August 2012 - Page 4 of 4 - Davis Vanguard

Attorney General Harris Joins List of Supporters of California Assault Weapon Bill

By David GreenwaldAugust 7, 20127 comments

assault-weapons

While California may have some of strongest gun control laws in the country, gun manufacturers are getting around one of the state’s most important assault weapon laws, claims Senator Leland Yee, sponsor of SB 249.

“Interpretation of existing law allows for the sale of semi-automatic weapons with easily detachable magazines,” a press release from Senator Yee’s office claims. They argue that similarly-styled weapons were used in the Aurora, Colorado massacre and may have been used in Sunday’s tragedy in Wisconsin.

Commentary: Daily Democrat Skews the News

By David GreenwaldAugust 7, 201212 comments

For years we have complained that the Daily Democrat has simply taken a press release from the DA’s office and re-printed it verbatim. There is no fact-checking for accuracy. They simply take the word of the DA’s office and print it as fact, usually under the deceptive byline of “Democrat Staff.”

On Wednesday, family and friends of Ajay Dev, who believe he has been wrongly convicted of the rape of his adopted daughter, will mark the third-year anniversary of his sentencing with a protest march and vigil. They have done this for every year, and the event usually attracts a few hundred people.

Retiree Medical and Bankruptcy: Why Davis Can and Should Cut Back on Its Overly Generous Retiree Medical Plan

By David GreenwaldAugust 6, 201239 comments

In June, City Manager Steve Pinkerton’s pronouncement that the city’s retiree medical costs represent over 20% of payroll, and that number could go up as high as 25%, alarmed the Vanguard.

“Unfortunately, 20% of payroll is probably not going to cut it in the future,” City Manager Pinkerton told the city council back in June. “We’ve been ramping this up, the council has been responsible and doing the right thing for the last three or four years by beginning to take on retiree medical, ramping it up each year from 6% to 8% to 10%, last year it was 12% of payroll, the original plan was to go 14%…”

Daily Democrat’s Endorsement of Prop 34 and Deputy Public Defender’s Response to Reisig Send Strong Message on Death Penalty

By David GreenwaldAugust 6, 201222 comments

When District Attorney Jeff Reisig submitted his op-ed in support of the Death Penalty, he probably had no idea the response it would trigger. Oh sure, the Vanguard‘s response was a given. But unlike his string of unanswered press releases, many of which have distorted the facts of the case and even the jury’s verdicts and were reprinted verbatim without response, the op-ed generated considerable response.

First, Yolo County’s Public Defender, then two letters to the editor from citizens, then a brief commentary by Cosmo Garvin in the Sacramento News and Review. This weekend we saw and pointed out commentary from Deputy Public Defender Richard Van Zandt and an editorial from the Woodland Daily Democrat, which does not mention the Reisig piece, but comes out decidedly against the death penalty.

Sunday Commentary: Who Leaked the Document and Why We Need More Transparency to Hold Public Officials Accountable

By David GreenwaldAugust 5, 201236 comments

For those of you who do not like speculation, this is your warning, this column is partly about speculation, but that is almost by design and indeed part of the problem. Last spring, as we attempted to find out the identities of UC Davis police officers involved in the November 18 clearing operation of the Quad, that ended with the pepper spraying of students, and multiple investigations, we were constantly questioned about why it was important to know the names of the officers.

The answer both was then and now is that we needed to be able to find out what happened to the officers involved, and without access to names that would prove very difficult.

Commentary: City’s New-Look Website Not Ready for Prime Time

By David GreenwaldAugust 5, 201214 comments

One of the biggest non-policy criticisms of the city has been that their communications system was hopelessly locked in the last century (sometimes I joke that it’s using 19^th century technology).

The city has not updated its modes of communication appreciably to make use of electronic mail, social networking, or a new interaction and robust website.

My View: Delay the Decision on Water As Serious Concerns Still Remain About JPA and Water Projects

By David GreenwaldAugust 4, 2012105 comments

There have been some interesting new developments this week with regard to water. On Thursday of next week, the Water Advisory Committee (WAC) will meet in a crucial meeting that may determine at least the WAC’s recommendation for the water project.

If the speculation is correct, one member of that body may recommend we go forward with the Woodland-Davis project. As I laid out earlier this week, while there are good reasons that we might consider doing that, especially as the cost gap is reduced, there are still looming questions.

Guest Commentary: Reisig’s Death Penalty Piece Misses the Mark

By uptownstudiosAugust 4, 201225 comments

by Richard Van Zandt

When Yolo County District Attorney Jeff Reisig’s hand-picked judicial candidate, Clinton aka ‘Clint’ Parish, sent out a toxic mailer to Yolo County residents a few weeks before the June primary, it took less than a day for Yolo County Sheriff Ed Prieto to withdraw his endorsement of Parish. The mailer was a blatantly dishonest series of charges against Judge Dan Maguire, whom Parish was challenging.

In contrast to Sheriff Prieto, Mr. Reisig waited until the Bee issued an “anti-endorsement” before withdrawing his own. Reisig was at the top of Parish’s endorsement list, and was one of Parish’s first and biggest financial supporters.

Vanguard Analysis: An Internal Investigation To Nowhere… by Strict Design

By David GreenwaldAugust 3, 201217 comments

When UC President Mark Yudof named former LA Police Chief William Bratton to head up the public portion of the investigation into the pepper-spray incident that occurred November 18, 2011 at the UC Davis Quad, it was greeted by loud criticism both in the student as well as the academic community. That criticism was blunted by the announcement of Cruz Reynoso, the former Supreme Court Justice to head up the task force comprised of UC Davis administrators, professors, students and community members.

It was further blunted by the extent of the report that came out finally in April, showing vast problems, mistakes and wrong-doing by the police and the UCD Administration.

Wrongful Convictions and Jury Findings on the Eve of Another Anniversary of Ajay Dev’s Conviction

By David GreenwaldAugust 3, 201211 comments

Saw a reference to an article by Karen Boudrie Greig, “Last Call From Death Row,” in the August issue of New Orleans Magazine. In it she recounts the trial of Carlos DeLuna, who would be executed in 1989 for a crime that he did not commit.

Our keynote speaker from last week’s event was Maurice Possley, and his work with the Chicago Tribune was critical toward exposing that wrongful execution.

Cruz Reynoso Disputes Internal Findings, Supports Chief Carmichael’s Decision to Fire Lt. Pike

By David GreenwaldAugust 2, 201225 comments

University sources, citing privacy and personnel issues, are declining to comment on a report in the Sacramento Bee this morning that the UC Davis Police Chief overruled two internal investigations in order to fire Lt. John Pike. The report is based on a leaked confidential 76-page internal affairs investigation report and emails.

Sacramento Bee reporter Sam Stanton declined to divulge the source of the leak, stating, “I do not reveal or discuss sources.”

Commentary: What to Make of Reisig’s Op-Ed

By David GreenwaldAugust 2, 201228 comments

The Vanguard published an afternoon piece on Wednesday showing that Jeff Reisig had not originally written large segments of his op-ed that was released the previous week in the Woodland Daily Democrat.

While many readers drew inferences from the article, the article itself only reported what we knew at the time. It did not make accusations.

Proposal for Dealing with Off-Topic Comments

By Matt WilliamsAugust 2, 201218 comments

Yesterday there was a spirited discussion here on the Vanguard about a long-standing challenge that the Vanguard faces . . . how best to handle reader-submitted comments that are tangentially related to the published article. Tangential comments are not bad in their own right, but they often do sidetrack discussion of the article’s topic. I would like to propose a solution to that problem, and hope that readers will comment on that proposed solution here.

A simple straightforward solution to the off-topic issue is that when a reader sees an article that s/he believes is only addressing a selected portion of a larger “whole” picture, and feels that it is important to make a “tangential” point that fleshes out that whole picture, then I suggest that s/he submit an e-mail to David Greenwald containing the additional points so that he can post an article under the e-mail sender’s byline that runs side-by-side with the original story. For example, I think a very interesting parallel article for Mayor Krovoza’s thoughts on “long-term, environmentally sustainable economic cores for Davis” could have been submitted by Michael Harrington as follows:

Progressives Debate Prop 34 – Show their Divisions

By uptownstudiosAugust 2, 20126 comments

by Dick Price –

Sunday, on the final day of its three-day executive board meeting held in Anaheim, the California Democratic Party overwhelmingly endorsed Prop 34 — the November ballot initiative that would commute all the state’s death sentences to life imprisonment without possibility of parole (LWOP).

Saturday night, though, a lively five-person panel session organized by the party’s Progressive Caucus paired Prop 34 proponents with prisoner rights advocates to debate whether the Prop 34 remedy might be worse than the ailment.

Reisig Lifts Huge Portions of Op-Ed from DA Scully’s April Piece

By David GreenwaldAugust 1, 201234 comments

The Vanguard has learned that Yolo County District Attorney Jeff Reisig lifted huge portions of his op-ed last week from an op-ed entitled “Justice for crime victims demands death penalty,” written by Sacramento County District Attorney Jan Scully with Phyllis Loya, the mother of a Pittsburg police officer whose son was murdered.

While the piece written last week by Mr. Reisig is twice the length, at least six paragraphs are directly lifted and another six are slightly altered from the piece written by Jan Scully.

Officers Pike and Lee Gone From UCD

By David GreenwaldAugust 1, 201246 comments

It has been over 8 months since the November 18 incident at the UC Davis Quad made national news when seated protesters were pepper sprayed by the UC Davis police. The officers at the center of the controversy are no longer with the university.

The Vanguard confirmed that Lt. John Pike and Officer Alexander Lee are no longer with the police force. What we do not know, and probably never will know, is whether they resigned, were fired, or simply did not have their contracts renewed.

Senator Wolk Explains Opposition to Ban the Box Legislation, AB 1831

By David GreenwaldAugust 1, 20126 comments

Back in June, Assembly Bill 1831 by Assemblymember Roger Dickinson was killed in the in the Senate Governance and Finance Committee. The bill would have prohibited requesting criminal background information on the initial employment application for local employees, with the goal of reducing unnecessary barriers to employment for the one in four adult Californians who have an arrest or conviction record and are struggling to find work.

At the time the Vanguard was unable to get a comment from Senator Lois Wolk, who chairs the committee, as to her opposition to the bill.

Davis Mayor Pushes Economic Development Visioning

By uptownstudiosAugust 1, 201237 comments

by Mayor Joe Krovoza

If you want to take a trip and have an end destination in mind, chances are you’ll consult a map prior to departure.

The Davis community, including sustainability advocates, the business community, and the university, acknowledge that we sit at a crossroads with our approach to business development. We have the ability and wherewithal to help guide new business developments, poise the community to take advantage of the synergy between our world-class university and our dynamic existing business community and potentially carve out long-term, environmentally sustainable economic cores for Davis.

Month: August 2012