Belmont Beacon
MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2014 - JANUARY 4, 2015
belmontbeacon.com
Leondra Kruger Becomes Youngest Supreme Court Judge in 100 Years By JENNIFER SCHLUETER Last Monday, Leondra Kruger was unanimously approved as the youngest justice of the California Supreme Court in almost a century. The 38-year old had been nominated by Governor Jerry Brown in November, and will be sworn into office by him on January 5, along with Mariano-Florentino Cuellar, who was confirmed as justice in August. Cuellar will replace retiring Justice Marvin Baxtor and Kruger will fill Justice Joyce Kennard’s seat, who had retired in April. Kruger was appointed by California Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye; Attorney General Kamala Harris; and Joan Dempsey Klein, “presiding justice of the second appellate district division three,” who rated her “‘exceptionally wellqualified,’ [which is] the highest ranking a judicial candidate can receive,” according to Courthouse News. Patch.com quoted former Assistant U.S. Solicitor General Benjamin Horwich, who had worked with Kruger: “She listens, she thinks, she listens, she thinks and then she listens some
more.” Cantil-Sakauye, chair of the San Francisco-based court, “called Kruger’s credentials ‘truly stellar,’” according the website. Following an undergraduate degree from Harvard University and a law degree from Yale University, Kruger worked as an assistant law professor at the University of Chicago, and practiced privately. The website also reported that she then went to Washington, D.C., where she became “assistant to the U.S. solicitor general and acting principal deputy solicitor general,” and later deputy assistant attorney general in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel. Kruger was born and raised in Glendale; however, has never practiced law in California nor been a judge. Thus, Cantil-Sakauye questioned Kruger about these two lacking fields to which Kruger answered that her work with the Justice Department has exposed her to a variety of legal principles and that she hopes to continue learning and “draw on the expertise of her col-
the regions they serve. “We are delighted to once again be named to the President’s Community Service Honor Roll. When students engage in service, everyone benefits,” said Jane Close Conoley, president, CSULB. “College students who are taught to apply classroom learning to life off campus are nearly three times as
Long Beach Playhouse Will Host California State Festival
likely to be more engaged in their workplace and the surrounding community upon graduation.” The Center for Community Engagement, housed at CSULB, reports that approximately 12,109 students engaged in some form of community service in 2012-13, in-
The Long Beach Playhouse is pleased to be the host of the American Association of Community Theatre’s (AACT) 2015 California State Festival (AACTFest). AACT is a national organization dedicated to supporting and developing community theatres throughout the United States. While the Playhouse is not new to hosting Festivals (they produce a 24-Hour Theatre Festival and a New Works Festival annually), the AACTFest in February is a chance to broaden participation to groups outside the Southern California area, as well as the scope of the productions involved. It’s also the Playhouse’s first major collaboration with AACT. “AACT has many member theatres in California, but our state is one of the few in the nation that does not have a long standing tradition of State Festivals....We polled some of the outstanding theatres across the state and the Playhouse said they were game for it. We had some meetings and they wowed us with their energy, their focus and their commitment to help bring the Fest tradition to California. Working with them has been truly exciting”, Gil Savage, AACT’s Region VIII Representative, states. The AACTFest will be part of the Playhouse’s Collaborative Series, appropriate for its vision of offering outside theatre companies and other performing arts organizations the
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Leondra Kruger
-Courtesy Photo
leagues on the court,” as Patch notes. According to the LA Times, Kruger told California Attorney General Kamala Harris that she was excited “to have the opportunity to come back home” to California. “It is where I was born and raised and where my family still lives,” she added. On the seven member court, Kruger will be one of three Democrats. Additionally, she will be the only African American member. Her colleague Cuellar, a law Professor at Stanford University, who Please see page 3
CSULB Recognized for Help Solving Social and Economic Problems California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) has earned a place on the 2014 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll for the fourth time. The recognition distinguishes colleges and universities engaged in helping solve social and economic problems, achieving meaningful outcomes on behalf of
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