PR Plus for UCLA's Use of VA Stadium

The California Post carries a story endorsing UCLA's continued use of the Jackie Robinson baseball stadium at the VA:

From the California Post: From his wheelchair on the third-base side of UCLA’s Jackie Robinson Stadium, Deavin Sessom looked out over the pristine grass field and tree-lined outfield that offered a glimpse of the Bel-Air hills in the distance. This is baseball heaven for the Vietnam veteran. “Every veteran that’s had a chance to come out here and watch a ballgame,” Sessom told the California Post, “I think it’s one of the best things that’s happened to us. It’s my therapy.”

Sessom is among a slew of U.S. military veterans who attend every UCLA home baseball game because they enjoy the serenity and feel embraced by the team. But there’s no guarantee they’ll be able to keep coming back beyond this season. Last December, the U.S. 9th Court of Appeals upheld a ruling that would compel the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to build more than 2,500 units of housing on the West Los Angeles campus in which Jackie Robinson Stadium resides. Some of that housing was slated to be installed in the stadium parking lot.

While UCLA received a temporary reprieve to continue playing inside its longtime baseball home for the 2026 season, the future use of the stadium remains in doubt. “It’s in the lawyers’ hands now,” Vietnam veteran Bill McGaughy said, “so it’s like, what are you going to do?” McGaughy is among those who want the Bruins to stay put. He makes the short walk over to the stadium from his home on the VA campus several times a month during baseball season, saying he likes feeling part of a community...

Full story at https://nypost.com/2026/04/21/sports/us-veterans-want-ucla-to-stay-at-jackie-robinson-stadium/. (The California Post is a spinoff of the NY Post.)

Another 405 closure this weekend

Another lane closure is planned for the 405 in the Sepulveda Pass this coming weekend:

Northbound

• The interstate will be reduced to three lanes between Skirball Center Drive and Ventura Boulevard.
• The Skirball Center Drive on-ramp to the northbound 405 will be closed.

The southbound freeway will not be affected by the closure.

The lane closure runs from 10 PM Friday through 5 AM Monday.

Information from Patch:

https://patch.com/california/santamonica/s/k7fwg/major-lane-closures-to-snarl-busy-la-county-freeway-this-weekend-what-to-know.

Straws in the Wind - Part 321

From Inside Higher Ed: A new law says Kentucky public college and university boards can lay off even tenured faculty for “bona fide financial reasons” including, but not limited to, low enrollment in a major or “misalignment of revenue and costs.” The legislation requires 30 days’ notice to the affected professor, giving them only a month to defend their job to board members... The Kentucky General Assembly finished passing House Bill 490 on April 1. Democratic governor Andy Beshear vetoed it April 13, writing in his official veto message that the legislation would let boards fire tenured faculty “for an ambiguous and vague new standard of ‘bona fide financial reasons.’” 

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2026/04/17/kentucky-gop-overrides-beshears-veto-faculty-firing-bill.

Will Harvard Continue to Lead the Charge? - Part 148

From the Harvard Crimson: Harvard’s graduate student union has begun its strike after the University failed to make “significant movement” before the midnight deadline, according to bargaining committee member Denish Jaswal. “The strike starts now,” Jaswal said... Jaswal said the union’s goal remains to secure a fair contract, calling the escalation “unfortunate” after more than a year of negotiations. “A strike is a way to make it known that the workers are willing to take action to fight for what they need in their workplaces,” she said.

She added that the union is prepared to end the strike if negotiations move forward. “We will very happily call off the strike,” she said. “But until that point, we will remain on strike indefinitely.” ...

Full story at https://www.thecrimson.com/thread/2026/4/21/hgsu-strike-2026/.

News: Possible Mid-May UC Strike

From the Sacramento Bee: A union representing University of California service and health care workers plans to launch an open-ended strike next month over allegations that the university had illegally increased members’ insurance costs and refused to bargain over housing benefits. The union said the open-ended strike, scheduled to begin May 14, would be the first of its kind at UC health systems and would impact all 10 university campuses and other facilities across the state. “Instead of the university really bargaining in good faith, they illegally have imposed these terms that amount to pay cuts,” Michael Avant, president of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299, said in an interview.

AFSCME Local 3299’s last contract with UC expired in July 2024. Negotiations have continued on and off in the two years since bargaining began. In November 2024, AFSCME Local 3299 went on a multi-day strike over low wages and health care costs. The union represents roughly 40,000 UC service and patient care technical workers who work at university facilities across the state... UC Health cares for 2.5 million patients each year and serves Californians in 99% of the state’s ZIP codes.

Heather Hansen, a spokesperson for UC’s Office of the President, said in a statement that the university was disappointed at the union’s strike announcement. “Given the progress at the table, an open-ended strike is unnecessary and risks disruption for patients, students, and campus operations,” Hansen said...

Full story at https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article315419872.html.

Note that the Regents will be meeting May 5-6 at UCLA, i.e., before the May 14th deadline. So, if there is no settlement by then, there will likely be much said about this matter during public comments.

Straws in the Wind - Part 320

From Inside Higher Ed: Susan McMahon, an educator, author and podcaster, will no longer be Utah Valley University’s commencement speaker, following backlash over her social media posts about Charlie Kirk’s death... After Kirk was fatally shot while speaking on UVU’s campus last year, McMahon made a post that has since been deleted listing quotes from Kirk, with the caption, “These aren’t sound bites taken out of context. Millions of people feel they were harmed, and the murder that was horrific and should never have happened does not magically erase what was said or done.”

When UVU announced last week that McMahon would be this year’s commencement speaker, university president Astrid Tuminez called her “a force of nature and a force for good...” But backlash came swiftly. The president of UVU’s Turning Point USA chapter criticized the decision to host McMahon as “tone-deaf and disrespectful to those still affected” by Kirk’s assassination... The university announced in a press release Thursday that McMahon would no longer speak at graduation due to safety concerns...

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2026/04/17/commencement-speaker-who-criticized-charlie-kirk-out-uvu.

Already Ahead

April is the big income tax month and a lot of people pay up at the April 15 deadline. As the chart above shows, although the month is not complete, we are already ahead of the governor's projection - made at the time the January budget proposal was made - for April income tax receipts. We are also not far from the point when the governor will be submitting his May Revise budget. The continued above-projection figures for tax receipts will likely influence that submission and how the legislature looks at it.

The daily budget tracker for April is at https://sco.ca.gov/2026_personal_income_tax_tracker.html.