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BEVERLY HILLS VOLUME XXXXVIII NUMBER 14 $135 PER YEAR - $1.25 PER COPY •
THIS ISSUE
Principal of respected high school in Shanghai, China visits BHHS. 4
Bel Air residents Oppose sale of Hannah Carter Japanese Garden. 4
Hawthorne School holds Literacy Night for students and parents. 5
Vice Mayor John Mirisch and fellow reform Councilmember Lili Bosse intend to introduce a resolution at the April 17 City Council meeting to withdraw all support for the Westside Subway Extension. Mirisch told The Courier exclusively that the Metropolitan Transit Authority’s failure to address even one single concern of Beverly Hills about the subway compels the action. “We’re on record right now as being in support of the sub-
Lara Spencer Calls Herself The “AntiMartha” Seeking Perfection In The Imperfect; A Welcome To Cecelia Jean; Trouble At CedarsSinai Medical Center Editorial from Rabbi Pressman AND MORE
CLASSIFIEDS • • • • •
Announcements Real Estate Rentals Sales and More
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April 6, 2012
to a tunnel [under Beverly Hills High School]. I think we no longer can be on record in support. Our support should be contingent upon the issue of the tunnel. It wasn’t and now we need to make it very clear that, because the [MTA seems] dead set on tunneling under the high school we need to withdraw our support for the project.” The full council Tuesday spent over two hours question(see ‘RESOLUTION,’ page 20)
FUTURE BHHS STUDENTS—Horace Mann students Avrami and Eli Hacker sit outside of Temple Emanuel with their protest signs last Thursday during the Metro Community Open House.
Municipal League Demands ‘No Subway In Beverly Hills’ Second Set Of Experts Discredit MTA Seismic Study By Marla Schevker The influential Municipal League of Beverly Hills Tuesday demanded the City Council withdraw all support for the Westside Subway Extension of the Metropolitan Transit Authori-
ty's plan to build a subway through Beverly Hills. Municipal League Chairman Thomas White told the council at its public study session that the group's Board of Directors (see ‘MUNI LEAGUE,’ page 12)
SAVE A CAT—The Stray Cat Alliance is committed to the humane care of cats, either at home or in the streets. Each month, The Stray Cat Alliance helps more than 1,000 cats in many ways, including spaying and neutering. The SCA is currently looking for donations to help meet its 2012 goal of spaying and neutering 2,500 cats. Call 310-2816973 or visit wwww.straycatalliance.org to find out how you can help. Pictured is Frannie.
Loew Vision Rehabilitation Institute set for grand opening on April 15. 14
George Christy, Page 6
SINCE 1965
Mirisch, Bosse Will Call For City To Withdraw Subway Support By Marla Schevker way even though we’re opposed
Beverly Hills High School Robotics team gears up for World Championships. 5
•Arts & Entertainment 11 • Health & Wellness 14-15 •Birthdays 20
www.bhcourier.com
Will The City Council Act To Prevent The Tunnel Under BHHS? The Beverly Hills City Council will now retain lawyers expert in matters under the California Environmental Quality Act in preparation for litigation against the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) over its pro-
posed Final Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the Westside Subway Extension. CEQA lawyers typically bring lawsuits to challenge the adequacy of environmental impact reports as a (see ‘CEQA LAWYER,’ page 7)
School Board Will Bring Bond Dilemma To The People By Matt Lopez Measure E bonds were approved by the voters based on a promise by the 2008-school board not to raise property tax rates above what was then in effect. Now, new evidence calls that promise into question. The Board of Education will bring that question before the people for advice and maybe even a
vote. At this past Tuesday’s Board of Education study session, the board ordered its staff to assess raising the tax rate for Measure E bonds to $114 from the current level of $49.71 per $100,000 dollars of assessed valuation. The board will take no action until plans for Beverly Hills High (see ‘BOND MEASURE,’ page 12)
“Not in accordance with the state of practice” of engineering and geology. That was the main conclusion of the most recent of the City's independent experts to
review the now-discredited Metropolitan Transit Authority’s seismic study of the proposed tunnel route to Century City. Previous(see ‘SHANNON & WILSON,’ page 20)
BHCourier.com Tops 16 Million Page Views In March The daily news website of the Beverly Hills Courier, www.bhcourier.com, continues its astonishing world-wide reach. Google reported over 16 million page views on bhcourier.com in March alone. More than 200,000 viewers arrived on The Courier site by direct name entry rather than through a search engine.
For the entire first quarter of 2012, a total of 825,905 unique visitors came to The Courier’s website which features breaking local stories and news feeds from Agence-France Presse and City News Service. Total page views for the same period were 42,342,479. The Courier’s weekly print readership is approximately 160,000 separate (see ‘The COURIER,’ page 7)
NEW GIRL IN TOWN–Now that Marc Anthony and J-Lo have split, with J-Lo romping with her 24-year-old, Marc introduced Shannon de Lima to the crowd at the 47th annual Country Music Awards in Las Vegas. More photos in George Christy’s column on page 6. Check George’s Pick of the Week on page 16 about the Goorin Bros Bold Hatmakers celebrating their first anniversary this month at the Larchemont Boulevard shop in Los Angeles.
Janet Gough/ Celebrity Photo