California Teachers Association

Her Saturday morning show, which spotlights California public education, points to Dina Ruiz Eastwood's down-to-earth background: graduation from a state university and a father who teaches high school math. But the big-time celebrity interviews she scores for the modestly produced show also offer a glimpse into a more glamorous world. Eastwood is the anchor of "Quest for Excellence," a feature show that the California Teachers Assn. pays to have produced and aired on stations around the state.

The California Teachers Assn., one of the state's most politically powerful unions, suffered a rare rebuke Thursday when Republican state senators blocked the confirmation of a union leader to another term on the state Board of Education. The Senate rejected Joe Nunez, the CTA's deputy executive director and a chief architect of public labor unions' successful campaign against Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's 2005 effort to upend Sacramento politics.

It was late October, 13 days from the special election, and the forces arrayed against Arnold Schwarzenegger faced a key decision: how best to close their TV broadside against the governor and his slate of ballot measures. For half an hour, tethered via conference call, strategists in Washington and Sacramento weighed their options.

In a rare defeat for teachers' unions, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill Thursday to make it easier for some principals to reject incompetent teachers. The new law won't make it easier to fire public school teachers -- something the governor sought and failed to win with an initiative last November -- but it eliminates one escape route for teachers facing bad reviews. SB 1655 by Sen.

For three heady days in November, 1989, the struggling, working-class Richmond Unified School District basked in the unfamiliar glow of national recognition. Its charismatic superintendent, Walter L. Marks, had seemingly hit pay dirt with his project converting the district's 47 campuses into specialty schools and allowing parents to choose among them.

Employing a political war chest on a par with those of major parties, the California Teachers Assn. is used to being in the thick of campaigns. But on a muggy Monday morning at the end of July, when most of their peers were on vacation, hundreds of teachers gathered at UCLA were reminded that they were now targets as much as participants.

In the battle over the school vouchers initiative, the California Teachers Assn., which represents 230,000 public schoolteachers, has cemented its reputation as a free-spending special interest willing to use fierce campaign tactics. Pumped up by a multimillion-dollar campaign, the union could emerge from the vouchers fight as perhaps the most potent force in state politics.

The powerful Los Angeles teachers union has taken up a fight to end the investment of California teachers' retirement funds in tobacco companies. In the wake of a vote by its house of representatives, United Teachers-Los Angeles will urge the California State Teachers Retirement System to drop 19 tobacco companies from its portfolio of 3,000 American stocks.

Wayne Johnson has been reelected to a second two-year term as president of the 300,000-member California Teachers Assn. He ran unopposed, as did Vice President Barbara E. Kerr and Secretary-Treasurer Davis A. Sanchez. Johnson, 60, was a high school social studies teacher in Los Angeles Unified School District. He started his teaching career in 1962 at Hamilton High School in West Los Angeles. The influential union imposes a two-term limit on its top officers.

Seeking to jump-start his stalled bid for control of the Los Angeles public schools, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa sought a compromise Monday with an old ally that has become his chief nemesis, the state's largest teachers union. But even as leaders of the powerful California Teachers Assn. signaled a willingness to talk, Villaraigosa faced questions and doubts from fellow Democrats in the Legislature about the benefit of his taking over the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Defying some of his strongest supporters in the race for governor, state Treasurer Phil Angelides on Thursday threw his support behind a November initiative that would use taxpayer money to fund campaigns and would markedly restrict political donations to candidates. The decision to endorse Proposition 89 puts Angelides at odds with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, his Republican opponent.

Arnold Schwarzenegger entered the Sheraton conference room with an unlit stogie in his mouth. On this day in November 2004, his concession to the Sacramento hotel's smoking rules was the only one he would make to limits set by others. After a string of victories in his first year in office, the governor believed that he had a once-in-a-generation opportunity to overturn California's political order in 2005.

Philanthropist Eli Broad, one of the city's most influential civic figures, has told Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa that he opposes the mayor's current plan to wrest control of the Los Angeles school system. Broad, a longtime ally of the mayor, criticized Villaraigosa for striking a deal with teachers unions that he believes would muddle lines of authority in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Seeking to jump-start his stalled bid for control of the Los Angeles public schools, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa sought a compromise Monday with an old ally that has become his chief nemesis, the state's largest teachers union. But even as leaders of the powerful California Teachers Assn. signaled a willingness to talk, Villaraigosa faced questions and doubts from fellow Democrats in the Legislature about the benefit of his taking over the Los Angeles Unified School District.

In a move that could ease organizing in charter schools and preschools, leaders of the state's largest teachers union announced Sunday that they have opened their ranks to school secretaries, bus drivers and other education professionals who aren't teachers. The vote by the State Council of Education, the top policy-making body of the powerful California Teachers Assn., immediately turns about 5,000 support staff into full CTA members.

The California Teachers Assn. on Saturday endorsed state Treasurer Phil Angelides in the Democratic primary for governor, offering a big boost to his campaign against rival Steve Westly, the state controller. The union is expected to spend millions of dollars this year in an effort to unseat Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, and some of that money now could be put behind Angelides' bid for the Democratic nomination.

The California Teachers Assn. on Saturday endorsed state Treasurer Phil Angelides in the Democratic primary for governor, offering a big boost to his campaign against rival Steve Westly, the state controller. The union is expected to spend millions of dollars this year in an effort to unseat Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, and some of that money now could be put behind Angelides' bid for the Democratic nomination.

Republican gubernatorial nominee Bill Simon Jr. on Monday lashed out at the fund-raising practices of the man he hopes to replace, criticizing Gov. Gray Davis for soliciting $1 million in campaign contributions from the state teachers union at a meeting in his Capitol office. The president of the California Teachers Assn. told The Times that the solicitation occurred during a February meeting in the governor's office at which legislation was discussed.

It was late October, 13 days from the special election, and the forces arrayed against Arnold Schwarzenegger faced a key decision: how best to close their TV broadside against the governor and his slate of ballot measures. For half an hour, tethered via conference call, strategists in Washington and Sacramento weighed their options.

Employing a political war chest on a par with those of major parties, the California Teachers Assn. is used to being in the thick of campaigns. But on a muggy Monday morning at the end of July, when most of their peers were on vacation, hundreds of teachers gathered at UCLA were reminded that they were now targets as much as participants.