Unwithering spotlight on California sex-assault case judge

California judge Aaron Persky got a recent dose of public attention so adverse that it has rendered him a virtual pariah in the minds of many state residents. Here’s ample proof of that, supplied courtesy of a recent profile of Persky appearing in the Los Angeles Times: reportedly, about 1.3 million people have signed a…

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Clear momentum on California SOL removal for felony sex crimes

In baseball parlance, the California Assembly just threw a shutout last Thursday, overwhelmingly passing a bill addressing time limits related to sex crime prosecutions. Now that legislation moves to the Senate, which in all likelihood will endorse the bill with the same enthusiasm that House members did. Actually, it was the Senate that moved first,…

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Crackdown on child sex trafficking ring in California community

Operation “Baby Face” might ostensibly and at first glance sound like something totally innocuous and even uplifting. A photo contest for cute infants, for instance. Maybe an online zoo fundraiser betting that adorable animal shots will bring in viewer contributions. A statement uttered by one commentator in an article on Baby Face quickly belies any…

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Twin 33-foot trailer trucks: Does federal law allow for them?

Not yet. That is the answer to the above-posed headline question — at least as of today. As noted in a recent media piece discussing twin 33-foot trailer trucks, these true behemoths of the road are not currently approved for nationwide use on the country’s freeways and interstates. That could be changing, though, with a…

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Those e-cigarettes can be dangerous, especially for truckers

Smoking is a known health risk, of course, with a well-established nexus to cancer and other adverse outcomes. As such, warnings regarding the practice have become progressively more dire and explicit over time. Here’s one that could not have been remotely imagined even a year or so ago: Be careful with a certain type of…

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Report: USA Gymnastics gets no medal for policing sex offenders

“It’s horrible, but it’s not the worst.” As far as endorsements go, that is, what, rather … tepid? Depending on the context, the comment might not be much of a big deal, but the context is this: sexual predators having close access to millions of young American gymnasts in clubs and training facilities from California…

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Nation’s vice president to spotlight untested rape kits

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden has long taken a strong advocacy stance on behalf of sexual assault victims, and he will reportedly promote his involvement in that realm by rendering a cameo performance in an upcoming television episode on a long-running and popular series. That show is Law & Order: SVU (special victims unit), which…

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California ramping up school-based sexual harassment education

It’s really not hard to understand, say school officials, advocates promoting harassment-free school environments, many parents and other interested parties. Here’s the deal, in a nutshell: Much harmful and unlawful sexual conduct hat manifests itself in adulthood owes centrally to a perpetrator’s wrongful behaviors learned — and, importantly, not discouraged — years earlier. As in…

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Federal regulators concerned with U.S. traffic fatality numbers

Dismal. That is the clear and unadorned assessment of U.S. safety regulators who have culled and closely examined 2015 data relating to motor vehicle accidents across the country that resulted in fatalities. And here’s what is especially troubling to transportation and highway safety officials: Fatal accident-related numbers are up for virtually every type of crash.…

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