NEWS
2005 NEWS STORIES
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Contents © 2005
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.
NEWS
November 2005
LAWYERS REPRESENTING both the archdiocese of Los Angeles and alleged victims of clergy sexual abuse on September 23 asked Los Angeles County superior court judge Haley Fromholz to order nine clergy sex abuse cases to go to trial, the Los Angeles Times reported on September 24. For almost three years, the archdiocese, its insurers, and counsel for 560 alleged clergy sexual abuse victims have been trying to work out a "global legal settlement" that, said the Times, could reach $1 billion. But both sides have reached an impasse, which the archdiocese's and the victims' lawyers have blamed on the insurers. The insurers have sued the archdiocese, demanding that it turn over documents about alleged priest sexual abuse, which the archdiocese refuses to do. Judge Fromholz did not immediately rule on the motion to move the cases to trial but said he would work with attorneys to that end.
Alleged victims' attorney Raymond Boucher asked Fromholz to allow him and archdiocesan lawyer J. Michael Hennigan to hand pick 25 cases, from which they would choose nine for trial. But three other lawyers for alleged victims objected to Boucher's request, saying discovery should begin on all the cases against the archdiocese, not just nine.
SUMMARIES OF PERSONNEL FILES of priests accused of molesting minors were released to the public by the archdiocese of Los Angeles on October 11 as part of settlement talks with lawyers of alleged victims of sexual molestation of priests, the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times reported on October 12. (The archdiocese posted the files at its website, www.la-archdiocese.org/english). The documents show that at least 245 priests have been accused of molesting minors, according to the Los Angeles Times -- 26 more than the archdiocese previously has claimed. Though the archdiocese previously has admitted that it allowed four priests to remain in contact with minors even after receiving abuse allegations against the clerics, the released documents puts this number at eight, said the Los Angeles paper. All eight received psychological counseling. Some of the personnel records go back as far as 1930.
According to an October 13 Los Angeles Times analysis of 228 priests accused of molestation of minors from 1950 to 2003, alleged abuse occurred at about 100 parishes in the archdiocese, though the priests in question worked at 221 archdiocesan parishes. Seventeen parishes had from five to eight accused priests assigned to them over the years; some parishes had two or three of the accused at the same time. Over the five decades studied, on average seven percent of archdiocesan priests have been accused (compared to the national average of four to five percent). But when the percentages are taken year by year, the number has risen from six percent to a peak of 11.3 percent in 1983. According to the study, 47.5 percent of accused priests were diocesan, 35.9 percent belonged to religious orders. Visiting priests accounted for 8.5 percent of those accused.
ADVOCATES FOR ALLEGED VICTIMS have criticized the archdiocese of withholding damaging information from its published summary of priests' personnel files. "Unfortunately, these files do not contain the full story of the participation by the church in the manipulation and movement of these priests," Raymond Boucher, the lead lawyer for alleged victims, told the New York Times. "The full files would show how deep and pervasive this problem was and how much the church put its own interests ahead of those of the children and others who were molested by the priests. That is a broader and deeper story." But Donald Steier, a lawyer representing some of the accused priests, criticized the release of the information. "Any disclosure from personnel files violates the employee's right of privacy and ignores the legal process," Steier told the Los Angeles Times. He called the release "a public relations decision." The archdiocese has said it released the files in good faith, to fulfill a promise it made to parishioners five years ago. Whether the archdiocese must release the full files remains a point of controversy between lawyers and advocates of alleged victims and the archdiocese.
DESPITE THE ARCHDIOCESE'S DISPUTE with its insurers over payment of sexual abuse settlements, Cardinal Mahony assures the faithful that the archdiocese will not declare bankruptcy, according to the September 9 Tidings, the archdiocese's newspaper. News that a bankruptcy court in Washington state had ruled on August 26 that parish churches and schools belonging to the diocese of Spokane are not parochial property but diocesan assets and so could be liquidated to pay court settlements, "undoubtedly caused concern for parishioners in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, given the more than 500 lawsuits the Archdiocese faces and which are now the subject of mediation and settlement proceedings," said the Tidings. Hence the cardinal's assurance that he will never declare bankruptcy and his lawyers' judgment that the Washington court's decision will be overturned on appeal. According to the Tidings, Washington judge Patricia Williams decided that, though Spokane diocese held the parishes in trust for the faithful, this alone could not shield the parishes from liquidation in bankruptcy proceedings; and even if the trust shielded parishes, a bankruptcy judge could set it aside if he determined the claims of individuals against the diocese trumped those of parishes and parishioners. These claims, said Los Angeles archdiocesan lawyers, could not stand up on appeal.
"So, the bottom line," said the Tidings, "is that the faithful of Los Angeles, who over the generations have invested so much of their time, effort, money and prayers in building strong and vibrant parishes, need not fear that all of that might be taken from them.
"Meanwhile, the Archdiocese will continue to work toward a settlement of the sexual abuse cases that is fair and just -- for everyone."
NO HOMOSEXUALS IN THE SEMINARY? Though Catholic World News reported on September 19 that Pope Benedict XVI had signed a document that reiterates the Church's longstanding, though unenforced, ban on homosexual candidates for the priesthood, a September 22 Catholic News Service story said otherwise. "Several" unnamed Vatican officials, according Catholic News Service, said that Pope Benedict XVI neither had approved the document nor had set a date for its publication.
In 2001, the Holy See's Congregation for Catholic Education began work on the document that will spell out the Church's policy on admitting homosexuals into the seminary. In October 2002, sources in the Holy See told Catholic News Service that "the document's position [on admission of homosexuals to the priesthood] is negative, based in part on what the 'Catechism of the Catholic Church' says in its revised edition, that the homosexual orientation is 'objectively disordered.' Therefore, independent of any judgment on the homosexual person, a person of this orientation should not be admitted to the seminary and, if it is discovered later, should not be ordained."
According to the Catholic News Service, officials in the Holy See have said that the new document would be a reformulation of a 1961 Vatican document that said "those affected by the perverse inclination to homosexuality or pederasty should be excluded from religious vows and ordination." Since the 1961 document has never been abrogated, the officials said, it is still in force.
But an October 8 Associated Press report seemed to belie what Catholic News Service said. According to Associated Press, the pope had not only signed the document, but it was not so restrictive as had been reported originally. A senior Vatican official, who requested anonymity, confirmed for Associated Press a report in the Italian newspaper, Corriere della Sera, which said the Holy See's document would permit into the seminary homosexual men who have lived chastely for three years before entering the seminary. But men who display their homosexuality publicly or who show an attraction to the homosexual milieu were not to be admitted.
THE ORDINATION LITURGY for San Bernardino diocese's new auxiliary bishop, Rutilio Juan del Riego Jañez, reflected the diversity of the "70,000-square-mile diocese," said the September 30 Tidings. Celebrated in Vietnamese, Tongan, Spanish, and English, the liturgy included a pagan ele ment as well; "prior to the rite of ordi nation," said the Tidings, "a Native American blessing of sacred space took place at the main altar and four directions of north, south, east and west."
Members of Bishop del Riego's family from his native León, Spain, were present for the ordination. In procession they carried the new bishop's symbols of office -- a ring, crosier, miter, and large towel.
CLINTON ALLY HONORED. On September 6, Cardinal Roger Mahony granted the 2006 Cardinal's Award to five Los Angeles-area Catholics, including William Wardlaw. Who is William Wardlaw? According to the September 9 Tidings, he is a parishioner of Holy Family Church in South Pasadena and an "attorney and business executive who has served on numerous school and organization boards in the archdiocese including Catholic Charities." But, as LifeNews.com reported on September 16, Wardlaw was the "point man" for pro-abortion President Bill Clinton during his 1992 and 1996 presidential campaigns, and he and his wife are members of F.O.B. (Friends of Bill) club and were honored with the Lincoln bedroom in the Clinton White House. Mrs. Wardlaw -- the Honorable Kim McLane Wardlaw -- was appointed to the ninth circuit court of appeals by President Clinton and was a member of the Clinton-Gore Presidential Transition Team.
In 1999, Cardinal Mahony appointed William Wardlaw to the committee that raised funds for the $200 million Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles.
"WE ARE THE CHURCH OF THE POOR," said Cardinal Mahony in a homily he delivered at a Mass at the cathedral kicking off the September 27 Southern California Prayer Breakfast, said the October 7 Tidings. Mahony asked attendees to "look around and make the marginalized objects of our prayer, care and concern." The event featured, prior to the Mass, a recitation of the luminous mysteries of the rosary, led by bishops Joseph Sartoris, Gerald Wilkerson, and Oscar Solis. Jesuit Father Robert Spitzer, president of Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington, concelebrated the Mass. Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, a pro-abortion Catholic, led the pledge of allegiance prior to the breakfast.
Father Spitzer has been criticized by some pro-life groups for not intervening when the Gonzaga Student Bar Association this year denied funding to Gonzaga students who wanted to form the Gonzaga School of Law's Pro-Life Caucus. However, other pro-life leaders, including Judy Brown, the president of the American Life League, defended Spitzer as pro-life. According to a March 9, 2005 "Open Letter From Pro-Life Leaders in Defense of Robert J. Spitzer, S.J.," the university barred funding to the pro-life group because it excluded non-Christians from holding leadership positions in the group, which violates the policy of the Gonzaga Law Student Handbook. Father Spitzer assured the pro-life group, according to the letter, "that they were welcome to meet on campus, could apply for individual event funding (distinct from operating funding), and could choose to receive SBA operating funding 'at any time by opening [their] leadership to full participation by all law students.'"
Father Spitzer has been criticized as well for not forbidding pro-abortion presidential candidate Al Gore to speak at a rally at Gonzaga in 2000. The university, however, said the Gore appearance was not a school-sponsored event, but a "third party agreement between the university and the Gore campaign." Earlier in 2000, Spitzer banned Planned Parenthood from speaking on the Gonzaga campus.
SPEECHES IN THE CALIFORNIA SENATE may not change votes, "but they do change views," wrote George Skelton in the September 5 Los Angeles Times. At least, senate speeches on same-sex marriage on September 1 clarified Skelton's "muddled view" against homosexual marriage. He was already in favor of domestic unions for homosexuals, "but calling it a 'marriage,'" he wrote, "could devalue the institution in some minds, especially young people's, I thought. Among the memorable statements that changed Skelton from an opponent to a proponent of same-sex marriage was the following gem enunciated by Senator Gil Cedillo (D-Los Angeles): "Marriage is a phenomenal institution.... The glue of our society.... By extending it, we strengthen it, not threaten it.... The threat to marriage today is poverty, discrimination, lack of healthcare ... domestic abuse, child abuse." (One wonders if in extending marriage, the Honorable Gil would favor legalizing polygamy.) Skelton was impressed by a response Senator Debra Bowen (D-Marina Del Rey) gave to Senator Dennis Hollingsworth (R-Murrieta). Hollingsworth said his knowledge "that [same-sex marriage] is not the right thing to do ... comes from a higher power.... That higher power is also the higher power that created the institution of marriage." To which, Bowen: "I don't think anyone should claim God as being on their side in this debate.... We are not here to discuss what churches, synagogues ... believe about this. We are here to discuss the laws of California." Presumably, Bowen's opinion on God's neutrality did not fall under the categroy of "what churches, synagogues ... believe about this."
Skelton was not impressed by Senator Tom McClintock's statement that "marriage institutionally exists in nature by which we propagate our species and inculcate our young with values and standards.... Marriages exist to bring a new child into the world." Skelton did not think this was "entirely" true. "There's also companionship and love," wrote the pundit. "Many happily married couples benefit society without ever propagating. We humans have evolved beyond a hitch-up-to-propagate species." But to what? A hitch-up-to-sodomize species?
Though in 2000, 61 percent of Californians voted to recognize only marriage between one man and one woman, that is changing, said Skelton. He cited a Public Policy Institute of California poll that said Californians are split 46 percent to 46 percent on whether to allow or forbid same-sex marriage.
"Some people's views are changing," wrote Skelton, "as I can attest."
MANY AMERICANS UNDER 35 may not object to homosexuality because, if a recent survey is correct, the heterosexuals among them engage in essentially the same behavior as homosexuals. As the September 16 Los Angeles Times reported, a National Center for Health Statistics survey found that over half of Americans, ages 15 to 19, have engaged in oral sex, while almost 70 percent of those ages18 and 19 have done so. The study found that, of those teenagers surveyed, more had engaged in oral than in vaginal sex.
The study, funded by the federal government's Centers for Disease Control, found that 11 percent of women, ages 18 to 44, say they have had at least one homosexual experience. Only six percent of men in their teens and 20s admitted to having engaged in homosexual behavior. The question asked the women, however -- "have you ever had any sexual experience of any kind with another female?" -- can encompass anything from cuddling or a kiss to full sexual congress. According to Susan Cochran, an epidemiologist at UCLA, an Australian study that asked the same question found that 8.6 percent of women surveyed answered in the affirmative, but when the question was narrowed to include only genital contact, the percentage shrank to 5.7 percent.
The study, home interviews of 12,571 people by female interviewers, was conducted from March 2002 to March 2003. The questions about sex were relayed via computer, to maintain anonymity. A similar study conducted in 1992, involving 3,300 interviewees, found that four percent of women, ages 18-49, admitted to at least one homosexual experience in their lifetimes.
WHY MIGHT DEVIANT SEXUAL BEHAVIOR be on the rise? According to a September 20 Associated Press report, some experts see oral sex as a way for young people to avoid pregnancy and sexual diseases -- though a significant number of those who say they engage in oral sex do so without condoms. Women might engage in homosexual genital acts because they think sexual diseases are more readily transferred by men than women. Other experts, however, say that many college students might view homosexual behavior as a rite of passage. Elayne Rapping, a professor of American studies at the University of Buffalo, opined that "it's very safe in the academic community. No one thinks anything of it" -- homosexual behavior. But, said Rapping, since bisexuality is seen as a "badge of courage" on campuses, "to some extent there's more talk than action."
AN ORANGE COUNTY ADOPTION AGENCY agreed not to discriminate against lesbian and homosexual couples after being threatened by a lawsuit, the October 6 Los Angeles Times reported. The American Civil Liberties Union sued Olive Crest Family Care and Adoption Agency, which contracts with Orange County for foster parent and adoption services, because the agency allegedly dropped a San Diego lesbian couple from their program. According to ACLU attorney Christine Sun, the agency began the certification process for Jane Brooks, a family law attorney, and Shannon Rose, a pediatrician, to adopt a special-needs child. Though, Sun said, the agency had originally told Rose and Brooks that their sexual orientation was not a problem, the agency dropped them several months later because it preferred "to place children in nuclear families." The state of California took legal action against Olive Crest; last April, the state reached a settlement with the agency in which Olive Crest agreed to pay a fine and change its adoption policy. (Olive Crest originally denied wrongdoing, saying a delay in processing induced Rose and Brooks to withdraw voluntarily from the program. In October, the Times said it could not reach the agency for comment.) Because Olive Crest agreed to change its policy, Rose and Brooks withdrew the lawsuit.
Rose and Brooks had had trouble with an out-of-state adoption agency before turning to Olive Crest. Because "the whole experience by two different agencies was so traumatic," said Sun, they have decided not to pursue adoption further.
ONTARIO CHRISTIAN HIGH SCHOOL dismissed a freshman student after it discovered her "parents" were two lesbians, the September 23 Los Angeles Times reported. Tina Clark, the student's mother, and her partner, Mitzi Gray, have been a thing for 22 years "and have three daughters," according to the Times. When the school learned of the student's unique family situation, Ontario Christian's superintendent Leonard Stob wrote to Clark saying her daughter was expelled because "your family does not meet the policies of admission." According to Stob, the school does not admit students, one of whose parents behave in ways "immoral or inconsistent with a positive Christian life style [sic] such as cohabitating without marriage or in a homosexual relationship." Along with the letter, Clark received a half-year's tuition and art fee refund. The student "and her parents," said the Times, "say they will not appeal the school's ruling."
FURTHER SOUTH AND EAST of Ontario, the city of Palm Springs hosted a U.S. beauty pageant for homosexual men on October 8, the Palm Springs Desert Sun reported. The event, held at the Riviera Resort, featured contestants from Europe as well as the United States. In fact, the reigning Mr. Gay Europe, Norway's David Thorkildsen, was present at the event, though he failed to win the title of Mr. Gay International. That went to a California boy, Jesse Bashem, 21, of San Diego, who also took the title Mr. Gay USA 2006. To grab this title, Bashem had not only to excel at rock climbing and repelling, the fireman's obstacle course, and "talents ranging from poetry reading to gymnastics," but he had to capture judges' eyes in the swimsuit contest. Robert (Bobby) Ficco, Jr., 26, of Palm Springs was chosen by his peers as Mr. Congeniality, which pleased Palm Springs mayor, Ron Oden (one of the pageant's judges) mightily. "How gratifying to see a Palm Springs resident recognized for what the city prides itself on, a friendly nurturing community to all the world's visitors," said Mayor Oden.
RABBI GARY GREENEBAUM, western regional director of the American Jewish Committee, was one of the speakers at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles, where a celebration was held September 22 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Nostra Aetate, the Vatican II document that, among other things, absolved Jews of the responsibility of killing Christ. Rabbi Greenebaum told the September 22 Los Angeles Times that Jewish-Catholic relations have improved greatly over the past 40 years. But there are some exceptions. One exception was a personal affront Greenebaum said he received from an unnamed Catholic archbishop in 1995. During a question-and-answer session during a Catholic-Jewish dialogue, the archbishop said that while he was in favor of interfaith respect, he would still try to bring Rabbi Greenebaum "faith in Jesus Christ." The rabbi said that, though he was sure the archbishop had the best of intentions,Greenebaum was "deeply hurt and wounded" by the bishop's statement. Such responses, according to Greenebaum, are why Jews fear that Christians engage in dialogue only to convert Jews to Christianity.
Presumably the archbishop's evangelical spirit is something of an oddity in Jewish-Catholic relations.
THE FAMILY OF A WOMAN who died after taking the abortion drug RU 486 is suing the drug's manufacturer, Danco Laboratories, for failing to inform women taking the drug that it could cause health risks and even death, LifeNews.com reported on October 10. Charlie Nguyen, the husband of the victim, Hoa Thuy Tran, 21, is also suing Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino counties and the Population Council, which hold the patent rights to RU 486.
On December 23, 2003, Planned Parenthood in Costa Mesa administered RU 486 to Hoa Thuy Tran, a 21-year-old teaching student in Orange County. She received misoprostol, a drug which causes the birth of the dead baby. After taking the drug, Tran traveled with friends to Las Vegas, where she collapsed and died on December 29. A private autopsy performed on Tran found evidence of infection and sepsis.
Charlie Nguyen told the Los Angeles Times that his wife "was not given any warnings of any risk of death, of any risk of infection, of any risk of septic shock. There had been two prior deaths [by then].... There was a risk out there." One of the deaths was that of Holly Patterson, who died in September 2003 from sepsis after taking RU 486. Three other California women have died after taking the abortion drug.
THE DIOCESE OF ORANGE HAS PAID OFF most of the debt it incurred in paying off the $100 million it promised to settle sex-abuse claims, the September 20 Los Angeles Times reported. Though it admitted no legal liability, the diocese last December agreed to pay the amount to alleged victims in an out-of-court settlement. Half of the $100 million was covered by insurance, while the diocese took out a one-year bank loan to pay the remaining amount. To pay off the loan, the diocese liquidated a part of its $200 million investment portfolio, cut back on its programs, and laid off 11 employees. On August 15, the diocese paid off $35 million of its $50 million debt and will pay off the remainder from profits from its cemeteries and other businesses and by taking out other loans. The diocese said it has not decided whether to sell Marywood, a retreat center and diocesan headquarters, but expects to have the entire debt paid off by July 2006.
GOVERNOR ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER, two months after becoming governor, repealed the California Real ID Act, signed by Governor Gray Davis, that offered undocumented persons California drivers licenses. In September, Cardinal Roger Mahony asked the governor to sign an amended California Real ID Act, the September 30 Tidings reported. The cardinal, in a statement, said that the act's author, Democratic Senator Gilbert Cedillo, "has incorporated every provision requested by the governor, and he has conformed the proposed law with the recently enacted Federal Real ID Act -- thus assuring that California would meet all of the security issues and concerns with these new driver's licenses." The cardinal noted that "there have been great changes from the original legislation to what is today SB 60."
The California Catholic Conference has endorsed the idea behind Cedillo's legislation, noting that unlicensed drivers endanger public safety. Still, the conference said, the legislation needs "additional security."
LOS ANGELES CITY POLICE report seeing police cars from at least four suburban departments leaving apparently homeless people on Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles, reported the September 24 Los Angeles Times. Officials from three of the four accused departments -- those of El Monte, El Segundo, and Pasadena -- said that though "dumping" homeless on Skid Row to get them out of surrounding communities was a common practice 20 years ago, they have no knowledge of its being done today. The Burbank police department, the fourth accused, declined comment.
On September 22, the Los Angeles police department's Captain Andrew Smith said he saw two Los Angeles County sheriffs drop off a mentally ill man on Skid Row. The man, Byron Harris, had spent 12 hours loitering around Central Jail, whence he had just been released. Under orders from a county supervisor, sheriff's deputies handcuffed Harris and took him to Skid Row. Captain Smith said he saw deputies take Harris from their car, uncuff him, and hand him a bag with his belongings. When Smith questioned the deputies and Harris, Harris said he had not asked to be brought to Skid Row. The sheriff's department defended its deputies' action, saying they were simply trying to find social services for Harris.
Social service providers interviewed by the Times did not object to bringing homeless from other jurisdictions to centers on Skid Row, as long as they are delivered directly to service providers and are not dumped on the streets to fend for themselves. But Captain Smith disagreed. "The bottom line is,"he said, "the service providers in downtown and the skid row area cannot accommodate all the intoxicated, drug-addicted and homeless individuals from all over the county. And all you have to do is walk down there ... to know that there is not enough room at the inn for the whole county."
"WHAT STRUCK ME was that all of a sudden, which is good, this huge outpouring of people just wanting to help and feeling so rightly sorry for these people. The same people are living right here all along and we don't even notice them." So Elizabeth Phillips, a case manager at Costa Mesa's Share Our Selves, a Christian service organization for the homeless, contrasted popular outpouring of concern for the victims of Hurricane Katrina and the typical neglect of local homeless. Phillips, citing a newspaper report, told the September 23 Los Angeles Times that while three-fourths of New Orleans children qualified for reduced-price lunches, in Orange County almost 200,000 children (a number that has risen 36 percent in the last decade) likewise qualify. The same report cited by Phillips said that on any given night, of the almost 28,000 homeless in Orange County, 19,500 are people with children.
Phillips said the apparent affluence of Orange County blinds many to the poor in their midst. "Especially in Orange County, there's such a divide where the haves and have-nots live," she said. "If you're in Irvine or Newport Beach, you don't even see it, so it's easy to think it doesn't happen around here. You never go to Santa Ana or Anaheim, except to Disneyland or Angels games, and so you don't realize it's there."
The Times reporter interviewed Diana Derby, who received aid at Share Our Selves. Derby was living at a hotel but faced eviction if she didn't pay her landlord $195 in back rent. Derby, 50, receives $665 a month in federal and state disability, but her hotel rent is $775 a month. Why doesn't she move to a less expensive part of the country? Derby said, born and raised as she was in Orange County, the people there are the only ones she knows.
$1,515,822 WAS RAISED as of September 19 for victims of Hurricane Katrina by the archdiocese Los Angeles, which had made an appeal to parishes for relief of the victims. According to the September 23 Tidings, the archdiocese sent the money by wire transfer to the archdiocese of New Orleans, the diocese of Biloxi, Mississippi, and Catholic Charities of Los Angeles. Individual parishes and schools set up efforts to aid hurricane victims.
A GRASSROOTS EFFORT to restore the cross to the Los Angeles County seal failed, it appears, to gather enough signatures to qualify as a measure for the 2006 ballot. In September 2004, the county board of supervisors, under the threat of an ACLU lawsuit, voted 3-2 to remove a small cross from the county seal. A redesigned seal shows, instead, San Gabriel Mission, without its bell tower. Last January and February, petition drives to qualify for the ballot a measure calling for restoration of the seal garnered 110,000 signatures, 60,000 short of the required number. A coalition, the Committee to Support the Los Angeles County Seal Ordinance, that includes religious and cultural organizations initiated another petition drive this past summer. At the end of August, volunteers at more than 15 archdiocesan parishes gathered signatures at tables set up on sidewalks, the September 9 Tidings reported. But the drive failed to gather the required 170,000 signatures by the September 26 deadline to qualify the measure for the 2006 ballot.
It appears, however, that the coalition to restore the seal has not given up. Its official website on October 11 announced that "the battle continues!" The website indicated that volunteers, not paid gatherers, collected "over 141,000" signatures; "22,750 signatures per month and 5,687 per week."
CALIFORNIA WILL NO LONGER require private schools in the state to teach drivers education courses. In September, the state legislature passed, and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed, a bill that on January 1, 2006 removes drivers education from the list of required courses for private schools. This is a victory for home schooling families and privates schools alike, said the Virginia-based Home School Legal Defense Association and Family Protection Ministries, which worked for the change of law. According to a September 23 press release from the California-based Family Protection Ministries, "public officials, in their concern about auto mobile driving safety, continue to push for increased control over driver education courses and instructors," and have over the past ten years pushed "legislation that would require teacher certification and curricula control for courses in Driver Education.
"Increased regulation of Driver Education would set a dangerous precedent of government control over private K-12 education in California," said the press release.
WHY IS ORGANIZED LABOR IN DECLINE? Paul Hurtgen, a Los Angeles lawyer and former chairman of the National Labor Relations Board, told the September 4 San Francisco Chronicle that it's because unions have misread workers. "Employees don't want conflict and a fight in the workplace," said Hurtgen, a veteran contract negotiator and former director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. Labor, he said, still operates on the paradigm that there is "eternal enmity between capital and labor, and we have to have this constant conflict. Hence, (labor needs) a champion, a fighter on their behalf to confront capital." But Hurtgen said he doesn't think "a majority of American employees see it that way anymore. There are different interests that employers and employees have, but there is far more in common that they would try to collaborate on rather than fight over, and unions concentrate on the fight."
But Tim Paulson, executive director of the San Francisco Labor Council, disagreed. "Hell, we're not fighting enough," he said. He cited a long dispute between the Service Employees International Union and Sutter Health hospitals in the Bay Area. Sutter Health, said Paulson, has rejected union attempts to form the cooperative relationships. "I would love to see a period of time in this country when we could have more of what Hurtgen suggests," said AFL-CIO president John Sweeney. "But this is a very hostile climate. Why do employers resist the right of workers to have a greater voice and to organize? That has caused a lot of confrontational issues and that is why we have to fight to achieve some dignity and fair collective bargaining."
THIS YEAR'S HARVEST in the Central Valley suffered from a shortage of agricultural workers, said the September 18 San Francisco Chronicle. According to the Irvine-based trade association, Western Growers, growers were 70,000 to 80,000 workers short during the peak harvest season. The lack of workers could cause $1 billion dollars in losses to California farmers, Western Growers estimated.
Growers attributed the decline in the number of farm workers in part to the greater availability of higher paying jobs in construction and landscaping in the Central Valley. Construc tion, it was estimated, could have taken 40 percent of the workforce. Increased border control, too, may have decreased the number of available workers. Arturo Rodriguez, president of the United Farm Workers, however had a different take. "Cesar Chavez talked about this 40 years ago, and I continue to talk about it," he said. "Employers have never looked at and valued their workforce and paid wages and provided benefits that show the respect and dignity those workers deserve."
Not surprisingly, growers have appealed to government for aid. An agricultural jobs bill in the U.S. Senate, sponsored by Senators Larry Craig (R-Idaho) and Ted Kennedy (D-Massachusetts), would grant 500,000 illegal immigrants temporary work permits and put them on the track to citizenship. The bill is endorsed by growers, the United Farm Workers, the AFL-CIO, the Republican Caucus, and 500 advocacy groups. While Senator Barbara Boxer has co-sponsored the bill, Senator Dianne Feinstein has opposed it, calling it "a magnet for illegal immigration."
UNLIKELY MARRIAGE OF MINDS. The Service Employees International Union has joined hands with its customary foe, the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, in endorsing Rob Reiner's "Pre-School for All" initiative, the September 8 Sacramento Bee reported. The initiative, which may appear on the June ballot, would provide every four-year-old child in the state free, half-day preschool beginning in 2010, while children in the lowest-performing school districts would be eligible in the fall of 2006. The $2.3 billion needed for the program would come from raising the income tax rate from 9.3 percent to 11 percent on the top one percent of Californians -- individuals making over $400,000 a year and couples earning over $800,000 a year. That the union and the chamber both endorsed the measure is "really historic; it's amazing," said Ben Austin, the initiative's campaign manager. "What else in California do the L.A. Chamber of Commerce and the SEIU agree on?"
"Our board overwhelmingly supported it, and most of the people who voted for it are the same people who are going to be paying the taxes," said Rusty Hammer, CEO of the Los Angeles chamber and former head of the Sacramento Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce. "You'd be surprised to see the number of conservative Republicans, all of whom are making this kind of money, who stood up and said, 'I think this is the right thing to do, even though I'm going to have to be paying this money out of my pocket." Hammer said that he and other business leaders worked with Reiner on the ballot proposition in its early stages; because of their intervention, the initiative does not target existing California education money or businesses. According to Hammer, Los Angeles business leaders did not object to the tax hike because it would merely restore the tax rate that existed under Governors Ronald Reagan and Pete Wilson.
MALE DENIZENS OF THE SMOGGY REGIONS of Southern California may have bad sperm. The London Guardian on September 27 reported on a study, a collaboration between the Veteran Research Institute in the Czech Republic and the United States Environmental Protection Agency, which found a "significant association between exposure to periods of high air pollution (at or above the upper limit of U.S. air quality standards) and the percentage of sperm with DNA fragmentation." DNA fragmentation can potentially lead to birth defects and miscarriages. Research was done on 35 young men from a region in the Czech Republic that has high air pollution during winter on account of the burning of coal and other fossil fuels. According to an author of the paper detailing the study, "what's biologically important is that the air pollution is intermittent. If it created permanent damage, you would tend to see sperm quality go down over time. The fact that it didn't, it went up and down, would suggest that it was affecting the mature sperm late in their development."