No Wonder Bobby Kennedy Jr. Is Fighting Mad About Gas Industry
Dateline: Porter Ranch
NY Daily News photo shows some of the damage to JFK High School.
Well, now we know one reason why Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is so mad at the gas industry. Looking back into the archives of the NaturalGasWatch.org, we find that the New York City High School named after his uncle, former President John F. Kennedy, was partially blown up back in August of 2015. The gas explosion was allegedly the result of a contractor setting off the explosion by using a blow-torch while installing new gas lines. Several contractors and plumbers suffered major burns over their bodies, one man had burns over 90 percent of his body. The Plumbers Union is demanding documents and reports from the Fire Marshall, but the City of New York is dragging its feet. What are they hiding? Or, maybe the question should be who is New York Mayor Bill de Blasio protecting? Click Here to read the whole story.
Back in April of 2003, Caroline Kennedy, JFK’s daughter, visited the school named after her father. She spent the day supporting the students and faculty. By her side was another famous woman, the beautiful singer Thalia, who was named “Principal of the Day” for the school. These two high-powered women put their love into supporting that school, and we can understand how shocked they were to hear that a part of the school was blown-up due to a gas leak. It proves the point on just how dangerous gas can be, and could also explain why the Porter Ranch Gas Blow-Out is sort of personal to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., after seeing the John F. Kennedy High School suffer so much damage.
Caroline Kennedy is presently the United States Ambassador to Japan, an amazing achievement since her father, JFK, was a veteran of World War II, and fought the war as a Commander of a PT Boat. How proud would he be, were he alive today, of his daughter Caroline and his fighting nephew, Bobby Kennedy, Jr.
The growing concern over the massive leak of methane gas and other harmful chemicals at the Aliso Canyon facility of the Southern California Gas Company has become urgent. The methane, leaking since at least late October of 2015 constitutes a dire threat to global warning, pumping an estimated 55,000 kilos of methane into the atmosphere every hour.
Calls for Governor Brown to declare a State of Emergency have gone silent. Recently, at a mass-meeting of residents at a Porter Ranch church, Attorney Robert F. Kennedy, Jr publicly called for Gov. Brown to declare a State of Emergency in the area, and begin evacuations of the population until the dangerous leak is stopped.
Kennedy to Gas Company: “We’re Going to Have a Fist-Fight”
Kennedy, with other attorneys, are in the process of filing lawsuits against the Gas Company. He challenged Gov. Brown, a fellow Democrat, to come out of hiding and declare the area a disaster. He questioned that Brown’s continued silence could be because he takes a lot of money from the oil and gas industry? Or is it because his sister, Kathleen Brown, sits on the Board of Sempra Energy, the parent company to the Gas Company? Kennedy and others want the entire Aliso facility shut down for safety concerns.
Gas Stored Deep Below the Earth
This call for the complete shut-down of the gas injection facility could have far reaching implications. The Gas Company uses a geologic formation deep beneath the earth to store the gas, where it is injected under tremendous pressure and compressed so that a lot of gas can be stored there. There is usually something like 85 billion cubic feet of gas pumped into the formation. From there, pipelines carry the gas all over Southern California, from Bakersfield to San Diego, where the population depends on gas for heating, hot water, and cooking. Closing the facility without some form of replacement, could be life-threatening or at the least life-changing for millions of Californians. The magic of turning on your stove to heat up your dinner, or take a hot shower, or be warm on a cold night would be gone.
Situation Goes Back to World War 2
The use of these underground geologic caves and domes goes back to the days of World War 2. The United States War Department used these formations to store gas to keep it below the surface in case of air attacks from the Japanese Empire. After the war, the U.S. War Department “transferred” their rights to the Gas Company for the dome under Playa Vista. The problem is that it was never legally and full permitted and processed by relevant authorities on the State level, meaning that since the war, all this has been basically illegal, or at best in a “grey area” of legality. These geologic formations were places that oil had been pumped out, leaving a sort of empty cavern that the War Department and then the Gas Company thought would be fine for the storage of natural gas. There are many problematic questions about this that have never been answered.
The first question is regarding these caverns. It was long assumed and propagandized to the public that oil comes from the decay of dead dinosaurs. Some oil companies, like the old Sinclair Oil Company actually used replicas of dinosaurs in their advertising. New theories, however, claim that the creation of oil is “abiotic”, and is continuous, a result of various chemicals and minerals deep in the earth that are continuously going through a process under tremendous heat and pressure that is creating oil and gas. This would explain why some oil wells that are “worked out”, suddenly become active again. If this theory is indeed true, then new oil would be seeping back into the old wells. As we know, some of the chemicals in oil are extremely hazardous to human health.
Some areas of Southern California are still full of working oil fields. The area was, and continues to be, a bonanza of wealth for the oil companies. Thousands of wells were punched into the landscape on the west side of Los Angeles. Venice, the Marina area, even Beverly Hills had hundreds of them. Many of the old ones were not properly capped off, and were just abandoned, or capped with old technology that would be illegal today. This lets oil and gas to percolate through the area, sometimes causing death and destruction.
Poisoned Paradise Documentary Series on This Website
At the top menu bar on this website you can view our 4 part documentary series on the entire history of oil and gas in Southern California, going back to the days of the Spanish colonial period. It covers the drama and the deadly consequences of pumping oil in an urban environment, and how various authorities, including the State of California and the City and County of Los Angeles have turned a blind eye to the problems, and have allowed illegal and non-permitted wells, have approved massive apartment and condo projects without E.I.R. filings, and have put a large part of the population in danger of their lives.
This is Not the First Blow-Out for the Gas Company
In our Documentary series you will see the big Playa Vista blow-out, where a huge flame a hundred feet to two hundred feet high blew from their other injection facility on the West side of Los Angeles. The Playa Vista area has another one of the underground caverns where gas is pressurized, but when things aren’t done right, the blast can be seen for miles. Could the methane leak explode at Porter Ranch? Yes, of course it could. It is so dangerous that the crews cannot work at night because the lights and generators could spark a massive methane explosion. The F.A.A. has already banned any aircraft from flying over the area, due to the potential of an explosion. A video recently posted on youtube shows an infra-red video of the gas leak (methane is odorless and colorless so a regular camera cannot view it). It will shock you to see just how much methane is pouring out, it looks like a volcano of methane. Remember that this has been going on at least since October 25th.
Mandatory Evacuation Now!
Many are now calling for the complete mandatory evacuation of the Porter Ranch area. This is due to several factors. First, of course, is the possibility of a huge methane explosion, that could literally take out a big part of the area. The second problem is from the deadly and dangerous chemicals that are possibly being released along with the methane. A list of cancer-causing chemicals would include benzine, and toluene, and even possibly hydrogen sulfide, which can cause brain-damage and even death. A major worry is that the gas is not just coming up the main pipe, which was sealed at the top. The gas is leaking deep at the 8,000 ft level, and possibly spreading out and coming up from deep below the earth into any area that it can find a path. This could include aquifers and underground water streams, meaning that the water would become poisoned and the gas could travel and pop up somewhere else. This has happened many times before in our recent past. Remember how methane from old oil wells seeped into the basements of department stores in the shopping center at 3rd and Fairfax in the Hollywood area? One spark ignited the methane, which blew up and killed and wounded several people. Methane had seeped under the parking lot and the flames were coming up from cracks in the parking lot. It was like hell was coming to the surface. The schools in Porter Ranch have now been closed by the Los Angeles Board of Education. It took them 2 months, but at least they have done it now. The Gas Company is making a half-hearted effort to voluntarily relocate residents, but the process is flawed because they want you to pay first and then get reimbursed. How about the Gas Company pay hotels or apartments directly? They caused this problem. How can it be expected that a resident, still paying a mortgage on his house, now has to come up with money for a temporary place to live?
Months of Pain Ahead
Nice New Building for the Oil and Gas Folks
This story is far from over. The Gas Company estimates that it will take months for them to fix this one well. And that does not make the public rest easy, since there are over 100 more wells in the field. How many of them are up to code? How many do not have complete concrete casings, and have disintegrating pipes due to the corrosion of chemicals like hydrogen sulfide? They need to fix these wells, at their own expense, not through hiking rates. Sempra Energy just moved into their new snazzy 120 million dollar headquarters building in San Diego. We are so happy for them, making so much money that they can afford such luxury for their executives. Meanwhile, the hard-working middle class folks in Porter Ranch are seeing their businesses, their homes, everything they worked so hard for, going up in a cloud of methane gas. It just ain’t right.
A Recent Futuristic Story About Native Americans on Mars is Coming True in Arizona
by Ed Murray
Dateline: Hollywood
Cover of Red Eden a Vision of Mars
In this case, it’s Life imitating Art. A recent science fiction graphic novel called Red Eden a Vision of Mars, has become eerily real in the Arizona Oak Flat fight pitting a huge multi-national mining company against a small band of Apache Indians fighting to save their paradise from destruction. First, a look at the graphic novel.
Red Eden was a story idea that Greg Simay had kicking around in his head for years. He envisioned some Native Americans leaving the hellish Earth and going to Mars and terraforming the planet to create a paradise like the one they had previously enjoyed before the arrival and invasion of the Europeans in 18th century America. About 5 or 6 years ago, Simay wrote a screenplay on this idea, but it somehow missed the mark, and went nowhere. He then got together with Hollywood documentary film maker and writer R.J. Johnson to help him move his project along. Johnson, at first thought that maybe a novel would be a good starting point, so a writer was hired. This didn’t work out, but then it was suggested that maybe a graphic novel would be a better vehicle to tell Simay’s story. So a team of writers, including Simay, R.J. Johnson, and Mike White, with help from Russell Davis, Steve Stern, and Paul Hunt, crafted an exciting story that tells of Native Americans, using profits from casinos to leverage technology and finally settle and terraform Mars. They created their own paradise and were free of the constrictions they had suffered on Earth.
The Evil Sen. McCain
But then comes the dark cloud of war. Earth is so polluted at the time of this story, 2101, that governments have collapsed, and an evil cabal of criminals have taken over, but things are so bad they have to leave the mess of Earth. They set their sights on Mars, an unspoiled paradise, and the thugs from Earth invade Mars and once again try to take away what the Native Americans have created. The Indians on Mars resist, and are led by a young woman named Takenya, coming of age and living with her grand-parents. She begins having visions, brought on by a spirit guide named Lozen, and leads her people in an epic battle to save her way of life, aided by a strange remnant of ancient peoples…..well, I don’t want to give away any more of the story. It is an e-book only at this point, available from amazon for download. The full color book is 120 pages, and revolves around the idea that history is once again repeating itself, to steal from the Indians what they have built.
Sen. Flake, former Lobby boy for Rio Tinto
In an astounding coincidence, a very similar drama is now being played out in the deserts of Arizona. A multi-national British mining company, Rio Tinto, operating through a subsidiary called Resolution Mining, has been trying for years to get a hold of what is the largest deposit of copper left on earth. The extended value of these deposits have been estimated to be 140 billion dollars. There was a big problem for them: the deposits sit underneath an area of National Park called Oak Flat, and in the 1950s President Eisenhower gave it special protection to preserve this starkly beautiful area with its massive boulders. Mining under or on the area was forbidden forever.
Rio Tinto, is a massive foreign mining company, and has been salivating for years over this area. They have spent lavishly, because the payout is huge. They had lobbyists, one was a guy named Jeff Flake, who worked for a Rio Tinto subsidiary in Africa, mining uranium. They tried to get a “land swap” bill passed for years, trading some land they had bought in Arizona for the copper rich earth under Oak Flat. It didn’t work, and at one point an Arizona representative went to jail for some related shenanigans. But the British don’t give up easily when it comes to pillaging native lands, a pastime they have engaged in for several hundred years. Lobbyist Jeff Flake is now Arizona Senator Jeff Flake. Hmmm…..my golly, how in the world could that happen? Teaming up with Sen. John McCain, in the spring of this year they attached the “land swap” bill as a rider to the National Defense Authorization Act, which had to be passed by Congress due to the Obama Administration’s concerns about National Security issues. So McCain and Flake got it done, in what is probably the most underhanded, sneaky, despicable operations in Arizona history, giving away 140 billion dollars of American natural resources to a foreign corporation. No vote on that issue, just a “rider” on another bill. It is an outrage to all America, and especially to the San Carlos Apaches, who count the area as their ancient land.
Naelyn Pke
The fight at present is being carried on by a group of Apache Indians who have called themselves the Apache Stronghold. They have marched across the country, they have been to Washington, D.C., they are trying to get this rotten “land swap” deal overturned. One of the leaders of this group is a young, well spoken teen-aged Apache woman named Naelyn Pike. She travels often with her grandfather, Wendsler Nosie to save the Oak Flat area. This is a stunning coincidence to the Red Eden story, where the young Indian woman Takenya, living with her grandparents, leads the struggle against the thugs from Earth.
Another coincidence is that Takenya, in the story, is guided by Lozen, who was a real Apache woman in the early days of the so-called “Indian Wars”. Lozen was a guide who could foresee certain events and protect her people. The real life counterpoint to Takenya, the young Apache woman, Naelyn Pike, counts her main heroine to be Lozen, the same historical Apache guide. The Red Eden story also has a traitor, you will have to read the book to find out who it is. The real life Oak Flat story also has a “traitor”, Rep. Anne Kirkpatrick, who dressed in “Indian style” clothing when she was running for election, making promises to the Apaches. Now that she is in Congress, things have changed. How much in campaign contributions does she get from the Rio Tinto boys? McCain gets some, a lot in fact, and so does Sen Flake, the former lobbyist for the Corporation.
So the fight goes on, the foreigners, in this case from Briton and Australia, taking our gorgeous land with the connivance of snarky politicians, through a pathetic land swap that will net them billions. Why do they even bother to swap worthless land, why not just give McCain, Flake, and the rest of the Congress some colorful glass beads like their ancestors did? Rio Tinto insults not only the Apaches, but our entire nation. The American voters should be outraged at this, but as for now, the only opposition is a small group of Apache Indians, led by a teen-age young woman and her grandfather, trying to save a beautiful wilderness for all of our future benefit. Stay tuned folks, this real life epic is just beginning.
As the above images from Getty’s top award-winning photographer Justin Sullivan show the media mob storming the house rented by the Farook family. Syed Farook and his wife Tashfeen Malik are the accused shooters who gunned down 36 innocent people in a terror attack in San Bernardino, leaving 14 dead.
Doyle Miller
On December 4, the property owner, Doyle Miller, 81, decided to have a look inside the premises. He said the FBI was done with their investigation and had turned it back to him, and he was curious to look inside. He had some trouble prying off the boards that had sealed the front door, but no problem, British journalist and Sunday Times (London) editor Toby Harnden lent a hand with a large screwdriver to pry off the offending board, allowing the huge crowd of media vultures to storm the house and rampage through the rooms.
Toby Harnden Prying Open Door
Harnden, interviewed on a Fox News segment, the Greg Gutfeld show, said “I wished I had worn a better shirt” to be photographed in. He claimed that owner Doyle Miller had invited the media inside, a claim that was echoed by others from the other news agencies. He said it is in the public interest to see what was in the house. He also said that “it was an absolute gold mine of information.” But what is the actual legal status, and what right does Mr. Miller have to be in the premises himself, and what legal right did he have to break into the property and let in not only the media, but neighbors and others who just floated in?
What California Law Says
The interesting thing in this case is that some reports are saying that Farook’s mother rented the house. If indeed she signed the rental agreement or lease with Mr. Miller, then she is the tenant and it is her sole authority over it until she moves or is evicted. The police authorities and FBI, of course, in a criminal case, can get a warrant and search the home where the alleged killers lived. They can keep this as a crime scene for some time, and it is astounding they “released” the home back to the owner so soon, after 2 days, especially with the breaking story of the next door neighbor being involved in what is now looking like a terrorist cell. The neighbor, Enrique Marquez, allegedly bought the weapons used in the attack, and had planned other, more sophisticated operations with Farook. Did the Sheriff’s Department get a chance to examine the crime scene carefully? Did the FBI “take over” the whole operation? The FBI left a four page list of evidence that they seized on a table inside the house. At lease one page was published in the press.
Doyle Miller, Landlord
Mr. Miller possibly had no legal authority to enter the premises without permission from his tenant, especially since there was no obvious emergency, like a burst pipe or flood. And even if he was just checking on the plumbing or something, what legal right did he have to invite in a mob of about 100 reporters and others, mostly unidentified, into the house? Could this be considered breaking and entering? Or Burglary? Or invasion of privacy? And how about Mr. Harnden, a respected British Journalist, wielding a screwdriver to pry off the door? Mr. Harnden claimed he found some interesting intel in the house, including some phone numbers from a middle eastern country, that he is checking out, pointing out that maybe the FBI search was not so thorough, a disturbing thought in itself. Harnden said he found a notebook with numbers in Dubai and other numbers from the Middle East. Possibly good leads now that it is becoming evident that this was the work of a terrorist cell. On December 19th, Farook’s mother Rafia, with other family members, showed up with a U-haul and loaded all the possessions from the Redlands house and drove off. If there was indeed any evidence left, it may now be gone forever.
Garages of Death
According to reports, Farook was making bombs in his garage at the Redlands house. These situations are dangerous to everyone involved, both to law enforcement and a mob of press members. Remember back to February 8, 1986 in North Hollywood. LAPD was investigating a Hollywood make-up artist named Donnell Morse, for shooting a make-up artist union official. Pipe bombs were found in his garage, and the LAPD Bomb Squad was called. Two veteran experts from the Bomb Squad, Detective Arleigh McCree and officer Ronald Ball, arrived and determined that the bombs were booby-trapped. The area was evacuated, but in attempting to disarm the bombs both McCree and Ball were killed when one of the bombs went off. Det. McCree received an award for heroism, and he was known by many in Los Angeles. He had saved lives on Hollywood Boulevard in another incident where an extremist zionist group had allegedly planted a bomb at an Arab Information Office located in a building facing the busy street. Old time reporters remember Det. McCree, he was a great guy and he was much respected for his work in keeping us safe. The point of this is to illustrate how dangerous these situations can be. Could Farook have planted booby-trapped bombs? Probably not in the house where he lived with his family, but the possibility exists in the secretive garage where he had ammunition and pipe bombs. How soon we forget about the past events that has sadly resulted in the deaths of police officers.
Legal Issues
According to the book “When Someone Dies in California” by Amelia Pohl and California attorney Bruce Feder, there are strict procedures to follow when someone dies. These would include methods of probate, determining the heirs, finding a will, and many legal issues regarding the transfer of the decedents property. Basically, there are rules of estate administration. Depending on various circumstances regarding the death of someone in California, there are legal rules. The Farook family has attorneys who have given press conferences, so it can be assumed that they are taking care of things. But in reading through the book, it still poses the question as to what authority the landlord had to break into the house and let in a mob of press and others to rampage through the house. A friend of mine who is a property manager, said that if someone dies in one of the apartments, it is sealed off by the police. The County Administrator will try to find a will and to find any relatives, but until things are resolved legally, the apartment is sealed off. The landlord cannot go in. The authorities may keep it locked up for months while they investigate the situation. This is for a normal death, not one of the biggest crime scenes in California history, much less that this could be the home for a murderous terrorist cell. It looks like a chain of incredible blunders have been made by FBI, law enforcement, the landlord, the press, and others. Another crazy media circus, where, as the old adage goes, nothing lost save honor for all parties involved.
Do KPFK’s Statements Regarding $70,000 in Unfulfilled Premiums Put Programmers at Risk Legally as Fund Drive “Pitching” Continues Unabated?
by Ed Murray
A recent posting on the Pacifica watchdog website, PacificaInExile.org turned up a nightmare issue that came from KPFK’s General Manager, Leslie Radford. Here’s the paragraph from Pacifica In Exile:
“At the same meeting, Radford stated her intention was not to pay for past-due premium gifts for subscribers unless compelled to by “legal action”. KPFT treasurer Bill Crosier pointed out subscribers are unlikely to donate again if they still haven’t received gifts from previous drives, but Radford stuck to her guns about not paying past due premium bills. She described the unpaid bills as totaling $70,000, which loosely represents about half a million dollars in pledges from 3,000 people. Radford’s statement verges on a declaration of intent to commit mail fraud and may compel the legal action mentioned”.
These statements took place at a Pacifica National Finance Committee meeting on December 14, 2015. You can listen or download the audio of the meeting, click here.
A problem that has been occurring at several of the Pacifica network stations over the last few years is that promises of “premiums” to donors for making pledges have in many instances not been sent to the donors. This, of course, infuriates the donors or subscribers, who have pledged, say, $75 – $300 and are waiting for a dvd or some other gift that never arrives. The question is if this is a continuing pattern of behavior by the station, does it constitute a fraud, possibly mail fraud? The further question is how far down the chain of command the fraud charge would apply? All programmers are expected to participate in the fund drive “pitching” . If the station announces, or it becomes clear after several years of this nonsense, that because of lack of funds to mail out the premiums, or indeed pay for them, that the station is just “blowing them off” to save money, are the programmers also guilty of participating in the scheme?
Ms. Radford, during the Pacifica National Finance Committee meeting, seemed to be saying that KPFK is mainly interested in paying bills that might result in legal or court actions if not paid, and that she wasn’t worried much about the past due premiums of $70,000 ending up in court, so no rush to take care of it? She mentioned that the $70,000 was much less than it was in a previous statement, hopefully meaning that KPFK is trying to “catch up” on the premium mess, but she did not expand on the comment, or give any indication of when, if ever, all the back premiums would be sent out.
WBAI in New York has also had an on-going problem with premiums. It’s actually worse there, as Progressive Radio’s Gary Null has intimated that past personnel at the station may have been involved in a conspiracy of sorts to bootleg Null’s documentaries and offer them as premiums without paying for them. He has threatened a “major” legal action if his demands are not met, and it is possible that the turn of the new year may see this legal action filed against Pacifica and/or WBAI. This would possibly be for a much more serious charge of copyright violations, a Federal crime. Click here to go to Gary Null’s Progressive Commentary Hour archives, check out the three shows of 9-22, 9-29, and 10-6 on Pacifica’s Problems.
KPFK Building Coming Up For Sale?
Another bombshell was dropped by Ms. Radford at the same Finance meeting, which took place via skype or telephone, was that she had a letter in her hand from someone who was interested in buying KPFK’s building and would then be willing to “lease it back to us”. The property on Ventura Boulevard in Studio City is considered a prime parcel, and any big real estate investment group would be interested in buying it, knowing that there would be a possibility that KPFK would default on the lease in the future, leaving the new owner free to get the high going rents after that. This shocking announcement would dispose of a great capital asset, bring in a pile of cash now, but would be very costly in the long run. It will be interesting to see how this idea goes forward. The looming black holes of debt and mismanagement are pressing in on Pacifica, and disposing of real estate assets may now be on the table.
Ed Murray Channels Al Goldstein Looking For Answers
by Ed Murray
Dateline: Holmby Hills
Please don’t say you aren’t shocked. Playboy Magazine has announced a big make-over of the magazine, including the removal of pictures of nude ladies from the pages of the famous man’s mag. These changes are set to take place in the March, 2016 issue. Since Playboy began, it made its mark on society, and made founder Hugh Hefner a fortune. The big thing that attracted a following over the years has been the nude centerfold. If you think that millions of men bought the magazine just to read the articles, then you are seriously deluded. The probable reason that Hefner put some articles and written material in the magazine was that he had to. In the 1950′s publishing “porn” or magazines with only nudes was risky. Various state and local authorities were prosecuting publishers for publishing magazines that “had no socially redeeming value.” Hence the publishers covered themselves with news, fiction, fashion, or other articles. Things are different now, a lot of porn has moved to the internet or dvd rentals.
Click Here to read the rest of the story on CartoonBazooka.com
An interesting conversation occurred on Ian Masters’ Background Briefing yesterday, Sunday October 11, 2015. Program Director Alan Minsky was on Ian’s show to pitch for money and support for the latest KPFK fund drive and Masters mentioned that during the recent period when he was ill “a group of people tried to take me off the air.” As the conversation progressed, he asked “Why should I raise funds for people who are trying to get me off the air?” Actually, a relevant question in the light of all the award winning show hosts who have either been cut, or have resigned recently. The feeling among many of the hosts is that the new faction that has taken over Pacifica has some kind of secret hit list for shows they want removed. Some off-the-record talk at some past LSB meetings indicated that Alan Minsky might also be on that list. This could all be written off as just run of the mill criticism that has existed among the different factions. Or it could be real.
Some snippets from the show:
Masters: “…so I could be taken off the air for mentioning the name of the person who runs Pacifica?”
“Here we are, Free Speech Radio and we can’t even mention the name of the person who runs Pacifica?”
Minsky: “You could be taken off the air if you continue this kind of conversation depending on the words you say.”
Masters: “These people don’t appreciate anything I do. They are clearly in a different universe.”…….
“The idea that you could be taken off the air for mentioning the name of the head of Pacifica is so insane.”
Alan Minsky and Ian Masters have been friends for a long time. Minsky said he was a free speech purist, but that Pacifica had rules about disparaging any other program hosts or station officials. The pressure on many of the hosts lately has been intense, especially with an on-going union action and the very survival of the network at stake. Most of us out here in the radio listening audience wouldn’t mind hearing from the hosts on air as to what is happening at KPFK and Pacifica, and what the feelings and opinions of the staff are at this time. After all, we are listening to real-live people, not robots, so anyone who has listened to a particular host for years would want to know their views on the current crises. Possibly there should be a round-table discussion on air, with members of the staff voicing their opinions as to what’s wrong at Pacific and some proposed solutions. From the look of things, the new ruling faction is having a lot of trouble in correct decision-making and maybe some input from the staff would be helpful. Anyone stepping into the leadership of Pacifica is a public figure, and should be ready to receive some body blows from the public for bad decisions. Be ready to take responsibility for your bad or ineffective actions is the rule in business and politics.
What is known, without a shadow of a doubt, that the present ruling faction, going back several years, has made some disastrous decisions. Right now, the most important task is to get the business end of Pacifica in order: the financial mess, the audits, the premiums, the accounting. A station can survive a while with unpopular programming, but blowing the money from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, failure to keep up with F.C.C rules, and the State of California rules, could be a death-blow. Not even to mention what will come of the fiasco with the union.
Democracy Now 9:00 a.m. Morning-Time Show Replaced With Cartoons
by Ed Murray
KCET, a Los Angeles Public Television station has replaced the 9:00 a.m. broadcast of Democracy Now with cartoon shows, starting today, Monday October 5. The show is still broadcast at the early 7:00 a.m. time-slot, but the second re-broadcast on the main KCET channel is gone. KCET has shoved the program to its secondary station KCET-LInk at noon. If you are watching over the air, you should be able to get KCET Link as 28-2 on your television set. The digital revolution in radio and television allows the station to divide its bandwidth into 4 station slots, 28-1 through 28-4.
Attempts to get a statement from KCET PR folks has been unsuccessful so far, maybe they are in meetings this morning trying to figure out which cartoons to show next week.
So instead of getting some real news, politics, and alternative views, its viewers will be able to improve their understanding of world affairs by watching “Wunderkind Little Amadius”, “Bali”, and “Peep and the Big Wide World” cartoon shows. KCET, which used to have a lot of relevant programming, continues to slide down the cultural mountain. When they blew off the PBS shows a couple years ago, the station took a big dip in viewers, according to former KCET President Al Jerome. Now, its schedule has a lot of travel shows, cooking shows, and gardening shows, and almost nothing concerning what’s happening in the Los Angeles community other than mainstream pablum. Their digital 28-4 has a lot of cultural shows about Japan, well-produced by professional Japanese news and documentary film makers. But when it comes to the homeland, there must not be any homies here in L.A. who can make any culturally relevant documentaries for the main 28-1 station. L.A. must be dead-land now. Or is it the station’s management and programmers who are brain-dead?
This might be a revealing moment, however. The question that has to be asked is who is pouring money into KCET to keep the network sloshing out brain-deadening, mind-numbing drivel? The executives working at the station aren’t working for free as far as known; they need donors to pump in enough money to keep the operation going. Is the viewing audience of L.A. so dull-witted that they now would rather watch cartoons than something on world affairs? Or is the money train only coming down the tracks from foundations and big corporate sponsors? Or is there any large chunk of money at all coming in? Maybe they’re living off the big bucks they got selling their great 300,000 sq. ft. studio in Hollywood to the Church of Scientology in 2011?
Since 1959, KPFK, the Pacifica radio station in Los Angeles, has broadcast a wide range of liberal and hard-left-leaning programming under the rubric of multiculturalism. KPFK, for instance, airs the only LGBT-specific broadcast in the Greater L.A. area—IMRU, produced by award-winning out journalist Steve Pride.
But constant rebellion doesn’t necessarily entail respect among the programmers and community board members of the commercial-free, listener-sponsored station, so Pride created a Hate Speech Prevention policy. It took seven months to pass, but the interim policy was in effect on Aug. 15-16 when KPFK aired an unchallenged homophobic rant in which a psychiatrist compared homosexuality to bestiality, among other offensive comments.
General Manager Leslie Radford preapproved the 30-hour block of programming, “Afrikan Mental Liberation Weekend” with host Dr. Kwaku Person-Lynn.
Fiscal Year 2016 KFPK Budget Analyzed by Former Treasurer
KPFK
Comments on the KPFK FY2016 budget
General
The FY2015 budget numbers used in the draft FY2016 budget and in the Income Statement for comparison is not the budget that was approved by the PNB, NFC and LSB late fall, 2014. KPFK Treasurer Novick has been asked to find out at three sequential Finance meetings where these budget numbers came from and why they’re being used but to date has not provided an answer. Therefore, comparisons of this FY2016 budget to the FY2015 budget or to the FY2015 Income Statements (Profit & Loss) are not reliable or legitimate.
The Finance Committee met on Tuesday, August 18. Neither the GM nor Treasurer could answer what the listener revenue was based on. To be legitimate it must be determined in the budget as the amount of fund drive days times the per day average, based on historical records. Many other questions were asked of the GM but there were few answers. The GM finally said she was too busy learning the Great Plains accounting software to know everything that’s in the budget.
The LSB met the following day and approved this budget. See Revenue below for details.
Personnel
This is the most distressing area to report. What is going on here is union busting of our union staff. This is the shock doctrine happening at KPFK. Like New Orleans after Katrina, they used that tragedy as an “opportunity” to eliminate public schools and replace them with charters, thus eliminating all union teachers. The complete lack of oversight and any financial records for almost a year by the present board majority (who have stayed in power due to not holding a mandated election in 2014) in the last year and a half has created just such a manufactured “financial crisis” to which they are now using that opportunity to serve their own purposes, not those of the listeners.
At the Finance meeting, the GM said the cuts to personnel will be as follows: on September 1, on a temporary basis, we will “lose” 10 FTEs (Full Time Employee) for three months – everyone who is full time (1 FTE) will be cut 50% or to 0.50 FTE. The two management positions, GM and iPD, will also be cut to 0.50. On September 15, we will permanently “lose” 2.5 FTEs for a total of 12.5 FTE cuts. (Note: at the July 14 Finance meeting, I presented a motion, which said, in pertinent part: “All non-union staff shall be terminated until an overall agreement with union staff can be made.” The Chair ruled this out of order. The GM stated that all non-union, non-budgeted employees were no longer employed. The GM’s statement was false. There were at least three non-union and non-budgeted employees on payroll and two are in the FY2016 budget. Full benefits for the now half-timers, such as health care, will remain in place. The GM said these cuts are “for a period not to exceed four months.” In November-December the FTEs will go back up to 25.
Unfortunately, the GM’s numbers do not match the actual employees.
The union has not signed off on this. The GM said KPFK, on advice of attorney Dan Siegel, will simply go into arbitration with SagAftra. SagAftra has filed a grievance against KPFK and arbitration is the next step. KPFK’s GM has not offered any alternate plan as far as I know. A likely outcome will probably be that the GM and her attorney, Siegel, will be told they are breaking the contract and all back pay will be due to the employees. This seems to be merely a delaying tactic to further diminish KPFK’s resources, disrupt business and punish staff.
The GM’s cuts do not have any basis in the reality of running a radio station. Only after the GM announced these across-the-board cuts did she ask the staff what their duties were and what wouldn’t get done with their new half-time hours. A cart before the horse action.
Although these cuts apply to everyone not just the on-air hosts, I have never seen a cost/benefit analysis of how much listener revenue the paid on-air hosts raise on their shows. They raise practically 100% of the listener support that comes in for public affairs programming. Cutting their time in half is guaranteed to reduce listener support even further. No matter how much happy talk there is about all the new programming to come, even in the best case scenario, which is not likely, it takes time for any new program to gain popularity and support.
This seems designed to deny severance to those who have toiled at KPFK for many years and, through no fault of their own, are now made to suffer for management failures and bad board actions. In a further act of mean-spiritedness, since they are not being laid off (with their earned severance), if they quit, they will not be able to get unemployment.
This seems no more than a plan to drive away all of the present staff, not pay severance, hire all new people, and get around union rules. This amounts to union-busting. Based on the under-estimated revenue in this budget, a return to full-time status is not likely and clearly not anticipated by the makers of this budget and those that approved it on the LSB. Furthermore, if KPFK’s business plan model is to be changed to an “all part-time employees” model, or all volunteer (with, of course, a paid GM and other management), then such a significant paradigm-change should be discussed fully and considered on its own merits at all levels of Pacifica/KPFK governance, and not “slipped-in” under the guise of a temporary financial emergency, only to become the new, permanent status-quo later. Despite the GM’s public statements promising to restore the present FTE cuts in four months, this does not seem at all likely – or even desired by management.
For an organization with a history of advocating for social justice and union rights, the Pacifica National Board majority also seems to be on board with union-busting at KPFK.
Notwithstanding the ideological meanness of this unworkable plan, it is unknown what the real budget numbers are for personnel costs in this budget.
Revenue
Listener Support. At the LSB meeting, the day after the Finance meeting, neither the GM nor the NFC rep, Brazon, could say what the proposed $3,053,595 in listener revenue was based on. Treasurer Novick produced a two page narrative of fuzzy numbers – somewhere between 81 and 89 fund drive days at $30,000 per day. Neither of the three could tell us how many fund drive days there were this year. That number is 135. The per day average for FY2015 averaged about $24,000 (assuming no more fund drive days this FY). The per day average for this last drive was about $17,000. Projected revenue must be based on historical evidence with real numbers – not wishful thinking.
However, using one choice of Treasurer Novick’s numbers, the calculations are: 89 days at $30,000 = $2,670,000 [pledges] @ 80% fulfillment is $2,136,000 for listener support. That is ($917,595) less than the budget for listener support and the $30,000 per day is merely hopeful not realistic. Treasurer Novick presented some other non-fund drive ideas for raising money, all of which have been talked about before, but to date have raised little to nothing. Such efforts cannot be relied on to make up the $900,000+ difference in listener support. And even so, most of these ideas are not listener support and would fall into some other category. Deduct $917,595 from listener support revenue.
Website income is close to $200,000 but for some reason doesn’t get broken out at KPFK. This has been an area of growth, but is obviously a political battle not having to do with the financial health of KPFK.
Community Events. This category needs more transparency and accountability for these largely cash events.
Renewals (of lapsed memberships) at $30,000 is overly optimistic for a variety of reasons.
Grant Income – non-operating – This does not go on the operating budget because whatever money comes in is not to be used for operations but for some other designated and restricted purpose. Deduct $30,000.
Restricted/Contribution/Special Projects. This contains:“Special projects” – Whatever that is.
FSTV (aka Uprising TV show) – I have asked repeatedly for some clarity on this. This has a separate bank account, a separate contract and a revenue stream and expenses that are not KPFK’s. The GM said the revenue goes to the Pacifica N.O. and “somehow” comes back to KPFK. FSTV needs its own budget and should not be co-mingled with KPFK’s budget. There is, apparently, an FSTV fund drive the GM is planning which should not be on KPFK’s operating budget.
Studio A – Payback of $30,000. Does not go on operating budget.
What is the status of the Film club and the subscribers to it? Now that the position of the Film Club coordinator has been eliminated, who will be servicing the members who have signed up for this? There may be members asking for their money back.
The GM’s plans for soliciting grants this year may be difficult since there does not appear to be an audit forthcoming until well into the first quarter of FY2016, if we’re lucky. Grants will not be awarded without a current audit being provided to the potential grantor.
When Treasurer Novick told the LSB his proposed assumptions for listener support, I pointed out the approximate $900,000+ shortfall in listener support. The Acting Executive Director, PNB Chair and KPFK’s National Finance Committee representative, Brazon, made an amendment to approving the budget: that the LSB shall fund raise with a goal of raising $5,000. Add $5,000.
Total Revenue – Deduct $1,008,595 for total revenue of $2,310,139
Expenses
Administrative:
Telephone – The budget is $127,000 which would be accurate based on historical data. However, the GM said costs would be going down due to new VoIP system. In the Fund Drive line item, she thought the new VoIP phone system was included there. Will there now be two phone systems – one for operations and one for fund drives? We need some clarity. Where are the staff cell phone expenses? Should this line item be reduced? Or increased?
Insurance – There is no Earthquake Insurance expense and it appears no earthquake insurance was paid FY2015. Are we doing without? Why? Add $12,000.
State Filing Fees – Looks like this hasn’t been done in FY2015 yet. Someone should look into this. It appears to be overestimated for FY2015 and in the FY2016 budget unless there’s some change in status which we should be apprised of. Deduct $16,000.
Rent and Lease of Equipment – Is there some reason this will be lower than FY2015? Or just wishful thinking?
Utilities – Office – It was $68,000 in FY2014 and is presently at $52,000 with two months to go in this FY. Unless there’s some reason we don’t know $46,000 seems low. Add $10,000.
Total Admin – add $6,000 total.
Programming
News Department – Stringers –It appears this unbudgeted expense has already started. Not sure what the $41,000 in column S denotes.
Programming Services – FY2016 budget = $40,873. Projected for FY2015 = $27,249. Actuals as of July = $38,508 with two months left to go in this FY. Everything in this line item was unbudgeted and otherwise unapproved by the LSB. It contains expenses for FSTV such as contractors which should be reflected separately in personnel expenses and otherwise under the FSTV category. The other expenses belong elsewhere. Unless there are specific expenses denoted for this category, which presently there are not, deduct $35,000.
Other Programming – Since this used to be for Arbitrons, which service we are told has been canceled, there appears to be no purpose for any expense. Deduct $5,000.
Maintenance – Technical – Considering the recent two hour off-air experience, the budgeted amount may not be enough. KPFK has purchased two new Nautel transmitters and rebuilt a backup generator for close to $250,000 in the last few years for the express purpose of not going off the air. What else can go wrong that we can’t anticipate?
FSRN – Why is KPFA offloading $5,000 of their bill to us? It was not approved as an expense last year when it suddenly appeared as a paid item.
Total Programming – deduct $40,000 total.
Development
Caging – Why is this going up when it should be going down?
Fund Drive Expenses – The GM was very fuzzy about what’s in here – phone lines for phone room? Food? Contract people? The amount is extraordinarily high. We don’t historically pay for food but get donations. The food coordinator was just fired. Hiring new contract people might be a problem and, at any rate, should be in personnel costs. If there are phone costs in here, there needs to be a different line item for phones for fund drives which are related to operations. There needs to be a delineation of defined costs in this line item. Deduct $35,000 total.
Advertising/Promotions – According to the GM, there is no plan in place for this allocation of $21,000+. It seems like a lot when personnel is being cut so dramatically and there is a $1M deficit in revenue before the year even starts. Unless there is a real plan for a specific advertising campaign this is not enough money to do anything meaningful. A motion was passed to keep it in, but I would recommend not.
Printing/Marketing promo – $12,000 for Club Cards, tabling supplies, banners. Seems like a lot for this item considering the overall deficit.
Community Events – It seems to me that not all expenses have reached this line item yet. Or they are buried elsewhere. I think this is an under-estimate.
Development:deduct $35,000 total
Overall Expenses – deduct net $69,000 from expenses.
My Recommendation
This clearly is not a balanced budget, as it runs close to a one million dollar deficit, and should not be approved as is by the NFC.
