The OC homeless crisis has one man at its center, Mexican American women were disproportionately selected for sterilization, fighting food inequality with a sliding scale.
As OC scrambles to address homeless crisis, here's what you need to know
LA's homeless agency is ill-equipped to manage $140 million in new funds, review finds
Why there are so few female mass shooters
On Tuesday, Nasim Aghdam injured three people before killing herself at YouTube's Northern California headquarters. Investigators now say the shooter's motive was probably anger toward YouTube, which fits a common FBI profile. Almost half of the country's active shooter incidents take place at businesses.
But one thing about Aghdam stands out that makes her unique among mass shooters. She was a woman. Eric Madfis is a professor of criminal justice at the University of Washington at Tacoma. He said that 94 to 96 percent of mass shooters are male, depending on which measurement is being used.
Of course, no blanket statements can be made, but Madfis said the reason there are many more male mass shooters is generally connected to the different ways men and women process negative life events.
It's the case that by and large men are more likely to externalize blame, as opposed to women who are much more likely to internalize blame and see the problems as being caused by their own deficiencies and things like that, as opposed to externalizing it and [having] it lead to violence in that way.
Madfis said the lack of female mass shooters makes it hard to study the group conclusively, but when looking at murders in general, some trends indicate where male and female killers differ.
Men are much more likely to use firearms, that's true. Women are much more likely to use poison and things like that. And part of it also does have to do with the fact that men are more likely to have access to weapons. They're more likely to have had extensive training in the use of firearms. So that makes a difference not only when they do these things but also in how many people they kill when they commit and attack. It is true that male mass shooters tend to kill more people than women do on average.
There are some unifying factors among many mass shooters, both men and women, Madfis said. Most have had a series of setbacks or failures in their life, what Madfis calls 'cumulative strain.' In many cases there is an inciting event just before the shooting is committed. They also often target a place that is symbolic in some way, which seems to be true of the YouTube shooting too, he said.
Madfis said there are some myths about mass shooters as well. Most do not plan their attacks overnight, and although some have mental health problems, that is not a universal characteristic.
In the eugenics era, Mexican American women were prime targets of sterilization in California
In March 1934, 14-year-old Mary Franco's family handed her over to the Pacific Colony asylum — a facility set up by the State of California to house the "insane." Specialists there soon diagnosed her with "feeble-mindedness, tied to social deviance," and recommended a procedure known as a salpingectomy.
Two months later, her Fallopian tubes were removed.
Eight decades on, Franco's story continues to haunt her family, says Stacy Cordova-Diaz. Franco was her great aunt. Before Franco passed in 1998, Cordova-Diaz interviewed her for a Chicano studies class. Franco's family was Mexican American.
"[She] shared that she was a wild young girl, and that her family didn't know what to do with her because she was very promiscuous, and that she was then sterilized," Cordova-Diaz says. "It really affected her entire life."
The reasons that landed Franco in an institution are murky. Cordova-Diaz says that her family was scared and didn't want another mouth to feed. But it's possible that the decision to sterilize wasn't entirely theirs.
Eugenics
Franco was one of about 20,000 people sterilized in California institutions between the early 1920s and the 1950s. Once a patient was given to the state, administrators had the final word on sterilizations. It was a power granted to them by eugenics laws passed in the 1910s. At the time, sterilizations were seen as a cost-cutting measure; because many of those admitted to state facilities were poor or working class, officials believed that they could break the cycle of poverty and save the state money if they rendered a patient unable to reproduce. The reasons given for the procedures are often similar to those found in Franco's file.
But new research into patient files from California facilities reveals that mental health wasn't the only circumstance doctors considered when deciding who to sterilize. In fact, after analyzing thousands of sterilization requests, researchers Natalie Lira and Nicole Novak concluded that the deciding factor in many instances came down to a patient's race. Among the most-affected: Mexican Americans.
Using patient last names as a guide, Lira and Novak analyzed thousands of files.
"Even after we accounted for the patients' ages and the time period when they lived, we still found that Latino men in state institutions were 23% more likely to be sterilized than non-Latino men, and the difference was even greater for Latina women, who were 59% more likely to be sterilized than non-Latina women," Novak says.
Researcher Lira adds patients were unable to understand what was happening.
"We probably can say that a number of them didn't know," Lira says.
The aftermath
Mary Franco's troubles didn't end after she was released from the asylum.
"She had gotten married, and when the man she married found out she couldn't have children, he left her," Cordova-Diaz says. "She always felt that no one ever wanted to be with her because she couldn't have children."
Cordova-Diaz says Franco didn't go to baby showers and continued to face health complications from a "botched" surgery.
Her great-aunt's pain ended with her, but in the family, she says conflicted feelings remain. Cordova-Diaz is hopeful that the new information coming out will bring healing.
"To kind of put my mom at ease," she says. "No one knew how to handle this type of young lady... It was scary for them."
How California car culture killed the promise of a 20-minute commute
Reserving a camp site in California just got more complicated, but here's a guide
It's getting to be that time of year, when families get out of town and pitch a tent.
But this camping season, some in California are having difficulty securing the sites they'd like because the web site to make reservations in our state parks was recently changed.
Orange County Register reporter Laylan Connelly explains the changes to ReserveCalifornia.com.
How the reservation system has changed
The old system, Reserve America, on the first of every month, six months ahead would open up. So on January 1, the entire month of June would open up. People would scramble online at 8 a.m. and pick the date they wanted, and if they were lucky they'd get their spot.
Now it's a rolling system. January 1 opens up only June 1. January 2 only opens up June 2, so it's a rolling system day by day.
Problems campers are experiencing with the new reservation system
You're allowed to have a set number of days reserved and then roll it to another day ahead, cancel and tell a friend. You can do that an unlimited amount of times.
There's also complaints about a third party operator called First Choice Reservations. They charge a fee to get your desired site. Someone calls in and says I want a site on this date at this site, and if they're successful in getting that for you, you pay a fee. So some people are saying that's not fair — that it edges out people who can't afford to do that. That's the whole thing with these camp sites is to keep them affordable.
Advice for nabbing a camping spot
Stay flexible. Look toward those weekdays if you can take your kids out of school or take time off during the week. There's a lot more available during those times, especially off season, maybe not the middle of summer. Also look for those last-minute cancellations.
LA ranks 4th for bed bug infestations, so don't let them bite
This week, a Los Angeles family was awarded the biggest payout ever in the country for a bed bug case — $1.6 million. They were living in an Inglewood apartment at the time, where their infant was scarred from all the bites. A jury ruled that the owner owes them compensation.
So how common are bed bugs throughout L.A., beyond this one case? The short answer is very. Last year, the city ranked fourth in the nation for bed bug infestations. That's according to the pest control company Orkin.
Here's what you should know about these tiny, bitey creatures:
- They're small wingless insects that not only feed on the blood of warm-blooded animals. They gorge on it.
- They're stubborn little buggers, too, that can endure temperatures from freezing to 120 degrees.
- And if there's anything worse than a bed bug, it's a lady bed bug. She can lay up to five eggs in a single day.
Their bites leave red marks, usually on the arms or shoulders. As for where they lurk, they can hide in your pillow or mattress or box spring. Or maybe a chair or even your walls.
But there's good news. You can get rid of them, or prevent them from biting you in the first place. Just use a protective cover on your mattress, vacuum frequently and spray.
So we're very serious when we say: "Don't let the bed bugs bite!"