I'm getting a barrage of angry e-mails from viewers who say Bank of America is wrong to provide credit cards to illegal immigrants.

One writer who signs him/herself "NOT HAPPY" e-mails the following:

I think if BofA goes ahead with their plan I will be changing banks. I know of someone that is illegal and has not done a day's work since she got here. She has 5 children that you and I have paid for. Come on when does this stop???

Liane from Huntington Beach seconds that emotion:

I will not conduct business with Bank of America in the future. I am a green card holder entering this country legally. I had to jump through hoops to do it but I did it. It offends me that a bank supports and promotes illegal activities.

Finally, there's an e-mail from Marshall of Los Angeles. He says the fact that Bank of America is charging a higher interest rate to cardholders who don't have social security numbers (the majority of whom entered this country without papers) is the real crime:

The real story I think is banks charging 21% interest and ripping off poor people. Shame on them. They want to provide a service for customers? Bull.

Bank of America is reaching out to a new base of potential customers:  illegal immigrants.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the bank is now testing a program at 51 branches in L.A. County.  It's offering credit cards to people who don't have social security numbers.

That usually means folks who entered this country illegally.

Illegal immigrants have been able to open checking accounts and obtain mortgage loans at banks for quite some time.  All that's required is some form of ID, usually a Mexican identification card known as a 'matricula consular'.

But this is the first time immigrants who don't have legal papers have been able to get plastic.  Bank of America now asks only that the account holder have had no bounced checks for 3 months.

A social security number is not required.

Critics say this program helps people who've broken our country's immigration laws.

But bank officials say it's not about politics.  It's about serving customers.  Besides, they point out, there's nothing illegal about allowing illegals to open up charge acounts.

The credit card they're offering is not exactly a great deal.  It comes with a 21% interest rate -- a few points higher than most cardholders pay.

But I guess people who don't have social security numbers can't really shop around.

Here's a hot topic for parents of girls:

What would you think about a state law requiring your pre-teen daughter to get a shot for a sexually transmitted disease?

Lawmakers up in Sacramento are talking about it.

They're debating a bill that would require girls entering the sixth grade to be vaccinated against the human papilloma virus, or HPV.

HPV is transmitted through sexual contact.  It causes many forms of cervical cancer.

Some health experts recommend girls be vaccinated against HPV before they become sexually active.

But some parents say this bill, if it becomes law, would promote promiscuity.   Besides, some argue, shouldn't parents make the decision about the shot for their daughters?

Under the plan, parents would be able to choose NOT to have their girls get the vaccine.

Viewers are speaking out on this topic. Rachel from Bellflower writes:

I think it's wrong to mandate it since there isn't enough research in regards to side effects and reactions to the vaccine.

And Nancy from Cerritos has this opinion:

Eric, It's not just one shot, it's 3 and they are only made by Merck, at a very big price.. In the hundreds of dollars, check it out. Also, how many of us really trust Merck?? Not my girls . We should check to see if Merck is paying for this law. Thanks for bringing this up, we should all put a stop to this...

One person who has not taken a stand on this is Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.  Look for an update on that in the near future.

Enough, already!

The nonstop cable (and broadcast) news coverage on the death of Anna Nicole Smith really has gone too far, in my opinion.

We're talking about a former Playboy model who married a rich guy... a person who is famous for being famous.  She had no body of work, no career to speak of, nothing to merit the continuous, over-the-top, absurd fascination her death is currently receiving.

Please, no more comparisons to Marilyn Monroe, either.  That's an insult to Marilyn's fans.

Some of the reporting, especially on the cable channels, is downright nutty.  What could be more strange than watching CNN's Wolf Blitzer, the expert on politics and the Iraq war, having to fill an hour on Anna Nicole?

AM 640 Talkradio hosts John and Ken played a tape of it during their show, just for laughs.  And it was funny.

Later in the day, I went to the dry cleaner.  They had the TV tuned to Nancy Grace's show on Headline News.  She had this grave look on her face, and she was interviewing Anna Nicole Smith's former decorator.  Now that is reaching!

I ignored it and asked the dry cleaner lady how she was doing.  "Terrible," she said with an ironic look.  "I'm in mourning over Anna Nicole, and I'm not sure how I'll be able to sleep tonight."

So I'm not the only one who thinks the coverage is ridiculous.

There's one person's reaction to the death of Anna Nicole Smith that CNN, Fox, and MSNBC have so far failed to get:

Lisa Nowak, the love-crazed astronaut accused of trying to murder her rival.  She's old news now, thanks to Anna Nicole.

U.S. airlines have a new report card from the government, and it's nothing to be proud of.

According to the Department of Transportation, 2006 may have been the most inconvenient year ever for passengers.

Four million people complained about lost, stolen, damaged or misplaced bags.  That's the most in 16 years.

Planes are late 25% of the time -- the worst record since the year 2000.

And a growing number of folks find themselves getting bumped from overbooked flights.

To read the full report, click here.  It's more than 40 pages long, but it has some good information, and also some interesting trivia.

For example:

BEST AIRLINES FOR ON-TIME ARRIVALS:  Hawaiian, Frontier, Southwest, US Airways, and Skywest (in that order).

MOST LATE OR DELAYED FLIGHTS:  Atlantic Southeast Airlines.

NO. OF PETS THAT DIED DURING COMMERCIAL FLIGHTS IN 2006:  4

AIRLINE THAT BUMPED THE FEWEST PASSENGERS:  JetBlue

AIRLINE WITH FEWEST COMPLAINTS:  Southwest

It's the ultimate water cooler story:  The love-crazed NASA astronaut who drove for 900 miles with a diaper on so she could confront her romantic rival for the affection of another astronaut.

People are still talking about it... at coffee shops, on the street, in the workplace, and definitely on TV.

What makes it so fascinating?

Maybe it's the fact that most folks think of NASA astronauts as scientists, researchers, and technicians.  How could one of them do something so nutty?  And she was married, too, with three kids.

Then there's the detail of her wearing a Depends so she didn't have to stop to go to the bathroom... How much time did she save, two or three minutes?

Love drives you to do some crazy things, is the conclusion you hear people reaching.

And if you watch TV news, you'll hear anchors and reporters saying wacky stuff about it.

Here are some examples:

From CNN:  She made an "amazing journey from flight suit, NASA flight suit, to prison jumpsuit."

From FOX:  "Astronauts wear diapers while they're waiting for the launch. So maybe she had a pair around the house."

From MSNBC:  "The most twisted love story in the history of the space program."

Local TV:  "Instead of space flight and planetary systems, now she's exploring the criminal-justice system."

CBS:  "It may be one misstep for NASA, but it's a giant leap backward for one woman's dignity."

Someone in our own newsroom had the best banner headline suggestion (which later showed up as a headline in the New York Post):  "Astro-NUT!"

Police work isn't always pretty, and sometimes on this job, you learn that first-hand.

In Westminster this morning, a man who had fired shots at cops and paramedics was thought to be hiding inside an apartment.  To get him to surrender, SWAT officers lobbed tear gas through a window.

They must have fired about 20 canisters into the place.

We stood a block away, and we got a whiff of it.

Tear gas is pretty powerful stuff, for those who haven't experienced it.  Even a small dose of it can make your eyes water and your throat burn.

I think the cops on the scene there must have though it was funny, watching us reporters wiping our eyes and complaining. After all, they all get sprayed with tear gas at the Police Academy as part of their training.

Now I know what they know:  tear gas is no fun.

****************

Neither is the job of homicide detective.

This morning in Industry, Sheriff's homicide investigators were called to a County Public Works yard.

Over the weekend, there had been a small brush fire in Hacienda Heights.  Afterwards, county workers cleaned up some of the burned debris.

They found what they thought was a burnt mannequin, so they threw it in the back of their truck and went back to base.

Early Monday morning, they looked at it again and realized it wasn't really a mannequin.  It was the real thing, the burned body of a man.

Detectives now have to figure out what really happened.  Yikes!

The L.A. River could get a major makeover, under a new master plan outlined in today's L.A. Times.

City officials, engineers, and consultants came up with the proposal.  It calls for new parks, bridges, bike paths, housing, and office complexes alongside the river.  The water would be cleaned.  And in some places, the river's concrete lining would be torn out to give the place a more natural feel.

All for a price tag of a mere $2 billion.  Oh, and by the way, city leaders aren't quite sure where all that money will come from.

But at least they seem to agree on what needs to be done to transform the river into a place that more people could enjoy.

In 2005, we toured a section of it with "Friends of the River" co-founder Lewis MacAdams.  He's always had a dream of beautifying the L.A. River.  Click here to see the story.

It's a lot like a shell game, one homeless guy told me.

The L.A.P.D. is cleaning street people out of Skid Row.  So now, fewer homeless are downtown.

But that doesn't mean they're disappearing.  They're just going to other parts of the city.

The L.A. Times reports on the migration of the homeless from Skid Row to Hollywood, Venice, Santa Monica, and South L.A.

Cops have made it uncomfortable to sleep on the streets downtown.  Since September, the L.A.P.D. has assigned 50 extra officers to focus on crime in the area.  They're doing sweeps, arresting drug dealers. They're forcing the homeless off the sidewalks.  They're making it hard for people to camp there.

As a result, shelters in other parts of town are noticing bigger crowds.

At the New Image Emergency Shelter in Exposition Park, Brenda Wilson says she's overwhelmed.   She's the director.  She says every single cot is filled these days, and she's turning away about 200 people a night.  Many are homeless folks who used to sleep on the street on Skid Row, before the cops turned up the pressure.  She's even had to hire security guards.

"Otherwise people would climb over the fence to get in," she tells me.

One man who stays there says he used to camp out downtown, but he told me, "there's too many expensive new apartments going in there."  He indicated the police are doing the bidding of the developers.

He and the 500 other men and women who spent the night at the shelter near the USC campus waited to board buses in the morning.  The buses will take them right back to Skid Row, where they'll all spend the day. 

So not as many homeless are living on Skid Row at night.   They're sleeping elsewhere.  But during the day they come right back, because they have nowhere else to go.