The Buzz 07.17.14

WHO’S IN TOWN

The future is here. Specifically, the people who are making big decisions and engineering the future of identity are here, at the Monterey Conference Center, for the Cloud Identity Summit July 19-22. Just how big are those decisions? For a sense of scale, consider: Keynote speaker Bob Blakley, the global head of information security at Citigroup, holds 20 patents in cryptography and information security. While you’re trying to come up with a better online banking password than Princess123, these architects of web connectivity and identity tools are talking about what’s next for cybersecurity, user recognition and the mysterious cloud. You can join in for a mere $1,695 conference registration fee, or follow the tweets for free at #cismcc.

@TWEET OF THE WEEK >> White boys that take a lot of bong hits in their basement tend to be really good friends
-@LELA$MITH

OVERHEARD

“Really guys? Another one?”
- (Unidentified Monterey County District Attorney’s investigator at the scene of the July 10 shooting in East Salinas of parolee Frank Alvarado. Alvarado’s death was the fourth fatal shooting by Salinas police this year.) At the intersection of Beverly Street near Fairview Avenue.

GOOD WEEK / BAD WEEK

GOOD: Pedro Eva, M.D., a former Salinas Valley State Prison psychiatrist convicted in February of grand theft and filing false claims for overbilling the state for his services, won a new trial July 10. Monterey Superior Court Judge Larry Hayes agreed with a motion filed by Eva’s new attorney, Gerry Schwartzbach, that the jury received improper instructions. Six members of that same jury sent Hayes a letter after the trial, saying they felt Eva was the “fall guy” in the overbilling conspiracy that started with Eva’s superior, prison chief of medical services Dr. Charles Lee, and included other prison doctors, too. “It seemed evident that Dr. Eva was a very good psychiatrist whose life has now been ruined,” the letter states. “This does not feel like justice.” The case has been going on since 2008; Eva faced three years in prison following his conviction.

BAD: It’s about that time in the criminal proceedings against six King City police officers and one civilian that the defendants start throwing each other under the bus (see story, p. 12). Some are facing felony charges in connection with an alleged scam in which officers towed cars from poor Latinos and gave the bulk of the business to Miller’s Towing and Brian Miller, brother of former Acting Chief Bruce Miller. But all that towing wasn’t enough to keep Brian Miller solvent: He and his wife, Tina, filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy July 7, aiming to clear debts to a handful of credit-card companies, Mee Memorial Hospital and the plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit against the cops, the city and Miller. The Millers listed assets between $100,000 and $500,000, according to their bankruptcy filings, and debts between $500,000 and $1 million.