graffiti? It keeps increasing, because our gang problem keeps increasing (We pay a couple hundred grand to remove it). And, the gangs? They find safe havens in the slums that the City is not removing (The CMPD gang detail keeps increasing in size).

For what it costs us for one cop (when you add in all that is required to field that cop), we could remove one slum building and remove a major source of our crime problems that we are now hiring more cops to handle. Fewer slums = less crime = fewer police officers & less graffiti abatement.

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THE HOW AND WHY OF THE UNIVERSE CONFIRMED IN AUGUST?

Here's a pretty good overview of the Higgs Boson, Peter Higgs, and the Large Hadron Collider that is expected to be turned on this month and be fully cranked up in August. LINK

If the above link doesn't work, try this one for a different article on the same subject. LINK

If Higgs is right, count on him getting a well deserved Nobel Prize. If he's wrong...well...he can always collect cans and bottles for a living.
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.