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LGBT Community Center of the Desert’s “Red Dress Party” a Whimsically Fashionable Affair with a Serious Purpose
In an evening full of merriment and outrageous costumes, a brief yet poignant moment came as the crowd fell to a hush as
MacMillan, KNEWS Radio Personality Joey English and CBS Local 2 Morning Anchor Jenifer Daniels. Among the attendees were LULU California Bistro owners/philanthropists Barbara and Jerry Keller,Rancho Mirage Mayor Scott Hines and partner Kevin Blessing, owner of Beau Monde Villas, Bill Nicholson of Flooring Innovations and Gary Hall from Wells Fargo.Desert Hot Springs Council MADD Awards
On behalf of Mothers Against Drunk Drivers DHS Police Chief recognized three DHSPD officers for their citations and arrests of drivers under the influence in Desert Hot Springs.
BERLIN ‘Don’t tear down this wall!’
Plans to remove sections of Berlin’s East Side Gallery, the longest remaining stretch of the Berlin Wall, have struck a raw nerve in the German capital. Opponents see it as an attack on the city’s identity.
In the summer of 1987, US President Ronald Reagan gave a landmark speech at the Brandenburg Gate, calling on Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev to make good on his intentions to liberalize communist Eastern Europe by demolishing the most visible symbol of the Iron Curtain. The speech culminated in the four most famous words of his presidency: “Tear down this wall!”
Who would have guessed that nearly 26 years later, thousands of Berliners would gather in front of the once reviled Berlin Wall and demand city politicians leave it standing?
Monday morning, about 100 demonstrators managed to prevent construction workers from removing approximately 23 meters of the East Side Gallery, the longest remaining stretch of the Wall that is now covered in murals painted by artists from around the world. The section was to be relocated just a few meters away.
That demonstration followed a much larger protest of some 6,000 people on Sunday, all demanding the East Side Gallery remain untouched.
While the 1.3-kilometer (0.8-mile) East Side Gallery is a protected landmark, city officials apparently approved – and perhaps even requested – the demolition work as part of plans to build a high-rise luxury apartment complex on the grassy area between the Wall and the Spree River.
That area was once aptly called the “Death Strip” because East German police would shoot any would-be defectors trying to escape through it into West Berlin. The gap in the East Side Gallery would give future tenants of the complex, as well as pedestrians crossing a bridge to be built there by the city, better access to the street along which the Wall runs.
Dow Jones hits all-time high despite budget uncertainties
The Dow Jones industrial average has hit the highest intraday level in all of its history despite US budget uncertainties. The rally was fueled by reports about China’s plans to drastically increase spending.
The Dow Jones index on Tuesday hit a new all-time record, surging to intraday levels not seen in over five years.
The industrial average barometer rose to 14.223 within minutes after trading started, topping the last intraday record of 14.198 recorded on October 11, 2007.
Wall Street opened higher as institutional investors welcomed China’s record spending plans and hoped developments in the world’s second-largest economy signaled better growth prospects worldwide.
Lots of money floating around
The Dow Jones rally was also fueled by Japan’s resolve to continue its policy of quantitative easing, pushing into the background worries about the consequences of the US’ unresolved budget row.
China’s growth prospects
Chip producer Qualcomm emerged as the biggest gainer in early trading, raising its stock value by 2.5 percent after increasing its dividend and announcing a buy-back program.
In Germany, the blue-chip DAX-30 also surged on China’s announcement of measures to fuel growth. Deutsche Post DHL and utility company RWE presented impressive earnings reports which also helped the DAX surpass the 7,800-point mark again.
The eurozone’s continued debt crisis did not seem to worry investors too much. “All crises are currently being drowned in liquidity,” Baader Bank analyst Robert Halver said in a statement.
DEA chiefs urge Obama to nullify Washington and Colorado pot laws
Former Drug Enforcement Administration chiefs are urging the Obama administration to nullify marijuana laws in Colorado and Washington, which recently legalized the recreational use of pot.
The eight former DEA heads fear that the states’ marijuana laws will instigate a “domino effect”, causing other states to pass their own laws legalizing the recreational use of certain drugs. Since marijuana is illegal under federal law, the former DEA administrators believe Obama should sue states to force them to annul the legislation.
“My fear is that the Justice Department will do what they are doing now: do nothing and say nothing,” Peter Bensinger, a former DEA administrator, told AP.“If they don’t act now, these laws will be fully implemented in a matter of months.”
Colorado and Washington passed a voters’ initiative to legalize recreational use of marijuana. Revenue from the drug sales will go to education, healthcare, research and substance abuse prevention. Marijuana will be sold under a tightly regulated system, similar to that of alcohol. Washington state officials have already created a timetable of distributing marijuana producer licenses by August.
“The voters have spoken and we have to respect their will,” Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper said after the November election. “This will be a complicated process, but we intend to follow through. That said, federal law still says marijuana is an illegal drug so don’t break out the Cheetos or gold fish too quickly.”
The Department of Justice if currently still reviewing the states’ laws, which the former DEA heads hope to influence with a statement to be released Tuesday by the national lobbying group, Save Our Society from Drugs.
US Attorney General Eric Holder is scheduled to speak before a US Senate judiciary committee hearing on Wednesday, where he will likely be questioned about the extrajudicial killing program. But the former DEA administrators are urging senators to also question him on the legalization of marijuana.
Banks unlawfully foreclosed on military members while they were on tours of duty
Banks wrongfully foreclosed the homes of more than 700 military families during the financial crisis, a number much higher than originally thought.
Active military and National Guard members are protected from foreclosure under federal law, but some of United States’ largest banks failed to take that into account when they wrongfully seized the homes of hundreds of American service members. Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo all foreclosed on military families, a discovery that was made while analyzing mortgages during the multi-billion dollar settlement with the government, the New York Times reports.
Additionally, banks illicitly seized the homes of 20 other borrowers, all of which were up-to-date on their mortgage payments.
The new findings demonstrate the severity of the mortgage crisis on foreclosure victims between 2006 and 2009. Banks had previously claimed that no one was wrongfully foreclosed upon. Lenders eventually admitted that some had been illicitly evicted, but only as a result of faulty documents.
In 2011, JPMorgan settled claims that it illicitly foreclosed on 18 military service members. Bank of America and Morgan Stanley settled claims that they foreclosed on 178 military members. Those numbers seemed high at the time, but the new figures shed a new light on the extent of the illegal foreclosures.
Foreclosing on members of the military violates the Service-members Civil Relief Act, which prohibits banks from foreclosing on active-duty members without a court order. The law was officially established in 1940 to prevent soldiers from facing legal trouble in the US while fighting in World War II.
“It’s absolutely devastating to be 7,000 miles from your home fighting for this country and get a message that your family is being evicted,” Col. John S. Odom Jr., a retired Air Force lawyer who represents military members in foreclosure cases, told the Times. “We have been sounding the alarms that the banks are illegally evicting the very men and women who are out there fighting for this country. This is a devastating confirmation of that.”
The banks claim that while 700 illicit evictions may seem like a lot, it is just a small fraction of the millions of foreclosures under review. Additionally, the banks claim they have taken steps to compensate the families who wrongfully lost their homes.
Kristin Lemkau, a JPMorgan spokeswoman, told the Times that the bank instituted “very generous programs for the military, including awarding homes, forgiving principal and hiring more than 5,000 veterans.”
But the hardship of losing a home is not easily forgotten, even with compensation. The homes belonging to the 20 foreclosed Americans who never missed a mortgage payment have all been sold. Independent consultants working for the banks are still gathering information on the details of the illicitly foreclosed homes. The banks have been ordered to shell out $3.6 billion in cash and $5.7 billion worth of assistance to about 4.2 million homeowners victimized by the mortgage crisis.