ABOVE THE FOLD Behind the scene of City College’s weekly student produced news broadcast PAGE 4
CT CityTimes
Covering the San Diego City College community since 1945
BOOK FAIR
East County voices
Vol. 67, No. 4
October 9, 2012
ARTS Check out ou review of Dub FX on page 5
STATE NEWS
Suspects indicted in fraud case
By Amanda Rhoades City Times The Seventh Annual San Diego City College International Book Fair hosted a panel discussion featuring local writers who have contributed to an upcoming book on their lives and experiences in East San Diego County on Oct. 3. “The great irony in me moving away to New York City at 18 to be a writer is that for the next three years at NYU, all I wrote about was East County, whether I knew it or not,” said Justin Hudnall, executive director of “So Say We All,” a San Diego-based non-profit arts and literature collective. Though it was not his intention, Hudnall says that all of the factors in his stories and plays in college were based on his interpretation of the world, which up until those years had mostly come from growing up in San Diego’s East County. After graduating, Hudnall returned to San Diego in 2008 and created “So Say We All,” which happened to draw a great deal of artists from the region. Mindy Solis, a Grossmont See Authors, page 2
Weekly at sdcitytimes.com
Over $770,000 stolen from community colleges
By Benny A. McFadden City Times
Benjamin Stanford(right), known by his stage name as Dub FX, loops beat after beat over each other to create his unqiue sound during a packed performance at 4th and B. Troy Orem, City Times
On Sept. 18, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) issued a press release detailing an alleged financial aid fraud scam that targeted numerous colleges in California including San Diego City College. U.S. v. Stacey Kinyada Lee et al, being prosecuted by U.S. Attorney Kirk Sherriff, is the alleged fraud case that involves City. There are six other cases the OIG is prosecuting that occurred on other college campuses that were supposedly operating similarly to the one at City. Lynn Neault, vice chancellor of student services for the San Diego Community College District, told City Times that the district has reported numerous suspect financial aid claims to OIG over the years but this is the first one she knows of that
led to federal indictments. According to Neault, the district does routine monthly checks of financial aid applications and whenever there appears to be suspicious activity, the district notifies OIG. Suspicious activity could include anything from more than one person using the same email or home address on their applications to different people’s applications having the same social security number listed on them. According to Neault, in the recent case OIG is now prosecuting, ringleaders of the alleged scam used stolen identities of severely disabled people who were not students to enroll in online courses and collect financial aid payments. By using stolen identities of disabled people, the alleged ringleaders of this scam hoped to avoid having to physically come in to City’s financial aid office to present identification. Neault also told City Times that alleged ringleaders of this kind of scam will access online classes for a See Fraud, page 2
CAMPUS CLUBS
City club earns charter City’s Veterans for Peace first college chapter in the nation By Adam Burkhart City Times The San Diego City College student veterans club was given a charter by the Veterans for Peace organization on Sept. 27, making it the
first chapter of Veterans for Peace on a college campus. The official charter came in a mailed envelope at the last minute during the grand opening of the Veterans Services Center on campus. Barry Ladendorf, president of San Diego Veterans for Peace Chapter 91, said that the process to charter the club was hastened to coincide with the opening of the center. “It went through pretty
fast in the end,” Ladendorf said. “We went to work and got the national board members all to send in a mail vote.” Gene Marx, secretary of the VFP national board of directors, said he became aware of the campus organization over a year ago when the efforts of its co-founder and past-president Maurice Martin were noticed by a VFP staffer, via a link in an email. (Left to right) David Barrows, Jack Doxey, Barr y Ladendorf, members of San Diego Veterans for peace along with Captain Olan of the Retired Senior Volunteer Patrol See Veterans, page 2 admire the new veterans facilities. Troy Orem, City Times
MAYOR’S RACE Who is the right fit for San Diego? PAGE 6
HOLIDAY HELP Food pantry provides for the hungry PAGE 3
INDEX
Calendar................. 2 Arts........................ 5 Opinion................... 6 Sports..................... 8