Joe Cerrell: One of the Great Good Guys in Politics

CAIR: Feds Charged Muslim Man After He Refused To Cooperate
On Monday, we told you about Craig Monteilh, the rogue FBI informant so enthusiastic about finding Terrorists in a California Mosque that community members reported him to the FBI. Monteilh went public and sued the FBI after the fiasco, and, more recently, terror-related charges were dropped against Mosque member Ahmadullah Sais Niazi, who was indicted apparently in large part because of information supplied by Monteilh. But there's another twist. Niazi claims he was charged only after refusi...

HIV-Positive Porn Actor Calls for Condom Use in Adult Films
Wednesday, December 08, 2010 By Staff, Associated Press Los Angeles (AP) - An adult film actor who tested positive for HIV says he now wishes he had known more about the risks of contracting sexually transmitted diseases in the industry and is calling for mandatory Condom use in porn films. Derrick Burts, 24, identified himself to the Los Angeles Times as the performer who tested positive at the Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation in Sherman Oaks in October. He had previously been ...

HIV-positive LA porn actor calls for condom use...
Looking back, Derrick Burts said he wishes he had known more about the risks of contracting sexually transmitted diseases in the porn industry. “Making $10,000 or $15,000 for porn isn’t worth your life,” he said. “Performers need to be educated.” (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times / December 7, 2010) The adult film performer who tested HIV-positive at a San Fernando Valley clinic this fall spoke out for the first time Tuesday, calling for mandatory Condom use in porn p...

AM Alert: Committee posts and crystal balls
Legislative Leadership teams have taken shape in the wake of yesterday's swearing in of the new legislative members. Senate Republicans named Sen. Bob Huff of Diamond Bar as Caucus chair and freshman Sen. Doug LaMalfa of Richvale as Minority Whip. Sen. Tom Harman, R-Huntington Beach, was assigned as vice chair of the Senate Rules Committee. Steinberg said during a Rules Committee hearing that he plans to tap Los Angeles Sen. Kevin de León as chair of the Democratic Caucus and Sen. Elle...

LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa: Teachers union blocking reforms
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa issued strong criticisms of the United Teachers of Los Angeles this morning at a conference sponsored by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California , where he called the union's leadership "the Most Powerful defenders of the status quo." Villaraigosa told the audience gathered at the Sheraton Grand Hotel in Sacramento that the UTLA, which represents some 45,000 teachers and other school employees in Southern California, had opposed proposals to...

I always knew that the publics opinion of President Bush would improve; I just didnt know it would be so soon.
Then again, he had help! Only someone as pathetic as Obama could have helped Bush’s numbers jump so far in such a short period of time. When dubya left office in 2009, his Approval Ratings on Gallup stood at a pathetic 34%. The kool-aide drinking public thought Obama was their savior, he would walk on water, and fix The Economy with his progressive liberal class warfare policies. Fast forward to the end of 2010 and now George W. Bush is more popular than Obama. As painful as it must have...

A Day I Will Never Forget
I will never forget the morning of December 9, 1980. The day before, my younger brother Micah had turned six. I trudged downstairs half asleep and dragged myself to the kitchen table where my Tri-Vi-Flor Vitamin C tablet awaited me.  The radio was on and for a moment I wasn't sure what I had heard. For a moment I thought it was Jack Lemmon who had been shot. My mother corrected me but I still didn't hear it right. "John Lemon?" I innocently asked. "No," my mother snapped, "John Lennon!!!" Th...

Canada: 3 Arrested in Shooting That Killed Teen
© CBC News Police closed off a section of Booth Street on Monday while they investigated the teen's death. Ottawa police have three adult men in custody in connection with the shooting of 16-year-old Yazdan Ghiasvand Ghiasi, whose body was dumped from a car near Chinatown on Monday morning. Ottawa's major crimes unit said police were questioning the three men Tuesday and that charges were pending in what they were calling a homicide, the 10th in Ottawa this year. An Autopsy conducted Tu...

Rest In Peace, Elizabeth Anania Edwards
Elizabeth Edwards, the Cancer-stricken wife of John Edwards has passed on. Her final Facebook entry: I’m joining the Hot Air community in sending up my prayers for her family. Click here to cancel reply. Many of our friends on the left believe that we are undertaxed. If you believe that you don't pay enough in taxes, you can use the button above to connect to the United States Treasury Department, and voluntarily pay more in taxes. But leave the rest of us alone! If you do not wish to don...

S.3992 - Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act of 2010
Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act of 2010 or DREAM Act of 2010 - Authorizes the Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS) to cancel the removal of, and adjust to conditional nonimmigrant status, an alien who: (1) entered the United States before his or her 16th birthday and has been present in the United States for at least five years immediately preceding this Act's enactment; (2) is a person of good moral character; (3) is not inadmissible or deportable under specified grounds...

Mayoral candidates, is CPS good enough for your kids?
From the moment Mayor Richard Daley took office, he made it clear that Chicago couldn't survive without vibrant Public Schools, yet he sent his Children to private Catholic schools. Now, in the first wide-open race in more than two decades, the question has re-emerged for Mayoral Candidates — are Chicago's public schools good enough for their children? In practical terms, the only major Candidate facing that question is Rahm Emanuel, whose school-age Children attend Private School in Wash...

Oakland City Attorney Warns on Pot Farm Legality
Oakland City Attorney John Russo sent a memo to the Oakland City Council last week warning that federal officials have concerns about the city’s plans for giant pot farms, according to multiple City Hall sources. The memo was vague and didn’t outline specific concerns, according to these sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. It came after Russo’s meeting with federal officials, the details of which were reported by California Watch yesterday. Quoting two unnamed so...

Remarks As Prepared For Delivery By Attorney General Eric Holder At The Agriculture Workshop
Thank you, Secretary Vilsack.  And thank you all for joining us.  I know that many of you have traveled great distances to be here.  And the perspectives that you are bringing – from the Mississippi Delta and South Dakota; from Connecticut, California, and communities in between – will be critical to today’s discussion. You represent many different regions, areas of expertise, and positions in the agriculture sup...

Will Co. mental health counselor arrested in sex sting
Will County authorities say they have arrested and charged a Mental Health counselor who works with troubled Children for allegedly trying to arrange a sexual encounter with someone he thought was a 13-year-old girl. Authorities say 39-year-old John Martynus of Plainfield is charged with counts including indecent solicitation of a minor and traveling to meet a minor. Police in Crete say they arrested Martynus Monday night after an undercover operation in which he was led to believe he was commu...

Study finds that family acceptance could save LGBT youths
For the very first time, researchers have established a clear link between accepting familial attitudes and behaviors toward their Lesbian, gay, Bisexual and Transgender Children and a significantly decreased risk and better overall health in adulthood. The California Endowment funded study, “Family Acceptance in Adolescence and the Health of LGBT Young Adults,” is published in the Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Nursing and has successfully explored a world of study that...

Q-Poll: NYers Hopeful Over Cuomo, See Silver as Dulling Reform
The good folks at Quinnipiac University are out with the latest survey, and the top line is not surprising: nearly 90 percent of New Yorkers say that the State Government is "broken and needs to be fixed." But there is hope. Nearly 60 percent of New Yorkers—and 46% of Republicans—are optimistic about Andrew Cuomo's tenure in the Capitol, even if only 45 percent of voters think he will fix state government. And 57 percent of voters think he will not have a partner in reform in Assem...

Disfigured Afghan Woman's Alleged Abuser Nabbed
Like this Story? Share it: Aisha, a 19-year-old woman identified only by her first name, makes her first public appearance in Calabasas, Calif., in October after being fitted with a temporary prosthetic nose. The Afghan teenager told Time Magazine her nose was cut off by her husband to punish her for running away. (AP) Some recent scenes from the War in Afghanistan as Obama's deadline to begin withdrawing Troops nears. (AP) The father-in-law of a young Afghan woman who said her nose and ears we...

Cathie in UFT snub
A month into her appointment as incoming schools chancellor and more than a week after getting state approval for the role, Cathie Black has yet to meet with the head of the powerful city Teachers Union, she told The Post yesterday. Instead, Black has been busy visiting seven high-performing Public Schools in the past 10 days, meeting with principals union president Ernie Logan, and attending yesterday's high-school football Championship Game at Yankee Stadium. "I've got a million things goi...

Muslim Brotherhood Front Group Trains Airport Screeners
The Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) has completed training for 2,200 Transportation Safety Officers (TSOs) at the Los Angeles International Airport according to a Press Release found on the MPAC website. The MPAC release notes that the two-month training course informed officers of “the diversity of Muslims around the world from cultural dress to language to tenets. The four trainers taught the TSOs how to properly handle a Quran and discussed the different ways Muslim women and men c...

California Cities Lead Nation in Unemployment
Many of the metropolitan areas with the highest Unemployment Rates in the country are in California, according to data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Tuesday morning. Among the 10 metro areas with jobless rates of at least 15% in October, eight were located in California, the bureau said. Those eight include El Centro (24.3%), Fresno (15.7%), Hanford-Corcoran (15%), Merced (16.3%), Modesto (16.2%), Stockton (16.3%), and Visalia-Porterville (15.9%). They are among the 138 metro are...

Could Internet Poker Help Ease California's Budget Gap?
One California politician wants the state to take another look at an old idea to help generate money. Sen. Louis Correa (D-Santa Ana) introduced a Senate Bill this week that if passed would pave the wave for legalizing online poker in the state. The measure calls for certain Native American tribes to run sanctioned poker websites, with a portion of the money going into the state's coffers. Correa told the Los Angeles Times said he wants money that people are already spending to run these busines...

Could Internet Poker Help Ease California's Budget Gap?
One California politician wants the state to take another look at an old idea to help generate money. Sen. Louis Correa (D-Santa Ana) introduced a Senate Bill this week that if passed would pave the wave for legalizing online poker in the state. The measure calls for certain Native American tribes to run sanctioned poker websites, with a portion of the money going into the state's coffers. Correa told the Los Angeles Times said he wants money that people are already spending to run these busines...

Filipinos sue CA hospital over English-only rule
Source: Associated Press Los Angeles – Dozens of Filipino Hospital workers in California sued their employer Tuesday alleging they were the sole Ethnic Group targeted by a rule requiring them to speak only English. The group of 52 nurses and medical staff filed a Complaint accusing Delano Regional Medical Center of banning them from speaking Tagalog and other Filipino languages while letting other workers speak Spanish and Hindi. ------- The plaintiffs are seeking to join an August Complaint fil...

Counterterrorism and the Muslim Community
Muslim communities have stepped forward to help Law Enforcement foil almost 4 out of every 10 Al Qaeda-related terror plots threatening America since 9/11/01. Muslim communities have help Law Enforcement prevent the last 7 out of 10 Al Qaeda related plots. This represents an important counter trend [to] the recent spike of arrests. It also highlights the importance of Law Enforcement partnering with citizens through community-oriented policing.  Regardless of the predominant reasons for th...

Doh! HIV positive porn actor now advocates condoms
An adult film actor who tested positive for HIV says he now wishes he had known more about the risks of contracting sexually transmitted diseases in the industry and is calling for mandatory Condom use in porn films. Derrick Burts, 24, identified himself to the Los Angeles Times as the performer who tested positive at the Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation in Sherman Oaks in October. He had previously been known as Patient Zeta. Burts, who performed in straight films as Cameron Reid an...