Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/6065
6 LIVEMAGS.NET JANUARY>>10 Teachers and supportive allies protested the Capistrano Unified School District's decision to cut pay by 10 percent on December 10th. This school district has among the lowest paid teachers, s t a f f , a d m i n i s t r a t o r s a n d substitute teachers in Orange County. This Trustees' plan to balance the budget by cutting employee wages was met with disparagement; teachers have been periodically going on strike for several years now. The December 10th rally occurred at Las Palmas Elementary School in San Clemente and included students, concerned parents, and a large group of teachers. The assembly was in a series of school faculty protests before the December 15th Teachers Union and Board of Directors contract negotiation meeting. NATIONAL Writer>>Tova Morrison The House of Representatives' speaker, Nancy Pelosi, came to the Irvine Hilton for the Democratic Party of Orange County's 15th Annual Harry Truman Awards Ceremony, December 4. The 500 tickets to the fundraising dinner sold out, raising over $100,000. Outside the Hilton, protesters numbering roughly 200, held signs and shouted criticisms on the healthcare reform bill that Pelosi backs. A major showing outside were conservative tea party-ers chanting "Kill the bill." City Councilman Steven Choi wore a picture of Pelosi looking like Stalin on his back. Planned Parenthood representatives, immigrant rights activists and Service Employees International Union members on percussive instruments, were supporting Pelosi and her political values. Pelosi In The House Faculty Protest Judge Clears Samueli Unveiling of Tyrannosaurus Rex Skeleton Mysterious Totem Pole Theft Knox Convicted In Italy On December 9, Henry Samueli, the billionaire co-founder of the semiconductor telecommunications chip manufacturer, Irvine's Broadcom, was dismissed of charges of lying to investigators. U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney gave the ruling after Samueli's defense testimony in William Ruehle's trial for allegedly backdating stock options for employees as Broadcom's CFO. Judge Carney gave Samueli immunity when he testified and threw out his former guilty plea, for reportedly lying to the SEC that he had not been involved in employee stock packages. Samueli is a local philanthropist who has donated millions to science and engineering schools, children's hospitals, arts and culture non-profits, and Jewish organizations. He and his wife own the NHL's Anaheim Ducks. LOCAL The most infamous of Cretaceous Period dinosaurs, Tyrannosaurus Rex, was put on display in Portland at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry on December 17th; the 6-ton beast is named Samson. The 39-foot fossil remains of the T. Rex is one of the most complete set of bones in existence. Discovered on a family ranch in South Dakota in 1987, the excavation took six years to dig up the 66-million-year old skeleton. Paleontologists say the skull, with 22 serrated teeth, is the best-preserved on record. The specimen includes the first discovery of hyoid bones, which are inherent to tongue function. Researchers theorize this is a new, yet unnamed, species of North American Tyrannosaurus. A totem pole created by a Northwest Indian in the 1970s to symbolize Puget Sound Indians' heritage was stolen from the Rotary Viewpoint Park in West Seattle, Washington. A 69-year-old was prosecuted for hiring a crane to hoist the 18-foot artifact onto a tow truck and take it home with him. Unwittingly, a local police officer was directing traffic around the crane and truck during the theft, the Seattle Weekly reported. West Seattle Rotary Club members instigated an investigation that led police and the Parks Department to the totem pole's whereabouts: about 200 miles away in Keizer, Oregon, on a boat trailer. Police found another totem pole, of unknown origin, next to it. The American student, Amanda Knox, was sentenced by an Italian jury in Perugia, Italy, to serve 26 years in prison for murdering her roommate Meredith Kercher, a British student. Knox's boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, was sentenced to 25 years. The two were ordered to pay Kercher's family 5 million euros, which is the equivalent of $7.4 million. CNN reported that the prosecutors accused Knox of murdering Kercher with knife slashes to her throat while she commanded Sollecito and another accomplice, Rudy Guede, to hold Kercher down. Knox and Sollecito have spent the last two years in jail after Kercher was stabbed to death in November of 2007. IN REVIEW THEMONTH