McCain bashes USC; UC workers go on strike; Arnold helps part-timers; Spain moves toward granting chimps rights

• BUT AT THE BALBOA BAY CLUB? In this morning’s OC Register: Barack Obama raises more than $1 million in O.C:

…The seven-figure haul led to a little gloating by Frank Barbaro, chairman of the Democratic Party of Orange County, who noted that presumed Republican nominee John McCain raised slightly less during a Newport Beach fundraiser last month….

See also Jim Lacy on Obama's enemies list

• UC STRIKE. Also in the Reg: UCI workers on strike:

.....Janitors, cafeteria employees and other workers at the UCI Medical Center and residence halls are on strike this morning, potentially disrupting some services for hospital patients and visitors.
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.....The job action is part of a statewide strike against the University of California involving a bitter wage dispute that led to the cancellations of commencement speakers such as Bill Clinton last month at UCLA….

• GOOD NEWS FOR PART-TIMERS. In this morning’s Inside Higher Ed: California Raises Ceiling on Part Timers’ Work:

.....California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday signed legislation that raises the limit on how much individual part-time faculty members can work at any one community college from 60 percent to 67 percent of a full-time professor’s load.
.....While the increase of seven percentage points may seem relatively minor, it will have a significant impact on many adjuncts. Those who teach 5-unit courses (a common circumstance for those in languages and some other fields, and one third of a standard 15-credit load) have been unable to teach more than one course at a college. Those wanting a full-time load have to teach at three or more institutions.
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.....“The original idea was to assure that we had no non-tenure track, full-time positions,” said Marty Hittelman, president of the California Federation of Teachers, who teaches mathematics at Los Angeles Valley College. The problem, he said, is that “it wasn’t advancing the number of full-time positions. Districts were hiring for 60 percent and then people had to teach somewhere else.”….

• THE UNIVERSITY OF "SPOILED CHILDREN." Also in Inside Higher Ed:

.....You expected serious discussion of higher education on the campaign trail? Sen. Barack Obama is being attacked by some anti-immigration groups for suggesting that more Americans should learn to speak foreign languages. Obama is sticking with his position. Sen. John McCain, meanwhile, is being subjected to online analysis for his statement that the University of Southern California (his wife’s alma mater) is “the University of Spoiled Children.” Some observers think a little university-bashing may be good for the McCain campaign, some at USC aren’t amused, while still others are upset that Cindy McCain is being described as having been a cheerleader at the university when she was actually a “song girl.”

• IN SPAIN, A GREAT DAY FOR CHIMP RIGHTS. In yesterday’s New York Times: When Human Rights Extend to Nonhumans:

.....The Times reports a “vote of the environment committee of the Spanish Parliament last month to grant limited rights to our closest biological relatives, the great apes — chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas and orangutans.”
.....Evidently, the committee was reflecting the principles of Peter Singer and Paola Cavalieri’s “Great Ape Project,” “which points to apes’ human qualities, including the ability to feel fear and happiness, create tools, use languages, remember the past and plan the future.”
.....According to the Times, the bill, which is likely to pass, will make it illegal in Spain to kill apes. Further, “Torture, including in medical experiments, and arbitrary imprisonment, including for circuses or films, would be forbidden.”
.....And, no, Spain will not be granting chimps the right to drive or vote.
.....Naturally, the scientific community (at least that part that uses chimps to study AIDS) are mighty upset. Singer says that scientists need to explain why they don’t use a better study model: humans. “Why apes?”, he asks.
.....And the church is pretty peeved. Spain’s Catholic bishops “attacked the vote as undermining a divine will that placed humans above animals.”
.....The Times writer relates a personal story:

.....Ten years ago, I stood in a clearing in the Cameroonian jungle, asking a hunter to hold up for my camera half the baby gorilla he had split and butterflied for smoking. ¶ My distress … struck him as funny. “A gorilla is still meat,” said my guide, a former gorilla hunter himself. “It has no soul.” ¶ So he agrees with Spain’s bishops….