Sex Offender Group Homes Are Cause For Concern, According To LA City Council

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

Citing concerns over illegal residences that serve as group homes for sex offenders, the Los Angeles Police Department was asked Friday to look into what other cities are doing to house the criminals and, from that, increase its efforts to limit their concentration in certain areas.

The City Council's Public Safety Committee asked for the report in 60 days, prompted by concerns that some landlords have illegally been housing too many sex offenders, often near parks and schools.

"State law allows six or fewer, but we have some buildings with 20, 30 or 40 people living in a home," Councilman Mitch Englander said. "Many of them are sex offenders. We end up with some very shady characters that are housing these people. They don't register, and we need to look at a way we can provide protection for the community."

Capt. William Hayes, commanding officer of the Robbery-Homicide Division, said the LAPD has a program where it checks on sex offenders to make sure they are complying with the terms of their probation and that they have registered.

Of the 12,000 registered sex offenders believe to be living in Los Angeles, Hayes said last year the department reached out to more than 8,400.

In addition to routine compliance checks, he noted officers respond to citizen complaints regarding the housing of sex offenders. Procedurally, the department coordinates with Parole and Probation to ensure there is no over-saturation of sex offenders in a particular part of the city.

However, Hayes cautioned about creating too tight of a residency requirement that could render the offenders homeless and thus required to re-register every 30 days.

"Making it more stringent turns this population into transients rather than living in homes with specific addresses," Hayes said. "They can register as transients, but what that means is we have no idea where they are until they register again. And they can register anywhere in the state, so you don't know where they are." ___

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Sad songs can really cause pleasant emotions

If you ever have managed like crying listening to "Fix You" by Coldplay (just us?), new research can have an explanation why.

Scientists at Tokyo University of the arts and the Institute of Brain Science RIKEN in Japan found that listening to sad music reality can trigger positive emotions. He explained that sadness has skyrocketed since art is not the same type of sadness caused by an actual sad event and in fact it could actually feel welcome.

"Emotion experienced by the music has no direct danger or damage in contrast to the excitement experienced in everyday life. Therefore, we can even enjoy unpleasant emotions such as sadness, "wrote the researchers in the study. "If we suffer from unpleasant emotion evoked through everyday life, sad music could be useful to relieve the negative emotion".

The small new study, published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, including 44 people, some of whom were musicians and some who had no special training in music. The study participants listened to a happy piece of music - Granados Allegro de concert in g major - in major and minor keys, in order to combat the "happy effect" songs composed in major keys tend to have. They also heard from two pieces "sad" music, "Separation" of Glinka in f minor étude de Blumenfeld "Sur Mer" in g minor.

The researchers had the study participants rate 62 different emotion-related words and phrases when they heard the different pieces of music, based on the emotions that are perceived in the music, as well as the emotions that felt when listening to music.

In fact, a discrepancy was found between perceived emotions and the emotions that I felt listening to sad music. Perceived emotions were the saddest and most tragic, while real emotions felt were more romantic and less tragic.

Earlier this month, HuffPost women reported on an upcoming finding in the Journal of Consumer Research, showing that sad or angry music prefer to listen after a negative experience that a person (such as a break-up). HuffPost women reported:

The researchers found that when the negative situation another person - as in a break, for example - participants strongly preferred a friend empathetic and sad music. Two further experiments confirmed that the participants experience emotional distress related to other people were much more likely to prefer sad music experienced the anguish of non-issues with other people. As you probably don't want surrounded by cheerful people when your heart is broken, they don't want to listen to Selena Gomez saying that "come and get it".

For an explanation of what sad songs can make us cry, click on HuffPost & culture.

You are a fan of the sad music, or prefer more optimistic melodies? Tell us in the comments!

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Barbara Streisand Slams I treat women Jewish Ultra Orthodox in Israel, receives doctorate honoris cause from the Hebrew University

Jerusalem - Actor Barbra Streisand got into one of topics even in Israel on Monday in the first big stop on his tour around the country - Jewish religious practices that separate men and women.

Speaking at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem on Monday, where received a honorary doctorate, she pointed to cases of ultra-Orthodox Jews targeted women, as well as warmly praised the country.

"I know that it is not easy to fully understand the dynamics of what happens in a foreign country," he said.

But "is painful to read about women are forced to sit in the back of the bus or when we hear of the"women of the wall"Israel have metal chairs them thrown when trying to peacefully and legally pray."

Referred to isolated incidents in which ultra-Orthodox men tried to force women to sit separately in the back of the bus ranging through their neighborhoods, as well as more serious clashes in which ultra-Orthodox Jews tried to prevent women donning prayer shawls and carry the Torah scrolls of pray at the wall of lamentations in Jerusalem, the holiest site where Jews can worship.

According to traditional Orthodox Jewish practice, only men wear prayer shawls and handle rolls of the Torah, although that is changing slowly in some places. Ultra-Orthodox Jews, who are cut off from the rest of society, but have disproportionate power in Government and religious affairs, fear that allowing women to make such advances will erode their authority.

Tzipi Livni israeli Justice Minister has introduced legislation making the forced separation of men and women in public places like buses illegal. With regard to women praying at the Western Wall, a court has upheld the right of women to wear Prayer Shawls, and a proposal has also set aside a section of the Western Wall for the prayers of the genre.

Streisand says pleased to hear that there was hope of evolution. "Repairs are made, and that's very good," he said.

Earlier in the day, the actor met with 20 children with diseases that threaten the life of the "Make-A-Wish" Foundation. Streisand beamed as a teenager sang his song, "People".

"I'm going treasure this," he said. "Is so powerful that in a room with all of you and especially the children who touched my heart."

Streisand visited the University in one of the first stops of his trip to Israel since 1984, receiving a doctorate honoris causes

She spoke at length of his admiration for Israel and the Hebrew University, which opened a building named after his father in 1984 when she donated money for its construction.

"I think it would be very proud to know that this esteemed institution honoring his daughter", said.

It commended the University for graduating a number of female doctoral students record this year, the first time that women composed by a majority of degree recipients.

University officials call the Jewish singer and actor of "friend of Israel" and said that his honorary doctorate was "an opportunity to recognize your support, your friendship, your generosity".

Streisand tour has attracted the attention of the public and the media.

Arrival at Israel's Ben-Gurion Airport on Sunday, with her dog in tow, received prominent media coverage. Streisand, 71, will attend birthday number 90 of israeli President Shimon Peres later in the week before first appearing in it ever concert in Israel on Thursday and Saturday.

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