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‘BIG ONE’ WILL BE DEVASTATING PAGE 3 CULVER CITY CUISINE PAGE 7 MORE DIRT ON MAYO PAGE 14
THURSDAY, MAY 22, 2008
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Volume 7 Issue 163
Santa Monica Daily Press
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Since 2001: A news odyssey
School super may be out
City to pay Farmer’s Market victims $21M BY KEVIN HERRERA Editor in Chief
CITY HALL Victims of the deadly Farmers’ Market crash and their families will receive $21 million from City Hall as part of a settlement agreement approved by the City Council late Tuesday night, bringing to an end a nearly five-year court battle involving more than 70 plaintiffs. The settlement payment and attorney fees will be covered by City Hall’s insurance policy. In return for the settlement payment, all of the plaintiffs will dismiss their claims against both City Hall and the Bayside District Corp., which was separately named as a defendant for its role as an advisory board to the council on issues relating to Downtown Santa Monica and the Third Street Promenade. The settlement came amid the jury selection process for the trial involving a group of plaintiffs who did not take part in earlier settlement discussions. The wrongful death and personal injury suit alleged negligence on behalf of City Hall, Bayside District and George Russell Weller, who drove his 1992 Buick LeSabre through more than 800 feet of Arizona Avenue on July 16, 2003, killing 10 and injuring dozens more. The death toll from the 20-second drive was the largest number of pedestrian fatalities from a traffic accident in California history, according to the California Highway Patrol. City Hall was initially removed from the civil case, a Santa Monica judge granting it design immunity. However that ruling was overturned on appeal after attorneys for the plaintiffs argued that a jury should decide whether or not a traffic management plan presented in court was the one approved by City Hall’s lead traffic engineer or merely a sketch drawn up by the manager of the market, Laura Avery. Geoff Wells, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said his clients felt a sense of relief after learning of the settlement agreement and are looking forward to moving on with their lives. “When somebody dies like this, where there
BY MELODY HANATANI Daily Press Staff Writer
SMMUSD HDQTRS Superintendent Dianne Talarico, her term in the school district plagued by one crisis after another, is widely expected to resign at the end of the academic year to assume an educational position in Northern California. Named as former Superintendent John Deasy’s successor in July 2006, Talarico confirmed on Tuesday that she is eyeing a move to the San Francisco Bay Area where her family resides. “I am looking at some opportunities for a position that will allow me to relocate to be with my family,” Talarico said. “By the beginning of June, I will have a good idea of what my TALARICO next steps will be.” Talarico would be the second top administrator in the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District to leave this year. Deputy Superintendent Tim Walker resigned from his post earlier this month amid a firestorm of criticism surrounding his role in the special education controversy. The possible departure comes as little surprise to school stakeholders, many saying they predicted the superintendent would leave after a series of highly-publicized issues that struck the district during her term, the trying times aggrandized with the effects of being far from family. Talarico came to Santa Monica-Malibu from the Canton City Schools in Ohio where
EGGING HIM ON
Brandon Wise brandonw@smdp.com (Above) The students of Franklin Elementary School on Wednesday shout out in excitement 'drop the egg' over and over again as they anxiously await the fate of their heavily guarded eggs, which were dropped from the roof of a classroom as part of a science project. (Right) Sam Gottlieb, father of two Franklin Elementary school students, was in charge of dropping the packaged eggs. Students of the club were able to use problem-solving skills in order to create the perfect egg-carrying object, school officials said.
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