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Temple Tribune CITY
Thursday, February 3 - February 9, 2011
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Volume XVIII, No. V
Community News, Arts & Opinions Since 1996
Controller Temple Grandin, Ph.D., Helps Villa Esperanza’s Releases Celebrate their 50th Anniversary in Pasadena More Local Government Payroll Figures State Controller John Chiang today unveiled an updated website showing the salary, pension benefits and other employee compensation for several hundred local transit, waste disposal, and fire and police protection districts. “Californians were offered instant access to salary information in their own communities when I launched the first public payroll site of city and county compensation last fall,” said Chiang. “Posting this information allows California residents to see where their public dollars are being spent and to better hold their local agencies accountable.” Last October, the Controller collected and posted wage information for more than 600,000 city and county employees. He then ordered special districts across the state to report the same information. Compensation information for employees of special districts is being collected and posted on the website in four phases. The first phase – launched today – includes more than $3 billion in payroll reported by 693 local agencies. The next phase will include land reclamation and levee maintenance, health, hospital and water agencies. The Local Government Compensation Reporting website covers elected officials as well as public employees. It includes the following information for each position: •Minimum and maximum salary ranges; •Actual wages paid; •The applicable retirement formula; •Any contributions by the employer to the employee’s share of pension costs; •Any contributions by the employer to the employee’s deferred compensation plan; and •Any employer payments for the employee’s health, vision and dental pre-
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Arcadia Mayor Amundson, Council Unmoved by Heartfelt Speeches
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Dr. Temple Grandin makes a point when she visited Villa Esperanza last Thursday. Grandin is world famous for overcoming tremendous obstacles as an autistic child. She gained even more fame in a recent HBO movie starring Clair Danes as Temple Grandin. Photos by-Terry Miller
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emple Grandin arrived in Pasadena last Thursday evening to speak at an Autism Conference at the Pasadena Hilton last Friday. Gradin has gained fame as an Autistic adult who overcame tremendous obstacles – she was recently the subject of an award-winning HBO movie starring Claire Daines. Temple Grandin, Ph.D. who has battled autism her entire life, the facility for special-needs and autistic clients Thursday night. The executives at Villa Esperanza, parents and staff were delighted to have Dr. Grandin visit. Dr. Grandin is a designer of livestock handling facilities and a Professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University. Facilities she has designed are located in the United States, Canada, Europe, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, and other countries. In North America, almost half of the cattle are handled in a center track restrainer system that she designed for
meat plants. Curved chute and race systems she has designed for cattle are used worldwide and her writings on the flight zone
and other principles of grazing animal behavior have helped many people to reduce stress on their animals during handling. She has also developed an objective scoring system for assessing handling of cattle and pigs at meat plants. This scoring system is being used by many large corpora-
tions to improve animal welfare. Other areas of research are: cattle temperament, environmental enrichment for pigs, re-
ducing dark cutters and bruises, bull fertility, training procedures, and effective stunning methods for cattle and pigs at meat plants. She obtained her B.A. at Frankin Pierce College and her M.S. in Animal Science at Arizona State University. Dr. Grandin received her Ph.D in Ani-
mal Science from the University of Illinois in 1989. Today she teaches courses on livestock behavior and facility design at Colorado State University and consults with the livestock industry on facility design, livestock handling, and animal welfare. In 1961 a group of mothers had a vision. They believed their special needs children deserved quality care and education and founded one of the first schools in Los Angeles County for children with Down syndrome. This school (that would later become Villa Esperanza) was a response to community needs unfulfilled because no public schools offered programs for children with developmental disabilities. The school was then known as Pasadena Retarded Children’s Foundation. Proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that Autism and other disabilities can be fought with hard work, Grandin spoke eloquently of her
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he divisive decision by Mayor Amundson to bring Focus on Family’s H.B. London to Arcadia in March is having some significant repercussion in the community. During Tuesday’s regular City Council meeting, nine area residents spoke passionately and powerfully about Mayor Amundson’s decicision to have city funds pay for a speaker from the anti-gay organization such as Focus on Family at the community breakfast in March. Their statements were both honest and moving, and two speakers got choked up to the point of tears during public comment. The Arcadia GSA showed up in force with a number of students, two of whom gave passionate statements. Arcadia resident and junior at Arcadia High School
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Residents still Questioning County Decision BY TERRY MILLER The enduring struggle continues to get more complex in an effort to get accurate information regarding what led up to the destruction of over 200 trees, a woodland wildlife area in Arcadia last month. Deeply concerned residents and others have expressed concern that there has been a cover-up of sorts with regard to dissemination of public information on this particular matter. Dept of Fish and Game’s Kelly Schmoker
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