Five SoCal Must-Reads: AOL Goes into Latino Neighborhoods & More

In Chatsworth, Los Angeles

A big picture look at the region:

• The nation's busiest port is getting busier, it would appear. Port officials say they've had "a record-setting year for exports, buoyed by an all-time monthly high of goods shipped overseas in November," according to the Daily Breeze's Art Marroquin.

• Free college textbooks in California? Two bills that are planned to be introduced in the next legislative session aim just for that, according to Liz Dwyer at GOOD.

• While on Dwyer's work, another worthy read is a piece from earlier this month: Why the Tech Workforce of the Future Is Coming From South Los Angeles.

• Patch finally goes Latino in California with three new neighborhood sites in Baldwin Hills, South Gate and Lynwood. Kevin Roderick at LA Observed has the memo.

• D.C.-based Writer Paige L. Hill talks about being from Bakersfield over on Zócalo: "It's a city where in the same breath its residents will knowingly laugh and admit it is no cultural rival of San Francisco--and then fiercely defend it for what it is."

Photo by Snap Man via KCET's Southern California Flickr pool.