Tyler DuBovy and Colleen Benko (Marymount) were voted Mr. and Miss Palisades last Wednesday evening in the annual Youth Pageant competition, sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce at Pierson Playhouse. Competing against eight other teenagers who live in Pacific Palisades, 16-year-old DuBovy, a student at Pacifica Christian High, and Benko, a sophomore at Marymount, each received $2,000 college stipends from the Cathie Wishnick Scholarship Fund. DuBovy, an Eagle Scout in Troop 223 who referees AYSO soccer games six hours a week, impressed the judges with his flawless, rapid-fire delivery of ‘Ya Got Trouble [in River City]’ from ‘The Music Man.’ Benko, a pianist who was student body president at Corpus Christi School and will be editor of the Marymount school newspaper next year, scored high in the talent presentation with Rachmaninoff’s Prelude in C minor. Contestants were judged on their talent, poise, communication skills (during a live interview with co-emcees Sam Lagana and Cathie Wishnick) and character. Other contestants included five Palisades High students (Kirsten Legaspi, Katie Lantz, Sarah Williams, Jared Loptman and Brett Sobel), plus Jennie Ostendorf (Brentwood School), Rebecca Ouligian (Oaks Christian) and Alex Lehrhoff (Windward School). The judges were actress and environmental activist Alexandra Paul; music producer Wil Sharpe; actress Denise Crosby; noted piano teacher Hedy Ciani; and Greg Bonann, creator and executive producer of ‘Baywatch.’ Carol Smolinisky oversaw the entire production and wrote the evening’s script, as she has done for nearly 15 years, and was assisted by choreographer Thea White of Seven Arrows Elementary School. At intermission, former Miss Palisades Emily Kay choreographed three dances for members of her Fancy Feet troupe in honor of the late John Scherrer, a longtime pageant committee member and youth advocate who died last year. The reigning youth for 2006, Genna Rochlin (a singer) and Alex Ouligian (a pianist), gave farewell performances while the judges’ scorecards were tallied. As an extra bonus, 19-year-old Meriette Saglie, a former Palisades resident who has returned to town with her mother Edith after studying piano in Austria and Chile, played pieces by Schumann and Prokofiev. Her three older brothers are all past winners of the Mr. Palisades title.

School Cop Investigation Continues The internal investigation into the action of Los Angeles School Police Officer John Taylor is still not complete, five months after the investigation began. But ‘the investigation is nearing completion,’ said a spokesperson for Police Chief Lawrence Mannion. School Police officials told the Palisadian-Post in January, and again in February, that the investigation was almost complete. The investigation began after Taylor pepper-sprayed local juveniles and adults on September 19 outside the CVS/Pharmacy. In November, the Palisades Community Council requested that the chief take into consideration the community’s fear of the officer in deciding to reassign him out of the area during the investigation. Throughout December and early January, Taylor was temporarily assigned to a computer-training position. Since then, he has continued his work as a patrol officer, serving at public schools in the Palisades and throughout West L.A. He was assigned to PaliHi’s enrollment lottery Monday evening. UTLA Rejects 4.5% Salary Increase At its negotiations meeting last week, leaders of United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) at Palisades Charter High School, which represents nearly all of the independent charter’s 115 teachers, rejected the administration’s offer of a 4.5-percent salary increase and a 1.6-percent healthcare cost increase. This was the fifth round of teacher-administration negotiations, which an insider described as ‘intense.’ UTLA has stuck with its original proposal, demanding a 12.6 percent increase in total benefits over two years. Since becoming an independent charter in 2003, the school has vowed to pay teachers higher wages and benefits than LAUSD. But UTLA said that the school’s recent offer would significantly narrow the pay difference. PaliHi negotiates its labor contracts independently of Los Angeles Unified School District. Last week LAUSD and UTLA reached an agreement that will give teachers throughout the school district a six percent salary increase on top of a 1.6 percent increase in health benefits. The next bargaining session is scheduled for March 20, and future rounds are expected. PaliHi UTLA representative Joi Tanita said that the union will not make a counteroffer until the school complies with the union’s request for financial information. Classified Workers Score Wage Victory The Palisades Charter High School Board approved a Me-Too Clause for its classified employees, guaranteeing that they receive a salary increase at least as large as all other unions on campus. All employees who are not teachers or managers are classified employees. ‘We’re a united staff,’ said Executive Director Amy Held. ‘It’s important that all employees are treated fairly and equally.’ Many classified staff lost union representation after PaliHi became an independent charter school in 2003. And since then, classified staff have worked without a clearly defined evaluation and promotional process. The board pledges to define such processes by the end of this school year. ————— Reporting by Staff Writer Max Taves. To contact, e-mail reporter@palipost.com.

California First Lady Maria Shriver has athletic intensity as she throws the ceremonial first pitch to begin the Palisades Pony Baseball Association season Saturday morning at the Field of Dreams. Above, Aiden Fite of the Mustang Orioles is a happy batter as he rips the ball against the Tigers. (See Sports for full coverage)

If negotiations had been abandoned, the 12-year civil war in El Salvador would have slogged on. Peace talks brought the tragic war in the Balkans to an end, and even the seemingly intractable 30 years of violence in Northern Ireland found a resolution at the negotiating table. Diplomacy demands the long view, a belief in the mutability of circumstances, and ultimately a steadfast pursuit of the desired outcome. Actor/activist Mike Farrell has recognized these principles and used them as guides for his social justice activism over the past 29 years. In his autobiography “Just Call Me Mike: A Journey to Actor and Activist,” Farrell talks about life and the events that formed a conscience in his work in Hollywood and his involvement in human rights. He will speak about the book this Sunday, March 25 at 3 p.m. at Village Books on Swarthmore. Since 1979, Farrell has been working with human rights groups and aid organizations helping to bring attention to the crises around the world, from El Salvador and Bosnia to the Middle East and Africa and here in the United States fighting to abolish the death penalty. Dismayed by the Bush Administration’s current embrace of war over peace, Farrell insists that the first step towards peace is eliminating the inflammatory rhetoric. “We have to stop labeling and avoid categorizing,” he says. “We must put an end to red state/ blue state divide and find commonality in terms of the desired result. The only way to have that is with dialogue.” Humble in his self-assessment, Farrell in no way takes credit for the few successes that prove the power of words over war. He chooses his projects based on his fundamental belief in the rule of law. ‘For me the issue is people of power abusing their power over people without power. Whether it’s El Salvador or the U.S. prison system, it’s all the same thing and falls under the human rights rubric.” Farrell is most famous for his role as Captain B.J Hunnicutt, the quiet voice of reason in the TV series ‘MASH,’ which ran for 11 years (1972-83) on CBS. Over the years, he has starred in many TV series, including “Providence.” In 2002, he was elected first vice president of the Screen Actors Guild in Los Angeles. He and producer Marvin Minoff formed a production company in 1985 and over the years they have produced provocative films, including “Dominick and Eugene” (1988), about twin brothers–one mentally impaired–and the 1998 film “Patch Adams,” about the indefatigable medical student who healed his patients with doses of humor. ‘My partner and I are always looking for new projects,” Farrell says, “but it has become a very different business. The sorts of things we did have fallen out of favor.” He adds that even ‘MASH’ would not find its way to TV these days. Farrell cites his struggle making the ‘Patch’ movie intelligent and meaningful. More recently, he has been trying to produce the Terry Schiavo story. “We have the rights to the story as told from the point of view of her husband, Mike,’ he says. ‘It is a story of real love and the tragedy of an individual who was caught in the crosshairs of the American political and religious right. This is a story that just has to be told, but every place we went they were scared to death. ‘No, not for us,’ they said. We have been literally out there for a year trying to peddle the story.” Farrell would like to see Hollywood return to the time when creative people were trusted to come up with ideas and carry them to fruition. “Executives have vanilla-ized the content, especially on TV,” he says. ‘There is a phalanx of programs that are just so dumb without any thoughtful spine that they’re humiliating and insulting to the audience.” But, the exhilarating thing for Farrell is to see how many kids recognize him through the re-runs of ‘MASH.’ “In MASH, we reached higher and tried to speak to an intelligent audience who appreciated the comedy and drama and the messages inherent. Young people are tired of being talked down to. They are bored and insulted.” While Farrell’s assessment sounds discouraging, he returns to his belief that change is possible and worth chipping away at. His efforts to change people’s opinions about the death penalty are a case in point. “I think that people aren’t aware of the reality of the death system and for a number of reasons support it,’ he says. ‘A lot of people are frightened by ugly pictures of criminals and when they are regularly frightened, people withdraw and project their fears on to another person. ‘There are people who feel on the basis of religious conviction that it is appropriate to ‘take an eye for an eye’. I’m saying that if you do believe that there are circumstances where the state has the right to take a life, then the state’s application of the punishment must meet the standards of the society in which you live. ‘People in the United States are fair and when they become aware of the fundamental unfairness of the death penalty and how it’s applied, they are more open to taking another look at it. We are beginning to see a huge ground swell, thanks to the hard work of people like Sister Helen Prejean (a leading advocate for abolishing the death penalty and the subject of the film ‘Dead Man Walking’) and all the lawyers who have toiled in the fields for years.’ Farrell is president of Death Penalty Focus and speaks, writes and coordinates efforts to stop executions. His antidote to the slow, often frustrating work he has chosen is his family’his wife Shelley Faberes, his children Mike and Erin, and his solo rides on his motorcycle. ‘I love riding my bike cross-country,’ he says. ‘It’s therapy.’

Sixty Paul Revere students won seats in next fall’s ninth-grade class at Palisades Charter High School, and 148 were wait-listed during a tense and emotional lottery Monday evening. But the school’s omission of eight Paul Revere students’ from the list has left some parents angry and confused, contending that lottery rules were broken. ‘Eight names were accidentally omitted through human error,’ PaliHi Executive Director Amy Held told the Palisadian-Post on Tuesday. ‘We took corrective action by expanding the size of the ninth grade class by eight. We’ll do that by accepting fewer students at the 10th- through 12th-grade levels.’ Revere students on the waitlist will not be impacted, Held said. Those eight students whose names were not called were awarded seats ahead of the 148 students currently on the waitlist. Parents of accepted, wait-listed and prospective students say they have lost confidence in the school’s ability to hold a fair lottery. ‘In all fairness, they should recall all of it,’ said Linda Hilton, a Mar Vista resident whose eighth-grade son at Revere was low on the waitlist. ‘But that would cause melee because parents of accepted students would oppose it vehemently.’ PaliHi held the lottery because it received a record number of applications for school seats this year. According to revised school numbers, 1,354 students applied for 764 seats school-wide. Following its recently formalized admissions policy, the school has accepted 248 Palisades residents, 191 siblings of current PaliHi students, 14 relatives of school staff and 187 Revere students who come from its 13 LAUSD-mandated school-sending areas. Also, the district will place 123 Magnet students in Pali’s first-year class. In order to comply with No Child Left Behind, a Bush administration education initiative, the school is obligated to reserve nearly 80 seats for students from low-performing, overcrowded schools, up from 20 last year. Also, school administrators say they have reserved 50 seats for new residents who might apply between now and the beginning of next school year. Driven by high test scores, good reputations and safe school environments at Palisades public schools, parents from areas like Venice, Santa Monica, Mar Vista and Westwood have enrolled their children at local public elementary schools and Paul Revere Middle School, with the expectation of future enrollment at PaliHi. But the large number of applications means that PaliHi might have to reject Revere students for the first time in its history, breaking a 40-year feeding pattern along with students’ and parents’ spirits. That possibility was devastating for former Palisades resident Christine Bolan, who seriously considered selling her Westchester home to secure her son’s enrollment at Pali. Three realtors assessed her home’s market value, but moving back to the Palisades was prohibitively expensive. ‘My son’s whole childhood has been with the same group of children,’ said Bolan, who learned Monday night after months of worrying that her son was accepted. ‘It’s important for his stability.’ School administrators expect that many seats currently reserved by the school will not be filled, potentially opening up room for the dozens of students currently wait-listed. The school is sending letters to all accepted students, which ask them to confirm their intention to enroll by April 10. All accepted students who do not respond, regardless of residence, will lose their seats. While some parents say the prospect of being taken off the waitlist is in their favor, many say that their confidence in the school’s management has been shaken by a series of mistakes. They point to the following recent events: ‘ The original lottery was called off last Thursday evening after more than 100 parents waited in the school’s gymnasium for more than one hour. After first telling parents to wait 15 minutes to prepare the names for the lottery, Assistant Principal Margaret Evans, who is responsible for the school’s admissions practices, told parents an hour later that there was a ‘computer glitch.’ ‘ School application records presented by Evans have varied wildly. Last week, Evans told parents and the Post that 964 students applied to the school and that 155 Revere eighth-graders would be wait-listed. But by Tuesday, Evans changed those numbers to 1,354 and 133, respectively. ‘ Parents received a letter from Evans informing them of last week’s upcoming lottery, but that letter failed to mention where on campus and what time of day the lottery would be held. Parents of students whose admission to PaliHi was uncertain found it virtually impossible to speak to school administrators. The Palisadian-Post’s numerous attempts to speak to Assistant Principal Evans regarding admissions policies were not returned. ‘I feel horrible for all the other kids who weren’t picked,’ said Allen Falk, a Mar Vista parent whose eighth-grade daughter from Revere was one of 60 students accepted. ‘It worked out for us, but it left a bad taste in my mouth. From the beginning, communication was horrible. I’ve had better luck getting through to the I.R.S.’ ————— Reporting by Staff Writer Max Taves. To contact, e-mail reporter@palipost.com.

Speaking Guarani, the native language of Paraguay, is only one of Nathaniel Brodie’s talents; writing with warmth, insight and humor is another. As a result, he is this year’s Palisadian-Post Travel Tales contest winner for his story ‘Sports and Laughter in Paraguay,’ about the village he stayed in during his recent Peace Corps assignment. Brodie wins a one-night stay for two in the junior executive suite at the Luxe Hotel Sunset Boulevard in Brentwood, which includes parking, breakfast for two and occupancy tax. After growing up in Pacific Palisades and graduating from Palisades High in 1997, Brodie spent a year traveling in Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador. ‘It opened my eyes to cultural and social differences,’ he said. When he returned home, he chose Evergreen College in Olympia, Washington, because it wasn’t a mainstream type of school; it emphasized an interdisciplinary approach in which a theme or a topic is studied through different but related subjects. ‘They also offer environmentally focused classes,’ said Brodie, ‘as well as having a seven-acre organic farm on campus.’ In 2002, after graduating with a major in agriculture and a minor in anthropology, he traveled to Asia with his backpack, visiting Laos, Cambodia, India and Thailand, where his brother, Jedediah, was working on his doctorate in primate studies. Next he got a job working with the National Park Service at the Grand Canyon. ‘I was in a place where people come for an hour, say ‘Ooooh!’ and then leave,’ Brodie said. ‘And I got to stay there.’ After a year in Arizona, he entered the Peace Corps because ‘traveling started to seem superficial.’ On another level, he wanted to make a difference. ‘I was hoping to install changes and help people.’ In Paraguay, instead of major changes, he learned that he had to shift his expectations to making small changes. ‘Just the slightest shift in thought is just as important,’ he said. ‘You can’t instill new agricultural methods in two years; you have to take baby steps.’ Upon his return to the U.S., he noticed little things like the pavement and the cars, but what struck him most was people’s reaction to his Peace Corps service. A few were interested, but many felt it was unimportant. Next month, Brodie will head back to the Grand Canyon. ‘I’ll be outside all day, building back-country trails,’ he said. Then in the fall he’ll join his girlfriend at Humboldt College in Eureka, where she is studying canopy biology. Brodie, 27, is at a crossroads in his life and is trying to decide between pursuing journalism or going the academic route in anthropology. While in Eureka, he hopes to land a job writing for the North Coast Journal; if not, he may work at Redwoods National Park. He has had articles published in Birders World magazine about birds in Paraguay and in The Humanist about economic and social development in that country. ‘Writing comes naturally and easy,’ Brodie said, a talent he attributes to an important attribute: ‘I was and still am a voracious reader.’ If there are genetic influences on writing talent, Brodie may have inherited a few. His grandmother, Fawn M. Brodie, wrote biographies of Thomas Jefferson and Joseph Smith, and his father, Bruce, a clinical psychologist, has written a new book ‘Adolescence and Delinquency.’ His mother, Janet, wrote a book based on her doctoral dissertation about birth control in the 18th century and also had the distinction of winning the Post’s Travel Tales contest in 2004.