DAILY 49ER California State University, Long Beach
www.daily49er.com
Vol. LXVII, Issue 31
Monday, October 19, 2015
State of the Beach The two former LBSU coaches open up about the past and future of the men’s basketball program. By Joshua Caudill Staff Writer
photos by
K evin Flores | Daily 49er
Terry Graham is deep in concentration as he works on his chalk art piece during the Belmont Shore Sidewalk Chalk Art Contest in Long Beach on Saturday.
Chalk it up to Long Beach By Kevin Flores Arts & Life Editor
Kneepads strapped on and chalk sets at a ready, about 60 visual artists transformed Second Street’s typically grey sidewalks into vivid, living color. Passersby watched lifelike portraits of B.B. King, Bjork and Clint Eastwood, among others, come to life before their eyes as artists squatted,
hunched over and laid down to chalk up their canvases. Justin Rudd and his Community Action Team put on the Belmont Shore Sidewalk Chalk Art Contest, which is in its 12th year, as part of Long Beach Arts Month. See photos on page 8.
A passerby takes in artwork during the Belmont Shore Sidewalk Chalk Art Contest in Long Beach on Saturday.
Dressed in sharp suits and sitting in leather lounge chairs on stage, Dan Monson and ESPN’s Seth Greenberg resembled two characters out of a “Mad Men” episode as opposed to two great minds discussing basketball. The coaches were at the Long Beach Convention Center to present The State of Beach Basketball on Thursday. Boosters, alumni, fans and former players all gathered for a luncheon in downtown Long Beach to celebrate 49ers basketball and listen to head coach Monson speak about the upcoming season with the ESPN analyst. Among those in attendance were LBSU Hall of Fame members, and former NBA players, Lucious Harris and Bryon Russell. Harris played for 12 years in the NBA and is the alltime scoring leader for both the 49ers and the Big West Conference. Russell, more widely known for his starting role on the Utah Jazz’s Western Conference championship teams, scored 1,003 points in his collegiate career and led LBSU to the 1993 NCAA Tournament.
See
BEACH, page 12
Closing the gap in California’s gender-wage equality The California Fair Pay Act will go into effect Jan. 1, affecting millions of women in the workforce. By Joshua Kang Staff Writer
Many are hailing the California Fair Pay Act as the nation’s strongest equal pay law, and thus effectively closing the door on 66 years of loophole exploitation. The original bill that California State Senator Hannah Beth-Jackson
News 2
authored had already passed with rare unanimous support from both sides of the political spectrum. Gov. Jerry Brown signed it last week. The Fair Pay Act addresses two main components of equality in the workforce that the previous Equal Pay Act of 1949 failed to do. The wording in the act called for “equal pay for equal work,” but employers were able to take advantage of this phrasing to underpay women of similar skill and experience for decades. The new act would allow for women to inquire about fellow colleagues’ compensation or salary information, regardless of sex or title, without fear of retaliation from their employers. Also under this act, employers
Opinions 4
would be required to specifically define and prove any potential pay gap between workers as based on legitimate merit or seniority rather than gender. “Ideally in a perfect world, I hope this law helps all women, but the problem that I’m concerned about is which women will feel entitled and emboldened to pursue legal means and to trust that there won’t be any retribution,” said Shira Tarrant, a professor of women’s, gender and sexuality studies at California State University, Long Beach. Women have been making much less than their male counterparts ever since their inception in the workforce. “I’m just glad that our government is finally paying attention to
issues like this that have been going on for so long without change,” junior biology major Elisa Rodriguez said. According to the National Partnership for Women & Families, California women in 2013 earned an average of 85 cents on the dollar compared to men, costing female full-time workers approximately $33.6 billion annually. For women of color the situation was even worse. The Center for American Progress reported in 2014 that black women earned 64 percent of what white males made, while Hispanic women earned 54 percent in comparison. “Women who already have access to resources, money and a bigger sense of entitlement to the legal sys-
Arts & Life 8
tem stand to benefit from this bill more so than workers who are in precarious contingent employment as they might be afraid to speak up and stand up to their boss,” Tarrant said. While most individuals have been supportive of the new bill, which will go into effect on Jan. 1, some have questioned the impact that the law will have on business within the state. In a Los Angeles Times article, labor law attorney J. Al Latham Jr., said that the new law would only lead to more litigation against employers, which would
See WAGES, page 2 Sports 11