10 Worst Ideas of the Week: Oct. 5, 2008

Examiner Editorial 10/5/08

SAN FRANCISCO – California coffers nearly empty, Dodgers icon chosen as Italian Heritage Parade’s grand marshal and state lawmakers vow to overturn many of Schwarzenegger’s recent vetoes.

Dim Bulb of the Week

Horace Engdahl

Who: The top member of the jury for the Nobel Prize in literature.
What: Engdahl said most winners of Nobel Prize in literature are European because America is too insular and ignorant to compete with Europe. The comments were made in the week leading up to this year’s prizes being awarded.
Comments: “Of course there is powerful literature in all big cultures, but you can’t get away from the fact that Europe still is the center of the literary world ... not the United States,” he told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview. “The U.S. is too isolated, too insular. They don’t translate enough and don’t really participate in the big dialogue of literature. That ignorance is restraining.”

California cash crunch
1| State can’t pay bills next month unless congressional bailout comes through.
The details: From teacher salaries to nursing home services, the state will be hard-pressed to pay its critical bills in November unless the congressional bailout promptly reopens normal credit channels. And California’s 5,000 cities, counties, school districts and special districts would face the same crisis. Without short-term borrowing to smooth routinely uneven revenue flows, California could be $1.5 billion in the red Nov. 1. The nation’s credit market is frozen as financial institutions fear to commit capital amid enormous uncertainty.

Homicides mount
2| City on track to match last year’s tally.
The details: The homicide number continues to increase in The City, and we are now on track to at least tie, if not surpass, last year’s decade-high tally of 98. After the recently released report by the Police Department showed its new zone plan is just moving homicides elsewhere, top brass in the department need to come up with a plan right now to stop the rampant violence.

Wrong team
3| L.A. Dodgers’ icon asked to host parade in The City.
The details: The Italian Heritage Parade in San Francisco’s North Beach wouldn’t have a grand marshal who is best known as a member of the Giants’ rival, the Los Angeles Dodgers, right? Well, that is apparently what did happen, and it has people in The City fuming. Organizers said they booked the 81-year-old Tommy Lasorda because he is a distinguished Italian-American and not because of any team affiliation. The kicker may be that the Dodgers are in the playoffs while the Giants recover from a lackluster season.

Child dumping
4| Nebraska law used by father to turn in nine kids.
The details: Safe-haven laws were created so terrified or distraught mothers of newborns could drop off children instead of disposing of them elsewhere, such as in Dumpsters. But Nebraska has a law that allows any parent to drop off any minor — even teenagers up to age 19. And while the law has raised eyebrows when parents or guardians dropped off unruly teens before, it became a national spectacle when a single father dropped nine of his 10 children off at a hospital.

Phony diploma
5| Iran’s top cop faked Oxford degree on résumé.
The details: Iranian Interior Minister Ali Kordan, a key ally of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, admitted he had submitted a phony degree from Oxford University to get his job as the country’s top cop. Kordan’s excuse was that he was duped by “an agency in Tehran for English-language affairs” purporting to represent Oxford University. He submitted his qualifications eight years ago to an intermediary and said he never doubted the authenticity of his honorary law degree — although it was full of spelling and grammatical mistakes.

Revenge of the vetoed
6| State officials become angrier than ever.
The details: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 415 vetoes — setting a modern record — threaten to make Sacramento even more rancorous next year as legislators from both parties swear vengeance. Majority Floor Leader Alberto Torrico vowed a bipartisan push to overturn vetoes of dozens of Democratic and Republican bills that received legislative two-thirds approval. It happens to be illegal to override vetoes from previous sessions, but legislators could pass identical versions of vetoed bills by a two-thirds vote and override new vetoes.

Black and blue
7| Raiders air their dirty laundry in public.
The details: He might not be E.F. Hutton, but when Al Davis speaks, people listen. Darth Raider emerged from the Black Hole on Tuesday to finally fire Lane Kiffin — but that was just the start of it. The legendary and controversial owner called his young ex-coach a “flat-out liar” and read from a letter he sent to Kiffin just a couple weeks prior that put the 33-year-old on notice. While it makes for great theater, Raider Nation is in a state of chaos. Davis could have kept his yap shut, but he was so incensed by Kiffin’s public statements that he had to respond in kind.

Cheating goes high-tech
8| Students display subversive methods on YouTube.
The details: Writing test answers on the soles of shoes or hiding them under baseball-cap brims are so yesterday, as are spreading cheating methods via word of mouth. Instead, kids are now using high-tech methods of cheating that employ techniques such as photo-altering software. Learning how to cheat is also just a click away now — YouTube videos reveal, in detail, how to do it. It seems as though schools will need new classes now: How teachers can spot high-tech cheats.

Not a batty idea
9| Officials warn about bats in The City and rabies.
The details: If you see a bat, you might want to double-check if it is a fake one set up for Halloween or a real one. The Department of Public Health issued a warning about bats in The City and the fact that they can spread rabies. The reason it’s a bigger issue right now is the fact that there is a worldwide shortage of rabies vaccine. Here is a word of caution from the Department of Public Health: “Rabies is a fatal disease. If you get the flu, you’re probably not going to die. But if you get rabies, chances are, you will.”

Development balk
10| Giants ask for deadline extension to submit parking-lot plans.
The details: The Giants and Kentwood Investments joined forces to develop a 16-acre site adjacent to AT&T Park. The site, Seawall 337, is better known as Parking Lot A. When the two companies joined forces, they asked for a 30-day extension to submit plans. The partners asked for another 60-day extension, but were instead given a 45-day extension by the Port of San Francisco, which owns the property. The cash-strapped Port needs the revenue from the project, so any more delays need to be avoided.

SINKING SHIP: Stuffed into the historic $700 billion emergency Wall Street rescue bill was an added $100 billion in tax breaks inserted in an effort to lure Republican support in the House. While the passage of the rescue bill seems to have buoyed the stock markets, the added pork in the bill will likely cause more harm than good in the long run.

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