By Minerva Perez
A plaque erected in Merced to remember missing and exploited children has drawn the ire of some parents. The blunt language is not something they want to explain to their children, they say.
But child advocates say the discussion does not have to be so difficult, and it can prevent future heartache.
By Helen Afrasiabi
Santa Ana lacks the abundant land and monetary muscle of its more affluent neighbors like Irvine, but the city isn’t compromising when it comes to providing a comparable quality of life. With the Santa Ana River Trail project — one of the city’s transformation efforts — city staff capitalize on creativity and resources to give Santa Ana the livability enjoyed by those master-planned communities bordering it.
By Todd R. Brown
Food distribution remains dominated by quantity-driven corporations, and some small farmers in the Central Valley struggle with a food system controlled by a few distributors and dominated by larger-scale producers who are jumping on the green bandwagon for a piece of the $30 billion industry.
By Clare Noonan
A slick Hollywood production it’s not. But a video by four Merced-area teens is a fresh, unvarnished look at the reality of life where they live.
By Helen Afrasiabi
A day reporting center keeps kids out of juvenile hall in Orange County.
By Callie Shanafelt
A program that turns troubled youths into paramedics is helping to change the lives of young men in Oakland.
By Melissa Flores
The Salinas Valley is in the heart of California’s central coast farmland, and once a year, local third-grade students get a chance to learn about the industry that drives the region.
By Julissa McKinnon
About 90 percent of Americans are overloading on sodium, but don’t blame your saltshaker.
Groundbreaking legislation passed in 2008 could be a major step toward changing the way neighborhoods are designed throughout the state, curbing sprawl and creating safer, more walkable communities. The law, known as SB 375, is a huge and unprecedented opportunity for public health, potentially making it safer and easier for all Californians — including elderly, disabled, and low-income residents — to be more active, breathe cleaner air, and even buy healthier foods.
But to make sure the law promotes public health on all of these fronts – and serves as a strong model for other states around the country – Californians need to keep policy leaders accountable for its potential.
By Melissa Flores
The sight of students running around Frank Paul Elementary School in Salinas has become a regular thing before school, during breaks and after classes end. The kindergarten through sixth-grade campus has 28 classes who signed up to participate in a fitness program that is meant to make exercise fun. The Just Run program was created seven years ago by people involved in the Big Sur International Marathon. The members, including Susan Love and Mike Dove, wanted to come up with a way to encourage fitness for children as obesity rates for both adults and children continued to rise.