Questions over Palin's speaking fee lead to state investigation | California Watch

Questions over Palin's speaking fee lead to state investigation | California Watch

Questions over Palin's speaking fee lead to state investigation

by Lance Williams

Photo by Bruce TutenSarah Palin stumps for Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., in December 2008.

Lance Williams

The quest to uncover the secret of Sarah Palin’s speaking fee in Turlock has become a case for California’s top cop.
A state lawmaker claimed Wednesday that he has “smoking gun” proof that educators at CSU Stanislaus are deliberately hiding public documents that reveal how much they agreed to pay Palin for a speech at an upcoming gala fundraiser.
Their alleged stonewalling is so egregious, said state Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, that he has asked

UCSD investigates professor behind GPS app for migrants

by Erica Perez

Wikimedia photo by Toksave

Erica Perez

UC San Diego is investigating a professor who created a cell phone GPS tool to help migrants locate resources like water caches and safety beacons as they attempt to cross the U.S.-Mexico border.
Voice of San Diego reports that the university is looking into how visual arts professor Ricardo Dominguez used $5,000 in research funding on the Transborder Immigrant Tool, a project that generated a media frenzy when it was announced last fall.
They're also looking into Dominguez's role in a virtual sit-in that impacted UC President Mark Yudof's Web site during the March 4 Day of Action, Dominguez said.
Dominguez told the Voice of San Diego and the San Diego Union-Tribune he's being targeted for questioning the university's operations. He's also worried the investigations may have a chilling effect of academic freedom at the

Budget woes kicking school children off the bus

by Corey G. Johnson

Photo by Charles Thompson

Corey G. Johnson

After wiping out thousands of teachers and staff, the California budget crisis' next victim may be your child's school bus.
Bus drivers already know the deal.
On Saturday, unionized drivers in Northern San Diego County's Poway Unified School District held a protest to rally support after learning school officials are considering cutting 39 bus routes to help stem a $24 million estimated shortfall to the 2010-11 budget.
The decision would force 3,300 students to walk, catch a ride or hitch-hike to class. Two years ago, according to bus driver and local union president Chuck Lord, Poway Unified trimmed 20 routes and sliced the ridership from 6,000 students to 3,300.
If officials cut the other 39 routes, then nearly all of the remaining students would be forced to hitch a ride or walk