Advertisements
Filed under Uncategorized
Filed under Uncategorized
(Not a book in the house)
Is that weird wall a standard thing now in these new units?
How much you think for that? At least $1900.
Filed under Uncategorized
Why is the BUSD subsidizing a right-wing homophobic religious organization?
The BUSD already has a sleazy history with this avowedly homophobic group.
Contrary to the impression being given here, these aren’t on-campus student clubs. They’re run by an outside agency.
As such, they need to pay the same full rental costs that our other local non-profits are forced to come up with for these school facilities. No out-of-the-norm discounts and nothing free.
There’s no law in California that allows or requires its school districts to provide free access to religious organizations. Quite the opposite. Access yes, but only under uniform rental policies. They can’t discriminate pro or con.
The BUSD has a long history of improperly picking-and-choosing who gets to conveniently use their sites. The Boy Scouts never had to pay, but the YMCA did. From 1976 until about 1997 they were actually required under state law to subsidize all non-profits but never did. Just the Scouts. Does the school board know this history?
Here’s the Ed. Code on the topic:
38131 (b) The governing board of any school district may grant the use of school facilities or grounds as a civic center upon the terms and conditions the board deems proper, subject to the limitations, requirements, and restrictions set forth in this article, for any of the following purposes:
(1) Public, literary, scientific, recreational, educational, or public agency meetings.
(2) The discussion of matters of general or public interest.
(3) The conduct of religious services for temporary periods, on a one-time or renewable basis, by any church or religious organization that has no suitable meeting place for the conduct of the services, provided the governing board charges the church or religious organization using the school facilities or grounds a fee as specified in subdivision (d) of Section 38134.
No deals for religious groups in California. Young Life is a religious group that holds religious services at these meetings.
Filed under Uncategorized
The Provinces say hello
It’s fascinating to see that almost every “Jimmy Johns” franchise in California is located in a classic white-trash area.
Filed under Uncategorized
Filed under Uncategorized
Glendale College backs down on those illegal student ID fees
The News Press followed up.
Glendale Community College will immediately cease collecting a $10 fee from new students for school identification cards after the Glendale News-Press informed the institution it was potentially violating a state protocol in place for at least seven years.
Drew Sugars, the college’s director of communications and community relations, confirmed Wednesday the college canceled plans to charge for ID cards and will issue refunds to students who have paid the fee since July 1. The issue was first brought to light by the Burbank Blog.
“What I’ve since learned is schools in the community college district can charge fees, but the students have to be able to opt out,” Sugars said. “Our language is not clear, so, I’m actually very glad this was brought up because this is something that we’re going to fix.”
He’s wrong. State law does not allow fees for ID cards, and there’s no opt-out option. Technically, students can opt-in to buy a special privilege card, a rather vague concept which seems problematical and is easily subject to misinterpretation.
He might be confusing this with ASB, or “student services” fees, which are legally optional as long as the college provides an easy way for a registrant to opt-out. But unlike L.A., the last time we looked GCC had also made these fees next to impossible to waive online, and has also never informed its students of this possibility.
There are benefits to possessing a card, though it is not necessary for enrollment.
“It allows [students] to check out books at the library, even borrow computer laptops, and they get discounts at events,” Sugars said. However, students without identification cards may not have access to those same services and benefits, he added.
Nope. Community colleges can’t deny services. Everybody gets a free card, and so what’s he talking about? Again, he’s probably confusing this with an ASB card.
Sugars said he was unsure how many students paid for IDs , and the school’s information technology staff did not provide a count as of Thursday afternoon…
What is unclear is why Glendale Community College continued to charge students years after the chancellor’s office called for the elimination of mandatory fees.
No one from the chancellor’s office could confirm when the policy changed, but a state student fee handbook update from 2012 listed the cancellation of mandatory fees.
Sugars said he thinks there was a “breakdown somewhere” between outside auditors hired by Glendale Community College to annually review rule changes and school staff.
GCC got hit with a successful Chancellor’s Office complaint on this back in 1999. They’ve always known the rules about ID cards, as well as the legal requirement to allow students to easily opt out of the ASB fees.
The student-fee handbook that the News Press cites from 2012 is basically a reprint of the Chancellor’s Office’s 1999 opinions. Most of the language in this area is identical, and so GCC has known about their violation for years.
Sugars said the school will not refund any student ID fees charged prior to July 1 because “it would be very difficult, if not impossible, to determine which students did or didn’t use the multiple benefits attached to the student ID when the fee was in effect.”
Say what? It’d be very easy to go back and see who paid the illegal fee when there wasn’t any “opt out” option provided during registration. Since it’s probably everyone who enrolled, then everyone gets a refund.
They charged for a free card. It doesn’t matter who used it. They need to refund the money, and a simple online complaint to the Chancellor’s Office will commence a formal investigation that will probably end up ordering a mass refund. GCC ain’t gonna do the right thing on its own.
GCC also never refunded the illegal $10 “technology fee” they used to charge every semester for computer equipment which had already been bought and paid for. That was subject to a successful agency complaint as well, and a mass refund.
In fact, the Chancellor’s Office used the GCC practice to finally come to the statewide legal conclusion that most technology fees lacked statutory authority. Glendale blew it for everyone else.
For years GCC also used to make its lower-income BOG students pay for their health fees. Up until about 14 years ago this too was illegal. But they’d been doing it for years earlier.
Filed under Uncategorized
Joan Kroc bought the San Ysidro McDonald’s franchise and had it torn down
Different era. Better values.
McDonald’s also doesn’t sell guns.
It was July 18, 1984, late in the afternoon on a Wednesday when some lives in the McDonald’s on San Ysidro Boulevard would be swept away, others forever changed when a man walked in and opened fire.
When it was all over, 21 people, from 8-months to 74-years old were dead, 19 were wounded.
The 77-minute long incident ended after a San Diego Police sniper fired one shot, hitting the gunman in the chest, killing him on the spot.
Southwestern College’s Higher Education Center now sits where the McDonald’s once was…
In the days following the tragedy, news came that the McDonald’s restaurant would re-open. That hit neighbor Gloria Salas harD and she began a crusade. Salas and friends eventually gathering more than 10-thousand signatures demanding the restaurant be closed.
Then one day, while protesting outside the McDonald’s, a woman walked up to Salas with a message. The woman was Joan Kroc, the wife of McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc.
“The property is gonna give to you guys in the community, so it’s yours,” Salas said Kroc told her.
Years later, Southwestern College would build their Higher Education Center on the site.
“Although it was tragic, it doesn’t lay as a tragedy. It’s built on this future they have here,” Connor said.
Filed under Uncategorized
Another (Republican) billionaire complains about how some people in the government won’t give other billionaires more free money
Keep in mind that Google, Disney and many other big companies can willingly expand into New York City without these kind of handout-bribes. And, that no one in the Bronx or Queens would have gotten any of these “lost” jobs.
The jobs would have gone to far-away transplants to Long Island City who wouldn’t dare think to work in the Bronx. Or — especially — to actually live there.
Since being elected to Congress in 2018, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has been no stranger to controversy. She received significant criticism after her vocal opposition to Amazon (AMZN) opening its second headquarters in Long Island City, N.Y., a deal that eventually fell through because of backlash.
Billionaire and Republican donor Stephen Ross said it was “tremendously” a mistake for AOC to oppose Amazon HQ2.
“Who was she really representing?” Ross said. “I mean, herself, I think, and her own agenda and popularity. She’s become, in a very short time, a very powerful person. I think she’s taking us totally in the wrong direction.”
Ross shared these comments with Yahoo Finance Editor-in-Chief Andy Serwer on an episode of “Influencers with Andy Serwer,” a weekly interview series with leaders in business, politics, and entertainment.
‘I don’t think America is ready.”
Scary people those Democrats. Bad people. They don’t believe in socialism for the rich.
Bronx-born billionaire investor Mario Gabelli previously expressed similar disappointment about the failure of the Amazon HQ2 deal to Yahoo Finance, although he did not mention Ocasio-Cortez by name.
“The screwup in New York City was the financially illiterates [who] didn’t understand that you have to bring Amazon in,” Gabelli said. And like Gabelli, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon also lamented the failed move without mentioning anyone by name.
AOC’s defense for her skepticism of the proposal was the fact that the retail giant would have possibly received $3 billion in tax incentives. Amazon had already faced heavy criticism after it was revealed it would pay $0 in federal income taxes on $11.2 billion in revenue for 2018.
“We can create those jobs without marginalizing people,” Ocasio-Cortez said during a Queens town hall event in April. “Are those the jobs that they’re giving the folks in NYCHA, are those jobs going to our community? Or are we just importing already wealthy people to displace us?”
Ross saw her attitude as more of a detriment to the economic prosperity of New York City, though.
“I think if you ask the people in Queens and New York City, her being against Amazon was probably something that was very detrimental to them and the city,” he said. “But she wants to be out there, she wants to be upfront, and she wants to take us in a direction that I don’t think America is ready for or ever will be.”
Yes, New York is doing so badly now. Nobody wants to be there.
Amazon wanted to be paid to go to Long Island City because it’s very near to Manhattan — like right across the East River. Already very popular, this would be like bribing a company to move to Silver Lake or Eagle Rock.
Reseda, maybe. The Bronx for sure. But not to an already incredibly up-and-coming locale.
Filed under Uncategorized
Anything there for adults?
It’s all total crap. No vision, no imagination. Toxic.
Wanna Know Disney’s Top Secret Plans For The Next 2 Years? They’re About To Tell You
…A big Disney+ panel in D23 Expo’s largest venue headlines Friday at the convention, with an hour and a half showcasing what everyone can expect. Much of the lineup has already been announced, but we’re expecting you’ll see footage from a broad swath of their upcoming shows and movies, along with lots of star power.
The network launches with two original shows: the Star Wars universe-set The Mandalorian, along with the exhaustingly titled High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. It’s also been reported that Ewan McGregor is in negotiations to bring back Obi-Wan Kenobi for a Disney+ series, so if that deal closes, McGregor may make a D23 Expo appearance.
Their first Marvel show is The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, but it reportedly hasn’t started filming yet, so actual footage is still a ways off. Still, we may get to find out more specifics on this show and other shows in the not-too-distant future, like Loki and WandaVision.
Marvel laid out Phase Four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe at Comic-Con last month. It only includes five movies at this point, which would make it the smallest MCU phase to date — but with the addition of Disney+ shows, it’s possible that they won’t be adding more films to this phase of superhero adventure.
Still, there are other movies that were either announced or teased, which we may find out more about at D23 Expo. Kevin Feige ended his Comic-Con presentation by mentioning Black Panther 2, Captain Marvel 2, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3, Fantastic Four, and something involving mutants (read: X-Men). He also announced that Mahershala Ali will be playing the vampire hunting Blade, but no release date has been announced for that project yet.
Of course, while they could give us some more details on those tantalizing future projects, they may may just save those announcements for a future Comic-Con — or D23 Expo 2021. More likely than getting in-depth on future projects, we’ll probably get more on the movies coming sooner — particularly Black Widow, the next movie on the Marvel calendar, set to arrive on May 1, 2020 after a longer-than-usual Marvel movie break.
Imagine being excited about these adolescent retreads. Worms for brains, everywhere.
Filed under Uncategorized
Congratulations, Burbank
These moronic sacks of shit are your neighbors.
Feel proud?
We’ll ask the same question as last month. Did the city council ever follow through on this?
The tragedy at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. was the last straw for thousands of people around the country and has provoked people to ask their public officials to adopt stricter gun-control laws.
Members of the Burbank City Council are looking to see what they can do, and last week unanimously voted to direct city staff to bring back more information on what the city can do to regulate gun purchases.
Additionally, council members voted to amend the city’s legislative platform to include efforts to reduce gun violence.
Several residents told City Council that something needs to be done about gun sales in the city.
Dream on. They’re not even going to try to do anything.
Where do you think you live?
Filed under Uncategorized
Filed under Uncategorized
MTA spokesman misrepresents the street situation in Burbank and Glendale
This isn’t going away. The push is getting stronger.
Noting the slick, boosterish “streetscapes!” websites that are supposedly devoted to such sanguine pursuits as biking and walking — and now this BRT scheme — always keep in mind that big, big money is behind this mickey-mouse busway idea through Burbank.
It will also be used to justify more and bigger development.
Could this noise over the planned 18-mile BRT — connecting the San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys going east-west between the North Hollywood Red and Orange Line Station and Pasadena City College with stops in downtown Burbank, Glendale, Eagle Rock and the Gold Line Memorial Park Station in Old Pasadena — be short-lived?
“At times, there is opposition to dedicated bus lanes before they are put in. Then, when you pull the bus out of the regular traffic so that people in cars aren’t stopped behind the buses, then people are no longer opposed,” Brian Haas, Metro spokesman, said during an interview Friday.
Pull the bus out of regular traffic how?
By removing one of the two traffic lanes currently dedicated to cars, that’s how. That’s the only way it can work through Burbank and most of Glendale.
Oh, and with lots of red lights for the cross streets having to wait for those new bus right-of-ways. Factor that in too.
The same question as last month. How come the rest of LA gets subways and light rail as their chosen 21st-century solution, but Burbank, Glendale, and the Valley get stuck with buses?
Filed under Uncategorized
Peach or avocado gold?
Maybe mint green carpets? If only it would be that cool.
The “community” is not going to be allowed to “design” anything of consequence at that new terminal. This “charrette” is all a charade.
Filed under Uncategorized
Leader answers yesterday’s Burbank school bus question
At least somebody listens.
The safety demonstration was scheduled to coincide with the start of school for the Los Angeles Unified School District , the nation’s second-largest school district, which kicked off its new school year on Tuesday.
Locally, First Student provides busing services to special-education students in the Burbank and Glendale unified school districts, along with Clark Magnet High School in La Crescenta.
So many news agencies (TV) just rewrite press releases.
Filed under Uncategorized
Nothing new under the sun
Food notes. Apparently this stuff’s popular in Burbank even?
Having grown up with old San Gabriel Californios whose families had been smashing avocados onto toast for decades before this, the idea of spending 15 bucks for it is insane.
Another historical note. Food folklore also has the other story completely wrong. The Hass avocado was not “developed” by some guy in the late 1920s. He merely got a hold of a seed from local trees long cross-pollinated.
Those trees were scattered all around the San Gabriel Valley back then, and had been for years. You were considered lucky if you had one in your yard.
Filed under Uncategorized
Hey, yeah, let’s put more homeless people out on the streets
And let’s also strip them of what little is left of their dignity.
See why we hate “Democrats” now? That’s some liberal spirit going on here:
Along a big, commercial street in Los Angeles’ North Hollywood area, near a row of empty storefronts, about half a dozen motor homes sat parked on a recent morning. Inside one of them, 67-year-old Edith Grays and her husband watched TV with the door open. Grays said they’d been there a few days, despite a two-hour parking limit.
“Thank God they’re not bothering us right now,” she said.
It’s not unusual to see clusters of campers around the city. Grays is one of the nearly 10,000 people who live in vehicles inside LA’s city limits. Some take shelter in cars, others in vans or trucks, but RVs are the most visible. They’re also the most difficult to park — especially now.
The Los Angeles City Council recently reinstated an ordinance that bans sleeping overnight in vehicles in residential areas. The law also forbids living in a vehicle within a block of a park, school or day care. Tickets for violating the rules start at $25 for a first offense, $50 the second time and $75 after that.
It’s perfectly understandable to ban sleeping in R1 neighborhoods, and you’d have to be crazy to want to park around those angry neighbors anyway. But there’s nothing wrong with parking in the other zones.
Filed under Uncategorized
Kids in Burbank take the school bus?
Since when?
A TV spot locale is understandable. But why is the BUSD involved?
BURBANK, Calif. (KABC) — As students trickle back to school across Southern California, officials in Burbank are taking the opportunity to refresh parents and students on safety outside of the classroom.
The organization First Student visited Johnny Carson Park — on a school bus — offering tips to increase confidence at the bus stop and reinforce safe behavior.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, school buses are 70 times safer than cars, when it comes to getting children to and from school.
Parents are students were encouraged to practice safety when it comes to riding and navigating around those big yellow school buses.
Tips include the proper way to board and get off a bus, and waiting at stop signs until it is safe to cross streets in school zones.
We remember at Emerson us all begging the teachers for a school bus up the hill, like we saw on TV. They just laughed.
Filed under Uncategorized
How old do these “girls” look?
At least 23 or 24, right? If not older.
These images coming from some kind of old surveillance tape, the press today is trying to hysterically portray these two women as further victims of “a pedophile,” and with poor “Prince Andrew” being dragged in as accessory.
But it’s perfectly obvious that these two are not teenagers, and we don’t even like the guy. He was beyond weird. The point here is that news media is just so incorrigibly scurrilous and dishonest these days. Almost all of it.
The media interpretations of this shot below are a hoot. Who are the sicker ones? And whenever anyone tries to be at all rational about these super-charged topics people go absolutely ballistic in outrage.
This is typical of the coverage:
In a deeply troubling scene, the blonde-haired woman – who barely reaches Epstein’s shoulders – appears cold and shaking as she walks with the millionaire to his Bentley.
Epstein clambers into the back seat as the young woman stands on the street, seemingly being given instructions. An older passer-by glances at the incongruous-looking couple.
After around two minutes, the girl jogs back to the house when she stands on the front step and presses the doorbell, visibly shaking with cold….
Last night, the source of the video said they had decided to go public with the footage to encourage further victims to come forward.
‘I’m haunted by the shivering young girl who was with Epstein. What became of her?’ asked the source. ‘Now I’m reading everything that went on inside and know the full horrors of what went on, I’m wondering, was she a victim too?’
It was cold outside and she was smiling. Why is that “deeply troubling”?
Was this a police source? Who else was surveilling? They don’t sound too objective.
It was chilling to see. Everyone knew by that point that Epstein was a convicted paedophile, yet he was flaunting his lifestyle in plain sight.
Doing what? Hanging around women in their mid-20s? Or older? That’s culpable now?
Since when?
Exactly when did people go nuts? Was it the Trump election?
Filed under Uncategorized
