California Politics: Madame Senator, this is a morgue

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Bald Stalin: Jul 11, 2004; Our posts

Qtotonibudinibudet posted:

yknow my dad's work literally had this and i never really thought about it. kinda a weird perk

Stagnant wage buys less turkey every year. A turkey in the contract is pegged at inflation, unless they start buying smaller and smaller. Hopefully the weight is included in the writing!

# ? Jul 11, 2023 09:45

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# ? May 16, 2024 12:39

Tuxedo Gin: May 21, 2003; Classy.

Spazzle posted:

Grad students are poorly paid, but in principle they are also getting a degree, and being a grad student isn't something you do forever. The people really getting boned are the adjuncts.

The degree is usually separate from the work. TA/grading work has nothing to do with the degree or the student's own research. Same with work as a lab assistant helping a professor do their publications. It is possible to get a PhD without doing either of those things, but it's expensive.

# ? Jul 11, 2023 13:46

MickeyFinn: May 8, 2007; Biggie Smalls and Junior Mafia some mark ass bitches

Oakland Martini posted:

That's crazy. In my field (economics), graduate students work at most 20 hours per week as TAs and/or RAs. In my department, grad students are paid for 20 hours per week, but very rarely have to work anywhere close to that. I'd say my TAs work 5 hours per week on average, and my RAs maybe 10. They also receive stipends on top of their TA/RAships.

They obviously spend a lot more time working on problem sets (in the first two years) and working on their own research (from year three onward), but this shouldn't be counted as work for which they ought to be paid.

Things in your field might get fuzzy if the 60 hours per week in the lab results in coauthorships on journal articles. That's incredibly valuable for graduate students and should be viewed as part of their compensation. In my field, the present value of an article in a top journal is estimated to be in the six-figure range.

You cannot eat your good performance on problem sets or live in the future imputed remuneration from a potential publication. Everything that grad students do in pursuit of their degrees is work that should be paid for today. Academia as a playground for well to-do white men to establish sinecures needs to die quickly.

# ? Jul 11, 2023 15:04

cat botherer: Jan 6, 2022; I am interested in most phases of data processing.

Oakland Martini posted:

That's crazy. In my field (economics), graduate students work at most 20 hours per week as TAs and/or RAs. In my department, grad students are paid for 20 hours per week, but very rarely have to work anywhere close to that. I'd say my TAs work 5 hours per week on average, and my RAs maybe 10. They also receive stipends on top of their TA/RAships.

They obviously spend a lot more time working on problem sets (in the first two years) and working on their own research (from year three onward), but this shouldn't be counted as work for which they ought to be paid.

Things in your field might get fuzzy if the 60 hours per week in the lab results in coauthorships on journal articles. That's incredibly valuable for graduate students and should be viewed as part of their compensation. In my field, the present value of an article in a top journal is estimated to be in the six-figure range.

Grad students at my school got paid for 20 hours a week, but I didn't know anyone working under 45.

Co-authorships are not compensation. You can't pay rent with it. Besides, such research benefits the university and ultimately leads to more grant money. In addition, few grad students stay in academia as there simply are not enough faculty/postdoc positions. On the outside, no one cares about your papers.

# ? Jul 11, 2023 15:08

FilthyImp: Sep 30, 2002; Anime Deviant

Qtotonibudinibudet posted:

yknow my dad's work literally had this and i never really thought about it. kinda a weird perk

It makes sense in one of those 1960s "The Factory cares about me and my family!" things. It's one of those Nice Things that makes you feel good about working there.

Nevermind the wage stagnation or whatever else.

Spazzle posted:

Grad students are poorly paid, but in principle they are also getting a degree...

Sure, but higher Ed should probably be more progressive and forward thinking. Giving the grad students gruel and dangling scholarships and grants at them so they can afford to finish their degrees sucks.
But you know, structural cultural problems and all.

# ? Jul 11, 2023 15:14

Boot and Rally: Apr 21, 2006; 8===D; Nap Ghost

"Interns are paid in experience."
"This job pays in access and experience."

Hadlock posted:

Assuming they work around a two semester schedule so 2 x 5 months, that's about $30/hr @60 hrs/ wk or $23/hr @80 hrs a week which is honestly pretty fair given it's effectively a paid apprenticeship with a bunch of tax advantaged loans and other cost of living discounts and programs

What "cost of living discounts and programs" are you talking about? Access to the food pantry? Things like on-campus housing is for the benefit of the University, like a company town, not for the benefit of the student.

# ? Jul 11, 2023 15:44

CompeAnansi: Feb 1, 2011; I respectfully decline
the invitation to join
your hallucination

Tuxedo Gin posted:

The degree is usually separate from the work. TA/grading work has nothing to do with the degree or the student's own research. Same with work as a lab assistant helping a professor do their publications. It is possible to get a PhD without doing either of those things, but it's expensive.

Lol if you think grad students are "helping a professor do their publications". Grad students do all the work, write the papers, and the professors "advise" them. The only time a professor actually writes a paper is when they do a review and even then most outsource a lot of it to their grad students and postdocs. The actual job of professors in the sciences is writing grants, but those aren't published per se, just submitted to the review board.

# ? Jul 11, 2023 17:32

Jaxyon: Mar 7, 2016; I’m just saying I would like to see a man beat a woman in a cage. Just to be sure.

CompeAnansi posted:

Lol if you think grad students are "helping a professor do their publications". Grad students do all the work, write the papers, and the professors "advise" them. The only time a professor actually writes a paper is when they do a review and even then most outsource a lot of it to their grad students and postdocs. The actual job of professors in the sciences is writing grants, but those aren't published per se, just submitted to the review board.

Also this but with SCOTUS decisions

# ? Jul 17, 2023 01:54

Cactus Ghost: Dec 20, 2003; you can actually inflate your scrote pretty safely with sterile saline, syringes, needles, and aseptic technique. its a niche kink iirc

the saline just slowly gets absorbed into your blood but in the meantime you got a big round smooth distended nutsack

well, the grant writing in that case is cozying up to literal nazi billionaires, but pretty much yeah

# ? Jul 18, 2023 01:55

Highbrow Slick: Jul 1, 2007; it is a fool who stays alive - but such fools are we.

Just poppin in to say my estimated PG&E bill for this cycle (beginning July 11th) is $763 for a 1250 sq ft condo got drat this poo poo sucks. We keep our thermostat at 78 but bumped it up tonight to 84.

That is about 70% of my piti payment just for PG&E.

# ? Jul 20, 2023 06:20

Hadlock: Nov 9, 2004

I have really good luck opening my windows at night and then closing them around 5:30-6am. Traps the cold air inside and even though it's 90 outside it's 76 inside. And the insulation in the house sucks.

# ? Jul 20, 2023 06:37

The Wiggly Wizard: Aug 21, 2008

Highbrow Slick posted:

Just poppin in to say my estimated PG&E bill for this cycle (beginning July 11th) is $763 for a 1250 sq ft condo got drat this poo poo sucks. We keep our thermostat at 78 but bumped it up tonight to 84.

That is about 70% of my piti payment just for PG&E.

Whoa that�s wild dude. Do you live someone extra hot?

# ? Jul 20, 2023 06:59

Sundae: Dec 1, 2005

Highbrow Slick posted:

Just poppin in to say my estimated PG&E bill for this cycle (beginning July 11th) is $763 for a 1250 sq ft condo got drat this poo poo sucks. We keep our thermostat at 78 but bumped it up tonight to 84.

That is about 70% of my piti payment just for PG&E.

Your bill for the cycle is 5X mine for a 1680ft condo with the same power company, keeping my place around 73-74*F. Is it like 110*F where you are? I'm honestly curious if something is wrong or if someone is stealing power from you at that $$$ value.

# ? Jul 20, 2023 07:08

Highbrow Slick: Jul 1, 2007; it is a fool who stays alive - but such fools are we.

It�s in Fresno which has spent the last 10 days or so between 105-115. And it�s a condo with an old a/c and single pane windows. Plus my wife and I WFH all week, so yeah lol. But man that�s still over $300 more from the same time last year.

# ? Jul 20, 2023 07:15

Tayter Swift: Nov 18, 2002; Pillbug

Yeah I'm paying about a sixth of that for SMUD in Sac, you're getting jobbed.

# ? Jul 20, 2023 07:19

First of May: May 1, 2017; ðµ Bring your favorite lady, or at least your favorite lay! ðµ

Since you work from home, do you have the option to move somewhere that is hospitable to human life?

# ? Jul 20, 2023 07:23

Kenning: Jan 11, 2009; I really want to post goatse. Instead I only have these🍄.

Highbrow Slick posted:

It�s in Fresno which has spent the last 10 days or so between 105-115. And it�s a condo with an old a/c and single pane windows. Plus my wife and I WFH all week, so yeah lol. But man that�s still over $300 more from the same time last year.

Valley living baby. Every few years my mom has a summer like that. Although $700+ does indicate that your insulation is pretty dogshit, my mom has a 1600 sq ft house and she gets just over $300 during months like this.

# ? Jul 20, 2023 07:27

Sydin: Oct 29, 2011; Another spring commute

I live in a dogshit "modern" townhouse (1400sqft) with strictly east/west facing windows, terrible air circulation, terrible heat/cold retention, terrible lighting such that you need to constantly have lights on mid-day to see anything you're doing in the kitchen, and have extremely dumbass roommates who will constantly crank the AC down to 70-72 when I'm not around and then whine at me about how hot they are when I get back and turn it off or put it back to 78-82, and still the absolute highest power bill I've ever gotten from PG&E was ~$580 last year during the really bad heat wave stretch that almost blew up the entire state grid.

That said I'm pretty religious about ensuring no HVAC/major appliances besides the stove run from 5-8 on weekdays and it (usually) drops off in temp enough past 9PM at the latest that we can just throw open windows overnight to cool the place off until the next afternoon.

# ? Jul 20, 2023 07:31

mllaneza: Apr 28, 2007; Veteran, Bermuda Triangle Expeditionary Force, 1993-1952

I'll give you a tip I learned in Arizona: aluminum foil on the windows will keep a lot of heat out.

# ? Jul 20, 2023 07:35

GhostofJohnMuir: Aug 14, 2014; anime is not good

bit of an odd one, really not sure what to think feinstein says late husband's trust not paying her medical bills

quote:

After acute health problems that kept her away from Washington for months earlier this year, Sen. Dianne Feinstein is now engaged in a legal effort to gain more control of the finances from her late husband�s trust.

The 90-year-old California Democrat filed a petition asking a court to make her daughter, Katherine Feinstein, a successor trustee of Richard Blum�s trust, arguing that the people serving as trustees �have refused to make distributions to reimburse Senator Feinstein�s medical expenses.�

Blum, who died last year, was a wealthy financier and Katherine Feinstein�s stepfather. Katherine Feinstein filed the petition on her mother�s behalf; she is a former superior court judge and a current San Francisco fire commissioner.

�Senator Feinstein has incurred significant medical expenses, and she submitted a request to whom she believed to be the trustees of the 1996 Marital Trust for reimbursement of her medical bills,� says the petition, which was filed Monday in San Francisco Superior Court.

�While seeking reimbursement for her medical expenses Senator Feinstein learned that Blum did not name the purported trustees in the 1996 Trust and they were not appointed in compliance with its terms.�

The petition asks the court to appoint Katherine Feinstein as a successor trustee who would control the trust, which includes a life insurance policy for Blum and its proceeds. The trust is worth between $1 million and $5 million, according to Feinstein�s Senate financial disclosures. The longtime San Franciscan�s assets go far beyond this trust, with government transparency group Open Secrets estimating her net worth in 2018 at upwards of $120 million.

In the court documents, Feinstein argues that trustees Mark R. Klein and Marc Scholvinck, who both previously worked with Blum, were improperly appointed as trustees after his death.

�My clients are perplexed by today�s filing. Richard Blum�s trust has never denied any disbursement to Senator Feinstein, let alone for medical expenses,� said Klein and Scholvinck�s attorney Steven P. Braccini in an email. Braccini noted that he had not been shown any evidence that Katherine Feinstein had power of attorney for her mother.

�Katherine [has not] made it clear, either in this filing or directly to my clients, why a sitting United States senator would require someone to have power of attorney over her. While my clients are deeply concerned, we all remain hopeful that this is simply a misunderstanding that can be quickly resolved, rather than a stepdaughter engaging in some kind of misguided attempt to gain control over trust assets to which she is not entitled.�

Danville attorney Loren Barr, who specializes in estate planning, said that in most cases the delineating powers of attorney �are very rarely recorded. There�s no requirement they be recorded. They�re almost never recorded.� Feinstein granting this to her daughter could mean several things, he added.

One, he said, is because she is incapacitated and couldn�t read documents or sign them. �The other time it�s done is somebody is old and tired and doesn�t have the energy to travel if they�re out of town,� he said.

�There are general powers of attorney that have almost everything in it. But then there are also limited powers of attorney that are used for a particular purpose. So when my friend moved to England, and wanted to sell his house out here in the East Bay, he gave me a power to sell the house.�

Feinstein missed nearly three months of work after contracting a case of shingles and experiencing prolonged side effects that partially paralyzed her face and caused difficulty walking. Her absence, which slowed the appointment of some judicial nominees, caused serious consternation among colleagues and members of the Democratic Party.

When she returned in mid-May, she appeared frail and in one conversation appeared to not recall she�d been absent for months. Her return did unlock the nomination of certain nominees and quelled some of the criticism being lobbed her way, though concerns about her mental acuity have persisted.

A recent statewide poll found that more than 40% of voters felt Feinstein should resign, and just 27% thought she should finish her term. A substantial majority felt she is no longer fit to serve in office.

She has already said she�s not running for another term in 2024. When The Times approached her in the Capitol in Washington on Wednesday, she declined to answer questions on the subject. Feinstein�s daughter didn�t return a call seeking comment.

�This is a private legal matter. Senator Feinstein and her office won�t have any comment,� Feinstein spokesman Adam Russell wrote in an email.

Last month, in a separate petition made in Superior Court, Katherine Feinstein alleged that Klein wouldn�t execute the necessary steps that would allow the senator to sell a home she owned in a gated community at Stinson Beach with her late husband. Feinstein has asked a court to order Klein to sign off on a sale of the home because �she does not want to pay for half of the property�s carrying costs. She desires to sell Stinson Beach as soon as possible.�

Feinstein�s daughter alleged in court documents that Blum�s three daughters don�t want to sell the home because it would reduce their inheritance when the senator dies and �wish to make use of Stinson Beach during Senator Feinstein�s lifetime and after her death at her expense.�

No response has been filed by Klein or Blum�s children, who could not be reached for comment. A hearing for the case has been set for late August.

The couple owned this home, another in San Francisco and one in Hawaii. Earlier this year the Wall Street Journal reported that Feinstein sold a home she owned with her husband in Aspen for $25.25 million. The paper reported that Klein handled the sale.

In 2021, Blum sold a home on Lake Tahoe that his investment firm owned for $36 million.

unreal that someone who's been a public servant for the last 30 years has a fortune this massive, and that apparently the heirs are apparently ready to get into public fights over what amounts to scraps of the whole sum

# ? Jul 20, 2023 07:56

MickeyFinn: May 8, 2007; Biggie Smalls and Junior Mafia some mark ass bitches

GhostofJohnMuir posted:

bit of an odd one, really not sure what to think feinstein says late husband's trust not paying her medical bills

unreal that someone who's been a public servant for the last 30 years has a fortune this massive, and that apparently the heirs are apparently ready to get into public fights over what amounts to scraps of the whole sum

It could be that she sees her mom as brain dead but still capable of giving away all her inheritance and is worried that some consigliere is going to abscond with what is rightfully hers. In that frame of mind, two of them already have taken $1-5 million.

# ? Jul 20, 2023 15:24

CompeAnansi: Feb 1, 2011; I respectfully decline
the invitation to join
your hallucination

Highbrow Slick posted:

Just poppin in to say my estimated PG&E bill for this cycle (beginning July 11th) is $763 for a 1250 sq ft condo got drat this poo poo sucks. We keep our thermostat at 78 but bumped it up tonight to 84.

Yeah, same here. We got our mid-cycle update and it was already at like $350 halfway through the month (so looking at like $700+ for the month). Also a 1200 sq ft condo/townhouse thing with single pane and an inefficient AC from the 1990s but we rent so there is nothing we can do about it other than move and the rental market is a madmax hellscape. The crazy thing is that where we are the temps have only been around 90, so it's pretty outrageous that our bill is so high. gently caress SDGE.

# ? Jul 20, 2023 16:57

Sundae: Dec 1, 2005

Highbrow Slick posted:

It�s in Fresno which has spent the last 10 days or so between 105-115. And it�s a condo with an old a/c and single pane windows. Plus my wife and I WFH all week, so yeah lol. But man that�s still over $300 more from the same time last year.

Oof, yeah that hurts. Sorry. I�m over in Hayward so the climates / bills wouldn�t be even remotely comparable.

# ? Jul 20, 2023 17:01

Hadlock: Nov 9, 2004

Highbrow Slick posted:

It’s in Fresno single pane windows. Plus my wife and I WFH all week,

You probably qualify for at least one kind of energy efficiency rebate on switching those windows to double pane

Also maybe get your AC serviced and check your duct work for leaks. Being low on refrigerant makes your AC less efficient. Also track down all the leaks and cracks, cover up the gap under your front door

3M makes several different grades of thermal reflectivity window coating, usually is pretty affordable to get installed will cut heat from sunlight by half. Sounds like the payback period on this would be three years or less

# ? Jul 20, 2023 17:33

Keyser_Soze: May 5, 2009; Pillbug

This is sadly where, if you have to be out in the valley, that Sac-Roseville are a good choice since they run their own electric providers. For example, Roseville's rate
per kWh is between .09 to .12 cents whereas PG&E is .38 to .44. That poo poo adds up fast assuming 1,000 kWh per month as an example.

# ? Jul 20, 2023 18:53

Jaxyon: Mar 7, 2016; I’m just saying I would like to see a man beat a woman in a cage. Just to be sure.

DWP is doing OK on pricing AFAIK

# ? Jul 20, 2023 19:22

CompeAnansi: Feb 1, 2011; I respectfully decline
the invitation to join
your hallucination

SDGE is $0.45 per kWh until 130% of baseline (406 kWh), then $0.57 per kWh. It is extortionate.

# ? Jul 20, 2023 19:47

jokes: Dec 20, 2012; Uh... Kupo?

I much prefer the LADWP over any other utility. gently caress you, SoCal Edison-- literally twice the rate after I moved 5 minutes away into SCE territory.

# ? Jul 21, 2023 00:32

MickeyFinn: May 8, 2007; Biggie Smalls and Junior Mafia some mark ass bitches

Jaxyon posted:

DWP is doing OK on pricing AFAIK

My last apartment was right by the freeway, so my windows were shut 100% of the time and even in the months where I ran my AC the whole time my largest bill was less than $80. LADWP is great.

# ? Jul 21, 2023 02:44

jetz0r: May 10, 2003; Tomorrow, our nation will sit on the throne of the world. This is not a figment of the imagination, but a fact. Tomorrow we will lead the world, Allah willing.

Keyser_Soze posted:

This is sadly where, if you have to be out in the valley, that Sac-Roseville are a good choice since they run their own electric providers. For example, Roseville's rate
per kWh is between .09 to .12 cents whereas PG&E is .38 to .44. That poo poo adds up fast assuming 1,000 kWh per month as an example.

We just moved within the Sac metro area, and one of requirements of the new house was that it was also in SMUD territory. gently caress PG&E.

# ? Jul 21, 2023 07:06

SlimGoodbody: Oct 20, 2003

Welcome to town! Let us know if you need any Sac recommendations. Pizza Supreme Being is my favorite pizza joint in town by miles and miles and I highly recommend them to everyone.

# ? Jul 21, 2023 08:12

VikingofRock: Aug 24, 2008

In February, a Los Angeles Sheriff's Department officer followed and then brutally beat a trans male teacher after the teacher flipped off the sheriff while driving by.

As a reminder, the LA Sheriff's Department is distinct from, and even more deranged than, the LAPD. They have a huge problem with deputy gangs, which the previous Sheriff, Alex Villanueva, vehemently denied. Voters kicked out Villanueva last year, and put in Robert Luna in his place.

The LA Times posted:

Emmett Brock thought he was dying, and his mind raced. This isn’t supposed to happen to me. This doesn’t happen this way. I can’t die like this.

He tasted the blood inside his mouth. He felt the fists land on his head. And he heard the shouts of the sheriff’s deputy on top of him, pressing him into the pavement of the 7-Eleven parking lot.

Three minutes later, the 23-year-old teacher sat in the back of a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department cruiser not even knowing, he said, why the deputy had stopped him.

Brock was sent to the Norwalk station lockup and booked for three felonies. When he told the staff he is a transgender man, he said, they asked to see his genitals before deciding which holding cell to send him to.

That was in February. Brock is now jobless and still facing criminal charges, all stemming from a traffic stop the deputy said was based on an air freshener he’d spotted hanging from Brock’s rearview mirror.

The Sheriff’s Department has been under intense scrutiny in recent weeks for two other use-of-force incidents caught on camera, including one in which a deputy punched a woman in the face while trying to take her child. In that case, Sheriff Robert Luna condemned the incident as “completely unacceptable” and relieved the deputy of duty. The FBI is now investigating.

Luna ran on promises of reform and has implemented several changes in the department since taking office in December. He restored the ability of oversight officials to access sheriff’s databases, turned over controversial investigations to outside agencies, ordered his deputies to cooperate with investigations and created an office to “eradicate” deputy gangs.

...

Here's the description of the assault:

quote:

A few blocks from the school, Brock spotted a deputy who appeared to be having a heated conversation with a woman on the side of the road. As he drove by, Brock threw up his middle finger. He didn’t even think the deputy would see it, he said.

A few seconds later, he spotted a patrol cruiser following close behind him. It made Brock uneasy. He turned down one side street and then another, trying to figure out whether the cruiser was following him or just going in the same direction. The deputy didn’t turn on his lights or siren, but made every turn Brock did.

Growing unnerved, he called 911.

“Hi, um, I’m being followed by a police car,” he said in a recording shared with The Times. He told the dispatcher that the car was copying his turns, but not pulling him over. He said he wanted to make sure it was a “real police car” and that he wasn’t being stalked.

The two kept talking, and eventually the dispatcher asked: “What is it that you want us to do? If he hasn’t pulled you over, he hasn’t pulled you over.”

Two minutes into the call, Brock cursed and hung up. He kept driving, pulling up outside the 7-Eleven on Mills Avenue in Whittier, planning to buy a Coke before heading to a therapy appointment.

The cruiser pulled in behind him, and the store’s surveillance camera captured what followed. The deputy’s body-worn camera captured the sound.
Confused, Brock replied, “No, you didn’t.”

“Yeah, I did,” the deputy said. Then he grabbed Brock’s arm and forced him to the ground.

Still unsure what he’d done, Brock said, he began to scream. “What — what are you doing? Oh, my god. What the f— is happening?”

For the next three minutes, Brock struggled and screamed as the deputy held him down and punched him in the head.

...

Here is the blatant transphobia:

quote:

It wasn’t long before authorities asked Brock for a statement, during which he explained that he is transgender.

“So you’re a girl?” he said one jailer asked.

Brock said he wasn’t.

Then the man asked whether he had a penis — and Brock said he did. He explained what surgeries existed, and said that he’d been on hormones for years.

After one jailer asked for proof, Brock said, he spent a few awkward minutes in a bathroom showing her his genitalia and explaining the effects of testosterone.

He was placed in a women’s holding cell. It was a Friday afternoon and, with the courts closed, he worried he’d be stuck behind bars all weekend.

It was after dark when one of the jailers told him his family and his girlfriend had pulled together enough money for bail.

He was facing three felonies — mayhem, resisting arrest and obstruction — plus misdemeanor failure to obey a police officer.

Four days later, he lost his job after state authorities notified the school of his pending charges.

And here's the part where ACAB:

quote:

When the incident went through the department’s normal force review process, officials cleared Benza of wrongdoing. One sergeant wrote that Brock was assaultive “with threat of serious bodily injury.” Another sergeant, listed as the watch commander, concurred, saying the incident was within policy and the force used was “objectively reasonable.”

The sergeant also checked “no” on the paperwork next to the question: “Could officer safety, tactical communication, or de-escalation techniques have been improved?”

The station captain agreed with the two sergeants below him. Only once the matter went up to the division commander did the report note room for improvement.

...

# ? Jul 24, 2023 19:11

Gangringo: Jul 22, 2007; In the first age, in the first battle, when the shadows first lengthened, one sat.

He chose the path of perpetual contentment.