University of California’s General Counsel issued a quick response to the tentative ruling that was made public late on Thursday.
Charles Robinson, being cautious, said, “We are encouraged by this positive development. Because it’s a tentative ruling, it would be premature to comment further until the hearing scheduled for tomorrow concludes.”
While Councilmembers Sue Greenwald, and recently Stephen Souza, have been very vocal on DACHA, three of the other candidates have had less known positions on DACHA. The Vanguard inquired this week as to their views on what should happen with DACHA, and what they might do on the council.
Unlike Lucas Frerichs and Brett Lee, Dan Wolk has actually cast votes on council on DACHA.
In a tentative ruling from Judge Evelio Grillo of the Alameda Superior Court, the court denied the motions by Attorney John Bakhit, appearing on behalf of Lt. Pike for a preliminary injunction and to seal portions of the record of the UCD pepper-spraying incident..
When it was finally time for the CalPERS (California Public Employees’ Retirement System) board to come down with the hammer, they padded it up. While their chief actuary had recommended a half percent cut in the projected forecasts, the board went with half of that, and stayed the impact until 2013-14.
According to their press release, the board also directed Chief Actuary Alan Milligan to analyze and bring back an option for consideration to phase in the increased pension costs to employers over a 2-year period.
By Linda Lye, ACLU Staff Attorney
Last fall UC Berkeley police cracked down on student and faculty protesters involved in Occupy Cal demonstrations with baton blows and other serious force. Now, UC Berkeley demonstrators are facing criminal prosecution by the Alameda County. The circumstances are fishy and raise questions that demand answers.
The Alameda County District Attorney is planning to prosecute at least 11 students and one faculty member in relation to the Occupy Cal protest in the fall. Thirty-nine people were arrested that day, and the DA plans to prosecute 4 of the 39. The DA has also decided to charge another 8 students who were not even arrested that day.
By E. Roberts Musser
There was a recent article that appeared in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (JAGS December 2011-Vol. 59, NO. 12 Autonomy When Doctors and Daughters Disagree), in regard to the limitations of advanced health care directives (AHCDs). A case study cited in the article is illustrative of the difficulties inherent in these problematic legal documents.
An 83 year old woman with multiple and massive health problems, completed a legal advanced directive at her primary care physician’s office, expressing a wish to forgo intubation and any attempted cardiopulmonary resuscitation should the need arise. Once this elderly lady did become acutely ill, she was rushed to the emergency room for medical treatment. Emergency personnel asked the family for permission to intubate, and the woman’s two daughters agreed. This was done despite the patient’s previously expressed wishes to the contrary, which all parties were well aware of.
It was a meeting attended by over 250 parents, teachers, and community members at Harper Junior High. The parents, particularly those at Pioneer Elementary School, expressed strong opposition to one recommendation which would combine the two schools – Pioneer and Montgomery – and divide the students by grade level.
On Tuesday the General Counsel of the University of California, Charles Robinson, along with Michael Risher for the ACLU, submitted their arguments in response to the injunction sought by lawyers for Lt. John Pike and the Federated University Police Officers Association, who filed for an injunction last week to halt the release of the Kroll Investigation Report and any recommendations from the task force headed up by Cruz Reynoso.
In the order signed last week by Judge Grillo, the University of California Board of Regents was ordered “to show cause why a preliminary injunction should not be ordered restraining and enjoining you and your employees and agents… from releasing the Kroll report, from releasing confidential peace officer personnel files, and from violating California Penal Code sections 832.7 and 832.8 regarding the confidentiality of peace officer personnel files.”
Back in 2009, the Vanguard called for an independent investigation into DACHA to clarify what had occurred. The problem of a lack of a clear and agreed-upon record remains to this day. As we saw last month, every stakeholder in the process can point to a document that backs up their viewpoint – whether it is the Arbitrator’s Ruling, the Grand Jury report, or the audit, among others.
The city is to be commended for trying to go on the record and clarify the situation, but unfortunately that effort has largely backfired, or at the very least, has failed to occur.
The Vanguard has learned that the Davis Democratic Club is being fined for multiple election law reporting and filing violations, from a period that began in 2007 and ended in 2010.
According to the California Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) website, the Davis Democratic Club stipulated to four counts of violating state election laws. While the initial fines faced by the club as the result of the FPPC’s findings were far greater, they eventually negotiated the settlement down to 9,500 dollars. The settlement has been placed on the FPPC agenda for the Commission to review and approve at their March 15, 2012 meeting.
The case of four West Sacramento teenagers and one adult who allegedly attacked, robbed and assaulted a passerby in the late night hours back in January, 2011, turned when the defense’s expert, Dr. Geoffrey Loftus, testified about the impact of human memory on eyewitness identification.
Prior to the work of the Innocence Project, eyewitness accounts were considered critical pieces of evidence for convictions. But we now know that eyewitness misidentification is among the leading causes of wrongful convictions across the nation.
Somewhere a Davis historian is breaking out the book to figure out the shortest-lived Davis City Council campaign. This might take the cake.
The Vanguard reported on UC Davis student Abe Matsui’s council candidacy over the weekend. We learned that it may be in doubt. At the time we believed it a signature issue, but it seems to have never even gotten that far.
by Louis A. Gonzalez, Jr.
The Davis City Council’s editorial in the March 7, 2012 newspaper was not only improper, as it spoke to confidential settlement communications, it was erroneous and a piecemeal (re)characterization of the events that have been ongoing since 2005.
Last week, the Davis Enterprise reported on a large audience of more than 250 people who packed in at Harper Junior High, as the school board discussed changes to two South Davis elementary schools.
Of particular note is Montgomery Elementary, which as Associate Superintendent Clark Bryant noted, while the school ranks as a high-performing school, “we’re not hitting (that) mark for all our students, and that is not an issue just for Montgomery Elementary, but district wide.”
She told the audience at that the time, “You might think, how could plea bargaining result in wrongful convictions? Isn’t that what defense attorneys are for – to make sure not only that a defendant doesn’t get CONVICTED of a crime he didn’t commit but surely to make sure a defendant doesn’t PLEAD to a crime he didn’t commit!”
It was not even a year ago that we continued to accuse the city of being in denial about the extent of the fiscal dilemma it faced. Remarkably, the budget that then-interim City Manager Paul Navazio brought forward last spring continued to have no provisions for dealing with pensions or retiree health, little to no money for road repair and infrastructure, and despite this, projected future years to be in the black.
While we believe the city council gets it now, and certainly the 3-2 vote on the budget last June should have set in motion real reform, a series of events threatens to blow up the best laid plans of mouse and men.
Plus Candidates’ Statements for the Other Five Candidates – In a development likely to raise more questions than answers the Vanguard learned on Saturday that Abe Matsui’s candidacy for the Davis City Council may be in doubt before it begins.
One source told the Vanguard on Saturday that there may be a problem with his voter registration in Davis. Apparently his registration address was for a house that does not exist and, according to our source, there is no way to interpret that address as simply a typo.
“After a summer injury, I was unavailable to continue wrestling at the collegiate level,” he said. “Instead, I was able to focus on my studies and join various student organizations on campus, such as the Muslim Student Association, Davis Judo, and the Davis Dogz.”
The irony is that the prevention of this report makes it look like the police have something to hide.
In a meeting this week with the San Francisco Chronicle’s Editorial Board, Governor Brown threw down the gauntlet, arguing that his tax initiative was the only one that would solve the state’s fiscal crisis and increase funding to schools and higher education.
The Chronicle reported, “He said that one of the other tax proposals, known as the millionaires tax, might poll well because it would hit the wealthiest Californians and dedicate money almost exclusively to education, but that it fails to consider the effect of Proposition 98 – the state’s education funding guarantee – and amounts to ‘ballot-box budgeting’ that creates more problems than it solves.”
