Wanna Relax, Unwind & Just Get Away?? Come Down to the California Disaster Relief Sites!!

Just had to hit the drum 3x's in honor of my mom, Mama Ivent!

She hooked me up on some info regarding the lifestyles of the rich & famous staying tres chic, even during times of devastation.

Assuming that my mom (God bless her!) had received erroneous information, I did what all good bloggers do. I googled her information!

Needless to say, she was right...again.

Read and take a peek into the world of affluence, as they still have the comforts of home, without bureaucratic red tape, no delays in receiving relief, and no one sleeping in arenas, streets or dead people laying out in the open for all to see!

*sorry, poor people in Louisiana-don't take it personal!*

Question: Would citizens of South-Central Cali receive this type of relief if L.A., Inglewood etc burned down, or would they receive the same treatment that's similar to the poor residents of Louisiana??

Read the story below:

Acupuncture and massage help the victims of a very Californian disaster
source

Massages, acupuncture and stress counseling are being offered to around 10,000 wildfire evacuees gathering at the Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego — along with Starbucks coffee, beef empanadas and fresh Caesar salads.

There are stacks of magazines, free telephone calls to anywhere in the United States, toys for the children and entertainment provided by a live blues band. A local pizza restaurant’s donation of food has been turned down because there is already too much to eat.

“The people are happy. They have everything here,” said the Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, after touring the site. “Nobody does disasters better than California,” agreed David Paulison, the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

It is all a long way from the scenes inside another stadium — the Superdome in New Orleans — two years ago when thousands sheltered from the floods of Hurricane Katrina for several days without proper food or water supplies, sanitation or government assistance.


The fires consuming hundreds of thousands of acres in southern California coincided with heavy rainfall this week in New Orleans which overwhelmed the drainage and pumping system and left some streets under water for the first time since Katrina.

Charmaine Marchand, the Louisiana state representative for the Lower Ninth ward in New Orleans — which was hit hardest by the hurricane — was amazed when told of the care available to displaced Californians yesterday.

“Some of my constituents could certainly have done with a massage a couple of years ago,” she said.

The wildfires, which have forced the evacuation of at least 500,000 people including a clutch of Hollywood celebrities, are the biggest emergency America has faced since.

Ms Marchand yesterday suggested that the difference was that it was happening in one of the wealthiest corners of America, rather than one of the poorest. “I guess the fact that California is such a rich state — and a Republican-run state — is a big factor in the help being offered to them,” she said.

President Bush’s Administration, heavily criticised for responding slowly and incompetently to Katrina, is hoping to demonstrate it has learnt from mistakes made in the previous disaster.

Mr Bush has cancelled his engagements so that he can fly to California today to “witness first-hand what people are going through,” said aides. Two years ago, in a cataclysmic public relations catastrophe he was photographed gazing imperiously down from Air Force One at Katrina’s floods as he belatedly returned to Washington from his holiday. In contrast yesterday, after receiving updates on the battle to control the wildfires at an emergency cabinet meeting, he said: “I believe the effort is well-coordinated I know we’re getting the manpower and assets on the ground that have been requested by the state and local governments.”

The President added that he had told Mr Schwarzenegger that “if he needs anything and we’re able to provide it, we will do so”. He has signed a disaster declaration for California which puts in motion long-term federal recovery programmes to help California and some of the estimated 1,500 people who have lost their homes in the fires.

“Americans all across this land care deeply about them,” Mr Bush said, “we’re concerned about their safety. We’re concerned about their property.”

Mr Paulison appeared on a succession of morning television yesterday to emphasise there would be no repeat of the Katrina experience — when “things didn’t run so smoothly” — saying: “This is a new FEMA.”

The White House press secretary, Dana Perino, said: “We have learnt those lessons and those lessons are being applied. There’s increased co-ordination and communication and earlier communication and co-ordination between the federal, state and local governments.”

In New Orleans yesterday, Ms Marchand said the real test “would be the aftermath of the fires when people tried to rebuild”. Thousands of people from New Orleans were still living in FEMA trailers and many more had been unable to obtain compensation for the loss of their homes. “I don’t think FEMA has learnt any lessons. If they had, New Orleans would not still be in the situation we find ourselves in now.”

(image courtesy, Google Images)

**UPDATE**: JEALOUSY + GUN= DEADLY COMBINATION

Insult Fueled Deputy's Rampage at Party
credit: AOL NEWS (edited for content by Ivent)
(shooter Tyler Peterson, 20, pictured at right)

CRANDON, Wis. (Oct. 8) - A young sheriff's deputy who opened fire on a pizza party and killed six people reportedly flew into a rage when he was rebuffed by his old girlfriend, and others at the gathering called him a "worthless pig."

Tyler Peterson, in a high school yearbook photo before he became a sheriff's deputy, was described as an "average guy" by one person who knew him. Now he is dead after going on a deadly shooting rampage Sunday.
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A longtime friend told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Monday that 20-year-old Tyler Peterson came to his door in the hours after the rampage and calmly explained what he had done.

"He wasn't running around crazy or anything. He was very, very sorry for what he did," Mike Kegley told the newspaper, adding that he gave Peterson coffee and food and later called 911.

Peterson told Kegley that he had gone to his ex-girlfriend's house early Sunday morning in hopes of patching up the relationship after a recent breakup. But, he said, Peterson lost control when the meeting ended in an argument and other people started ridiculing him as a "worthless pig."

Kegley declined to comment when reached by The Associated Press. Police, who declined to provide details of the argument, said Peterson stormed out, retrieved an AR-15 rifle from his car outside and burst back into the house firing 30 shots that killed all but one of the people at the party.

"We had no idea, obviously, that anything like this would ever occur," Crandon Police Chief John Dennee said at a news conference Monday. Peterson, a deputy and part-time police officer, later died after exchanging gunfire with law enforcement officers.

Whether Peterson was shot by police or took his own life was unclear. The rampage raised questions in the remote northern Wisconsin community of 2,000 about how Peterson could have met requirements to become a law enforcement officer, especially after police acknowledged Monday that Peterson received no psychological screening before he was hired. Some questioned the wisdom of hiring someone so young.

"No person that I've ever known at 20 years old was responsible enough to be a police officer," said Steve Bocek, of Oak Creek, whose nephew Bradley Schultz was killed. "It's unbelievable. You don't have the mind to be a police officer. It takes a lot."

But Crandon city attorney Lindsay Erickson said age doesn't matter as long as officers do their jobs well. Peterson testified for her in several cases. He wrote good reports and was "true to his job," she said. "From what I saw of him, I didn't see any warning signs or red flags,"

Erickson said. Peterson was hired as full-time deputy sheriff on Sept. 11, 2006, at the age of 19, according to personnel records released by the Forest County clerk. His yearlong probation ended last month.

Dr. Phil Trompetter, a police psychologist in Modesto, Calif., estimated at least 80 percent of states require psychological testing of prospective officers.

"Wisconsin must be in a very small minority of states," he said. The Wisconsin Department of Justice Law Enforcement Standards Board requires only that applicants be free of any emotional or mental condition that might hinder them in their duties. It does not say how that is determined.

No formal national standards exist for hiring police, although individual states are adopting requirements such as mandatory psychological tests, said Craig Zendzian, author of several guidebooks for police applicants.

In Minnesota, for example, police officers must be licensed by the state Board of Peace Officer Standards and Training - a process that includes an evaluation by a licensed psychologist.

At the news conference, which gave the most detailed explanation yet of the shooting , the police chief said Peterson and the young woman had been in a relationship for a few years. "They had broken up and gone back and forth," Dennee said.

After the attack, in phone conversations with the police chief and others, Peterson identified himself as the shooter, authorities said.

The rifle used in the shootings is the type used by the sheriff's department, but investigators had not confirmed whether the gun came from law enforcement.

The six young people killed in the rampage were either students or graduates of Crandon High School. They were at the house to share pizza and watch movies during the school's homecoming weekend. Classes were canceled Monday, and many teens went to a church to meet with counselors.

The other victims were identified as Jordanne Murray, who was believed to be the girlfriend; Katrina McCorkle; Leanna Thomas; Aaron Smith; and Lindsey Stahl. Autopsies were scheduled to be completed Monday, but results were not immediately available.

Schultz, 20, was a third-year criminal justice major at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee who hoped to be a homicide detective. He was home visiting friends and appeared to have died trying to protect one. "We still don't have many details, but from what they've told us, there was a girl next to him and he was covering her, protecting her," said an aunt, Sharon Pisarek, as she sobbed. "He was loved by everybody. He was everybody's son. Senseless."

The lone survivor, Charlie Neitzel, 21, of Pickerel, was upgraded to serious condition and was improving Monday at a hospital.

Pastor Bill Farr read a statement from Peterson's family in which relatives expressed their shock and sorrow. "Our hearts go out to the victims, their families and their friends. We are grieving for your losses. We feel a tremendous amount of guilt and shame for the acts Tyler committed," it said.

It continued: "We may never receive the answers we all seek. Like those close to Tyler we are in shock and disbelief that he would do such terrible things. This was not the Tyler we knew and loved."

******

Such sadness. I'm telling you. YOU CANNOT INSULT these angry kids and think they're going to take it. These kids are hurting and depressed. If they don't care about living, they sure ain't going to care about you living, either!!

You betta recongize...verbal abuse HURTS.

Ivent

JEALOUSY + GUN= DEADLY COMBINATION!

Sheriff's Deputy Kills Six in Rampage
Filed Under: Nation News

credit: AP, AOL news

CRANDON, Wis. (Oct. 7) - An off-duty sheriff's deputy went on a shooting rampage early Sunday at a home where seven young people had gathered for pizza and movies, killing six and critically injuring the other before authorities took him down, officials said.

Tyler Peterson, an off-duty sheriff's deputy, killed six young people and wounded another at this house in Crandon, Wis., Sunday. The town's mayor said a sniper shot and killed the gunman.

The gunman, Tyler Peterson, was 20 years old and worked full-time as a Forest County deputy sheriff and part-time as a Crandon police officer, said Police Chief John Dennee. Three of the victims were students at the small town's high school, and three were recent graduates, a school official said.

The gunman may have graduated from the same high school. Peterson was not working at the time of the shooting, Sheriff Keith Van Cleve said. The survivor was hospitalized in nearby Marshfield, Dennee said. A Crandon police officer who fired back was treated for minor injuries and released. Gary Bradley, mayor of the city of about 2,000, said earlier Sunday that the suspect had been brought down by a sniper, but Van Cleve would not confirm that officers shot the suspect.

It wasn't immediately clear what the gunman's motive was, but the mother of a 14-year-old victim said the suspect may have been a jealous boyfriend. The shooting occurred in a white, two-story duplex about a block from downtown Crandon. "It was a pizza and movie party," Dennee said.

Three of the victims were Crandon High School students, said schools Superintendent Richard Peters, and the other three had graduated within the past three years.

"There is probably nobody in Crandon who is not affected by this," Peters said, adding that students would be especially affected. "They are going to wake up in shock and disbelief and a lot of pain."

Peters did not know whether Peterson had also graduated from the 300-student high school. But Crandon resident Karly Johnson, 16, said that she knew the gunman and that he had helped her in a tech education class. "He graduated with my brother," she said. "He was nice. He was an average guy. Normal. You wouldn't think he could do that."

One of the dead was 14-year-old Lindsey Stahl, said her mother, Jenny Stahl, 39. She said her daughter called her Saturday night and asked whether she could sleep over at a friend's house. Jenny Stahl agreed. "I'm waiting for somebody to wake me up right now. This is a bad, bad dream," the weeping mother said.

"All I heard it was a jealous boyfriend and he went berserk. He took them all out." Marci Franz, 35, who lives two houses south of the duplex, said gunshots awoke her. "I heard probably five or six shots, a short pause and then five or six more," she said. "I wasn't sure if it was gunfire initially. I thought some kids were messing around and hitting a nearby metal building."

Then she heard eight louder shots and tires squealing, she said. "I was just about to get up and call it in, and I heard sirens," she said. "There's never been a tragedy like this here. There's been individual incidents, but nothing of this magnitude." Her husband, David Franz, 36, said it was hard to accept that someone in law enforcement committed such an act.

"The first statement we said to each other was, how did he get through the system?" David Franz said. "How do they know somebody's background, especially that young? It is disturbing, to say the least."

The sheriff said he would meet with state Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen on Monday morning to discuss the case. Dennee said the state Department of Criminal Investigation will handle the case because the suspect was a deputy and officer. The Crandon School District called off classes Monday. The community, about 225 miles north of Milwaukee in an area known for logging and outdoor activities, is facing a trying time but is pulling together, Bradley said. "We are a strong community.

We always have been," he said. "This is agonizing, but we will prevail."

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My thoughts and prayers are with the community and most of all the family in Jesus' name.

Ivent