'Complications' doom Bill Honig's appointment to state education board

Bill Honig withdraws from state Board of Education
Former state schools superintendent Bill Honig withdrew his name from Gov. Jerry Brown's list of appointments to the state Board of Education, giving way to a far less Controversial pick for the position. Brown replaced Honig with Ilene Straus, a Beverly Hills Unified assistant superintendent. The new Governor gave no reason for Honig's withdrawal, which came a week after his appointment along with six others to the board. Honig, who served on the Board of Education during Brown's first stint ...

Honig withdraws name as Board of Education appointee
Former state schools chief Louis "Bill" Honig, has withdrawn his nomination to the state Board of Education , Gov. Jerry Brown's office announced today. Honig, one of seven appointed to the board announced by Brown last week, resigned as state Superintendent of Public Instruction in 1993 after he was convicted of felony conflict-of-interest charges. The charges, which involved authorizing state funds for schools to hire his wife's nonprofit group, were later reduced to Misdemeanors. A releas...

Governor Brown appointment January 10 2011
Governor Jerry Brown today announced the following appointment. Dr. Ilene W. Straus, 61, of Marina del Rey, has been appointed to the California State Board of Education. She currently serves as an Assistant Superintendent for Educational Services with the Beverly Hills Unified School District. Straus was Senior Director of Secondary Education for the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District in 2006, and she also served as the Chief Educational Officer and Principal of Santa Monica High Schoo...

Marriage Equality Hero Gavin Newsom Sworn-In as California Lt. Governor
Gavin Newsom Sworn-In as Lt. Governor on Monday Official Photo Applause interrupted Openly Gay Speaker of the Assembly John A. Perez during his remarks before former San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom was officially sworn in as California’s Lt. Governor on Monday.  In 2004, “his bold leadership ushered in a sea change in attitude towards marriage equality,” Perez said. The ceremony had its formal moments in the grand chamber - including the official swearing-in offici...

Nicolas Berggruen wants to fix California budget
Few Californians know who French Billionaire Nicolas Berggruen is or why he's ready to spend at least $20 million to propose long-term, Bipartisan solutions to California's broken political system. That will change soon as the all-star team he's recruited made its first public comments this week in support of Gov. Jerry Brown's proposal to transfer more power from the state to Local Government. There have been several similar efforts to reform California's fractured governance in recent year...

School Administrators: Simply Pouring Money Into The System Not The Answer
Wednesday, January 12, 2011 By Nicholas Ballasy (CNSNews.com) - Candidates for the American Association of School Administrators’ (AASA) National Superintendent of the Year Award gathered at the National Press Club on Tuesday and offered their take on why the District of Columbia ranks among the highest for the amount of education dollars it spends per pupil but among the lowest on standardized Test Scores. According to the Census Bureau, in 2010, "states and state equivalents that spent ...

Thousand Islands district has school board vacancy
CLAYTON — The Thousand Islands Central School District Board of Education is seeking applicants to fill a vacant seat on the board. The new member will serve on the board for the remainder of the term of Virginia "Cindy" Edsall, who recently resigned for personal reasons. Her term expires May 17. Applicants must have been a district resident for a full year prior to the date of appointment and must be a qualified voter in the district. Those interested in this unpaid position must send ...

SBOE and our apartheid public education system
Consider this--- arguably the most important profession in a free and open society (and maybe there’s the rub) is the education of its citizens.  Of course you wouldn’t know it judging by the salaries or status of educators. The state’s do-nothing Governor is paid $150,000 annually---as if he needs it---but he’s paid. What do governor’s do? Really. Governors don’t pass laws, legislators do that for oligarchs and the rich. Governors don’t hear cases,...

Brett Reese, Greeley School Board Member, Receives Death Threats Over MLK Commentary
The Greeley Tribune: A Greeley School Board member who has been broadcasting twice-daily attacks on the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on his Radio Station said Monday he has received several death threats since The Tribune first reported on the broadcasts Friday. Brett Reese also said that because of the threats he will start carrying a Handgun to all Greeley-Evans School District 6 Board of Education meetings. Read the whole story: The Greeley Tribune Get HuffPost Denver On Twitt...

13 seek Janison's vacant post on School Board
Thirteen people have applied to fill a vacancy on the Clark County School Board, including Alison Turner, president of the Nevada Parent Teacher Association; Michael D. Saxe, a pediatric dentist; and John Cole, a member of the Clark County School District's Bond Oversight Committee. The School Board is seeking to fill the seat left open by the Resignation of Terri Janison, who had two years of her term left. Other well-known Candidates in education circles include Jose Melendrez, assistant vice ...

Sen. Ogden calls for major changes in school funding, Medicaid
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Steve Ogden, the new Senate president pro tempore, used his election to that post Tuesday to lay out to fellow senators some of their primary tasks in tackling a massive revenue shortfall that is expected to dominate this year's legislative session. Ogden said a solution to the bleak Budget picture is within reach, but will require tough decisions in such areas as education and Health Care. "We can get the job done. It will not be easy. It will not be painless...

Schools watch free-speech case on breast cancer bracelets
School districts nationwide have their eyes on a Federal Court case in Pennsylvania, which will address whether Students should be allowed to wear breast-cancer awareness bracelets that have become a Controversy in multiple states. The bracelets — which proclaim "I (heart symbol) boobies!" — have been banned in some districts. U.S. District Judge Mary McLaughlin will hear oral arguments on Feb. 18. "Anytime a case based on a First Amendment free-speech case crops up, then other schoo...

Texas state windstorm insurance manager: Ike settlement and $39 million bill on legal fees came out as well as it could
By Steve Miller The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association settled close to 2,800 total loss claims for $189 million in July because “we had to do our best to curtail legal costs and get it done and put it to bed,” said TWIA General Manager Jim Oliver. “I’m fully aware that some people are going to disagree with what we did,” Oliver said in an interview Monday with Texas Watchdog. “But we’ve really been over this, and I would say it came out as well as it could.

Governor Brown appointment January 12 2011
Governor Jerry Brown today announced the following appointment. Karen Ross, 59, of Alexandria, VA, has been appointed Secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture. She has been Chief of Staff with the United States Department of Agriculture since 2010. Previously, Ross served as President of the California Association of Winegrape Growers from 1996 to 2009. She was the Vice President of Government Relations for the Agricultural Council of California from 1989 to 1996. Ross serv...

Brown names Karen Ross as food and agriculture secretary
Gov. Jerry Brown today announced the appointment of Karen Ross as secretary of the State Department of Food and Agriculture. Ross, who most recently worked as Chief of Staff to U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack is the former president of the California Association of Winegrape Growers . She has also worked for the Agricultural Council of California and served on the California State Board of Food and Agriculture. The 59-year-old Democrat's experience in state agriculture i...

Sustaining The Dream of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. January 17 - Through Community Service
The 2011 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Birthday Celebration entitled, “Sustaining the Dream: Through Community and Service”, will be held on January 17, 2011, at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and Yerba Buena Gardens. There will be numerous activities as well as free admission to the Contemporary Jewish Museum and the Museum of the African Diaspora , with special programs for Children and teens, and discounts and free activities at area Retailers and shops. The c...

Calif. governor orders 48,000 cellphones confiscated
Sacramento, Calif. — Alarmed at discovering that the state pays for 96,000 cellphones, California Gov. Jerry Brown issued an Executive Order Tuesday seeking to cut in half the number of devices being billed to Taxpayers. Requiring 48,000 cellphones to be turned in by June 1 will save the state about $20 million a year. "It is difficult for me to believe that 40 percent of all State Employees must be equipped with taxpayer-funded cellphones," Brown said. "Some state employees, including d...

Brown's budget plan -- pain everywhere
Every governmental Budget is inevitably a political document, and the crisis blueprint Gov. Jerry Brown proposes for California is, depending on your perspective, either breathtakingly cynical or strategically masterful. Perhaps it's a bit of both. When you round things out, the Budget Brown introduced Monday proposes $12.5 billion in cuts and $12 billion in tax extensions that will have to be approved by voters in a Special Election this spring. It's a document that spreads its wrenching pain i...

Candlelight March to Save Collective Bargaining to Highlight King Day Celebration
Martin Luther King Jr. addresses striking sanitation workers in April 1968, the day before he was killed in Memphis. More than 400 union and Civil Rights Activists will march to Cincinnati’s City Hall Jan. 14 to condemn recently-elected Republican Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s plan to strip Ohio child care and home Health Care workers of their the right to bargain for a better life. The march is part of the annual AFL-CIO King Day celebration Jan. 13-17 in Cincinnati. Through the march and throu...

Enterprize zones targeted by Brown, angering businesses
Redevelopment supporters aren't the only ones angry at Gov. Jerry Brown over his proposed cuts to programs aimed at stimulating Economic Development in depressed areas: He's also ticked off businesses and other supporters of "enterprise Zones." Supporters say the zones -- which allow Local Governments to offer Tax Credits to businesses that invest in underserved and low-income areas that meet certain requirements -- help create jobs and keep businesses in California. (There are currently 42 o...

New bid launched for college aid to undocumented students
A new push to allow longtime California residents who are undocumented immigrants to receive college financial assistance was launched today by a Los Angeles lawmaker. Assemblyman Gil Cedillo is counting on new Gov. Jerry Brown , a Democrat heavily supported by Latino voters last year, to be more receptive to the issue than former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger , a Republican who vetoed similar measures last year. Cedillo's bills would apply to undocumented immigrants who have attended California ...

California Reintroduces Its Own Dream Act
The DREAM Act is back, in California at least. Today Assemblyman Gil Cedillo re-introduced the DREAM Act which would allow undocumented youth who are accepted to college the ability to apply for institutional Financial Aid and state grants from the state’s public universities, state and community colleges. Cedillo’s new strategy is to split the bill in two. The San Jose Mercury News reports that one bill would allow undocumented immigrant Students who are California residents to appl...

Dan Siegel, critic of cops, to advise Oakland mayor
An Oakland Civil Rights attorney who is one of the city's most active and vocal police critics will be joining the administration of Mayor Jean Quan as an unpaid adviser in the coming weeks. Dan Siegel, who has fought against the city's gang injunctions, said he expects he will advise Quan on a variety of issues, including the Budget and proposed marijuana farms. But that's not all. "I certainly think I would be advising Jean on policing issues and giving the Police Chief advice," said Siegel,...

Report finds no health threat from PG&E; SmartMeter
A long-awaited report released Tuesday on the possible dangers of Pacific Gas and Electric Co. SmartMeters found that radiation from the wireless devices does not threaten Public Health - at least not in any way proven by science. The intensity of the meters' radiation falls well within federal limits for wireless devices, according to the report from the California Council on Science and Technology. And those limits are more than adequate to prevent the electromagnetic waves from heating hum...

Tea Party fights to abolish school integration
Stumble This! Tea Party groups succeeded in reversing nationally celebrated school integration policies in Raleigh, North Carolina, decrying the celebrated efforts as social engineering. The Washington Post reports that tea party pressure has motivated Wake County School District's largely Republican School Board to abolish longstanding policies believed by to be a resounding success in integration. "Say no to the social engineers!" was one of their slogans. The Post hails the policy as a "rari...