Chamber extends Rosen’s contract

Debra Rosen will continue to lead San Diego North Chamber of Commerce
for another two years.

“I am proud of the achievements the
chamber has made since I took the job last April, including bringing the
chamber to a debt-free position and offering many valuable new programs
and benefits for chamber members,” Rosen said.

She became the
chamber’s president and CEO following the resignation of Michael
Robinson in March 2009. He had been in the position for 14 months.

Rosen
said in the coming years the four “key areas” the chamber will continue
to focus on are business development, public policy, health in the
workplace and education.

PPH, Centre for Heath Care form partnership

Palomar Pomerado Health and Centre for Health Care have formed a new
“collaboration” — Arch Health Partners — effective today (Thursday).

The new partnership will give the two medical entities a stronger
financial negotiating position, which should result in hiring almost a
half-dozen more primary care physicians by year’s end, according to
officials.

While patients will not see their rates lower, they will also not
increase, according to Victoria Lister, CEO at Centre for Health Care,
who will be the executive director at Arch Health Partners.

“What certainly will not change is the quality of their care,” Lister
said. “Patients will still be able to see their Centre for Health Care
physicians in the same offices.

Editorial: Thanks for voting, RB

THUMBS UP to those who cast
ballots in the Rancho Bernardo Planning Board election last month. While
representing less than 2 percent of all adult residents, the 570 who
did cast a ballot were more than double the number who cast ballots in
2009, when three community groups — the planning board, community
council and recreation council — were holding a combined election.

Let’s hope this increased interest in community government continues in
June, when the two councils hold separate elections.

THUMBS UP to all the martial
arts studios and other groups who have hosted or are planning free
self-defense workshops in the wake of Chelsea King’s murder. Hopefully
the participants — primarily female teens and young women — will never
have to use the skills learned in these workshops. If they are in a
dangerous situation, however, it is hoped they will be able to remember
and utilize the tactics that do not rely on martial arts proficiency to
escape their attackers.

Letters to the Editor: April 1, 2010

Children clueless about history

Regarding the March 25 editorial rebuttal, I found many of PUSD Board
President Todd Gutschow’s statements disturbing. Especially the “Indeed,
the district offered…posters of documents which the phrases (regarding
God) were extracted including the Declaration of Independence, the
Constitution, and replicas of U.S. Currency.” 

Why are our children clueless about our Christian heritage and the
founding of our nation? You need look no further than the lies
(incorrect renderings of vital national documents) Mr. Gutschow and the
school board wanted this teacher to present in his class. And
misrepresentations are lies, Mr. Gutschow, by any definition you could
find. 

I suggest that Mr. Gutschow and the rest of the school board are uneasy
about our nation’s past, instead of wishing it away he might want to
find a different field of work where presenting the truth is not
important.
Ralph D. Du Bois

Poway

My Town: 13 questions for eight candidates

Eight people have officially thrown their hats in the ring to replace
Betty Rexford should the June recall election succeed. Eight people with
varied backgrounds to some extent. An engineer, a land developer, a
couple of retirees, a small-business owner, a recording artist, and so
on.

Varied, yet all quite similar in many ways. For one, they are all men,
no women chose to join the fray. Almost to a man, they were involved in
youth sports, served on city or community committees, volunteered for
local service organizations, etc.

All with remarkably similar resumes.

How are Poway voters to decide who will serve on the council and help
direct Poway’s future?

 I have 13 questions that both the candidates and the voters should be
able to answer. Questions that should be asked at candidate forums and
the answers reported in the press.

Hemphill: The sad state of California’s public schools

I understand that in this economic crisis, school districts are laying
off teachers, but can anyone tell me why we keep California teachers at
all? Of course, the problem is not all the teachers’ fault – but it is
all their responsibility and I have not heard of the powerful teachers
unions — the most powerful unions in the state — calling for reforms to
solve the academic problem.

Analyzing the 72-page federal report of periodic testing from the U.S.
Department of Education (called the National Report Card) is an exercise
in reality.
(http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/pdf/main2009/2010458.pdf) The
current report tested reading and math skills in 50 states, D.C. and the
overseas Department of Defense schools.

The good news is that California scored higher in fourth-grade reading
than Louisiana and New Mexico.

The bad news is that California scored lower than Mississippi, Arkansas,
Alabama, Georgia…well, everyone else.

‘Yiddische Mamas’ showcases women who love to laugh

Their humor entertained and their honesty touched the heart as 10 Jewish
mothers from the Rancho Bernardo area shared their lives on film.

“The Yiddische Mamas” debuted Sunday at Temple Adat Shalom where the
North County Inland Older Adult Center holds its programs.

Videographer Kathy Weyer captured these stories during several informal
lunches and personal interviews, a compilation of 18 hours of taping.
Weyer, owner of the video company Memories and Legacy, creates legacy
videos but this was the first project of its kind for her.

“The main reason we did this was so the younger women understand this is
what these women went through as a gender and for their religious
beliefs,” Weyer said. “These women were real trailblazers.”

Often with everyone talking, laughing and reminiscing all at once, these
women reflected about their childhood, their mothers, their marriages,
their careers and raising their children.

REVIEW: Cygnet stages a masterful ‘Sweeney Todd’ in Old Town

There are moments in theater when an audience recognizes that it’s
watching something special, a show that goes beyond being merely a good
play with strong performances. In those moments, a night of theater
turns into a shared community experience, an event.

The Cygnet Theatre Company’s production of Stephen Sondheim’s “Sweeney
Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street,” which runs at the Old Town
Theatre through May 9 (the show’s run was extended two days after
opening night) has many of these moments.

In short, it’s a must-see production, one that’s thrilling and exciting to watch.

From the opening number, which jolts you into place with a deafening
shriek of a steam whistle, you know you’re in for a treat as the lights
go down and the cast comes out pointing lights at the audience as they
intone “The Ballad of Sweeney Todd.”

It’s an immediate mood-setter, one that pays off big when the man
himself pops out dramatically from a trap door beneath the stage (the
thick clang of the heavy metal gates is enough to send shivers down the
spine). He’s pale and covered in blood as he empties a bucket of red
down the chute.

REVIEW: A Wistful ‘Over the River’ at Scripps Ranch Theatre

In “Over the River and Through the Woods,” Nick Cristano finds himself
in a peculiar situation: he’s been offered a dream job in Seattle, but
taking it means he’ll have to move away from New York and thousands of
miles away from his grandparents.

If that doesn’t sound like a dilemma to you, then you haven’t met Nick
Cristano’s grandparents, who live just a bus ride away from the Big
Apple in Hoboken, New Jersey. They’re old-school, Old World immigrants
from Italy who, according to Cristano, live by the three F’s: family,
faith and food.

They don’t understand why their grandson, or anyone for that matter,
would want to move away from family. Cristano’s family motto is the
Italian phrase, “tengo familia,” or “I have family,” which really means
“I am the head of a household.”

The Scripps Ranch Theatre is staging the play by Joe DiPietro at the
Legler Benbough Theatre at Alliance International University through
April 24.

Museum sheds light on recent dinosaur discoveries

The 1993 movie “Jurassic Park” presented many memorable images, but among the most iconic was that of a Tyrannosaurus Rex chasing down a speeding SUV.

At the time that the movie came out, the depiction of the swift T. Rex coincided with science, which deduced that the dreaded dino might have been a speedy predator.

But paleontologists now believe that the idea that T. Rexes moved about like giant ostriches — who can reach speeds of up to 45 mph — is inaccurate, as is the depiction of sauropods (specifically Brachiosauruses) using their long necks to reach leaves on tree tops.
Instead experts in the field of biomechanics believe the T. Rex’s gallop — if it even existed — was no faster than 16 mph, while computer simulations suggest that the sauropods most likely kept their necks low to the ground, foraging shrubs and grasses.
These are just a couple of the findings that are detailed in “Ancient Fossils, New Discoveries” a new exhibition that opened Saturday at the San Diego Natural History Museum in Balboa Park.
The exhibition, which will be on display through Sept. 6, serves as a refresher course of sorts, providing a look at how science’s understanding of dinosaurs has changed in the last 20 years.
The exhibition, arranged in six parts, features fossils, casts and models — including some that have not been displayed before.
It gives audiences an understanding of just how much new information has come to light in recent years, as paleontologists use new applications of science and technology, such as CT scans, computer modeling and DNA technology, to interpret dinosaurs.
“Scientists are learning a lot about the behaviors of dinosaurs, how they lived and how they interacted and how they used their bodies,” said museum spokeswoman Delle Willet.
Among the highlights of the exhibit is a fossil of the Bambiraptor feinbergi, a species that was discovered in 1995. The fossil is the best-preserved and most complete dromaeosaur that has been found in North America, and graphics and CT scans provide evidence about the evolutionary link between dinosaurs and birds.
The exhibition, which is in the museum’s largest exhibition hall (which has hosted the Dead Sea Scrolls Exhibition that ended in 2008 and more recently “Bodies,” also has a full-size cast skeleton on a Tyrannosaurus Rex as well as a 60-foot long metal-like skeleton of an Apatosaurus based on a computer-generated model.
Another part of the exhibition presents a large (700 square foot) diorama of a forest in the Liaonin Province of China that features more than 35 species of dinosaurs, insects, early birds and mammals, including some that have never been displayed in public.
Other sections show recent findings on dinosaur behavior and also a section of extinction.
Entry to the exhibition is part of regular admission to the museum, and tickets for non-members range from $12-$16 with discounts for children, seniors students, members of the military and groups.
Several related programs and activities such as a behind-the-scene tour of the museum’s paleontology lab and bus trips to the George C. Pace Museum of La Brea Discoveries in Los Angeles are also scheduled.
For more information, go to www.sdnhm.org or call 619-255-0203.