Education, Arts & Culture
Supervisor Ridley-Thomas Discusses Child Welfare and Confidentiality in LA County on 'Which Way, L.A.?'
Child Welfare Records: The Latest LA Confidential (7:07PM)
Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said yesterday, “The obsession with leaks… exceeds the obsession with child deaths.” He was the lone dissenter in a 4-to-1 vote to investigate what was called the “inappropriate disclosure of confidential child welfare information.” At issue is a series in the LA Times on the deaths of children in families that are supposed to be under the scrutiny of the County’s child welfare officials. Dissenter Zev Yaroslavsky said after the vote, “all the energy that is spent on that is energy that is not spent on trying to figure out what’s going wrong in the Department of Children and Family Services.” We hear from a Times reporter , Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, who voted for the investigation, and an advocate of open government.
Guests:
Garrett Therolf: Reporter, Los Angeles Times
Mark Ridley-Thomas: LA County Supervisor
Terry Francke: General Counsel, Californians Aware
This Summer's Lesson: Learning Is Fun
From the L.A. Times:
It is a hot, energy-sapping morning on a quiet residential street, but inside the Lynwood United Methodist Church, summer school students are raising the roof with inspirational chants, boogie-down dances and affirmations of friendship.
There is a good-morning greeting, shouted by the teachers: “Freedom School, how you feelin’?”
“Fantastic, terrific, great all day long!” the group of about 35 children bellows in response.
It is part of a start-of-day ritual of song, dance, meditation and sharing of experiences called harambee, a Swahili word meaning “let’s pull together.”
And for the Lynwood students, the joy of learning inspired by the morning’s pulse of energy does indeed last all day long.
The children are among 200 Los Angeles students getting an intensive lesson in reading and loving books during a six- week summer literacy program rooted in the civil rights movement.