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California Tag

Forget UFO's!  On Friday night, SpaceX launched a satellite that lit the evening sky over Southern California, dazzling and amazing spectators in California and Arizona.
SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket, launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base at 5:27 p.m., was carrying 10 satellites to low-Earth orbit. The satellites will be part of a constellation operated by Iridium Communications. All 10 satellites successfully deployed, with the last one deploying about 1 hour and 12 minutes after liftoff.

The FBI arrested 26-year-old Everitt Aaron Jameson and charged him with providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization.  Jameson's planned terror attack included setting off an explosive device on San Francisco's Pier 39 on Christmas Day. Jameson, a tow truck driver born in Modesto, California, was discharged from the Marine Corps for fraudulent enlistment when it was discovered that he failed to disclose his latent asthma.  Prior to being discharged, Jameson earned a sharpshooter rifle qualification.

This weekend, I reported on the spate of fires that have erupted though Southern California, which included the Skirball Fire that threatened the famous Getty Center Museum, destroyed several posh Bel Air homes, and shut the 405 freeway. In a move that surprised nobody, Governor Jerry Brown was quick to blame all the infernos on climate change, but a cooking fire by a homeless person started the fire.

A complaint launched by the pro-life group, The Center for Medical Progress back in September of 2015 has resulted in the shuttering of two California-based bioscience companies. The CMP gained notoriety for releasing a string of undercover videos exposing Planned Parenthood's role in the aborted baby part industry.

When I reported on the Los Angeles area fire, threatening the famed Getty Center Museum, I was deeply worried that the Santa Ana winds would ignite another blaze somewhere in the vicinity of my hometown, San Diego. This fear materialized the day after that post, and a retirement community and equestrian center were the first victims in the area's rural community of Fallbrook:
Flames were practically on top of Dick and Joan Marsala's home when they got an urgent knock on the door and were told to leave.

The Department of Justice has unsealed an arrest warrant for Jose Garcia Zarate, the illegal immigrant just acquitted of killing Kate Steinle in California. This arrest warrant is in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas for a supervised release violation.

As a teenager, one of the books I recall reading during that formative phase in my life was Helter Skelter, written by killer cult leader Charles Manson's determined prosecutor, Vincent Bugliosi, who won death sentences for Manson and his band of butchers. The tenacious lawyer, who passed away in 2015, was interviewed by Time Magazine about his book in 2009 about his book and the country's continued fascination with the cult. His explanation centered on the era in which the slaughters occurred.

We have been following the outbreak of Hepatitis A as it has spread among the homeless and drug-users of California, into Utah, Michigan and Colorado. Public health officials are now reporting a significant uptick of cases of the disease in Kentucky. Genetic tests indicate the strain of the virus, which is transmitted via fecal matter and cause life-threatening effects on the liver, is the same strain as the one from Southern California.
Kentucky has become the fifth state to declare an outbreak of hepatitis A, reporting the 31 cases so far this represent a 55 percent increase over the annual averages for the past 10 years.

As Professor Jacobson recently noted, California Governor Jerry Brown occasionally has moments of sanity and clarity. In what can only be described as a Thanksgiving miracle, it is being reported that Brown is endeavoring to tackle the looming employee pension crisis by reforming the pension benefits for current government employees.
Gov. Jerry Brown got most of what he wanted when he carried a proposal to shore up the state’s underfunded public employee pension plans by trimming benefits for new workers.

Yesterday, Professor Jacobson noted that the long-overdue purge of sex predators from the progressive body politic, following the defeat of enabler supreme Hillary Clinton, has begun. As I noted in a previous post, the Democrats in Sacramento are scrambling to address allegations of sexual harassment and abuse. The West Coast purge has now claimed an Assemblyman.