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The suspect in a triple homicide in Riverside, who was shot and killed by deputies with the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department Friday, has been identified as a 28-year-old man who used to be employed with the Virginia State Police. Authorities with the Riverside Police Department said that around 11 a.m. on Nov. 25, officers had been dispatched to a welfare check of a young a woman who appeared to be in distress while getting into a red Kia Soul with a man in the 11200 block of Price Court and leaving with him. While officers were responding, reports of...

Celebrities have taken to social media in recent days in support of Black Lives Matter as protests for racial justice have erupted across the country. And Ashton Kutcher posted to Instagram on Tuesday in support of the BLM movement and called for those who support “All Lives Matter” to be “educated.” In a long IGTV story, the That 70s Show star said “I don’t think that the people posting ‘All Lives Matter’ should be canceled. I think they should be educated.” “So, on Saturday, I posted a blackout of my social media channels, just posted ‘BLM’,” he said. “And a...

Man Fatally Shot by Kelso Police Kelso, WA - The man shot and killed by a police officer Wednesday in Kelso has been identified as a 27-year-old homeless man who has connections to Spokane. A Kelso police officer fatally shot Omer Ismail Ali after Ali allegedly attacked a gas station clerk, customer and the officer with a walking stick, the Cowlitz County Sheriff's Office said in a news release. Ali died of a gunshot wound to the chest, according to the results of an autopsy performed Friday. Ali, who immigrated to the U.S. from Sudan as a refugee in...

A panel of federal judges ordered California on Thursday to ease overcrowding in state prisons by reducing the number of inmates by about 10,000 this year, and criticized what they described as foot-dragging in dealing with the matter. California has been under court orders to reduce the population in its 33-prison system since 2009. "Failure to take such steps or to report on such steps every two weeks shall constitute an act of contempt," the judges said in their ruling. Don Specter, an attorney for the plaintiffs in the case, said the ruling would mean cutting the prison population to...

The angry longshoreman who unleashed a profanity and threat filled tirade on TV crews after last week's union stoppage in SW Washington has been arrested, thanks to his video appearance. Witnesses reportedly identified 45-year-old Ronald Patrick Stavas from the video that's gone viral. The Associated Press reports the Kelso longshoreman is accused of assaulting a guard and breaking into the EGT terminal on Thursday. He was arrested for first-degree burglary and second-degree assault. Bail was set at $50,000.

Ashton Kutcher says that former President George W. Bush snubbed him at the Super Bowl XLV last Sunday. The actor was sitting directly behind the former President in a luxury suite, but the two didn't exchange any kind words. "He just was not very nice to me. He just kind of snubbed me a little bit," Kutcher told BBC Radio DJ Scott Mills on Thursday. "The Bush, he kinda just turned around and really just gave me this scowl." "I think I said some mean things [about Bush] during the election about him," Kutcher said. "I feel like he probably...

Why Robbing Peter Won’t Help Poor Paul: Low-Income Neighborhoods and Uncompensated Regulatory Takings Does requiring government to pay compensation for regulatory takings harm poor communities? My answer to this underanalyzed question is “probably not.” Because of the relative political weakness of the poor, unfettered government regulatory authority is likely to be used to their detriment more often than to benefit them. History shows that unconstrained government power to abrogate property rights as caused great harm to the poor. Arizona and Oregon have recently enacted referendum initiatives requiring government to compensate landowners for reductions in the value of their property caused...

WASHINGTON — President Bush declared Friday that the federal government can only seize private property for a public use such as a hospital or road. The president signed an executive order in response to a Supreme Court decision granting local governments broad power to bulldoze people's homes to make way for private development. It was the one-year anniversary of the controversial Supreme Court decision in a case involving New London, Conn., homeowners. The majority opinion from the divided court limited homeowners rights, by saying that local governments could take private property for purely economic development-related projects because the motive was...

WASHINGTON - When the US Supreme Court ruled in June that private homes may be seized to make room for commercial development projects, the decision ignited a firestorm of criticism. Outraged property-rights activists said the 5-to-4 opinion in Kelo v. New London would render homes and businesses nationwide vulnerable to government land-grabs to foster economic revitalization. Some ranked it among the high court's worst decisions, calling it this generation's Dred Scott. Now, six months later, the debate over property rights is still raging, but it is about to enter a new, more deliberative phase as state legislatures prepare to open...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Taxpayers face a price tag of at least $1 billion over the next seven years to fix the state's aging computer systems that run payroll, budgeting and purchasing functions, according to the state's technology chief. Consumers and businesses would also be asked to pay user fees to support new Web-based services such as renewing driver's licenses, obtaining business licenses or filing corporate documents. Meanwhile, the state will aggressively continue to consolidate its many computer processing facilities, call centers and other information systems to save money and improve services. The ideas are all part of a grand technology...

A private plane chartered by a few Hollywood actors made an unexpected landing in El Paso last week. According to the Knight Ridder News Service, after a Mardi Gras weekend in New Orleans, "That '70s Show" co-stars Ashton Kutcher, Wilmer Valderrama and Danny Masterson, along with Colin Hanks -- son of Tom Hanks -- and "7th Heaven" stars Geoff and George Stults, were flying back to Los Angeles when the cabin pressure in the plane dropped. Liz Bellegarde, spokeswoman for El Paso International Airport, said Saturday that there were no reports of a charter plane making an emergency landing at...

Who needs France? We have Tex-Mex By John Kelso AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF Friday, February 21, 2003 You can't go wrong making fun of France, since the French live there and it is just so much fun to taunt the French. Look at it this way: It's the only country featured in a famous poem that ends with the words "someone's underpants." It was the only country ridiculed in Mel Brooks' western comedy, "Blazing Saddles," when Dom DeLuise and a chorus line of like-minded male dancers were shown kicking up their heels and doing a number called "The French Mistake." France has...