Our Work

Lynne Heffley on a benchmark for the Center Theatre Group

Our Lynne Heffley, who does  a lot of contract work for nonprofits, has this nice overview on the 40th anniversary of a program under Los Angeles's Center Theatre Group. From her story:

No talking out of turn. No complaints.

In Rebecca Mieliwocki’s 7^th grade English class at Luther Burbank Middle School, all eyes are focused on Center Theatre Group (CTG) Teaching Artist Paula Weston Solano.

When you observe people in conversation, think about what they are saying and how they say it, Solano encourages the students. “Think about their tone of voice and the different rhythms when they talk. What do you think they are feeling?”

Picture your neighborhood, she tells them. “Where do you feel safest, happiest, most lonely—and why?”

Creative thinking sparks throughout the room as Solano inspires discussions about narrative, plot, setting and character-analysis.

A hand shoots up. “What’s the difference between conflict and plot?,” a boy asks.

These aren’t kids in the school’s gifted track. They’re general education students preparing to write a five-minute scene as part of CTG’s new Middle School Playwriting Program. The process will include multiple readings by adult professional actors from nearby Theatre Banshee, a partner in the program.

Celebrating its 40^th anniversary this year, CTG’s widely respected education division has a new name—Education and Community Partnerships—and a reinvigorated, broadly expanded mission to support, partner with and educate the diverse community that it serves. 

 

Our Susannah Rosenblatt with an alumni piece on D.C.

Susannah Rosenblatt, the former Taiwan correspondent of The Journaism Shop, is back stateside, working in the Washington, D.C. area, and has this nice piece in the alumni magazine of her alma mater, Wake Forest. The story looks at the school's "Washington semester" program for students: 

It’s tough keeping up with anyone in Wake Forest’s prestigious semester-in-D.C. program — particularly Aubrey Vaughan and her fast-paced footsteps. This spring, the junior political science major is in the midst of the juggling act otherwise known as WAKE Washington.

Vaughan, from rural Versailles, (pronounced Ver-sales) Ky., spends most of her days working at a full-time internship where she creates civics education materials and does media outreach for nonprofit Rock the Vote. The rest of the time she’s thinking on her feet in criminal law class, listening to war stories from a panel of veteran campaign managers or touring the White House. And that’s just Mondays.

“It sounds really nerdy,” Vaughan said, “I’m just constantly politically starstruck”

 

Our Scott Martelle on a book about Area 51, and the secret behind Roswell

Scott Martelle had this review the other day in the Los Angeles Times about the much-discussed new book, "Area 51: An Uncensored History of America's Top Secret Military Base" by journalist Annie Jacobsen. She ends the book by passing along the 60-year-old speculation that the UFO from the infamous "Roswell Incident" was a flying disc sent as a Soviet ruse and manned by children horribly disfigured by Nazi Josef Mengele. From Martelle's review:

As far as explanations go, it's not quite as far-fetched as visitors from outer space, but it does stretch credulity. Lord knows, Stalin — who sent millions of his own people to death in spasms of personal paranoia — was capable of the ludicrous. Jacobsen also quotes her source as saying that the U.S. government conducted its own immoral human experiments at Area 51.

But the problem with Jacobsen's presentation is that it is just too thin, relying on a single source nearing his own death passing along what he claims he and his four colleagues had been told about the background to their assignment, which was to figure out how the disk flew (it's unclear whether they succeeded).

Ultimately, Jacobsen presents us with yet another theory, one that feels as questionable as those that preceded it. It's an unfortunate ending to a book that otherwise is an engaging look at the secret world in the Nevada desert.

Scott Martelle and a book of lies (reviewing, not uttering)

Our Scott Martelle has a review in today's Los Angeles Times of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist James B. Stewart's new book on lies - "Tangled Webs: How False Statements Are Undermining America: From Martha Stewart to Bernie Madoff." Martelle likes it:

For a nation whose romanticized history includes a young George Washington confessing to chopping down a cherry tree because he "cannot tell a lie," we seem to do an awful lot of lying. But then, the story about Washington is a lie itself, so maybe we're just being true to our national character.

In his new book, "Tangled Webs," Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist James B. Stewart dives deeply into four recent cases of high-profile conspiracies of lies. What he finds does not say good things about us.

Starting with former presidential advisor Karl Rove, Stewart argues that quite often presumably honorable people do dishonorable things. The reasons are myriad, but there are common threads. A sense of hubris that no one will find out. Fear of exposure of a misdeed. Calculated risk. Greed or misplaced loyalty.

The repercussions can be severe, particularly in a legal system predicated upon the belief that people under oath will tell the truth.

Leslie Carlson and the role of lawyers in consumer protection

Our Leslie Carlson, a graphic artist/visual journalist, put together this detailed interactive graphic for Protect Consumer Justice, a nonprofit organization working to inform about, and defend, consumers' rights to seek redress through the courts for everything from product safety to medical malpractice. From the intro to the graphic:

Product safety. Medical negligence. Environmental oversight. Corporate wrongdoing. The civil justice system has had a dramatic effect on our day-to-day lives, allowing ordinary people a platform to tap constitutional rights enshrined by America’s founders and battle back to hold powerful corporations accountable. Consumer attorneys have helped increase the safety of products, improve our environment and ensure our health by fighting for people who often can’t fight for themselves. Their efforts have addressed dangers in the home and the workplace, on the road and in the sky — and by doing so have improved the quality of life for each of us.

Rosemary McClure on yet another aspect of the housing crisis

Rosemary McClure had an interesting piece last month (sorry, we're just catching up to it) on an unexpected ramification of the housing crisis, seniors in adult-care centers getting evicetd becasue of the financial woes of their care-givers. From her piece in the Los Angeles Times:

"California's foreclosure crisis has severely impacted some of the most vulnerable tenants in our state — seniors who live in residential-care facilities," says state Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco). "These residents had no warning that they were about to lose their homes, and their families and caretakers were left in a panic to find immediate emergency housing."

The situation is all the worse because of the health issues faced by many of those evicted. "Being uprooted like that is a horrifying situation for older adults, many of whom are frail and confused," says Shelley Woolery, who has been involved in two cases in her role as ombudsman program coordinator with the Council on Aging in Orange County.

Bankruptcies, foreclosures and other financial difficulties are inflicting new worries on residents and their families who thought they had secured their futures in a retirement community or other form of senior housing, ranging from "55+" developments to nursing homes.

The problems confront older Americans at every income level.

One of the first red flags in the crisis emerged from the top end of the spectrum in 2009: bankruptcies at continuing-care retirement communities, known as CCRCs. These pricey communities, which require entrance fees averaging $250,000 (some are close to $1 million), offer upscale dining, activities, entertainment and long-term care.

James Gerstenzang on high energy costs

Our James Gerstenzang writes in the Los Angeles Times Opinion section -- along with Safe Climate Campaign Director Dan Becker -- that one of the best ways to keep energy prices low in the long term is to enforce increased fuel efficiency in cars:

The Obama administration can't do much to lower the price of a gallon of gas, but it is on the cusp of a crucial decision that could help consumers come out ahead because they would need less gas.

Officials are quietly working on just how steeply to require the auto industry to cut emissions and increase mileage in the next generation of cars, SUVs and pickups. Their decision, coming as early as May, could require dramatically cleaner vehicles that would cut carbon dioxide emissions by as much as 6% a year and average 62 miles per gallon. The new rules would be phased in from 2017 to 2025.

Robyn Norwood on the ramifications of a despicable act

Our Robyn Norwood, a veteran sports writer, has a piece in USA Today looking at the repercussions from the savage beating of a San Francisco Giants fan after a recent game at Dodger Statium in Los Angeles. From her story:

Dodgers fans and supporters of other teams who have ventured to Dodger Stadium wearing a rival's cap or shirt have traded stories of incivility for years. A woman tells of her 7-year-old being hassled by an inebriated fan because the child was wearing Giants gear. (The mother was wearing a Dodgers cap.) Another says she was cursed out while 81/2 months pregnant for wearing a Chicago Cubs jersey.

But the attack on Stow has roused public and political sentiment in a way that neither a shooting death in the Dodger Stadium parking lot in 2003 nor a death after a fight in the stands at Angel Stadium in neighboring Anaheim in 2009 did.

Despite a downward trend in crime across the city, roughly half of all serious crimes in the neighborhood occur on stadium grounds. According to the LAPD, there were 21 serious crimes — which includes rape, homicide, aggravated assault, robbery and burglary — at Dodger Stadium in 2010, down from 32 in 2009.

"I think the fact that it was unprovoked, that it was so senseless, that it was so brutal," Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa says. "That they hit him from behind, kicked him on the ground. It just hit the heartstrings of everybody.

"This really isn't just about one game. This is about a culture that thinks it's OK to attack this way."

Scott Martelle and the shrinking of Detroit

Our Scott Martelle wrote a piece for the Los Angeles Times' Sunday Opinion section on new census numbers capturing an unprecedented decline in Detroit's population. From his article:

In Detroit, the loss amounts to a staggering 60% of the city's peak population. It is now smaller than Charlotte, N.C., and Fort Worth. More people have left Detroit than live in San Francisco; more people have left in the last decade than live inSt. Petersburg, Fla.

There are all sorts of implications here, both for Detroit and for the nation. The 2010 census counts for Detroit (and Chicago) were much lower than local officials, and earlier census estimates, had predicted. That raises the question of whether there were problems with the count last year or in 2000, setting false benchmarks. Detroit officials say they plan to challenge the numbers, and Mayor David Bing announced he wants to find 40,000 Detroiters who were missed to try to push the count above the 750,000 mark, a key threshold for formulas used in distributing federal urban aid.

But there are two larger issues that have broader national implications. The first is, when we look at Detroit, are we confronted with the remnants of the nation's industrial past or a harbinger of its urban future?

The second is, what are we going to do about it? 

Rick Schmitt, and the challenge of health care for former prisoners

Rick Schmitt, writing for Kaiser Health News, has an interesting look at the difficulty ex-prisoners have in finding medical care. From his story:

Expanded indigent-care is expected to help many of the 130,000 former inmates discharged every year in the state, as well as the mainly impoverished communities where they move upon release. The newly freed arrive home in neighborhoods in Oakland and Hayward, Richmond and Antioch, bringing high rates of chronic and communicable disease and serious mental illness.

The federal aid results from an agreement that state officials negotiated with the Obama administration to get early access to funds under the health care overhaul law. Officials in Alameda County say they could receive an extra $35 million a year on top of the roughly $100 million the county spends annually on indigent care. While details have yet to be fully worked out, they intend to spend a chunk of the new money on the formerly incarcerated.

"The reentry population is a perfect target," says Alex Briscoe, director of the Alameda County Health Care Services Agency.