San Bernardino Press MONDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2014 - OCTOBER 19, 2014
sanbernardinopress.com
VOLUME 1, NO. 24
California’s water officials neglect their Bill to own laws and waste water mandate by jennifer schlueter child-abuse training for teachers signed into law
ing from The Great Recession. He did say, however, that a full recovery will come during 2016. “We lost 143,000 [jobs] during the Great Recession,” Husing told the Sun. “We have gotten back 110,000, but we
Assemblyman Mike Gatto’s (D-Los Angeles) bill to strengthen training requirements and prevent child abuse in schools was signed into law by Governor Brown Monday. The legislation would require all school employees to be trained according to standards developed by the Department of Education in the proper identification and reporting of child abuse, so that abuse can be stopped in its tracks. Gatto’s AB 1432 addresses the lack of training on how to recognize and report child abuse in K-12 settings. The California Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Act requires certain professionals, known as mandated reporters, to report to law enforcement or protective services known or suspected instances of neglect, or physical, sexual, or emotional abuse. Despite these requirements, current law does not require school districts to train personnel on detecting and reporting child abuse, nor does it inform them of their responsibilities or that failure to report is a misdemeanor punishable by jail time. Gatto’s legislation addresses this problem by requiring school employees to complete reporting training. The Assemblyman has been working closely with child advocates and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom
Please see page 2
Please see page 2
-Photo by Terry Miller
California’s law makes water bills of state officials defining water rates and rules public record. Thus, The Center for Investigative Reporting examined their data and found the state’s representatives wasting up to eleven times as much water as the typical California
household. Fresno City Councilman Oliver Baines is responsible for this number, using 4,000 gallons a day. After finding out that he had defective sprinklers using 1.24 million gallons of water in 2012, Baines now cut his usage to 149 gallons per day in March of this
year. According to NBC, he apologized and admitted to not being “a model of water usage.” Next to Baines’ wasting due to leaking sprinklers, Mike Soubirous, member of the Please see page 4
Unemployment rate remains high in Inland Empire by Vickie Vértiz While the latest reports from the U.S. Department of Labor show a national decline in unemployment to 5.9 percent, the unemployment figure for the Inland Empire area was still higher at 8.7 percent. The San Bernardino County Sun spoke with John Husing,
chief economist for the Inland Empire Economic Partnership. While the national data was reported for September, the Inland data was for August. Husing told the Sun that the difference in percentage points is due to the fact that the Inland Empire economy is still recover-
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Inland Empire counties among winners of federal workforce investment act grant State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson announced that 198 community colleges, school districts, libraries, and nonprofits will share more than $86 million in federal grants to help adults find meaningful jobs and become better informed citizens. “These funds will help adults learn to read, write, and speak English so they can find good jobs to support their families and become more productive members of their communities,” Torlakson said. The Workforce Investment Act, Title II: Adult Education and Family Literacy Act (WIA) funds classes in Adult Basic Education, high school subjects, English as a Second Language, and citizenship. To be eligible for the classes, students must be at least 18 years old, not currently enrolled in
school, and lacking in jobs skills and fluency in English. In addition, they must not yet have a high school diploma. The WIA is a competitive grant. The $86 million available in this round of funding went to local educational agencies, libraries, and nonprofits—including $28.3 million to those located in Los Angeles County; $12.5 million to the Bay Area; $8.7 million to Orange County; $7.5 million to San Diego County; $11.5 million to Sacramento Valley counties; $8.5 million to Inland Empire counties; $4.8 million to San Joaquin Valley counties; and $1.5 million to the Central Coast counties. For a complete list of grantees, visit the California Department of Education’s Funding Results Workforce Investment Act, Title II: Adult Education and Family Literacy Act Web page.
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Unemployment rate still high Continued from page 1
still haven’t gotten back about 30,000. At this point, we are mending, but not healed.” The national data report for September was down from 6.1 percent the previous month, the Sun reported, and 7.2 percent a year earlier. The D.O.L also reported that the last time the jobless rate had fallen below six percent in July 2008. Increases were also made in July and August seeing 69,000 more jobs than had initially been reported, said the Sun. Of those job gains, the most represented fields were in the professional and business service careers such architects, attorneys, engineers, and technical consultants. The Sun noted that jobs were also gained in retail trade with 35,300 new jobs, health care with 23,000, food and drinking services with 20,000, construction at 16,000, information 12,000 jobs, and manufacturing had 4,000 new jobs. However, the paper added that the number of long-term unemployed people who have been out of work for 27 weeks or more did not change in September, stagnating at about three million. But over the last year, the total number of longterm unemployed people did fall by 1.2 million. In other gains for workers, minimum wage increases have been made across the country, most recently in the City of Los Angeles. The Sun noted that unemployment rate presented here
does not include others who have given up looking for work or are working part-time when they would prefer to be fulltime. When those people are added in to the numbers, the more accurate unemployment national rate would be 11.8 percent, which would bring up the Inland Empire rate as well. The paper did mention employment opportunities may arise in court reporting, citing a report by the Court Reporting Industry that says by 2018, 2,320 job openings will be available in California. While manufacturing is not a field with a strong increase in jobs, the Sun identified D&A Metal Fabrication Inc. in Van Nuys as one company that has seen an increase in business in the past several months. Vice President Anca Morgan told the Sun said that their new laser cutting machine will allow for more specialty work. “It can cut through oneand-a-quarter-inch thick steel more accurately,” she said. “It will also save us time. Sometimes you need to punch holes with specific kinds of shapes and you might not have the tool for that […].” To show just how well the company is doing, Morgan to the Sun that her father increased their staffing in the last year since purchasing the business. “We had 14 employees when we bought it, and now we have about 19,” she told the paper.
Child-abuse training for teachers bill Continued from page 1
Torlakson, after recent reports showed that several cases of abuse were prolonged because school personnel were unaware of their duty to report. “Crimes that occur in schools should not be treated any differently than those that occur elsewhere in our com-
munity, unless it is to treat them with even greater care and concern,” said Assemblyman Gatto. “California law needs to make sure that school administrators at all levels of education report these most serious crimes and empower our law-enforcement experts to investigate.”
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Gone Girl is a heightened but, unfortunately, accurate reflection of our culture movie review By Michael James Gonzalez It’s not surprising that this weekend’s number one movie at the box office was Gone Girl. The film stars a handsome, allAmerican male, the plot centers on a possible kidnap or even murder of a young, beautiful wife, and we are led through a maze of clues and assumptions by the media, which begins to air the police investigation 24/7. Pardon the expression, but that’s so meta. If you watched the film over the weekend and felt less like a passive viewer and more like a participant in the film, then the joke wasn’t lost on you. Consider the extraordinary amount of TV shows devoted to tabloid-crime related news stories, and you’ll realize how much our culture is obsessed with the type of narrative depicted in Gone Girl, which gives us a fly-on-the-wall glimpse into the machinations of people involved in a high-profile crime and the subsequent media frenzy once the front door shuts on the news cameras outside. The film is based on author Gillian Flynn’s bestselling novel of the same name and is directed by master craftsman David Fincher (The Social Network, Se7en). Gone Girl stars Ben Affleck as the seemingly perfect husband— who we come to find has quite a few chinks in his armor—and Rosamund Pike as the Northeastern-bred, sophisticated, equally perfect wife who disappears under circumstances that appear obvious but are anything but. We begin as Nick Dunne (Affleck) returns home to discover that a violent struggle has taken place and his wife Amy (Pike) is missing. After local police get involved, circumstantial evidence begins to point toward Nick as the prime suspect and a media circus quickly ensues. Flashback sequences begin to reveal cracks in Nick and Amy’s marriage— including money problems, a move from New York City to
the suburbs of North Carthage, Missouri due to Nick’s sick mother, frequent arguments, and infidelity—as told from the point of view of Amy’s diary. But just as Nick’s smug behavior and lies surrounding the case lead police closer to arresting him for murdering his wife, we discover that there are far more malevolent forces at work which have led to Amy’s disappearance but perhaps not her death. The 149 minute film gradually reveals the context of Nick and Amy’s complicated relationship—from their first meeting to the day she
disappears—the twists and turns throughout the police investigation, and the shocking events of the third act, which even if you see coming, you won’t know what will happen next. Fincher’s distinct directing style brilliantly fleshes out the film’s motifs-psycho-pathology set against the appearance of affluence and normality, and the investigation of truth versus the exploitation of it—with his usual chiaroscuro tones and still frames, both of which make the camera invisible but remind us that this is a dirty world we’re inhabiting.
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4 | OCTOBER 13, 2014 - OCTOBER 19, 2014
HUD awards $14.1 million to protect children and families in California from dangerous lead and other home hazards The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) today awarded more than $14.1 million in grants to four local and state government agencies and research institutions to protect children and families in California from the hazards of lead-based paint and from other home health and safety hazards (see chart below). The grant funding announced today will reduce the number of lead-poisoned children and protect families by targeting health hazards in lowincome homes with significant lead and/or other home health and safety hazards. In addition, some of these grants will support research on increasing the effectiveness of hazard reduction methods. These programs have a demonstrated history of success, filling critical needs in communities where no other resources exist to address substandard
housing that threatens the health of the most vulnerable residents, and filling research gaps essential for being able to reduce hazard reduction costs. As HUD approaches its 50th anniversary next year, HUD Secretary Julián Castro is focused on advancing policies that create opportunities for all Americans, including helping children and families secure quality housing by protecting them from the hazards of lead-based paint and other home health and safety hazards. “No person should ever be in harm’s way when cooking dinner in their kitchen or playing with children in the living room,” said Castro. “These grant awards will help communities eliminate home-related hazards and give families new opportunities to thrive. Housing is a critical source of stability, and HUD is committed to helping
Free Community Outreach Class on Citizenship The University of the West (www.uwest.edu) through its Office of Extended Studies (site.uwestonline.com) is pleased to offer a free online class helping immigrants to prepare for U.S. Citizenship. Becoming a U.S. citizen is a privilege offered to all immigrants who possess a “green card”, and who have
lived in the U.S. for at least 5 years. This free class is 100% online and uses materials provided by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Prospective citizens can start and finish the 11 lessons at their own pace. To register for this free online class, please email extendedstudies@uwest.edu.
ensure that all Americans have a healthy safe place to live.” “Home is where a family should feel safe and the HUD Healthy Homes and Lead Control programs will be used by local groups to help reduce lead paint hazards, among other housing-related health issues,” said HUD Regional Administrator Ophelia Basgal. “I applaud the HUD grant recipients for their leadership in working to keep California families safe: the State of California Community Services Development, Alameda County, the City of Los Angeles, and the San Diego Environmental Services Department.” HUD’s HUD’s Office of Healthy Homes and Lead Control promotes local efforts to eliminate dangerous lead paint and other housing-related health hazards from lower income homes; stimulate private sector investment in lead hazard
control; support cutting-edge research on methods for assessing and controlling housing-related health and safety hazards; and educate the public about the dangers of hazards in the home. The funding announced today directs critical funds to cities, counties and states to eliminate dangerous lead paint and other housing-related health hazards in thousands of privately-owned, low-income housing units. Today’s funding also directs funds to public and private universities and research organizations to improve methods to detect lead paint in the home, assess the effectiveness of lead laws, improve home fall protection for the elderly, improve sustainable pest management strategies, evaluate the health effects of smoke-free policies, and assess home air cleaning in reducing childhood asthma.
Water officials waste water Continued from page 1
Riverside City Council, was found to be the biggest water wasting official in the state. His desert home with a “1-acre lot with cascades of flowering shrubs and a weeping willow tree,” as NBC describes it, consumes enough water to serve eight households – more than 1 million gallons a year. Subirous told NBC that he doesn’t know what to do to conserve water; “sell [his] house to set that example, or just abolish all [of his] shrubs?” In July, Riverside prohibited watering more than four days a week, which Subirous supported. However, last month he was caught on video running his sprinklers seven consecutive nights. Furthermore, the CIR discovered that more than 50% water agency supervisors consume more water than the state’s average household.
Randy Record, chairman of the board of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, for example, with more than 1,100 gallons per day in 2013, uses three times as much. While deciding on laws that save water and $500 fines for water wasters, water use among 60 percent of the officials has increased from 2012 to 2013. Trent Orr of the Earthjustice environmental law firm in San Francisco told NBC that officials “should be leading by example, not telling the little people you regulate that they need to tighten their belts while you proceed as if nothing had happened and in fact use more water.” On a more positive note and despite water wasters, water usage has dropped 11.5 percent in August compared to the previous year.