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The Orange COunTy regisTer, anibal OrTiz — The assOCiaTed Press Children get splashed by a passing car while playing in a puddle in long beach on sunday. The storm, the largest since 2010, kept emergency planners and rescue crews busy, but it did not produce enough rain to pull California out of a crippling drought that has grown to crisis proportions for the state's vast farming industry. The Associated Press LAGUNA BEACH » A Southern California ocean rescue took a dramatic turn over the weekend when three lifeguards who were attempting to save three people also had to be plucked from high surf by boat. The ordeal began Saturday in Laguna Beach during a powerful storm when a woman was sucked into the ocean by a wave and pulled 400 yards out to sea by a rip current, The Orange County Register reported Monday. Two swimmers already in the water, including one with a surf board, tried to save her but began to struggle against the pounding surf. A lifeguard swam out to help but couldn't swim back to shore amid 15-foot waves. Two more lifeguards entered the water, but rough waves kept all six from return - ing to shore. One of the swimmers then tried to swim toward shore alone, but instead was blown farther from the rest of the group. One of the three lifeguards had to swim to him and bring him back to the others, who were get - ting pounded by waves, the newspaper re- ported. A Harbor Patrol boat came to the scene but had trouble approaching in the high surf. "They were out there taking waves on the head for a good 45 minutes before the boat arrived," Orange County Lifeguards Capt. Brad Herzog said. They were taken to a local hospital for evaluation, but no one was injured. Six rescued in high surf off Laguna Beach soUtHErN CALiforNiA By Marcy Gordon The Associated Press WAsHiNGtoN » When Ap- ple, Google, Microsoft and other tech giants united in outrage last summer over the National Security Agen - cy's unfettered spying, tele- communications giants such as AT&T, Verizon and Sprint —whose customers are also the targets of secret govern - ment spying— remained no- ticeably mum. But now the phone com- panies are speaking up. In closed-door meetings with policymakers they are tak- ing a less accommodating stance with government and rattling the historically tight bond between telecom and the surveillance community. "It's been extremely un - usual for telecoms to resist any requests from the gov- ernment," says software en- gineer Zaki Manian of Palo Alto, who advocates against mass government surveil- lance. "The telecom companies have a long history of pro- viding raw data dumps to the government and typi- cally taking some money in return and calling it a day," Manian says. Technology companies typically comply with re - quests for information about individual users but resist demands for bulk data. But telecommunications compa - nies share a connection with government unlike that of any other industry. They "have been tied to our national security agen - cies for all of their history," says Susan Crawford, a vis- iting professor at Harvard Law School who was a spe- cial assistant to President Barack Obama for science, technology and innovation policy. During World War II and for decades after, telegraph companies such as West - ern Union —which was con- trolled by AT&T— turned over copies of international telegrams originating in the U.S. to the NSA and its predecessor agency. In the 1950s, 60s and 70s, govern - ment agents reviewed tens of thousands of telegrams each month under "Project Shamrock," deemed by law - makers to be the biggest in- telligence-intercept opera- tion in U.S. history. Since the earliest days of wiretapping in the late 19th century, telephone compa - nies have assisted law en- forcement and intelligence agencies. For decades, a se- ries of laws cemented the re- lationship, including a 1994 wiretapping act that re- quires telecom companies to build networks that allow law enforcement to eaves- drop in real time. But 2014 marks a pivotal moment for the telecom in- dustry. White House policy- makers are considering sig- nificant changes as public debate about surveillance heightens in the aftermath of NSA spying exposed by former agency contractor Edward Snowden. The central pillar of Obama's plan to overhaul the surveillance programs calls for shifting storage of Americans' phone data from the government to telecom companies or an indepen - dent third party. But tele- coms don't want that job. Phone industry execu- tives have privately told ad- ministration officials they don't like the idea of stor- ing phone records gathered by the NSA because they don't want to become the government's data mind - ers. But companies say they are wary of being forced to standardize their own data collection to conform to the NSA's needs. Industry officials spoke on condition of anonymity be - cause they were not autho- rized to comment on their private discussions with the administration. CTIA-The Wireless As - sociation, a wireless indus- try trade group, says the bal- ance between national secu- rity and civil liberties "can be achieved without the im- position of data retention mandates that obligate car- riers to keep customer infor- mation any longer than nec- essary for legitimate busi- ness purposes." The NSA's massive col- lection of calling records un- der secret court orders was revealed by Snowden last June in the first of many dis- closures about surveillance programs based on classi- fied documents. Snowden was granted asylum in Rus- sia in August and currently faces espionage charges in the U.S. The Snowden documents also revealed NSA programs that scoop up data from the nation's Internet companies and tap into Google and Ya - hoo's data-center communi- cations overseas. The tech giants lashed out when news broke that their customers' data was being tapped, escalating pressure on Obama to curb the NSA programs. And on Jan. 27, the government announced it will allow five companies — Google Inc., Microsoft Corp., Yahoo Inc., Facebook Inc. and LinkedIn Corp. — to share more information with the public about how of - ten they receive orders to as- sist national security inves- tigations. Meanwhile, telecom com- panies remained largely on the sidelines. An opin- ion from the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which was declassi- fied in September, said no telecom company that has received an order to turn over bulk phone records has challenged the directive. spyiNG Telecoms push back on NSA plan Companies becoming more vocal against mass government surveillance By reid Wilson The Washington Post Two California state sena- tors in legal trouble are tak- ing indefinite leaves of ab- sence from their jobs, re- jecting Republican calls for them to resign and costing Democrats their super ma- jority, at least temporarily. Last week, Senate Dem- ocrats voted down a Re- publican resolution to expel state Sen. Roderick Wright (D), who was convicted of eight felony counts of voter fraud and perjury on Jan. 28. Wright was first indicted in 2010 on charges that he lied on his voter registration form and candidate filings and committed voter fraud in five elections. State Sen. Ronald Calde - ron (D), who has been in- dicted on federal corrup- tion charges for allegedly ac- cepting almost $100,000 in bribes, meals and golf out- ings, including $88,000 in bribes from an undercover FBI agent, last week began a leave of absence to fight the charges. Federal agents raided Calderon's Sacramento of - fices last June. He has pleaded not guilty to 24 charges and was released on bond. Both senators will receive their paychecks during the absences. Democrats control 28 of the 40 seats in the state Senate, a super majority large enough to pass their legislative prior - ities without input from the body's 11 Republicans. (One seat is vacant.) But with Wright and Calde - ron on leave, the 26 Demo- cratic votes aren't enough to overcome filibusters. That means the Demo- crats' remaining agenda in Sacramento is at risk. Legislative rules require a super majority to raise taxes or pass constitutional amendments; Senate Dem - ocrats had hoped to pass a tax increase before leaving Sacramento to campaign in advance of this year's elec - tions. If both Wright and Calde- ron were to quit, Gov. Jerry Brown (D) could call special elections to replace them. Both Wright and Calde - ron have been stripped of their committee assign- ments. But state Senate President Darrell Steinberg (D) and his caucus have re- fused to expel them from the Senate. sACrAMENto Legal woes cost California Democrats their super majority in the Legislature storM poST-DeLuge pLAy 607 Main Street, Red Bluff 530-527-0772 As of Thursday, February 20 th NOW OPEN every Thurs., Fri. & Sat. for Dinner 5pm to 8pm Come Join Us 530-366-3166 www.redbluffdodge.com 545 Adobe Rd., Red Bluff, CA (530) 527-1000 • 1-800-545-3500 visit us at: www.redbluffroundup.com Like us on facebook RODEO AMERICA'S ORIGINAL EXTREME SPORT! APRIL 18, 19, 20, 2014 1921 ~ 2014 93 RD TICKET OFFICE NOW OPEN FOR BEST SELECTION CALL NOW!!! Parties - Corporate Events Reunions - Private Events Rehearsal Dinners 604 Main St, Red Bluff Call 529-5154 for more information Bee A Champion! Contact Kim Berry at 530.736.1363 or kiminredbluff@sbcglobal.net BECOME A SPONSOR! 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