MONDAY, JANUARY 19, 2015 - JANUARY 25, 2015
riversideindependent.com
Wells Fargo Bank Robbery On Monday, January 12, 2015, at about 11:12 am, Riverside Police Department officers responded to a bank robbery at the Wells Fargo located at 6189 Magnolia Avenue, Riverside. The suspect entered the bank posing as a customer. He handed the teller a note stating he had a gun and demanded all the money from the drawer. The teller then gave the suspect cash from the drawer and he walked away from the business towards Magnolia Avenue. No vehicle was seen. The suspected is described as a white male, 30’s, 504”, 135 lbs, and bald or short hair. He was last seen wearing a black and grey Dickies brand baseball hat, black hooded zip-up jacket, grey collared shirt, grey t-shirt underneath, blue jeans
Wells Fargo bank robber
and white tennis shoes. The suspect has an unknown tattoo on the left side of his neck. Anyone with any information about the robbery is urged to contact Detective Greg Rowe at (951) 353-7136, or by email at growe@riversideca.
- Courtesy Photo
gov. You may also submit tips to the RPD Investigations TipLine at (951) 353-7261 or email RPDTips@riversideca.gov, or to Wetip.com online or at 1-800-78-CRIME. You can remain anonymous by contacting any of these numbers or emails.
by Courtney Alexander
erated at a loss almost yearly. It also led to more than 200,000 citations being issued to residents by officials. After the election in 2013, the new city council members voted to remove the cameras, said The Please see page 2
Please see page 2
by Vickie Vértiz
- Courtesy Photo by Yousuf Fahimuddin
tions that had cameras and across the city, the public scorn against the camera program continued. The paper said that, “Drivers complained about the high cost of tickets and the perceived unfairness of being cited for rolling right turns.” The camera program op-
U.S. Ended 2014 With Lowest Unemployment Rate Since 2008; Riverside follows trend The U.S. finished the year strong, with December bringing a six year low for unemployment of 5.6% according to statistics from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. December was just the icing on the cake; this year being the best hiring year for the United States since 1999 Last month brought over 252,000 new jobs, making December the eleventh straight month of over 200,000 hires, the longest streak since 1994. October’s and November’s numbers were revised and higher than previously reported, up to +261,000 from +243,000 and up +353,000 plus +321,000 nonfarm jobs respectively, according to a report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 50,000 more workers were added to employers’ payrolls during October and November than economists originally calculated. December’s 5.6% unemployment rate was down from November’s 5.8%. The U.S. hasn’t seen unemployment rates that low since June 2008. White House Council of Economic Advisors chairman, Jason Furman noted that the 1.2% drop in unemployment from 2013 to 2014 was the largest de-
No More Traffic Cameras While the traffic camera program ended in September of 2014, the white boxes and attached poles are still where they were first installed. For the past eight years, cameras caught Riverside drivers taking red lights, but sometimes captured cars screeching to a stop once they saw the light flash. Since the program stopped, the cameras inside the white boxes have been removed. Public Works Director Tom Boyd told The PressEnterprise that the rest of the equipment will soon also be taken down. At the near end of 2006, the cameras were installed because they were thought to reduce the number of red-light running and accidents. While City of Riverside officials told the paper that accidents had actually decreased at intersec-
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Unemployment Rate Lowest Since 2008 Continued from page 1
crease since 1984. San Bernardino and Riverside County, and Rancho Cucamonga also followed that trend: Their most recent unemployment rates have been the lowest since the summer of 2008. That unemployment rate however, was in part, due to increasing numbers of people leaving the labor force, or the number of people outside of the military who are either working or looking for work. Even though employment grew by 111,000, the number of people who are unemployed fell by over three times that amount. Many of the people who left the labor force within the last 4 weeks just gave up on finding a job, therefore not qualifying them to be counted as “unemployed”, and instead making them “discouraged workers”. The number of discouraged workers grew by 42,000 to 720,000 last month. Wages also
fell 5 cents in December. “There’s still no sign of wage acceleration. It leaves you scratching your head a little bit,” Stuart Hoffman, PNC Financial Services Group Chief Economist told CNN Money. Still, even with wages falling and increasing numbers of discouraged workers, this year, and December especially, has brought signs of a recovering US economy. Between January 2008 and February 2010, the US lost 8.7 million jobs. According to the December Bureau of Labor Statistics report, there are now almost 2 million more people employed than there were in 2008. This job growth has happened across multiple sectors. Health care employment was increased by 34,000 last month, with an average growth rate of 24,000 jobs per month in 2014 compared with 17,000 per month in 2013. Construction jobs in December increased by
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48,000, “well above the employment gains in recent months.” according to the BLS report. And despite oil prices dropping from $100 a barrel in the summer to less than $50 now, employment in the oil and gas sectors increased, albeit less in December than in previous months. The increased number of energy sector workers despite the oil crisis is “a testament to the underlying health of the U.S. economy” according to Sal Guatieri, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets. In November, California had the highest over the month increase in employment of any
state, adding over 90,000 jobs, followed by Florida, adding almost 42,000, and Texas, adding almost 35,000 jobs. As of November, California’s unemployment rate is at 7.2%, down 0.1% from the previous month, and the lowest rate since June 2008. From October 2014 to November 2014, Los Angeles County added 29,400 nonfarm jobs to total 4,253,900, and had a seasonally adjusted unemployment rate of 8%, a drop from 9.4% in November of 2013. While hurdles remain, recent trends show a positive outlook for the US workforce.
No More Traffic Cameras Continued from page 1
Enterprise. Although they were turned off last year, members of the council recently inquired about the status of camera removal, the paper added. Boyd told the Enterprise that he “sent an employee to check and the man found an empty housing.” Redflex Traffic Systems officials, the company under contract to operate the cameras, told Boyd they were slated to remove the expensive cameras and any related materials when the program ended. Spokeswoman for Redflex Jody Ryan wrote to the paper in an email that the “cameras stopped collecting data in September, and the remaining equipment will be removed this month.” The Enterprise reported that Riverside city council members said they have received very few, “if any, questions” about why the camera poles have still not been removed. The paper reported that some people think the presence of the equipment, is still regulating the behavior of driv-
ers who may not know the boxes are empty. “When I know there [is] a camera there, I [am] extra cautious,” said Chris Goulet to the paper, a resident of Woodcrest. He also told the paper he thinks other drivers may act the same way he does. The paper added Boyd stating that Redflex hired a contractor that will remove the camera boxes and the poles, but also will fix the sidewalk cement where the poles were installed. In the email to the paper, Ryan explained that the long time between program closure and removal was caused by Redflex needing to find an “experienced contractor and to do paperwork.” According to The Enterprise, Boyd noted that multiple cities had canceled the Redflex contracts too, and that Riverside was not the first of these requests for equipment to be removed. Perhaps if a city is far enough down that list, they might decide to take out the cameras, but leave in equipment as ways to still keep people from breaking the law.
JANUARY 19, 2015 - JANUARY 25, 2015 | 3
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State Partnership Receives National Award for Diversity The CDE’s California Partnership Academy (CPA) and the State Bar of California’s collaborative Law and Legal Services Academies received the American Bar Association’s Alexander Award this month for their work to support racial and ethnic diversity in the legal profession. The CDE worked with the State Bar to develop the CPA Law and Legal Services Academy program designed to encourage underrepresented student groups to enter the legal profession, ranging from legal assistants to judges. Another goal is to diversify the legal profession to reflect the population they serve. There are currently 10 such academies statewide. The CDE and the State Bar will accept the award on behalf of the academies this year at a meeting in Houston, Texas. A CPA is a three-year program structured as a schoolwithin-a-school. CPAs integrate academic and career technical education, business partnerships, mentoring, and internships. The program gives students handson, real-world experience that prepares them for college and careers. CPAs are designed for disadvantaged students at-risk of dropping out of school. The program has been very successful with CPA students passing at higher rates that non-CPA students in the High School Exit Exam, graduation rates, and meeting college entrance requirements. The creation of the CPA Law and Legal Services Academies furthers Torlakson’s Career Readiness initiative designed to strengthen career technical education in California.
California Offers First Leadership Conference for Arts, Media, and Entertainment Educators are invited to sign up for California’s inaugural Arts, Media, and Entertainment (AME) Leadership Institute on April 7–8, 2015 in San Diego. This is a professional learning opportunity where teachers, administrators, and industry professionals can share strategies on how to better prepare students for careers in AME. Because California is a world leader in the entertainment and creative industries, what students should know to be “career ready” in AME is included in the state’s Career Technical Educational Model Curriculum Standards. There is room for 100 participants in the Institute. Attend-
ees can share strategies for implementing the new AME standards in classrooms, review high-quality curriculum, and share data about AME. There will also be a special focus on the Career Pathway Game Design and Integration. This program is designed to help students chart the classes they need in high school and postsecondary education to prepare for work in a particular industry. The AME Institute furthers State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson’s Core Reforms Engaging Arts to Educateinitiative to build awareness that teaching the arts is essential to a well-rounded education and supports the state’s economy.
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4 | JANUARY 19, 2015 - JANUARY 25, 2015
Significant Drops in Suspensions and Expulsions for Second Year in a Row State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson today announced a dramatic 20 percent drop in the number of students expelled in 2013-14 and a 15.2 decline in the number of students suspended. This marks the second year in a row of declines in both areas. The new figures come at a time when the California Department of Education (CDE) is working with districts around the state to implement innovative programs that reduce suspensions and expulsions, including some known as “restorative justice.” “These numbers show that the work of the department, districts, teachers, parents, and students around the state is paying off by keeping more students in school and learning,” said Torlakson. “You can have the best facilities, the best teachers, and the best curriculum in the world, but none of that matters if students are not in school. That’s why we have put so much effort into increasing school attendance and reducing expulsions and suspensions and will continue to do so.” Statewide, 49,987 fewer students were suspended in 2013-14 compared to the year before, down 15.2 percent.
The suspension rate is 4.4 percent, down 0.7 of a percentage point from the year before. Similarly, 1,655 fewer students were expelled in 2013-14 compared to the year before, down 20 percent. The expulsion rate remains at 0.1 percent because the overall numbers are relatively small. To reduce the number of expulsions and suspensions, the CDE has taken several steps, including hosting a forum and workshops, and posting Behavioral Intervention Strategies and Supports. In addition, the CDE has worked with several education groups to develop restorative justice programs that promote respect, taking responsibility, and strengthening relationships. Before such programs were implemented, the greatest percentage of students suspended or expelled was for “willful defiance.” For the second year in a row, the highest percentage declines came under this category. Last year, 261 fewer students were expelled for defiance-related offenses, down 47.7 percent from the year before. Another 76,296 fewer students were suspended for defiance-related offenses, down 28.9 percent from the year before.
Willful defiance became identified with the problem of high rates of expulsions and suspensions after the CDE reported a high number of minority students were suspended for this cause. Those figures helped spur the passage of Assembly Bill 420, supported by the CDE and sponsored by former Assembly member Roger Dickinson. The bill, signed into law last year, limits suspensions and expulsions for disruptive behavior in certain grades. Suspensions for more serious federal offenses were down by thousands among every student subgroup. However, a disparity remains among African-American students’ rates of suspension, which were relatively unchanged from the year before. African-American students are 6.2 percent of total enrollment, but make up 16.4 percent of students suspended, up 0.2 of a percentage point from the year before. White students are 25 percent of total enrollment, but make up 20.6 percent of students suspended, down 0.3 of a percentage point from the year before. Hispanic students are 53.3 percent of total enrollment, but make up 54.7 percent of suspensions, up 0.1 of a percentage point from the year before.
This is the second year of declines. Between 2011-12 and 2012-13, the number of expulsions dropped 13.5 percent, while the number of suspensions decreased 10.2 percent. Data collected through the California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System (CALPADS) enabled the CDE to report detailed data for the third year in a row. Prior to the collection of these data in CALPADS, they were collected differently as aggregate counts, so the 2013-14 data may only be compared to the two prior years and cannot be compared accurately to prior years' suspension and expulsion data. The data presented here were for “unduplicated” counts of students suspended or expelled. This means although a student may have been suspended or expelled more than once, each student was only counted once. The suspension and expulsion data are available on the CDE's DataQuest. Downloadable data files are available at the CDE's Expulsion and Suspension Data Web page. Truancy data are collected through the California Basic Educational Data System Online Reporting Application and are still being tabulated.
Fatal Traffic Collision In the early morning of January 14, 2015, patrol officers responded to Alessandro and Glenhaven reference a single vehicle that had struck a light pole. The 22 year old male, who was a resident of Moreno Valley, was commuting to work in his 2005 Nissan west bound on Alessandro when the collision occurred. Members of the Riverside Fire Department arrived on
scene and pronounced the driver deceased. Members of the department’s Major Accident Investigation Team responded to the scene and the cause of the collision is currently under investigation, but excessive speed appears to be a factor. Anyone who may have witnessed this collision is urged to contact Detective Rick Prince at 951-351-8722.