CM PRESS # 575

FORM SHOULD FOLLOW FUNCTION AND COMMON SENSE SHOULD RULE

At last night's Silly Council meeting, residents of Babb Street wanted the Council to implement a residents only parking restriction on Babb Street. After a lot of mumbling, as further detailed below, the Council put off a decision to a future meeting.

Here's the LINK to the Silly Council agenda with an aerial photo of the area which will make what follows below clear.

The problem

There are twelve homes on the west side of Babb Street between Baker Street and Paularino Ave. and five on the east side of the street. These homes are standard Mesa North four or five bedroom single family homes.

Most of the east side of Babb Street is taken up by a condominium development named Summerset Citihomes or Somerset Citihomes or Sommerset Citihomes(all three names appear in different documents and two of them appear in the City Council agenda report). (Hereafter, "Summerset.")

Summerset is an inward facing walled community with 111 condominium residences with 279 parking spaces total. None of these residences have Babb Street addresses.

When Summerset was built in 1979, the developer supplied 279 parking spaces; one space more than required by city codes at that time. If the project were to be built today, it would require 357 parking spaces. And, many believe that even with the additional 78 parking spaces under today's codes, this would be too few spaces for today's conditions.

Because of the lack of parking, many Summerset residents and guests take up all the parking spaces on the west side of Babb Street in front of the single family homes, causing a major headache for the single family home owners.

The Silly Council mumbles and mumbles and mumbles
To try to solve the problem without putting in resident only parking restrictions on Babb Street, the Silly Council mumbled endlessly about having some guest parking spaces in Summerset made into resident parking spaces or into either/or parking spaces.

This was/is a waste of time. The problem is that people today have more cars than they used to have and the solution is to put in more parking spaces. Sometimes you just need a bigger bag.

The solution to the problem
If the Councilmembers had actually taken the time to go out and view the area, they might have understood what the CM PRESS suggested during public comments on this issue instead of looking at us with ten blank eyes all saying "Huh?"

Summerset has a large green area and a curved sidewalk on the west side of the project outside the walls that could be turned into nicely landscaped parking in such a way that the parking would be almost invisible if a low, heavily landscaped berm were built along Babb Street. Alternatively, there are some green areas within the walls of the project that could also be reconfigured for parking.

It looks to us as though parking for a hundred of more cars could be put in with the above suggestions while still allowing plenty of greenery if designed correctly.

Take a look at the aerial photo of the project in the link above or take a drive over there and you'll see what we mean.

Get rid of some of the friggin' grass, save some water, and make the place comfortable for humans. Geez.
# # #
THE (KATRINA FOLEY RETURN TO REASON?) SENIOR CENTER (This is not a photo of Foley.)

The Silly Council voted last night to set up a committee to take a look at the Senior Center. The CM PRESS suggested that the committee be expanded to include more at-large members. Whether or not this will be done we don't know, but we expect the Senior Center board to resist the idea.

Councilmember Katrina Foley had to recuse herself from the discussion and vote because, if we understand this correctly, her law firm (Foley personally?) apparently has been advising the Senior Center board on matters relating to the city. Isn't that nice?

In a way it makes sense that Foley would be involved. Many of the board members are Foley supporters and two of them are failed Silly Council candidates who tried to defeat the improver supported members on the Council.

During the discussion, Councilmember Bever publicly corrected the Katrina Foley Almost Daily Daily Pilot by telling the KFADDP reporter in the audience that contrary to what the reporter wrote in the rag, that the City of Costa Mesa does in fact own the building that the Senior Center is in.

How the KFADDP got it wrong is beyond us. We know they read the CM PRESS to find out what's going on in Costa Mesa and to find interesting things to read while waiting for Sam Zell to drop some more bad news on them, and we correctly wrote that the City owns the building before the KFADDP got it wrong. Maybe they need to read the CM PRESS a little more closely.

Yes, dear friends, we usually get our reportage correct.

That's probably because we played a reporter (brilliantly we might add) in a movie that also had Sondra Locke (Clint Eastwood's girlfriend at the time) and Richard Dreyfuss in small roles. Hey, it's not our fault the director (Bat Masterton star Gene Barry's son ) got booed off the stage at a film festival. Honest. (This is not a photo of us.)

Oh, and then there's that little matter about how we used to work for the New York Times at the Gray Lady's headquarters on 42nd and Broadway in NYC. Yes, dear friends, as you can tell, we know news and newspapers.

Still not convinced? We played a radio reporter (also brilliantly) in a second grade play. 'Nuff said?

So, when you want to know what's really happening in Costa Mesa, be sure to read the CM PRESS--the guardian of all things Costa Mesa according to failed Silly Council candidate Mike Scheafer.

Say, did we mention that Scheafer is on the board of the (Katrina Foley Return to Reason?) Senior Center and that he supported Katrina Foley in the just past election?
# # #
Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them. Be sure to come back often as we, unlike a local almost daily newspaper, move things fast and we know, also unlike a local almost daily newspaper, that we can't bore you into reading what we publish.

CM PRESS # 574

KATRINA FOLEY ALMOST DAILY DAILY PILOT FINALLY IDENTIFIES OUTSTANDING VIOLENT CRIMINAL BY RACE AND GUESS WHAT?

He's white.

Yup. The KFADDP seems to go out of its way to hide the race/ethnicity of outstanding violent criminals except of course when they're white.

In this report on a robbery from the KFADDP, the paper wanted to make very sure you know the criminal is white, by putting that information right in the subhead.

This is the typical way lefty newspapers do it. They want you to think that violent crime is an equal opportunity employer.

Selective reporting like this would be a little like telling a herd of sheep whenever a sheep commits a violent crime, but hiding the fact when wolves do it. The result is that the sheep become unable to understand the probabilities of being attacked in different situations, and thus become victims far more than they should.

Even the Rev. Jesse Jackson once said, "I hate to admit it, but I have reached a stage in my life that if I am walking down a dark street late at night and I see that the person behind me is white, I subconsciously feel relieved."

Can you stand the truth about violent crime?

Click HERE for an absolutely free download of The Color of Crime which organizes FBI statistics on the subject for an easy and eye-popping read.

Here are some of the major findings:

Police and the justice system are not biased against minorities.

Crime Rates
Blacks are seven times more likely than people of other races to commit murder, and eight times more likely to commit robbery.

When blacks commit crimes of violence, they are nearly three times more likely than non-blacks to use a gun, and more than twice as likely to use a knife.

Hispanics commit violent crimes at roughly three times the white rate, and Asians commit violent crimes at about one quarter the white rate.

The single best indicator of violent crime levels in an area is the percentage of the population that is black and Hispanic.

Interracial Crime
Of the nearly 770,000 violent interracial crimes committed every year involving blacks and whites, blacks commit 85 percent and whites commit 15 percent.

Blacks commit more violent crime against whites than against blacks. Forty-five percent of their victims are white, 43 percent are black, and 10 percent are Hispanic. When whites commit violent crime, only three percent of their victims are black.

Blacks are an estimated 39 times more likely to commit a violent crime against a white than vice versa, and 136 times more likely to commit robbery.

Blacks are 2.25 times more likely to commit officially-designated hate crimes against whites than vice versa.

Gangs
Only 10 percent of youth gang members are white.

Hispanics are 19 times more likely than whites to be members of youth gangs. Blacks are 15 times more likely, and Asians are nine times more likely.

Incarceration
Between 1980 and 2003 the US incarceration rate more than tripled, from 139 to 482 per 100,000, and the number of prisoners increased from 320,000 to 1.39 million.

Blacks are seven times more likely to be in prison than whites. Hispanics are three times more likely.
# # #
COLUMNIST MARK STEYN IS STARTING TO GET IT; CAN OTHERS BE FAR BEHIND?

It seems to be dawning on columnist Mark Steyn that the death of the "West" (a PC euphemism for white people) is being caused by a birth dearth. LINK

In nature "bloody in tooth and claw" those who die with the most offspring win.
# # #

Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 573

MIKE SCHEAFER AND THE SENIOR CENTER

Failed City Council candidate Mike Scheafer had a long letter in the Katrina Foley Almost Daily Daily Pilot on Saturday in which Scheafer wrote this:

"One local blogger, who fancies himself to be the 'guardian' of everything related to the city, constantly criticizes the operations of our board. He is simply one of those who can’t seem to get their facts straight."

Our guess is that Scheafer was referring to the CM PRESS. If so, Scheafer should have stated which facts he thinks we got wrong. But, he didn't do that. We like facts and we like to correct them if we get them wrong.

And, in spite of what Scheafer wrote, we haven't been very critical of the board at all.

We've mostly just written that in our opinion the board should be open, it should cooperate with the City Council and should welcome Mayor Pro Tem Leece and some others as voting members of the board.

The CM PRESS is appreciative of any of our citizens--such as those on the Costa Mesa Senior Corporation board, including Mr. Scheafer--who volunteer to help our senior citizens.

However, we are surprised by some of the intemperate remarks we've seen in the KFADDP aimed at some senior citizens who have some complaints and about Mayor Pro Tem Leece.

Our position is that since the Costa Mesa Senior Corporation is getting almost free rent and maintenance on the city owned Senior Center building at 695 W. 19th Street (they pay a buck a year on the building), and since the City gave them $ 240,000 in the fiscal year starting July 1, 2008 and is scheduled to give them $ 245,000 for the fiscal year starting July 1, 2009, that the citizens of Costa Mesa have a right to know that our senior citizens are getting the best service possible and that we're getting the best use of our building and money.

Now about facts. Before we began writing about the Senior Center, we did our homework. Among other things, we obtained copies of the tax forms filed by the Costa Mesa Senior Corporation and a copy of the Senior Center Agreement. We also went to City Hall and reviewed the public documents on the Center that the City has in its possession. We've also visited the Senior Center and have reviewed their website.

Incidentally, the Senior Center website is not up to date. Maybe Mr. Sheafer can ask someone to put up the names of the current board members.

In addition, and as we've reported before, when we were on the 3R Committee we strongly advocated for the Senior Center getting more money from HUD CDBG funds than the Center was even asking for.

Following Scheafer's letter in the KFADDP is one from a senior citizen who does criticize the Center, and then following that is an anonymous comment in the KFADDP's blog from someone who insults the senior citizen.

Here's the LINK to the KFADDP letters and comments about this.

# # #

Those are our opinions. Thanks

CM PRESS # 572

SOME HABITAT HOMES STARTING TO CRUMBLE

According to this story, some homes built with much fanfare by Jimmy Carter and Habitat for Humanity have started to crumble. As far as we know, the Habitat Homes in Costa Mesa are not crumbling.

# # #

CHARITY SHOULD BEGIN AT HOME

As U.S. citizens we are expected to pay taxes to our government.

Shouldn't we expect our government to use that money to benefit citizens instead of giving our money to foreign nations?

According to this story, the U. S. under George Bush gave out an estimated $26 billion of your dollars to foreign nations in 2008. Also according to this story, this is 70% more than when Bush took office and it doesn't include the cost of Bush's wars.

We need a working and efficient health care system in this country and our tax money should be used for this before we give a red cent to any foreign nation.

# # #

Thanks for reading the CM PRESS.

CM PRESS # 571

SENIOR CENTER ON THE CITY COUNCIL AGENDA

At the January 6, City Council meeting, the council will vote on whether or not to set up a committee to take a look at the Senior Center and report back to the council. LINK

# # #

STILL CONFUSED ABOUT THE SENIOR CENTER?

When people speak about the Senior Center, they usually mean the building located at 695 W. 19th Street across from Bethel Towers. That building is owned by the citizens of Costa Mesa.

Right now, the tenant in that building is an organization called the Costa Mesa Senior Corporation (CMSC). The CMSC and the building are not one. They are separate. The CMSC is a tenant like any other tenant except that the City of Costa Mesa is leasing the building to the CMSC for a buck a year instead of at the market rate of approximately $133,000 per year.

The City also gives the CMSC more than $240,000 per year in cash and provides most of the maintenance to the building.

In exchange, the CMSC is supposed to run a Senior Center with activities and benefits for our senior citizens to make life a little easier and fun for them.

As the landlord, the City of Costa Mesa has the right to terminate the present lease if it wants and to lease out the building to another corporation to run the Senior Center or to an art gallery or a college or whoever else may want to lease it.

The Problem

Sometime ago, some seniors who use the Senior Center contacted Mayor Pro Tem Wendy Leece with a list of complaints about things that they felt either weren't going right at the center or which could be improved.

Ms. Leece then did what a responsible city council member does. She started gathering facts to fully understand the situation. As part of Ms. Leece's fact finding efforts, she apparently put together a list of questions based on some of the complaints she heard, along with some other questions whose answers would provide a fuller picture of the Senior Center's operations.

Then, some of the "friends" of the CMSC started making intemperate remarks about Ms. Leece and the complaining senior citizens, and these were published in the Katrina Foley Almost Daily Daily Pilot.

That's where we are today. Ms. Leece wants transparency at the Senior Center and she wants complaints investigated and handled, and she wants the board of the CMSC to include some new people.

The Katrina Foley Almost Daily Daily Pilot (photo of Pee Wee Herman)

The KFADDP is no friend of Ms. Leece or the majority on the City Council and even endorsed opponents of the current majority in the last several elections.

And, wouldn't you know it? Two of the people the KFADDP endorsed in City Council elections (Bruce Garlich and Mike Schaefer) are sitting on the board of the CMSC along with some other liberal activists who supported Garlich and Schaefer and Katrina Foley.

So, it's no surprise that the ultra-liberal KFADDP is taking the side of the CMSC against the City Council on this matter and it's no surprise that the articles it runs on the issue and the comments it publishes are in favor of not having transparency.

Imagine that! Usually we hear about newspapers trying to force governments and institutions using citizen money and buildings to be transparent, but the KFADDP apparently doesn't want transparency and we're not seeing any stories or editorials in the KFADDP calling for such transparency.

Remember, folks, the CMSC is in YOUR building and is using YOUR money to help our senior citizens. YOU have a right to know that all is well over there. YOU have a right to know your money is being spent wisely.

Suppose you went to your bank and asked to see how much money you have in your account and the banker told you it's none of your business.

Would you complain? You bet you would. That's because it's YOUR money. Well, this Senior Center business isn't much different than that, really. It's YOUR building. And, a lot of YOUR money is being spent over there. You have a right to know that everything is being handled correctly at the Senior Center.

Wendy Leece should be on the board and she should be on the committee that the City Council will probably set up on Tuesday. She's a fearless advocate for the people of this city, including our senior citizens, and she's not part of the good old boys club. She'll do what's right, just because it is right even if it steps on a few political toes. We don't know about you, but we find that refreshing in politicians.

# # #

AND SPEAKING OF CMSC BOARD MEMBERS MIKE SCHAEFER AND BRUCE GARLICH

Here's a link to a KCET Life and Times transcript of a show from 2006, in which Mike Schaefer and Bruce Garlich argued against having our cops check for legal status of arestees. LINK

We found this statement from Garlich to be interesting: Bruce Garlich>> Our chief estimated that this program might produce eight to ten, maybe a dozen, people a year that would be eligible to be deported as a result of it. That's a very small number when you trade it off against the cost of close to two hundred thousand dollars plus the time that it would take, a half shift almost of a police officer who was doing that work, to do what's basically a clerical job.

Actually, the ICE agent has been averaging about 30 illegal aliens a month to be deported.

More than a thousand illegal alien criminals have now been deported from Costa Mesa and our streets are getting safer.

Aren't you glad that Garlich wasn't elected to the City Council?

# # #

Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 570

KATRINA FOLEY ALMOST DAILY DAILY PILOT JUST DOESN'T GET IT

(Photo of Pee Wee Herman]

More from the KFADDP about the Senior Center and Mayor Pro Tem Leece. Our comments are in [].

Wendy Leece and the Costa Mesa Senior Center: Costa Mesa Mayor Pro Tem Wendy Leece has been fighting for months for a bigger role in the management of the Costa Mesa Senior Center, but executives and board members say her efforts are counterproductive and distracting.

[Seniors need Wendy Leece on the board.]

(snip)

She says complaints from seniors that weren’t being addressed by staff prompted her inquiries.The board has fought back. Members say that the vast majority of seniors who participate in activities and food programs at the center are happy with the service and Leece’s presence is only stirring up trouble that wasn’t there before and costing the center money in the process.

[Every complaint by our vulnerable senior citizens should be looked into.]

(snip)

Leece, however, says that even though the center is not owned or operated by the city it should have to disclose the information like a city-owned agency would because city money makes up part of the budget.

[Actually, the building the Senior Center is in is owned by the City of Costa Mesa and the City rents it to the Costa Mesa Senior Corporation for a buck a year. Come on KFADDP, the CM PRESS reported this already. Geez. Also, the City gives the Costa Mesa Senior Corportation more than $200,000 per year.]

(snip)

The center’s management says it’s fine with giving a council member a vote on the board, just not Leece.

[Maybe it's time for the full City Council to weigh in on this and demand transparency and ensure that Ms. Leece has a seat on the board.]

Read the full column HERE.

# # #

KATRINA FOLEY GIVES HER OPINION ON CMPD HELICOPTER

LINK

# # #

MORE ON THE ATTACK ON THE HOMELESS MAN

Here's a LINK to an article in the OCR about the attack.

This version more closely gibes with what the CM PRESS turned up than what you may have read in the Katrina Foley Almost Daily Daily Pilot.

Meanwhile, the KFADDP continues to try to have you think that violent crime in Costa Mesa is an equal opportunity employer by telling you that the suspects in the attack may be white (read, non-Latino white).

Somehow that doesn't seem to add up, but we have open minds here at the CM PRESS and if it was non-Latino white teens in a dirty and dark alley, with Latino gang graffiti on the walls, behind a row of apartment buildings almost exclusively rented by Latinos, in the heart of the Latino gang infested Westside at 9 p.m., during the darkest time of the year, then we'd be very surprised.

In another story (in the OCR)a homeless man said attacks on homeless people in Costa Mesa are increasing and he recounted being attacked by teens with rocks who told him to get out of their "barrio." Barrio is not a term used by many whites.

Have you seen many white teens in those alleys at 9 p.m. walking around with paint ball guns?

Say, maybe they were some rich white fraternity kids who thought it would be fun to commute in from Newport Beach to walk around gang infested Westside alleys threatening people with paintball guns. And, maybe they weren't aware that the guns normally used in that area shoot more than paintballs.

But if the KFADDP is right about the alley, then this makes it much less probable that the attackers were white, and the CMPD should be looking at teens living in the apartments right behind the alley. How many got paintball guns for Navidad?

Oh, and one last thing. The KFADDP is now saying the guy who was attacked was confused and that's why he didn't know he wasn't sitting at a table reading a magazine in Lion's Park as he stated to the CMPD, the OCR and the CM PRESS, but was actually in that alley behind Center Street sleeping. But, when the guy says his attackers were white kids, the KFADDP apparently doesn't think he might be confused on this point. Figures.

NOW TO THE LARGER QUESTION

Is it important to know the race/ethnicity of outstanding criminal suspects? You bet. Race/ethnicity is one of the main ways we can identify others.

To not publish such information about outstanding violent criminal suspects is to do a disservice to the public and is to possibly put others in danger. And, it doesn't help with capturing violent criminals.

Let us restate this: The CM PRESS believes that all important identifying information on outstanding violent criminal suspects should be in news stories and this includes the race/ethnicity of the outstanding suspects. Don't edit to be PC. Just publish the facts as you know them and let the chips fall where they may. The more the public knows about violent crime and criminals the more they can avoid becoming victims and the easier it will be to capture the criminals.

The CM PRESS is perfectly happy to see outstanding white violent criminals identified as such. But what we are against is lefty newspapers just identifying violent criminals by race/ethnicity when they are white and not identifying violent criminals by race/ethnicity when they're not white.

Had the KFAADP been more honest in such things, it might not have had one of its employees murdered by an illegal alien who had been living with twelve others in a tiny apartment in the Shalimar slum.

That employee, if she had been fully informed about the nature of local violent crime, might have been a little more on guard and might have considered the neighborhood and the probability that her murderer might be up to no good, before he had a chance to kill her.

And, if the KFAADP didn't try to gloss over the crime in our slums, a female student at OCC might have been warned and might not have moved into the Mission-Mendoza slum (in Katrina Foley's Mesa del Mar neighborhood) where she was murdered.

# # #

Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 569

MORE ON THE PAINTBALL INCIDENT

According to the Katrina Foley Almost Daily Daily Pilot, "Gregory Dahlgren, was reportedly sleeping in the alley behind P K Burgers near Placentia Avenue and Center Street when he was shot about 9 p.m. by a handful of kids 25 to 35 times."

LINK

Well, the KFADDP apparently got it wrong.

As we reported in CM PRESS # 568, we went to the alley and we also personally spoke to Mr. Dahlgren.

There is absolutely no paint splatter in the alley behind PK Burgers that we could find. Paint splatter is common when paint balls are shot.

Also, Mr. Dahlgren told us that he was attacked at Lions Park, not the alley behind PK Burgers.

Mr. Dahlgren told us the attackers were kids, but when we asked their ages he said they were about 26 or 27 years old and then indicated that since he's 48 years old, someone 26 or 27 is a kid to him.

We'll just have to wait until the CMPD finishes its investigation to get all the correct facts on this incident.

# # #

JOHN WAYNE WILL CONTINUE TO GROW

Unfortunately, none of our elected officials seem to be doing anything realistic about John Wayne Airport and they seem to be relying on a couple of citizen groups to do something.

Big mistake.

It's going to take some political leadership to keep JWA from growing and it's going to take a real plan, not the goofy train to the desert scheme that is just a waste of time and which is causing some people to falsely believe that a real plan is in place. It's just busy work.

# # #

Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 568

WE LOOK INTO THE HOMELESS ATTACK AND THE SENIOR CENTER

It's 8 am when we leave the CM PRESS building this morning (12/31). The fog is so heavy and thick that the ground is rain wet. No problem. We have the mutation and we're producing Vitamin D as we drive.

We turn from Harbor on to West 19th Street looking for homeless people. We see some likelies walking down the sidewalk, but we keep going to Placentia and then to the alley behind Center Street where homeless people are reportedly attacked from time to time.

We drive the length of the heavily potholed alley. The back of the Vista Shopping Center is on our right and hundreds of apartments are on our left. We pass a parked car with a Mexican license plate. Nothing odd in that in this neighborhood. Then we start seeing graffiti on the wall on our right. Not much, mostly stuff that has already been painted over. Then we see one that looks fresh. It reads "WS 18th St XV3." We wonder if this has something to do with the attack on the guy who reported being shot in the eye by a paint ball. No paint ball guns in sight. Punks are probably late risers.

We leave the alley and head over to where we earlier saw three homeless people huddling in the fog in front of the Lions Den bar across from the Someone Cares Soup Kitchen (the finest restaurant on W. 19th Street).

We recognize Gregory Dahlgren. He's the guy who had been shot with the paintball guns and had his photo either in the Katrina Foley Almost Daily Daily Pilot or in the OCR. We look at his eye, it's mostly just red on the skin around the eye, but to us the eyeball looks fine. Probably better than our own. We wonder if the original reports were exaggerated.

He tells us the attackers were kids. We ask how old they were, and he replies about 26 or 27 years old. We tell him those aren't kids. He says he's 48. We let it go.

All three of the homeless guys are looking at us suspiciously. We tell them we're not a cop to put them at ease. They still eye us as though we might have a paintball gun under our coat. Then, the one who's missing some teeth and who says his name is Bebop and who's busy drinking his breakfast from a tall can lets the cat out of the bag. "I know who you are. I've talked to you before," he says. "Oh?" we say. "Yeah, it was aboard an alien space ship."

We make a mental note to send the men in black over to erase his memory later in the day and leave.

We forgot to ask these guys if Katrina Foley had been by with a plate of lasagna or for a singalong. We'll try to remember next time.

The Senior Center

It's now about 8:55 am and we wheel into the Senior Center on West 19th Street. We get out of the CM PRESSMOBILE and go over to the front door where there are 12 geezers all standing around in the fog rattling their keys and talking about nothing while waiting for the place to open.

We blend in with the geezers and wait. We try to strike up a casual conversation but it falls flat. The alien spaceship thing, probably.

We continue waiting. Nothing happens. The place stays locked up. No signs of life inside. No signs on the door saying they're not opening today. We wait and wait and wait. More geezers show up. The Senior Center is locked up tight. We look for paintball guns. None in sight. At about 9:15 some geezers start leaving. More arrive. We mindlessly start rattling our keys and suddenly fear that geezerness is contagious, so at 9:30 we also leave.

Maybe for the next geezer art project at the Senior Center someone can come up with a sign indicating the place isn't going to open or is opening late. Hey, we know where they can get some paint for the sign.

# # #

Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 567

............................................................................

IRELAND NOT SUNNY ENOUGH FOR BURQAS

(And you thought Irish Mist was just a liqueur?)

Muslims who have moved to Ireland are being warned that burqas don't allow in enough sunlight for their bodies to produce the proper amount of Vitamin D. LINK

What's the deeper story?

Humans have evolved to survive and prosper in different environments.

When the few people who were to eventually become the white indigenous peoples of Europe left Africa about 20,000 to 50,000 years ago and moved north, nature did what it always does. It rewarded, via natural selection, those individuals with certain favorable mutations that allowed them to adapt to the new conditions and eliminated those without the mutations.

One of these mutations was white skin--which many scientists now believe was primarily caused by a tiny mutation in gene slc24a5, located on the long leg of chromosome 15 at position 21.1.

White skin allows in much more sunlight than darker skin and white skin can produce as much as 99% more Vitamin D than darker skin in some cases.

Without a proper level of Vitamin D, people develop rickets (and other medical problems), bones break more easily and people die younger.

Those early arrivals in Europe without the white skin mutation died younger. As a result, they had less time to produce offspring, so they had fewer children who received their form of the gene while those who lived longer (the ones with the white skin mutation) had more children who received their mutated gene form. In time, those with the favorable mutation became the dominant form in Europe. Again, this is what natural selection means.

The white skin mutation spread and became dominant in Europe 5,300 to 12,000 years ago.

This gene (slc24a5) has primary alleles that differ in only one nucleotide, changing the 111th amino acid from alanine to threonine. You may recall that genes are locations on our strands of DNA that are clustered into chromosomes and that DNA is made up of four nucleotides that are usually abbreviated as A,T,C,G, so the white skin mutation is caused by the change in just one letter of DNA.

In white European descended peoples the threonine form is found in from 98.7% to 100% of the population while in Africans, East Asians and American Indians from 93% to 100% of the populations have the alanine form.

What about tans?

White skin can allow in too much sunlight in sunny areas, so nature has provided a means of preventing this by causing white skin to darken into a tan as a natural sun block.

# # #

Thanks for reading the CM PRESS.

CM PRESS # 566

MAN ATTACKED BY "INVISIBLE" TEENS NEAR PLACENTIA AND CENTER STREET--MAY LOSE EYE

Funny how descriptions of some outstanding violent criminals don't make it into the pages of some "news" papers. LINK

When these criminals are caught, will there be hate crime enhancements and editorials and letters about this crime? Don't count on it. Check the demographics of the location of the crime and the name of the victim for a clue.

By the way, how difficult should it be to catch these criminals? Five or six "teens" on the Westside near a major slum just after Christmas and they have [new?] paint ball guns.

Sherlock Holmes isn't needed on this case. Just someone knocking on a few doors.

# # #

Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 565

WANT MORE EFFICIENT GOVERNMENT AND INSTITUTIONS? ASK "WHY?"

In Costa Mesa, the Improvers have been asking "Why?" since they first came on the scene with their principle of constant improvement. And, they continue to do so both as elected officials and as private citizens.

It turns out the Japanese have been doing the same thing, and this has caught the attention of American politicians now that they have to live within shrinking budgets. LINK

# # #

YET ANOTHER LETTER ABOUT THE SENIOR CENTER

Here's the LINK to a letter in the Katrina Foley Almost Daily Daily Pilot from Judy Lindsay who wants the KFADDP to remember love in discussing the Senior Center.

When last heard from, Ms. Lindsay was mentioned in the KFADDP with this line: "Lindsay said she was offended by [Mayor Pro Tem] Leece’s claim that the center needs stricter financial oversight." Here's the LINK to the original article.

ASK WHY

Why are so many people "offended" when our Mayor Pro Tem asks for transparency?

Why are so many people against having Ms. Leece on the Senior Center board?

Why do so many people not want salaries made public? It's a matter of public record that the highest annual salary at the Senior Center is $81,255 with an additional $4,875 for benefits for that person.

Why do some "friends" of the Senior Center sound so arrogant and why are they insulting Ms. Leece?

Don't they realize that the City Council can cut off the City's annual "gift" of $240,00 (going up to $ 245,000 next year) and can evict the present Senior Center Corporation from the building at 695 West 19th Street that is owned by the citizens of Costa Mesa? Don't they realize that another corporation can be formed to run the Senior Center?

Why do so many people apparently not want the City Council to investigate complaints from seniors?

DON'T BE CONFUSED BY SIMILAR TERMS

As we previously reported, the entity running the Senior Center and occupying the Senior Center Building at 695 West 19th Street is a 501(c)3 Corporation named the Costa Mesa Senior Corporation (CMSC). CMSC is not part of City government.

CMSC is a tenant of the City of Costa Mesa and is leasing the building at 695 West 19th Street from the City of Costa Mesa for a buck a year.

If the City Council or CMSC are not pleased with each other, either party may cancel the lease and the agreement. Then, CMSC can go find another building someplace and the City can lease out the building to another Corporation to run the Senior Center or do whatever else the City Council wants to do with the building. Art museum? College classes? Who knows? It's a prime property.

IF WE WERE THE CMSC

If we were the CMSC we'd be trying to cool the intemperate remarks from some who seem to want to turn this into a battle between the CMSC and the City Council. It appears to us that the City Council has all the leverage.

It's time to mend fences, to have transparency, to invite Ms.Leece and some others to be voting members on the board, and to investigate complaints.

It's also time to make sure that our seniors are getting the best service possible and that the citizens of Costa Mesa are getting the most for their money.

# # #

Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.