April 2008 Archives

The Clarion Hotel is closing May 15 for a major overhauling that could last more than one year, the hotel's general manager and others confirmed Wednesday.

Click below for the details ...

Today's front page story on a new, disturbing report on community health is available by clicking below. The story below is longer than the one in the paper.

A quick thought or two ...

What the report, which said San Bernardino County has the most imbalanced ratio of unhealthy food outlets in the state, ultimately concludes is that your environment plays a bigger role in how big you are than you probably think. The correlation between having a high ratio of fast food joints and liquor stores in your community and obesity is about as strong as the one between chronic exposure to second hand smoke and cancer.

Secondly, the report lays blame for the grotesque proliferation of childhood obesity, diabetes, and soaring medical costs squarely on the doorsteps of city and county governments. Bottom line: All those liquor stores and fast food outlets get development permits from somebody (local government), while too few cities have creative policies by which they attract produce vendors and grocers, especially to the poor neighborhoods who need them most.

Sure, there are a slew of other factors at play, and their impact is unquantifiable, but there should be little doubt that poor communities, where transportation is often costly and difficult, are ill-served by the liquor store/markets and fast food joints that become de facto replacements for the missing grocers.

Here's an early look at an extended version of a nice story set for tomorrow's paper.

I went to Lytle Creek last Saturday. I've seen plenty of prevention/intervention type programs in my 2-plus years here in SB County.

But I haven't seen anything remotely close to the all encompassing-impact this one seemed to have on the 18 or so kids lucky enough to be part of it.

The idea is simple: Take kids out of the ruinous project environments they call home and take them to the wilderness. It's amazing how the baggage they've acquired in their young lives - suspicions, prejudices, stereotypes, weariness - just fall away within minutes of breathing that mountain air.

Also crucially important is the numerous officials, mostly forest service professionals, who volunteer their time to work with, mentor and interact with the children in a positive way.

Prevention programs need to have two crucial ingredients: They need to transcend the negativity that envelopes the environment in which the child lives and they need to have genuine buy-in from both child and professionals.

This one certainly has those prerequisites.

We have an interesting story in today's paper about a UC Riverside report that concludes that San Bernardino County has been a bastion of economic and population growth, but a desert in terms of flowering civic engagement.

Click below for the story, which is significantly more detailed than the one in today's paper.

Click below for a new story exploring how inflation is ripping into fixed-income seniors' spending power.

By Robert Rogers

A Fort Irwin soldier was killed Wednesday in a nonviolent vehicle accident while working in Kuwait, the Department of Defense announced Friday.

Sgt. Guadalupe Cervantes Ramirez, 26, of Mohave Valley, Ariz., was killed April 23 at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, according to a Department of Defense release.

Ramirez was based in Kuwait and his job entailed driving supplies into Iraq, according to Fort Irwin Army spokesman John Wagstaffe.

Wagstaffe could not provide details of exactly how Ramirez was killed, other than to say it was a motor vehicle accident which occurred during “non-hostile actions” in Kuwait.

The incident is under investigation, Wagstaffe said.

Ramirez’ wife, Amber Ramirez of Mohave Valley, Ariz. was notified Thursday, Wagstaffe said. Ramirez leaves behind two daughters ages 7 and 4, Wagstaffe said.

Ramirez was assigned to the 2nd Transportation Company (Heavy Equipment Transport), Echelons Above Brigade Support Battalion, National Training Center Support Brigade, Fort Irwin, according to the Department of Defense.

Ramirez’ becomes one 4,052 total U.S. deaths in Iraq since March 2003, according to icasualties.org. There have been 40 U.S. deaths in April, with five days remaining tying it with the January for the deadliest month of the year, and 148 killed thus far in 2008.

Ramirez left for Kuwait with the 2nd HET from Fort Irwin on May 7, 2007 for a 15-month tour Wagstaffe said. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger released a statement about Ramirez’ death late Friday and said Capitol flags would be flown at half-staff in his honor.

“Sergeant Guadalupe Cervantes Ramirez sacrificed his life to protect the values and freedoms which define our nation and its people. His devotion, loyalty and unfailing courage in the face of danger serve as an inspiration to all Americans. Maria and I extend our deepest condolences to Guadalupe’s family and friends as they mourn the loss of this brave Californian,” Schwarzenegger’s statement read.

Today’s seniors are impacted by dueling trends: An unprecedented level of health and vitality into their golden years and an economy torn by tepid growth and building inflation, particularly in energy and health care for those not yet 65, that has swamped their fixed incomes ...

Above is an excerpt from a larger forthcoming story chronicling the strains that labor force contraction and high inflation have wrought on our seniors.

Looks like downtown's ASU is going to have a cadre of big names turning out for an event this Saturday.

SAN BERNARDINO — American Sports University is hosting a star-studded speaking series, “Your Future in Today’s World of Sports.”

The free event will be held in the ASU Fox Theatre (374 W. Court Street) at 9 a.m. April 26.

Keynote speakers include Michael Cooper (head coach of the Los Angeles Sparks, 5-time NBA champion with the Los Angeles Lakers), Duane Thomas (Dallas Cowboys, Super Bowl Champion), Bobby Winkles (former California Angels manager, College Baseball Hall of Fame coach), Art Davie (co-founder and producer of UFC) and Rudy Law (Los Angeles Dodgers, Chicago White Sox) with a tribute to Jackie Robinson and the Negro Leagues.

Other featured speakers include Bill Nye the Science Guy, injury and recovery kinesiologist Gordon Duffy, 5-time Emmy Award-winning producer Chris Harris, founder of Gladiator Challenge and MMA promoter Tedd Williams and Olympic and professional athlete manager Frank Wheaton.

The event will also feature a morning workout with Young Visionaries and the San Bernardino Police Department and live martial arts demonstrations.

College scholarships will be available for interested students.
For information, call (909) 889-5555.
robert.rogers@sbsun.com

"A Divided Community: Conscience and the Constitution During WWII," a dramatic reading about Japanese Americans' plight during WWII, was held today at Cal State San Bernardino.

The story is one of the grim disregard of individual Constitutional rights in wartime, as more than 100,000 Japanese Americans were rounded up and interned in military camps.

No one among those interned was ever found guilty of espionage, sabotage or any other act of disloyalty.

Like the other suspensions of individual rights in war - including Lincoln's suspension of habeus corpus, the Espionage Act of 1917, the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 - the internment of Japanese citizens without due process from 1942-1945 has shown no results in terms of increasing the nation's security or thwarting domestic attacks.

Read the story of this harrowing play by clicking below

Key story. A fascinating performer - who many people, including this writer, thought was the most interesting American Idol in years - is en route to Berdoo. Hard to think of a better quasi-celebrity than Amanda Overmyer to come to the city's inaugural Bikes and Blues Rendezvous, which starts May 2.

NOTE: I earlier reported that the Rendezvous was about "American" bikes. I've since been informed that all bikes from all countries are sought for the event.

SAN BERNARDINO — Downtown is about to become the venue for one of the hardest-rocking American Idol finalists in recent years.

Amanda Overmyer, the southern rocker with Janis Joplin-like grit, will be a featured guest and performer at the city’s inaugural Berdoo Bikes & Blues Rendezvous, a two-day festival of bikes and music.

Overmyer, a 2008 finalist on the hit television show, will kick off the event by singing the Star Spangled Banner at 6 p.m. Friday, May 2 on the Time Warner “D” Street stage.

On Saturday, Overmyer will hang out for photos, autographs and visiting with attendees.
The bluesy, Arkansas-born rocker is also a Harley Davidson aficcionado.

-robert.rogers@sbsun.com

The curious tale first surfaced a couple weeks ago, when The Sun published an article explaining that the County Board of Supervisors had voted to put up thousands in taxpayer dollars to fund a bounty on the head of the slayer of Brody, a by-all-accounts charming black Labrador retriever senselessly gunned down in Pioneertown.

At the time, Supervisor Dennis Hansberger proffered an interesting explanation for the unusual move, basically reasoning that 1) The dog's death was a tragic blow to the community and 2) That such a brutal execution-style murder (Brody was shot in the back of the head) could be the work of someone capable of killing humans.

Now, a new story surfaces. With Brody's killer still on the loose, an anonymous donor has now helped double the county's generous bounty, which now stands at $20,000.

Why is this worthy of discussion? Because it calls into service a helpful economic concept and some disturbing moral logic.

Let's start with the economic. Opportunity cost is a familiar term in economics which basically means that whatever money (or any resource, for that matter) is expended on cannot be used for other things. The other things are the opportunity costs.

Say, for instance, I choose to use $10,000 inherited from a relative on a new car instead of on college studies. The cost is the college studies I can't pay for, which, of course, most reasonable people would probably regard as a wiser investment.

In this case, the money the supervisors are prepared to pay to secure Brody's killer's capture cannot be used on an infinite number of things. Sheriff's equipment, summer jobs for a couple of troubled youths, some trips for people at the senior center, etc.

Perhaps more persuasively, it's money that is not being used to aid in the capture of the killer in any one of the many (sorry, I don't have a number here, but be assured there are plenty of unsolved killings every year) unsolved slayings of humans in this county. In fact, the supervisors virtually never put up bounty money for the capture of murderers.

Secondly, we come to the inescapable moral logic.

Hansberger has reasoned that Brody's killer may be capable of killing two legged as well as four legged life.

Sara Horowitz, the bereaved owner of Brody, was quoted today as saying, "Money talks, and I hope somebody will come forward."

A Pioneertown resident, Lisa Edwards, said, "There is fear because nobody can imagine what kind of a person could do this. We all know one another."

Let's go to Hansberger first, because he is the elected official, not a grieving dog owner or concerned resident. If the logic is that we must put up cash to catch a dog killer because he shows a prediliction to killing, even to killing a person, what does that say for the dozens of people running around our county any given year who actually did kill a person? Why no bounty money to nab them? The answers to this question, as any reasonable reader can see, range from merely nonsensical to repugnant.

Horowitz said "money talks." Indeed it does. She can rightfully be happy that her elected officials have deemed her tragedy worthy enough to put up the taxpayers' money. But what about any relative - mother, father, sister, daughter, son, etc. - of someone slain in this county whose killer ran loose and, alas, the supervisors didn't gallantly come forth with a handsome bounty? "Money talks" to them too, and it says something quite different.

Edwards spoke to the fear of the community that an obviously deranged dog executioner may be among them. Most reasonable people would agree, and find that prospect discomforting. But again, for this action of putting up bounties for Brodie to be vetted as wise and just, we must transmute it into other circumstances. How do the people in Westside San Bernardino, or in Pomona, or in any other place where unsolved killings of human beings have occurred feel about their communities? Probably pretty scared. Unfortunately, the money doesn't always stream in to fund bounties and ensure safety and justice.

That is all. I don't consider this an opinion blog, just a rational look at something that, when held up to the scrutiny of moral consistency, raises some disturbing questions.

Click below for a look at the newest installment in the suit of Pastor T. Elliott v. Arrowhead Credit Union.

Elliott was wrongfully arrested and taken to jail thanks to a mixup by the credit union in December.

Now, more people are coming forward, to basically say one of two things: A) The union is incompetent and has a poor customer service record or, B) The union is out of touch and even malicious toward the local black community.

The union is not commenting, citing ongoing litigation. The case is scheduled for court May 2. The union has a motion to throw out the case to be heard on May 1.

The union is also not commenting on what steps they have taken to improve since the incident. CEO Larry Sharp promised in a letter dated Dec. 21 to take measures to "ensure that this type of problem never happens again."

The city council, by a tight 4-3 vote, approved becoming the county's #1 user of red light camer ticketing systems.

Detractors say the systems are a ploy to pick up revenues in the cash-strapped city. Defenders argue that the cameras reduce accidents.

The company, Rhode Island-based Nestor Traffic Systems Inc., dispatched an official to the meeting to assure council members they were financially viable.

Based on my reading of the SEC report, the company's future is clearly in question. City Manager Fred Wilson told the council that if Nestor can't fulfill its contract, the city will have little difficulty getting another company to take its place.

For the benefit of readers, you can click here for the full SEC report, and learn a little more about the company whose cameras can now snap photos for tickets at 11 intersections in the city.

Great event coming up that gives locals opportunity to indulge in Greek culture in San Bernardino.

Greek Food Festival of the Inland Empire
Prophet Elias Greek Orthodox Church
1035 Inland Center Drive, San Bermardino
Saturday May 3rd (12-10 p.m.) & Sunday May 4th (12-9 p.m.)
Authentic Greek Food, Pastries, Artwork, Music, Dance & Children’s Games
Church Tours & Brief Explanation of the Orthodox Faith

Click below for the story of the church's new priest, Father Timothy Pavlatos.

SAN BERNARDINO — Pre-trial hearings for three of the four remaining defendants in the November 2005 shooting death of 11-year-old Mynisha Crenshaw began Monday.

I was in court, watching as three defendants sat side-by-side and watched a nearly 1-hour video of defendant Harold Phillips, mostly sitting alone in a downtown SB police interrogation room.

The video was to see whether Phillips' statements would be admissable, since Det. Gary Robertson failed to read Phillips his Miranda Rights before questioning him and "softening up" the man, to use Judge Brian McCarville's words.

McCarville ultimately found in favor of the prosecution, noting that Robertson did eventually read the man his rights and obtained a signature from him.

Read the story below ...

There is an amazing event coming to Cal State San Bernardino next week.

Survivors of the internment and forced enlistment of Japanese Americans during WWII will participate in a dramatic reading and play exploring the rifts that have remained between those who fought for America and those who languished in camps and prisons.

This period is especially crucial history for Americans, especially in a time of war. After FDR issued an executive order authorizing internment of Japanese Americans in detention camps, the Supreme Court supinely affirmed the violation of rights in its 1944 Korematsu v. United States decision.

The opinion, written by Supreme Court justice Hugo Black, held that the need to protect against espionage outweighed Fred Korematsu's individual rights, and the rights of Americans of Japanese descent.

The Korematsu decision has never been explicitly overturned. No definitive evidence has ever come to light that the internment of Japanese American citizens enhanced the nation's security.

The event is free:

What: “A Divided Community: Conscience and the Constitution During WWII,“ a dramatic reading performance about Japanese Americans‘ plight during WWII.

Where: Cal State San Bernardino San Manuel Student Union Theater

When: 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 23

Misc: Features live performances by surviving Japanese Americans who endured war and incarceration in the 1940s. Performance will be filmed by Japanese filmmaker for Japanese documentary.

Event is free. For information call Cherstin Lyon at (909) 537-7555

With its historically high ratio of parolees and probationers, it’s little surprise this city has become a grassroots hub efforts for reformto lower recidivism rates.

Next month, a number of local groups will be holding a job fair for formerly incarcerated people.
Titled “Real Employment Solutions for San Bernardino’s Formerly Incarcerated,” the program kicks off at 9 a.m. and runs to 2 p.m. on Thursday, May 29.

Held at the 1145 West Base Line at the corner of L Street, the forum will require drug testing and aims to match participants with employers.

The fair will also feature basic assistance including resume help and bus passes.

Participating employers will qualify to get free tax credits and federal incentives.

Free lunch and childcare is also provided.

The organizations behind this effort - which one could reasonably assume is much needed, given the high rates of unemployment and recidivism among the city's roughly 2,000 or so parolees - are familiar names that have been working to curb crime and social blight in the city.

The partners are: Time for Change Foundation, Operation Phoenix, SBETA, County Probation, Supervisor Josie Gonzales, SAC Norton Healthy Systems, Parole Dept., Children Services, Economic Development Agency, and many more supporters.

To get more information of volunteer, call: (909) 886-2994.
-robert.rogers@sbsun.com

San Bernardino police's drive to expand red light camera ticketing technology to levels seen nowhere else in the county just got more interesting.

Looking over the SEC filings of Nestor Traffic Systems Inc. makes for interesting reading.

Debt service costs currently exceed operating cash flow (basically, imagine if your credit card interest payments were more than your salary) and the company faces nearly $30 million in debt.

Losses over the last two years exceed $15 million.

Company officials say they have restructured management and streamlined their strategy. They say they'll remain viable.

City officials, including City Manager Fred Wilson and police spokesman Scott Paterson both said they were unaware of the financial health of the company. Chief Michael Billdt, who recommended the city contract with the company through 2010, has not returned calls for comment.

Wilson did note that the proposed contract - about $4.5 million - would not strain the general fund. Nestor's contracts are typically paid by the motorists it photographs violating red lights.

Of course, some critics, including Councilman Neil Derry, have already pointed out that having a company desperate for survival and dependent on ticketing people could incentivize ticketing.

Interesting story breaking Friday.

T. Elliott, pastor of the prominent Mount Zion Baptist Church, was arrested in front of dozens of stunned onlookers in a local Stater Bros. last December.

Why? Because Arrowhead Credit Union got its records mixed up, accused Elliott of check forgery and had him arrested by San Bernardino Police.

Both sides agree on the above facts, but little else.

Now, Elliott is suing the local bank, its CEO and President Larry Sharp, and other employees for defamation and other charges.

Elliott, a respected pastor, was cuffed, transported, and housed in the city clink with the general population - AKA accused criminals.

click below for a preview of tomorrow's story ...

A story set for this weekend examines San Bernardino city police's proposal to expand redlight camera ticketing technologies, making the city the biggest user of the fast growing tactic.

It goes before the city council April 21 and, unlike the first four cameras approved, this one is not a slam dunk. Proponents point to public safety improvements, while detractors contend the cameras a sly way to tax residents for the profit of private corporations that provide the technology.

Click below for a preview and list of intersections proposed for new cameras.

I went to the San Bernardino City Council meeting Monday to check up on Police Chief Michael Billdt's proposed $2 million expansion of red light camera surveillance systems in the city.

The issue interested me because I've done two stories in recent weeks about the growing specter of red light cameras, which cities contract with out of state firms to install and maintain at high volume intersections.

Surprisingly, I saw something else nearly as interesting.

In an era likely to see draconian cuts and already marked by harsh rhetoric concerning the looming fiscal crisis at national, state and local levels, the city council is rather selective about who to cut and who to fund.

The Police Department seems poised to continue enjoying unprecedented budget growth, despite plummeting revenues and calls for deep spending cuts in other city services.

The evidence?

On Monday, the following occurred:

1) After a drawn out, testy discussion, the council narrowly rejected spending $46,000 on a public health nurse to work the high crime, high poverty Operation Phoenix areas.

2) The council unanimously, and without discussion, approved a recommendation from Chief Billdt to spend $47,000 for the "demolition and resurfacing" of the police department's shower stalls. Again, council members moved to and voted to approve this measure before discussion could commence. The backup report said the department was concerned that buckled tiles had been penetrated by moisture, creating a health hazard to officers. It did not say how old the floor was.

3) After some debate, and with Councilman Tobin Brinker the lone dissent, the city pulled the trigger on $750,000 for 27 new police cars from Fairview Ford. Under Brinker's questioning, fleet managers said the cars would replace models in current usage approaching 90,000 miles, which is the general cut-off point for the life of police cars. Brinker said that given the current budget crisis he thought it may be prudent to hold off on the purchases.
He was alone with that thought.
The purchases come on top of 101 vehicle purchases by the department since 2004, at about $25,000 per vehicle (Around $2,5 million).

Now, the department is scheduled to go back to council in two weeks to ask for red light cameras at seven additional intersections, an expansion that would make the traffic surveillance operation the county's largest.

What does it all mean? San Bernardino city leaders committed long ago to making public safety paramount. They are putting their money where their mouths are, and it will probably mean that the proportion of public expenditures funneled into police spending will be higher than anyone could have expected a few short years ago.

Below is an extended version of a story set for publication Wednesday.

The gist is, the job market is dreary and likely to get worse, a pretty discouraging prospect for young high school and college grads in the area.

The silver lining is a distinctly American tradition of entrepreneurship, which tends to be the nourishment that nurses hobbled economies back to life.

The Inland Empire is becoming a hotbed of sorts for entrepreneurship, most notably with the academic center dedicated to it at Cal State San Bernardino.

The movement fits in nicely with the general trend of the 21st century economy, which rewards innovation and creativity more than steadiness and stability.

Read below

By Robert Rogers

Pamela Lara is a savvy 18-year-old who knows what she wants: Economic and creative freedom.
The San Bernardino High School student plans to enroll community college after graduation.

But she has bigger dreams, namely being her own boss in the field she loves - fashion.

Lara is one of more than a dozen young women and girls in The Rose, an entrepreneurship program in downtown San Bernardino. Lara and other youths will enter the job market in its most dismal stretch of the decade.

They don’t possess niche skills, and a four-year college may not be in their future, but they may have something else.

While job contraction and jitters about the future have job-seekers on edge, entrepreneurial-focused training is en vogue.

Such programs go beyond “hard” skills like vocational training, instead prodding students to hatch ideas, think creatively and excel at “soft” skills like communication and networking.

“What we do is a bit of a mix between fashion design, self-esteem and personal development and entreprenurial ideas,” said Linda Hart, who runs The Rose program. “We really play up the fashion as a way to get them in here and instill them with the entrepreneurial spirit.”

Economic trends, especially locally, may favor flexible soft skill sets as prices rise, city coffers verge on bust and the labor pool overwhelms available jobs.

“Now is the time for young people to build their own economic infrastructure,” said Aubrey Ward, founder of AWard Studios, a Fontana-based event planning and apprentice training business. “The kids in this area see plenty of kids their age having babies and doing drugs and having a tough time finding jobs. It’s important to show them alternatives.”

Ward’s program overlaps with Hart’s, which is run with support from the county’s Department of Behavioral and Health Services. Ward visits Hart’s 20-plus girls to give marketing, fashion and networking tips.

“We have girls from different backgrounds, and this program lets them do things that interest them while teaching them the things they need to be successful.”

At the same time, more traditional training programs and vocations are suffering.

At the Inland Empire Job Corps in Muscoy, placement in jobs for graduating students has plummeted from about 95 percent to less than 75 percent, said Adan Gomez, business and community liaison.

“The construction rates are hit hardest now,” Gomez said. “Employers are dropping 40 hour jobs to 30 and 20 hours, a trend we’ve been seeing for months.”

Job Corps has responded by strengthening its culinary arts and business curriculums, Gomez said, including giving students the kinds of soft skills and broad understanding to stand apart in a tight market.

“We’ve gone from training students to chop food and prepare dishes to adding creative exercises like developing recipes, so they can be more marketable or even run their own business.”

A 2006 study by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor revealed the United States as alone among developed Western economies in having a higher business launch rates among 18-24-year-olds than 35-44-year-olds.

Matthew Pozel, a spokesman for the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the nation’s biggest private entrepreneurship, said investment in youthful ideas should peak in times of economic downturn.

“The economy is going to be renewed by new ideas,” Pozel said. “There are some programs out there trying to prepare people for an economy that doesn’t exist anymore.”

Entrepreneurship isn’t just an American tradition, it has a strong recent track record as well.
Bill Gates, after all, started Microsoft at age 19. And the Silicon Valley exploded as a tech hub largely due to creative entrepreneurship.

Michael Stull, director of the Center of Entrepreneurship at Cal State San Bernardino, said the economic downturn is just the type of scenario in which the bold, innovative spirits not only thrive, but turn fortunes around for larger economies.

“Creative destruction is at the heart of entrepreneurship,” he said. “The reality is that long-term growth and generating of jobs is going to come from small to medium companies as opposed to larger ones. Our grads will create the businesses, employ the people, and grow the economy.”

Stull’s program, like the smaller ones run by Ward and Hart, has thrived, swelling from just 17 students in 2001 to more than 250 grad and undergrad students today. Programs like his have flourished at colleges nationwide and in the Cal State system, Stull said.

“Younger generations, more so than prior generations, view entrepreneurship as a viable path,” he said.
“In tough, competitive job markets, this idea of being their own boss is enticing and holds a lot of promise.”

The city of San Bernardino is set to consider a massive expansion of their red light camera surveillance program that would make them the county's biggest user of this controversial technology.

Adding $2 million for camera technology at seven new intersections - the city currently has four camera outfitted intersections - was on Monday's council agenda, but held over for further discussion in two weeks.

Two recent Sun stories have taken strong looks at this growing phenomenon of snapping photos of alleged violators of left, right and straightaway red light signals and sending them $391 tickets in the mail. California is one of fewer than half the states in the country permitting this technology, and San Bernardino County is becoming a leader in using it.

click here for a comprehensive look "Caught on Camera" and here "Traffic Camera Alert" for an ethical and legal discussion that includes the story of one woman's family who contend they were falsely accused and strung along for more than one year of hassle and $700 in fines.

We'll see how this plays out. Some San Bernardino city leaders have been long proponents of red light cameras, but others have signaled that a tight budget and civic backlash have convinced them that expansion of the surveillance system is the wrong approach.

Below is a popular article that ran on Sunday, titled Economy Hard on Immigrants

The version is extended, with new comments from Cal State professor Scott Zentner and others.

I've received a lot of calls and comments on this story, mostly from people who complained the article is too soft on illegal immigrants and doesn't make the difference between them and legal immigrants clear enough.

But, I think, that is part of the article's broader point: The lines of illegality and naturalization, of American and "alien," etc., have tended to blur in prior periods of economic slide and xenophobic backlash.

Read by clicking below ...

SAN BERNARDINO — Times are tough for public schools statewide, but the newest local school got some good news last month.

SOAR Charter Academy, a charter school set to start classes Aug. 11, was awarded $600,000 through the Public School Charter Grant Program (PSCGP).

We've written about this fledgling school numerous times, mostly because it's so unique. SOAR was founded by a handful of former San Bernardino Unified School District teachers and will focus on character development and service learning. The school will be located in the heart of the original Operation Phoenix area, an economically challenged but vastly improved neighborhood. It's facilities include a former church school and a new gymnasium and other facilities associated with an existing after school program.

Part of the money will be use to buy two computers for each classroom, a mobile computer lab of 20 computers, and at least 160 literary language arts program kits.

Despite massive budget cuts statewide, co-founder Kristin Krauscq said the school will maintain a 20 to 1 student to teacher ratio.

The school is holding three enrollment and information meetings for parents and children at 6 p.m. on April 8, 16 and 30 at 1671 N. Sierra Way.

For information call (909) 957-0491 or visit www.soarcharteracademy.org
robert.rogers@sbsun.com

Below is a longer version of today's story about how the proposed cuts to education statewide my tighten the flow of talented would-be teachers into the state's teacher education programs.

Take a look at the published story and photos by clicking here "A bitter lesson"

The overarching message here, based on extensive reporting, is that any mass layoff of teachers could compound the state's well-documented inability to provide enough excellent teachers to keep student-to-teacher ratios low and public education quality high.

***********

After earning her bachelor’s degree in 2005, Alli Cooper was spirited about her next move — becoming a teacher.

So Cooper enrolled in the Cal State San Bernardino teacher credential program. Upon completion, Cooper had just one concern.

Alli Cooper, first year art teacher facing layoff due to state budget cuts

“I worried about getting a job, but I wound up getting one fairly quickly,” Cooper said.

Cooper took her credential in mid-2007 and by August was hired as a middle school art teacher in a Riverside County school district. Six months later, Cooper is one of about 14,000 teachers statewide facing a foreboding future, thanks to a budget crunch that may result in schools downsizing their teaching staffs.
“The thought never crossed my mind that I would get a job as a teacher and get laid off,” Cooper said.

With California’s budget, schools and teachers staring down one of the most daunting fiscal crises in a generation, some education experts and officials at teaching credential programs wonder if mass layoff notices inflict a lasting scar on the profession and dissuade bright students from going into it.

At least one area private school is experiencing slackening enrollment in its credential programs.

“The fact is we just don’t know if there is going to be an impact” on the number and quality of students matriculating into credential programs, said Carolyn Eggleston, an associate dean in Cal State San Bernardino’s College of Education, which has about 1,100 budding teachers in its program. “But we have to expect that an impact is possible.”

Teaching has never been about the money, but it has long had the appeal of stability. Starting salaries for teachers - a job that usually requires a four-year degree and post-grad work - stand at about $32,000 nationwide, slightly higher in California.

But part of the profession’s appeal has been its stability.

Teachers who remain dedicated and solid have traditionally been able to count on long careers, steady pay increases and strong retirement packages.

There is some concern that this latest budget crisis,if it sends teachers scrambling en masse for new work or new certification, may tarnish that reputation. The result could be a further brain-drain, as bright, capable young would-be teachers veer into other professions.

“Long term, if there are jobs in education, people will pursue them,” said Tim Stranske, a professor and director of Biola University’s Masters in Education program. “But short term, there are going to be many people who say ‘I’m not going to pursue this profession because it’s not where the jobs are now.’ But public schools are going to take a hit because I think we’ll probably have fewer people wanting to go into teaching for a while.”

Cooper, a 34-year-old first year educator who took a long route through college and speaks of the need for art programs for the children as much as she does about the fate of her own career, may soon find herself among the ranks of out of work teachers.

With a four-year degree and post-grad teaching credential, she started last fall at about $44,000 per year. The work was taxing, almost overwhelming at first, she said, but within months she began getting a handle on the sundry projects and long after school hours.

Teaching was, for her, always more about service and stability than money, Cooper said. If those tenants are stripped away, she may become another statistic: One of the roughly 30 percent of teachers who are out of the profession within three years, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

“I don’t think I would be able to get another job teaching anywhere right now,” Cooper said. “I guess I’ll have to go back to bartending, I don’t know what else to do.”

Biola, a private university where a one and one-half year credential program may cost around $15,000, saw dropping in interest in teaching before word raced across the state that teachers may face layoffs.
“We have up to 60 students per semester receiving credentials,” Stranske said. “But this year is one of our lower groups, about 25.”

Stranske added that last semester’s graduating class is facing a tough market for their skills.

“A good number of them are looking for jobs right now, and it’s a hard time,” Stranske said.

But while this year may turn grim for thousands of teachers, not to mention the students whose classrooms they’d be removed from, officials in the Cal State University system - the nation’s largest teacher training institution - say the this year should be a historical anomaly.

“We are going to have very high demand for teachers in the coming years,” said Joan Bissell, CSU’s director of teacher education and public school programs. “There is a long term structural demand for teachers,” she said.

The CSU churns out about 15,000 new teachers per year, 55 percent of the output of California and 10 percent of all new teachers nationally, Bissell said.

Bissel cited several reasons the teaching ranks will continue to grow in the next 20 years, making any chilling effects from the state’s budget crisis this year temporary.

One was the length of the training program, that students are unlikely to discontinue. Additionally, high rates of turnover among younger teachers and retirements will also keep teachers in demand. About half of the state’s 300,000+ teachers are over 45.

Bissell also pointed to CSU programs helping teachers pay off student loans and a federal grants kicking in in July of up to $4,000 annually for students studying to teach in high demand fields, like science and special education.

“We are going to need 33,000 new teachers in the coming decade just in math and science,” Bissell said.

Regardless of future projections, an air of crisis hangs over many young teachers bombarded with news that the profession they’re studying for could be in for a major contraction.

With that in mind, Katherine Thomerson, Cal State San Bernardino professor in the liberal arts teachers training program, focused her first class of the Spring quarter Wednesday on reinforcing her undergrads’ resolve in their career paths and assuaging fears in the profession’s future.

“I’m already hearing students having doubts, asking if they should finish this or change their majors,” Thomerson said. “This is the time we need to catch them, so my first class is on why teachers are going to be desperately needed.”

Jerrold Pritchard, coordinator College of Liberal Arts at Cal State San Bernardino, which most teachers go through as undergrads, said enrollment is already plummeting.

Since 2005, liberal arts majors at the college have dropped from about 2,200 to about 1,400, Pritchard said. He added that liberal arts majors are down by more than one-third in the CSU system.

“You have teachers who did everything right facing layoffs,” Pritchard said. “This has a lot of (students) nervous, and I see that contributing to a big mess, a lot of teaching jobs to fill, three to five years from now.”

Research has shown that teachers take five to seven years to become fully proficient in their craft.

At Cal State Fullerton, the drops aren’t precipitous, but the trend was still slightly downward even before the specter of mass layoffs.

From 2006-8, full-time equivalent teaching credential students have fallen from about 1,700 to 1,635, said Carmen Zuniga Dunlapcq, associate dean of the College of Education at Cal State Fullerton.
“The trend is down a bit, but it doesn’t cause us any alarm,” Zuniga Dunlap said. “The fact is that we are in the middle of a period of graying of the teaching force, and the need for new teachers is going to hit us full-force.”

But for all the long-range indicators, the fact is that the Governor seems intent today on closing the state’s $16 billion budget gap, teachers across the state could be on the chopping block. Nearly $5 billion in cost-cutting could be the order of the day for public schools, much of that taken out in the form of salaries.

In Rialto, more than 400 teachers could lose their jobs. In the once-fast growing Temecula School District, where Cooper works, more than 100 teachers could be out of work.

“I’m just kind of keeping my fingers crossed,” Cooper said, “and trying to stay positive.”

And regardless of what happens in the next decade, the threat remains that hundreds, even thousands, of talented young teachers may be cast off and soured from the profession should mass layoffs come to pass this years.

Like thousands of others across the state, Cooper is eyeing May 15 less than one year removed from earning her teaching credential and being hired.

On that judgement day for many teachers statewide, Cooper will find out whether she’ll be teaching a fresh crop of students next year or mixing dry martinis. She said her biggest concern is her students.

“When I was first told about all this, I was very upset,” Cooper said.

But Cooper said now it’s almost surreal:

All that education to go into a profession renowned for stability, only to face a layoffs because of situations beyond her control before the first year is up.

“The thought of this happening never crossed my mind.”

robert.rogers@sbsun.com (909) 386-3855

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What she said was very well received by the crowd. But outside of the audience, the broader newspaper audience was somewhat dismayed by some of Huerta's rhetoric, which was classic, race-based identity politics.

Huerta is an icon and someone whose contributions cannot be denied. However, what she says is inherently divisive. Contrast her work and outlook with, say, Barack Obama or Martin Luther King Jr.

Read the story and see where the controversy comes from by clicking here: "Huerta: Too late to stop immigration"

Huerta's story has generated hundreds of comments, mostly from rabid anti-illegal immigration groups.

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We're going to follow this story up, because it appears there may be some legitimate concerns about how people are identified in their cars by the cameras.

Stay tuned.