2016_0412_CT_v70i10

SUPERSHOWDOWN Summer filmpreview. Arts, page5

CityTimes sdcitytimes.com

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National Pacemaker winner | Volume 70, Number 10 | April 13, 2016

The meaning of being black

ASGholds elections April 20, 21

By LUISASAUSEDO City Times

Making it legible

Anthony Blacksher led off "Illegible," a poetry and dance performance March 23 at City College that explored the Black Lives Matter movement and theissuesit raises, part of theSocial JusticeandEducationConference. Photoessay on page4, andstory onpage7. CELIAJIMENEZCity Times

Another theft hits RTVF

By COLLLETTECARROLL City Times The pr eliminar y hear ing for City's for mer chief br oadcast engineer has been postponed again, to May. Meanwhile, the Radio, Television, and Film Depar tment continues to exper ience thefts.

Ger ald "L ar r y" Quick, is facing felony gr and theft char ges r elating to the theft of four video camer as fr om the RTVF Depar tment, valued ar ound $20,000. His pr eliminar y hear ing was postponed again, to May 26.

A total of 15 additional electr onic items, all r epor ted stolen fr om the depar tment, wer e r ecover ed fr om the near by Palace Pawn shop. Campus police said they wer e linked to Quick's account ther e.

Inside News Life Arts Voice Sports

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I t's unknown whether Quick, who r emains fr ee on bail, will face additional char ges.

"The facts and evidence will come out at that time," said Tanya Sier r a, San Diego County's Public Affair s Officer, r efer r ing to the pr eliminar y hear ing.

"Restitution is something that comes up dur ing a plea bar gain or dur ing settlement, so it?s too soon to know what will happen on that fr ont."

Meanwhile, mor e equipment has been stolen in the depar tment, this time dir ectly fr om a college tutor.

A MacBook Air, custom br iefcase, iPad, and L G tablet wer e stolen out of the editing bays in the C Building ar ound 8 on Mar ch 24. The estimated value of the items is $2,800.The items belonged to RTVF tutor, Adan Per ez.

RTVF tutor s ar e paid for by a gr ant that ensur es access to car eer and tech-

nical education for special populations.

These include students fr om economically disadvantaged families, single parents, and students with disabilities.

I n Mar ch, City Times r epor ted that thefts fr om the depar tment of electr onic equipment and thousands of dollar s in cash spanned a decade and totalled at least $43,000.

The paper asked the chief of the distr ict's Police Depar tment about those thefts.

"I can only sur mise that in almost all of the cases ther e wer e ver y limited investigative leads that investigator s could follow up on. The most r ecent thefts pr ovided much mor e cr edible evidence for our detectives to follow up on, and which subsequently r esulted in Mr. Quick?s ar r est," said Distr ict Police Chief Ray Aguir r e.

Elections for City College?s Associated Students Gover nment ar e being held on Apr il 20 and 21 and students can vote fr om their smar tphones or computer s by logging onto www.sdcity.edu.

Since Apr il 4, a number of students have been campaigning, however they ar e all r unning unopposed, except for the Public Events Coor dinator. Fur ther, thr ee of the nine officer positions have no candidates.

Dar on Woods, cur r ently Senate vice pr esident, is r unning for ASG pr esident. Suma Massaley, cur r ently Senate pr esident, is r unning for ASG vice pr esident. Ther e ar e nine Senate seats available; only cur r ent Senator I gnacio Her nandez is r unning to continue in that or ganization.

A summar y of the candidates' platfor ms ar e available on City's website,sdcity.edu. ?As ASG pr esident, I will advocate to fur ther develop our campus as a place wher e diver sity is tr easur ed, and seen not as a hindr ance but as empower ing," Woods said in his online statement. "City College students all have to face one obstacle or another, and it would be my job as pr esident to make sur e we have the best shot at getting our education.?

Running for vice pr esident, Massaley added her views, as well. ?I want to make awar eness of the unique oppor tunities City College has to offer its students," she said. "I plan to impr ove leader ship on campus by making sur e ever y student at City College knows that the Associated Students Gover nment is her e to ser ve and r epr esent their voices.?

The ASG is made up of students who ar e wor king to r epr esent the students at City College. They finance, or ganize and dir ect studentsponsor ed pr ogr ams and events held on campus.

Students will be able to vote 24/7 online at www.sdcity.edu on Apr il 20 and 21 or in the Student Affair s office, M-200, wher e two computer s will be available for voting.

Results will be posted in the ASG office Wednesday, Apr il 27, by 3 p.m.

Election cover age will be available on sdcitytimes.com.

MINIMUMWAGE

NETGAIN

Isit fair for Californiatoraiseit to$15? Voice, page6

Knightstennisplayersqualifyfor regionals. Sports, page8

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www.sdcitytimes.com | April 13, 2016

CITYNOTES

ASGpresident is recognized for her leadership

By DESTINY ORTIZ City Times Assembly Speaker Emer itus Toni Atkins awar ded San Diego City College ASG Pr esident L aur a Benavidez with a cer tificate of r ecognition for her leader ship on Mar ch 18. ?The r ecognition is ver y much appr eciated,? said Benavidez, who is involved in many activities off campus, including police cur few sweeps.

Benavidez, 29, has been at City since 2004 off and on. ?I am far fr om a per fect student and I want other s to know that. You don?t have to have ever ything together to get involved,? she said thr ough email.

Laura Benavidezisanactivist oncampusandoff. DESTINYORTIZ City Times Benavidez has been involved in Associated Student Gover nwor king with Benavidez. She cator for the Mental Health ment for thr ee year s. She star ted wasn't sur pr ised when it was an- Counseling Center. ?I think that off as a senator, r ising up to Sen- nounced that Benavidez had r e- all of these things inter sect and ate pr esident, vice pr esident and ceived an awar d. over lap,? Benavidez said. pr esident. The pr esident of ASG ?She goes above and beyond She saw her involvement in also ser ves as a student tr ustee her job duties,? she said. the ASG as a way to be active on of the San Diego Community Hussein and Benavidez have campus as well as to be appealCollege Distr ict Boar d. been on the ASG together for ing to univer sities.

ASG Vice Pr esident Hani thr ee year s.

Hussein shar ed her exper iences On campus, she is a peer eduSee LEADERSHIPon page 6

April 18 is the tax-day deadline

By DANIELWRIGHT City Times I f you'r e one of people that pr ocr astinate until the last hour to file your taxes, ther e's good news: This year 's deadline has been pushed back thr ee extr a days, to Apr il 18.

Accor ding to www.ir s.com, you can liter ally thank the star s for the gr anted extension. The calendar year deadline over laps with a feder al/state holiday "Emancipation Day," which is a public holiday in the Distr ict of Columbia that is obser ved on Apr il 16. But when Apr il 16 falls on a Satur day, Emancipation Day is obser ved on the pr evious Fr iday, Apr il 15, taking pr ecedence over the tax deadline.

Residents of Maine and Massachusetts have yet another extr a day as Patr iots' Day, a statewide holiday, allows those r esiding ther e a tax deadline of Apr il 19. This is due to I RS offices being closed on Patr iots' Day, and since taxpayer s ar e allowed to hand- deliver their r etur ns to local offices, their deadline has been extended, whether filing by snail mail, e-file or dr opping off their for ms.

But did you know that Jan. 15

Photo from SDCCD website

Payroll problems mostly resolved

By THOMAS CHESY City Times After a tr oubled launch, faculty payr oll discr epancies at the San Diego Community College Distr ict have been gr eatly r educed but not entir ely eliminated.

What was intended to be one of the fir st major upgr ades of the distr ict's aging businessmanagement softwar e was hamper ed by human er r or. This, in tur n, caused mor e than 900 distr ict employees to be either under or over paid dur ing the month of Januar y.

Distr ict Chancellor Constance M. Car r oll addr essed the pr oblems in a memo sent on Mar ch 10 after hear ing complaints fr om faculty and r epr esentatives of the Amer ican Feder ation of Teacher s (AFT) Guild at a boar d of tr ustees meeting that day.

"On behalf of the Distr ict, let me apologize for the pr oblems you have exper ienced," Car r oll wr ote.

"Given the size and complexity of the distr ict?s payr oll, some pr oblems wer e inevitable, even

after extensive testing."

Jack Ber esfor d, the distr ict's spokesman, gave an update on the pr oblem.

"With each payr oll cycle, we ar e seeing fewer and fewer of these issues as we identify solutions and fine-tune our business pr ocess to r educe these to zer o.

I n the meantime, we encour age our employees to r eview their payr oll infor mation r egular ly and r epor t any pr oblems to Human Resour ces," he wr ote in an email on Apr il 5.

Statistics for the month of Mar ch wer e unavailable, however payr oll er r or s for contr acted staff decr eased 83.2 percent fr om Januar y's r ate of 20.2 per cent to Febr uar y's r ate of 3.39 per cent, accor ding to Carr oll's Mar ch 10 memo.

Dr. Kelly Mayhew, AFT vice pr esident for City College faculty, r eacted positively when asked if she is satisfied with the distr ict's r esponse.

"I am for the most par t," she said. "Hopefully, (the distr ict) will be mor e pr epar ed when they r oll out the other par ts of the pr ogr am."

Corrections Taxpayersgot threeextradaystofiletheir returnsthisyear. Online photo is the deadline for self-employed wor ker s and other s who pay quar ter ly taxes? Or companies have until Feb. 1 to mail out W-2 for ms? (Feb. 1 is also the deadline for self-employed wor ker s to file and pay in full their four th quar ter payments to avoid penalty.)

Ther e ar e fr ee tax pr epar ation ser vices for those that qualify, such as the Volunteer I ncome Tax Assistance (VI TA). This pr ogr am offer s fr ee tax help for

those making $54,000 or less, people with disabilities and limited English- speaking taxpayer s needing assistance. Ther e is also the Tax Counseling for the Elder ly (TCE), a fr ee pr ogr am for all taxpayer s, gear ed towar ds those over 60 year s old, specializing in questions r egar ding pension and r etir ement- r elated issues.

I nfor mation on fr ee tax pr epar ation is available at www.ir s.gov or at 800-906-9887.

I n the Mar ch 23, 2016, edition of City Times a stor y about the City College student who won a state honor stated that I ssanna L oughman was pr esident of Phi Theta Kappa. She is actually the pr esident of Psi Beta.

I n the same publication, the stor y about tennis player Palia

Gr iffin indicated that her photo was taken by staff wr iter Michael Mar kulin. The actual image was pr ovided as a courtesy by the Knights tennis team.

I t is the policy of City Times to clar ify content or cor r ect err or s. Send them to the paper at info@sdcitytimes.com or call (619) 388 -3880.

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CITYARTS

www.sdcitytimes.com | April 13, 2016

Understanding the Illegible "Illegible" was apowerful artistic performanceMarch 23 at City Collegethat incorporated different types of art, such as music, dance, singing and poetry, to explore what African-Americans face on a regular basis and to create awareness about racial injustice. The performers included theGraceJunbkSOULDancers. CELIAJIMENEZCity Times

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www.sdcitytimes.com | April 13, 2016

CITYVOICE

Get ready to dig into your wallet Don't think the minimum wage incr ease to an eventual $15 per hour will lead to a better lifestyle for the minimum- wage cr owd nor change their tax br acket.

The mor e people make, the mor e the cost of living goes up.

Take a Big Mac, which cost 99 cents in 1978. The famous sandwich hasn't gotten any bigger or any better but today costs five times as much. Tr y and swallow that the next time you r each to spend half an hour of your cur r ent minimum wage with no fr ies or dr ink.

I n 1976, the minimum wage was $2.30 an hour. On aver age, the pr ice of a new house was $43,400, wor ker 's annual income was $16,000, monthly r ent was $220 and a gallon of gas cost 59 cents.

By 1978, the minimum wage had gone up to $3.75 an hour.

On aver age, the pr ice of a new house had gone up $11,000 compar ed to 1976, to $54,000; monthly r ent went up $40, to $260; and a gallon of gas went up 4 cents, to 63 cents. All this happened while the aver age wor ker 's income only went Daniel Wright Sr. up $1,000, to $17,000.

When I was six year s old, a Hostess cupcake (same size, same package as today) cost 50 cents and a pack of Now or L ater s candy was 10 cents. The fir st far e to r ide the city bus I can r emember was 80 cents.

As the year s went by, the minimum wage incr eased: $4.25, $4.75, $5, $6 and so on until today's $10 per hour in Califor nia.

Beautiful, r ight?

L et's see.

I n 1976, my mother bought her own home, on her own thr ough har d wor k for ar ound $75,000. One of the most expensive Amer ican car s, the L incoln Continental, was $12,000.

Fast for war d to 2016, my mother 's house, without any upgr ades, is valued at $300,000. The most expensive car, the Bugatti Veyr on, costs well over $1 million. A Hostess cupcake?

Almost $2. And we all know how the pr ice of gas has at least quadr upled.

This is why I have gr eat r eser vation for this so- called "r aise."

Fr om my exper ience, the r aise doesn't only apply to the hour ly amount we r eceive. Face it, employer s ar e not going to lessen their pr ofit mar gin thus complicating the lifestyle they have gr own accustomed to. So come to ter ms with the fact that the r aise will be passed on to consumer s and ther e will be layoffs and downsizing, doubling to tr ipling the employee wor kload.

What message is this sending to those to our militar y, those who pr otect and defend our countr y and fr eedom? How motivated will manager s be when they ar e making just as much as the last per son hir ed?

The mor e we make, the mor e things we'r e tr ying to obtain will cost. Don't give up that second job quite yet; you may just be needing that $30 an hour.

$15 per hour: fair or un-fairy tale?

PRO DeniseWhite

Gov. Jer r y Br own signed a bill into law this month r aising California?s mandator y minimum wage

to $15 by 2022. ?Economically, (r aising) minimum wages may not make sense,? he said at the signing. ?Mor ally and socially and politically, (minimum wages) make ever y sense because it binds the community together and makes sur e that par ents can take car e of their kids in a much mor e satisfactor y way.?

The new law is seen as an effor t to head off a ballot measur e that would have asked voter s to

r aise wages if the L egislatur e had not acted. The measur e, led by a labor coalition called L ift Up Califor nia, gather ed the 400,000 signatur es needed to qualify for the November ballot. I t would have r aised wages to $15 by 2021.

I nstead, the new law will r aise the statewide minimum to $10.50 on Jan. 1 for businesses with 26 or mor e wor ker s, the fir st of sever al gr adual incr eases to $15 by 2022, with futur e r aises tied to inflation.

The new law gives smaller businesses a br eak. They will have an extr a year to phase in each incr ease.

When fully implemented, a fulltime minimum- wage wor ker would see annual ear nings in-

cr ease to $30,000 fr om $20,000 today.

As a college student who curr ently lives at home and wor ks 30plus hour s, I believe that this r aise is necessar y.

Some may ar gue that many of these jobs, especially at fast- food places, ar e star t-up jobs and those who r ely on them shouldn't be entitled to such a high minimum wage. But what about those who happen to have kids at a young age? Or what about those who ar e tr ying to pay for school?

As a 24- year- old community college student who r ecently got accepted to San Diego State Uni-

I f wor king at McDonald's isn?t paying your bills or suppor ting your families then go find a second job or a thir d one. No one told you to go out and star t a family while having a car eer at McDonald's.

I under stand ever yone's situation is differ ent but you cannot tell me that flipping a bur ger and pulling fr ies out of gr ease tr ap is har der and deser ves to make mor e money than someone ser ving their countr y in the militar y.

The cur r ent year ly salar y for an entr y level solider in the Ar my is $18,378. Dividing that by 12 comes out to $1,531.50 a month.

Br eak that down and the soldier makes $765.75 ever y two weeks. I divided that by 80 accounting for two 40- hour wor k weeks and it came out to $9.57 an hour. That?s not including the extr a hour s

wor king standing duty or on watch at night, pr otecting you and fighting for this countr y.

Ther e ar e people liter ally getting shot at on their job and who don?t always have the luxur y of coming home ever y night that make less than $10 an hour. That's not to mention that they also have families and need to feed them, as well.

Cur r ently, the feder al minimum wage is $7.25 per hour. I n Califor nia, the minimum wage is $10 an hour. Obviously, Califor nia is a much mor e expensive state to live in than other s but if you cannot affor d to live in Califor nia on minimum wage then don?t.

Settling at places like McDonald's, who will r eplace you with a

See PROon page 6

PERSPECTIVE

CityTimes www.sdcitytimes.com

CON

On Apr il 15, 2015, thousands of fast-food emLuisa Sausedo ployees ar ound the countr y mar ched out of their jobs demanding an incr ease in pay to $15 an hour. They str essed that they could not pay their r ent and feed their families on a minimum-wage salar y.

McDonald's, Bur ger King, and places of this natur e offer star t-up jobs. Many 18-year olds who want exper ience and want to make their own money go to wor k ther e until they find something else. I f you get tr apped ther e because you star ted a family or never pr ogr essed fr om ther e, that's your own r esponsibility.

This may sound r ude and you may feel like you'r e entitled to a decent living but you'r e r eally not.

April 13, 2016 | Volume 70, Number 10 National Pacemaker winner, Associated Collegiate Press PublishedasTheJay Sees(1945-1949), Fortknightly (1949-1978), City Times(1978- ) IncorporatingthenewspapersTecolote, Knight Owl andFlicks

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BEATRIZMERCED

Social Media Editor Video Editor

Collette Carroll, Thomas Chesy, Natalie Hanson, Oisis Jones, Michael Markulin, Antonio Marquez, Belinda Mendoza, Destiny Ortiz, Denise White.

News Editor

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AIDAGARCIA JERRYMcCORMICK Journalism Advisers

CORRESPONDENTS Griffin Dehne, Alan Hickey, Richard Mendoza.

City Timesispublishedtwicemonthly duringthe semester. Signedopinionsarethoseof theindividual writersanddonot necessarily represent thoseof the entirenewspaper staff, City Collegeadministration, faculty andstaff or theSanDiegoCommunity CollegeDistrict Boardof Trustees.

District policy statement: Thispublicationisproducedasalearningexperience under SanDiegoCity College?sDigital Journalismprogram.

All materials, includingopinionsexpressedherein, arethe soleresponsibility of thestudentsandshouldnot be interpretedtobethoseof thecollegedistrict, itsofficers or employees.

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See CONon page 6

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www.sdcitytimes.com | April 13, 2016

CITYSPORTS

Tennis Knights reach playoffs

By LUISASAUSEDO and MICHAEL MARKULIN City Times A little r ain never hur t anyone, especially not the tennis teams fr om City College.

Ten out of 17 Knights ar e on the r oad to the Souther n California Regional Playoffs, other wise known as "The Ojai," after competing in the Pacific Coast Athletic Confer ence Tennis Championship at Southwester n and Gr ossmont Colleges this past weekend.

The PCAC Tour nament, usually played over a thr ee- day span, had to be cut shor t due to the weather. Scheduled to star t on Thur sday, Apr il 7, the r ain pour ed down for cing all matches to be moved to the following day.

The men?s matches wer e

played at Southwester n over a two- day span, while the L ady Knights completed their matches at Gr ossmont on Fr iday, Apr il 8.

City College?s Daniel Villa was the fir st to qualify for a spot at The Ojai after Palomar College?s Abr aham Alex r etir ed fr om the match due to an injur y.

Patr ick Meier and Dale Gutier r ez wer e advanced on Satur day mor ning after playing their final singles matches in a back dr aw tour nament. Gutierr ez beat out Palomar 's Alex Daniel 6- 1, 6- 0 and Meier overcame another Palomar player, Taylor Br yant, 6-3, 6-1. ?I played well and I think he r eally didn't like my playing style," said Meier after clinching his singles spot. ?I r eally wanted to go to Ojai with the team because it's fun ther e.?

Dale Gutierrez (left) and Logan Rinder (right) playing their doubles match against MesaCollege. LUISASAUSEDOCity Times Sophomor e L ogan Rinder battled for the final singles spot on Satur day mor ning, but fell shor t to Mesa College?s Tr istan Shaw in two sets, 6-1, 6-1 Rinder ?s hope for playing at The Ojai will not go unfulfilled due to the fact that he and his doubles par tner, Gutier r ez, will be r epr esenting City College at that tour nament, along with the women?s doubles finalists, Br ianna L eigh- Pink, Melissa Gomez, Kar en L opo and Carolina Her r er a-Najar.

Gutier r ez and Rinder played with gr eat chemistr y as they took on Mesa College?s Shaw and Jesse Donahue, defeating them 8-5. ?We star ted a little slow and then we just kind of got it together,? said Rinder. ?We just need to wor k together to set each other up at the net and make solid volleys and not go for too much.?

Both coaches had high hopes for their player s to r each Ojai.

Jami Jones, head coach for

the L ady Knights, was hoping to qualify mor e player s than the team did last year. Not only did the L ady Knights better their r esults, but they qualified all six star ter s.

Palia Gr iffin, Desir ee Wilson and L eigh- Pink will be r epr esenting City College alongside the men?s tennis team at The Ojai when the tour nament begins Apr il 20.

A four th singles player for the women's team was yet to be deter mined. The dr aw will be between Gomez and L opo.

All player s who have advanced to the Ojai have qualified for the r egional playoffs. Depending on their r esults ther e, they can qualify into the State Championships, also being held at the Ojai dur ing the same time.

The Ojai tour nament is scheduled for Apr il 20 to 24.

The men's Knights ended their season with a r ecor d of 1010, 6- 4 in confer ence. The L ady Knights finished their season at 8-7, 7-3 in confer ence.

Updates fr om the Ojai tournament will be available online at www.ojaitour ney.or g by clicking on the dr aws and r esults tab.

Knights snap winning streak City College'sbaseball teamfellsagainst theGrossmont CollegeGriffins6-2 at Morley FieldonApril 9 , snappingafour-gamewinningstreak. Asof that date, theKnights' recordwas12-10, and7-6 inconferenceplay, fifthplace inconference. TheseasonrunsthroughApril 29. CELIAJIMENEZCity Times