It’s Round-Up Week in the Mother Lode!!!!
These two girls will be very excited to learn that the Mother Lode Round-Up Parade returns on Saturday May 11th!!!! Look how much they loved the parade just two years ago!
For a complete listing of Round-Up events, click over to mymotherlode.com and keyword “roundup”.
Two San Diego Unified school board members want to review the level of punishment handed down to 31 students at Scripps Ranch High School this week over a video made at school that depicts “twerking,” a suggestive manner of dancing.
School board member Scott Barnett said he wanted the twerking incident and the student punishments be discussed in closed session at Tuesday’s board meeting. District officials said it would be placed on the agenda for the May 14 meeting.
“I want to make sure I am comfortable that the facts and activity warrant the consequences,” Barnett said in a statement.
San Diego Unified board member Kevin Beiser, whose district includes the high school, voiced similar concerns Wednesday.
The students — 28 girls and 3 boys — were suspended from Scripps Ranch Tuesday less than a week after the video appeared on YouTube.
Six of the students are seniors and face the possibility of not being allowed to attend prom or walk during commencement ceremonies.
Parents and students said the students were told not to return to school until Friday.
According to a district official who asked not to be identified because of federal privacy laws, if the students follow a school appeal process known as senior review and apologize for their actions, they likely will be able to participate in graduation and attend the prom.
Board President John Lee Evans said Thursday it was placed on the next regularly scheduled board closed session on May 14.
Evans said that he trusted that “any misbehavior on the part of students in the district” would be appropriately handled by staff, including making sure consequences are fair, students are properly counseled and inappropriate behavior is addressed.
“It is the board’s expectation that these matters be handled in the most professional manner by our staff,” Evans said in a statement.
Jack Brandais, a spokesman for the San Diego Unified School District, earlier said he could not discuss student discipline matters.
The video apparently violates the school’s sexual harassment policy that prohibits verbal, visual or physical conduct of a sexual nature. Twerking involves the shaking and twisting of hips in a suggestive dance move.
The U-T newspaper confirmed that students in a broadcast journalism class used school equipment to record and add music to a video of the group of girls twerking while doing handstands.
The district official said it would have been acceptable if the students had been twerking upright but said doing it while doing a handstand was considered inappropriate in an educational setting.
The American Civil Liberties Union criticized the punishment.
“Unfortunately, the administration at Scripps Ranch High School’s hasty response to its students’ dance video is reflective of a national trend towards unreasonable, overly harsh, and counterproductive disciplinary measures,” said Margaret Dooley-Sammuli, senior policy advocate for the ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties.
“We want young people in school so they can learn and become successful and productive members of the community. What is gained by removing 31 students from the classroom, their prom, and even, possibly, their own graduation? It serves no purpose for the student, the teacher, or the community to keep children from learning.”
Many students were talking about it on Twitter, with some suggesting the punishment went too far and others joking about twerking. One apparent student, whose Twitter handle is @sopjoa69, tweeted: “Suspended for twerking. What do I do? Twerk. At the beach. I twerk at the beach.”
Lyston McNear, a 17-year-old senior, said he was suspended even though he didn’t appear in the video or shoot it, but because he came up with the original idea for the project. He said it was not a class assignment. It took months to create.
He said the video was posted on YouTube on Thursday. “Nobody was offended or anything,” he said. “It was like, ‘Oh, that’s cool.’”
Lyston said he will have to go through senior review, an appeals board at school, to determine whether he will be able to attend the prom or go through graduation ceremonies.
Beiser wondered if suspension was appropriate for all the students or if the “ringleader” or person who dubbed the music should have received the harshest penalty.
He said he watched the video and said there was some “vulgar inappropriate language” in the music used but added that the girls dancing are “just moving their hips.”
“If it was a bunch of guys dancing would they have all gotten suspended?” he asked.
Lyston’s mother, Nikki McNear, said she watched the video at school when she went to pick up her son the day he was suspended. She said she knew the students should not have been making the video on campus but said “the kids are just dancing” in it.
McNear said she thought the students should have been given Saturday school or a punishment that was less severe than two days suspension.
Suggestive dances have caused consternation for parents and school officials for decades. Not long ago “freak dancing,” which appeared to simulate sex acts, was banned at some high school dances.
May is bike month, and the California DMV has launched a new webpage to help drivers and cyclists know the rules about sharing the road.
The page features a video with an overview of the rules, and best practices, to make sure everyone stays safe.
There is also information for cyclists ranging from common causes of accidents, to proper helmet use.
Find the page here: https://www.dmv.ca.gov/coi/bicycle/bicycle.htm
Avery Middle School has won the “California Distinguished School Award” from the state Department of Education.
Watch this behind-the-scenes video of just how modern and technically savvy the school is. All 220 students are issued iPads.
Staff Administrators and select students will go to Sacramento on May 10th to meet state Superintendent of Education Tom Torlakson and receive the Distinguished School Award.
Congratulations to the Avery Hawks and the Vallecito School District from all of us at AM 1450 KVML!!!
A single-engine biplane with two people aboard flipped on landing at Rialto Airport on Friday, April 26, but its two occupants were not seriously injured.
Rialto police Sgt. Richard Royce said pilot error appeared to be the cause, based on the unidentified pilot’s statement.
“The plane was in good operating order,” Royce said. “He basically stated he was coming in for a landing and he overcorrected for a cross wind.”
The plane, a 1937 Waco that had been restored in 2012, fell forward when the pilot hit the brakes, Royce said. He said the plane is registered to the pilot.
The accident happened about 12:20 p.m. and will be investigated by the Federal Aviation Administration and other agencies, said Rialto Fire Department Acting Battalion Chief Art Poduska by phone from the scene.
He said the two people in the plane walked away from the overturned craft and were treated at the scene, but did not need to be taken to a hospital. Royce said they had bumps and bruises. The upside-down plane remained on the runway for inspection by various investigators.
The airport was shut for two hours.
Oscar-winning director Quinten Tarantino’s cherry red Chevelle Malibu has resurfaced after nearly two decades, thanks to a vigilant sheriff’s deputy here, officials said.
“Deputy (Carlos) Arrieta did a really good job with this case,” said Sgt. Albert Anolin of the sheriff’s Victorville station. “He took what many would’ve seen as a minor case and followed it through until it broke this much larger case. ”
Tarantino’s 1964 Chevrolet Chevelle Malibu, stolen in 1994 during the production of “Pulp Fiction,” was recovered in the Oakland area this past week, according to law enforcement officials investigating the case.
The iconic Malibu was driven in the film by John Travolta’s character, Vince Vega.
On April 18, Arrieta spotted two men near Mojave Vista Elementary School at Seventh and Burwood avenues around 7:45 p.m., Anolin said.
It appeared the men were stripping an older Chevrolet Malibu, so Arrieta approached them. Arrieta ran the vehicle identification number and learned it was registered for a Malibu in the Oakland area, according to reports.
One of the men insisted the Malibu had been his since the 1970s.
Arrieta called in the San Bernardino County Auto Theft Task Force and handed over the investigation to district attorney’s Senior Investigator Carlos Flores and California Highway Patrol Officer Brian Leyva.
According to sheriff’s reports, investigators learned the VIN number for the Chevrolet found in Victorville legitimately belonged to that car, but it hadn’t been registered with the state Department of Motor Vehicles for several decades.
Detectives contacted authorities in the Bay Area to alert them to the VIN match for a 1964 Chevrolet Malibu in their area.
Bay Area investigators contacted the owner of that Malibu and learned that that vehicle had a cloned VIN number on it. Further investigation revealed the Malibu found in the Bay Area was in fact Tarantino’s vehicle stolen in 1994, authorities said.
The man in possession of Tarantino’s stolen Malibu is not believed to be involved in the theft and is considered to be a victim of a fraud, authorities said.
The vehicle was recovered only a few weeks after the filmmaker’s 50th birthday on March 27. It was unclear if the vehicle has been returned to him as of Friday.
The man Arrieta initially contacted last week was arrested on suspicion of an unrelated crime, sheriff’s officials said, though his name has not been released.
“Arrieta used the resources available to him and was able to help crack this case,” Anolin said of the deputy who’s been at the Victorville station for about two years. “He’s a good deputy. ”
The case is still under investigation.
There’s outcry at UC Irvine over a student-produced video that some say is offensive and racist.
The video shows members of Lambda Theta Delta doing a parody the Justin Timberlake and Jay-Z song “Suit and Tie.”
In the video, one of the fraternity members appears in “blackface.”
Many students at the university have complained about the video.
The fraternity took down the video and apologized on its Facebook page, saying the students involved were reprimanded prior to the controversy.
But many other students say that’s not enough. They’re calling on university administrators to take action against the fraternity.
A UC official says the school is trying to determine if the fraternity or individual students are responsible for the video and what kind of punishment, if any, should be dealt.
Bob Weir was helped offstage Thursday night after he was unable to finish his performance with Furthur at the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, New York. The Grateful Dead offshoot was closing out a nine show residency at the venue with their final set, but according to Jambase, Weir was struggling throughout the night on both guitar and vocals.
Weir’s condition worsened during the band’s second set of the night. As Weir played through “Unbroken Chain,” he fell over and was helped back up by crew members. He was given a chair to sit in, and the band left the stage after the song. They returned after a few minutes without Weir, and Phil Lesh told the crowd that Weir was suffering from a strained shoulder and that the set would go on without him.
Further is set to play Atlantic City’s Boardwalk Hall Saturday, though there’s been no word yet on the status of that show, or whether Weir will appear. The band also celebrated a special occasion last night – before their set, it was announced that the Capitol Theatre’s lobby bar would be named Garcia’s in honor of Weir and Lesh’s Grateful Dead compadre Jerry Garcia, for whom the venue was a favorite.
Priceless is how Kent Pfrimmer describes the publicity he has received since surveillance video of a burglar trying, and failing, to break into his Redding store went viral last month.
Now the video of the bumbling, stumbling thief has been turned into a TV commercial for Pfrimmer’s business, Kent’s Meats and Groceries, and the 18-second clip is back in the national news.
The commercial was featured on “Good Morning America” on Tuesday. Later in the day, Pfrimmer was interviewed by CNN about the spot, which is a plug for Kent’s New York-style pastrami.
The commercial, played to music similar to the “Benny Hill theme,” shows the bulky burglar throwing the rock at the window. The sound of glass shattering can be heard before a giant pastrami sandwich crashes on camera, followed by the voice-over: “So good, some people will do just about anything to get more”
Rocky Slaughter of Sugar Pine Media, Kent’s advertising agency, created the spot. Slaughter played drums, bass and piano. He was accompanied by Kyle Stolz on saxophone. They shot the commercial in one day.
“It’s funny, but I don’t think it was that funny to me, but, hell, look at the exposure,” Pfrimmer said. “I have got for $500 (the price to replace the window) exposure you couldn’t buy for $500,000.”
The original video also has been featured on “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” CNN and Tosh.O.
The surveillance footage went viral in late March after Redding police released it and Redding.com posted it on YouTube. The video had accumulated more than 6.5 million views on YouTube by Tuesday evening.
“He wanted to jump on something and make an advertisement out of it,” Pfrimmer said of Slaughter. “To a point that is OK, but you can also wear something like that out. I don’t want to get to the point where people are saying, ‘God, I have to look at that thing again and listen to that thing again.’ ”
Slaughter got the idea for the commercial soon after the video went viral. He was worried the hilarious clip would give the north state more infamous publicity, joining the online photos of three female Anderson KFC employees bathing in the restaurant’s industrial-sized sink, and a crook with the F-word tattooed across his forehead.
“I wanted to figure out a way to change the message in the video into something to help a local business,” Slaughter said. “I hope this spins it in a positive way.
“I don’t want Redding to appear like we are a bunch of stumbling burglars, so this was an opportunity to change the message a little bit.”
Slaughter is no stranger to publicity.
In 2006, he led a student crusade at Shasta High School against campus bans of soda vending machines that drew national attention. Slaughter’s fight was spotlighted when he appeared n MSNBC’s “The Situation with Tucker Carlson.”
Meanwhile, Pfrimmer plans to run the commercial for at least two weeks.
“Maybe a month if people are still enjoying it,” Pfrimmer said. “We are advertising our pastrami and we are very proud of it; we make it right here.”
The Stockton Unified School District confirmed Wednesday a fight between a teacher and a student that broke out inside a high school classroom.
A district official confirmed that the female teacher has been placed on paid administrative leave because of the fight.
The student was arrested and released.
(Caution: Student uses swear words with teacher)
The student was also suspended from school for five days and will meet with the school’s principal Thursday to discuss possible expulsion, a school official said.
Her suspension began Wednesday.
The fight broke at Chavez High School in Stockton.
