SeeCalifornia.com

Photo: Gov. Jerry Brown has green light to move ahead with a $68 billion high-speed rail system in California.

If you’ve been on California’s Middle Earth Expedition and are stuck in “The Womb” or traveled to some remote outpost on the planet, the past week has been filled with lots of excitement, drama and more of the same news you’ll find nearly every week in California.

• The Olympic Games take place July 27-August 12, 2012 in London, England
• After the July 20, 2012 rampage in Colorado in which James Holmes was arrested and accused of shooting and killing 12 people, and injuring 58 others, it is coming to light that he was seeking psychiatric care. It hasn’t been disclosed what type of meds he was taking or quit taking before the shooting.
• In California where James Dekraai is awaiting trial, accused of killing his ex-wife and 7 other people in a Seal Beach hair salon massacre on October 12, 2011, his son officially has a new guardian this week. A judge awarded official guardianship of Dekraai’s 8 year-old son, Dominic, to the boy’s stepsister, 25 year-old Chelsea Huff. Chelsea & Dominic both lost their mom in the shooting. Scott Dekraai had threatened to kill their mom (his ex-wife) before the shooting.
• At least one copycat “Joker” threatened to perform another mass shooting this week. He has a record of mental problems–and also owns lots of weapons.
• Gun sales are reaching record highs in California (and throughout the U.S.) this week, possibly as a result of the Colorado shooting event and the media backlash calling for stricter gun control laws. The state Department of Justice expects 725,000 rifles, pistols and shotguns will be legally purchased in California in 2012, more than 100,000 more guns than were bought last year and nearly twice as many as were purchased five years ago.
• In Anaheim this week 1,000 demonstrators and officers outside a packed City Council meeting July 24 clashed. 24 protesters were arrested, 20 buildings damaged, 7 people injured and dozens of rounds of nonlethal ordnance had been fired to disperse the crowd, some of whom started fires in trash bins and threw rocks at police. Protests were over police conduct when police fatally shot an unarmed man, Manuel Diaz, 25, who they said was evading arrest. A day later, police shot and killed Joel Acevedo; police say he fired on officers during a foot chase.
• After $54 million of California State Parks special funds were uncovered last week, some groups want their money back that they raised to help bail out parks set for closure July 1, 2012.
  1. Rep. Linda Sanchez is demanding the state repay the city of Whittier $30,000 it spent to keep Pio Pico State Historic Park open.
  2. The Coe Park Preservation Fund, on Friday July 27, 2012, in San Jose, Calif, announced they are asking the State of California to return donations of $279,000, that it raised to save Henry Coe State Park from being closed.
• A $2.3 billion discrepancy is found in California State government! The state controller and the Department of Finance are $2.3 billion apart in their calculations of how much money is in hundreds of special funds kept by various state agencies, officials acknowledged Friday.
• A $14 billion state of California project to move fresh water from north to south while protecting fish in the Sacramento river Delta was introduced this week.