Sunday morning's news briefs

Is history repeating itself in Riverside?

In 1998, White residents in Orangecrest objected to calling a new high school there Martin Luther King, Jr. High School.


Now, 10 years ago, plans to name a school in the Alvord School District after former United States Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall has met with criticism from members of that school board.


(excerpt, Press Enterprise)



Johnson noted that the district doesn't just name schools after local heroes. It has named elementary schools after Christa McAuliffe, the teacher killed aboard the Challenger space shuttle in 1986, and Rosemary Kennedy, the disabled sister of President John F. Kennedy.

Johnson said Marshall stood for equal educational opportunities for all children, just as the district does.

Wilson acknowledged that initially she didn't recognize Marshall's name. She and Johnson said several other people they spoke to had the same reaction.

"If people don't know who Thurgood Marshall is, this is a great opportunity to educate them on who he is," Johnson said.

Naming schools often is fraught with controversy. In 1998, some parents objected to naming a new high school in the Riverside Unified School District for civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

At least a couple of parents said then that they worried about whether it would hurt graduates' chances of getting into college if King was perceived as an all-black school.



Interestingly, people who opposed it insisted that high schools be named after local heroes. However, these same complaints didn't arise when the school district wanted to name a school after the late school teacher and NASA astronaut Christa McAuliffe. Not to mention the fact that the Alvord Unified School District also named a school after Rose Kennedy. Not exactly local heroes either, but neither names were the focus of criticism for not being local enough. Neither were the focus of complaints by parents of students that Ivy League universities would think their children went to "Black" schools. They were both White women.

But then the controversies tied in with naming schools in Riverside after prominent African-Americans should not be surprising given that in Riverside's very own City Hall the departures of Black and Latino management employees has been a difficult thing to miss or mistake. Jim Smith, Tranda Drumwright, Pedro Payne, Art Alcaraz were all either fired, demoted or they "resigned", all since the current city management team has been in place. All this while a statue of Martin Luther King, jr. stands in the shadow of City Hall and the mayor's pledge of a zero-tolerance towards racism in the workplace rings hollow. Not to mention settlements paid out to Black city employees who filed lawsuits in 1997 and the million dollar plus verdict in the case of a Black police officer.

Though the heads of other city departments including the museum, library and now code compliance have all been let ago, resigned or allegedly placed on administrative leave since the current management team came in so the turnover has been seen across the city.

And speaking of hiring, are the sins of hiring practices in the 1990s which impacted two city departments in particular being revisited by one of those city departments? And if so, is it the only one?

Someone was commenting on the number of people related to one city elected official who have jobs at City Hall now since he was elected, not to mention several members of upper management at City Hall over various departments in terms of whether or not Riverside's alleged commitment to a fair and equal access hiring process was followed. Is Riverside holding true to these values as it should?

So Riverside struggles with these issues on quite a few fronts but what usually hits the front page of publications from sea to shining sea is what happens in its school districts, arenas where most of the time only handfuls of people even attend the regular meetings.

At any rate amid all the usual intrigue and turmoil that is Riverside, one of its school districts is getting ready to name another school after a true American hero who's Black and I guess Riverside's already preparing for another round of protests on some level about it. How much and from where remains to be seen.


The naming of the school will be discussed at the next meeting of the Alvord Unified School District on May 15. More information will be provided here on this meeting as it becomes available.




Discussions about the upcoming retirement of Riverside County's CEO Larry Parrish focus on potential replacements including the heir apparent to that throne, Riverside's very own city manager, Brad Hudson. As soon as a list of prospective candidates is known, they will be listed here along with their standing in the morning line's odds which will reflect their chances of landing the job. Hudson is the tentative early favorite based on a statement made here by his former boss.


(excerpt, Press Enterprise)



"Only Prince Charles has waited longer for a job," Parrish said. "I just have the highest regard for him. That is a name you'll hear."



The article also names former high-ranking prosecutor of the Riverside County District Attorney's office and current Code Enforcement Director Jay Orr along with William Luna, who is the county's finance director. At the moment, they'e running strictly for second place though that could change in the coming months. Ultimately, the winner of this contest and its prize will have to present himself or herself (as if that would happen) the most favorably to the hiring body, the board of supervisors. So it's likely the campaiging will begin in earnest soon enough. For all we know, maybe it's already begun. At any rate, this situation sounds absolutely captivating and as such will be followed closely.


Speaking of campaigning, the issue has risen that signs belonging to the campaign of District One Supervisor Bob Buster have been removed in the Downtown and University Neighborhood areas and that this campaign has received a letter from City Attorney Gregory Priamos helpfully informing it about a substantial increase in fines handed out for signs placed which violate ordinances. However, even when the fines were lower, concerns were raised that the enforcement of these sign ordinances weren't uniformly enforced.


And as always, more intrigue involving the Community Police Review Commission and that pesky seventh floor on several different fronts. But then that's hardly news. The city's preparing to settle another lawsuit involving a 2006 fatal officer-involved shooting despite that shooting being found within policy by both the CPRC and the police department. Obviously while the city's legal division is comfortable with dealing with these entities that release findings on these shootings, it's less comfortable with dealing with an unknown entity, the federal jury pool.



The Day of Silence which protests against the bullying of gay and lesbian students will take place this Friday, April 25 at schools across the country. It's drawn threats of counter protests by organizations opposed to homosexuality. Maybe instead of protesting, these organizations many of whom claim to be Christian can sit and think about how they can help prevent these students from being bullied, adopting the creed of Jesus Christ which was to treat others as you yourself would like to be treated.




Operation Snack Attack is the subject of a Dan Bernstein column and the importance of continuing this program for school children.




Barbara Dunmore, who heads the Riverside County's Voters' Registrar office wrote this opinion piece explaining that the current election system works. It's not clear whether or not this is in response to criticisms that were aired by elected officials at Riverside's City Hall in the aftermath of Election 2007. One of those who complained the loudest was one of two city council members who was elected out of office by a handful of votes.




Are you going to the Democratic National Convention later this year? You are if you're listed as a delegate on this list.


The Riverside Police Department is competing in the Baker to Las Vegas relay this year. Long-distance relays are challenging to run but the perfect training plan can get you to the finish line in pretty good shape.


A Riverside City fire fighter blogs about his battle with brain cancer.



Being cited is the cement factory near Riverside that's been releasing hexavalent chromium into the air.



Are John and Ken of KFI contaminating the jury pool in the future federal trial involving charges filed against former Orange County Sheriff Michael Carona? His attorneys might be filing for change of venue for his upcoming corruption charges trial.





The settlement of a lawsuit against the New York City Police Department will will change the way demonstrators are treated. At least that's what is hoped.