News

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Wider Lessons to Be Learned (Even at UCLA!) from UC-Davis’s Pepper Spray Report

Byuclafaculty

Yours truly does a “Mitchell’s Musings” weekly blog for the Employment Policy Research Network (http://www.employmentpolicy.org/) of which he is senior academic editor.  Normally, this blog and that one don’t cover similar topics.  But in this case they do so I cross-post below. Could there be some lessons for UCLA that emerge from the UC-Davis pepper-spray incident?  Could there even be some linkage to UCLA’s proposed hotel/conference center? Might be!  Fair and balanced; you decide! ===== Mitchell’s Musings 4-30-12: The Real Pepper-Flavored Lessons of Hindsight Daniel J.B. Mitchell By now, the world has become aware of the University of California-Davis’ “pepper-spray cop,”…

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No Way (for UC), San Jose

Byuclafaculty

As previous blog posts have noted, Governor Brown has proposed a statewide pension plan that would override the Regents’ changes to the UC pension and would require a “hybrid” plan with defined benefit and defined contribution components, a 75% cap, etc.  UC’s official position is that it shouldn’t be included.  However, the governor has not acquiesced. The legislature’s majority Democrats have been reluctant to consider the governor’s plan and have been considering alternatives.  Brown has warned public sector unions that local governments will be putting plans on the ballot and adopting pension plans that are more stringent than his proposal…

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Tuition Hunger Strike at CSU

Byuclafaculty

[Excerpt] Students at six Cal State University campuses have vowed to fast until university leaders agree to freeze tuition, roll back administrative and executive salaries and meet other demands. Members of Students for Quality Education said Friday that the hunger strike will begin Wednesday and involve 13 students at the Dominguez Hills, Fullerton, Long Beach, Northridge, Sacramento and San Bernardino campuses… Cal State officials said Friday that no decisions have been made on whether to intervene in the hunger strike. The students don’t appear to have a clear understanding of the issues, said spokesman Mike Uhlenkamp. For example, campus presidents…

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No Japanese Garden at May Regents Meeting

Byuclafaculty

Death Knell Rings For Hannah Carter Garden Beverly Hills Courier 4/26/12 By Laura Coleman On Wednesday, UCLA denied the Coalition to Save the Hannah Carter Japanese Garden an opportunity to address the UC Board of Regents during its meeting on May 15-17 in a letter from University of California President Mark Yudof.  The May 22 deadline to bid on the UCLA-owned garden and former Carter residence, listed by Coldwell Banker for a total of $14.7 million, had prompted community activists opposed to the impending sale to redouble their efforts to place the issue on the agenda for the upcoming Regents…

Berkeley Broccoli

Byuclafaculty

UC Berkeley plans to use words instead of police power to remove about 50 Occupy members who started farming a plot of university land in Albany called the Gill Tract, a spokesman said Tuesday. There’s dialogue going on and discussion going on so we can bring it to a peaceful conclusion,” said UC Berkeley spokesman Dan Mogulof. “Discussion may lead to a better outcome.” The land near San Pablo Avenue and Buchanan Street currently is used for agricultural research, he said. A separate parcel of land just south of where the Occupy farmers set up Sunday is slated for commercial…

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A Billion Where?

Byuclafaculty

An earlier post noted the supposed quote of Everett Dirksen, GOP minority leader in the U.S. Senate in the 1960s (talking about the federal budget): “A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking about real money.”  (Presumably, real money was more than the 15 cents on the picture.) We noted in that blog post that as of that point shortly after income tax day April 17, income tax collections for the fiscal year were running a billion dollars ahead of last year.  Sadly, the fates have not been with us.  As of April 24, the billion dollar…

Peddling Westwood

Byuclafaculty

According to the Daily Bruin, rent-a-bikes will be joining Zipcars in Westwood soon.   Bicycle rental kiosks will soon populate Westwood, once a city-wide bike-sharing program launches this fall. The private venture is being funded by Bike Nation, a bike-share service provider that plans to install 4,000 bicycles at 400 rental kiosks throughout communities in Los Angeles… Full story at: http://www.dailybruin.com/index.php/article/2012/04/bike_nation_to_bring_bicycle_rental_kiosks_to_westwood_in_the_fall [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GugsCdLHm-Q&w=320&h=195]

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In the Balance

Byuclafaculty

You may see headlines about a recent court decision related to last year’s budget conflict between the legislature and the state controller.  Voters passed an initiative lowering the requirement to pass a budget from two thirds to a simple majority but with the stipulation that if a balanced budget was not passed by June 15 (the constitutional deadline), legislators would lose a day of pay for each day beyond June 15. Last year the legislature hastily passed a budget to meet the deadline after it became clear that the governor’s negotiations with Republican legislators were going nowhere. The governor needed…