The Anatomy of Public Corruption

KinderCare, Frank Doyle Jr., Enron, Kinder Morgan /Building 7 SEC



###

LAST WEEK IN AN OAKLAND COURTROOM, A JURY OF 10 citizens found that, yes, the FBI is using the fight against terrorism to shut down political dissent. These jurors were not urban radicals; they were suburbanites from Walnut Creek and Concord, some of them wearing sequined American-flag shirts. They found that six agents of the FBI and the Oakland police twisted a murder attempt against Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney, two Earth First! activists working to reform logging practices on California's North Coast, to link them falsely to domestic terrorism and aggressively slander them in the press. Of $4.4 million in damages awarded by the jury, more than 80 percent went for First Amendment violations: The FBI had tried to silence their environmental views.

This is more than just another of many recent black eyes for the FBI. It's strong evidence that the FBI is still in the business of domestic politics, and that the spirit of the 1970s FBI counterintelligence operations that killed off the Black Panthers and the American Indian Movement is alive and well today. With one big difference: No jury ever ruled against those FBI tactics.

Bari's case was so overwhelming that it plowed through 11 years of FBI motions even after Bari herself died of breast cancer in 1997. “Ten Americans, once they weren't limited to hearing controlled soundbites, were able to weed through the crap and they got it,” says Bob Bloom, one of the Bari-Cherney attorneys. “The FBI and law enforcement are the private army for the people who run this country.”

On May 24, 1990, Bari and Cherney drove through Oakland in her Subaru on their way to a gig. Bari, then 40, a carpenter and union activist who lived in the Northern California mill town of Willits with her two preteen daughters, expected to play her fiddle and give another of her rousing talks in support of timber reform. Cherney, a few years her junior, was an Earth First! troubadour known for his sardonic tunes like “You Can't Clearcut Your Way to Heaven.” The two helped organize 1990's Redwood Summer, a monthslong series of nonviolent protests in support of Proposition 130, a November ballot initiative that would preserve old-growth redwoods — and cost the timber industry a reported $50 billion. The night before, the pair had just finished Redwood Summer plans with Berkeley-based Seeds of Peace, which would provide kitchens and logistics. Near 34th and Park, Bari stomped on the brakes to keep from making a wrong turn. As she did, a powerful motion-activated pipe bomb exploded beneath her driver's-side seat.

Bari nearly died on the spot. The bomb, wrapped in finishing nails, shattered her pelvis and broke her back. Cherney was cut and bruised and temporarily deafened. The blast made a 2-by-4-foot hole in the car's floorboard. Before losing consciousness, Bari begged a nurse to let her die.

THE FIRST THOUGHT OF MANY THAT DAY, INCLUDING ME, was that this was the timber industry's Karen Silkwood. Like Silkwood, who spoke out about safety lapses in the nuclear-power industry and died under mysterious circumstances, Bari and Cherney had both been under death threats from pro-timber goons. Earth First! had drawn heavy criticism during the 1980s for advocating spiking trees with 60-
penny nails to discourage sawing. Bari had almost single-handedly turned Earth First! away from spiking and monkey-wrenching of equipment, recognizing that such dangerous tactics alienated timber and mill workers. Bari, a former shop steward with the Retail Clerks Union and the Postal Workers Union, dreamed of a green-black coalition between environmentalists and workers.


But hatred for meddling Earth First! hippies ran too deep. Bari had previously been run off the road by a logging-truck driver she knew with her two baby girls in the car. She'd been threatened with death on a Fort Bragg radio station, and in phone calls from the pro-timber Yellow Ribbon Coalition. Bari had a collection of mailed death threats, one featuring her picture in the cross hairs of a rifle scope. Many of these had already been presented to the local sheriff and to the FBI. Authorities found another pile of them in the back seat of her Subaru.

The FBI, however, ignored all this and immediately accused Bari and Cherney of blowing themselves up. The bomb exploded at 11:55 a.m. By 12:20 p.m., when Oakland Police Sergeant Michael Sitterud arrived, FBI agents already blanketed the scene. Sitterud testified that the agents “said that these were the type of individuals who would be involved in transporting explosives. They said that these people, in fact, qualified as terrorists.”

Thus began the web of lies, which only got deeper. Ten minutes after he arrived, Sitterud made a police-log entry describing Bari and Cherney as “Earth First leaders suspected of Santa Cruz power pole sabotage, linked with federal case of attempted destruction of nuclear power plant lines in Arizona.”

Special Agent Frank Doyle, a 20-year veteran bomb expert with the FBI Terrorist Squad out of San Francisco, oversaw the collection of evidence at the scene. Doyle ran the FBI's “Bomb School,” a law-enforcement event held for years on the property of Louisiana-Pacific Lumber Co., one of the firms that paid millions to defeat Prop. 130. One month earlier, Doyle had shown officers and timber security guards how to build and detonate car bombs identical to the Oakland bomb. Four of the first officers on the scene had participated in that training.

Doyle would later testify that there had been no investigation of Bari and Cherney that would have led him to portray either one as a terrorist, but in fact there were, and famously. Bari's name came up as someone affiliated with Earth First! in government documents about the allegedly “terrorist” downing of power lines in Santa Cruz in April 1990. I'd already written about the 1989 FBI Arizona operation called “THERMCON” (for “Thermite Conspiracy”), in which FBI Agent Michael Fain infiltrated Earth First! and led a sting operation, coaxing activists to use explosives to fell high-tension power lines (which they refused to do). The documents, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, show THERMCON was still an active file during the Oakland bombing, and documents from February through May of 1990 were marked “missing from the file.”

THE CRIMINAL CASE AGAINST BARI AND CHERNEY MOVED fast. As Bari underwent emergency surgery hours after the bombing, the police filed papers arresting them on suspicion of possessing explosives. The Oakland police and the FBI issued a series of press releases heralding the arrest, drilling home the Earth First!­bomb connection. This went on for months, with both agencies going public with each shred of evidence against Bari and Cherney, all of which turned out to be false. Local and national papers printed everything they said.

In the meantime, the feds ransacked both Earth First! and the Bay Area environmentalist community. Agents stormed the Seeds of Peace house, as activists sat on the lawn in handcuffs and watched their computers, notes and address books being carted off. Phone records led agents to more than 500 people who had made inquiries into Redwood Summer organizing, including the media.

On the scene of the bombing, the FBI fed Oakland police two false theories that the agencies used to obtain search warrants. One was that Bari had hidden the bomb with her guitar in the rear foot well. The other was that two bags of nails found in the car “matched” those in the bomb. The jury found that the agencies knew both theories to be wrong, leading to illegal warrants and false arrests. The theories were disproved in part by the FBI's own experts, and Doyle, in particular, was shown to be lying. Months after the bombing, FBI agents obtained a second search warrant for Bari's house and found finishing nails that they claimed, in another dramatic press release, had come from the same batch of only “200 to 1,000 nails” found on the bomb. In court, it was revealed that the batch consisted of several million nails and were not a match at all.

WHILE STILL IN THE HOSPITAL, BOTH BARI AND CHERNEY gave the FBI and Oakland police the names of people and a right-wing vigilante group they believed to be behind the death threats. They were never investigated. Seven weeks after the bombing, the Alameda County District Attorney's Office dropped all charges against the pair, citing lack of evidence, and Bari sued.

The FBI, it seems, achieved its purpose long ago: Agents connected Earth First! and Judi Bari with the bombing in the minds of the public. This was later cited as a key to the narrow defeat of Prop. 130. Now, many years later, a jury finds that the FBI violated Bari and Cherney's First Amendment rights by destroying them in the press, and violated the Fourth Amendment by embarking on a course of illegal searches and false arrests. What popular domestic issue will be silenced next — perhaps in the name of homeland security? Judi Bari's bomber remains at large.
Share:

Larry Ellison and Oracle as Covert CIA operatives - exploiting foreign databases

I have a very unusual connection to Larry Ellison and the CIA. Long ago and far away my friends were murdered all too often with such frequency that something was wrong.

I resided in Lee County Florida finished my high school between 1974 and 1978. In 2014 I discovered Larry Ellison's connection to the CIA by 2019 Larry Ellison was throwing me out of Oracle world's discriminated against me as an American then later visited with President Trump.

 having once appeared on PBS with Larry Ellison spokesman Robert Hoffman and not long after my business is under attack, things like fraud fake projects extortionist type moves and deception.

I am sure that the activities around me caught the attention of the CIA who decided that oracle's contract worth 10 billion on the Jedi or the joint database project with the military was canceled over these events.

A very good reason to remove him from his position at the company.

Since he was the original database developer for Oracle on the CIA contract in 1977 based on my own personal story and knowing the timelines innately I'm betting that Larry Ellison is well aware of my friends that were murdered which you probably read about in the records that he was processing for the CIA.

 This would also explain why Oracle Corporation could have violated SEC rules on insider trading.  

Share:

Mr. and Mrs. David Leslie Milne of 417 Park Avenue

Wedding Announcement 1947 


Mr. and Mrs. David Leslie Milne of 417 Park Avenue have announced the engagement of their twin daughter, Dorothea Leslie, to Wilson Cobbold Bennett, son of Mr. and Mrs. Ernest H. Bennett of Montclair. N. J., and Orlando


Share:

Walnut Creek Neiman Marcus

They said those that came before and lost this is a tribute to the voices that are now gone

Share:

stop arresting me?

Share:

SPC James Coon balad Iraq April 2007

If you could learn the truth about what happened to this man you would have a good idea of who started the war 
Share:

Defund Police Police better refund our fines

 Bennett has lost enough vehicles to know how the game is played with tickets fines and jail they're able to kidnap your children and in my case murder family.

Through it all like try to maintain a good relationship with police while muddling through the muck.

Life has slowed down tremendously for me

Share:

Bono, Silverlake, Wilson Sonsini, Salesforce, PeopleSoft

So I sued Southern Pacific in 87 I lost when someone killed my witness who was a 21 year old man from Walnut Creek.

It seems my histories constantly criss-crosses with litigation near Wilson sonsini, PG&E bill Tauscher of computerland and former Safeway CEO Steve Burd with additional crossovers into Blackhawk Network Silverlake partners elevation partners and also CEO Philip Anschutz, Michael Milken of the junk Bond theme, and his friend Larry Ellison former CIA programmer that probably knows who killed my Witnesses and my friends in 1975.

 in the middle of this is a company called FICO, a virus called nimda that could have very well been created by CIA experts the ones that lost all all they're spooked tools at the CIA who would easily know how to execute a virus to propagate around the the globe that would work especially well if you have an unwitting Insider parked in front of 3,000 servers at SBC with a virus likes to look at servers and explode from there




###

Stanford University Law School - Securities Class Action Clearinghouse

 

BRUCE G. VANYO, State Bar # 060134
LAURIE B. SMILAN, State Bar # 116740
DAVID PRIEBE, State Bar # 148679
MICHELE E. ROSE, State Bar # 154656
SUSAN BOWER, State Bar # 173244
WILSON SONSINI GOODRICH & ROSATI
Professional Corporation
650 Page Mill Road
Palo Alto, California 94304-1050
Telephone: (650) 493-9300

Attorneys for Defendants

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

DAVID T. O'NEAL TRUST, DATED 4/1/77
and TAMMY NEWMAN, On Behalf of
Themselves and All Other Similarly Situated,

                      Plaintiffs,

           v.

VANSTAR CORPORATION, RICHARD H.
BARD, WILLIAM Y. TAUSCHER, JAY S.
AMATO, ROBERT C. KUNTZENDORF,
JEFFREY S. RUBIN, RICHARD N.
ANDERSON, CHRIS M. LANEY,
MICHAEL J. MOORE, AHMAD
MANSHOURI, COLEMAN D. SISSON,
THANOS M. TRIANT, E.M. WARBURG,
PINCUS & CO., INC., WARBURG PINCUS
& CO., L.P., STEWART K. P. GROSS,
WILLIAM H. JANEWAY and JOHN L.
VOGELSTEIN,

                      Defendants.
______________________________________


)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)

CASE NO.: C-98-0216-MJJ

CLASS ACTION

MEMORANDUM OF POINTS
AND AUTHORITIES IN
OPPOSITION TO
PLAINTIFFS' MOTION TO
STRIKE EXHIBITS
SUBMITTED IN SUPPORT
OF DEFENDANTS' MOTION
TO DISMISS

[filed c. Oct. 23, 1998]

Date: November 3, 1998
Time: 9:30 a.m.
Court: Honorable
      Martin J. Jenkins

INTRODUCTION

Plaintiffs have moved to strike certain documents submitted with Vanstar's motion to dismiss: Vanstar's 1997 Form 14A ("Form 14A") and a calculation of stock sales by Vanstar's officers and directors ("Appendix"), which is taken directly from publicly filed SEC documents upon which plaintiffs rely. Plaintiffs argue that these documents are "outside" the Complaint, and therefore cannot be considered on a motion to dismiss. Plaintiffs also argue that the documents constitute inadmissible hearsay.

Plaintiffs' arguments are ill-founded. Under the Private Securities Litigation Act of 1995, plaintiffs must plead specific facts giving rise to a strong inference of each defendant's required state of mind (i.e., scienter), or the Complaint must be dismissed. Plaintiffs attempt to plead scienter by arguing that the individual defendants' stock sales were unusual or suspicious. The documents in question simply assist the Court in analyzing the judicially noticeable information provided by plaintiffs. Courts in securities class action cases routinely take judicial notice of SEC filings -- including documents which demonstrate that stock sale allegations are false -- and will dismiss allegations which are inconsistent with the filings. It is contrary to the Reform Act, and palpably unfair, for plaintiffs to claim that the documents must be excluded from the Court's consideration, while at the same time averring that their stock sale allegations taken from the same documents, which may be judicially noticed, give rise to a strong inference of scienter. Thus, the Court should deny plaintiffs' motion; or, if the Court is inclined to strike these documents, it should also strike plaintiffs' stock sale allegations.

Moreover, the documents are not "outside" the Complaint as they deal directly with allegations in the complaint. The law is clear that the mere fact that plaintiffs neglect to attach documents integral to their complaint does not render such documents "outside" a complaint, nor preclude the Court from considering the documents in a motion to dismiss. The Form 14A reveals the stock ownership of Vanstar's most senior management, ownership that is at the heart of plaintiffs' scienter allegations. Likewise, the Appendix was prepared directly from the Forms 3 and 4 filed with the SEC, which plaintiffs clearly used in drafting the Complaint (there is no other ultimate source from which plaintiffs could have obtained otherwise confidential information regarding the individual defendants' stock sales and holdings). Plaintiffs cannot seriously complain about a chart that was prepared to assist the Court in analyzing judicially noticeable information that was first provided by plaintiffs.

Plaintiffs' hearsay objection also is misplaced. Plaintiffs waived any such objection by choosing to include in their Complaint stock sale allegations in the first instance. Moreover, to the extent the Form 14A is referenced for the truth of the matters asserted therein, it is admissible under the business records exception to the hearsay rule. Finally, as plaintiffs themselves admit, the documents at issue were not offered solely for their truth value: rather, they are also offered to indicate the individual defendants' state of mind., i.e., were they selling or retaining significant portions of their net worth in the securities of the Company.

ARGUMENT

I. THE COURT MAY TAKE JUDICIAL NOTICE OF THE DOCUMENTS

    A. Courts Routinely Take Judicial Notice of SEC Filings.

When deciding motions to dismiss, courts routinely take judicial notice of, or otherwise consider, documents other than the complaint.1 Indeed, the great weight of authority holds that SEC filings are properly considered when deciding a motion to dismiss, and that those filings are properly the subject of judicial notice. Seee.g.Wenger v. Lumisys, Inc., 2 F. Supp. 2d 1231, 1240 n.8 (N.D. Cal. 1998) (denying plaintiff's motion to strike documents filed with the SEC, specifically Form 4s showing the actual number of shares sold during the class period); In re Silicon Graphics Securities Lit., 970 F. Supp. 746, 758 (N.D. Cal. 1997) (court may take judicial notice of the contents of relevant public disclosure documents required to be filed with the SEC) (quoting Kramer v. Time Warner, Inc., 937 F.2d 767, 774 (2d Cir. 1991)); In re Gupta Corp. Sec. Litig., 900 F. Supp. 1217, 1228 (N.D. Cal. 1994) ("[T]he court may review 'public disclosure documents required by law to be and which actually have been filed with the SEC.'") (quotation omitted); Shaw v. Digital Equipment Corp., 82 F.3d 1194, 1206 n. 13, 1220 (1st Cir. 1996) ("In deciding a motion to dismiss a securities action, a court may properly consider the relevant entirety of a document integral to or explicitly relied upon in the complaint, even though not attached to the complaint, without converting the motion into one for summary judgment."); Lovelace v. Software Spectrum Inc., 78 F.3d 1015, 1018 (5th Cir. 1996) ("When deciding a motion to dismiss a claim for securities fraud on the pleadings, a court may consider the contents of relevant public disclosure documents which (1) are required to be filed with the SEC and (2) are actually filed with the SEC.").2

    B. Courts May Take Judicial Notice of Documents "Outside" the Complaint.

Plaintiffs also assert that the subject documents do not fall within the scope of judicial notice because they are "outside" the Complaint. See Plaintiffs' Brief at 3-4. It is well settled, however, that a document need not be attached to a complaint in order for a court to properly consider it when deciding a motion to dismiss. In re Syntex Corp. Sec. Litig., 95 F.3d 922, 926, 929 (9th Cir. 1996) ("When deciding a motion to dismiss, a court may consider the complaint and 'documents whose contents are alleged in a complaint and whose authenticity no party questions, but which are not physically attached to the pleading.'") (quoting Branch v. Tunnell, 14 F.3d 449, 454 (9th Cir. 1994)).3

Here, the authenticity of the subject documents is not truly disputed, and their contents are integral to the Complaint. The Form 14A reveals the stock ownership of Vanstar's senior most management and plaintiffs have made this ownership a central issue of the Complaint. Likewise, the Appendix was prepared directly from the Forms 3 and 4 which are the exact documents plaintiffs used to draft the Complaint.4 All that Defendants have done here is present the same judicially noticeable, integral information plaintiffs have included in their Complaint in such a way as to assist the Court.5

II. THE SUBJECT DOCUMENTS ARE NOT INADMISSIBLE HEARSAY

Plaintiffs contend that even if the exhibits are properly the subject of judicial notice, the Court may not consider them because they may not be submitted to disprove scienter and because they constitute hearsay. See Plaintiffs' Brief at 4-6. Plaintiffs similarly argue that cases which have judicially noticed SEC filings have only taken judicial notice of the fact that the documents were filed or where the misrepresentations were contained in those documents. Id. at 4-5. For three reasons, plaintiffs are wrong.

First, as shown above, plaintiffs themselves have alleged the truth of the matters asserted in the documents. Their Complaint alleges that the individual defendants sold particular amounts of stock, at particular prices, on particular dates. It also alleges that the individual defendants sold particular (albeit inflated) percentages of their stock holdings. Complaint ¶¶ 138-141. Thus, plaintiffs cannot complain if and when Defendants refer to the same SEC filings, or information extracted from the filings for the truth of the matters asserted therein. This is precisely the reason that courts have taken judicial notice of stock sales in securities cases. See Silicon Graphics, 970 F. Supp. at 759 ("Having raised questions about defendants' stock sales, [and] based their allegations on defendants' SEC filings . . . plaintiffs can hardly complain when defendants refer to the same information in their defense."); Wenger at 1240 n.8 (denying plaintiff's motion to strike documents filed with the SEC, specifically Form 4s showing the actual number of shares sold during the class period); see also United States v. Anderson, 532 F.2d 1218, 1229 (9th Cir. 1976) (defendant who introduced hearsay statement waived objection).

Second, the exhibits are offered not only for their truth value, but also to demonstrate the state of mind of the individual defendants. As such, they are excepted from the hearsay rule. Fed. R. Evid. 803(3). Plaintiffs admit that these documents would demonstrate state of mind, if accepted by the Court. Pl. Br. at 6. Plaintiffs attempt to plead the individual defendants' state of mind by asserting that each of them intended to sell unusual amounts of Vanstar stock, rather than retaining his or her shares and stock options. Thus, the documents are relevant to plaintiffs' state of mind theory.

Third, the Form 14A is admissible under the business records exception to the hearsay rule. See Fed. R. Evid. 803(6). For a memorandum or record to be admissible as a business record, it must be: (1) made by a regularly conducted business activity; (2) kept in the "regular course" of that business; (3) "the regular practice of that business to make the memorandum, and (4) made by a person with knowledge or from information transmitted by a person with knowledge." Clark v. City of Los Angeles, 650 F.2d 1033, 1036-37 (9th Cir. 1981) (quoting Fed. R. Evid. 803(6). The Form 14A was prepared by persons with knowledge of the facts contained therein, kept in the ordinary course of Vanstar's business, and required by law to be prepared and submitted to the SEC. Moreover, Vanstar relied on the preparation of those documents in its business; it was required by law to disclose proxy and officer stock sale information. Accordingly, all of the requisites of the business records exception are satisfied. See United States v. Childs, 5 F.3d 1328, 1333 (9th Cir. 1993) (documents properly admitted as business records notwithstanding defendant's objections that the circumstances surrounding preparation of documents indicated a lack of trustworthiness, and that documents were not made in regular course of business); United States v. Bland, 961 F.2d 123, 126-27 (9th Cir. 1992) (firearm registration form required by law properly admitted as business record; "the person completing [the form] had knowledge of the transaction at the time it occurred and [the document] was maintained as a regularly conducted business activity as required by law."); Keogh v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 713 F.2d 496, 499 (9th Cir. 1983) (card dealer's diary containing personal financial records properly admitted as business record; "Witlock's diary, even though personal to him, shows every indication of being kept 'in the [ordinary] course of' his own 'business activity,' 'occupation, and calling.' . . . The reliability usually found in records kept by business concerns may be established in personal business records if they are systematically checked and regularly and continually maintained.").

III. IT WOULD BE CONTRARY TO THE REFORM ACT TO STRIKE THE DOCUMENTS

Under the heightened pleading requirements of the Reform Act, plaintiffs must allege facts sufficient to create a strong inference of scienter on the part of each defendant. See Securities Exchange Act of 1934 §§21D(b)(2), (3), 15 U.S.C. §§78 u-4(b)(2), (3). Plaintiffs attempt to meet this burden to plead the individual defendants' state of mind by arguing that those persons engaged in unusual or suspicious trading. Plaintiffs' Mem. of Points & Auth. in Opposition to Defendants' Motion to Dismiss at 19-21. Nevertheless, plaintiffs contend that the actual stock sale information included in the Defendants' exhibits should not be considered.

Plaintiffs are wrong. As the Reform Act imposes an affirmative duty on plaintiffs to present a complaint that provides a strong inference of scienter, it is only logical that "plaintiffs bear the burden of showing that any such sales are in fact unusual," when they rely on stock sale allegations to plead scienter. In re Health Mgm't Sys., Inc. Sec. Litig., No. 97-CIV-1865(HB), 1998 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8061, at *18 (S.D.N.Y. May 28, 1998). Thus, plaintiffs cannot merely plead their conclusion that the stock sales are "suspicious" or "unusual." Instead, they must plead information indicating (1) the number of shares and options each defendant retained, and (2) each defendants' past pattern of sales, so that the "suspicious" or "unusual" nature of the sales in question can be discerned. Securities Exchange Act of 1934 §§21D(b)(1), (2), 15 U.S.C. §§ 78u-4(b)(1), (2) (Reform Act requires plaintiffs to set forth the factual basis of allegations made on information and belief).

Thus, the Court is entitled to take judicial notice of those documents to determine if, as the Vanstar Defendants allege, they refute plaintiffs' allegations. In re Silicon Graphics, Inc. Sec. Litig., 970 F. Supp. 746, 751 (N.D. Cal. 1997 ("[T]he court need not accept as true allegations that contradict facts that have been judicially noticed."). Conversely, if the exhibits are not considered, neither should plaintiffs' stock sale allegations. Seee.g.Duncan v. Pencer, 1996 WL 19043, at *12 (S.D.N.Y. 1996) (absent stock sale information, no inference of unusual or suspicious sales may be drawn).

CONCLUSION

For the reasons set forth above, the motion to strike should be denied in its entirety; or, if the Court is inclined to strike the Subject Documents, it should also strike plaintiffs' stock sale allegations.

Dated: October __, 1998

WILSON, SONSINI, GOODRICH & ROSATI

By:___________________________________
     Susan Bower
Attorneys for Defendants




1 Seee.g.Kottle v. Northwest Kidney Centers, 146 F.3d 1056, 1064 n. 7 (9th Cir. 1998) (declining to treat Rule 12(b)(6) motion as summary judgment motion despite district court's consideration of affidavit whose "sole purpose was to put before the Court certain public records of the Department" for which court could take judicial notice); Emrich v. Touche Ross & Co., 846 F.2d 1190, 1198 (9th Cir. 1988) (declining to treat Rule 12(b)(6) motion as summary judgment motion despite district court's consideration of declaration requesting judicial notice of certain matters in public record, including other related proceedings).

2 Plaintiffs' citation to In re Sun Microsystems, Inc. Sec. Lit., No. C-89-20351, 1990 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18740 (N.D. Cal. Aug. 20, 1990), in support of their argument that the Court may not take judicial notice of the documents in question is more than a little misleading: the Court in that case declined to take judicial notice of certain SEC filings because the relevant SEC filings already were attached to the complaint by plaintiffs, and hence no judicial notice of those documents was necessary. Id. at *6. It is also curious that plaintiffs would cite Haltman v. Aura Systems, Inc., 844 F. Supp. 544, 550 (C.D. Cal. 1993), as the Court in that case merely decided that it could dismiss plaintiffs' claims without the necessity of reviewing the documents submitted for judicial notice.

3 See also In re Stac Elecs. Sec. Litig., 89 F.3d 1399, 1405 n. 4 (9th Cir. 1996) ("[D]ocuments whose contents are alleged in a complaint and whose authenticity no party questions, but which are not physically attached to the pleading may be considered in ruling [under] Rule 12(b)(6) Motion to Dismiss.") (quotation omitted); Fecht v. Price Co., 70 F.3d 1078, 1080 n.1 (9th Cir. 1995); In re Verifone Sec. Litig., 11 F.3d 865, 868 n.2 (9th Cir. 1993); Branch, 14 F.3d at 453 ("The leading commentators state that 'when [the] plaintiff fails to introduce a pertinent document as part of his pleading, [the] defendant may introduce the exhibit as part of his motion attacking the pleading.'") (quoting 5 Charles A. Wright & Arthur R. Miller, Federal Practice and Procedure: Civil ' 1327, at 762-63 (2d ed.1990)).

4 Plaintiffs admit that they reviewed Vanstar's SEC filings in drafting their Complaint. Complaint ¶ 160. In any event, any contention that the stock trading data alleged in the Complaint was obtained from sources other than Forms 4s is highly implausible (and no such other sources are disclosed). If Vanstar and its officers had not been required to disclose their trades and stock holdings in the SEC filings, the information would be protected from disclosure by the Article I of the California Constitution. Silicon Graphics, 970 F. Supp. at 758 (the trading "allegations can be derived only from the[] publicly-filed documents," any credible financial publications themselves must derive information concerning the personal financial affairs of executives from the SEC filings).

5 Nor may plaintiffs contend that they genuinely dispute the accuracy of the exhibits at issue. The purpose of judicial notice is to avoid unnecessary costs associated with establishing a fact that "is not really disputable." 1 Weinstein's Evidence ¶ 201[03] at 201-24 (1996). Courts have rejected such attempts to circumvent the principles of judicial notice. See Silicon Graphics, 970 F. Supp. at 758 (rejecting theory where plaintiffs' challenge to accuracy of SEC forms submitted by the defendant was "weak," and there was no evidence presented which would cast doubt on those filings). Moreover, the Ninth Circuit has held that judicial notice may be taken of matters less trustworthy than SEC filings, where the matter is "capable of sufficiently accurate and ready determination." In Ritter v. Hughes Aircraft Co., 58 F.3d 454 (9th Cir. 1995), the Court held that the district court properly took judicial notice of widespread layoffs at Hughes Aircraft based on a newspaper article: "judicial notice of layoffs at Hughes was not an abuse of discretion [because] [t]his is a fact which would be generally known in Southern California and which would be capable of sufficiently accurate and ready determination." Id. at 458-59.




Source: File to epost from Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati
Share:

The Rape of the Redwoods riding the Southern Pacific Depot Murders

The Rape of the Redwoods 

follow the money into  the Redwoods from the corporate Raiders over at computerland who sold their properties and then later the employees lost their retirement when the public company found out they had been taken advantage of.

 when selling a private company controlling the databases and the records of shipments returns to and fro then later the public company discovers they're missing 25 million that went back to Apple.

We saved Apple at the expense of the piers at computer land that lost their retirements when the fraud was discovered by Yours Truly Pete Bennett.

Milken money and Ellison swim in the same pond his Empire partly stored in Walnut Creek California do the same people that baptize my ex-wife are the same people that blew my truck up in 2004 holyshit do you think they tried to kill me after I may have figured out they murdered my grandfather and the grandfather of my sons on the mother side.

It should be no surprise that I was involved in the matter of Keithley versus Homestore.

 it should be no surprise that I was also involved in the Oracle vs PeopleSoft contracted to Vector capital in San Francisco

Share:

The murderous Mormons that likely killed Kobe


Pete Bennett met Kobe, Pete Bennett sued Philip Anschutz 1/3 owner of the Lakers, Pete's relatives murdered, his portion of multimillion trust forged, his truck explodes and his role in 9/11 unknown outside law enforcement substantial credible and damaging to many in power

The Mormon Monster of Alamo 1st Ward, killer of witnesses, senior cult leader tricking Bill Gates, Philip Anschutz,  Calera Capital and kidnapping conspirators 


###


Mitt Romney’s business career seems to dovetail neatly with his Mormon faith

  • PUBLISHED:  | UPDATED: 
  • Categories:News
The Mormon church’s personal economic precepts sound like a mantra for fiscal conservatives: Pay an honest tithing, live on less than you earn, distinguish between needs and wants, develop and live within a budget, and be honest in all financial affairs.
But as debate rages about the ethics of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s leadership of Bain Capital — a private equity and venture capital firm that sometimes made riches by shutting down companies and laying off workers — it seems his business career might have dovetailed neatly with his Mormon faith.
“There’s nothing in Mitt Romney’s record that suggests that his financial or business decision-making have been motivated by anything other than bottom-line considerations. To be fair: As a capital manager, that’s his job,” said Joanna Brooks, a San Diego State literature professor who publishes the “Ask Mormon Girl” blog.
Modern Mormon communities “have come to view financial success as an inherent good without necessarily having the same conversations about how money is made, as may take place in other faith traditions,” Brooks said.
It’s a more profit-oriented, value-neutral approach to financial decisions, she said: Money is consecrated in the act of tithing and other donations to the church, and “how that money is made is less of a religious preoccupation,” she said. That’s been particularly true as the Mormon church grew dramatically in the past 50 years, which required considerable money.
Romney’s 2011 tax returns showed he and his wife, Ann, gave the church $2.6 million — more than 12 percent of the $21 million they earned — while also giving $1.4 million in cash and stock to their family foundation, which heavily supports the church. In 2010, they gave $1.5 million to the church — about 7 percent of their earnings — plus $900,000 to their family foundation.
Patrick Mason, chairman of Mormon studies at Claremont Graduate University in Southern California, agreed that “Romney is almost prototypical of the majority of modern American Mormons.” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — which in its early years embraced communal economics and criticized cutthroat business practices — “embraced pro-market American capitalism” in the late 19th century as part of its attempt to assimilate into society, he said.
The Mormon ethics of self-reliance, accountability and hard work lent themselves well to that economic ethos, he said. “It’s a mistake to say wealth equals God’s favor, but it’s not a surprise when God does bless you with wealth when you’re living right.”
Yet while there’s a clear expectation that faithful Mormons must contribute some of their assets to building God’s kingdom through their church, “Mormonism has never developed a real social ethic as opposed to Catholic social teaching or the social gospel that’s in Protestantism,” Mason said. Mormons aren’t unconcerned with social welfare, and acts of individual charity are important, he said, but “it largely is secondary; it doesn’t define what the gospel is or how people go about their lives.
“I do think there’s a strong element of libertarianism … within Mormon thought along these lines. It’s very much a laissez-faire approach,” he said. “It gives Mormons and potentially Romney an added layer of confidence, of assurance that this is not just good economics but it’s good religion, too.”
Rick Kopf of Alamo, who directs the Latter-day Saints’ Bay Area Public Affairs Council, said charity for the less fortunate in the community and humanitarian projects abroad are a huge part of Mormon practice.
Mormonism teaches that “materialism can be a huge burden to a person. … It’s how they use it that’s very important,” he said. “We encourage hard work, we encourage people to be successful but to do it for the right means. We’re not out there trying to be rich for the sake of being rich.”
Personally, Kopf said, “I would hope that any political candidate who’s a member of the church would live by the values of the church would be true and honest and virtuous and family-oriented.”
Evan Chase, a staffer at the California Election Forum website, which offers election recommendations for Christian voters, said he would like to hear Romney say more about how his Mormon faith informs his fiscal and economic policies.
“I haven’t heard him communicate that very much,” he said. “That affirms my interest in voting for Mitt Romney. In the evangelical community, those are strengths; those are American strengths.”
Josh Richman covers politics. Follow him at Twitter.com/josh_richman. Read the Political Blotter at IBABuzz.com/politics.
Share:

connecting the mail and family to the Kennedy family


I have researched my family history from conversations, documents that we no longer have and based on what my mom said mostly about the Kennedys.

My grandfather represented powerful people in New York City the conversations from Mom were the Kennedys, the Rockefellers, and she met my dad because Marvin Pierce father of Barbara Bush gave her a job in the Empire State Building


 beyond that the physical documents are long gone but the digital ones are there.

I changed how my grandfather died in 62 from natural causes to unspecified or at the hands of another as his client was assassinated the next year.

Anybody from the Kennedy family is welcome to call me and clarify what the connection is between Patterson teal and Dennis and the Kennedy family.


Share:

Flowers at Civic Park


My Stress Reduction Friends 
Share:

Another Safeway-Starbucks Murder Gunned down on her way home



Too many deaths near Alamo 1st. Former Safeway CEO Steve Burd, General Petraous, and Pete Bennett 

The 1988 murder of 
Safeway Manager 


STARBUCKS Employee
ANTHONY BANTA JR.



Cynthia Kempf




Share:

Get Em! Devin for crimes connected to 9/11



This former US Attorney graduated with persons connected to Southern Pacific in the 70s connected the Roseville Train Yard Explosion where 100 rails cars filled BOMBS AND ORDNANCE destined for VIETNAM VIA Concord Naval Weapons Station.

 the way the allies stopped the Nazis was to cut the caterpillar into separating the bullets from the shooters and the bombs from the bombers.

That is 101 military logistics cut the caterpillar strangle them, cut the food supply starve them cut the fuel make them Park their tanks.

 that is the Battle of the Bulge
Devin Nunes flashes 'as many as 10' criminal referrals to Justice Department
June 6, 2020 - 2:16 PM
After shipping eight referrals to Attorney General William Barr last spring, Rep. Devin Nunes, the ranking member of the panel, told Fox Business on Thursday that they have gathered enough evidence for "at least another five, possibly as many as 10" recommendations for prosecution as three U.S. attorneys conduct reviews of various aspects of the Russia investigation.
The California Republican said he and his GOP colleagues want to "get it right," but they plan to send the referrals within the next "week to 10 days or so." What exactly will appear in those referrals remains unclear, but Nunes explained what his investigators are examining.
"We now are looking at the overall Gen. Flynn investigation and how that was conducted and the rest of the Mueller team," he said. "And then, of course, as new information has come to light from the information that was declassified by acting Director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell, that information has also shown that there are other people who have lied or misled Congress or have, I think in some cases maybe, lied by omission, documents that were kept from Congress."
Story continues below
Grenell was replaced by former Rep. John Ratcliffe late last month after the Texas Republican was confirmed by the Senate. During his three-month tenure as head of the U.S. Intelligence Community, Grenell declassified long-sought-after documents related to the case against former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn and forced the hand of House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff to release dozens of witness transcripts from the panel's own investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Schiff accused Grenell of "selective declassification for political purposes."
The Republican inquiry in the House is a more understated effort than the one that is playing out in the Senate, which is in GOP control. There, two committees are leading the charge in conducting oversight of the Russia investigation.With no support from Democrats, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee voted to give Chairman Ron Johnson the authority to subpoena Obama officials in its review of the Russia inquiry. Sen. Lindsey Graham, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, is also seeking subpoena power in his Crossfire Hurricane investigation, while Democrats on the panel say they want to hear more testimony from former special counsel Robert Mueller.
Nunes, who believes the government's intelligence powers were abused in an attempted "coup" against President Trump, stressed the need for "pure transparency." He teased what Republicans would do to escalate their investigation if they win back control of the House this year.
"We've got about 40 people that are on that list," he said, without naming anyone. "So, hopefully, if Republicans are put back in charge, we will be able to subpoena those people, but right now, we can’t."
Loading video
Share:

Pete Bennett, Michael Milken, Larry Ellison and Philip Anschutz

This was borrowed from Milken Institute where they're talking older homeless.

My blog about homeless stalled during Covid was created as clearing house for homeless solutions and services.  A striking connection to why i am homeless is police corruption and attacks on my legal cases leads to destitution and despair despair.

Try bayareahomeless.com

 my name is Pete Bennett I was once involved in litigation involving partners of Milken attorneys near manatt Phelps and Wilson sonsini somehow I ended up homeless thankfully Bono didn't pay his bills either


Cities Must do More to Protect Older Homeless Americans From COVID-19

Paul Irving
Paul Irving
Chairman, Milken Institute Center for the Future of Aging
Lauren Dunning
Lauren Dunning
Director, Center for the Future of Aging

The moral test of any society is how it treats its most vulnerable members, including those who are old and living in the shadows.

NOT SINCE THE 1918 Spanish flu have we faced such drastic nationwide measures to prevent the spread of a deadly disease pandemic. Communities across America are shut down and individuals are instructed to stay at home and distance from those outside their households. For older adults, who are at greater risk, particularly those with chronic conditions, physical isolation means protection. It can be a matter of life and death.
But what happens when that protection is out of reach?
This is the reality for older Americans who are homeless. Without privacy, access to soap, hand sanitizer, and other tools for hygiene, and the ability to safely store food and other necessities, the dangers of daily survival are daunting. Many public restrooms are now closed. Food banks and other charitable services are strained. Testing and care may be inaccessible and the prospect of rapid disease spread is high.
More people than ever are homeless in their "golden years." More than 10,000 Americans turn 65 each day, and an increasing number of them are aging on the streets. People age 50 and over now comprise approximately one-third of homeless Americans. With higher rates of age-related disease and an increased mortality rate, this group already lacks access to quality care and suffers from disparities and negative biases in the medical ecosystem. In Los Angeles, where the number of homeless older adults aged 62 and over grew by more than 20% in 2018, the homeless die 22 years earlier than the general population.
To be sure, efforts to scale up the response are progressing. Shelters will be supported by the federal stimulus package with up to $4 billion in new resources that can be used to modify operations to prevent the spread of the virus in close quarters. Community spaces are being repurposed. Los Angeles is adding 6,000 shelter beds at city-owned recreation centers. Seattle, an early hot spot for the virus, has deployed an event space and a number of community centers to ease crowded conditions. Several communities are working with the hospitality sector to secure housing. In San Francisco, more than 8,000 rooms have been offered by hotels and motels in response to a call to help homeless residents, health care workers and first responders in need of safe places.
Cities are allocating additional resources and revising policies to prevent the spread of the virus. San Jose, California, is providing hand sanitizer and masks at homeless encampments, while Los Angeles has temporarily halted encampment cleanups to avoid disruption of tents and belongings. Austin has installed portable bathrooms and hand-washing facilities in at least 20 locations citywide.
All of these strategies and more are needed to stem the devastating risks of the virus for homeless older adults. A new academic study predicts more than 21,000 hospitalizations and 3,400 deaths of homeless adults if swift action is not taken.
It is not just the current population of homeless older adults who are at risk. Many older Americans are on the edge, rent-burdened and on the precipice of homelessness. The Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies found that in 2019 in California, 35% of renters ages 65 to 79, and 42% of renters 80 or older, were rent-burdened, meaning that more than half of their incomes went to housing. The job losses and economic strains resulting from the coronavirus crisis are placing many more at risk of losing their homes.
Cities are responding by imposing moratoriums on evictions, including Los Angeles and Miami. Others are providing rental assistance, such as Chicago, which launched the COVID-19 Housing Assistance Grant program to provide 2,000 grants to assist residents impacted by the pandemic. Advocates are calling for further measures, including forgiveness of missed rent payments to prevent loss of housing once the immediate threat has subsided and policies are rolled back.
Taken together, these interventions add up. But much more must be done.
The moral test of any society is how it treats its most vulnerable members, including those who are old and living in the shadows. The coronavirus crisis is a moment of emergency that will measure our own morality. As neighbors and citizens, we must voice our support for homeless older adults and for those at risk of becoming homeless. Lives are at stake, and our leaders, communities, philanthropic organizations and all levels of government must work together now to provide resources and solutions to meet the immediate need.
This article was originally published in U.S. News on April 9, 2020 
Published April 21, 2020

Share:

ContrA Costa Superior Court Pro Tem Judges - Let the litigants know

The Pro Tem Judge or Hearing Officials 

What you don't know will hurt you and everyone






Temporary Judge Program

A "court-appointed temporary judge" is an attorney who has satisfied the requirements for appointment listed in California Rules of Court 2.812, and has been appointed by the court to serve as a temporary judge in a courtroom.


Parties might encounter a temporary judge if:

  • The court has appointed a temporary judge to hear their case on the date they have their court appearance.
  • Parties have decided they want to have a temporary judge hear just their case (NOTE: This is a local court program, and it is only available in limited and unlimited jurisdiction civil cases.)


Joining Contra Costa's Temporary Judge Panel

Effective January 1, 2007, California Rules of Court, Rule 2.810 established new and more rigorous training and qualification requirements for attorneys wishing to serve as temporary judges.

To qualify, attorneys must have been active members of the California State Bar, in good standing, for at least 10 years before appointment. There cannot be any pending disciplinary actions, and the individual must not have pled guilty or no contest to a felony, or have a felony conviction that has not been reversed. He or she must satisfy all education and training requirements established by the state, as well as any other conditions that the individual court may require. Mandated training elements include a 3-hour in-person course on judicial demeanor (provided by a court) together with an online training course in related judicial demeanor and ethical issues.

Attorneys must also take one or more online training courses provided by the Administrative Office of the Courts, depending on the substantive areas of law they wish to hear.

Depending on case type, there may also be additional training, education, or experience requirements to serve in Contra Costa County.


Minimum Requirements

The presiding judge may not appoint an attorney to serve as a temporary judge unless the attorney has been admitted to practice as a member of the State Bar of California for at least 10 years before the appointment and meets the following conditions:

  • Is an active member in good standing of the State Bar and has no disciplinary action pending;
  • Has not pled guilty or no contest to a felony, or has not been convicted of a felony that has not been reversed;
  • Has satisfied the education and training requirements;
  • Has satisfied all other general conditions that the court may establish for appointment of an attorney as a temporary judge in that court; and
  • Has satisfied any additional conditions that the court may require for an attorney to be appointed as a temporary judge for a particular assignment or type of case in that court.
NOTE: Consistent with CRC Rule 2.818, temporary judges have an ongoing duty to report any disciplinary action pending or taken against them by the State Bar of California at least 2 court days before arriving to serve as a temporary judge.


Temporary Judges will need to take ALL required trainings and attend a court session on each case type(s) per the location in which they wish to sit.

Martinez
(morning)
Martinez
(afternoon)
Pittsburg
(morning)
Richmond
(afternoon)
Walnut Creek
(morning)
Judicial Demeanor
Ethics
Probate
Judicial Demeanor
Ethics
Civil Harassment
Small Claims
Unlawful Detainer
Online Classes
Judicial Demeanor
Ethics
Small Claims
Traffic
Unlawful Detainer
Online Classes
Judicial Demeanor
Ethics
Small Claims
Traffic
Unlawful Detainer
Online Classes
Judicial Demeanor
Ethics
Traffic Only
Online Classes

Training Requirements

These are requirements that everyone must meet every two years:

  • Review the online Fairness, Demeanor, and Self-Represented litigants materials
  • Attend a 3-hour in-person training session on judicial demeanor
  • Take the online course on judicial ethics
  • Take local and online classes as required for the case type(s)
  • Attend a court session on each case type for the location above
Training Schedule
ClassDateTime
Judicial Demeanor*Thursday, January 9th, 20205:30 - 8:45 PM
Unlawful Detainer*Thursday, January 16th, 20205:30 - 8:45 PM
Small Claims*Wednesday, January 22nd, 20205:30 - 8:45 PM
Civil Harassment*Thursday, January 30th, 20205:30 - 8:45 PM
Traffic*Thursday, February 6th, 20205:30 - 8:45 PM
* 3 MCLE Credits
To sign-up for any of the local training classes, please email the Temporary Judge Program at: tempjudge@contracosta.courts.ca.gov

Application

Please complete the application for the Temporary Judge Program.


Extra Requirements by Calendar Type

Small Claims Calendars

  • Take all relevant online training courses and review online benchguides
  • Attend the local in-person class on hearing small claims calendars

Traffic Calendars
  • Take online training course and review online benchguides
  • Attend the local in-person class on hearing traffic calendars

Unlawful Detainer Calendars
  • Take online training course and review online benchguides
  • Attend the local in-person class on hearing unlawful detainer calendars

Probate Calendars
  • Attend the local in-person class on hearing probate calendars

Civil Harassment Calendars
  • Attend the local in-person class on hearing civil harassment calendars

On-Line Training Can Be Found Here



Share:

Anchor links for post titles

Popular Posts

Blog Archive

Labels

Recent Posts

Popular Posts

Labels

Recent Posts

Pages

Labels

Blog Archive

Recent Posts