Cal State students go on hunger strike
Six campuses involved
A dozen students from six Cal State campuses, including four in the Southland, are on a hunger strike to press their demands for tuition cuts.
The action began Wednesday and is intended to end next Wednesday, when the California State University Board of Trustees meets at the Long Beach campus, where the hunger strikers hope to present their demands, the San Fernando Valley Sun reported.
The group heading the effort is Students for Quality Education, an organization at Cal State schools. The 12 students attend Cal State campuses at Sacramento, San Bernardino, Dominguez Hills, Fullerton, Long Beach, and four are from Cal State Northridge, according to the Sun.
The students decided on a hunger strike because they said Chancellor Charles Reed and Board of Trustees Chairman A. Robert Linscheid didn't adequately respond to their demands, according to the Sun. They're hoping the hunger strike will get their attention.
`We felt that we had exhausted the (impact) of marches and rallies. We have no other choice than to escalate our actions," Edgar Ramos, 22, a Cal State Northridge art major, told the Sun.
The students' demands include a five-year moratorium on student fees, the elimination of all 23 campus presidents' housing and car allowances, no more cuts to classes and student services, and a designated free speech area in each campus.
Ramos told the Sun the hunger strikers have been preparing for the fast in recent weeks, reducing their food intake. Until the strike ends, they plan to consume only juices and water.
LOS ANGELES, Calif.—Millions of dollars would flow back into the economy of the Greater Los Angeles area if just half of the high school students who dropped out last year completed their education, according to a study released today.
The Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana metropolitan statistical area was among 16 MSAs in the state analyzed by the nonprofit Alliance for Excellent Education, which studied the economic returns lost as a result of young people leaving school early.
LOS ANGELES, Calif.—Los Angeles is America’s second-worst driving city when it comes to frequency of vehicle crashes, according to Allstate Insurance Co.’s annual Best Driver’s Report released today.
Los Angeles drivers as a whole average a crash every 6.6 years, a figure that nationally trails only Philadelphia drivers at 6.5 years, according to Allstate.
LOS ANGELES, Calif.—The Los Angeles City Council called today for a ballot measure to tax medical marijuana, though its attorneys and other advisers seemed wary of the idea.
Voting 9-3, the council directed its attorneys to draft the ballot measure. They would have to take another vote before Nov. 17 to put the measure on the March 8 ballot.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors today reestablished a $10,000 reward for information leading to whoever fatally shot a 26-year-old Long Beach resident and left him lying in the street.
Supervisor Don Knabe, who recommended reinstating the reward, which had expired, called the shooting “heinous.”
Lashown Fils was killed on Jan. 11, 2012, at 3:55 a.m. in the 200 block of West 14th Street.
LONG BEACH, Calif. — An ammonia leak at a cold storage facility in Long Beach today prompted authorities to close freeway offramps in the area for nearly five hours while crews worked to handle the problem.
The leak was reported at the Long Beach Cold Storage and Logistics facility at Anaheim Street and Daisy Avenue around 3:30 a.m. , the Long Beach Fire Department reported.
The facility is the same where a leak was discovered Feb. 2, said Long Beach Fire Department spokesman Matt Dobberpuhl.
