Shannon Pence

Alex Caputo-Pearl teaches history to 10^th and 12^th graders at Crenshaw High School.  He is one of the many teachers who fear the outcome of Los Angeles Unified School District's budget cuts.

 Such budget cuts could target probationary contract teachers and consequently result in 2,300 teachers laid off next school year.  The budget cuts would also force important student programs, such as college prep courses to be discontinued.

 The teachers union and other community organizations oppose L.A. Unified's proposed actions.

 

"We don't think LAUSD is acting responsibly in this crisis," said Caputo-Pearl.  "It is unacceptable in a District where there is $800 million in outside consultant contracts."

 

 

 In a small room inside The Midnight Mission on Skid Row, Jetta Newton sits in a miniature green chair gently bouncing her 4-month-old baby on her knee.  Her hair is pulled back and tousled from a long day of walking, her powder pink sweats worn and slightly stained. 

 

Newton, 21, is a new mother and has been homeless for almost a year.  Floating from shelter to shelter, she and her partner, Tassina Carson, 23, have desperately searched for permanent housing.  But with today's economic downturn and insufficient resources, the task is daunting. 

 

"I'm just going to keep praying, keep hoping and keep wishing that someone will come down and bless me with a house or an apartment to make sure that my baby has a roof over her head," Newton said.

 

Unemployed and worried about the wellbeing of her daughter, Taaja', Newton sobbed as she talked about life on the street.

 

"It's not a place for kids down here, it's not a place for anybody really," Newton said.

The Sylmar fire, also known as the Sayre fire, that ignited late on Nov. 14, destroyed 487 mobile homes in the Oakridge Mobile Home Park.  Residents were sifting through the rubble on Saturday looking for any valuable belongings that may have survived.  The guards at the gate asked me not to speak to any of the residents.  But as I walked quietly along the streets that once led to people's homes, the devastation overwhelmed me with sadness.  What looked like nothing more than a dump yard, was people's homes and belongings turned to ashes.  I couldn't help but think that as most people are preparing for Thanksgiving or watching college football, these individuals are out in the heat, rummaging through soot and charred debris.  Or like one woman, passing out flyers in hopes of finding her 13-year-old deaf cat that was lost in the fire.  Many of these folks were elderly, including a man in a wheelchair.  But as I walked through the streets, taking in the horrific landscape, I could still hear some people laughing and singing.  This is what I saw...   

 A security guard for comedian Joan Rivers testified Monday that legendary music producer Phil Spector was out of control at two of Rivers' Christmas parties in the 1990s, revealing a gun and declaring that all women deserve a bullet in their head.

 At both parties, Spector repeatedly and loudly used obscene language to describe women and was forcibly escorted out of Rivers' New York City apartment building, said Vincent Tannazzo, a retired New York City police detective who occasionally still works for Rivers.

On both occasions, Spector was arguing with his on-and-off girlfriend and Rivers' manager, Dorothy Melvin, but his words did not appear directed towards her, Tannazzo said in front of the jury.

I started Election Day in Thousand Oaks because that is where I am registered to vote.  I had hoped to get pictures of long lines, but to my surprise, the lines in suburbia were barely existent.  I visited multiple polling locations on my way back into the city and seemed to miss every line, which I know there were many because I was listening to NPR on my way home and callers kept on talking about them.  I guess my timing was great if I had to vote at these locations, but for pictures, my timing was lousy.  Anyways, I made my way back into Los Angeles and was in West Hollywood around 8 p.m. when I heard shouts and screams throughout the streets and people screaming "Obama!"  Originally I intending to go to another election party, but not wanting to miss anything, I quickly parked my car and found myself in the Abby amongst many happy individuals...Obama had won! 

I'm beginning to ask myself, what is the point of watching the presidential debates?  I mean, seriously?  I say this mainly for undecided voters.  For the most part, people with their minds already made up, are probably not going to be persuaded by a good point made from the opposing party's candidate.  Most decided voters, I think, watch to see the debate because that is what a good voter should do.  Also, they want to see how well his or her chosen candidate performs and how poorly the other one fares.  My frustration stems more from the lack of information these debates provide for Americans who are on the fence.  How are undecided voters supposed to decide on a candidate when the debates are only filled with rhetoric, finger pointing and brief excerpts of what the candidate is planning on doing in Washington, when really, what have they done so far?  I think my extreme animosity with Washington is sending me into this diatribe.  Oh well, I'm irritated and I don't think I am the only one.

This is a slideshow of mostly Chinatown's Central Plaza in Los Angeles, Calif.  As early as 1852, a Chinese settlement was recorded in Los Angeles.  In 1938, with the development of Central Plaza, the first modern American Chinatown was established.