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| <title>Instant Articles | 89.3 KPCC</title> | |
| <link>http://www.scpr.org</link> | |
| <description>Instant Articles from KPCC's reporters, bloggers and shows.</description> | |
| <item> | |
| <title>Yahoo's Burbank layoffs, closure consolidates its operations at Silicon Beach</title> | |
| <guid>http://scprv4.dev/news/2016/02/20/57777/yahoo-s-burbank-layoffs-closure-consolidates-its-o/</guid> | |
| <link>http://scprv4.dev/news/2016/02/20/57777/yahoo-s-burbank-layoffs-closure-consolidates-its-o/</link> | |
| <author>Brian Watt</author> | |
| <pubDate>2016-02-20 13:30:23 -0800</pubDate> | |
| <description>Yahoo is laying off 90 workers in Burbank and closing its office there. It's part of a company-wide downsizing and a consolidation of its L.A. presence in Silicon Beach.</description> | |
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| <![CDATA[<p>About 150 Yahoo Inc. employees in Southern California learned earlier this week that their jobs will be part of a 15 percent cut in the company's workforce. </p><p>Yahoo is laying off 90 workers at its Burbank offices and 60 employees at its new facility in Playa Vista. The company is also closing its office in Burbank and moving the remaining workers to Playa Vista.</p><p>The layoffs and office closure are part of the long-anticipated <a href="http://www.scpr.org/news/2016/02/02/57197/yahoo-to-cut-1-700-workers-as-ceo-marissa-mayer-tr/">downsizing</a> that Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer announced earlier this month. The changes come as the Internet giant continues to struggle to find its identity and a sustainable business model.</p><p>Locally, the Yahoo cuts are part of a trend of companies moving to the shores of what's now called Silicon Beach, the area in west Los Angeles that's the city's answer to Silicon Valley.</p><p>Yahoo moved from office space in Pasadena to a new campus in Burbank in 2006. Technology consultant Darren Clark, who worked for Yahoo then, said more than 1,000 Yahoo employees filled two of the three buildings on the Burbank campus. </p><p>"They had it geared up to really be their anchor location down here in L.A," said Clark.</p><p>He remembers a once-thriving tech corridor stretching from Pasadena through Glendale into Burbank, with companies like IdeaLab, eHarmony, and Overture, which Yahoo acquired in 2003. </p><p>"It used to be a lot healthier. Now it seems like the corporate gravity is shifting to Venice and Santa Monica," Clark told KPCC. "That's pulling a lot of the talent over there for the start-up and tech scene. "</p><p>He said the die was cast at Yahoo's Burbank campus in 2009, when the company made a deal to outsource its paid search business to Microsoft. Yahoo had made Burbank its headquarters for search marketing. </p><p>"That’s really when Burbank started getting whittled away," remembers Clark, who had left before the downsizing and layoffs. </p><p>Yahoo would not disclose specific workforce numbers for its facilities, but a post on the company's recruitment site said more than 400 employees worked in Burbank in early 2013. Clark said he was told the number fell below 200 by early last year.</p><p>As Burbank's size dwindled, Yahoo's staff in Santa Monica grew. Then last August, Yahoo moved its Santa Monica staff into new and larger digs in Playa Vista, where a growing tech community had already welcomed <a href="http://www.scpr.org/blogs/economy/2013/09/05/14666/with-new-technology-center-microsoft-expands-its-t/">Microsoft</a>, YouTube, and <a href="http://www.scpr.org/blogs/economy/2014/02/28/15955/imax-breaks-ground-on-west-coast-hq-in-playa-vista/">IMAX</a>. </p><p>Google also purchased 12 acres in Playa Vista in 2014 and is expected to expand there from its L.A. location in Venice.</p><p>"This is less about Yahoo and more about the L.A. tech scene, but it’s like we’re really putting all of our eggs in the Silicon Beach basket," Clark said. "It's good in some respects, but if I'm a technologist in L.A. and I live in the San Fernando or San Gabriel Valley, it's like, 'Wow, I guess I gotta figure out how to get to the west side." </p><p>A spokeswoman said the company expects to offer a shuttle for those Yahoo Burbank employees who now must commute to Playa Vista.</p> | |
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| <title>'The Jinx': Fugitive real estate heir Robert Durst pleads guilty to gun charge</title> | |
| <guid>http://scprv4.dev/news/2016/02/03/57211/the-jinx-fugitive-real-estate-heir-robert-durst-pl/</guid> | |
| <link>http://scprv4.dev/news/2016/02/03/57211/the-jinx-fugitive-real-estate-heir-robert-durst-pl/</link> | |
| <author>Janet McConnaughey | AP</author> | |
| <pubDate>2016-02-03 17:06:06 -0800</pubDate> | |
| <description>The acceptance of the deal is another step toward Durst's extradition to California, where he is wanted in the death of a friend in 2000.</description> | |
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| <![CDATA[<p>A fugitive New York real estate heir pleaded guilty in Louisiana to a weapons charge and has agreed to a sentence of seven years and one month imprisonment.</p><p>U.S. District Judge Kurt Engelhardt said Wednesday that he would provisionally accept the plea and make a final decision after he receives a pre-sentencing report expected in two weeks.</p><p>Durst's plea was in connection with a charge of illegally carrying a .38-caliber revolver after being convicted of a felony. The charge has kept him in Louisiana.</p><p>The acceptance of the deal is another step toward Durst's extradition to California, where he is wanted in the death of a friend in 2000.</p><p>Durst has waived extradition and says he wants to go to California to prove his innocence in the death of Susan Berman. However, he won't immediately be sent to California until at least the sentencing. If the judge accepts the sentence, then it is up to the Bureau of Prisons to decide where Durst will serve it.</p><p>"Bob Durst didn't kill Susan Berman and doesn't know who did, and he's eager to go to trial and prove it," attorney Richard DeGuerin wrote in an email Tuesday.</p><p>Assistant U.S. attorney Michael McMahon said the plea bargain will be nullified if the judge gives Durst a different sentence. The maximum penalty that Robert Durst could have faced was 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.</p><p>An estranged member of the wealthy New York real estate family that runs 1 World Trade Center, he's accused of killing Berman to keep her from talking to New York prosecutors about the disappearance of Durst's first wife, Kathleen, in 1982.</p><p>FBI agents tracked him to a New Orleans hotel on the eve of the finale of "The Jinx," HBO's six-part documentary about Durst, his wife's disappearance, Berman's death and the death and dismemberment of Durst's neighbor Morris Black in 2001. He was formally arrested early on the day of the broadcast.</p> | |
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| <title>Boyle Heights school fire investigated as possible arson </title> | |
| <guid>http://scprv4.dev/news/2016/02/03/57210/boyle-heights-school-fire-investigated-as-possible/</guid> | |
| <link>http://scprv4.dev/news/2016/02/03/57210/boyle-heights-school-fire-investigated-as-possible/</link> | |
| <author>AP</author> | |
| <pubDate>2016-02-03 16:23:28 -0800</pubDate> | |
| <description>Fire Department officials say flames were reported shortly before 4 a.m. Wednesday at Roosevelt Senior-Magnet High School.</description> | |
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| <![CDATA[<p>Los Angeles authorities say nobody was hurt when fire broke out on the campus of a Boyle Heights school, and the blaze is being investigated as possible arson.</p><p>Fire Department officials say flames were reported shortly before 4 a.m. Wednesday at Roosevelt Senior-Magnet High School.</p><p>The fire was contained to a one-story bungalow being used as a temporary classroom. It was knocked down in about 20 minutes.</p><p>The department says the flames began inside several trash cans placed around that building and a nearby second bungalow.</p><p>"The damage was limited to exterior, mainly just smoke on the interior," Margaret Stewart at the Los Angeles Fire Department told KPCC. </p><p>Arson investigators are reviewing surveillance footage.</p><p>School officials say classes will go on as scheduled Wednesday.</p> | |
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| <title>2 LA County deputies convicted of jail beating cover-up</title> | |
| <guid>http://scprv4.dev/news/2016/02/03/57209/2-la-county-deputies-convicted-of-jail-beating-cov/</guid> | |
| <link>http://scprv4.dev/news/2016/02/03/57209/2-la-county-deputies-convicted-of-jail-beating-cov/</link> | |
| <author>AP</author> | |
| <pubDate>2016-02-03 15:35:04 -0800</pubDate> | |
| <description>Prosecutors said that in 2009 the deputies choked, struck, kicked and pepper-sprayed handcuffed inmate Bret Phillips and then wrote falsified reports indicating he attacked them.</description> | |
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| <![CDATA[<p>Two sheriff's deputies have been convicted of trying to cover up the beating of a handcuffed inmate at the Los Angeles County jail.</p><p>A federal jury convicted Joey Aguiar and Mariano Ramirez on Tuesday of falsifying reports. But the panel acquitted them of conspiracy to violate civil rights and deadlocked on another charge.</p><p>The deputies could now face up to 20 years in prison.</p><p>Prosecutors said that in 2009 the deputies choked, struck, kicked and pepper-sprayed handcuffed inmate Bret Phillips and then wrote reports indicating he attacked them.</p><p>Defense lawyers argued the deputies used legal force after Phillips became combative and threatening.</p><p>The deputies were among 21 current or former sheriff's employees charged in connection with a probe of corruption and abuse in the Sheriff's Department.</p> | |
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| <title>Water officials vote to extend California drought emergency</title> | |
| <guid>http://scprv4.dev/news/2016/02/03/57208/water-officials-vote-to-extend-california-drought/</guid> | |
| <link>http://scprv4.dev/news/2016/02/03/57208/water-officials-vote-to-extend-california-drought/</link> | |
| <author>Scott Smith | AP</author> | |
| <pubDate>2016-02-03 15:06:57 -0800</pubDate> | |
| <description>State water managers are looking ahead to April 1 — when the Sierra Nevada snowpack is historically at its deepest before melting and feeding rivers and streams and replenishing depleted reservoirs.</description> | |
| <content:encoded> | |
| <![CDATA[<p>State water regulators voted to extend emergency conservation measures because of a drought, even though an increase in rain and snow this winter has improved California's snowpack.</p><p>But with the drought still severe, conservations efforts fell off in December. Officials said Tuesday that residents used 18 percent less water than in December 2013, but that was the worst showing in seven months of tracking and fell well short of Gov. Jerry Brown's goal of 25 percent.</p><p>It's also the third straight month that the state missed its target.</p><p>California, however, will likely beat its long-term conservation goal, saving a combined 25.5 percent since Brown issued the mandate in June calling for savings from 2013 use rates, the State Water Resources Control Board reported.</p><p>State water managers are looking ahead to April 1 — when the Sierra Nevada snowpack is historically at its deepest before melting and feeding rivers and streams and replenishing depleted reservoirs.</p><p>The snowpack's depth then will signal whether drought conditions are easing after the state's driest four-year period on record.</p><p>"We're at halftime," water board chair Felicia Marcus said in an interview. "We're not doing too badly, but we certainly haven't won the game yet."</p><p>The water content of the snowpack on Tuesday measured 130 percent of its historical average for this time of year.</p><p>Under a light snowfall, snowpack survey chief Frank Gehrke plunged a measuring pole into 76 inches of snow near Echo Summit in the Central Sierra region that includes Lake Tahoe.</p><p>"It's certainly a very encouraging start to the winter," said Gehrke, chief of the California Cooperative Snow Surveys Program for the Department of Water Resources.</p><p>Still, he said, the state needs to see storms each week to ease the drought. The snowpack provides nearly one-third ofCalifornia's water supply.</p><p>An electronic measurement collected by more than 100 sensors throughout the Sierra has shown the snowpack at 114 percent.</p><p>Officials say that despite the El Nino rain storms, California's major reservoirs remain critically low, requiring continued conservation.</p><p>Under the extended drought regulation, cities that are especially hot, dry or crowded or that have managed to come up with new sources of water would get a slight break. The statewide conservation is expected to net a savings of at least 20 percent instead of last year's goal of 25 percent, officials said.</p><p>But water districts say the breaks don't go far enough and leaders lined up at a Sacramento meeting Tuesday to tell the waterboard that the breaks don't go far enough.</p><p>They wanted more credit for investing millions in drought resilient projects and those built before 2013, a cutoff date set by the state for local districts to qualify for cuts up to 8 percent from their individual targets.</p><p>They urged state officials to replace the emergency regulations with long-term water policy.</p><p>The Sacramento Suburban Water District invested $120 million in groundwater storage a decade ago, making it drought proof, said the district's general manager Robert Roscoe. Yet, he said the district is held to high conservation standards.</p><p>"We did precisely what we were supposed to do," Roscoe said before the water board voted. "We anticipated a drought, were proactive and we made a huge investment."</p><p>The new regulation would extend through October. But water officials said they would review it again in the spring. By then, they say it will be clearer whether California is still in drought.</p><p><em>Associated Press photographer Rich Pedroncelli contributed to this story from Echo Summit.</em></p> | |
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| <title>Why a manipulated magazine photo plays a pivotal role in 'The People v. O.J. Simpson'</title> | |
| <guid>http://scprv4.dev/programs/the-frame/2016/02/03/46163/OJ-Simpson-american-crime-story-fx-series-trial/</guid> | |
| <link>http://scprv4.dev/programs/the-frame/2016/02/03/46163/OJ-Simpson-american-crime-story-fx-series-trial/</link> | |
| <author>Michelle Lanz and John Horn | The Frame</author> | |
| <pubDate>2016-02-03 14:00:54 -0800</pubDate> | |
| <description>Series creators Larry Karaszewski and Scott Alexander say when Time magazine darkened Simpson's skin, it became a key moment in the story.</description> | |
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| <![CDATA[<p>The new FX series, "American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson," is one of the most anticipated shows to debut this year. Based on Jeffrey Toobin's book, "The Run of His Life: The People v. O.J. Simpson," the series follows both the behind-the-scenes and televised drama from what has become known as the trial of the 20th Century. </p><p>Writing team Larry Karaszewski and Scott Alexander are no strangers to fictionalizing true stories. Their past work includes the films "The People vs. Larry Flint," "Ed Wood" and "Man in the Moon," but their latest project took on a scope they had never previously tackled.</p><p>"Basically every script had to be vetted whenever Fox had a problem [with] where we got that specific line, where we got that specific thought ...We know the lawyers at studios more than we know the development people, because we always have to deal with them," Karaszewski says. </p><p>Karaszewski and Alexander join The Frame's John Horn to talk about how gender played into the trial, the strange timeliness of the series, and how they got to know Fox's lawyers <em>very</em> well. </p><h2>Interview Highlights:</h2><p><strong>Over the course of your research, what changed about how you viewed the events of the trial?</strong></p><blockquote><p><strong>Scott Alexander: </strong>Marcia Clark and Bob Shapiro and Johnny Cochran and Chris Darden and Robert Kardashian — they became living people who are having a lot of their own personal difficulties during the trial. And so as opposed to being, <em>Oh, another good day for the defense!</em> on Court TV. And, <em>Oh, another bad day for Marcia Clark!</em> Oh my god, this poor woman filed for divorce three days before the murders. And then suddenly the biggest case on the planet gets dropped in her lap. And she's juggling divorce court with the criminal court. What does that do, when you're a single working mom and you've got this spotlight on you, and you've got so many balls in the air? These are the sort of things I don't think we were talking about at all back in 1994-'95. </p><p><strong>Larry Karszewski: </strong>Yeah, it is funny. In the O.J. Simpson case, people always bring up race issues, class issues. But very few people look at the gender issues. Where Marcia Clark was put under such a different kind of scrutiny than everybody else. F. Lee Bailey was not getting stories written about his hairstyles. Or, <em>My goodness, F. Lee Bailey looks like a frump today! He should lighten up!</em> That kind of stuff never happened...But Marcia did. And this created a bit of a crisis for her. </p></blockquote><p><strong>So as you are watching what's happening in the world, in Ferguson and New York, you've got to be both a little bit appalled, and I've got to say, a little bit emboldened by the premise that what you're writing about, even though it's a period story from 20 years ago, is suddenly more relevant than you could have imagined.</strong></p><blockquote><p><strong>Alexander: </strong>We did take advantage of hindsight, in terms of what the trial became. It started as a trial about two innocent victims on Bundy [Street] and it turned into a referendum on the LAPD's terrible history with the African-Americans of Los Angeles. And so, Larry and I decided — I mean this was three years ago — we decided to plant the flag right off the bat. When we sold our pitch to Fox, we said, "We're opening with the Rodney King beating." </p><p><strong>Karszewski: </strong>We didn't realize how torn from today's headlines the actual series would be. Because three years ago, we didn't know. <em>Are we too late? Did people even care about the O.J. Simpson case? Are we too early? Are people still sick of hearing so much about it?</em> But we happened to hit this zeitgeist at the right moment. Certainly, what has happened with the police and the African-American community is at the top of the list.</p></blockquote><p><strong>Jeffrey Toobin's book is 466 pages, so you have a lot of material. But I want to talk about a small scene in the third episode. And it involves an illustrator named Matt Mahurin. He doctored the mug shot of O.J. Simpson for the cover of Time magazine to make him look dark and a little bit more ominous. </strong><strong>It's fewer than five full paragraphs in the book. But it's a pivotal scene in the miniseries. How did you seize upon that section and decide to make it almost the centerpiece of the third episode?</strong></p><blockquote><p><strong>Karszewski: </strong>It's a fantastic question. Because we saw that as the first turning point where America started discussing O.J. Simpson in terms of racial politics. O.J. is kind of famous for saying, "I'm not black, I'm O.J." So people, that first week, looked at O.J. as a celebrity. It was more of a celebrity murder. Time magazine wanted to run O.J.'s mugshot on their cover. They were worried that by the time their weekly came out, everyone will have seen this mugshot. Let's do something artistic with it. So they gave it to this illustrator.</p><p><strong>Alexander: </strong>He was an early digital manipulator. He had a computer before anybody else. So he gave it a film <em>noir</em> kind of tint. Well what Time magazine didn't know was that Newsweek was going to run the identical mug shot, same size, hitting the newsstands the same day, without altering it. </p></blockquote><p><strong>So side by side it made Time's illustration look that much more dramatic.</strong></p><blockquote><p><strong>Alexander:</strong> If Newsweek hadn't run the mugshot unaltered, nobody would have noticed.</p><p><strong>Karszewski: </strong>Right, but what you did was you walked up to the newsstand and you saw these two images. And there was no other takeaway except, <em>Oh my gosh, Time magazine made O.J. blacker. </em>And what does that mean? Black is more sinister? More guilty? And it actually started that discussion. And we use that as a way for Robert Shapiro, who after that first week after the Bronco chase — he's drowning. Him seeing that in our miniseries gives him the sort of initial idea of, <em>Wait a second. Maybe there's daylight here. Maybe there's something that can be done with this</em>.</p><p>I love the way you brought that up in context with Jeffrey's book. This is a great illustration of the kind of work that Scott and I do on all our projects. You might be the first person to ever go back and notice it — the idea that five paragraphs in a non-fiction book that kind of just lay something out, we can look at it and figure out how to turn that into drama.</p></blockquote><p><strong>I want to talk about the overall tone of the miniseries. Ryan Murphy, one of your collaborators, has what I will call his own sensibility. He does shows like "Glee" and "Nip/Tuck." And you have your own cinematic history. You've worked with directors like Miloš Forman and Tim Burton. How do you find a common ground in which to work?</strong></p><blockquote><p><strong>Alexander:</strong> Larry and I were basically just going to do our "Scott and Larry tone," which we've done in our features. It's this mix of serious drama, high tragedy, social satire, weird jokes, but always sort of taking the issues seriously. And we like that mix because we don't think life is a comedy or life is a drama; life is always a mixture of these things. So we just wrote the tone we wanted. When Ryan read our first couple scripts and said, "Wow, I'd love to come aboard," he talked about what we were going for. We started referencing "Dog Day Afternoon" and "Network" as sort of the ideals for the kind of tone we saw this as. I mean, it also has a lot in common with "The People vs. Larry Flynt" in terms of its town.</p></blockquote><p><strong>But "Dog Day Afternoon" is also about the way this real-life bank hostage drama is unfolding in front of the media</strong></p><blockquote><p><strong>Karszewski: </strong>Yes, and that's what our story is too, but Ryan totally got it. He instantly understood what we were going for and he became the biggest champion. Scott and I had never done television before, so we wrote a 10-hour movie. We weren't even thinking about budgets and things like this, and Ryan Murphy was able to ... make this done on a scale that was rarely seen on television and assembled this cast that was unbelievable. </p><p><strong>Alexander: </strong>Like he said, we were writing it just like a movie. If it had been anybody else but Ryan, somebody would have come to their senses and said, <em>You guys are not going to shut down a freeway. You guys are not going to have 300 speaking parts</em>. It's crazy how much is in episodes 1 and 2. </p></blockquote><p><strong>Did you guys look at this as the first reality show?</strong></p><blockquote><p><strong>Alexander: </strong>Absolutely. Kato [Kaelin] and Faye Resnick are the poster children for the beginning of reality TV in that Kato became so famous! Twenty years later you [ask], <em>Who is Kato?</em> And my kids say, "Who's that blond guy?" And I [say], "Well, he became really famous because he lived in O.J.'s backyard." Which is really odd, but it's sort of an emblem for reality television. </p></blockquote><p><strong>As you're writing about real people and a real event, what characters were the hardest to find the voice for? </strong></p><blockquote><p><strong>Alexander: </strong>We tried our best to not make up anything, to try to adhere to who the real people are, but just to grab a character, we probably had the most fun with [Gil] Garcetti.</p></blockquote><p><strong>Like when he comes in and goes, "I was gonna run for mayor," which is kind of like the "Airplane!" line: "I picked a bad day to give up drinking." </strong></p><blockquote><p><strong>Alexander</strong>: Exactly, it's this District Attorney who seems to run a building that was built on haunted Indian burial grounds. And he just cannot seem to catch a break. The line you mentioned ... it's a funny line, he did have plans to run for mayor and, it's inside baseball, because his son is now the mayor of our city. </p></blockquote><p><strong><em>Press the play button above to hear the entire interview.</em></strong></p> | |
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| <title>State legislators pitch 3 ideas to combat California teacher shortage</title> | |
| <guid>http://scprv4.dev/news/2016/02/03/57204/legislators-say-recruitment-one-way-out-of-califor/</guid> | |
| <link>http://scprv4.dev/news/2016/02/03/57204/legislators-say-recruitment-one-way-out-of-califor/</link> | |
| <author>Adolfo Guzman-Lopez</author> | |
| <pubDate>2016-02-03 13:00:47 -0800</pubDate> | |
| <description>State legislators unveiled three proposals on Tuesday aimed at better recruiting and supporting new teachers to help address a shortage.</description> | |
| <content:encoded> | |
| <![CDATA[<p>State legislators unveiled three proposals on Tuesday to address California's teacher shortage. </p><p>The state Senate bills aim to improve recruitment of college students thinking about becoming teachers, increase mentorship of beginning teachers, and forgive student loans for teachers who work in high-need schools.</p><p>“The outlook across our state is bleak,” said State Senator Carol Liu (D-Pasadena) about <a href="http://learningpolicyinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/LPI-Report-AddressingCA_TeacherShortage.pdf">the high demand for teachers and the low supply.</a></p><p>“Enrollment in our California teacher preparation programs has declined from 2001 to 2014 by 76 percent," she said. "With the future of our state and our students at stake, we cannot allow these trends to continue."</p><p>Liu’s bill would resurrect a program called CalTeach, which was eliminated in 2003 as a result of state budget cuts. The teacher credentialing process is often “complex and intimidating,” Liu said, and CalTeach helped college students understand how it worked while also explaining financial aid options.</p><p>State Senator Fran Pavley (D-Calabasas) authored SB 62 to reinstate a student loan forgiveness program for new teachers who teach for four years at a school with large numbers of disadvantaged students, or a rural school, or a school with a large number of emergency permits. The new teachers would also have to teach in a declared shortage area, and demonstrate financial need.</p><p>The third proposal, SB 933 authored by State Senator Ben Allen (D-West Los Angeles), would create matching grants for school districts to create or expand teacher residency programs.</p><p>It may take these and more efforts to turn around a widely held belief that teaching is a very unstable job. Until about five years ago, the most common news from school districts was how many teachers they were planning to layoff because of the recession.</p><p>“If I’m coming out of a college and I’m seeing this huge number of teachers that are on the market that have been laid off, I’m not going to go into teaching,” said Darren Knowles, assistant superintendent for human resources at Pomona Unified School District.</p><p>Knowles thinks the loan forgiveness proposal will help recruitment. He said Pomona Unified will fill about 35 teacher positions next year that opened due to retirements, relocations, and other reasons. And hiring won’t stop soon, he said, because 28 percent of his teachers are over 55 years old. According to a recent report by the Learning Policy Institute the teacher job board <a href="https://www.edjoin.org">EdJoin</a> had nearly 4,000 open teaching positions in California. </p><p>The improving state budget has helped recruiting efforts by giving school districts more money to increase pay.</p><p>San Gabriel Unified officials are having a tough time filling openings for special education teachers as well as high school science, math, and social studies. The salary for a beginning teacher there is about $44,000.</p><p>“We’ve lost a number of teachers that we made offers to that had higher offers from other districts,” Superintendent John Pappalardo.</p><p>So the district is working with the teachers union to raise beginning teacher pay by about $6,000.</p><p>Pappalardo said he’s sending recruiters to job fairs for the first time in years. He hopes to sweeten job offers with the age-old promise of summers off and good benefits.</p> | |
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| <title>Man arrested for grand theft — while impersonating a priest</title> | |
| <guid>http://scprv4.dev/news/2016/02/03/57206/man-arrested-for-grand-theft-while-impersonating-a/</guid> | |
| <link>http://scprv4.dev/news/2016/02/03/57206/man-arrested-for-grand-theft-while-impersonating-a/</link> | |
| <author>KPCC Staff</author> | |
| <pubDate>2016-02-03 02:59:25 -0800</pubDate> | |
| <description>The LAPD arrested 59-year-old Erwin Mena on Tuesday for posing as a Catholic priest — and keeping "church donations" for himself.</description> | |
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| <![CDATA[<p>Erwin Mena, 59, was arrested on Tuesday for posing as a Catholic priest — and keeping church donations for himself, according to a press release from the Los Angeles Police Department.</p><p>Police were alerted to Mena's alleged fraud by the L.A. Archdiocese on June 4, according to the release. Mena officiated church ceremonies including baptisms, confessions, funerals and at least one marriage, <a href="http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-fake-priest-bogus-trips-pope-francis-lapd--20160202-story.html#">the L.A. Times reported</a>.</p><p>According to <a href="http://www.foxla.com/news/local-news/69529995-story">a report by Fox 11</a>, Mena has been conducting mass at Catholic churches since the mid-1990s. Fox 11's report also said that Mena would use elaborate schemes to get money out of churchgoers — he made $15,000 selling tickets for people to travel to the East Coast during Pope Francis's visit. </p><p>Mena was arrested in Elysian Park, and with 22 felonies and eight misdemeanors, <a href="http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-fake-priest-bogus-trips-pope-francis-lapd--20160202-story.html#">according to the L.A. Times</a>. Multiple counts of grand theft are included in those charges, the press release states.</p><p>If you have any information about "Padre" Erwin Mena, the police ask that you contact LAPD Detective Guevara at (213) 486-6630, or visit <a href="http://LAPDOnline.org">LAPDOnline.org</a>.</p> | |
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| <title>Lighting fires to help California's environment</title> | |
| <guid>http://scprv4.dev/news/2016/02/03/57201/lighting-fires-to-help-california-s-environment/</guid> | |
| <link>http://scprv4.dev/news/2016/02/03/57201/lighting-fires-to-help-california-s-environment/</link> | |
| <author>KPCC Staff</author> | |
| <pubDate>2016-02-03 02:25:05 -0800</pubDate> | |
| <description>Environmental groups and government agencies have formed a partnership to increase the use of intentional fires to help the environment.</description> | |
| <content:encoded> | |
| <![CDATA[<p>With a historic drought, <a href="https://www.gov.ca.gov/news.php?id=19180">tree mortality</a> and devastating wildfires plaguing California in recent years, environmental groups and government agencies have formed a partnership to increase the use of intentional fires to help the plight of the environment.</p><p>A Memorandum of Understanding workshop held Tuesday introduced the partnership, explaining how the agencies will bring together resources to better protect California's rural areas, <a href="http://calfire.ca.gov/communications/downloads/newsreleases/2016/PrescribedFireMOU_Release.pdf">according to a press release</a>.</p><p>Recently, California fires in <a href="http://firetracker.scpr.org/butte-fire-amador-county-calaveras-county/">Butte</a> and <a href="http://firetracker.scpr.org/valley-fire-lake-county/">Valley</a> burned more than 70,000 acres each, destroying hundreds of structures. Cal Fire Director Ken Pimlott said that recent wildfires have burned with unprecedented intensity.</p><p>"This is a direct result, of course, of drought and increased tree mortality across the state, but it's also because we haven't been able to use fire as a tool," Pimlott said during a teleconference about the partnership.</p><p>More than nine partners have signed on to the Memorandum of Understanding, including Cal Fire, the National Park Service, the Wilderness Society and the Sierra Nevada Conservancy. </p><p>Pimlott said in a <a href="http://calfire.ca.gov/communications/downloads/newsreleases/2016/PrescribedFireMOU_Release.pdf">press release </a>that the governor's proclamation of an emergency when it comes to dying trees identifies intentional fire as a beneficial tool for restoring forests — and limiting pollution during wildfires.</p><p>Read the entire Memorandum of Understanding here: </p><p> | |
| <!-- EMBED PLACEHOLDER: https://www.scribd.com/doc/297686271/California-fire-Memorandum-of-Understanding --> | |
| <a class="embed-placeholder" data-placement="replace" data-service="scribd" href="https://www.scribd.com/doc/297686271/California-fire-Memorandum-of-Understanding" title="Memorandum of Understanding">Memorandum of Understanding</a></p> | |
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| <title>Some of USC's non-tenure-track faculty vote to join union</title> | |
| <guid>http://scprv4.dev/news/2016/02/03/57190/usc-s-non-tenure-track-faculty-vote-to-join-union/</guid> | |
| <link>http://scprv4.dev/news/2016/02/03/57190/usc-s-non-tenure-track-faculty-vote-to-join-union/</link> | |
| <author>Brian Watt</author> | |
| <pubDate>2016-02-03 02:18:06 -0800</pubDate> | |
| <description>Teachers from USC's Roski School of Art, and International Academy voted for unionization. Those from the Dornsife College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences, voted no.</description> | |
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| <![CDATA[<p>A year-long campaign to organize non-tenure track faculty at the University of Southern California has yielded mixed results. While faculty at USC's Roski School of Art and Design and USC's International Academy have voted to join the Service Employees International Union, those at USC's Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences voted not to.</p><p>Supporters of the unionization effort <a href="http://www.scpr.org/news/2015/11/24/55846/usc-part-time-professors-take-first-step-to-unioni/">filed a petition last November</a>, after months of organizing by the union. That triggered an election overseen by the National Labor Relations Board for a proposed bargaining unit of about 430 people. Dornsife was the largest of the schools, so the bargaining unit will now be a lot smaller, closer to 100 faculty members.</p><p>With the vote, USC becomes one of the largest private universities with union faculty. It will join Georgetown, whose adjunct faculty became union in 2013, and Tufts, whose full-time faculty joined the union a year ago. Adjunct, part-time, or non-tenure-track faculty at the University of Chicago, Boston University and Loyola University in Chicago have also recently unionized. </p><p>Locally, the SEIU has successfully organized part-time professors at the Otis College of Art and Design and part-time faculty at Whittier College. </p><p>The USC faculty members who support unionizing are hoping to improve their wages and job security. They say that as non-tenure track faculty, they earn about $5,000 per class, which is not enough to live on in Southern California. </p><p>The SEIU says that at Whittier College, the first collective bargaining agreement for part-time faculty included average pay increases of 35 percent, one-year appointments for faculty starting with their second year of service and a course cancellation fee of $300 for courses cancelled within 21 days of the first class. </p><p>The new bargaining unit will not represent all non-tenure track professors at USC. According to the university, there are more than 4,000 non-tenure-track faculty. That dwarfs the roughly 1500 faculty that are either tenured or on the tenure track. </p><p> </p> | |
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| <title>Will California hit its goal of cutting water use by 25 percent?</title> | |
| <guid>http://scprv4.dev/news/2016/02/03/57205/will-california-hit-its-goal-of-cutting-water-use/</guid> | |
| <link>http://scprv4.dev/news/2016/02/03/57205/will-california-hit-its-goal-of-cutting-water-use/</link> | |
| <author>Sanden Totten</author> | |
| <pubDate>2016-02-03 01:53:51 -0800</pubDate> | |
| <description>California is still on track to meet its overall goal of cutting water use by 25 percent, but just barely. The public needs to save a good deal more by March 1st.</description> | |
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| <![CDATA[<p>California saved 18 percent more water this past December than it did in 2013, which is good, but falls short of the overall 25 percent savings called for by the State Water Board.</p><p>Thanks to big reductions over the summer, the state was ahead of its goal on average for much of the past year, and it still is -- but just barely.</p><p>As of December the state's cumulative savings is 25.5 percent - to avoid falling behind by the end of February when the measure expires, California needs to save 22 percent, according to the Water Board's Max Gomberg.</p><p>Can we do it?</p><p>"My crystal ball is a little cloudy about that," joked Peter Gleick of the Oakland based Pacific Institute.</p><p>For the past three months the state has fallen short of its goal. Gleick says several factors are likely to blame, such as talk of a wet winter thanks to El Niño and general drought fatigue among the public.</p><p>Winter is also a harder time to gin up savings, said Ellen Hanak, director of the Water Policy Center at the Public Policy Institute of California .</p><p>"There is a very big difference between average residential water use in the winter and in the summer, and that big difference is outdoor irrigation," she said.</p><p>In the hot months we tend to water more, said Hanak. Simply letting lawns go brown can yield large water savings.</p><p>In the winter, most homeowners typically water little or not at all, meaning there is less usage to cut back on in the first place.</p><p>Still, the State Water Board has the authority to levy fines on water districts that fail to meet their goals, and has done so in the past.</p><p>To avoid that fate, Peter Gleick thinks water districts need to ramp up drought messaging and beef up rebates for those people who switch to water-efficient appliances in their homes.</p><p>He added that the weather could play a key role in California's efforts to hit its water target.</p><p>"If we get a lot more rain the incentive to conserve will drop. If it starts to dry up again I think there’s a better chance of meeting the goal," Gleick said.</p><p>Still, Gleick said the state should be proud of what it has accomplished so far.</p><p>Californians saved more than 350 billion gallons of water since the emergency drought regulations went into effect in May 2015.</p><p>"That's water that is still in our streams and in our reservoirs ... it really shows the power of conservation and efficiency," he said.</p> | |
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| <title>LAPD's fatal shooting of Skid Row homeless man was in department policy, panel decides</title> | |
| <guid>http://scprv4.dev/news/2016/02/03/57200/panel-weighing-lapd-s-fatal-shooting-of-homeless-b/</guid> | |
| <link>http://scprv4.dev/news/2016/02/03/57200/panel-weighing-lapd-s-fatal-shooting-of-homeless-b/</link> | |
| <author>KPCC staff</author> | |
| <pubDate>2016-02-03 01:25:00 -0800</pubDate> | |
| <description>Charly "Africa" Keunang was shot six times by officers on March 1. The circumstances surrounding his death have been hotly debated.</description> | |
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| <![CDATA[<p>The Los Angeles Police Commission on Tuesday found the shooting of an unarmed homeless man last March within department policy — but took issue with one officer's tactics leading up to the shooting. </p><p>Charly "Africa" Leundeu Keunang was shot six times and died near his tent outside the Union Rescue Mission on March 1, 2015.</p><p>"This loss of Mr. Keunang is nothing short of a tragedy for the family, relatives, loved ones, friends, the community of Skid Row, and the involved police officers," Commission President Matthew Johnson said in a statement. "To the family and friends of Mr. Keunang, my fellow Police Commissioners and I extend our sincere sympathies for your profound loss. There is no greater sadness a family can bear."</p><p>Keunang's family has filed a $20 million wrongful death lawsuit against the City of L.A.</p><p>Johnson said the commission reviewed statements of nine officers involved, along with 14 witness interviews, footage from the officers' body-worn cameras and dozens of pieces of evidence. </p><p>At the end of their review, Johnson said, the commission agreed with LAPD Chief Charlie Beck and Inspector General Alexander Bustamante that the use of deadly force was within policy — but unlike Beck and Bustamante, took issue with the tactics used by a rookie officer involved in the shooting, who at times, didn't properly secure his baton and pistol during the confrontation.</p><p>According to the chief's final report, submitted to the commission and made public Tuesday, officers suspected Keunang of hitting another man in the head with a baseball bat. The report says Keunang became aggressive with the officers, yelling and making fists. More officers arrived and one threatened to use a taser if Keunang didn't follow orders to stand against a wall.</p><p>"Keunang then stepped back and went inside his tent," the report says, refusing to come out. </p><p>According to the report, officers believed Keunang might be armed as they entered the tent to apprehend him, at one point seeing a black item (which turned out to be a cell phone) in his hand. </p><p>The report, which has parts of it redacted, says an officer shot Keunang with a Taser dart, to no effect — he continued to move towards an officer "swinging his army wildly."</p><p>An officer dropped a Taser and his baton — which was picked up by "T. Carey," a woman who had been lying under a nearby tarp. An officer grabbed Carey, who looked like she was about to swing the baton, according to the report. </p><p>Meanwhile, Keunang, who was still struggling after being hit with a second Taser dart, allegedly grabbed at one of the officers' pistols — "tugging rapidly very hard almost twisting my belt off me, so much force that my magazine was unseated," according to the officer.</p><p>Footage from the body-worn cameras of two officers involved confirmed that Keunang was "manipulating" the pistol, the chief's report said. </p><p>The assessment of the Police Commission, released later Tuesday, found that the officer had failed to properly re-holster his gun after putting it away to free up his hands and punch Keunang.</p><p>The officer "was not successful in securing the pistol by engaging the retention mechanisms of the holster, and that he induced a malfunction in his pistol during the repeated attempts to reholster," the Police Commission's finding said.</p><p>During the later struggle, body-worn camera footage, according to the commission's assessment, showed Keunang's hand "holding onto" the officer's weapon "as the weapon appears to be substantially removed" from the holster. </p><p>The officer yelled, "he's got a hold of my gun," according to the report, and multiple officers, their names redacted, opened fire. </p><p>The decision to fire, the police commission determined, was reasonable. </p><p>Critics have questioned why it took so many officers to subdue one man — and accuse officers of escalating the situation.</p><p>The shooting brought international attention to L.A.'s Skid Row, where police have clashed with homeless for decades. </p><p>Partially, the interest was in the disputed circumstances surrounding the shooting. Its notoriety was also enhanced by the dead man's mysterious past.</p><p>Keunang, a onetime aspiring actor, convicted bank robber and identity thief, had immigrated to the U.S. posing as "Charley Robinet," a Frenchman. </p><p>Days after the shooting, local officials finally identified Keunang, who was 43 when he died. </p><p>The circumstances surrounding his death, however, have remained murky. </p><p>In the days after the shooting, Beck said Keunang reached for the rookie officer's holstered gun. <a href="http://www.scpr.org/news/2015/03/02/50115/skid-row-police-shooting-one-officer-was-wearing-b/#video">A video captured by a bystander went viral.</a></p><p>The department has not released footage from the officers' body-worn cameras.</p><div class="embed-wrapper"><iframe frameborder="0" height="1320px" scrolling="no" src="http://projects.scpr.org/documents/#document=2703425-Charly-Keunang-OIS/?=embed/" width="100%"></iframe></div><p><em>Correction: An earlier version of this story misspelled Charly Keunang's name. KPCC regrets the error.</em></p> | |
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| <title>SoCal Gas faces criminal charges over Porter Ranch gas leak</title> | |
| <guid>http://scprv4.dev/news/2016/02/03/57203/socal-gas-faces-criminal-charges-over-porter-ranch/</guid> | |
| <link>http://scprv4.dev/news/2016/02/03/57203/socal-gas-faces-criminal-charges-over-porter-ranch/</link> | |
| <author>KPCC Staff</author> | |
| <pubDate>2016-02-03 01:17:55 -0800</pubDate> | |
| <description>Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey filed charges against the company for failing to immediately report the Porter Ranch natural gas leak to state authorities.</description> | |
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| <![CDATA[<p>SoCal Gas is now facing criminal charges, with Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey filing charges against the company for failing to immediately report the Porter Ranch natural gas leak to state authorities, as well as for the leak itself.</p><p>"While we recognize that neither the criminal charges nor the civil lawsuits will offer the residents of Los Angeles County a complete solution, it is important that Southern California Gas Co. be held responsible for its criminal actions," Lacey said in a statement. "I believe we can best serve our community using the sanctions available through a criminal conviction to prevent similar public health threats in the future."</p><p>The charges include four misdemeanor counts, three related to failing to report the release of hazardous materials between Oct. 23 and Oct. 26, with the other being for discharging air contaminants from Oct. 23, 2015 until present.</p><p>SoCal Gas faces fines of up to $25,000 a day for each day it didn't notice the California Office of Emergency Services, according to a release from the DA's office, as well as up to $1,000 per day for air pollution violations.</p> | |
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| <title>How your gas bill works — and why customers are complaining about higher gas bills</title> | |
| <guid>http://scprv4.dev/news/2016/02/03/57202/how-your-gas-bill-works-and-why-customers-are-comp/</guid> | |
| <link>http://scprv4.dev/news/2016/02/03/57202/how-your-gas-bill-works-and-why-customers-are-comp/</link> | |
| <author>Sharon McNary</author> | |
| <pubDate>2016-02-03 00:51:24 -0800</pubDate> | |
| <description>SoCal Gas says neither the big gas leak near Porter Ranch nor its new gas meters caused gas bills to soar. The company blames higher usage during cold months.</description> | |
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| <![CDATA[<p>Southern Californians are cranking up the heat this chilly winter — the coldest in several years — and getting a shock when a sky-high gas bill arrives.</p><p>Los Angeles City Councilman Mitch Englander wants the city to investigate. His constituents are complaining their gas bills are far higher than normal. They suspect it's to cover costs of the big natural gas leak near Porter Ranch, or new electronic gas meters that can be read from the street.</p><p>SoCal Gas spokesman Mike Mizrahi says bills are higher, but not because of new meters or the gas leaking from a broken well.</p><p>"It has not affected customers at all," Mizrahi said. "November and December were the coldest such months since 2011, so folks get surprised."</p><p>Some of that sticker shock has been showing up in comments on a Facebook group for Porter Ranch residents. Some have said their bill skyrocketed even though they had relocated away from their homes and were not using their furnaces while absent.</p><p>The part of a SoCal Gas bill that changes from month to month covers what SoCal Gas pays to buy gas from suppliers. This December it actually cost less than the previous year — just 32 cents a <a href="http://mapawatt.com/2010/02/17/what-therm">therm</a> (a unit of measure for how much heat the gas would produce when burned) versus nearly <a href="https://www.socalgas.com/for-your-business/energy-market-services/gas-prices">49 cents in December 2014.</a></p><p>Another part of the bill covers the cost to move gas through storage and the distribution system. That part of the gas bill is approved each year by the California Public Utilities Commission.</p><p>The cost of gas and transportation together make up 84 percent of the gas charges. Customers pay another 8 percent to subsidize poor people's gas bills, and SoCal Gas takes an 8 percent profit. Taxes and various fees go on top of all that.</p><p>Englander submitted a request Tuesday for his City Council colleagues to order up an investigation into the reasons for the higher bills. It would be up for a vote at a future council meeting.</p> | |
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| <title>‘Through the Looking Glass’: How residents of 2 LA neigborhoods found common ground</title> | |
| <guid>http://scprv4.dev/programs/the-frame/2016/02/02/46161/through-the-looking-glass-how-residents-of-two-l-a/</guid> | |
| <link>http://scprv4.dev/programs/the-frame/2016/02/02/46161/through-the-looking-glass-how-residents-of-two-l-a/</link> | |
| <author>Audrey Ngo | The Frame</author> | |
| <pubDate>2016-02-02 23:57:40 -0800</pubDate> | |
| <description>You don’t usually hear Leimert Park and Montebello in the same sentence, but residents found they have a lot in common through a community theater project.</description> | |
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| <![CDATA[<p>You don’t usually hear Leimert Park and Montebello in the same sentence, but the two L.A. County neighborhoods actually have a lot in common.</p><p>Both have middle-class, diverse populations — a largely African-American community in Leimert Park, and a mix of Latinos, Asians and Armenians in Montebello.</p><p>So with only 16 miles separating them, why do these communities seem worlds away?</p><blockquote><p><strong>MAXWELL MARTINEZ: </strong>When I heard <em>Leimert Park</em>, I didn’t have any assumptions because I didn’t know what Leimert Park was. . .</p></blockquote><p>Montebello resident Maxwell Martinez is a participant in Center Theater Group’s project, “<a href="https://www.centertheatregroup.org/about/artistic-development/through-the-looking-glass/">Through the Looking Glass</a>,” which recruited residents of Leimert Park and Montebello to write “autobiographies” about each other’s cities. The stories have been adapted into a new stage production by playwright Jerry Quickley.</p><p>Speaking at the final rehearsal for the show, one Leimert Park participant said she had a surprising response when meeting the group from Montebello last month.</p><blockquote><p><strong>TASHA W. HUNTER: </strong>When we finally met in person, the demographic of people, just to see a variation of ages and colors and hues and backgrounds — that surprised me. It was a reflection of us.</p></blockquote><p>Quickley, who is also the project’s facilitator, said the idea for “Through the Looking Glass” came from a similar project he’d done with students at Stanford University and incarcerated youth in Alameda.</p><blockquote><p><strong>QUICKLEY:</strong> Whether I’m working with [the participants], or building an opera with Philip Glass, or working with incarcerated youth, it’s all the same process. You have to come in with very open ears, you go up and have a conversation, and you see what those conversations develop into.</p></blockquote><p>On opening night, the participants will be on stage telling their stories, which they’ve been developing over the past seven months.</p><blockquote><p><strong>QUICKLEY: </strong>Creating a safe space that allows people to unpack their traumas and allows people to go into detail is really one of the keys to us being able to get at what’s underneath the community, what’s driving them, what frames are being repeated from one community to another.</p></blockquote><p>Diane Rodriguez is Center Theater Group’s associate artistic director. She says the project is important because of the lasting effects storytelling can have on the performers.</p><blockquote><p><strong>RODRIGUEZ: </strong>They get a confidence that their story is important; they get skills in terms of how to communicate those stories. . . . What all that does is it empowers people. It gives them more of a feeling of self-worth and it’s going to impact their lives beyond this project.</p></blockquote><p>That’s something Maxwell Martinez can attest to. After surviving a stroke nearly five years ago, he says “Through the Looking Glass” became a way for him to break out of his shell.</p><blockquote><p><strong>MARTINEZ:</strong> I was a shut-in after the stroke. I fell into a deep depression and I shut myself into my room and for four years, in that room, I didn’t want to come out, I didn’t go out. . . this really helped me break out of that depression and find a new me, find a creative me.</p></blockquote><p>Quickley says stories like Martinez’s are why he’s developed the project.</p><blockquote><p><strong>QUICKLEY: </strong>Maxwell was basically ready to give up on life. He needed a transition to do it. He’s working now. He’s fully engaged, and to watch someone grow through that change is affecting.</p></blockquote><p>And Quickley hopes their audience will walk away with more than just a night of affecting stories.</p><blockquote><p><strong>QUICKLEY: </strong>What I hope the audiences will take away from this project is, how our cultural expressions can be very different, but there is a tremendous amount of closeness in every way. I want the audience to take away that your plight matters. And what I’m hoping most is that people come to the performance and they see their plight on stage. They see the life or lives that they’ve lived on stage and that they see themselves in the work of others.</p></blockquote><p><em><a href="https://www.centertheatregroup.org/about/artistic-development/through-the-looking-glass/">“Through the Looking Glass”</a> will be performed Feb. 2 at the Quiet Cannon in Montebello, Feb. 3 at Regency West in Leimert Park, and Feb. 8 at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City.</em></p> | |
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