Agents attempted to conduct a vehicle stop on a sport-utility vehicle that was traveling north on Highway 111 near Ross Avenue. The vehicle failed to yield for the agents and fled toward the international border. Agents continued to follow the vehicle until it stopped once it neared the border. The two occupants jumped from the vehicle and fled into Mexico.

The Border Patrol contacted the Mexican authorities who located and arrested the two occupants near the border.

El Centro Sector Chief Patrol Agent Jeffrey A. Calhoon praised agents for their continued diligence and commented on the effectiveness of the Border Patrol’s bi-national law enforcement partnerships. “The suspects’ apprehension upon their return to Mexico exemplifies how the United States and Mexican authorities work together to prevent dangerous drugs and criminals from entering our communities,” he said.

Agents discovered 46 packages of marijuana inside the vehicle weighing more than 1,000 pounds with an estimated street value of more than $800,000. The vehicle and contraband were turned over to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Juan Munoz supplied field workers to onion farms in Kern County and in the Coachella Valley and Mojave Desert.

In 2009, Brown’s office conducted a routine field visit at a Southern California onion farm. During the visit, Brown’s office interviewed more than 10 workers hired by Munoz.

According to the workers, Munoz gathered workers from throughout Southern California and delivered them to an onion field that was often far from their home. Once at the fields, they worked split shifts throughout the day and night, slept in the fields and bathed in a nearby reservoir.

The workers were not given rest breaks or potable drinking water, and the employees were not provided with training on how to recognize and prevent heat exhaustion.

Growers paid Munoz a set price per piece, such as a four-gallon onion sack, and Munoz determined the rate of pay for the field workers. The workers were typically paid $1.23 for each four-gallon sack of onions they harvested.

Employees worked split shifts totaling approximately 70 hours a week, but were not provided premium pay. Under state law, workers are entitled to an additional hour of pay if they have less than an eight-hour break between shifts. Workers were also denied overtime pay. State law requires employers to pay overtime (time and a half) to employees who work more than 10 hours a day.

In addition, many of the workers were paid in cash below the minimum wage without a written statement of hours worked, rate of pay or deductions taken, also a violation of state labor laws. After working long hours in the fields, workers were often forced to wait up to two hours for their paycheck.

The lawsuit alleges that Munoz violated California’s unfair competition laws. The lawsuit seeks:

• A permanent injunction;
• Civil penalties;
• Restitution to the field workers; and,
• Other legal costs.

Source: AG

Contact the City of Holtville

356-2912 during business hours

356-2991 after hours

City of Holtville Water Treatment Plant will be temporarily

approximately 6 AM. Every attempt is being made to limit the duration of the shut-down, and

minimize any inconveniences.

Upon restoration of service, there should be no significant change in water quality. However, if

you see a noticeable change in water conditions, the City of Holtville and the California

Department of Public Health recommend the following safety guidelines:

1. If the water looks cloudy or dirty, you should not drink it. Upon return of normal water

service, you should flush the hot and cold water lines until the water appears clear and the

water quality returns to normal.

2. If you are concerned about the water quality or are uncertain of its safety, you may add

eight drops of household bleach to one gallon of water and let it sit for 30 minutes or

alternatively, if you are able, water can be boiled for one minute at a rolling boil to ensure

its safety.

3. Use of home treatment devices does not guarantee the water supply is safe after low

pressure situations.

4. Do not be alarmed if you experience higher than normal chlorine concentrations in your

water supply since the California Department of Health Services is advising public water

utilities to increase chlorine residuals in areas subject to low pressure or outages.

5. The California Department of Health Services has also advised public water systems to

increase the bacteriological water quality monitoring of the distribution system in areas

subject to low pressure. They may be collecting samples in your area to confirm that the

water remains safe. You will be advised if the sampling reveals a water quality problem.

6. Should you have any questions or concerns, please call 356-2991 (after hours), or 356-

2912 (during working hours).

Rental scams occur when the victim has rental property advertised and is contacted by an interested party. Once the rental price is agreed-upon, the scammer forwards a check for the deposit on the rental property to the victim. The check is to cover housing expenses and is, either written in excess of the amount required, with the scammer asking for the remainder to be remitted back, or the check is written for the correct amount, but the scammer backs out of the rental agreement and asks for a refund. Since the banks do not usually place a hold on the funds, the victim has immediate access to them and believes the check has cleared. In the end, the check is found to be counterfeit and the victim is held responsible by the bank for all losses.

Another type of scam involves real estate that is posted via classified advertisement websites. The scammer duplicates postings from legitimate real estate websites and reposts these ads, after altering them. Often, the scammers use the broker’s real name to create a fake email, which gives the fraud more legitimacy. When the victim sends an email through the classified advertisement website inquiring about the home, they receive a response from someone claiming to be the owner. The “owner” claims he and his wife are currently on missionary work in a foreign country. Therefore, he needs someone to rent their home while they are away. If the victim is interested in renting the home, they are asked to send money to the owner in the foreign country.

If you have been a victim of Internet crime, please file a complaint at http://www.IC3.gov/.

HEAR WE ARE, BACK FROM A SPECTACULAR OSCAR NIGHT. Alice and me like to watch the whole affair from Red Carpet interviews an hour before to the Barbara Walters Special an hour afterward.
Whew! You take about a marathon! But we put in a good stock of chips and soft drinks, as well as a couple of sub sandwiches to eat at the halfway point.
This year’s affair marked a return to formality. Elegant dress as opposed to outrageous, mind bending get-ups.
Steve Martin, one of my all-time favorite comedians, and Alec Baldwin made a dynamic duo of hosts that kept things moving along through the whole three and a half hour affair. Martin is a skilled a professional when it comes to working an audience and Baldwin proved to be an even match for him. Hope and Crosby should have done so well.
Oh yes, there were the awards, of course.
The all-knowing Academy decided to spread them around a little this year, with no one movie dominating everything. At least it made it interesting down to the Best Picture award.
That brought out some politics that should have been deleted. This is an awards show for movies, not a political rally for the National Organization of Women. But presenter Barbara Striesand couldn’t resist turning it into just that.
Looking as frumpy as anyone could at the ceremonies, Streisand roundly cheered the winner of the Best Director Award – Kathryn Bigelow – without even mentioning her name. “the wait is over,” she bellowed into the microphone as if a cure for cancer had been found.
Seems Katie was the first woman director to win the award. I don’t suppose it had anything to do with her ability.
With that bit of partisanship out of the way – it should have been avoided entirely – the show came to a snappy conclusion. You’d almost think it was scripted the way Bigelow, Streisand and the rest of the girls came together. The orchestra even played “I Am Woman” as the gaggle of chicks left the stage. “Pul-lease!!
I had hoped the awards would be partisanship free. They almost made it too. Well, maybe next year.
Perhaps they could leave Streisand at home next year too. Or get her a new dress designer.
WHAT’S BEEN GOING ON OVER HERE? Another Mid-Winter Fair came to a conclusion with the usual animal auctions and a few tribute bands.
They even had a jazz concert in memory of Jimmie Cannon. It was fitting for a man who devoted his life to music and teaching the refinements of it to several generations of students in El Centro.
He brought it to the people too, with the creation of the Imperial Valley Jazz Band. The Fair had the foresight to continue on with that tradition.
Unfortunately, it looked as though a lot of people had pulled in their belts when it came to the Fair. The crowds were small during the week, but strong on the weekends.
Whiskey Dawn put on an excellent country music show, but with only a handful of people in the audience. Which goes to show, you have to have a name act if you want to attract attention.
The Fair Board and other non profits were obviously hurting for money. And entertainment dollars were also hard to come by.
Let’s hope the economy gets turned around by the time the next Fair comes around. A few bright days would be welcome.
SPEAKING OF BRIGHT DAYS, we’re getting more than a little tired of rain that is so rare the rest of the year. February and now March are proving to be the area’s “rainy season.” At least we don’t get mud slides. At least not yet, anyway. That would be something to take pictures of a house sliding into a gully out in the middle of the desert. Let’s hope nobody’s home if it happens.
Don’t forget the Blue Angels are in town  for their annual show.  It’s an experience everyone should have more than once in their lifetime.
Peace

Agents apprehended the individual Sunday approximately nine miles west of Calexico.  The subject was part of a group of five Mexican citizens who had illegally entered the United States.

Record checks revealed that the subject has an outstanding warrant out of Marin County, Calif.  The suspect was turned over to the Imperial County Sheriff’s Office to await extradition.  All other subjects were processed and returned to Mexico.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is the unified border agency within the Department of Homeland Security charged with the management, control and protection of our nation’s borders at and between the official ports of entry. CBP is charged with keeping terrorists and terrorist weapons out of the country while enforcing hundreds of U.S. laws.

-CBP-

click for hi-res CBP marine interdiction agents located 46 bales of marijuana hidden under vegetation on Santa Rosa Island.

A U.S. Navy helicopter reported sighting a Mexican panga of a type typically used for smuggling narcotics and aliens in the southern California region heading northbound about 46 miles west of Pt. Loma on the night of March 4.

Surveillance helicopters and vessels from the Maritime Unified Command continued to search the area until the afternoon of March 6 when U.S. Customs and Border Protection marine interdiction agents on a CBP Blackhawk helicopter discovered fuel canisters and wreckage from the panga on a beach on Santa Rosa Island, about 35 miles off of the Santa Barbara coast.

After the helicopter landed, the CBP marine interdiction agents scouted the area and discovered 46 bundles of marijuana weighing 2,448 pounds concealed by vegetation in a nearby canyon and four adult Mexican males hiding in nearby brush.

	click for hi-res CBP marine interdiction agents take custody of two suspects while a U.S. Coast Guard Jayhawk helicopter circles overhead.

The contraband and four suspects were transferred to the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter BLACKFIN by a U.S. Coast Guard MH-60T Jayhawk helicopter via a hoist operation and subsequently turned over to agents of the Los Angeles Border Enforcement Security Task Force (LA BEST), a multi-agency organization that investigates a wide variety of maritime criminal activities such as drug, human and weapons smuggling, trade fraud and cargo theft.

The four men are awaiting arraignment before a magistrate judge for the alleged smuggling attempt.

The arrests and seizure of the narcotics were part of a coordinated effort by member agencies of the San Diego Maritime Unified Command, the U.S. Navy, the LA BEST, and U.S. Coast Guard Sector Los Angeles/Long Beach. San Diego Maritime Unified Command, comprised of CBP, ICE, the Coast Guard, and other law enforcement partners, is an all-threats multi-agency approach to maritime law enforcement operating in the San Diego and Orange County maritime region.

“LifeLock sold Californians a false sense of security against identity theft with advertisements that were chock full of inflated claims and promises,” Brown said. “Today’s settlement prevents the company from misrepresenting and overstating its services and reimburses LifeLock subscribers who were misled.”

Last year, Brown joined the FTC and numerous attorneys general to jointly investigate LifeLock’s business practices. The investigation followed a number of misleading advertisements from the company that included a testimonial from the CEO in which he gave out his social security number to demonstrate his confidence in LifeLock’s services.

Brown’s complaint contends that LifeLock falsely led customers to believe that they would be protected against all forms of identity theft, reimbursed directly for losses tied to identity theft and telephoned prior to any new credit being issued under their name. None of these claims were accurate.

LifeLock advertisements also implied that any fraudulently obtained personal information would be removed from criminal websites, when in fact the company only notified consumers when their information had been compromised.

Today’s settlement prevents LifeLock from misrepresenting that its services:

- Provide complete protection against all forms of identity theft;
- Constantly monitor activity on each of its customers’ consumer reports;
- Prevent unauthorized changes to customers’ address information; and
- Ensure that a customer always receives a phone call from a potential creditor before a new credit account is opened in the customer’s name.

LifeLock also agreed to pay $11 million in restitution to its subscribers and $1 million to cover the costs of the states’ investigation. Brown’s office and the FTC will jointly send letters over the next two weeks to customers in California that subscribed to LifeLock between April 1, 2005 and March 30, 2009, notifying them of the agreement and how they can opt-in to the settlement. LifeLock typically charged consumers $10 a month to subscribe to its identity theft protection services.

Under the terms of the agreement, LifeLock must also stop overstating the risk of identity theft to consumers. In the past, LifeLock sent direct mailers to individual consumers that featured warnings such as, “You’re receiving this because you may be at risk of identity theft,” without knowledge or facts to substantiate these claims.

A number of the services offered by LifeLock are available free-of-charge to consumers including, placing a fraud alert on a credit record and requesting an annual credit report to review credit history and identify errors and inaccuracies. Both services can be completed by contacting one of the three major credit reporting agencies. Consumers are also best-positioned to monitor their own bank accounts and credit card statements for unauthorized withdrawals or charges.

Other states participating in today’s agreement include: Alaska, Arizona, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and West Virginia.