The California lawyer who was preying on inmates agreed to be disbarred

From 2023:

How a former McKinsey consultant "built a booming enterprise by fanning false hopes in some families" that he could help get their loved ones out of prison

Now:

With a filing in State Bar Court on Tuesday, Aaron [he] pleaded no contest to misconduct involving eight clients, all current or former California prisoners, and consented to the stripping of his law license.

The stipulation signed by [him], his lawyer and a bar prosecutor stated that [he] “promoted false hopes in his clients and their families that the clients’ sentences would be reduced when in fact that was highly unlikely.”

...

drew on a stint as a McKinsey consultant to launch his high-volume firm in Los Angeles. He recognized a host of new criminal justice reform laws in 2019 could be big business and told The Times in 2023 that he drew on his time at the consulting company “analyzing how different companies could expand to be successful” to embrace new techniques in his law business.

Among his approaches were buying up Google search terms so families looking for information about criminal justice reform were directed to his website, using fill-in-the-blank templates for legal documents and outsourcing work to lawyers in developing countries who were paid about $10 an hour.

The LA Times posted some advice articles for people who lost their homes to the fires

Ah. The California state bird marking its territory 😌 pic.twitter.com/hXxKYSEXgg

— LA Scanner (@LAScanner) January 14, 2025

He lost everything in a wildfire. Here’s one city councilman’s practical advice:

don’t wait to find temporary housing. “As soon as you get stabilized somewhere,” he advised, “start calling apartments.” And if it’s unfurnished, make do with used or donated items. 

...

He was glad he purchased his new home from a “mass builder” — a developer that goes through the permitting and legal process, then offers buyers a range of floor plans and options — rather than going it alone with an individual architect and builder.

I was forced to evacuate my home. Do I still need to pay my mortgage, rent, utility bills?

Three Humvees, 18 bayonets, and other items stolen from Tustin Army Reserve Center in California

No firearms or ammunition per report.

Be on the lookout ! Stolen Humvees 🤷🏼‍♂️ and military equipment. pic.twitter.com/52EeDikRYq

— Sal LaBarbera ⬛️🟦⬛️ (@Sal_LaBarbera) January 11, 2025

A House of Representatives seat in Southern California is still undecided, separated by 36 votes

After days of chipping away at Republican Rep. Michelle Steel’s lead, Democrat Derek Tran is now ahead — by 36 votes — in #CA45. https://t.co/brc58Qk2Xb

— Laura J. Nelson 🦅 (@laura_nelson) November 17, 2024

Southern California "Sheriff who said deputies ‘probably’ stopped assassination attempt at Trump rally backs off a bit"

LAT: 

The right-wing firebrand, who is rumored to be considering a 2026 gubernatorial run, put himself back into the political spotlight over the weekend when he said his deputies probably had thwarted a third assassination attempt on former President Trump.

...

IF everything [the arrested "Trump supporter"] has said is true, and I really hope it is, then he probably wasn’t there to hurt former President Trump,” [the sheriff] said in a text message to The Times. “I definitely said it and can’t change that.”

Allegations that there were years of warnings that the San Diego Unified School Superintendent had engaged in multiple acts of sexual misconduct

NBC has a long article on the blame game.

The following month, the district received another letter, this one signed by a group of anonymous school principals. They accused [the superintendent] of sexually harassing women he supervised and exchanging sex for promotions and job security.

The district neither investigated nor shared the hotline report, nor the principals’ letter, with the school board. 

...

“[The superintendent] served this district for 30 years … and it was important to the board to recognize that service,” [the Board president] told us. “And we also needed to communicate that he was no longer fit to serve, and that it was no longer in the best interest of the district to move forward with him as superintendent. Both of those things were true to the board.”

The LA Times asks whether anything can stop the "surf gang" at Lunada Bay in Southern California

(I posted about the intimidation tactics almost a decade ago.)

The new article is about a legal settlement and whether it will bring change:

The culture of localism runs deep in Palos Verdes Estates, a tight-knit, wealthy community with around 13,300 residents and its own police department. In fact, maintaining local control of the coastline was one of the reasons residents voted to establish their own city in 1939, according to historical news articles.

...

The Bay Boys’ reign has sparked years of controversy and emerged as a flash point for beach access in the upscale community of Palos Verdes Estates, culminating with a landmark lawsuit demanding the city do more to protect surfers from harassment.

The city agreed to settle the suit last month with a promise to protect public access to Lunada Bay. Additionally, 11 alleged surf gang members agreed to either pay steep fines or stay away from the break for a year.

...

The recently settled lawsuit was filed against Palos Verdes Estates and a dozen alleged Bay Boys members, alleging that the surf gang’s behavior and the city’s failure to uphold public beach access violated the California Coastal Act.

"This updated map reveals who owns every property in California"

A tool from the SF Chronicle:

Type in your address, or any other California address, to see who officially owns nearly any building.

"Bears have learned to open doors in Sierra Madre, 'like Jurassic Park'"

LATimes:

In 2020, there were about 100 reports of bear sightings in Sierra Madre but no reports of break-ins into homes, authorities said. Last year, those numbers jumped to 380 sightings and 50 break-ins.

(The article basically describes a relatively remote area of Los Angeles that has had population growth, and the difficulty neighbors had dealing with an apparently abandoned home that a bear claimed as its den.)

Small plane loaded with drugs made an emergency landing on a Southern California highway

Two Oceanside residents, trying to fly from San Diego to Phoenix.

Students of a California bible college "claim they were confined, surveilled and made to do unpaid labor"

An LAT article trying to make sense of a convoluted, sprawling investigation:

For years, the university and the teachings of its founder have drawn students from around the world, mostly from east Asia, seeking an academic experience rooted in Christianity. The promise of a U.S. student visa and a scholarship combined to make an unbeatable opportunity. But instead of feeling the sense of freedom they hoped to encounter in America, students described an environment where they were under near-constant surveillance and stripped of their independence.

"California is poised to ban octopus farming"

The article doesn't clearly explain if such farming is a current reality, or just speculatory. (I don't think it's designed to prohibit serving octopus, just serving octopus raised by farming.) (Octopus looks neat but is almost always disappointing.)  

California State Bar filed charges against an attorney for preying on prisoners

From April 2023:

How a former McKinsey consultant "built a booming enterprise by fanning false hopes in some families" that he could help get their loved ones out of prison

Now:

In a filing Monday, the bar accused [the attorney] of 18 violations of the rules of professional conduct for attorneys and the state business code, including moral turpitude and unconscionable fees. If found culpable, he faces possible penalties ranging from probation to disbarment by the state Supreme Court.

California’s prison system will stop using a "cheaper alternative" to polygraphs to assess prisoner credibility during investigations

SF Chronicle in June:

For decades, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation used a pseudoscientific technology to assess prisoners’ credibility during investigations, even after researchers debunked the CVSA and after its manufacturer, NITV Federal Services, admitted that it was not capable of detecting lies, a Chronicle investigation has found.

...

NITV Federal Services offers dozens of courses to law enforcement agencies each year and has sold its machines and training sessions to thousands of departments, billing the CVSA as a cheaper alternative to the polygraph test — another controversial lie-detector technology. Collectively, these California agencies have spent at least hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars on the CVSA since 2020, the Chronicle found.

...

The CVSA purportedly works by measuring inaudible changes to a person’s speech patterns. According to an early 2000s training manual obtained by the Chronicle, a person’s vocal cords are “subject to physiological tremors” that diminish when they are stressed. Thus, a stressed person’s speech patterns would have a different frequency, and a different shape when plotted on a graph, than an unstressed person.

SF Chronicle now:

California’s prison system has moved to ban the use of a controversial lie-detector test — compared by one expert to a Ouija board or an astrological chart — following a Chronicle investigation into the technology and its impact on the incarcerated.

...

While California’s prisons will no longer use the CVSA, the Chronicle’s investigation identified 13 other law enforcement agencies around the state that were still using the technology to interview prospective officers during the hiring process. At least three of these agencies had also recently used the tool during criminal investigations.

From the CVSA Wikipedia entry:

A 2013 paper published in Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics reviewed the "scientific implausibility" of its principles and "ungrounded claims of the aggressive propaganda from sellers of voice stress analysis gadgets"

California is contemplating a law that would give special alcohol-buying privileges to members of Ballmer stadium's private luxury suites

LAT:

It is illegal to serve alcohol in California between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m., and bartenders who do could be charged with a misdemeanor.

...

The bill, which was approved with little debate on the Senate floor Tuesday and now heads to the Assembly, would allow alcohol to be served until 4 a.m. to dues-paying members of private suites inside of Intuit Dome, the $2-billion, 17,700-seat new home of the Los Angeles Clippers

...

the legislation has drawn criticism as an unfair abuse of financial and political power.

Burglary ring specialized in ramming cars into gun stores and then stealing guns

300 guns stolen from nine stores across Southern California since October (six have been charged).

A fan had puppets made of the A's owner and president, and displayed them right behind home plate

pic.twitter.com/aLFItR6FQJ

— Gabriel Hernandez (@gamer_athletics) July 4, 2024

Designed by the Queen of @33_customs, @melamelodymela! #FJF pic.twitter.com/8w9i8nMR2P

— Last Dive Bar 🏟 (@LastDiveBar) July 4, 2024

diamond level has been MUST SEE TV the past couple nights 🤣🤣 #SellTheTeam pic.twitter.com/TngxDpt3RT

— The Rickey Henderson of Blogs (@RickeyBlog) July 4, 2024

Get a room Dave and John!!! 💋 pic.twitter.com/LqtqVanmFg

— Last Dive Bar 🏟 (@LastDiveBar) July 4, 2024

Also by 33 Customs, this bobblehead:

This bobble is a thing of beauty! Only 500 so get your tix and let’s party on 7/12! @norcalnodders of @33_customs designed and manufactured this instant classic of a bobble! pic.twitter.com/6dMUU4cAJ5

— Last Dive Bar 🏟 (@LastDiveBar) July 1, 2024

"FBI raids Oakland mayor's home, several other locations in political corruption probe"

The articles speculate it's connected to this.

FWIW, a detailed narrative by a private investigator enlisted to help find the child of Caterina Fake and Stewart Butterfield

Long narrative, packed with many details:

Just then her phone rings. It is someone from one of the volunteer organizations out looking for [the child]. They have stopped a van that tipsters had identified as [the suspect]’s means of transportation.

Caterina covers the phone staring at me. “Oh my god, they have [the suspect]. What do I tell them to do?”

I am furious. “What should they do? What should I tell them?” asks Caterina. “Well, do they have a tracking device? If they are experienced in surveillance they must have to have a tracking device,” I say.

They did not. Ugh. The problem with running a rogue operation without the police is that only law enforcement has the authority to stop and search a vehicle. These guys have no authority to detain [the suspect]. Now I fear [the child] will be driven further underground. Now there’s a high likelihood, the van and that location are blown, which makes the odds of finding [the child] more difficult.

“Does anyone have any kind of tracking device they can throw into the van? A phone or ANYTHING?” I ask Caterina.

Caterina had given one of the searchers [the child]’s favorite jacket, which had an Apple tracking device sewn into it.

As the searchers talked to [the suspect], I told one of them to try and place the jacket with the tracking device in the van without causing suspicion. “Give them the jacket and play it cool.”

Video of a tow truck driver trying to hook onto an occupied car in the middle of traffic

Full piece: https://t.co/CTy6wcyeiU

— Dion Lim (@DionLimTV) April 11, 2024

The ABC news article says the truck is part of a company already barred from doing business in San Francisco because of unlawful towing, but that might be incorrect.