Penalty - death

Steven Anthony Jones, a 41-year old black man, was sentenced to death Friday in Los Angeles County Superior Court. Jones had been convicted of multiple crimes in a spree that began when he shot and killed a man during a November 2004 robbery at a Quartz Hill car wash. The Times' Jack Leonard reported from a downtown courtroom:
Jurors described him as a "killing machine." A prosecutor likened him to a crocodile lurking in the water awaiting his prey. Even one of his attorneys acknowledged his startling resume of violence.On Friday, Steven Anthony Jones was sentenced to death for fatally shooting one man in an execution-style robbery and bludgeoning to death a woman during a long string of violence, torture and rape that stretched from Lancaster to Arizona and into a Los Angeles County jail.Jones, who had interrupted his trial earlier this year with several outbursts, muttered complaints to himself as Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Kathleen Kennedy listed his many convictions."Mr. Jones, be quiet," the judge snapped."No, you shut up," Jones, 41, shot back. A sheriff's deputy moved toward him, and Jones, wearing orange jail scrubs and with his hands cuffed to a waist chain, fell silent.

fuck off school LA

More California students in the class of 2009 than ever before took the ACT college entrance exam, and they outperformed their peers nationally, according to the nonprofit organization that administers the test.
"I am pleased to see that a record number of California students this year took the ACT college readiness exam," said state Supt. of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell. "This continued increase is a clear indication that each year growing numbers of our students are setting and reaching a higher standard and making the decision to go on to college."
Nearly 81,500 Californians in the class of 2009 took the exam, compared with 51,600 five years ago. Nearly three in 10 met benchmarks in all four content areas -- English, math, social studies and science -- that predict that they will have a 50% chance of earning Bs in corresponding college courses, and a 75% chance of receiving at least a C, according to the organization. The scores vary dramatically among subject areas, with 73% of test takers predicted to be ready for a college level composition class, compared with 33% for college level biology.
California students did better than their peers in other states, but all groups' achievement levels show that educators have much work to do in ensuring that students are college ready, ACT officials said.
“While there are certainly encouraging signs, the data overwhelmingly point to the need for continued improvement in our education system,” said Cynthia B. Schmeiser, president and chief operating officer of ACT’s education division. “Collectively, we all have an obligation and a responsibility to do everything within our power to make sure our nation’s students are better prepared for college and work upon graduation. Our students, schools, districts, states and nation cannot afford otherwise.”
O'Connell added that the persistent gap between the scores of white and Asian students and their Latino and African American peers is unacceptable.
This achievement gap "is leaving far too many of our students of color behind their peers," he said. "From an economic, social and moral perspective, we simply cannot afford to allow these gaps to persist. We must effectively prepare all of our students to meet the challenges they will face in the increasingly competitive global economy."
The ACT has long been popular in the Midwest, while the rival SAT is dominant on the coasts. The SAT still has far greater market share in California, with more than 205,100 students in the class of 2008 here taking that three-part exam. SAT results for the class of 2009 will be released next week.

2009 in pop music: It's Hannah Montana, Taylor Swift and Michael Jackson

With an additional 114,000 copies sold this week, Michael Jackson's hits collection "Number Ones" has become 2009's second-best selling album, according to Nielsen SoundScan data released to Billboard. Largely over the last month, "Number Ones" has sold 1.37 million copies. The only artist that stands in Jackson's way, as of this week, is country superstar Taylor Swift, whose 2008 effort "Fearless" has shifted an additional 1.5 million copies in 2009.
With an industry onslaught of Jackson merch and product on the horizon, including everything from a film to virtual tattoos, the prognosis is strong for him to overtake Swift and end up with the year's bestselling album.
In the days after Jackson's death, digital sales of his albums outweighed physical sales. Of the 422,000 albums Jackson sold in the shortened sales week, 241,000 came from the digital sector. Since then, physical has taken the lead, largely, Billboard tells us, due to major labels catching up to consumer demand, and getting CDs back in the marketplace.
No surprises here. In the wake of the pop icon's death, his sales would expectantly skyrocket, and if there's one thing major labels still excel at, it's flooding the market faster than one can say "more Beatles reissues" with albums from artists who haven't recorded a noteworthy track in more than 20 years.
But it certainly doesn't mean the physical CD is still a force to be reckoned with.

Of the albums actually released in 2009, the only ones selling close to Jackson's numbers are the soundtrack to "Hannah Montana: The Movie" and Eminem's "Relapse." "Hannah" has sold 1.33 million copies, and "Relapse" stands at 1.31 million. One is a multi-tiered promotional tie-in to a Disney Channel phenomenon, and the other is the return of a veteran artist who knows how to score media headlines.
More interesting than how Jackson has dominated sales for the last five weeks is the fact that most of 2009's big releases -- at least the ones tipped as blockbuster albums -- are puttering along. There's U2's "No Line on the Horizon," which was entering August with fewer than 1 million units sold in five months.
There's Bruce Springsteen's "Working on a Dream," which has fallen out of Billboard's top 200 albums. There's Kelly Clarkson's "All I Ever Wanted," which is crawling toward 700,000 copies sold. On the bright side, Green Day's "21st Century Breakdown" and Black Eyed Peas' "The E.N.D." are holding up, having passed the 700,000 mark in less than three months.
Still, that's not exactly reason to be hopeful for the coming holiday season. Big albums from Jay-Z, Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, Madonna and supposedly Lil Wayne are on the horizon, but there appears to be more desperation in the air than excitement.
Jay-Z is fighting for relevancy by mocking the Auto-Tune trend and Carey's "Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel" has been turned into a mini-billboard of high-end advertisements. Next week, Surgarland may top the chart with "Live on the Inside." It'd be a nice score for the rising country duo, but it's a retail exclusive at WalMart -- a combo CD/DVD selling for a low price of $12 -- and another slap-in-the-face to the remaining mom-and-pop record stores.
Meanwhile, Warner Music Group today posted a wide third-quarter loss of $37 million, with CD sales dropping 8.3% from a year ago. Overall, sales are down close to 20% from the same period a year ago, according to Billboard. Jackson's post-death CD sales are impressive, sure, from a purely business perspective, but they're not going to reverse a trend, or give the CD a longer leash on life.

upgrade Obama

Our compatriots over in the Calendar section have posted the news that President Obama has made the grade -- style-wise anyway -- and has joined his wife (who has made the cut twice before) on Vanity Fair's 2009 International Best-Dressed List.
That should come as a bit of a shock to those who pilloried the POTUS for the so-called "dad jeans" he wore while throwing out the first pitch at the MLB All-Star game (even "Today's" Meredith Viera felt the need to ask the leader of the free world about his jeans).

I say so-called because as noted here, Obama was actually wearing a pair of Levi Strauss 501s (and I thought he looked a lot less dorky in his denim than he did on the campaign trail).
My theory? The matchy-matchy approach (see his necktie and the waistband of her dress in the above photo) shows a thoughtful approach -- and a recognition of the powerful impression personal style can make. I first noticed this when then-candidate Obama and former rival Hillary Clinton appeared together in what appeared to be a carefully coordinated shade of blue.
And, really, wouldn't you prefer he stick to hiking up his jeans -- and not taxes?

Top photo: President Obama (above with First Lady Michelle Obama), made Vanity Fair's International Best-Dressed List for the first time, joining his wife, who has been named twice before.
12:04 PM PT, Aug 6 2009

Afghanistan ride-a-long with Gen. Stanley McChrystal

As top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, McChrystal travels several days a week across the country, visiting base camps and meeting Afghan officials, some of whom give him an earful.
Reporting from Camp Kunduz, Afghanistan -- As Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal's helicopter flies over the steep mountains and deep valleys of Afghanistan, he gazes at a remote village below. Mud huts cling to the side of the peaks like barnacles. They are barely accessible by road."I am sure many of the people living in that village have never left," McChrystal says. "It must be a harsh life, but also simple."

He pauses, and adds, "There's something to be said for simplicity." There's nothing simple about McChrystal's life. As the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, he spends several days a week visiting base camps across the country and meeting with local officials, some of whom have plenty of grievances. One day last week, McChrystal arrived before lunch at Camp Kunduz, not far from the border with Tajikistan. The first order of business is a show-and-tell by the German troops there, who displayed their high-tech equipment, including armored personnel carriers, a mobile rocket launcher and surveillance drones.
"Do they make a lot of noise? How do you get them back?" McChrystal asks one of the German soldiers. (More than 3,500 German troops serving in a NATO-led force are deployed in northern Afghanistan and Kabul.)After reviewing the lineup of military might, McChrystal heads to the base for a briefing, which he has requested not include a PowerPoint presentation. The session lasts more than an hour, which is short in comparison to his next Q-and-A with community leaders from Kunduz province. To get safely into town, McChrystal is transported in a German convoy of 11 Humvees sandwiched between two armored personnel carriers from which soldiers keep watch through submarine-style scopes. The convoy looks more like a military parade (without the waving flags) than a public relations mission. But security is an issue; the number of insurgent attacks is on the rise. Kunduz Gov. Mohammad Omar, an engineer by training, greets the general with traditional Afghan hospitality. A dozen representatives of various armed forces, including leaders of the Afghan, German and American military and Afghan police, are gathered, all with notepads in hand. Some of the chairs still have their plastic wrapping and USAID stickers. The governor wastes no time in stating his needs."We need four helicopters here, so that we can react more quickly to the enemy," he says. "We have a very big river which divides the province and we are not able to maintain control on both sides. The river in this province is a big obstacle at certain times of the year."He says he needs more police but that police are allocated by the number of districts, not population, and his province has only six districts."For a long time," Omar says, "I have requested that the number of districts . . . . be increased.""In the beginning of the interim government, it was very peaceful here, but now we have security problems," he says. "The people here cannot send their girls to school. "As long as we have this open border with Pakistan, this problem is going to exist for a long time. I guarantee you, if we don't do something about the situation here, we will be as busy here [in Kunduz] as we are in Helmand."McChrystal asks about the local Taliban. The governor responds: "The Taliban leaders here are from Helmand and the rest are from Pakistan. . . . Their families don't live here, so we don't have any way to control them." "That's why I am here," McChrystal says. "I spoke to President Karzai recently and I am very worried about Kunduz," he says. "I think we need to look at how we operate. I think there are better ways. What we need to do is understand the problem and look at the resources. We -- the coalition -- need to change the way we partner with the Afghan forces so that we partner more closely as we go forward."I agree on the weapons and barracks, but that is a part of the bigger process. I can't promise anything."But I am going to ask that we grow the Afghan forces faster than we are now." As the two-hour meeting ends, Omar presents McChrystal with a traditional coat, which he briefly puts on. The convoy pulls out in the direction of the marketplace, where the plan is to stop to greet locals. Instead, the convoy goes in circles, as Afghan police stop traffic and people stare warily. It's unclear why the bazaar visit is canceled, but security is mentioned as a concern. German convoys have been attacked several times in recent months. On the hourlong ride back to Kabul, the general types notes on his laptop, occasionally glancing outside. At a few thousand feet, Afghanistan appears picturesque and peaceful. The temperature drops as the chopper crosses the highest peaks, where snow and ice remain year-round.Next, the aircraft drops into the Shomali plain, north of Kabul, the site of fierce American bombing in late 2001. The fields are now green and groomed. "It looks good down there," McChrystal says. The copter finally descends into Kabul, where houses rise on the surrounding hills."I used to deliver newspapers as a boy, and those hills would have been a tough route," he says, reminiscing. " . . . That was a good job."

Clerical error may have put suspect in Burk's slaying back on street

Authorities weren’t aware that Charles Samuel was eligible to be prosecuted under the three-strikes law.
Charles Samuel could have been serving life in prison under the state's three-strikes law for a 1997 burglary, but his rap sheet reflected only one prior strike when he had two, officials say.
A parolee accused of killing 17-year-old Lily Burk last month could have been serving a lengthy prison sentence instead of roaming the streets of Los Angeles but for a clerical error that misstated his criminal record, according to interviews and court documents reviewed by The Times.Because of the error, authorities did not know that Charles Samuel was eligible to be prosecuted under the state's tough three-strikes law when he was arrested for and convicted of burglary in San Bernardino County in 1997.

A San Bernardino County district attorney's official said he believed prosecutors would have filed the burglary charge as a third strike had Samuel's "rap sheet" properly shown that he had previous convictions that counted as two strikes rather than one."We were very aggressive on all three-strikes cases back then," said Assistant Dist. Atty. Dennis Christy.Under the three-strikes law, offenders convicted of a third strike face a minimum prison sentence of 25 years to life.
A second opportunity to prosecute Samuel under the three-strikes law came in 2006, when he was charged with petty theft in Los Angeles. A district attorney's spokeswoman said prosecutors also reviewed Samuel's criminal records and believe that at the time his case would not have been charged as a third strike.Even if prosecutors in L.A. County had known that he had two previous strikes, it was unclear whether they would have sought a life prison term for Samuel. Under Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley, prosecutors generally don't seek life sentences for repeat offenders unless the "third strike" involves a violent or serious crime, such as robbery.Samuel's repeated brushes with the criminal justice system underscore the complexity of the three-strikes law and raise the possibility that Burk's slaying could have been averted.Burk never returned to her Los Feliz home July 24 after running an errand for her mother at Southwestern Law School in the Mid-Wilshire area. That afternoon, she made two odd calls to her parents, asking how to use a credit card to withdraw cash at an ATM. Her body was discovered the next morning in her Volvo in a downtown parking lot. Her head had been beaten and her neck slashed.Police said footage from surveillance cameras shows Samuel, 50, driving from the area of the law school in Burk's car with the high school senior in the passenger seat, with Burk at a downtown ATM and then abandoning the car in the parking lot where Burk's body was found.Samuel's criminal record stretches over three decades and includes mostly minor theft and drug offenses.Under the 1994 three-strikes law, prosecutors are allowed to charge any felony -- however minor -- as a third strike if a defendant has previously been convicted of two crimes considered violent or serious.Court records reviewed by The Times show that Samuel pleaded guilty to robbery and residential burglary in 1987 in connection with a home-invasion robbery in San Bernardino.Residential burglary and robbery qualify as violent or serious strikes under the law.A law enforcement source who spoke on condition of anonymity said Samuel's rap sheet lists his robbery conviction but does not describe his burglary conviction as a residential burglary. Under the three-strikes law, non-residential burglaries do not count as strikes.It is unclear who was responsible for the error.Gary Cooper, director of the state Department of Justice division that maintains rap sheet records, said mistakes were rare but that the accuracy of the database depends largely on the information received from police, prosecutors and the courts."We can only put in what we get," Cooper said. He declined to talk about Samuel's case, citing state law that requires that rap sheet records remain confidential.In the 1997 burglary case, San Bernardino County prosecutors alleged in court papers that Samuel had only one prior strike: his 1987 robbery conviction.Christy said district attorney's records also show that Samuel was convicted in 1987 of residential burglary. But he said that prosecutors usually review a more comprehensive criminal record maintained by the state Department of Justice rather than their own files when investigating a defendant's criminal history.

As best as I can tell, we looked at the rap sheet. From that, what we concluded is that [Samuel] only had one strike," Christy said. He declined to elaborate on the records reviewed, citing state confidentiality laws.Samuel was convicted of burglary and sentenced to two years and eight months in prison in the 1997 case.

Had prosecutors charged Samuel with a third strike, there is no guarantee that he would have been sent to prison for life.Judges have the authority to give shorter sentences under some circumstances.In the 1997 case, a judge might have been willing to grant Samuel leniency given the relatively minor nature of the offense: trying to steal a bottle of alcohol from a Food 4 Less store in Barstow.
Samuel might also have benefited from a controversy surrounding whether prosecutors could consider multiple convictions from the same crime as separate strikes.Though Christy said San Bernardino County's prosecutors were among those vigorously pursuing such cases in 1997, the California Supreme Court did not rule that such a strategy was legal until a year later.Today, prosecutors in several counties, including Los Angeles, are more cautious about charging three-strikes cases when a defendant is accused of a relatively minor crime, such as shoplifting or drug possession.Christy said San Bernardino prosecutors take into account public concern about using the law to severely punish minor offenses."I don't know today . . . that we would file this same case as a third strike," he said.