Crosscurrents

Come early March, California might be clean out of money unless the Legislature takes action, says Controller John Chiang. The shortfall is projected to last seven weeks, during which time Chiang recommends borrowing money and delaying some payments. How did the state end up in such a bind? Chiang says California was spending $2.6 billion more than was included in the budget while tax revenues coming into state coffers were $2.6 billion below projection…

If you’re convicted of committing a felony in California, you can end up in many kinds of prisons. Steal a lot of money in a Ponzi scheme – you might end up in minimum security. Locked up, but with little supervision. Commit a violent crime, and you could be sent to a medium-security prison, like Folsom. Kill someone, and you could be headed for supermax.

The first in a three part series on prisoners sentenced to life, new ways to think about the high US high school drop-out rates, the origins of the name of San Francisco's McLaren Park, and jazz great Bobby Hutcherson in his own words.

In last week’s State of the Union address, President Obama proposed something radical, that dropping out of high school no longer be allowed. But that might be complicated. Every school district has tried numerous solutions to the dropout dilemma without success.

Last week BreakOut!, a New Orleans based LGBTQ organization that focuses specifically on youth impacted by the juvenile justice system, began the first of their anti-discrimination training seminars for the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD). The training comes as a result of an investigation and subsequent consent decree by the United States Department of Justice mandating sweeping reforms and trainings throughout NOPD.