Author: admin

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    Lawful Money

    Byadmin

    Milken Foundation gives $10M to UCLA law school Daily News, 08/09/2011 LOS ANGELES – Lowell Milken gave UCLA’s law school $10 million, putting it ahead of schedule in raising $100 million over five years, it was announced today. The fundraising drive was started in 2008 to benefit student scholarships, attract and retain faculty and to support centers and institutes that inform law and public policy. The gift from Milken, the biggest in the law school’s history, will be used to start the Lowell Milken Institute for Business Law and Policy… Full article at http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_18645516 Down it comes:

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    More Mysterious than Illuminating

    Byadmin

    You will have seen the headlines about how state revenues fell short of budget projections, potentially threatening a pulling of the budget trigger that would cut more from UC’s budget. It is true that the budget was based on optimistic revenue projections. And it is true that the underlying economy does not look to be supportive of such optimism. However, the controller’s report on cash receipts on which the headlines are based is not illuminating. Much of the forecast revenue that did not appear came from miscellaneous sources such as estimates of abandoned property that gets transferred to the state….

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    California Public Pensions: Video Program

    Byadmin

    Yours truly will be traveling Aug. 9-15 so blogging may be limited. However, you may be interested in this program on California public pensions produced by the Maddy Institute at Cal State-Fresno. It includes an interview with the Legislative Analyst’s Office staffer who handles that topic: Part 1: Part 2: Part 3: Part 4: Part 5: The Maddy Institute’s home page is http://www.maddyinstitute.org/index.html

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    How to Turn $70 Million into $63 Million in 7 Years: Build a 210-Room Hotel Adjacent to Campus

    Byadmin

    A straw in the wind about the Estancia Hotel in La Jolla next to UC-San Diego: The seven-year-old, 210-room Estancia La Jolla Hotel and Spa, located adjacent to UC San Diego, has been put up for sale. The owner, Los Angeles-based Lowe Enterprises, is not saying why it’s marketing the property nor did it divulge an asking price, but an online real estate publication estimates the luxury property could fetch more than $60 million. The hotel and conference center, which sits on a nine-acre site known at one time as the Black Family La Jolla Stables, was developed at a…

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    Looking Back on the California State Budget of 2011-12

    Byadmin

    Yesterday’s blog entry reminded you of the unpleasant “trigger” built into the California state budget which is aimed (in part) at UC. If you would like to relive the formulation of that budget, here is a write-up (warning 60+ pages) from a draft chapter for California Policy Options 2012 by yours truly. You can read it below: Open publication – Free publishing – More california If the above causes problems with your computer, you can download the pdf file at: http://issuu.com/danieljbmitchell/docs/reallynomentalreservations

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    Pleasant Thought for Today

    Byadmin

    Just a reminder – as you are perusing news about current economic trends – that the California state budget signed last June with smiles all around has a “trigger” formula. If tax revenue falls short of its (relatively optimistic) projections by specified amounts, further cuts occur – including cuts to UC. Sagging economies are not good at producing a lot of tax revenue. Perhaps this old clip from the 1970s has some relevance as you cogitate on that fact and the more general scene:

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    Who Owns It?

    Byadmin

    As the 1951 fundraising letter above indicates, the UCLA Faculty Center began with contributions from various sources. (Click on the image for a clearer look.) The Regents apparently contributed less than half, perhaps a third, of the original funding. However, documents available do not make it clear who owns the building (as opposed to the land under it which clearly is university property). What is known is that over the years, there were discussions of a formal contract (Memorandum of Understanding – MOU) between UCLA and the Board of the Faculty Center. Below you can find a draft of an…

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    UCLA History: Jackie Robinson

    Byadmin

    Jackie Robinson at UCLA in 1941. “At UCLA, Jackie became the first athlete to win varsity letters in four sports: baseball, basketball, football and track. In 1941, he was named to the All-American football team. Due to financial difficulties, he was forced to leave college, and eventually decided to enlist in the U.S. Army.” Source: http://www.jackierobinson.com/about/bio.html

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    Live West of the 405? Don’t bother to come to UCLA

    Byadmin

    From LA County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky: Sometime this fall, two Wilshire on- and off-ramps to the 405 Freeway will be closed for 90 days. That work will be followed by a series of closures of the other Wilshire ramps, each expected to last from 14 to 90 days. (There are eight ramps in all, and they will be worked on two at a time.) The end result should be sweet: modern, swooping flyover ramps that will make it easier to navigate the notoriously jammed intersection. But getting to that point may be considerably less so, in the view of residents…