MONDAY, APRIL 25, 2011
Volume 10 Issue 141
Santa Monica Daily Press
NOT LIKE THE OLD DAYS SEE PAGE 6
We have you covered
THE HOPPING AWAY ISSUE
President’s future hinges on gas prices MARK S. SMITH Associated Press
WASHINGTON With gas prices climbing and little relief in sight, President Barack Obama is scrambling to get ahead of the latest potential obstacle to his re-election bid, even as Republicans are making plans to exploit the issue. No one seems more aware of the electoral peril than Obama himself. “My poll numbers go up and down depending on the latest crisis, and right now gas prices are weighing heavily on people,” he told Democratic donors in Los Angeles this past week. In fact, Obama raised the issue unsolicited in a series of town meetings in Virginia, SEE OBAMA PAGE 13
HIGH SCHOOL BASEBALL
MAD DASH
Brandon Wise brandonw@smdp.com Children are set loose to find candy-filled eggs during the Easter egg hunt at the 19th Annual Peter Rabbit Day on Saturday.
Devil in the details for Samohi Vikings BY DANIEL ARCHULETA Managing Editor
Law, hospitals debate who pays for injured suspects SHAYA TAYEFE MOHAJER Associated Press
LOS ANGELES The San Diego police encountered the young man dressed in black in a parking lot. It was after midnight. They requested identification, which quickly turned into a standoff. According to the police account, Robert McBride then turned and ran before spinning around and brandishing what later proved to be a BB gun. The officers shot him in the chest and called paramedics to take him to the hospital. Though it was their duty to make sure the suspect got medical care, police say it
wasn’t their duty to put him under arrest or pay his hospital bill. Yet, because McBride wasn’t under arrest, he was able to check himself out of the hospital days after the shooting, leading to a three-hour manhunt by police that included a police helicopter searching with an infrared camera. He remains in custody on a variety of charges, including battery, robbery and being under influence of a controlled substance. When an individual is wounded or injured in the course of committing a crime — or otherwise being apprehended — law enforcement is responsible for seeking med-
SAMOHI With the bases juiced in the bottom
ical care for the suspect without hesitation. But just who picks up the tab has been the subject of a heated debate in California, with both sides citing different parts of the state penal code, and with a lot of money at stake. Scripps Health President and CEO Chris Van Gorder said the McBride case cost his hospital nearly $300,000 in treating the gunshot wound for the uninsured patient. He said similar cases brought in by law enforcement are a growing fiscal problem for the $2.3 billion, not-for-profit, San Diego-based private health care system.
of the seventh inning of a close game with no outs, the Vikings couldn’t do the little things to steal a win from West Torrance. Samohi fell 6-5 Saturday at home, but the tough loss could have easily been avoided if the Vikings could only convert a few bunts. “Execution was a problem today,” Samohi assistant coach Chris Brennan said. “If only we could have done a couple things here and there.” The fact that the Vikings were still in the game late spoke to the team’s ability to bounce back from an early 6-1 deficit. Despite letting West take such a commanding lead, Samohi battled back, eventually closing the gap to 6-5 in the fifth inning. But,
SEE SUSPECTS PAGE 10
SEE SAMOHI PAGE 12
Gary Limjap (310) 586-0339 In today’s real estate climate ...
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