Sen. Ted LieuCalifornia residents who have been victimized would find it easier to collect restitution from their convicted perpetrators under a bill announced today by Sen. Ted W. Lieu of Torrance.

“Now that certain state prison inmates are held in local jails, county sheriffs need the authority to collect restitution from these offenders in order to help the victims of their crimes,” Sen. Ted W. Lieu said about the need for Senate Bill 1210. “Getting money from the bad guys to help the innocent is the least we can do to help victims recover.”

Under existing law, California crime victims have a constitutional right to be compensated for any losses caused by the person convicted of victimizing them. In order to help ensure this right, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation collects payments from inmates to provide restitution to California crime victims.

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Unparalled academics drive top O.C. high schools

By FERMIN LEAL and SCOTT MARTINDALE / THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Oxford Academy continued its dominance among Orange County's high schools, claiming the No. 1 spot in the Register's ranking for the fourth time in five years.

Unparalleled academic scores and a phenomenal rate of college-ready graduates, along with other factors, again propelled the Cypress magnet to the top.

Oxford's 2011 Academic Performance Index of 989 out of 1,000 is the second highest of all high schools in the state.

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Victim's Family Stiffed At Killer's Release Hearing

By JOHN KLAR

The Hartford Courant

December 4, 2011

The Psychiatric Security Review Board, which oversees the release of violent mentally ill patients in Connecticut, recently demonstrated a bias against citizen awareness and involvement.

David Messenger, who was confined in 1998 for bludgeoning his pregnant wife to death as a result of an extreme psychotic episode, asked the board on Nov. 18 to transfer him to a Hartford group home with eventual release to unsupervised travel for 16 hours daily. The board refused to permit the mayor of Middletown to object at this hearing to Messenger's release. The board also prevented the victim's family from speaking through legal counsel.

I am writing as the attorney for the family in this case, for the rights of other victims and their families and also for the public's safety.

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NamUs: Where missing people can be found

You can search online database to help solve missing and unidentified person cases

By Gabriel Falcon

NBC News

updated 10/15/2011 7:36:04 AM ET

There is a place where the lost can be found.

Long before Lisa Irwin vanished from her Kansas City home, there was another desperate search in Missouri for a little girl. Her name was Elizabeth Gill. On the afternoon of June 13, 1965, Elizabeth was in her family's front yard in Cape Giradreau. It was the last time the 2-year-old was seen alive.

Scott Kleeschulte also disappeared in Missouri. On June 18, 1988, the 9-year-old freckled face boy was walking down a street in St. Charles County. To this day, nobody knows what happened to him.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

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Gov. Jerry Brown signs Dream Act for state's illegal immigrants

-- Patrick McGreevy and Anthony York, reporting from Sacramento

October 8, 2011 | 12:27 pm

Declaring the need to expand educational opportunity, Gov. Jerry Brown announced Saturday that he has signed legislation making illegal immigrants eligible to receive state financial aid to attend California universities and community colleges.

Brown said he signed the California Dream Act because it makes sense to allow high-achieving students access to college financial aid.

“Going to college is a dream that promises intellectual excitement and creative thinking,'' Brown said in a statement. "The Dream Act benefits us all by giving top students a chance to improve their lives and the lives of all of us.''

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States lose track of some sex offenders

By Shaun Hittle
September 18, 2011

The state of Kansas and county sheriff’s offices keep pretty close tabs on the more than 4,500 registered sex offenders in Kansas. Only 8 percent of registered sex offenders currently are not complying with registration requirements, which include verifying home addresses four times a year.

But when a sex offender moves out of state, it’s a different story.

A Journal-World investigation identified 161 registered sex offenders who have moved out of Kansas since 2006, but who do not show up on offender registries in the states they moved to.

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Local campuses named national 'blue ribbon' schools

Howard Blume

September 15, 2011 | 11:50 am

Twenty-one California schools, including four in Los Angeles County and four in Orange County, have been named national "blue ribbon" schools by the U.S. Department of Education.

The L.A. County schools are the California Academy of Mathematics and Science in Carson, McGrath Elementary in Newhall, Gertz-Ressler High School in Los Angeles and Merced Elementary in West Covina.

The Academy of Math and Science is a magnet high school that serves high-achieving students from several nearby school systems. Gertz-Ressler is a charter high school run independently of the local school district by Alliance College-Ready Public Schools. It's located in the University Park neighborhood south of downtown.

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SAT reading scores fall to lowest level on record

Chart shows mean SAT scores since 1972.

SAT reading scores for the high school class of 2011 were the lowest on record, and combined reading and math scores fell to their lowest point since 1995.

The College Board, which released the scores Wednesday, said the results reflect the record size and diversity of the pool of test-takers. As more students aim for college and take the exam, it tends to drag down average scores

Meanwhile, other tests taken by more representative groups of high school students have shown reading skills holding steadier. And in the context of the 800-point test, the three-point decline in reading scores to 497 may seem little more than a blip.

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Report: Violent crime drops in California

The Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO -- State officials report that incidences of violent crime decreased 6.9 percent in California last year, reaching the lowest level since 1968.

The annual "Crime in California" report released Friday shows that the crime rate went down in every category of violent or property offenses in 2010.

It was the fourth year in a row that violent crime decreased.

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California Assembly approves student aid for illegal immigrants

Posted by Laurel Rosenhall

The state Assembly voted today to send Gov. Jerry Brown a bill that allows undocumented immigrant college students to receive publicly-funded financial aid.

After a lengthy debate, Assembly Bill 131 -- the second part of the controversial measure known as the California Dream Act -- cleared the lower house on a 45-27 vote.

"Today is a wonderful day," said Assemblyman Manuel Perez, D-Coachella. "Today is a day of hope. Today, there are many students throughout the state of California who are saying, 'It's about time.'"

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Mom: Murdered son will always be in her heart

By LARRY WELBORN / THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Published: Aug. 26, 2011 Updated: Aug. 30, 2011 12:43

Kay Brenneman, mom to Benjamin Brenneman, talks to the audience about the importance of maintaining the death penalty in California because her son was abducted 30 years ago by a man who had been recently paroled. She's juxtaposed here with photos of Benjamin shortly take shortly before his murder. ROD VEAL, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTERANAHEIM – Kay Brenneman stood before a gathering of family members, friends and dignitaries Friday and told them that a repeat child molester may have murdered her 12-year-old son in 1981, "but he did not take (my son) out of my heart."

A day after the 30th anniversary of Benjamin Brenneman's kidnapping and murder, his mother told 50 guests at a memorial tribute that "evil may come, but we can overcome."

With Rep. Ed Royce, R-Fullerton, and Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas in the small crowd at Modjeska Park – where her son celebrated his 12th and last birthday in 1981 – Kay Brenneman thanked her friends for continuing to remember him, and for their continued support for strong pro-victim and anti-crime legislation, particularly regarding the death penalty.

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A grieving mom writes story of her loss

By LARRY WELBORN / THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Published: Aug. 30, 2011 Updated: Aug. 31, 2011 8:49 a.m

Erin White holds an engraved dog tag with a photo of her son Brandon White. Brandon was killed in 2007 during a fight at a bar in Aliso Viejo where he worked as a bouncer. Erin wrote an e-book called "The White Rose of Truth: A Mother's Story of Love, Loss and Justice." PAUL BERSEBACH, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER“This ‘book’ of our family’s anguish may never be done. The pain of our loss softens at times but does not diminish. Our love for Brandon never wavers. My words are from the heart, the broken heart of a mother who has suffered the worst kind of pain."

Erin White didn’t write “A White Rose of Truth: A Mother’s Story of Love, Loss and Justice” to make money, become famous or send a message.

And, she says, writing it was not cathartic; telling the story did not bring closure or help her forget.

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Georgia profs offer course to illegal immigrants

By KATE BRUMBACK
The Associated Press

ATHENS, Ga. — As college students return to campus in Georgia, a new state policy has closed the doors of the five most competitive state schools to illegal immigrants, but a group of professors has found a way to offer those students a taste of what they've been denied.

The five University of Georgia professors have started a program they're calling Freedom University. They're offering to teach a rigorous seminar course once a week meant to mirror courses taught at the most competitive schools and aimed at students who have graduated from high school but can't go to one of those top schools because of the new policy or because of cuts to state scholarship programs.

"This is not a substitute for letting these students into UGA, Georgia State or the other schools," said Pam Voekel, a history professor at UGA and one of the program's initiators. "It is designed for people who, right now, don't have another option."

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Bill to give juvenile lifers a second chance fails

Marisa Lagos, Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, August 26, 2011

(08-25) 14:39 PDT Sacramento --

For the second time in as many years, the state Assembly defeated a bill today that would have offered some juvenile offenders sentenced to life in prison the opportunity for release - a measure that was adamantly opposed by Republicans and victims' rights groups.

The bill's failure followed more than an hour of contentious debate and several rounds of voting in the lower house, and came despite intense lobbying by Democrats backing the measure, including Speaker John Pérez, D-Los Angeles. At one point after coming within one vote of passing, several Democrats pulled back their support, and SB9 ultimately failed by five votes, 36-36.

A spokesman for Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, who authored the bill, said supporters will likely bring the measure up for reconsideration before the Legislature's session ends Sept. 9.

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O.C. exit exam scores steadily climb

Aenah Ramones, left, and Tran Nguyen, students at Oxford Academy, head for lunch past a heart made from flyers announcing the school's Sadie Hawkins dance in this photo from the spring. Oxford ranked as the county's top school on High School Exit Exam scores released Wednesday. MICHAEL GOULDING, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTERBy FERMIN LEAL and SCOTT MARTINDALE

THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

About 88 percent of Orange County students who took the state's high school exit exam for the first time in 2011 passed the English section of the test, and the same percent passed in math, according to figures released Wednesday.

Local scores on the exam, which is required for a high school diploma, improved slightly from the previous year when 87 percent of first-time test-takers passed in English and 86 percent passed in math.

State law sets the test as a graduation requirement, aiming to ensure students graduate with basic skills. Students take the test for the first time as sophomores, then up to six more times their junior and senior years if they fail either the math of English portion of the test.

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L.A. Unified bests reform groups in most cases, data show

Struggling schools under district control see test scores rise more than most operated by the mayor, a charter organization and others, a Times analysis finds.

Graduates celebrate at Locke High School. The charter school saw lower percentage-point increases in test scores than similar LAUSD schools. (Arkasha Stevenson / Los Angeles Times)

By Howard Blume and Sandra Poindexter
Los Angeles Times
August 18, 2011

In a surprising challenge to four school reform efforts run by outside organizations, the Los Angeles school district has not only held its own in improving math and English test scores, but in most cases outpaced the others, according to a Times analysis of the city's lowest-performing schools.

The district's showing was even more surprising given that its schools didn't benefit from outside funding and other extra resources brought in by reform groups for their schools.

"The results are eye-opening, that conventional schools display stronger results," said Bruce Fuller, a UC Berkeley education professor.

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Virtual and Artificial, but 58,000 Want Course

The teachers, from left, Peter Norvig and Sebastian Thrun.By JOHN MARKOFF
Published: August 15, 2011

PALO ALTO, Calif. — A free online course at Stanford University on artificial intelligence, to be taught this fall by two leading experts from Silicon Valley, has attracted more than 58,000 students around the globe — a class nearly four times the size of Stanford’s entire student body.

The course is one of three being offered experimentally by the Stanford computer science department to extend technology knowledge and skills beyond this elite campus to the entire world, the university is announcing on Tuesday.

The online students will not get Stanford grades or credit, but they will be ranked in comparison to the work of other online students and will receive a “statement of accomplishment.”

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Santa Ana superintendent rooted in education

By FERMIN LEAL / THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

New Santa Ana Unified Superintendent Thelma Meléndez de Santa Ana pictured here as a kindergarten student with classmates and her teacher, Mrs. Silverman, at Freemont Elementary in Montebello. Meléndez credits her teacher for helping her choose a career in education.SANTA ANA – Thelma Meléndez de Santa Ana can trace her career in education back to her very first teacher.

Meléndez vividly remembers her first day in kindergarten at Freemont Elementary in Montebello when she met Mrs. Silverman. Meléndez recalls arriving to class that day, the only student who didn't speak English, when Mrs. Silverman greeted the shy, nervous student with plenty of patience and a warm smile.

"She always made sure I knew what was happening in class, giving me attention and encouragement whenever I needed extra help," said Melendez, the daughter of Mexican immigrants. "She believed that I could succeed and took steps to make sure I did."

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O.C. graduation rate at 81.7%

By FERMIN LEAL and SCOTT MARTINDALE

THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Seniors of the graduating class of 2011 celebrate by tossing their caps into the air as graduation ceremonies end at Newport Harbor High School in this file photo from June. PAUL RODRIGUEZ, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTEROrange County's high school graduation reached 81.7 percent for the Class of 2010, with a dropout rate of about 14 percent, according to new figures released Thursday.

This was the first year graduation and dropout rates were calculated using the state's new California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System, which tracked student classes, or cohorts, over a four-year period.

Both figures represent a poorer performance than the 87.9 percent graduation rate and 13 percent dropout rate Orange County posted in 2009 under the state's older, less sophisticated tracking system, but officials say the switch in reporting tools means the two years can't be fairly compared.

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Feds fight victim status for slain border agent's family

Federal prosecutors are opposing crime-victim status for the family of a slain U.S. Border Patrol agent in the case of an accused gun dealer who allegedly purchased two weapons recovered at the scene of last year's Arizona shootout where Agent Brian Terry was killed.

Victim status, among other things, gives family members the right to be notified of court proceedings in the case, confer with prosecutors on matters related to the case, testify at sentencing or parole hearings and receive restitution.

Neither of the weapons allegedly bought by Jaime Avila has been positively identified as the gun that killed Terry, but the firearms also have not been ruled out as murder weapons.

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