San Bernardino Press MONDAY, AUGUST 25, 2014 - AUGUST 31, 2014
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The Ice Bucket Challenge: fun or controversial? by jennifer schlueter Have you asked yourself why so many of your social media friends and people like former president George W. Bush, LeBron James, and Oprah Winfrey recently have been pouring ice buckets over their heads? Not only in the United States have people joined this trend where you donate to the ALS Association if the chilling thought of ice water does not appeal to you: Thanks to challengers nominating three other individuals, the ice bucket challenge has quickly gone viral all over the world, and the ALS Association has received over $30 million as of August 20, according to the official website. Compared to the same period of last year, from July 29 to August 20, donations amounted to $1.9 million. According to Slate, the Ice Bucket Challenge was not an invention of Pete Frates, an ALS patient, or the ALS Association, but of a few pro athletes, who were dared to contribute $100 to a charity of their choice, if they declined an ice bath. Proving this are videos by Matt Lauer, Martha Stewart, and others, who predate any videos mentioning the ALS
five, or graduated from a community college with a at least a three point zero. “This program offers a wonderful opportunity for students who would be shut out of higher education despite their academic successes, qualifications and financial needs,” Cal State San Bernardino President Tomás Please see page 4
Please see page 4
allenge, as it is referred to online, have expressed their concerns about the dare being a bandwagon trend. Today’s web narcissists join to collect “likes” or because they feel peer pressure. The challenge was supposed to help charities by donating money to them; however, more people seem to enjoy freezing their brain cells Please see page 2
Cal State San Bernardino offers scholarships to undocumented students from private funding by Vickie Vértiz In addition to 19 other colleges and universities across the country, Cal State San Bernardino has now joined a privatelyfunded scholarship program TheDream.US for undocumented students. One of the program requirements is that students must attend one of the 20 participating institutions, which in California include the University of La Verne, Mt.
San Antonio College, California State University Long Beach, Long Beach City College, and now Cal State San Bernardino. According to the TheDream.US website, eligible students must be enrolled at a participating college or university, demonstrate financial need, and must have graduated from high school with a cumulative grade point average of at least two point
Landmark $400 million film and television job creation act passes final committee, headed to Senate floor The long saga of AB 1839, the California Film and Television Job Retention and Promotion Act of 2014, continued by passing its final committee barrier, clearing the Senate Appropriations Committee by a 5-0 vote. The legislation, authored by Assemblymen Raul Bocanegra (DPacoima) and Mike Gatto (D-Los Angeles), contained numerous amendments today which represent the culmination of nearly a year of research and negotiations and would expand and significantly improve the state’s current program to keep production jobs in California. The most anticipated amendment to the bill expands the program’s allocation to $400 million a year. Other changes include: allowing big-budget blockbusters – which create the most jobs – to qualify for the incentive; spending requirements to protect jobs and wages for below-the-line workers; creating certainty for television series by guaranteeing credits if the show is renewed; and providing larger incentives for film and television productions that move to California from out of state and those that film outside of Los Angeles.
Pete Frates, ALS patient, linked the Ice Bucket Challenge to the ALS Association. -Facebook Photo
Association. Frates, 29, however, initiated people donating to the ALS Association should they refuse his Ice Bucket Challenge. The non-profit organization is committed to research the fatal nerve disease ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), or “Lou Gehrig’s Disease,” with which former baseball star Frates was diagnosed. Critics of the #icebucketch-
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FNX Native Media Awards presented at SBCCD board meeting FNX/ First Nation’s Experience television network garnered its first accolades for originally produced programming and the awards were presented at the August meeting of the Board of Trustees of the San Bernardino Community College District (SBCCD). The network’s news, culture and events series “FNX NOW” was awarded first place for “FNX NOW: Special Report from Torres Martinez” and third place for “Anahuacalmecac” for Best Feature StoryTV in the Monthly-Semi-Monthly Professional Category Division III (circulation above 8,000). The FNX series “On Native Ground: Youth Reports” (produced by Jack Koehler) also won first place for General Excellence – TV in the Division III Daily/Weekly/Monthly/ Semimonthly (combined category) as well as second place for General Excellence – Online. FNX network affiliates at Cheyenne and Arapaho Television also brought in awards for their programming. “FNX represents the best of what partnerships can bring about in our community”, said SBCCD
Chancellor Bruce Baron. “The San Manuel Band of Mission Indians had a vision of a national source of news and information about Native Americans and indigenous peoples, and came to the SBCCD to make that happen. Working with KVCR, FNX is the result – and a communal voice not previously being heard, now being disseminated across the country and in Canada.” On November 1, FNX is scheduled to begin transmitting over the Public Television satellite system and will be available to over 350 public TV stations across the U.S. KVCR TV-FM General Manager Alfredo Cruz agreed, saying, “FNX is an exciting, ground-breaking project. These pieces created by capable, creative FNX journalists and honored by the Native Media awards embody the quality of work we are broadcasting on a daily basis on both stations. I invite the community to explore our FNX and KVCR offerings. We have so much unparalleled programming to share.” FNX Interim Tribal Liaison, Terria Smith, and FNX Producer/ Director, Frank Blanquet are co-
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producers of the original FNX series FNX NOW, and worked on the two segments that picked up the two Native Media Awards from the Native American Journalists Association. First Place was for a “Special Report from Torres Martinez” that Terria Smith - a Torres-Martinez Tribal member - produced on the poisoned water of the reservation of Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indian Tribe, located in Thermal, CA. For many years, the water on this reservation has been contaminated and unfit to drink. As a precious resource in the deserts of California, water is vital to survival, and this issue had been virtually ignored by government regulating and health agencies. Part of the Tribe’s mission is to protect the tribe, people, land and resources, and inasmuch, their hope is to once again have good, clean water that they can drink on their reservation. Having grown up on this reservation, Terria’s understanding and knowledge of this problem brought a deeply moving human perspective to this important but little-known issue in this powerful investigative piece. View video
at: http://vimeo.com/73408770. The report that took Third Place was about a Los Angeles charter school that immerses students in Mesoamerican culture and languages. Teaching both parents and students to be proud and knowledgeable of their rich Indigenous traditions, the Anahucalmecac School is reviving an appreciation for culture and history that has long been forgotten or repressed in traditional school curriculums. This report highlighted a special school that has proven to be a ground-breaking instructional model and is reaping rewards well beyond common-core standards or traditional test-based instructional metrics. View video at: http://vimeo.com/72305322 The Native Media Awards are issued annually to working journalists in both the U.S. and Canada by the Native American Journalists Association. This year the organization recognized more than 200 members for their coverage of Native issues during a banquet on Saturday, July 12 at the 2014 National Native Media Conference in Santa Clara, Calif.
Ice Bucket Challenge Continued from page 1
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because their friends do it rather than raising awareness for a good cause. That’s probably why some videos do not even mention ALS. Yet, there are those outstanding people who have done both the challenge and a donation. Especially in drought-stricken California, the Ice Bucket Challenge videos are viewed with raised eyebrows and shaking heads. According to Reddit, less water than people believe is wasted: “Comparatively speaking, very little. People use much, much more water for everyday activities than they do for the ALS ice bucket challenge. The most obvious example: you use as much water in one minute in the shower as you would use for one bucket of ice water. (The average showerhead uses about five gallons per minute, while the average bucket holds the same
amount.) And most people take showers every day, for often quite a bit longer than one minute.” With California authorities issuing fines for unlawful outdoor water use such as hosing down asphalts and watering on certain weekdays, it is interesting to note that, according to a 2012 Pacific Institute report, households only use about 4 percent of California’s water, whereas agriculture takes up 93 percent. Cows drink 23 gallons of water, and automatic flushing systems for them can use up to 150 gallons a day. The One Green Planet article which compiled this data therefore suggests replacing animal products with a plant-based diet to save water. Whether you choose to engage in the Ice Bucket Challenge or not, please keep in mind that it intends to promote donations to charities, and not a trend.
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Assistant Sheriff Todd Rogers oversees the 21st annual Gun Melt On Wednesday, August 13, 2014, Assistant Sheriff Todd Rogers announced the destruction of 4,661 weapons confiscated from criminals in Los Angeles County and collected through the “Gifts for Guns” exchange program. Annually, Gerdau Steel Mill, located in Rancho Cucamonga, generously donates its furnace, equipment and personnel to convert these weapons into steel rebar. The Los Angeles County Department of Public Works also donates the trucks every year that transport the weapons to the Mill. These weapons will be melted into steel reinforcing bar (rebar) and ultimately transformed into elements of construction for upgrades in freeways and bridges in Arizona, California and Nevada. “Our partnership with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department allows us the opportunity to make a positive impact on our community,” said Mark Olson, Vice President and General Manager of the Gerdau Mill in Rancho Cucamonga. “Gerdau is melting materials that could otherwise damage our community and transforming them into steel that will be repurposed to create the buildings, roads and bridges we use daily.” This year twelve law enforcement agencies contributed confiscated weapons to this program. These agencies include Downey Police Department, Long Beach Police Department, South Gate Police Department, Beverly Hills Police Department, El Monte Police Department, West Covina Police Department, Gardena Police Department, South Pasadena Police Department, Manhattan Beach Police Department, UCLA Police Department, Department of Motor Vehicles Police Department and Pasadena Police Department. “The continuous partnership with Gerdau Steel Mill has allowed law enforcement to destroy thousands of weapons that will never be used again to commit crimes on the streets of Los Angeles County. The guns that are being destroyed today have
-Photo by Terry Miller
been collected throughout the year and are a great example of the hard work of law enforcement officers in the communities we serve. Since the inception of the Gun Melt Program we have destroyed a total of 178,167 weapons,” said Assistant Sheriff
Todd Rogers. For more information please contact Public Information Officer Nicole Nishida at (323) 810-1973 or Sheriff’s Headquarters Bureau at (323) 267-4800. For information about Gerdau please visit http:// www.gerdau.com/longsteel/
Long Beach Office 3780 Kilroy Airport Way Suite 360 Long Beach, CA 90806 Ph. (562) 472-0071 Fx. (562) 689-0071 Los Angeles Office 5701 South Eastern Avenue Suite 100 Los Angeles, CA 90040 Ph. (323) 727-1144 Fx. (323) 727-9198 www.heger-industrial.com Lic. #00814086
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Scholarships for undocumented students Continued from page 1
Morales said in a statement quoted in the Press Enterprise. “This initiative will help our university provide our students with the opportunity to achieve their academic and career goals, and in turn benefit our society as they become contributing members of the workforce in their communities.” To continue scholarship eligibility, students must maintain a cumulative three point zero GPA throughout the duration of the scholarship. One additional, and crucial requirement, is that students must also qualify have applied to or been approved for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, a recent federal program that prohibits deportation for many undocumented young people who arrived in the United States as children. Once students are selected for a scholarship, they are eligible to receive grants that cover up to 100 percent of tuition, fees, and books, according to the Press Enterprise. A bi-partisan group of interested people founded The Dream.US, including Donald Graham, former publisher of The Washington Post; Carlos Gutierrez, commerce secretary under President George W. Bush, and Henry Muñoz III, who serves as national finance committee chairman of the Democratic National Committee.
First launched in February of this year, the New York Times reported that the scholarship organization has raised $33 million since September. The New York Times further noted that contributors included the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, CEO Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, and eBay founder Pierre Omidyar. On the government side, creative funding ideas for supporting undocumented students attend college have come from the California legislature this year. In particular, the California DREAM Loan Program, or SB 1210, was introduced by Ricardo Lara (D), from the 33rd Senate District. According to the senatorial website, SB 1210 is meant to close the gap undocumented students face in financial aid packages, totaling anywhere from $5,000 to $6,000 at public institutions such as the University of California (UC) and $3,000 for the California State University (CSU). SB 1210 would establish a loan program at the UC and CSU to allow undocumented students to apply for loans. The initial funding would be set at $9.2 million with $2.3 million coming from the institutions and $6.9 million from state funds. Undocumented students in California already are eligible only for state-funded aid, under a law that went into effect last year.
Holden’s kitchen grease theft bill goes to Governor for signature The California State Legislature has overwhelmingly approved Assemblymember Chris Holden’s bill to strengthen laws against stealing used cooking oil. The Assembly gave final approval to Holden’s AB 1566 which increases penalties for stealing grease and beefs up law enforcement’s efforts to stop modern-day-rustlers. The vote was 70 to 0. Used cooking oil from deep fryers in restaurants all across the state has become a hot commodity which can be worth hundreds of dollars when converted into clean-burning biofuel. It is often targeted by grease thieves who see it as a way to make an easy haul. The penalties have been so minor, many law enforcement agencies don’t even respond when owners report the theft. “As the alternative fuels market keeps growing, the demand for inedible kitchen grease-based biofuels will grow as well,” said Assembly-
member Holden. “The price increases stemming from this new demand will make grease theft a more lucrative crime in the coming years. AB 1566 provides law enforcement with the tools to combat grease theft and protect the burgeoning biofuels market by beefing up requirements for licensed haulers, increasing the penalties for stealing grease and allowing law enforcement to impound vehicles for up to 15 days.” According to the California Department of Food and Agriculture, a typical fast-food restaurant produces 150-250 pounds of grease a week and a fully loaded pumper truck could bring in as much as $900 at a recycling center. Thieves often strike in the night and syphon off the used grease and sell it on the black market. It has been an on-going safety and environmental issue in many areas. AB 1566 now goes to the Governor for signature.
Film and television job creation act Continued from page 1
“I’ve heard from so many people over the past year, who have told me about their family being torn apart because production left the state,” said Gatto. “This proactive effort ensures well-paying jobs stay in California and families remain together.” California’s film and television industry has faced increasing competition in recent years from subsidies by other states and countries. Since its creation in 2009, the California Film and Television Job Retention and Promotion Act prevented as many as 51,000 well-paying jobs from leaving the state, and helped generate $4.5 billion in economic activity. Despite the program’s success, figures from the U.S. Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics show that from 2004-2012, California
lost more than 16,000 film-and television-industry jobs, resulting in more than $1.5 billion in lost wages and economic activity. “Passing this expanded and improved program is a critical step forward to bringing back high-paying film jobs to California,” said Bocanegra. “I’d like to thank Chairman De León for his leadership on this effort. He’s been a tremendous partner and champion for the film industry. I appreciate the Committee’s support of AB 1839 today and look forward to continuing the fight to move this through the legislative process and ultimately see it signed into law.” The bill now goes to the Senate floor, where it needs to be voted on by the end of the legislative session, August 31, 2014.