Author: admin

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    New Tax Graveyard

    Byadmin

    The governor and the legislative leaders have been tamping down expectations that the Democrats – with a 2/3 “supermajority” in the legislature would be enacting new taxes.  For one thing, the supermajority is shaky at best.  One Democratic seat in the Senate recently became a GOP seat in a special election.  Some of the Democrats were elected in swing districts under the new top-2 primary system and might not vote with the majority on a tax increase. Today’s Capitol Alert blog of the Sacramento Bee reports: Measures aimed at creating new taxes on Californians were held by the Senate Appropriations…

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    Quidquid Latine dictum sit altum videtur

    Byadmin

    Something for the Regents to consider:Gov. Jerry Brown, whose public remarks occasionally include a phrase or two in Latin, explained Wednesday two reasons he liked learning it. “It’s obscure and makes you smarter than everybody,” he told about 1,000 people at a California Chamber of Commerce breakfast… Full article at http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2013/05/jerry-brown-says-latin-makes-you-smarter-than-everybody.html Ipse dixit. Read more here: http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2013/05/jerry-brown-says-latin-makes-you-smarter-than-everybody.html#storylink=cpy [And, for those who would critique the Latin phrases above, I learned them online so they must be correct.  Right?  Prima facie evidence!]

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    UCLA History: Santa Monica Hospital – now a part of UCLA – back in the day

    Byadmin

    Santa Monica Hospital in 1941:LA Public Library collection Previous posts on this blog have dealt with the current strike at UC hospitals including UCLA.  News coverage tends to focus on Westwood. But UCLA also operates Santa Monica Hospital which it acquired a few years ago. The two-day strike is also occurring at the Santa Monica location.  (The photo above from 1941 shows a building – seen from 16th Street – that has since been replaced.) Coverage on the strike can be found at http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-uc-strike-20130522,0,3925126.story Meanwhile, the conservative FlashReport news aggregation website was so interested in the UC strike story that…

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    UCLA: It’s Tufts to Get Into

    Byadmin

    The University of California system remains a popular destination for incoming freshmen – and getting into UCLA is now as hard as getting into Tufts and Cornell, at least for California students…  UCLA reported an in-state admission rate of 17.4 percent, Becker said, a level comparable to Cornell and Tufts, two of the nation’s most selective universities. Overall, the 10 campuses accepted 82,850 freshman, for an average acceptance rate of 59 percent. Berkeley and San Diego campuses were more exclusive than the average… But the prestigious public U.C. system is changing in one profound way: out-of-state students increasingly make up more…

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    UC (& UCLA) hospital 2-day strike to go ahead this morning with court-orded exceptions

    Byadmin

    A Sacramento judge Monday refused to stop a strike today by thousands of employees at…  UC hospitals – but ordered a limited number of critical care employees to stay on the job.  The union for nearly 13,000 workers, including nursing assistants, pharmacists, medical technicians, operating room scrubs and other health care workers, was to begin a two-day strike at 4 a.m. today (Tuesday, May 21). The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees announced the walkout of workers at the UC Davis Health System and University of California hospitals in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego and Irvine. The…

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    Pension Promises and the UC Budget

    Byadmin

    One of the issues facing UC is pension liabilities.  As we have noted in prior posts, although it may seem paradoxical, liability for the pension is a young person’s issue.  Old folks tend to worry about whether they will get their promised UC pension when the issue is raised.  However, the actual issue is that because they and everyone else will get what is promised, the UC budget going forward has to meet the promise in future years.  Dollars that will go to the pension won’t go to something else. Although you may read about this or that jurisdiction that…

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    The Complete Regents Meeting for Your Listening Enjoyment AND a Note About the Governor’s Legitimate Question and the Absurd UC Response

    Byadmin

    We have given you sections of last week’s Regents meeting in various postings.  And we have noted that the archiving policy of the Regents is a problem.  According to the Regents website, “Video files for past open session meetings of The University of California Regents and its Committees are available for one year after the dates of the meetings.”  So the files apparently vanish.  Prior to 2013, the Regents provided no archiving at all, just a live stream of the audio.  We would then request the audio files and archive them elsewhere.  Since it appears that files will eventually vanish,…

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    Something that didn’t happen

    Byadmin

    Our prior post noted that the LA Times today carries a story about a deal that did occur – albeit not to the benefit of UCLA.  The Times also carries a story about a deal that did not happen, a possible purchase by UCLA of St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica:http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-st-johns-hospital-20130517,0,3436718.story An earlier post on this blog about this deal that didn’t happen (when it was still a possibility) is at:http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2013/03/hospital-takeover.html UPDATE: See also:http://bhcourier.com/open-letter-communities-santa-monica-west-los-angeles-2/2013/05/17

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    Brain Drain Story

    Byadmin

    The LA Times today has a behind-the-scenes story of the recruitment by USC of the neurology lab entourage: …Some colleagues in Westwood were aware that Toga and Thompson “were having conversations” with USC but didn’t know the specifics, said John Mazziotta, chairman of UCLA’s neurology department and executive vice dean of the medical school. The Bruins would have tried to respond if given a chance, he said: “We always try to keep our top faculty.” …Full story at http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-usc-ucla-recruit-20130518,0,6963020,full.story All in all, seems like someone was not fully alert:[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aq9hQDzQFvo?feature=player_detailpage]