It’s Tuesday at 2 p.m. and we don’t yet know if there will be any fireworks in Malibu, or if there are, where they will be. This is a first for non-information, because every year we have the list by now and this is a first for us. The barge owners told us they were coming to Malibu — but where, or how many, we don’t know yet. We called the city but they don’t know because the fire department hasn’t told them. We called the fire department but they don’t yet know either. It is the original bureaucratic snafu where no one has an answer and everyone points to someone else. We’ll post it online at www.malibutimes.com if they manage to get their act together before the Fourth of July holiday. So if you’re planning a fireworks party, your guess is as good as ours.
P.S. It’s bone dry out there, so please no personal fireworks or sparklers for the kids. It wouldn’t take much to set off a major blaze.
For the holiday, we recommend the Point Dume Fourth of July parade, which is always fun and safe. We have some old pictures from earlier parades on our history page this week.
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Former Undersheriff Paul Tanaka was just sentenced to five years in federal prison for his part, I suspect, in ring leading the cover-up of the violence in the county jails. Tanaka, who always blamed Sheriff Lee Baca, and never seemed to accept any responsibility for his part in the cover-ups, obviously had a very agitated judge because his sentence for this kind of thing is rather stiff.
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I watched the presentation of the Benghazi report while on the treadmill at the gym. My own feeling is that it was not only colossal waste of time and money, but Hillary Clinton’s multi-hour appearance before the committee tended to boost many people’s view of her — including myself. Frankly, I personally was rather lukewarm about Hillary until watching her in the witness chair for eight hours. My takeaway was that she was one tough, disciplined cookie and, frankly, beat the committee into the ground. A few on the committee had reputations for being tough prosecutors and trial lawyers but you certainly wouldn’t know that watching them in action. Most could barely frame a question. So there was Congressman Gowdy on TV today trying to tell us why this expensive sideshow was really a victory for truth and justice. I doubt that he convinced many.
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The Kern County fire, called the Erskine fire, has caused extensive damage. Two hundred structures have burned, including 100 homes and mobile homes in the South Lake area, and two people are dead. The fire was pushed by 40-50 mph winds and once a fire gets big enough there is no way to get in front of it without risking lives. They have to fight it from the sides and the air and even now, it’s still only half contained. There are currently nine fires going on in the state, so call your insurance agent and check on your fire coverage.
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We get letters to the editor and comments on the website all the time in response to posted stories. Some of the letters are intemperate and nasty and there is always the question if running them is wrong, and causes others to be more intemperate and nasty. Generally, if it’s not libelous, we will run it because we believe it’s an issue that should be aired in public, and if people are offended they can respond back. We have a letter this week about homeless in Malibu and the general attitude of the letter writer seems to be “let them eat cake.” I’d like to hear from you on the topic of homelessness in our town and what we should do about it, if anything. By the way, our writer Jimy Tallal is a woman, not a man.
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Have a good holiday. We’re going to Sacramento to visit our children and grandchildren and last we checked it was 105 degrees up there, so lets all be thankful we live in Malibu.