You Think Amazon Follows the Law?

The LAW is for little people. They are your tech masters. Amazon Above the Law in California.

In February, Amazon, doing business as Prime Now, was issued a liquor license to open a liquor store in Los Angeles. California requires businesses that offer alcohol for home delivery to have a brick-and-mortar store. So Amazon got a license for a store that would be in the same building as its enormous Prime Now warehouse in an industrial part of north Los Angeles.

But of course there is no store, nor any plans to have one. But as I noted, the LAW isn’t for the likes of Amazon.

You can order whiskey or wine from the Amazon warehouse at 3334 N San Fernando Rd in Los Angeles. But there’s no liquor store open to the public there, in clear violation of California law.

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Lodi, California Hit With Ransomware Attack

At least they didn’t pay. California City Confirms It Was Hit by Bitcoin Ransomware Attack.

“The ransom demanded 75 Bitcoins (approximately $400,000 at the time of the inquiry) be paid to restore our systems. We did not pay the ransom. Instead, we rebuilt our systems from our back-ups.”

The attack originated with an email that seemed to contain an invoice.

And so it goes…

California Counties to Feds: We Don’t Need No Emergency Alert System

It is amazing to me that a county wouldn’t take advantage. These California Counties In Fire-Prone Areas Don’t Have Access To A Federal Emergency Alert System.

That should read, “They haven’t signed up for access to …” They could have access if they wanted it.

I’ve considered blocking the warnings, but I don’t get so many that it is that crazy. And who, knows, they might warn me about something that impacts me. Flash floods, and boil orders because of water contamination (water main break) are the 2 I can think of off the top of my head. (We actually get flash flood warnings pretty regularly in the spring.) And that doesn’t count the Amber Alerts.

If you look at what happened, and what didn’t happen, in Paradise, California the morning of the Camp Fire, it is clear that what they were doing about communication wasn’t enough. And what they were doing wasn’t even working, because the phone lines were down.

But hey, ignore the fact that for a couple of decades the federal .gov has been telling people to listen to the radio to get instructions from the local government. Forget all the hand crank emergency radios. Forget the fact that the emergency alert system can send a message to every operating cellphone in your county. Forget all of that because your in county .gov and you know what to do! Or not, as was the case in Paradise.

SJW’s Screeching That Insurance is Unfair in 3, 2,…

After the Camp Fire, it seems some insurance companies are revisiting their actuarial tables. ‘Sticker shock’ for California wildfire areas: Insurance rates doubled, policies dropped.

Here’s a hint: If Lloyd’s of London won’t insure you, you are screwed, because they traditionally are the insurer of last resort. They will make you pay, but they will take your bet. Only not in this case.

Jennifer Burt knows she lives in a fire-prone community. That’s why she’s done everything she can to fire-proof her home in Meadow Vista, in the bushy, densely wooded Placer County foothills, even installing a sprinkler system on the roof.

Yet a few weeks ago, her insurance carrier — Lloyd’s of London, known for insuring high-risk properties — told her it was declining to renew her homeowners’ policy. Lloyd’s also dropped coverage on two rental properties Burt owns in Graeagle, a heavily forested community northwest of Truckee.

As I mentioned earlier, people are re-building homes in Paradise, California with no thought to improving the fire resistance of the structures. OK then, no one will want to insure them. Or any of the existing homes in other areas prone to wildfire.

“It’s really sticker shock for people to see their homeowners’ (premium) go from $1,200 to $3,600,” said Richard Harris of Harris Insurance Services, an independent agency in Grass Valley. “They can’t afford these increases, and they leave crying. We can’t help them. You can only have so many people leaving your office crying.”

If you read the fine print of your mortgage (I know, it’s crazy to assume people actually READ the contracts they sign) you will find that one of the requirements is that you have to maintain minimum insurance coverage. If you pay escrow every month, it’s because your lender doesn’t trust you. They collect the fees (taxes and insurance) every month and pay them on your behalf. Because something you did (credit score or small down payment) made it so that they don’t trust you.

Cal Fire – and probably a few other organizations – is trying to get enhanced forest management through the California legislature. Any bets on whether they will succeed? Or will the environmentalists claim, as they have for the past decade and more, that cutting down the dead and dying trees would be wrong. Or something.

The screeching. It’s there in the article linked at the top of this post. As for the reality…

Insurers have complaints of their own. Homeowners’ coverage, an $8 billion-a-year business in California, has become an unmitigated disaster for carriers: For every $1 they collected in premiums from Californians last year, they paid $1.70 in claims, according to data collected by the Department of Insurance.

California lawmakers are probably going to ignore the reality of economics. But however you slice it, the amount of money paid for insurance premiums needs to pretty much double. And then you have to ask, is it fair for people in non-fire-prone areas to subsidize those who live in the forest?

A Son Defending His Father

You could almost say, “Don’t bring a knife to a gunfight.” Resident Wounded, Intruder Killed During Lake Murray Burglary.

A burglar who attacked and stabbed a Lake Murray man Tuesday during an early-morning confrontation in the victim’s house was fatally shot moments later by the wounded homeowner’s adult son, according to San Diego police.

The guy who got stabbed was admitted to hospital in stable condition. The body of the guy who got shot was found in a backyard pool.

Even in the People’s Republic of California, self-defense works.

New Video on California’s Camp Fire

This video is interesting, even if parts of it come across as a bit of a PR piece for CalFire. Still, it’s worth the 17 minutes. The descriptions of 911 calls are particularly tough to listen to, even though I’m sure they edited out the worst bits.

The teaser for the video can be found at The Sacramento Bee: ‘We will not let you die today!’ Dramatic new firefighter video shows Camp Fire chaos.

The full video is at YouTube. INTO THE FIRE

I’m Guessing This Isn’t How He Saw Things Working Out

First he got shot; now he’s in court. ‘She feared for her life’: Suspected burglar shot multiple times by Santa Cruz County homeowner.

A story that started on June 20th.

“He tried to get in the house, shots were fired and then he got on a roof while she retreated to a bedroom,” [Sgt. Dee] Baldwin said. “That, to us, really increases the severity of this case.”

Are we shocked to learn that he was known to police, and that he even served time in prison?

The wheels of justice grind slowly, but it looks like they will grind this guy to dust. He is charged with 2 felonies and 2 misdemeanors.

And even in the People’s Republic of California, self-defense is a human-right. And it may even be your legal right, though I wouldn’t count on that.