Quick Links for Dec 3rd

So that whole teenage slave story is in it's second day, and new information continues to slowly surface. Nothing really juicy so far, the AP apparently found Kelly Lau's MySpace which revealed she was a Raider fan (which gives more credibility to our meth assumption. Sorry, too easy) and, more shockingly, a Girl Scout leader. SFGate does provide some conflicting information though. While the Record's articles say he escaped from a possibly moving car after picking up a dropped key, the SF Chronicle says he escaped through the backyard by "vaulting" (their word, not ours) over the 8-foot wall separating the house from the gym that he escaped to.

They also caught his abusive aunt this morning in Berkeley near the Telegraph area (another drug indicator!). That Chronicle article also provides more information that the Record's article/website post says wasn't immediately available. The Chronicle was able to interview Lau's mother who asks the same questions we do about how this could have gone on for so long. Like how a 9-year old didn't question why there was a guy chained up in the garage, or at least mention it in passing to Grams. Lau's mom also gives the fishy explanation her daughter gave her as to why they had an extra kid and what the deal with the old black lady who looked like a dude was. The Chronicle article also mentions that Lau's husband, Michael Schumacher had repeatedly asked InShape to make the 8-foot wall the boy escaped over taller over the past year. So there, that's what we know now, with little thanks to the Record and many thanks to the BaconBabe for pointing us to the Chronicle's more informative stories.

Not that we can completely blame the Record, they're short staffed right now as everyone tries to sneak in some vacation time before the end of the year. Including crime reporter and Police Chief Robocop supporter Christian Burkin who expressed fears that someone might steal his desk while he's gone in a blog post. All we ask for is photographic proof of whatever prank the rest of the Record staff pulls (which can be e-mailed here). We suggest moving the entire desk into the bathroom.

That Delta meeting happened yesterday, and while the trustees didn't declare themselves trustees for life they did chastise the current Student Government while not really revealing too much new information. They did try and place the blame on previous ASBG administrations and their old advisor, who also may have helped fix an ASBG presidential election to keep a muckraker out if I remember what the loser that year said correctly. There is a pretty interesting list of thinly veiled perks given to student senators, including possibly the worst tradition ever in embroidered luggage for incoming senators. They also were allegedly allowed a ludicrously expensive coat budget. That's right, flea market money went to buying ASBG senators coats and even t-shirts. We were funding their fucking wardrobe, which means they at least have a future as rogue Vice-Presidential candidates. The lesson is painfully obvious, go to Delta and learn how to mismanage money. The trustees can't stay within their Measure L budget. The ASBG allotted way too high a percentage of the budget to themselves. Hell, I was a Delta student and I'm horrible at budgeting out my money. This doesn't bode well for those lifeskill classes we heard about last month.

The City of Stockton showed it has the decisiveness of pretty much all of my ex-girlfriends by approving a scaled down Wal-Mart for Weston Ranch. We understand that the whole point of the big box ban was to force it to keep people supporting local businesses, but is forcing them to be under 100,000 square feet (and the blueprints call for it to be 4 square feet smaller than the limit) really going to make that much of a difference? Apparently not as it'll still have a grocery section, just a smaller one. Which will totally encourage people to continue patronizing local supermarkets. Or it'll just be really cramped because it's less than half it's original size and Wal-Mart will still try and cram in as much shit as possible. Doesn't anybody remember the old Wal-Mart? It was a cramped shithole and that was in a decent area, imagine how quickly things will go to shit in Weston Ranch.

We've grown to accept the Record's practice of posting quick snippets of breaking news and then teasing us by saying to read more about it in tomorrow's Record. News happens throughout the day and their increasingly understaffed writers need time to do their due diligence and get quotes and such. But now they've gone and posted the Worst. Teaser. Ever. First of all, you don't tease lame holiday features. Especially when you then post another one 2 fucking minutes later. Lame holiday features suck and there's absolutely no way you can get people excited about them in advance. They're filler. You don't tease filler. You're basically saying "It's going to be a slow news day tomorrow!" And while we appreciate the warning, Recordnet should probably stick with actual breaking news. Like all the information the Chronicle provided about slave boy that the Record neglected to relay.