Santa Ana Blog

R. Sebastian Gibson asked:


Here in the desert cities of Palm Springs, CA, Joshua Tree, Palm Desert, Cathedral City, Indian Wells, Yucca Valley, Rancho Mirage, Desert Hot Springs, Twentynine Palms, Thermal, Indio, Coachella, La Quinta, Victorville, Hesperia, Apple Valley or Barstow, in the somewhat greener areas of Southern California such as Newport Beach, Buena Park, Anaheim, Irvine, Rancho Cucamonga, Ontario, Carlsbad, Mission Viejo and in other cities in San Diego,Orange County, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Cambria, agricultural areas such as the central valley of Fresno and the Imperial Valley, the drought in California is a serious problem for all of us in this State.

 

After the driest spring in 88 years, in June 2008 Governor Schwarzenegger formally declared California to be in a drought and nine counties in the Central Valley to be in a state of emergency after two years of below-average rainfall and six dry years that have killed off fish populations, driven down agricultural land values and required severe reductions in water usage in the Central Valley. The declaration, while bad enough, still stops short of a statewide water emergency which, if declared, will likely carry with it mandatory water rationing.

 

Efforts to capture water have been hampered by evaporation of snow packs due to climate change, but snowpack water content this winter was only 67 percent of average. California’s water shortage was compounded by a federal court order limiting the pumping of water from the San Joaquin-Sacramento River Delta to protect a species of fish.

 

And so in June 2008 the State of California formed a Water Bank to buy water from farmers upstream from the Delta and from local water agencies and to make it available for sale to public water systems and private water systems who may otherwise run short of water next year. Agencies buying the water will have to agree to a 20 percent reduction overall in water usage. It is believed that the Water Bank will stave off mandatory water rationing.

 

Under the plan, water purchased from northern farmers and water agencies will be shipped south via the State’s canals.

 

Currently, there is no end in sight to California’s dry conditions. While there is a $9.3 billion plan in the State legislature to address the state’s delta environmental problems and expand the state’s water works, it has been tied up while the legislators haggled over a budget.

 

A bill to require Californian’s to cut water usage by 20 percent recently passed the Assembly and the bill puts the onus on residents as opposed to farmers.

 

In the midst of this water crisis, an amazing 100 facilities are bottling water in California, using California’s precious water supply. An Assembly Bill to measure the amount of water being bottled is an attempt to learn just how bad the abuse of these water supplies is on top of the pollution and harm to the environment caused by these facilities and the plastic water bottles, most of which are not recycled.

 

The Department of Public Resources estimates that more than 1 billion gallons of bottled water are sold in California each year. 

 

If you have a water law issue in San Diego, Newport Beach, Irvine, Orange County, La Jolla, in the Inland Empire, Los Angeles, Palm Springs or anywhere in Southern California, we have the knowledge and resources to be your California Water Lawyer and your Santa Barbara Environmental Attorney. Be sure to hire a California law firm with environmental law experience who can serve areas such as Los Angeles, Palm Springs, Palm Desert, Anaheim, Irvine, Beverly Hills, Malibu, Newport Beach, Carlsbad, Corona del Mar, Laguna Beach, Huntington Beach, Santa Ana, Rancho Cucamonga, Ontario, Fullerton, Del Mar, San Diego, Orange County, San Luis Obispo, Buena Park, La Jolla, Oxnard, Ventura, La Quinta, and Santa Barbara so you are properly represented.

 

If you have a water law or environmental dispute of any kind, call the Law Offices of R. Sebastian Gibson, or visit our website at http://www.sebastiangibsonlaw.com  and learn how we can assist you.



PARADISE

R. Sebastian Gibson asked:


In 2004 as people watched with great interest the Super Bowl halftime show in towns across America, in San Diego, California, in Orange County, CA, in Los Angeles, La Jolla, Hollywood, Del Mar, Pacific Beach, Carlsbad, Malibu, Oceanside, San Marcos, Vista and Escondido or the cities of Huntington Beach, Westminster, Buena Park, Anaheim, Santa Ana, Costa Mesa, Irvine, Newport Beach, Corona del Mar, Laguna Beach, and Laguna Hills, Buena Park, Temecula, Indian Wells, La Quinta, or Palm Springs, unless they taped the game, they missed a split second of exposed skin by Janet Jackson.

 

It wasn’t until the press and people played it back in slow motion, that they saw what people would later claim horrified them. One of Janet Jackson’s upper body supports holding in one of her chest assets had fallen away revealing a bit of something only previously shown in more detail on cable TV. And unless you were in a coma in the firestorm that followed, you had the term “wardrobe malfunction” ingrained into your vocabulary. Even attorneys and lawyers began using the term when they appeared late at court. 

 

Here it is 2008. Children have not had to have years of counseling despite the initial claims by conservative groups that they would, and the incident is still being litigated. In July 2008, the Third Circuit vacated an FCC fine of $550,000 assessed against CBS for the nine-sixteenths of a second when Janet Jackson’s ****** was exposed during the halftime show of Super Bowl XXXVIII in February 2004 and remanded the case back to the FCC. However, the court made it clear that the FCC cannot retroactively punish CBS and had better not try.

 

The court held that the FCC improperly departed from its prior policy of allowing a fleeting image and that this departure was arbitrary and capricious. What the ruling did not, but should of said, was that the FCC was so pressured into its fine by conservatives, including those in the FCC and the executive branch of the current administration, that it acted like idiots.

 

First Amendment and Constitutional Lawyers such as myself have applauded the decision especially when myself and others received moronic calls from persons claiming that they or their family members suffered immeasurable harm when they watched recordings of the halftime show over and over and over.

 

Conservative groups were less pleased with the ruling. However, the court ruled that, without proof that CBS knew beforehand that some indecency was about to occur, the FCC could not find that CBS was liable, especially in view of the fact that Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake were independent contractors and not CBS employees.

 

To prevent the FCC from now simply providing a rational explanation for disallowing unintentional fleeting and indecent images and putting broadcasters on notice of this policy so they can fine broadcasters in the future and make it impossible to ever again dare to show a live performance on TV just as they have not dared to since the fine was imposed, the court said that unintentional broadcasts of alleged fleeting indecent images may not be punished absent a showing of scienter, i.e. a knowing or reckless violation of indecency law. If a broadcaster endeavors to exercise proper control but fails to prevent unscripted indecency, it will not have acted with scienter if its actions were negligent rather than reckless.

 

Thus the FCC’s attempt to establish a draconian power to fine broadcasters off the air and out of business for broadcasting unintentional fleeting images, a power which has for the past few years and which would forever absolutely chill our First Amendment rights, by this conservative administration, is over.

 

Perhaps with the next administration, whichever party gets into office, the idiots at the FCC who suffered their own brain malfunction and imposed this fine can be booted out into the street and be remanded to read the Constitution. 

 

If you have a broadcast, media, constitutional, first amendment or FCC law issue in San Diego, Newport Beach, Irvine, Orange County, La Jolla, in the Inland Empire, Los Angeles, Palm Springs or anywhere in Southern California, we have the knowledge and resources to be your California Broadcast Lawyer and your Palm Springs and San Diego Broadcast Attorney. Be sure to hire a California law firm with broadcast law experience who can serve areas such as Los Angeles, Palm Springs, Palm Desert, Anaheim, Irvine, Beverly Hills, Malibu, Newport Beach, Carlsbad, Corona del Mar, Laguna Beach, Huntington Beach, Santa Ana, Rancho Cucamonga, Ontario, Fullerton, Del Mar, San Diego, Orange County, San Luis Obispo, Buena Park, La Jolla, Oxnard, Ventura, La Quinta, and Santa Barbara so you are properly represented.

 

If you have a broadcast, media, constitutional, first amendment or FCC issue of any kind, call the Law Offices of R. Sebastian Gibson, or visit our website at http://www.sebastiangibsonlaw.com  and learn how we can assist you.



PODOLAK

R. Sebastian Gibson asked:


NEWS - SUGGESTED TARP BAILOUT FORMS ARE NOW AVAILABLE

 

One of the first forms that Banking Lawyers across the nation and California in cities and areas such as San Diego, Orange County, Newport Beach, La Jolla, Anaheim, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, and Palm Springs (not to mention Wall Street) will be asked to prepare and fill out by banking clients is likely to be called TARP 1, named after the Troubled Asset Relief Program just passed by Congress, so to assist these banking attorneys we have made available these draft forms.

 

TARP 1, we believe will probably look something like this: 

 

U.S. Department of the Treasury1500 Pennsylvania Avenue NWWashington, DC 20220Attn: Hank Paulson

 

We at _____________ Financial Institution, qualify under provision ___ of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) as being a financial institution in the U.S. with mortgage based securities.

 

While no person in their right mind would now purchase these mortgage based securities, other than you fine individuals at the U.S. Treasury, and while these assets have a market value of absolutely nada on the open market, we hereby apply for their sale to the U.S. Treasury at the nominal price of $_____ Billion dollars. We guarantee that this amount of money will return us to financial health and stability and keep us from filing bankruptcy.

 

Please have the U.S. Treasury wire this amount forthwith to Acct. # ______________________, Routing # _______________________ at our main branch so it does not become necessary for us to be unable to issue Christmas bonuses to the executives of our fine American institution or to cancel our annual retreat to the Cayman Islands.

 

We guarantee that no foreign government owns more than 70% of our common or preferred stock and we promise to vote Republican in the next election.

 

Sincerely,

 

CFO__________ Financial Institution 

 

We expect TARP 2, for financial institutions who need to ask for more money, to look like this: 

 

U.S. Department of the Treasury1500 Pennsylvania Avenue NWWashington, DC 20220Attn: Hank Paulson

 

We at _____________ Financial Institution, qualify under provision ___ of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) as being a financial institution in the U.S. with mortgage based securities. The former CFO of our company is no longer with us, having been ejected from our Board of Directors.

 

While no person in their right mind would now purchase these additional mortgage based securities our former CFO failed to tell us about, other than you fine individuals at the U.S. Treasury, and while these assets have a market value of absolutely nada on the open market, we hereby apply for their sale to the U.S. Treasury at the nominal price of $_____ Billion dollars. Although we were wrong the last time we guaranteed the billions of dollars you gave us would return us to financial health and stability, we guarantee that this amount of money will almost certainly keep us from filing bankruptcy.

 

Please have the U.S. Treasury wire this amount forthwith to Acct. # ______________________, Routing # _______________________ at our main branch so we can afford to fly our executives back from their annual retreat in the Cayman Islands.We guarantee that no foreign government owns more than 90% of our common or preferred stock and we promise to vote Democrat in the next election.

 

Sincerely,

 

New CFO__________ Financial Institution.

 

If you have a banking, corporate or financial legal issue in Irvine, Orange County, La Jolla, San Diego, in the Inland Empire, Los Angeles, Palm Springs or anywhere in Southern California, we have the knowledge and resources to be your Newport Beach Banking Lawyer and your San Diego Banking Attorney. Be sure to hire a California law firm with banking, corporate and financial lawyers who can serve areas such as Los Angeles, Palm Springs, Palm Desert, Anaheim, Irvine, Newport Beach, Carlsbad, Corona del Mar, Laguna Beach, Huntington Beach, Santa Ana, Rancho Cucamonga, Ontario, Fullerton, Del Mar, San Diego, Orange County, San Luis Obispo, Buena Park, La Jolla, Oxnard, Ventura, La Quinta, and Santa Barbara so you are properly represented and get the compensation you deserve.

 

If you have a banking, corporate or financial legal issue of any kind, call the Law Offices of R. Sebastian Gibson, or visit our website at http://www.sebastiangibsonlaw.com  and learn how we can assist you. You can also call us to speak directly to Sebastian Gibson on the phone about your legal matter.



SKARDA