A coalition of local high school and college students involved with the Human Rights Watch Student Task Force met with Congressman Henry Waxman in his local district office last Wednesday. In a passionate one-hour meeting, they advocated for U.S. support to stop the genocide in Darfur, Africa. Palisadian Pam Bruns, coordinator of the Student Task Force, led the group of 10, half of which were Palisades Charter High School students. They asked Waxman for his leadership in passing the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act (DPAA) and restoring $50 million in funding to the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS), which is trying to stop escalating violence in the region. Waxman, who has co-sponsored the DPAA and signed a letter to President Bush asking that the administration request the $50 million, saluted the students for meeting with him to discuss the situation in Darfur, which he said “for the most part, the world is not paying much attention to.” The humanitarian crisis began in February 2003 when the Sudanese government initiated attacks against civilians in Darfur after rebels in the region rose up to demand a greater role in Sudan’s leadership. Almost three years later, the Sudanese government-sponsored Janjaweed militia has killed more than 300,000 people, and displaced about 2.5 million who are living in refugee camps in Darfur and Chad, which borders Darfur to the west. Since September 2004, Congress has allocated $145 million to the AMIS and in July, President Bush authorized another $6 million; with these contributions, the African Union was able to double the number of personnel in Darfur, which is roughly the size of Texas. However, the AU requires immediate additional funding and international support to increase the personnel on the ground and better protect civilians. Sarah Bessell, a student at Mount St. Mary’s College and Student Task Force intern at PaliHi, told Waxman that “we’ve been doing mostly awareness raising [of the Darfur crisis]” and that she’s “getting increasingly worried and concerned” about the situation. She named Sudan’s support of the Janjaweed militia as an eminent concern and emphasized that as many as 1 million civilians could die from lack of food and from disease within the coming months. Waxman told the students that the “U.S. government wanted to give $50 million to the AU” but, despite U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s late appeal to Congress to provide the money to AU troops, it was not included in the Defense Appropriations Conference Report. Adam Sterling, a UCLA student working with the Pali Student Task Force, asked that the congressman not only help restore the funding but also support strengthening the AU mandate to protect civilians in Darfur (as requested by the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act). “We don’t feel that Congress and our government have taken sufficient action to back up a vote [for the DPAA],” said Sterling, who helped start his school’s Darfur Action Committee last year. Recently, he has been writing to Waxman about endorsing a divestment campaign led by the UC Sudan Divestment Task Force which urges University of California schools to divest themselves of investments in companies with holdings in Sudan. Waxman agreed that divestments are an important part of raising awareness to stop the Darfur genocide. He reminded the students that in the 1980s, the United States imposed sanctions on South Africa to put pressure on the government’s apartheid policy. “We adopted a boycott on South Africa and it did have an impact,” he said. Then he refocused the discussion on Sudan, saying “We need to boycott them economically.” Pali student Austin Pick, an editor of the school’s Tideline newspaper, presented artwork the students had created to express their feelings about the Darfur crisis. Another Pali STF representative, Lidia Tilahun, described the group’s efforts to make the Darfur issue as personal as possible by connecting with people like activist Gabriel Stauring, who visited the school two months ago. He showed the students “peace tiles” made by children of war in Uganda for refugee children in Darfur, which he personally delivered in November. The Pali students closely followed Stauring’s journey and have developed a more personal connection to the people of Darfur through his awareness project, i-ACT (Interactive Activism). They were able to view Stauring’s video footage of 21 days in the camps, which was posted on his Web site, and communicate with Stauring while he was there. “I think lots of high school students aren’t sure what they can do,” Pick told Waxman. Tom Laiches, a Crossroads teacher and STF advisor, said, “We’ve had students call in to Washington offices.” Then he asked, “Where or in which institution could we best put our efforts?” Waxman said he hoped they would form a coalition with other humanitarian groups and activists who have been meeting with him about Darfur, such as Jewish World Watch, a project of a coalition of synagogues working together to combat genocide and other human rights violations around the world, starting with Darfur. Referring to the UN’s plan to hold the first-ever session to commemorate the Holocaust, Waxman said, “It took 60 years for the UN to recognize the Holocaust; and here we’ve got a genocide underway that we can try to prevent.” Waxman told the students that “I think it’s important to try to figure out strategies” and pointed to blogging (posting comments or starting a dialogue by putting an individual’s story on the Internet) to make the situation more personal and accessible. He also suggested organizing a demonstration that would attract media attention to Darfur. “I haven’t seen a lot in the press except on the back pages of the newspaper.” Then he told the students, “You’ve helped me focus on it [the Darfur crisis]. There are a lot of terrible things going on. You’ve reinvigorated me on this issue.” He assured them he would take action specifically by identifying opposition to the DPAA and sending a letter to his colleagues about the importance of restoring the $50 million in AU funding. “We have to” get the money to the AU by the spring, Waxman said. “You may not realize how important your actions are’to come here today,” he told them, “but there is a ripple effect.” The passionate group felt inspired by the congressman’s pledge to continue pressuring his colleagues on the issue and agreed that meeting with him was a more direct, effective approach to their activism. “I like how he said it focuses him,” Pick said after the meeting. “It kind of focuses us, too.” “I think he really felt moved by students coming and talking to him about the issue,” said Palisades resident Sean Meisler, a Crossroads student and Student Task Force member.

Last Friday was Sheryl Gardiner’s last day at the Pacific Palisades post office. She served as officer in charge for slightly more than two months and, as of Tuesday afternoon, no one had reported to the office as her replacement. “We don’t have a postmaster yet,” said the person who answered the office phone at about 1 p.m. and who declined to give his name. “No one’s checked in yet.” Prior to her departure, Gardiner met with the Palisadian-Post on Friday morning to discuss postal service concerns and, specifically, the content of a Letter to the Editor addressing these issues, written by resident Kurt Toppel (“Community Leader Questions Local Postal Service Defense,” December 22). Toppel called Gardiner’s leadership “absentee management” and challenged several things she said in an earlier article (“Post Office Goes ‘Back to Basics’,” December 15). Most of the information he received came from postal employees who requested anonymity. “The anonymous source(s) provided him with some misinformation,” Gardiner said. “It’s based on limited knowledge; they don’t have the specifics of what’s going on.” In particular, she and Postal Service spokesman Larry Dozier said that there is no hiring freeze in effect. Dozier added that whether or not there is a hiring freeze “doesn’t depend on whether [postage] rates are going up,” as Toppel implied. “We’re raising the cost [in 2006] because we’re required by Congress. That has nothing to do with postal operations. That’s the law.” While Gardiner said she did not have any problems hiring three mail carriers in the last two months, she confirmed that they were temporary employees, as stated in Toppel’s letter, and that, in fact, all three were no longer working here. She would not give reasons for their departure but said she was not struggling to get the mail delivered with her current 43 carriers because the post office was at the end of the holiday season. “We’re reevaluating for post-holiday to see if additional staff will be needed.” Gardiner explained that she usually needs 41 carriers to handle mail delivery in the Palisades, though the number fluctuates depending on mail volume, which can be seasonal or situational. One carrier is assigned to each of the 28 routes in the Palisades, and there is one relief carrier for every five routes, plus five additional employees to cover for carriers during vacation. “Right now I have a few more than I’m scheduled to have,” Gardiner said. However, three of her employees are not working as carriers but rather as greeters at the La Cruz post office or the Sunset store. Sometimes they work as “lobby directors,” assisting customers who have questions. Supervisors Dennis Willis and Rory Ramos work mainly at the La Cruz facility while supervisor Tony Ficklin is stationed at the Sunset store. Willis arrives early to oversee the preparation of the mail for delivery. According to Gardiner, the trucks bringing mail to the post office begin arriving at about 4 a.m., which is when the clerks arrive to begin separating the mail into routes. The carriers then arrive at about 8 a.m. to sort mail by the sequence of their delivery route. In response to Toppel’s charge about the trucks from the Los Angeles Processing and Distribution Center often arriving in the Palisades after the scheduled 8:30 a.m. time, Gardiner said that “absolutely, they’re late sometimes.” However, she explained, the vehicle scheduled for 8:30 a.m. is called the “automation” truck because it carries mail that has already been sorted and, therefore, the carriers can put it right in their delivery trucks. (Continued on Page 6) “I’ve had it [arrive] after 9 a.m. without an impact on carriers,” Gardiner said. Then she added, “You’ll see trucks coming all day long; there’s certain standard mail that’s scheduled to arrive all day.” Dozier wanted to clarify Toppel’s assertion that “there is the mandatory transfer of all mail [from Pacific Palisades] to be processed downtown” before returning to the Palisades. “All mail has to be postmarked; this is a national system,” he said. The automated processing system downtown is also more cost-effective than having clerks process the mail by hand in the Palisades, according to a former post office employee. While the U.S. Postal Service is, indeed, a “quasi-government entity” as Toppel said, Gardiner replied: “The only thing we have a monopoly on is what goes into that mailbox.” She pointed to UPS and Internet services as other choices people have for receiving mail. Gardiner and Dozier did not deny that the Palisades is still experiencing problems with its mail delivery. “Sometimes mail is delivered after dark,” Dozier said. “We hope to correct that.” Generally speaking, he said that sometimes a carrier “might decide to go another way,” or deviate from his or her usual route, and the management plans to correct this by doing route examinations. Gardiner added, “I know that I have one particular area that does not have a regular carrier assigned. We’re still trying to stabilize [that area] with a consistent carrier.” Some of the affected streets in this area are Wildomar, Northfield and Palmera. Coincidentally, the Post received an e-mail on December 20 from a disgruntled Wildomar resident who did not receive her mail at all that day. Asked about whether the post office is obligated, in such a circumstance, to deliver it first thing in the morning, Gardiner said “no.” She admitted that she has dealt with some angry, frustrated customers. “One customer refused to talk to me because she had been down here several times and the message hadn’t gotten to me.” Gardiner explained this by saying that “a lot of times, a customer will come and ask for the postmaster, and the gentleman at the door will handle it and I won’t know. The employees will get the supervisor first.” Dozier added that this is standard procedure. “We emphasize handling problems at the lowest level first.” “It’s not that we’re blaming anyone,” Gardiner said. “We have to identify and fix the problems. This is a good work force; these are great employees.” However, while the employees seem to be feeling the effects of the mid-July closure of the Marina Processing and Distribution Center, Gardiner and Dozier deny that the transfer of mail to be processed downtown has had a negative impact on the Palisades post office. “What I think is that it is perception,” Gardiner said, adding that some employees might have been “resistant to change” or worried about job security with the closure of the Marina center. Dozier estimated that it used to be about 14 miles from the Marina to the Palisades on the 405 Freeway and that now it’s about 22 miles on the Harbor and Santa Monica Freeways’a difference of about 10 to 12 minutes, Dozier said. With adjusted dispatch or truck arrival times, and the same number of employees and routes in the Palisades now as they had prior to the closure (according to Dozier), he did not see how the closure has affected the Palisades postal service. “The majority of people [in the Palisades] are okay with their mail delivery,” he said.

By EVELYN BARGE Palisadian-Post Intern For seven employees at the Local Television Network studios in Hollywood, going to work is like a high school reunion every day of the week. That’s because all seven graduated from Palisades Charter High School in the 1990s, and they have come together once again to pursue, instead of a high school diploma, careers in the entertainment industry. And, unlike high school, they’re also getting paid for it. “It’s so neat that our lives are intertwining from a long time ago,” said Jaime Nelson, LTN senior producer. “Among the people who all went to Palisades High School, our lives have continued to grow together, and we’re all still working together.” Nelson, Jenny Bosustow, Rebecca Koenig, Gabe Wallace, Brent Stangel, Forrest Stangel and Adam Smart are the seven Pali graduates among some 160 employees at LTN, a cable network designed for the 18-34 demographic in the Los Angeles area. The network is the brainchild of founder and CEO Justin Mahy, an investment banker from New Zealand. While Mahy, now 33, was living in Toronto, Canada, he took note of the city’s local television network called City TV. “He was inspired by it and wondered why we didn’t have anything like it in the States,” Nelson said. LTN took up residence in a four-story building on Hollywood Boulevard, just above Star Shoes nightclub and several blocks from Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. The building is vacant, except for the top two floors, which are occupied by LTN’s production offices. Nelson, who owned a clothing company for three years and was working as a freelance producer, first heard about LTN two years ago through John Smart, who had already begun working with Mahy on the early stages of sales and development. Smart’s children, Adam and Amy (the actress), also went to PaliHi and grew up in Topanga with Nelson. “When I found out about it, I couldn’t get it out of my head,” Nelson said. “I started writing and shooting things, and, once they were ready to make the pilots and sales tape, I was very happy to produce it.” Nelson, a 1994 Pali High graduate and a UC Santa Cruz graduate, began working at LTN while it was still a start-up venture. Watching the company grow from a small crew of six people “has been amazing and surreal at times,” she said. “It just feels like a train that’s in motion and there are no brakes, and we’re just going full-force ahead.” LTN officially launched on October 3 as a nightly block from 8 p.m. to midnight on Southern California sports channel KVMD-TV. The channel is distributed via Adelphia, Charter, Time Warner Cable, DirecTV and the DISH Network and reaches about 3.7 million area households. Programming is run by Greg Brannan, the former executive vice president of programming for E! Networks. The network features nine shows that cover local fashion, music, extreme sports, dining, travel, nightlife, subcultures, the entertainment industry and street basketball. The shows change every night across the network’s four-hour time slot. (For program schedules, visit www.ltnla.com.) “Our philosophy is that we’re going to be part of our viewers’ lifestyles,” Nelson said of LTN’s programming. “We are going to help them connect to all the options they have in the city, all the stuff that’s there and accessible in real life. We decided to cover all the bases.” But LTN executives have even bigger objectives for the network. “The big-picture plan is that we will be a 24-hour network,” Nelson said. “LTN is actually a brand of television, so eventually we’ll also be going to other cities. It will always be about local programming for our demographic in that particular city.” Bosustow, a 1995 PaliHi alum, graduated from San Francisco State and then lived in Spain, where she worked as a photographer for “In Madrid” (“the L.A. Weekly of Madrid”). After returning to Los Angeles, she learned from Nelson, her friend since ninth grade, that LTN was hiring Web producers. Bosustow interviewed with another senior producer, Merah Chung, and was hired in August. She now works as Web producer for three of LTN’s shows: “Night Guide,” the nightlife show; “City Vibe,” the music show; and “Red Light,” the subcultures show. She said working at LTN is an experience unlike any other, because the network’s employees aren’t just trying to reach the target demographic’they are part of the target demographic. “You’re at these meetings and looking around the table, and everyone is in the target audience,” Bosustow said. “Everyone is from L.A. or has been here for a number of years, and people are just throwing ideas out about everything they’ve been doing in the city. We are all just so excited to make shows about the L.A. we actually live in.” Rebecca Koenig, a 1996 Pali graduate and UC Santa Barbara graduate, said it was this excitement that Bosustow passed along to her when they first started talking seven months ago about job opportunities at LTN. At the time, Koenig was working at the Elyse Walker boutique in the Palisades. After submitting her resume, Koenig was hired in October as the stylist for all nine LTN shows. “I’ve been excited about it ever since I set foot in this office,” said Koenig, who grew up in the Highlands. “I’ve always been interested in styling, and it’s such a hard field to break into. I feel like I’ve hit the goldmine.” Although coordinating wardrobes for nine different shows is overwhelming at times, Koenig said she feels up to the challenge. “Everyone has been so appreciative and supportive, and everyone wants to be involved.” That sense of support and optimist is a common thread throughout all of LTN’s operations, Nelson said. “There’s definitely a family tie woven through this whole company. The company is like a big family.” Bosustow said the positive energy is a reflection of the people who work at LTN, people who have been given a chance to pursue their dreams. “A lot of people who work here wanted an opportunity to show what they can do,” she said. “There’s a lot of really incredibly talented people who have been assisting in various positions, and they have finally gotten the opportunity to be in charge.” Among LTN employees, there is no question that the company is headed for success. “It’s incredibly ambitious starting a television network and an in-house production company,” Nelson said. “I feel very busy, but, when I have a moment to step back and see the caliber and talent of people that have come together to do this, I feel so lucky. There’s not a doubt in my mind that it’s going to be successful.” The network’s ratings tell a similar story. On several nights, the network has pulled viewers away from MTV and also received higher ratings that MTV, VH1 and ESPN. “That’s almost unheard of for a network that’s only been on-air for a few months,” Nelson said. “The bottom line is that we’re getting good ratings, which means people are watching.” In the aftermath of the fall launch, the Palisadians at LTN said they have simply enjoyed working at a company that values their ambitions. And, what’s more, spending time at work is like spending time with friends. “I think we all just appreciate that sense of home we can create for each other here,” Nelson said.

VIEWPOINT

By COLLEEN TURNER Special to the Palisadian-Post “Where else are you going to see nine people standing up to the Pentagon?” I recalled hearing as I rushed by a TV monitor tuned to C-SPAN. We were on a break during the final deliberations of the 2005 Base Closure and Realignment Commission (better known as BRAC) held in August in Arlington, Virginia. The ballroom was filled with governors, senators, representatives, lobbyists and community members. TV viewers were calling into the station to comment on the proceedings. This caller’s comment caught my attention as I moved on to the next of innumerable tasks required of a senior analyst and deputy director of the Commission’s Joint Cross-Service Team. I thought to myself: Yes! That’s exactly the intention of having this Presidential Commission. It provides the kind of checks and balances for keeping our government on a healthy track. It’s an inspiring example of a democratic process in which a diverse group of citizens with proven track records (the nine commissioners), supported by approximately 90 staff, have the power to say “yes” or “no” to the Pentagon, Congress, and even the president. I felt honored to be a part of this process. Compared to those in the past, this BRAC round was exceptionally transparent. In past BRACs, influence tended to be limited to the power brokers like lobbyists and contractors. This BRAC held 20 regional hearings and more than 300 community meetings where local residents could become involved’and they did, sometimes en masse, with demonstrations, flags, T-shirts and parades. Modern technology also enabled the public to review our process on a daily basis. Our Web site at www.brac.gov received more than 25 million hits. The commission also received more than 300,000 pieces of correspondence that were posted in our e-library on the Web site along with our reports. The letters ranged from a young boy worried about his father losing his job at a shipyard to a former president siding with interests contrary to his own state. A research project about inspiring hearts and minds around the globe, sponsored by the Pentagon when I was on active reserve status from 2003-2004, indirectly led to my being identified as a potential candidate for the Commission. This year, on April 24, I got an unexpected call that led to my being selected. The following week, I poured my life into three suitcases and left Pacific Palisades to catch a Sunday evening red-eye for Washington, D.C. On Monday I made it to my first day of work and prepared to be sworn in. This assignment required a six-month commitment with up to half the time spent traveling around the country. Our charge was to evaluate the Pentagon recommendations of military installation closures and realignments, an awesome responsibility that no one took lightly. Commission chairman Anthony Principi had been a former cabinet member (as Secretary of Veterans Affairs). Along with his executive director, Charles Battaglia, they had helped transform the VA from a place veterans too often viewed as where they would go to die into a benchmark of best medical practices. I had personally witnessed the changes over the decades since both my Marine Corps brother and I received our health care there. The other eight Commissioners consisted of three retired generals and an admiral with distinguished military careers, a bipartisan mix of two former Congressmen, a former Presidential Chief of Staff/Secretary of Transportation, and a senior Department of Defense scientist. My team leader was a retired Navy ship captain, and the Review and Analysis Division consisted of retired and active military officers, and other government employees (e.g., GAO, GSA, FAA, EPA, associate analysts and young Congressional staffers’a unique blend of highly competent individuals). As a recently retired Air Force Reserve officer with Air National Guard experience, I was asked to serve as the lead for Reserve Component issues (only blasphemously now referred to as “weekend warriors”). The first two weeks involved preliminary hearings in the House and Senate buildings. It was interesting to witness in-person the Secretary of Defense and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs respond to questions, some of which our analysts had helped develop for the Commissioners. After the hearings, we had to handle an array of administrative tasks and review prior BRAC reports. Coming from California, I had the added burden of finding an apartment and getting settled in a new city. With the help of my daughter, who was in the D.C. area at the time, and some wonderful members of a nearby Methodist church, I was able to quickly move into a lovely apartment in the Del Ray area of Alexandria, only a block from the bus stop and a two-mile ride to my office building. From the minute the extraordinarily complex 190 recommended realignments and closures of military installations were released by the Department of Defense on May 13, we were constantly on task to meet the legislatively mandated September deadline for our report to President Bush. My assignments took me to North Carolina, Oklahoma, Nevada, Colorado, and even back to California. While the travel was extremely demanding, I appreciated that without BRAC, I might never have visited the fascinating National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City featuring former Palisadians like Will Rogers and Ronald Reagan or realized where Blackbeard the pirate roamed offshore Beaufort, North Carolina. In Los Angeles at a regional hearing, I was seated across from another former Palisadian, Governor Schwarzenegger, as he was sworn in by our legal counsel. Back at the Commission office in Arlington, I facilitated meetings with community and state government representatives from Arkansas, Texas, Michigan and Montana. The country never looked so big to me and I had never realized just how many military installations there are in the U.S. and its territories. The Joint Cross-Service Team had responsibility for nearly two-thirds of the recommendations, ranging from hospitals, depots and laboratories to training and education facilities. Discussions about joint training of cooks and chaplains provided both amusement and a high degree of frustration. It wasn’t hard to see why so many wars are fought about religion and why good food for the troops is a priority. I was directly responsible for the analysis of recommendations that facilitated Department of Defense savings of $2.2 billion involving 10,000 personnel in 25 states. I dealt with members of Congress and senior Department of Defense officials, set up and contributed to formal hearings, and wrote and presented nationally televised decision briefings for the commissioners. During the final deliberations, when my turn came to testify, the modifications I recommended were questioned by one of the commissioners and the motion was tabled with a request for more information. I was called out to handle the instant influx of communication and it felt as if the entire room was staring at me. A Texas senator requested an immediate meeting to discuss my proposal that two units slated to go to Texas remain in Colorado and Georgia, their respective areas. Several hours later the drama was resolved by an 8-0 vote (with one recusal) and my short-lived notoriety was over. We often heard claims and read various complaints in the newspapers about political bias in this process. With great conviction I can say that these commissioners worked exhaustively hard to thoughtfully consider every angle of the recommendations and to represent the best interests of the American people. Admittedly I was disappointed at times in some of the people and decisions made, but so was everybody else because we disagreed about priorities. That’s how a participatory process works. Also, I had a chance to see firsthand how our military, Congress, and local communities interface. Sometimes I was inspired and at other times disgusted. I developed a new appreciation for the law and even for lawyers because our general counsel and his staff of two attorneys lent a tone of impeccability to the entire process. No doubt my time with the Commission will stand out as a highlight experience of my life, one in which I can say that noble ideals were honored and realized. The 2005 BRAC process ended with the two-volume report being signed off by the president and uncontested by Congress within the 45-day allotted time limit. Eighty-six percent of the Pentagon recommendations were approved, for an estimated savings of $35.6 billion over 20 years, although elation over the savings was dampened for some by the current costs of war in Iraq. The process (and a copy of the actual report) was recently featured in the new TV show “Commander In Chief.” I thought the show did a good job of representing the most important aspects of the process. And I found it interesting that the fictionalized president allowed her home-town submarine base to close in the same state as the one we kept a submarine base open. Even Hollyweird, as some of my more conservative colleagues prefer to describe it, can serve to model noble ideals. (Colleen Turner, a lieutenant colonel, USAF Reserve (Ret.), is a native Palisadian and Palisades High School graduate [’69] who earned her Ph.D. in social welfare from UCLA. She is currently focusing on writing and speaking on the topic “Best Practices for Inspiring Hearts and Minds: A Military Officer’s Quest to Wage Peace.”)