NAACP

Cocaine In Your Pocket? Could Be A Simple Misdemeanor Under Mark Leno's Proposal

State Sen. Mark Leno wants to do for cocaine, ecstasy and meth what he did for marijuana. That is, make possession of small amounts basically a ticket-worthy offense -- a misdemeanor. Some of you are no doubt cheering. Leno this week announced that he introduced a bill, SB 649, that would allow pr ... More >>

Blacks, Latinos Faced Housing Discrimination in The Antelope Valley, But Not in Palmdale, City Says Proudly

​Discrimination is an ugly thing (says the guy who gets keys tossed at him at the valet stand), so it's important we don't accuse innocents. The city of Palmdale today announced that, in fact, that was the case when the California NAACP and The Community Action League brought a suit against i ... More >>

SeaWorld Whales Are Slaves Held in Violation of 13th Amendment, PETA Says in SoCal Lawsuit

PETA's a FAIL on this one if you ask us.​Updated at the bottom with reaction from SeaWorld and L.A. author Earl Ofari Hutchinson. First posted at 11:27 a.m. Animal rights -- perfectly normal, perfectly healthy. Yet where does the movement go too far, surpassing even the best wishes of a life- ... More >>

Measure L: For Sheryn Morris and Other Librarians, Adults, Students and Immigrants Need Libraries Now More Than Ever

Jason Jones​Sheryn Morris has been a librarian for 32 years. Eighteen of them at the Los Angeles Public Library system. She currently works at the reference desk at the literature and fiction section of the Richard J. Riordan Central Library in downtown. "We really love our jobs," says Morri ... More >>

Measure L: Benjamin Franklin Librarian Alicia Moguel Says Young Students and Unemployed Impacted By Budget Cuts to L.A.'s Libraries

L.A. Librarian Alicia Moguel​The Benjamin Franklin Branch Library in Boyle Heights serves 16 local elementary schools -- from public to private -- but young students can't go to the busy library after school on Mondays due to deep budget cuts to the Los Angeles Public Library system. "We no ... More >>

Measure L: Mar Vista Branch Librarian Carole M. Kealoha Says Patrons Hurt and Confused by Library Budget Cuts

L.A. Librarian Carole M. Kealoha​At the Mar Vista Branch Library on the west side, senior librarian Carole M. Kealoha says patrons are not happy about the steep budget cuts to the Los Angeles Public Library, where they rely on its services and resources. "Not everyone has a computer at home, ... More >>

Measure L: Exposition Park Branch Librarian Maddy Kerr Says Veterans and Students Deeply Impacted by Library Budget Cuts

L.A. Librarian Maddy Kerr​At L.A.'s Exposition Park Branch Library near the University of Southern California, children's librarian Maddy Kerr has seen firsthand the troubling after-effects of severely reduced operating hours at the Los Angeles Public Library system. "People tell me that if ... More >>

Measure L: Parent Thelma Hernandez Says Working Parents Need Libraries Open Six Days a Week

Thelma Hernandez​Thelma Hernandez says the L.A. public library system has been an essential resource for her family, all of whom regularly visit the Robertson Branch Library on L.A.'s westside. Not only do Hernandez and her two kids take out books, DVDs, and CDs, but the young mother is impr ... More >>

Measure L: Chinatown Branch Manager Shan Liang Says Immigrants Hurt by Severe Budget Cuts to L.A.'s Public Libraries

Chinatown Branch Library in downtown L.A.​Read the most recent L.A. Weekly news story on public library budget cuts: L.A.'s Library Measure L. At the Chinatown Branch Library in downtown Los Angeles, manager Shan Liang says Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese immigrants who know little, if any, ... More >>

Measure L: Robertson Branch Librarian Henry Gambill Says Budget Cuts Hurt Students Who Need Hard-to-Find Books

L.A. Librarian Henry Gambill​Read the most recent L.A. Weekly news story on the public library budget cuts: L.A.'s Library Measure L. Aside from the dying city of Detroit, Los Angeles is the only significant U.S. municipality to close down its entire public library system two days a week due ... More >>

Measure L: Porter Ranch Librarian Jane Dobija Says Slashed Funding For Libraries Limits Public's Access to Needed Information

L.A. Librarian Jane Dobija​When it comes to the harsh budget cuts that have shuttered L.A.'s public libraries two days a week, and reduced operating hours on other days, Jane Dobija thinks back to her time as a radio journalist covering the Polish revolution in the late 1980s. "When people l ... More >>

Measure L: Studio City Librarian Karen Pickard-Four Says Teens and Seniors Feel the Pain of Budget Cuts at L.A. Libraries

Ted SoquiRichard J. Riordan Central Library in downtown L.A.​At the Studio City Branch Library in the San Fernando Valley, acting senior librarian Karen Pickard-Four says teens and senior citizens feel the pain of severe budget cuts at the Los Angeles Public Library system. "For those kids w ... More >>

Maria Elena Durazo and Richard Riordan Lead Mixed Coalition on Measure L, To Save Los Angeles' Shuttered Libraries

Villaraigosa and the L.A. City Council still sit on millions of dollars in personal fat.​Finally, a big coalition is urging approval of Measure L on the March 8 ballot, which would save the decimated Los Angeles public library system from anti-library Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who, as mentio ... More >>

Stage Raw: LAWEES on the horizon

NEW THEATER REVIEWSSTAGE FEATURE on Circle Mirror Transformation and Me, As a PenguinCOMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGSLAWEES ON THE HORIZON ​The 32nd annual L.A. Weekly Theater Awards are coming to the El Rey on April 4. Nominees will be announced mid-February. The LAWEES, focusing on work presented ... More >>

What Killed Prop. 19?

Historic effort to legalize marijuana returns in 2012

Proposition 27 And Gerrymandering: Filmmaker Jeff Reichart Says Politicians Are Like Children Gobbling Cookies. How About An Enema?

By Hillel Aron Jackass 3D won the box office last weekend, an obscene $50 million, the highest-grossing movie featuring a Porta Potty launched into the air with the driver still inside. A less low-brow film by Jeff Reichart opened at the Nuart in Los Angeles and simultaneously in New York: Gerryma ... More >>

Does Shirley Sherrod Have A Libel Case Against Andrew Breitbart?

​ Shirley Sherrod, the Department of Agriculture official who got caught up in a Beltway maelstrom last week when conservative provocateur Andrew Breitbart accused her of discriminating against white farmers, will sue Breitbart for libel, she told a group of assembled black journalists Thursda ... More >>

Theater Reviews: Thurgood, As the Globe Warms, I'm Not Here Anymore

Also, Othello, Redhead Cuban Hausfrau Husband and more

Stage Raw: Two Plays by Yukio Mishima

COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGSNEW THEATER REVIEWSCURRENT STAGE FEATURE on KING LEAR​NEW REVIEW GO TWO PLAYS BY YUKIO MISHIMA ​Photo by Yukata Takeuchi Perhaps most notorious in the West for his sensational, 1970 suicide by seppuku, controversial poet-novelist Yukio Mishima was also a pl ... More >>

The T.A.M.I. Show: Santa Monica Rock City

L.A.'s pre-Woodstock music summit, finally on DVD

Uncle Remus Redux

Why Disney should revive Song of the South and bury The Princess and the Frog

Stage Raw: Clowntown City Limits

THE LATEST NEW REVIEWS ARE EMBEDDED IN THIS WEEK'S COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGSNEW REVIEW THEATER PICK CLOWNTOWN CITY LIMITSPhoto by Ed RachlesImagine a personable, grimy, makeup-smeared, cigar-chomping guy in a tank top, not unlike Tommy Lee Jones, playing cards outdoors on the porch of some tra ... More >>

Late News: Black Rights Pioneer in the Valley Dies at 104

Tomorrow's L.A. Times carries an obituary for Ida Kinney, a onetime Rosie the Riveter who became a civil rights pioneer. Working at a Lockheed plant in Burbank during WWII, Kinney was barred from joining the plant's union. She fought this policy and helped overturn it.The Times' piece and previous p ... More >>

Proposition 11: The Most Misunderstood

The League of Women Voters, Common Cause and AARP seek change in Sacramento

The Secret Life of Bees: Buzz Kill

Saccharine civil rights drama is all honey, no sting

The Dirt We Stand On

Tim Watkins on spawning a renaissance in Watts

Our Russia, Ourselves

Sleeping with the enemy . . . then scolding her

Rice and the New Black Paradigm

When it comes to black history, Condi makes cynics of us all

The Tsunami

Can the Democratic ground game elect John Kerry — and create an enduring progressive movement?

The Ground War

Hanging with the Florida troops out to win — and keep — a Kerry victory

New Jack Activists

The Coalition for Educational Justice is fighting generations of neglect with a secret weapon — students

Deaniacs for Kerry (More or Less)

Taking back America, one conference at a time

Homebodies

With sparse funds and limited visibility, L.A.’s ethnic ensembles stay the course

Endorsements

Straight Shooters

Guerrilla filmmakers PSTOLA declare war on jigabooism

Texas Crude

Racial politics hits another low in redistricting fight

Rise of the Anti-Machine

Invisible Man

Bayard Rustin and the other civil rights struggle

Holy Joe, Corporate Joe, G.I. Joe

Will the real Senator Lieberman please stand up?

Our Peace Movement — Not Theirs

Baptized in Fire

On the exigencies and excuses of black history

Below the (Color) Line

Blacks remain separate and unequal in the Hollywood guilds

No Respect

Police Commission falters on Rampart

Daily Variety

Frederick Wiseman's poetry of the mundane

All the President's Wonks

Aaron Sorkin's The West Wing

Richard Riordan, Pol

How the mayor got his charter and his school board

Unsocial Studies

The real lessons of Hamilton High

Autumn of the Ethnocrats

Inside Agitators

The City's Most Effective Activists

No Justice, No Growth

A new labor-left alliance scrambles L.A.'s growth politics - and creates middle-income jobs in a city where they're vanishing