![](./pubData/source/images/pages/page4.jpg)
Page 4 January 4, 2018 EL SEGUNDO HERALD
Politically Speaking
One Man’s Opinion Another Man’s Opinion
Trump a Benefit to
Real Reporting
Year in Review from front page
assessed value increase in all of LA County.
And during earlier talks with LAX, the City
argued for and secured $6 million towards the
residential sound insulation (RSI) program.
Last year, local residents came to City Council
meetings to relay their frustrations about parking,
littering and other negative impacts from
visitors to Clutter’s Park as well as to complain
about excessive construction noise from the
nearby DR Horton residential development
at the former school site on Imperial Avenue.
Discussions took place with airport officials
on the lingering issue of employees leaving
their cars on El Segundo streets. Then just
before the holidays, the Council heard from
a group of homeowners on the 1100 block
of Acacia who signed a petition calling for
a street closure due to safety issues resulting
from the large crowds attending Candy Cane
Lane just one block over. Police Chief Bill
Whalen instituted part-time closures and
increased the uniformed presence during the
popular two-week holiday event as a test-run
to gauge the effects on adjacent blocks and to
help determine a course for next year.
Staying on the topic of residential impacts,
discussion of the formerly taboo idea of
housing east of Sepulveda Boulevard began
last year--with the Economic Development
Advisory Council (EDAC) currently researching
the matter and a potential Metro grant
on the way to fund an additional study for
possible work/live complexes near the train
stations. Councilmember Carol Pirsztuk hoped
to place a second measure on the April 10
ballot requiring local voter approval for any
By Cristian Vasquez
Thanks in part to the 24-hour news cycle
and propaganda networks such as Fox News
and MSNBC disguised as news outlets,
President Trump was able to make it to the
White House. While the 2016 Presidential
campaign highlighted the evident dismissal
of serious news reporting by most Americans,
the Trump presidency is having the opposite
effect. Whether it be the desire to take down
the sitting President or the will To defend
him, investigative reporting is receiving more
attention by the mainstream media outlets
(Fox News included even if to debunk these
reports). Newspapers are again being looked
to for reliable information because of the
quality of their reporting.
From the Russian investigations to Roy
Moore’s pedophile-tendencies tainted past,
it has been investigative reporters from
different newspapers that have given a new
life and meaning to the mundane news
cycle. Of course these serious reports will
be used by one network as “the nail in the
coffin” against the Trump Administration
and his army of evil destroying America.
Meanwhile, the other network will dismiss
them as nothing more than a witch
hunt funded by Soros and remind us that
Hillary somehow still matters. Regardless
of the freak show on television, people are
finally paying attention to newspapers and
the investigative pieces that come from
said sources.
The reason this trend is refreshing isn’t
based on the slight upswing in newspaper
subscriptions, but rather that we are finally
getting solid reporting. It is this type of
reporting we, as a nation, will need when
Special Counsel Robert Mueller finishes his
probe into the Russian interference case. We
can’t say with certainty how the propaganda
machines MSNBC and Fox News will present
the findings of Mueller’s investigation,
but we have a pretty good idea. However,
for full details and accuracy we’re going to
have to rely on print journalism. Yes, the
Internet can provide us up-to-the-minute
information, but the rabbit hole of absurdity,
lies and distortion that has become the Web
is a nightmare.
Don’t forget it was newspapers that broke
the Pentagon Papers and Watergate--not
television, not radio. While we can criticize
reporters, columnists or entire newspapers
for displaying bias, their record for accuracy
when printing investigative pieces is strong.
Furthermore, they are more effective than
what we see on cable news.
We don’t know what Mueller will find.
Maybe there was no collusion between
Trump’s campaign and the Russians, but the
Russians interfered in our election on their
own. That possibility is more than enough
of a reason for an investigation. We don’t
know what journalists will find when they
dig--and as of late, there have been some
interesting discoveries. Maybe investigative
reporting is up because journalism became
complacent during the Obama years. Maybe
journalists are fueled by the desire to destroy
or topple President Trump. Or maybe we as
media consumers are simply paying attention
to more reliable sources. •
Triumphant Trump Continues to
Confound Critics, Skeptics, CNN
By Duane Plank
When billionaire business mogul Donald
Trump announced his candidacy for the presidency
on June 16, 2015, the wheeler-dealer/
turned reality television star knew his candidacy
was considered a dark-horse stab at best by
political pundits… and as a pathetic joke, by
many of those paid very handsomely to espouse
their view points on the body politic.
Trump joined a field of Republican presidential
wannabees that was bursting at the seams, featuring
nearly 20 candidates. While Trump had
the name recognition garnered from his success
in the boardroom, and his star turn on the popular
The Apprentice, he had no political gravitas.
He was considered an entitled tycoon who
would burn wads of his own Benjamins attempting
to nab the nomination and then flame
out/drop out to return to constructing behemoth
edifices, appear on TV and hobnob with Miss
America contestants.
The Republican field in the spring and summer
of 2016 included Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, Ted
Cruz, Ben Carson, John Kasich, Chris Christie
and Rick Perry--all experienced politicians who
knew how to play the game inside and outside
the Washington, D.C. beltway. There were so
many pols crowding the field that the initial
debates had to be held in two sessions, with the
men (and woman, remember Carly Fiorina?)
who were polling the highest receiving a spot
in the main debate, while the candidates who
were invisible in the polls (think Jim Gilmore)
were banished to the kids’ table and forced to
take part in the “JV debates.”
Trump’s candidacy wasn’t given the proverbial
“snowball chance in hell” initially by the
entrenched media-ites. There may have been
a few on the Fox News Channel who championed
Trump, but who would fathom that the
Republican Party establishment would allow
such a political neophyte to somehow wrangle
the nomination from one-time frontrunner and
political royalty Jeb Bush?
Surely the GOP would not commit electoral
college suicide and send an overmatched
Trump out to confront Queen Hillary and her
well-honed cadre of hatchet-men and women
in the general election, which would surely
devolve into an apocalyptic meltdown for the
party and result in catastrophic “down-theticket”
losses—meaning the country would be
looking at another eight years of backpedaling
under Clinton.
And that is when it started. The Republican
establishment underestimated Trump. The media
paid him little positive heed. The Dems underestimated
Trump so much so that they didn’t
even prop Hillary up and campaign in key states
she lost when she was electorally steamrolled
as Americans watched the results confound the
so-called experts as the polls closed on that
fateful Tuesday evening in November 2016.
When the final votes were tallied, Trump
had an electoral landslide--and certain washedup,
big-mouth Libs (think Madonna), who
had threatened to leave the country should
Trump triumph, back-pedaled, saying they
were “just kidding.”
Two weeks after Trump’s big tax win, the
moral of the story is: Love Trump, hate Trump,
but don’t underestimate the man. He has bamboozled
a lot of people more than once. Why
should 2018 be any different? •
housing development east of Sepulveda, with
the argument that the decision on a change of
this magnitude should rest with the residents.
Her effort fell short, with only Dugan in support.
And also regarding Sepulveda, the City
in April took steps to rename the El Segundo
portion of the street Pacific Coast Highway in
hopes of an economic development boost—and
was at year’s end still waiting for final Caltrans
approvals to officially complete the change.
It was also an eventful year for local education,
as El Segundo Unified School District
achieved the top high school graduation rate in
the region with 98.9 percent of seniors earning
diplomas. The District also established a $16
million legacy fund from the former Imperial
school site sale to fund future technology and
deferred maintenance projects. The El Segundo
School Board (which saw Emilee Layne appointed
as its President in December, following
Bill Watkins) allocated monies to improve
technology infrastructure and new facility
projects at four campuses. Both the Center and
Richmond schools were designated as California
Gold Ribbon Schools. El Segundo Middle
School earned Gold Ribbon status as well as
recognition as an Apple Distinguished School
for the first time for innovation, leadership and
excellence. El Segundo High was reauthorized
as an Apple Distinguished School. Both that
campus and Arena High earned six-year Western
Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC)
accreditations. Several personnel received
major recognitions: Renee Hoover (Sweet 16
list for LA County Teacher of the Year), Sean
Brandlin (finalist for Educator of the Year by
the California League of Schools Region 8),
Marisa Janicek (Association of California
School Administrators Administrator of the
Year for Region 14) and Superintendent Dr.
Melissa Moore (one of 500 superintendents
selected out of 13,500 districts for a Leading
Educator scholarship to attend the Global
Silicon Valley Summit).
Meanwhile, the El Segundo Education Foundation
set a $1.5 million grant goal for the
2017/18 school year (up $200,000 from 2016/17)
and started the campaign with a fall pledge
drive to fund programs at the various District
campuses. The organization held successful
fundraisers during the year, including the Ed!
Gala, Ladies Night Out, and Guys Night Out.
The El Segundo PTA’s Run For Education
continued to be another successful fundraiser.
November 8 saw the grand opening of the
new Wiseburn High School in El Segundo on
Douglas Street after 27 months of construction.
The world-class, 210,000-square foot facility
now houses the students from the three Da Vinci
charter high schools (named this year as one of
the “Top 75” charter networks in the nation). A
December 9 dedication ceremony drew more
than 2,000 attendees. In April, the Association
of California School Administrators honored
Juan Cabrillo Elementary School Principal
Margaret Lynch as Elementary Principal of the
Year for the entire state of California. Wiseburn
Unified School District also commenced the
search for a new superintendent with the announced
retirement of Dr. Tom Johnstone at
the end of the 2017/18 school year.
The new, state-of-the-art El Segundo Aquatics
Center is slated to open this summer at
the Wiseburn High site. In mid-December, the
City and El Segundo Unified reached a tentative
agreement on the latter’s future use of the
facility—with an initial 10-year term and provisions
for four additional renewals of the same
length. Under the arrangement, El Segundo
Unified agreed to pay the City $400,000 towards
equipment purchases at the Aquatics Center,
and up to $1 million for renovations of The
Plunge (a number based on the 24 percent
school usage at the Urho Saari Swim Stadium). •
El Segundo Herald* • Manhattan Beach Sun
Hawthorne Press Tribune* • Torrance Tribune*
Inglewood Daily News* • Lawndale News*
EL SEGUNDO OFFICE • 500 Center St. • El Segundo • CA • 90245
Phone: (310) 322-1830 • Fax: (310) 322-2787 • www.heraldpublications.com
*Our papers are legally recognized and adjudicated newspapers of general circulation
Staff and Departments
Editor-in-Chief: Heidi Maerker
Classifieds: Clara Nilles • class@heraldpublications.com
DBA: Clara Nilles • dba@heraldpublications.com • For Fictitious Business Name (DBAs) filings
Graphic Design: Michael Gonzales • ads@heraldpublications.com
Legals: Debbie Waite • legalnotices@heraldpublications.com
Letters to the Editor: letters@heraldpublications.com
Marketing: Debbie Waite • marketing@heraldpublications.com
Press Releases: pr@heraldpublications.com
For press releases, Herald In travel photos and general photos
Real Estate: graphics@heraldpublications.com • For new realtors, contracts, ads
Website contact: web@heraldpublications.com
For comments or announcements (weddings, engagements, obituaries)
Contributing Graphic Artists: Patty Grau, Matt Lopez
Contributing Writers: Haleemon Anderson, Derrick Deane,TerriAnn Ferren, Greg McMullin, Duane Plank,
Adam Serrao, Brian Simon, Cristian Vasquez