Chris Davis

On a typical day, Beth Renckens, a Peace Corps volunteer in West Africa, wakes up early to make rounds visiting friends in her small village, Agodokpe, in Togo. Calling on friends first thing in the morning to give formal salutations is a custom in the village, Renckens said, and there is a prescribed way that one greets the people they visit on these trips. The rite involves the host asking the visitor, “What is your motivation for being here?” and the visitor responds, “I’ve come here just to visit,” she said.

LA CAÑADA FLINTRIDGE — Counterintuitive as it may seem, a lead late in a game seemed to be the last thing either team wanted in Thursday night’s CIF Southern Section Division V second-round playoff game between Sage Hill High and host Flintridge Prep. In two of the first three games, the team that trailed late rallied to win and the Rebels did their best to follow suit with a furious rally in the fourth game after the Lightning began to pull away late. “I told the kids [before the fourth game]

The following are odds and ends from the area sports scene. GLENDALE GOES EAST TO COOPERSTOWN A tradition continues starting this weekend, when Coach Dave DePinto takes a talented group of Little Leaguers to New York and baseball's most hallowed grounds. The Glendale Knights, a 12-and-under baseball team that features players from Glendale and La Crescenta, will compete in the Cooperstown Dream Park Tournament in Cooperstown, N.Y., from Sunday through Thursday.

GLENDALE — The following are updates on area Major League Baseball players .   Freddy Sanchez (Glendale Community College, 1998) San Francisco Giants infielder: When Sanchez, a three-time All-Star and 2006 National League batting champion, was dealt to San Francisco from the Pittsburgh Pirates on July 29, things seemed upbeat. Instead, Sanchez suffered a pair of injuries, including a season-ending knee injury suffered last month. To make matters worse, the Giants (86-73)

Like many teachers in California public schools, I recently received a check for nearly $600 because I am fortunate enough to teach at a school where students increased their standardized test scores enough to meet and exceed our Academic Performance Index target. While I believe teachers are not adequately compensated for the work they do, I also do not believe in accepting money for what I believe to be a flawed and unjust reward system. Consequently, like many teachers in California who feel as I do, I have donated the proceeds of my check to organizations I feel can best benefit students.

David C. Wilcox criticizes Assemblywoman Carol Liu for her support for AB2347, suggesting that Liu has been co-opted by the left wing of the state's Democratic Party. (Mailbag, May 4-5.) Mr. Wilcox writes that this bill would have a "draconian" and "disastrous" effect on schools. Such hyperbole is not borne out by what the bill would actually accomplish. AB2347 does away with mandated state testing in second grade only, establishes a review panel to advise the State Board of Education regarding the testing program, removes monetary awards given to staffs in schools that raise students' scores beyond state growth targets, requires alternative tests for students with "exceptional needs" who cannot take the Standardized Testing and Reporting Program (STAR)

Some of the city's most honorable businesspeople were recognized Thursday at the Character and Ethics Project of Glendale's quarterly business award ceremony at the Glendale Central Library. Each of the 36 recipients from Glendale, La Crescenta, Montrose and La Canada Flintridge were commended for their honesty and integrity in dealing with the community and with their co-workers. Recipients included community leaders, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Crescenta Valley Station deputies and Glendale firefighters.

Patricia Adams, agreeing with Allen Brandstater, questions why Chris Davis is teaching that Japanese-Americans were put in concentration camps. She states that "it is absolutely appalling that anyone of the baby-boomer generation [or later] would dare to presume to second-guess the president of the United States during those difficult years, 1941-1945." Speaking as a baby boomer, I can say that everything I have learned about the Japanese internments of World War II, I learned from older history teachers and textbook writers born before World War II. My history textbook from college, copyright 1968, called these internments "the only blot on the record" of American civil rights during World War II. This author was born in 1904.

Chris Davis (Mailbag, May 7) does a masterful job of side-stepping Assemblywoman Carol Liu's indefensible position regarding Assembly bills 2160 and 2347 by focusing entirely on the latter. AB2160 is an unadulterated power grab by the teachers' unions. AB2347 is simply a postscript by comparison. Davis dismisses my comments that AB2160 and AB2347 would have "draconian" and "disastrous" effects as "hyperbole ... not borne out by what the bill [2347]

LA CAÑADA FLINTRIDGE — Counterintuitive as it may seem, a lead late in a game seemed to be the last thing either team wanted in Thursday night’s CIF Southern Section Division V second-round playoff game between Sage Hill High and host Flintridge Prep. In two of the first three games, the team that trailed late rallied to win and the Rebels did their best to follow suit with a furious rally in the fourth game after the Lightning began to pull away late. “I told the kids [before the fourth game]

GLENDALE — The following are updates on area Major League Baseball players .   Freddy Sanchez (Glendale Community College, 1998) San Francisco Giants infielder: When Sanchez, a three-time All-Star and 2006 National League batting champion, was dealt to San Francisco from the Pittsburgh Pirates on July 29, things seemed upbeat. Instead, Sanchez suffered a pair of injuries, including a season-ending knee injury suffered last month. To make matters worse, the Giants (86-73)

On a typical day, Beth Renckens, a Peace Corps volunteer in West Africa, wakes up early to make rounds visiting friends in her small village, Agodokpe, in Togo. Calling on friends first thing in the morning to give formal salutations is a custom in the village, Renckens said, and there is a prescribed way that one greets the people they visit on these trips. The rite involves the host asking the visitor, “What is your motivation for being here?” and the visitor responds, “I’ve come here just to visit,” she said.

The following are odds and ends from the area sports scene. GLENDALE GOES EAST TO COOPERSTOWN A tradition continues starting this weekend, when Coach Dave DePinto takes a talented group of Little Leaguers to New York and baseball's most hallowed grounds. The Glendale Knights, a 12-and-under baseball team that features players from Glendale and La Crescenta, will compete in the Cooperstown Dream Park Tournament in Cooperstown, N.Y., from Sunday through Thursday.

David C. Wilcox criticizes Assemblywoman Carol Liu for her support for AB2347, suggesting that Liu has been co-opted by the left wing of the state's Democratic Party. (Mailbag, May 4-5.) Mr. Wilcox writes that this bill would have a "draconian" and "disastrous" effect on schools. Such hyperbole is not borne out by what the bill would actually accomplish. AB2347 does away with mandated state testing in second grade only, establishes a review panel to advise the State Board of Education regarding the testing program, removes monetary awards given to staffs in schools that raise students' scores beyond state growth targets, requires alternative tests for students with "exceptional needs" who cannot take the Standardized Testing and Reporting Program (STAR)

Because I teach in one of Glendale's high schools that will send some of its students to the Japanese-American Museum, I read with interest the News-Press article, "Students to study internment camps" (April 13-14). I was surprised to read there is such a controversy over this field trip -- at least according to Glendale resident Allen Brandstater, who worries that students will be "propagandized that the [United States] did a terrible thing by interning them [Japanese residents]