Melissa Gomez reports today for the Los Angeles Times reports today from Merced County, population 281,000 under the headline, "‘Folks, it’s bad’: Merced sheriff warns of public safety crisis as deputy vacancies mount." Here's an excerpt referring to Sheriff Vern Warnke: Warnke said the vacancies have mounted in recent months and his pleas to the county Board of Supervisors to increase his budget and give him control over how funds are allocated have gone unheeded.At this point, just four...
Entering Trona from the South(c) Lisa R. Pruitt 2024 (February)The Los Angeles Times published a story last week on 10 California housing markets where the median home price is $150K or less. The one that jumped out at me was Trona, California, in the Searles Valley, which I recently passed through en route to Death Valley National Park. Southwest of Trona, near Searles Valley industrialinfrastructure (c) Lisa R. Pruitt 2024According to wikipedia, Trona is a town of 1900 residents in San...
Diana Lambert reported for Ed Source reported a few days ago. Here's an excerpt: Nine rural California counties, most struggling with student achievement and teacher recruitment, are in teacher education deserts, according to a report released Tuesday from the UCLA Center for the Transformation of Schools. Alpine, Del Norte, Imperial, Inyo, Lassen, Modoc, Mono, Sierra and Siskiyou counties do not have teacher preparation programs within 60 miles of their county offices of education, according...
Jonathan Wolfe reports today for the New York Times from Arcata, California, home of California Polytechnic Humboldt. Here's the lede: When university administrators across the nation worry about the potential fallout from campus protests, they may have Siemens Hall in mind.The building at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, includes the campus president’s office and has been occupied for a week by pro-Palestinian protesters who barricaded themselves inside and fought off an early...
A. Martinez of NPR's Morning Edition interviewed Congresswoman Marie Gluesenkamp Perez today regarding "centrist Democrats" stance on border security. That is, they want the Biden administration to tighten it, partly because of the scourge of fentanyl and its consequences in districts like hers. Twice during the interview she came across the phrase, "rural and working-class" communities. In the latter mention she adds, "and the trades." This quote provides further context: GLUESENKAMP...
When I went to bed last night, Columbia University and, to a lesser extent, NYU, were in the news in relation to student protests framed as "pro-Palestinian." UC Berkeley has been in the news for several weeks in relation to the stances that students there have taken. So, imagine my surprise when I awakened to news this morning that had humble and ruralish Cal Poly Humboldt--until a few years ago even more humble Cal State Humboldt--in the news. Here's what the California sun wrote this...