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ANAHEIM PRESS
MONDAY, JUNE 16, 2014 - JUNE 22, 2014
anaheimpress.com
SEE PAGE 4 for gray wolf on state endangered list VOLUME 1, NO. 7
Human trafficking: two Anaheim men Heat and imprisoned for forcing woman into prostitution drought by Vickie Vértiz conditions bring out the snakes By shel segal
site over another was revealed in 2007, when Comcast, the US’ largest ISP, had interfered with file sharing services offered on BitTorrent. Comcast clients reported difficulties,
While they don’t get as much media attention as cuddly black bears, several species of snakes inhabit the foothill communities and can be plenty of a nuisance, if not dangerous. Larry Giannone, Sierra Madre police chief, said the year’s snake season began early due to the high temperatures that have happened as of late. “We’ve had one incident where a rattlesnake bit a lady who was working in her garden,” Giannone said. “It occurred about 10 days ago. But this is just the start of the heat coming out and our snake season has taken an early rise.” Giannone said Sierra Madre residents are already starting to deal with snakes on a larger scale. “We’ve had several snake calls – probably three times the amount of snake calls – this time of year than we typically do,” he said. “This time of year we’d only have one or two, but this year probably up to 10 or 12.” He added the unseasonably warm temperatures locally in April and May made the snakes more active early in the calendar. “It’s really the weather change,” he said. “The weather pattern is different. We had that week a few weeks ago when it was 103 degrees over here. It acts like summertime for them, so they come out of hibernation. They warm up and then they like to go to a cool place to cool down and that’s usually where you see
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Booking photos of Victor Romero and Gustavo R. Clemente -Courtesy Photos
Last Monday, two Anaheim residents were convicted of smuggling a woman into the United States and forcing her into prostitution to pay off a debt made to her family. The first man, Victor L. Romero, who is 33, pleaded guilty to human trafficking and pimping. The second man Gustavo R. Clemente, 36, pleaded guilty only to pandering. The men were tried at
the Orange County Superior Court. The first offender, Romero, was sentenced to five years in prison while the second man, Clemente, received four years. According to prosecutors, a 29-year-old woman testified at a preliminary hearing that she met Romero in her hometown in Mexico prior to December 2012. Romero, who received a slightly longer sentence, gave the woman money
to take care of a family member who became critically ill. Taking advantage of the difficult financial moment, Romero asked for the loan to be repaid, but the woman was unable to do so. He said he could bring her to the United States where he would find a job for her and she would be able to pay him back. Romero told her that he Please see page 2
Net Neutrality: How Internet service providers want to gain more control over our lives by jennifer schlueter How would you feel if your favorite website loaded very slowly, or not at all, because your Internet service provider (ISP) disagrees with its content or wants you to use their favored website instead? Yes, you could switch provid-
ers, but most people in the US do not have a choice between more than one or two providers. And what if the other providers block another website that you like? The most famous case of an ISP favoring a certain web-
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State Schools Chief Tom Torlakson reports significant drop in number of districts in financial jeopardy A new report shows that the number of California school districts in financial jeopardy has been slashed by more than two-thirds over the past year, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson announced. This year’s Second Interim Status Report, FY 201314 shows a total of 30 local educational agencies (LEAs) are either in negative or qualified financial status. This is down significantly from the last report—in March 2014— that showed 49 LEAs with this status. This is also down even more significantly from the same report a year ago. In the Second Interim Status report of 2013, there were 92 LEAs in financial jeopardy. See Table 1. “A combination of factors over the past few years has giv-
en schools the tools they need to take control of their own future again,” Torlakson said. “Although we won’t be finished until every school is on stable ground, this is welcome news that school funding is moving in the right direction.” Twice a year, the California Department of Education receives Notice of Interim Certifications on the financial status of the state’s 1,038 LEAs, comprising school districts, county offices of education, and joint powers agencies. The certifications are classified as positive, qualified, or negative. A positive certification means the LEA will meet its financial obligations for the current and two following fiscal years. A qualified certification is assigned when the LEA may not meet its financial obligations for the current or two fol-
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lowing fiscal years. This certification allows the LEA’s county office of education to provide assistance to the district. A negative certification— the most serious of the classifications—is assigned when the LEA will be unable to meet its financial obligations for the remainder of the current year or for the subsequent fiscal year. This certification means the LEA’s county office of education may intervene in the district’s finances. The assistance or intervention by the county office of education may include assigning external consultants, requiring a district fiscal recovery plan, or disallowing certain district expenditures. Of the current 30 LEAs on the list, seven have a negative certification, down one from the last report in March 2014. The remaining 23 LEAs have
a qualified certification, down from 41 reported in March 2014. See Table 2. This new list is a compilation of the certifications by LEAs that were due April 16, 2014, and cover the financial and budgetary status of the districts for the period ending January 31, 2014. The certifications reflect whether the LEAs are able to meet their financial obligations for the remainder of the current fiscal year and subsequent two fiscal years, based on projections at that point in time. These certifications also predate the Governor’s May Revision to the proposed 2014-15 state budget. Because these Interim Status Reports are snapshots in time, the LEAs’ financial status may have changed since these certifications were collected.
Anaheim men imprisoned for forcing woman into prostitution Continued from page 1
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could get her work at a clothing store to pay off the debt. He smuggled her through Texas and finally ended up in Southern California. That journey has been made through deserts and highways, the undocumented individual threatened with the fear of deportation at every turn. A month after arriving in California, prosecutors said that for about a month, between Dec. 24, 2012 and Jan. 24, 2013, Romero took the woman into a room in Clemente’s apartment where she had to live, as she knew no one else in the country. Much to her shock, instead of setting the women up with a retail store job, Romero forced her to engage in prostitution to repay the debt. The amount of the debt was not stated. Prosecutors also stated that the woman resisted and Romero responded by attacking her. He
punched and strangled her. He continued to injure her by burning her leg with a fork and beating her with a belt. The victim was held captive in the apartment and was only allowed to call her family in Mexico in the presence of either man once or twice per week. With a single moment to make a move, in late January of 2013, Romero and Clemente argued outside the apartment, and the woman called 911 to alert authorities using a cellphone they left in the room. Because of the call, Anaheim police officers found her and arrested Romero and Clemente on the spot. The woman was not identified. Her future living status in the country was not reported. The case was tried through the Office of the District Attorney in their human exploitation and trafficking unit.
JUNE 16, 2014 - JUNE 22, 2014 | 3
EDITORIAL
Katella High Swap Meet
Don't "spare" a business card at this month's mixer
Editor
June 20, 8am-1pm
June 19, 5:30-7:30PM
hlr media editor@anaheimpress.com Jennifer Schlueter
Publisher HLR Media
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Please send all press releases to: editor@anaheimpress.com HLR Media, LLC .All contents herein are copyrighted and may not be reproduced in any manner, either in whole or in part, without the express written consent of the publisher. The views and opinions expressed in this paper are not necessarily that of the management and staff at HLR Media, LLC
950 N Tustin Ave Anaheim CA 92807
Phone: (626) 386-3457 Fax: (626) 600-4452
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Katella HS Boys and Girls Basketball Programs Swap Meet! Vendor booths: household items, bikes, bike parts, clothing, craft items, antiques, toys and more. Food and beverages. Location: Katella HS East Parking Lot Contact: Phyllis Melendez (714) 478-4791, khsswapmeet@ gmail.com
Snakes because of drought and heat Continued from page 1
them. In the garden, under chairs. They’ll just go to a shaded area.” In addition, Giannone said if you encounter a snake it is best not to be a hero. “The best thing to do is to give us a call,” he said. “A snake is not going to chase you. You don’t want to be aggressive with them. They typically move on their own. But give us a call and we’ll come up and remove them … But it’s best to let them go back into the wild. It’s good for nature. They take of rodents. They take care of the ecosystem. We don’t kill the rattlesnakes. We always relocate them.” Giannone also said if you are bit by a snake there are some steps you should follow. “If you do get bit, the old misnomer is put a tourniquet on the wound,” he said. “That is not true anymore. If you get bit the main thing is to call 911. Let the authorities know right away because our local hospitals do keep snake venom on hand. But the actual dosage takes 45 minutes to prepare. So, the sooner our paramedics can get on the phone with the hospital, the sooner when the patient gets there they’ll be able to be treated.” (Shel Segal can be reached at ssegal@beaconmedianews. com. He can be followed via Twitter @segallanded.)
Pardon us for the bowling puns, but we haven’t any excitement to spare as we strike out to Bowlmor for this month’s After Hours Mixer on June 19. Pin your name badge on your chest and come have a ball with us. So hop in the fast lane and meet us there from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. but don’t split too soon or you may miss out on one of the many door prizes handed out. Chamber mixers are typically held monthly on the third Thursday of each monthfrom 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Join Chamber members for excel-
lent business to business networking in a relaxed, fun atmosphere! Obtain new leads and enjoy great food, drinks and entertainment from a new restaurant every month. Promote your business further by donating a door prize, which is raffled off at the end of the night. Every attendee can drop a business card at the door and get a chance to win one of the great door prizes. All donors are recognized publicly in This Week in Anaheim. Location: BowlMor, 321 W. Katella Ave., Anaheim, CA, $10 members/$20 nonmembers.
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4 | JUNE 16, 2014 - JUNE 22, 2014
Net neutrality Continued from page 1
delays, or complete inability to up- and/or download from BitTorrent. The concept of Net Neutrality would prohibit actions like Comcast’s. We as Internet users would be able to use any website at the speed we pay for with whatever information we choose to read. ISPs would not be able to restrict (political) content that their representatives disagree with. Net Neutrality stands for an open Internet, one which protects and enables our right of free speech. However, in January 2014, court ruled that ISPs can now legally discriminate against websites and applications. ISPs can delay or block content, favor certain websites and corporations, and charge Internet companies various fees. The freepress campaign Save the Internet provides a comparison: “Just as your phone company cannot decide who you could call and what you say on that call, your ISP should not be concerned with what content you view or post online.” The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) reclassified broadband from “common carriers” or “telecommunications services” to “information services.” The court decided that due to this reclassification, the FCC lacks authority to enforce rules over network owners. Save the Internet informs that, ”freed from any legal re-
straints, ISPs can monitor everything you do and say online — and sell the information to the highest bidder. ISPs have something that companies like Facebook and Google don’t: direct control over your connections to the Internet and the devices you use to connect to it.” Furthermore, the campaign states that AT&T, Verizon and other ISPs “have been caught enabling unchecked spying and surveillance by the NSA and other government agencies.” Net Neutrality is important for small business owners and entrepreneurs who use the Internet to promote their products. Without Net Neutrality, their opportunity to grow would be taken from larger companies with more money, who would simply pay ISPs to interfere, delay, or completely block websites from their emerging competitors. On May 15, the FCC proposed to make such actions legal. The Save the Internet campaign along with the American Civil Liberties Union, Common Cause, Slate, and others urge the public to demand a reclassification of ISPs. By signing online petitions directed at FCC chairman Tom Wheeler, whose plans go against Net Neutrality, we can demand our right for an open Internet, where free speech prevails and where our privacy is legally valued.
California Fish and Game Commission votes to add gray wolf to state endangered list
Wolf track in snow. -Photo by Linda Hay. Photo courtesy of CA Department of Fish and Wildlife.
The California Fish and Game Commission has voted to move forward with listing the gray wolf as an endangered species under California law. The vote took place at the regularly scheduled Commission meeting in Fortuna on June 4. Commissioners Richard Rogers, Jack Baylis and Michael Sutton voted for listing, while Commissioner Jacque Hostler-Carmesin voted no. Commissioner Jim Kellogg was not present. “No land animal is more iconic in the American West than the Gray Wolf,” said Sutton, who is also president of the Commission. “Wolves deserve our protection as they begin to disperse from Oregon to their historic range in California.” The new regulatory language will take several months to complete and approve. However, today’s decision provides permanent protection for the gray wolf, and immediate protection under the California Endangered Species Act. That protection will remain in place throughout the required regulatory process. The gray wolf is already federally listed as an endangered
species and is therefore protected by the federal Endangered Species Act in California. The federal Endangered Species Act makes it unlawful to take any listed wildlife unless permitted by regulation. The term “take” means to harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, collect or attempt to engage in any such conduct. The protection provided under federal law overlaps, but does not supersede, protection provided by listing under California law. At this time, there are no gray wolves known to be in California. A male wolf that originated in northeastern Oregon – known as OR7 – has crossed the Oregon/ California state line several times since December 2011. At this time, OR7 is in southwestern Oregon, where he has found a mate. On Monday, June 3, biologists from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife captured photographs of two wolf pups in the vicinity. For more information about gray wolves, including OR7’s travels in California, please visit www.dfg.ca.gov/wildlife/nongame/ wolf/FAQ.html.