Biography
On cold Cleveland days, young Sandy Banks had an after-school routine: She'd lie on the floor, put her feet on a heating vent and read Ann ...
At Manual Arts High, same goals but different methods
May 17, 2011
John Santos bristles when outsiders buy into the broad-brush image of Manual Arts High as a failing school.
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Officials attempt drastic break with failure at Huntington Park High, Manual Arts
May 14, 2011
I felt oddly inspired this week watching Los Angeles Unified School District leaders rebuff the demands of student protesters from Huntington Park High.
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A brutal picture of Baca's problems
May 9, 2011
It has the hallmarks of a police brutality claim: Allegations of violence and excessive force, blamed on poor training and discipline.
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Give credit where it's due and hug a bee today
May 7, 2011
I've grown accustomed to the bugs that flit around my desk at home while I write. They're the buddies of my office mate, a puppy who naps straddling the doggy door, with his head propping open the plastic flap to outside.
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Grief's meandering path rarely has clear markers
May 3, 2011
Seventeen years in, the pain has receded and the memories softened. Life is good; laughter is easy. I am, after all, well beyond the recovery period on the timeline of grief that survivors are supposed to follow.
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Memo to Donald Trump: You're fired
April 30, 2011
Score one for Donald Trump. The cartoonish pseudo-candidate managed to strong-arm Barack Obama into proving that his presidency isn't built on a giant con.
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Even if not racist, Obama-chimpanzee email wasn't funny
April 23, 2011
Marilyn Davenport might be a racist. Or a moron. Or just a dotty old lady with a warped sense of humor, and a scant understanding of history.
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An old charity finds hope in a new generation
April 19, 2011
I made a mistake
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Food nurtures a community
April 15, 2011
There's a sign-in sheet at the door, with a note asking everyone to "Please limit yourself to one plate." But nobody seems to be keeping track.
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CicLAvia offers a new kind of recycling
April 12, 2011
I felt a little out of place on Sunday as I unloaded my creaky beach cruiser from the trunk of my car and strapped on a helmet so new it still had the price tag attached. I hadn't ridden a bike in years; there was rust on my fenders and in my knees.
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Thugs are speaking for L.A.
April 9, 2011
I am not a baseball fan. I have visited Dodger Stadium maybe three times in my 30 years in Los Angeles.
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The stage is too big for kids
April 2, 2011
As if parents don't have enough to worry about, with cyber-bullying and online perverts, now the nation's pediatricians are adding "Facebook depression" to the list of maladies stalking our kids.
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Nutrition class teaches South L.A. women to put health first
March 29, 2011
The ladies clogging the canned food aisles at the Crenshaw-area Ralphs last week weren't trying to find the best deals for their pocketbooks, but the smartest choices for their bodies.
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Allowing phones in the cells might be a sound call
March 26, 2011
When the nation's most notorious mass murderer has a phone under the mattress in his cell, it's hard to ignore the fact that security has broken down in California's prison system.
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On skid row, what's just?
March 22, 2011
It ought to be easy to decide whom to root for in a feud between these two guys: the crusading cop, champion of clean streets and quiet nights, and the drug-dealing ex-con, hell-bent on living outside the law.
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Book review: 'The Grace of Silence: A Memoir' by Michele Norris
September 28, 2010
I wish NPR reporter Michele Norris hadn't called "The Grace of Silence," her tribute to her parents, a "memoir." The book is, at once, much less and much more.
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It's all about kids learning
September 11, 2010
Vacation ends Monday for most Los Angeles Unified elementary school students, but opening day this year might be more stressful for parents and teachers than for children.
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Utopia is a hard sell in Jordan Downs
August 22, 2009
Ronald Perkins and his neighbors were nearly outnumbered by the consultants and architects who showed up at the Jordan Downs community center.
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Is all this really for the children?
May 16, 2009
One thing I've learned in 30 years of covering education is that every dispute, demand or decree rests on one claim: We must do this for the children.
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Chris Brown and Rihanna: a lesson for teens
March 5, 2009
For weeks, as rumors flew and details trickled out, I struggled to find a lesson to share in the violent incident/altercation/lovers' quarrel -- even the media didn't know what to call it -- between teen music idols Chris Brown and Rihanna.
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What do students mean to LAUSD superintendent?
December 6, 2008
I remember the moment in 2003 when I realized that my daughter was in good hands at her Los Angeles Unified middle school.
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Where whiteness meets race
November 11, 2008
The Alliance of White Anti-Racists Everywhere was fired up at its conference in downtown Los Angeles last month.
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Metrolink spokeswoman formed a human link
September 16, 2008
Somehow, her tears made me feel better.
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Metrolink tragedy puts parenting in a new light
September 15, 2008
If I ever thought an "empty nest" at home meant an end to parenting, as I said in my newspaper column Saturday, the stories emerging from this weekend's coverage of the deadly Metrolink train crash painfully put that notion to rest:
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Teenagers have mixed views on gays -- and they're OK with that
June 17, 2008
Kye D'Aguilar doesn't have a traumatic story to tell about coming out. The 18-year-old said he's always known that he is gay. "My mother told me she knew when I was born."
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It's the nightmare before Halloween
October 30, 2007
I wish there were a "bah, humbug" expression for Halloween.
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Life in fire zone carries on close to normal
October 22, 2007
It has been hard to escape the fires and windstorms this week. Turn on the radio or television -- or just step outside and breathe -- and it seems as if all of Southern California is in danger of burning up or being blown away.