April 9
Peace: Inner, Outer, Intercultural, Interdisciplinary
Marymount College presents: Peace: Inner, Outer, Intercultural, Interdisciplinary, at 7:30 p.m. April 9, at the Chapel on the Main Campus.
The event will feature music and speakers from the arts, social science and more to discuss the many concepts of peace. Reception and discussion follow in the P.E.A.C.E. Center. The event is free.
Details: (310) 303-7223; www.marymountpv.edu.
Venue: Marymount College
Location: 30800 Palos Verdes Drive East, Rancho Palos Verdes
Harbor Currents: ANNOUNCEMENTS April 8, 2013
Harbor Currents NEWS April 8, 2013
Hyatt Workers to Unionize in Long Beach
LONG BEACH — Officials at the Hyatt Long Beach announced, April 8, that it is moving forward with collective bargaining with workers who voted to unionize with UNITE HERE Local 11.
Employees at the Hyatt Regency Long Beach and Hyatt The Pike Long Beach have elected to unionize last month.
Man Killed in Long Beach Shooting
LONG BEACH — One man was killed and four others wounded after a shooting took place April 7 on the 300 block of east Home Street in Long Beach.
When officers arrived at the scene four men had sustained gunshot wounds. Twenty-three-year-old Randy Chapman, of Long Beach, was pronounced dead at the hospital. Two others remain hospitalized in critical condition while another was treated and released.
The motive for the shooting is unknown and the investigation is ongoing.
Anyone who may have information regarding this crime is urged to call (562) 570-7244.
Harbor Currents: NEWS April 5, 2013
Monsanto Foolproofs Plan
Deep within House Resolution 933, a billed passed and signed by both Congress and President Barack Obama in March, lies the authorization for Monsanto Corp. to have authority over the U.S. judicial system.
Officially named the Farmer Assurance Provision, it has since been labeled by activists as the “Monsanto Protection Act.” Rightly so, considering it gives Monsanto Corp., the world’s largest producer of genetically modified crops and seeds and the authority to override any federal court decision to restrict the sale and planting of genetically modified crops — regardless of health concerns.
Many anti-GMO advocates say that there needs to be more research. Though some research has already linked genetically modified foods to infertility. With the passing of this provision, even if researchers discover dangerous effects attached to GMO’s, they will be unable to do anything to stop if from reaching the publics dinner tables.
At first, the provision was slipped in anonymously, but soon after its passing, one Republican stepped forward to claim credit. Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) actually wrote the provision with help from Monsanto before inserting it into HR 933. Blunt has been a friend to the Monsanto Corp., whose headquarters is in Blunt’s state, for many years. According to OpenSecrets, since 2008 Blunt has received over $90,000 dollars in contributions from Monsanto. Blunt’s wife, Abigail, serves as the head of U.S. government affairs for the processed food giant Kraft. Kraft and Monsanto have worked together in in the past to strike down any anti-GMO bill. For example in 2012 California’s Prop 37, which required labeling of GMO foods, both Kraft and Monsanto donated around $10 million dollars to defeat the bill.
Though lasting only six months, this provision could be an eye-opening example of truly how much power both Monsanto and other major corporations have over our Congress.
–By Cory Hooker
Father Brown Solves Mysteries
By John Farrell, Contributing Theater Columnist
The Innocence of Father Brownis not long on production values but it is big on words and thoughts.
The program describes Father Brown, the detective created by G. K. Chesterton in half a dozen volumes and more than 60 stories, as a humanist as well as religious detective, but that is quite wrong.
Father Brown represents, at least to Chesterton, a Catholic convert himself, all that is great and rational about the Catholic Church. Father Brown solves mysteries by putting himself in the shoes of criminals, by understanding their motives (he has, after all, heard much worse in years of confessions) and by not making the errors that his friends make of presuming anything.
Food Takes the Center Stage
By John Farrell, Theater Column Contributor
School is about education, about learning and achieving. It’s also about eating. As Bertolt Brecht put it trenchantly: “Food first.”
So it is no surprise that Brecht’s Mother Courage and Her Children serves as the model for Lunch Lady Courage, the Cornerstone Theater’s look at one lunch lady and how important she thinks food is to her students.
Written by Peter Howard, one of Cornerstone’s founding members, directed by Chris Anthony, the play, at the Cocoanut Grove Theater of the Robert F. Kennedy Community School, uses the new lunch lady (Page Leong) to tell several stories at once.
Miles Deep
SoCal has one of the Deepest Talents Pools in America, But the Local Music Scene Makes it Hard to Breathe
By Melina Paris, Music Columnist
After publishing my feature story on guitar band Romero Y Perez this past year, I was struck by how unforgiving Southern California’s indy music circuit can be.
Here was a crazy awesome guitar band that could probably fit well on any Jazz stage or venue, yet most people won’t ever get to hear them because of the lack of musical infrastructure to expose and support independent artists.
Just Who’s Money Is It Anyway?– Currency, Debt and the Role of Government
By James Preston Allen, Publisher
If I were to ask the average person on the street, “Whose money was in their pocket,” they would adamantly tell me that it was theirs. In the common understanding of ownership, they’d be right. On a much bigger perspective, the currency of any nation or region belongs to the people of that nation. Basically it means that it is both yours and ours collectively. The banks think that it belongs to them.
Public and Developers in Synch On Vision for Ports O’Call Redevelopment
By Paul Rosenberg,
Senior Editor
Planning for the Ports O’Call redevelopment project got strong and repeated indications of public support in a meeting held by the developers, the LA Waterfront Alliance, at the Warner Grand Theater on April 2.
With an audience of several hundred people, applause punctuated the presentation portion of the community meeting, underscoring key points of support, while the public comments almost entirely harmonized with the presentation itself. Wayne Ratkovich, whose company, The Ratkovich Company, is one half of the Alliance partnership, acknowledged the turnout in his remarks thanking the audience for their participation.
Harbor Currents: NEWS April 4, 2013
Zerby Family Wins Suit Against LBPD
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMr1p6YFwOk]
LONG BEACH — The family of Doug Zerby, who police officers killed in 2010 while he pointed garden hose nozzle after mistaking it for a gun, won three counts of a wrongful death judgment against the Long Beach Police Department, April 4.
Jurors found that the Douglas Zerby’s 4th Amendment rights were violated, that the officers involved actions caused his death and that they acted with malice or reckless disregard for life.
According BelmontShore-Naples Patch, a federal court jury awarded $6.5 million to Zerby’s family, who was shot Dec. 12, 2010. The panel awarded $2 million to Mark Zerby, Douglas Zerby’s father, $1 million to Pam Amici, Doug Zerby’s mother, and $3.5 million to his son, River.
State of Equality: Not Black and White
By: Mathew Highland, Adjunct Staff Writer
The current Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender rights movement has been a fast, confusing and very winding road.
Now that marriage equality has reached the all-decisive Supreme Court, everyone keeps asking, “Will the court rule for or against gay marriage?” The simple answer is: It’s complicated.
Most people understand that the court is deciding whether Proposition 8, the voter-approved marriage ban on same-sex couples in California, and the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which only recognizes heterosexual marriages, are unconstitutional.
What is important here is on what grounds are these unconstitutional. There are numerous possible outcomes, though the likely rulings will be anything but black and white.
In the Proposition 8 and DOMA cases, there are issues with “standing.” In both cases, the parties with the authority to defend the discriminatory legislation have declined, requiring others to step in. If the defense is determined to be without “standing” the cases would be dismissed. If one case were dismissed, it would seem that both would have to be dismissed considering that they suffer from the exact same problem. From the justices’ questions, the fact that they agreed to hear the cases, and what’s out there on the blogosphere, this outcome seems unlikely—but still possible.
With that procedural issue out of the way, we move to constitutionality. One possible and likely scenario, which would be seen as a huge win for gay rights is that Prop. 8 and DOMA be ruled unconstitutional. Millions of Californians would benefit from marriage equality and DOMA would be struck down.
This does NOT mean that marriage equality, throughout the United States, would be the law of the land. DOMA is likely to be found unconstitutional, not on the grounds of the “equal protection clause,” but under the 10th Amendment of “states rights.”
In this likely scenario, Proposition 8 is either ruled unconstitutional with an obscure and narrow decision, or dismissed letting the 9th Circuit ruling stand. Prop. 8 will not be decided in a far-reaching decision based on the equal protection clause, as it should. It should be of great concern that the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment is given so little weight in this Justice John Roberts-led court. This could spell trouble for the Voting Rights Act, which the court will be taking up soon.
While this outcome would be a huge win for gay rights, we should celebrate cautiously as this is not necessarily a progressive win. Federalism versus ‘states rights’ is an American tension that dates back to our very beginnings, to Jefferson and Hamilton. The ‘states rights’ argument has long been a bastion for resisting progress, was the refuge of the confederate states, and used to fight desegregation. This interpretation of the law does not want a large federal government capable of standing up for civil rights, only one that protects property rights. ‘States rights’ advocacy has found a contemporary home inside the Tea Party and Libertarianism.
This ruling would be consistent with the Roberts’ court track record and agenda of dismantling progress while appearing to advance it. Remember Obamacare? Roberts upheld it, but on the grounds of it being a tax. The easiest route to have it upheld, in keeping with court precedent over the past 60 years, would have been to find Obamacare legal under the commerce clause. This is the pillar that the Civil Rights Act stands upon. Conservative judicial activists have long held this as a target. The diminishment of the commerce clause in the Obamacare ruling combined with the emphasis on states rights in the DOMA ruling, and the avoidance of the equal protection clause in Proposition 8 and DOMA signals a huge attack on Federalism and social progress.
The Obamacare and likely marriage equality rulings will surely seem to the American public like progressive decisions by the Roberts’ court. They are not. When historians look back on the Roberts’ court this clever maneuvering will be seen as the hallmark of his style. This allows the court to avoid progressive ire while laying the foundation for truly regressive policy and conservative interpretations of law. The foundations of progressive achievements, ranging from social security to anti-segregation laws, are being undermined and set up to be potentially dismantled. So ironically, things that the LGBT movement is fighting for, like spousal benefits from social security and freedom from discrimination, may all be compromised by these decisions in the long run.