IRS Says Colleges Must Be 'Reasonable' When Calculating Adjuncts' Work Hours (Chronicle of Higher Education)

     The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the new law designed to expand health insurance to more Americans, has put adjuncts and their workload in the spotlight.
     The Internal Revenue Service this month issued proposed rules for employers that acknowledge the special work circumstances of adjuncts—among them, the way adjuncts rack up work hours outside of the classroom—that need to be considered when evaluating whether their employers must provide them with health benefits.
     Under the new law, which takes effect in January 2014, employees who work at least a 30-hour work week must receive health benefits from their employers. Some colleges are concerned about how to tally up the hours adjuncts spend on the job to determine if they have reached that full-time status. Most adjuncts don't receive health benefits, and the legislation appeared to pave the way for them to finally get access….

Huell Howser, RIP

     • This just in from the OC Weekly's Gustavo Arellano:

Remembering Huell Howser, Fan of OC Weekly, Lover of OC, Antagonist of OC Republicans

… All the pundits of the Golden State will weigh in on who Huell was, what Huell meant, blah blah blah. All I can offer are personal anecdotes that just shows what a generous, wonderful man the Tennessee native truly was, anecdotes involving two of my favorite things: the OC Weekly, and pissing off OC Republicans….

     • Back in April of 2006 (Huell Howser at Joe's Garage), we noted with amazement that Howser was the guest speaker at an IVC Foundation fundraiser:

Huell Howser at Joe's Garage

     The IVC Foundation is doin' up a fundraiser Tuesday night at "Joe's Garage" in Tustin. The Foundation comprises more than its share of conservative Republicans (Fuentes' crowd). So it's at least a little odd to discover that the inimitable Huell Howser (of California Gold fame) is the guest speaker. Golly!
     I wonder if those right-wingers know that Huell hosts another show, the environmentalist-friendly "California Green," or that Huell's "California Gold" is endorsed by the California Teachers Association(!), the California Federation of Teachers(!!), the California State Library Foundation (!!!), and the California Library Association(!!!!).
     D'oh!
     I'd go to this shindig, but I don't wanna miss Tuesday night's California Gold, which has Huell visiting a Cheeze Whiz factory at the absolute geographical center of the state.

A Day of Reckoning for Critics of Great Park PR Contract (Voice of OC)

     Critics of Irvine’s Great Park have long pointed to the agency’s lucrative public relations contract with Forde & Mollrich – which charged millions of dollars over the past decade to publicize a park that didn’t yet exist – as symbolic of what they allege is a culture of waste and corruption that plagues the multi-billion dollar project.

     For those critics, Tuesday will be a day of reckoning.
     A new Republican Irvine City Council-majority is poised to terminate the Forde & Mollrich and Townsend Public Affairs government lobbying contracts. The council will also consider a forensic audit of the park’s contracts.
     Those challenging the park’s leadership often ask – what exactly was Forde & Mollrich accomplishing as it collected $100,000 per month?
     A complete answer to that question is tough to find….

Ralph M. Brown,
Democrat

The Making of a Landmark Law for Open Government (Voice of OC)

     Sixty years ago Assemblyman Ralph M. Brown of Modesto, acting in part on his own experiences with the secrecy of local government officials, authored California’s landmark open-meeting law to ensure bodies like boards of supervisors and city councils conducted their business in public….

Judge Awards $98,000 Attorney Fees to Irvine Valley Teacher (1998, LA Times)

     Months after ruling that the trustees of South Orange County Community College District acted illegally by making decisions in secret, an Orange County judge awarded $98,000 in attorney fees this week to a professor who filed a lawsuit against the district.
     Roy Bauer, a philosophy professor at Irvine Valley College, has sued the district twice for violating the state's Brown Act, which requires that public meeting be open. The suits stemmed from a series of decisions the trustees made in 1997, including the reorganization of the district's governance structure and the selection of Raghu P. Mathur as president of Irvine Valley College. The campus is one of two that make up the South Orange County Community College District; the other is Saddleback College.

Bugsy's wild hair/hare

Dropped by my folks' place today and got a chance to play with Bugsy, the SuperKitten. He's now well-established as the "baby" of the family; both of my folks dote on him all day long, especially my mom, who babies him pretty good. She holds him and sings at 'im. He doesn't know any better, so he gobbles it all up.

I noticed that the young fellow was carrying a tiny cloth mouse in his mouth. "What's with that dang mouse?", I asked.

Mom told me that the mouse was one of the baubles that was hangin' from the Xmas tree (see action shot above). You know the stuff: all those little Santas, and birds, and snowballs, and guitars, and elves, and whatnot—that people hang on the tree along with bulbs and tinsel and sh*t. Well, as it turns out, out of the fifty or so doodads on my mom's tree, doodad, like, #36 was a mouse.
As you know, one of Bugsy's first toys was a goshdarned mouse. I guess he wanted a new one. So he got it. The boy shows initiative.

The only camera I had was the one on my mom's Mac laptop, which is pretty low-res. Here's a detail of a photo of Bugsy's new cloth mouse. Trust me, it's a mouse all right. It amazes me that the Bugster chose this one thing out of all that junk on that tree. He's smart, he is. One of these days, he'll be doin' my folks' taxes.

Here he is, sneakin' up on the varmint. You know cats. It's all about the obstacles and angles.

Here's my mom, trying to get her boy to give a damn about that duster thingy. Nobody expresses indifference like a cat expresses indifference. It's a feline specialty.

Here's some more "mouse" action. That posy at left is actually just the design of the rug.

Another action shot. That Bugsy moves around like an electron. You think he's over here, but then, a second later, he's way over there. Zip zip zip. Bing!

My mom really isn't up on cats—she and my dad or mostly "dog" people—so I've given her the benefit of my experience, catwise. I told her about how cats can get all revved up and crazy. It's the old "wild hair," I say*. "Once that gets started, they're liable to zip around like lunatics and maybe pull on your pants or bite your ankles. Watch out," I say.
"It's just a cat thing."
Don't get me wrong; Bugsy is about as sweet a cat as I've ever encountered, and that's saying a lot. But he's a boy and he's a kitten. So, well, something's gotta give.

Here's my mom trying to join in the cat fun.
Bugsy and I have become serious play buddies. Nowadays, when I show up, the Bug comes right up to me expecting FUN and MAYHEM (or a bit of butter at the end of a knife). He gets the wild hair every time. My mom doesn't really know what she's getting into here. She's trying to hang that dang mouse on the side of that chair. She figures he'll go nuts about it. Nope. That's all wrong.

Bugsy the indifferent. You gotta toss the dang thing against a wall or crush it in your mouth, stuff like that. Just hanging it up on a chair means nothing. Less than nothing.
Get it right!

My mom always provides lots of balloons for the kids during the holidays. I recall visiting last week and finding all these "dead" balloons everywhere. Evidently, the Bugster had popped 'em all. I was impressed. If I were a little kid—like the Bugster—and I saw some new kind of object suddenly disappear with a bang, I'd think twice about getting near its kind again.
Not the Bugster, it seems.
What a guy!

Mom really loves her little boy. My dad tells me that she'll freak out when Bug sleeps in that deep way that cats do. "He's not dead, is he?" she'll ask, virtually trembling. Many reassurances are issued by dad. "No, the goddam cat is just sleeping!" Then he'll pound his foot on the ground or something and Bugsy'll shoot straight up in the air and tear off in some direction, just like some Warner Bros critter.
My folks are pretty clueless about cats.

Like Kathie, mom doesn't know how to say "no" to a cat. Arguably, it's important for a cat to know that word. When mom (or Kathie) say "no," they're about as stern as Shirley Goddam Temple. Truth is, all of mom's "nos" are virtual "yeses." So I told mom about how to say no and mean it; to be very quick and efficient about it: no lingering or yapping. Works wonders. And you don't have to yell or nothing.
Today, my mom tried out her first stern "no." The Bugster got one of those wild hairs and, when he hopped up on mom's lap, he started biting her (the way kittens do). He got a little carried away, getting those rear legs going. Ouch! That's when my mom tried out her new "no."
Suddenly, she belted out a thundering "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!"—a No that could kill a guy.
I suggested that the utterance need not be ear-splitting or gut-wrenching. "Oh," she said.
(I don't think my mom has a "medium" switch. It's strictly off or HELLFIRE with her.)

Bugsy in the kitchen with Mr. Balloon, Mr. Mouse, and his beloved mom.

     *Some say the expression is "wild hare," not "wild hair." Yeah, whatever.

Old Irvine

Evidently, this picture was taken near the current Old Towne Irvine, namely, the south side of the junction of the 5 and Sand Canyon (SEE)

Another Year of High Impact Journalism (Voice of OC)

     Voice of OC was established in 2009 as a community nonprofit newsroom that would ensure robust coverage of the complex challenges facing our local governments, with an aim toward spurring investigation, analysis and conversation.
     Throughout 2012, Voice of OC journalists showed why such an asset matters to residents interested in keeping a close eye on those who control the institutions of democracy…. Check it out!