Famous Director, Polanski Accused of Rape Must Appear in California for Sentencing

Film Director, Roman Polanski, accused of having sex with a girl, 13 years of age, fled to France to avoid extradition.

Swiss authorities arrested 76-year-old Polanski at the lifetime achievement award film festival in Zurich. Polanski is an Oscar-winning director of "Rosemary's Baby," "Chinatown" and "The Pianist." Polanski was imprisoned for more than two months before being transferred to his Alpine chalet in the luxury resort of Gstaad where he was put on house arrest after a $4.5 million bail.

Meanwhile the California Spreme Court has ruled that Polanski must appear before a U.S. court to be sentenced.

According to the LA Times, Justice Ministry spokesman Folco Galli confirmed that Switzerland received an official copy of the ruling.

"We've said that we will wait for this decision to ensure that our proceedings are harmonized with those in the Untied States," Galli told The Associated Press. "That doesn't mean an extradition decision will now be immediately sent out."

Megan's Law

A new California law, Assembly Bill 488, sponsored by the Attorney General now provides the public with Internet access to detailed information on registered sex offenders.

With the new law in place the public is able to access for the first time a list and information on sex offenders required to register with local law enforcement from their personal computers. California's Megan's Law provides the public with certain information on the whereabouts of sex offenders so that members of our local communities may protect themselves and their children.

According to meganslaw.ca.gov, the information was available only by personally visiting police stations and sheriff offices or by calling a 900 toll-number before. The new law was given final passage by the Legislature on August 24, 2004 and signed by the Governor on September 24, 2004.

Megan's Law is named after seven-year-old Megan Kanka, a New Jersey girl who was raped and killed by a known child molester who had moved across the street from the family without their knowledge. Since then the family memebers, Kankas, have worked hard to have local communities warned about sex offenders in the area and now all states now have a form of Megan's Law.

According to Megan's Law website, the new law has made the site able to provide you with access to information on more than 63,000 persons required to register in California as sex offenders. Specific home addresses are displayed on more than 33,500 offenders in the California communities; as to these persons, the site displays the last registered address reported by the offender. An additional 30,500 offenders are included on the site with listing by ZIP Code, city, and county. Information on approximately 22,000 other offenders is not included on this site, but is known to law enforcement personnel.

Officer Christina Burhans of the San Diego police department said, "The community plays a role in monitoring sex offenders. Following the State of California's passage of Megan's Law on May 17, 1996, information on sex offenders was made available to the public. Members of the community are encouraged to view the Megan's Law website by visiting."

California #1 in Animal Right's Laws

Compared to the rest of the states California has the strongest animal-protection laws in the country, according to the Humane Society of the United States.

In a comprehensive analysis of laws in each of state California has been ranked No. 1 according to the LATimes. Each state was ranked based on the legal protections it has enacted in the past. Among California, New Jersey, Colorado, Maine and Massachusetts were scored high in protecting animals and livestock. The lowest scores came from Idaho and South Dakota because of their lack of animal abuse laws or they have not outlawed cockfighting.

"The trends are positive, but there are major gaps in the law throughout the nation," said Wayne Pacelle, Humane Society president. "Anemic animal protection laws in many states will allow cruelty and abuse to continue, and that must change."

According to the LATimes, the Humane Society helped pass 121 new laws last year to strengthen animal protection.

Vehicle License Surcharge to Help Parks

An initiative to establish a $18 annual vehicle license surcharge to help fund state parks and wildlife programs has been put into motion.

The plan is to set up a new trust fund that the will require the $18 annual state vehicle license fee be deposited in this account. The trust will be used solely to operate, maintain and repair the state park system. It will also protect wildlife and natural resources that the parks encompass.

"California state parks are in peril because of chronic underfunding," said Elizabeth Goldstein, President of the California State Parks Foundation in a statement. "Our state parks were once considered the best in the nation, and now they're falling apart and threatened with closure because they have no reliable source of funding. This parks measure would create a dedicated funding source to prevent park Proposed Ballot Measure Filed to Protect California State Parks & Conserve Wildlife closures, eliminate a backlog of more than a billion dollars in repairs and properly maintain parks and other natural resources for our children and grandchildren to enjoy," according to kron4.com

The new fee according the initiative is said to increase state revenues about $500 million annually and will be mainly used to fund state parks and wildlife conservation programs. Creating a potential state savings of $200 million annually.

Vehicles exempt from the increase are commercial vehicles, trailers and trailer coaches.