In an effort to enroll more underrepresented minority students in science, technology, engineering and math, the federal government has awarded Santa Monica College and UCLA a $5.8 million federal grant to ”recruit such students, educate them and give them guidance and support.”

The five-year Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Grant was awarded by the U.S. Department of Education, and is one of 34 such awards to California community colleges, all Hispanic-Serving institutions, totaling $37 million statewide.

“The grant is considered particularly important as the U.S. strives to be globally competitive in the science-related professions and as it seeks to improve the percentages of underrepresented minorities – in this case, Latinos, African Americans, Native Americans and women – in these fields. Studies show that underrepresented minorities account for only about 18 percent of the science and engineering baccalaureates awarded and represent only about 28 percent of those in science and engineering occupations,” according to an SMC press release.

“Santa Monica College has an excellent transfer rate to such institutions as UCLA, and our science faculty is top-notch, but we’ve never had a concerted effort to move underrepresented minority students through our college into four-year institutions in the sciences,” said SMC Director of Grants Laurie McQuay-Peninger. “This grant will provide a golden opportunity to get these students excited about the sciences and math and into high-paying and prestigious careers.”

The press release goes on to say that “Funds will be used for a wide variety of strategies and activities to get students interested in science-related degrees and careers and guide them toward baccalaureate and graduate degrees. They include:

“• Recruiting students by raising awareness of the career opportunities available in the sciences and the relevance of science careers to real-life applications.

“• Offering special counseling, workshops and lecture series for students, as well as expanded professional development for faculty on effective teaching and learning practices to support traditionally underrepresented minority students.

“• Introducing students to formal research principles and practices and providing opportunities for lab and field research, both at SMC and UCLA.

“• Updating equipment and instruments to align with upper-division coursework and expanding instructional opportunities through the SMC Center for Environmental and Urban Studies.

“• Offering summer bridge programs at UCLA through the Center for Community College Partnerships and the undergraduate UCLA Research Center.

“McQuay-Peninger said the college will develop a STEM Scholars Program that will enroll 100 students per year to serve as the focal point for those interested in the sciences. Studies have shown that organizing students into such groups, or cohorts, greatly increases the chances of success for them, she said.”

SB 946, California’s autism insurance reform bill, needs only Governor Brown signature to become law, but he must sign it in the next three days.

Autism Votes urges all Californians to inform the governor that by signing SB 946 into law, he will create 20,000 new jobs, save the state $140 million and help 30,000 children with autism live more independent lives.

Call the governor at 916 445 2841. Follow your call with an email reiterating the message, and post this information on your Facebook page, and the governor’s page.

LINK TO: www.autismvotes.org/SB946CreatesJobs .

To learn more about this legislation, visit Autism Votes website at: www.autismvotes.org/California.

Join Autism Votes Mobile by texting “AVotes” to 30644!

Autism Votes is an initiative of Autism Speaks.

The review process for the City’s Urban Forest Master Plan continues. So far, it hasn’t gone well. Promises have not been kept. The City has failed to acknowledge, much less incorporate residents’ wishes, in the plan and the war on palm trees continues. But perhaps if residents persist, the City will finally listen.

The Urban Forest Master Plan Task Force will continue its deliberations on the draft plan tonight at 6:30 pm at the MLK Jr. Auditorium at the Santa Monica Main Public Library (601 Santa Monica Blvd). Public input welcome.

It will also be discussed October 10 by the Landmarks Commission, 7:00pm, Council Chambers, October 17, by the Task Force on the Environment, 7:00pm, Ken Edwards Center, Room 103, October 20, Recreation & Parks Commission 7:30pm Council Chambers, October 26, Urban Forest Master Plan Task Force, 6:30pm MLK Jr. Auditorium, Main Library, November 2, tentative, Planning Commission, 7 pm, Council Chambers, November TBA, Urban Forest Master Plan Task Force, 6:30pm, TBA.

The Draft Urban Forest Master Plan will be reviewed and acted upon by City Council on December 13.

Visit www.santamonicatrees.com for the draft document and details on any additional meetings. Copies of the draft plan are also available for review at any branch of the Santa Monica Public Library or at the Public Landscape Division Offices at Clover Park (2600 Ocean Park Blvd).

If you are not able to attend a meeting, please visit www.santamonicatrees.com to see what’s proposed for your street. 310-458-8974 I trees@smgov.net I www.santamonicatrees.com
1685 Main St. Rm 210 | Santa Monica, CA 90401 US

The insurance industry is pressing Governor Brown to veto SB 946, and permit insurance discrimination to continue against children with autism in California.

Autism Votes, an initiative of Autism Speaks, is urging all California voters to use Facebook to counter the insurance companies’ campaign.

Suggested sample text: “URGENT ATTN CALIFORNIA FRIENDS! I need your help to ensure that Gov. Brown DOES NOT veto the autism insurance reform bill, SB 946, by sending him an email now. He cannot allow insurance discrimination to continue against children with autism. Please go to the link below & take action. Share on your page & write DONE so I can thank you!”

LINK TO: www.autismvotes.org/SignSB946

People can also join Autism Votes Mobile by texting “AVotes” to 30644!

To learn more about the legislation, please visit the California page on the Autism Votes website at: www.autismvotes.org/California.

For more information on Autism Votes, please visit www.autismvotes.org.

To: Mayor Bloom and Honorable City Council members
From: Board of Directors, Friends of Sunset Park (FOSP)
Re: City Council Special Meeting – October 4, 2011 – Agenda Item 4-A

It has become very apparent from the language of the Staff Report for 10/4/11 agenda item 4-A that the City staff is reluctant to pursue airport closure as an option. Not only are they reluctant, but the “Visioning Process” has been tainted with this bias from its inception.

Point C was directed to engage participants “in a conversation focused specifically on ideas to craft a new direction for the future of the airport as an airport and as a community asset.” Therefore, their conclusions from the interview process reflected that bias. FOSP previously expressed the opinion that the Point C interview process was biased, and the outcome has revealed that to be true.

The Staff Report mentions in broad terms some of the federal laws, as well as existing airport- related documents and agreements, that have led them to this conclusion. The FOSP Board would like to see a more in depth evaluation of the aforementioned, as well as any other items that may have a bearing on the closure option. We feel it would be beneficial to have an unbiased outside party do the evaluations.

So the question arises, if the airport is to continue to exist after the expiration of the 1984 Agreement, what will its character be?

FOSP was hoping that the RAND Corporation findings would offer some appealing options of a more community compatible airport. Unfortunately, the RAND findings revealed in the Staff Report do not address ANY of the major concerns of the community: aircraft emissions, noise, or safety.

Instead we are offered a menu of vanilla items that mostly address usage of the non-aviation land. Although we would welcome the suggested intersection improvement at Airport Avenue and Walgrove, many of the other items put forth would aggravate the most complained about topic in our neighborhood besides the airport: TRAFFIC. Development of the non-aviation land is not going to make the community view the airport as a “community asset.” We really expected better from an organization with the stature of RAND.

In addition, the economic impact analysis prepared by HR&A twists data to reflect a pro-airport bias. It fails to separate aviation-related employment from non-aviation employment at the airport. It compares the “Airport Campus” as a single employer when it is really a collection of small businesses, city services, SMC, and temporary event employment. Many of these employers are NOT dependent on the airport to exist and could flourish without it — but this is not explored in the report. The economic analysis also failed to study any economic benefit (perhaps more favorable) that might be possible if the airport were closed.

Finally, we have heard ad nauseum about the million dollars spent over eight years on the court case related to the City’s ban on C and D jets. Does this amount include salaries of airport staff, City Attorney, etc. which would have been paid out whether the staff was working on the airport court case or not? Why didn’t the Staff Report place the $1 million spent on trying to protect residents from airport impacts in the context of the City’s total expenditures of something like $4 billion over those same eight years? Again, the information in the Staff Report seems to be geared toward a particular outcome in the Airport Visioning process.

At least the $1 million was well spent in fighting the good fight. David would have been proud of the City, even though we did not prevail against the FAA’s Goliath in this battle.

What has been a waste is the money spent on these Phase I consultants’ studies. When we asked for studies to be done about future options for the Airport, we did not include bias in our request.

If the plan is to run the Phase III Focus Groups discussions with same bias reflected in this Staff Report, that is just plain UNACCEPTABLE.

As the Airport Visioning process continues, FOSP would like the City Council to direct staff to:

· Provide a more in depth analysis of laws, documents, court cases, etc. that would have bearing on options for the airport’s future. Make the analysis available to the public.

· Study options available at the expiration of the 1984 Agreement that could reduce the safety, noise, and environmental impacts. (For example, don’t renew or grant leases to businesses that have negative impacts on the surrounding neighborhoods.)

· Ensure that the Phase III focus groups are NOT conducted within a biased framework.

“Sympathetic Seeing: Esther McCoy and the Heart of American Modernist Architecture and Design,”  the first exhibition to present the life and work of  McCoy (1904-1989), opens Wednesday, September 28, at the MAK Center.

The exhibition recognizes her as an American original and affirms her unassailable role as a key figure in American modernism.

Esther McCoy and Marshall Ho'o, Zuma Beach, Malibu, California, c. 1933. Courtesy of Esther McCoy Papers, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Co-curated by MAK Center director Kimberli Meyer and writer Susan Morgan, “Sympathetic Seeing” will be on view until   January 8, 2012. It’s part of Pacific Standard Time, the Getty-organized initiative that brings together more than 60 Southern California cultural institutions to explore the birth of the Los Angeles art scene.

“No one can write about architecture in Southern California without acknowledging her as the mother of us all,” declared Reyner Banham. In 1945, McCoy’s formidable career was launched with the publication of “Schindler, Space Architect.” Now, the Schindler House hosts the first Esther McCoy exhibition, a resonant homecoming, a celebration of McCoy’s work and the rich legacy of California architecture.

Early on, McCoy bought a small house on Beverly in Ocean Park in Santa Monica that was built in 1907. Schindler set out to remodel it, but never. completed it. McCoy lived and worked in the house for the rest of her life. She is buried in the tiny Westwood Cemetary.
The MAK Center for Art & Architecture at the Schindler House is located at 835 N. Kings Road in West Hollywood. Public hours are Wednesday through Sunday, 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Regular admission is $7/$17 with the

guidebook, Schindler By MAK; students and seniors, $6/$16 with book; free for Friends of the MAK Center and on Fridays, 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. Parking is available at the public structure at the northeast corner of Kings Road and Santa Monica Boulevard.

Esther McCoy at her drafting board, mid-1940s. Courtesy of Esther McCoy Papers, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

For further information, the public may contact MAKcenter.org or call (323) 651-1510.

Last section posted on 9/24

Chapter Nine, second two

The faces of the cop by her door and the old fellow with the measuring tape kept popping out at Ginger, jumping in her face, startling her, scalding her with what-might-have-beens. Stress clamped down all her muscles and she ached from head to toe like an abscessed tooth. She forced herself to get through the essential things at the top of the To Do list. Get to work. Check email, do press calls. Say hello to the volunteers and go and hide in her office.

She put her forehead down on her desk and gradually felt better. Ramon came in and stood looking at her. Just as she was about to bring up the subject of last night’s council meeting fiasco, Wally called. Ginger punched him onto speaker phone.

“How could you let that happen?” Wally bellowed.

“I had nothing to do with that. That was Martina acting on her own.”

“It’s your job to control your volunteers,” he said, slurring his words.

“Nobody controls her. Including you, Wally.”

“Did you see the paper? They’re laughing at you. Do something.”

“Like what, Wally? Like what? You tell me what. Precisely what.”

Wally hung up on her, leaving Ramon and Ginger looking at each other.

“He sounds like he’s drunk, doesn’t he?” Ginger reflected.

“He’s never made any secret that he goes to AA. Hasn’t it been something like, what, twenty years though since he’s had a drink?”

“Think so.”

“What does it matter what he thinks. He’s gone over to the Dark Side–even though he denies it. I’m trying my best to keep the press away from him.”

“He told one of the volunteers that the police were harassing him. Maybe that’s what tipped him over the edge,” Ramon added.

Ginger spent the morning on the phone soothing the other members of the coalition and the councilmembers who blamed her for the disruption in City Council chambers. Martina had staged battles in the city for years and everybody dreaded the prospect of going up against her. It was how she got away with being outrageous. Sometimes she fought the battles nobody else would take on. Ginger called her and found Martina serenely indifferent to any consequences.

When the on-line newspaper was posted, Ginger read it avidly. The police spokesman called them an unruly mob and made dark statements about not allowing permits to assemble in the future. The Executive Committee of the Board met and advised Ginger to pull together in unity with Martina. Just make the best of what happened.

Ginger felt like quitting and couldn’t. Nobody else was going to insure her with fibromyalgia. She had to keep the job until she found health insurance somewhere else.

When she couldn’t stand people berating her any longer, she drove over to Kathleen’s apartment. Sitting on a kitchen chair in the middle of Kathleen’s empty bedroom, Ginger thought about finding another job after the election. She’d always known this one would come to an end.

Maybe she’d leave Santa Monica altogether and do something useful in a community where they had real problems. In the Pico Neighborhood, people worried about being able to buy shoes for the kids. Can I make the rent? My daughter’s dating a tattooed biker. Who am I going to leave my kids with when I go to work?

It would be the last she saw of Mason anyway.

∞

Mason drove out the Palmdale highway by himself, and in the deep, dark star-lit night of the high desert, he pulled off the road, took a shovel and buried his old friend. He stood by the make-shift grave, dry-eyed and thought about his life. He felt so disconnected that if he lifted both feet off the ground he’d float away.

When he got to work the next day he heard about the demo at city hall and shook his head in disgust. What was the matter with McNair.

He put off telling Haley and Diana about Buddy’s death until he couldn’t stand it any longer. Diana cried. Mason offered to come over and she told him not to. Asshole would be home soon.

Haley took the news better than Mason had expected. Then she told him that she was going to have a new baby brother or sister anyway.

The excitement in her voice broke Mason’s heart.

∞

In the midst of strategizing with Ramon about how to keep the coalition together, Ginger got a call from Ida Watkins.

“Oh, Miss McNair. It’s Ida Watkins, the docent from the Centinela Adobe. You know, we had that nice talk about Daniel?”

“I remember you very well, Mrs. Watkins. Did Detective Mason get in touch with you?”

“Oh my, yes. And Mrs. Wheelis from the Culver City Police too. They both seemed very interested in that fellow who was planning the memorial for him.”

I’ll bet, Ginger thought.

“I tried and I tried to remember what he looked like. Anyway, I’m calling you because he came back again. Just as we were closing up on Sunday. I saw him back in the staff area–where he had no business! But he was very nice and all. I’ve been so busy with my husband and the doctors I didn’t get a chance to think about it until now. But this time I asked him for his name. He left me his card.”

Ginger leaned forward and pulled the telephone closer to her. “Really? What does it say?”

“Let me see now.”

Ginger waited, her fingers itching.

“I just had it. Where is it? Oh, here it is. It says his name is David Evan Mowbry, Ph.D., the California Teacher’s Assembly. He has an office in Garden Grove, 1517 Placentia Avenue.”

Ginger turned to her computer and Googled the California Teacher’s Assembly while Watkins talked.

“Call Detective Mason. Okay? Tell him I told you, won’t you?”

“I should have called you sooner, but there’s so much to do getting my husband to the doctor and then the pharmacies and there’s all the bills. My sons help but they work, you know.”

“We all do the best we can, Mrs. Watkins. If we could do better, we would. Right?”

“Well, that’s a nice way to look at it, dear.”

They hung up with Ginger’s promise to visit the adobe again which she firmly intended to as soon as this was over. She looked at the Google results on her computer.

No such thing as the California Teachers’ Assembly. Nothing for Evan Mowbry.

∞

Mason got the news about McNair and the shot gun. He grimaced and set it aside to talk to her later. This was the first big case Wozinski had worked and he was taking it so seriously Mason was afraid he’d pop a vein. He had a habit of letting out eerie groans while he concentrated, completely unaware of what he was doing. They had started calling him Woz and the nickname and its sign of acceptance made him grin shyly every time he heard it.

He was going in two directions as once, trying to track down Baker’s interest in the Sears property and the building of the Santa Monica Freeway. Sears had opened in 1946, and was in its day touted as a prime example of Late Moderne Architecture.

“What have you got, Woz?” Mason said, pausing at his desk. He helped himself to a handful of chips from the bag Wozinski kept at his desk.

“Look.” He showed Mason a list of addresses on the 400 block of Colorado. Next to each name was an occupation. “Baker went to a lot of trouble to get this.”

“Occupation?”

“Yeah, they listed your occupation in the phone book here in Santa Monica—maybe everywheres back then, Except for women.” He pointed to women’s names and the tag “Widow.”

“Geez, don’t tell that to some of the feminazi’s around here.” Mason got a little ugly thrill of forbidden sexism and immediately hoped nobody heard him. He got like that around other cops.

Wozinski flipped up a page on the notepad and pointed. “See.” Here again was Baker’s list of titles on the 400 block from the Land Recording office in Norwalk.

He shrugged. “Why?”

∞
Mason decided to walk over to Lawrence’s offices on the Third Street Promenade and ask him about the Sears property on the 400 block of Colorado Avenue. He saw with a cop’s eye the homeless vets and runaway teenagers occupying the benches set out for tourists exhausted from spending money at the chain retail stores. The cops in West LA and Venice swept the gangs and the homeless westward toward the ocean and Santa Monica formed the edge of the continent.

Pitiful creatures, some of them, old and broken and sick. They waited around for the free lunches the do-gooders served up. Drifters came because the weather was good, because they were out of work and hungry. Mason had sat through enough hearings on how to serve the homeless until he was weary of the whole thing. Like so many other issues, it didn’t look so black and white to him anymore. He could debate the police line one way and then turn around and with equal conviction, turn all the arguments upside down and sound like a goddamn liberal. Splitting up with Diana eroded the certainty out of him about a lot of things.

Mason came in just as Jimmy Edwards was signing for a Fed Ex box. Lawrence was in court. Edwards had a kind of sizzle, charisma, whatever it was called, a kind of scorched energy about him. Mason gave him that. He watched how his co-worker’s eyes followed him. He walked Mason back to his office. Edwards came across as willing to help but puzzled about Mason’s interest in the Sears property put together in 1946.

“Why your interest in this?” He ripped the tape off the Sharper Image box and sat down, glancing up at Mason.

“Just curiosity.”

“Oh?”

“Answer the question, Mr. Edwards.”

“Call me Jimmy.”

“Answer the question, Jimmy.”

“You want me to explain exactly what about the Sears property from 1946?”

“The store was built in 1946. Tell me about how that land deal was put together.”

“I don’t know just of the top of my head. Why would you want to know that?”

“Things come up.”

Edwards sent the bubble wrap flying, grinning at Mason, white teeth flashing.

“Breathalyzer. Ninety-nine bucks.

“You like to drink and drive?”

“Oh, come on. Don’t be a downer. I like my toys.”

Okay, asshole, Mason thought, here it comes. “We found something interesting in your background check. You were born Diego Eduardo Hernandez, County of Los Angeles, 1970. Let’s see, where is it? 1974?”

Edwards went hard-faced and stopped reading the instruction booklet. “So what?”

“Tell me. Do all your colleagues here know that the bio posted on the company’s website is bullshit? No sister living in Paris. Come on. Your parents teaching at Ivy League Schools? Your mother is Rosa Maria Marta Hernandez. Father Miguel Julio Contreras, deceased. Your mother is a housekeeper at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. An illegal.”

“So?”

“You were born and raised around Vermont and Exposition near USC.”

“Won a Neighborhood Scholarship to USC because I was smart and worked my ass off.”

“And kept your nose clean. No criminal record.”

“You got a point here, Mason?”

Mason made himself perfectly still, eyes fixed on Edwards-Hernandez, expression neutral. They waged the battle in tense silence. He became aware of the guy’s breathing.

Mason continued reading from the report prepared for him. “The good brother.”

“..And the Bad Boy. I wondered when you’d get around to him. I’ve got nothing to do with my brother. Haven’t seen him in years.” Edwards sat down in his high-tech chair, flipping a switch and sinking back with a motorized hum. He found his fingers of great interest. Lacing them together, he formed a church and steeple.

Mason continued reading: “String of arrests for assault, larceny, extortion, armed robbery, drugs. He beat rape, pleaded out to some, did county time, then he got put down for ten years on a strong-arm robbery beef. Pelican Bay, then he gets off for good behavior, even though there’s a couple of shank killings with his name on it. But soon enough he’s sent back. Bad luck, huh? Everybody knows he runs the local gang with the homies outside and pretty much leaves him alone there. But somebody’s going to take him down in the showers one of these days.”

Edwards was silent.

“You keep up with your mother?”

“My mother is a saint. Leave her out of this.” Edwards pressed a button and the chair ejected him. He sprang to his feet.

“You speak Spanish?”

“No.”

“How come?” He thought about the guy the dishwasher had seen coming down the alley about the right time for the Dyson killing.

“You think anybody with a Latino name is a wetback greaser. Is that it?”

“I don’t think that at all.”

”Some of your best friends are wetback greasers, right?”

The silence between them burned.

“If that’s all?”

“I just want you to know something, Jimmy. Sooner or later, we find what we’re looking for. Police work isn’t rocket science. It’s basic arithmetic. Who did what to somebody else. It adds up. Sometimes long after you think you should just give up. Lotta times we just get a tip.” Mason stood up.

“Right now it’s my personal mission in life to get you.”

“Whoa! Am I scared or what?”

Mason took his leave slowly. His demeanor changed as he left the elegant offices. A sudden triumphant smile broke out before being smothered in an expression of grim satisfaction.

∞

Ginger got a call from an old woman who lived in a bungalow loomed over by monster mansions in the ritzy part of town. Dora Skylor had been friendly to the canvassers when they’d covered the north of Montana section earlier in the year. She’d called up Ginger a few times to ask hard-edged questions to be able to inform her group as Chair of the Neighborhood Association.

“There’s somebody you should meet,” Mrs. Skylor said without preamble. “He doesn’t go out so we have to visit him.”

“I’m pretty busy these days, Mrs. Skylor. Can you tell me what it’s about?” Ginger said, shuffling invoices on her desk. Which one to pay?

“I think he just might give you a big check.”

“Oh?” She set the pile of invoices down. “In that case. What’s his name?”

“Oh, you wouldn’t know him. He’s quite old so it will have to be when he says. Okay with you?”

“Come on, Mrs. Skylor. Who is it?”

“Oh, call me Dora. His name wouldn’t mean anything to you. But let me tell you, this is going to be worth your while.”

∞
(to be continued)

NO DICE is available at Amazon

Ms. Gomez:

As you are my financial aid technician I am contacting you regarding a discrepancy in funds. I have tried emailing Damon McLeod (a detailed email) and calling the Financial Aid office as well as your personal extension – and have been unable to get a response. When I received my disbursement for my Pell Grant my award letter shows that I am entitled to something like $2700 but I only received like $1350 and no explanation as to why this is. I have tried calling the FA office, the dean of students etc . . . and no one ever picks up their phone.

I do not understand why I am missing so much money (and I have checked and it did not go to tuition, the college only disbursed the $1350 which was then paid to tuition before I ever saw it).

I have notified the Federal FAFSA program that I only received 1/4 of my disbursement for my grant and they have made a note of it on my federal file however they recommended that I speak with the college’s Financial Aid office.

As I understand the FA office only makes two disbursements, I should have received the full amount since the Federal FAFSA government verified that I am entitled to a full $5500 Pell Grant and my last award letter also showed that I am entitled to a full Pell Grant, however the disbursement I received was dramatically lower than the disbursement that my Award letter showed I was entitled too – especially since I received the full amount for three student loans that I took out. I was under the impression that students were supposed to receive full grant money before student loan amounts since student loans have to be paid back.

Also my SGEOG Grant was half of what my award letter says I will be issued.

Currently I am a full time student, have no failed classes, my Award letter shows I am entitled to this money and the Federal FAFSA program told me over the phone that I am entitled to the full amount of money (they have stated there is no reason on their end why I should not have received it beyond the college FA choosing not disburse it to me, and recommended that I contact the office).

I have been patient and waited, however I not only want but need the rest of my disbursement for rent and living expenses – all of which will incidentally have an impact on my grades as well.

If FA is unable to produce the money then I will have no choice but to report this matter to the authorities and ask for an investigation.

Sincerely,

David Krouse

=

Here is my correspondence with the city tree coordinator about the trees proposed for in front of my house, which, according to the web, “smell like semen.” My inquiry was not taken seriously. If it does have the unpleasant odor that has been observed in Santa Cruz and San Francisco, they are not likely to stay in place very long! There are a lot of people taking walks in this neighborhood who would notice a tree that is not pleasant to be around.

Abby Arnold

To: Randy Little, City of Santa Monica
From: Abby Arnold

Hello from 668 Marine Street!

The Pyrus calleryana ‘Aristocrat’ looks beautiful! One concern I have: when I looked up the tree on the web, I found a reference that said: ” In spring before the new leaves unfold, the tree puts on a brilliant display of pure white flowers which, unfortunately, do not have a pleasant fragrance. ”

Does this mean it is a NASTY smelling tree, or a non-smelling tree?

From: Randy Little, City of Santa Monica
To: Abby Arnold

The tree has a very limited fragrance that typically goes unnoticed. Thank you.

The Los Angeles Times reports that “Amid financial turmoil and changing political tides, the Compton City Council has voted to fire its third city manager in five years.

“The council voted to bring in Lamont Ewell, a former Compton firefighter who went on to serve as city manager for cities including San Diego and Santa Monica before retiring in 2009, as Norfleet’s replacement. Ewell’s contract is slated to be approved next week.

“Ewell, who grew up in Compton, said taking the helm during a troubled time is a way for him to pay back a debt to the city.

“’Given the fact that, in my view, the city has actually been responsible for the career I enjoyed for 34 years before retiring, I felt it was the least I could do to help in any way I can,’ he said.

“The appointment will bring Ewell out of retirement on a temporary basis in hopes he’ll spark a turnaround in the troubled city. Under law, Ewell may only work full time for up to a year without sacrificing his pension benefits. The listed pay for the city manager’s post is $185,000 a year.

“Councilwoman Yvonne Arceneaux, who voted to fire Norfleet, said the council majority was unhappy with the way he handled the budget, and particularly with his lack of communication with some council members during the process…

“Reached by phone, Norfleet said he had done his best in a tough situation and thought he was targeted partly because he pushed the council to make tough fiscal choices.”