California City Urges Its Workforce to Learn English
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SANTA ANA, Calif. -- "Two jobs?" blares a poster at a bus shelter here. The words are in Spanish over a picture of a tired-looking Hispanic woman in a janitor's uniform. "Work and Work but You Still Can't Get Ahead?" reads another ad on a bus shelter down the street. At the bottom, the small print:...
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By Julie Sevrens Lyons, San Jose Mercury News, Calif.  Dec.
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By Kevin Howe, The Monterey County Herald, Calif.  Feb.
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By Therese Poletti and Nicole C. Wo, San Jose Mercury News, Calif.  Sep.
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General Electric employee Nadine Meslin says dealing with computer software in any language is tricky, but it's even worse when you're French and the jargon is in English. So what's the answer? Sue!
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Â· Clean record and ability to speak English required Â· Spokesman admits proposal is contentious
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But a police training manual teaches English phrases needed to detain foreigners for reporting on Falun Gong.
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Every day, emergency responders and law enforcement officers nationwide help non-English-speaking people whose lives might be in immediate danger. The job is particularly challenging for small agencies in the South, which has seen a recent influx of Hispanic residents.
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By Nicole C. Wong, San Jose Mercury News, Calif.  Mar.
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By Nicole C. Wong, San Jose Mercury News, Calif.  Feb.
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Australian PM John Howard says immigrants should pass an English language test before becoming citizens.
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By David Pollak, San Jose Mercury News, Calif.  Feb.
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By Andrew Edwards, San Bernardino County Sun, Calif.  Feb. 1--HIGHLAND -- The city's 35 or so employees can expect to have a  lot of work to do over the next two years.
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By Mark Schwanhausser, San Jose Mercury News, Calif.  Sep.
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Several doctors and a group supporting English as the nation&#39;s official language have filed a lawsuit challenging a Clinton-era executive order requiring federally funded hospitals, clinics and doctors to offer translation services for
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IT officials from three California cities detailed their experiences Monday with trying to set up municipal wireless networks, efforts that have yielded varying degrees of success.Speaking during the MuniWireless conference in Santa Clara, Calif., IT executives from Anaheim, San Francisco, and Los Angeles noted development plans for these networks, both for public services and to bridge the digital divide between those with Internet access and those without."Really, it?s been the applications that have been the driving force," said Robb McIntosh, information services manager for Anaheim.The city is in the process of building wireless links for public safety, public works, and other services. EDS runs the city's IT, McIntosh said. Meanwhile, Anaheim's citizen Wi-Fi network, intended for resident access to wireless capabilities, is 70 percent developed, McIntosh said.San Francisco's now-stalled efforts to build citywide wireless links were inspired by the digital divide, said Chris Vein, San Francisco CIO."[Bridging this divide] remains the driving force for us today," Vein said.Plans had called for a mesh network to cover all 49 square miles of the city. EarthLink was supposed to provide the system but that plan did not come to fruition. "Now, we're kind of stepping back, taking a big breath and looking at what we have to do next," Vein said.Anaheim's choice for paying for its citizen wireless network involves selling subscriptions. In San Francisco, payment options such as subscriptions or simply using taxpayer funds are still on the table."We're taking a look at everything," said Vein. "We haven't ruled anything out."Los Angeles also cited digital inclusion as its reason for seeking a wireless network, said Mark Wolf, assistant general manager for the city's Information Technology Agency.Wolf stressed the hurdles in having to provide wireless coverage to a city spanning 464 square miles and extending from the ocean to the mountains. Los Angeles has been doing Wi-Fi on a small basis and has been learning from cities such as Philadelphia and San Francisco. The plan is at a crossroads, Wolf said."It?s a good thing that it's at a crossroads and not cross hairs, in the sites of a gun," said Wolf.?Aside from the altruistic goal of digital inclusion, Los Angeles also is equipping its police force with sophisticated wireless equipment from Motorola. Video capabilities allow police to see a scene before arriving; other features include license plate-scanning, mobile digital cameras, and facial recognition systems.In other talks during Monday's general session at the conference, Padmarsee Warrior, CTO of Motorola, stressed that multiple wireless standards such as Wi-Fi and the newly approved WiMax standard will continue to coexist. While Wi-Fi is limited to covering hot spots, WiMax is good for covering large areas."The right kind of debate for the industry to have is what combination of these technologies provides true value to public safety, to governments, to municipalities, to consumers, to enterprise, to corporations, etc., as the world becomes mobile. And the world is becoming mobile," Warrior said.Speaker Esme Vos, co-founder of MuniWireless.com, emphasized applications for wireless. These included making wireless capabilities available on public transit so people can get their work done while commuting, traffic management, and energy management. Cities such as Riverside, Calif., Tuscon, Ariz., and Milpitas, Calif., are utilizing wireless to provide city services, she said.With cities doubling in size every five years but without the ability to double the number of municipal employees, cities are looking to leverage wireless, Vos said.
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By Scott Duke Harris, San Jose Mercury News, Calif.  Jun.