Detroit teachers union accuses district of threatening and intimidating outspoken teachers | MLive.com

Detroit teachers union accuses district of threatening and intimidating outspoken teachers | MLive.com:

Detroit teachers union accuses district of threatening and intimidating outspoken teachers

DETROIT — The Detroit Federation of Teachers is accusing Detroit Public Schools officials of intimidating teachers who spoke out about conditions at their schools and declining to hear union complaints.

A Michigan Administrative Hearing System hearing is set to continue Thursday after taking place throughout the day Wednesday on one of the three charges made by DFT President Steve Conn on behalf of his members against DPS.

Conn, who did not return a call seeking further comment Wednesday, said in a statement that the teachers know they have the respect of their communities but don't feel that respect from the district.

"We must stop our finest teachers from being driven out of the school district," Conn said. "The union knows it has the complete the support of DPS students and parents in demanding that the school district respect the official grievance procedure and meet with the union over such matters."

Two of the three charges deal with individual teachers' relationships with principals, while the third is against the Detroit Public Schools in general.

According to the Detroit News, the complaint heard by a judge Wednesday that will continue Thursday involves a dispute at East English Village Preparatory Academy High School.

The union alleges Carmen Murray, principal at East English Village Preparatory Academy High School, confronted Nicole Conway regarding comments Conway made in The Detroit Teacher, the DFT's newspaper. Conway made comments in the newspaper about not having enough books for her students.

According to the complaint filed with the state, Murray said, "If you are going to say things that put the school in a bad light, you should talk to me first." Conway and the DFT allege this is Murray's way of interfering with, and attempting to restrain, Conway exercising her rights, an unfair labor practice.

Another charge filed with the state contends Sharon Jamison, teacher and union steward at Mann Elementary School, was threatened with an insubordination charge while at a conference where Conn filed grievances with the Mann principal.

"Shortly there after, in fact, the steward received the written warning of insubordination from the principal," the complaint states.

The hearing on that case will take place at a later date, according to the News report.

The final charge is that Detroit Public Schools officials informed DFT that the district Detroit teachers union accuses district of threatening and intimidating outspoken teachers | MLive.com:

Some say standardized testing is a civil right. What about less testing as a civil right? - The Washington Post

Some say standardized testing is a civil right. What about less testing as a civil right? - The Washington Post:

Some say standardized testing is a civil right. What about less testing as a civil right?

For some time now some civil rights groups have been contended that maintaining annual standardized testing in any new federal law is a civil right. How about the opposite? How about refusing to bombard students with unnecessary standards tests as a civil right. As Congress this week debates a new federal education law to replace No Child Left Behind, here’s a look at the testing debate by Monty Neill, executive director of the National Center for Fair and Open Testing, known as  FairTest, a nonprofit organization that works to end the misuses of standardized testing and to ensure that evaluation of students, educators and schools is fair, open, valid and educationally sound.

By Monty Neill

As a recent letter from African American and Latino community groups to congressional leaders explained, standardized testing is a civil rights issue because the overuse and misuse of standardized exams causes disproportionate harm to students of color. The letter calls on Congress “to pass an ESEA reauthorization without requiring the regime of oppressive, high stakes, standardized testing and sanctions that have recently been promoted as civil rights requirements…. What, from our vantage point, happens because of these tests is not improvement. It’s destruction.”

Under No Child Left Behind, the United States has built a system of high-stakes testing to judge and control students, teachers, schools and districts. It subordinates learning to test preparation and contributes to profoundly unequal educational opportunities and outcomes. (NCLB is the current version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, ESEA.)

U.S. public schools are inundated with tests, especially reading and math.Students take an average of 113 standardized exams mandated by federal, state and local governments during their school careers.  Some urban districts, such as Pittsburgh, have implemented more than 30 tests in just one grade in a single year. State teacher union surveys report that testing and preparation can occupy up to 16 hours per week.  Black, brown, low-income and recent immigrant/English language learner students spend far more time on testing and test preparation than do white students.

Unfortunately, the tests measure only a thin slice of what students need to learn. Focusing on them commonly reduces those subjects to test prep. For example, students constantly skim short passages and answer multiple-choice questions rather than read real books, write reports, or engage in class discussion. Teachers put exams at the center of instruction to protect their students and schools, as well as themselves, from the consequences of low scores. Meanwhile, science, history, the arts and other subjects are cut back to carve out more time for reading and math test prep.

Attaching high-stakes to the tests causes great damage. Disadvantaged Some say standardized testing is a civil right. What about less testing as a civil right? - The Washington Post:

Arne Duncan's Legacy | Diane Ravitch

Arne Duncan's Legacy | Diane Ravitch:

Arne Duncan's Legacy

Lyndsey Layton of the Washington Posthas written a sympathetic article about Arne Duncan and the waning of his powers as Secretary of Education. He is a nice guy. He is a close friend of the president. He cares about individual children that he met along the way. The pending reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act will prohibit him and future Secretaries from interfering in state decisions about standards, curriculum and assessment. His family has already moved back to Chicago. But he will stay on the job to the very end.

When Obama was elected, many educators and parents thought that Obama would bring a new vision of the federal role in education, one that freed schools from the test-and-punish mindset of George W. Bush's No Child Left Behind. But Arne Duncan and Barack Obama had a vision no different from George W. Bush and doubled down on the importance of testing, while encouraging privatization and undermining the teaching profession with a $50 million grant to Teach for America to place more novice teachers in high-needs schools. Duncan never said a bad word about charters, no matter how many scandals and frauds were revealed.

During Duncan's tenure in office:

- He used his control of billions of dollars to promote a dual school system of privately managed charter schools operating alongside public schools;

- He has done nothing to call attention to the fraud and corruption in the charter sector or to curb charters run by non-educators for profit or to insist on charter school accountability or to require charters to enroll the neediest children;

- He pushed to require states to evaluate teachers by the test scores of their students, which has caused massive demoralization among teachers, raised the stakes attached to testing, and produced no positive results;

- He used federal funds and waivers from NCLB to push the adoption of Common Core standards and to create two testing consortia, which many states have abandoned;

- The Common Core tests are so absurdly "rigorous" that most students have failed them, even in schools that send high percentages of students to four-year colleges, the failure rates have been highest among students who are English language learners, students with disabilities, and students of color;

- He has bemoaned rising resegregation of the schools but done nothing to reduce it;

- He has been silent as state after state has attacked collective bargaining and due process for teachers;

- He has done nothing in response to the explosion of voucher programs that transfer public funds to religious schools;

- Because of his policies, enrollments in teacher education programs, even in Teach Arne Duncan's Legacy | Diane Ravitch:

1984 - The Test

BY N. P. Education

unitedoptout.com

The Nonprofit Industrial Complex's Role in Imposing Neoliberalism on Public Education

The Nonprofit Industrial Complex's Role in Imposing Neoliberalism on Public Education:

The Nonprofit Industrial Complex's Role in Imposing Neoliberalism on Public Education

"In the long run, NGOs are accountable to their funders, not to the people they work among. They're what botanists would call an indicator species. It's almost as though the greater the devastation caused by neoliberalism, the greater the outbreak of NGOs" (Roy, 2004)

Those ruling society have long utilized non-profits and similar outfits as a means to further their interests, ameliorate their public image, and disseminate their ideologies. Whether we call them Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), or Non-Profit Industrial Complex (NPIC), the era of neoliberalism has seen the role of these private organizations further entrench itself in spaces that used to be that of the public commons. Perhaps the most egregious example of this is in the realm of education policy, where the activities of huge foundations, coupled with the actions of NPIC funded by those foundations, have insidiously begun to displace, replace, and even set the stage for the possible elimination of public education altogether.

Education historian Diane Ravitch opens the chapter entitled "The Billionaire Boys' Club" in her seminal book (Ravitch 195) with a discussion of the Ford Foundation's intervention in the so-called "community control" movement as early as 1967. Considered one of the more socially liberal foundations, Ford's ostensibly good intentioned social engineering ended up exacerbating the problems that undergirded the struggles at the time. Whatever one makes of Ford's intentions, the fact that they have a long history of being instrumental to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in terms of surveilling social movements is revealing (Incite! Women of Color Against Violence 88). Compared to Ford, modern foundations are far more overt in their political goals - especially their neoliberal agenda, and far more powerful in terms of their influence.

Taking neoliberalism as the modern term describing the "Washington Consensus" policies of deregulation, austerity, and privatization, we can best describe the current assault on public education as "neoliberal corporate education reform." While a number of arch-reactionary foundations like The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, The Sarah Scaife Foundation, and the Milken Family Foundation fund neoliberal aims in education, the most influential foundations in terms of advancing school privatization are those that author Joanne Barkan (Barkan, 2011) came to call the Broad/Gates/Walton Triumvirate. An exhaustive survey of what these three mega-foundations have done to undermine public education nationwide (e.g. The Gates Foundation's machinations behind the malignant Common Core State Standards) exceeds the scope of this essay. Instead, we will focus on a single city. Perhaps because of its size, or its proximity to The Broad Foundation's headquarters, Los Angeles has been one of the central fronts on which the neoliberal ideologues have waged their war on public education. Evidenced by the staggering amounts the ruling class spends on school board and related elections, the number of well funded NPICs working as a neoliberal axis, and the collusion of the corporate media, those in power see Los Angeles as a high value target. In a word, it is a microcosm of what is happening to education everywhere.

The Neoliberal Emperor of Los Angeles

In the aforementioned Ravitch chapter, she outlines the "venture philanthropists" most responsible for the manifest neoliberal offensive against education. Discussing track-home real estate mogul, toxic credit default swap purveyor, and Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) bailout recipient Eli Broad (rhymes with toad), Ravitch The Nonprofit Industrial Complex's Role in Imposing Neoliberalism on Public Education:

My Report on House and Senate July 08, 2015, ESEA Actions | deutsch29

My Report on House and Senate July 08, 2015, ESEA Actions | deutsch29:

My Report on House and Senate July 08, 2015, ESEA Actions

This week, both the House and the Senate are promoting their respective versions of the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965.

A bit of info regarding what transpired July 08, 2015:

On July 08, 2015, the House passed its version, the Student Success Act (HR 5) by a slim margin: 218-213. Only Republicans voted for it. President Obama has said in the past he would veto the bill over such issues as the House version’s “per-student basis” Title I funding and its budget caps that do not account for either inflation or enrollment increases.

For a play-by-play record of House legislative activities regarding HR 5, click here and use the calendar feature to view July 08, 2015.

A couple of interesting issues related to HR 5 amendments: First, an opt-out amendment was approved (Rep. Salmon, AZ). Under this amendment, students whose parents opt them out of state testing are not counted against the state participation rate. The Senate ESEA reauthorization version also has an opt-out amendment that was approved in committee, but the Senate opt-out is worded such as to tell states that whether states allow opting out or not, don’t blame the federal government (i.e., don’t say that ESEA requires students to test).

Another interesting House issue related to HR 5 is one that was sponsored by Rep. Polis (CO) and later withdrawn. Polis’ amendment wanted “to require states to have college- and career-ready standards and set performance, growth, and graduation rate targets for all student subgroups. The amendment also includes performance targets for English language learners and students with disabilities.” Even though the pro-testing civil rights groups might have supported this one, the amendment was withdrawn “by unanimous consent.” Too much of a “federal overreach” feel for Republicans, I assume.

(The actual texts of the Salmon and Polis amendments can be found here. Whereas the Salmon amendment is only a couple of lines long, the Polis amendment is several pages of text.)

But the pendulum was also not allowed to swing too far in the other, relaxed direction: A proposed amendment by Rep. Walker (NC), called the A PLUS Act, would have My Report on House and Senate July 08, 2015, ESEA Actions | deutsch29:

Schneider is a southern Louisiana native, career teacher, trained researcher, and author of the ed reform whistle blower, A Chronicle of Echoes: Who’s Who In the Implosion of American Public Education.

She also has a second book, Common Core Dilemma: Who Owns Our Schools?, newly published on June 12, 2015.

Is Special Education Racist? - The New York Times

Is Special Education Racist? - The New York Times:
Is Special Education Racist?

MORE than six million children in the United States receive special-education services for their disabilities. Of those age 6 and older, nearly 20 percent are black.

Critics claim that this high number — blacks are 1.4 times more likely to be placed in special education than other races and ethnicities combined — shows that black children are put into special education because schools are racially biased.

But our new research suggests just the opposite. The real problem is that black children are underrepresented in special-education classes when compared with white children with similar levels of academic achievement, behavior and family economic resources.

The belief that black children are overrepresented in special education is driving some misguided attempts at policy changes. To flag supposed racial bias in special-education placement, the United States Department of Education is thinking of adopting a single standard for all states of what is an allowable amount of overrepresentation of minority children.

If well-intentioned but misguided advocates succeed in arbitrarily limiting placement in special education based on racial demographics, even more black children with disabilities will miss out on beneficial services.

Black children face double jeopardy when it comes to succeeding in school. They are far more likely to be exposed to the gestational, environmental and economic risk factors that often result in disabilities. Yet black children are less likely to be told they have disabilities, and to be treated for them, than otherwise similar white children.

About 65 percent of black children, compared with about 30 percent of white children, live in families with incomes below 200 percent of the poverty line. From 1985 to 2000 about 80 percent of black children grew up in highly disadvantaged neighborhoods characterized by widespread unemployment, racial segregation, poverty, single-parent households and welfare.

Thirty-six percent of inner-city black children have elevated levels of lead in their blood. The figure for suburban white children is only 4 percent. Black children are about twice as likely to be born prematurely and three times more likely to suffer from fetal alcohol syndrome.

In a study published today, we report that the under-diagnosis of black children occurs across five disability conditions for which special services are commonly provided — learning disabilities, speech or language impairments, intellectual disabilities, health impairments and emotional disturbances. From the beginning of kindergarten to the end of eighth Is Special Education Racist? - The New York Times:

Overview Published online first in: Educational Researcher June 24, 2015 Paul L. Morgan, Pennsylvania State University George Farkas, University of California, Irvine Marianne M. Hillemeier, Pennsylvania State University Richard Mattison, Pennsylvania State University Steve Maczuga, Pennsylvania State University Hui Li, Pennsylvania State University Michael Cook, Pennsylvania State University Abstract We investigated whether minority children attending U.S. elementary and middle schools are disproportionately represented in special education. We did so using hazard modeling of multiyear longitudinal data and extensive covariate adjustment for potential child-, family-, and state-level confounds. Minority children were consistently less likely than otherwise similar White, English-speaking children to be identified as disabled and so to receive special education services. From kindergarten entry to the end of middle school, racial- and ethnic-minority children were less likely to be identified as having (a) learning disabilities, (b) speech or language impairments, (c) intellectual disabilities, (d) health impairments, or (e) emotional disturbances. Language-minority children were less likely to be identified as having (a) learning disabilities or (b) speech or language impairments. Read the full article Read the news release "Study Finds Minority Students Are Underrepresented in Special Education"

	News Coverage New study challenges previous research about special education students 89.3 KPCC, June 26, 2015  Is special education biased against racial minorities? Washington Examiner, June 25, 2015 Study on Minorities in Special Education Proves Provocative Education Week, June 25, 2015 Minority Children are Unrepresented in Special Education OC Weekly, June 25, 2015 Minorities Less Likely to Be Identified for Special Education, Study Finds Education Week, June 24, 2015 What You Thought About Minority Students and Special Ed Is Wrong U.S. News & World Report, June 24, 2015 More Minority Students Should Be In Special Ed, Study Says Huffington Post, June 24, 2015 Is Special Education Racist? (op-ed) New York Times, June 24, 2015 Morning Education: Challenging Special Education Policy Politico, June 24, 2015

The state spits in Newark’s face | Bob Braun's Ledger

The state spits in Newark’s face | Bob Braun's Ledger:

The state spits in Newark’s face

(Editor’s Note: I was unable to attend Wednesday’s meeting of the state school board and asked Melissa Katz, a well-known student activist and supporter of public education, to cover the meeting for me. Her report is complete and comprehensive and will give the most thorough  account of what happened at the meeting I have yet seen).

The controversial deal cut between New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Newark Mayor Ras Baraka bore its first fruit Wednesday when the state school board voted 6-4 to name former state education commissioner Christopher Cerf to take over as the state-appointed superintendent o Newark schools. All six board members voting for Cerf, a national proponent of charter schools and a business entrepreneur, were appointed by Christie; those voting against Cerf were holdovers from previous administrations. No public comment was allowed at the meeting.

Cerf’s nomination had been opposed by the Newark groups that successfully drove out Cami Anderson as state-appointed superintendent after her four years of contentious, incompetent and, at times, tragic rule.  Just the day before, more than one hundred protesters rallied in Newark against the Cerf appointment. All speakers but one–Baraka himself–called for a rejection of Cerf’s appointment. Baraka, clearly angry at those–like this writer–who opposed his deal with Christie–would not criticize the former education commissioner who originally hired Anderson.

What follows is a comprehensive account of Wednesday’s board meeting written by Melissa Katz, a junior at The College of New Jersey, an aspiring urban teacher, and a student activist who has consistently supported the aspirations of Newark residents to run their own schools after 20 years of state rule:

By MELISSA KATZ

In what is usually a regular, monthly meeting at the State Board of Education, the tension in the room could be felt. Less than 24 hours earlier, over 100 people stood on the steps of Newark City Hall, protesting the proposed appointment of Christopher Cerf as the new Superintendent of Newark Public Schools. Equally as many if not more phone calls and emails were made to the State Board President Mark Biedron with the same message: the community of Newark was saying ‘no’ to Chris Cerf.

This morning, that proposal became a reality.

In a 6-4 vote by the State Board of Education, Cerf was appointed as the next — The state spits in Newark’s face | Bob Braun's Ledger:

As Congress moves to strip his power, Duncan is staying until the final buzzer - The Washington Post

As Congress moves to strip his power, Duncan is staying until the final buzzer - The Washington Post:

As Congress moves to strip his power, Duncan is staying until the final buzzer

Christina Waters’s cellphone rang, and she looked down to see that the number was blocked. She knew immediately it was U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, just calling to check in.

It has been that way since Waters attended a 2009 church picnic in Chicago and came away with a bullet lodged in her head from stray gunfire. She suffered hearing loss in one ear, and her college dreams were delayed. But she pushed forward, with encouragement from Duncan, who has known her since elementary school. Now 24, Waters is studying kinesiology at Sam Houston State University in Texas.

Waters belongs to a circle of strivers that Duncan has quietly cultivated, students across the country who are clearing hurdles that would discourage many others. He calls regularly to offer support and advice.

That unfiltered, direct contact has been key in shaping Duncan’s belief that poor students hold the same potential as their affluent peers but face more obstacles to a high-quality education in America’s public schools. Trying to correct that imbalance, Duncan has injected an unusual amount of federal influence into traditionally local decisions about public education.

The result is that most Americans now accept public charter schools as an alternative to neighborhood schools, most teachers expect to be judged in some measure on how well their students perform on standardized tests, and most states are using more demanding K-12 As Congress moves to strip his power, Duncan is staying until the final buzzer - The Washington Post:

Lawmakers Move to Limit Government’s Role in Education - The New York Times

Lawmakers Move to Limit Government’s Role in Education - The New York Times:

Lawmakers Move to Limit Government’s Role in Education

WASHINGTON — Congress on Wednesday moved to substantially scale back the federal government’s role in education, particularly the use of high-stakes standardized testing to punish schools, in the first significant proposed revisions since the No Child Left Behind law was passed 14 years ago.

While there is near-universal agreement that the law should be retooled, the paths to change are starkly different.

The House on Wednesday passed its version, a measure laden with conservative prescriptions that congressional Democrats and President Obama opposed. The Senate began debate on its alternative, a bill with at least some bipartisan support, but one the White House still finds wanting.

No Child Left Behind, which passed Congress by overwhelming margins, had been considered one of the signature domestic achievements of President George W. Bush. But its provisions for using standardized tests has ignited debate ever since.

Those fights have intensified during the intervening years since Speaker John A. Boehner and Senator Edward M. Kennedy created their compromise that Mr. Bush signed.

The House version of a revised education bill includes a provision that would permit low-income students to transfer federal dollars between school districts, something the Obama administration has pledged to veto. The bill, which passed, 218 to 213 had almost no Democratic support.

In the Senate, there were calls for cooperation.

“We’ve asked senators to show restraint,” said Senator Lamar Alexander, Republican of Tennessee, who is working with Senator Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington, on a compromise bill. “Our goal is to have a success, and that’s to get President Obama to sign it. For us back home, No Child Left behind is the No. 1 issue.”

Both the Senate and House versions of education legislation address what critics of No Child Left Behind have opposed for years — a punitive system of testing overseen by the federal government — in favor of more local Lawmakers Move to Limit Government’s Role in Education - The New York Times:

On The Sacramento Bee's soft spot for K.J. - Sacramento News & Review -

Sacramento News & Review - On The Sacramento Bee's soft spot for K.J. - Feature Story - Local Stories - July 9, 2015:

On The Sacramento Bee's soft spot for K.J.

The Bee has been criticized before for its handling of Johnson’s various controversies, and this latest legal dust-up isn’t helping

It’s weird when news organizationsbecome the news. But that’s exactly what happened when Mayor Kevin Johnson filed a lawsuit against the city and SN&R.

The July 1 lawsuit came after SN&R refused to back off its public-records request for emails between his office and attorneys involved in a legal entanglement with the National Conference of Black Mayors. As a result, Johnson sued to block the city’s release of said emails, citing attorney-client privilege—emails that the city attorney had already determined to be public record.

Weird.

Even taking SN&R out of the equation, the lawsuit is odd—and a pretty big deal. When was the last time (if ever) that a mayor sued his or her own city? When was the last time (if ever) that a mayor requested a restraining order against the city he or she governs?

News of Johnson’s landmark legal moves spread fast. By end of day Wednesday, all three major local TV news stations had visited SN&R’s Del Paso Boulevard headquarters to interview publisher Jeff vonKaenel. National outlets such as Deadspin, The Huffington Post and USA Today also picked up the story.

All of which just makes The Sacramento Bee’s coverage of the lawsuit all the more, well, weird.

Take its initial report, for starters: After the news broke, the paper posted a short, unbylined brief on its website. That’s not necessarily the strange part; breaking news is a fast beast, surely the paper’s print version would be meatier.

Nope. The Bee’s July 2 print version of the story was buried on page A3, credited only to “Bee Metro Staff.”

How and why, exactly, did Bee editors decide this story wasn’t front-page news?

(Full disclosure: I worked at the Bee from 2000-09 as a features writer and have a pretty good idea of its Sacramento News & Review - On The Sacramento Bee's soft spot for K.J. - Feature Story - Local Stories - July 9, 2015:

Why Mayor Kevin Johnson sued SN&R, what we've learned—and what happens next

Mayor’s spokesman to SN&R: ‘It is what it is’

“The mayor is completely open and transparent.” That’s what Mayor Kevin Johnson’s spokesman Ben Sosenko told the TV cameras and reporters gathered outside Sacramento Superior Court Room 44 last week.

Shortly before that, Sosenko flatly refused to answer any of SN&R’s questions about the mayor’s use of private emails to do city business. He made it clear that he didn’t intend to answer any of SN&R’s questions any time soon, either.

“It is what it is,” he said with a smirk.

Regular readers know that, last week, Johnson took SN&R and the city of Sacramento to court, in order to block the city from releasing about 100 emails, which the mayor says are protected by attorney-client privilege (read about the lawsuit on SN&R’s Page Burner blog athttp://tinyurl.com/KJlawsuit).

But the bigger story may be that, thanks to Johnson’s lawsuit, we now know that the mayor has actually failed to turn over thousands of emails from his private Gmail accounts. Those emails were sent by city employees, doing city business, and aren’t protected by attorney-client privilege.

Outside the courtroom, SN&R attorney Thomas Burke told the gathered media that Johnson’s use of private email accounts is a way to get around the California Public Records Act. “There’s no way to check whether or not you have access to everything that they’re doing in the public’s business,” Burke said.

Sosenko wouldn’t talk to SN&R, but assured the other reporters gathered that the Gmail accounts, which use “OMKJ” for “Office of Mayor Kevin Johnson” in the address, were no problem, because “the private email accounts are used for things that are not city business.”

Not even remotely true: The OMKJ emails accounts are routinely used for city business. To take just a few examples: Johnson and his staff used outside emails extensively to discuss strategy for the 2013 arena deal. Other OMKJ emails obtained by SN&R show Sosenko responding to an article in the Bee about an anti-gang program, and developing talking points for remarks Johnson made to Sacramento police officers about the unrest in Ferguson, Mo. By using these outside accounts, Johnson has effectively short-circuited California’s public-records law. And no one on the city council, or the city manager or city attorney, seems willing to do anything about it.

Back in March, SN&R requested any emails sent and received using the set of special “OMKJ” Gmail accounts used by the mayor’s staff (see “Special delivery” by Cosmo Garvin, SN&R News, April 23, at

Why Mayor Kevin Johnson sued SN&R, what we've learned—and what happens next

Big Education Ape: Nine things that burn in your brain when the mayor sues you - Sacramento News & Review - http://bit.ly/1HgQb6c

Nine things that burn in your brain when the mayor sues you - Sacramento News & Review -

Sacramento News & Review - Nine things that burn in your brain when the mayor sues you - Feature Story - Local Stories - July 9, 2015:

Nine things that burn in your brain when the mayor sues you

A special Mayor Kevin Johnson listicle

This week was at once weird, unexpected, electric and head-scratching.We got sued by the mayor, what the hell is going on? Only a listicle will do. And, so: Nine things that burn in your brain when K.J. sues you.

1. Wait, did we really just get sued by K.J.? Our attorney reassured us that Johnson’s attorneys likely wouldn’t follow through with their threat of litigation. Why would they? Journalists enjoy a legal right to newsgathering, including the request of public records. It’d be supremely dumb for them to sue us. And yet, it happened.

2. Why didn’t the Bee tell the mayor’s lawyer to buzz off? The mayor’s attorney, David Pittinsky, threatened our writer Cosmo Garvin and Marissa Lang, a reporter at The Sacramento Bee. This attorney was clearly harassing these journalists. Garvin, what with his zero-tolerance policy for empty threats and white-collar intimidation, ultimately ignored Pittinsky. But Lang sort of acquiesced to Pittinsky’s demand, even writing the polite, “Let me know if there’s anything else you need from my end” on her email communique. (In her defense, Pittinsky then totally mischaracterized what she’d agreed to as part of the final lawsuit.) Still, why didn’t the Bee tell K.J.’s lawyer to go burn some popcorn? Their decision is symptomatic of Scoopy’s soft spot when it comes to the mayor, and the Bee’s post-lawsuit coverage of the email shenanigans clearly suggests embarrassment at The Hive. (Read Rachel Leibrock’s essay on page 21.)

3. Someone in K.J.’s office actually gave this the thumbs-up? I keep imagining this scene as a Woody Allen film:

K.J. (in mayoral library reading Nietzsche): “I’m sick of that pesky Cosmo Garvin digging in my emails. Have my attorneys do something about it.”

Staffer (polishing mayoral bust): “Sir, yes sir.”

(Staffer calls attorney.)

Staffer: “Do something about these damn hacks snooping in our emails.”

Lawyer (sipping espresso with pinky pointed toward the sky): “I have the perrrfect solution.”

In all seriousness, there’s clearly information in these emails that will impact the various National Conference of Black Mayors lawsuits. Ironically, suing SN&R makes it even more likely that those messages will see daylight.

4. Nobody seemed to care about K.J.’s private Gmails months ago when Cosmo Garvin was writing about it. What changed? This paper’s been banging the drum about the mayor using secret Gmail accounts for public work for months. We served it up on a silver platter, comparing Johnson’s email practices to those of Hillary Clinton while Secretary of State (we even commissioned the sweet illustration on this page). Yet not a peep from the Bee editorial board or any other news media outlet. Until K.J. made the mistake of suing us—and now it’s front-page, 5 p.m. news. Nice one, traditional media!

5. K.J. says his national profile is good for Sacramento. But how does a “coup” with a black Sacramento News & Review - Nine things that burn in your brain when the mayor sues you - Feature Story - Local Stories - July 9, 2015:

Related stories this week:
The city of Sacramento needs to pause its plan to delete 54 million old emails
It's really bad timing for the city to dump years' worth of public records.

Why Mayor Kevin Johnson sued SN&R, what we've learned—and what happens next
Mayor’s spokesman to SN&R: “It is what it is.”

On The Sacramento Bee's soft spot for K.J.
The Bee has been criticized before for its handling of Johnson’s various controversies, and this latest legal dust-up isn’t helping.