The Coast News, July 13, 2012

JULY 13, 2012
by CHUCK
ODD
SHEPHERD
FILES
Seeing Isn’t Believing
Japanese Scientists,
Overperforming: (1)
Researchers at the University
of Tokyo’s Graduate School of
Information Science and
Technology have developed
goggles that can enlarge the
image of a bite of food so that
the eater might fool himself
into thinking he has consumed
more than he has (and
thus, that his hunger might
dissipate sooner). The software
is so sophisticated, they
said, that the food carrier (a
fork, or the eater’s hand) is
not transformed and appears
at normal size. In basic tests,
according to a June Agence
France-Presse report, a 50
percent increase in imagined
cookie size reduced actual
consumption by 9 percent. (2)
Prolific inventor Nobuhiro
Takahashi announced in May
that he had created a silicone-and-foam
“buttocks
robot” that can clench, twitch
or protrude when probed.
Compelling
Explanations
In May, two members of
the Senate Intelligence
Oversight Committee
requested the total number
of U.S. citizens who have
been legally spied upon (by
phone calls, e-mail, etc.) since
2008 by the National Security
Agency, but the NSA’s inspector
general said he was prohibited
from answering.To go
back through agency records,
he said, would violate the privacy
rights of those spiedupon
U.S. citizens, which the
agency cannot do without
judicial warrant.
Well-Put: Pushing for an
Oklahoma state senate bill
authorizing the open carrying
of guns (which eventually
passed), Sen. Ralph Shortey
explained in a March committee
hearing that it was an
incident from his past that
convinced him of the need to
carry a gun openly. “I was in
oil and gas. I was out on a
lease at one time, and I got
attacked by a turkey. Wait
until you get attacked by a
turkey.You will know the fear
that a turkey can invoke in a
person.And so I beat it with a
club. That was all I could do.
And (then) I started carrying
a gun in my truck after that
without a license because I
didn’t want to get attacked by
a mountain lion.”
The Way the World
Works
As the court-appointed
trustee seeking as much of
Ponzi-schemer Bernard
Madoff’s ill-gotten gains as
possible to pay back his victims,
Irving Picard has
secured, according to a May
New York Times report, $330
million to distribute. During
the same time, Picard and his
associates have billed the
court (in fees that run as
much as $850 per hour) $554
million. (The Ponzi scheme
“earned” around $65 billion,
but much of that consisted of
the fantasy “profits” that had
so impressed clients to invest
with Madoff in the first
place.)
By Promise Yee
OCEANSIDE — Spanishspeaking
parents received
sound advice on parenting
from author Juan Villegas at
the Civic Center Library on
July 7.
In addition to being a
father and law enforcement
officer,Villegas has worked as
a volunteer for the Orange
County Bar Foundation
ShortStop juvenile crime
diversion program for more
than a decade.
“ShortStop has an 86
percent success rate of youth
who don’t reoffend before
they’re 18,” Villegas said.
“ShortStop is a cross between
a Scared Straight program
and counseling. It’s an interfaith
program. It comes from a
lot of different angles.”
He said during his 11
years working with at-risk
youth between the ages of 11
to 17, he has noticed common
youth and parenting behaviors
that put teens at risk of
making poor life choices.
With teens it is an
extreme style of gangster or
cult group dress that shows
they want to fit in somewhere.
For parents it is a lack of
leadership, violence in the
COAST CITIES — At its
June 27 meeting, Olivenhain
Municipal Water District’s
board of directors approved
the Operating and Capital
Budget for Fiscal Year (FY)
2013, which will begin July 1,
2012 and expire on June 30,
2013.
The budget reflects
OMWD’s funding required to
prevent delays to critical projects
or maintenance and
ensures customers continue
receiving excellent water
treatment and delivery services.
External factors influencing
the budget include doubledigit
increases in wholesale
water costs, ongoing global
economic challenges, and
uncertainty regarding imported
water supplies. The budget
takes measures to offset these
factors including the reprioritization
of non-critical capital
projects and implementation
of preventative maintenance
programs. In addition, OMWD
has worked to reduce costs in
other areas with particular
emphasis on labor costs.These
efforts have yielded a negotiation
requiring all employees
to contribute 100 percent of
their share of retirement
costs.
The cost of water purchased
from regional wholesalers
remains the largest
share of OMWD’s operating
and maintenance budget.
Pending action by the San
home, and sexual abuse of
children that puts kids at risk.
Villegas said he does not
think parents should be their
children’s best friends.
Instead he encourages parents
to do the difficult job of
setting limits, intervening and
following through.
“I’ve seen it all in my 20
THE COAST NEWS
Author puts focus on at-risk youth at seminar
Juan Villegas shares parenting tips at the Civic Center Library on July 7.
Photo by Promise Yee
Diego County Water
Authority’s Board of Directors
this afternoon, the purchased
water wholesale cost increase
to OMWD is expected to
increase 11.9 percent starting
Jan. 1, 2013. As a result, key
programs in the budget are
devoted to reducing reliance
on regional wholesalers for
water supplies. Specific goals
to increase long-term water
supply reliability include
completing feasibility studies
for a brackish groundwater
desalination facility, leading
the North San Diego County
Regional Recycled Water
Project coalition to maximize
recycled water use, and also
offering conservation programs
to continue to educate
customers on water use efficiency.
Total expenditures are
projected in the budget at
$84.3 million, which is comprised
of $36.7 million in
operating expenditures, $7.0
years in law enforcement,”
Villegas said. “It’s not really
the kids. It’s the parents failing
the kids.”
Villegas said it is not
income level or neighborhood,
but parenting skills that
make the difference. He
added that parents who gain
the loyalty of their children
Water board approves budget
million in debt service, $33.2
million in capital expenditures,
and $7.4 million in
Pay-As-You-Go transfer from
rates and charges to capital
improvement programs.
by being grounded in their
parenting skills are able to
guide their kids to make good
life choices.
“They want to feel loved,
safe, respected,”Villegas said.
“They need to know who they
are counts. That they are
important and we value
them.”
Villegas has written his
advice in a parenting guidebook
“La Vida Tiene Valores,”
which translates to “life has
values” in English. The book,
like his lectures, is specifically
geared to the Latino community.
Real-life examples and
celebrity references come
from the Latino American
experience that Villegas
knows.
His book also includes
traditional cultural sayings.
The book will soon be
published in English.
Villegas said his goal is to
share information on sound
parenting and improve communication
among family
members.
“Old-fashioned values
B3
always work,” Villegas said.
“Parents need to be grounded,
give advice, and back it
up. Prevention is what I’m trying
to do.”
Principal Librarian
Monica Chapa-Domercq said
Friends of Oceanside Library
sponsored the lecture in
response to recent Crown
Heights gang violence.
“He has his finger on the
pulse of issues,” Chapa-
Domercq said.
The lecture may also be
scheduled at local community
centers in the near future.
Villegas hosts a weekly
talk radio show “Prevenir es
mejor que lamenter” (or
Better safe than sorry) that
addresses delinquency prevention.
The program airs on
International Catholic Radio
(ESNE) 1670 AM KHPY and
its sister stations.
He was recently selected
to serve as co-chairman for
the Parent Outreach
Committee on Gang
Prevention for the County of
Orange.
JOIN THE ENCINITAS SHERIFF’S
VOLUNTEER PATROL
The Encinitas Sheriff's Volunteer Patrol performs home
vacation security checks, assists with traffic control,
enforces disabled parking regulations, patrols
neighborhoods, schools, parks and shopping centers and
visits homebound seniors who live alone for the communities of
Encinitas and Solana Beach. Volunteers must be 50 or older, in good
health, pass a background check, have medical and auto insurance
and a valid California driver's license. Training includes a two week
academy plus 4 field training patrols. The minimum commitment is 24
hours per month on patrol or in the office, and attendance at a monthly
meeting. Contact Laurence Reisner, Administrator 760-966-3579.