Month: July 2012

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    Has the Worm Turned in the UCLA Lab Fire Trial?

    Byuclafaculty

    From the LA Times: (excerpt) Criminal proceedings against UCLA chemistry professor Patrick Harran took a bizarre turn Thursday when the defense alleged in court papers that the state’s chief investigator in the accidental death of a lab worker committed murder as a teenager in 1985. The investigator, Brian Baudendistel, denied it…Baudendistel, a senior special investigator for the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health, was instrumental in building the criminal case against Harran and UCLA with a 95-page report that blamed both in the death of 23-year-old Sheharbano “Sheri” Sangji. She suffered fatal burns when a experiment burst into flames in…

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    Japanese Garden Ruling Expected July 27

    Byuclafaculty

    “Hannah Carter Garden Ruling Expected Today” (Which Means Tomorrow – July 27)  By Laura Coleman L.A. Superior Court Judge Lisa Hart Cole is today* expected to rule on whether to halt UCLA’s pending sale of the Hannah Carter Japanese Garden. Cole postponed judgment earlier this month on issuing a preliminary injunction opposing the sale, which was filed by the heirs of Hannah Carter on June 13, until she was able to determine whether the university is a charitable trust or a public entity. The Kyoto-style Bel Air garden, bequeathed to the university by former UC Regent Edward Carter with the stipulation…

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    U-CVS-LA?

    Byuclafaculty

    Why does the item below make me nervous?  From the LA Times (excerpt): UCLA doctors to oversee 11 CVS in-store clinics: Doctors will serve as medical directors for 11 CVS MinuteClinics in Los Angeles County through an agreement with UCLA Health System. Pharmacy giant CVS Caremark Corp. and UCLA Health System are teaming up to treat patients in 11 in-store clinics in Los Angeles County as one remedy to a growing shortage of primary care physicians. Under this arrangement, UCLA physicians will serve as medical directors overseeing 11 CVS MinuteClinics and the two entities will share electronic medical records. …Drugstore…

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    13 Not a Lucky Number for Lawsuit

    Byuclafaculty

    Proposition 13 of 1978 is noted mainly for its major reduction and capping of property taxes.  As has been reported previously on this blog, former UCLA Chancellor Charles Young filed a lawsuit challenging another feature of Prop 13, the requirement for a two-thirds vote in the legislature for tax increases. News reports indicate that the premise of the suit has been twice rejected.  It is unclear if there will now be a further appeal to the California Supreme Court. Details:  …The 2nd District Court of Appeal in Los Angeles on Tuesday denied, without comment, an appeal of a lower court…

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    Official Description of Governor’s Tax Initiative from the LAO

    Byuclafaculty

    As readers of this blog will know, the Regents have endorsed Prop 30, the governor’s tax initiative to be on the ballot Nov. 6, 2012.  Below is the official description from the Legislative Analyst’s Office that will be seen by voters. ========= Proposition 30 Temporary Taxes to Fund Education. Guaranteed Local Public Safety Funding. Initiative Constitutional Amendment. Summary of Legislative Analyst’s Estimate of Net State and Local Government Fiscal Impact Fiscal Impact: Increased state tax revenues through 2018-19, averaging about $6 billion annually over the next few years. Revenues available for funding state budget. In 2012-13, planned spending reductions, primarily to…

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    UC-Berkeley Joins Harvard-MIT Online Course Program

    Byuclafaculty

    Inside Higher Ed pointed me to a story about UC-Berkeley’s online endeavors.  A press release related to the story is below.  Below that is a link to the Inside Higher Ed article: UC BERKELEY JOINS HARVARD AND MIT NOT-FOR-PROFIT ONLINE LEARNING COLLABORATIVE; EDX BROADENS FREE COURSE OFFERINGS INTO PUBLIC HEALTH, COMPUTER SCIENCE AND SOLID-STATE CHEMISTRY; OPENS REGISTRATION (excerpts) EdX, the online learning initiative founded by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and launched in May, announced today the addition of the University of California, Berkeley to its platform. UC Berkeley, ranked No. 1 among public universities in…

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    How the Hotel Sausage Got Made

    Byuclafaculty

    CaliforniaWatchhas a story on the UCLA hotel project that recently passed the Regents.  It notes problems that this blog has pointed out: “(Chancellor) Block noted in his presentation that the hotel and conference center would serve not only academic conference attendees, but also donors, parents and alumni coming to UCLA for activities ‘in furtherance of UCLA’s educational mission.’ But critics have noted that the Internal Revenue Service has treated alumni, for example, as members of the general public, suggesting that the university could be exposed to the unrelated business income tax. According to ‘The Tax Law of Colleges and Universities’…

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    Empowered to the People: Poizner-UCLA Extension Online Venture Launching

    Byuclafaculty

    This blog has written in the past about online education and, in particular, a venture called “Empowered” involving UCLA Extension and Steve Poizner which seems about the launch.  Poizner, some will recall, was a GOP candidate for governor in 2010, losing the nomination to Meg Whitman in the primary (who then lost to Jerry Brown).  The program offers certificates in various management and other fields with a sticker price of $12,800, although students in the first class get a reduced price of $9,800.   An iPad is thrown in “free,” however.   The launch comes with a slick video which –…

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    Beyond the Headlines

    Byuclafaculty

    The headline on a story in today’s Sacramento Beereads: “2 UC Davis neurosurgeons accused of experimental surgery are banned from human research” But, as is often the case, the story that follows is more complicated than the headline suggests.  It raises issues of bioethics related to the specific procedures described and also questions about management control in medical facilities.  I mention the latter because some readers will recall the body parts scandal at UCLA and the scrambled eggs/fertility clinic scandal at UC-Irvine. We have a comment option on this blog which is rarely used but if medical professionals in particula…