Culver City Observer -

By Neil Rubenstein

Observer Columnist

It was one hundred years ago the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was started.

Sixty years ago the Supreme Court ruled public school segregation unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education, and the country moved ahead with such laws as the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the Fair Housing Act signed into law in 1968 and affirmative action policies in education and in the workplace.

But today all is not well with the mass incarceration of black men, failure of the public school system in the inner city and the increasing wealth gap between whites and blacks.

Maria AKA the wild gypsy lady poured me a stiff drink as I told her about the report the Legislative Analyst’s office wrote recently: “California is facing $340 billion in long-term costs that are not being adequately addressed. The largest percentage of those costs relate to a nearly $74 billion shortfall in the teacher pension fund.”

Over the next four years researchers will be evaluating whether dark chocolate has heart-healthy properties. Previous tests have found dark chocolate improved blood pressure, cholesterol levels and artery health. 18,000 men and women will take part, and in the name of science I hope to be picked. Sign me up.

A recent study using a small number of male doctors discovered a reduced risk of cancer for those using multi-vitamins. Much more work in this area needs to be done.

When we honor those who fought and died for our country, please think of the United States Submariners. Those underwater heroes lost 4,000 men in World War II. That group lost more by percentage than any other.

The Beverly Hills City Council voted for a big pay increase of 10% for fiscal year 2014-2015. Soon their employees will be paying 8% of their annual salary to their own retirement plan. Previously the city paid all costs. However, Beverly Hills is over $100 million in unfunded liabilities. Oh, my.

Golly, slightly more than 10 years ago the Culver City Rotary Club had a car rally here in town and Team Chabola – Jerry and Janet – came in first. Congratulations.

I’m a little late to congratulate Elks Lodge 1917 on their 60th anniversary. But better late . . .

Many people have approached me time and time again regarding my letter printed in the Culver City Observer January 24-30, 2013. Yes, it’s on the paper’s website. We have 25 retirees from city hall getting over $10,000 per month. We have retirees getting more money than members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives and most governors – and still they want more. When is the council going to enact fiscal responsibility?

In November Medicare might announce a new program to charge everyone $3 a month to start screening tobacco users for lung cancer. Those eligible would be between 55 and 79, and who smoked a pack of cigarettes a day for more than 30 years.

In Sacramento the state board that oversees the $68 billion high speed rail project just approved the route between downtown Fresno and continuing to a proposed station miles north of Bakersfield. Let me see, drive to the Fresno depot, ride the bullet train for 114 miles (probably less than 60 minutes), get off, wait two hours for the bus to Bakersfield. I don’t think there will be many riders. As everyone knows, I went to L.A. Unified so please give me a moment to sort through this mess.

Raise your hand if you know the most popular baby names for those born in 2013. If you said Noah and Sophia, give yourself one book of S and H green stamps. For boys: Noah, Liam, Jacob, Mason, William. For girls: Sophia, Emma, Olivia, Isabella, Ava.

As noted in the Morningside Park Chronicle, Inglewood has outsourced parking enforcement officers. Do you think they will now have a quota?

For those who missed an article, all my commentaries can be found at http://www.CulverCityObserver.com by placing Rubenstein in that website's search box.