News

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Legal victory for university consortium that includes UC

Byuclafaculty

Inside Higher Ed is reporting a legal victory concerning a Google/university partnership that involves indexing a vast number of books.  Excerpt:Much of the work of the HathiTrust (a consortium of universities) to make books in university collections more easily searchable and accessible to people with disabilities is protected by “fair use” and is not subject to a copyright suit brought by authors’ groups, a federal judge has ruled…I can’t give you the ins and outs of this case but UC is a member of the HathiTrust.  The full Inside Higher Ed article is at:http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2012/10/11/fair-use-applies-book-digitizing-work-judge-rules That article links to a legal blog which…

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How High?

Byuclafaculty

A prior post on this blog noted that CalPERS was considering raising its rates for long-term care insurance by 75%.  We noted that although UC was not under CalPERS, as state employees, UC employees have been allowed in the past to participate in the program. We also noted that such insurance is a very iffy proposition since it is hard to forecast costs many years ahead for long-term care and thus rates could go up (a lot). Turns out, that CalPERS is indeed planning to raise the rates.  But now the increase may be as high as 85%.  From the…

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Garden News

Byuclafaculty

Blog readers will recall the Japanese Garden  controversy and the litigation about the proposed sale of the Garden by UCLA.  Here is an update: JAPANESE GARDEN LISTED AMONG 12 SIGNIFICANT THREATENED AND AT-RISK LANDSCAPES NATIONWIDE Rafu Shimpo 10-8-12 WASHINGTON — The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) on Oct. 4 formally announced “Landslide,” its annual compendium of threatened and at-risk landscapes, which includes the Hannah Carter Japanese Garden in Los Angeles. This year’s theme, “Landscape and Patronage,” focuses on visionary patrons and/or organizations and the sites they helped create and support. The late Edward W. Carter is recognized as the garden’s patron. …

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Johnny Dollar Reports

Byuclafaculty

There used to be an old radio show, “Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar.”   The closest we now have in California is state controller John Chiang who provides monthly cash reports on the state’s budget. For the first quarter of the current fiscal year (2012-13), we are behind on revenue by about $200 million (which is really noise given the size of the budget).  We spent, however, over a billion dollars more than budgeted for the first quarter.  The extra spending seems to be occurring in the social welfare area.  It’s not K-12 or higher ed. Anyway, if the budget estimate…

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Who Will Vote in November? Do Voters Dislike Voting on Ballot Propositions?

Byuclafaculty

There are eleven state propositions on the November ballot as well as the national, state, and local candidates and local propositions. Among those state propositions is Prop 30, the governor’s tax plan endorsed by the Regents.  As a new PPIC publication notes, voters in California are not a random sample of the population.  See the table above.  And despite complaints about all those propositions on the ballot (there are eleven this time), they like direct democracy as the chart below indicates. The PPIC publication from which the table and chart are drawn is at: http://www.ppic.org/content/pubs/atissue/AI_1012MBAI.pdf

Campus Program on Ballot Propositions: Nov. 1

Byuclafaculty

The UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs and the UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment present: Death and Taxes (and other hot topics): Debating the 2012 California Ballot Propositions  with Gray Davis, Luskin Distinguished Policy Fellow, and Cameron Smyth, Luskin Senior Fellow California voters face big decisions on the 2012 ballot initiatives. From tax policy to the death penalty to genetically modified food labeling, a lot is at stake on the ballot. Join us for an educational and informative forum to analyze the initiatives. TIME Thursday, November 1, from 12:15 – 1:45 pm (Note: An earlier version of this announcement said the start time…

Last Quarter’s Blog Available in PDF Format

Byuclafaculty

Each quarter, we have made available the prior quarter’s blog of the Faculty Association at UCLA in PDF format.  If you read it that way, the video and audio components are omitted.  The July through September posts are available at the link below: Open publication – Free publishing – More ucla Here, for your convenience, is April-June 2012: Open publication – Free publishing – More ucla And here is January-March 2012: Open publication – Free publishing – More ucla

Chem Lab Fire Case Postponed

Byuclafaculty

The preliminary hearing for a UCLA professor charged in a 2008 lab fire that caused the death of a research assistant has been postponed until November. Patrick Harran, an organic chemistry professor, will return to court Nov. 16. His preliminary hearing was originally scheduled for Tuesday. Harran last appeared in court in September,when he pleaded not guilty to three counts of willful violation of an occupational safety and health standard causing the death of an employee… Full story at http://centurycity.patch.com/articles/hearing-postponed-for-ucla-professor-charged-in-lab-death-case We have tracked this case in the past and a) noted that there has been a civil settlement, b) reported that the DA dropped…

UC officials release thousands of documents related to Davis pepper spraying incident

Byuclafaculty

From the Sacramento Bee: Nearly a year after police pepper sprayed protesting students at the University of California, Davis, UC officials today released thousands of pages of internal documents and emails related to the aftermath of the incident. The document release comes in response to Public Records Act requests from The Bee and numerous other media organizations that were filed immediately following the Nov. 18 incident. However, disclosure of the documents was delayed while university officials said internal reviews of the matter and a criminal investigation was conducted… Full article at http://www.sacbee.com/2012/10/09/4895291/uc-officials-release-thousands.html [The documents described above do not seem to be on the…

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The 3rd Tax on the Ballot

Byuclafaculty

Most of the media attention with regard to tax initiatives on the November ballot has gone to Prop 30 (the governor’s tax) and Prop 38 (the Molly Munger tax) and their rivalry. However, also on the ballot is Prop 39 which is generally described as closing a corporate tax loophole that favors out-of-state firms.  It has polled well and there doesn’t seem to be an organized opposition campaign against it.  Prop 39 is said to involve about a billion dollars in potential revenue.  However, it has been criticized in some newspaper editorials as ballot-box budgeting because it earmarks about half…