DAVIS, Calif.—Officials at UC Davis say a private security firm will be getting $300 an hour for investigating the use of pepper spray by campus police officers during a demonstration. UC spokeswoman Dianne Klein told Sacramento television station KCRA ( http://bit.ly/rYae7A ) that New York-based security consulting firm Kroll will be paid the fee for investigating the Nov. 18 incident.

Klein told the station that the probe is expected to last 30 business days, but she could not say how much the entire bill would amount to because the firm will determine how many hours it puts into the investigation.

Video footage of two officers spraying an orange cloud of pepper spray at the protesters as they sat peacefully on the ground circulated online and sparked more protests.



http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_...

A petition to recall Oakland Mayor Jean Quan was certified Wednesday for signature gathering just as a second group of residents submitted their own recall petition against the increasingly embattled mayor.

The backers of the first petition will have 160 days to collect roughly 20,000 valid signatures of registered Oakland voters, giving them a deadline of May 14.

Gene Hazzard, a photographer for the Oakland Post who has been politically active in the black community submitted the first petition and is controlling the campaign. Hazzard did not return calls Wednesday.



http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...

OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) -- A 23-month-old toddler who was injured during the filming of a rap video in Oakland has died from his injuries.

Hiram Lawrence sustained a head injury after he was wounded by gunfire during the filming of a music video in Oakland on Nov. 28.

Lawrence was removed from life support at Children's Hospital in Oakland following several tests that concluded the child was brain dead.



http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=n...

During a time of year when people are often more festive, generous and selfless, Troy resident Glenn Clark is urging others to move past the controversy surrounding newly elected Troy Mayor Janice Daniels and support the city's local businesses during the holidays.

Clark, president of Michigan Faith & Freedom Coalition, is urging residents to do their shopping in the city with its "Home for the Holidays: Shop Troy" campaign. The group will feature and promote one local business on its Facebook page each day leading up to Christmas.

Clark's request for residents to "Shop Troy" comes after Daniels' anti-gay Facebook status update went viral last Friday, inciting backlash from members of the community who asked for an apology, asked for her resignation and vowed to boycott Troy businesses until Daniels is no longer in office.

http://troy.patch.com/articles/michigan-fa...

TROY, Mich. (WXYZ) - Mayor Janice Daniels says the decision to leave her day job as a real estate agent was hers alone and that she was not fired.

Action News caught up with Daniels at her home Wednesday night. Daniels said she was too busy to talk but did say published reports that claimed she was forced from her position as a Century 21 agent are wrong.

“You know what, I haven’t been able to sell much real estate anyway lately because I’m so busy that I just put my license in escrow,” Daniels said.....

The job of mayor in Troy is not full-time. Daniels only earns about $138 a month. Daniels said she does not have another day job lined up.


http://www.wxyz.com/dpp/news/region/oaklan...

WASHINGTON -- Texas Gov. Rick Perry's newest television ad criticizing the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell was created over the objections of at least one top staff member, sources in the Perry campaign tell The Huffington Post.

The spot, which began airing in Iowa on Wednesday, features the governor questioning why soldiers can serve openly in the military while children "can't openly celebrate Christmas or pray in school." Coming a day after Perry criticized the Obama administration for using foreign aid to defend gay rights abroad, the ad was one more note in a fairly overt dog whistle aimed at the Hawkeye State's influential evangelical voting block.

But not everyone was comfortable with the script. When the ad was being crafted several weeks ago, Perry's top pollster, Tony Fabrizio, called it "nuts," according to an email sent from Fabrizio to the ad's main creator, longtime GOP operative Nelson Warfield. In a separate email to The Huffington Post, Warfield confirmed that the ad was made over Fabrizio's objections.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/08/r...

New CNN/Time polls show Newt Gingrich leading in three of the first four states voting in the Republican presidential nomination process and within striking distance in the fourth.

Iowa: Gingrich 33%, Romney 20%, Paul 17%, Perry 9%, Bachmann 7%, Santorum 5%, Huntsman 1%.

New Hampshire: Romney 35%, Gingrich 26%, Paul 17%, Huntsman 8%, Bachmann 3% Perry 2%, Santorum 2%

South Carolina: Gingrich 43%, Romney 20%, Perry 8%, Bachmann 6%, Paul 6%, Santorum 4%, Huntsman 1%.

Florida: Gingrich 48%, Romney 25%, Paul 5%, Bachmann 3%, Huntsman 3%, Perry 3%, Santorum 1%

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2011/12/...

It was all over facebook today about the racist wall post of Miss USA Candidate for Miss Earth Pageant Nicole Lynn.

In her Facebook wall post it says:

“I hardly made it to Manila and we already attended a ridiculous tv show. So annoying!!! These people want to touch you and be with you all the time!! I can’t understand a word they say. I can’t wait to go back home. This country is so dirty and noisy. I’m scared to eat!!! What a mess. On a lighter note I don’t see any real competition. Will keep you updated my loves.”

It says that last Friday the Miss Earth candidates visited the local TV Show of Willie Revillame the “Wil Time Big Time”. Few hour later that facebook post in her wall was posted. (Check on the attached photo for the screen shot of the wall post of Miss USA.)

A lot of people reacted irritably of the racist comment about the Philippines and the Filipino people. Majority said she should be sent home before the pageant night. But lately, Nicole recorded a video of herself and uploaded it on youtube explaining that her Facebook account was being hacked and she immediately deleted the racist post.


http://www.robstroy.com/2011/12/06/racist-...

Even as Ms. Daniels takes blame and apologizes for her Facebook post, hopefully sincerely, her friends on council wish to lessen her blame by saying I am at fault for the city's current embarrassment because I distributed her words.

Just to be clear, since Oct. 2010, my friends and I have posted about 450 posts here.

I did not dig in her Facebook page. I was blocked from it, I do believe. Someone else in Troy sent me her nasty post about gay people. He is a professional person who loves Troy and fears Ms. Daniels.

I didn't worry about making her quote public because it was ALWAYS public. Ms. Daniels wrote it on her FB page, after all. In fact, Ms. Daniels left it on her Facebook page for nearly 24 hours after the story broke in the media. She didn't seem to think there was a reason to hide it.

I did not give this quote to the media, nor did I push for coverage of the story by Troy Patch or MLive. Somehow they picked it up. I still don't know how. I was at work when this story went viral.

So what did I do wrong? I put Janice Daniels' public quote on my blog. Others judged her words to be worthy of furor and passed them on.

Who must take responsibility for her words? Not I.

And one more detail. I began this blog last year because of REAL lies and cheating Ms. Daniels and others used to prevent the good people of Troy from saving the Troy Public Library.

Most of the time it has been extremely easy to quote her and use her words against her, something she doesn't really like.

So the difference between Ms. Daniels' approach and mine was that she told untruths and approved of other people's deception to hurt the Troy Public Library and our city.

What have I done to her?

I have quoted her.

So am I her worst enemy? Or is she her own worst enemy?

The answer is in Ms. Daniels' words.


http://keeptroystrong.blogspot.com/2011/12...

Just after the crash on Saturday morning, Suh was interviewed by police and said that he was trying to pass a taxicab when he lost control of the 1970 Chevrolet Coupe and crashed into a tree, according to the original police report. He also said that no one was injured. No citations were issued.

Two of the people who were passengers in the car have since come forward with information that disputes Suh’s story and the amended police report also quotes a third passenger who said she, too, was injured in the crash.

“When the light turned green, he floored it,” one of the passengers told KGW. “I just remember going so fast and it was violent and just getting thrown around like rag dolls.”


http://www.kgw.com/news/Passengers-say-Suh...

Public comments at the Troy, MI City Council meeting is carried live on the website. Guests may also comment on the site.


http://troy.patch.com/articles/live-covera...

LOS ANGELES - One morsel of news that came out of last night's CNN Presents: A Larry King Special: Dinner With the Kings: Larry King wants to be frozen.

King hosted a dinner at his house with his wife Shawn and a camera crew, with guests Conan O'Brien, Seth MacFarlane, Tyra Banks, Shaquille O'Neal, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, Quincy Jones and Russell Brand.

When MacFarlane asked King whether he was "maybe a little obsessed" with his own mortality, King, 78, said, "Oh, I fear death. My biggest fear is death, because I don't think I'm going anywhere. And since I don't think that, and I don't have a belief ... I'm married to someone who has the belief, so she knows she's going somewhere."

http://www.9news.com/news/article/234034/1...

Rudy Nguyen, 10, is homeless.

Last week, he was sleeping on the floor at a San Francisco drop-in homeless shelter with his parents and 3-year-old brother Danny. Thin mats kept them off hard linoleum.

In the last two months, he spent three nights at a bus shelter and a week on the streets, sleeping on his parents' laps in a park.

Yet every morning, Rudy Nguyen takes two Muni buses to San Francisco's Spring Valley elementary school, where the fourth-grader is expected to be ready to read, write and multiply numbers - like every other kid in school.

Rudy is among a growing number of San Francisco schoolchildren in homeless families who too often come to class cold, hungry and sleep-deprived, making learning difficult if not impossible.



http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...

Sarah Palin, who decided not to run for the White House and has so far been only a bit player in the race, name dropped Rick Santorum in her assessment of the GOP field, saying that he is the candidate who has been most ideologically consistent and will likely start getting a look from conservative voters.

“He’s been consistent in wanting to protect the most vulnerable and the sanctity of life, he’s been consistent in saying we need to slash the federal income tax,” she said, in an interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News, also listing Santorum’s stance on Iran. “People will start paying attention to some of these other messages from some of these other messagers like Rick Santorum.”

continues to poll near the bottom of the pack — the latest Iowa poll has him at 2 percent — but with Cain’s collapse in the polls, and Gingrich’s rise, there could be room for a social conservative stalwart.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/electi...

Newly elected Troy Mayor Janice Daniels’ gay slur Facebook post has created a firestorm of comments regarding freedom of speech on the The Oakland Press’ Facebook page. We asked if anything should be done about her comment, and here is what our Facebook readers had to say:

— Dave Lewandowski: No she has her right to her opinion in her position she probably should have used a diff word than "QUEER"

— Jeff Smith: No, about time someone stood up

— Dave Page: Absolutely, she is a public official who is monitored and scrutinized 24/7...

— Deborra Swain Okolovitch: She could have used a better choice of words, but she has the right to say what she thinks.

— Nick Georgeoff: I agree, she has the right to her opinion. If she's against gay marriage fine, but yeah she should have worded it better. Even if she did word it properly, she would have still gotten flack as seeming anti gay marriage seems to be the political flavor of the day lately.

— Kevin Sandler: Hey its America! We have freedom of speech here and its great! Here's my speech: Janice Daniels is a pig.


http://www.theoaklandpress.com/articles/20...