Secret Service

There has always been people trying to get over the gates of the White House, but almost all are stopped by the Secret Service before they can even get their foot on the fence. On Friday a man was actually able to get past five levels of security before he was stopped, reports the Washington Post. The Washington Post reports that the intruder was Omar Jose Gonzalez and that the Secret Service had had their eyes on him twice before. This incident is now under investigation and will be dealing with the teams that were supposed to be guarding the White House.

Gonzalez managed to get trespass a good 70 yards into the restricted area and even manage to get to the front door of the White House, which was unlocked. Former Secret Service agents reported to the Washington Post that this intruder actually got around Five levels of security including, plainclothes agents outside the fence, an agent at the guard booth, an attack dog, the SWAT team, and a guard at the front door. The head spokesman for the Secret Service has declined to say anything about the investigation to Washington Posts and had said that there is no way that an anonymous source could know the plans to guard the White House. 

The Washington Post informs us that there was a surveillance tape that shows a dog and men fallowing Gonzalez but by that point he had already reached the front door of the house. Washington Post also informs us that the reason Gonzalez was running towards the White House was because he wanted to tell the president that the "atmosphere was falling."  According to reports there was also an agent on the porch, his stationed position for that night is yet unknown. The agent on the porch could have shoot the intruder but for some reason hesitated to do so. The report says that Gonzalez was let go and it was said that it did not seem like he had any mental illness. 

link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/new-details-in-fence-jumping-reveal-failures-in-security-rings-around-white-house/2014/09/23/043518ea-434a-11e4-b47c-f5889e061e5f_story.html?hpid=z3

Groundwater Bill Pols100w#3

There is a new piece of legislation regulating groundwater, that was introduced to California yesterday by Governor Jerry Brown. The bill was sign by Brown after years and years of unregulated use of California's groundwater. The legislation states that the state government will intervene if the local government can't control the use of groundwater. So it first will allow the local levels of government to try to regulate the use of their groundwater but if the water is not regulated well then the state government can take over.

The Los Angeles Times describes the opposition and supporters of this new legislation which mainly pins the environmentalist against the farmers of the Central Valley.There is a lot of concern on the opposing side over how much power the state government now has when it comes to telling farmers how much of their own water they can use. Farmers worry that this new bill will limit the amount of water that they can use to grow their crops. The supporters of this new legislation argue that the bill is needed to protect the aquifers in California. Supporters also state that the we are taking too much of the groundwater and we are not able to put as much as we take out back into the aquifers.

The recent drought that California is having, propelled this legislation forward. Now all we can do is wait to see how this bill will pan out after it is put into effect. We might not see any results any times soon. As stated in the Los Angeles Times the effects of this new bill might not be felt until 2040 because it might take a long time to make and implement plans.


Link: http://www.latimes.com/local/politics/la-me-pol-water-brown-20140917-story.html

Pols 100W 2nd Post Cartels in Los Angeles

Los Angeles has always had its share of criminals just like any major city, but now it seems like Los Angeles has attracted Mexican cartels. The Los Angeles Times recently published an article about money being laundered by Mexican cartels. The cartels are laundering money in  the fashion district. The article talks about how the cartels were exposed in the shady businessmen through undercover investigation.

The cartels have been laundering money in a variety of clothing stores like, maternity and undergarment stores. The resent 2010 restriction on using US dollars in Mexico has forced these cartels to launder and trade their money, according to the article. If the cartels were to exchange such high amounts of dollars in Mexico the police would start to investigate them. The latest busts that occurred this week seized about 65 million dollars from the cartels.n The cartels seem to be from the state of Sinaloa and to be more specific from the city of Culiacan.


Article Link: http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-garment-district-raids-20140910-story.html

Blog Post #1: Plastic Bag Banned

Plastic bags could possible become a thing of the past as California's State Senate has passed a bill to banned plastic bags at a statewide level. California will be the first state to ban plastic bags as a whole. The Los Angeles Times has put out an article about the new legislation that was passed last week and is awaiting the signature of Governor Jerry Brown. The article tells us that some cities and counties in California have already banned the use of one time, non reusable, plastic bags and charge customers for paper bags. This new legislation like always has its supporters and those that oppose it.

The banned on plastic bags would not limit those bags that are plastic and reusable to be used at stores but would come at a cost to the customer. Paper bags would also come to a price to consumers as to encourage people to bring their own reusable grocery bags. The bill requires the The bill would go into effect starting July of 2015 if signed by the governor of California.

Those that support the bill, according to the Los Angeles Times article, are environmentalist groups and the opposition are bag making groups called the American Progressive Bag Alliance. The article goes on to discuss the two sides of the argument with the supporters explaining the benefit of using reusable bags and the opposition making claims about job loss and how people use those plastic bags around their home.



Article link:  http://www.latimes.com/local/political/la-me-pc-lawmakers-governor-ban-plastic-bags-20140828-story.html