Editor’s Note: The full articles alluded to in this report may be accessed via the U-T website.
The defeat of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in a Virginia Republican primary election last Tuesday, June 10, continues to reverberate. In the U-T’s “Winners and Losers” column, an item about Cantor was at the top of the “losers” section … And in a politics column by the U-T’s Mark Walker, tea party activist Rhona Deniston of Oceanside said David Brat’s surprise victory over Cantor is just the beginning. “Because voters are really, really tired of this centralized government and the status quo,” she said.
*
The stock market moves of Investor Carl Icahn can be significant enough to affect the price of a stock, and federal agencies have been investigating whether he ever told gambler Billy Walters about any of his plans and whether Walters in turn might have told golfer Phil Mickelson. Peter Rowe of the U-T reports, however, that the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal have had to admit sources were wrong suggesting Mikelson might have come across insider knowledge about Clorox. But, reportedly, trades in Dean Foods stocks still are being examined.
*
Although U-T columnist Steven Greenhut doesn’t mention State Senator Hannah Beth-Jackson’s name, he has plenty to say about her bill which would require California-supported colleges to adopt codes of conduct requiring that students engaged in sexual behavior give affirmative consent that can be revoked any time. Co-sponsored by Senator Bonnie Lowenthal, chair of the California Legislative Women’s Caucus, the bill in Greenhut’s estimate “turns all sexual behavior into a potential sexual-assault unless there is a clear, affirmative series of ‘stop and consent’ moments.” The columnist suggested that whoever wrote the bill may have “only a textbook understanding of how such relationships usually unfold.”
*
The U-T’s court reporter Kristina Davis reports that San Diego Police Chief Shelley Zimmerman is worried about the disruption to normal police staffing that may result from the civil rights trial pitting a victim identified as “Jane Doe” against the SDPD and its former officer Anthony Arevelos. The plaintiff contends that Arevalos groped her and took her underwear in exchange for not arresting her for driving under the influence of alcohol. A portion of the case in which the victim alleges that Arevelos’ actions were covered up and were part of a pervasive culture within the Police Department may require testimony from more than 150 officers.
*
Debbi Baker of the U-T writes about a program in which San Diego Police accompany teens to the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles to learn about bullying and how it can lead to hatred and even to events like the Holocaust. The Department works in collaboration with Marcia Tatz Wollner in her capacity as director of Literary Arts and Education Resources at the Lawrence Family JCC. Said Wollner:“We want them to be able to help make this world a better place.” Once up in Los Angeles, the students often will meet docent Diana Treister, who explains that bullying “hurts kids, lowers their self-esteem, makes them feel like they have nothing to live for. They just give up.”
*
The U-T played on Page A22, below the fold, a one-column story by the AP’s Ian Deitch about Israel’s Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu saying it was a terror group that kidnapped three Israeli teenagers: Naftali Frenkel, 16, (who also has U.S. citizenship); Gilad Shaar, 16, and Eyal Yifrach, 19.
*
Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg funded three anti-gun groups—Moms Demand Action, Everytown for Gun Safety and Mayors Against Illegal Guns – which participated in a 1,000-person strong march across the Brooklyn Bridge, according to an AP story by Jonathan Lemire carried in the U-T.
*
Tele-journalist Lynn Sherr’s biography of the late astronaut Sally Ride was reviewed by the U-T’s John Wilkens. When Ride lifted off on June 18, 1983 to become the first woman in space, feminist leader Gloria Steinem watched and later commented: “Millions of little girls are going to sit by their television sets and see they can be astronauts, heroes, explorers and scientists.”
*
Barry Edelstein, artistic director of the Old Globe Theatre, is among the theatre personalities who were interviewed by the U-T’s James Hebert about San Diego’s growing importance as a theatre town. Edelstein noted that a lot of young artists just starting on their careers are deciding to remain in San Diego rather than migrate to Los Angeles or New York. “They wouldn’t do that without a critical mass of community and audience support,” said Edelstein.
*
The U-T’s Society Writer/ Photographer Vincent Andrunas cruised two recent social events. At the Helen Woodward Animal Center’s Spring Fling, he photographed, among others bandleader Barry Cohen… At the Promises2Kids ‘Dream On” fundraiser for the A.B. and Jessie Polinsky Children’s Center, he photographed the late Polinskys’ daughter, Jeanne Rivkin and her husband Arthur Rivkin; Norma Hirsh, Emma & Leo Zuckerman, and Rana Sampson.
*
Compiled by San Diego Jewish World staff