Tag Archives: Los Angeles Times

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VICTORY: UC Regents settles suit against UCLA Surgeon, Dr. Christian Head


changeorg

Friend,

Thanks to you, UCLA couldn’t shake the public’s outrage that nearly 120,000 Change.org signatures awakened. The late Willis Edwards started this petition to stop the discrimination and retaliation against an African American surgeon. Despite succumbing to cancer before the resolution of this case, you made his effort a success.

Dr. Christian Head, a respected UCLA surgeon who was the target of blatant racial discrimination and unrelenting retaliation, was finally awarded a settlement sum of $4.5 million from the University of California’s Board of Regents.

In fact, your signature and support for Dr. Head was so effective that the petition pressed UCLA to undertake a campus-wide survey to evaluate the university’s racial climate among its faculty.

The 5-member panel that oversaw the survey was led by former California Supreme Court Justice Carlos Moreno. The results were scathing. Thanks to the Los Angeles Times, the public has learned the findings of the report reveal a shameful pattern.

The report found that UCLA’s review process “failed to adequately record, investigate, or provide for disciplinary sanctions for incidents which, if substantiated, would constitute violations of university nondiscrimination policy.” In other words, UCLA ignored complaints about discrimination and retaliation.

While Dr. Christian Head’s settlement is a huge victory, the university faces continued problems. Currently, Dr. Joel Sercarz, the only physician to have publicly substantiated Dr. Head’s allegations, is currently involved in a lawsuit against UCLA for the retaliation he faced when he came to Dr. Head’s defense. And other suits regarding unprofessional workplace conduct are also pending.

You can help reform UCLA’s racial climate. It’s time to ask the California Attorney General, Kamala Harris to step in to conduct and independent investigation on claims of discrimination and retaliation that UCLA bypassed.

Follow this link to sign the petition:  https://www.change.org/petitions/ca-attorney-general-kamala-harris-investigate-ucla-for-ignoring-discrimination-and-retaliation-complaints-by-faculty-members

UCLA has forfeited its credibility to handle such sensitive and critical matters.

Thank you so much for supporting Dr. Head in this landmark case taking on institutionalized racism. Now, let’s keep up the tremendous effort to change the toxic climate at UCLA.

Ron Hasson, NAACP Board Member

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Richmond, CA struggling families 2 – Wall Street criminals 0!


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Richmond, CA 2 – Wall Street 0.


Richmond, CA struggling families 2 – Wall Street criminals 0! With your help, we did it! We beat back the Wall Street-led campaign of threats, litigation, and a full-scale election-style campaign to end Richmond, CA’s program to help underwater homeowners in that city, using eminent domain if necessary.

On Tuesday night (well, really Wednesday morning), the City Council voted 4-3 to move forward with the Richmond CARES program despite the huge attacks from Wall Street bankers against it. That was the first victory this week and it is a really big deal.
The importance of this victory cannot be overstated. If the lies and fear mongering of Wall Street bankers had been allowed to intimidate Richmond’s City Council into backing down, the entire Local Principal Reduction idea would have collapsed. Instead, the movement is spreading. This week, San Francisco Supervisor Campos announced a resolution standing in solidarity with Richmond and exploring a similar program there. And in Seattle, more than 30 groups came together in the Reset Seattle Coalition and packed the Seattle City Council to launch an LPR campaign there, too.
For the first time since they destroyed our economy, Wall Street bankers have had a significant defeat and more cities are gearing up to join in. The Home Defenders League has set up a page to raise funds for these fights. Can you chip in $20 to help us take this fight to new cities around the country?

The second big victory from this week came on Thursday, when US District Court Judge Charles Breyer declined to grant an injunction – filed by Well Fargo and Deutsche Bank – to stop Richmond CARES before it even got started.
Your help in this fight has been critical. Nearly 25,000 of you signed petitions supporting LPR and Richmond and over 250 of you called Wells Fargo’s CEO to tell him to drop his lawsuit against the city. 300 people showed up at the vote on Tuesday, including over 150 from Action for the Common Good and HDL partner the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE), and the vast majority of them praised the Council for taking this bold step and urged them to move forward with the program.
Can you chip in $20 so we can work with other cities ready to stand up for their struggling families as well?
We’re really proud of how you, the Home Defenders League and ACCE were able to beat back the bankers’ attack and ensure that Richmond did the right thing. Thank you for standing up to Wall Street and being a part of this historic week of victories.
In Solidarity,

Brian Kettenring, Executive Director, Action for the Common Good

PS. Here’s a great description of the City Council vote and victory from Prof. Peter Drier writing in the Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-dreier/california-defies-wall-st_b_3909022.html
And here’s the Los Angeles Times on the court case: http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-eminent-domain-20130912,0,5887953.story
http://www.campaignforfairsettlement.org/

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a message from kathy of UCS …


UCS I’m writing because we had a big win since then—after an enormous outcry from UCS and other concerned citizens and groups, the Koch brothers have dropped their attempt to buy up eight major newspapers.

This is a huge victory, but we know the Kochs aren’t going away yet. Along with funding climate-denying front groups, they’re still trying to buy up media (a Koch spokesman said “Koch continues to have an interest in the media business and we’re exploring a broad range of opportunities…”). We’ll continue to keep a sharp eye on the Kochs’ activities and defend climate science at every step.  But we need your help and continued involvement. If you’d like to support our efforts, you can make a special gift to UCS now >>

—Kathy

Fight back against the Koch brothers

What do you do when you’re a billionaire and scientific facts about climate change can hurt your bottom line? You fund a massive network of disinformation. And if that doesn’t work, you try to buy some newspapers.

Oil tycoons Charles and David Koch are behind nearly every major effort to stall climate progress in the United States. They bankroll anti-science “think tanks”, pay “experts” to publish faulty reports—and now they’re trying to buy a chain of eight major newspapers, including the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times.1

UCS members are fighting back—exposing Koch-funded “authorities” and sending thousands of letters to newspaper owners asking them not to sell to these ideologues. Our campaign has reached a fever pitch. Will you help?

Stand up for science and fight the Koch machine—donate today >>

It’s tough to even track all the ways Koch money permeates America’s dialogue on clean energy and climate change. But no one out there is doing a better job than UCS. And we’re not just tracking it. We’re doing something about it:

The Koch Brothers stop at nothing to undermine climate science and clean energy…     ~~ UCS members stop at nothing to defend them… ~~
Koch-funded campaigns attack progress on renewable energy in state after state—opposing solar development in Georgia and wind power in Ohio through misinformation campaigns, citing inaccurate statistics.2 ~~ UCS members give lawmakers the facts. Just this year, you’ve sent tens of thousands of letters that make the case for renewable energy—and we’re winning in state after state, including the Kochs’ home state of Kansas.3 ~~
The Koch Brothers bankroll anti-science “think tanks” like the Heartland Institute, infamous for its billboard campaign equating climate scientists with Osama bin Laden and the Unabomber.4 ~~ UCS exposes the money behind these groups—and publishes science-based reports, trusted by policymakers, that answer tough questions on global warming, extreme weather, nuclear safety, and agriculture.~~
They hire “experts” to distort science to protect their bottom line. A Koch-owned company was just taken to task for planting misinformation in scientific journals to hide a product’s cancer-causing risk.5 ~~ Our experts stand up for science in the media, in statehouses, and on Capitol Hill, correcting distorted science through interviews and testimony. ~~
They go after big media. The Kochs are looking to buy eight trusted papers, including the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times, where their influence could distort the truth about climate change and energy policy.6 ~~ UCS members hold a spotlight up to disinformation in the media. Together, we’ve exposed Fox News and The Wall Street Journal for their distorted coverage of climate science, and uncovered media outlets that fail to warn readers about conflicts of interest.7 ~~

The Koch Brothers will keep fighting until there’s no fight left. That’s how they operate.

There’s only one way to respond. When they distort the facts, we say so and tell the truth. When they lobby lawmakers, we flood offices with constituent calls and letters. When they try to hide their trail of influence and money, we shine a spotlight. When others duck, UCS members stand up, stand together, and fight back—with science on our side.

 This fight needs your support right now. Make a special gift today.

There’s no time to waste.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

This is crazy, Washington!

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Policy and Action from Consumer Reports

Here’s TJ’s number, call them maybe?

Their customers are calling, but Trader Joe’s still refuses to meet with us to discuss ending the sale of meat raised on antibiotics. The grocer says it listens to its customers, so we’re ramping up more calls. Can you call them, maybe?

Take action

 

To save our antibiotics, we can’t just wait for Congress to act. We have to go directly to grocery chains selling antibiotic-raised meat and get them to stop.

So we targeted Trader Joe’s, one of the nation’s most progressive grocers, to lead the way in the fight to save our antibiotics.

But after presenting a half-million of your signatures, sending thousands of emails, postcards and fliers – and running full-page ads in the hometown newspapers where they’re headquartered – Trader Joe’s management still refuses to sit down and talk with us about stopping the sale of this meat.

This is crazy! Now we need a little help from you to convince them.

Make a toll-free call to company headquarters today, and ask them to stop selling meat raised on drugs!

Trader Joe’s prides itself on listening to its customers. Since the company is headquartered in California, we recently put ads in the Los Angeles Times and San Francisco Chronicle asking customers to call company execs and ask them to end the sale of antibiotic-raised beef, poultry and pork. The execs got a LOT of calls!

What did Trader Joe’s do? They dug in even deeper, telling callers they will keep selling meat raised on antibiotics. Pretty unbelievable for a company that claims to listen to its customers. The Pacific-Northwest is a major market for Trader Joes. Your call may be the tipping point.

We’re not giving up until they do. Help us keep the pressure on by making your own quick phone call — and let us know what the grocer tells you.

We’re tackling the overuse of antibiotics in our food animals on every front – including testing meat for drug-resistant superbugs, lobbying in Congress, and pushing industry and the marketplace to stop this risky practice. Join us in making a safer future for your family by making a call now.

Sincerely, Jean Halloran, NotInMyFood.org, a project of Consumers Union Policy and Action from Consumer Reports