This is a link from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research...... where this study is described.  Seems like a good piece of applied public health research.  https://healthpolicy.ucla.edu/newsroom/press-releases/pages/details.aspx?NewsID=297

The City of Los Angeles wants its residents to be healthy.  Imagine that!

John

PS  I am wondering if the developers at NISHI would consider making that development "smoke free"?  The UC Davis campus is.... how about off campus student housing?

Photo by Iggie Walsh 

By Michelle Jillian Bailey

As I sit here, in my air-conditioned home, the high will reach 106* today. I am reminded of other hot summer Saturdays of my youth. My summers, ages 10- 12 (that’s too many years ago to attempt the math!), consisted of lessons at Happy Horse Riding School. Happy Horse was located on Road 96 and was the idyllic camp for young horse lovers. It consisted of riding lessons in a covered arena, vaulting lessons (gymnastics on horseback) and even written horse education.

If you are familiar with Davis, you know that Road 96 is way out there. Even today, on Google maps, there is Davis, and then there is a lot of blank lines before you reach Road 96. In fact, it is just shy of six miles from my childhood home. Six miles. In 106*. For a 10-year-old. On a bike. Let that sink in for a minute.

The Council of University of California Faculty Associations, an umbrella organization for the Faculty Associations (FAs) at each UC campus,  Joins the Call for University of California to end relationship with General Dynamics over GD's role in immigrant minor separation camps. 

As was probably obvious from my earlier article, I’m pretty pro-swimming.  The science backs me up, with numerous documented health benefits from swimming, especially cardiovascular benefits but also muscular and psychological benefits.  It’s a sport that people often take up after they have been injured from some other sport, and it’s a true lifelong sport, with active participants into their 90s and beyond.

In light of that, with various proposals on the table for building new pools in Davis, you might think I am also pro-pool.  And generally speaking, I am – but I also recognize that any proposals for new pools must be weighed against other priorities, and those are complicated conversations.  So, what I’d like to do here is much more minimal, namely, to just point out the extent of the need for pools in Davis, because I think there has been some confusion as to how many “private” swim group workouts there are and whether those groups could make use of a high school pool.

The City of Davis is asking for your help in planning for the future of downtown. By participating in the Virtual Community Workshop, your input will help with the creation of the Specific Plan. The workshop is currently live through June 28.

Join the conversation and participate in the Virtual Community Workshop at www.cityofdavis.org/EnvisionDowntownDavis

Additionally, the Downtown Davis Plan Team will be hosting the second Participatory Design Workshop from July 10 through July 14 at the Davis Community Church Fellowship Hall, located at 421 D Street. They will be reaching out with a flyer and additional information shortly.

UC-AFT Demands End to UC Contract with General Dynamics Over Role in Child Separation

That's the question I asked one of my classmates from China when I was in grad school at Berkeley.  You know, the huge, pervasive portraits of Chairman Mao and other political leaders over the years... just popping up everywhere I understood.

She smiled and said, "Well, probably the same way you deal with the commercial propaganda here in the United States".  Good answer!  Quite insightful.

As a card carrying capitalist I know the purpose of marketing is to ask the customer what they want and communicate to them that you are going to give it to them.  But "sales" sometimes deviates from true marketing and ventures into persuasion and dare I say it, manipulation.  

By Tom Owczarzak

Last night got - complicated.

We are not leaving this hospital anytime soon.

I am here alone in the silence – this is becoming way too familiar.

I want to thank Jon Li for his thoughtful response to my earlier article, an article that objected to the recent proposal to limit the time for general public comment at the beginning of Council meetings, shunting the rest of general public comment to the end of the meetings.  His remarks provide the opportunity for me to reflect more on the nature of democracy as it pertains to our humble town.

 Jon asks us to think about the real purpose of public comment and about the nature of a representative democracy, and rightly so.  It is my view that recent events, both regionally and nationally, have shown us that just showing up to the polls and voting during elections is not enough.  Citizens can and should be more engaged than that.  Of course, ultimately we do rely on our elected representatives to make decisions.  But it is incumbent on us to let them know where we stand on issues, to raise concerns that they may not have thought of, to give them the information that they need in order to be able to properly represent us.

By Dianna Huculak, President of the Davis Teachers Association

At the end of the school year, educators in our district received an email from Director of secondary education Troy Allen, which among other things, told us that our students would not be able to have new textbooks next year because of increased compensation for teachers.   Based on this email, many teachers expressed to me that they felt guilty that their salary increase hurt their students.   To me, and others who have worked in Davis for a period of time, this rhetoric from district office is all too familiar- a district message frame-repeated to the community that unfortunately pits nurses, counselors, teachers, psychologist, and all support staff against the children that we protect, nurture and serve.  It creates a false dichotomy which says anything that goes to the support the livelihood of the people in our school community, must take something away from children.   It disrespects and minimizes the role of our school communities to create healthy spaces for children to grow and to learn.   Moreover, it’s not enough that teachers had to picket, write letters, show up at multiple school board meetings, for what basically amounted to a cost of living adjustment- we are also supposed to feel guilty about it.   What I didn’t realize at the time, was that apparently, this logic only applies to teachers.

Image From Leidos website and Chancellor May 

By Nick Buxton

I’m glad to hear the university administration read my piece, although I wish it had led to some self-reflection about the ethics of education leaders holding corporate board positions – even more so when they are in the defense industry. Instead they have deployed a PR defense tactic of mis-characterizing my argument rather than addressing its core concerns. The fact that a university administration also spends public money defending a private corporation shows the costs of universities becoming ever more corporatized in recent years.

My article did not argue that Leidos was responsible for the latest Trump policy of separating children from their families, nor did I say that Chancellor May was responsible for this. However it is clear that Leidos is part of the border regime, and that May as a Board representative therefore naturally bears some responsibility and accountability for its activities.

Dear Davis School Board Members, ([email protected])

I am so very disappointed in your leadership and continued support of the Superintendent’s agenda and request for additional salary for top administrators. You have been saying all year that teacher salaries are a priority yet your actions speak otherwise. Stop adding admin positions and stop increasing their pay!

This year I had an amazing student teacher, the kind that only comes around once every few years, and we lost her to a school 15 miles away. Although she loved being at Pioneer - she could not turn down $1,000 more take home pay per month plus a much better benefit package. After all - she has student loans to pay back!

By Jon Li

The Mayor Pro Tem is proposing that city council meeting public comment be limited to a half hour at the beginning of the meeting, and time given at the end of the meeting for public comment. That is the way it is done at most city councils around the country.

The Davis community activists have demanded the right to longer time for public comment. I believe that recent city council meeting experience is that a few activists have tried to take over the agenda of the meeting during public comment, and on many occasions attempted to derail the council from its meeting agenda purpose.

What is public comment for? Roberta Millstein claimed "Let's recall what general public comment is for: 1) it's for members of the community who want to speak to items on the agenda, but can't stay late, and 2) it's for members of the community to speak to items that are not on the agenda. "

I think you forgot what the purpose of public comment is. Then we can talk about what it is for, and then we can talk about the more effective approaches to setting ground rules to achieve identified goals.

UC Davis Statement On "Chancellor May, Leidos Corp., and “heart-wrenching political tactics” for refugees" Published on the Davisite.org

On behalf of Chancellor Gary S. May and UC Davis, I must address the accusations and incorrect information made by Nick Buxton in his June 20 article, “Chancellor May, Leidos Corp, and ‘heart-wrenching political tactics’ for refugees.” In addition to the inflammatory and wildly inappropriate placement of Chancellor’s May’s picture with that of children detained by ICE, Buxton made false statements related to May’s Leidos Board seat and how that position impacts his role here at UC Davis. 

For starters, Chancellor May has been transparent about his board service from the very beginning. He disclosed his board service and salary candidly with the search committee that ultimately recommended unanimously to select him as the next UC Davis Chancellor. The UC Office of the President and UC Regents were also informed about his board leadership prior to selecting him. He has discussed this topic with the campus community and during many media interviews. He continues to make himself available to anyone who wants to discuss this with him in person. 

The City Council is considering some changes to its meeting format, according to the Davis Enterprise:

One suggestion was to limit general public comment at the beginning of the meeting — requiring that it end at a specific time — and continuing it for those who still wish to speak after all other agenda items have been dealt with.

The reason for the possible change?

“The idea is that as we start with a new council in July, that we find a way to make the meetings more accessible for the public and make them function more smoothly,” [Brett] Lee said.

So, meetings will be more accessible for the public if we force some members of the public to wait until the very end of the meeting to make general comments?  No. That would make meetings less accessible.

By Nick Buxton

UC Davis Chancellor Gary May has joined the chorus of voices rightly condemning the separation of children from parents seeking asylum in the US. In a public statement on June 19, he condemned the “heart-wrenching political tactics” affecting refugees and voiced his support for DACA students. These are important statements, but they would be even more powerful if he took action to back up those values, which in this case he could easily do by stepping down from his position on the board of one of the leading corporations involved in the inhumane border regime.

According to Sacramento Bee, May earned $288,280 in cash and stock in 2015 as a member of the board of Leidos, a Virginia-based defense and technology company. Leidos is an important supplier of surveillance equipment to the Department for Homeland Security Border guards, boasting of supplying 70 programs worth $200 million in the last five years. The company has expanded significantly in recent years and its CEO has boasted to investors of how it is benefiting from Trump’s agenda.

When I first came to Davis for my job interview (the one that would result in my addition to the Philosophy Department at UCD), one of my future colleagues said, with a bit of a sarcastic snort, “Too bad Paul couldn’t be here.  He’s been telling all of the candidates about Davis’s masters swimming group.”  My head whipped around:  “Davis has a masters swimming group??”

A good masters swimming group is hard to find.

By now you must have heard of the big issue of children being separated from parents at our boarder with Mexico ....... this is highly controversial and within the past 24 hours five current and former First Ladies have weighed in on this situation.... express concern and at times outrage at how this situation is being managed by the current administration.

Part of the management of the situation is a considerable amount of communication "spin".  Here is a link to an article from the Washington Post which does a great job of sorting out the spin from the truth.  

In these modern times it is important to be able to separate fact from fiction or even more critically fact from near fact or semi-fact.  And we need to be prepared to sort through these claims as we go about making decisions that affect us and/or others.  For example, "More cars means less traffic".  You might have heard that one lately.  Still makes my head shake.

Anyway, here is the link to the Post:  https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2018/06/19/the-facts-about-trumps-policy-of-separating-families-at-the-border/?utm_term=.54b235edb54f&wpisrc=nl_most&wpmm=1

I subscribe to the online version..... you might want to, too.

John