Chunk on Alcatraz

.....We spent Thursday visiting Alcatraz. I recommend the trip highly, although I suspect that our experience was enhanced by the great weather. So be sure to order great weather before you book.
.....There are structures on the island that date to the California Gold Rush. (Neanderthals, that would be about 1849.) The ruins of the Warden's house are freakin' wonderful--a lovely garden flourishes inside and out.
.....The main prison block reminded me of nothing so much as a mall. The Mall of Orange in particular.

Cleanliness is next to Godliness

.....Mike Carona, Irvine Valley College’s "Hometown Hero"—and occasional prayerful visitor—is in the news again. From this morning’s LA Times: Carona discussed 'cleansing' reserve deputy files:

.....Former Orange County Sheriff Michael S. Carona talked to a former top assistant about "cleansing" the department's reserve-deputy files of information he did not want federal prosecutors to find, the government alleges in a court filing Thursday.
..... The filing came in response to U.S. District Judge Andrew J. Guilford's request that prosecutors provide more specific details about one of the witness-tampering charges in Carona's upcoming corruption trial.
.....The court filing alleges Carona and former Assistant Sheriff Donald Haidl discussed doctoring files from the department's reserve program.
..... Carona was indicted in October on charges he sold access to his office for cash and gifts and that he tampered with potential witnesses. He has pleaded not guilty and vowed to prove his innocence at trial.
..... Haidl, who oversaw the reserve program, is expected to be a witness against Carona at his trial, now scheduled for Aug. 26.
..... Soon after taking office in 1999, Carona appointed scores of campaign donors as reserve deputies, issuing them badges and in some cases guns without background checks or training. The appointments escaped public scrutiny until 2005, when a Los Angeles Times article raised questions about whether Carona was handing out badges as political favors -- an allegation he steadfastly denied.
..... Over the years, several reserves with close ties to Carona have gotten caught misusing their credentials. In one of the most serious, Carona's longtime martial arts instructor was accused of flashing a gun and badge at members of a foursome playing ahead of him on a San Bernardino golf course. Raymond Yi was convicted earlier this month of making a criminal threat. He faces a potential sentence of up to three years in prison.
..... During the lengthy investigation of Carona's administration, federal authorities served the Sheriff's Department with a subpoena asking for original copies of all reserve records on file, according to law enforcement sources familiar with the request.
..... Federal prosecutors did not address in their filing whether Carona and Haidl actually tampered with the department's reserve program records, only that they discussed it. According to prosecutors, from March 17, 2004, through Aug. 13, 2007, Carona urged Haidl and others to "fabricate and conceal facts" from a federal grand jury.
..... The former sheriff's goal was to "keep the focus of the federal grand jury investigation off defendant Carona."
..... In addition, the documents allege, Carona encouraged Haidl to mislead the grand jury about "money, bribes and gifts," that Haidl allegedly provided to Carona.
..... Haidl, who pleaded guilty to tax evasion charges, secretly recorded conversations with Carona three times in the months leading to the sheriff's indictment, according to prosecutors.
..... Carona's attorney, Jeffrey Rawitz, said Haidl's credibility is in question because his sentence on the tax evasion charges will be based in part on his testimony at the Carona trial.
..... "Mr. Haidl has pleaded guilty and is facing significant prison time for his own criminal conduct. He's doing everything he can to reduce his sentence," Rawitz said. "Whether he's a credible witness will be a question for the jury to decide."

See also:

• Sheriff Mike Carona to be Honored at Irvine Valley College Foundation Awards Dinner
• [Sheriff] Spending time at Irvine Valley College
• ”It’s just a matter of time”

Some of Us Will Be Celebratin' This Saturday

You know where to find us! Congratulations again to IVC alum Brandon and his wonderful mother Beth!

(Cal's Greek Theater turns 100 this month.)

Thank God for Don Wagner

.....One of our readers wrote us about the recent Saddleback College scholarship event, suggesting (as others have) that, at the event (we were not present), board president Don Wagner made a political speech about prayer and that some donors were offended. That he made such a speech is clear from the video. Don't know about donors' reactions.
.....But the reader also claims that, at Tuesday's board meeting, during her report, Trustee Nancy Padberg described Wagner's scholarship speech as "political" and suggested that he should apologize for it.
.....Really? No need to wonder. All we have to do is wait for the video of Tuesday's board meeting (not yet available) to be posted at the district website. Then we'll know what Nancy said.
.....But is it true, as some have suggested, that some donors were offended by Don's remarks? Think I'll go back and listen carefully to what Don actually said. (See below.)

Summer's Here and the Time is Right

In case you haven't heard, California's schools are facing a 10% budget cut which will gut an already compromised and weakened system - once the best in the country.

One mother's reaction is to organize a march on Sacramento to, to quote journalist and blogger Celeste Fremon, "protest the latest draconian round of public education budget cuts. The idea was to get a bunch of press attention and, in so doing, hopefully goad/threaten/persuade/emotionally blackmail lawmakers into budget cutting somewhere other than education."

Where to cut?

Fremon has one suggestion:"(The early release of those 22,000 low-level, short-timer prisoners—a move on which Arnold back-pedaled—might be a good place to start.)"

I'm game.

I was a student in those pre-Proposition 13 years. I remember what it was like and I know that I am here in large part due to that well-funded public education.

Some may recognize the mother behind this rally as Sandra Tsing Loh, a So Cal radio personality and writer who comes into my life via KPCC, the Pasadena NPR affiliate.

Check out their website by clicking here. See what you can do. Do it. Pass the word.

"Heck of a meeting": Soliciting info about last night's board meeting

10:39 writes:

Meanwhile, back at our ranch, you missed a heck of a meeting. Two marathon public comments sessions -- one on Don Wagner's scholarship ceremony "invocation" and one on Carmen Dominguez's mysterious reassignment away from musical theatre. And the Board Reports are also not to be missed....

.....--To see Don's "scholarship ceremony" remarks, go to invocation.
.....Last night's meeting was the first in a long time not covered by your intrepid DtB reporter. (Tracy offers highlights of the meeting here.)
.....Anybody else have information about the meeting? Let us know. And thanks, 10:39. --CW

.....To view the board meeting, go to board videos. The May 27 video is not posted yet, but it should be soon.

Our Country: A Million Little Pieces

.....Rebel Girl takes a pause in her grading marathon to draw this parallel for y'all:

.....Two new books are out and the authors are already taking their victory laps and depositing their big bucks in the bank: disgraced fraudulent memoirist James Frey has his "novel," Bright Shiny Morning" and former White House Press secretary Scott McClellan has his own book, "What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception." You remember Scott McClellan - he was up there at the podium during the war, during Katrina, during Gitmo.

.....From the Washington Post:

.....Former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan writes in a new memoir that the Iraq war was sold to the American people with a "political propaganda campaign" led by President Bush and aimed at "manipulating sources of public opinion" and "downplaying the major reason for going to war."…McClellan, who resigned in April 2006, stops short of saying Bush purposely lied about his reasons for invading Iraq, writing that he and his subordinates were not "employing out-and-out deception."
.....But in a chapter titled "Selling the War," he alleges that the administration repeatedly shaded the truth and that Bush "managed the crisis in a way that almost guaranteed that the use of force would become the only feasible option."
.....McClellan, once a staunch defender of the war, comes to a stark conclusion: "What I do know is that war should only be waged when necessary, and the Iraq war was not necessary."

.....Rebel Girl would like to write more about this but she has work to do.
.....So all she wants to do is point out how these two men remind her of a recent student who, when caught plagiarizing, didn't hesitate to ask if he could re-write the plagiarized paper for credit and stood there smiling at her.
.....Rebel Girl, of course, answered no.
.....It seems that few said no to these two men who profit and continue to profit from lying to the public – and in McClellen's case, lying which led to the deaths and suffering of thousands.
.....Maybe, gasp, F. Scott Fitzgerald was wrong: clearly there are second acts in American lives.
.....Look at them grin.

SEE: New York Times: White House reacts negatively