Adolfo Guzman-Lopez

For the second time in less than a year, L.A. Unified’s superintendent acted Wednesday to overhaul a low performing school by wiping the slate clean and forcing all employees to reapply for their jobs.

Los Angeles Unified’s board declined a traditional national search and today selected as its next superintendent a career schools administrator who’s worked with the district for six months.

Governor Jerry Brown has announced his appointees to the powerful State Board of Education.

Saturday’s Tournament of Roses Parade is a boon for some Pasadena businesses. Other organizations creatively use what they have to bring in some money during one of the year’s biggest tourist events. Many churches along Colorado Boulevard have sold bleacher seats in prime parade-viewing spots.

Jazz luminary James Moody died earlier this month in his adopted hometown, San Diego. Moody – whose final public performance was last January in Seal Beach, died on Dec. 9 of pancreatic cancer. He was 85.

The most viewed fixture during the televised Rose Parade isn’t any float or personality. It’s that dark-tiled building on Colorado Boulevard that houses the Norton Simon Museum.

Tamale production is in full swing in the Southland. With time-honored recipes, people concoct fillings and dough to prepare the holiday delicacy in homes and restaurants. Production usually tapers off sharply after the holidays, except at Homegirl Cafe. The Los Angeles eatery plans to continue and ramp up its tamale production into next year – with the purpose of transforming lives.

Incoming governor Jerry Brown summoned to UCLA dozens of public school administrators from throughout the state yesterday, along with leaders from the state’s public colleges. Brown’s intent was to reveal how deep the state’s deficit has become.

About 200 people gathered at UCLA Tuesday morning to hear incoming Gov. Jerry Brown detail how California’s poor fiscal state is set to affect public education. It’s going to be bad, Brown told the group made up mostly of school administrators.

Southland school districts welcomed the new federal child nutrition funding signed into law on Monday by President Barack Obama. For LA Unified, it means an extra $6 million a year for its school lunch program.

One college student at UCLA had a hard time handling this week’s dramatic back-and-forth over the DREAM Act vote on Capitol Hill. The US House of Representatives approved the measure but the Senate postponed a vote. Approval would have meant legalization for her and many other undocumented young people across the country.

There’s a settlement today in a lawsuit that challenged California public schools that charge students for workbooks, science lab materials and gym class uniforms, among other items.