San Bernardino Press MONDAY, JANUARY 26, 2015 - FEBRUARY 1, 2015
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How Starbucks Hopes to Profit from MLK Day O pinion By NICK KIPLEY According to an article published by the Boston Globe in 2011, sales of the Frappuccino make up roughly a fifth of Starbuck’s revenue. Possibly to counter a reputation as a venue that makes 20% of its money in what are arguably just coffee milkshakes, Starbucks also offers a variety of products supporting the good cause: a community bulletin board, inoffensive bestsellers about protagonists changing the status quo through championing a noble cause, bottled water that allegedly raises money for drinking water programs in Africa, and selected CD’s of eclectic music performed by top artists collaborating in an effort to raise money for famine relief, an end to human trafficking, AIDS research, a cure for cancer, etc. This does a lot to corroborate Starbuck’s image as not just another fast-food-style chain selling beverages big enough to drown a cat in, but as a meeting place where social consciousness, community
activism—and corporate altruism—flawlessly comingle. Huge corporations like Starbucks, Apple, Nike, et. al have learned to market positions of selfless activism by painlessly co-opting figures from the “politically correct” canon. A recent, prominent example of this comes from an ad run by Starbucks in the New York Times which shows the alphabet sequence printed backwards in white letters upon a black background. Its letters “MLK” are highlighted in red. Beneath this text, also in white font, made highly visible against a full-page sea of black, reads the call to action statement: “It’s time to look at things differently. Again.” Is this statement telling us that if we find ourselves arranged within a sea of hierarchical conformity, all we need to do is change the way the system is viewed in order to gain a startling new perspective? In this case, that perspective leads to some crackly, inner-speaker of pop-culture and history, which
Crimes Against Children Detail responded and continued the investigation. Through their investigation and interviews, detectives discovered the daycare owner’s son sexually abused at least three children on a number of occasions while they were in his care. The suspect was left unsupervised with the children, in the home, during
Not so fast: Officials Question San Bernardino Low Ranking for Jobs By Vickie Vértiz
the times of the abuse. On January 18, 2015, the suspect was arrested for multiple sex crimes and booked at San Bernardino Juvenile Hall. Detectives are still conducting follow up investigation with the other children in the daycare. Investigators are concerned there may be other
On the list of the 150 “Best and Worst Cities to Find a Job,” released by the financial information website WalletHub, San Bernardino ranked last. The San Bernardino Sun quoted the Washington D.C.based WalletHub who said the report was designed to help people to make the right decision who are looking to relocate for work. “This study was released right after the new year,” when some might be looking for a new job, said Jill Gonzalez, spokeswoman for WalletHub, “especially now with unemployment falling within the last couple of years, I think this is becoming more and more of a really hopeful goal for a lot of people.” She added: “We [are] hoping that people that are willing to relocate to get that better job can take a glance at this study and can see where the best, and not so great, places are to get one.” WalletHub included the 150 most populated cities in the United States, said the Sun, and used variables such as job opportunities, housing prices, and employment growth to generate their findings, said the paper. The Sun added that additional metrics included “median annual income, industry variety,
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Dr. Martin Luther King - Courtesy Photo
resonate with the words, “I Have A Dream.” Displayed directly below this message is Starbuck’s logo. Thus, the only information we are given is that the largest coffee chain in the nation—who makes billions selling high calorie coffee milkshakes—shares the same beliefs as the greatest American civil rights leader of the 20th Century. Wait. What? Not advertising anything but the Starbucks brand, the Please see page 2
Children Abused by Son of Daycare Owner On January 17, 2015, the parents of a three year old boy brought their child to the Highland Sheriff’s Station to report the sexual abuse of their child while he was cared for at a licensed in-home daycare in Highland. The victim disclosed several acts of sexual abuse perpetrated by the 17-yearold son of the daycare owner/ provider. Detectives from the
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Dish Network, Fox Negotiate Deal After Three Week Blackout By Courtney Alexander Following a three week contract dispute and network blackout, Fox has returned to Dish Network, after the two parties came to a multi-year agreement. The blackout went into effect late on Saturday, Dec. 20, after Dish Network and Rupert Murdoch's Twenty-First Century Fox Inc. failed to come to an agreement on a new contract when the previous contract ended. 14 million Dish Network subscribers were left without Fox News Channel, cable TV’s number one watched news channel, and its sister station, Fox Business Network. In the Los Angeles area alone, one of Dish’s largest markets, 500,000 subscribers went without the Fox channels. The terms of the contract have not been disclosed; however, sources close to the deal say that Dish has agreed to pay Fox $1.50 per subscriber per month,
up from $1 per subscriber as per the previous contract. "We thank the viewers of Fox News and Fox Business and Dish customers for their patience throughout this process," said Tim Carry, executive vice president of distribution for Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network, and Warren Schlichting, Dish senior vice president of programming, in a joint statement. The dispute was over contract fees. Each side blamed the other for the blackout. Dish said that Fox was trying to include in the negotiations other channels that were not a part of the contract up for renewal. “It’s like we’re about to close on a house and the Realtor is trying to make us buy a new car as well,” said Warren Schlichting. “Fox blacked out two of its news channels, using them as
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leverage to triple rates on sports and entertainment channels that are not in this contract.” Fox said that Dish shutdown broadcasting before an agreement was made “in an attempt to intimidate and sway our negotiations.” Dish replaced Fox News with Blaze, the news channel owned by Glenn Beck, and replaced Fox Business Network with CNBC. It would appear that Fox had the upper hand in the negotiations being the top rated cable TV news channel, and having a loyal customer base. According to Tim Carry, Dish Network lost an estimated 90,000 subscribers since the start of the battle. His estimate was based on the number of people who have contacted the www.keepfoxnews.com
website, 888 numbers and other people who have directly contacted Dish Network. He also said that the site had garnered 22,000 emails and 7,000 phone calls requesting that Dish return Fox News to its lineup. The Dish Network disagreement with Fox was only one of three within recent months. The other two disputes were with CBS Corp and Turner Broadcasting. In October, several Turner Broadcasting channels, including CNN and Cartoon Network were blacked out, returning on Nov. 21, after the two sides agreed to continue broadcasting for several months while an agreement is worked out. On Dec. 5, CBS blocked Dish from broadcasting the local channels owned by CBS Corp, before a deal was struck on Dec. 6.
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ad is still effective for the company’s PR; however, it really doesn’t do anything to champion Civil Rights or promote Black History Month or even to promote an interest in the work and life of Dr. King. It’s really just designed to get you to buy coffee without feeling guilty. Not many would disagree with Martin Luther King Jr., but a lot of people have found an issue with Starbuck’s system of cheap labor which requires enlisting an army of part-time workers whose hours fluctuate week by week due to a piece of scheduling software which assigns shifts based on a mathematical logarithm that calculates each worker’s level of gross productivity. Dr. King, speaking on April 4th, 1967 at the Riverside Church in New York, warned against the sort of society in which coffee chains claim to be
activists. Speaking of a world in which America came out peacefully from the Cold War (ours) he said, “I am convinced that if we are to get on to the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.” Like anything, changing anything in a community requires its members, “To get out and get active.” Activism can be anything in which the community comes together to discuss its important issues. It isn’t limited to marching, but it also isn’t marketing.
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State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson today named Nick Schweizer to the position of Deputy Superintendent for the Services for Administration, Finance, Technology, and Infrastructure Branch of the California Department of Education (CDE). “We are pleased to find an outstanding leader with a deep knowledge of education, the state budget, and fiscal issues,” said Torlakson. “Nick brings so much to the department. I look forward to working with him.” Schweizer has been at the California Department of Finance since 1998 and has served in a variety of roles, including overseeing and developing budget policies affecting K-12 education, community colleges, state universities, college financial aid, teacher credentialing, and child care. Schweizer also spent one year as executive director of the State Board of Education where he provided leadership and direction to the board members and staff. As Deputy Superintendent, Schweizer will oversee the CDE budget, accounting, information systems, personnel services; and assistance to local educational agencies for fiscal and business aspects of public schools. He replaces Jeannie Oropeza who recently became Deputy Secretary for Human Resources for the state Senate. For additional information on the CDE’s Services for Administration, Finance, Technology, and Infrastructure Branch please visit http://www.cde. ca.gov/
Firefighters Say You Only Have Two Minutes Imagine being sound asleep in the middle of the night when suddenly your smoke alarms start blaring. Your house is filling with smoke. Do you know what to do? According to our friends at the American Red Cross (ARC), Los Angeles Firefighters agree that people have about two minutes to escape a burning home. With this in mind, ARC created the Home Fire Preparedness Campaign to reduce the number of fire related deaths and injuries by up to 25 percent over the next five years. You can be a part of this movement by having a fire escape plan that includes the following: - Make sure all members of the household know how to get out of every room in the house;
- Pick a place outside where everyone can meet and be sure everyone knows where it is; - Practice waking up to smoke alarms, low crawling and meeting outside; - Practice your home fire drill until everyone in the house can do it in less than two minutes; and - Make sure everyone knows how to call '911'. The U.S. Fire Administration says people are at greater risk for home fires during the winter months. Now that the season is here, use ARC’s printable worksheet and begin planning; then check out this video from MySafeLAto learn how to conduct a fire drill with your family today!
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Rep. Adam Schiff reflects on Measure to Repair State of the Union Address California’s Deteriorating On Wednesday, Rep. country more than a decade School Buildings Adam Schiff (D-CA), the rank- after 9/11 and years after the ing Member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI), released the following statement in reaction to the President’s State of the Union address this evening before Congress: “Tonight, the President laid out his vision for an improved economy and help for the middle class. While our economy is far better than it was in the midst of the Great Recession, we still have a long way to go – and by addressing wage stagnation, making education affordable to all and investing in our middle class, we can ensure that a strengthening economy brings prosperity to all families. By reforming our tax code and helping expand opportunity for the middle class, we can generate rising incomes and give everyone the chance to succeed. “The President also addressed the complex national security challenges facing the
death of Osama Bin Laden. The President appealed to Congress to authorize the use of force against ISIS and this is vital – but make no mistake, this is a debate and vote that should have taken place five months ago when we first began strikes against ISIS in Syria and began deploying troops to Iraq. “The President must also continue to press for important reforms of the metadata program and FISA Court, both of which are essential to maintaining a proper balance between privacy and security, and which he alluded to in tonight’s speech.” "These economic and national security challenges are real and we can meet them, provided we are willing to work together in a bipartisan way. I am determined to do my part, and hope that this Congress can become one of the most productive in years."
Children Abused Continued from page 1
victims and urge anyone with information regarding this investigation to contact Detective Guerra at (909) 387-3615. Callers wishing to remain anony-
mous are urged to call the Wetip Hotline at 1-800-78-CRIME (27463) or you may leave information on the We-Tip Hotline at www.wetip.com.
Assemblymember Chris Holden (D-Pasadena) has introduced Assembly Bill 148 to offer an alternative solution to school construction funding in both K- 12 grades and community colleges. “California schools are in terrible shape and lack the funds to make necessary repairs. Toilets are clogged, roofs leak, and students swelter in hot classrooms. The Governor’s budget proposal does not provide a sustainable solution for our children. AB 148 will begin discussions about the future of school financing, which may include both bond financing or tax financing, and also stream-
line the state facilities program, which is currently a burdensome layer of bureaucracy,” said Assemblymember Holden. “The time to modernize and build our school facilities is now while the economy is in good shape. Without repairing and updating our schools, we are leaving our children in unsafe classrooms that jeopardize their futures,” added Holden. “I look forward to working with my colleagues in the Legislature to adopt a sustainable school facilities plan that improves learning and teaching conditions in California’s public schools. Let’s get the job done.”
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safety and the percentage of employed workforce living under the poverty line.” San Bernardino Mayor Carey Davis commented on the low ranking for the city, telling the Sun that the finding is not news. Clearly the city is in bankruptcy and is facing financial woes covered nationally by the press. “I do [not] know if this has any more impact than information already out there.” Davis told the Sun he “analyzed the numbers behind” the report and noticed a state-based pattern. California, he told the paper, “had many cities ranked in the bottom half of the report, and only one in the top 20. By comparison, nine of the top 20 are in Texas.” He said it “suggests that statewide factors — such as the dissolution of redevelopment agencies in California — played a significant role in the job success” of those cities. The city is trying to jumpstart the economy through transportation infrastructure
expansion, the building of a $65 million San Manuel Gateway College, and a “downtown center built to train new professionals for health care, which is a key industry in the Inland Empire” he told the paper. John Husing, who is the chief economist for the Inland Empire Economic Partnership said the list was “nonsense,” the Sun reported. He was paraphrased as saying that people “may still be able to find a job outside of their city and economists generally focus on the economic health of a region.” “If I live in San Bernardino, do I confine myself to San Bernardino to find a job? Of course not,” Husing told the paper. He added that, “Any one city is a piece of a much more complex area. It’s not important to look at particular cities. Does San Bernardino have economic problems? Yes. Enormous problems. But the ability to find jobs in the city is not one of them.”