Mid April - Fullerton Observer

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Page 2 FULLERTON OBSERVER Fullerton Observer The Fullerton Observer Community Newspaper, founded by Ralph and Natalie Kennedy and a group of friends in 1978, is staffed by local citizen volunteers who create, publish, and distribute the paper throughout our community. This venture is a not-for-profit one with all ad and subscription revenues plowed back into maintaining and improving our independent, non-partisan, non-sectarian community newspaper. Our purpose is to inform Fullerton residents about the institutions and other societal forces which most impact their lives, so that they may be empowered to participate in constructive ways to keep and make these private and public entities serve all residents in lawful, open, just, and socially-responsible ways. Through our extensive local calendar and other coverage, we seek to promote a sense of community and an appreciation for the values of diversity with which our country is so uniquely blessed. SUBMISSIONS: Submissions on any topic of interest are accepted from Fullerton residents and we try hard to get it all in. Sorry we sometimes fail. Shorter pieces have a better chance. Send by email to observernews@earthlink.net or by snail mail to: FULLERTON OBSERVER PO BOX 7051 FULLERTON, CA 92834-7051 ____________________________ How To Subscribe Subscriptions include home delivery and are due each October $25/Fullerton • $35/Out of Town Send Check with Name & Address to: Fullerton Observer, PO Box 7051, Fullerton CA 92834-7051 ________________________________ How to Advertise Call 714-525-6402, or email observernews@earthlink.net ________________________________ 10,000 issues of the Fullerton Observer are distributed throughout Fullerton and sent through the mail to subscribers every two weeks except only once in January, July & August. Missed a Copy? Visit us online at: www.fullertonobserver.com & on FaceBook • STAFF• • Editor: Sharon Kennedy • Database Manager: Jane Buck • Advisor: Tracy Wood • Copy Editors: Tom Dalton, Caroline Druiff • Distribution: Roy & Irene Kobayashi, Tom & Kate Dalton, Marj Kerr, Pam Nevius, Manny Bass & Leslie Allen Photography: Jere Greene, Patti Segovia • Webmaster: Cathy Yang • FEATURES • • History/Arboretum: Warren Bowen • Politics & other stuff: Vince Buck • Roving Reporters: Adam James, Noah Cho, Peter Fong, Jere Greene, ChorSwang Ngin, Ellen Ballard, Connie Haddad and other Community Members • COLUMNISTS • •Artist Profiles: Aimee Allan •Conservation Gardening: Penny Hlavac • Council Report: Staff • Movie Review Hits & Misses: Joyce Mason • Nature, Insects, Creatures & more: Diane Nielen (dianenielen@gmail.com) •Out of My Mind: Jonathan Dobrer (JonDobrer@mac.com) • School Board Report: Jan Youngman & Timothy Ajioka •Science: Sarah Mosko & Frances Mathews • Theatre Reviews: Mark Rosier & Angela Hatcher Created & Published in Fullerton by local citizen volunteers for 35 years Fullerton Observer LL The EARLY MAY 2013 issue will hit the stands on April 29. • SUBMISSION & AD DEADLINE April 22, 2013 California ratepayers are bearing the financial burden of the San Onofre nuclear generator failures. If your home, business, school, shopping center or city hall is powered by Southern California Edison, you are paying for the defective nuclear generators and management failures at San Onofre. A variety of critical and complex problems related to the non-operating San Onofre nuclear power plant have raised new questions about fairness to ratepayers – a goal that cannot be achieved without requiring financial accountability of utility management and shareholders. As a California resident living in the service area of Southern California Edison, tell the PUC that it is not fair to ratepayers to continue letting the power utility and its shareholders avoid financial responsibility for the failed San Onofre nuclear generators Take action as a resident by calling on the California PUC to stop billing COMMUNITY OPINIONS The Grand Jury on Police Oversight Alternatives Referencing your article on Police Oversight alternatives, Michael Gennaco prefers "a regular audit of the dept. by a professional investigator..." This was also the conclusion of the 2005-2006 Orange County Grand Jury report "Oversight of Orange County Law Enforcement Agencies, Resolving a Dichotomy!" The report established that citizen review boards are a disappointment because of inadequate member training, political pressure and bias. However, independent in-depth review of a law Why not move Hunt Library to a strip mall? Here’s plenty of vacant retail spaces, other cities have done this with great success…You’d increase the Hunt Library’s visibility, accessibility, convenience, usage, patrons and staff's safety, create more community togetherness, all “good things”! Who wants to use Hunt Library anyways? It’s difficult to get to; you have to drive or walk past an elementary school, down a winding road by the railroad tracks. There’s limited parking, it’s now fronted by a dog park (how lovely!) and enforcement agency (Fullerton Police Department) would determine how it is managed, whether it is evolving into a "best practices" organization, whether it complies with these practices and meets the goal of oversight to establish accountability and visibility. Public reporting of the review, as supported by Mr. Gennaco, is imperative. The Grand Jury report and answers to the recommendations by the cities may be reviewed at www.ocgrandjury.org, 2005- 2006 reports. Fritz von Coelln Fullerton Move Hunt Library to a Strip Mall! surrounded, I now understand, by a homeless encampment… Wow, how appealing! I can hardly wait to drive over and take out a book. The present location is a white elephant, way past its prime as viable, useful… A mausoleum to the past…Why it’s kept open when there are other creative, wonderful alternatives, like a strip mall location, is beyond me. Be Creative Fullerton, Move Hunt Library to a Strip Mall! A Fresh, Creative Start! Susan L. Petrella Fullerton Stop Billing Ratepayers for Failed San Onofre Nuclear Generators ratepayers for the failed San Onofre nuclear generators. If you also own or run a California business, don't let the Chamber of Commerce monopolize this debate with superficial arguments about how the faulty San Onofre nuclear generators provide "safe and reliable power." Speak to the facts as you see them as a business ratepayer, and how public investments in renewable energy sources and efficient energy standards are much better for the long term. Take action as a business owner/operator to tell the California PUC that continuing to bill San Onofre ratepayers for the utility's mistakes at San Onofre is unfair to your business and must end. Thank you for your support. Glenn Pascall, Chair San Onofre Task Force Read more at http://angeles2.sierraclub.org/san_onofre_task_force Dear Vince, Vince’s Article on Cuba - a Pleasure el guide, Michael Palin, and his crew, Your article about your trip to Cuba whom we'd seen earlier in the day filming (Early March Observer, page 20) was a on a street west of the Ambos Mundos pleasure to read, not only to enjoy vicari- hotel, where we stayed (because ously your experiences there, but also to Hemingway had stayed and written be reminded of my visit in 1998. The there). occasion was a conference on Ernest We also, of course, had to pay a couple Hemingway, just before a series of of visits to the Floridita bar and relish the Hemingway centennial events in 1999. Hemingway-style frozen daquiris, as well My teaching colleague Herb Guthmann as trying mojitos at another bar that and I had recently retired from Fullerton claimed to have invented them. Every College, which permitted us to plan for evening we topped off our rum intake on the September conference and apply to the roof of the Ambos Mundos, enjoying the US Treasury Department for a travel the balmy air, the few city lights around permit well ahead of time. (It took a year!) us, and the occasional music of a strolling I agree with you about the limitations of guitarist. And another highlight was visit- group tours, having taken a couple and ing Hemingway's finca vigia, and having a led a few myself. My wife and I much pre- personal tour with the current curator. fer to meander on our own, staying as The lovingly preserved pre-1959 long as we like and moving on when we're American cars - 1957 Chevys the most ready. Still, your group managed to see popular - and the sadly decaying buildings and do a great variety of things, still leav- made us feel great sympathy for the ing you time to meet some locals on your Cubans, as well as regret for the political own. I've forgotten the Spanish word for antipathies that had isolated the country. the in-home dinners, but through the aid Your report let me exercise my memory of our local guide, Jorge, Herb and I and imagination for awhile. May you real- enjoyed a couple. At one, we sat next to a table with the English actor and TV travize your own hopes for a return visit! Jim Armstrong Placentia MID APRIL 2013 AP Drops the I-Word The implications are significant relative to the practice of labeling people as opposed to an action. Kudos for the AP folks!!!!! Perhaps, the Register folks will exercise the same rationale as the AP folks (see below). Peace, Richard M. Ramirez, Ed.D. Fullerton Dr.Richard.Ramirez@att.net NHMC (National Hispanic Media Coalition) Applauds the Associated Press (AP) which announced important changes in the AP Stylebook that include a direction to stop using the word "illegal" to describe a person or using the term "illegal immigrant." This is a notable departure from earlier versions of the Stylebook and a change of an earlier policy that was reaffirmed as recently as last fall. AP Senior Vice President and Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll explained: "The Stylebook no longer sanctions the term "illegal immigrant" or the use of "illegal" to describe a person. Instead, it tells users that "illegal" should describe only an action, such as living in or immigrating to a country illegally." Alex Nogales, President & CEO of the National Hispanic Media Coalition said: "We applaud AP for its decision to stop using the word "illegal" to describe human beings. For far too long, this term has been accepted as a politically correct way for some to spew hatred, xenophobia, and fear throughout our communities. At a certain point, it lost any descriptive qualities and became nothing more than a slur used to dehumanize and degrade a very important part of our country. I'm pleased to see the word "illegal" following the path of other slurs such as "wetback" as words that are not acceptable to use in our discourse. We hope that outlets that continue to use this word will follow the lead of the AP and do away with it in short order." NHMC is a core member of the "Drop the i-Word" campaign led by Applied Research Center. As part of this campaign, Alex Nogales has met with editors at the AP, the New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times to ask them to stop using "illegal" to refer to immigrants. In 2012, NHMC commissioned a national poll that confirmed that media is hugely influential in shaping opinions about Latinos and others. The poll found that in discussing those in this country without documentation, the term "illegal alien" elicited much more negative feelings than the term "undocumented immigrants." The National Hispanic Media Coalition is a non-partisan, non-profit, media advocacy and civil rights organization established in 1986 in Los Angeles, California. Its mission is to educate and influence media corporations on the importance of including U.S. Latinos at all levels of employment. Learn more at http://www.nhmc.org. THE DO NOT CALL National Registry Are you bothered by numerous unwanted telemarketing calls? There is a solution. You can sign up with the National Do Not Call Registry online at www.donotcall.gov or call toll-free 1-888-382-1222 from the number you wish to register. You have privacy rights when it comes to telephone solicitations. Find out more at www.donotcall.gov
MID APRIL 2013 We used to assume that when we ordered a particular food, we actually got that food. Oh, sometimes we joked about the “mystery meat” in the school cafeteria, but we thought we were kidding. It now seems that we knew more, or at least intuited more, than we thought. Recent scandals call into question what we are actually eating, and while it is the “yuck factor” that amuses us, with a kind of gallows humor, the larger story calls into question the provenance of our food and the safety of the whole food chain. Forget, for a moment, the various GMO (genetically modified organisms) and the Frankinfoods, like tomatoes with a squid gene, or salmon that grow to twice normal market size in half the normal time (the biological version of Moore’s Law). Let’s just deal with kind of normal foods. All over Europe, folks who were ordering pre-packaged ragu were getting their beef mixed with Old Paint. No, not old paint, but I’m referencing a once famous horse. Now horse meat, whether you love it or are revolted, is a cultural issue. I’m not interested in the revulsion so many Americans feel about eating horse. The French don’t have the same issue with eating horse, but then they eat snails–so we really can’t judge by their standards. But the idea that horse meat “somehow found its way” into Ikea’s meatballs is both risible and disturbing. The passive voice seems to put the onus on the wandering horses getting lost, instead of the greedy humans getting, well, greedy. And speaking of “onus.” NPR, on This American Life, had a episode on pigs rectums being sold as “artificial squid.” Apparently some folks, believing correctly, that trying to market Pigs Bung Hole (Yes, that is the real name) might present some cultural difficulties here, came up with a plan. They boiled it and sliced it into rings to be breaded and fried up as squid. I don’t know about you, but from now on I’m going to be making sure my squid has the little tentacles. Although, if otherwise I couldn’t tell the difference, it does raise the philosophical question if the there actually is a difference? I’d say, “Yes there is!” Still, we could get used to bung hole, though I’d suggest finding a better name–one that may be misleading without actually being fraudulent. I do go to a Chinese restaurant that proudly advertises bung hole on its blackboard of featured treats. And no, I haven’t ordered it. OUT OF MY MIND by Jon Dobrer © 2013 JonDobrer@mac.com Who’s Been Horsing Around with My Sushi? COMMUNITY OPINIONS & NEWS The mystery protein sources in European foods gets even yuckier. Only this week DNA studies on another Ikea "meat product" showed dog and cat mixed in. Apparently some pet cemetery in Spain was not burying Little Fifi the Cat or my beloved Fido, but instead cutting them up and shipping them off to Northern Europe to join in a witches' brew of other various cadavers. This makes me lack all confidence that I'm eating what I think I'm eating. To add to the confusion, there are times when I may think something is truly yucky and it turns out to be relatively benign. For example, catgut, the stuff that guitar strings and tennis rackets sometimes use, contains no actual cat gut or any part of a cat. It is supposed to come from the fibrous tissue that lines the intestines of sheep, goats and sometimes horse or donkey. Hmmm, maybe not an improvement in the yuck factor. Recent stories indicate that we mostly have no idea what we’re eating, but only follow trends. A study of fish in markets and restaurants found that over 35% of fish is mislabeled–meaning we may be paying more money for cheap fish. The truly embarrassing part of this story is that nowhere is the fraud greater than in Sushi Bars, where it reaches 50% across the nation and over 70% in Southern California, where nearly all of us consider ourselves to be sushi mavens. Sushi is the ultimate proof of the fact that we can be acculturated into accepting nearly anything as a food–even a fashion. If when I was growing up, someone had told me that non-Japanese would be standing in long lines to pay big bucks for what we considered to be bait, I’d have called him a fool. But now I’m the fool waiting to pay a C-note for toro that may be tilapia, maguro that is probably escolar and scallops that were stamped out of sting ray wings. Needless to say half the California Roll crab is actually Krab(tm), aka pollack (the fish not either Sidney the director or Jackson artist). Really, sushi is the ultimate proof that if you’re hungry enough you’ll eat anything and if you’re trendy enough, you’ll even become an effete snob about it. So before you scorn a new food craze (or embrace it, for that matter) maybe you should just hold your horses! Read more of the thoughts of Jon Dobrer at http://blogs.dailynews.com/friendlyfire Recent stories indicate that we mostly have no idea what we’re eating, but only follow trends. Pfc. Manning: The Source Thrown Under the Bus by Terry Francke, General Counsel Californians Aware: The Center for Public Forum Rights www.calaware.org The major news media have taken great advantage of the wealth of information from Bradley Manning’s dump of secret military and diplomatic files to Wikileaks, doing scores of stories they could not have otherwise done. But they have paid relatively little attention to what has happened to their ultimate source, Pfc. Manning, or even what may well happen to him, which would be the first execution of an American for the crime of “aiding the enemy.” They also have engaged in little or no public examination of the consequences that journalists themselves may face, if not soon then eventually, for being parties to disclosures that enrage the national security apparat. If Manning aided the enemy, then how does one describe what the journalists who published his releases did? They are the ones, not Manning, who presented the secrets to “the enemy”- along with the rest of the world. But even if, for political reasons, the government would never pursue criminal charges against the press but instead wage draconian prosecutions against the leakers and whistleblowers that supply the press with its grist, that very strategy should both alarm and anger a press that still had a sense of responsibility— or at least a sense of shame. Go to www.calaware.org to read the rest of the story and see related videos. FULLERTON OBSERVER Page 3 HOW TO VOICE YOUR OPINION The Community Opinion pages are a forum for the community. The Observer welcomes letters on any subject of interest. Letters may be shortened for space and typos will be corrected. Letters are the opinion of the writer. Anonymous letters are accepted if the writer can make a case for the need for anonymity. You can request to be identified by your initials and town only (we will need your whole name). Letters from Fullerton residents are given first priority for printing. We will print all that we can fit. Generally, shorter letters have a better chance of being printed in whole. email: observernews@earthlink.net Fullerton Observer, PO Box 7051, Fullerton, CA 92834 • 111,949 • 4,486 • 2,200 • 32,223 • 17,674 OBSERVERS AROUND THE WORLD Grace and Lou Kurkjian, 53 year Fullerton residents, took the Fullerton Observer on a 3 week cruise and visited Devil’s Island in French Guiana which has a historic French prison from the early 1900s. • $1.442 Trillion Lou & Grace on Devil’s Island Because I, and many others, care about you and want to empower you to be in a position to receive help, we would like to bring some things to your attention. There are some behaviors that you have adopted during the ten years of people ignoring you that we would like to have you change in order to be helped. 1) There are responsibilities involved in receiving help; it is not a divine right. 2) You need to convince others of your desire to become a positive member of this community, Fullerton, or elsewhere. Please do the following: a) Keep your area clean of papers, trash, and waste. b) Work with Corporal J.D. DeCaprio and the officers in the homeless detail by finding out the steps necessary to get records or citations removed. 3) Thank the people who allow you access to their bathroom facilities (i.e. the library and churches that feed you). The times you consistently do this will set up a pattern where they will be aware that you are not mentally ill. You also want to show your willingness to be a positive member WAR COSTS in Life & Money IN IRAQ & AFGHANISTAN Civilians killed by Violence www.iraqbodycount.org (4/13/2013) US Soldiers killed in Iraq: (DoD 5/11/2012) It is an unfriendly place with a dark history including executions by guillotine. A majority of the prisoners died in the hot and humid climate that was aggravated by mosquitoes and other animals and insects. Open Letter to the Homeless Community of this community and a positive example for the homeless community. a) You are able to keep yourself clean by using Mary’s Kitchen in Orange (until we get our shelters) b) Register at any One-Stop Center near where you are. Seek their help in obtaining work and referrals for clean clothes, bus passes, etc. c) You may try different short-term employment options through Labor Ready (you need a current ID and must fill out an I-9 form). d) When you receive payment, use your money responsibly and do not use it to fund your addiction. It isn’t easy, but I know you can do it. It took me 5 years to find a full-time job. The more you help yourself, the more people will come alongside you to empower you to be the person I know you can be. Thank you to those who are quietly doing just that. Love, Susie Wright Fullerton US Soldiers killed in Afghanistan (4/13/2013) www.icasualties.org US Soldiers wounded (DOD reports) www.icasualties.org Iraq (3/2003 thru 11/2011) Afghanistan (10/2001 thru 10/13/2012) Cost of Wars Since 2001 www.costofwar.com (4/13/2013) (rounded down) (Iraq $812.7 billion) (Afghanistan $629.8 billion)
Page 1: What Do You Want Your Town to Be Li
Page 5 and 6: MID APRIL 2013 Comedians Adam Ray a
Page 7 and 8: MID APRIL 2013 LOCAL NEWS 2013 Gard
Page 9 and 10: MID APRIL 2013 by Sarah Mosko, PHD
Page 11 and 12: MID APRIL 2013 Fullerton Downtown C
Page 13 and 14: MID APRIL 2013 At Right: Angela Gri
Page 15 and 16: MID APRIL 2013 HITS & MISSES © 201
Page 17 and 18: MID APRIL 2013 LOCAL NEWS Antibioti
Page 19 and 20: MID APRIL 2013 The Fullerton Observ

Mid April - Fullerton Observer

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?