Texas executes its 1st inmate using single drug

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — A Texas man convicted of carjacking and fatally shooting a stockbroker was put to death Wednesday, becoming the first prisoner in the nation's most active capital punishment state to be executed under a procedure using one lethal drug instead of three.

Texas Department of Criminal Justice officials announced last week they were modifying the three-drug injection method used since 1982 because the state's supply of one of the drugs — the muscle relaxant pancuronium bromide — has expired. Yokamon Hearn, 33, was executed using a single dose of the sedative pentobarbital, which had been part of the three-drug mixture since last year.

Ohio, Arizona, Idaho and Washington have already adopted a single-drug procedure, and this week Georgia said it would do so, too.

Hearn showed no apparent unusual reaction to the drug as his execution began. He was pronounced dead about 25 minutes after the lethal dose began flowing.

Asked by the warden if he wanted to make a statement, he said: "I'd like to tell my family that I love y'all and I wish y'all well. I'm ready."

Hearn was condemned for the March 1998 slaying of 23-year-old suburban Dallas stockbroker Frank Meziere. About 3½ hours before Hearn was put to death, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected his appeals to halt the execution. None of the appeals addressed the change in the state's execution drug policy.

Evidence showed Meziere, of Plano, was cleaning his black convertible Mustang at a self-service car wash in Dallas when Hearn, then 19, and his friends approached. They forced Meziere at gunpoint into his own car and drove him to an industrial area in a south Dallas neighborhood, where he was shot 10 times in the head.

Meziere's father, brother and uncle were among those who witnessed Hearn's lethal injection.
"We did not come today to view this execution for revenge or to even the score," the family said afterward in a statement. "What this does is give our family and friends the knowledge that Mr. Hearn will not have the opportunity to hurt anyone else."

Hearn, known to his friends as "Yogi," already had a lengthy record that included burglary, robbery, assault, sexual assault and weapons possession.

In one appeal, Hearn's lawyers argued that his mother drank alcohol when she was pregnant, stunting his neurological development and leaving him with mental impairments that disqualify him from execution under earlier Supreme Court rulings. Testing shows Hearn's IQ is too high for him to be considered mentally impaired.

In another, his appeals lawyers claimed the trial attorneys who handled his initial appeals failed to investigate his background and uncover evidence of his alleged mental impairment and troubled childhood.

Before the Supreme Court issued brief one-paragraph rulings rejecting his two appeals, Richard Burr, one of Hearn's lawyers, had acknowledged "a degree of hope, but still, it'll be tough."

State attorneys contested the appeals, arguing that information about Hearn's background and upbringing had been "thoroughly investigated and addressed at trial" and that the evidence "does not substantiate any scenario other than that of Hearn's guilt."

Georgette Oden, an assistant Texas attorney general, argued Hearn's latest appeal was improperly filed this week by circumventing lower courts and that it should have been filed years ago.
Hearn declined to speak with reporters in the weeks leading up to his execution. In 2004, he avoided the death chamber when a federal court agreed his mental impairment claims should be reviewed and halted his execution less than an hour before its scheduled time.

Jason January, the former Dallas County assistant district attorney who prosecuted Hearn for capital murder, said to stop the punishment because of fetal alcohol syndrome "would be a free pass for anyone whose parents drank."

"No question he had a tough background, but a lot of people have tough backgrounds and work their way out and don't fill someone's head with 10 bullets," he said.

One of Hearn's accomplices received life in prison. Two others got 10-year sentences.

Hearn became the sixth Texas prisoner executed this year and the 483rd since 1982. At least eight other Texas prisoners have execution dates in the coming months, including three in August.

via SFGATE.com

San Bernardino, Calif., opens the door to bankruptcy filing

By NBC News staff and wire reports

 

The city of San Bernardino, Calif., took a giant step towards filing for bankruptcy protection from its creditors Tuesday when it declared a fiscal emergency.

The designation allows the Southern California city of about 210,000 to skip lengthy negotiations with its debt holders and go straight to filing for Chapter 9, which gives financially-stressed cities and towns protection from its creditors while it renegotiates the terms of its debt.

It's expected that San Bernardino will make its filing in 30 days at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Riverside, California, said City Attorney James Penman.

The City Council voted 5-2 to declare the emergency and file for bankruptcy protection amid a dire cash crunch that has officials worried San Bernardino can't meet payroll in August.

"The horse is out of the barn — the whole world knows we're insolvent," Councilman Fred Shorett said, according to the San Bernardino Sun. "I will be supporting going forward with Chapter 9 and fiscal emergency." 

The city, located 65 miles east of Los Angeles, could become the third municipality in California to seek protection from its creditors since late June. Stockton and the ski resort city of Mammoth Lakes have already filed in bankruptcy court. 

A fourth city, Compton on the outskirts of Los Angeles, could be the next city to turn to bankruptcy protection. 

Compton will run out of cash to make its payroll on September 1, a city official said.

San Bernardino has burned through its reserves and is out of other ways to pay for its longstanding deficit spending. It faces a deficit of nearly $46 million. 

"This problem has been coming for a long, long time," said Shorett. "It's here, now."

The extent of San Bernardino's financial problems became public suddenly last week, prompting its city council to vote on July 10 to begin the process of moving toward Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection as part of a plan to overhaul the city's finances. 

That move caught San Bernardino's residents by surprise and many have spoken out against a bankruptcy filing, fearing its stigma for the city. 

San Bernardino's employees are particularly concerned about what bankruptcy means for their pay and benefits. 

"This sets a bad example for the people of San Bernardino," said Steve Tracy, the representative for San Bernardino's firefighters union. "It shows the city can make contracts, agreements, and can renege on them by filing for bankruptcy." 

San Bernardino's financial staff expects to present a short-term budget to the council on July 24 and city administrators have been authorized to begin negotiations with the city's employee unions. 

Eyes on California
The municipal debt market, which has been keeping a close eye on California, also was caught off guard by the July 10 vote and its analysts are still trying to piece together how San Bernardino's finances fell apart without city leaders stepping in to prevent it. 

"They either didn't know, which is shameful, or they did know, which is worse," said Dick Larkin, director of credit analysis at municipal bond broker-dealer HJ Sims. 

Penman said last week that financial documents had been falsified in 13 of the past 16 years but has not made evidence of the claim public. 

A former city manager who warned the city council in mid-2010 that San Bernardino faced financial ruin, the city's mayor and its auditing firm say they are unaware of any wrongdoing.

Larkin said he expected the city council would press ahead with a Chapter 9 filing given the severity of the city's financial trouble. 

"They seemed hell bent to do it," he said. "I understand they're just about out of cash. I got the feeling that when they voted last Tuesday, they were out of options." 

A state law approved after Vallejo, California, declared bankruptcy in 2008 requires financially troubled cities to enter into talks with creditors to try to avert bankruptcy. 

But the law also allows cities to skip talks and move directly toward a bankruptcy filing by declaring a fiscal emergency and stating that they are unable to pay their obligations within 60 days. 

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

via NBCNews.com

A good end to a rough year for California taxes

California ended the last fiscal year on a high note, raking in 5.6% more tax revenue than expected in June.

Income taxes were responsible for most of the boost, coming in at 8.4% above projections.

The details were released in a report from Gov. Jerry Brown's Department of Finance, and they show that revenue is outpacing revised estimates made in May and codified in the budget signed last month.

But that doesn't mean the last several months weren't financially difficult for California. When revenue is compared with expectations set when the 2011-12 budget was approved, taxes fell short by 4.8%, or $4.2 billion.

A dismal April, the most important month for income-tax collections, was responsible for a large chunk of that gap. That helped increase this year's budget deficit from $9.2 billion to an estimated $15.7 billion.

Brown says the budget he signed last month will cover that shortfall, but only if voters approve more than $8 billion in tax increases in November.


via LA Times

Governor Signs High-Speed Rail Funding Bill

Law unlocks billions in funding for high-speed rail, Caltrain and BART. 

By Aaron Selverston

 

Governor Jerry Brown this morning signed the High-Speed Rail funding bill and will do so again this afternoon in San Francisco.

The bill, S.B. 1029, unlocks $4.7 billion in funding via the sale of state bonds approved by California voters 2008.  The funding will go in part to modernizing Caltrain and other regional transportation systems, and will be matched by a $7.9 billion investment from federal and local dollars.

“This legislation will help put thousands of people in California back to work,” said Governor Brown in a statement Wednesday. “By improving regional transportation systems, we are investing in the future of our state and making California a better place to live and work.”

Brown signed the legislation at Union Station in Los Angeles, and will have another ceremonial signing at the site of the new Transbay Terminal in San Francisco Wednesday afternoon. 

Both stations will serve as termini for the high-speed rail line.

The legislation authorizes $700 million in state funding for electrifying Caltrain by 2019, and will be matched with $2 billion in additional federal and local funding. This is on top of funding authorized for building a light rail connection in Southern California linking Metro transit to Union Station.

“I am very pleased the Governor has signed legislation authorizing the first leg of construction for California’s High Speed Rail Project,” said Speaker John A. Pérez. “This ambitious project will create thousands of jobs and generate billions of dollars for our state, and my colleagues and I have been very pleased to work with the Governor to keep this project moving forward.”

“California’s transit system cannot stagnate because the facts are unforgiving: 20 million additional residents by 2050,” said Senate pro Tem Darrell Steinberg. “You can pave farmlands with new roads and blackout skies with airplanes but the air we breathe will be no better than a tailpipe. This project brings an infusion of energy into rural areas of high unemployment and provides relief for urban traffic gridlock. Most importantly, it’s an investment in California’s future.”

The initial segment of high-speed rail will begin construction in 2013 and link Merced to the San Fernando Valley. The California High-Speed Rail Authority and the Governor’s office claim this will create 100,000 job-years of employment in five years, equivalent to 20,000 full-time jobs annually, but those number are disputed by watchdog groups, including Palo Alto’s Californians Advocating Responsible Rail Design.

SB 1029 also includes money for replacing train cars on BART and implementing Positive Train Control, an automated system for controlling trains designed to stop collisions.

The total investment in Northern California transportation projects unlocked by SB 1029 totals $3.6 billion, according to the Governor’s office. Southern California will get $2.8 billion, and the Central Valley will get $6 billion.

The legislation also ratchets up the reporting requirements on the High-Speed Rail Authority, a move designed to boost accountability, manage project risks, and keep construction on schedule and within budget.

via Campbell Patch

As Schools Fight Obesity, Physical Education Is Cut

More than a half-century ago, President Dwight D. Eisenhower formed the President’s Council on Youth Fitness, and today Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Michelle Obama are among those making childhood obesity a public cause. But even as virtually every state has undertaken significant school reforms, many American students are being granted little or no time in the gym.  

In its biennial survey of high school students across the nation, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in June that nearly half said they had no physical education classes in an average week. In New York City, that number was 20.5 percent, compared with 14.4 percent a decade earlier, according to the C.D.C. 

That echoed findings by New York City’s comptroller, in October, of inadequate physical education at each of the elementary schools that auditors visited. Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, found just 20 percent of elementary schools in San Francisco’s system were meeting the state’s requirements: 20 minutes per day.

At Anatola Elementary School in Van Nuys, Calif., not only are there no gym teachers, but there is also no gym. The principal, Miriam King, has relied on $15-an-hour aides to oversee once-weekly exercise regimens for her 450 students at an outside playground. 

“Sometimes, when it is raining, we just cancel,” Ms. King said. 

In the Miami-Dade School District in Florida, physical education classes for middle school students were threatened by state legislation last year, in the face of anemic local tax collections and dropping property values. But the district’s top health educator, Jayne D. Greenberg, watched in thankful relief as a grass-roots effort mounted enough political pressure to beat back the proposed cuts. 

Still, Dr. Greenberg said, she has had to “double up some of the elementary physical education classes.” 

In East Harlem, at TAG Young Scholars, an elementary and middle school for gifted students, there was no gym teacher for elementary students, according to Patricia Saydah, whose son Mitchell Deutsch just finished the first grade there. Art teachers and guidance counselors oversaw the classes, and students were sometimes called on to demonstrate stretching, Mitchell said. Next year threatens more hardship: One of the four schools that share TAG’s building is expanding, further straining the sole gym. 

Ms. Saydah said she was concerned with Mitchell’s ability to focus in class without physical activity most days. 

“He comes out of school and he is bouncing off the walls,” she said. 

Senator Tom Harkin, Democrat of Iowa, has proposed injecting language into the federal budget creating incentives for schools to report how much physical activity students are getting. He also asked the Government Accountability Office to look into the issue and, in February, it released a survey showing that while schools appeared more aware of the benefits of physical education, “they have reduced the amount of time spent” on such classes. 

Principals most frequently blame budget cuts, and in New York, they also cite pressures to devote resources to test preparation, and what one union leader called a lack of interest from the department headquarters. 

“There does not appear to be a promotion, or support, from the Department of Education for daily physical education in many of our high schools,” said Jeff Engel, a vice principal at Long Island City High School, in Queens, who is a member of the executive board of the principals’ union. He said that his own school provided daily physical education, but that many did not. “We have a huge obesity epidemic in the city, yet we see many of our high schools going to nondaily physical education.” 

According to the city comptroller’s audit, none of the 31 elementary schools that auditors visited were holding physical education classes as frequently as required: every day for kindergarten through third grade and three times a week for grades four through six, for a minimum of 120 minutes weekly; and at least 90 minutes a week for grades seven and eight. In grades 7 through 12, state guidelines call for physical education three times a week in one semester and twice a week in another. 

Kathleen Grimm, New York City’s deputy schools chancellor for operations, said the Bloomberg administration required adequate physical education in schools, but acknowledged it had work to do. Since principals face challenges in providing space and time for those classes, she said, the administration hoped to put a plan in place by summer’s end to provide them “better support” across all areas of education, including physical education. 

The department has not filed an overall physical education plan with the state since 1982, though state officials recommend a new one every seven years. A spokeswoman for the city schools says one will be presented in September. 

Besides its value in fighting obesity, physical education has also been linked in some studies to good academic outcomes. Dr. John J. Ratey, a Harvard professor and author of “Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain” cited a 2010 study on the topic from the federal Health and Human Services Department. 

“There is shrinking P.E. and recess time for our kids,” Dr. Ratey wrote. “P.E. teachers are fighting like cats and dogs to hold the line on their jobs and worth, at the same time as there is a dawning awareness that we have missed the boat.” 

Despite the shortcomings in physical education, Mr. Bloomberg has received high marks from public health advocates for his anti-obesity policies, including calorie disclosures in chain restaurants, a proposed ban on large sugary drinks in certain settings, and limits on the calorie and sugar contents of food sold in school vending machines. 

In the meantime, the city has promoted several school health initiatives, including 10-minute “fitness breaks” in classrooms and before- and after-school recreation for middle school students. And Ms. Grimm said that the city had been honored, nationally, for a program to assess students’ fitness and that 850,000 pupils had completed the program this year. In December, the city said that annual fitness exams given to most of the city’s kindergarten though eighth-grade students showed a 5.5 percent drop in the number of obese schoolchildren, the biggest decline reported by any large city. The exams showed 21 percent of children were obese, down from 22 percent. 

One elementary school making an effort is Sheridan Academy for Young Leaders, in the Bronx, where Ronny Rodriguez, a physical education instructor, ran 12 students through a rigorous 50-minute class one Friday last month. 

Each student gets class once a week, far short of state requirements. During fitness breaks, students in science class stand and clap to the beat of a heart, and in social studies, they move as if navigating a rain forest. 

Still, Mr. Rodriguez and Vicki Weiner, co-chairwoman of the school’s wellness program, wish more days had physical education. 

As his perspiring first graders, some visibly overweight, poured out of the gym for the last time, Mr. Rodriguez addressed his “young leaders” and asked what they would do over the summer. 

“Exercise!” came the choral reply. 

“One day, or every day?” he asked. They replied, in unison: “Every day!” 

Vivian Yee contributed reporting.

via NYTimes.com

Unions make a move to help CA with budget deficit

A tax limitation organization says California unions may be finally waking up to reality by agreeing to a year of furloughs.

California's largest state workers union has agreed to continue a year of furloughs and will see an almost five-percent cut in pay and hours. The Service Employees International Union Local 1000 said that 66 percent of members agreed to take 12 unpaid days. The agreement follows a proposal by Governor Jerry Brown to cut the state to a four-day workweek.

Lew Uhler, founder of the National Tax Limitation Committee, discusses the unions' response to the state's budget deficit.

"They're at least beginning to recognize reality in making concessions, although simply taking a day off without pay is not a particularly significant concession," he remarks.

The agreement comes in the midst of pressure for employee unions to make cuts to pay and benefits in light of California's budget deficit.

"There is little tolerance for any complaints from public servants who are paid more on average than private sector workers," Uhler says.

Under the agreement, employees will have some say over when they will take their unpaid days.

California's budget plan balanced with risky assumptions

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Jerry Brown has bet a portion of California's financial health on the expectation that a hyperpartisan Congress will change course on a hotly debated tax policy this year.

The budget Brown signed last week assumes that over the next four years the state will reap almost $2.3 billion from the federal estate tax, a levy on wealth inheritance. California hasn't collected any revenue from the tax since 2004, and if Congress sticks with current policy it won't in the coming years, either.

 

"It seems most likely the state will see no such revenues," said Jason Sisney, a deputy at the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office, which advises lawmakers on financial matters. A report from that office last fall warned that California should not anticipate otherwise.

The Brown administration estimates a relatively small amount of revenue, $45 million, in the budget year that began this week. But by the 2015-16 fiscal year, officials are counting on $1.2 billion. That assumption has helped Brown and Democratic lawmakers insist that California will emerge from its financial turmoil with a budget surplus three years from now.

"I believe that if we continue on this path, this era of unending deficits will be behind us," Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) told reporters after the Legislature finalized its budget bills last week.

But the bet on estate taxes is one of several risky ones they made this year, not the least of which is the expectation that voters will approve more than $8 billion in higher taxes in November. Another assumption is already faltering: Facebook stock is trading at lower levels than expected, casting doubt on hopes that the company's initial public offering would generate $1.9 billion in tax receipts.

In addition, the analyst's office said the state may collect $900 million less than anticipated from defunct local redevelopment agencies.

If the forecasts don't pan out, state leaders could be scrambling to keep their heads above water, said Christopher Thornberg, a financial consultant who advises the state controller. That's what happened earlier this year when tax revenue fell $3.5 billion short, widening the budget deficit to $15.7 billion.
"There's all sorts of uncertainty," he said.

Administration officials acknowledged in January that the estate-tax money was unlikely to materialize. The governor's January budget proposal said there was "only a narrow range of federal law under which California would receive any revenue" from the levy.
State Sen. Bill Emmerson (R-Hemet), who sits on the Senate's budget committee, suggested the new spending plan would more likely result in a deficit than a surplus.

"The governor and legislative Democrats are desperate to claim they have solved the budget problem," Emmerson said in a statement. "It is a shame they cannot be honest with the people of California."

H.D. Palmer, a spokesman for Brown's Department of Finance, said it's not that simple. If the state pulls in less revenue, it won't be required to spend as much on public schools under California's voter-approved funding formula. That would ease the burden on the budget.

Palmer said the administration included the estate tax money because the existing federal policy, passed in 2001 under PresidentGeorge W. Bush, is set to expire at the end of the year. That would allow the state to start collecting those funds again.

But the analyst's office said in a report last November: "Most observers believe that, no matter what Congress does to the estate tax in 2012," California won't be able to collect money from it. The report cautioned lawmakers not to incorporate any such revenue into the budget "unless there is a clear indication from Congress" that it will be available.
That indication hasn't come. President Obama did not propose that states receive estate-tax revenue in his most recent federal budget plan, according to the U.S. Treasury.

"It's very hard to bring a tax back that's been gone for several years," said Tracy Gordon, who studies state and local finances at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank.
chris.megerian@latimes.com

 

via LA Times