Majority of mortgages are underwater in Vegas, other growth areas

Where are people losing their butts on their mortgages these days?

I found this in USA TODAY, and it shows that a tick more than 71 percent of the mortgages in Clark County, Nevada, are underwater. That means more is owed on the house than what the house is actually worth.

Clark County, where you'll find places like Las Vegas and Laughlin, has also been one of the highest-growth areas of the country for at least the past decade.

Here is a partial list of counties where home buyers might do well to just junk the mortgage, take whatever lumps they get on their credit ratings, and walk away with what's left of their posteriors:

Rank County State Mortgages under water 1 Clark Nev. 71.1% 2 Osceola Fla. 66.5% 3 Merced Calif. 63.1% 4 St Lucie Fla. 62.4% 5 San Joaquin Calif. 59.6% 6 Stanislaus Calif. 57.5% 7 Clayton Ga. 56.1% 8 Orange Fla. 56.1% 9 Solano Calif. 55.6% 10 Maricopa Ariz. 54.4% 11 Washoe Nev. 53.3% 12 Pinal Ariz. 52.6% 13 Flagler Fla. 52.5% 14 Pasco Fla. 51.5% 15 Riverside Calif. 50.5%

Interesting mix. A whole lot of Florida. Several counties in California -- including Riverside County, where I grew up. Several Arizona counties, particularly around the population centers -- Maricopa County is basically Phoenix.

And unless I'm mistaken, nearly every one of these counties has experienced off-the-charts population growth for about the past three decades. The Inland Empire, which encompasses Riverside and San Bernardino Counties, was THE high-growth capital in the nation before the Las Vegas metro area took over.

Coincidence? Forget it. There ain't no such animal, you should know that.

Website breaks down the In-N-Out secret

This is one of the things I miss from out west -- In-N-Out burgers.

I got this from Lifehacker:

Make Your Own In-N-Out Double-Double Burger at Home [Recipes]: "

You already know how to make your own Shake Shack burgers, but if In-N-Out is more your style, food blog Serious Eats has once again reverse engineered this well-known burger so you can make it at home. More »

I fell in love with In-N-Out burgers in California, but only after laughing my (_|_) off at the name first. Two double burgers and a chocolate shake -- now, that was the perfect meal when I was on a heavy deadline.

Sonic makes some really good burgers; I discovered them in Kingman, Arizona. There's a Sonic a couple of miles from my house, but they can't touch In-N-out.

How good are these In-N-Out burgers?

I'll tell you. When I lived in Arizona, the closest In-N-Out place was in Las Vegas, 100 miles away. And I made the trip a time or two, just for burgers.

I repeat that: Just for burgers. Not even playing a slot machine, or to hear a band, or visit, or anything like that. I just wanted burgers.

People still don't believe me when I tell them that. (I wonder which part won't they believe?)

###

Fire season starts in southern California

The Southeast coast (including Charleston) has its hurricanes. The Midwest, tornadoes. The upper East Coast has New York City.

Every place has a specific disaster to call its own.

Southern California has its floods, earthquakes, landslides, Arnold Schwarzeneggar, and a porous border. And fires -- the season for them is starting. Growing up out there I monitored a few, and I know how to soak a wood-shake roof.

Hot dry Santa Ana winds, desert-like conditions, and dry brush give a fire all it needs.

Firefighters Attack River of Flame Near L.A.

This one pictured is out near Palmdale.

###

40 years ago: Reflections on a no-hitter

I hate these reminders of how old I really am, especially when I'm still trying to convince myself I'm still 22.

But some random Internet surfing reminded me that July 3 was the 40th anniversary of the greatest baseball game I've ever seen, when Angels pitcher Clyde Wright threw a no-hitter at the Oakland A's.

I was 12 then, and I grew up in a family of incurable Angels fans. We went to a few games every year, and we were at Anaheim Stadium, third base side in the terrace level on that July evening. My family accounted for four of the 12,131 butts in the seats that night.

OK, as I get older my memory tends to fire more at random, but it seems we were at the ballpark a lot when historic things happened. My grandmother (who was even more incurable than the rest of us) took my brother and me to an afternoon doubleheader the previous year (again the Angels were playing the A's), and when the announcement came that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin safely landed on the Moon, play stopped on the field and we got all misty. But I digress.

The left-handed Wright came off a miserable 1969 (one win, eight losses. But he was pitching like a monster in 1970. Won 22 games that year; only Nolan Ryan was able to match him four years later. Made the All-Star team, during the time the American League was always getting slaughtered -- Wright was the losing pitcher in that midsummer game.

And that no-no. It was right around the sixth inning when I noticed those zeroes on the board. And of course, there's this old superstition that no one on the bench talks about a no-hitter when it's in progress. Out of respect, neither did we.

After his great season, Wright wasn't quite the same. It turned out he had some problems, something about a well-fought bottle. It was years later when I saw a film clip of him finishing his no-hitter, and it was used as a lead-in to a commercial for an alcohol-and-drug rehab hospital. But after his career in the bigs was over, he spent some time in Japan. From Baseball Reference:

In the sixth inning of a 1-1 game early in his first season in Japan, Wright was removed after the first two batters reached. Manager Shigeo Nagashima yanked Wright, who refused to give over the baseball, then charged off the mound and fired the ball into the dugout. After leaving the field, Wright tore off his uniform and threw it into the bathtub and kicked over a garbage can. Wright was nicknamed "Crazy Righto", a name that stuck throughout his time in Japan. Fans and sportswriters called for Wright's release but Nagashima stood by his pitcher ...

1970 was a strange year for no-hitters. Less than a month before Wright's, Dock Ellis of the Pittsburgh Pirates threw one at the San Diego Padres. His control was way off; he walked eight batters that day. He later said he was in mid-LSD trip during that game (which probably explains why his fastball had a tail).

Wright's boy, Jaret, was a pitching phenom for the Cleveland Indians in 1997, coming out of nowhere to win a bunch of games for them. He started Game 7 of the World Series that year, as a 21-year-old rookie. Arm trouble, though, curtailed his career.

The Angels' leadoff hitter in Clyde's no-hitter was Sandy Alomar, who himself had two sons in the bigs (Sandy Jr. and Roberto). The Angels had some real characters in the lineup that day: Alex Johnson, who had a good bat and serious issues. Jim Fregosi, who later managed the Angels. And noted prankster Jay Johnstone, the man our household referred to as "Ol' DM" for "dirty-mouth." Seems one of us noticed Johnstone had trouble getting through a sentence without uttering a profanity. Being earthy folks, we thought it was funny.

I might as well forget about claiming I had a deprived childhood. How many kids got to see a no-hitter?

###

Links:

The box score, from retrosheet.org

What's Wright doing now?

Arizona threatens to pull the plug on L.A.

This just came in over the news transom, from the Huffington Post:

Arizona Threatens To Pull The Plug On LA: 

The LA Weekly reports:

An Arizona public utilities official on Tuesday dared Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to follow through with the city's economic boycott of Arizona by giving up the 25 percent of L.A's power he says the city gets from the desert state.

The HuffPo says:

In a letter obtained by the Weekly, Arizona Corporation Commissioner Gary Pierce writes to Villaraigosa to express that he was 'dismayed' by the boycott over the state's controversial immigration law and noted that 'twenty-five percent of the electricity consumed in Los Angeles is generated by power plants in Arizona.'

Now, I'm wondering if The City of Lost Angels is still indulging in empty rhetoric (the smart money says yes) or is actually willing to put a little substance in their stance. Arizona does supply a good chunk of L.A.'s electricity. As far as I know, the state can't do a thing with the Colorado River Compact, else L.A. will be in a world of hurtin'.

Stay tuned. Arizona and L.A. will be in the schoolyard soon, comparing 'nad sizes.

###

###

Earthquake map brings seismic updates, anxiety

How close are we to the Big One?

Or, was that last shaker really the Big One?

Might it be a good idea to buy property in Arizona, thinking it may become coastal land?

Or am I talking through my tinfoil hat again?

Anyway, here's a Web site that gives the latest fault line activity, by the hour, by the magnitude, and all that good stuff. If you live in,  say, California (like I used to), this might give you hours of anxiety-fueling entertainment. Or not.

Enjoy.

###

Everyone wants to crash Cinco de Mayo party

Or something.

This video was shot over a 35-day period in mid-2009, with the camera perched over one trail. Notice how well-enforced our borders are.

Understand, not all illegal aliens are Mexican. They're not even all Latinos. Not all Mexicans are illegal aliens, either. In fact, many second- and third-generation Mexicans do not like illegal aliens. Let's get that up front.

But this invasion -- and I can't think of a cleaner word here -- has changed the population dynamics in the southwest. And the southeast. And everywhere else in the country. While it's an underhanded compliment that people would want to sneak into this country, it's also a slap in the face to working people everywhere, our policy makers, and our law enforcement.

Just sayin'.

###

15 years later, Oklahoma City terror attack recalled

I don't rightly remember what I was doing when I heard about the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. I was probably on my way to work. But the bombing, which for the next six years was called "the worst terrorist attack on American soil," became part of my life over the next few weeks. Now, 15 years after the attack, memories come back in a flood.

It's one of those things that you can't forget unless you're lobotomized. Nor is it something that should be forgotten. Maybe if we Americans had a lot more memory and a lot less wishful thinking, we'd be much better off as a nation. But I digress.

I do remember a rather strange incident a few weeks earlier. A bomb went off in a vacant lot near where I worked, and being the dutiful reporter I went to check it out. As far as the cops were concerned, evidence was pretty thin. It didn't merit a lot of attention at the time, and the story didn't get more than a paragraph or two. I could have ended the story with that horrendous news cliche, "the investigation is continuing, police said," and I wouldn't have been far off.

Oh. A little footnote about work. I was editor/reporter/photographer/layout man for The Mohave County Standard, based in Kingman, Arizona.

As news of the Oklahoma City bombing became public and a suspect was named, I knew I was going to live with this story for a while. The prime suspect, Timothy McVeagh, lived in Kingman.

There was more. He worked at a hardware store in town with another Kingman resident named Michael Fortier. He kept a mailbox at a local mail-drop business. He rented his movies at a local video store. He was all over Kingman, and soon the FBI was also all over Kingman. For a while the FBI worked with the theory that the vacant-lot explosion was a test run; if I remember straight, evidence suggested fuel oil and fertilizer was the explosive agent -- same stuff that was used to destroy the Alfred Murrah Federal Building.

I don't know if Mac McCarty is still around. Mac was in his early 70s at the time, and I knew him quite well. Mac was the one who reminded me it is grammatically incorrect to refer to someone as an ex-Marine. Mac always carried a gun -- in Arizona you could carry one openly back then -- and he was upset that he had to check his weapon in at the door whenever he went into the county courthouse. He'd staged one-man protests defending his Second Amendment rights in front of the courthouse, with a sign in his hands and his weapon on his hip.

Mac had a little side business when Arizona revamped its weapon-carry laws. To legally carry a concealed weapon, you needed to take a class in handgun safety, and Mac was accredited as a teacher. For a time, he had two students in one of his classes -- Timothy McVeagh and Michael Fortier.

Mac wasn't sure why these two were in his class. They both knew their way around a firearm, he told me. The closest he could figure was that maybe they were involved in militia activity and they were looking for interested people. Mac said he would have been interested in hanging out with the two if that was the case.

While the FBI staked out Kingman, the national and international media also swarmed my town. And many of the foreign reporters -- from the Sydney Herald in Australia, and the L.A. Times in California -- thought the town was a real hoot. Militia types everywhere, they reported. Strong anti-government sentiment all around. Most people lived in mobile home parks, flush toilets had just arrived, and FAX machines had yet to be installed. Or something.

It's true the folks in northern Arizona are a little different from the rest of the country. We Southwesterners (and I freely use "we" because I lived out there for a long time and these roots still show) don't usually recognize foreign powers, and Washington, DC is about as foreign as it gets. We tend to take matters in our own hands and go to the government later, if we think
about it.

But in the weeks and months after that bombing that killed 168 people -- many of them children at a day-care center -- my memories come out in chunks:

• Spending an evening on a press stakeout in front of Michael Fortier's house while the FBI executed a search warrant. His was easy to pick out; it had the Gadsden flag ("Don't Tread On Me") flying proudly in the front yard. I talked my way into his next-door neighbor's living room for a chat; she was in her 80s and rather thrilled at all this drama in her neighborhood. The FBI sprung for about a dozen large pizzas for the press, so they got on my good side for at least a few minutes.
  

• Stopping in at a military surplus place, Archie's Bunker, to pick up a gas mask bag -- which is great for carrying cameras and film. The place was across the street from the National Guard Armory, which served as the FBI staging area. I know they were monitoring the doors of Archie's Bunker; I'm probably on some federal film archive somewhere.
  
  
• Talking to a man who was bicycling from Kingman to Oklahoma City. He wanted to raise funds and awareness, and to let the people in Oklahoma City know we're not all bad in Arizona.
  
  
• Meeting a delegation of visitors from Somalia. I'm not sure why they visited Kingman, but they sure had some preconceived notions about the place. In broken English, one told me he'd heard about "these people who did bad things and now they're ..." That's when, searching for the right word, he held his wrists together in that international gesture. In handcuffs.
  
  
• Hearing from a magazine called Media Bypass, an alternative publication that was self-described as somewhere to the right of Attila The Hun. They were particularly interested in my editorials, where I suggested the bombing took a lot more financing and organization than what two clowns making minimum wage at a hardware store could muster. 
  
  

I'm no conspiracy nut, but I still think McVeagh took a lot of secrets with him when he was executed; secrets that the federal government wanted to stay hidden. But then, I don't recognize foreign powers.

###

Pass the salt ... while you still can

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, after introducing laws regulating smoking and trans fat in his city, is asking restaurants and food packagers to hold the salt.

Here's a story about it in The Guardian, a publication from The United Kingdom:

... the campaign, called the National Salt Reduction Initiative, aims to cut the quantities of sodium in packaged and restaurant foods by a quarter over five years. The city claims that if the 2014 target is met it will help save many thousands of premature deaths ... Americans consume on average about 3,400 milligrams of salt a day ? well above the recommendation of the American Heart Association of less than 2,300 milli­grams. Most of that is out of the individual consumer's hands as almost 80% of salt intake is already added to packaged and restaurant foods and only about 11% added in the home ... high salt levels can raise blood pressure, which increases the risk of heart disease and strokes ... Dr Thomas Farley, New York's health commissioner, said that 1.5 million New Yorkers already suffered from high blood pressure ... "If we can reduce the sodium levels in packaged and restaurant foods we will give consumers more choice about the amount of salt they eat, and reduce their risk of heart disease and stroke in the process," he said ...

OK, you might think. Let those New Yorkers live their lives any ol' way they please; what does this have to do with everyone else?

Here's the thing: New York City, like California, is a testing lab for strange new laws. Give it a few years, then what happens there will eventually happen in the rest of the country.

Back in the 1980s, writer John Naisbitt penned "Megatrends," a futuristic look at American society, and while he missed the mark on some of his guesses he was spot-on with others. In Megatrends, Naisbitt listed five states as "bellwether states," arguing that, as I am, what happens there will happen here. He kept up on trends by following the news in those five states. To Naisbitt, California was a bellwether state then, but New York wasn't. He did list Florida and Connecticut as two of the other states to watch 30 years ago.

Although it's not something I'd brag about, I grew up in California. But one thing I did gain from my 30 years there was that I had a sneak preview of today's and tomorrow's headlines. I wasn't terribly surprised to see the number of illegal aliens in South Carolina; in fact some folks in the Palmetto State thought I was some sort of mad prophet because I was predicting this here 10 years ago. I'd already seen it happen on the other coast. And I wasn't shocked to see new laws regulating smoking here; in the late 1980s California cities were already banning smoking in public places. We California products -- and New Yorkers now -- already know what's going on.

But then, Californians and New Yorkers know what's going to happen because they're often the trigger for new laws elsewhere. The more folks emigrate from these places, the more they'll bring their laws and customs with them. They become missionaries, trying to bring "civilization" on those poor backwards country boys in the South and Midwest. Shoot, no wonder folks in the South don't care that much for strangers. It's like what the late Lewis Grizzard, a great American, said of the southern states: "Come on down. Marry our daughters. We just don't want to hear how you did it in Cleveland."

Partly because of health concerns (but mostly it's nothing but preference), but I don't use much salt myself -- and I'm glad to share some of my own cooking hacks here -- but I'm not about to ask the government to regulate other people's salt usage. Are you kidding? Even if I could, the feds are the last folks I'd want to involve in this.

Again, from Guardian:

... the difference between the salt drive and the previous health initiatives is that this new mission will be purely voluntary. Smoking and trans fats were both banned, and the posting of calories imposed on larger chains, but in this case food manufacturers and restaurants will be encouraged to participate out of concern for public well-being rather than by compulsion ...

Yeah, that's what they all say.

Almost everything starts off as voluntary.

But here are a couple of things to chew on here:

The federal government is on the verge of taking over our health care system; it's just a question of how thorough a takeover will be at this point. The feds will then have an interest in cutting health care costs one way or another. While there's this talk of rationing health care and cutting back on Grandma (some of this is pure smoke, while some is actual fire), they'll start looking more at the prevention angle. Smoking is definitely a factor in respiratory and circulatory problems, fats fill your thighs and arteries with all kinds of sludge, and too much salt does a number on your blood pressure.

So you know it's coming.

###

Governator's veto letter: A coded curse?

Love him or hate him (and the numbers are suggesting more of the latter these days) California Gov Arnold Schwarzenegger does bring his share of local color to the garden party.

Take a look at the first letter of each line of The Governator's letter blasting the state legislature -- there's a lot more to the story than just the official language in the missive.

A spokesman for Schwarzenegger swears there's nothing to this letter, that it's mere coincidence. Sure. And I'm gonna play the lead in the next Terminator movie.

###

At 99, John Wooden is still as relevant as ever

John Wooden, who coached basketball players like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Gail Goodrich, and Bill Walton on NCAA championship teams, turns 99 today.

It took 15 years of coaching the UCLA Bruins for Wooden to win his first NCAA title; after that he never really stopped. An unprecedented 10 NCAA titles, seven of them in a row (from 1967 to 1973). Five undefeated teams. And he closed out his college coaching career in 1975 with his10th title.

To find a coach who even comes close to Wooden's record, you'd have to go to women's basketball, where University of Tennessee's Pat Summitt, coach of the Lady Vols, has eight and counting. In men's basketball, Adolph Rupp of the University of Kentucky, has four -- and I think they still needed to have some guy fish the ball out of the peach basket after each score then.

Wooden coached some real characters during a changeable era of our history -- the late 60s and early 70s. Abdul-Jabbar, then known as Lew Alcindor, was a 7-foot stringbean with some incredible game and a lot of anger in him. And Walton, during his early career with the Portland Trail Blazers, became something of a counterculture hero because of his ponytail, mountain-goat beard, vegetarian diet, and radical politics.

Los Angeles Lakers coach Phil Jackson earned his props for being able to coach Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, the uncoachable Dennis Rodman and a handful of role players into an NBA championship team. Wooden did the same thing with his Bruins decades earlier.

He still has gas in his tank, as Times reporter T.J. Simers wrote a few months ago:

This morning's breakfast will go on for three hours, Wooden unable to shake his visitor, the line a long one day after day for others also wanting some of his time ... New York Giants Coach Tom Coughlin was here a few weeks ago, a USC assistant football coach is the latest to call seeking a meeting ... as for Wooden, he would still like "to have dinner with both Joe Torre and Mike Scioscia," even making a concession, and saying they wouldn't have to eat turkey. He loves his baseball, all right, and his channel turner, stopping for Perry Mason, and every Saturday parking on the westerns, which got him an invite to meet Clint Eastwood on the set of " Changeling," Eastwood directing Angelina Jolie. "A very lovely woman," Wooden says with a smile. "Those lips are something." Like he said, he's not dead.

He's always been a class act. Equal parts motivational speaker, and basketball coach, one of the foundations of his teaching is the Pyramid of Success. He's also noted for his philosophical quotes about life and sportsmanship, such as: "Failure is not fatal but failure to change might be."

Some more Woodenisms:

"Young people need models, not critics."

"The main ingredient of stardom is the rest of the team."

"Learn as if you were to live forever; live as if you were to die tomorrow."

"Talent is God given; be humble. Fame is man given; be thankful. Conceit is self given; be careful."

"Ability is a poor man's wealth."

"Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are."

"Don't give up on your dreams, or your dreams will give up on you."

State too dangerous for Obamas, but then nobody's voting

From the Secret Service and one of our own congressmen: South Carolina is too dangerous for First Lady Michelle Obama to visit.

H'mm. This is especially interesting because Barack Obama spent time in Charleston during his campaign and said he loved the town.

Oh, that's right. The pursuit of votes supersedes all safety issues.

But not only does the Secret Service say the state is dangerous, but so does Jim Clyburn, a Democrat from this state. Clyburn cites the attitudes of people here in the Palmetto State.

OK, we do have quite a few people here who are ticked off at the government. A good share of folks who made the scene at Tea Parties and (when you could find one that was open to the public) Town Hall meetings. But that's not a South Carolina thing; that's nationwide.

And we've got our share of craziness in this state, between congressmen who shout "you lie" during joint sessions of Congress, an Appalachian Trail-hiking governor, and numbers that call South Carolina one of the most dangerous, worst-educated states in the Union.

Oh, yeah. There's the issue of the Confederate Flag by the state house, and the ongoing NAACP boycott of the state. But again, none of this stopped the Obamas from visiting last year.

But nobody's voting now.

This cynical move underscores politics at its worst. Joe Candidate shows up at your door, seeking your vote. Then says thanks, and you never see him again until it's time for another vote. And the Obama Administration just took that tack.

You don't think this advice has anything to do with the fact Obama didn't carry the state? He has proven he doesn't much care for dissent, and his Chicago political heritage is one of rewarding your friends and ignoring -- or even penalizing -- your enemies.

There are a lot of other places that should be too dangerous for the First Lady:

- Texas (which McCain carried) has more guns than a lot of countries.

- California (which Obama carried) has more crazy people than anybody.

- Mississippi (which McCain carried) is the one state that South Carolinians thank God for; without that state we'd be dead last in a lot of quality-of-life rankings.

- Nevada (a McCain state) is a place where people come in but never leave, especially if you spend too much time in the casinos. I've known a few people who visited, blew their grubstake, and ended up working in a casino to recoup.

- Then there's Chicago. The most grim place I've ever seen, and O'Hare Airport is another one of those places where you can visit and never leave. Oh, the Obamas are from Chicago? Whoops ...

There are a few places the Obamas can safely avoid right now, and who cares? Nobody's voting now.

Hoax has pretend terrorists attack nonexistent town

We passed the eighth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks unscathed, except for a suicide bombing by a nonexistent group on an equally nonexistent town.

In fact, the only real thing about this "attack" was the press coverage. In Germany, the DPA wire service -- which is similar to the Associated Press -- was all over this one, after an attack on the town of Bluewater was thwarted and The Berlin Boys rap group arrestedin the plot.

Except the town, which reportedly straddles the Colorado River between San Bernardino County, California and La Paz County, Arizona, doesn't really exist. And neither does the Berlin Boys group.

According to Wired:

The work of German filmmakers peddling a satirical movie called Short Cut to Hollywood, the elaborate hoax involved at least two faked websites, a faked Wikipedia entry and California phone numbers for "public safety" officials that were actually being answered by hoaxsters in Germany using Skype ... the hoax has transfixed this country. It prompted a 1,000-word tome on the website of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Germany’s most respected newspaper, and even a press conference denouncing the incident by the DPA – the German wire service responsible for first disseminating the news about the "attack" ...

There really is a Bluewater, kinda sorta. Although the "official town website" carries a link to the Berlin Boys and is probably fake, there are some other indicators. Sperling's Best Places lists Bluewater with a population of 331 (counting dogs?) and not much else. Wrapped among the Colorado River Indian Reservation, the nearest California town is Earp and the closest anything is the Bluewater Casino in Parker, Arizona. Earp is so insignificant that I haven't found population figures for the town, but 1,545 people live in the 92242 Zip code, where the town sits. (The Web site ZipSkinny, where I got this information, reports that no schools are listed in that area. That's how small the place is.)

Out there, you just might see roadrunners using oven mitts to pick up lizards on those hot days.

Part of the target's "appeal" is that it's so remote.

... locals were blissfully unaware of the hoax that involved their sparsely populated resort area, whose greatest claim to fame is a nearby casino. Hardly anyone lives on the California side of Bluewater, says Dorothy Randall, who runs the Bermuda Palms RV Park in Earp. There’s no city hall or council. The area is called Bluewater by locals, so it wouldn’t make sense for a suicide bombing to have occurred in town anyway, because there really is no town to begin with, Randall said. "There’s not much here."

I lived in Bullhead City, Arizona for five years (and drove by Earp to get there) but I'd never heard of the place. The only Bluewater I knew was the name of my old voting precinct in Bullhead. I've driven by Nothing (along Highway 93, with a population of 4 and, last I heard, enjoying a renaissance) but never saw a Bluewater.

Like, if the place was hit in a suicide bombing, who'd know?

Strange politics is universal, but SC brings giggles

Pitchfork Ben Tillman is but a memory, and probably a legend in some circles. John C. Calhoun's statue in downtown Charleston is a favorite rest stop for pigeons. Strom Thurmond has been dead for several years, although it's still hard to tell when the exact moment of flight took place.

But strangeness still seems to be the order of the day in South Carolina politics.

Witness the bizarre twists and turns in Gov. Mark Sanford's life. In his almost two terms at the state's helm, he showed himself a good, smart governor who only fell short in charisma and in playing well with others. Neither of these was enough to really handicap him, as he was considered prime presidential timber for 2012.

The whole Sanford story now reads like a bad movie script. Married man has midlife crisis so real you can paint it. Married man meets girl. Married man runs off with girl, leaving his job in the lurch. Married man's wife moves out with the kids. Married man swears other woman is his soul mate. Forget Days Of Our Lives; here's the mother of soap operas.

But while state Republicans -- Sanford's own party -- are looking at ways to escort Sanford out of office, another politico deflects some of the lightning. Relative unknown Joe Wilson pipes up during President Barack Obama's speech before a joint session of Congress and calls him a liar. Oops. Meanwhile, public perception is divided on Wilson: Hero or goat? Hey, I report. You decide.

Once again, recent events beg the question: What's up with South Carolina and politics? If you ask around, you'll probably get a bunch of different answers, mostly not complimentary. Some swear it's just because it's the South.

A close friend of mine grew up in the Lowcountry, and now lives up North. She's tried to lose all traces of Southernness, successfully so far. To hear her talk, you'd swear she was born and raised Up There (first time we talked by phone, she commented on how southern I sounded). To this day, about the only evidence she gives of her Down South roots is her love for sweet tea -- something that can not be found or duplicated above the Mason-Dixon Line (Note to y'all Up North: Sugar stirred in a glass of Lipton doesn't even come close).

To many Up There, a southern accent still brings a preconceived notion: Backwards country boy who probably shoots his dinner from his front porch. Uneducated. Barely literate. Family tree that doesn't fork. Confederate flag and rifle rack adorning the family truck. And racial relations? Don't ask.

I used to get asked that last question all the time from visitors from Up North. How's your race situation down here? Just fine, I'd say. How's yours up there?

It doesn't help any that South Carolina is a perennial tail-ender in those stats that folks love to toss around. Near the bottom in high school graduation rates. Among the lowest in literacy and the number of teeth per capita. Among the worst in obesity, diabetes, gun violence, and DUI fatalities. The rest of the southern states (not counting Florida, which was annexed by New York years ago) are also clustered toward the rear. If these statistics were horse races, you'd need searchlights to find us half the time. 

But it's our politics that really give people the giggles. Since I started reading newspapers, the only real Southern folks who made any kind of dent in presidential races were George Wallace and Jimmy Carter. Shoot, Jimmy's brother Billy would have been better in the White House, but only if you could catch him sober.

Now, it's Sanford and Wilson in the national arena, and the giggles continue.

My family is spread all over the country. Mom and Dad have lived in California for 50 years. My brother lives in upstate New York, and I've settled here in South Carolina. All of us are political watchers, and we've been known to talk a little trash to one another by email. So when Californians voted Gov. Gray Davis out of office in what amounts to little more than a coup d'etat and replaced him with a movie actor, you know the comments flew thick and fast. Especially when you consider some of the folks who wanted to be governor. There were a few actors (including Gary Coleman, the wisecracking kid from Diff'rent Strokes), Hustler Magazine publisher Larry Flynt (who billed himself as "a smut peddler with a heart,") porno actress Mary Carey, who repeatedly flunked IQ tests on Howard Stern's show, and about a zillion others. Now California is a wreck, with state workers and unemployment recipients wondering whether they'll be paid by check or IOU this week. The state is overrun by illegal aliens, my old grade school is now around 70 percent Hispanic, and it's getting harder to find someone who habla the ingles these days.

And New York? Let's see. Even after Sanford's life took a dogleg left, Rudy Guliani's marital relations still make him look like a Boy Scout. Hillary Rodham Clinton redefined political ambition while a senator from the Empire State. Former Gov. Eliot Spitzer found his name on more call girl customer lists than useful legislation.

Now New York is led by a blind guy, and California by someone who doesn't speak English all that well. But lately I've been on the receiving end of much of the familial trash talk.

Oops. There's a possum lumbering across my front yard. Better get the shotgun; guess dinner will be the other white meat tonight.

Manson cohort makes 13th try for parole

Susan Atkins, who admitted stabbing actress Sharon Tate 40 years ago, will be up for parole this week.

Atkins, a member of Charles Manson's "family," has failed in 12 previous attempts at parole.

... Atkins, 61, has terminal brain cancer. As of earlier this year, she was paralyzed over 85 percent of her body and could not sit up in bed or be moved into a wheelchair, according to a Web site maintained by her husband and attorney, James Whitehouse. However, despite her declining health and an impressive prison record, Whitehouse wrote, "there is still a very real chance the Parole Board will nonetheless insist her release would be a danger to society."

Atkins is California's longest-serving female inmate.

Tate was killed in August 1969 with four others, and the next night Leno and Rosemary LaBianca were slain by Manson's cohorts. The two nights of murder terrorized southern California in late 1969.

Photos: Susan Atkins, shown while she was being indicted for murder (above) and more recently. Bottom, Charles Manson in a recent prison photo.

Cost cuts may trim CA prison population

Like, more than 27,000 inmates may be released if the state Assembly gets its way.

Don't take my word for it ... this is according to CNN:

Consideration of the bill comes as California faces a mid-September deadline for reducing its prison population by about 40,000 inmates. A special panel of three federal judges issued the order, contending the crowded prison system violates prisoners' constitutional rights ... the judges said they will make the reductions themselves if the state fails to act ... the measure would save the financially strapped state $524.5 million, according to a statement from Steinberg's office ... when coupled with budget revisions that lawmakers made in July, the total corrections savings would be $1.2 billion, he said. That is the amount that Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants as part of his efforts to cut state spending and balance the budget.

Of course, there's opposition:

Senate Republicans say the bill would undermine public safety. All 15 Senate Republicans voted against the measure.

Let's flash back ... in the late 1960s, costs were cut in California's mental health budget, and many mental patients were likewise released. There are probably a few of those folks still wandering around the Golden State -- and I'm sure a fair number of these were elected into the state Assembly and Senate. Has to be, anyway.

Photo: Inmates at Mule Creek State Prison in Ione, California, in a gym modified to house them in August 2007.

Manson cohort 'Squeaky' Fromme gets parole

Although most of the Manson clan has been locked up for 40 years and has little chance of seeing daylight again, Lynnette "Squeaky" Fromme, now 60, is set to be released on parole this month.

Fromme was convicted in 1975 of pointing a gun at then-President Gerald Ford in Sacramento, California.

Except for a two-day stretch in 1987 when she had escaped from a West Virginia prison, Fromme spent the last 34 years in custody.

Although she's remained loyal to Manson for decades after his arrest 40 years ago for his role in the Sharon Tate slayings, a prison official would not say whether she still corresponded with the mass murderer.

An excerpt, from CNN:

Secret Service agents prevented her from firing, but the gun was later found to have no bullet in the chamber, although it contained a clip of ammunition ... in a 1987 interview with CNN affiliate WCHS, Fromme, then housed in West Virginia, recalled the president "had his hands out and was waving ... and he looked like cardboard to me. But at the same time, I had ejected the bullet in my apartment and I used the gun as it was." ... she said she knew Ford was in town and near her, "and I said, 'I gotta go and talk to him,' and then I thought, 'That's foolish. He's not going to stop and talk to you.' People have already shown you can lay blood in front of them and they're not, you know, they don't think anything of it. I said, 'Maybe I'll take the gun,' and I thought, 'I have to do this. This is the time.' "

Photo:

Lynnette "Squeaky" Fromme appears in court in Los Angeles, California, in December 1969.

Further reading:

• In Depth: Manson Murders and the Summer of 1969
• More CNN stories on Charles Manson

Prosecutor recalls Manson after 40 years

It's hard to believe it's been 40 years ... and Charles Manson is in his mid-70s.

An excerpt, from Newsweek:

... Vincent Bugliosi, the chief prosecutor in the case, secured first-degree murder convictions against Manson and his codefendants; the jury returned verdicts of death, which were subsequently reduced to life imprisonment when California set aside the death penalty in 1972. Bugliosi went on to co-author a book about the case with Curt Gentry titled Helter Skelter (after the Beatles song name printed in blood at one of the murder scenes), which became, according to his publisher, the bestselling true-crime book of all time. Bugliosi spoke with NEWSWEEK's Tom Watson on the eve of the 40th anniversary of the Manson murders about what it was like to prosecute the case, and why Manson's chaotic charisma continues to attract global attention to this day ...

After all this time Manson a) has zero chance for parole and b) still fascinates.

(Photo: Charles Manson in custody, 1969.)

More snakebites reported in southwest

You may not ever be able to hear consistent reasons why (urban sprawl is one oft-cited culprit), but it seems there are more people getting bitten by snakes than in years past in Texas and California. At least, that's according to USA Today.

An excerpt:

The American Association of Poison Control Centers receives around 2,000 reports of snakebites each year. Bite reports increased 8% from 2006 to 2007, the most recent national data available, said executive director Jim Hirt. Cities in central Texas and southern California have seen an increase in snakebites in recent months ... Douglas Borys of the Central Texas Poison Center says in the month of June, reported cases in the region were up 35% from 2008. All of Texas saw a 6% increase. Hospitals in southern California have seen a surge in seriously ill snakebite patients this summer, says Sean Bush, an expert on snakebites at Loma Linda University Medical Center in southern California ...

But there's a clue, maybe? In another USA Today piece, the Oklahoma rattlesnake roundup is advertising fun for the whole family.

An excerpt:

Despite misgivings, Courtney Lewis, 17, says the three-day rattlesnake roundup, which ended Sunday, "really represents the tradition and pride" of this Oklahoma city of fewer than 3,000 people. Hunters from across the prairie flocked to the 44th annual Mangum Rattlesnake Derby to reel in Western diamondback rattlesnakes ...

As in, a brood of vipers?

At least someone's making money ...

There is one business that's booming in these slack economic times, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

An excerpt:

Mexican drug traffickers have expanded their marijuana-growing operations in California parks as state and local governments have tightened spending and slashed jobs and services. ... law enforcement officials say the traffickers, taking advantage of the fact that there are fewer sheriff's deputies and rangers monitoring parks, are cultivating more pot than ever before. This year's multibillion-dollar crop is on pace to be the largest in history, said state officials. "It's a huge problem," said Gordon Taylor, the assistant special agent in charge of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration ...

Photo:

Members of the CAMPS team (Campaign Against Marijuana Planting) load the remains of a marijuana garden from the forest above Lake Shasta on Wednesday, July 8, 2009. Illegal pot farming on public lands is a problem throughout California, the growers clear-cut forests and cause environmental problems from garbagee, irrigation pipes, hazardous wastes and pesticides. Gardens sometimes contain as many as 30,000 plants. It is a major problem in Shasta and Lake counties, where forest pot farming has become a major scourge that state and federal drug enforcement agents are struggling to control. (By Carlos Avila Gonzalez / The Chronicle)