Social Policy

Democratic Party Schism over Scandalous Schools: Gloria Romero, Slimed By Teacher Unions, Says Sober Up

See also: "LAUSD Supe Fires Lemon Teachers" and "Firing the Bad Teachers." A few days ago, the teachers union wing of the California Democratic Party tarred the growing numbers of breakaway Democrats who, in sync with President Obama, point the finger at teachers unions as a big obstacle to fixing ... More >>

LAUSD Superintendent Fires Lemon Teachers

Once nearly unheard of, heads are rolling under John Deasy

Sen. Feinstein's Westwood Office To Be Target Of Pro-Immigrant Protest

For most intents and purposes, Dianne Feinstein is a fairly progressive and pro-immigrant senator from California. But immigrants' rights groups feel she hasn't gone far enough, fast enough, especially in light of President Obama's call for comprehensive immigration reform that would include a path ... More >>

Henry Rollins: Bored In Hawaii

[Look for your weekly fix from the one and only Henry Rollins right here on West Coast Sound every Thursday, and come back tomorrow for the awesomely annotated playlist for his Saturday KCRW broadcast.] See also: Henry Rollins: The Day After Bowie's The Next Day I am stationed in Honolulu. It is ... More >>

Eric Smidt, L.A. Dem who Owns Harbor Freight Tools, Gives $50,000 to Elect Kate Anderson, Antonio Sanchez and Monica Garcia to LAUSD

Eric Smidt must be L.A.'s least-written-about, super-rich, self-made guy pouring money into Democratic races in the U.S., and now he's given $50,000 to the Coalition for School Reform to elect Kate Anderson and Antonio Sanchez to the powerful LAUSD Board of Education, and to re-elect incumbent Monic ... More >>

Illegal Immigrants Hit The Streets As ICE Fears Sequester Cuts; Republicans Pissed

In what feels to us like a middle finger to those Republicans cheering on draconian "sequester" cuts to the federal budget following a congressional impasse, the Department of Homeland Security says undocumented immigrants are being released from detention centers across America. The action is appa ... More >>

Mayor Michael Bloomberg Pours $1 Million into LAUSD Elections to Oust Steve Zimmer, Elect Monica Garcia

See also, "LAUSD's Dance of the Lemons," and "Can Kate Anderson, Mom of Twins, Fix LAUSD?"Los Angeles Unified School District, whose teachers union UTLA has squelched attempts to raise student learning by making ineffective certified teachers relearn subject matter and skills, just attracted $1 mill ... More >>

Latinos, Immigration Play Big in Second Obama-Romney Debate

Watching the debate last night you'd think that Latinos (and not, as conventional wisdom would have it, Ohioans) are going to swing this thing. The issue aimed at the Latino vote, of course, was immigration. Because that's all us brownfolk think about -- getting other brownfolk across that border, ... More >>

College Just For Illegals? National Dream University Launches With Help of UCLA

Oh boy. Illegal-immigrant haters are going to love this one. The UCLA Center for Labor Research along with the National Labor College have established a virtual school just for undocumented migrants -- the National Dream University. It's for those who live under the radar of official legitimacy: I ... More >>

Occupy L.A. Is Mad About Supreme Court's Obamacare Ruling

Who knew? Occupy Wall Street (and its Los Angeles faction) hates Obamacare. That's because, though your run-of-the-mill Westside liberal is likely to applaud the "health care for all!" initiative, the more skeptical end of the 99 percent sees it as just another victory for corporate America:

Disruption, Rebellion and Resistance: Activists Call for Action

LAFD Starts Media Blackout on Fires, Rescues After Bad Press on Response Times

What happened? We don't know. Where did it happen? Not sure. That's the word from the Los Angeles Fire Department which, since Sunday, has apparently been refusing to give members of the media basic information about fires, rescue operations and paramedic responses. That's something it used to do ... More >>

Cindy Reyna, Model and UC Santa Barbara Student, Faces Deportation

Updated at the bottom: She was arrested on suspicion of DUI. First posted at 1:58 p.m. Immigrants' rights activists are coming to the aid of Cindy Reyna, a UC Santa Barbara student and sometime model who they say was arrested and now faces deportation despite being a potential DREAM Act student. T ... More >>

Tim Donnelly's 'Stop the DREAM Act' Measure Won't Go on California Ballot

Assemblyman Tim Donnelly has been on somewhat of a lucky streak, what with his laughable non-charges for carrying a loaded gun through airport security. That's probably because, as noted by LA Weekly's Gene Maddaus, wiggle room in law enforcement "seems to work in favor of state lawmakers, and aga ... More >>

Electrocuting Immigrants at Mexican Border a 'Joke,' Says Republican Herman Cain: Latino Leaders Aren't Laughing

hermancain.comHerman Cain.​Updated at the bottom with reaction from Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles. First posted at 7 a.m. Herman Cain has been sitting on top of the world lately. The Republican presidential candidate last week f ... More >>

Porn vs. Condoms: AIDS Healthcare Foundation Takes Case For Mandatory Condoms in L.A. Porn All The Way to State Supreme Court

eladarling.comPorn star Ela Darling.​Porn stars must wear condoms! Or not. Well, if you ask L.A.'s AIDS Healthcare Foundation, Mr. Jim Hats is a must. And even though the group lost a 2nd District Court of Appeal case last month in which it argued that L.A. County health officials must make p ... More >>

DREAM Act Signed by California Governor Jerry Brown; Illegal Immigrants to Receive Financial Aid

CHIRLAJerry Brown, after the signing.​Yet another reason for SoCal Republicans to secede, arriving just a couple weeks after gay history was mandated in K-12 textbooks: The first part of the DREAM Act was signed into law today by Governor Jerry Brown, following years of blockage by former Gove ... More >>

Is This Salad Illegal? The (Semi-)Illicit Thrill of Laphet Tote

Yoma Myanar's tea leaf salad​Up in San Francisco, the signature dish at the popular network of restaurants called Burma Superstar is a tangy, nutty salad so uniquely delicious, it should be illegal. In some Asian countries, it is.

Obama Disguises Campaign Donation Website as 'Immigration Reform' Fundraiser, the Sneaky Bastard

BarackObama.comObama

Immigration Tango

California DREAM Act Proposed (Again) By L.A. State Assemblyman Gil Cedillo: Taxypayer-Funded Student Aid For ... Illegals?

​The national DREAM Act, which would have created a path to permanent residency in the United State for some illegal immigrant college students, might have died in Congress last month. But L.A. state Assemblyman Gil Cedillo, an L.A. Democrat, is reviving his own version of the California DREA ... More >>

California's Parent Trigger

How McKinley in Compton became the first school taken over by parents under a radical new law

Does Hollywood Film 'Machete' Depict Arizona's 'Sheriff Joe' As Racist Fetus Killer?

Fox / vivamachete.comDon Johnson as Sheriff Joe?​Maricopa County's controversial "Sheriff Joe" Arpaio, the man who for many personifies Arizona's anti-immigration stance, is mad at Hollywood and, in particular, the Hollywood Reporter, for suggesting a fetus-killing racist cop in the new grindh ... More >>

Seized

Inside the brutal world of America's kidnapping capital

Parts Of Arizona Immigration SB 1070 Law Blocked; L.A. City Council Won't Remove Boycott Yet

Steve La​ Updated with reaction from labor leaders and the mayor. Local labor leader Maria Elena Durazo declared victory in response to today's decision by a federal judge to stay the more controversial aspects of Arizona's SB 1070 immigration measure. Durazo, head of the county labor fede ... More >>

Rage's Zack de la Rocha: Arizona Debate is Not about Immigration, but "a Battle for Human Dignity"

​Rage Against the Machine Zack de la Rocha, organizer through his group Sound Strike of a concert in opposition to Arizona's controversial immigration law, gave a press conference today to explain the reasons behind the upcoming show. The Informer, LA Weekly's news blog, sent reporter Steve L ... More >>

Welcome to Mi Pueblito: The Small-Town, Family-Farm Lifestyle That We Cherish Is Being Preserved Thanks to Mexican Immigrants

Rage Against the Machine Announces Rare LA Show to Protest Arizona's Immigration Law

​We just received an announcement from LiveNation that "Sound Strike - Zack de la Rocha's organization to protest AZ's immigration law - will have a benefit show at the Palladium on July 23. Rage Against The Machine, in their first LA-proper date in ten years, will perform." Sound Strike iss ... More >>

Make a Run for the Altar

With immigration reform stalled, some young, assimilated illegal immigrants are entering sham marriages with a little help from their friends

Meg Whitman Woos Latinos, Says She's Against Arizona's Immigration Law

​Even before she won the Republican primary after a dog fight with opponent Steve Poizner to determine who was more vehemently against illegal immigration, it was predicted that gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman would start to move left on the issue because the Latino vote in California is s ... More >>

Sheriff Joe Endorses Poizner for Governor

Sheriff Joe Arpaio​When you're down by 26 points, it's time to bring out the big guns.Today, Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Poizner announced that he has been endorsed by Joe Arpaio, the immigrant-busting sheriff of Maricopa County. In his effort to outflank Meg Whitman, Poizner has endo ... More >>

Badlands: From Ground Zero of the Immigration Crisis Along the Mexican Border

Phoenix Mayor Wants To Talk Immigration Reform In L.A. ... If Suns Win

Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon.​Now that the Lakers are about to clinch the Western Conference championship, Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon wants to change the terms of his bet on the series with Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. As part of the new deal, he wants to come to L.A. and talk immigrati ... More >>

Grumbling Continues Over Obama Bypass of Villaraigosa Aide

Yesterday the National Council of La Raza issued a statement expressing approval of a meeting between President Obama and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, which NCLR president Janet Murguía called "a step in the right direction toward immigration reform." The group's previous statement, issued Mo ... More >>

Oh Sandra, You Came and You Gave Without Taking

Bush the Alien

The president angers his base and his new allies on immigration

A Day of Power

Can Congress pick up the vibe of the movement?

What Adults Don't Get

Inside the minds of student marchers

All in the Family

George can count on Harriet to overturn Roe v. Wade

The Invasion of the Elegant Trogons

Is Sierra Club’s anti-immigration insurgency for the birds?

On the Border of Hypocrisy

The unintended consequences of getting tough on illegal immigration

Points of Contention

Hollywood’s clean-needle program drawn into secession politics

Let Them Eat Cars

California’s a tightwad on food stamps

No Classrooms,
No Teachers,
No Playgrounds,
No Standards

California’s bizarre charter-school experiment

A School System is a Terrible Thing to Waste

No Welfare for Lockheed or Maximus

Private firms derailed in bid to take over county aid program

Stuck in Translation

La Opinión searches for readers — and a mission — in the Times’ shadow

Higher Calling

Women’s-health advocates challenge the rise of Catholic hospitals

Green Reprieve

Sierra Club dodges immigration-ballot bullet

Short Time for Needle Exchange

Hollywood agency gets eviction notice