News

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    Can’t help

    Byuclafaculty

    You may have noticed various headlines about hidden funds the state was holding for parks. Usually, when we talk about the state budget, we are referring to the general fund which is the operating budget for the state.  However, many other funds have been created for specialized purposes.  Some have earmarked taxes that feed them, e.g., the gasoline tax for transportation. Transportation is the biggest area of such non-general fund budgets.  But there are many other funds – some containing a few thousand dollars. When the general fund gets into trouble, the state borrows from the other funds. It puts…

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    Money Race

    Byuclafaculty

    To recap prior posts: There are 3 tax initiatives on the ballot.  The governor’s tax initiative has been endorsed by the Regents.  Then there is the Molly Munger school tax and a close-corporate-loophole tax.  Politico wisdom is that having multiple initiatives on the same general subject is confusing and may lead to defeat of all.  The Munger and loophole initiatives have not polled well.  The governor’s initiative is polling marginally ahead but could easily be defeated which would produce trigger cuts midyear including to UC. News reports are that various unions have been contributing to the governor’s tax campaign although some…

  • How Did We Let Him Get Away?

    Byuclafaculty

    Less than two years after leaving office, former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is pumping up his political and academic profile — and will head the Schwarzenegger Institute for State and Global Policy at the University of Southern California, a new think tank to advance “post-partisan” politics. The Republican former governor told the San Francisco Chronicle that he’ll formally announce the establishment of the partnership Thursday at USC, where his Institute will be housed in the Sol Price School of Public Policy. Schwarzenegger will chair the Institute’s Board of Advisors, and he has also been appointed the inaugural Governor Downey Professor of State and Global Policy at USC, a post in honor of  the…

  • Yet More Pepper

    Byuclafaculty

    Just when you thought there could not be more to contemplate about the UC-Davis pepper spray incident, there is this from the Sacramento Bee: The internal affairs investigation into last November’s pepper-spraying controversy at UC-Davis concluded that Lt. John Pike acted reasonably, with a subsequent review concluding he should have faced demotion or a suspension at worst, according to documents obtained by The Bee. Despite those recommendations, Pike was fired Tuesday after UC Davis Police Chief Matthew Carmichael rejected the findings and wrote in a letter to Pike that “the needs of the department do not justify your continued employment,” according to…

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    Back Home in Indiana (Where the Campus Hotel Pays Taxes)

    Byuclafaculty

    We have noted in past blog posts on the UCLA proposed hotel/conference center that the business plan assumes that the hotel is tax exempt (because it is – and has to be – non-commercial).  One of the anecdotes cited at the July Regents meeting session that approved the hotel financing plan was a campus hotel at Indiana Uuiversity.  (Listen to the link below.)  Above is a screenshot of the webpage for that hotel.  If you go on that webpage and book a room, you will find that the room cost includes TAX. This is the problem.  Many of the uses…

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    More Email Fraud: Don’t Answer

    Byuclafaculty

    More email fraud/spam you should not answer that may have appeared in your e-mailbox.  If you did reply, you might have noticed that the reply address is not at UCLA.  Change your password immediately if you did reply: This Email is from UCLA Communications. We have been monitoring this account through our server’s log file and have noticed that this account is been accessed from different distinct location simultaneously as against webmail policy, for security purpose we will be shutting down this Account unless you verify this account by filling out the outlined Information below or your account will be…

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    Advice from the Beatles on the Japanese Garden

    Byuclafaculty

    In earlier posts, we have noted advice from Fredric March and Winston Churchill to UCLA on the sale of the Japanese Garden – now halted by court order.  The local newspaper for the Japanese-American community in LA, Rafu Shimpo, has a lengthy article today on the sale and the court decision which also suggests the sensitivity of this matter to the Japanese-American community.  Example: …One garden supporter commented that choosing Aug. 15 — V-J (Victory over Japan) Day — as the day to open the bids “tells us how they are culturally senseless as a world-class educational institution.”… Full article…

  • What Management Thinks

    Byuclafaculty

    Inside Higher Ed has provided an interesting survey on how management at universities (national survey) thinks about financial circumstances.  The chart above gives some indication of what you can find out.  It indicates that both financial officers and provosts are skeptical about faculty understanding of financial issues.  CFOs are more likely than provosts (academics) to think more spending cuts can be made without an impact on quality although only a minority of CFOs feel that way. You can find a lengthy article on the survey with a link to the actual document athttp://www.insidehighered.com/news/survey/business_officer_2012 Since there is skepticism about faculty understanding…

  • Something to keep in mind from our colleagues at UC-Irvine

    Byuclafaculty

    People with exceptional memory recall, have different brains People who can easily recall every moment of their lives have different brains than others, a new study has claimed. University of California-Irvinescientists have found fascinating differences in the brains and mental processes of an extraordinary group of people who can effortlessly recall every moment of their lives since about age 10, the ‘Science Daily’ reported. The phenomenon of highly superior autobiographical memory first documented in 2006 by UCI neurobiologist James McGaugh and colleagues in a woman identified as “AJ” has been profiled on CBS’s ’60 Minutes’ and in hundreds of other…