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Today (Thursday March 31) is Cesar Chavez Day.
California state offices (including the Department of Motor Vehicles and Los Angeles Superior Courts) will be closed.
Chavez was a labor leader and civil rights activist who co-founded the group which later became the United Farm Workers.
Los Angeles city offices will be open, as it observes Cesar Chavez Day on the last Monday in March.
Federal offices and services (including the U.S. Postal Service) will be open.
Banks, Metro bus, subway, train and trash collection services will all operate on their regular schedules.
Observances are planned on the 84th anniversary of his birth at the El Camino College Compton Center and Torch Middle School in Industry and a Long Beach park bearing his name.

Cesar Chavez.

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“Dancing With The Stars” has lost its first couple.
Mike Catherwood and Lacey Schwimmer were voted off the reality TV show last night.
The dance partners were hoping that their energetic jive in Monday’s live show would save them from elimination.
But their underwhelming performance didn’t manage to see them through with the public vote waving them goodbye.
The KROQ radio host took the news graciously and thanked his fans, the DWTS crew and most of all his partner, Lacey.
“Everybody knows that Lacey Schwimmer is beautiful on the outside” – he said. “But I also want to say that she equally as beautiful on the inside and I have made a friend for life.”
When asked what the best part about being on the show was, Mike said he enjoyed all of it.
“It’s hard to name one thing, it has been an amazing experience overall” – he said.
The 32-year-old said he was saddened to be voted off but had a blast on the reality show.
“It sucks to be sent off first… but I have made a lot of friends.”
The couple were then asked to do one last spin, where Mike got down on the floor and did a silly dance.
Their elimination came after they were joined by Sugar Ray Leonard and Anna Trebunskay in the final two.
Both partners received a low score of 17 in their live performance the night before.
But Sugar Ray and Anna made the cut, with the viewer’s vote keeping them in the game.

Dancing with the Stars.

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French specialist climber Alain Robert succeeded in conquering the world’s tallest tower, Dubai’s Burj Khalifa on Monday night, completing the 828m climb in around six-hours.
Robert (known as the French Spiderman) began the climb at 6pm and reached the top of the spire of the building just after midnight. Thousands of spectators gathered to watch Robert reach the tower’s tallest point.
Known for climbing unassisted, Robert agreed to use a harness as stipulated by officials prior to the climb. He also used climbing equipment to scramble up the tower’s spire as there is nothing to grip on to on the sheer surface of the spire.
Robert was supposed to begin the climb at 4.30 pm, but the wind picked up in Dubai and delayed the start of the climb.
The Burj is the latest in a long line of famous structures conquered by Robert. He has already scaled over 100 skyscrapers and structures including the Eiffel Tower, the Sydney Opera House and Taipei 101. He was arrested and fined after climbing the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 1997, and has since gone on to climb the Willis Tower, in Chicago, One Canada Square in London, and was arrested and expelled from China for scaling the Jin Mao building in Shanghai.

Burj Khalifa.

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On tonight’s episode of “The Celebrity Apprentice”, where Dionne Warwick was fired and then called NeNe Leakes a coward, the teams had to create commericials for the ACN video phone.
But, this wasn’t the first time that there has been an ACN challenge on The Celebrity Apprentice.
The March 22, 2009 Celebrity Apprentice Challenge was an ACN one. Last year – the celebrities had to help launch the ACN video phone, instead of just making a commercial for it like they had to do on tonight’s episode.
ACN has the personal endorsement of Donald Trump. Maybe we’ll see another ACN challenge on a later Celebrity Apprentice.

Celebrity Apprentice.

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Reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel started his 2011 Formula One defense in emphatic style on Sunday – leading the season-opening Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne from start to finish.
McLaren’s 2008 world champion Lewis Hamilton did well to finish second after damaging his car on the first corner while Lotus Renault’s Russian driver Vitaly Petrov achieved his first podium finish.
The 23-year-old German notched up his 11th win in his 63rd Formula 1 race.
Fernando Alonso finished fourth for Ferrari – with Mark Webber in his Red Bull in fifth place. Jenson Button came sixth in his McLaren.
Red Bull team boss Christian Horner said after the race his team did not use its KERS power-boost system because of technical issues, underlining the scale of Vettel’s victory.
Following his triumph, Vettel said – “It was a good race. In the end things calmed down, Lewis didn’t push, but it was not an easy race.
“The start was crucial, I was on the clean side, but didn’t know if it was enough until we got through the first corner.
“With Lewis dropping off later in the race, there was no pressure, so I was able to control it.”
Assessing the season ahead, Vettel added – “It’s a long season, so we have to keep on doing what we are doing now, enjoying, but working hard.”

Formula 1 - Australia GP.

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This time tomorrow, Earth Hour would have come and gone. But the threat from the effects of climate change will still very much be a reality.
Earth Hour 2011 has reached an unprecedented record number of participation with 130 countries and territories registered to take part – on all seven continents, all G20 countries, thousands of cities, and iconic landmarks and public figures set to join with hundreds of millions across the world to celebrate action for the planet.
Fiji is special in a way to this campaign because we will open the stage for the rest of the world.
From here on – the event will move westward with the sun to New Zealand, Australia, Manila, Dubai, Dublin, New York, Chicago and finally San Francisco.
For the past three years, Earth Hour has generated a lot of debate from conservationists and the laymen alike about the effectiveness of this ‘lights out’ campaign.
Some people would say that it’s nothing more than a publicity stunt. Why else would one bother turning off their lights for just one hour? What kind of a real difference will that make? What happens after this one hour? Aren’t people going to go back to their usual habits?
However, the importance of earth hour is its symbolic meaning. It is simply the designated time when millions of people from countries around the world join together as one to show their combined support.

Earth Day.

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Over 4,000 cities (including New Delhi and Mumbai) from 131 countries will turn off their lights during the global Earth Hour event Saturday, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) said on Friday.
Earth Hour is organised annually on the last Saturday of March by the WWF.
“Earth Hour is your chance to vote for Earth by shutting down your lights between 8.30 p.m. and 9.30 p.m. your local time” – the WWF website read.
The origin of the campaign can be traced back to Australia in 2007 when businesses and residents in Sydney turned off their lights for one hour to make a statement about energy use and global warming.
Moscow, Geneva, Budapest, Berlin, Rome, Barcelona, Helsinki, Oslo, Madrid, Paris, London, Amsterdam and Vienna are some European cities that will turn off in the name of sustainability all non-essential lights.
In Asia, cities like Bangkok, Singapore, Mumbai, Ho Chi Minh City, Hong Kong, Seoul, New Delhi, Auckland and Shanghai will support the WWF initiative.
In North America, Toronto, Vancouver, New York and Chicago are among those that will go dark. In the South, cities including Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Santiago, Sao Paulo, Valparaiso will take part.
Even the Davis research station in Antarctica will turn off its lights.

Earth Hour.

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Missouri Tigers AD Mike Alden flanked by Marcus Denmon, Laurence Bowers and Kim English announced at a Wednesday night press conference that the rumors were true – head coach Mike Anderson is headed to Arkansas to become the head coach of the Razorbacks.
The rumors had been out there for over a week although the news didn’t become official Mizzou made an announcement he was gone, and Arkansas announced his arrival. It wasn’t until early Wednesday evening that we learned they were legitimate and it was happening.
The players clearly didn’t come across as happy at times and (according to reports) looked mad walking into the 7:00 p.m. team meeting where Anderson told them the news. They said all the right things at the press conference, focusing on moving on, but you know this wasn’t an easy moment for them.
Anderson told his players last week any news would come straight from him but that wasn’t the case. Everyone (including the media) knew of Anderson’s departure hours before he was able to get back to Columbia and tell the players. AD Mike Alden said he wasn’t told until 6:45 p.m.
It’s a disappointing day for Mizzou as they lose Anderson to Arkansas. The anger will be there for a while. We’ll figure out what his legacy is. We’ll move on.

Mike Anderson.

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Los Angeles. Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers dug down deep when it mattered on Tuesday night to remain the hottest team in the NBA.
Bryant scored 42 points, including a floater with 14 seconds left in the third overtime, as the two-time defending NBA Champions outlasted the pesky Phoenix Suns for a thrilling 139-137 home-court victory.
“We’re the champs. We’ve got a lot of mental toughness and we just keep on fighting” – said Bryant. “It’s not anything new.”
Bryant added 12 rebounds and nine assists in the Lakers’ fifth straight win and 13th in the last 14 games.
Lamar Odom had a season-best 29 points with 16 rebounds, Spaniard Pau Gasol collected 24 and 13 boards for the Lakers (51-20), who won again as centre Andrew Bynum served a two-game suspension for his flagrant foul Friday night on Minnesota’s Michael Beasley.
“We haven’t played many overtime games this year, and this one was a tough one” – Gasol said. “But I’m proud of our team, the way we battled, the way we fight through each and every OT. We reacted well and handled it well.”
Channing Frye scored a career-high 32 points with 14 rebounds, Poland’s Marcin Gortat added 24 and 16 boards off the bench, while Steve Nash finished with 19 points and 20 assists for the Suns (35- 34), who dropped three games behind idle Memphis for the final Western Conference playoff berth.
“This is a big loss” – Nash said. “There is no other way to put it.”

Lakers vs Suns.

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Tuesday is ‘World Water Day’, an occasion to celebrate water and its crucial contribution to human life in all its forms. To mark the occasion, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has released a report that gathers available evidence on the benefits of investing in water and sanitation services.
The emphasis of the report is on presenting the facts and figures in a way that can grab the attention of policy-makers and investors.
So let’s start with the facts – almost 1 billion people lack access to safe water supplies, and 2,6 billion are without access to basic sanitation. Approximately 10% of the global burden of disease worldwide could be prevented with improvements to water, sanitation and hygiene and better water resource management.
Wastewater often reaches the environment untreated or insufficiently treated, resulting in major impacts on surface waters and associated ecosystems as well as economic activity that uses these resources.
Providing access to clean drinking water and sanitation can reduce health risks and can free up time for education and other productive activities, as well as increasing the productivity of the labour force.
In times of budget austerity – sanitation and hygiene promotion can be an extremely efficient allocation of public resources. An earlier study, produced by the Disease Control Priorities Project, a World Bank-funded NGO examining health priorities in the developing countries, found that hygiene and sanitation promotion cost respectively 3 dollars and 11 dollars per DALY averted (disability adjusted life year – a measure of overall disease burden), compared to 922 dollars per DALY for the provision of antiretroviral therapy against Aids for example).

World Water Day.

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