On big local education issues, the San Diego school board is often bitterly divided. But last night, the board united — in opposition to a law in another state.
Critics, some of whom booed, said the board should mind its own business and not get involved in the affairs of Arizona. But the board disagreed, voting to condemn the state’s new rules regarding cops and suspected illegal immigrants.
The board approved a resolution that calls the law “an irrational and irresponsible response to our broken immigration system.”
But the resolution wasn’t as big of a deal as it could have been. As we report, a board member “eliminated an earlier warning to families not to travel to Arizona, saying that they could make that choice themselves, and added restrictions on travel and conferences.”
The Arizona law continues to distract other local politicians. The NCT reports that a flap is erupting in North County over the Arizona law: “Councilwoman Olga Diaz says she wants to repair Escondido’s reputation as a ‘racist’ city by condemning Arizona’s aggressive new immigration law, but colleagues are calling her effort inappropriate and divisive for the community.”
Back on our site, County Supervisor Bill Horn went on the radio last week and said this: “We’re the only country in the world that does this — have your child [on American soil] and that child becomes a citizen.”
We ran this through the machine at the San Diego Fact Check blog and found that this statement is. . . false.
“I was mistaken,” Horn told us Monday. “I was in a debate.”
Ah, well then. Say no more. That certainly clears that up.
In other news:
- Our crack team of fact-checkers (or is it a checkered team of fact-crackers?) tackled another statement: Is it true, as County Supervisor Ron Roberts said, that the county has moved $100 million into local banks?
The verdict is … in this post. You’ll have to click on it yourself. We can’t do everything for you around here.
- You’ve got questions about the downtown schoobrary project — about parking and traffic studies, usage by patrons, sex offenders living nearby, and that 2008 school bond measure. We’ve got answers.
- If you’re a parent, you may have heard about the schools in the Poway district, which are supposed to be among the best in the county.
Upscale school districts tend to have lots of gifted kids, or at least kids whose parents think they’re gifted. But the Poway district has slashed funding for gifted programs.
Our post explains what the cuts have meant.
- Meet the Finn at the top: We check in with Dr. Kristiina Vuori, who’s been named the president of the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute. Her fans say she’s calm and in control, without the manic personality of so many in her field. We chat with her about her style, her goals and her childhood in Finland.
- Housing columnist and certified (or certifiable, we can’t decide) conventional-wisdom-debunker Rich Toscano takes a look at housing numbers and sees inventory on the rise. More supply, he thinks, could put the brakes on housing prices.
- Oh say can you see, by the Photo of the Day. . .
Elsewhere:
- CityBeat reports that the county board of supervisors voted yesterday to overhaul its media and public relations arm. About 30 workers got layoff notices and will be able to apply for 23 new jobs, some of them with lower salaries. The savings are estimated at $840,000.
- Meanwhile, the supervisors are balking at dipping into reserves to avoid cuts to services. (NCT)
- The Geezer Bandit struck again, robbing what appears to be his ninth bank.
The U-T says “Witnesses described him as having thin oxygen-like tubes in his nostrils..” They may suggest he uses an oxygen tank, but perhaps they’re part of a disguise. Our news partner NBC 7/39 reports that a teller during a robbery in Vista noticed that the man’s hands seemed strange. “He could possibly be wearing gloves like human hands to then carry out the disguise that he is actually older than he really is,” an FBI spokesperson said.
- In the NCT: “The mother of slain Escondido teenager Amber Dubois tried to talk to the mother of her daughter’s killer Tuesday afternoon — but was quickly rebuffed in a brief and tense exchange outside of a downtown San Diego jail.”
- CityBeat says the city is cracking down on the owners of the 100-year-old Hotel Churchill downtown by taking them to court. The hotel “with an Excalibur theme was supposed to re-open on Jan. 31, 2009, totally rehabbed and with 57 of its 92 units renting for an amount affordable to single adults earning less than $30,000 a year.” But that didn’t happen.
- A state appeals court rejected a local judge’s petition “that asked the court to order other judges to enforce certain probation terms on people convicted of domestic violence charges.” (U-T)
- Finally, back on our site, remember our story profiling a local seamstress who sews the skimpy clothing that San Diego strippers take off? She provided this great quote: “Most of the time I make stuff, I think, ‘God, this is hideous — it’s gonna sell so well.’”
- We’ve posted a follow-up with details from the police department about the local market for these kinds of clothes. The cops count 1,875 registered nude entertainers in the city.
My question: Where can I get those tear-off pants like they had in “The Full Monty”? They’d be just the thing to spice up the next voiceofsandiego.org staff party.