UC leaders cancel executive pension program

The University of California's governing board took steps Thursday to limit the pensions of top-earning executives who had threatened to sue the college system over what they claimed was a promise to increase their retirement packages.
UC's board of regents voted to rescind a policy, adopted in 1999, that would have based the system's share of pension contributions on the executives' full salaries instead of a $245,000 cap allowed under federal tax rules.

UC President Mark Yudof said the university received IRS permission to apply the new formula in 2007 but never implemented it because the go-ahead came as its campuses already were grappling with budget cuts and the need to increase spending on pensions for all employees.
Under the canceled program, financing bigger pensions for about 200 vice chancellors and deans who make more than $245,000 would have cost the university $61 million, according to the San Francisco Chronicle ( http://bit.ly/GYDMps).
Thirty-six senior UC managers notified Yudof in December 2010 that they expected the university system to honor its 1999 commitment. But Yudof argued at the time that the system was not obligated to implement the proposed formula because doing so required final approval from him, the board's chairman and the chair of the regents' finance committee.

UC spokesman Steve Montiel said Yudof asked the board to withdraw the policy "to close the loop and make sure everyone is clear that as far as the regents are concerned, no benefits have accrued and no benefits will accrue in the future."
The Chronicle reported that three protesters were arrested at the regents' meeting Thursday when the chairwoman tried to end the public comment period. Several students had criticized Yudof's efforts to prevent further tuition increases and the regents for meeting during students' spring break.
The board left the meeting room when the protesters refused to stop speaking, and when riot police came in to clear them, many in the crowd stripped down to spring break gear of bathing suits and flower leis, the newspaper reported.
The three people arrested, all UCLA students, were booked on suspicion of obstructing an officer and failure to disperse.


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Man claims attack by lion, saved by a bear

A Paradise man says he is lucky to be alive after an attack by a mountain lion Monday morning.
Robert Biggs, 69, often hikes in the Bean Soup Flat area, which is about a mile and a half above Whisky Flats. He came across a mother bear, a yearling and a newborn, which were about 40 feet from where he was standing.

The arm of Robert Biggs

After watching the bear family for a few minutes he decided to leave them be and turned to walk back up the trail. As he turned, a mountain lion pounced on him grabbing hold of his backpack with all four paws.

"They usually grab hold of your head with all four paws, but my backpack was up above my head and (the mountain lion) grabbed it instead," Biggs said. "It must have been stalking the little bear, but it was on me in seconds."

He wrestled with the cat, striking it in the head with a rock pick. The cat screamed when it was hit with the pick, but didn't let go, Biggs said. Before he knew it, the mother bear came from behind and pounced on the cat, tearing its grip from the backpack.

The bear and the cat battled for about 15 seconds, Biggs said, until the cat finally ran away. The bear went on its way as well. Biggs ended up with bite marks, scratches and bruises to his arm, but was otherwise uninjured.

Biggs, a naturist, has hiked that same trail several times and has seen the mother bear and its cub last spring and fall. He said the encounters with the bears were friendly.

"(The cub) stood up on its hind legs and put its paws up and I got to play patty-cake with it," he said.
The patty-cake game was simply touching the bottom of its paw with his open palm, more like a high-five. He said the mother watched the two play and her only reaction was to call the cub back. Biggs said he is certain that the mother that saved him during the mountain lion attack is the same bear he has seen in that area before.

"They're pretty territorial," he said, adding that he recognized some of the bear's markings. Though his arm was pretty cut up, he chose not to go to the doctor, a move that concerned his wife Suzanne.

"There were puncture wounds and skin was hanging off, and you don't know what's in their paws," she said.

Biggs said he wasn't worried because he had a tetanus shot a couple of years ago. Biggs simply put peroxide on his wounds and expects that will be enough.

As for lessons learned, Suzanne quipped, "He doesn't learn."

Whitney Houston's ex-husband Bobby Brown arrested for impaired driving

BOBBY Brown, the ex-husband of Whitney Houston, has been arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence, police said Monday.

California Highway Patrol Officer Mike Harris said Brown was arrested around 12.20pm local time in the San Fernando Valley north of Los Angeles.

He failed a field sobriety test and was booked on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol.

Officer Harris said the R&B singer was pulled over after another officer saw him talking on his cellphone without a hands-free unit and noticed he appeared to be impaired.

Los Angeles police say Brown was released from jail on his own recognisance shortly before 2pm local time but is due to appear before a court at a later date.

The 43-year-old is the ex-husband of Whitney Houston and a founding member of the group New Edition.

Shaima Alawadi Dead: Iraqi Woman Who Was Severely Beaten In California Home Dies

EL CAJON, Calif. — A 32-year-old woman from Iraq who was found severely beaten next to a threatening note saying "go back to your country" died on Saturday.

Hanif Mohebi, the director of the San Diego chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said he met with Shaima Alawadi's family members in the morning and was told that she was taken off life support around 3 p.m.

"The family is in shock at the moment. They're still trying to deal with what happened," Mohebi said.

Alawadi, a mother of five, had been hospitalized since her 17-year-old daughter found her unconscious Wednesday in the family's house in El Cajon, police Lt. Steve Shakowski said.

The daughter, Fatima Al Himidi, told KUSI-TV her mother had been beaten on the head repeatedly with a tire iron, and that the note said "go back to your country, you terrorist."

Addressing the camera, the tearful daughter asked: "You took my mother away from me. You took my best friend away from me. Why? Why did you do it?"

Police said the family had found a similar note earlier this month but did not report it to authorities.

Al Himidi told KGTV-TV her mother dismissed the first note, found outside the home, as a child's prank.

A family friend, Sura Alzaidy, told UT San Diego () that the attack apparently occurred after the father took the younger children to school. Alzaidy told the newspaper the family is from Iraq, and that Alawadi is a "respectful modest muhajiba," meaning she wears the traditional hijab, a head scarf.
Investigators said they believe the assault is an isolated incident.

"A hate crime is one of the possibilities, and we will be looking at that," Lt. Mark Coit said. "We don't want to focus on only one issue and miss something else."

The family had lived in the house in San Diego County for only a few weeks, after moving from Michigan, Alzaidy said. Alzaidy told the newspaper her father and Alawadi's husband had previously worked together in San Diego as private contractors for the U.S. Army, serving as cultural advisers to train soldiers who were going to be deployed to the Middle East.

Mohebi said the family had been in the United States since the mid-1990s.

He said it was unfortunate that the family didn't report the initial threatening note.

"Our community does face a lot of discriminatory, hate incidents and don't always report them," Mohebi said. "They should take these threats seriously and definitely call local law enforcement."

El Cajon, northeast of downtown San Diego, is home to some 40,000 Iraqi immigrants, the second largest such community in the U.S. after Detroit.