5 Plusses Abound in a Sizeup of Culver City’s Interim Super

Ari L. NoonanNews

She is an interesting selection for Interim Superintendent of the Culver City School District because in a profession where blandness frequently is honored, she is a woman of opinion. Dr. Diane Fiello is by no means an opinionated woman, though, a crucial distinction. But she thinks independently. She also speaks for herself. Approaching her first quarter-century as an educator, Ms. Fiello efficiently combines the challenge of working effectively within a large and dense system with being firmly seated atop a foundation of settled judgments. With Dr. Laura McGaughey having ridden off into the retirement sunset — definitely not for keeps, say friends — there is a fresh new environment in the Superintendent’s ground-floor office at District Headquarters. Sort of the way your refrigerator smells after it is cleaned out. The old food, like the old Superintendent, was not necessarily stale, but if you were trying to impress a visitor, the old food was not the first you would choose. For at least five reasons, Ms. Fiello deserves to be treated as if this were a honeymoon.

• Ostensibly, the appointment is only for an estimated 120 days, until Nov. 1. Meanwhile, a headhunting firm is scouring America, from the fever swamps of Florida to rain-drenched Oregon, to see who wants to be a Superintendent in Culver City.

• She is smart. This is the main reason the rhythms and dynamics emanating from the Superintendent’s office have sharply changed. She brings balance, moderation, maturation, stability, enthusiasm, creativity — or, to say it differently, gravitas — and confidence to her position.

From the Inside, His Mourning Comrades Remember Chuck Baird

Ari L. NoonanNews


Rocked by the sudden killing of their comrade Chuck Baird in a motorcycle crash on Sunday evening, members of the Culver City Fire Dept. reflected this afternoon on the striking uniqueness of their fire family and how prominently Mr. Baird fit into it. For the solemnity of the occasion, the unflawed quietude surrounding Fire Station # 1, Downtown, seemed appropriate. The perhaps under-appreciated culture of fire departments everywhere is that the firefighters — unlike other professions — are together all day and all night, working round-the-clock schedules, consecutive days at a time. When the 44-year-old Mr. Baird died shortly afterward from injuries suffered when his motorcycle crashed, the loss slammed separately and crushingly into each then member of the fire family. “Everybody has been talking about Chuck, obviously,” said firefighter/paramedic Jorge Kurowski, an 18-year veteran. “Chuck, without a doubt, was an all-in type of person. He jumped in with both feet, regardless of the activity. If somebody was organizing an event, Chuck spared no expense in going out to get everything that was needed and then made it happen. I don’t care if we were going fishing, the guys were going motorcycle riding (a passion of his) or planning a game of golf. Even when he made a commitment to speak Spanish, he went all-in. He was always all-in, all the time. You could count on him. You didn’t have to call him to see if he had reserved a spot for us.”

Fire Victim ‘Extremely Lucky’

Ari L. NoonanNews

Farewell Summer Concert Thursday (See below)

Suffering from smoke inhalation, Barry Leigh of Culver City remains hospitalized this afternoon after a fire early on Sunday morning destroyed his mobile home in Culver City Terrace. A spokesperson at Brotman Medical Center said Mr. Leigh was “doing all right, but I don’t know when he will be released.” After surveying the mobile home that had been reduced to rubble, Fire Investigator Mike McCormick told thefrontpageonline.com that “Mr. Leigh was extremely lucky to get out alive.” One report was that a refrigerator shorted out and sparked the destructive fire. “That has not been ruled in or ruled out,” Mr. McCormick said. The cause, he added, remains under investigation. Evidence was scarce because the mobile home was “just a pile of rubble.” The fire “probably” will be ruled accidental, Mr. McCormick said. The Fire Dept. was called at 5:36 a.m. on Sunday. Arriving two minutes later, para-medics found Mr. Leigh in bed in a bedroom at the rear. Two mobile homes nearby in the Culver City Terrace park sustained damage. Two rooms in Frances Spencer’s home were damaged enough to force her out until repairs are made. Leonard Lebock’s home had minor external damage, to latticework.

Poor Blacks — in the Sentinel Audience

Ari L. NoonanSports

For those of us who look for luminous humor wherever we can find it, the unintentionally funny Los Angeles Sentinel, the black newspaper for our community, is a mandatory waystation. Every Thursday, the confused reporters of the once-respectable Sentinel dare their readers to de-muddify what in the world they are talking about. They cover important news. But by failing to understand the people they are interviewing or the topics they are writing about, the reporters — hopefully inadvertently — do a disservice to their news-starved readers by babbling incoherently. Reflection, comprehension and context, the three most important underpinnings of a news story, are missing from the Sentinel’s community reporting. This robs readers of the opportunity to render their own judgments because they have not been given the tools to decide. The banner headline in the current edition screams for attention, “Blacks Cry Foul on School Plan.” Unavoidably tantalizing. What is the objectionable plan? Why is the black community upset? We never really find out. Sometimes the Sentinel feels like a Jewish newspaper published by anti-Semites. What follows the nifty headline is a convoluted story by the wretchedly baffled Assistant Managing Editor, one Yussuf J. Simmonds. Mr. Simmonds may be a lovely person. But he never gave an indication in his 26-inch story that he had even a remote grasp of what he was talking about.

A Culver City Tragedy — Paramedic Is Killed

Ari L. NoonanNews

Chuck Baird, a popular 12-year veteran of the Culver City Fire Dept., was killed last night about 9 o’clock near his Culver City home when the motorcycle he was riding was involved in a single-vehicle crash. Off-duty at the time, he was 44 years old. Shocked para-medic colleagues transported their friend to the UCLA Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead of his injuries. Mr. Baird had served as a para-medic since 1997. In the early hours following the accident, details were sketchy surrounding the collision. One of the unanswered questions was determining the cause of the crash. Handling a motorcycle was one of Mr. Baird’s areas of expertise. A friend of the family said Mr. Baird “was an avid motorcycle rider.” He even competed in off-road events. Physically, he prided himself on being superbly conditioned. Fellow firefighters described the 6-foot-3 Mr. Baird as a strapping physical fitness buff. He was so devoted to razor-sharp fitness, said Fire Capt. Bill Bischoff, that “on Chuck’s days off, he worked out at the station.”

The Unusual Life of a Good Man

Ari L. NoonanSports

After the Sabbath ended on Saturday evening, my wife and I wandered over, not idly, to the Third Street Promenade. We were in a mood to mingle with the hordes of fascinating grownup children who must have had unusual parents to turn out the way they have. Our two-tiered Promenade agenda was both pragmatic (buying fixtures for our home) and social (shmoozing with a valued friend). Obviously I have not known my friend Jerry Rubin, one of Santa Monica’s most recognizable personalities, very long. Over these many years, I have only seen him in long trousers one time, at our wedding. Conveniently, we were married not far from where Mr. Rubin and his wife Marissa live. He had a chance to dash home and change as soon as the service was over. Mr. Rubin is one of the two or three most engaging human beings I ever have met. Passion would be his middle name if it weren’t already “Peace Activist.”

Murray Is No Model for Young Boys

Ari L. NoonanSports

If you bottled the arrogance that state Sen. Kevin Murray (D-Culver City) has assimilated during his 12 years in Sacramento, you could give each of your 100 closest friends a wine cellar full of hubris for his birthday. Operating as if he were morally illiterate, Mr. Murray haughtily prances through Sacramento and through his Greater Culver City district as if his bullet-proof vest covered his entire body. To frame it differently, if Mr. Murray were as tidy on the inside as he is externally, you would need a lifetime supply of brooms, shovels and disinfectant to clean up the handsome but ethically ugly gentleman. If you must shake hands, bring thick, disposable gloves — and a mask so you don’t have to witness the odious act you are committing. No matter how slug-like, how thuggish his abominable behavior is these first days of the State Legislature’s vacation, you have to believe his mother raised him with better morals than he routinely displays. The indictment against this antithesis of a role model is as lengthy as his record for rectitude is regrettably brief. It is appropriate on Labor Day to crystallize the putrid portrait of this prominent picklepussed passenger on the personal legislative pork barrel train. In his cheaper-by-the-dozen years, Mr. Murray has learned to play the backstage legislative game better than Babe Ruth ever mastered baseball.

What School Board-City Council Tension?

Ari L. NoonanSports

On the afternoon before the start of the school term, a question a senior City Councilman was the apparent rivalry in Culver City between the City Council and the School Board for political supremacy, or at least parity. “I don’t believe there is a rivalry,” said Steve Rose, in his seventh year on the City Council. “We each have two distinct purposes. The School District is there t educate the young people of the city, and to do some adult school education, too. City Hall is there to maintain the streets, to provide the protection of police and fire and the parks.” Speaking to thefrontpageonline.com 10 days after walking out on the Opening Ceremonies for Fiesta La Ballona because the Mayor asked the President of the School Word to deliver an unscripted greeting, Mr. Rose said that if there is tension, he knows the source. “Some people on the Council or the School Board try to create tension,” he said. “But the vast majority of both groups get along very amicably.”

A Guide for the Perplexed (Gentile)

Ari L. NoonanNews

Rosa Ehrenreich Brooks is a far left weekly op-ed columnist for the Los Angeles Times who has made a brief but noticed career out of routinely charging victim status. In researching the career of the radical Ms. Brooks since she received her law degree 10 years ago, I could not find a record of one thing she likes about America. As of this month, she is the newest member of the law faculty at Georgetown, one of America’s extreme left-wing universities. In the recent past, Ms. Brooks has been a paid consultant to three far left organizations, George Soros’s Open Society Institute and two selectively critical Jew-hating groups, Human Rights Watch and  Amnesty International. All three are cousins by incestuous marriage to the equally America-loathing American Civil Liberties Union. For an American, I would think the opening portion of the mission statement of the Open Society Institute would be a jaw-dropper: “An open society is a society based on the recognition that nobody has a monopoly on truth.” There is, therefore, no universal right or wrong. Your truth is yours and mine is mine. Armed with just that speck of information, what follows should not surprise you. I cannot say whether Ms. Brooks was sincere when she donned the raiment of a naive Gentile for this morning’s essay in the Times, but I can say that she told untruths and gross distortions. Ms. Brooks is vexed and perplexed by Jewish defenders of Israel for criticizing a fellow Jew who condemned Israel’s conduct during the recent Middle East War. Turning her palms skyward, the puzzled Ms. Brooks pleaded forlornly. How can you turn on Ken Roth, she asked, when he is one of you? The executive director of Human Rights Watch, who periodically reports to the public, told lies about Israel’s conduct of the war, equating its tactics with Hezbollah’s. Ms. Brooks was angry and baffled that Jews, in response, criticized Mr. Roth, one of my favorite Jewishly useless Jews.

Mayor Commits a Holdup, and No One Objects

Ari L. NoonanSports


A good Republican scarcely can afford to go to sleep these troublesome late summer nights with any assurance that his bedding will be intact come the dawn. Especially if he is a middle-aged white male, he loses ground every night. Prominent Democrats have taken to sleeping during the daylight hours. This allows them to be alert after midnight when they can steal from middle-aged white males and hand over their ill-gotten booty to women and minorities, known collectively as “victims,” America’s hottest cottage industry. The latest coup of the year was pulled off yesterday by the Latino Fooler-in-Chief of Los Angeles, Mayor Wrong.