June 2012 Archives
LA as Subject:
Maps, legal contracts, and even two-hundred-year-old artillery make up this collection of items from around the region.
Commentary:
It may cost more than a billion dollars, one fifth of the county's annual budget, to build enough beds for the prison population.
Movie Miento:
Adolfo Guzman-Lopez predicts a Los Angeles where Spanish is as accepted as hearing French in Quebec. Dual immersion education, in which a English is taught alongside another language, is changing things, he says.
Health:
The victim, a 70-year-old woman from Kern County, was hospitalized but is recovering.
Where We Are:
There is only a short distance between "bank owned property" and a medical emergency.
Commentary:
While not one Republican voted for the budget plan, no Republican votes are needed under our current system.
Education:
California wants to use its own accountability system to improve schools rather than to abide by federally required policies from No Child Left Behind.
Notes of a Native Daughter:
I teach in an area almost written off by affluent America, in a university where "minority" students have been the majority for years. I teach students who lately inspire resentment among Californians who begrudge tax dollars.
Environment:
The West Cost is bracing itself for debris from the devastating tsunami that hit Japan more than a year ago. Millions of tons of wreckage washed into the Pacific Ocean. Most of it sank, but roughly 1.5 million tons remains afloat.
Where We Are:
It's not just California that has adopted a peculiar form of civic vandalism. Cities everywhere - particularly mid-size cities with limited revenue options - feel the pressure.
SoCal Focus is a daily blog about the people, places and issues in and around Southern California.
