The Week In Review
SoCal Week in Review gives you the week's best Southern California links, articles, and web-related curiosities.
With the amount of flipping and flopping that's been occurring recently, you'd think that John Kerry himself had announced a surprise bid for the 2012 Presidency. But no, instead it's that gay marriage thing that has the Mayor of San Diego and Cindy McCain (yes, that one) switching sides, as both have pushed their support behind the anti-Prop. 8 movement this week. Could this possibly be a signal that the political current is now running a bit more in favor of same-sex marriage? Or are these just isolated incidents?
If anything, the Supreme Court's decision to no longer constrict the financial support of political campaigns is an indubitable loss for gay marriage supporters. All those rumors of a clandestine Mormon Church secretly funding the Prop. 8 campaign to victory in 2008? Evidence this week proves that conspiracy to indeed be a truth. So with Prop. 8 leader William Tam on the stand this week, advancing one bizarre assertion after another, the time to act would seem to be now, before the Church can buy itself anymore votes.
Seriously, the Supreme Court sure has been active, hasn't it? And its unwillingness to seemingly constrict any amount of anything is this week's closest thing to a theme. Just as they decided against limiting political contributions this week, the nine-man beast has also opted to lift all restrictions on the amount of marijuanaa medical dispensary can legally prescribe its patients. And with LAPD Chief Charlie Beck now deviating away from prior claims that medical marijuana dispensaries attract crime, this would seem to have been another good week for marijuana. Except for the fact that, in large measure, it was not.
As for Chief Beck, the man certainly is doing a better job of involving himself with the community than was originally supposed. He's even trying to bridge the historic divide between the biking community and LAPD. Good on him for tackling his criticisms head-on so soon into his tenure. Bratton who?
If anyone has damaged their reputation this week, it's Beverly Hills. Now, I know the neighborhood's reputation wasn't the best to begin with, but the utter callousness with which they dumped over two hundred out-of-district students in recent weeks - after the students proved to not be financially advantageous -- came across as shockingly callous. And now the local paper has the nerve to unapologetically assert that how Beverly Hills treats these children is not the business of outsiders? My blood, as the say, is boiling.
Other must-reads from around the web:
- ModernHiker provides us with the six best post-rain hikes in Los Angeles.
- Ruth Seymour does an exit interview after thirty-two years with 89.9 KCRW.
- It ends up that the 101 Freeway is home to the worst traffic in the country. And this is news to whom?
- Is California closer to a single-payer system than we think?
This image was taken by flickr user erjkprunczyk. It was used under the Creative Commons license.
