Even though last year the California Public Utilities Commission rejected the MTA’s proposed street-level Expo Line crossing at Dorsey High School as unsafe, the proposal has reared its ugly head again and is being pushed by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky and the three Black members of the City Council. They are revisiting that cockamamie concept of corralling Dorsey students in “holding pens” to keep them safe from 225-ton trains, rather than constructing pedestrian overcrossings and undercrossings like the ones they have planned for Culver City and the USC areas of the Expo Line.

PUC Commissioner Timothy Simon has scheduled another meeting on this matter — believed to have already been killed — on June 1 in Dorsey’s library. The date and location of the meeting is calculated to keep the community away from the meeting this time. The school’s library only holds 100 people; it’s on the second floor and is inaccessible to the elderly and handicapped; parking will be a problem, as Dorsey has scheduled a recital in the auditorium that night. The community is bombarding Simon with demands that he reschedule his hearing on this thing-that-will-not-die to June 9 or June 13 and hold it in Dorsey’s auditorium, so as many people who want to attend it may do so.

TOP STUDENT — Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, always quick to highlight the good things emanating from his 2nd District, acknowledged the accomplishments of 18-year-old Tyki Nelworth, a Washington Prep High School senior who, despite adversity, earned a four-year scholarship to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Ridley-Thomas praised Nelworth at Tuesday’s board meeting and presented him one of those ornate county certificates extolling his accomplishments in overcoming numerous obstacles to achieve academic success. You see, Nelworth’s mother is in prison, his father is deceased and he was bounced from home to home for years. Yet he graduated from Clay Middle School with straight A’s and is graduating from Washington Prep with a 4.23 GPA after having aced advanced placement classes in English, biology, calculus, chemistry and physics. And he’s not just a bookworm, either, as young Nelworth was captain of the Washington Prep football team, ran track and plays baseball. He plans to study engineering at West Point.

TOP TEACHERS — The Los Angeles Unified School District has bestowed 22 of its teachers with the 2010-11 Teacher of the Year distinction for their “exemplary and creative teaching, which help make a difference in the live of their students, their school and the community.” Local community teachers so designated, and their schools, are: Lisa Butler, Budlong Avenue Elementary; Julie Griffin, 68th Street Elementary; Robert Jeffers, Dorsey High; Aielle Miller, Virgil Middle; Karen Orpe, Clay Middle; Trevor Oystrick, Dorsey High; Allison Rief, 15th Street Elementary and Mary Ann Vasquez, Harmony Elementary. These teachers are now in the running for Teachers of the Year honors at the county, state and national levels.

DATEBOOK — The Greater Los Angeles African American Chamber of Commerce will hold its 11th annual scholarship luncheon June 8 at which it will celebrate the academic achievements of seniors graduating from Crenshaw, Dorsey, and Washington Prep high schools and from the California Academy of Mathematics and Science. The luncheon will be held in the Pacific Ballroom of the Wilshire Grand Hotel from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Ticket information: (323) 292-1297.

Assemblyman Steve Bradford has invited TV Judge Greg Mathis to speak on creating job opportunities for people with prior criminal convictions at Bradford’s “Second Chance Rally” set for next Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. on the north steps of the State Capitol, where people from throughout the state are expected to come together and urge the passage of legislation that would make it easier for ex-convicts to gainfully employed and lead lives as productive members of the community. Bradford has also asked Mathis, a Michigan District Court judge, to speak to inmates of the Sacramento County Jail as part of the judge’s Prisoner Empowerment Education and Respect initiative, through which he visits jails and prisons throughout the country to encourage inmates to change their lives. Judge Mathis is a former incarcerated person.

An HIV Prevention Summit will be held June 4 at Holman United Methodist Church, 3320 W. Adams Blvd. from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The NAACP, the National Council of Negro Women Inc., Women Alive Coalition Inc. and Partnership to Reduce IPV & HIV are the sponsors of this summit, which will be implemented through plenary speakers and discussions among expert panelists. Friday’s summit will review the outcomes of the initial “Knock at Midnight” Los Angeles Regional HIV Summit held in 2003 when various community representatives took part in a statewide effort to develop a blueprint action plan to reduce the impact of HIV/AIDS in African American communities.

THE POLITICAL STUFF — Assembly Speaker Emeritus Karen Bass received the 2010 John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award in Boston Monday for her courageous efforts last year to maintain services for the neediest of Californians while overcoming a $42 billion budget shortfall. Also recognized for their humane approach in solving California’s budget crisis were Bass’ fellow legislators President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento), Assemblyman Mike Villines (R-Clovis) and Sen. Dave Cogdill (R-Modesto).

Speaking of Bass, she picked up support for her bid for Congress last week from some prominent Latino leaders: Rep. Xavier Becerra, Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, Los Angeles City Councilman Jose Huizar and school board President Monica Garcia. … Holly J. Mitchell, Democratic Party Primary candidate for Bass’ 47th Assembly District seat, was endorsed last week by United Farm Works co-founder Dolores Huerta, as well as the California Small Business Association and the California Association of Highway Patrolmen.

Remember, the other day when I was wondering out loud whether Reggie Jones-Sawyer, secretary of the state Democratic Party, was still running for the 47th Assembly District? Remember when I predicted a knock-down, drag-out brawl among Democrats over a Mitchell and a Jones-Sawyer battle for that Assembly seat? Notice how this battle has not occurred and how Mitchell is simply kicking Jones-Sawyer’s butt at will all over the place — even on his own exclusive turf — the Democratic Party? Well, I nosed around trying to find out just what is wrong with Jones-Sawyer. Why isn’t this Assembly campaign any fun? Is Jones-Sawyer conceding defeat before the ballots are even cast? Is he trying to pull a Harry Truman and shock us all by becoming the winning underdog? Naw, that’s not it. From what I heard, the problem is Jones-Sawyer has a bunch of people running his campaign who don’t know what the hell they’re doing.