AltWeeklies Wire
Microstipends For Parentless Youths Got Slashed by Arnold. Will Kids Fight Back?new
A week after Schwarzenegger signed six bills touted to help foster youths, the state Department of Social Services told the public foster-care systems up and down the state that new cuts were coming, including one trim that wiped out the entire $3.6 million budget for so-called Emancipated Foster Youth Stipends.
L.A. Weekly |
Daniel Heimpel |
01-08-2010 |
Children & Families
A Year Late, L.A. Tries to Uninvite its Unvetted Pot Shopsnew
The Los Angeles City Council now faces one of its potentially most expensive legal battles ever, a war over medical pot that could draw in shady drug dealers, serious medical-marijuana activists, gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown -- and even U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.
L.A. Weekly |
Daniel Heimpel |
09-25-2009 |
Drugs
Foster Youths in L.A.: A Before-and-After Storynew

L.A. is home to the largest foster-care agency in the U.S., with many of its 7,000 employees fighting valiantly to try to fix the system and the lives of children caught in it. But with John, on a brisk night on a corner frequented by former foster youths now homeless, you notice only the system's failings.
L.A. Weekly |
Daniel Heimpel |
09-11-2009 |
Children & Families
L.A.'s Yawning Loophole for Pot Dispensaries Spawns a Woodstock Economynew
In 2005, every city in California was busy adopting ordinances to allow for medical-marijuana storefronts while keeping out the bad actors and illegal peddlers. But the Los Angeles City Council couldn't get it done.
L.A. Weekly |
Daniel Heimpel |
07-17-2009 |
Drugs