This is the archive for February 2008
By Bobbi Maas, Courier Staff Writer
Starbucks across the nation have decided to retrain their employees to perfect the frothy, creamy, flavorful drinks that Americans have grown addicted to. Local Union City shops embraced this new training. Carlos, a barista at the shop located on Decoto Road said, “Even the way we steam the milk is different. We take more time in creating the drinks and as a result the drinks are tastier.” Sara his co-worker said, “Working here you get used to the way each drink tastes. You know it better than anyone. The drinks were good to start with but now they are even better.”
Posted by courier at 12:13 PM. Filed under: News
5 comments • Permalink
By Howard Yang, Courier Staff Writer
In this age of digital film technology and computer generated special effects, audiences often grow tired of seeing the same old “awe-inspiring” explosions and “epic” landscapes offered by today’s movies.
Be Kind Rewind, directed by Michael Gondry, provides audiences with a refreshingly creative perspective movie-making and entertainment.
Posted by courier at 05:39 AM. Filed under: News
No comments • Permalink
Courier Staff Report
Logan Principal Don Montoya will be reassigned to unspecified duties next year as part of an administrative purge announced today.
Montoya announced his reassignment, effective July 1, to the school's staff at a hastily called staff meeting after school. He didn't say what his new duties would be. He added that the district will conduct a search for a new principal.
In a press release, the district announced that David Pava, Deputy Superintendent of the New Haven Unified School District since 2001, and former Logan principal, will retire in the fall.
Posted by courier at 05:33 PM. Filed under: News
6 comments • Permalink
By Benjamin Pimentel
MarketWatch (MCT)
SAN FRANCISCO — As the stalemate over Microsoft Corp.'s bid to buy Yahoo Inc. enters its third week, some analysts are already pointing to a winner in the impasse: Google Inc.
Two weeks after Yahoo rebuffed Microsoft's merger proposal and the software giant's vow to explore all options, it remains unclear how the situation will play out. But the uncertainty in what could turn into a protracted battle is giving crucial openings to the two titans' common rival, Google, some analysts said.
"In the interim, we foresee disarray at Microsoft and Yahoo," analyst Marianne Wolk of Susquehanna Financial Group wrote in a note. "We believe the deal has distracted the engineers."
Posted by courier at 06:29 PM. Filed under: News
No comments • Permalink
Courier Staff Report
Troubles with the New Haven Unified School District's web server continue to hamper
The Courier's efforts to produce a daily online newspaper.
The trouble started last week, when editors discovered that they could no longer access
The Courier from school, where much of the production of the paper occurs.
Would-be
Courier readers are also blocked from accessing the paper from school.
The problem and its solution are out of the hands of
The Courier and its staff.
Pleas for assistance have been made to the district's technology department. No estimate of when or even if the problem will be solved have been offered.
Readers from off-campus and around the world are still able to access the paper, which is hosted off-site by Visionhead Technologies.
The Courier will be operating at a reduced level until the problem is fixed.
We apologize for the inconvenience.
Posted by courier at 05:50 AM. Filed under: News
No comments • Permalink
wikimedia image
CHICAGO — Many Roman Catholics and Protestants in America are leaving the churches of their childhood and either embracing other faiths or claiming no religion at all, according to an extensive national survey released Monday.
The findings from the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life illustrate the fluid dynamics of American religion. More than a quarter of adults, or 28 percent, said they had left the faith in which they were raised. If changes among types of Protestantism are included, 44 percent have switched affiliation.
Posted by courier at 06:08 PM. Filed under: News
No comments • Permalink
By Rick LaPlante,
New Haven Schools Public Information Officer
The Board of Education on Tuesday night received a presentation about the effectiveness of Professional Learning Communities at Eastin Elementary, where the “Cycle of Inquiry” process is producing results that are being used to support student learning and inform staff for professional development.
Principal John Mattos and teachers Sandy DeMuri and Jennifer Freeman, both of whom also serve as curriculum leaders, discussed pre-assessments, charting data, analyzing results, setting a “team goal,” selecting instructional strategies and determining results indicators. Mr. Mattos emphasized that these strategies are being used not only at Eastin but throughout the District.
Posted by courier at 05:30 PM. Filed under: News
No comments • Permalink
Courier Staff Report
Network troubles, presumably based in the New Haven Unified School District's system, have hampered The Courier's operations and readers' access to the online high school newspaper's website since yesterday, and there's no indication of when the problems will be resolved, the faculty advisor said Thursday.
Posted by courier at 05:12 PM. Filed under: News
No comments • Permalink
By Stephen J. Hedges
Chicago Tribune (MCT)
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Sunday that a California meat packing company had launched the recall of 135 million pounds of beef — the largest meat recall in U.S. history — following questions about the company's treatment of cattle that were slaughtered even though they could not stand up.
Posted by courier at 07:17 AM. Filed under: News
1 comment • Permalink
Josphat Karanja, 30, a Kikuyu,
and his Luo wife Everlyn Adoyo, 25.
(Evelyn Hockstein/MCT)
KINOO, Kenya — In the six weeks that intertribal fighting has ripped through Kenya, Josphat Karanja hasn't once called his father, not even after clashes erupted near the family home in the turbulent Rift Valley.
"I know what he's going to say," said Karanja, a 30-year-old computer systems manager. "I can't hear that right now."
Karanja is a Kikuyu, the dominant tribe in Kenya. Three years ago, against his father's wishes, he married a woman from the smaller Luo community, Everlyn Adoyo, whom he'd courted by showing up at her home unannounced almost every day for several months until she agreed to go out with him.
Posted by courier at 08:38 AM. Filed under: News
1 comment • Permalink
James Hansen
Christina Karma/Courier Photo
James Hansen, an Economics and American Political Systems teacher at Logan has donated a collection of presidential biographies to the school library.
Hansen may qualify for a tax deduction for his donation, but he said he did it only to benefit Logan's student body.
“I want the kids here at James Logan to be able to have access to these books. Many of these books are well written, and I’d be glad to share it with them,” said Hansen. “Knowing that I wouldn’t get any money in return for donating these books to the library, I still went on and did it. I strictly donate books to help save the library and school money for other things,”he said Hansen.
Posted by courier at 02:15 PM. Filed under: News
2 comments • Permalink
By Jessica Rosales,
Courier Special Projects Editor
A new program called
Zangle that will debut as the New Haven Unified School District's new student information system (SIS) next school year will increase communication between teachers and parents and also replace the outdated HP program that has been used for over 20 years.
When the new program comes online next fall, parents will be able to check their students' grades and attendance via computers at any time.
Posted by courier at 11:34 AM. Filed under: News
1 comment • Permalink
Office aide Paul Lim sorts
report cards for mailing Tuesday.
Courier Photo,
Courier Staff Writer
Following the end of the first semester of the 2007-2008 school year, a lot of students are concerned about their grades, or, more precisely, what their parents will do when they see report cards.
Some students have found ways to keep their parents from seeing them, hoping that maybe if their parents don’t see their grades they would forget about them.
The most obvious way is to intercept the report card in the mail, before parents can get their hands on it. Intercepting report cards is a Logan tradition that has going on for many years, but it won't work much longer.
Posted by courier at 08:21 AM. Filed under: News
6 comments • Permalink
A frame from the Humane Society
video which revealed the alleged abuses.
James Logan's food services are steering clear of serving beef caught up in a scandal involving animal cruelty and unhealthy cattle.
The action came in response to directives from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the California Department of Education last week.
The department placed an administrative hold on all products from the Westland Meat Co., a main supplier to the National School Lunch Program.
Posted by courier at 12:49 PM. Filed under: News
1 comment • Permalink
Perri Darweesh
Courier Photo
A tutoring program designed to boost the grades of freshman struggling to succeed in their first year of high school has yielded some unexpected results: generally lower grades for those in the program.
At the start of this school year, new programs to help freshmen cope with the transition from middle school, such as the freshman families, were instituted.
Believing the freshman year is a student’s most pivotal year, Logan teacher Perri Darweesh started a formal tutoring program, held during zero period, to provide help for freshman who failed one or more classes in their first quarters at Logan.
Posted by courier at 07:58 AM. Filed under: News
No comments • Permalink
By Rick LaPlante,
New Haven Schools Public Information Officer
James Logan High School students will celebrate the Chinese New Year and the coming Olympic Games by taking part this evening in a domino chain that will link the United States and China.
Students in teacher Sarah Du’s C4 Club (Chinese Connections to Community and Culture) will make up one of four groups from Bay Area schools, linked by computer, that will sequentially topple dominoes. When the chain is completed at one school, the final domino will trigger a computer that will send a signal to the next school, prompting a computer to start the next chain. The signal then will be passed to Hong Kong, where more student groups will topple dominoes, before the chain ends in Beijing, site of the 2008 Olympics.
Click here to see the domino bridge fall tonight.
Posted by courier at 09:13 AM. Filed under: News
1 comment • Permalink
Last year's Lohri celebration
Courier Photo
According to Wikipedia.org, Lohri is “the Indian version of an annual thanksgiving day and an extremely popular harvest festival in India, especially Northern India. Come January, and the fields of Punjab are filled with the golden harvest of wheat and farmers celebrate Lohri during this rest period before the harvesting and gathering of crops. Lohri is usually celebrated in the outdoors by friends and family who get together and have a bonfire in the evening.
Posted by courier at 02:17 PM. Filed under: News
1 comment • Permalink
Students and others marched
for peace last week.
Krystal Henderson/Courier Photo,
Courier News Editor
The Youth Violence Prevention Coalition found in a comprehensive survey that 70% of the youth in Union City are aware and affected personally by violence. Five shootings within the last seven months of 2007, and the murder of Vernon Eddins at Barnard-White, has left the whole community shaken. In response, concerned community members met at James Logan at 6:30 p.m. January 29 for a "Silent Peace March Recognizing Young Adults who have been Victims of Violence in Union City".
Posted by courier at 12:58 PM. Filed under: News
1 comment • Permalink
By Rick LaPlante,
New Haven Schools Public Information Officer
The Board of Education on Tuesday night received a report on the fiscal emergency declared last month by Governor Schwarzenegger and its potential impact on New Haven schools.
The governor’s proposal means the District must make an immediate reduction of $377,542, an amount that could increase to as much as $755,084 by June 30, and prepare for 2008-09 reductions of $5,293,345 on the unrestricted side of the budget and $1,642,531 on the restricted side of the general fund.
Posted by courier at 03:11 PM. Filed under: News
1 comment • Permalink
By Rebecca Soltau, Entertainment Editor
After a long, cold winter of never-ending pictures of picket lines amidst the palms of Hollywood, the ice coating the signs proclaiming award show cancellations and halted productions is finally beginning to thaw.
The seemingly endless writer’s strike may finally be coming to an end.
Posted by courier at 03:22 PM. Filed under: News
3 comments • Permalink
Clockwide from upper left:
Candidates Barack Obama,
Mitt Romney, John Mccain and
Hillary Clinton wikipedia images
WASHINGTON — Democrat Barack Obama heads into Super Tuesday's voting with apparent momentum in several big states where Hillary Clinton has been the longtime leader, raising hopes in his camp for upsets that could give him the edge in delegates and enthusiasm coming out of the primaries' biggest voting day.
Republican John McCain, meanwhile, maintains solid leads in the Northeast, but faces scattered threats from Mitt Romney in the South, Midwest and particularly in California.
Posted by courier at 03:14 PM. Filed under: News
No comments • Permalink
By Jeffry Bartash and Moming Zhou
MarketWatch (MCT)
WASHINGTON — Google Inc. has attacked Microsoft Corp.'s bid to acquire Yahoo Inc. as an effort to extend its software monopoly to the Internet, but Microsoft brushed off the criticism Monday, saying competition would benefit from its proposed deal.
Yahoo, meanwhile, said it has made "absolutely no decisions" about Microsoft's lavish $44.5 billion proposal. The company also said it will explore all options, one of which reportedly could be a partnership with Google.
Posted by courier at 03:07 PM. Filed under: News
No comments • Permalink
A student aide helps another student
use the Media Center after school Tuesday.
Courier Photo
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposed budget plan threatens a ten percent cut to education is affecting public schools all over California. As a result, the budget for the James Logan Media Center has been frozen, leaving librarians and students to work with what they have, for now.
Posted by courier at 02:51 PM. Filed under: News
2 comments • Permalink
By Rick LaPlante, New Haven Schools Public Information Officer
The 1968 Olympic Games, best remembered for the black-gloved fists of Tommie Smith and John Carlos, would have been unforgettable even without that controversial salute on the medal stand, after Smith won the gold medal and Carlos the bronze in the 400-meter dash.
Posted by courier at 10:47 AM. Filed under: News
No comments • Permalink
SJSU President
Don Kassing
SJSU photo
SAN JOSE, Calif. — In a bold but highly controversial move believed to be the first by a U.S. college, San Jose State University President Don Kassing has suspended all campus blood drives because of a longstanding U.S. Food and Drug Administration policy that bars gay men from donating blood.
The FDA's policy "affecting gay men violates our non-discrimination policy," Kassing said in a lengthy e-mail sent to faculty, staff and students earlier this week.
Posted by courier at 07:52 AM. Filed under: News
No comments • Permalink
Tomorrow, the Union City Youth Commission is hosting their 3rd annual Youth Summit. It will be held at the Ruggieri Senior Center, across from the UC Library, from 12:00 pm to 5:00 pm. This year’s theme is called “Future in Hand,” where the youth are encouraged to take control of their lives and be more involved with the community.
Previous Youth Summit meetings included important information on violence preventions and college initiatives. For this "Future in Hand" summit, the Youth Commission has planned to have workshops on health and nutrition, the environment, and careers. Guillermo Willie Lopez will be present as a guest speaker on the topic of “Taking Charge of Your Life.”
Posted by courier at 03:59 PM. Filed under: News
No comments • Permalink
California State University Chancelor
Charles Reed speaks to the 23 campus
presidents about changing the enrollment
deadlines due to the impending budget cuts.
,
Courier Staff Writer
On January 10th of this year, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger presented his plan to the public for a 10 percentdecrease in funding for the California State Universities. This means a $312.9 million cut for the 2008-2009 budget, a significant damage to the already faltering funds that were reduced by $500 million in 2002.
Posted by courier at 03:12 PM. Filed under: News
1 comment • Permalink
