May 2011 Archives

TipoffsCouncilwoman pledges no action until ratepayer advocate is on board; Controller Wendy Greuel looking for more "gold cards."

Emergency alert buttons inside aging elevators at the county Hall of Administration have been getting a workout lately. Christina Villacorte in the Daily News,

Early this month, two workers at the Treasurer and Tax Collector's Office pressed them frantically when the elevator that was supposed to take them to the fourth floor trapped them and started bobbing up and down for 15 minutes.

"It was very terrifying," said Mary Austin, a cashier. "It was right after bin Laden had been killed, so I didn't know if there was a terrorist attack or an earthquake or what.

"I prayed all that time," she said.

VAN NUYVS - Immigration activists, officeholders and Christian leaders rallied at a San Fernando Valley church on Saturday, renewing angry calls for President Barack Obama to order a halt of deportations they say shatter the families of legal U.S. residents. Kevin Modesti in the Daily News,

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Rep. Howard Berman, D-Van Nuys, and immigration-reform proponent Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., were among the speakers at La Iglesia en la Camino (The Church on the Way) in what was billed as a bipartisan town-hall meeting.

"When communities are terrorized by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) raids, when nursing mothers are torn from their babies, when children come home from school to find their parents missing, when people are detained without access to legal counsel ... the system just isn't working, and we need to change it now," Gutierrez said.

Researchers studying the effects of California's three-strikes law have found a puzzling trend: older adults are being arrested for felonies in droves, while felony arrests of juveniles are dropping. C.J. Lin in the Daily News.

The trend can be attributed to an "enormous increase in drug abuse" by an aging population, according to Mike Males of the San Francisco-based Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, during a three-strikes symposium at the University of Southern California earlier this month.

"We now see a dramatic reversal in the aging of the crime population," Males said. "It baffles me."

NORTHRIDGE - San Fernando Valley and Los Angeles-area political, business and environmental groups got a rare opportunity Thursday to pitch their plans for redrawing California's outdated state and congressional districts.Dakota Smith in the Daily News,.

Not surprisingly, there was little agreement over how to carve up the sprawling San Fernando Valley, whose 260 square miles are home to 1.8 million people.

Some plans sounded distinctly im- perialistic. One toyed with the idea of absorbing Malibu, Westlake Village and Agoura Hills into Valley districts. And a Ventura County group was reportedly trying to claim a portion of Northridge and Chatsworth.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority board on Thursday approved a $4.1 billion budget for the upcoming fiscal year, a 6.3 percent increase from the previous year.
Christina Villacorte in the Daily News.

The spending plan called for lowering the cost of the Metro day pass from $6 to $5 for a single year, an experiment aimed at encouraging commuters to leave their cars at home.

But to save other costs Metro plans to eliminate bus lines that have few passengers and that duplicate service already provided by municipal bus operators and other Metro buses and trains.

Reversing an earlier vote, a labor unit representing 4,100 Los Angeles clerical workers agreed Thursday to forgo pay hikes and to contribute more to pension and health care costs in exchange for a reduction in unpaid furlough days. Daily News,

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Local 3090 had rejected the offer in a vote held last month, but decided to accept the contract in a re-vote.

Because of concessions made by the workers, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said the 36 furlough days that had been factored into the 2011-12 budget will be reduced to 21.

With thousands of jobs at stake, the rhetoric between Los Angeles Unified officials and the teachers union heated up Tuesday as the two sides accused each other of not negotiating in good faith over plans to close a $408 million budget gap.Connie Llanos in the Daily News,

Superintendent John Deasy lamented that United Teachers Los Angeles has rejected an agreement that six other unions have signed, calling for six furlough days in exchange for saving thousands of jobs.

If signed by all nine unions, the deal would save about 5,700 jobs, although the district would still make about 1,900 layoffs.

Sophomores at Los Angeles Unified School District showed slight gains on a key test that measures English and math skills needed for high school graduation, district officials said Tuesday.Dakota Smith in the Daily News.

Sixty-five percent of LAUSD sophomores passed the California High School Exit Exam, given in March, on their first try. The test is mandatory for students to graduate from high school, although they can take it multiple times.

While the district's performance lags behind statewide figures showing roughly 80.6 percent of sophomores in California passed the test in 2010, the LAUSD numbers show year-over-year gains since CAHSEE was first implemented in 2004. Back then, only 44 percent of LAUSD sophomores passed the test.

It was a rare face-to-face meeting on Monday between Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky with the topic being transportation issues.
With the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board scheduled to vote Thursday, Villaraigosa and a group of African American leaders tried to urge Yaroslavsky _ a key vote on the MTA board _ to agree to a Leimert Park stop for the Crenshaw Light Rail Line.
Among those in attendance were Los Angeles Sentinel publisher Danny Bakewell, Urban League President Blair Teller, Gene Hale of the African American Chamber of Commerce, Charisse Bremond of the Brotherhood Crusade and a number of ministers who have joined forces on the issue.
Yaroslavsky has said he is not opposed to a station as long as it is within the $1.7 billion budget for the project.
It is one of those rare projects that has brought together competing forces within the African American community, supported by both Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas and Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Los Angeles, who have frequently clashed over political issues.

Mayor Antonio Villareaigosa will participate in a town hall meeting at Reseda High School at 6:30 p.m. today to respond to the call by the Daily News for him to be more engaged in dealing with issues of importance to the San Fernando Valley.
Seating is limited but plans are to have live streaming of the event. It can be viewed at
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/daily-news-town-hall or by clicking here.

Tipoff: And, it's not City Attorney Carmen Trutanich. D.A. says he wants to see his top aide voted in to the job.

When you elected me mayor in 2005, I promised to take on the city's toughest challenges: traffic, crime, our failing public schools, and our impact on the environment. When you re-elected me in 2009, I pledged to make job creation my No. 1 priority. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in Daily News Opinion

We knew these challenges would not be solved overnight. But we knew that setting high goals is the only way you accomplish anything worth believing in.

We also knew that we would not always succeed, and that we would sometimes face criticism. But that didn't stop us from trying, because the future of this city depends on our collective ability to address our greatest challenges.

For 11 weeks, Mitch Englander has been preparing for his next job as councilman of the 12th District in the Northwest San Fernando Valley. And, he has six more weeks to bide his time before being sworn in on July 1. Daily News.

After winning better than 57 percent of the vote in the March 8 election over five other candidates, Englander insists he is not frustrated by the wait time.

"It's a great time to get your arms around the job and focus on what you want to accomplish," Englander said in a recent interview. "It's actually refreshing to have all this time to get ready for the job and what it will mean to me."

City Controller Wendy Greuel reported this week that she has raised $200,000 in her 2013 run for mayor.
Under city Ethics Commission rules, candidates are required to report when they have raised or spent that amount, outside of reporting deadlines.
Greuel filed a notification that she had raised that amount as aof May 18. More detailed reports are due next month.
Other candidates, among them Councilwoman Jan Perry and former Deputy Mayor Austin Beutner, have fundraisers scheduled in June, while radio host Kevin James said he has received pledges of more than $200,000.

Developer Rick Caruso has withdrawn his proposal to build an $500 million outdoor mall at the Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, according to a company official. Dakota Smith in the Daily News.

"We are no longer moving forward with the project," said Jennifer Gordon, senior vice president of public relations for Caruso Affiliated.

She did not respond to questions about why the deal fell apart.

City officials scrambled Thursday to explain the existence of a "Gold Card Desk," a little-known 20-year-old office that politicians and their staffs could use to request the dismissal of parking tickets. Dakota Smith in the Daily News.

The two-person Department of Transportation office was revealed Thursday as part of an audit released by City Controller Wendy Greuel.

Overseen by the LADOT, the office's special phone number and email were provided to elected officials to discuss constituent complaints about parking tickets, and request they be deleted or reduced. | Daily News Editorial: There's no place for favoritism in L.A.'s financial state today

With the state proposing to shift more revenue to schools, leaders of Los Angeles Unified's teachers union are demanding the district drop its plans for furlough days and layoffs next year.Connie Llanos in the Daily News.

LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy on Thursday proposed cutting the number of furlough days in half, to six next year. Earlier he had also proposed only making about 1,000 layoffs, instead of the 5,000 initially planned.

After months of debate, the Los Angeles City Council adopted a $6.9 billion budget plan for next year that cuts city services, but offers compromises to appease police and firefighter unions. Daily News.

In a daylong meeting, the council agreed to a plan that makes up a $336million deficit by continuing the past three years of reduced spending. It also reduces firefighter deployments - but by less than initially proposed - and proposes additional savings to be negotiated with the police officers union.

"This is a realistic budget where we rejected borrowing to balance it, where we rejected cuts in public safety and where we are restoring library service to the city," Council President Eric Garcetti said. "After 10 years on the council, this was the smoothest one we have had."

Los Angeles Unified officials are expected to announce that they only need six furlough days from all employees to save most threatened jobs and programs, officials close to the negotiations said. connie Llanos in the Daily News.

LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy had originally asked all employees to agree to 12 unpaid work days in his emergency budget plan, drafted to address the district's projected $408 million deficit for the 2011-12 school year.

However, sources close to the negotiations said Deasy revised his budget plan after this week's announcement of an unexpected increase in state revenue, which will boost school funding.

The hunt for parking in Studio City is going high-tech, thanks to a smartphone application unveiled Wednesday that allows Ventura Boulevard motorists to scope out curbside spaces in the area.Dakota Smith in the Daily News.

Using wireless sensors implanted under the roadway, the "Parker" app directs drivers to available metered parking spots along Ventura Boulevard between Laurel Canyon Boulevard and Whitsett Avenue, on nearby side streets and at a 200-space public parking garage at 12225 Ventura Blvd.

Will he be back? Kevin Modesti in the Daily News.

For any other low-rated ex-governor and aging action-movie star, an admission like the one Arnold Schwarzenegger delivered this week might be political suicide and box-office poison.

But Schwarzenegger always has been unique, and he might prove to be different in the face of the latest scandal to threaten his public image.

A month after one of his deputies sparked the anger of Los Angeles County supervisors by defying a direct order, the board voted Tuesday to seize authority over two troubled departments from county CEO Bill Fujioka.Christina Villacorte in the Daily News.

The Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 to require the departments of Children and Family Services and Probation to report directly to them, instead of to Fujioka.

In a separate action, the board also decided to lay off about 200 employees from Probation - even though the county may need to hire back three times as many in just a few months.

Ending months of speculation, District Attorney Steve Cooley said Tuesday he will not run for a fourth term in 2012, opening the doors for a crowded field to succeed him.Daily News.

Cooley made the announcement quietly, saying in a telephone interview that he had mailed letters to supporters last week in which he explained that his decision was based on his age - he will be 65 when he completes his term - and the nearly 40 years he has worked as a prosecutor.

Since winning election to his third term in June 2008, Cooley had been reluctant to announce is plans.

While supporters urged him to seek a fourth term, Cooley had said he would not seek re-election if he believed that a successor could be found to continue his policies.

Chief Administrative Officer Miguel Santana said that spiraling employee costs will slowly cripple the zoo unless it can find a private operator to help foot the bill. Dana Bartholomew in the Daily News.

He recommended the city choose a nonprofit partner by January to take over management in July 2012. A request for proposals may go out this summer, with a private partner to be selected by fall.

"The challenge - and nobody likes to say this - is what happens if we don't do this," Santana told city zoo commissioners as he introduced the privatization plan. "We're slowly suffocating this organization.

Teachers union-supported Bennett Kayser was 272 votes ahead of Luis Sanchez today in the runoff election for the District 5 seat on the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education, with all 1 precincts counted. Connie Llanos in the Daily News,

Kayser received 8,854 votes, 50.78 percent, while Sanchez received 8,582, 49.22 percent, according to figures released today by the Los Angeles
Kayser is a former seventh-grade science and health teacher at King and Irving middle schools who was backed by United Teachers Los Angeles, the union
representing the LAUS\
At the Community College District, San Gabriel Sdhol Board Member Scott Svonkin narrowly won over Lydia Gutierrez.
In the 36th Congressional District electionm, Councilwoman Janice Hahn and Republcian Craig Huey were headed for a July 12 runoff for the seat vacated by Rep. Jane Harman.

An unexpected $6.6 billion windfall in state revenue represents a bright spot in the state's fiscal dark hole, but officials with Los Angeles city, county and school agencies remained somber about their fiscal health as Gov. Jerry Brown announced his revised budget Monday. Dakota Smith and Connie Llanos in the Daily News.

As part of his plan to fill a $9.6billion gap, the Democratic governor announced $6.6 billion in additional funds, monies derived from income tax that will ease proposed state cuts to education and restore tax credits to businesses. The governor's original budget proposal, first announced in January, anticipated a $15 billion hole.

With the City Council scheduled to vote Wednesday on Los Angeles' $6.9 billion budget plan, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the Fire Department are pushing hard for passage of a controversial deployment plan that could save an estimated $54 million. Daily News.

Fire Chief Millage Peaks has been meeting with individual council members to lobby for the staffing plan, which he says would restore some of the cuts made under a previous money-saving deployment schedule.

"Right now, we have 22 fire resources out of service under the modified deployment plan," Peaks said in a round-table discussion arranged by Councilman

After years of federal investigations, state oversight and consent decrees, the Los Angeles County Probation Department remains beset by turmoil. Christina Villacorte in the Dailyu News.

This month, the pressure is ratcheting up again as the department is looking at triggering a fight with unions by laying off 200 employees - even though the agency might be forced to hire some 400 to 600 people in only a few months.

At the same time, it is closing three juvenile camps in Lancaster and is caught in the middle of a power struggle between the Board of Supervisors and county Chief Executive Officer William Bill Fujioka.

Tipoff Woldl be candidate sounds familiar themes. Just ask Dick Riordan and Antonio Villaraigosa.

LAUSD race gets expensive
Spending has reached nearly $2.7 million in the runoff election between community activist Luis Sanchez and veteran teacher Bennett Kayser for a seat on the seven-member Los Angeles Unified school board.Connie Llanos in the Daily News,

The winner will replace outgoing board member Yolie Flores, who represents much of the eastern rim of the city, including Silver Lake, Eagle Rock and Boyle Heights as well as southeast cities including Maywood and Huntington Park.

San Fernando Valley voters will not be able to weigh in on this race, but the winner will sit on the panel that makes policy decisions affecting all schools.

College board race turns nasty
Traditionally, elections for the Los Angeles Community College district board of trustees attract minimal attention and even fewer voters to the polls. Connie Llanos in the Daily News.

This year's is turning out to be an exception.

The race between Scott Svonkin, a veteran political aide and union-supported San Gabriel school board member and Lydia Gutierrez, a teacher from Long Beach who's opposed gay marriage and attended Tea Party rallies, has erupted into a heated debate centered more on politics than education.

SIMI VALLEY - Ventura County supervisors are expected to vote Tuesday on a plan that would double the amount of trash at the Simi Valley Landfill & Recycling Center, and increase the number of trucks that haul waste from Los Angeles. Susan Abram in the Daily News,

Waste Management Inc. is proposing to add 186 acres to the site nestled north of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. The landfill is currently permitted to accept up to 9,250 tons of trash a day, including 3,000 tons of solid waste.

The proposal would allow the landfill to retain the 9,250 tons of trash, but double the amount of solid waste to 6,000 tons a day, and reduce the amount of recyclables to 3,250 tons.

Developer Rick Caruso continued to tease civic leaders on Thursday about his possible run for mayor in 2013, saying Los Angeles is at an exciting time for change and needs a "disruptive leader" to bring about reforms. Daily News.

Caruso, the billionaire developer of The Grove and other projects, laid out an ambitious agenda to members of Town Hall Los Angeles as he said he will decide soon whether to enter the mayor's race.

"We are doing things behind the scenes and looking at it to see if I could make a difference," Caruso said. "I have not seen a lot of leadership at City Hall.

A new plan to scale down the number of fire engines around the city to save $54 million was met with frustration on Wednesday in Porter Ranch, one of the communities that would be hit hardest by the plan. C.J. Lin in the Daiily News.

While residents at a community meeting said the plan made them feel vulnerable, fire officials tried to assure them that the San Fernando Valley as a whole had some of the lowest call volumes in the city and that resources would be available in the event of an emergency.

"If there is an incident of any large scope here in the Valley ... we (would) send all our resources," Brian Cummings, an assistant Los Angeles Fire Department chief, told about 60 residents who gathered at Sheppard of the Hills church.

Los Angeles pays for cell phones for nearly 12,000 municipal employees - more than a quarter of its workforce - City Controller Wendy Greuel said Tuesday, as she called for slashing that figure by 60 percent. Daily News.

Greuel said the city could save $5 million annually by taking phones away from about 7,200 workers by the start of the new fiscal year on July 1.

And she volunteered to turn in her own city phone and start using her personal phone for city business. She called on Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, City Attorney Carmen Trutanich and the 15 City Council members to follow suit.

The city's controversial red-light traffic cameras issued 46,000 tickets last year. CJ. Lin in the Daily News.

And it only took all of four police officers

sitting at a few computer monitors to run the system.

Just one of the officers manning the computers at the Los Angeles Police Department's Photo Red Light Unit can do the equivalent work of some 100 out on the streets, according to Sgt. Matthew MacWillie, who oversees the program.

Five years after Los Angeles Unified passed an ambitious policy requiring all students to take college-required courses to graduate, the rate of students passing those classes remains alarmingly low, according to a district review of the program obtained by the Daily News Tuesday.Connie Llanos in the Daily News.

Prompted by strong community and political pressure, in 2005 the LAUSD school board approved new rules for high schools requiring all students to pass a series of 15 college prep courses in order to get their diplomas.

The "A-G requirements," which include four years of college prep English and two years of lab science, math and foreign language, were supposed to help increase the low numbers of LAUSD students who were graduating college-ready.

With tensions running high, a divided county Board of Supervisors voted to take control of two troubled departments from Chief Executive Officer William Fujioka.Christina Villacorte in the Daily News.

The board voted 3-2 to require the departments of Children and Family Services, and Probation to report directly to them.

Supervisors Michael Antonovich, Zev Yaroslavsky and Gloria Molina supported the measure, with Mark Ridley-Thomas and Don Knabe dissenting. A final vote will be held next week.

Concerned that it's being outspent by other destinations, Los Angeles plans to boost its marketing efforts to lure more tourism-related business to local landmarks and hotels Daily News,

How will the city pay for it? By charging tourists more to stay here.

The City Council voted 12-0 Tuesday to add an assessment that will increase the hotel bed tax from its current 14 percent to 15.5 percent. The charge will apply to guests at the 157 hotels in Los Angeles with more than 50 beds.

Even with a projected $336 million shortfall for the coming year, a city panel on Tuesday agreed to provide $2.7 million to offset cuts to the City Attorney's Office. Daily News.

The City Council's Budget and Finance Committee, as it began making changes to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's proposed $6.9 billion spending plan, generally agreed with the mayor's budget, with some minor changes. The budget will go to the full City Council for consideration.

City Attorney Carmen Trutanich, in a rare personal appeal to the committee, insisted his office could not continue to operate effectively if the panel cut his spending beyond the $95 million budgeted by the mayor.

Los Angeles paid out more than $18 million over five years to city police officers who filed lawsuits complaining of sexual harassment, racial discrimination, denied promotions and other workplace transgressions, according to a review of court records.AP in the Daily News.

At least 17 officers won jury verdicts or settlements totaling at least $1 million, and dozens more officers received payments of five or six figures, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday. In September, a former officer who alleged discrimination was awarded $4 million.

From 2005 to 2010, officers sued the Los Angeles police department over workplace issues more than 250 times. In 45 of those cases, the city paid settlements that totaled more than $18 million and lost several other cases that are being appealed. The rest, representing tens of millions of dollars in potential liability, remain open.

Tipoff: The special election for Congress is only the start, crowded field starting for potential Council race.

As President Barack Obama honored Sept. 11 victims at Ground Zero on Thursday, the LAPD remembered officers who had been killed in the line of duty, including two who died fighting in the War on Terror.C.J. Lin in the Daily News.

Staff Sgt. Joshua James Cullins, an LAPD officer who was assigned to Topanga Division and then Central Division before being deployed to Afghanistan with the Marine Corps, was the latest to be added to a list of officers killed in the line of duty during the department's annual memorial ceremony.

Cullins, 28, was a marine reservist from Simi Valley who served as an ordnance disposal officer. He was killed by a roadside bomb in the dangerous Helmand province of Afghanistan on Oct. 19, 2010. | Click h

Los Angeles Unified Superintendent John Deasy is proposing to overhaul the district's Public School Choice reform program, eliminating a controversial public vote and limiting the campuses that can be included. Connie Llanos in the Daily News.

Deasy also wants to streamline the teachers contracts at schools in the program that end up being run by internal district-based groups.

That would give school management more flexibility, similar to charter schools, but is likely to be opposed by unions because it could eliminate some hard-fought workplace rules.

Public School Choic

With the state declaring the drought has ended, two City Council members on Tuesday called for the city to consider suspending lawn watering restrictions and water rate surcharges. Daily News

"The drought is over," Councilman Greig Smith said. "At the very least, we ought to stop fining our residents for watering during excluded times or on the wrong day.

"We all know we are subject to dry periods, but people are asking me why we need to keep these restrictions on when there is no drought."

The state's early release of non-violent prisoners has cost Los Angeles County about $10 million over the last 15 months, according to a new report. Christrina Villacorte in the Daily News.

The state's decision to save money by granting low-level prisoners "non-revocable parole" and letting them out of jail before they had served their entire sentence has put a burden on the county's Mental Health and Sheriff's departments, according to the report from county Chief Executive Officer William Fujioka.

He calculated that between Jan. 1, 2010 and March 25, 2011, the county's Department of Mental Health spent about $9.56 million to serve early release prisoners who had been dropped by the state's Parole Mental Health facilities.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority plans to increase spending next fiscal year, but warned that various projects could be affected by potential cuts in state and federal funding.Christina Villacorte in the Daily News,.

Metro's $4.145 billion proposed budget, released Tuesday, is up $247 million compared to the current fiscal year - a 6.3 percent boost/

Although Los Angeles is facing another rough budget year, a city panel on Monday questioned a plan by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to take funds away from grass-roots neighborhood councils. Daily News.

Villaraigosa has proposed taking back some $1.9 million in "rollover" neighborhood council funds - money that individual councils had set aside for unspecified future projects.

But the City Council's Budget and Finance Committee, reviewing Villaraigosa's proposed $6.89 billion budget, said it would support protecting those funds.

For some Angelenos, living off the power grid comes at a steep price - but a new proposal could soon make it worthwhile. Daily News.

An estimated 3,000 local residents have converted their homes to operate solely on solar power, at a cost that can run into the tens of thousands of dollars.

The main benefit is there is no more angst over steep electricity bills from the Department of Water and Power. But city officials are looking at offering more incentives, such as reimbursing homeowners who generate enough power to sell some back to the DWP grid.

A bill in the state Legislature could alter the process that allows parents to transfer their children between school districts, potentially affecting thousands of students in Los Angeles Unified.Melissa Pamer in the Daily News.

The legislation, carried by South Bay Sen. Rod Wright, would limit the criteria that could be considered when parents appeal the denial of permits that would allow their children to attend school districts outside their home area.

Senate Bill 268 is sponsored by the Los Angeles Unified School District, which last year was met with parent uproar when it sought to clamp down on the large number of outgoing permits in an effort to retain attendance-based funding from the state.

Tipoff: Trutanich to start to raise profile.

Several days a week, Brandi Blue pulls her truck under a giant spigot spewing used toilet paper flushed from millions of toilets across Los Angeles. Kerry Cavanaugh in the Daily News.

When her truck is full, she hauls the 80,000 pound load 47 miles north to a landfill in Simi Valley. There, she puts on her gear -- white Tyvek suit, goggles and boots -- and steps right into the landfill to dump her truck.

On a good day, it's dirty, smelly work. On a bad day?

"You have trash flying at you from all directions. You've got debris and contaminants that blow on your body and get into your pores," Blue says.

Granada Hills Charter High School wasted no time in its first-ever appearance at the U.S. Academic Decathlon on Saturday, winning its first national championship and sweeping most of the individual scoring divisions. C.J. Lin in the Daily News.

The nine-member team took the top overall score with 52,113.5 out of 60,000 points, with the second-place team, a Texas high school, trailing them by 1,677 points.

"It was hard to grasp at first," said senior Riki Higashida, who also won a gold medal in the math category. "It was surreal. It didn't really hit me. It still hasn't hit me yet that we won."