Adolfo Guzman-Lopez

The White House announced Monday that a Southern California psychiatrist has been chosen to receive the Presidential Citizens Medal.

The passage of the California Dream Act sent waves of joy through Southern California’s Mexican and Central American undocumented community. Starting a year from January, undocumented college students that have lived here for most of their lives can apply for publicly funded financial aid. And now one Southland woman wants public officials to know about the plight of undocumented young people from a tiny South Pacific kingdom.

Gov. Jerry Brown signed the California Dream Act a day before Sunday's deadline for handling the bills on his desk. Beginning a year from January undocumented college students will be able to tap into publicly funded college financial aid.

The Getty announced Thursday that it’s acquired thousands of items from the archives of renowned L.A. artist Ed Ruscha.

The Los Angeles Philharmonic announced Wednesday it has entered into a partnership with an East Coast college to spread the methods of a Venezuelan national youth orchestra program.

The Hammer Museum’s show in the “Pacific Standard Time” series focuses on art and black Los Angeles between 1960 and 1980. Wednesday at 7 p.m. the museum’s presenting specially commissioned multimedia performance "Twenty Twenty" that’ll take viewers onto the dance floor and into melody-filled clubs to showcase African-American music in L.A. during the same time period.

In the last couple of years, undocumented young people have stood up in public as never before to lobby for the Dream Act, the federal proposal that would legalize their status in the United States. While many have lost hope that the measure will ever become law, some of these teens and young adults have organized poetry readings in L.A. on Wednesday and in Santa Ana Friday to call attention to their concerns.

Three California public school districts and two educators' groups sued Gov. Jerry Brown Wednesday. They claim that he and other elected officials unconstitutionally yanked $2 billion from the state's public schools this year.

The Getty kicked off Tuesday a six-month series of art exhibits and performances with 82 partner organizations that include the region’s largest museums and small galleries. The series is called “Pacific Standard Time” and documents art-making in Southern California between 1945 and 1980. It includes the big names in Los Angeles art such as Ed Ruscha and Ed Kienholz as well as little known artists who left a lasting imprint on the regional and national art scene.

Gov. Jerry Brown has hundreds of bills to sign or veto in less than two weeks. Educators say they’re watching the way he acts on education bills, because the governor’s offered few specific ideas about how he wants to improve public education.

Three far-reaching California state education bills are on their way to the governor. If they become law, public schools would offer more classes to fulfill University of California requirements, teachers would get training to better prepare students for jobs and the state would replace its Academic Performance Index (API).

Cal State and the California Department of Education first offered the Early Assessment Program test six years ago. In the first year, 12 percent of high school juniors tested ready for college math. Cal State Chancellor Charles Reed says that percentage has risen just a few points this year.