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1. SUPT. DAVID BREWER SAYS HE’LL LEAVE…….WITH $500 GRAND OF LAUSD’S MONEY:
The LA Times has an editorial on the subject. Here are some clips:
The stars — or at least the school board — appear aligned to end Supt. David L. Brewer’s contract with the Los Angeles Unified School District. And based on his comments at a news conference Monday, he sounds more than ready to go, as long as the district pays the full amount stipulated in his contract for early termination. That means he would be paid up to 18 months of salary and expenses on a contract that runs only two more years. Who can blame Brewer for pursuing such a deal? He not only would get away from the embarrassment of hearing his weak administration being discussed loudly and publicly, he’d take more than $500,000 with him.
[SNIP]
The right thing for Brewer to do is show his commitment to children by taking a partial severance. He bought a condo in Playa Vista that lost considerable value, and we sympathize, but not to the tune of $500,000 in unearned income
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2. ALRIGHT, HERE’S A LIST FOR THE NEW SUPT. SEARCH COMMITTEE:
My good pal, former LA Times education writer, Bob Sipchen (among other Times’ titles), has drawn up a list of those he feels should be on the search committee to find Brewer’s replacement. They include:
I suggest the committee include education activist and performance artist Sandra Tsing Loh, whose book, “Mother on Fire,” reflects her simultaneous support and impatience with the LAUSD; Los Angeles teacher Rafe Esquith, who summed up his passion for his job in his book, “Teach Like Your Hair’s on Fire,” and civic leader Connie Rice, who would have no patience with an educrat candidate put forward solely on the basis of race, political connections or fluency in the jargon of obfuscation. And maybe Green Dot’s Steve Barr could be on the selection committee. … Wait. Maybe he could be the selection.
A very strong and enthusiastic YES to all.
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3. ZELL’S TRIBCO BANKRUPTCY FILING:
Okay, we all learned yesterday morning, that Sam Zell and the Tribune Company have filed for Chapter 11.
According to Bloomberg, Zell bought the Tribune Company not quite a year ago for $8.3 billion. Now TribCo llists its assets as $7.6 billion and debt of $12.9 billion in its Chapter 11 petition.
Heck-of-a-job, Zellster.
Most debt holders are expected to get around 31 percent to 50 percent on their money.
Okay, well, that really sucks, but a lot of people thought Zell’s hugely-leveraged deal unwise from the get-go. And, hey, the lead loan arrangers are: JPMorgan Chase & Co., Merrill Lynch & Co., Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp.
(And, hey, American tax-payers are paying a lot those bills anyway, since many of those institutions are on the list of folks getting the bailout money.)
The people who will be most personally affected by the bankruptcy in the short run are those who have been recently laid off.
The company said severance payments to recently laid-off employees, deferred compensation and other payments to former workers have been discontinued. Essentially, those former employees become creditors who will have to get in line in bankruptcy court.
So if people are counting on that severance money to pay their bills, they they are just SOL.
(I guess we can be thankful that he isn’t gutting the salaries of those still working for the varies papers.)
Here’s an example of why “Zellster’s” Chicago Tribune is not popular with the left:
TRIBUNE EXCLUSIVE
Illinois Gov. Blagojevich, chief of staff, arrested
Breadth of corruption “staggering”
Give ’em credit, though. They went through the entire article without mentioning that the governor is a Democrats, while references to Republicans would be in every other sentence.
Tribune also put a freeze on payments pending to freelancers and rolled them into the bankruptcy proceeding. Looks like there’s no shortage of folks getting screwed on this one.
Arrrrggghhh, Rodger, that is so appalling. Basically, that’s a freeze on a salary, which Zell said in his letter he wouldn’t do.
Yup. I had some lukewarm enticements to do some freelance work for the LAT a few weeks ago. As much as I need the cash flow, a gnawing in my gut told me not to even explore it since I’ve had my teeth kicked in twice freelancing for mags that went under while owing me money. In the publishing world “independent contractor” translates to “We are not beholden to you.”
I notice Brewer is complaing about being ousted because of racism. I guess Brewer did not notice that the latinos run Los Angeles and the LAUSD and the latinos still blame LAUSD’s failures on robber baron republicans, rich whites from the west-side, blacks and etc., but never look inward at the latino power base in Los Angeles or the huge illegal alien student body. It’s a case of blame “whitey” or the lone black superintendent for the all the failures latino parents and politicos of Los Angeles.
In another 20 years when the LAUSD is still a failure and liberal latinos are 90% of the political power base in California who will we blame for all the droupouts in LAUSD?
I’ll have to find the L.A. Times article about the difference in graduation rates between asians and latinos in the same LAUSD schools.