MONDAY, MAY 1, 2006
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Volume 5, Issue 145
Santa Monica Daily Press A newspaper with issues
DAILY LOTTERY 16 29 32 36 55 Meganumber: 12 Jackpot: $41M 7 12 21 43 46 Meganumber: 16 Jackpot: $19M
Schools look to future Board mulls a November bond measure for upgrades
Trying to fix what ails the school’s campuses BY CAROLYN SACKARIASON Daily Press Staff Writer
6 7 10 24 37 MID-DAY: 6 2 2 EVENING: 3 4 0 1st: 08 Gorgeous George 2nd: 03 Hot Shot 3rd: 06 Whirl Win RACE TIME: 1.42.21 Although every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the winning number information, mistakes can occur. In the event of any discrepancies, California State laws and California Lottery regulations will prevail. Complete game information and prize claiming instructions are available at California Lottery retailers. Visit the California State Lottery web site: http://www.calottery.com
BY KEVIN HERRERA Daily Press Staff Writer
SMMUSD HDQTRS. — Looking to capitalize on the momentum created by a series of community meetings regarding the future of school facility upgrades, officials are seriously considering placing a
multi-million bond on the November ballot. The Santa Monica-Malibu Unified school board seems to be leaning in favor of authoring a ballot question, having instructed staff last month to come back with a timeline of when such a measure could be drafted. The board will
discuss whether or not to form a bond committee, the first step in the process, at its next meeting, set for May 4 in Malibu. “I think it’s time for the school district and for us to put our students first and make (the repair See BOND MEASURE, page 7
NEWS OF THE WEIRD BY
CHUCK
SHEPARD
After Ms. Sohela Ansari told friends in their village in West Bengal state in India that her husband had mumbled “talaq, talaq, talaq” in his sleep, word got to local Muslim authorities, who declared the couple divorced. (A Muslim husband may obtain a divorce merely by the utterance, and the West Bengal clerics ruled that he need not be awake at the time.)
Seizing the moment
TODAY IN HISTORY Today is the 121st day of 2006. There are 244 days left in the year. ■ On May 1, 1898, Commodore George Dewey gave the command “You may fire when you are ready, Gridley,” as an American naval force destroyed a Spanish fleet in Manila Bay during the Spanish-American War. In 1786, Mozart’s opera “The Marriage of Figaro” premiered in Vienna. ■ In 1893, the World’s Columbian Exposition was officially opened in Chicago by President Cleveland.
QUOTE OF THE DAY “Many will call me an adventurer - and that I am, only one of a different sort: one of those who risks his skin to prove his platitudes.” CHE GUEVARA
REVOLUTIONARY
INDEX Horoscopes Live it up, Cancer
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COMMUNITYPROFILES | COMMUNITY PROFILES IS A WEEKLY SERIES THAT APPEARS EACH MONDAY AND DELVES INTO THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE, WORK AND PLAY IN SANTA MONICA.
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Book report launches teen’s next chapter
Opinion What Deasy left behind
Commentary Another round of Shriver
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Local Know before you go
6 10
National Teen tragedy in Washington
11
Comics Laugh it up
12
DBAs Mind your own business
BY KEVIN HERRERA Daily Press Staff Writer
State Movers and shakers
See WORKSHOPS, page 9
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Snow & Surf Report Water temperature: 57°
Fabian Lewkowicz/Daily Press Participants run through the streets of Santa Monica in the inaugural ‘Carpe Diem' race on Sunday. The 5K and 10K events were staged as a benefit for Heal the Bay.
SAMOHI — Issues of overcrowding, campus inefficiencies, as well as inadequate and outdated facilities throughout the local school district have propelled hundreds of people from the Santa Monica and Malibu communities into action. About 100 people gathered at Santa Monica High School on Saturday morning for the third of four community workshops designed to assess the needs of all 19 campuses that accommodate the district’s 12,500 students and early childhood programs. The idea is to gather enough community input to determine what’s broken at all of the schools so district officials can go about fixing them, possibly asking voters in November to approve a multi-million dollar bond to reconstruct the campuses. The fourth and final workshop will be held in October, after a new superintendent of schools is hired, which is expected to occur this summer. The school board voted to extend the planning process so former superintendent John Deasy’s replacement could be involved. The first two workshops — which included school faculty and administrators, parents and students — focused on the needs and assets of each school. Saturday’s workshop revolved
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THIRD STREET — Oprah Winfrey is known for her deep generosity, often treating her guests and devoted fans to lavish gifts like luxury cars or shopping sprees to exclusive boutiques. Towards Alice Ollstein, she was no different. When the 18-year-old senior at Santa Monica High
School was flown to Chicago last week for a taping of the television show, and to meet with the queen of daytime talk, a limo picked her and her mother up from the airport and whisked away to a luxury hotel, where the two were treated to gourmet meals and professional makeup artists. It was all top notch, though none of it could compare to what came next.
Upon arriving at Oprah’s studio, Ollstein and 49 other students from across the country learned they each would receive a $10,000 college scholarship — a reward for winning an essay contest sponsored by the “Oprah Winfrey Show,” in which students discussed Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel’s memoir “Night,” and how his vivid
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