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November 11, 2013
Burning Man & Pershing County Settle
Here are the terms: it's a 10-year agreement; Burning Man pays Pershing County $605,000/year if the population is under 60,000; if it's between 60,000 and 70,000 the payment is $640,000. The $1.50/head fee that the article mentions (Pershing County's original request) was $1.50/head/day or $10.50 for a 7-day stay.
In addition, Burning Man has agreed to pay all costs for law enforcement and the District Attorney for any prosecution related to Burning Man in Pershing County. That seems to be an uncapped amount. It would be fairly small with the extremely low crime rate that Burning Man currently enjoys.
UPDATE: See significant corrections in my comment below.
Filed under Burning Man | permalink | November 11, 2013 at 06:34 PM | Comments (1)
November 9, 2013
Adam Sanchez Takes Lead With 12 Vote Margin
The still unofficial results of Tuesday's vote now show Adam Sanchez with 1,042 votes and Yvonne Parks with 1,030. If this becomes the final vote, then Jan Pye will stay on the City Council and Mayor Parks will depart.
No other election has shifted.
Filed under Desert Hot Springs | permalink | November 9, 2013 at 12:26 PM | Comments (0)
Fatal Traffic Accident On Worsley Road
CITY OF DESERT HOT SPRINGS POLICE DEPARTMENTPRESS RELEASE
TYPE OF INCIDENT: Fatal Traffic Accident
DATE / TIME OF INCIDENT: Saturday, November 9, 2013 / 0649 HoursNARRATIVE
On Saturday, November 9, 2013, at approximately 6:49 AM, Officers from the Desert Hot Springs Police Department, the California Highway Patrol and Cal Fire responded to a report of a single vehicle, roll over traffic accident on Worsley, north of Mission Creek Road. Upon arrival, Officers discovered a white male adult (driver), approximately 50 years old, deceased inside the vehicle. A second occupant of the vehicle was extricated and transported to Desert Regional Medical Center by AMR Paramedics. Please refer to the Riverside County Sheriff-Coroner's Office for information about the driver. No other vehicles were involved in the accident.
The Desert Hot Springs Police Department has an ongoing traffic collision investigation. If anyone witnessed or has information regarding this incident is asked to contact the Desert Hot Springs Police Department at (760)329-2904 or the Coachella Valley Crime Stoppers (760)341-STOP (760-341-7867) to remain anonymous.
UPDATE: Here's that Coroner's report -
Coroner's File #: 2013-10163
Last Name: Olson
First Name: Dale
Gender: Male
Age: 59 Years
City of Residence: Durango, CO
Next of Kin Notified: Yes
Date of Death: Found 11/09/2013
Time of Death: 0637 Hours
Date of Injury: 11/--/2013
Time of Injury: Unknown Hours
Location of Death: East Roadway Shoulder: Worsley Rd, ½-mile s/o N. Indian Canyon Dr., Desert Hot Springs 92240
Location of Injury: East Roadway Shoulder: Worsley Rd, ½-mile s/o N. Indian Canyon Dr., Desert Hot Springs 92240
Agency Investigating: Desert Hot Springs Police Department
Investigation #: 1311D-2048
Comments: Operator of a SUV that failed to negotiate curve, exited roadway and rolled; not ejected.
| permalink | November 9, 2013 at 12:13 PM | Comments (0)
Data In Context
To put the statement "We also have 15 city employees with compensation packages of more than $200,000" into some context I went back to the spreadsheet of city employee compensation in 2011 that I put together from data on the Controller's website. 2012 data isn't posted yet, and what we really need to know to make decisions now is what compensation is being paid this year, not what was paid two years ago. Nevertheless, here are the 12 employees who received wages plus retirement benefits plus health benefits totaling more than $200,000 in 2011.
| Position | Department | Total Wages | Total Retirement & Health Cost | Total Wages + Retirement & Health Cost | Overtime (included in Total Wages) | Other Pay (included in Total Wages) |
| City Manager | City Manager | $235,247 | $66,487 | $301,734 | $0 | $10,400 |
| Police Chief | Police | $218,007 | $83,395 | $301,402 | $0 | $9,642 |
| Police Officer | Police | $181,587 | $79,955 | $261,542 | $16,137 | $8,599 |
| Detective Sergeant | Police | $195,335 | $62,247 | $257,582 | $9,823 | $5,173 |
| Administrative Services Director | Finance | $192,251 | $42,319 | $234,570 | $0 | $26,646 |
| Police Commander | Police | $159,461 | $63,971 | $223,432 | $0 | $11,197 |
| Police Commander | Police | $159,314 | $61,380 | $220,694 | $0 | $14,214 |
| Police Sergeant | Police | $165,267 | $54,331 | $219,598 | $0 | $8,549 |
| Police Sergeant | Police | $159,293 | $58,377 | $217,670 | $23,005 | $1,000 |
| Police Sergeant | Police | $145,580 | $63,376 | $208,956 | $0 | $7,414 |
| Police Officer | Police | $157,264 | $49,513 | $206,777 | $34,715 | $10,999 |
| Construction Manager | Public Works | $167,458 | $36869 | $204,327 | $0 | $29,425 |
| Totals: | $0 | $2,136,064 | $722,220 | $2,858,284 | $83,680 | $143,258 |
If we take Rick Daniels and Pat Williams off the list that leaves 10, 8 of whom are police officers. Four of them had overtime pay. In two cases, it's the overtime pay that pushed total compensation over $200,000.
The two non-police in the top 10 were the "Administrative Services Director," Jason Simpson, who is no longer with the city; and "Construction Manager" in Public Works. I think that was Hal Goldenberg's title in 2011. In August of 2013 he moved on to greener pastures.
Filed under Desert Hot Springs | permalink | November 9, 2013 at 10:22 AM | Comments (5)
November 8, 2013
A′/B′ Comparison
Again, your preference?
Or B′:
Filed under Music,Television | permalink | November 8, 2013 at 07:59 PM | Comments (0)
A/B Comparison
Which do you prefer?
Or B:
Filed under Music | permalink | November 8, 2013 at 07:43 PM | Comments (1)
UCSD Neuroscience Students Show Russian Police How It's Done
Filed under Music | permalink | November 8, 2013 at 06:56 PM | Comments (0)
What Russian Police Are Up To
I had my doubts about whether these were really Russian police, but this video from RT confirms that they are, indeed, police.
They make reference to this video of the Russian Army Choir singing "Skyfall."
Filed under Music | permalink | November 8, 2013 at 10:02 AM | Comments (0)
CVHS "Arabs" Controversy Reaches Al Jazeera
It's been in the news that the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee has described Coachella Valley High School's "Arab" mascot "as 'harmful' and 'demeaning' to the Arab-American community, and insisting that it no longer be used." Al Jazeera has picked up the story too and includes a brief history of the date industry in Coachella Valley.
David Hinkle, a CVHS alumnus (Class of 1961), said "I don’t think it can be viewed as offensive. I don’t think the images they have now are offensive."
The Al Jazeera article links to the website of the CVHS Alumni Association where they provide the history of the "Arab" mascot. (That page doesn't format correctly in any of my browsers, so somebody let me know if it looks okay in IE.) Here's part that Al Jazeera picked up on:
Another change in the mascot came in the 1980s. A group of Arabs from Saudi Arabia who were in the area touring the desert's date industry recommended that the mascot's headdress be changed from a fez to a hijab or head scarf. Their reasoning was that Saudi Arabia was no longer under French rule; therefore, Saudi Arabians no longer wore the fez as their headdress.The school voted to honor the request and the mascot began to be drawn as he still appears today.
Of course, if you had a decent public school education you would already be saying "Huh?" The French never ruled Saudi Arabia and the fez has nothing to do with the French, except they did rule Morocco where people wear fezzes and tried to avoid Nazis and their collaborators in WWII. The Al Jazeera article points out that the fez came from the Ottomans, not the Arabs and that the hijab is the headscarf of Muslim women.
I believe the word the Alumni Association may have intended was keffiyeh, the headdress enjoyed by Arabs and Burners all over the world.
The Alumni Association page gives credit to "Richard Ramirez for the history of our mascot as told to Cindy Soria," in case anyone wants to point fingers.
CVUSD Superintendent Darryl Adams said the matter will be raised for discussion at the November 21 board meeting.
If any readers are thinking that maybe the Aladdin image suffers from similar stereotyping, consider this from Wikipedia:
Although Aladdin is a Middle Eastern tale, the story is set in China, and Aladdin is explicitly Chinese. However, most of the people in the story are Muslims; there is a Jewish merchant who buys Aladdin's wares (and incidentally cheats him), but there is no mention of Buddhists or Confucians. Everybody in this country bears an Arabic name, and its monarch seems much more like a Muslim ruler than a Chinese emperor. Some commentators believe that this suggests that the story might be set in Turkestan (encompassing Central Asia and the modern Chinese province of Xinjiang). It has to be said that this speculation depends on a knowledge of China that the teller of a folk tale (as opposed to a geographic expert) might well not possess, and that a deliberately exotic setting is in any case a common storytelling device.
IOW, such a muddle of stereotypes no one can be sure who should be offended.
Filed under Coachella Valley | permalink | November 8, 2013 at 07:47 AM | Comments (0)
November 7, 2013
I will not spend the rest of the day feeling awesome
The caption under this video says "If you already knew these, spend the rest of the day feeling awesome." These are 6 Essential Mac [keyboard] Tips. I knew not a single one.
Filed under Technology | permalink | November 7, 2013 at 09:22 PM | Comments (1)
Russian Achievment
| permalink | November 7, 2013 at 08:56 PM | Comments (0)
Arthur C. Clarke
If you're in Colombo, Sri Lanka, you may be able to visit the workspace of the late Arthur C. Clarke which is left pretty much unchanged since his death five years ago.
Filed under Books,Film/Movies,Science | permalink | November 7, 2013 at 06:53 PM | Comments (0)
The Upcoming City Council Study Session, November 12
The staff report for next Tuesday's City Council study session (November 12 at 4 PM) is interesting reading. Here are the figures as presented to the City Council in June when they approved the budget:
| Beginning Fund Balance | $ 4,150,838 |
| Estimated Revenues | 16,295,409 |
| Estimated Appropriations | (18,346,062) |
| Net Transfers Out | (209,504) |
| Projected Ending Fund Balance | $1,890,681 |
However, it is now known that the July 1 General Fund balance was actually $3,155,703. Therefore, the projected fund balance on June 30, 2014 is now only $895,546.
It gets worse. Now expected revenue in this fiscal year is expected to be only $13,902,464, not $16,295,409 — a reduction of $2,392,945.
We're not done. Estimated expenditures have been re-evaluated.
Expenditures, when evaluated, included adding back in many costs that were cut from the budget, even though the City has contractual obligations to pay some of these expenditures. The total increase added back to the Appropriations is $1,479,900. This number is net of cost savings that staff has already implemented. These changes resulted in a revised expected General Fund expenditure amount, including transfers out, of $20,135,466.
Add it all up and the General Fund balance on June 30, 2014, is estimated at a negative $3,077,299.
There has been one-time revenue this fiscal year of $682,589, part of the Developer Reimbursement Fee from the Health & Wellness Center. Excluding that one-time revenue, expenditures are budgeted to exceed revenue by $6.9 million.
General Fund cash on hand on September 30, 2013, $1,533,588. It is estimated that cash will run out by March 31, 2014. "The City will need to take steps to declare a Fiscal Emergency very soon." You may recall that at the joint meeting of the Finance Committee and City Council in October it was estimated that we wouldn't arrive at the point of fiscal emergency for another year or year and a half.
"Staff has issued a 'Notice of Public Hearing' for a Fiscal Emergency Public Hearing to be acted on at the Regular City Council Meeting on November 19, 2013 if the City Council should decide to do so."
Staff is presenting a list of 102 suggestions to cut expenses or increase revenue. Buried as suggestion #49 is this news: "Effective 11/6/13 the Economic Development Consultant [Michael Bracken] resigned." Some of the suggestions:
- First items on the list are to cut City Council expenses, including elimination of video services at the regular meetings.
- Sell the land where City Hall now sits and move all city offices into the still vacant county building on Palm Drive south of Vons. If the county would agree to $1/year rent, this could save the city $600,000.
- Stop all watering of city lawns, including parks. This would save almost $90,000 this fiscal year.
- Revise the public safety parcel tax, increasing the rate charged vacant land.
- Eliminating crossing guards would save $29,305 this fiscal year.
- A 10% salary reduction for all employees would save $388,553 in this fiscal year.
- Closing the Skyborne fire station would save only $12,500 this fiscal year.
- Elimination of funding for the Boys & Girls Club would save $125,000 this fiscal year.
- Decommissioning the police camera system would save $75,000.
- Elimination of one animal control officer would save $55,000 this fiscal year.
- Reducing code enforcement staff by two would save $110,000 this fiscal year.
- Eliminating graffiti abatement would save $30,000 this fiscal year.
Filed under Desert Hot Springs | permalink | November 7, 2013 at 05:36 PM | Comments (6)
Getting Married In Southern California?
An opportunity arises:
A Major Cable Network is currently casting eccentric, dynamic brides with dreams of having an over the top wedding. If you're a bride seeking a blingy, flashy, glitzy wedding and want your big day to mimic a Greek, Italian, Persian or Gypsy type of affair, then you are our bride!!!!Let us help to enhance your big day and document it on television for you and your honey to remember for a lifetime! Deadline to apply is Monday, November 25th 2013.
CASTING REQUIREMENTS:
- Must be getting married between now & Valentines' Day 2014 in the Greater Los Angeles area / Southern California.HOW TO APPLY:
Send an email to [email protected] with your Name, Phone Number, Photo of the engaged couple, and tell us about a little bit about yourselves!
Filed under California,Television | permalink | November 7, 2013 at 04:45 PM | Comments (0)
Death Valley Photos
Mushroom Rock just waiting for some Boy Scout leaders to come along and push it over.
A van full of students from Dartmouth College who we saw at various spots around the park. They spent 45 seconds at Ubehebe Crater. It was chilly for a southern Californian, but these students are from New Hampshire and should have had more stamina.
The view from Dante's Peak looking down at Badwater.
Badwater. Most of the people out there were from the Dartmouth College van. It's warmer at Badwater than at Ubehebe Crater and they spent more time here.
Mosaic Canyon. Note the people for a sense of scale.
A well at Old Stovepipe Wells which is quite a distance from Stovepipe Wells Village.
The complete set of photos from this trip is here.
Bonus! Video of the pipe organ demonstration that visitors get on the upstairs tour at Scotty's Castle. The pipes are behind that screen, which is why I focus on it.
Filed under California,Photography | permalink | November 7, 2013 at 02:24 PM | Comments (1)
November 6, 2013
The Hidden Waters Of Desert Hot Springs
Here is the video of the October 2013 Soup Supper put on by the Desert Hot Springs Historical Society. BYO soup. Jeff Bowman discusses "Tunnels, Aquifers and the Birth of a City." This was the most popular soup supper to date.
Filed under Desert Hot Springs | permalink | November 6, 2013 at 08:07 PM | Comments (2)
Two Die In Netherlands Wind Turbine Fire
News video (there is no audio) of a wind turbine fire in the Netherlands. If you've never had the misfortune to see one of these fires in the Coachella Valley, have a look:
According to the news story (or as I understood the Google-translated version) there were four people working on the turbine and two escaped alive. This is alleged to be a photo showing the two remaining engineers on the turbine before they died, but its source is Reddit which is highly unreliable. You will see in the discussion that a wind turbine technician says the turbines are equipped with controlled rate descenders which would permit a safe emergency escape.
Filed under Technology | permalink | November 6, 2013 at 02:48 PM | Comments (0)
Election Results, November 5, 2013
With the exception of Joe McKee replacing Jan Pye on the City Council, it's all incumbent victories. Below are the numbers as taken from the website of the Riverside County Registrar of Voters.
Asterisks (*) indicate winners.
Updated November 12, 2013 - these are the final certified votes, although there may be a count in the DHS mayoral election.
| MAYOR, CITY OF DESERT HOT SPRINGS 12/12 100.00% | ||
| Vote Count | Percent | |
| ADAM SANCHEZ | 1,042 | 43.20% |
| JOHN-PAUL VALDEZ | 340 | 14.10% |
| YVONNE PARKS* | 1,030 | 42.70% |
| Total | 2,412 | 100.00% |
| CITY COUNCIL, DESERT HOT SPRINGS 12/12 100.00% | ||
| Vote Count | Percent | |
| JOE MCKEE* | 1,351 | 32.44% |
| SCOTT MATAS* | 1,132 | 27.18% |
| ROBERT BENTLEY | 679 | 16.30% |
| JAN PYE | 1,003 | 24.08% |
| Total | 4,165 | 100.00% |
| DIRECTOR, DESERT WATER AGENCY 61/61 100.00% | ||
| Vote Count | Percent | |
| JIM CIOFFI* | 7,319 | 28.42% |
| PATRICIA "PAT" OYGAR* | 7,829 | 30.40% |
| JOE STUART* | 6,319 | 24.54% |
| MICHAEL PAUL PADUANO | 4,288 | 16.65% |
| Total | 25,755 | 100.00% |
| DIRECTOR, MISSION SPRINGS WATER DISTRICT 27/27 100.00% | ||
| Vote Count | Percent | |
| NANCY S. WRIGHT* | 1,616 | 30.66% |
| MARY JANE SANCHEZ-FULTON | 1,165 | 22.10% |
| MALCOLM MC LEAN | 1,166 | 22.12% |
| JEFF BOWMAN* | 1,324 | 25.12% |
| Total | 5,271 | 100.00% |
| Measure B - City of Palm Springs 17/17 100.00% | ||
| Vote Count | Percent | |
| YES | 5,585 | 66.28% |
| NO | 2,842 | 33.72% |
| Total | 8,427 | 100.00% |
It will be interesting to see how the City of Palm Springs fleshes out Measure B. Presented to the voters as a tax, it actually gives the Palm Springs City Council a lot more power and flexibility to regulate marijuana dispensaries, if they want to use it that way...and why wouldn't they? I don't know if it will do anything to discourage the unpermitted dispensaries, though.
Here's the essential core of Measure B:
The City Council may impose the tax authorized by this Chapter at a lower rate and may establish exemptions, incentives, or other reductions, and penalties and interest charges or assessments for failure to pay the tax in a timely manner, as otherwise allowed by the Charter and California law. No action by the Council under this Section shall prevent it from later increasing the tax or removing any exemption, incentive, or reduction, and restoring the maximum tax specified in this Chapter.
IOW, so long as they keep it within constitutional limits, the city can impose any requirements on any dispensary as the city sees fit. It's not a sales tax, so it doesn't have to fit within the rules on sales tax. A dispensary that complies with city requirements can be rewarded with a lower effective tax rate. Unpermitted dispensaries could be taxed at the full 15% rate and will probably pay it, knowing that trying to avoid the tax will result in worse legal problems than the usual shutdown, which is the only power the city had over them before now.
I don't know if other cities that are taxing dispensaries have done it with an ordinance like this one. If Palm Springs is the first with this, then whatever legal mind crafted it should get a bonus from the city - after the court challenges are finished.
I imagine most of the people who voted for it saw it as a tax on other people, since I'm sure Californians would not approve such a broadly worded high rate tax on themselves. I don't think there are many other situations where cities could take advantage of a tax like this one. I think there are three requirements for such a tax to be approved:
- It has to apply to an industry or activity that the city needs some more power to regulate.
- The users of that industry or activity should be perceived by the majority of voters to be "other people."
- The industry or activity needs to be perceived as a cash cow.
Filed under Coachella Valley,Desert Hot Springs,Politics | permalink | November 6, 2013 at 10:13 AM | Comments (0)
November 5, 2013
Illinois Makes It 15
The Illinois State Senate approved technical changes to a bill that would permit equal marriage rights after the House approved it 61 to 54. Governor Quinn has said he will sign it. The law will go into effect June 1, 2014.
Hawaii, where it all started, is expected to approve equal marriage rights within the next few days.
Filed under Gay Issues | permalink | November 5, 2013 at 03:27 PM | Comments (0)
No Narcotics Found
In January 2013 David Eckert was stopped by Deming, New Mexico, police for running a stop sign. The police thought he was clenching his buttocks, which gave them reasonable cause to search him for drugs. They got a search warrant that permitted them to go up his butt and look. The police took Mr. Eckert to an emergency room to perform the search, but the personnel there refused to do it. So they drove him to Gila Regional Medical Center in the next county. Despite Mr. Eckert's objections, doctors there performed a manual search of his rectum. Then they gave him an enema and searched through his stool. They repeated this two more times, finding nothing. Finally, they sedated him and performed a full colonoscopy. The report says nothing about whether they found any polyps, but it is clear they found no drugs.
Gila Regional Medical Center is trying to bill Mr. Eckert for all the procedures.
Mr. Eckert's attorney says the search warrant was only valid in Luna County, not in Grant County where the searches were performed. Mr. Eckert is suing:
- The City of Deming,
- Three Deming police officers,
- Three Hidalgo County deputies (the article doesn't say how Hidalgo County got involved),
- Deputy District Attorney Daniel Dougherty who serves in Doña Ana County (the article doesn't say how Doña Ana County got involved),
- The Gila Regional Medical Center, and
- Two doctors at the medical center.
Deming is in Luna County. The Gila Regional Medical Center is in Silver City which is in Grant County, north and west of Luna County. Hidalgo County is the next county west past Grant County. Doña Ana County is east of Luna County.
Filed under Public Safety | permalink | November 5, 2013 at 03:19 PM | Comments (1)
