Adolfo Guzman-Lopez

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.

The strike by La Habra City School District teachers to undo a 2 percent pay reduction and cuts to health care benefits will continue for a second day today. Teachers plan to show up in force at this afternoon’s school board meeting as well. About 90 percent of the district's 225 teachers walked picket lines yesterday. They’re the second group of Southland teachers to walk out this year over salary cuts.

Parents in the Compton Unified School District became the first in the state to use a new California law. It allows parents to petition school districts to convert low-performing campuses into charter schools.

Parents in Compton Unified today took steps to switch a failing school to a charter school campus. They're the first to use a new law that lets parents petition their school district for changes at a failing school. The pro-charter group Parent Revolution guided the parents.

A report released in Los Angeles today reveals what its authors call grave disparities in educational achievement between Asian-Americans, native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders in California.

Nearly 1,000 Los Angeles Unified School District employees, mostly clerks and custodians, are losing their jobs Wednesday. Many of them staged a protest outside LAUSD headquarters Tuesday evening as school board members met for their regular meeting.

Thirty years ago a Long Beach building contractor created a literal door to kindness for people with less than he had.