Since 2016, many Californians and advocacy groups have participated in contentious public debates regarding the state’s piloting of ethnic studies, first through a state model curriculumand now as a mandatory high school course. On one side, proponents tout the educational and emotional benefits of teaching ethnic studies as evidence for large-scale applications. On the other…
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I recently wrote about Cotoneaster lacteus. It’s a gorgeous woody perennial reaching up to 12 feet in height with an arching, fountainesque habit of growth. It is covered with white flowers in the spring that give way to generous clusters of red fruit that attract birds and other wildlife. I have never seen it visited…
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It was the winter of 1958. I was 15 and living in the South. There was a new kid in town, a young woman who would change the history of public school education. In addition to being Black History Month, this February marks the 64th anniversary of the integration of public schools in Virginia. I…
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On a recent Friday night, tired and looking for something my wife and I would both want to watch, I saw that a new season of “Poetry in America” had just landed on PBS. (The weekends are pretty wild around here.) We watched the episode on Walt Whitman’s “The Wound-Dresser” and I was reminded how…
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SANTA ANA – After being president at Servite High School for 15 years, Mike Brennan found that being president at St. Anthony High in Long Beach was a soothing change of pace. “Lower blood pressure,” Brennan said, laughing. Servite, like every Orange County large private school, is populated by many pushy parents and demanding alumni.…
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The Minneapolis police officers who killed Amir Locke stormed into the apartment where he was sleeping before dawn on Feb. 2, shouting orders. They said they took that approach to “decrease the risk for injuries.” That strategy is dubious even when cops are confident that the home they are invading is occupied only by criminal…
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On March 4, 2020, Gov. Gavin Newsom proclaimed a state of emergency in California. “If COVID-19 spreads in California at a rate comparable to the rate of spread in other countries, the number of persons requiring medical care may exceed locally available resources,” the declaration stated. “Experts anticipate that while a high percentage of individuals…
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Documents surfaced this week showing Orange County District Attorney, Todd Spitzer, inappropriately and illegally considered race during a meeting to decide whether California should execute a Black man. Prosecutors in attendance at the meeting memorialized his remarks in writing after concluding they were detestable and discoverable–meaning the mere fact that the DA had made the…
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Hank Goldberg stopped after two hours of dialysis Friday, rather than his customary three hours. He wasn’t feeling well and now wants some tea — “If I can get it,” he’s saying in a friendly way to a server — when he gets back to his dinner table from the mid-1970s. He’s sitting there at…
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Today, I will delve into the topic of cancel culture. No, not stifling free speech but the cancellation of a commercial real estate deal. In other words, how to unwind a transaction. As mentioned in this space over the years, commercial real estate agreements come in two forms — leases and sales. Unlike our residential…
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