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Some things you just need to see to believe.
I began my day with the fire victims in Sylmar by stopping at the Sylmar Recreation Center, where all the various agencies had come together. Inside it was a one-stop shopping center of forms. The longest line was for the Department of Motor Vehicles, because many people had lost the titles to their cars, and sometimes even their licenses.
It was easy to identify the Oakridge Mobile Home Park fire survivors - they all had a very similar look. People were keeping it together, but they also looked completely overwhelmed.
"I haven't really sat down and cried, yet, Mike Fazio said. "We're still in a fog, or a daze."
For the Fazios, now is an especially tough time, because Mary is going through chemo treatments, and she had one on Tuesday, three days after the fire.
"Along with everything else it's been just horrendous," Mary Fazio said. "I have trouble sleeping because I keep thinking of where I can look for stuff, under all that mess."
Continue reading Devastation in the Oakridge Mobile Home Park.
Bicycle theft on and around the University of Southern California's University Park campus is still high, despite the recent dramatic reduction in robberies and burglaries, the Department of Public Safety's crime prevention specialist said in late October.
"We don't even have a clue who's stealing bicycles," Wyman Thomas said. "We have assumptions, we have theories, but that's all we have."
Between 2006 and 2007, the last year data was available, robberies dropped by 36 percent, and burglaries by 33 percent. In contrast, Thomas said, bicycle theft has decreased by 3 percent.
DPS does not release the total number of bikes stolen each year, but it is the most common type of crime on campus. Between Oct. 20 and 26, 20 bicycles were reported missing or stolen.
DPS has made 43 arrests related to bicycle theft so far in 2008, Thomas said, but bikes continue to go missing.
"[The number of arrests] doesn't even pinch the bicycles that are being reported stolen each week," Thomas said. "So what is really going on here?"
Continue reading Bicycle Theft on Campus Remains Stubbornly High.
On election day, I visited a local polling location in Culver City.
A politician always has to be adept at avoiding a question he doesn't want to answer, and over this presidential campaign we've seen the candidates dodge questions frequently to get back to their talking points. But the dynamics of a town-hall debate are supposed to be different, and the candidates don't want to look like they're ignoring questions from potential supporters.
I tracked how each candidate answered each question, noting when Barack Obama and John McCain answered the question definitively, when they sort-of answered the question, and when they completely avoided it. The results may give more insight into how viewers judged the debate, and who "won."
Continue reading Who Answered the Questions?.
I am doing my first broadcast package on recycling centers; specifically how with the economy in trouble, more people are turing to recycling for extra income. I interviewed Trec Shadid, who had earned a living through recycling for over 10 years. Now he does it to supplement the income he earns working as a massage therapist.
Continue reading Visiting Stimson's Recycling.
The debate finished just after 10:30 EST Friday night, and the spinning started immediately. For these presidential debates, the substance doesn't matter. Instead, the key question is, who won? Did John McCain look old? Did Barack Obama sound pompous? Who had better body language?
The McCain campaign released a new ad created just hours after the debate ended.
Continue reading After the Debate: Entering the Spin Zone.
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