Published stories
Luciano Pavarotti Gets a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
The operatic voice of a beloved tenor wafted through the streets of Hollywood today as the ceremony for Italy’s Luciano Pavarotti began on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Pavarotti's posthumous star, awarded for the Live Performance category, is the 2,730th star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame…
The Movie Theater Strikes Back
It has been a rough 18 months for movie theaters. After being forced to shut down in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, some thought this might be the last blow for the big screen, as global streaming services began releasing films previously meant for movie theaters…
Climate groups favor Newsom in recall
As voters head to the polls today to determine whether or not Gov. Gavin Newsom will be recalled, the issue of climate change remains at the top of some voters’ minds. Climate activists are expressing concern for potential changes to California’s climate legislation if someone replaces Newsom in the recall…
Stressed? Binge these must-watch shows
In the era of the 120-minute movie and the 22-episode season, it sometimes feels utterly impossible to finish any movie or show. But, when you’ve been in a boring class all day and your brain can’t function any longer, you still need some show to watch, right?
In South Los Angeles, a Church Community Takes Food Sovereignty Into Its Own Hands
On a spring Wednesday at St. Mark United Methodist Church in South Los Angeles, volunteers huddle around tables, organizing bulk boxes of pantry items for the Wednesday pick-up. Reverend Gary Bernard Williams and Labrenda Joyce Parker, one of his congregants, walk down a long hallway, past a nursery, a classroom-turned-supply-center, and the food pantry…
Step Into the World of Nick Metropolis
One day, USC alumnus Alex Park was driving down West Adams Boulevard when he saw something that caught his eye: a collection of signs outside a prop store. “Love, love, love,” the signs read…
Pfizer’s booster shot is not for everyone
COVID-19 booster shots are now available in the US, but eligibility remains a matter of confusion for many Americans.
President Joe Biden publicly received his third Pfizer shot yesterday, another milestone in the fight against COVID-19. “I got my booster — and encourage everyone who’s eligible to do so as well,” the president wrote on Instagram, under a picture of himself receiving the shot…
Fentanyl-laced weed: fact or fiction?
Over this past year, Instagram posts, news articles and word-of-mouth stories have all whispered the same thing: cocaine, pharmaceuticals and even cannabis are being laced with fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that is one of the leading causes of an increase in overdoses…
Other projects
THE CAREGIVING CRISIS
On the border of San Diego and National City, in the heavy August heat, a middle-aged woman leaves her driveway and walks briskly down the street, past a house or two. She then turns and follows her steps back. She walks into her opened garage and checks a baby monitor. No sound. For now, everything is okay.
She leaves the opened garage, and walks the two houses again, before turning around for a second time. She does this for another 30 minutes or so, and then she goes back inside the house.
Some days, this is the only way for Cathy Kennedy to get some time for herself, to take the walks she used to take before she began caring for her mother.
The Price of Memory
On an almond farm in Merced county, in a straw-bail house — built with efficiency in mind — Jean Okuye has been thinking about the cost of death.
Okuye has been a member of the Funeral Consumers Alliance for over 50 years, following after her father who first joined the Vallejo chapter of the organization. “I became a member in my thirties because I was concerned and I was so impressed with my father.”
The Funeral Consumers Alliance is a national organization that aims to protect and prepare consumers who are planning and paying for funerals. The FCA monitors funeral industry players and advocates for proper legislation — such as price transparency laws — on behalf of the consumer.
QUIZ TIME AT JOHN MUIR HIGH SCHOOL
On the first day of class, Alfredo Resendiz likes to scare his students at John Muir High School. The new cohort of freshmen excitedly shuffle into his bright and airy classroom, with north-facing windows that look out toward the San Gabriel mountains — the same mountains that I drove past every day on my way to school. In the back of the room, posters of Che Guevara, John Steinbeck and Malcome X are tacked to the wall above built-in bookshelves. Resendiz is an English teacher.
When the students take their seats, Resendiz, a tall man with a beard just beginning to sprout white hairs, establishes the classroom rules. In particular, his no-phone policy. It’s important to him that students avoid distractions in class...That’s the first day.
The next day, he softens up a little. It’s a get-to-know-you day, where students talk about where they’re coming from and why they chose John Muir out of the four public high schools in Pasadena, California…
overexposed
For much of the Summer, the Avenue 26 Night Market in Lincoln Heights could be heard in the hiss of sizzling meats, smelled in rendered fat dripping off the trompa, tasted in handmade churros, and felt in the summer heat rising from the asphalt.
At its height, the market bustled with thousands of visitors while the sun shined and after it set, quickly becoming a place of connection for people emerging from isolation in search of collective outdoor experiences and good food.
It was a remarkable time for a long, bustling stretch of stands that, before Covid, was little more than a single popular taco stand — Avenue 26 Tacos…