THE SOUTHLAND

High-Tech Vehicles Pose Trouble for Some Mechanics

(AP) — As cars become vastly more complicated than models made just a few years ago, a growing number of independent mechanics say they have had to turn down jobs and refer customers to auto dealer shops.

That’s because they lack the thousands of dollars to purchase the online manuals and specialized tools needed to fix the sophisticated cars.

Access to repair information is at the heart of a debate over a congressional bill called the Right to Repair Act.

Supporters of the proposal say automakers are trying to monopolize the parts-and-repair industry by only sharing crucial tools and data with their dealership shops.

Automakers, however, say they spend millions in research and development and aren’t willing to give away their intellectual property.

THE STATE

Senate Leader Wants to Split Sessions

SACRAMENTO (AP) — The leader of the state Senate said Dec. 26 he will propose splitting California’s legislative sessions, concentrating one year on the budget and the next on new laws.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg said legislators have become preoccupied with passing laws while spending too little time reviewing the effects of their legislation. He said that, plus the fallout from a poor economy, has helped push lawmakers to new lows in opinion polls and triggered a ballot drive to return California to a part-time legislature.

“I think there is a general recognition there is a whole lot that needs to change in how we do business,” Steinberg said in a telephone interview. “Let us commit ourselves to looking at all the laws we’ve passed in, say, the last three years and use this year to evaluate and assess the success of those laws.”

Steinberg, a Democrat from Sacramento, said he will call for the changes when the Legislature returns in January. He’s not yet sure if he will seek a constitutional amendment to formally return the state to a two-year budget cycle, or work with the Assembly to make the change informally through rules.

THE NATION

Jackson Wants Federal Probe of Rockford Shooting

ROCKFORD, Ill. (AP) — The Rev. Jesse Jackson is urging Rockford residents to push for a federal investigation into the police shooting of an unarmed man inside a church-run day care.

At a news conference at the day care center, Jackson criticized a grand jury for ruling that the shooting was justified during the week of Dec. 21.

He urged residents to push for an outcome that’s “just and fair.”

The Aug. 24 killing of 23-year-old Mark Anthony Barmore at the church-run facility in Rockford has heightened racial tensions in the community. The two officers are white and Barmore was black.

Witnesses say Barmore surrendered. But police have said Barmore tried to attack the officers.

Barmore’s father, Anthony Stevens, says the grand jury decision made for the worst Christmas he’s ever had.

HUD: Ala. Landlord Cut Water Over Black Visitor

ARAB, Ala. (AP) — The federal government accused a north Alabama landlord of illegally discriminating against a white family by cutting off water to their mobile home after a black person spent the night there.

A complaint filed by the U.S. Department Housing and Urban Development said Phillip Maze, 59, violated the family’s rights.

Maze, of Arab, denied violating anyone’s rights and said the government was exceeding its power with the claim.

The Birmingham News reported Dec. 23 that an investigator went to Maze’s home after the family reported that he turned off their water after the black boyfriend of a family member spent the night.

According to a HUD complaint issued Dec. 17, Maze, who is white, told a HUD investigator: “I do not have any blacks on my property and I am aware that we have a biracial president, but no federal law will make me rent to anyone I do not want to.”

“This was a 4th (sic) generation business; Arab, Alabama has very few blacks,” the complaint said Maze told the investigator.

In an interview, Maze said he did make the statements about race. But, he said, the investigator was trying to intimidate him.

SCLC Leadership Removed Amid Mismanagement Claims

ATLANTA (AP) — As the daughter of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. prepares to take the helm of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the civil rights organization co-founded by her famous father is embroiled in an internal investigation that is distracting leaders from the group’s mission.

A statement issued Dec. 21 by an SCLC spokeswoman announced the removal of the group’s chairman, the Rev. Raleigh Trammell, and its treasurer, the Rev. Spiver Gordon, pending an internal investigation into alleged mismanagement.

A telephone call to Trammell in Dayton, Ohio, was not answered. Gordon, of Alabama, did not immediately return a phone call.

In October, King’s daughter, the Rev. Bernice King, was elected the eighth president of the SCLC and has pledged to be a bridge between the civil rights and hip-hop generations. A date for her installation has not been set.

In June, a former SCLC board member asked for a federal investigation into the alleged disappearance of more than $1.4 million in SCLC funds. And last year, the group clashed with the president of its Los Angeles chapter, the Rev. Eric Lee, over his support for gay marriage in California.

The statement released Dec. 21 in the name of the SCLC board said the investigation was launched in October concerning mismanagement of organization funds.

The SCLC said a personnel matter involving an Ohio employee also is being investigated.

The release stated that the SCLC board named the Rev. Sylvia Tucker as acting chairman and attorney Randall Gaines as interim treasurer.

Ga. Ethnic, Faith Leaders Urge Census 2010 Answers

ATLANTA (AP) — A multiethnic coalition of Georgia pastors and community leaders summoned the biblical image of Joseph and Mary Dec. 22 to urge residents of color to participate in the 2010 Census or risk forfeiting federal aid to states based on population.

They urged black, Latino and Asian communities, which they say were undercounted due to low participation during the last census, to view participating as a civic duty and a biblical mandate.

Multilingual posters lined the room depicting a man and woman trekking across a desert and the words, “Joseph and Mary participated in the Census. Don’t be afraid.”

The Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials organized the event.

THE DIASPORA

Nigerian Broke Family Contact Before Bomb Attempt

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — A young Nigerian man who allegedly tried to bring down a trans-Atlantic flight broke off contact from his worried parents only a few months before the attack, apparently trading a world of wealth for the calling of a jihadist.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab abruptly told his family he would abandon the life that took him from a $25,000-a-year private school in Togo to a degree at an illustrious London university. That message pushed his father, a prominent banker from Nigeria’s Muslim-dominated north, to contact state security officials and later the U.S. Embassy in hopes of someone bringing home his missing son.

“We provided them with all the information required of us to enable them do this,” a family statement read Dec. 28, without elaborating.

Instead, the family said it awoke to news of the attempted Christmas Day attack on the Detroit-bound Northwest Airlines flight carrying 279 passengers and 11 crew members.

His family’s wealth made Abdulmutallab an educated Nigerian expatriate, and he continued to travel after he allegedly turned to extremism. The 23-year-old told U.S. officials who arrested him after the failed attempt to bring down the plane that he had sought extremist training in Yemen.

Nigerian officials said the man’s round-trip plane ticket was bought on Dec. 16 in Accra, Ghana, for $2,831 in cash.

Top Cuban official: Obama lied during Copenhagen

HAVANA (AP) — Cuba’s foreign minister called President Barack Obama an “imperial and arrogant” liar Dec. 21 for his conduct at the U.N. climate conference, a reflection of the communist island’s increasingly fiery verbal attacks on the U.S. government.

Bruno Rodriguez spent an hour and a half lambasting Obama’s behavior in Copenhagen, telling a news conference, “at this summit, there was only imperial, arrogant Obama, who does not listen, who imposes his positions and even threatens developing countries.”

He called the summit “a fallacy, a farce” and said Washington used back-room deals and strong-arm tactics to foist on the world a deal that he labeled “undemocratic” and “suicidal” because it urges — but does not require — major polluters to make deeper emissions cuts. 

Rodriguez also said Cuba and other poor nations have refused to recognize the agreement because they weren’t permitted to participate in its development.

He singled out comments Obama made during a news conference in Copenhagen, when the U.S. president said no agreement had yet been reached but he was confident one would before the summit ended.

“Obama knew he was lying, that he was deceiving public opinion,” the foreign minister said.