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
I want to show this video and play this song for two reasons. First, I loved this single back in the day—late 1967—which is odd, I guess, because I was 12 years old and into Dylan and the Beatles, not lady singers of Brill Building tunes. (I also loved Dusty Springfield's "Wishin' and Hopin'," 1964, another David/Bacharach tune.)
Second, lyricist Hal David intended the song as expressing the perspective of a worried war bride (or girlfriend) whose man is serving in Vietnam. I wonder if many who enjoyed the song back in 1967 understood that? I never heard the song that way, exactly, though I was moved by it.
Now that I understand the writer’s intent, the song seems even more compelling to me. It makes me admire David (and Bacharach and Warwick) even more. What a great song and great sentiment, making the war and its evils real and tangible and particular.
Looking back all those years ago, it seems to me that the country had a weirdly unhealthy awareness of that war. People of my generation all knew people who had died or the wives and girlfriends and family of guys who had died in Vietnam. I recall one of my teachers, a beautiful, tall young woman with red hair and kind eyes—Mrs. Cornelius—suddenly seeming sad, her efforts to teach us suddenly joyless. Eventually, I learned that her husband had been killed in that distant jungle, and I was saddened to think that she was doing her job, perhaps out of necessity, despite her loss. And, to that extent, with people everywhere experiencing or witnessing proximate tragedy, Americans on the home front genuinely felt the war, I guess. Yet, somehow, for me, the war often seemed to be a thing ignored and denied, as I looked around me at the unimpeded flow of loony busyness and endless crass commerce and wild striving.
The song still moves me; but I think of it differently now, as a piece of beautiful recognition and realism. That Dionne Warwick was an African-American makes the song even more poignant somehow.
The moment I wake up Before I put on my makeup I say a little prayer for you
I was not aware at the time—too caught up in Beatles or Buffalo Springfield or Dylan, I guess—but, a year after Warwick’s hit, Aretha Franklin did a cover of the song. I’m not sure how much thought she put into it—it came about more or less by accident—but I have to say that I prefer her soulful version, with her inspired singing and churchy piano accompaniment.
I keep thinking of these recordings these days. They made real the tragedy we were in.
Like the long-ago Vietnam War, this Covid crisis is so obviously going down wrong. We lost 58,000 Americans in Vietnam, and, largely, we kept doing the same frantic, crazy things as before, and dark reality managed to poke through only imperfectly. As I write this, three times that number of Americans have died miserable deaths of Covid-19, and over a far shorter period. And it seems to me that, for many Americans, and for our "leadership," the reality of that horror is denied or rejected, a fact that promises to extend the Covid horror far further into the indefinite future.
Shame and fear aren't the best motivators for public health campaigns, experts say. But colleges take that approach amid COVID-19 outbreaks as campuses reopen.
Inside Higher Ed
✅ UC Santa Cruz forced to evacuate amid fires - students, faculty shelter at the beach -- A raging and unpredictable complex of wildfires forced authorities Thursday to order the evacuation of UC Santa Cruz, one of the few times a top California learning institution has been forced to flee from flames. Stuart Leavenworth in the Los Angeles Times$ Jessica A. York, Nicholas Ibarra in the Santa Cruz Sentinel -- 8/21/20
✅ A ballot prop that could boost racial equity among university faculty -- Come November, California voters will determine the fate of affirmative action… again. What they decide will have a huge impact on higher education. Mikhail Zinshteyn CalMatters -- 8/21/20
✅ Cal State in the COVID era: No tuition cuts, 4 other takeaways from chancellor chat -- In a virtual town hall event hosted by CalMatters, Cal State Chancellor Tim White answered questions about COVID-19 testing, tuition, faculty preparedness, and more. Mikhail Zinshteyn CalMatters -- 8/21/20
Questions are being raised about the propriety of Liberty University president Jerry Falwell Jr.’s use of a yacht owned by NASCAR mogul Rick Hendrick for multiple family vacations.
Liberty has a multimillion-dollar sponsorship deal with Hendrick’s company, Hendrick Motorsports, according to reporting by Politico. The deal has been in place since at least 2018 and is thought to cost the university around $6 million a year.
✅ Democrats divided: Newsom’s family-leave plan faces resistance from his own party -- It doesn’t sound like an idea that would generate much controversy in a statehouse dominated by Democrats: Should more California workers be assured they can return to their jobs if they take time off to care for a sick family member or new baby? Laurel Rosenhall CalMatters -- 8/21/20
✅ California wildfires are so intense they’re frying the fire cams: See dramatic images -- The lightning-sparked wildfires raging across Northern California are so intense that for the first time, they are torching the remote cameras that help monitor them. Kellie Hwang in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 8/21/20
✅ Trump on California wildfires: ‘You got to get rid of the leaves’ -- President Trump renewed his criticism of California’s forestry practices Thursday as wildfires burned up and down the state, saying “many years of leaves and broken trees” are contributing to the disasters. “I see again, the forest fires are starting. They’re starting again in California,” Trump said at a campaign event in Old Forge, Pa. “And I said, you’ve got to clean your floors. You’ve got to clean your forests.” Trapper Byrne in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 8/21/20
✅ At Democratic convention, Newsom criticizes Trump for California fire comments -- In a video appearance Thursday at the Democratic National Convention, Gov. Gavin Newsom tore into President Trump for threatening to strip federal funding for wildfire prevention in California after nearly 500,000 acres burned in storm-related lightning strikes, criticizing him further for trying to dismantle the state’s landmark vehicle emission standards. Phil Willon in the Los Angeles Times$ Alexei Koseff in the San Francisco Chronicle$ Carla Marinucci Politico -- 8/21/20
✅ No deal yet in Sacramento to help struggling California renters -- With less than two weeks before a statewide moratorium on renter evictions expires, California lawmakers on Thursday declined to back a plan that would have provided tax credits for landlords while sending a separate proposal that would protect tenants back for additional negotiations with Gov. Gavin Newsom. Patrick McGreevy in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 8/21/20
✅ ‘Totally worth it.’ Mom, daughter answers stranger’s plea to save Stripper the cat in Bay Area fire -- As the one of the state’s largest fires rained ash on her hometown and destroyed homes just beyond the city limits, Carrie Paulson decided to drive right into it to save a cat. Not her cat, but a complete stranger’s. Molly Sullivan in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 8/21/20
✅ San Diego Supervisor by Day, But a COVID-19 Skeptic on the Airwaves -- Since May, County Supervisor Jim Desmond has positioned himself as the most high-profile skeptic of the coronavirus to hold local office. He’s primarily given voice on his podcast to people who believe the dangers of COVID-19 are exaggerated, particularly in schools. Katy Stegall Voiceofsandiego.org -- 8/20/20
✅Trump Phone Calls Add to Lingering Questions About Russian Interference -- More than 200 pages into a sprawling, 1,000-page report on Russian election interference, the Senate Intelligence Committee made a startling conclusion endorsed by both Republicans and Democrats: Donald J. Trump knew of and discussed stolen Democratic emails at critical points late in his 2016 presidential campaign. Julian E. Barnes in the New York Times$ -- 8/20/20
✅Orange County records first death of a child from COVID-19 -- The Orange County Health Care Agency reported the first local death of someone under 18 to COVID-19 — a teenage girl. A news release issued late Wednesday, Aug. 19, said the Health Care Agency confirmed what it described as a “pediatric death related to COVID-19.” The agency said the case involved a female in her teens “with significant underlying medical conditions.” Theresa Walker in the Orange County Register-- 8/20/20
✅‘No one is ready for it.’ Fleeing a raging fire amid the coronavirus pandemic -- Lloyd Broughton, 78, evacuated with little warning after a firetruck came up his road north of Vacaville at 3 a.m. Wednesday. Along with his wife, Anne, 73, and daughter Kristine, 35, they gathered their seven rescue cats and packed two cars. “No one is ready for it,” he said of having to leave in the middle of a pandemic. Anita Chabria in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 8/20/20
✅The tough questions pushing California to an eviction cliff -- Governor Gavin Newsom doesn’t want it to happen. Neither do powerful leaders in the state Legislature. Tenant groups desperately want to prevent it, and landlord associations say they also want to avoid it so long as they don’t bear an unfair portion of the cost. Matt Levin CalMatters -- 8/20/20
✅Obama torches Trump like American democracy depends on it -- Barack Obama went high. On the third night of the Democratic convention — a word that seems increasingly absurd to describe what is really just two hours of nightly programming from the DNC — the former president delivered a memorable speech that balanced torching the sitting president with assuring voters of the possibility of something better. Ryan Lizza Politico -- 8/20/20
✅Steve Bannon Is Charged With Fraud in ‘We Build the Wall’ Campaign
Mr. Bannon and three others are accused in a scheme to use funds raised for construction to pay for personal expenses.
NYT
Stephen K. Bannon, President Trump’s former top adviser, was charged on Thursday in New York with fraud for his role in a scheme related to “We Build the Wall,” an online fund-raising effort that collected more than $25 million for the president’s much-touted plan to erect a barrier on the Mexican border, officials said.
Mr. Bannon and three other defendants “defrauded hundreds of thousands of donors, capitalizing on their interest in funding a border wall to raise millions of dollars, under the false pretense that all of that money would be spent on construction,” Audrey Strauss, the acting United States attorney in Manhattan, said in a statement Thursday.
Mr. Bannon was arrested early Thursday in Connecticut by U.S. postal inspectors and brought to Manhattan where he faced charges in a two-count indictment unsealed in federal district court. He was expected to appear before a U.S. magistrate judge in New York later in the day.
President Trump's lawyers had pushed to kill a grand jury subpoena for his tax records by arguing the district attorney’s order to produce documents was “wildly overbroad” and tantamount to “harassment.”
Studies on the subject have been too small to yield definitive answers. But a new paper finding high viral loads and high positivity rates in children joins other studies suggesting that some children may be “silent spreaders.”
Unfunded pension liabilities are posing increasing credit risks to public colleges and universities as market interest rates decline and investment returns fall below many pension systems’ assumed levels, a new Moody’s report shows.
The liabilities will likely lead to greater required pension contributions from colleges and universities. Colleges with the highest pension liabilities are more vulnerable to economic and fiscal disruptions. But those with large amounts of outstanding debt tend to have the financial flexibility necessary to withstand pension challenges, the report states.
For the past six years, I have taught the literature and culture of the Iberian Peninsula to my students at Stony Brook University, which is part of the State University of New York system. Last year, I was awarded tenure. During my pregnancy, colleagues outside Stony Brook would ask, “When will you start your maternity leave? How long is it?” When I told them that my university — a public research university with famous faculty across the humanities and social sciences — did not have a maternity-leave policy, their jaws dropped. Female colleagues have dealt with this dreadful situation since time immemorial. Some, including in my own department, have taken a semester without pay to care for their newborns. Others have returned to the classroom with a 1-month old baby at home....
After weeks of uncertainty about universities' reopening plans, college students are facing potentially life-altering decisions about their safety and their futures.
✅Slowing COVID-19 outbreak has California weighing what next reopening will look like -- California health officials are beginning to mull what the next phase of reopening may look like, offering a glimmer of hope for places like Los Angeles County. Joseph Serna in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 8/19/20
✅Top California health official on coronavirus pandemic: ‘The state picture is stabilizing’ -- The number of Californians hospitalized for COVID-19 had been falling steadily over the last two weeks, but rose for the first time Monday, Ghaly said. He added that it is too soon to say whether that reversal is part of a larger trend or a one-off. Catherine Hoand Erin Allday in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 8/19/20
✅California to join legal challenge against Trump administration over USPS reductions -- Amid a growing outcry against cutbacks at the U.S. Postal Service, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy announced Tuesday that he would suspend the changes until after the election. Maya Lau in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 8/19/20
✅West Nile virus activity rampant in California. Heat wave speeds up mosquito breeding -- The leader of the Sacramento-Yolo Mosquito & Vector Control District warned local residents that West Nile virus is intensifying after receiving word earlier in the day that 20 mosquito samples tested positive for the illness. Cathie Andersonin the Sacramento Bee$ -- 8/19/20
✅G.O.P.-Led Senate Panel Details Ties Between 2016 Trump Campaign and Russia -- It provided a bipartisan Senate imprimatur for an extraordinary set of facts: The Russian government disrupted an American election to help Mr. Trump become president, Russian intelligence services viewed members of the Trump campaign as easily manipulated, and some of Mr. Trump’s advisers were eager for the help from an American adversary. Mark Mazzetti in the New York Times$ Greg Miller, Karoun Demirjian and Ellen Nakashima in the Washington Post$ Andrew Desiderio, Kyle Cheney and Martin Matishak Politico -- 8/19/20
Notre Dame suspends in-person classes for two weeks amid rising case counts. Michigan State calls off in-person instruction for the fall, less than two weeks before students were to return to campus.
Some predominantly online institutions have ramped up marketing efforts to attract students during the pandemic. A foundation's report tracks spending and criticizes a pattern of “concerning” ads.
About one-third of undergraduate, graduate and professional school students screened during the summer were found to have depression or anxiety, or both, which is a higher rate than seen in years past, according to a new report by the Student Experience in the Research University, or SERU, Consortium.
A few days ago, I noted that Mathur crony Helen Locke is running for Dave Lang’s to-be-vacated seat on the SOCCCD board in area 1. Luckily, she has some decent-looking competition:
The two remaining SOCCCD trustee races—Areas 6 and 7—involve incumbents, namely, James Wright and Tim Jemal:
South OC College Dist, Trustee Area 6
1. JAMES R. WRIGHT (incumbent)
2. RYAN DACK
No candidate statement issued [He couldn't afford the $4k fee; Wright had the Faculty Association pay it.]
South OC College Dist, Trustee Area 7
1. TIMOTHY "TIM" JEMAL
2. MO ENTEZAMPOUR
No candidate statement issued
3. SEAN GAWNE
No candidate statement issued
WHO ARE THESE GUYS?
Dack appears to be a teacher for Irvine Unified. He calls himself an educator and “techie.” He teaches Economics and AP Government.
Entezampour says he’s a professor in the Biological Sciences Dept. at Cal State LA. He also teaches for IVC. I’m guessing he’s an adjunct at both places. (He’s not listed among faculty at the Cal State LA site.) UPDATE: Mo Entezampour joined Cypress College as the dean of Science/ Engineering/ Mathematics in 2003 and kept that job for a few years at least. (Until about 2006?) Nowadays, he's the Chair of the Science Dept at West Coast U., a small for-profit, I think. Seems to have done lots of freeway flying.
Gawne says he’s a retired “training manager.” He worked for So Cal Edison (at San Clemente) for 23 years. According to his LinkIn page, he was a “Manager of Nuclear Maintenance Training, previously managed Engineering training program.” Before all that, he was in the Navy: "Served in a variety of positions with increasing responsibility on nuclear fast attack submarines."
I'm guessin' he glows in the dark.
That's a real plus, but incumbents always win. So, there's that.
* * *
The only real contest here, then, is in Area 1. Inmon is the one to watch. She will likely be supported by our Faculty Association, but I don't think that's been decided yet. (But bet on it.)
✅Chapman Faculty Petition Slams Fellow Professor, Who Stands By Controversial Kamala Harris Op-Ed
Voice of OC
More than 200 Chapman University faculty are demanding that school officials recommit themselves publicly to diversity and inclusion reforms, responding to a fellow professor’s viral op-ed that questioned whether Democratic vice presidential pick, Kamala Harris, could legally become president over her parents’ citizenship status despite being born in the U.S. Faculty in an online Change.org petition called the op-ed “poorly argued, inaccurate, and racist.”
Meanwhile, Chapman Law School professor and former Dean John Eastman stands by his op-ed, saying he’s been raising these issues for years.
The argument, since its Aug. 12 publication, has been associated by critics with racist conspiracy theories that first targeted former president Barack Obama, alleging he was ineligible for office on false claims he was born in Kenya. The collective conspiracy theories came to be known as “birtherism.”
An online petition signed by hundreds of Chapman faculty is now calling on the administration to enhance or reaffirm its diversity and inclusion policies and commitments.
Chapman University’s own Chairman of the Board of Trustees, trial lawyer Wylie Aitken (also a Voice of OC board chairman), in a response op-ed criticized Eastman’s argument as “absurd” and voiced support for the faculty petition. “I would sign such a petition if I was eligible,” Aitken wrote. After initially opting not to step into the debate, Chapman University’s President Daniele Struppa issued a statement Monday morning, refusing to take a stance on the issue but defending faculty members’ academic freedom to make an argument.
“First, the university is not responsible for the ideas of its faculty. As President, I will neither endorse nor refute them. The strength of a university comes in its commitment to free speech and to academic freedom,” Struppa wrote. “We cannot simply pick and choose when to support free speech, despite the personal views of the president, provost, dean or any university administrator.”
Struppa also defended Chapman’s commitment to diversity and inclusion, adding “when incidents of division and injustice impact our community, they do not reflect the entire community nor should they be interpreted as to alter what is our concrete commitment to those values.”
Eastman’s Newsweek piece, which the publication has since apologized for, questioned whether the U.S. Constitution actually grants birthright citizenship to Harris — who was born in Oakland, California, in 1964 — questioning whether Harris’ foreign-born parents had insufficient legal residency status that negated her own.
Harris, a California senator running alongside Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, is Black and Indian. Her parents are from Jamaica and India.
“Chapman is being associated with the vilest notions of anti-immigrant sentiment and racism, via birtherism 2.0.,” the university’s Humanities and Social Sciences professor, Lisa Leitz, who started the online petition, said in a statement on behalf of the petitioning faculty. Eastman in a phone interview denied trying to push racist conspiracy theories with the op-ed in response to the possibility of Harris taking office, saying “I have been taking the exact same position for 20 years.”
The Constitution requires presidents to have been born in the U.S. The Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment also specifies that people “born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”
Eastman in his op-ed questions whether Harris’ parents had sufficient status to satisfy the “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” section of the Citizenship Clause or if they were still subject to the jurisdictions of their own countries. Subsequently, Eastman argues that could impact Harris’ own citizenship despite her birth inside the country.
Federal courts have upheld that people born on U.S. soil are citizens regardless of their parents’ citizenship…. [Re Eastman, see Hysterical homophobic demagoguery]
Orange County is continuing to see hospitalizations and other coronavirus trends improve, which local health officials attribute partly to more people wearing face coverings, as school reopenings remain in a holding pattern for the time being.
The state had frozen its pandemic watch list because lagging COVID-19 testing data led to inaccurate metrics.
OC Reg
✅From ‘firenadoes’ to record heat, California extreme weather a glimpse of future -- In the last few days, a moisture-laden heat wave has unleashed extreme weather in almost every corner of California. Tony Barboza, Louis Sahagun, Joseph Serna in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 8/18/20
✅California State University now requires ethnic studies -- Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature Monday on AB 1460 means students in the CSU system will have to take an ethnic studies course before graduation. The bill overrides a similar but less strict requirement the system imposed earlier this summer. Mikhail ZinshteynCalMattersAshley A. Smith EdSource-- 8/18/20
✅Bernie Sanders won big in California. Here’s why his Golden State delegates are settling for Biden -- Bernie Sanders’ California delegates to the Democratic National Convention say they’re disappointed he won’t be the candidate accepting the party’s presidential nomination this week, but they’re mostly ready to back Joe Biden this fall. Kate Irby in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 8/18/20
✅D.A. files charges in Newport Beach protest gun case -- A Newport Beach man has been charged with two misdemeanors after being accused of pulling a loaded gun on Black Lives Matter protesters during a local protest in June. Hillary Davis in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 8/18/20 [See YouTube]
✅Five automakers finalize deal with California to clean up car emissions -- California’s clean air enforcers have finalized a deal with five automakers to cut greenhouse gases from cars despite the Trump administration’s rollbacks. Rachel BeckerCalMatters -- 8/18/20
✅Former DHS official: Trump wanted to withhold California wildfire money for political reasons -- President Donald Trump wanted to shut off emergency relief for California amid devastating wildfires because it was a blue state, and he tried to deliberately separate families to deter immigration, according to a scathing account given by a former administration official on Monday. Matthew Choi Politico -- 8/18/20
They came. They saw. They clustered. Now, a week after starting classes at UNC Chapel Hill, undergraduates are being sent home as coronavirus spreads on campus.
Political battles, confusion reign in Kern County, one of worst U.S. coronavirus hot spots -- Kern County has become one of the worst coronavirus hot spots in the nation, with infections spreading rapidly through food processing plants, agricultural communities and other places in Bakersfield and small rural towns. Hailey Branson-Potts in theLos Angeles Times$ -- 8/17/20
Banks: Is it time for L.A. to become a real party pooper to fight the spread of COVID-19? -- We’re shuttering businesses, inspecting workplaces and re-imagining education to keep COVID-19 at bay. But we’re all thumbs when it comes to dealing with what has become the Achilles’ heel of our coronavirus prevention plan: rogue parties that have helped send infection rates soaring among young people in Los Angeles County. Sandy Banks in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 8/17/20
Death Valley hits 130 degrees, thought to be highest temperature on Earth in over a century -- Temperatures in Death Valley skyrocketed to a blistering 130 degrees on Sunday — possibly the highest mercury reading on Earth since 1913. Laura Newberry in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 8/17/20
Despite earlier predictions that this might be their year, many are expecting enrollment declines -- some of them devastating. Impact is greatest on minority and low-income students.
Some for-profit colleges reported increased profitability and modest enrollment gains as the economy crashed in the second quarter, but it's still not clear whether the current pandemic and recession will turn around the fortunes of a sector that had been struggling.
Inside Higher Ed
Trump’s Policies Are a Boon to the Super Rich. So Where Are All the Seven-Figure Checks? -- Only a small fraction of the president’s top donors from 2016 have given as much to his re-election effort. Glenn Thrush, Rebecca R. Ruiz and Karen Yourish in the New York Times$ -- 8/17/20
Racism, QAnon and ‘cold civil war’: Inside the 20,000-strong Defend East County Facebook group -- A Facebook group that organized after a Black Lives Matter protest in La Mesa turned destructive has ballooned to more than 20,000 members. Called Defend East County, it has become an active online community of people who say they want to protect their cities, but it’s also a place where conspiracy theories, racist banter and calls for violence persist. Andrew Dyer in the San Diego Union-Tribune$ -- 8/16/20
