September 29, 2005 By DOUGLAS MARTIN New York Times Constance Baker Motley, a civil rights lawyer who fought nearly every important civil rights case for two decades and then became the first black woman to serve as a federal judge, died yesterday at NYU Downtown Hospital in Manhattan. She was 84. The cause was congestive [...]

By Kimm Groshong and Shirley Hsu, Staff Writers San Gabriel Valley Tribune ANGELES NATIONAL FOREST — The Forest Service on Friday released its new land management plan, designed to guide the four Southern California national forests through the next 10 to 15 years. Environmental groups immediately attacked it, saying the plan fails to adequately protect [...]

by Kathryn Maese Los Angeles Downtown News By January 2007 the Los Angeles River will be a thing of beauty, teeming with native flora and fauna, booming with the construction of riverfront housing and active with joggers and cyclists utilizing a string of bucolic paths. Well, at least on paper. Last Monday city and state [...]

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans and other parts of the Gulf Coast region need to be rebuilt in a sustainable and socially just way. It will cost well over $100 billion in federal funds to rebuild the region. The people who lived in the areas of New Orleans that were still flooded [...]

New York Times Editorial September 14, 2005 By JENNY PRICE Los Angeles IT’S summer’s end, and in Los Angeles that means we fold up the beach chairs, wash off the boogie boards, and take stock of who won and who lost in the annual Malibu summer beach wars. We’ve had an especially exciting round of [...]

Los Angeles Times A new study says that 28% of the state’s children are overweight — a health crisis poised to explode into higher rates of serious illness. By Carla Rivera Times Staff Writer September 9, 2005 In California, renowned for lean bodies and active lifestyles, childhood obesity has reached epidemic levels, with more than [...]

Los Angeles Times EDITORIAL September 8, 2005 LIKE A PROUD YET overeager parent, Los Angeles Unified School District Supt. Roy Romer celebrated the first day of school Tuesday by climbing aboard a bus and making a campus visit. Actually, Romer visited four schools, all of them new, in a well-deserved victory tour that marked an [...]

Los Angeles Times By Jean Merl and Erika Hayasaki Times Staff Writers September 6, 2005 When the opening bell rings today at South Gate High School, it will, for the first time in nearly a generation, signal the actual start of a new school year. For years, scores of Los Angeles schools have worked on [...]

On Wednesday August 17th the American Beverage Association announced a voluntary school beverage policy (http://www.ameribev.org/schools/vending_policy.asp). The Strategic Alliance believes that this policy is little more than a publicity stunt and urges each of you to monitor and respond to your local media coverage by writing a letter to the editor, op-ed or calling a local [...]