Articles tagged with immigration

Dealing with defiance. The L.A. Board of Education is due to vote tomorrow on a landmark resolution that would ban suspensions for what’s called “willful defiance.” The move comes amid a growing belief in some quarters that suspending students for disruptive behavior is counterproductive.
“Willful defiance” can involve anything from cursing at a teacher to incessant talking or failing to wear a school uniform. The …

Immigrant tally. A new study confirms that the national debate over immigration reform is as important in Los Angeles as anywhere in the country.
One in 10 adults in L.A. County either crossed the U.S. border illegally or overstayed their visa, according to a report by USC researchers. In some parts of Koreatown and South L.A. that number is 1 in 3.
The report by USC’s …

Remaking LACMA. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art will unveil a planned $650 million makeover next month that would require demolishing much of the current museum.
LACMA Director Michael Govan says a new design by Dutch architect Peter Zumthor – a Pritzker Prize winner – will redefine the encyclopedic museum for the 21st Century. To do that, the L.A. Times reports LACMA plans to …

Congress is in the midst of debating a proposed bill that would grant some type of amnesty to the nation’s 11 million undocumented immigrants.
Meanwhile, a different debate is happening in some of Orange County’s major evangelical churches. Pastors are joining other Christian leaders to push for immigration reform. But they’re finding resistance among their congregants, some of who are actually leaving their churches in …

Day of activism. Marches, rallies, prayer vigils and voter registration drives are taking place up and down California and nationwide today as activists work to shape the immigration reform debate.  A major rally is also scheduled in Washington, D.C., where bipartisan groups in the House and Senate are putting the finishing touches on reform proposals. The activists want to make sure those proposals include …

Home grown. By the end of this year, a majority of Angelenos will be native born Californians. That’s a first for the city. After a century as the transplant capital of the Unites States, a study by USC’s Population Dynamics Research Group finds that by 2030, two-thirds of Angelenos will be native born. One of the reasons for the shift is a big drop …

Unmasking Dorner. The LAPD says the toll of Christopher’s Dorner’s revenge spree might have been higher if not for the quick thinking of a sergeant who had trained Dorner. Terie Evans called police in Irvine after the shooting deaths of the daughter of former LAPD official and her fiancée in that city. The day before, Evans had received a phone call from police in …

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa today said he believes Christopher Dorner is dead, but he says LAPD won’t stop special protection details — whatever the cost — for some 50 LAPD families until Dorner’s body has been positively identified.
Meanwhile, the mayor led the cheers for President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address.  In an interview this morning with KCRW, the mayor said Obama …

President Barack Obama delivered an upbeat State of the Union speech to say the economy is showing clear signs of improvement. But Obama said a complete recovery is an “unfinished task.” He called on Congress to fund job creation and to hike the minimum wage.
Obama also challenged congressional leaders to allow votes on gun control proposals developed in the wake of the Connecticut school …

Arming teachers. A Southern California Assemblyman is expected to unveil a new proposal for countering gun violence in schools today: secretly arming teachers or other school officials. The bill by Hesperia Assemblyman Tim Donnelly is the Republican answer to a slew of gun control measures introduced by majority Democrats following the school shootings in Newtown, Connecticut. Donnelly received a fine and probation last year …

In Las Vegas today, President Obama said it’s good news that bipartisan groups in both houses of Congress are finally addressing immigration reform. The President endorsed the general principles laid down yesterday by a bipartisan group of US Senators, the most controversial aspect of which may be what’s called the path to citizenship. Cautioning that the debate is sure to become emotional, he warned against letting …

President Barack Obama today declared that “now is the time” to fix the nation’s broken immigration system.
In a speech in Las Vegas, Obama praised the bipartisan work between the White House and a group of Senators on taking steps toward putting millions of illegal immigrants on a pathway to citizenship, cracking down on businesses that employ people illegally and tightening security at the borders.
Long …

It wasn’t too long ago when Republican presidential candidates made illegal immigration a campaign issue. They warned that they would make life in this country for those here illegally so hard, that they would self-deport. And that there would never be an amnesty program.
It was an issue that more than a few political pundits say has backfired big time.
The Orange County GOP has used …

Healthy meals. When you add it all up, school districts in L.A., New York, Chicago, Miami, Orlando and Dallas serve 2.5 million meals each day. And they collectively spend more than $500 million a year on food. The offerings traditionally haven’t been all that healthy. But that could be about to change. LAUSD and the other districts will announce a plan today to use …

Next Monday, President Barack Obama will raise his right hand and take the oath of office for a second term in office. He’ll have another four years to accomplish his national policy agenda. But what exactly should that agenda be? What issues and problems must President Obama focus on? And how much work is left undone from his first term in office?
We’re asking a …

KCRW’s Sonic Trace is a story-telling project that begins in the heart of Los Angeles and crosses into Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. The project gathers stories from immigrants across Los Angeles in a portable soundbooth, La Burbuja (The Bubble) to create an oral history mosaic of Los Angeles.
Some of these are collected below. The stories range from the challenges of adapting to a new …

No holds. L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca says his department will no longer honor federal requests to detain suspected illegal immigrants arrested for low-level crimes. Baca’s change of heart comes one day after California Attorney General Kamela Harris said state law enforcement agencies were not obligated to comply with the Secure Communities program. Baca follows LAPD Chief Charlie Beck, who announced in October that …

Back in business. The eight-day strike that brought work to a virtual standstill at the busiest port complex in the country is over. Few details have been released, but the tentative deal appears to give the clerical workers what they wanted most: a guarantee that no jobs will be outsourced to other countries or to states where shippers can pay lower salaries. The pact …

Lost days. The passage of Proposition 30 is undeniably good news for LAUSD, but it’s already sparked a dispute about how the additional funding should be used. Deasy says the district could salvage some of the five days of instruction lost this year because of earlier budget cuts. But members of the teachers union want all of those days restored, in addition to five …

Governor Brown has signed legislation to allow some illegal immigrants to apply for driver’s licenses, but he’s vetoed new protections for farm workers and a prohibition on County Sheriffs from working closely with federal immigration officials. Is he still the leader Latinos have counted on? Also, LA Sheriff Lee Baca stands accused of allowing brutal violence in county jails. Can the Board of Supervisors …