Administrators

WASHINGTON - President Obama said Friday he wanted to put more Americans to work by slashing the amount of time it takes to grant federal approval for big job-creating projects. But Obama's choice of venue for his remarks - a Baltimore company that makes mining and pumping equipment - provided fodder for Republicans. They noted that the company president had, just the day before, testified on Capitol Hill in support of the Keystone XL pipeline, which the Obama administration has delayed for years over environmental concerns.

WASHINGTON - Three years ago, the Obama administration brought criminal charges under the Espionage Act against Thomas Drake, an Air Force veteran and intelligence expert at the National Security Agency in Maryland. He was not accused of aiding the enemy or of revealing national secrets. He had, however, helped a Baltimore Sun reporter reveal a billion-dollar boondoggle at the NSA - a computerized data-scanning system that never worked as planned. The case against Drake collapsed on the eve of his trial when it was revealed that the information was not classified.

Los Angeles schools Supt. John Deasy presented a grand, difficult bargain Wednesday in his first formal address to administrators of the nation's second-largest school system. While the delivery was cajoling, Deasy made it plain he would push principals and other managers out of comfort zones, demanding that they take responsibility as never before for hiring teachers and evaluating their performances. He will also direct principals to take greater responsibility for whether individual students are on track for graduation and college.

TUCSON - Young people granted immigration relief and work permits under a new Obama administration program still won't be able to obtain driver's licenses in Arizona, a federal judge has ruled. Although the decision is a win for Republican Gov. Jan Brewer, who issued the executive order denying driver's licenses to this particular group, it's just the first battle in a case that will probably be argued on constitutional grounds. U.S. District Judge David G. Campbell on Thursday turned down a request for a preliminary injunction blocking Brewer's order but stated that the plaintiffs - a contingent of immigrant rights groups - would probably prevail on their claim that the governor's order violates guarantees of equal protection under the U.S. Constitution.

A permissive culture at a suburban New Jersey high school allowed three teachers to engage in sexual affairs with students, in violation of school policy and the law, and two administrators failed to take action on the relationships, prosecutors allege. In documents released Thursday, Camden County prosecutor Warren Faulk announced the charges against the teachers, but also singled out the two administrators who failed to act when they were told of the sexual liaisons and of explicit text messages.

The Commission for Sex Equity is disturbed by the comparison of the LAUSD's advisory commissions with automobiles used by high-ranking administrators in a listing of programs that are "hardly essential" (Oct. 8). The Sex Equity Commission, one of six education commissions representing diverse communities, is the voice of girls and women in our schools. We fight for the elimination of sexual harassment for students and employees, work to ensure equity for the 70% of school employees who are female, work for equitable pregnancy-leave policies for district police officers and advocate for pregnant and parenting teens, among many other issues.

El Modena High School Principal Gail Richards has been named Administrator of the Year by the Orange County chapter of the Assn. of California School Administrators. "It was heartwarming to be recognized by my colleagues," Richards said. "But the award doesn't only belong to me. It's a reflection of the wonderful things students are doing at El Modena." Richards, El Modena's principal for the past five years, has spent her entire teaching career in the Orange Unified School District.

Behind a locked classroom door, a Los Angeles third-grade teacher purportedly committed lewd acts against students. The charges spurred demands for classrooms to remain open during the school day. But after the shooting deaths of 20 first-graders in Connecticut last month, calls were made to keep classrooms locked. The intent of both efforts is to keep students safe. But as school districts nationwide examine their security measures following the Newtown, Conn., massacre, the question of locked versus unlocked classroom doors is in debate.

Re "A Plot to Zap the Nap," editorial, March 21: Childhood naps are more than "neat." They are developmentally necessary for young children. Tired 4-year-olds whine because they're not getting what their bodies and brains need. Andre Hornsby, a Maryland county school chief, and his pals are more than "airheads." They are dangerously ignorant of child development. Unfortunately, they are among a growing number of school administrators, principals and teachers who either know nothing about child development or blatantly disregard it for any number of frightening reasons.

Seeking to ease tensions between the staff of Sun Valley Middle School and the school district, Los Angeles Schools Supt. Sid Thompson appointed an interim administrator Tuesday to run the campus that has been locked in a dispute over its choice of a new principal. John Liechty, who ran the district's middle schools unit and now works in the district's instruction division, will begin overseeing the campus today.

WASHINGTON - President Obama said Friday he wanted to put more Americans to work by slashing the amount of time it takes to grant federal approval for big job-creating projects. But Obama's choice of venue for his remarks - a Baltimore company that makes mining and pumping equipment - provided fodder for Republicans. They noted that the company president had, just the day before, testified on Capitol Hill in support of the Keystone XL pipeline, which the Obama administration has delayed for years over environmental concerns.

When the government obstructs the ability of a news organization to do its job, the most important victims are not journalists but readers. That's why long-standing guidelines set clear limits on how Justice Department prosecutors are expected to behave when interacting with the news media. "In recognition of the importance of freedom of the press to a free and democratic society," the government's own rules say, subpoenas for reporter's records or notes must be personally authorized by the attorney general, may be issued only after other sources are exhausted and are expected to be limited in scope to avoid gratuitous invasion into news gathering.

The use of unmanned aircraft to kill suspected terrorists, a practice that has dramatically escalated during the Obama administration, is receiving fresh and welcome scrutiny in Congress and elsewhere even as the number of drone strikes seems to be on the decline. Last week, Rep. William M. "Mac" Thornberry (R-Texas), the chairman of a House armed services subcommittee, introduced legislation to require the Pentagon to promptly inform Congress about every drone strike outside Afghanistan as well as about operations to kill or capture terrorists away from declared war zones.

WASHINGTON - Email traffic exchanged during the drafting of talking points about the deadly attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, last year shows that the State Department and White House were more involved in shaping the document than they previously let on. The newly released emails highlight the political concerns expressed in those discussions as President Obama's administration wrestled with what to tell the public in...

The Obama administration overstepped its legal authority - and injected politics into what should have been a scientific decision - when it ordered the FDA to limit the availability of a common morning-after contraceptive without prescription to girls and women 17 and older. The FDA had already evaluated the drug and determined that it was safe for females of all ages and should be available to all. That's why U.S. District Court Judge Edward R. Korman last month overruled the administration's decision and ordered that the drug be made available without prescription to females regardless of age. The judge was absolutely right.

Two senior administrators and two principals have been removed from their jobs pending the completion of an investigation into how they handled sexual misconduct allegations against a teacher at a Wilmington school, district officials told The Times. Those placed on paid leave are Linda Del Cueto, the senior instructional administrator in the San Fernando Valley; Mike Romero, head of the adult education division; David Kooper, principal at Gulf Elementary in Wilmington; and Valerie Moses, principal at Los Angeles Elementary in Harvard Heights.

Laura Custodio, dean of Porter Middle School in the San Fernando Valley, sprang into action after hearing that an eighth-grader was selling pot to other students. Without consulting police or parents, she asked a 12-year-old boy with a history of discipline problems to act as a decoy buyer and gave him a marked $5 bill. "I was pretty scared," the decoy, a seventh-grader, later testified in court. "She told me it was the right thing to do and I had to do it … and I didn't want to disappoint her. " The sting roiled a suburban campus better known for its academic achievement and led to a more than $1-million jury award to the seventh-grader and his family in a lawsuit against the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Like almost every teacher at this Hawaiian Gardens middle school, science instructor John Laird posts his students' standardized test results in the back of his classroom. But right next to them, Laird also put up his own evaluation. "This is my report card. Read the principal's comments," he wrote next to it. Laird also invited comments from the class, and several students did comment; they asked him to post grades faster and be more interactive. "I decided if I'm going to hold them accountable, I should be held accountable too," Laird said.

Former President Bill Clinton, stumping for Wendy Greuel in Los Angeles on Saturday, castigated the voter turnout in the mayoral primary as "ridiculous. " "We can't tolerate … the kind of low turnout you all have in these mayors' races," Clinton said of the 20.8% of registered voters who cast ballots in the March primary. "It's ridiculous. There are too many people in Los Angeles, of all ages, that have a big stake in the future. " The former president, who endorsed Greuel in March, lauded her resume as he spoke to scores of her supporters at Langer's Deli.

L.A. Unified teachers and administrators this week expressed wildly differing views of a classroom breakfast program intended to ensure that students don't start the day hungry. United Teachers Los Angeles gave the program a "failing grade" Monday as it released results from an online survey that said the effort had increased pests, created messes and cut down on instructional time. But David Binkle, the district's food services director, on Tuesday said that the program - which serves 193,000 students in 280 schools - was a "smashing success.