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Oceanside plans to sell schools to cut deficit – UPDATED
As of Tuesday evening's school board meeting, those closure plans were unanimously rejected. The board members "listened" to the parents and to a lesser degree the teaching staff. I am surprised to say the least! While some of the closures and consolidations might have made good sense, the slash-and-burn approach proposed by the supe went too far. And since the proposals came right from district staff, bureaucrats reporting to the supe, it is a huge smackdown for her. Yet the reports in the Light News didn't seem to indicate that she got any criticism from the board. Strange stuff for sure. In the not-so-old days the OUSD board would rubber stamp just about anything that the supe proposed, ceding its authority to the hired help strongman/woman, and just blow off any and all concerns. I reiterate that this change of heart is a real shocker.— November 5, 2021 9:17 a.m.
Starring roles in the Copley Union-Tribune: James, Helen, Michael, David
Those pieces by Matt from thirty-or-so years ago were familiar to me. Too bad that none of us have the attention spans necessary to read longer articles nowadays. He told the story and told it well. Such a sad epic of greed, avarice, and pride, along with pettiness on the part of Helen, who could have been magnanimous, especially with the Copley stepchildren.— November 3, 2021 8:22 a.m.
Pernicano's Hillcrest property goes to San Francisco group
The whole drawn-out saga of that property has been amusing for spectators like myself. Those eateries were well known because of ol' George's self-promotion and malignant ego. The experiences of visiting them and getting some really poor service and treatment were not amusing at all. How the old jerk managed to keep them going for as long as he did is a mystery to me. Ahh, but that was thirty five years ago, and for all the time in between, they stood there like relics or ruins of a different time, which they were. I really feel for Gary P who now calls the sale an "emotional transition" due to his "memories.' It was he, in particular, who refused to reopen the restaurants and run them like a business. Gary can cry all the way to the bank, where his share of the $ millions will be waiting for him. I kept looking for the sales price this time, and didn't find it. But it's gotta be a lot. I was pleased to note that the author got it right about the two different restaurants. So often over the years the descriptions were of one restaurant, due to the confusing signage. The Casa di Baffi was an attempt to have a true gourmet Italian experience, but the place was rather funky and downscale despite the prices that, at the time, rivaled those of Mr. A's and Lubach's. Hillcrest has got to be better for having those properties repurposed.— November 1, 2021 8:46 p.m.
Oceanside plans to sell schools to cut deficit – UPDATED
That school district is amazing, as in amazingly poorly run. Um, I worked in the district some years ago on two different occasions, as a teacher, and just wondered how the district could be so fouled up, and yet it--somehow--managed to have some well-motivated and effective teachers. The boards over the years have hired and backed some remarkably bad superintendents--such as the nameless one who served from 1997 to 2007. No matter what happens there, the board will likely back up the "supe" regardless of what is going on. As to whether they can close and dispose of those school sites depends upon whether the growth of population brings a new burst of kids needing schools. Given the uncertainties of that matter, there should be a plan for accommodating a boom of school age population. With all the housing growth we are experiencing in No County, there has to be a growth in kids too. If OUSD sells off all those locations, it might just find itself short of space in just a few years and be required to find new locations that just aren't there, and then pay through the nose for space that isn't even adequate. In recent years, Vista built six new elementary schools, and no sooner than they were open, found itself with too many. Since then two have been closed and converted. That district also built a third high school that opened just when HS enrollment peaked, and now doesn't really "need" it at all. So there's this practice of being short of space, overbuilding, closing schools and then needing them again. When the sites are sold off, they are gone for good. I'd suggest. even though nobody asked me, that they cool it on selling properties until they can be very sure they won't be needed again soon. Will that ever happen? Fuhgedabouddit.— October 26, 2021 7:21 p.m.
Son of L.A. councilman indicted in USC scandal backed Gloria's mayoral campaign
The not-so-poor old University of Scandals and Corruption just can't get out from under the cloud. If it isn't one thing, it's another.— October 18, 2021 4:39 p.m.
Union-Tribune begs advertisers to use its Spanish edition
The attempt by the You-Tee to attract Spanish-speaking and -reading subscribers is more than a bit amusing. Of the Spanish-speaking potential subscribers in the area, how many are truly literate readers in either language? And how many give a hoot about the local coverage that ends up on the alternative edition? Do ads in Spanish actually attract that many buyers? Advertisers who formerly relied on the You-Tee to deliver customers to their doors have abandoned the rag massively in the past decade. Why? The shrinking circulation base and the demographics of the readers just didn't guarantee any sort of effectiveness. Why should a Spanish language version of the same old, same old paper be any different? No difference at all. The owner of the news chain paid 'way too much for the LAT and all the satellite papers, including our own rag, and is now trying to dig his way out of the hole. He may have been smart enough to become a billionaire, but trying to buy public opinion today doesn't come as readily as buying the local, big city daily. Boo, hoo.— October 8, 2021 7:43 p.m.
Union-Tribune begs advertisers to use its Spanish edition
More than a few of those "working people" she attempted to help with her gig-worker reform law don't think it helped them at all; rather they found it upset long-standing practices in certain obscure segments of the economy to their detriment. (Freelance writers come to mind, but there were others.) I have long decried abuse of the independent contractor ploy when the workers are not remotely independent. It has been a scandal of avoidance of workers compensation laws and a tax dodge for a long time, and enforcement in California has weakened in recent years. (I like to think it first gained such traction in Texas, where anything goes far too often, and I referred to it as the Texas sweatshop massacre.) But her far ranging and sweeping legislation received far too little scrutiny--a direct result of the California one-party system--before it was passed and signed into law. Her labor union roots are showing over and over.— October 8, 2021 3:05 p.m.
Love fest for Oklahoma's Stephanie Bice and Sara Jacobs in San Diego
You make that sound like it's a bad thing.— October 5, 2021 3:31 p.m.
Love fest for Oklahoma's Stephanie Bice and Sara Jacobs in San Diego
Thirty to forty years ago, Comfort Inns were fairly decent properties. But then most were new motels, not recycled from some other brand. Now they are close to the bottom tier, along with Econo Lodge and Rodeway Inns. Maybe she's attempting to stay above reproach and avoid accusations of junketeering. Or, maybe she wasn't paying attention to where she was booked.— October 5, 2021 9:29 a.m.
Gentle Vista man shoots abusive wife in back of head
This trial did have other aspects to it. Defense attorneys are loath to put their clients on the stand because the defendant can then be grilled by the prosecution at length about all the relevant--and often irrelevant--facts. In this case he confessed to the shooting when he called 911. The only hope was to introduce mitigating factors sufficient to have the verdict come in for a lesser charge. In this case the story the def told was mostly believable, but he did spin it to his advantage, as expected. Is there some comparison with the trial of cop killer Jesse Gomez who was recently convicted of all the counts lodged against him? Yesterday the jury recommended the death penalty for him. At age 57, the aged gangster will never ride the needle, but it insures he dies on death row. The death sentence that will surely be made is purely symbolic given the history of that penalty and current agitation against carrying out the hundreds of such sentences in California. Yet this gentle man faces the same outcome as a life-long bad guy who tried to gun down two cops and succeeded with one. Proportionality? There is none--both will die in prison.— October 1, 2021 8:36 p.m.