Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Week #10 (10/26-10/30)- China media denounce US warship in South China Sea (BBC News)

Editorials in Chinese state media have denounced the presence of a US warship in the South China Sea, and warned that Beijing is prepared to take action.
While urging calm from both sides, media outlets also said the US was "harassing China" and that Beijing is "not frightened to fight a war".
The USS Lassen sailed in the Spratly archipelago on Tuesday as a challenge to China's claim over the islands.
China condemned the move and summoned the US ambassador in a show of protest.
China claims sovereignty over much of the South and East China seas.
The guided-missile destroyer USS Lassen breached the 12-nautical mile zone that China claims around the Subi and Mischief reefs in the Spratly archipelago.
Map showing Chinese construction in the disputed Spratly Islands

'Not frightened'

The Global Times - which is owned by the Chinese Communist Party's newspaper People's Daily - published an English-language editorial titled "After the show, it's time for US destroyer to leave".
"We should stay calm. If we feel disgraced and utter some furious words, it will only make the US achieve its goal of irritating us," it said.
It added that Beijing should deal with Washington tactfully and "prepare for the worst".
"This can convince the White House that China, despite its unwillingness, is not frightened to fight a war with the US in the region, and is determined to safeguard its national interests and dignity."
It called on Beijing to track US warships and launch interventions if US vessels stopped in the South China Sea.
Screenshot of Global Times editorial on 27 October 2015Image copyrightGlobal Times
Image captionThe Global Times is owned by the Chinese Communist Party's newspaper People's Daily

'Paper tiger'

The newspaper used stronger language in an editorial in Chinese, calling for China to "hold its temper" while pouring scorn on the US.
"It can't finish the situation in Iraq or Afghanistan; it dares only to make noise against Russia; it has failed to achieve anything in Syria; and it can't really take down Pyongyang. China really hasn't provoked it, but the US truly is only a 'paper tiger'," it said.
Media captionThe BBC's Celia Hatton reports: ''This is a political issue and an economic one''
Xinhua state news agency similarly slammed "the lame-duck Obama administration" for trying to reassure allies in Asia "at a time when its so-called Asia Rebalance policy falters", and warned that China "will take whatever means at whatever cost to safeguard its sovereign interests".
People's Daily carried a commentary in Chinese by Su Xiaohui, the deputy head of the China Institute of International Studies, who noted that South East Asian countries "did not want to see the South China Sea's peace broken".
"Those who upset plans will be met with suspicion and condemnation," he wrote.
Two warships underwayImage copyrightReuters
Image captionThe USS Lassen seen with a South Korean ship in a photo from March
Under maritime laws the 12-nautical mile zone cannot be claimed for features that were submerged and raised through human intervention.
The reefs, which were submerged, were turned into islands by China by a massive dredging project which began in late 2013.
China says its work is legal and for civilian purposes, but Washington believes Beijing is constructing military facilities to reinforce its disputed claim to most of the region - a major shipping zone.
The USS Lassen operation was part of America's Freedom of Navigation programme to challenge "excessive claims" in the world's oceans and airspace, and was welcomed by several countries in the region, including the Philippines and Japan.
Other countries in South East Asia have competing claims for the Spratly Islands, Paracel Islands and Scarborough Shoal, which are thought to have resource-rich waters around them.
Map of South China Sea
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Week #10 (10/26-10/30)- Former Senate leader Steinberg will run for Sacramento mayor (Sacramento Bee)

BY RYAN LILLIS

Darrell Steinberg said his mind wasn’t completely made up until the early-morning hours of Oct. 21.
Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson had announced just a few hours earlier that he would not seek a third term, setting the stage for a wide-open race for the city’s top political post. Steinberg’s name had been floated for months as a potential candidate and his cellphone was full of messages from supporters asking him about his plans.
“I turned to my wife and said, ‘Our lives are going to be different,’ ” Steinberg said Tuesday.
But it wasn’t until Tuesday, in an interview with The Sacramento Bee, that Steinberg officially put to rest one of the worst-kept secrets in local politics: He is running for Sacramento mayor.
Steinberg told The Bee he is getting into the race “with a grateful heart” and that he believes “our community is on the cusp of something great.” He will publicly announce his candidacy Wednesday morning during a rally at the Mill at Broadway, a large new residential development under construction south of downtown.
“We’ve started an economic renaissance, and it’s going to be my job, if I’m fortunate enough to be elected, to not only continue that but enhance it,” Steinberg said. “I think the job of the mayor of a big city is to be the leader on high-wage job creation and economic growth.”
Steinberg will face two-term Councilwoman Angelique Ashby, who declared her candidacy Oct. 21, minutes after Johnson publicly announced his decision to depart next year.
Ashby immediately received the support of the city firefighters’ union and state Sen. Richard Pan, D-Sacramento. On Tuesday, former Sacramento County District Attorney Jan Scully announced her support for Ashby, saying in an emailed statement that “Angelique has led the way on critical public safety issues including improving emergency response times, establishing Sacramento’s Police Commission, expanding critical community policing programs and protecting vital public safety funding to ensure that our police officers and firefighters can keep neighborhoods safe.”
Even before making his announcement, Steinberg had a large campaign bank account and the support of several big-name politicians in Sacramento.
He has more than $1.4 million in an account he established for a possible lieutenant governor campaign, and city elections officials have said most of the money can be transferred to a mayoral campaign account. Some of the largest donations during his final legislative session came from labor unions, trial attorneys and health care groups.
Steinberg is the first former state legislator to run for Sacramento mayor since it became a full-time position in 2002. State leaders have returned home to serve as mayors in other large California cities in recent decades, most notably former Assembly speakers Willie Brown in San Francisco and Antonio Villaraigosa in Los Angeles; and Gov. Jerry Brown in Oakland.
Supporters printed signs featuring the slogan “Run Darrell Run” last week and Councilman Steve Hansen, Assemblyman Kevin McCarty and county Supervisor Phil Serna have all endorsed his campaign. Region Business, a political advocacy group, announced its support Monday.
“Having known Darrell for 11 years and having always known that he is a fair and straightforward person, I’m excited he’s going to run for mayor and I hope he wins because if anyone can be a mayor for all of us, it’s Darrell Steinberg,” Hansen said.
On Tuesday, former Assemblyman and county Supervisor Roger Dickinson said he also is supporting Steinberg. Dickinson said he had been approached by supporters to run for mayor but ultimately decided not to.
Steinberg said he briefly considered running for mayor in 1999, when the late Mayor Joe Serna Jr. became ill. But he reconsidered and instead served a combined 14 years in the state Assembly and Senate, including as Senate president pro tem from 2008 until the end of his term in 2014.
“I’ve thought about it during various stages of my public service,” Steinberg said. “The timing is right now. It’s almost like coming home, even though I never left.”
Steinberg also served on the City Council in the 1990s and said he was the first president of the Tahoe Park Neighborhood Association in 1991. He said he had contemplated running for statewide office, but said he considers the mayor’s position “a different and vitally important post.”
“I’ve enjoyed being out (of office). I’ve had a really good year,” Steinberg said. “But it’s still in my blood. I’ve always had the energy, and I’m in good shape.”
Steinberg said he has “great regard and respect” for Ashby, who has indicated she will seek to portray herself as the fresh candidate in what will be an expensive race. Last week, Ashby told supporters Steinberg “had a time on the City Council and it was a while back, but I think Sacramento wants to move forward.”
For his part, Steinberg said “elections are not about the past, they’re about the future.”
“When I talk about experience and accomplishments, it’s about what informs the future,” he said.
Ryan Lillis: 916-321-1085, @Ryan_Lillis
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Week #10 (10/26-10/30)- Cal State panel proposes annual tuition hikes of about 2% (Los Angeles Times)

The California State University system should institute tuition increases for California residents and out-of-state students, begin year-round academic schedules and provide campus funding based on graduation and other rates, a new panel suggests.
The 12-member university committee concluded that a reliance on state funding, even in a growing economy, is no longer sufficient to expand enrollment, expedite the time it takes to earn a degree and pay for badly needed technology and facility upgrades.
The report is scheduled for discussion by Cal State trustees at their November board meeting. Proposals are still in draft stage, and a final report will be presented in January.
The tuition proposal especially is likely to spark opposition from students and many lawmakers who say that annual rates — currently $5,472 for undergraduates — already are too high and lock out many qualified students.
The 23-campus Cal State system has not raised fees for four years under a plan by Gov. Jerry Brown that provides the higher education system incremental increases in state funding.
That growth, however, is far from making up for budget cuts during the recession that surpassed $1 billion for the Cal State and University of California systems.
During negotiations over the 2015-16 budget, UC eventually pulled back on a threat to raise tuition as much as 28% over five years after striking a deal with Brown for more funding.
Both Cal State and UC have long argued that extended periods without tuition hikes are not sustainable because of inflationary increases in such areas as healthcare, energy, salaries and pensions.
Small and predictable adjustments in tuition and fees allow students to more easily plan for education costs, officials contend, and would avoid the need for dramatic annual spikes such as the 22% hike at Cal State in 2011-12.
"Enrollment demand continues to exceed capacity, which presents a dilemma for the CSU," the report said. "Denying admission to eligible students or accepting them without the additional or sufficient funds to offer an efficient pathway toward graduation are not acceptable alternatives."
The task force, appointed last year by Chancellor Timothy P. White, includes campus presidents, student and faculty representatives and other system leaders.
Among the group's major recommendations:
• Small, annual tuition increases tied to the rate of inflation — or on the order of about 2%. Such a boost given current tuition would yield about $30 million more in revenue a year and cost students about $50 more per semester.
• Provide authority for individual campuses to charge market-based tuition rates for out-of-state and international students.
• A year-round academic calendar for some campuses that would expand summer sessions and allow for more efficient use of facilities and more flexible scheduling for students.
• Allocation of some campus funding based on student performance, such as the time to earn a degree, income after graduation and other measures. The report recommends that the legislature change education laws to allow the system to expand its investment options to include those that could yield higher returns.
The panel also suggests that eligible Cal State applicants be steered to campuses that haven't reached enrollment limits — even if those campuses are not their preferred choice.
Another proposal that could generate friction suggests that a systemwide student facilities fee may be necessary to pay for new academic buildings and infrastructure. So-called student success fees ranging from about $200 to more than $800 collected from students on top of tuition have been an option on many campuses to raise revenues. But their use is highly contentious and trustees and the legislature have imposed restrictions.
The proposals are intended to provide a starting point for discussion to improve student success in the 430,000-student system, said Elliot Hirshman, president of San Diego State University and co-chairman of the task force.
Cal State will also continue to vigorously pursue additional state funding, with the tuition increases a contingency should funding fall short, he said.
The system lobbied hard to win its full request of $216.6 million in additional state funding for 2015-16, but that has not been the pattern in recent years.
One key question was to determine whether all students, even those with low incomes, should be required to pay more of their education costs as an incentive to finish their degrees on time. The panel suggested that Cal State monitor the growth of tuition discount grants. But Hirshman said the task force is not proposing to reduce financial aid.
"The biggest impact of the task force is not in any particular proposal but in fostering an openness in discussing of how best to serve students — and how resources are critical to their success," Hirshman said.
Many students, though, are already gearing up to oppose some of the recommendations, such as increasing student fees and changing investment policies.
The Cal State Student Assn. has yet to adopt a position on the proposals, said President Taylor Herren, a graduate majoring in agriculture at Cal State Chico.
But potential tuition increases and the facilities fee are raising concerns.
"There is major opposition to a facilities fee, and my hope is that CSU can have a discussion about that separate from a discussion about tuition," Herren said.
But students are aware that some changes are unavoidable.
"We know that Cal State doesn't have the financial support it needs at the moment and it's not going to," Herren said. "We have to revamp our entire financial model."
Other proposals could be controversial, such as allowing individual campuses to set out-of-state tuition, which could open a "Pandora's box" of eventually allowing them to set different tuition for California residents, said Hans Johnson, a senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California.
The suggestion that Cal State needs a new financial model raises questions about the relevance of the state's much-vaunted Master Plan for Higher Education, created in 1960 as a blueprint for tuition-free access for Californians to every major segment of higher education, Johnson said.
Cal State will probably use the proposals in whatever form they end up as leverage with lawmakers in Sacramento to remain committed partners.
"At the end of the day, they're saying, look, we're implementing a number of procedures to be as efficient as we can be, but we still need state funding," Johnson said.
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Week #10 (10/26-10/30)- S.C. Sheriff Will Decide Deputy's Future With Department (NPR)

Senior Deputy Ben Fields is seen pulling a student from her chair at Spring Valley High School in Columbia, S.C., in these three images made from another student's video recording.i
Senior Deputy Ben Fields is seen pulling a student from her chair at Spring Valley High School in Columbia, S.C., in these three images made from another student's video recording.
AP
As federal authorities look into the case of a white deputy's violent arrest of a black high school student, Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott says a decision could come Wednesday on whether to fire Senior Deputy Ben Fields over the incident, which was filmed by several students.
The sheriff is expected to announce the findings of his department's internal inquiry around noon ET Wednesday. We'll update this post with that news.
Fields was placed on unpaid leave after the incident, which was witnessed by a classroom of students Monday morning.
"I wanted to throw up, it makes you sick to your stomach," Lott said about his reaction to a video of the arrest, in which one of his officers flipped a young woman's desk backward before dragging her across the floor in a classroom. "You can't watch the video without having those feelings."
Lott says an internal affairs investigation into the incident at Spring Valley High School in Columbia, S.C., will focus on whether Fields, a school resource officer, followed departmental procedures and guidelines.
"Any possible criminal investigation will be handled by federal and state agencies," reports local WLTX TV. As we reported Tuesday, Lott requested an independent federal investigation soon after the incident made headlines; the U.S. Justice Department says it's opening a civil rights investigation.
More than a dozen parents and other residents spoke about the videotaped arrest at last night's regularly scheduled board meeting for Richland School District Two, which includes Spring Valley High.
"My son said to me, 'Dad, no white child would have been removed from Spring Valley like that,' " said Stephen Gilchrist, of the district's Black Parents Association, according to WIS-TV.
Another attendee, who acknowledged that she knows Fields and was surprised by the video, told the board, "That child in the classroom was given ample opportunity to comply," adding later, "She chose to be defiant."
The incident has put Fields in the spotlight, with many observers discussing possible motives for his behavior.
On Tuesday, Lott said that he's not analyzing the student's behavior — only his officer's response. He also said that he doubts whether race played a role in the incident, noting that Fields "has been dating an African-American woman for 'quite some time,' " as the AP reports.
The deputy has also faced lawsuits over his on-the-job conduct.
The State newspaper reports: "Fields has had three lawsuits filed against him as a deputy. In one, involving an excessive-force allegation before Fields worked in schools, a federal jury found in his favor. Another case was dismissed, the Associated Press reported. The third suit, which is ongoing, alleges Fields wrongly pushed for a Richland 2 student's expulsion."
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