MVUSD BOARD TRUSTEE IS CONVICTED

Origianlly Published in the Riverside Press Enterprise
Written by Lora Hines

Moreno Valley school board member Mike Rios was convicted Friday, Feb. 8, of pimping, pandering and insurance fraud. Jurors found Rios, 42, not guilty on one rape charge. They hung on a second rape charge and one pandering charge. During the trial, Rios cried and engaged in sharp exchanges with the prosecutor. Jurors got the case Thursday.

State law says Rios’ school board seat will not become vacant until his sentencing on March 8.

John Hall, spokesman for the Riverside County district attorney’s office, said it was unclear whether Rios would be retried on the two charges on which the jury hung.

Rios was taken into custody following his conviction. His bail was revoked. He faces up to 33 years in prison during sentencing

Deputy Riverside County Public Defender Michael Micallef couldn’t be reached for comment Friday following Rios’ conviction

Moreno Valley Unified School District board president Cleveland Johnson said he’s hopeful Rios’ conviction will allow the school district to move forward and focus on the work of its students and teachers. 

“There are a lot of good things going on in Moreno Valley,” said Johnson, who cited recent state Golden Bell awards for Hidden Springs Elementary and Valley View High schools. “We want to get this behind us.”

Johnson said the board has had to operate under the premise that Rios was innocent. However, he said he became concerned after it was disclosed in court that Rios said he ran a private dancing/stripping business. Johnson said he began thinking about what the board could do if Rios was acquitted.“There’s nothing we could have done prior to today,” Johnson said. “This put a whole new light on everything.” 

Rios had been free and continued to attend school board meetings. Elected in 2010, Rios remains a member of the school board, which could not oust him. He refused to resign.Superintendent Judy White said the board at its Tuesday, Feb. 12, meeting will discuss its next steps regarding Rios’ seat. In a written statement, she said the district remains focused on “providing the best education possible for all of our students.” 

Within 60 days of a vacancy, the board must make a provisional appointment or order an election, she said. “We ask for patience as the board, the district and the community work through this long and difficult process together,” White said. 

Rios, who faced multiple charges of pimping and pandering, plus two counts of rape and six counts of insurance fraud, denied he was a pimp, procurer and rapist. He insisted on the witness stand that he did nothing illegal. Rios called “ridiculous” the charges that he ran a prostitution ring out of his home, worked to get more women to join the operation, raped two of the prostitutes involved in it and committed insurance fraud by allegedly making false claims stemming from a December 2011 vehicle accident.

His arrest last April in the pimping case resulted from the investigation into a separate attempted murder case in which Rios is accused of shooting at two men who followed him to his house after they got into an argument at a Moreno Valley bar in February 2012. Those charges still are pending. He has also pleaded not guilty in that case, and has steadfastly insisted that all of the charges were fabricated to kill his political career. 

City political activists, residents and school employees fell short of collecting enough (10,000) signatures to place a vote calling for Rios’ recall on the Nov. 6, 2012, ballot.

After Rios’ arrests, the school board censured him, meaning it issued a severe statement of disapproval. It also changed its bylaws, limiting access to schools and school activities for board members who are charged with crimes, including those that involve children.

Moreno Valley School Board Trustee Mike Rios, to Take the Stand?

by mvgordie

The decision for Mr. Rios to take the stand in his defense Wednesday in his Pimping, Pandering, Rape and Insurance Fraud case is either a sign of desperation on the part of the defense, or the inability of the Public Defender to control the ego and narcissistic behavior and desires of his client.

For Mr. Rios to testify in his own defense is a dangerous move on their part as it would open Mike Rios up to cross examination and challenges of his credibility as a witness.

Rios who is well known for his blatant outright lies to the public could have those prior statements used against him by the Deputy District Attorney to show that Mr. Rios is someone who’s statements and overall credibility have proven to show him as a habitual liar, and as such his testimony in the trail should be question by the jury.

In cross examination of Rios, the prosecutor would be free to bring in prior unrelated statements (not related to this case) made by Rios as a showing of his lack of truthfulness, this is allowed as a challenge to the witness’s credibility.

As is well known Mr. Rios has in the past claimed to have been an elected member of the Moreno Valley City Council, this was done for him to gain news coverage for himself in is then upcoming bid for a seat upon the MVUSD Board. This claim was also used to gain entry and trust of the family of the late Norma Lopez, who as soon as they found out he was not who he had claimed to asked him to leave their, a request he refused and had to be subsequently removed by member of the Moreno Valley Police department.

Mr. Rios also used the same claim of being a City Council member with a local business owner, who later boasted on Facebook about how he and “Councilman Rios,” were to be having a news conference regarding the Norma Lopez disappearance.

There is also the claims he made during his 2008, and 2010 campaigns, and several times during the years in between of his owning his own investigation company which involved the investigations into fraud and embezzlement, and how as such he put “white collar criminals in jail,” however this was untrue, as Mr. Rios held no such license as an investigator (a requirement under California law) nor was he in the employee of any firm or business which was licensed as an investigation company, of which he could operate under their license.

Mr. Rios has also stated his daughter from his first marriage was accepted to Harvard University, prior to her graduation from high school, however this too was a mere fabrication on Rios’ part, his daughter did however go on to go to college, but in Long Beach, CA…

We also have the shooting event for which he is to stand trial for starting February 8^th, in which his first account to the police (by way of 911 as well as to the responding officers) he was the one who was shot at. His first account was that he was rushed at his front door of his home, where one of the two individuals (who later became the true victims) pulled out a firearm and opened fire on him.

This same statement of the was used by Mr. Rios that same morning in early February of 2012, at the Moreno Valley Unified School District offices, where Mr. Rios went to seek protection at the expense of the taxpayer, a request which was denied.

Mr. Rios even alleged that Gordon Tucker, also known as mvgordie, was somehow involved in the shooting attack on him in front of his home. However as it was later discovered through the investigation, and later admittance, of Mike Rios, there was no such attack on him, and that he himself used a firearm to shoot at the two individuals who were sitting in a car on the street near his home.

There are many other others issues surround Mr. Rios and his inability to tell the truth, that if the prosecutor’s office were to wish to use them, they could, and Mr., Rios’ desire to show his conman skills from the witness stand gives them that open opportunity.

One more issues is Mr. Rios’ narcissistic personality disorder, coupled with his off the wall beliefs in self-ordained God like powers, could cause Rios to go off on the stand in some form of temper tantrum, anyone in the public that has watched School Board meetings, past Moreno Valley City Council meetings or have seen his personal web blog, would know full well, Mr. Rios doesn’t deal from a full deck.

I will refer readers to MVGordie's blog on the MORENO VALLEY USD BOARD TRUSTEE MIKE RIOS DEBACLE. Gordie's coverage is the best to be had on this subject, Press Enterprise included.

Almost a Quarter of Californians Now Live in Poverty - California Now hasHhighest Poverty Rate in the U.S., According to the Latest Census Report.

California has highest poverty rate in the U.S., new Census Bureau report reveals

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

 The U.S. poverty rate is higher than previously thought.

The US Census Bureau is testing a new way to measure poverty – and the new measurement indicates that California has the highest poverty rate in the nation.

Almost a quarter of Californians now live in poverty, according to the new Supplemental Poverty Measure, released Wednesday. Under the new measure, California's poverty rate increases from 16.3 percent to 23.5 percent of the population. Not only is that the highest in the nation, but it represents the largest jump from the official rate. The increase is driven in part by California's high cost of living.

The numbers released by the Census Bureau are part of the newly developed measure, which was devised a year ago. It provides a fuller picture of poverty that the government believes can be used to assess safety-net programs by factoring in living expenses and taxpayer-provided benefits that the official formula leaves out. It looks at broader data, including housing costs, child care and medical expenses. It also adjusts for income earned from federal assistance, such as school lunch subsidies and the earned income tax credit.

The Census Bureau is testing the supplemental measure as a replacement for the current system, which hasn't changed since the early 1960s.

Nationally the rate increased from 15 percent to 15.8 percent under the new measure. Overall, the ranks of America's poor edged up last year to a high of 49.7 million, the Associated Press reported.

Based on the revised formula, the number of poor people exceeded the 49 million who were living below the poverty line in 2010.
That came as more people in the slowly improving economy picked up low-wage jobs last year but still struggled to pay living expenses. The revised poverty rate of 16.1 percent also is higher than the record 46.2 million, or 15 percent, that the government's official estimate reported in September.
You can view the full report below.
U.S. Census Bureau Supplemental Poverty Measure

Cut welfare if students get bad grades?

Cut welfare if students get bad grades? I disagree.

Originally Posted by skrashen at 11:37 AM 

Schools Matter 

"State Sen. in Tennessee proposes cutting welfare payments to families with students with bad report card. We respond. "

Campfield proposal would hurt youths
Published in Knoxville News Sentinel, Knoxville, TN, Feb 3,2013.
http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2013/feb/03/letters-feb-3-2013/
State Sen. Stacey Campfield's proposal to cut welfare payments for students with bad report cards is backwards. Poverty is the major cause of poor school performance. Poverty means inadequate diet, poor health care and lack of access to books at home, school and in the community: All of these are associated with low school achievement. The best teaching in the world will not help if children are hungry, ill and have little or nothing to read. Campfield's bill will make things worse, not better. Benefits to families whose children have low school achievement should be increased, not decreased, in order to protect these children from the effects of poverty, and we should take some of the money we are so eager to spend on "tough" standards and tests and invest in food programs, health care and libraries.

Michelle Shory, Knoxville, Clara Lee Brown, Knoxville, and Stephen Krashen, Los Angeles, Calif.

Day One Of Oral Testemony In Moreno Valley School Board Official Mike Rios’ Pimping, Pandering, Rape and Insurance Fraud Case

(I will refer readers to MVGordie's blog on the Moreno Valley USD BOARD TRUSTEE MIKE RIOS DEBACLE. Gordie's coverage is the best to be had on this subject, Press Enterprise included.)

Obey or Quit-The Bullying Mentality In Education

Obey or Quit-The Bullying In Education originally written and published by dianerav http://dianeravitch.net/2013/01/12/obey-or-quit/ A teacher sent me this post, which has generated lots of discussion on Facebook. She said that the discussion on this blog shows a widespread bullying of teachers by administrators, who are in turn being bullied to produce "results." Everyone is under pressure to meet demands created by politicians, economists, and statisticians who never spent a day in a school classroom after their high school graduation. Here goes: "Paul's Story" Yesterday I received an emergency phone call from an experienced teacher in a Bronx school who received his first ever "U" on an observation report. Emotionally overwrought with fear and anger, it took all I could do to calm him down and get him to figure out how he could resolve this issue and continue to teach and at the same time maintain his principles while having to deal with his principal. She, as authoritarian personality as they come, simply follows NYC DOE/Teachers College orders in FORCING her underlings to follow the lockstep TC workshop model lesson plan. Because he veered and used different materials and interacted differently with his kids than the plan permits he was given a "U". It was quite evident after seeing her 20-page write-up that there was something more here. Her discussions of the 2 pre-observation were filled with evidence of her obviously one-track mind.  Do it this way. I will not accept any of your alternatives. Her most consistent and often repeated criticism is that he did not use everything the Model presenter from TC demonstrated in the 3 short demonstrations he attended. It's as if everything that came before NYCDOE/TC's workshop version of teaching was anathema in this new pious world of top down education. By the way...it is a terrible way to teach if used as the one and only lesson plan every single day.  But that is probably why he received this "U" in the first place. You see, he is not passive. He is not one to just follow orders. He speaks up and out. He argues. He was being punished for that more than his not following the lesson plan. He expressed to me that he was ready to give up, to get out, to simply go to the rubber room, or be made into an ATR (absent teacher reserve). That is the new leadership's plan. Veterans: If you don't follow the rules you have two choices. Retire or be exiled. This way "The Big Talking Heads" of education can take in their fresh young faces and train them to be, as my friend said, Star Wars "Clones" obeying the orders of the dark side.

Labor Recruiting Firm must pay $4.5 million to exploited teachers

Firm must pay $4.5 million to exploited teachers in precedent-setting case

A jury ordered a labor recruiting firm and its owner Monday to pay $4.5 million to 350 Filipino teachers they lured to teach in Louisiana public schools and forced into exploitive contracts after arriving in the United States through the federal guest worker program.

Universal Placement International of Los Angeles and its owner and president, Lourdes Navarro, were ordered to pay the damages following a two-week trial in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in Los Angeles.

“The jury sent a clear message that exploitive and abusive business practices involving federal guest workers will not be tolerated,” said SPLC Legal Director Mary Bauer. “This decision puts unscrupulous recruitment agencies on notice that human beings – regardless of citizenship status – cannot be forced into contracts that require them to pay illegal fees.”

The verdict came in a federal class action lawsuit, Nunag Tanedo v. East Baton Rouge Parish School Board, brought on behalf of the teachers in August 2010. The teachers are represented by the SPLC, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the law firm of Covington & Burling LLP.

The teachers began arriving in the United States in 2007 as part of the H-1B guest-worker program administered by the U.S. Department of Labor. H-1B visas permit foreign nationals with special skills to work in the United States for up to six years. Most teachers paid the placement service about $16,000 – several times the average household income in the Philippines – to obtain their jobs.

Nearly all the teachers had to borrow money to pay the recruiting fees. Sounds like a private school loan most young Americans endure to get the chance to be a teacher. The recruiters referred the teachers to private lenders who charged 3 to 5 percent interest per month. Teachers were forced to pay these exorbitant fees because they had already made substantial investments that would not be returned. The recruiters confiscated their passports and visas until they paid.

“This groundbreaking verdict affirms the principle that all teachers working in our public schools must be treated fairly, regardless of what country they may come from,” said AFT President Randi Weingarten. “The outrageous abuses provide dramatic examples of the extreme exploitation that can occur, even here in the United States, when there is no proper oversight of the professional recruitment industry. The practices involved in this case – labor contracts signed under duress and other arrangements reminiscent of indentured servitude – are things that should have no place in 21st-century America.”

Sorry Randi, but this is the way all teachers will be treated in the near future. Please don't think that this is a foreign labor affliction. OH wait you should know that. At least the AFT and the Southern Poverty Law Center went to bat for these unfortunate folks. This aid wouldn't have occurred if the NEA or the CTA were involved. It would be a fair bet they would have denied the occurrence. Just as they ignore similar treatment to members right now within their own ranks.

In addition to paying upfront fees, the teachers were forced to sign away an additional 10 percent of the salaries they would earn during their second year of teaching. Teachers who resisted signing the contracts were threatened with being sent home and losing the thousands of dollars they had already paid. The court declared those contracts illegal and unenforceable. “We are very pleased with the verdict in this case and proud to have stood by these brave teachers as they finally obtained justice,” said Dennis Auerbach, lead attorney on the case from Covington and Burling. The theft of thousands of dollars in earnings by California school districts from unsuspecting teachers is much the same. Only difference these folks had some top notch legal help. CTA pays its attorneys a BONUS to settle a case, even at the educators expense or ultimate firing. A percentage of the difference from the super secret maximum dollars in Billable Hours. Hell, as a victim, oops client, you can't even look at the billable hours charged. Speaking of QUALITY representation, when I asked my CTA "fraud" about my Weingarten, lybarger rights as well as due process per the the CTC, I was told, "some things have to be given away to grease the wheels and get things moving!" I had no say nor was I asked.