TORRANCE TRIBUNE June 8, 2017 Page 5 Politically Speaking School Board from front page the awards recipients as cash prizes will be awarded by this year’s Awards Judge, Joe Mancuso--a nationally known Torrance-based professional fine artist. See mancusofineart. com to learn more about Joe’s plein air Artwork. Last year, Downtown Torrance saw hundreds of visitors walking the streets during the Artwalk and similar results are expected this year. On Juse 24, the Destination: Art Gallery Artists will also display art for purchase on the patio of Chef Shafer’s The Depot, 1250 Cabrillo Avenue.The Torrance Artists’ Guild will show artwork in front of the Red Car Brewery, 1266 Sartori Avenue. Paintings of historic Torrance sites by Destination: Art artists will be on display at the Torrance Historical museum along with paintings from their permanent collection. The Museum is located at 1345 Post Avenue. APC Fine Arts Gallery will be exhibiting mixed media art at 1621 Cabrillo Avenue and the California Museum of Fine Art features the art of Dali Higa and various Russian artists at 1421 Marcelina Avenue. The Artwalk will culminates with tours of the studios at Destination: Art. – Content and Photo by Destination: Art in implementing the academic content and performance standards” adopted by the Board of Education. This year’s winners are Bert Lynn Middle School Principal Leroy Jackson, Calle Mayor Middle School Principal David Mosley, Magruder Middle School Principal Chris Sheck, North High School Principal Dr. Ronald Richardson and South High School Principal Dr. Scott McDowell. “When a person is a leader in a school, you realize that you can’t do it alone--but beyond that there is the infrastructure and the support from the families and certainly the district,” said North High School Principal Dr. Ronald Richardson. “A well-organized, powerful district that supports strong student learning for each pupil is wonderful to find and Torrance Unified School District is that kind of district.” Also recognized for its 2017 California Model Continuation School Award was Kurt T. Shery Continuation High School, which the State honored for its comprehensive services to at-risk youth. For going “above and beyond in the subject of history-social science education,” Carol Grossi was named the California Council for the Social Studies (CCSS) Awards Recognition Program winner, earning her the acknowledgement during the meeting. Academic achievements by students recognized during the meeting included Victor Elementary School’s Navneeth Murali earning fourth place at the Los Angeles County Elementary Spelling Bee; Victor Elementary School for winning first place in the ninth Annual TUSD Elementary Academic Pentathlon Champions; the Academic Decathlon Teams from North High, South High, Torrance High and West High recognized for their outstanding achievement at the Los Angeles County competition (West High School competed at the State Competition in Sacramento); and the South High, Torrance High and West High Speech and Debate Teams earning recognition for qualifying and competing at the state tournament. Also, the West High School Family Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) students were recognized for winning first and second place in the FCCLA Regional Competition and qualifying state. Finishing in first place was Rose Ochoa in FCCLA Regional Competition in Fashion Design. Valeria Alkomos also earned first place FCCLA Regional Competition and fourth place FCCLA State Competition in Interior Design. Sheena Uchino earned second place in FCCLA Regional Competition and fifth place at FCCLA State Competition in Salad Prep. “It is a wonderful feeling of accomplishment, not only for myself, but to see other people rise has been really satisfying,” said Dr. Richardson, who has been a principal for 11 years. “I can’t think of a more important career than helping lots of young people get a solid foundation and have hope and possibilities for their lives.” In addition to being recognized, the West High School Robotics Team that won first place in the Los Angeles Regional competition and qualified for the FIRST Robotics World Championship also brought their robot to the meeting for a small demonstration. Additionally recognized from West High was its Science Olympiad team that won first place in the Los Angeles County regional competition and finished 10th at the state level. South High School’s Advanced Dance Team was recognized for its regional and state championships and qualification to nationals. The following students were recognized as National Merit Scholarship Recipients, National Merit Scholarship Finalists and the National Hispanic Recognition Program: From North High, Alyssa Petersen and Aaron Robles were recognized as scholars by the National Hispanic Recognition Program; and from South High, Julia Han was the National Merit Scholarship Finalist and National Merit Scholarship Recipient. Margaret Jang was named National Merit Scholarship Finalist, while Euvin Lee and Ian Lee earned National Merit Scholarship Finalist positions. From Torrance High, Ramon Alcaraz was named a National Merit Scholarship Finalist and National Merit Special Corporate Scholarship Recipient. John Garcia was recipient of the National Hispanic Recognition Program and Justin Yokota was named a National Merit Scholarship Finalist. West High had Grace Carley, Michelle Zhang and Matthew La Rue named National Merit Scholarship Finalists. For being recipients of 2017 Tech Trek Science and Math Camp scholarship, the Board recognized Sofia Santana and Jenna Yamane from Bert Lynn Middle School; Delaney Hart and Tiffany Kwon from Calle Mayor Middle School; Pauline Vu and Clara Bommelje from Casimir Middle School; Jade Campbell and Destiny Preciado from J H Hull Middle School; Farah Noorzaye and Ayaka Chinen from Jefferson Middle School; Kennedy Hayashi and Katrina Iguban from Madrona Middle School; Kohana Johnson and Hannah Lawson from Magruder Middle School; and Katie Chung and Ronnie (Yirou) Zhang from Richardson Middle School. South High’s Prerana Reddy was recognized for being selected as a California State University Dominguez Hills Presidential Scholar recipient. West High’s Stephen Robert Gee was recognized for being named this year’s Balfour Beatty/Sharefest Scholarship recipient. Also from West High, Irene Tsay was recognized during the meeting for winning the Torrance Rose Float Association Design Contest and earning a spot in the float during the parade. For their accomplishments in sports, Torrance High’s Wrestling Team member Antonio DaCosta was celebrated for his CIF Southern Section Individual Champion (undefeated League Champion); South High’s Girls Varsity Soccer was recognized for its CIF South Section Division 3 Champions; and West High’s Varsity Boys Basketball Team earned a nod for finishing as CIF Southern Section Division 4AA Champions (first Pioneer League title in 17 years). • Community Briefs from page 3 One Man’s Opinion Give Investigators Time to Clear or Reveal Wrongdoing from Trump’s Campaign By Cristian Vasquez There is no lack of will from Democrats to investigate President Donald Trump and his campaign for alleged collusion with Russia during the election. The calls from Democrats for the FBI to bring down President Trump are as loud as Republican praise was for the same agency exposing “crooked Hillary” during the campaign. Yet, seven months later it’s troubling to see that the man who took offense to being called a Russian puppet is now under investigation for possible collusion with the Russians during the election. Trump supporters have and will continue to call any investigation a witch hunt based more on partisan bickering and anger over the election. Some Democrat leaders will settle for nothing less than impeachment of President Trump. While it’s too early to impeach anyone for anything, as Americans we should support the FBI’s investigation. Before getting bombarded with the “what laws has the President broken?” rhetoric, well, that’s for the investigation to determine. Criminal acts, particularly in politics, aren’t revealed overnight. Whether we support President Trump or not, his behavior has given plenty of reason to support an investigation. For starters, during the campaign the President couldn’t speak highly enough of then FBI Director James Comey. Yet, once in office he fires the man leading the department that is investigating communications between the President’s campaign and a foreign power. It’s very possible that there was no connection between our current president’s campaign and a foreign power, but firing the man leading that investigation should cause suspicion. Furthermore, for a man who claimed without proof that three million people voted illegally, and who has appointed Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach to lead an investigation, why is he so opposed to the FBI looking into his campaign’s activities? If we are to believe that the President is truthfully concerned about the integrity of our elections, then he needs to allow the FBI to complete its investigation. By all means the President has the executive power to stop an investigation, but doing so only adds to some already questionable behavior. It doesn’t help that son-in-law Jared Kushner omitted meeting with Russians on his security clearance forms (perjury). The “it slipped his mind” excuse doesn’t hold water, since meeting with foreign dignitaries isn’t on par with not remembering to turn off the stove. Hiding something? Maybe the FBI will find out. Whether President Trump or his campaign committed a crime, it is not the President’s place to determine an absence of wrongdoing. Those conclusions must be the result of a fair and transparent investigation by a third party--in this case the FBI. Let’s not forget that President Richard Nixon never admitted that he never did anything wrong; we all know how that ended. I hope President Trump hasn’t committed a crime, and that the rumors of collusion are just that, but his behavior (firing Comey and sharing classified info with Russians the next day) make it difficult to not wonder what he’s hiding. • Another Man’s Opinion UC System, Bumper Stickers and the Deep State Leakers By Duane Plank So now that I am into week two of this soon-to-be incredibly well-read column, full disclosure: Am penning this truncated treasure trove of political musings as I keep an eye on the Sunday evening debut of Megyn Kelly’s return to TV. Interviewing that Putin Rasputin, who apparently engineered the Trump victory last November. Or so says Hillary, as she continues her incredibly sad loser’s blaspheme tour that recently visited Rancho Palos Verdes. Prior to the astounding Trump victory in November, I was driving around in a vehicle with a Bernie Sanders sticker on the back bumper. Feeling the Bern. Got a few negative comments from my right wing friends. Well, turns out I was driving my kid’s car, who is a proud UCSB grad, and may have been indoctrinated into the Bolshoi that the UC alt left instructors foist onto their charges. The same UC system that was recently caught squirreling away about $175 million in “rainy-day” funds as they raised the tuition rates—again--on beleaguered students and parents. And are using slush funds for exorbitant salaries and perks, and lavish parties. Was proud to see that son Phil became interested in the politics of the last election. He decided to support Sanders, who was cheated out of any chance to win the nomination by the Hillary old-liners who were running/ruining the party. He wanted to borrow my vintage mini-van to travel to and from a few concert soirees last summer. We switched rides and I ended up with his Honda, with the busted driver’s side window and the Sanders bumper sticker. Got the mini-van back not too long ago and, lo and behold, some lefty up north had stolen my car registration sticker! But not the Bernie sticker. Phil just emailed me today saying that another registration sticker had been stolen off a car in his possession. Oh, the humanity of the lefties up there in Santa Barbara. Alright, I shall get to it. The Deep State leakers in Washington continue to roil and disrupt the Trump presidency. It appears that multitudes of the embedded freeloader government holdovers from the Obama administration are hell-bent on causing chaos. And they are doing a pretty good job of that, if you happen to watch any of the mainstream media coverage. Mr. Obama adroitly stays away from the fray, at least on the surface. He has been filling his post-presidency time hacking away on world-wide golf courses, probably not playing with the troubled Tiger Woods, and collecting $400K by making bloviating speeches to fawning rich folks. Like the money-grabbing blusterings Hillary made to the Goldman-Sachs folks that she denied making. Interesting to see that the old lefty, and not funny at all (or ever) Kathy Griffin is being excoriated because of her post of a picture holding a severed head of Mr. Trump. Funny! This has-been loser gal appears to work once a year, boring any of you still awake on New Year’s Eve around midnight with her inane pitter-patter with CNN’s Andy Cooper. And now she was canned from that gig. Too bad, so sad. •
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