The Digest

CSUN Names New President The California State Board of Trustees named Jolene Koester as the new president of Cal State Northridge. Koester, who has spent her entire administrative career at Cal State Sacramento, will officially take the post in June. Koester, 51, was one of two finalists for the position. She is currently provost and vice president for academic affairs at Cal State Sacramento, a position she has held since 1993. She began her career there in 1983 as a professor of communication studies. She is known for building strong relationships between faculty and administrators. She is a national expert on intercultural communication and has written many academic books and articles. Koester replaces Blenda Wilson, who left CSUN in June to head a Massachusetts education foundation. NetZero to Expand NetZero, a national provider of free Internet access and e-mail, signed an agreement to acquire Aim TV Inc. for about $24.5 million in stock, an acquisition that will give NetZero the ability to broadcast television commercials over its Internet service. AimTV has developed a patent-pending technology to enable advertisers to run broadcast-quality television commercials over narrowband connections. “NetZero will take what essentially has been dead space on the user’s screen during a typical Internet dial-up process and will turn it into a dynamic environment,” said Mark R. Goldston, chairman and chief executive of Westlake Village-based NetZero. L.A. Most Congested, Still Once again, the Los Angeles metropolitan area was deemed as having the worst traffic congestion in America, according to an annual study of traffic patterns done by the Texas Transportation Institute. That makes it 15 years in a row. Researchers, using a “travel rate index” based on 1997 traffic flows, calculated that it took motorists in Los Angeles, Orange and Ventura counties 50 percent longer to complete a trip during rush hour than it did to make the same trip during off-peak hours. As a result, motorists in the Los Angeles area are losing 82 hours a year in delays maybe more than they get in vacation time, according to the study. If there is any good news in the study, it’s that traffic congestion in the L.A. area has leveled off in recent years. The 82 hours that motorists lost to traffic during 1997 is only slightly more than the 79 hours lost in 1990. Secession Study Funding Approved The L.A. City Council approved $225,000 in funding for its portion of a study on San Fernando Valley secession. State and L.A. County funding had already been allocated for the $2.2 million study, which is to be conducted by the Local Agency Formation Commission. The study is required by state law since Valley VOTE, a group pushing secession, collected enough voter signatures to trigger a study of the issue. If the study outcome shows that secession would not financially harm either part of Los Angeles if split, then the secession issue would be placed on a ballot as early as 2002. Smoking Ad Bans Blocked A federal appeals court ruled that state and local governments like the city of L.A. cannot prohibit outdoor tobacco advertising. The ruling has no direct impact on the massive 1998 national tobacco settlement, in which the nation’s major cigarette companies agreed to halt most outdoor advertising, including billboards. It does, however, affect local laws, including a city ordinance in Los Angeles that prohibits retailers from posting billboards or other outdoor advertising. The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals said such bans are illegal because they are preempted by a 1965 federal law regulating cigarette advertising and labeling. HMOs Hit With Lawsuit A group of attorneys led by anti-tobacco lawyer Richard Scruggs filed a national lawsuit seeking class-action status against five health maintenance organizations, accusing them of failing to provide promised care. The defendants are some of the nation’s largest HMO operators, including Foundation Health Systems Inc. of Woodland Hills and PacifiCare Health Systems Inc. of Santa Ana. The lawsuit, filed in Mississippi, seeks compensatory damages and an injunction preventing the defendants from pursuing the “fraudulent and extortionate policies and practices” cited in the complaint. It follows a similar class-action complaint filed against Aetna Inc. earlier this year. Parking Fines Refunded The city of Los Angeles has refunded $750,000 in recent months to motorists who were improperly issued tickets based on faulty parking meters. Transportation Department head Frances Banerjee told the City Council that the 24,000 refunds take care of all legitimate appeals filed by motorists after new parking meters installed two years ago had widespread problems. At the same meeting in which Banerjee was confirmed as head of the agency, she assured council members that the parking meters have been fixed. Landfill Vote Delayed A vote by the L.A. City Council on whether to reopen Sunshine Landfill in Granada Hills was postponed until Dec. 8 so that council members can review alternative dump sites. The council was expected to approve reopening of the dump after placing a series of operating restrictions on it. L.A. Mayor Richard Riordan has said he will not oppose the reopening. But the proposal has attracted criticism from neighbors living near the landfill who complain that reopening the dump would lead to increased traffic and health concerns. The 394-acre dump, operated by Browning Ferris Industries, was closed by the city in 1991, but BFI has continued to operate the county portion of the landfill. The council has moved forward a measure that would turn Sunshine into a 55 million-ton dump over the next 26 years. Proponents of Sunshine have argued that it would cost the city millions more to haul garbage to alternative sites outside L.A. County. BFI has spent $450,000 lobbying the council on the issue. Rocketdyne Report Issued A preliminary report conducted by federal health officials shows no evidence has been found that rocket testing by the Boeing Co.’s Rocketdyne Division at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory resulted in contamination to the ground or harmed residents in the Chatsworth and Simi Valley area surrounding the facility. The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry will conduct further research before Boeing is exonerated, but so far there is no link between the Cold War testing and cancer reported by neighbors. A full report is expected to be issued in December. Meanwhile, state and federal lawmakers have earmarked funds for further studies of the area and its effects on public health. The state has allotted $150,000 for a preliminary study and federal lawmakers have promised $500,000 to study possible radiation or chemical exposure of nearby residents.