News & Commentary

http://soc.li/qZO0jxL When Disneyland first opened to the public on a sweltering July day in 1955, the city of Anaheim wasn't much more than an orange grove. It had all of 15,000 residents and was known mostly for its Halloween parade.

by John Fensterwald While insisting that it did nothing wrong, a Central Valley school district has quickly settled a lawsuit filed by several chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of a half-dozen parents and teachers who charged that the district had adopted a destructive program for English learners, which the state, in turn, failed to monitor.

By Peter Bibring, Senior Staff Attorney Yesterday, a district court judge threw out claims brought by members of Southern California’s Muslim community that the FBI undertook a massive operation to surveil them on the basis of their religion. In tossing these claims from the suit, which was filed by the ACLU of Southern California, the Council on Islamic American Relations (CAIR) and the law firm Hadsell Stormer Richardson & Renick LLP, the court didn’t say that the FBI had not engaged in the alleged surveillance, or that it had indeed complied with the First Amendment. Instead, the court relied on the government’s invocation of the “state secrets” privilege, saying that even trying to determine whether the FBI had violated the Constitution might risk disclosure of information that could harm national security.

By Mark Rosenbaum, Chief Counsel Five times a day, Princess Jasmine escapes the pressures of the royal palace to walk through the city streets under the cover of a modest headscarf. Or at least that's what happens in Aladdin: A Musical Spectacular, the live show that performs five times every day in front of hundreds in Disney's California Adventure theme park in Anaheim. Aladdin's broad humor and characters are geared toward young children, but everybody enjoys the show.

At 10:30 this morning, the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California and the law offices of Hadsell Stormer Richardson & Renick are scheduled to announce "a lawsuit against a major media and entertainment company on behalf of a Muslim former employee, fired for wearing the hijab headscarf at work."

KTLA: A Muslim woman who worked as a hostess at a Disneyland restaurant is suing Disney, claiming the company wouldn't let her appear in front of guests while wearing her headscarf.

Los Angeles Times: By George Skelton Legislation and an ACLU lawsuit tackle the increasing use of fees at public schools, a trend that is unfair to low-income students and increases disparities. SACRAMENTO — Not every proposed law is historic or sweeping. Some merely are pretty good ideas — perhaps even important for a low-income kid.

By Hector Villagra, Executive Director Say my five-year-old decides she needs to grab something from a high cupboard. So she rolls the computer desk chair up to the counter, stands on the chair, and stretches every nerve to reach as high and far as she possibly can -- and falls, scared but unhurt, in a heap on the kitchen floor. She says she knows she messed up, but doesn't want to talk about what happened. I smile at her cleverness, but I say no, we need to talk about it. That's because I want to understand her thought process and make sure she truly understands her missteps, in the hopes that she won't repeat them.

Anaheim community leaders appealed on Tuesday to the City Council to address the issue of Latino representation on the council in the wake of two fatal police shootings that have sparked protests and clashes with police that have caught national attention.