Journalism thrives at schools serving Yorba Linda; staffs embrace new technology, create news sites

Journalism is thriving at several public school campuses serving Yorba Linda, as students and advisers embrace new technology to publish online newspapers, some with staffs posting new material on a daily basis.

And while the online journals cover the more traditional elements of campus life – with articles on students, teachers, sports and other school events – the student editors and reporters also tackle community, state, national and worldwide news with factual stories and opinion pieces.

These new-style publications achieve success by employing technology supplied by Minnes-ota-based School Newspapers Online, a firm organized by journalism advisers that provides website hosting and user support to scholastic staffs from elementary school to college level.

Esperanza and Yorba Linda high schools, Bernardo Yorba, Kraemer and Travis Ranch middle schools and Woodboro Elementary School have the online sites that serve campus communi-ties and reach worldwide audiences.

For example, the Matador Messenger at Bernardo Yorba Middle School, the first in the Placentia-Yorba Linda school district to use the School Newspapers Online technology, reports an average readership of more than 7,000 individuals worldwide.

The Messenger website has a world visitors map pinpointing the locations of visitors and a “Who's Online” box identifying viewers as either “visitors” or “bots,” software apps allowing automated web surfing.

Adviser Christine Perez created the Bernardo Yorba class five years ago to fill a need on campus for an English elective. The school's previously printed paper ended its run in the 1980s. This year's staff has 28 reporters and editors who meet daily during first period.

Financing comes from the school's site council, while other schools have some income from advertising. School Newspapers Online charges $300 for setup and an annual $325 hosting fee, plus other optional expenses, well below the cost of printed copies.

Perez says the staff “is taught to research using multiple sources. These young journalists reach out and conduct interviews with experts, entrepreneurs, scientists, doctors, coaches, athletes, musicians and community members.”

Subjects of recent stories have included the Esperanza Hills housing plan, the endangered rusty patched bumblebee, teens use of social media, relationships and a Russian spy ship.

Perez adds: “Most importantly, what I see every day are students who are transformed by this process of research, interviewing, writing, editing and publishing. They are no longer students in a journalism class; they are published authors with a worldwide audience, empowered by possibilities.”

Access Esperanza and Yorba Linda high school news sites at ehsaztlan.com and ylhsthewrangler.com; Bernardo Yorba, Kraemer and Travis Ranch middle schools at matadormessenger.com, kmscubreporter.com and trmsblazerboiler.org; and Woodsboro Elementary at woodsboroworld.com.

Yorba Linda revises policy on investing funds

Significant actions related to Yorba Linda's policy on investing city funds – investments which now total close to $67 million, according to a recent report from City Treasurer Scott Catlett – have been taken by City Council members.

Added to this city's invested funds are nearly $26 million in investments held by trustees and about $6 million in checking accounts for a cash and investments total exceeding $98 million.

Late last year, the council approved a contract with PFM Asset Management “to provide discretionary management of the city's investment portfolio,” and PFM began repositioning the city's invested assets.

Catlett, who also serves as Finance Director, reported to the council that “the bulk” of city investments are being moved from the state's Local Agency Investment Fund “to other investments that will provide the city with improved interest earnings.”

Also, based on PFM's “comprehensive review” of the city's investment policy, the policy has expanded from a six-page version adopted in 2016 to a 17-page document approved by the council last month.

The revisions “clarify, modernize and enhance the policy,” Catlett stated, and “are consistent with industry best practices and the California laws governing the investment of public funds.”

Some changes “impact the permitted composition of the city's investment portfolio,” while others “do not alter the types of investments that the city treasurer may purchase,” Catlett noted.

Among additions to the types of investments that may be purchased for the city's portfolio and the percentages of the various investment types that may be held in the portfolio:

--Investments with a single issuer can make up no more than 5 percent of the portfolio, and up to 10 percent can be in asset-back securities with an AA rating from a diverse pool of receivables such as credit card balances, auto and mortgage loans, among other assets.

--Investments in certificates of deposit, commercial paper and medium-term corporate notes are each limited to 30 percent of the portfolio, and money-market funds limited to 20 percent.

--Investment potential expands from California state debt to all 49 states and local gover-nment agencies in California, if rated at least A for long-term and A-1 for short-term debt, limited to 30 percent of portfolio assets.

--Added to investment possibilities are supranational securities issued by Washington, D.C.-based multi-national organizations for economic development purposes that are rated AA or higher, limited to 15 percent of portfolio assets.

Also, a section dealing with performance standards has been added requiring an evaluation against a benchmark that is representative of the city's objectives and liquidity requirements.

The revised policy applies to the remainder of the current and the 2017-18 fiscal year. The council must adopt an investment policy each year, even if no changes are recommended.

Famed Nixon family dog Checkers subject of strange Yorba Linda rumors through the years

Although Checkers, the famed Nixon family dog whose namesake is Yorba Linda's first-ever canine playground, never lived here, the pooch has had an unusual relationship with the city that began 33 years after the dog's passing in 1964.

The story involves nationwide speculation and years of hearsay that eventually resulted in several “fake news” items – to use the terminology employed today – related to the cocker spaniel's alleged reburial at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum.

Speculation about moving Checkers from the Bide-a-Wee Pet Cemetery in Wantagh, N.Y., began seven years after the then-private library and museum opened in Yorba Linda in 1990. First mention of a reburial was in the May 5, 1997, U.S. News and World Report.

The article was picked up by newspapers nationwide, with the rumor appearing in the New York tabloids, New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times and dozens of others, but the transfer, supposed to occur sometime in the fall, never took place.

The next mention of the matter came when Julie Nixon Eisenhower was interviewed by Larry King at the library for a CNN broadcast Aug. 11, 2001. According to a CNN-posted transcript, Eisenhower told King about Checkers, “Some day we're going to bring her to the library.”

King's response: “Why not?”

That less-than-a-minute snippet from an hour-long program resulted in a new flood of stories about the coming transfer of the dog's remains from New York to Yorba Linda to rest near the graves of the former president and his wife.

However, an Associated Press reporter contacted the Bide-a-Wee people and was told by a cemetery spokesperson, “We haven't been informed by anyone that they wish to remove the dog.”

Soon the story morphed into “fake news,” with Bill Press noting in his 2001 book (ironically, about manipulating truth) “Spin This!”: “the Nixon family repaid Checkers by exhuming him [actually, Checkers was a her] from his burial plot on Long Island and repotting him at the Nixon Library....”

I read the book in 2005, after picking it up from a Barnes & Noble 99-cent sale table, so I wondered if a burial had taken place. I emailed then-director John Taylor, who replied, “Yep, that sounds like Mr. Press. His statement is incorrect. Checkers reposes in Long Island still.”

But this story won't die. The 2016 edition of “White House Confidential: The Little Book of Weird Presidential History” by Gregg Stebben and Austin Hill maintains “there is a movement by the Nixon Library to have [her] exhumed and reburied next to the president in Yorba Linda, California.”

Now, with the Checkers Dog Park expected to open this summer, Yorba Linda has an ideal location for a new grave site. Moving Checkers' remains and above-ground granite marker from Bide-a-Wee, which touts more than 65,000 pet interments since 1916, to Yorba Linda would add to the city's Nixon lore and be a modest tourist draw.

In 2017 Yorba Linda celebrates two significant anniversaries: 50 years as a city, 100 years for weekly Yorba Linda Star newspaper

Yorba Linda celebrates two significant anniversaries in 2017: The 50^th year of city incorporation and the 100^th year of publication of the Yorba Linda Star newspaper.

The city celebration is scheduled to begin at a May 2 City Council meeting with presentations, recognition of past council and commission members, a photo display and a video slide show highlighting Yorba Linda “then and now.”

The culmination will be the annual “State of the City” address by Mayor Peggy Huang, slated Nov. 2, the actual anniversary of the incorporation date. In-between events include a 5K “fun walk” at the Gun Club Linear Road and history and storytime presentations at the library.

Celebratory activities will be added to the city's other regular, annual events, such as the movies and concerts at Hurless Barton Park, July 4 fireworks show, Sheriff's Department National Night Out and Fire Authority's open house.

Festivities also will include distribution of marketing materials and promotional give-a-ways, according to a report by Management Analyst Allison Estes at a council meeting last month.

Among promotions listed: T-shirts, key chains, pens, 1967-era snacks and 50-year “fun facts.”

Estimated costs are $14,250 for events and $12,750 for materials and supplies.

The long road to cityhood began in 1956 with the formation of a citizens committee to study incorporation. This group was followed by others through the years, as Anaheim, Brea and Placentia all attempted to annex the area.

A vote to annex to Anaheim in 1963 lost 1,062 to 607, despite the Yorba Linda Homeowners Association and Yorba Linda Star supporting annexation. The 1967 vote to incorporate won 1,963 to 638, with the Star and Richard Nixon endorsing the measure.

Sadly, not much is known about the early years of the Yorba Linda Star, except that it was first printed in La Habra sometime in 1917 by A. V. Douglas, who began the La Habra Star in 1916.

I've been unable to locate any Yorba Linda Star issues from 1917, 1918 and 1919, but three libraries – Yorba Linda, Cal-State Fullerton and UC Riverside – list microfilm holdings beginning with Vol. 3, No. 101 (March 22, 1920) under the name “The Star.”

Holdings under the name “Yorba Linda Star” with issues beginning with Vol. 5, No. 145 (July 7, 1922) are available on microfilm at the three libraries, with some missing issues reported.

The UC Riverside library catalog notes the paper was published three times each week for two summer months in 1922, twice weekly from Sept. 1, 1922, and weekly starting July 13, 1923.

Early issues carried a small banner: “Covering Yorba Linda – Atwood – Yorba – Olinda – Santa Ana Canyon Districts – East Coyote Hills – and Richfield-Yorba Linda Oil Fields.”

The last of the individual owner-publisher-editor titles were held by Val Lucas (1946-1961) and Bill Drake (1961-1974), before corporate ownerships began when Drake sold in 1974.