Weekend Event Calendar

FRIDAY NIGHT FLICKS

Vince Turner over at the Claremont Community College sent us a reminder about his Friday Night Flicks short film series at the Claremont Village Expansion above Chico's.

Date: Thu, March 24, 2011 4:35:58 PM
To: moviefans@claremontcommunitycollege.com
Subject: WOW Friday Night Flicks!

We're batting a thousand! So far every chair has been filled at Friday night Flicks! (OK. So we didn't set up all the chairs!)

This weeks theme is WOW! If you don't say WOW after each flick, then we didn't do our job.

Friday Night 7 PM

101 North Indian Hill BLVD Suite C2 203

Claremont Community College Where the learning never stops!

--
Vince Turner
(909) 477-1747

Also, don't forget that CCC's 5 Second Film Festival is set for April 28. CCC's mission statement, which we've posted below, may preclude certain humor-impaired Claremonters from attending (you know who you are):

Our Mission Statement

• To acquire and disseminate knowledge in a humorous way.
• To recruit like minded people to spread the word that learning can be fun.
• To remember to laugh at our failings before somebody else does.
• To keep an open mind on suggestions even if they sound silly - which most are.
• To recruit more Deans than students for obvious reasons.
• To reserve the right to refuse entry to the College to anyone who takes our mission too seriously.

RAVELERS, HERE AND ON THE ROAD

The Ravelers, Claremont's classic rock band, are on the move. Tonight, they're at the Padua Hills Theatre for Claremont Community Foundation fundraiser (from The Ravelers' PR dept.):

Hey Now...

The Ravelers are proud to be asked to be involved in several fundraisers this year, providing fun music for great causes.

This one is special for us because we call Claremont our home, and we have been looking forward to playing in the newly renovated and historic Padua Theater! We have peaked through the door and walked in the old theater every time we played a wedding reception or event over the past 24 years...hoping someday it would be remodeled to provide a nice place for entertainment and gathering. That day has arrived!

The Claremont Community Foundation was established in 1989 to serve the longer-term philanthropic needs of the community. The Foundation has awarded grants to more than 60 programs and special projects, enriching the lives of youth and adults throughout the community. Please join us to help continue these contributions...

Friday, March 25- Sock Hop at Padua Hills Theater!!!
Padua Hills Theater
4467 Padua Ave
Claremont, CA 91711
(909) 398-1060

The Ravelers play 7-11pm. Join us at the newly renovated theater for some great tunes, a delicious retro buffet, a cash bar and special surprises!

The proceeds go to benefit the community. Tickets are $50. Click here for more details.

Hope to see you in the new theater!


Hai, Pat, Martie, Rob

The Ravelers
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Ravelers/266682436238?ref=ts

The Ravelers are also at Santa Anita racetrack for the 5th Annual Cal Rods Car Show this Sunday, March 27, from 1pm to 4pm and will be playing between races.

Also, on April 28, The Ravelers are at the Ontario Convention Center for a Campfire Girls fundraiser.



AT THE CLAREMONT FMC


Saturday night at the Claremont Folk Music Center, journey back to ancient Persia, land of poets and musicians:

Saturday, March 26, 2011

JOHN BILEZIKJIAN "master Oud player" show

John Bilezikjian is "America's Oud Virtuoso". Mr. Bilezikjian may be the most prominent Oudist of his generation. He is a master Oudist who has elevated this instrument to the concert stage as well as continues to perform as a folk musician. He has performed for some 51 years on this ancient eleven stringed Persian fretless instrument dating back some 2,000 years. The Oud is performed with an eagle's quill.

$10 (doors@7)

Folk Music Center & Museum
220 Yale Avenue
Claremont CA 91711
(909) 624-2928

AT THE 5Cs

Also, check out the Claremont Colleges calendar to see what's happening at the 5Cs this weekend. The following events are on tap:

Saturday, March 26, 2011

• 7:00 AM - 6:30 PM - Latina/o Student Union 4th Annual Rockabilly Festival
  
  Pitzer College
  1050 N. Mill Ave.
  Claremont, 91711
  (909) 607-7492
  
  Enjoy a day of cars, music and food. Hosted by the Latina/o Student Union.
  
  
  
• For the kids:
  
  10:00 AM - Story Time at the Stone Center:
  Goldilocks and the Three Bears
  
  Stone Center for Children's Books
  Claremont Graduate University
  740 North College Avenue
  Corner of College and 8th St.
  Claremont, 91711
  (909) 607-3670
  
  
  
• 8:00 PM - Senior Recital:
  Eddie Sayles, tenor
  
  Bridges Hall of Music
  Pomona College
  150 E. 4th Street
  Claremont, 91711
  (909)607-2671
  
  Pomona College senior, Eddie Sayles will present his senior vocal recital performing the music of Barber, Donizetti, Ravel, Falla and others assisted by pianist Gayle Blankenburg.

Sunday, March 27, 2011

• 3:00 PM - The Claremont Concert Choir and The Chamber Choir Spring Choral Concert
  
  Garrison Theater
  Scripps College
  Scripps College Performing Arts Center
  
  241 E. 10th Street
  Claremont, 91711
  (909) 607-3267
  
  Charles W. Kamm (Scripps/Joint Music faculty), conductor
  Paul R. Bishop (Scripps performance staff), piano and organ works by Brahms, Britten, Purcell, Whitacre, and others.
  

David Brooks Comes to Scripps

New York Times columnist David Brooks will be speaking at Scripps College 7:30pm next Tuesday, February 8.

Brooks will speak at Garrison Theater as part of the Elizabeth Hubert Malott Public Affairs Program. Garrison is located at 231 E. Tenth St. His lecture is titled "The Social Animal Post Election."

Brooks is slowly making the rounds at the 5C's. In April, 2003, he spoke at the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum and talked about McMansions and bobos (see below).

Here are the details from the Scripps website:

Book signing to follow in the lobby. Doors open at 7:00 p.m. Priority seating in Garrison Theater will be given to members of the Scripps Community with their Scripps ID. Limited seating will be available to others on a first-come, first-served basis. FMI: (909) 607-9372

David Brooks is a keen observer of the American way of life and a penetrating analyst of present-day politics and foreign affairs. He has become one of the prominent voices of conservative politics in the United States; with his elegance and finely tuned reason and wit, he engages both sides of the debate eloquently. Brooks is one of the New York Times's most widely read columnists and is a regular analyst on NewsHour with Jim Lehrer and NPR's All Things Considered.

Brooks was a founding senior editor of The Weekly Standard and has been a contributing editor at Newsweek and the Atlantic Monthly. He worked at the Wall Street Journal for nine years in a range of positions, including op-ed editor. He has written for The New Yorker, the New York Times Magazine, Forbes, the Washington Post, and many other periodicals. Brooks was a visiting professor of public policy at Duke University's Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy and taught an undergraduate seminar there in the fall of 2006.

In his Elizabeth Hubert Malott lecture at Scripps College, Brooks will draw from his upcoming new book and the recent elections to paint a thorough and eye-opening picture of today’s political climate. His new book, The Social Animal: the Inner Roots of Character and Achievement, is due out in March 2011. In his previous two books, New York Times best-seller Bobos in Paradise and On Paradise Drive, Brooks describes what he calls “comic sociology”—depictions of how we live and “the water we swim in.” In Bobos in Paradise he coins a new word, Bobo, to describe today’s upper class: those who have wed the bourgeois world of capitalist enterprise to the hippie values of the bohemian counterculture. Brooks has a gift for bringing audiences face-to-face with the spirit of our times with humor, insight, and quiet passion. He is also editor of the anthology Backward and Upward: The New Conservative Writing.

Scripps on Giffords

This afternoon, Scripps College posted more on Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords who was shot today in Tucson. Giffords is a Scripps College alumna.

See here.

Giffords' 2009 Commencement address at Scripps is here.

See any national news source for more information. This is a huge national story. Google New right now is showing 8,505 stories. The story is moving so fast it's more or less pointless to try to keep up.

Our humble best wishes for Congresswoman Giffords to make a speedy and full recovery, to her family and friends, and to the loved ones of the six who died at the hand of this crazy.

Scripps Graduate Shot

Gabrielle Giffords, Congresswoman
and Scripps College Graduate,
Shot in Arizona


Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-Arizona) was shot Saturday morning at a constituent outreach event in Tucson. She was a graduate of Scripps College, class of 1993, was first elected to Congress in 2006, and was re-elected to a third term last November.

Giffords had been Commencement Speaker at Scripps in May 2009.

Early reports were that she had died. MSNBC (screenshot below) and others are unable to confirm it and in fact are reporting that she is in surgery at noon Pacific time. President Obama has just (12:17 Pacific time) issued a statement saying her condition is unknown but she is "gravely wounded".

Update, 2:40 p.m. Saturday, January 8: Congresswoman Giffords survived the shooting and surgery. Her surgeon is optimistic for a recovery of some sort.

At least five other victims died: a federal judge and a nine-year-old among them.

The shooter, whom we won't stoop even to name, is certifiably loony.

Village Event for Scripps and CMC Students

We don't usually do product placements in here, but we received notice of an event that might be of interest to students at 2 of the 5Cs.

Tonight from 9pm to 11pm, the American Apparel store at the southwest corner of Indian Hill Blvd. and First St. is hosting a college night for students from Claremont McKenna and Scripps Colleges. They're offering 30% off all store merchandise, as well as $10 coupons to first 40 customers.

For details, click to enlarge

At the Claremont Colleges

Now that the Claremont Colleges are back in session and are abuzz with activity. The CC Calendar lists all of the goings on:


POMONA COLLEGE ART AND LECTURES

The Pomona College Museum of Art has a pair of exhibit opening receptions this Saturday. The museum's located at 330 N. College Ave. You can get all the details here, or you can call (909) 621-8283 for more information.

Steve Roden: when words become forms

Now through December 19, 2010
Opening Reception: Saturday, September 11, 4-6 p.m.

A Conversation with Steve Roden and Michael Ned Holte:
Thursday, October 7, at 8 p.m. in the Museum,
followed by a book signing and reception.


Project Series 41: Ginny Bishton

Now through October 17, 2010

Opening Reception: Saturday, September 11, 4-6 p.m.
Artist Lecture: Wednesday, September 22, at 3 p.m. in the Museum

Pomona College is also hosting a landscaping working shop by the Sustainable Claremont Water Action Group. The city of Claremont may want to send some representatives to learn about irrigation.

Landscaping with Beautiful Native Plants and Efficient Irrigation

Saturday, September 11, 2:00-3:30pm
Hahn Building, 420 Harvard Ave.
Call (909) 607-2768 for information

The event features three landscapers who specialize in native plants.

EVENTS AT SCRIPPS COLLEGE

The Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery on the Scripps College campus will host an opening reception this Saturday. The gallery is located at 251 E. Eleventh St. Admission and parking are free. For information, call (909) 607-2029.

Luminous Line: Contemporary Drawings in Metal Point

The exhibition includes works by Steve Comba, Howard Hack, Marietta Hoferer, Michael Kukla, Cynthia Lin, Morgan O'Hara, Ben Polsky, Carol Prusa, Lucy Pullen, Susan Schwalb, and Fran Siegel.

Now through October 17, 2010
Opening Reception: Saturday, September 11, 4-6pm
Artist Lecture: Susan Schwalb, Monday, September 13, at 7pm. in the Hampton Room, Mallot Commons

Scripp's Clark Humanities Musueum has two ongoing exhibits. The museum is located at 981 Amherst. For information, call (909) 607-3397:

Rendering the Female Subject

Rendering the Female Subject features works on paper, ceramic pieces, and wood sculptures from the Scripps Permanent Collection. The selection includes Pre Columbian terracotta figures, Satsuma ware, Andy Warhol polaroids, an Alison Saar print, an acrylic painting by Jamini Roy, and much more.

Student curator: Aleedra Price under the supervision of Professor Mary MacNaughton and Kirk Delman.

Now through October 13, 2010
Exhibit reception: Wednesday, September 15th in the Clark Humanities Museum from 4-5pm.


Imaginary Travel to Exotic Lands

Now through October 13, 2010

Paintings and engravings, drawn from the permanent collection of the Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery.

As part of its Fall 2010 seminar, "Engagement: Mind, Body, and Soul," the Humanities Institute at Scripps offers a couple events tonight and next week:

Flow and the Quality of Life

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Professor of Psychology and Management Claremont Graduate University

Wednesday, September 8, 2010 - 6:00 p.m. - Boone Recital Hall

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is a Distinguished Professor of Psychology in the School of Behavioral and Organizational Sciences at Claremont Graduate University. Professor Csikszentmihalyi is the director of the Quality of Life Research Center (QLRC). The QLRC is a non-profit research institute that studies "positive psychology"; that is, human strengths such as optimism, creativity, intrinsic motivation, and responsibility. His books include the bestselling Flow, Being Adolescent, The Evolving Self, and Creativity. He is a member of the American Academy of Education, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the National Academy of Leisure Sciences. He is noted for his work in the study of happiness and creativity, but is best known as the architect of the notion of “flow”- a state of concentration or complete absorption with the activity at hand and the situation - and for his years of research and writing on the topic. He is the author of many books and over 120 articles or book chapters. Martin Seligman, former president of the American Psychological Association, described Csikszentmihalyi as the world's leading researcher on positive psychology.


NO IMPACT MAN
Laura Gabbert and Justin Schein, Directors
USA, 2009, 93 min
Co-sponsored by Pomona for Environmental Activism and Responsibility (PEAR)

Tuesday, September 14, 2010 at 5:30 p.m. - Garrison Theater

Laura Gabbert and Justin Schein's film provides an intriguing inside look into the experiment that became a national fascination and media sensation, while examining the familial strains and strengthened bonds that result from one man’s decision to completely eliminate his personal impact on the environment for one year and his wife’s struggle with their radical lifestyle change.

UPCOMING AT THE ATH

M.M.C. Athenaeum
385 E. 8th St.
Claremont, CA 91711-6420
(909) 621-8244
Fax: (909) 621-8579
athenaeum@claremontmckenna.edu

Claremont McKenna College's Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum begins its Fall speaker series Thursday with writer David Oliver Relin.

Below we've posted the speakers for September. The programs start at 6:45pm, except where noted.

Thursday, September 9	David Oliver Relin, journalist; co-author, Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace...One School at a Time (2007); "Three Cups of Tea and See How They Shine"
Tuesday, September 14	Haley Scott DeMaria, author, What Though the Odds- Haley Scott's Journey of Faith and Triumph (2008); "Swimming Back from Paralysis"
Wednesday, September 15	Robert Thies, piano; gold medal winner (1995), Second International Sergei Prokofiev Competition, St. Petersburg, Russia; artist on album Live in Recital (2006); Gary Bovyer, clarinet; music faculty, Cal Poly Pomona; Roger Lebow, cello; music faculty, Chapman University, Pomona College, Claremont Graduate University; "Brahms in His Final Years"
Thursday, September 16	Michael Eisner, former CEO, The Walt Disney Company (1984-2005); founder, The Tornante Company; co-author, Working Together: Why Great Partnerships Succeed (2010) and Work in Progress: Risking Failures, Surviving Success (1999); "An Evening with Michael Eisner"
Friday, September 17	James Fuller, professor emeritus of art, Scripps College; "Art Opening and Reception" (3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.)
Monday, September 20	Ken Mehlman, partner and head of Global Public Affairs, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Company (KKR); "Why Would A Global Industry-Leading Leveraged Buyout Firm Suddenly Go Green?"
Tuesday, September 21	Jeffrey Bergner, president and managing financial partner, Bergner Bockorny, Inc.; former staff director, Senate Foreign Relations Committee; Assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs (2005-2008); author, The New Superpower: Germany, Japan and the United States in the New World Order (1991) and co-editor, The Taiwan Relations Act: A Decade of Implimentation (1989); "The Rhetoric and Reality of the Obama Administration"
Wednesday, September 22	Angelika Niemz, Arnold and Mabel Beckman Professor, director of research, Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Sciences; co-author, Specific versus Nonspecific Isothermal DNA Amplification through Thermophilic Polymerase and Nicking Enzyme Activities (2008) and Isothermal DNA Amplification with Gold Nanosphere-based Visual Colorimetric Readout for Herpes Simplex Virus Detection (2007); Nina Karnovsky, associate professor of biology, Pomona College; co-author, The Impact and Importance of Production in Polynyas to Top-trophic Predators: Three Case Histories (2007) and Foraging Behavior of Little Auks in a Heterogeneous Environment (2003); Jean Doble, research director, Amgen, Inc.; Stephanie Cropper, M.D.; obstetrician and gynecologist; "Women in Science and Medicine: Can You Achieve Work/Family Satisfaction?" (panel 12:15 p.m.)
Wednesday, September 22	Stephan Haggard, Lawrence and Sallye Krause professor of Korea-Pacific studies, U.C. San Diego Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies; co-author, Development, Democracy, and Welfare States: Latin America, East Asia, and Eastern Europe (2008) and Famine in North Korea: Markets, Aid, and Reform (2007); "Whither North Korea?"
Thursday, September 23	Kirby Daley, senior strategist, Newedge Prime Brokerage, Newedge Group (Hong Kong); "The Economic Outlook for Asia in the "New" Global Economic Environment" (12:00 p.m.)
Thursday, September 23	Claudia McKay '99, microfinance specialist, Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP); Mike McKay '99, former country director, Baobab Health Malawi, "From the Ath to Africa: Two CMCers Share Their Decade of Experiences Abroad"
Monday, September 27	Matthew Crawford, research fellow, Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, University of Virginia; contributing editor, The New Atlantic; author, Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work (2009)
Tuesday, September 28	William Beezley, professor of history, University of Arizona; co-author, Mexicans in Revolution, 1910-1946: An Introduction (2009) and author, Mexican National Identity: Memory, Innuendo, and Popular Culture (2008); "Mexican Revolutionary Culture: Indians, Anthropologists, Intellectuals, and Calendar Girls"
Wednesday, September 29	Maria Contreras-Sweet, founding chairwoman, Promerica Bank (2006); former California Secretary of Business, Transportation, and Housing (1999-2003)

Around Town

AND THE WINNERS ARE...

Claremont's Architectural Commission announced the winners of the City's Excellence in Design Awards. Six of the seven winning designs were on or affiliated with the Claremont Colleges. The City's website listed the award winners:

Winners of 2009 Excellence in Design Award Announced (May 12, 2010)

The Claremont Architectural Commission has announced the winners of the 29th Annual "Excellence in Design Awards," a program designed to recognize recently completed projects that best reflect the City's standards of design excellence. Seven projects have earned awards in the categories of New Construction, Renovation, Addition, Sustainable Landscaping, and Restorative Landscaping.

The Architectural Commission will formally recognize the award winners at its meeting on Wednesday, June 9, 2010. The meeting will begin at 7:00 p.m. in the Council Chamber, 225 W. Second Street. The public is invited to attend.

The Winners are:
- Claremont McKenna College - Biszantz Family Tennis Center
- 601 E. Foothill Boulevard Commercial Building Claremont University Consortium - - Honnold Library
- Scripps College - Sicilian Court
- McDermott Building
- CGU Residence
- Shafer Residence

• Read the press release (Adobe Acrobat, 27KB)

CITY YARD SALE TOMORROW

Packrats all over Claremont are gearing up for a buying spree tomorrow at the annual City Yard Sale. In a sign of the fiscal times, the City is no longer hosting the event. Instead, the Claremont High School Softball Boosters will be in charge of the annual community yard sale in Cahuilla Park. The yard sale begins at 8am.

Citywide Yard Sale
May 15, 2010

Please note the change in this event!

This event will now be offered by the Claremont High School Softball Boosters and will no longer be offered by the City of Claremont. The 2010 event will take place from 8 am to 11 am at Cahuilla Park 1775 N. Indian Hill Blvd. (corner of Indian Hill and Scripps Ave). For more information please contact the Claremont High School Boosters at (909) 450-1730.

WILDERNESS PARK CLOSED NEXT WEEK

City Manager Jeff Parker's weekly report informs us that the Claremont Hills Wilderness Park will be closed next Monday through Wednesday for what has become an annual training exercise.

If you're curious to see where the exercise will take place, you can see the grove L.A. County Fire has worn into the hills on the west side of Thompson Creek. Rather than changing the area they practice in, L.A. County Fire has used the exact same area each time for their exercise. Every year, the firefighters use a trail that they created by tromping around the hillsides, and all that activity, together with erosion, has resulted an unintended, permanent feature.

This was Jeff Parker's blurb on the subject:

WILDERNESS PARK FIRE TRAINING EXERCISE

On May 17, 18 and 19, the Los Angeles County Fire Department is conducting its annual wildfire training exercise in the City of Claremont Wilderness Park. This exercise will begin at 8:00 AM and conclude at 1:00 PM each day. During this time, the Claremont Wilderness Park will be closed. Mills Avenue north of Mt. Baldy Road will also be closed, except to residents.

MAY BUDGET WORKSHOP

Claremont will hold another budget workshop on Saturday, May 22 in the City Council chambers at 225 W. Second St. The workshop runs from 1pm to 4pm, and the public is welcome and encouraged to attend. This is your chance to take partial ownership of your community's financial decisions. Here's the info from the City:

May 22 Budget Workshop (Mar 25, 2010)

The City Council has scheduled a Budget Workshop on May 22 from 1pm to 4pm to address the budget shortfall in 2011-12 Fiscal Year. The City Council approved staff recommendations for staff and program reductions for fiscal year 2010-11 resulting in a reduction of $1,318,727 in expenditures. In fiscal year 2011-12, staff has projected a $750,000 shortfall which is dependent on several undecided factors. These factors include the outcome of the State Redevelopment lawsuit, negotiations with labor unions, and the California State budget. At the late May workshop, staff will give an update on these factors, and provide additional reduction recommendations if necessary.

In case you were thinking state and local finances were going to be in better shape this year, think again. The Sacramento Bee's Capitol Alert had this budget news today:

May 14, 2010

AM Alert: April shortfalls bring May...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will release his revised spending proposal for the 2010-2011 fiscal year today.

The outlook? Not so good. Here's what we know so far:

• Cash commitments from federal officials have amounted to about $3 billion -- far less than the $6.9 billion in federal aid Schwarzenegger counted on in his January proposal.
• Last month's drop in personal income tax revenues ruined any chance of a "May surprise" revise -- the state ended April about $1.3 billion short of revenue projections.
• The governor's office has warned of "absolutely terrible cuts," including to social services programs.
• Democrats say they want "everything on the table," including tax increases to close the gap. Republican leaders and Schwarzenegger say the topic of taxes is a non-starter.

The bottom line: Get ready for another long budget fight.

Bee colleague Kevin Yamamura reports today that one proposal expected to be included in today's revision would revive a plan to house some 15,000 nonviolent felons in county jails instead of state prisons. Read more on that here.

The big rollout of the governor's proposal, set for 1 p.m. at the Secretary of State building, will be broadcast live here.

Claremont Colleges 2010 Commencement Calendar

The academic year has wound down, and next weekend we say goodbye to another group of graduates from the Claremont Colleges. May they recall their bright college days in Claremont with fondness.




Here's the slate of speakers for next week's commencement ceremonies:


Friday, May 14th

• Baccalaureate Ceremony
  The Claremont Colleges
  3:30pm - 4:30pm
  Bridges Hall of Music, Pomona College
  150 East Fourth Street, Pomona College
  Please contact the Office of the Chaplains for questions regarding this event.
  
  Speaker:
  Jacqueline Powers Doud, Ph.D., President, Mount St. Mary's College, Los Angeles
  Alumna, Claremont Graduate University
  
  

Saturday, May 15th

• Claremont Graduate University Commencement
  9:00am
  Mudd Quadrangle
  Harvey Mudd College
  E. 10th St. and Dartmouth Ave.
  (909) 607-3305
  
  Commencement speaker:
  Heidi Hartmann, president and founder of the Institute for Women's Policy Research and research professor at George Washington University.
  
  
  
• Pitzer College's 46th Annual Commencement
  10:00am
  Commencement Pavilion
  Pitzer College
  1050 North Mills Avenue
  (909) 607-2690
  
  Commencement speaker: The Honorable Cory A. Booker, mayor of Newark, New Jersey.
  
  
  
• Keck Graduate Institute Commencement
  11:00am
  East lawn
  Keck Graduate Institute
  535 Watson Dr.
  (909) 607-0389
  
  Commencement speaker:
  David R. Walt, Robinson professor of chemistry and professor of biomedical engineering at Tufts University.
  
  
  
• Claremont McKenna College
  2:00pm
  Pritzlaff Field
  Claremont McKenna College
  South of 9th St. and Claremont Blvd.
  (909) 621-8117
  
  Commencement Speaker:
  Henry Kravis '67; founding partner of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and CMC Trustee.

Sunday, May 16th

• Pomona College Commencement
  10:00am
  Marston Quad
  Pomona College
  College Ave., between 4th and 6th Streets
  (909) 621-8131
  
  Commencement speaker:
  Janet Napolitano, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security, former Arizona governor, former Arizona Attorney General
  
  
  
• Scripps College
  10:00am
  Elm Tree Lawn
  Scripps College
  345 E. 9th St.
  (909) 607-1870
  
  Commencement Speaker:
  Speakers: Sue Monk Kidd, New York Times best-selling author, The Secret Life of Bees,; and her daughter Ann Kidd Taylor, co-author, Traveling With Pomegranates.
  
  
  
• Harvey Mudd College Commencement
  1:30pm
  Harvey S. Mudd Quadrangle
  Claremont University Consortium
  East Tenth Street and Dartmouth Avenue
  Claremont, 91711
  (909) 621-8125
  
  Speaker: Freeman A. Hrabowski, III, longtime president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) and advocate for promoting education within underrepresented groups.

Tuesday, May 18

• Claremont School of Theology Commencement
  8:30am
  Kresge Chapel Green
  Claremont School of Theology
  1325 N. College Avenue
  (909) 447-2552
  
  Service presided by President Jerry Campbell.

CMS Golfers in the News

We tried. We really tried to avoid a certain multi-ethnic golfer's ubiquity, but in the end we could not. His mighty public relations reach extended even to Claremont.

A reader sent us a link to a CBS News video of reaction to Tiger Woods' press conference last Friday in which he issued a public apology for his indiscretions. Several members of the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's golf team were interviewed for the story. The piece aired on Friday's CBS Evening News, and their website has the story posted.

Here are some quotes from the CBS News report:

"I think it was just shocking and kind of upsetting," said Scripps College student Kristina Block.

They watched as Woods tried to claw his way out of his moral hazard, apologizing to his business partners, his foundation and the young golfers who idolized him. Some were forgiving.

"Everyone makes mistakes, and he realizes his mistakes," Block said.

Some felt for his wife.

"You're giving someone your heart, and he tore it out of her," Claremont McKenna College student Brittany Isobe said crying.

Some were still angry.

"No amount of apology or words is going to eradicate what he did," said Claremont McKenna student Kacie Curd.

We're not quite sure about the new usage for the term "moral hazard." It certainly reduces the Elin-Tiger marriage to a transactional relationship.

Anyway, here's the video:


Watch CBS News Videos Online

Goings On

FORMER SPEAKER TO SPEAK

Tony Krickl reminds us that former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Newt Gingrich will speak 7:30pm tonight at Garrison Theatre on the Scripps College campus. The theatre is located at 231 E. Tenth St. For more information, call (909) 607-9372.

Gingrich will be speaking as part of the Elizabeth Hubert Malott Public Affairs Program. There's no charge, and there will also be a book signing. The Scripps College website had some information on the event:

Gingrich's speech, "Effective Leadership for Real Change," will address the nature of leadership, what he has learned from his active political career, policy changes in environmental protection, and health care policy from beyond a partisan divide.

This past week or so has a good one for political speech on both sides of the aisle. Last week, the Rev. Jesse Jackson spoke at the Marian Miner Cook Atheneum at Claremont McKenna College.


CGU ANNOUNCES TUFTS AWARD WINNERS

Claremont Graduate University has announced the winners of the 2010 Kingsley and Kate Tufts poetry awards. The Kingsley Tufts Award and the $100,000 that accompanies it will go to Bay Area poet D. A. Powell for his collection "Chronic."

The Kate Tufts Discovery Award, which comes with $10,000, goes to Beth Bachmann for her first published collection "Temper."

Here's what the CGU press release had to say:

Powell is the author of Tea (1998), Lunch (2000), and Cocktails (2004). His most recent book, Chronic, is also a finalist for the NBCC Award in Poetry, and was named a Best Book of 2009 by Publishers Weekly and the Kansas City Star. He teaches at the University of San Francisco and lives in the Bay Area.

The Kingsley Tufts prize was established in 1992 to honor work by a midcareer poet. Powell is 46.

Bachmann won the Kate Tufts Award for her first book of poetry, Temper. The Kate Tufts Award is given to a poet for their first book of poetry.

Temper, was selected by Lynn Emanuel as winner of the AWP Award Series 2008 Donald Hall Prize in Poetry. Her poems appear in American Poetry Review, Black Warrior Review, Kenyon Review, Ploughshares, Prairie Schooner, Southern Review, and Tin House, among other journals, and have been anthologized in Alice Redux: New Stories of Alice, Lewis and Wonderland and Best New Poets 2005 and 2007. She holds graduate degrees from the Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars and Concordia University in Montreal and teaches creative writing at Vanderbilt University.

CGU will give out the awards 6:30pm on April 22 at the Pasadena Museum of California Art. The event is free, but you need to RSVP if you're interested. To do so, call (909) 621-8974 or point your browser to http://www.cgu.edu/tufts.


COMING SOON

We hear through our sources that a Walgreens drugstore and a Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market may be going into the Peppertree Square shopping center at Indian Hill Blvd. and Arrow Hwy., which most South Claremonters should appreciate.

The Fresh 'N Easy should save on drives to the grocery stores on Foothill for people in the south part of town, though Meg at M-M-M-My Pomona reminded us that there is also the Hoa Binh Market at 1093 E. Holt in Pomona for the more adventurous.

We also hear we may be getting a Cheese Cave. We'll let you figure that one out. We're not sure exactly where this one might go, but it sounds like a place that would fit in the Village Expansion.

If It's a Second Tuesday It Must Be Council Night

4PM STUDY SESSION

The Claremont City Council meets tonight, minus the Claremont Unified School District board. The council will meet for a special meeting at 4pm in City Hall's Citrus Room (upstairs from the Council Chambers).

The special meeting will be a study session on "Institutional Zone Parking," meaning the Claremont Colleges, public schools, and retirement communities. Each institution is supposed to provide sufficient parking for the number of people staying or visiting their respective locations. The City has a formula for figuring the number of parking spaces needed.

According to the city staff report on the parking situation at the colleges, Claremont Graduate University, Pitzer College, and Harvey Mudd College have a parking deficit. Pomona College and Scripps College, and the 5C's as a whole have surpluses:

From Pg. 18 of the study session report on institutional parking
(Click to Enlarge)

REGULAR MEETING

Tonight's regular meeting has a number of interesting items listed:

• City Manager Jeff Parker seeks council approval to spend $112,962 for Mobile Data Computers to be installed inside police vehicles, as well as $76,690 to purchase in-car digital video systems for CPD's vehicles.
  
  The City would contract with CDCE Incorporated in Yorba Linda for the mobile computing hardware and with Insight Video Net for the digital camera systems.
  
  
• Staff is asking the council to approve a General Plan amendment and a zoning change that would change the land-use designations for three Caltrans properties along the 210 Freeway from Park/Resource Conservation (open space) to single-family residential use.
  
  The three Caltrans parcels were originally zoned for residential use and were changed to open space in 2005 when the City completed it's General Plan update. Caltrans then sued the City for inverse condemnation because the rezoning took away a potential revenue-generating use for its land.
  
  The parcels are located at:
  
  
  1. Live Oak and Base Line Rd., north of the 210 Freeway.
  2. The east side of Sumner, north of the 210 Freeway (between Webb Canyon and Towne Ave.).
  3. The southwest corner of Monte Vista Ave. and Base Line Rd., north of the 210 Freeway.
     
  
  The City and Caltrans reached a settlement agreement this past January, and rezoning the parcels for residential use was apparently part of that agreement.
  
  On April 21, the Planning Commission denied the considered a recommendation for the changes and denied the request on a 4-3 vote, so the matter goes back to the council. Four of the five councilmembers must approve the amendment.
  
  
• The council will be asked to consider an amendment to the already approved special event permit for the Wednesday night Family Festivals in the Claremont Village Expansion. The amendment would extend the closure on Oberlin Ave. north to Bonita Ave. It would also add one hour to the festival, going from 5pm to 9pm, instead of ending at 8pm. And the street closures would run from 3pm to 10pm, adding an hour at each end.
  
  The city staff report, by Director of Community Development Tony Witt - or T. Witt, as he is affectionately known - also asks the city to approve the use of small, "quiet generators." You've gotta love the way Tony slips in a modifier, as if that really means anything. It's just an old Madison Avenue advertising trick ("New and Improved!") that's meant to assuage the concerns of people in the Village who might voice objections to the generators.
  
  And, as usual, Tony withholds the key information. He doesn't specify what exactly the generators would be used for. Whenever Tony employs this sort of obliqueness in a report, beware! You're sure to be in for big surprise.
  
  This one was fast-tracked by the City and Tony to avoid generating any controversy. It will set a record for time from idea to implementation.
  
  As we wrote last week, this Family Festival expansion seems to mix up the cart and the horse. Witt has based his decision on one data point -the initial April 29 festival night. If you went to the second one, last Wednesday, you would have noticed a marked drop off in attendance, so staff's expansion of the event may be premature.
  
  It's not unlike the Claremont Trolley - magical thinking in search of a staff report to justify it. It's sooooo Claremont! You just have to love it.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

• The council is also considering approval of an exclusive negotiating agreement with Jamboree Housing Corp. to develop 75 units of affordable housing on the old Claremont Courier site at 111 S. College Ave.
  
  The proposed development would be a mix of senior and family housing units. 59 of the units would be reserved for very low-income residents, and 19 units would be for low-income tenants.
  
  The landlord would be obliged by the agreement to give preference to families with at least one household member who works in Claremont. One should remember that this preference is only good for the initial leases. When the units turn over, there is no preference. With residency length in our area averaging around seven years, according to Councilmember Peter Yao, after that time we can expect the local preference to have been thrown out the window.
  
  
• Lastly, the council will discuss the Metropolitan Water District's model water conservation ordinance. With the state entering its third year of drought, MWD is restricting the amount of water available for purchase by agencies like Three Valleys Municipal Water District.
  
  MWD has asked local government and water agencies to adopt water conservation ordinances to help reduce water consumption. The City is looking to vote on an ordinance by June 9, and implementing the ordinance will require the cooperation of Three Valleys and our local water company, Golden State Water.
  
  We've heard through the jungle drums that one of the proposals may included spying on your neighbors. Thank you, Tim Worley, for that one!
  

Claremont City Council
Study Session - 4pm
City Hall, Citrus Room
207 Harvard Ave.

Regular Session - 6:30pm
Council Chambers
225 W. 2nd St.

Call (909) 399-5460 for information.

Coming Soon: Commencement Weekend

Another academic year has come and gone, and in a couple weeks Claremont's education mills will be shipping off the 2009 product models into the job market with much attendant fanfare.

We're still very much a company town or, more precisely, a consortium town, so the pace of life in the Claremont Village will slow perceptibly with summer's approach and the departure of the colleges' students.

In the meantime, here is a list of this year's commencement events:

Friday, May 15th

• Baccalaureate Ceremony
  The Claremont Colleges
  3:30pm - 4:30pm
  Garrison Theater
  Scripps College
  231 E. 10th St.
  (909) 621-8685
  
  Speaker: Scripps Alumna Karen Tse,
  
  
  
• Baccalaureate Ceremony
  Claremont School of Theology
  4:30pm
  Kresge Chapel
  Claremont School of Theology
  1325 N. College Ave.
  (909) 447-2552

Saturday, May 16th

• Claremont School of Theology Commencement
  8:30am
  Claremont School of Theology
  Quad
  1325 N. College Avenue
  (909) 447-2552



• Claremont Graduate University Commencement
  10:00am
  Mudd Quadrangle
  Harvey Mudd College
  E. 10th St. and Dartmouth Ave.
  (909) 607-3305
  
  Commencement speaker:
  James P. Carroll, acclaimed author on religion and politics whose writings and novels include four New York Times bestsellers, two New York Times' Notable Books of the Year.
  
  
  
• Pitzer College's 45th Commencement
  10:00am
  Brant Clock Tower Lawn
  Pitzer College
  1050 North Mills Avenue
  (909) 607-2690
  
  Commencement speaker:
  David Feldman, Emmy award winning comedy writer and performer. He has written for ABC's Roseanne, HBO's Dennis Miller Live, HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher and Comedy Central's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. He currently writes for Talk Show With Spike Feresten on Fox. David also appears frequently on NBC's Late Night with Conan O'Brien.
  
  
  
• Keck Graduate Institute Commencement
  11:00am
  KGI campus lawn
  Keck Graduate Institute
  535 Watson Dr.
  (909) 607-0135
  
  Commencement speaker:
  Myrtle Potter, President and CEO, Myrtle Potter and Company and Former President and COO of Genentech, Inc.
  



• Claremont McKenna College Commencement
  2:00pm
  Pritzlaff Field
  Claremont McKenna College
  South of 9th St. and Claremont Blvd.
  (909) 621-8117
  
  Commencement Speaker:
  Surin Pitsuwan ’72, Secretary-General of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Sunday, May 17th

• Pomona College Commencement
  10:00am
  Marston Quad
  Pomona College
  College Ave., between 4th and 6th Streets
  (909) 621-8131
  
  Commencement speakers:
  Bob Herbert, New York Times, Op-Ed columnist, playwright Luis Valdez and Chicago Tribune columnist Mary Schmich '75.
  

• Scripps College Commencement
  10:00am
  Elm Tree Lawn
  Scripps College
  345 E. 9th Street
  On campus lawn - two rows of elm trees
  just north of the Malott Common
  (909) 607-1870
  
  Commencement speaker:
  Gabrielle Giffords, U.S. Representative (D-AZ) and
  Scripps College graduate, class of '93.
  

• Harvey Mudd College Commencement
  1:30pm
  Mudd Quadrangle
  Harvey Mudd College
  E. 10th St. and Dartmouth Ave.
  (909) 607-7924
  
  Commencement speaker:
  Dean Kamen, founder of FIRST, entrepreneur, inventor, physicist, advocate for science and technology.
  

Scripps Film Series

If you missed "Persepolis" at Pomona College last week, it will be playing again April 2nd at the Garrison Theater on the campus of Scripps College. The film is part of the Humanities Institute's Spring 2009 program, "Muslim Women: Contemporary Realities."

The program also features a number of lectures. The next one is 7:30pm on March 25th at Scripps' Boone Recital Hall. Dr. Amina Wadud, a visiting scholar at the Starr King School of the ministry in Berkeley will give a lecture titled "Islam Beyond Patriarchy."

On April 9th, one week after "Persepolis" is shown, you can hear Marjane Satrapi herself speak, 7:30pm at Garrison Theater. (Why they didn't have the film and the author/illustrator on the same night?)

Here are the films remaining in the Humanities Institute Spring 2009 program:

Humanities Institute Spring 2009 FILM SERIES

Contact: Claire Bridge
Location: Boone Recital Hall, 7:30 p.m.
Event Date: February 27, 2009
Description:

THIS EVENT IS FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. For more information please call the Scripps College Humanities Institute (909) 621-8326, or visit our website for the entire schedule of events

Thursday, March 26 ~ 7:30 p.m. ~ Boone Recital Hall - Shahida - Brides of Allah, Natalie Assouline, Director, 2008, Israel, 76 min

Thursday, April 2 ~ 7:30 p.m. ~ Garrison Theater - Persepolis, Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Satrapi, Directors, 2007, France/USA, 96 min

Thursday, April 16 ~ 7:30 p.m. ~ Boone Recital Hall, 7 Filmsaze Zan-E Nabina (Seven Blind Female Filmmakers), Directed by Sara Parto, Shokoofe Davarnejad, Narges Haghighat, Banafshe Ahmadi, Mahdis Elahi, Naghmeh Afiat, and Neda Haghighat, Mohammad Shirvani, Producer, 2008, Iran, 116 min

Thursday, April 23 ~ 7:30 p.m. ~ Boone Recital Hall - Inside Ou, Zohreh Shayesteh and Ishai Setton, Directors, 2006, Iran, 52 (39) min. and A Jihad for Love, Parvez Sharma, Director, 2007, 81 min

Garrison Theater at
Scripps College
241 E. 10th St.
Claremont, CA 91711

Boone Recital Hall
231 E. 10th St.
Claremont, CA 91711

Call (909) 621-8326 for info.

More Cohen News

Singer, poet and artist Leonard Cohen continues to be in the news, possibly because of his upcoming concert tour. Claremont McKenna College has an ongoing show of Cohen's artwork at the Marion Miner Cook Athenaeum, and CMC is also sponsoring the West Coast premiere of composer Philip Glass' song cycle Book of Longing, which is based on Cohen's poetry.

Cohen performed at New York's Beacon Theater last week, and the New York Times had a glowing review of the show.

The NYT also interviewed Cohen and made audio excerpts of the interview available on their website.

NPR has the Beacon Theater concert posted online, and they also have a podcast available from All Songs Considered.

And, this week's New Yorker has a Cohen poem titled "A Street":

You put on a uniform
To fight the Civil War
I tried to join but no one liked
The side I’m fighting for

So let’s drink to when it’s over
And let’s drink to when we meet
I’ll be standing on this corner
Where there used to be a street

From "A Street"
- Leonard Cohen

Lastly, the Claremont Courier had a long write up of the CMC Cohen events, complete with comments from Philip Glass, who is performing Book of Longing through Sunday at the Garrison Theatre on the Scripps College campus. The Courier article, by Sandy and Tom Fasano quoted Glass as he explained some the how he went about translating Cohen's poetry into a musical work:

“This was hard for me,” Mr. Glass explained, “because there were over a hundred poems. So I finally narrowed down the poems I would use to 26 or 28 poems that I would work with. I was able to get the performance to one hour and 45 minutes, and Leonard was happy with that.”

The process of composing the song cycle was truly collaborative. As Mr. Glass explains it, “When I was working on putting the poems to music, Leonard sent me a recording of him reading all of the poems in the book. I thought this is a professional recording and I wanted to put his voice within the performance.”

The overall effect Mr. Glass was searching for was the one many of us have when reading poetry. “I wanted the experience to be as if a reader were flipping through a book of poetry,” Mr. Glass said.

The performance itself can be compared, according to Mr. Glass, “to the staging of a piece of music in modern theatre.” It incorporates music, recorded voice, utilizing Mr. Cohen’s art as a backdrop.

Mr. Glass will perform on one of two keyboards with an ensemble of 8 musicians and 4 singers. “The same ensemble has been performing together since the premiere in June of 2007,” Mr. Glass said. “We perform for two or three weeks and then take two or three months off. Everyone is very committed to the piece.”

Tickets can be purchased at the Garrison Theater, located on the Scripps College Campus, 231 E. Tenth Street. Box-office hours are 6 to 8:30 p.m. before each of the 4 scheduled performances: February 25, 27, 28, March 1. Books and CDs will be available at the performance. Leonard Cohen limited-edition prints are available by e-mail inquiries only: michaelpetit@mac.com.

CGU's Klitgaard Resigns

CGU Website Image

Sorry we didn't get around to posting this sooner. There have been rumors of this floating around for a week or two, but we had no confirmation until now....

CGU President Robert Klitgaard resigned last Friday. The reasons are not clear at this point. Here's what the Los Angeles Times reported:

An expert in government reform and international studies, Klitgaard decided to resign over differences with the university's trustees involving strategic plans for the future, according to a school spokesperson. Klitgaard and trustee officials could not be reached for comment Monday.

The Daily Bulletin's Wes Woods II reports in today's paper that CGU has named provost and vice-chair for academic affairs Yi Feng as interim president. CGU will have to form a search committee to find a new president, and Woods' piece indicated the process could take a year.

Woods' article said:

Robert Klitgaard last week decided to step down as president. He had served as president since summer 2005.

Klitgaard's opinion on CGU's strategic planning differed from the Board of Trustees, [CGU spokesperson Esther] Wiley said.

She did not provides specifics on the disagreements.

. . . . .

Despite the poor economy, Wiley said the college is holding up financially, because its finances are more based off of enrollment than endowments.

The percentage of CGU's budget that is tuition driven is 76 percent, Wiley said.

Enrollment at CGU has increased by more than 12 percent in the past two years and research grants have significantly increased.

The search for a new college president can certainly take a long time. Fritz Weis over at Scripps College has been interim president since July 1, 2007, and that search is continuing. Weis, you may recall, was appointed as a temporary replacement for former president Nancy Bekavac, who left Scripps after a 17-year tenure.

Healy Continuing to Provide Kicks - UPDATED

COURIER COVERS HEALY KICK-OFF

Claremont Courier reporter Tony Krickl had a blog post about Bridget Healy's campaign kick-off event last Sunday. Krickl wrote that a Claremont resident had an interesting question for Healy:

An interesting question came up at Bridget Healy's campaign kickoff party, held in the highly acoustic halls of the Packing House on Sunday.

It came from resident Ken Corhan, whose been following Claremont politics for years.

“There were some tense moments with [city] staff, and you were here for some of that. How would you approach being a council member to avoid those kinds of tensions?” he asked.

Healy responded, “I think the current council has done a really good job of alleviating some of those tensions and working together to improve, and I will continue in that vein. I think it's well prudent when we look at the current council that working together and listening to each other is the key.”

I talked to Corhan after he asked the question. He was referring to the tense political environment after the Landrum shooting in 2001 and what appeared to be an unresponsive city staff to the council's and community's concerns.

He said that he was satisfied with Healy's response to his question. “She seemed to answer the question genuinely,” Corhan said.

Yes, excellent question there Ken. Of course, Krickl missed the fact that Corhan, who is married to former Claremont Human Services Commission Chair Suzanne Hall, has been far more than a mere observer of the local political scene. He and his wife have been intricately wound up in past campaigns for both the City Council and the Claremont Unified School District.

For instance, in 2005, he and Hall donated $200 to the Preserve Claremont campaign, and Hall herself was part of Official Claremont's culture of unresponsiveness as a commission chair at the height of the Glenn Southard regime in Claremont. And, make no mistake about it, Corhan, a graduate of Yale and the Columbia School of Law, is not your average Joe Citizen. In fact, he's counsel to the Lewis Operating Company in Upland, one of the largest real estate companies in Southern California.

(UPDATED, 1/15/09, 8:00am: Most significantly, Corhan's esposa Suzanne Hall is one of 30 people who signed Healy's nomination papers for the council.)

Nothing like having batting practice pitches lobbed to you by your friends in the crowd, eh? It's simply more of the old "River City" tactic the Claremont 400 has employed for years.


STRANGE FRUIT, STRANGER BEDFELLOWS

Not to pick too much on Healy, but her own responsiveness as Claremont's Assistant City Manager left much to be desired in the wake of the Irvin Landrum shooting that so concerned Ken Corhan. Landrum was killed on January 11, 1999. Large-scale protests began very quickly in the wake of the shooting.

Click to Enlarge

Two weeks after the shooting, on January 26, 1999, the Clarmeont City Council received an agenda report co-authored by Claremont police lieutenant Paul Cooper (our current chief of police) and Bridget Healy. The report was also vetted by the City Attorney and signed by then-City Manager Glenn Southard. That staff report laid out a proposed code of conduct for people wishing to address the City Council during meetings. It also included, under item M, "Threat Assessment," a provision for having public speakers evaluated by mental health professionals:

At the request of a council member, commissioner, committee member or staff member, mental health professionals will be called in to determine the level of threat an individual may be posing. Appropriate action will be taken based on the assessment findings.

Yes, under the staff proposal, a psychologist or social worker would have been on call for council meetings, and the Council or the City Manager could pick anyone they didn't want to hear and have that person detained and referred to the "mental health professional" for some helpful and timely straitjacketing and/or muzzling.

Incidentally, if there is any question as to authorship, the report was marked "P:/bhealy/Admin Policy - Public Mtg Disturb 1-20-99.doc." It represented nothing more than a heavy-handed, police state method of dealing with dissent, in large part by students from the Claremont Colleges, over the Landrum shooting.

Click to Enlarge

The proposal generated a good deal of controversy and was never enacted, by the way.

That's why it's utterly laughable to see supposed civil libertarians supporting Healy. One of Healy's nominators, for instance, is Scripps College Vice-President and Dean of Faculty Cecilia Conrad. Conrad, along with her husband Llewellyn Miller, were among those most moved to action by the Landrum shooting. You may remember that Miller ended up being the first African-American elected to the Claremont City Council as part of the community's reaction to the shooting. Yet here Conrad is, ten years later, supporting one of the people most responsible for the City's shoddy handling of that crisis.

The apparently infinite capacity of those smart, well-credentialed people who run Official Claremont to support contradictory positions and to bury the past continues to amaze us. It has nothing to do with what's right or just and everything to do with what one's friends tell one to do.

Local politics truly makes the strangest bedfellows.


MORE OF THAT HEALY TREATMENT

Finally, we recall that back in 2000, there used to be a website called ClaremontCA.com. It was a sort of Insider long before there was an Insider and was staffed by real, not digital, people.

In August, 2000, not only was the City having to deal with the aftermath of the Landrum shooting, but they received some bad PR over City Attorney Sonia Carvalho's reported role in helping the city oppose what later became the successful Measure A anti-conflict of interest initiative. The city decided to hold a press conference to clarify what they thought were some misperceptions about Carvalho's role in the matter.

ClaremontCA called the city and asked to attend the press conference. Their website recorded what happened:

Informed that there was to be a news conference Wednesday, ClaremontCA.com called the city manager's office for time and place information. Assistant City Manager Bridget Healy, a bureaucrat paid $105,000 per year to represent the city, told ClaremontCA.com that the meeting was "only for the invited press." When cautioned that such an arrangement was improper, Ms. Healy responded, "Whatever". When asked to include ClaremontCA.com in the meeting she refused to assist. "There's nothing more I can do for you". When asked if ClaremontCA.com would be allowed into the meeting Ms. Healy laughed and said "You'll just have to go and find out for yourself". When pressed to extend the invitation to ClaremontCA.com Ms. Healy hung-up the phone in mid-sentence.

Can’t we all just get along, Bridget?

Indeed. Which makes Tony Krickl's closing sentence all the more deliciously ironic:

Her supporters [including Ken Corhan] would say that having Healy on the council is bringing the best from the past into Claremont's future.