Gov. Jerry Brown has tucked provisions into his budget that would limit payouts in wildfire liability cases, potentially saving timber companies and other major California landowners hundreds of millions of dollars as federal prosecutors pursue record-high damages in court. The Democratic governor also has asked lawmakers to impose a 1 percent lumber tax to fund forestry oversight while reducing industry costs. And he wants to reduce the frequency with which California reviews tree-cutting plans for environmental impacts. Brown has pitched the ideas as ways to help the state's timber industry provide jobs in the wake of a construction downturn and fierce competition with lumber producers from the Pacific Northwest. He also highlights $30 million in new lumber tax funding for environmental reviews that have gone ... Continue reading →
Amid all the bad news about budget cuts to public schools there is a bright spot: More money is now available for free and subsidized school meals, and not just for school breakfast and lunch. For about a decade, federal grants allowed schools to serve after-school snacks like juice and crackers. But youth nutrition advocate Matt Sharp says educators had concerns about the program. “Which is that the amount of snacks are too small, too few, driving some students to run off campus to purchase much less healthy options from vendors outside school gates or convenience stores,” he said. A year and a half ago, a boost in the federal allocation expanded that snack into a meal. The goal was to tackle two problems: rising ... Continue reading →
Editor’s Note: Rinku Sen is the President and Executive Director of the Applied Research Center (ARC) and the publisher of Colorlines.com. By Rinku Sen, Special to CNN (CNN) –With the news that, for the first time in U.S. history, the majority of American babies are not white, it should put to rest use of the term “minorities” as a reference to America’s black, Latino, Asian and Native American residents. Nearly 30 years ago, I learned to think of myself as a person of color, and that shift changed my view of myself and my relationship to the people around me. It is time for the entire nation, and our media in particular, to make the same move. I am an Indian immigrant, and became a ... Continue reading →
Los Angeles Unified will pay $200,000 and give lifetime health benefits to settle a sexual-harassment allegation filed by a facilities executive against retired Superintendent Ramon Cortines, officials said Wednesday. Scot Graham, who has worked in the Facilities Division for 12 years and is now director of leasing and asset management, claims that Cortines made unwanted sexual advances during a weekend spent at the superintendent's second home in Kern County in July 2010. Graham's attorneys notified the district in March - nearly a year after Cortines retired - that he intended to file a sexual-harassment claim. Hoping to avoid potentially expensive litigation, the school board met three times in executive session before voting 4-3 on Tuesday to approve the deal. The settlement gives Graham $200,000 cash, ... Continue reading →
David McNew/Getty Images Students are ordered to tuck in their shirts before entering school in the aftermath of two apparent racially motivated student brawls at Thomas Jefferson High School in Los Angeles, California. Juvenile justice officials say LAUSD sends too many students to court for minor offenses that should be handled out of court. A growing wave of juvenile justice experts say school districts send too many students to court for minor offenses. Usually those kids are African American or Latino. A nonprofit’s effort to track school citations within Los Angeles Unified indicates that the district is following that pattern. There are two sides to every schoolyard shoving match. This story is about only one – and about the way a disciplinary matter can escalate. ... Continue reading →
The California School Boards Association has endorsed both Gov. Jerry Brown's tax initiative and a rival measure on the November ballot, calling the dual backing "an unprecedented move." Brown had hoped that his multibillion-dollar tax hike on sales and wealthy earners would be the only major tax initiative this fall. But wealthy attorney Molly Munger filed signatures this month for her initiative raising income taxes on all but the poorest residents to raise money mostly for schools. In a statement, CSBA executive director Vernon M. Billy said, "While each initiative presents a different funding scenario for our schools, the bottom line is that both will generate billions of dollars in much-needed revenue for public education." Despite endorsing Brown's measure, CSBA leaders said they "want to ... Continue reading →
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