This new series examines how a ballot measure rebuilt the state’s public education system — and what’s at stake in November.
Both presidential candidates agree that America’s aging infrastructure needs massive investment. Why wouldn’t they? Fixing and replacing our roads, public transit, and other critical infrastructure will benefit the economy long into the future. The hard question is, where do we get the money?
Serious contract negotiations are now underway between the University of California system and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which represents nearly 14,000 clerical workers and administrative support staff.
Renters across the country are having an increasingly difficult time keeping a roof over their heads, with Californians who search for affordable housing finding the task a particularly challenging one.
Debate about parental leave has long focused on the benefits for working families and the supposed costs to employers. But more fundamentally, ensuring that new parents have the support and time they need to bond with their children is essential to public health and to infant development.
Two weeks ago, D.C.’s transit agency began taking bids from private companies to operate its parking facilities. In exchange for a big up-front payment, the winning company would collect fees from people parked at train stations for the next 50 years. Privatization would be foolish for a number of reasons.
Co-published by TIME
Mynor Rodriguez, a 39-year-old father of four who lives on the northwest side of Chicago, was working as a high school-educated graphic designer when he first saw an ad for a for-profit college run by ITT Educational Services. He was “enticed” to enroll, he says, when he visited a nearby suburban campus, whose admissions staff told him that they’d help him find a job right away upon graduation.
Since the Justice Department announced in mid-August that it will phase out its use of private facilities for Bureau of Prisons (BOP) prisoners, the stocks of the country’s two largest private prison companies have plummeted. But the companies already have a plan—in fact, they’ve been following it for years.
Seventy-seven years ago, in March 1939, Juan Fabian Fernandez of New Mexico opened a session of the National Congress of the Mexican and Spanish-Speaking Peoples of the United States in downtown Los Angeles. He stood out as the only Latino state legislator present, but he was not the only politico there.
How do you get the best quality health care in the University of California’s renowned public medical system? At UCLA’s Ronald Reagan Medical Center it’s a gold-colored wallet card with a personalized number to call. When flashed from a gurney in the ER (or at a club to impress friends), the card means one thing: The patient in question is a VIP.
How do you get the best quality health care in the University of California’s renowned public medical system? At UCLA’s Ronald Reagan Medical Center it’s a gold-colored wallet card with a personalized number to call. When flashed from a gurney in the ER (or at a club to impress friends), the card means one thing: The patient in question is a VIP.
Co-published by The Nation
Alissa Quart reports on teachers who drive for Uber.
Lovell Estell III: Will a major university be without childcare services?
Most Americans today know that Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. was killed in Memphis, Tennessee in 1968, but few know why he was there. King went to Memphis to support African American garbage workers, who were on strike to protest unsafe conditions, abusive white supervisors, and low wages — and to gain recognition for their union.
With good union training, wages and benefits, Cathy Nichols, a single mother, was able to provide for herself and her son without fear of impoverishment or medical calamity.
Editor’s Note: Pandora Young recently visited two medical marijuana dispensaries in downtown Los Angeles and in Sherman Oaks. This may be the last summer when recreational pot possession is a crime in California – if Proposition 64 passes in November, medical marijuana will no longer be the only legal way to obtain and use cannabis products.
When we speak of legalizing marijuana we are really speaking of the Great Cannabis Debate. Come November, Californians will vote on Proposition 64, the Adult Use of Marijuana Act, which could bring safety and security for both cannabis consumers and farmers, and the sales taxes accrued could provide much-needed revenue to our state.
Bill Raden reports on the Assembly’s approval of overtime pay for California’s farm laborers, based on an eight-hour workday.
In February of 2013, the employees of Wellness Connection, a medical marijuana provider based in Auburn, Maine, were worried about their product. They’d observed mold and fungus on their plants too often; bugs were infesting their work areas. Some of the chemicals they were being asked to use, such as the insecticide pyrethrin, had known health effects.
In his sunny office on the edge of town in Arcata, California, Scott Greacen pulls up a slideshow on his large high-resolution monitor. As wildflowers sway in the wind outside a window, a woodsy guitar solo starts to play along with the pictures. Greacen mutes it; he wants to focus on destruction.