Stories in Progress
Updates from stories in progress.
Interview with a desperate family. Reporting by Patrick Burke part of the American Apparel story.
These sisters both worked in American Apparel’s sewing department before the I-9 audit. Now they’re looking for work and hoping for a way to avoid catastrophe for their family. I conducted this interview, with translation help from Natalia Garcia, on 11/18/09. Today, the 19th, I’m told that American Apparel CEO Dov Charney will be helping the Perez family, at least with this month’s rent.
A Desperate Family from Patrick Burke on Vimeo.
More than just a number: Theresa Rutheford – Part of the SF Public Press’ look into “SF city downsizing slashing worker’s paychecks.”
Supes will vote whether to restore funding for pink slipped workers next Tuesday. Theresa Rutheford, a CNA at Laguna Honda, talked about how the cuts would effect her.UpdateFinal by monica.jensen
Inside the Alameda Courts: Day two. Part of the Crime Courts and Communities investigation with KALW. (Also see Day One).
Stanford law professor Robert Weisberg added another perspective on jury selection. He said that an experienced lawyer who tries the same types of cases will over time, start to come up with profiles of ideal jurors. Prosecutors, who are particularly prone to specialize, are great at this, he said. Weisberg added that in high-stakes, well-funded cases like lawsuits against big businesses, a defense attorney might even hire a jury consultant to research demographics. But ultimately, “lawyers know that there are a certain number of people that they won’t be able to get out of a jury,” he said. “That’s when they start using their questioning not to expose a bias in the juror, but to start to seduce the jurors into their way of thinking.”
New Jails, No Treatment, in California Prison Plan
With his first proposal rejected by a federal court, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last week submitted a new, 130-page plan to cut California prisons’ inmate population by 42,000 in two years.
The proposal (PDF) would build new prisons and transfer inmates out of state, but comes amid a hefty budgetary slash to drug treatment programs that lawmakers had previously identified as an effective way of in keeping people out of prison.
Published: Parent and community groups fight uphill battle to reform public school food.
Tavon Frazier is a skinny 9-year-old squirming in front of his Styrofoam lunch tray. He’s eaten most of his chicken taco and his friends, all wearing the navy polo shirts of East Oakland’s Korematsu Discovery Academy, are wiggling around him, chewing on their flour tortillas and nibbling on baby carrots. Tavon didn’t stop at the salad bar on his way to the cafeteria table today. He says sometimes he’ll get applesauce when they have it, but mostly he doesn’t like vegetables, especially broccoli and carrots. His ideal cafeteria meal would be “donuts and cupcakes and a cake,” he says with a mischievous sideways grin.
Related posts: