This is the city: Los Angeles, California. I work here. I'm an ex-mayor. Los Angeles is a magnet for people from all over the world. Some of them run for public office. Inevitably some of them stray from the golden rule and rule for those that have the gold. That's when I go to work. My name is Yorty. I'm a dead pol.
Mayor Sam Exclusive: Wendy Carrillo's Educational Misadventures with Marcos Aguilar?
On the eve of the next 51st Assembly District (AD) Special Election Candidate Forum at the Sotomayor Learning Center, the Mayor Sam Blog discloses links between Wendy Carrillo and CONTROVERSIAL Charter School Educator/Indoctrination Marcos Aguilar, as the Luis Lopez Campaign (along with former LAUSD School Board Member Bennett Kayser) condemns her recent disparaging remarks about Public School Teachers.
Information regarding tomorrow's (Wednesday 11-15-17) 51st AD Special Election Candidate Forum at the Sotomayor Learning Center.
** Blogger's Notes: FINALLY!! The gloves are coming off in the 51st Assembly District Special Election Runoff between the Homegrown Progressive Luis Lopez and the CADEM Establishment/Special Interests United-financed Wendy Carrillo ........, just in time to add some spice to manana's Candidate Forum at the Sotomayor Learning Center.
In recent days, 51st AD Voters have been the recipient of phone calls from Carrillo Campaign that attack Lopez for his alleged ties to Corporate Medicine and Big Pharma (a dubious charge).
Meanwhile, the Lopez Campaign crafted the following Mailer (pictured below) that repudiate (with contributing testimonial from former LAUSD School Board Member Bennett Kayser) recent disparaging comments via Carrillo that targeted Public School Teachers.
With five days remaining to Election Day (with the odds good on both Nazarian and Johnson coming in first and second), we bring you the latest spin that is quickly replacing the spam in our bloggin email accounts. Enjoy!
WHY IS CTA OPPOSED TO BOTH GETTING DANGEROUS TEACHERS IMMEDIATELY OUT OF THE CLASSROOM AND ELECTING AN EDUCATION REFORMER TO THE STATE ASSEMBLY?
San Fernando Valley, May 30th, 2012 – The California Teachers Association yesterday publicly opposed SB1530, a bill to immediately get sexual predators and other teachers guilty of egregious misconduct out of the classroom. The same day that the CTA attempted to kill Senator Alex Padilla’s legislation, the union reported spending approximately $400,000 asking Valley residents to vote against Brian Johnson.
“I'm beyond baffled by CTA's priorities. SB 1530 is a no-brainer to me. (** that is why Johnson set up this online petition of support, good electioneering) As a former classroom teacher, I know that our children’s safety at school should be our first priority. Let’s stand up for our good teachers and get rid of the dangerous ones that put our children at risk and give our profession a horrible name," Brian Johnson said.
If SB1530 had already been a law, LAUSD could have immediately dismissed Mark Berndt, the Miramonte Elementary teacher who has been charged with 23 counts of lewd acts against children ages 7 to 10.
“The union knows that my strong support for reforming our public schools will put an end to the strong-arm tactics they employ to protect predatory teachers who should no longer remain in the classroom,” Brian Johnson said.
This week alone, CTA spent approximately $180,000 on an ad buy for television commercial full of misinformation implying that Brian Johnson is in support of vouchers and privatizing public schools. "I believe in the promise of public education, and have spent my entire career fighting for it. In no way, shape, or form, am I for vouchers or privatizing public schools," Brian Johnson said. "For the 90% of the issues we agree on -- smaller classrooms, more professional development, more use of teachers’ voices in schools and school districts, and a richer curriculum beyond standardized tests -- I will fight harder than any other candidate in this race. It seems ridiculous that they are willing to resort to this smear campaign just because I will not back down from two issues: supporting all types of schools and creating a comprehensive teacher evaluation system."
Ken Draper writing at LA Citybeat warns that the results of the CD2 race will have a significant impact on the City's Neighborhood Councils. The winner of the race will go on to take Wendy Greuel's role as chairperson of the City Council's Education and Neighborhoods Committee. Given Chris Essel and Tamar Galatzan's support for financial disclosure for members of the volunteer panels, its no doubt the election of either of them would be a disaster for the boards. That's likely why a significant number of Neighborhood Council leaders have endorsed Paul Krekorian who has opposed financial disclosure and whose staff is well know to many of them.
Mayor Villaraigosa is supporting efforts to turn over 50 new LAUSD schools to charter school operators. The Mayor recently wrote in an LA Times op-ed piece "For too long, leaders at every level of government have defended a status quo that serves the interests of adults more than children; that gives bureaucrats a near monopoly over public education." Still, the Mayor faces fierce opposition to the plan from the teachers' union, UTLA President A.J. Duffy told NBC News the Mayor's plan will “cause chaos in our public education.”
And finally Zuma Dogg noted the presence of members of the Los Angeles County Civil Grand Jury at today's Los Angeles City Council meeting. The Civl Grand Jury investigates local government agencies and can act on individual citizen complaints. Zuma says that the members, identified by their Grand Jury namebadges, sat through public comment on non-agenda items at the beginning of the meeting and then left at the conclusion of public comment without saying a word. Zuma wonders if the Grand Jury is investigating complaints that he submitted to the ACLU accusing the City Council of violating the free speech rights of citizens who come before it to speak. Stay tuned.
The Mayor's transit tax scam, Measure R could be in trouble in the November election. Bob Stern, president of the nonpartisan Center for Governmental Studies told The Daily News "The timing is terrible. I think anything with money will have problems." Measure R will likely get a majority of the vote, but a two-thirds vote is difficult to achieve, even in good economic times, Stern noted. Additionally, a rash of rail accidents and the safety procedures of MTA and Metrolink being question will have a negative impact on passage.
The Los Angeles Unified School District has lost another court case against a charter school. New West Charter School in West Los Angeles had challenged the District when it did not provide New West with classroom space as per a voter approved state measure. The court ordered LAUSD to provide space for 285 students at Fairfax High school or another acceptable school facility in conformity with Proposition 39 by October 8, 2008.
Crime is down in the Valley but still up overall citywide. Despite a "moratorium" on murder called for by members of the City Council, a significant wave of murder and violence swept across LA this weekend. One thing city leaders could to make a big dent in gang violence is to support Jamiel's Law and at least give the Police the opportunity to thin out criminal illegal aliens from Los Angeles. The parents of Jamiel Shaw II - a young, innocent high school student allegedly shot by an illegal alien who had been released from jail hours before - are going to City Hall Tuesday morning to support the overturning of Special Order 40 for criminal illegal alien gangs.
I guess folks who work for doctors, hospitals, lawyers and accounts that have celebrity clients think it's an employee benefit to search through stars' personal records. Previously, over a dozen workers at UCLA Medical Center were busted for snooping through the medical files of Britney Spears. A new report says that months before that several others at UCLA browsed records for actress Farrah Fawcett, who has been battling cancer. Particularly troubling for Fawcett was that news of her illness was covered by tabloids before she could inform her family. UPDATE: The KENNEDY REPUBLICAN's medical records were also snooped in!
I'm not sure if anyone even is paying attention, but the Mayor's State of the City speech is coming up next Monday. Rick Orlov is saying its going to be nothing more than a repeat of last year's speech. So I suggest you tune in instead to the latest episode of "Big Bang Theory," when Leonard and Sheldon meet a 15-year-old physics prodigy, Sheldon is distraught that this boy genius is younger and smarter, so in an attempt to restore his sense of purpose, the boys come up with a solution to derail Dennis ' research.
Zero tolerance and political correctness have rum amok at a Colorado elementary school. An eight year old boy was suspended for coloring a part of his sleeve with a Sharpie and then apparently smelling the ink. However, you can't get high from sniffing a Sharpie.
Foothill Cities Blog snared an interview with California State Senate Candidate Carol Liu. If you read the interview you'll walk away with gems like one of Liu's qualities of an effective legislator: "the rise to a position (or positions) of power within the institution." Yea, that's exactly what we want is legislators spending their time jockeying for personal power instead of solving problems, or even better, get out of the way.
We missed it, but Monday was Jerry Brown's 70th birthday. How did the former and possibly once again Governor Moonbeam spend his special day? With his wife at a trappist monastery. Ah, some things never change! Should we have bought him a Plymouth?
Last week the North Valley Area Planning commission in a surprising turn, unanimously upheld an appeal against the approval of the installation of a T-Mobile cellphone tower in North Hills. The tower was to be erected on the property of Valley Park Church and was contracted between the church and T-Mobile.
However, the same property is also leased by Our Community School, a small North Hills elementary charter school.
Though the appeal was filed by neighbors concerned about the tower in what is essentially a residential neighborhood, and under the flightpath of the Van Nuys airport, 60 or more parents and children from the charter school showed up to the meeting to speak and support the appeal, citing safety concerns regarding stored chemicals, radiation, and earthquake safety.
Though the official recommendation from staff was for the commission to deny the appeal, all five commissioners voted to block the installation.
The commissioners expressed concern about siting on a school playground, the setback bringing it close to residential homes, lack of prior community input and notification, and incongruity with the "master plan" for neighborhood development.
This decision may be in violation of "The Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act," a federal law signed by President Clinton to give religious institutions freedom from discriminatory acts by local or state government.
