THE NATION

Shell Settles Human Rights Suit for $15.5M

NEW YORK (AP) — Royal Dutch Shell agreed to a $15.5 million settlement June 8 to end a lawsuit alleging that the oil giant was complicit in the executions of activist Ken Saro-Wiwa and other civilians by Nigeria’s former military regime.

Shell, which continues to operate in Nigeria, said it agreed to settle the lawsuit in hopes of aiding the “process of reconciliation.” But Europe’s largest oil company acknowledged no wrongdoing in the 1995 hanging deaths of six people, including poet Ken Saro-Wiwa.

The lawsuit in U.S. District Court in New York claimed Shell colluded with the country’s former military government to silence environmental and human rights activists in the country’s Ogoni region. The oil-rich district sits in the southern part of Nigeria and is roughly the size of San Antonio. Shell started operating there in 1958.

The primary complaint against Shell focused on activities by the company’s subsidiary, Shell Petroleum Development Co. of Nigeria Limited.

Blues Legend KoKo Taylor Succumbs

CHICAGO (AP) — Koko Taylor, a sharecropper’s daughter whose regal bearing and powerful voice earned her the sobriquet “Queen of the Blues,” has died. She was 80.

Taylor died June 3 after complications from surgery at Northwestern Memorial Hospital about two weeks after having surgery for a gastrointestinal bleed, said Marc Lipkin, director of publicity for her record label, Alligator Records.

Taylor’s career stretched more than five decades. While she did not have widespread mainstream success, she was revered and beloved by blues aficionados and earned worldwide acclaim for her work, which includes the bestselling song “Wang Dang Doodle” and tunes such as “What Kind of Man is This” and “I Got What It Takes.”

Taylor appeared on national television numerous times. She was the subject of a PBS documentary and had a small part in director David Lynch’s “Wild at Heart.”

In the course of her career, Taylor was nominated seven times for Grammy awards and won in 1984.

Born Cora Walton just outside Memphis, Tenn., Taylor last performed on May 7 in Memphis at the Blues Music Awards.

THE SOUTHLAND

Chief Bratton Hopeful Consent Decree Will End

(AP) — Police Chief William Bratton said June 4 he was optimistic that a federal judge would end an agreement with the U.S. Justice Department that has governed policies of the Los Angeles Police Department since 2001, when the force was emerging from several years of scandal and corruption.

Police department attorneys were scheduled on June 8 to ask U.S. District Judge Gary Feess to allow the so-called consent decree to expire on June 16. But Feess postponed the hearing until next week, June 15.

Bratton said he hopes the judge acknowledges how far the department has come in the last eight years but remains cautious about his expectations.

The city agreed to allow oversight of the police department by federal monitors after the Justice Department threatened to sue the city over a pattern of police misconduct. Two high-profile cases from the 1990s included the beating of Rodney King and the Rampart division corruption scandal in which officers beat, shot and framed suspects, dealt drugs and covered up their crimes.

The judge could extend the decree by two years if Feess finds the department does not meet three conditions: financial disclosure for officers in gang and narcotics units, video cameras in patrol cars, and a computer system to track complaints against officers.

THE STATE

California Legislators Reject Education Cuts

SACRAMENTO — Legislative budget committees are refusing to end state college financial aid or cut most state funding from Hastings College of the Law.

Rejecting Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s two proposals means lawmakers will have to find $235 million to trim elsewhere in the budget. Legislators must quickly close a $24.3 billion budget hole before the state runs out of money.

But Senate Budget Committee chairwoman Denise Ducheny, a Democrat from San Diego, says the state can’t drop the Cal Grant program that will help 77,000 low- and moderate-income students enter college this year.

San Francisco Democratic Sen. Mark Leno said ending aid to San Francisco-based Hastings law school is unfair because it is deeper than cuts facing other University of California programs.

Information from: The Sacramento Bee, www.sacbee.com.

Preschool Helps Close the Learning Gap

(New America Media) — Providing high-quality preschool education to more Latino and African American children is key in closing the achievement gaps in California’s K-12 public education system, according to a recent study.

“Preschool Adequacy and Efficiency in California: Issues, Policy Options, and Recommendations,” is the last in a series of studies on California’s early childhood education system by the RAND Corp. It focuses on the need to increase both access to, and quality of, preschool programs, especially for children who are likely to fall behind in elementary grades.

“California’s early childhood education system is both inadequate and inefficient,” said report author Lynn Karoly. “It can only serve about half of the eligible three and four year olds.”

The report points out that students from low-income, disadvantaged families are least likely to participate in any preschool programs and will be less prepared when starting kindergarten. As a result, those readiness gaps will then become significant achievement gaps as they advance in grade level.

The achievement gap can be narrowed by 10 to 20 percent by doing two things, the report states. First, by increasing the number of disadvantaged children attending preschools; and second, by improving the quality of preschool education.

On The Net: Full report, www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG889.

Judge Rules Ex-Transit   Cop Will Face Murder Trial

OAKLAND (AP) — A judge ruled June 4 that a former Bay Area transit police officer will stand trial on murder charges in the fatal shooting of an unarmed man on a train platform.

Alameda County Superior Court Judge C. Don Clay said there was sufficient evidence for ex-Bay Area Rapid Transit police officer Johannes Mehserle to face murder charges in the shooting of Oscar Grant early New Year’s Day.

“There is no doubt in my mind Mr. Mehserle meant to shoot Oscar Grant with a gun, not a Taser,” Clay said concluding a seven-day preliminary hearing in Oakland. “It’s a dangerous act, an intentional act, a deliberate act.”

Mehserle sat looking straight ahead after the ruling. Grant’s mother burst into tears.

Videos of the incident that spread across the Internet show Mehserle, 27, firing a shot into the 22-year-old’s back as he lay face down. Officers had detained Grant and four friends at Oakland’s Fruitvale station for allegedly fighting on a train.

Mehserle’s lawyer Michael Rains has contended that Mehserle accidentally grabbed his pistol instead of his stun gun during the incident.

Rains said June 5 he intends to file a change of venue for his client because he does not believe Johannes Mehserle will get a fair trial in Alameda County.

Hearing Delayed for Ex-Militants in SF Cop Killing

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A preliminary hearing scheduled for June 8 was postponed until July 6 for seven alleged ex-members of the Black Liberation Army accused of killing a San Francisco police officer in 1971.

The hearing was rescheduled for July 6 because one of the attorneys, John Philipsborn, is in the middle of another case.

Philipsborn represents Henry Jones, an Altadena resident and one of the defendants prosecutors say was in the BLA, an off-shoot of the Black Panthers.

The seven are accused of killing Sgt. John V. Young.

Authorities allege the group robbed banks, bombed a police funeral, and killed officers during a five-year campaign against law enforcement on both coasts.

The other defendants in the San Francisco case are Herman Bell; Anthony Bottom; Ray Boudreaux; Richard Brown; Harold Taylor; and Francisco Torres.

About 300 supporters of the men gathered in front of San Francisco Superior Court June 8 demanding that the charges against the accused be dropped. They say that confessions extracted from some of the individuals were based on torture.

Charges Dropped, Protests in Texas Dragging Case

PARIS, Texas (AP) — Protesters outside a Texas courthouse were expressing anger over the dismissal of murder charges against two white men in the dragging death of a black man.

About 150 people attended the rally on June 8, including members of the Nation of Islam and the New Black Panther Party. They say a pattern of unequal justice by race existed in Paris, about 90 miles northeast of Dallas.

On June 4, a special prosecutor, citing a lack of evidence, had charges dismissed against Shannon Finley and Charles Crostley, who were accused of killing their friend Brandon McClelland. The three men went on a late-night beer run into Oklahoma last September, and McClelland was run over and dragged at least 70 feet beneath the truck.

The men were released from jail the same day.