Anjali Taneja

Rick Jacobs, Chair of the Courage Campaign, accompanied by Reverend Eric Lee, President of the Southern Christian Leadership Council of California, held a press conference outside the Los Angeles Mormon Temple this week. They attempted to peacefully deliver a petition with nearly 17,000 names of Californians opposed to the Mormon Church's funding and tactics in support of Proposition 8. They simply asked that the LA Mormon Church pass on these petitions to Utah. This...

Father Greg Boyle is the director and founder of Homeboy Industries, a well respected Los Angeles organization that works to educate and provide job training for at-risk youth and former gang members. Connie Rice is the director of the Advancement Project Los Angeles and is a prominent civil rights activist and lawyer. They are featured speaking out against Proposition 6, a measure that could bring lengthier sentences for youth, try 14 year olds as...

This ad is the first Yes on Prop 5 spot and is entitled "Warden." It features Jeanne Woodford, former warden of San Quentin State Prison and former Director of the California Department of Corrections. Against a backdrop of images of San Quentin, she speaks of her 25 years working at the prison, where she began as a prison guard. "Let me tell you," Woodford says, "too many of the men I dealt with started...

Alicia Dwyer, a filmmaker from Los Angeles who has directed, edited and produced an Academy award winning documentary and an Emmy-award winning series, recently travelled to Ohio not to film a documentary but to direct and produce advertisements. She produced ads for Local Voices for Obama, an innovative campaign to broadcast local ads featuring local voices and attitudes in swing states. LAist sat down to talk to Alicia Dwyer about her experience. LAist: How...

Photo by adshaw80 via Flickr Whether you're sitting in front of your absentee ballot or you're readying yourself for voting in person on November, you're looking at national and local elections as well as a slew of California ballot propositions -- 12 to be exact. Well, over the course of this election cycle, LAist writers have posted about 10 of the 12 propositions. We present to you our posts on each proposition, for a...

Photo by kr4gin via Flickr Proposition 5, the Nonviolent Offender Rehabilitation Act, on the California ballot this year, significantly expands on Proposition 36, the Substance Abuse and Crime Prevention Act, passed in California in 2000 by 61% of voters. In this regard, it is quite timely that this month, the UCLA Integrated Substance Abuse Program released its 2008 report on the progress of Proposition 36 (link to .pdf of report). Prop 36 allows first...

INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence organized SisterFire, a national women of color multimedia arts tour that traveled across the country. INCITE! members organized SisterFire because they recognized the transformative power of creative cultural work. In recent years, SisterFire performances have been organized in several cities and towns across the U.S. This Sunday, October 26th, from 3:30pm until evening, the Los Angeles chapter of INCITE!, hosts SISTERFIRE LA, a Women of Color and Trans People...

Several of California's ballot propositions this year could have wide-ranging national ramifications. Among them is the less talked about Proposition 5, the Nonviolent Offender Rehabilitation Act (NORA). This proposition aims to fundamentally reform California's drug-control policy by providing resources for rehabilitation and treatment of drug users a priority of the prison and parole systems. Up to eighty percent of California's prisoners have a substance use problem and most receive no treatment. The rationale behind...

What is Proposition 6? Prop 6, also known as the Runner Initiative or the Safe Neighborhoods Act, is a move to increase funding for police and prisons and toughen penalties on "gang-related" and drug crime . It has been introduced by George Runner (Republican state senator) and his wife Sharon Runner (Republican state assemblywoman). The proposition would deem any youth 14 years or older who is convicted of a gang-related felony fit to be...

The Esperanza Community Housing Corporation is a community-led organization that has served the community of LA's Figueroa Corridor since 1989 (Figueroa Corridor is in south LA, an area surrounding Figueroa Street by 100 yards to the north and south, and situated just south of downtown LA). The organization provides affordable housing to low-income residents; teaches the arts to local children; provides resources for sustainable economic development; empowers residents through education and outreach by community-trained health...