Jeff Norman: There has to be some reason – and probably not a good one – that the VA has been making secret land use deals with private enterprises.
American Family Values, Invisible Lives
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Sikivu Hutchinson: The numbers of LGBT families of color are increasing, especially in traditionally conservative regions like the South, which has seen a new black “re-migration” due to the massive ripple effect of job losses, foreclosures and gentrification in northern urban black communities.
We Draw the Lines: Not So Much
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Unai Montes-Irueste: Unless these drafts are redrawn, California Latinos will be robbed of the Congressional and Legislative representation we deserve—despite the fact that these draft maps were drawn using the very same Census data that attributes 90% of California’s population growth between 2000 and 2010 to Latino youth and migrants.
Dangerous Distortions: Anti-Abortion Fascists and Third World Allies
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Sikivu Hutchinson and Diane Arellano: As with the abortion-as-black-genocide billboards unleashed by the far right Radiance Foundation, the Latino billboards evoke reductive hyper-religious narratives of sinning promiscuous bad women and “breeder” good women.
George Carlin Understood Why LAUSD Does Not Educate
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Leonard Isenberg: George Carlin puts it rather succinctly when he says, “They don’t want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking.”
California Prison Typify the Incarceration Society
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Sherwood Ross: If you want a glimpse into the soul of a nation, visit one of its prisons. California is no exception. It’s typical.
How Will the Open Primary Change Things for California Voters?
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How Will the Open Primary Change Things for California Voters? Can a teacher win an election when career politicians oppose her? Will progressive voters show up and the power of big money?
More Than a Village
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Alvaro Huerta: While by no means a scientific study, my story is an example of how it takes more than a village for someone from the inner city to attend elite universities like UCLA and UC Berkeley.
My Passover Odyssey
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Ruth Broyde Sharone: Perhaps the most memorable Seder I filmed, however, which ultimately had a profound influence on my life and my career, was led by a Black Pastor, Charles C. Queen, for 600 African Americans. “The Israelites were getting out of Egypt,” he intoned. “They were going to be free people!”
Operation Full Disclosure
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U.S. Tour of Duty, ICUJP and Antiwar.com present Operation Full Disclosure, a counteroffensive in response to the war on whistleblowers Mediterranean lunch and discussion with DAVID SWANSON
Prisons or Higher Education, Which Do We Fund?
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Sharon Kyle: Either large segments of the American population suddenly decided to engage in criminal activity or there were changes in sentencing law and prison policy that dramatically increased America’s prison population. Whatever the reason, states are spending more on prisons and less on higher education.
Armenians and Gays Together
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Carl Matthes: The 1998 establishment of Gay and Lesbian Armenian Society (GALAS) to help lgbt “Armenians who are looking for friendship, support and a sense of belonging in the community.” GALAS held its fifth annual Armenian LGBT Conference titled “Breaking Through”
Earth Day 2011
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This year North East Trees will be celebrating Earth Day on Saturday April 16th at Rio de Los Angeles State Park with a day of service and maintenance.
LAUSD – Egypt, Wisconsin, Hamilton High Walkout
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Something important took place Friday at Hamilton High School in Los Angeles. Students at the highly successful magnet school with excellent Humanities, Music, and Drama Magnets as well as six small learning communities who were threatened last week with the loss of 22 of their teachers decided to fight back. Using Facebook and other social [...]
LAUSD Closes Ranks with Principals
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Leonard Isenberg: When I first started teaching back in the late 1980s, somebody told me that principals were Gods and I was foolish enough to believe that they did not mean this literally.
Election Results March 2011
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Election results for the March 8, 2011 election in Los Angeles are almost completely tallied. The results shown here were obtained from the Los Angeles City Clerk’s office. As newer information becomes available, this post will be updated. Check here for continuing updates.
Stephen Box: Balancing Budgets on Labor’s Back
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Stephen Box: The City of Los Angeles is experiencing a Crisis of Leadership, one where the people of Los Angeles are being asked to pay more for less and the people who deliver the city services are being treated as if they are expendable. They’re not.
Marcy Winograd and the Open Primary
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Nyabingi Kuti: The growing LA progressive movement began lobbying Marcy Winograd to jump in. Winograd, a teacher at Crenshaw High, has twice caused Harman concern with her strong challenges to the seat.
Marcy Winograd Launches Campaign for 36th CD
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Marcy Winograd: I am running for Congress, again, because now is the time for bold leadership, for someone to stand up and say NO to those would privatize and loot America, to those who would seize our Social Security checks and deny us Medicare.
Free the 8th District from LA’s Biggest Budget Buster
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Anthony Samad: Bernard Parks disrespects people, the political office he holds, and the political processes he engages.
Behind the Kitchen Door
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Diane Lefer: A comment last week on an LA Times blog argued that “working in a restaurant is not supposed to provide a ‘living wage’. It’s a job that teenagers and students use to get started in life.” Not so according to ROC-LA co-coordinator Cathy Dang who reported that nationwide, people tend to stay in the industry for a lifetime.
Is Parks’ Representation Worth The $2.3 Million Paid Over The Next Four Years?
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Anthony Samad: Ask yourself the question if you’re an 8th District voter, “Am I getting $50,000 a month value out of the leadership (the) Parks provide in this district?”
Faith Predators: Looting the American Dream
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Sikivu Hutchinson: The solipsism of the prosperity gospel as vehicle for commodity capitalism mires African-American communities in an endless spiral of dependence on the supernatural.
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Black Atheists in the Pulpit
Sikivu Hutchinson: Congregants of Zion Hill Baptist Church in South Los Angeles probably thought Pastor Seth Pickens was certifiable when he proposed a community dialogue with the L.A. Black Skeptics Group.