Harbor Currents
LAUSD Board To Reform Teacher Seniority-based Layoffs
LOS ANGELES – The Governing Board of the Los Angeles Unified School District voted June 15 to direct the district to address seniority-based layoffs, after a lower court handed a victory to the American Civil Liberties Union, Public Counsel who filed a lawsuit against the LAUSD (Reed v. Smith) on behalf of Markham, Gompers, John Liechty Middle Schools.
The measure, introduced by board members Yolie Flores and Tamar Galatzan, calls for the immediate development of a negotiations strategy to reform the collective bargaining agreement and directs the superintendent to engage the ACLU, Public Counsel, the State Board of Education, United Teachers Los Angeles, and other advocates to join the district in urging California lawmakers to immediately support legislative changes that would give school districts the ability to use criteria other than seniority to lay off workers.
Partnership for Los Angeles Schools, the ACLU and Public Counsel filed a lawsuit (Reed v. Smith) on behalf of Markham, Gompers, John Liechty Middle Schools, resulting in a preliminary injunction suspending budget-based teacher layoffs at the three district middle schools for the 2010-2011 school year. This is a lower court ruling and has no binding authority to allow the district to do the same in other schools in the district this year or in the near future. Instead, the motion seeks to build on this result.
"Providing a quality education to our students is not possible without
the ability to keep our strongest teachers in the classroom," said LAUSD board member Tamar Galatzan in a statement released by Villaraigosa’s office. "This resolution brings us a step closer to meeting that goal across the District."
But not everyone is happy with the results.
“This is the wrong motion at the wrong time,” said Marla Eby, a UTLA spokeswoman, in a statement released by the teachers’ union. “Instead of reaching out in a sincere and collaborative manner to UTLA and our 45,000 teachers and health and human services professionals, the schoolboard is once again seeking to move unilaterally toward making significant and far-reaching changes without a real grasp of the situation.”
Eby stated that the district is creating a school site staffing problem by not adhering to the Rodriguez Consent Decree that requires schools to have a balance of new and veteran teachers, that the California education code allows for seniority list exceptions, that the move de-professionalizes teaching and ignores the underfunding of schools, and that seniority is a scapegoat from growing class sizes and cuts to educational resources.
Port Business Moves to San Pedro
SAN PEDRO —Non-profit technology development center PortTechLA announced, June 10, that’ its first tenant, Marine Oil Technology, has moved business operations to the Port of Los Angeles.
PortTechLA was founded through a partnership formed between the POLA and the San Pedro Peninsula and Wilmington chambers of commerce.Marine Oil Technology is a start-up manufacturer of hydraulic oil and engine oil cleansing products.
“One of our missions is to help start-up companies like Marine Oil Technology develop, test and market products that are environmentally beneficial to the maritime industry,” said Jeff Milanette, executive director of PortTechLA.
Villaraigosa’s Proposes “Business Tax Holiday” For New Businesses
LOS ANGELES –Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Councilmen Richard Alarcon and Greig Smith proposed a “Business Tax Holiday,” June 16, for new businesses opening in Los Angeles. The Business Tax Holiday exempts any new business from gross receipts tax by the City of Los Angeles for three years when they open or locate in Los Angeles. A new business is one that has not previously paid business tax receipts and not currently operating in the City of Los Angeles.
The tax holiday has the potential of creating revenue for the City and will serve as an incentive for businesses to locate in the City of Los Angeles, according to an analysis from the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California.
Specifically, new local businesses and their employees will purchase goods and services from other local businesses which will, in turn, pay business tax receipts to the city on their incremental revenues. New businesses and their employees pay sales tax, and the city will capture its share of these revenues.
“This is good news for the Port and L.A. Harbor community,” added Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Geraldine Knatz, Ph.D. “It’s another way to attract the next generation of companies serving the maritime and goods movement industries here at the nation’s largest trade gateway. In particular, the proposed business tax moratorium should provide a shot in the arm to PortTechLA, a San Pedro-based technology incubator that is working to bring new “green collar” businesses and jobs to the Harbor Area.”
The War in Afghanistan Reaches New Milestone: Longest War in U.S. History
LOS ANGELES – As of June 7, the Afghanistan war has replaced the Vietnam War as the longest war in U.S. history. The United States has been in Afghanistan for 104 months, more than eight-and-a half years.
Call for a firm withdrawal end-date comes as Congress debates spending another $33 billion on troop escalation in Afghanistan.
Brave New Foundation and TrueMajority recently released a video marking the milestone featuring leading experts, including: former military analyst Daniel Ellsberg, Malou Innocent of the CATO Institute, author Tom Hayden and historian Christian Appy speaking to the Vietnamization of Afghanistan and to the staggering cost to Americans totaling almost $300 billion and over 1,000 American lives.
The video is available at www.rethinkafghanistan.com
Bass Leaves Partnership for Los Angeles Schools
LOS ANGELES – Angela Bass, superintendent of instruction of the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools recently announced she will be leaving the program and moving to her hometown, San Diego. She’s accepted a job as an area superintendent for the San Diego Unified School District.
“I am deeply grateful for her service and contribution to the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools,” said Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in a statement released by his office. “For more than two years, she has worked tirelessly to make this vision a reality and has grown and shaped the Partnership into the organization that it is today.”
Child Sex Trafficker Sentenced
SANTA ANA – Dwayne Lawson, 29, was sentenced to 210 months in federal prison after he pleaded guilty June 10, to child sex trafficking, admitting that he arranged for two teenage girls to travel to the West Coast, where he had them work as prostitutes in various locations, including Orange County.The Washington, D.C. man, who has a number of aliases, including "Staydown" and "Christopher Tyrone Young," received a 17-year and six month sentence. The charge of sex trafficking of children carries a mandatory minimum penalty of 10 years in federal prison.
Lawson, who was arrested in April 2009, pleaded guilty to one count of sex trafficking of children and admitted in a plea agreement that there were two teenage girls who engaged in commercial sex acts at his direction.
Investigators with the Los Angeles Police Department arrested a 17-year-old girl on prostitution charges and arrested him soon after. The LAPD later learned that the girl was a runaway from Florida and determined that she was working for a pimp, who they later identified as Lawson, according to court documents.
Lawson contacted the girl in the fall of 2008 on MySpace.com and, after promising to make her a "star," gave her a bus ticket from Florida to Las Vegas, according to court documents. Following a three-day bus trip from Florida to Las Vegas, Young brought the girl to Orange County, where he had her work as a prostitute, he admitted as part of the plea
No Infants Diagnosed With HIV In 2009, Adults With HIV Are Living Longer
LOS ANGELES - The 2009 Epidemiologic Profile of HIV and AIDS in Los Angeles County, a report from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health presented June 9, found that no infants were diagnosed with HIV in 2009 and that adults with confirmed HIV are living longer before developing AIDS.
The report tracks the risk factors behind the spread of HIV-AIDS and any changes in those infected with HIV-AIDS.
The report also stated:
The year 2009 became the first in which the county reported zero transmissions of HIV from infected mothers to their babies, since the implementation of pediatric HIV surveillance reporting in 1999.
The number of AIDS cases diagnosed each year continues to drop, from nearly 2,800 in 1996 to fewer than 1,400 in 2006. Similarly, the number of deaths from AIDS has dropped from 1,800 in 1996 to about 540 in 2006.
More than 62,000 people are estimated to be infected with HIV and AIDS, and more than one in five of that number is not aware they are infected.
Though Americans of African descent account for 22 percent of those living with HIV-AIDS.
About three out of four Latinos said they did not know they were infected until very late in the course of the disease (within 12 months of their AIDS diagnosis).
More details: www.erasedoubt.org or call (800) 367- 2437. A full copy is available at: http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/hiv/index.htm.
LULAC Calls For Mandatory Lie Detectors For Police Cases
California--The California League of United Latin American Citizens recently passed a unanimous resolution to call on the legislature to repeal Section 3307 of the Government Code, California Peace Officer Bill of Rights, which makes California law enforcement officers the only government employees, who cannot be required to submit to polygraph examinations when they are accused of misconduct.
Internal affairs is thus, prohibited from requiring accused officers to submit to polygraph examinations. LULAC would like enforcement officers to be offered the right to take polygraph tests during any “swearing contest” involving allegations of police misconduct and to make the results of conclusive tests conducted by American
Polygraph Association certified examiners admissible as evidence.
The call comes in anticipation of the upcoming civil trial for three
Latina reporters, Christina Gonzalez and Patti Ballaz of Los Angeles KTTV Channel 11 and Patricia Nazario of KPCC FM Radio, who are suing the Los Angeles Police Department.
The lawsuits stem from the events of Mayday 2007, when numerous press members were allegedly accosted along with demonstrators by LAPD officers.
The Los Angeles City Council recently approved $500,000 to cover
settlements for a number of other reporters, having earlier paid out nearly
$13 million in settlements to demonstrators who were beaten and/or shot with bean bags.
Jury selection began June 15, in the Los Angeles Superior Court Dept. 307.
Using Street Furniture Money for Transit
District 15 Councilwoman Janice Hahn is recommending that $100,000, a portion of the Street Furniture Revenue Fund, be used to provide funding for any aspect of efforts involving transit-related projects such as sidewalk improvements and beautifications projects.
The Los Angeles City Council is expected to make a decision July 2, when the item slated to continue.
More funds for the Colorado Lagoon Project Approved
The Long Beach City Council voted 6-0 with Councilwoman Suja Lowenthal, Councilman Dee Andrews absent and Councilwoman Rae Gabelich abstaining, June 15, to authorize the city manager to accept about $1.8 million in grant funding from the State Water Resources Control Board for the Colorado Lagoon Dredging Project.
The vote also authorized City Manager Patrick H. West to contract with LSA Associates for regulatory permitting and environmental services not exceed $33,000.
Funding for Naples Seawall Project Approved
The Long Beach Council approved 8-0 a motion to approve $9.5 million with tidelands funding for the Naples Seawall project, contingent upon the Long Beach Harbor Commissions’ approval of more than $12 million.
The city council also requested that the city manager provide a report in funding alternatives, including a possible change boat-slip fee rates for the repair of other sea walls in the Naples area of Long Beach.
Overnight Parking Program Approved
Long Beach—The Long Beach City Council, voted 8-0, June 15, to authorize city manager to implement an over-night parking program, by permit only, at Cesar Chavez Park, and request that City Attorney Robert E. Shannon amends the Long Beach Municipal Code as needed. Parking availability is an ongoing issue in District 1 and other areas of Long Beach.
LB Supports Plastic Bag Ban
Long Beach council members vote, 7-0 with Andrews and Lowenthal absent, to support Assembly Bill 1998, the Single Use Carry Out Bags bill that would ban the plastic carryout bags in Los Angeles County.
|
