Sunday Benefit for Japan

One other thing happening this weekend. This Sunday, April 3, the Claremont Colleges will hold a day-long series of events to benefit victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. It's all part of Japan Day at the 5Cs. The events start at 1:30pm and continue on into the evening:

Japan Day at the Claremont Colleges

Time: Sunday, April 3 · 1:30pm - 10:00pm
Location: Claremont Colleges

Created By Claremont Colleges for Japan, Nanako Yano

This Sunday (April 3rd) is Japan Day at the Claremont Colleges!

There will be a series of events the entire day and many opportunities to donate to Miyagi Prefecture.

Please bring at least $1 to donate and buy baked goods!

• 1:30pm, 3:30pm
  Two Japanese Films Showing at Pomona's Rose Hills Theater:
  Maboroshi (1:30-), Departures (3:30-)
  
  
• 2pm, in front of Little Bridges
  Pomona Jazz Band performance
  
  
• 3pm, Pomona SCC Room 212
  Discussion/Session with Psychologist, Brianne D. Goudelock from the Monsour Center
  
  
• 7pm, Scripps Boone Recital Hall and Pattison Courtyard
  Pre-concert performances
  
  
• 8pm, Scripps Garrison Theater
  Claremont Colleges for Japan Benefit Concert

CGU Fundraiser for Japan Aid Today

Claremont Graduate University and the Red Cross are holding a fundraiser today for Japanese earthquake and tsunami victims. The event will run starts at 7am and runs all day. Here are the details:

CGU's Drucker School to hold fundraiser for Japan earthquake and tsunami relief


CLAREMONT, California —The Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management at Claremont Graduate University is partnering with the American Red Cross for a "drive-through" disaster relief fundraiser in Claremont on Wednesday, March 23 to benefit victims of the Japan earthquake and tsunami.

The Drucker Relief Drive for Japan will allow those who wish to donate to do so without leaving the comfort of their cars.

Volunteers will collect donations at the university's north campus parking lot from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. The lot is at the northwest corner of Drucker Way (E 11th St) and Dartmouth Avenue in Claremont. Drivers should enter the lot from Drucker Way. (map)



Cash and checks will be accepted. Checks should be made out to the American Red Cross, with "Japan Earthquake" written in the memo line.

Anyone who wishes to donate before March 23 can drop off a check at the Drucker School's main floor reception desk, 1021 N. Dartmouth Ave.

A magnitude 9.0 earthquake hit Japan on March 11, with some 400 aftershocks following. The initial temblor spawned a huge tsunami that devastated Japan's eastern coast. At least 8,400 people have been killed, and nearly 13,000 remain missing. Survivors are facing shortages of key supplies, such as food and gasoline.

About The Drucker School

With a strong commitment to research, values orientation, and an intimate graduate-only curriculum, Princeton Review recently ranked the school fifth in the nation in faculty quality. The Drucker School offers a variety of professional and doctoral degrees, including MBA, EMBA, MSFE (jointly with CGU’s School of Math), MA in Arts Management (jointly with CGU’s School of Arts and Humanities), and MA in Politics, Business, and Economics (jointly with CGU’s School of Politics and Economics). Named for both a pioneering thinker (Peter Drucker) and an accomplished doer (Masatoshi Ito), the school produces graduates who have a strong sense of social responsibility and a deep desire to make a difference by doing well while also doing good.

About Claremont Graduate University

Founded in 1925, Claremont Graduate University is one of the top graduate schools in the United States. Our nine academic schools conduct leading-edge research and award masters and doctoral degrees in 24 disciplines. Because the world’s problems are not simple nor easily defined, diverse faculty and students research and study across the traditional discipline boundaries to create new and practical solutions for the major problems plaguing our world. A Southern California based graduate school devoted entirely to graduate research and study, CGU boasts a low student-to-faculty ratio.

The American Red Cross name is used with its permission, which in no way constitutes an endorsement, expressed or implied, of any product, service, company, individual or political position. For more information about the American Red Cross, please call 1‑800 RED CROSS or email info@usa.redcross.org.

5.4 Quake

If you were around town today and felt the ground shaking, don't worry. Claremont wasn't blowing anything up today.

It was only an earthquake, a moderate one at that. The magnitude 5.4 quake hit at 4:53pm near Borrego Springs and Indio (see, there was a bit of a Claremont connection). The US Geological Survey has all the information on the event. If you felt it, take some time and complete the USGS questionnaire.

Tuesday Night = City Council Meeting

Come on down to City Hall tonight at 6:30pm and watch local pols in their native habitat. Do be careful not to disturb them. They can bite, and they're vicious when disturbed or if they're protecting their young.

You can see all the action at 225 Second St. in the council chambers or you can watch online here.

The agenda, if you're interested, is here. Among the items tonight:

• Recognition of La Parolaccia Restaurant for their Haitian Earthquake fundraiser. (Don't know what happened to Round Table's attaboy. Didn't they have one too?)
  
  
• Presentation of the Chamber of Commerce marketing study by CGU's Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito (or Masatoshi Ho, as the agenda has it) School of Management.
  
  
• A report from City Treasurer Adam Pirrie on the City's investments for the quarter that ended on 12/31/09. This sentence caught our eye: "There was an overall decrease of $1,981,104 in City held investments as shown on the City Investment Report (Attachment A) primarily as a result of the outflow of funds to maintain operations."
  
  
• The City, too, has conducted a marketing study. City Hall's version was done by a consulting firm called Fairbank, Maslin, Maulin, Metz and Associates. (A four namer! Must be good!)
  
  
• The annual report from CPD on Part I crime data for 2009.
  

San Berdo Quake Shakes Area - UPDATED

Click to Enlarge

8:25pm: A moderate earthquake shook the area about 35 minutes ago. The epicenter was apparently somewhere near San Bernardino.

The U.S. Geological Survey's website initially reported the quake as a magnitude 5.0 temblor centered about 6km NNE of Colton. (This number will be adjusted as the data are analyzed.)

UPDATED, 7:05AM - The USGS has downgraded the quake's magnitude to 4.5. The Daily Bulletin has an article and includes a link to a KCBS2 news video.

The quake seemed short in duration, perhaps five or six seconds at the most, but reports from Highland residents on the local TV news indicate it may have lasted much longer near the epicenter.

If you felt it, the USGS would like your responses to a few questions about the intensity and nature of the shaking you felt. Go here to enter your answers.

According to the USGS, your input is important for the following reasons:

How it helps us:

• Immediate high quality and large quantity of data.
• Cost-effective means of collecting data (replaced expensive and slow postal questionnaires).
• Helps constrain instrumental data used for ShakeMap and PAGER.
• Provides data in areas where there are no seismic instruments.
• Provides data for smaller earthquakes that we can't normally record.

How it helps others:

• Provides a rapid assesment of the extent of shaking and damage for emergency responders.
• Confirms experiences of shaking for other people.

How it helps you:

• You learn the difference between magnitude and intensity.
• Helps you feel more in control of your experience.
• Opportunity to share your experience with others.
• Opportunity to contribute to the advancement of earthquake science.

The Great ShakeOut - 10AM Today

The Great ShakeOut, California's big earthquake drill simulating a magnitude 7.8 earthquake along the San Andreas fault, happens today at 10am. The ShakeOut has a website that gives lots of information. Here's the scenario:

The Great Southern California ShakeOut is based on a potential magnitude 7.8 earthquake on the southern San Andreas Fault— approximately 5,000 times larger than the magnitude 5.4 earthquake that shook southern California on July 29. It’s not a matter of if an earthquake of this size will happen—but when. And it is possible that it will happen in our lifetime.

Dr. Lucy Jones of the U.S. Geological Survey has led a group of over 300 scientists, engineers, and others to study the likely consequences of this potential earthquake in great detail. The result is the ShakeOut Earthquake Scenario, which is also the basis of this year’s statewide emergency response exercise, Golden Guardian 2008.

In an earthquake of this size, the shaking will last for nearly two minutes. The strongest shaking will occur near the fault (in the projected earthquake, the Coachella Valley, Inland Empire and Antelope Valley). Pockets of strong shaking will form away from the fault where sediments trap the waves (in the projected earthquake, it would occur in the San Gabriel Valley and in East Los Angeles).

An earthquake of this size will cause unprecedented damage to Southern California—greatly dwarfing the massive damage that occurred in Northridge’s 6.7-magnitude earthquake in 1994. In summary, the ShakeOut Scenario estimates this earthquake will cause some 2,000 deaths, 50,000 injuries, $200 billion in damage and other losses, and severe, long-lasting disruption. The report has regional implications and is a dramatic call to action for preparedness.

The City of Claremont is participating in the Great Shakeout and has a disaster preparedness page on its Public Safety website.

The Shakeout folks have also posted several YouTube videos. Here's a graphical simulation of the Big One:

Natural Disasters: The Lighter Side

A few final notes on Tuesday's Chino Hills earthquake.

Meg at M-M-M-My Pomona has a neighbor who was kind enough to share a part of his earthquake kit with her. The neighbor calls it a "Lincoln Park":

Lincoln Park
orange sherbet
Grand Marnier
tequila
a spritz of lemon juice
a few ice cubes.

Combine in the proportion that suits your level of bibulousness, whiz in the blender until frothy, and serve in an Old Fashioned glass. A toast to our fair city is mandatory, not optional.

* * *

Watching the some of the coverage on the local TV stations, we could not help but feel guilty at not having written sooner about all those cut backs at the LA Times, the Riverside Press-Enterprise, and the William Dean Singleton-owned LA News Group papers. One wonders how much the ongoing deaths of a thousand cuts in newsrooms affect the ability of print media to cover the local news well.

Gary Scott, who once worked for the Claremont Courier and who is now a producer at KCRW 89.9FM, has been covering print journalism's death-spiral at hands of dedicated citizen-tycoons such as Singleton with the Daily Bulletin, the San Bernardino Sun, the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, or the Daily News, to name a few of his papers. Or Sam Zell at the LA Times and the Tribune Co., for that matter.

Then there's Ed Padgett's Los Angeles Times Pressmen's blog, which captures the pain of the industry's transition/transformation from within.

Professionalism seems increasingly out the window as journalists face the pressure to produce for upper management types who don't always have the background to understand what exactly it is they're managing.

Television news long ago gave up much of its ethical and professional pretensions. It's entertainment, after all, and disasters make for good pictures. For the discriminating news consumer, there's really not much you can do except chill out and toss back another Lincoln Park.

The scary thing is that the line between satire and reality has become awfully blurred:


Breaking News: Series Of Concentric Circles Emanating From Glowing Red Dot

The Day After

Claremont had a little shaking yesterday, but the city reports all is fine in the City of Trees and Ph.D's. Our neighbors to the south didn't fare quite as well:

POMONA BUILDINGS OK,
MAYOR NOT SO MUCH

We were glad to hear the news that Pomona City Hall and the Pomona Library were reporting no serious damage and both are schedule to resume their normal hours today, according to the city of Pomona's website.

Both Pomona City Hall and the Library were designed by the same person, Welton Becket, who was responsible for any number of Southern California icons: the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, the Mark Taper Forum, the LA Sports Arena, the Capitol Records building, the old Bullock's building (now Macy's) on South Lake Street in Pasadena, and many others.

All survived the Northridge and Sylmar quakes, so a little 5.4 shaker shouldn't do too much harm.

The Goddess of Pomona had some excellent coverage of the downtown Pomona scene yesterday, complete with exclusive photos. As the comment from Garrett Sawyer indicates, no word yet on how the Pomona Fox Theatre fared.

We thought it odd that with all the focus on Pomona City Hall on television and in the news we heard not a peep from Pomona Mayor Norma Torres, who in the midst of a campaign for the State Assembly's 61st District has been oddly silent since winning the district's Democratic primary.

We suspect that Torres' party handlers have instructed her to keep quiet to avoid any flubs that might lead to the sort of embarrassment that her endorsement of now-convicted water board member Xavier Alvarez caused. Thanks to gerrymandering, the seat is very safely Democratic, so Torres can keep her mouth shut and do the important things like add to the now-$400,000-plus in special interest money she has raised to date pandering her future assembly votes for her campaign war chest.

Still, in a situation like this with City Hall closed and TV news crews running around downtown Pomona, you'd think an appearance or even a formal statement from the mayor, never one to miss a photo op, would be in order. Torres' silence in the past couple months is one sign that her party's higher ups recognize the candidate's flaws.

Hmmmm....City Hall closed, windows shattered, mayor nowhere in sight...there must be a metaphor in there someplace: Pomona, scene of disasters, natural and otherwise.


WIDER AREA COVERAGE

The Daily Bulletin had coverage today of the quake's effects outside of Pomona. The Bulletin article reports that the epicenter was under the Sleepy Hollow area of Carbon Canyon Rd.

Only a few injuries that were described as minor and some power outages, along with scattered property damage. The LA Times also had coverage today.

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The U.S. Geological Survey has a site where you can fill out a questionnaire if you felt yesterday's quake. It only takes a few minutes, and the more data points the USGS can collect from as many diverse locations as possible, the more accurately they can describe the earth movement yesterday. This all helps engineers come up with better structural designs to help buildings and infrastructure survive future earthquakes. The Chino quake is USGS Event 14383980, and you can complete the questionnaire by following the link that says "Did You Feel It?"

The Earth Moved

[8:30 p.m. Last update of the day. Metrolink says that all track has been inspected, there is no damage, and all trains will run on time on Wednesday, July 30.

See the Foothill Cities Blog here for a picture of the broken glass at Pomona City Hall, and here for some interesting surveillance camera video at a San Dimas bicycle shop.]

[7:05 p.m. Metrolink is showing a 30 to 45 minute delay on the San Bernardino train.]

[Update 6:00 p.m. Sometime in the past hour, KNBC went back to its regular programming. See the Daily Bulletin website for the latest on the earthquake. ]

[Update 4:47 p.m. KNBC still flogging this wall to wall. They are now showing a helicopter view from Newschopper 4 of the building shown in the image above. Richard Nunez was there first.]

[Update 3:35 p.m. See the Goddess of Pomona for some exclusive pictures of damage to buildings in Pomona. Pics taken by Richard E. Nunez. Great work, Richard, and great work, Goddess!

Also, from a reader,

Channel 7 reported a dough mixer falling off a truck on its journey into the 42nd Street Bagelry...ABC news in Claremont for another story this AM and captured earthquake news from the Village...Pomona City Hall sustained damage with large glass exteriors shattering... Closed...]

[Update 3:09 p.m. Earthquake has been re-graded to magnitude 5.4 (from 5.8). Biggest casualty so far seems to be the Metrolink website, which has not responded in more than two hours. Reports have it that the trains that are running are only doing so at "restricted speeds". Expect a mess here and a late dinner if you are counting on the train.]

[Update 1:13 p.m. We hear that the Metrolink line is closed for inspection until further notice. Check the Metrolink site (site is being hammered right now) for further information. There have been apparently erroneous reports of roof damage at the terminal at Ontario Airport. Some of the cell phone providers experienced a "mass calling event" and had connection problems immediately after the earthquake. Those seem to have cleared up.]


[12:06 p.m. Tuesday] If you were in Claremont at 11:42 Tuesday morning, you already know about the 5.8 magnitude (preliminary) centered near Carbon Canyon in the Chino Hills.

Early reports do not talk of damage, although it's hard to believe there is not broken glass somewhere.

We will update if there is any serious Claremont news to report. Listen up for a "Code Red" Robo-call from Police Chief Cooper or Mayor Taylor.

KNBC has live coverage as of noon.