http://www.sacbee.com/2012/03/30/4379245/rex-babin-sacramento-bee-editorial.html#storylink=omni_popular

Sacramento Bee editorial cartoonist Rex Babin, whose piercing pen skewered presidents, governors and self-important legislators, died today at his home after a long battle with cancer. He was 49.

Babin's favorite cartoons were often his most poignant. After the attacks on the World Trade Towers in 2001, he drew Libertas slumped and weeping with her head in her hands.

After Chesley Burnett "Sully" Sullenberger III landed US Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson River, Babin imagined the passengers standing on the wings with the hands of God reaching down to keep the jet from sinking.

Babin continued drawing until recently, offering a classic Babinesque cartoon lampooning California Fish and Game Commission Chairman Daniel Richards, as animal rights activists and legislators demanded he step down after he posed in a photo holding a magnificent mountain lion he had shot. In the panel Richards' head, a confused expression on his face, is mounted as a trophy, next to the heads of a bear and a lion.

Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson issued a statement saying the city has lost "a unique and vibrant voice."
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http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/strong-earthquake-shakes-northern-japan-15916651

A strong earthquake shook northern Japan on Wednesday evening, and a small tsunami was forecast for part of its Pacific coast.

The Japan Meteorological Agency said the tremor was 6.8 magnitude. A tsunami of about a half-meter was forecast for Hokkaido island's central and eastern Pacific coast, and for Aomori and Iwate prefectures.

Iwate prefecture, or state, was heavily damaged by last year's earthquake and tsunami. Thousands of aftershocks have shaken the region since then, nearly all of them of minor or moderate strength.

The epicenter was about 146 miles (235 kilometers) south of Kushiro, Japan, on Hokkaido island. It was a relatively shallow 16 miles (26 kilometers) below the ocean floor.

http://auburnpub.com/news/local/police-video-shows-mom-encouraging-girls-to-fight/article_a6b6c074-699e-11e1-a505-001871e3ce6c.html

An Auburn woman was charged with endangering the welfare of a child after school resource officers discovered a video circulating among the student body of Auburn High School allegedly showing her encouraging a fight between two 15-year-old girls.

Police say Vicky A. Townsend, 40, 7 Fort St., upper apartment, was arrested on the charge, a class-A misdemeanor, after a video surfaced reportedly showing the fight between her ninth-grade daughter and another student.

According to police, Townsend can be heard throughout the video encouraging her daughter to beat up the other girl at the fight, which allegedly occurred March 2 in the parking lot behind Holy Family Church.

Auburn investigators reported that the altercation began as an argument through text messages and Facebook posts and eventually escalated to an agreement to fight.

Townsend allegedly drove her daughter to the parking lot to meet the other girl, police said.
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One of the most famous cruise ships of the modern era, the former Pacific Princess, is heading to the scrapyard, according to Italy's La Repubblica.

The news outlet says the 40-year-old vessel, recognizable to millions of Americans as the "Love Boat" of 1970s television, has been sold to a Turkish demolition company for just over 2.5 million euro -- about $3.3 million at current exchange rates.

The 19,903-ton, 600-passenger ship, tiny by today's standards, has been languishing at a dock in Genoa, Italy for more than a year. The vessel last sailed for Spanish-based Quail Cruises after changing hands a couple times since sailing for Princess Cruises from 1975 until 2002.
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