Dineequity

EDUCATION Facing significant state funding cuts, the Glendale Unified School District Board of Education voted Tuesday to eliminate 112 teaching positions, as class sizes increase to an average of 30 students in the fall. Board members voted 4 to 1 to raise class sizes for kindergarten through third grade, from an average of 20 students to 30, triggering the layoffs because fewer teachers will be needed. Board member Nayiri Nahabedian cast the dissenting vote. School districts have until March 15 to notify teachers they may be let go. Increasing class size would likely put 60 to 80 teachers out of work once retirement, attrition and reassignments are finalized, said John Garcia, assistant superintendent for human resources.

GLENDALE — The U.S. House of Representatives approved a revised $700-billion package Friday to bail out ailing financial institutions, a week after the congressional body rejected the first version in the face of an ongoing fiscal crisis and collapse in the national housing market. The final vote Friday of 263 to 171 included reluctant support from Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff and Republican Rep. David Dreier and opposition from Democratic Rep. Brad Sherman. Revisions to Monday’s bill, which the House rejected, include a temporary increase in the Federal Deposit Insurance limit from $100,000 to $250,000 and the establishment of two oversight committees, one each at the federal and congressional level, to oversee the investment of funds.

GLENDALE — The stock market plunged to its lowest point in four years Monday as global concerns about a worsening credit market precipitated a massive sell-off that afflicted local corporations unable to avoid the collapse. Economists said the morbid reality of bank collapses that has recently become commonplace in this country has now hit European financial institutions as bank-to-bank lending becomes tighter during the global fiscal meltdown. “That’s a symptom of banks’ lack of trust in one another and then the hoarding of cash,” said economist Edward Leamer, a professor at the UCLA Anderson School of Management.