Keep on rockin' in the free world

• OC LIBERAL LAW LOOMS.
.....The LA Times reports on UC Irvine’s new law school (Flap over dean's hiring doesn't keep UC Irvine's law school from lining up prominent staff).
.....As you know, last year, well-known constitutional scholar Erwin Chemerinsky was hired and then fired as dean of the long-sought law school.
.....As the Times explains,

In the weeks before [UCI Chancellor Michael] Drake rescinded the offer to Chemerinsky, prominent conservatives, including Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael Antonovich and former state Republican Party Chairman Michael Schroeder, one of Orange County's most powerful GOP political players, sought to derail his appointment through e-mails and phone calls to the university.

.....(DtB readers know all about Mr. Schroeder, a close associate of trustee Tom Fuentes.)
.....So Drake fired Chemerinsky. That backfired. The firing blew up into an academic freedom cause célèbre. Efforts at damage control led to Chemerinsky being rehired and Drake looking like a used piñata.
.....Many thought that the firing incident would doom Chemerinsky’s efforts to pull together an impressive team of faculty. They were wrong. Even conservatives seem impressed by the “dream team" that the C-man has assembled thus far.
.....Legal scholars tend to be moderately liberal, and so it comes as no surprise that the School’s new crew tilts in that direction, but Chemerinsky has not sought liberals. He has made an effort, however, to hire conservatives:

Chemerinsky…has deliberately courted prominent right-wing thinkers for hire at UCI—so far unsuccessfully—said Elizabeth Loftus, a UCI psychology professor who will teach courses at the law school and has been involved in recruiting. "He is not afraid to be in a place where there's people who disagree," she said.

.....To see the UCI law school faculty list, go to list.

• CARONA CARNIVAL SIDESHOW.
.....Remember Sheriff Mike Carona’s “reserve deputies” money-making scheme? Among the more infamous of his deputies was his martial arts instructor, Raymond Yi. The fellow “was accused of pulling a gun in 2005 on a group of golfers he thought were playing too slowly.”
.....In May, Yi was convicted of a felony count. Now, he’s “seeking a new trial on the grounds that a bailiff improperly talked with jurors during their deliberations about a gun that was a key piece of evidence in the case.” See Carona's martial arts teacher seeks retrial for Chino Hills golf incident.

• HOLLYWOOD STARS AT LAGUNA BEACH.
.....At a fund-raiser in Laguna Beach Thursday night, Harrison Ford, among others, was honored for his environmental work. (Stars come to O.C. to raise green for green cause.)
.....Everyone was invited—everyone, that is, who paid $500 (minimum) for a ticket.
.....Among the celebs: Ted Danson, Diane Lane, Diane Keaton, Jeff Goldblum, Beau Bridges and Sam Waterston.
.....And, of course, Calista Flockhart.
.....Some of ‘em were flown in by helicopter.
.....Also honored, says the OC Reg, “were John Picard, a Corona del Mar advocate of environmentally-sustainable architecture, and actor Sam Waterston, star of TV's ‘Law and Order.’”

• NEWBRIDGE COLLEGE?
.....Apparently, there is some sort of medical technician “college” in Santa Ana called “Newbridge.” It’s been in operation since 1976. (See Former enrollees file class-action suit against Newbridge College.)
.....Marla Jo Fisher informs us that some unhappy students have filed a class-action suit against the college, “alleging they were each defrauded out of $10,000 tuition by promises they could earn good salaries for medical jobs they were ineligible to obtain.”
.....They claim that they need an “associates” degree to get decent jobs, but Newbridge does not offer that degree.

• YOUNG UP TO HIS OLD TRICKS.
.....The wacky and occasionally wonderful Neil Young is about to release yet another film (July 25), this one a documentary of a tour with Crosby, Still, and Nash. (See Neil Young, Where Politics and Technology Meet.)
.....Before the tour, Young persuaded his mates to focus on the material of his controversial and well-regarded anti-war album. And so, during the tour, when the group commenced singing about impeachment of the President and the like, well, the shit hit the fan:

.....…[H]is band mates took to the antiwar theme eagerly. … But the audiences were not exactly unanimous in agreement. In Atlanta, the first verse of Mr. Young’s “Let’s Impeach the President” brought boos, middle fingers and worse.
…
.....To establish a journalistic tone for the film, Mr. Young hired Mike Cerre, a former ABC war correspondent in Iraq and Afghanistan, to be “embedded” on the tour, interviewing fans and capturing the mood of the shows.
…
.....Mr. Cerre said he was given complete freedom to produce 12 newsy segments. Larry Johnson, the film’s producer, said most of them were used, and with only minor editing for length. Mr. Cerre found some support among concertgoers for the band’s politics, but what stands out are unflattering shots of the aging group onstage — like Stephen Stills, then 61, struggling to get up after a fall during “Rockin’ in the Free World” — and complaints from fans, not always civil, who disapproved of the political message.

.....I guess the reporter isn’t aware that there are other reasons, beyond age, for Stills’ trouble getting up off the floor.

A friend passed along this amazing little video about two guys reuniting with their LION, who had been released into the wild: