The SOUTH ORANGE COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT —
"[The] blog he developed was something that made the district better." - Tim Jemal, SOCCCD BoT President, 7/24/23
Orange County super Republican Tom Fuentes invited the political power base to breakfast at the Balboa Bay Club & Resort this week to welcome the grandson of late President Richard M. Nixon.
In Newport Beach on business, Christopher Nixon Cox, 30, addressed the breakfast conference expressing his opinions on the state of the nation and the direction of the Obama administration. “Higher taxes hit the poorest people hardest,” said the young attorney who is in private practice in New York City and is also involved in raising equity for major capital investment. “We need projects that make sense for Americans,” he added, stating, “The best way to create jobs is to cut the capital gains tax.” Cox continued, “How about a 50% tax credit on payroll taxes for businesses? That would stimulate economic growth.”....
Wadda asshole.
I'm told that Al Tello, Glenn Roquemore and David Robinson (of the IVC Foundation Board) were also in attendance.
Remember when Fuentes suggested that the "Great Park" be named the "Richard E. Nixon" Park?
At about 11 a.m., Saddleback College math lecturer Lawrence Perez made a special trip to school after President Todd Burnett called him in to his office.
He didn't have a class, and so the special meeting was a little troubling.
“A lot of things were going through my mind. I didn’t know what was going on,” said Perez.
His concern melted into joy. Perez said he had no idea the prizes were chosen in spring, not October when the annual celebration is held.
“I'm only as good as this institution," said Perez, a 10-year teacher. "Students are the ones who directly deserve all the credit for all my success."
Then, in tromped the entourage, announcing he was one of the teachers of the year.
The five winners were chosen from more than 60 finalists selected by individual school districts. A panel of county officials picked the five winners after interviewing all the finalists.
California GOP Rep. David Dreier and a number of other politicians are the unwilling stars of a controversial new documentary with an explosive premise--it's time to blow open the closet door on prominent politicians who have hidden their homosexuality while actively working against gay causes.
The film "Outrage," which opens today at the Embarcadero Center Cinema in San Francisco, presents interviews and documentation charging that a number of prominent legislators--including Dreier, the U.S. representative from San Dimas (Los Angeles County), GOP Florida Gov. Charlie Crist and former Democratic New York Mayor Ed Koch--have remained closeted while publicly opposing legislation on issues such as same-sex marriage, HIV/AIDS funding, and gays in the military.
Kirby Dick, the film's director, told The Chronicle on Thursday that "it's not only the right thing to do, it's the responsibility of journalists and filmmakers to report on hypocrisy wherever they see it.
During his 34 years on campus, [Professor Mohinder] Grewal has contributed to the development of the space-based positioning, navigation and timing systems used in common global positioning technology. He has written three books on the subject, and he holds two patents with a third patent application pending for algorithms related to global positioning and navigation.
"It's so nice to be appreciated, and have the university recognize my writings," Grewal, 65, said. "My books have brought the university a good name both internationally and nationally."
Instead, Dan Choi, an openly gay combat veteran from Tustin, received different marching orders: "pack up your stuff and go home."
That’s how he described the words printed on the "withdrawal" letter that arrived days ago to his address. In a televised interview Friday on CNN's "American Morning," Choi, who's being dismissed for violating the military's "don’t ask, don’t tell policy," said the mail hit like "a big slap in the face." ... Choi grew up in Tustin and attended the selective military academy West Point, where he learned to speak Arabic. That rare linguistic skill paid off during an extended tour in Iraq, where he attained the rank of first lieutenant, he said.
He ended his overseas service in 2008 and joined the New York Army National Guard, a reserve military force. Then came the letter, which charged him with negatively affecting "the good order and discipline" of the guard. ... On Thursday, Choi addressed the fallout of his decision to out himself on MSNBC's "The Rachel Maddow Show," where last month he first publicly said the words “I am gay." After the announcement, he said, fellow guardsman eased his concerns.
A reader alerted us to a story concerning trustee John Williams. Williams, of course, is also the Orange County Public Administrator-Public Guardian, having been elected for that office in 2002.
According to the Reg, back in 2005, Williams and then-Treasurer John Moorlach promised that they could save the county $300K in three years by combining the public administrator and public guardian offices. Well, it's 2009, and, according to the grand jury, nothing of the kind has happened.
Their report, made available on Wednesday,
takes aim at Williams for doubling salary costs at the agency and engaging in questionable personnel practices. ¶ "The annual base salary of management has increased over 96 percent since 2005," read the grand jury report. ¶ "They have failed to deliver on their promise to save Orange County taxpayers' money." … The Public Administrator is an elected job which pays less than $20,000 a year. But the Public Guardian is an appointed position earning similar wages to other department heads at more than $138,000 annually. Under state law, the public administrator in each county settles the estates of the recently deceased who leave no known heirs....
According to the report, in 2005 there were seven employees who had combined yearly salaries of $529,796. By 2008, the number of employees had risen to 10, a spike of 40 percent. And their wages totaled $1, 042,828 annually.
The spike is not only attributable to extra employees but to numerous questionable promotions. ¶ Grand jurors found that one employee was promoted to a top management position within a year of retirement.
Apparently, that wasn’t the only promotion that was hinky. Several of them were called into question by the county’s human resources people.
Even Moorlach thinks the report is troubling. He was scheduled to meet with Williams (yesterday).
Apart from all that, the grand jury just thinks that the agency does a lousy job.
The report cited one audit by social security administration that found a 30 percent error rate in files handled by the public guardian. ¶ Another example cited was the case of one individual who left behind $7,400 after passing away. The public administrator took four years to bring the case before a court for disbursement and by that time the funds were depleted.
It gets worse:
Grand jurors also criticized the use of internal manuals saying many were not up to date and were "in shambles." ¶ "Four organizational charts were provided to the Grand Jury over a period of four months. These charts were different each time they were produced and the titles of the individuals were constantly changing." ¶ "Out of control personnel practices have created an organization top heavy in management and riddled with unhappy workers required to do much more work than what is considered typical," the report concluded.
Speaking of dope...Matt Coker (OC Weekly) alerts us to a video on YouTube. Conservative OC judge Jim Gray argues for marijuana decriminalization (lengthy):
At the top of the grade, just after old Hamilton Truck Trail, I saw the spooky old trees to the left, just as the sun was going down, and the hills looked old and strange and full of Mystery History, which I love.
I had my camera, so I stopped, parked my Chrysler along Live Oak, walked across the road.
It was too late for my flash to do any good, so I took a few shots, holding the camera as still as possible.
Here's one of those old trees, next to some spooky old grass, on this spooky old night. Ain't much of a photograph, I know, but, I tell you, there's something weird and wonderful about this old tree with its big branches and frizzy, tiny micro-branches, right there where the old stagecoaches used to come and go up in these old hills, one hundred years ago.
It was in that whizz-bang room on the top floor of the Library.
The student at left demonstrated his Japanese speaking and bowing. Others told tales of Center wonderfulness and fabulousness.
Irvine Valley College's Learning Center held a "multicultural" celebration and lunch in that wacky whizz-bang room up on the second floor of the Library today. The Chancellor, the college President, the Dean, and the people who run the center (Bob Kopecky and Larisa Sergeyeva--see above) made brief presentations, as did various faculty and students who regularly use the center.
Japanese language instructor Fumiko Ishii had lots to say about the Center and its usefulness.
Karima, Larisa, and Bob (formerly "Park Ranger Kopecky").
Judging by the turnout and smiley faces, the event was a huge success. I had to leave half way into it (to teach), and, by then, there were lots more attendees than seats. A crowd had squeazed together in the hallway outside the room, creating a dynamic that threatened to tear down the back wall and initiate a domino effect that, no doubt, would have resulted in the end of civilization as we know it.
Yeah, but that didn't happen, as far as I know. A good time was had by all.
MEANWHILE, over near B200, I noticed that yet another sculpture had materialized on campus. It would seem to be part of IVC's "First Bi-Annual Outdoor Sculpture Invitational."
The good news: I like it
The bad news: I'm told that a really nice tree had to be removed to locate the sculpture in this prime location. D'oh!
There will be an "Open Gallery Reception & Meet the Artists Walking Tour" on Wednesday, May 13, at the IVC A Quad.
A few weeks ago, I posted the above picture of an "Irvine bean packing plant," which I found in the OC Almanac (OC Public Library). It seemed to me that this is the structure one finds today along Sand Canyon and interstate 5 and houses, among other things, Tia Juana’s Long Bar and Restaurante. So, I dropped by there today and took this pic:
Looks like a match to me. (The train tracks are on the other side of the building, which is unaccessible.)
Tia Juana’s was the perfect fit for the 1885 lima bean warehouse. Once the center of the vast Irvine Ranch, the warehouse was originally built to process the lima beans which were grown on what is now El Toro Marine Base. At harvest time, as many as 200,000 hundred-pound sacks of lima beans would be shipped all over the world from the rail line at the back of the building.
As agriculture gave way to the high-tech urban Orange County, the warehouse was restored and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Tia Juana’s Long Bar and Restaurante moved in that same year [1986], using great care to preserve the original character of the building. Even when new touches, such as the murals that are painted on the walls, were added, they were installed on new wood, which overlays the old, leaving the walls intact. Most of the original equipment is located throughout the building and stored in the loft overhead.
While the ranch hands of a hundred years ago would indeed be surprised at how the building is being used today, we believe they would approve and would enjoy Tia Juana’s, as we hope you are.
Elsewhere on the site, we're told that the "bean and grain storage warehouse" was built in 1895, the blacksmith's shop was built c. 1916, and the hotel was built c. 1913. The site includes the following photos:
Old Town Irvine, across from Tia Juana's, this afternoon
This morning’s Inside Higher Ed reports on a new NBC comedy about lovable losers at a fictional community college. (Poking Fun at Community Colleges.)
…Monday, NBC announced its fall lineup, including “Community,” a comedy about a lovable group of "losers" at Greendale Community College, a fictional two-year institution. The show comes from the creative minds of Joe and Anthony Russo, who won Emmy Awards for directing several episodes of the now-defunct Fox sitcom “Arrested Development.”
“It's been said that community college is a ‘halfway school’ for losers, a self esteem workshop for newly divorced housewives, and a place where old people go to keep their minds active as they circle the drain of eternity,” reads a network description of the show. “Well, at Greendale Community College ... that's all true.”
The show will star Joel McHale (of “The Soup”) and Chevy Chase (of nothing). Chase plays a perpetual student.
Naturally, many community college leaders are pissed about this. But some aren’t. Betty K. Young, President of Houston Community College’s Coleman College for Health Sciences, declares
“It could be a great statement about the role that community colleges play in society,” Young said. “A few years ago, people pretended that we didn’t exist. Now, we’re going to become a prime-time television show. That’s amazing, and it’s recognition that community colleges are a uniquely American institution.”
Drat! I guess NBC didn’t like my idea about a loveable bunch of community college instructors struggling to rid their district of a ruthless and incompetent chancellor and the clueless right-wing board that perpetually supports him.
The crowd: Club breakfast welcomes Nixon’s grandson (The Daily Pilot)
