Month: February 2013

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    You never know what the legislature might do

    Byuclafaculty

    Since the Republicans like any tax cut and the Democrats might go for the one described below, it could conceivably happen.  What Gov. Brown might do if such a bill reached his desk is another matter. An Inland Empire assemblyman wants to shave up to 9 percent off the cost of every college textbook sold in the state. On Wednesday, Assemblyman Tim Donnelly, R-Hesperia, announced the introduction of Assembly Bill 479, which would exempt college textbooks sold in California from the state’s sales tax. Only three in 10 college students in the Golden State purchase their college textbooks, according to his…

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    Pressure Mounts to Lift Cap on UC Student Health Insurance

    Byuclafaculty

    Rep. Nancy Pelosi and nine other members of Congress are urging the University of California to lift its caps on student health insurance – limits that for the rest of the country are illegal under the Affordable Care Act and that jeopardize students with catastrophic medical problems. “It is troubling that the health plan of one of the world’s most prestigious university systems would not adopt this industry standard,” the representatives wrote UC President Mark Yudof last week. “UC students and student workers should have access to the same health-care protections that millions of other students, student workers and Americans already enjoy,” said the letter from California’s Democratic…

  • Online Ed: Sorry About That

    Byuclafaculty

    From the Chronicle of Higher Education: Low-cost online courses could allow a more-diverse group of students to try college, but a new study suggests that such courses could also widen achievement gaps among students in different demographic groups.  The study, which is described in a working paper titled “Adaptability to Online Learning: Differences Across Types of Students and Academic Subject Areas,” was conducted by Columbia University’s Community College Research Center. The researchers examined 500,000 courses taken by more than 40,000 community- and technical-college students in Washington State. They found that students in demographic groups whose members typically struggle in traditional…

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    UCLA Med School Linked to Wrong Crowd?

    Byuclafaculty

    LA Times columnist Michael Hiltzik’s column today highlights a connection between Herbalight – a food supplements firm – and the UCLA med school. Herbalight is in the midst of a tug-of-war between some Wall Street interests.  One side claims that the firm is a Ponzi-type scheme whose stock will eventually come crashing down.  Yes, the word “Ponzi” appears in such claims.  Check out page 177 at this link:http://factsaboutherbalife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Who-wants-to-be-a-Millionaire.pdf The other side argues the company is legit and a good investment. Excerpt: Herbalife International says it’s all about helping people “pursue healthy, active lives.” UCLA’s Geffen School of Medicine likes to think…

  • Supermajority Gone for Now

    Byuclafaculty

    There were many speculative stories around about what the legislative Democrats would do in the current session with their new two-thirds supermajority.  In theory, they could enact taxes, override vetoes, and put constitutional amendments on the ballot.  Of course, all of these speculations hinged on total Democratic unity. But there is the old Will Rogers quote: “I don’t belong to an organized political party; I’m a Democrat.”  So some of these possibilities were fanciful.  In any event, now one state senate Democrat has quit to go to work for Chevron.  [In this instance, oil seems to be troubling the political waters…

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    More on the Tobacco Tax for UC & CSU Student Aid

    Byuclafaculty

    Prior posts have noted that an initiative written by a law firm with experience in electoral matters has been filed that would impose a tobacco tax to fund student aid at UC and CSU.  As previously reported, the use of the law firm suggests some serious money is involved – which would be needed to fund a petition drive and then a subsequent election campaign which tobacco interests would surely oppose. We now have the official summary text that will be seen by voters who are asked to sign the petition. The text is below, courtesy of the California Secretary…

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    Allegations of Monkey Business

    Byuclafaculty

    From the Winston-Salem Journal 2/23/13:  Wake Forest University Health Sciences is suing to end a joint venture with the University of California at Los Angeles involving the primate colony in southern Forsyth County, and UCLA is accusing Wake Forest of financially mismanaging the research center. The colony contains 475 vervet monkeys, many of which came from the Caribbean island of St. Kitts. They contain family trees that have been tracked for eight generations by researchers.The Wake Forest group said it is willing to shut down the primate center in the Friedberg community if UCLA doesn’t agree to continue to pay…

  • UC Consequences of the DC Chicken Race

    Byuclafaculty

    Like so many political debates, the standoff in the nation’s capital over federal spending has been somewhat of an abstraction for months on end. That could change, though, starting next week. With just about everyone now agreeing that the March 1 deadline for avoiding automatic spending cuts — sequestration — will be missed, the real question seems to be how long before those cuts are felt and where will they hit hardest. In the Sacramento region, the impacts could be numerous: less money for community policing programs that rely on federal cash, $42 million less in research funding at UC…

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    Bear with us

    Byuclafaculty

    With the massive 405 Project now two-thirds complete, officials have unveiled a staggered endgame schedule which calls for major portions of the project to wrap up this year while work on one troublesome segment continues into 2014. The delay involves the project’s middle segment—chiefly in the area around Montana Avenue and Church Lane—where utility relocations and the necessity of shifting Sepulveda Boulevard have proved vastly more time-consuming than expected. Overall, unforeseen utility relocation issues have not only eaten up valuable time but also have driven up the cost of building the project, according to a briefing presented this week to Metro’s…

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    UCLA Reports Battery Technology Advance

    Byuclafaculty

    From KCET …We told you that researchers at Ric Kamen’s lab at UCLA had found a way to make a non-toxic, highly efficient energy storage medium out of pure carbon using absurdly simple technology. Today, we can report that the same team may well have found a way to make that process scale up to mass-production levels…  The recap: Graphene, a very simple carbon polymer, can be used as the basic component of a “supercapacitor” — an electrical power storage device that charges far more rapidly than chemical batteries. Unlike other supercapacitors, though, graphene’s sturcture also offers a high “energy…