| • | KIDS IN FOSTER CARE ARE WAITING FOR YOU
05-17-2012
National Foster Care Month bounces in every May. But how unfortunate it is that our kids in the system are being bounced around all year long.Stability? My foster daughter’s story amazed t ...
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| • | SWEETER THAN CANDY, BETTER THAN A CARD
05-11-2012
Little did my mother, the late Bernice Smiley , know that her beliefs about Mother's Day followed the senti ...
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| • | PIANO INTERLUDE, A LOST OPPORTUNITY
04-28-2012
“Play Me I'm Yours” shut down on Thursday, May 3. Now, the 30 upright pianos with the bright decorations are gone from their locations around Los Angeles County.But hey, they were a ...
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| • | SCAPEGOAT SPOTTED ON ORANGE GROVE
04-13-2012
Long before cell phones were in everyone's hands or home telephones were called landlines, phone booths could be found on many a street corner.Ah, yesteryear. Much has changed since the old d ...
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| • | PASADENA POLICE CHIEF PROTECTS HIS MEN - YOU ASKED FOR MORE
04-01-2012
I’ve gotten many emails asking for more about the shooting death of Kendrec McDade,The teenager was first shot by a police officer who was sitting on the driver’s side of the squad car.&nb ...
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| • | PASADENA POLICE MURDER BLACK TEEN
03-31-2012
Kendrec McDade, suspected of armed robbery, was shot dead by Pasadena police officers last Saturday night as he was, it is reported, running from them.Two officers opened fire on the young man from ...
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| • | BEING YOUNG IS NO GUARANTEE FOR BEING FIT
03-15-2012
I dropped by the emergency room at Huntington Memorial Hospital the other night. Actually it was the wee hours of the morning — 3 a.m., to be exact. &n ...
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| • | A TASTE OF REALITY
03-02-2012
I'm a strong supporter of protest rallies, sit-ins, boycotts and the like.These kind of movements have been instrumental in focusing much-needed attention on social ills. More importantly, they are  ...
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| • | ARREST THE PARENTS
02-16-2012
When it comes to parenting, it seems a practical idea to know where your kid is. According to local police, it’s even better to know where your kid isn’t.
Pasadena Police Lt. Thomas D ...
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| • | POVERTY TOUR MENTALITY COMES TO CALTECH
02-02-2012
Tavis Smiley, author and host of television and radio talk shows, spoke in Pasadena last week at an event sponsored by the Caltech Y and Black Students at Caltech Present. I forgot to  ...
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| • | WHAT'S A MOTHER TO DO?
01-20-2012
It is no simple matter for a mother to decide what to do with a newborn she doesn’t want.Some folks must think it is, because over the years I’ve heard people say, “She sho ...
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| • | BEYOND THE NEIGHBORHOOD
01-05-2012
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| • | AN APPLE FOR CHRISTMAS
12-23-2011
My longtime friend Arlene McClain-Brown taught me something mighty important about giving Christmas presents to our kids.Arlene was raised in Terry, Miss., the youngest child in a family of many. Way ...
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| • | PCC IS THE PLACE TO GO
12-09-2011
Pasadena City College Lancer Marching Band Kicks Off Every Rose Parade.
A close friend with a flourishing business is currently enrolled in a Television and Radio Department class at Pasadena Ci ...
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| • | SATAN AT THE LAUNDROMAT
11-25-2011
The stalking and grooming of children for the pleasure of deranged adults isn’t limited to the scandal at Pennsylvania State University, where it is alleged this kind of activity has bee ...
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| • | PARENTS TO BLAME FOR EXISTENCE OF BOOT CAMPS
11-10-2011
Headlines across the nation are focusing on teen boot camps, thanks in part to Pasadena programs run by Keith Gibbs (known to many as “Sarge”) and Kelvin McFarland.
A video depicting ...
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| • | CAN I HIT MY KID?
10-27-2011
At Muir, the head football coach is alleged to have roughed up a student during a weapons search. It is said that the altercation began when the coach gave the 15-year-old an order, which the kid ...
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| • | WHAT ABOUT THE FOSTER PARENTS?
10-21-2011
All across America the debate continues to rage over the country's failing public education system and how best to provide inner-city minority youth with school programs that will bring them up to ...
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| • | RACE DON'T MATTER
10-14-2011
The recent physical altercation between a coach and a student at John Muir High School, a campus located in the heart of the ‘hood, is seen by many people as a racial incident.That’s too b ...
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| • | HOPE AND CHANGE - SOUND FAMILIAR?
10-05-2011
“There’s nobody home to help our kids with learning or with schoolwork because they’re all farmed out and living with some caregiver,” one gentleman told me as he headed to ...
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| • | ARETHA FRANKLIN CALLED IT "RESPECT"
09-29-2011
Increasing the cooperation and heightening the activities between agencies that serve families has been, throughout the years, an on-going and useful l endeavor. Recently, the Partnership for ...
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| • | PARENT REVOLUTION? NOT REALLY
09-16-2011
TOGETHER WE CAN TAKE BACK YOU ...
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| • | RIDING FAST ON RED BULL
08-29-2011
Television show, "Family Guy" has an episode focusing on Red Bull!The recent arrest of 21-year-old Eric Petrossian in South Pasadena for the theft of Red Bull caused the city’s poli ...
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| • | THE OTHER SIDE OF TOWN
08-27-2011
On one side of town an angry mom, angry because life just ain’t what she hoped it would be, is yelling at her 7-year-old son, “ You just like yo’ no-good-daddy. You ain ...
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| • | I MAKE NO EXCUSES
08-19-2011
It isn’t often that I take up space to clarify a previous position or to focus on the comments I’ve gotten from readers.But it seemed from the correspondence I received that my full posit ...
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| • | PARENTS BLAMED FOR LONDON RIOTS
08-12-2011
Are parents really to blame for the London riots as David Cameron, the country’s Prime Minister, has charged in his recent speech to the British Parliament? The civil disturbance, as he refe ...
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| • | FOOTBALL CAN BE DEADLY IN THE HEAT
08-05-2011
A heat wave, in very simple terms, means the weather is very hot and has been so for a number of days. Triple Digit, as the weather reporters refer to the temperatures when they get to b ...
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| • | KIMBERLY WIMBERLY HAS GONE TO COURT FOR ALL BLACK STUDENTS
07-30-2011
Kimberly Wimberly, who lives way down south in Arkansas, is nobody’s country girl. The young lady recently graduated from McGehee Secondary School earning the highest grade point average in ...
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| • | THOSE THRILLING SHOPPING DAYS OF YESTERYEAR
07-23-2011
AS we strolled the aisles in the supermarket this past week, it was a return to the thrilling days of yesterday, words from the opening introduction to the Lone Ranger radio show.
The Lone Ran ...
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| • | LESSONS TO BE LEARNED
07-15-2011
THE lady with the cute, fluffy and terribly pampered little lap dog said to each passer-by who stopped to admire the pink polka dot outfit it was wearing, "Oh, it's my daughter's baby but I ...
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| • | GETTING PAST THE ANTHONY VERDICT
07-08-2011
It might serve the public well to stop obsessing over the not guilty verdict rendered in the Casey Anthony trial.
Was Anthony guilty of doing away with Caylee, her 3-year-old daughter? Did the jury ...
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| • | THE ANTHONY FAMILY'S TRUMP THE SYSTEM PHILOSOPHY
07-01-2011
From time to time, something really big comes along that also involves very little clarity.
Such events defy even the concept of explanation. Still, there may be a lesson to be learned from the scen ...
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| • | TAKING THE 'LAZY' OUT OF THE DAYS OF SUMMER
06-26-2011
FAR too many parents are at a loss when it comes to managing their kids now that summer vacation is here.
This type of late June through early September frenzy speaks loudly about schools being seen ...
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| • | IT WAS SWEET WHEN DAD CAME MARCHING HOME
06-18-2011
MY dad marched off to World War II when other dads in our neighborhood were left behind.
How come Mr. Pickett, father of two, got drafted? As best I can remember, and there's no one left in our fami ...
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| • | GOOD GOLLY, MS MOLLY, YOU EAT WHAT?
06-11-2011
For the sake of anonymity, I'll just refer to my one-time neighbor as Ms. Molly. I'm not going to list the names of her children, either. I guess this goes without saying, for to call the offsprin ...
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| • | WHICH KID IS THE BEST?
06-04-2011
The former boy's baseball coach said too many moms thought they could demand special treatment for their sons.
"They wanted this and they wanted that," and Coach went on to explain ...
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| • | CANCEL THE SENIOR PROM?
05-27-2011
If you catch `em in the grocery store, they'll be quick to discuss the high price of food and how they're learning to leave certain items on the shelf.
One woman in the 99 Cents Only Store, ...
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| • | UH, DID MARIA'S MOTHER FORGET SOMETHING?
05-20-2011
There are many conversations mothers should have with their daughters, which causes me to be puzzled with the Maria Shriver story, because well-heeled husbands sleeping with the household help (or ...
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| • | WE CAN ALL HELP TO CHANGE FOSTER CARE
05-14-2011
It's an organization that tends to keep adults in their place. For once in their lives, foster youth have top say when it comes to the California Youth Connection, whose membership is comprised of ...
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| • | THE MILLION MOM MARCH TO CHINO
05-06-2011
I've got tears in my eyes! Not because of a touching Mother's Day card, or an elegantly wrapped gift, but then again, maybe that's what the burst of emotion is really all about.
Mother's Da ...
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| • | MOTHERS SHOULDN'T BE FORGOTTEN
04-30-2011
When we hear a mother say about visits to the prison from her kids, “I was overwhelmed wondering what I would say to them . . .my fear is being forgotten,” we know where our services be ...
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| • | NO EASTER BUNNY?
04-22-2011
There's a lot to discover about kids by the way they treat their pets. And there are a lot of lessons about life that kids come to learn when they have one.
Dana the little dachshund got le ...
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| • | WHAT'S A BLOGGER WITHOUT READERS?
04-17-2011
Without you, the readers, who provide me with your view, this would be a lonesome pursuit.
I have a policy of not using the next week to follow up on the topic of the previous week, even when a larg ...
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| • | THE MONEY CRUNCH
04-08-2011
The California Highway Patrol and local police officers, according to a recent newspaper report, issued 110,000 more traffic citations in Los Angeles County last year then they did at the start of ...
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| • | PADDED BRAS AND PADDED UNDIES?
04-02-2011
Abercrombie & Fitch recently decided not to market its push-up bikini tops to 7-year-old girls, who at this tender age, don't really have anything to push up.
Abercrombie & Fitch, a ...
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| • | CHRIS BROWN IS BAD NEWS
03-25-2011
Can't the media find a legitimate role model for our youth? Chris Brown, the baby-faced, tattoo-chested entertainer, is the latest inappropriate-behaving chump being crammed down our throats, if ...
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| • | SOME KIDS GET BREAKS, OTHER KIDS GET BROKEN
03-18-2011
Los Angeles County Fifth District Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich keeps Brandi on her toes. What's a man of his importance got to do with some kid staying focused?
"Hmmm," Brandi ...
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| • | TEACHING KIDS MONEY MATTERS
03-12-2011
The kid saw the incident as someone stealing her tennis shoes that she left on top of the lockers. Her mother saw it quite another way. The young lady had to purchase replacement shoes for having, ...
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| • | WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BLACK TIGER MOMS?
02-25-2011
Here's a thumbs-up for Amy Chua, still stirring up controversy with her book, "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother," which lays out what too many are calling a mean-streak way of raising kid ...
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| • | FINANCING HIGHER EDUCATION
02-11-2011
The Pasadena City College Office of Scholarships and Financial Aid will be holding what they call, "Financial Aid Saturday," today from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the campus located at 1570 E. ...
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| • | AN UNFIT PARENT?
02-04-2011
There's no arguing against the statement that some kids are strong-willed. I stand up for parents recognizing and supporting individuality.
But hold on a minute, as a parent we've got to kn ...
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| • | LIFE IN THE 'HOOD
01-29-2011
"They didn't do a very good job when they put in a fence for me, but the guys need the work. I wouldn't think of complaining because when I look at it, I'm a whole lot better off than before th ...
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| • | WINNING FRIENDS?
01-22-2011
Dale Carnegie and his influential best-selling masterpiece, "How to Win Friends and Influence People" was often quoted back in the days when I grew up.
Norman Vincent Peale was an ...
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| • | WHY TUCSON?
01-14-2011
The shooting death of Christina Green, the 9-year-old and youngest victim of the Tucson carnage one week ago, raises the question that we always hear when children are, what we call, cut short of ...
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| • | WHERE'S THE CARE IN FOSTER CARE?
01-08-2011
OVER the years, this space has frequently been devoted to the ups and downs of the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services, the infamous agency that oversees foster children ...
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| • | LOOKING BACK
01-01-2011
RINGING in the new year with resolutions, promises and an eye to the future seems the way to go, according to how this day has been organized in the past.
"Don't look back," a Ne ...
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| • | HOME ALONE FOR CHRISTMAS
12-25-2010
MY father was a waiter and for many years served patrons at a very upscale, elite Beverly Hills restaurant.
We didn't get to see much of him on Christmas Day because he spent most of the morn ...
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| • | MASON HOLLAND ISN'T ALONE IN SLAMS TO THE MAT
12-18-2010
I'M told just about everybody's been reading the story and watching the video of Mason Holland, the basketball player at DeSoto County High in Arcadia, Fla., who was called for a technical after pu ...
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| • | THE SPIRIT OF THE SEASON
12-10-2010
I got called the Grinch because of questioning the good of dreaming of a white Christmas and for suggesting Rudolph's sleigh mates were bullies.
I also was on record stating my annoy ...
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| • | I DON'T KNOW WHAT I'M SINGING ABOUT
12-04-2010
THE sounds of KOST, the self-proclaimed official holiday radio station, which seems to be playing every Christmas song ever recorded, has the music of the holidays flooding every room in our home. ...
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| • | CASH: NO CHANCE TO SHOP BEYOND OUR MEANS
11-26-2010
Now that Black Friday has officially kicked off Christmas shopping, maybe as parents it's time to not just examine our budgets when it comes to spending, but to also make a careful examination of o ...
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| • | STUDENTS WHO CAN'T READ, KIDS WHO DIE
11-19-2010
Why, many local folks ask, haven't I addressed the issue of school closures in the Pasadena Unified School District? This is pretty much the same kind of inquiry that comes my way about the Los An ...
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| • | WACKY OR WISE? YOU TELL ME
11-13-2010
WHILE some readers may think I'm pretty wacky, I suspect there's many who support my get-tough parenting philosophy who may not be willing to nod in agreement and most certainly aren't willing to ...
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| • | COOKING UP BALLOT SOUP AT THE PLANTATION
11-05-2010
FROM news reports, it seems that the youth didn't take Tuesday's election too seriously. If they had, the pundits have joked, the marijuana initiative (Prop. 19) would have passed with an overwhelm ...
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| • | VOTING IS A FAMILY AFFAIR
10-30-2010
AT my 19-year-old daughter's suggestion, we each tore off the back page, the request for vote by mail, from our Official Sample Ballot booklets and mailed them in to the Los Angeles County Registra ...
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| • | HEY MAMA, TRY SHOOTING FROM THE HIP
10-22-2010
LAST week I received a group e-mail with a subject line heralding "need advice from family elders." Being the eldest of the family elders, I sprang to attention, ready to address the need ...
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| • | THE REAL TRAGEDY THAT NOBODY IS WATCHING
10-15-2010
THE Chilean government drilled more than 2,000 feet into the earth and brought out all the miners who'd been trapped underground but stayed alive for 69 days. I believe in miracles.
But in ...
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| • | RAISING COMPUTER KIDS IS NO DEMOCRACY
10-08-2010
WHILE online social networks most certainly do pose a huge and unregulated threat to our youth who use them, I can't help but wonder why parents don't set up their own system of monitoring.
Step on ...
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| • | A LITTLE BIT OF CHIT CHAT CAN GO A LONG WAY
10-02-2010
NOWADAYS, too many parents just don't know our kids. It's because we simply haven't taken the time to learn all about our little bundles of joy that, at an early age, filled our lives with happi ...
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| • | NEED A SHOTGUN RIDER ON THE SCHOOL BUS
09-24-2010
SOMEONE suggested that James Willie Jones, the father who jumped on the school bus a few weeks ago and threatened the students his daughter said were bullying her, was in need of anger-managemen ...
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| • | DR PHIL'S WEBSITE SAYS IT ALL
09-17-2010
Of course that was me on "Dr. Phil" the other day. There probably isn't another Shirlee Smith with curly gray hair and a belligerent attitude.
So why was I on the show and why was ...
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| • | PARTIES. CURFEWS. GUNSHOTS AND DEAD TEENS
09-11-2010
DOMINIQUE Peatry, 14, of Lancaster, attended her last house party this past Labor Day weekend.
Early Sunday morning, homicide investigators report that sometime around 1 a.m. she was shot dea ...
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| • | IT'S NOT WHAT YOU KNOW BUT WHO YOU'RE RELATED TO
09-03-2010
DALLAS Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson is an absolute disgrace. Over the years, she has continuously awarded Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Scholarships to her relatives and to relative ...
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| • | BACK TO SCHOOL SHOPPING FOR WHAT?
08-27-2010
According to the National Retail Federation's 2010 back-to-school survey, the average American family will spend $606 on clothes, shoes, supplies and electronics, compared to $548 last year and $594 i ...
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| • | WHAT ABOUT DR. LAURA?
08-20-2010
DOES Laura Schlessinger speak for white America? The well-known and controversial syndicated radio host and author may be, in her latest diatribe, giving us all a walk down Race Avenue, Anytown, U ...
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| • | KEEPING TODDLERS AT THE GATE
08-13-2010
KIDS could be getting sick from eating food intended for their pets. These kibbles and bits aren't meant for human consumption. And most picky pet owners wouldn't be caught dead feeding their littl ...
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| • | VIP TICKETS AIN'T NOTHIN' IF YOU AIN'T GOT A PARKING PASS
08-07-2010
The Staples Center was the place. Right there, located in the same breath, a person could take in the Nokia Theater and the Los Angeles Convention Center. There was, also, a huge configuration of rest ...
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| • | WITH TEEN DRIVING, STORY IS SOMEWHERE IN THE MIDDLE
07-30-2010
MY older sister always talked about what she called three sides to every story - his, hers and the part left out.
There are probably many other titles for this adage, but the clear point is ...
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| • | FINALLY, A REPLACEMENT FOR BORING MEN?
07-23-2010
Taylor Momsen, the 16-year-old one-time actress and now sultry music maker, helps our girl-children - and they are still children at the age of 16 - sound like the sluts, hos and female dogs that ...
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| • | STAYING COOL 'OLD LADY' STYLE
07-16-2010
GRANNY Pickett kept the house dark. "Another of her 'old lady' behaviors,"' I reasoned.
I whined to my mother about these absurd conditions and, as most young folk will do, threw in wha ...
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| • | LINDSAY WHO GOT SENTENCED TO WHAT?
07-09-2010
AS a parent, I was repulsed with the media circus surrounding the Lindsay Lohan 90-day jail sentence.
And as a low-income black parent, it was even more sickening because I also had the tas ...
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| • | PUBLIC COMMENT TAKES THE BACKSEAT TO PUBLIC DEBATE
07-04-2010
EVERY kid of mine has had to suffer through my storming down to a local school board meeting to let the elected officials who sit behind what I call the curved desk in comfy leather chairs hear my ...
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| • | GRADUATION WITH A PUNCH
06-26-2010
Graduation ceremonies have their good points and their questionable ones.
And while some folk get on a roll when it comes to talking about cap and gown for the kiddies moving from pre-schoo ...
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| • | VOTE TO MAKE SHIRLEE THE NEXT OPRAH
06-18-2010
IT'S a Saturday morning and I'm in Laguna Niguel, having lined up at 4 a.m. in a Kohl's parking lot. I have no idea how many people are here ahead of me. What number am I?
Wrist bands won't be passe ...
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| • | THE TEENAGE GIRLS ARE TO BE COMMENDED
06-11-2010
WHILE the arrest of James Norkin, the sex-offender parolee accused of groping a teenage girl on an Orange County bus, is being heralded as quick action by the authorities, I believe a good portion ...
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| • | JUNE MADNESS
06-05-2010
IF I were just a little bit lazy, I'd pull out my writing from last year on high school graduation activities, because nothing has changed very much.
Year after year, and by now that count ...
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| • | A YEAR-ROUND COMMITMENT
05-29-2010
Kimberly Felder, a recruiter with the Kinship Center, helps a family believe in the foster care system. Don't get me wrong - my unholy experiences with the Los Angeles County Department of Childre ...
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| • | GET 'EM TO THE LIBRARY
05-21-2010
All too often people, old and young, will stay away from all things unfamiliar.
There are a lot of folks from my generation who refuse to have anything to do with a computer or a digital ...
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| • | DESTINY'S CHILD
05-15-2010
MY brother's friend didn't appreciate the rules he was required to abide by in his family home.
He packed up and my mother took him in. It was a congenial arrangement, as the friend was a l ...
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| • | WHAT'S THE GOOD OF A PRESIDENTIAL PROCLAMATION?
05-07-2010
"NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim M ...
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| • | NATIONAL FOSTER CARE MONTH
04-30-2010
MAY 2010 is National Foster Care Month. But, then, we had the same designation in 2009 and the same in previous years.
During this month the need for loving and permanent homes gets emphasized and ...
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| • | WHO IN THE WORLD IS SHIRLEE SMITH?
04-24-2010
I received an e-mail that said the writer was shocked to find I was a "local" person. This, he said, became clear to him only when I mentioned taking part in a local election. ...
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| • | DON'T JUDGE UNTIL YOU'VE WALKED IN HER SHOES
04-16-2010
Failed adoptions are common occurrences all across America. But thanks to nurse Tory Hansen, the public has come to know the horrors that face far too many people who simply step forward wanting ...
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| • | MY MOTHER IS NOT COMING BACK
04-10-2010
I once belonged to the AARP. I think most seniors find them to be an organization worth joining. Then there's the League of Women Voters. Yes, as so many civic-minded individuals do, I joined their ra ...
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| • | PHOEBE PRINCE WAS BULLIED TO DEATH
04-03-2010
IN January, 15-year-old Phoebe Prince hung herself in the stairwell of her family home. To compound the tragedy, she was discovered by her younger sister.
Phoebe was constantly made fun of by a grou ...
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| • | THROWING GOOD MONEY AFTER BAD
03-27-2010
THAT tussle over the parcel tax for schools I wrote about last week has fallen into name-calling on a similar but much smaller scale as the health-care reform stuff unfolding against the politicians. ...
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| • | WIN OR LOSE,VOTING AGAINST SCHOOL TAX
03-21-2010
IF you aren't registered, you can't vote. Some folks will rub their forehead in a weary gesture and want to know, "What now?"
What I'm talking about might only make sense if you ...
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| • | WHO IS TO BE HELD RESPONSIBLE?
03-13-2010
WITH Easter Sunday only a few weeks away, many families are planning to bring Peter Cottontail hopping down the bunny trail to their front door. Maybe they shouldn't.
There's a lot to learn about yo ...
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| • | IN A SPLIT SECOND JULIA WAS GONE
03-06-2010
IN upscale Brentwood, Harvard-Westlake Middle School student Julia Siegler, 13, died after being struck by two cars while in the street against the red light to catch her school bus.
In a split secon ...
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| • | ANGELA DAVIS, MOST-WANTED ONCE AGAIN
02-27-2010
ANGELA who?" asked the high school kid at the library checkout counter. I guess he gets excused because of his age.
Angela Davis is a name just about everyone who was around in the ...
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| • | WHITE FOLKS SOUND OFF
02-21-2010
Ah, if there were only ratings in this business of delivering one's opinion. With last week's opinion piece, "When white america picks `orphans,"' I'd have blasted Leno, Oprah and Letterman ...
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| • | WHEN WHITE AMERICA PICKS 'ORPHANS'
02-14-2010
SHOULD we give our kids away because the life we're able to provide isn't good enough for them? Is this the answer for Haitian parents?
Who is so callous and self-centered they can say that what th ...
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| • | BLACK HISTORY FOR A MONTH?
02-06-2010
IT'S here. Like just about everything else celebratory, it comes every year. But for African-American - or Black - History Month, this hasn't been the case for long. It has been with us since 1 ...
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| • | WAS BARACK OBAMA TALKING TO PARENTS?
01-30-2010
PRESIDENT Barack Obama's State of the Union address was longer, I hear, than any other from a United States president in our nation's history. In that lengthy speech from Wednesday night, the man disp ...
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| • | HAITI SHOULD HELP US TEACH OUR CHILDREN
01-23-2010
AS a kid growing up during World War II, I didn't understand my mother's constant commentary about the hungry children in Europe. Fact is, I didn't really understand anything about Europe and the bat ...
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| • | SHIRLEE IS THE KEYNOTE SPEAKER:HAVE WE ARRIVED?
01-17-2010
I'M not too sure that the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday on Monday will help the public see the light. While it is the only national holiday honoring an African American, "Uh, who?" comes th ...
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| • | EASIER SAID THAN DONE MR CORTINES
01-09-2010
RAMON Cortines, school superintendent of that gigantic educational system somewhere down the Pasadena Freeway, was on the airwaves Thursday spouting a message that I suspect n ...
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| • | IVANA DESERVES PROPS, NOT CUFFS
01-02-2010
WITH Nigerian terrorist, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, padding his undies with enough explosives to take down American Airlines flight 231 from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day, I would have thought ...
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| • | THE ANSWER IS BLOWING IN THE WIND
12-28-2009
SO much for us to be grateful for in a year when prosperity for so many friends, relatives and fellow countrymen is hard to come by. To have awakened Christmas morning in a house with a roof that wasn ...
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| • | "WHAT'S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT?"
12-19-2009
Thanks to Elin Woods, Tammy Wynette's record-breaking 1968 country tune, "Stand By Your Man" has found a resting place. "Surely you can find something in the Tiger Woods story that rela ...
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| • | NOT TAKING THE TIGER BY HIS TAIL
12-12-2009
THE big question I get from readers these days is, "What about Tiger Woods?" It is my practice to respond to every e-mail or snail-mailed letter that I receive.
Most folk who've been foll ...
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| • | KIDS RULE
12-06-2009
AT&T is not known for being on the side of parents or their children. By saying this, I'm not suggesting it does evil deeds directly aimed at the American nuclear clan.
But fast forward to the co ...
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| • | ONLY KIDS -THEY DON'T COME IN BULK
11-28-2009
Here's some good news. The kid said he followed the advice of his parents and the other elders in his family. Jason, the kid, admitted it wasn't usually his choice; that's just the way things were in ...
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| • | PARENTING ADVICE? MAYBE.
11-22-2009
If my usual parenting advice is what readers are looking for, this column may not quite hit the mark. Well, maybe some insights into the mighty responsibility of raising young'uns:
As my married daug ...
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| • | XMAS GIFTS YOUR KIDS WILL CRY FOR
11-19-2009
I am not the Grinch and this blog most certainly is not aboutstealing Christmas. Having said that, readers are most likely set forsome kind of non-traditional nonsense that only The Captain, as one of ...
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| • | DOING THE RIGHT THING
11-08-2009
EYEWITNESSES claim they didn't see anything. Financial regulators pass over the obvious accounting irregularities.
Parents say Johnny will outgrow his troublesome behavior.
Teachers pass non ...
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| • | PARENTS ARE THE TEACHER OF THE YEAR
10-31-2009
ON Nov. 3, Tuesday coming up, remember to vote and remember to take the kids with you to your polling place.
If you've voted by mail, I sure hope you included the youngsters, well, teenagers too, in ...
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| • | HOW HEAVY THE HAND THAT RULES THE ROOST?
10-23-2009
I'M not so sure about justice in America for a lot of reasons. And when it comes to this thing about a jury of one's peers, I get real troubled thinking about the parent who smacks their kid upside th ...
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| • | Karma:police, arrest the parents, too
10-18-2009
ARREST the parents of 15-year-old Jesus Mendez, who has been charged with attempted second-degree murder for the act of dousing, along with four other teenage thugs, Michael Brewer of Deerfield Beach, ...
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| • | PICK OF THE LITTER
10-11-2009
FAVORITISM is an issue in far too many families. We knew a mother who didn't care much for her second child because, said mom, "The kid gave me too many problems during my pregnancy." Mom ex ...
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| • | PARENTS OUGHT TO BE ARRESTED
10-03-2009
The beating death of Derrion Albert, the honor roll student at Christian Fenger Academy High School in Chicago, isn’t really news.
And there isn’t anything that any of us need to hear or ...
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| • | PUT KIDS ON TRACK
09-27-2009
MS. Inappropriate shimmied into the agency lobby smacking on gum, talking loudly on her cell phone but taking a break from the conversation just long enough to tell the receptionist she was there for ...
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| • | MY SISTER BEVERLEE BRUCE
09-19-2009
My earliest memory of my big sister Beverlee Bruce is that of total trust, admiration and constantly being cheated out of my Chocoletto candies.
But with the telephone call last Sunday from NYP ...
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| • | "COLORED" WOMAN SAYS KIDNAP VICTIM AND DAUGHTERS NORMAL!
09-06-2009
IT was on "Anderson Cooper 360" that I heard the woman. What an interview. But then I suppose news outlets are scrambling for a unique angle when reporting the finding of kidnap vict ...
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| • | THE OVERSEER
08-30-2009
Brandi's off to her first year at Pasadena City College. She's reached so-called financial adulthood with a bank account, a debit card and scholarship money.
Bank of America will not be collecting ov ...
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| • | THE MIGHTY MURPHYS
08-23-2009
MILLARD Murphy said his relative, who had come to manage the children and the home while his wife Molly was in the hospital giving birth to one more Murphy, packed up her bags and left the family ahea ...
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| • | HOW MANY SHOES CAN CHILDREN WEAR?
08-15-2009
Back-to-school shopping is going to be taking a back seat this year if the economy keeps on wreaking havoc on family budgets.
While news reports keep telling us things are moving upward, if you repe ...
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| • | TEEN CURFEWS SHOULDN'T BE NEWS TO PARENTS
08-09-2009
Unknown to many parents are state laws and community ordinances on the books that establish for minors, among other things, curfews, penalties for fighting, bullying and truancy.
What a change there ...
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| • | BLAME FOR DEAD KIDS PUT AT LA COUNTY SUPERVISORS' FEET
08-02-2009
NOT much different about this column. The Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services - I've written unfavorably about them before. Inept social workers - they usually share the spot ...
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| • | A SOCIAL SECURITY PRIMA DONNA
07-25-2009
CHILDREN in the foster care system have a tough row to hoe. And if they are involved with the Social Security Administration, the plot thickens. Their troubles aren't just with the Department of Child ...
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| • | THE STAPLES CENTER - WHAT ABOUT THE MONEY SPENT?
07-07-2009
I’ve been telling the kid in my household the American economy is in a downward spiral and everything we do and don't do, nowadays, will represent this fact of life.She tries to understand.On a ...
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| • | MICHAEL JACKSON KING -WHAT ABOUT POP?
07-05-2009
WHILE many folks feel we've had more than too much of the Michael Jackson coverage, with all aspects of the King of Pop's life being repeatedly pored over by the media, I'm pretty much like so many pe ...
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| • | JACKSON WAS OUR BARACK OBAMA OF THE 70's
06-26-2009
Seems just about everyone has something to say about the death of Michael Jackson.Not only does everyone have something to say, but we are also being fed first-hand accounts from his fans as to how th ...
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| • | KIDS SAY THE DARNDEST THINGS
06-20-2009
My daughter Brandi wanted to know if she would still have chores now that she had graduated from high school and would be attending college.
I was astounded. Pretty much knocked off my feet. It was ...
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| • | LAPD DETECTIVE STEPHANIE LAZARUS - GETTING AWAY WITH MURDER?
06-14-2009
THE recent arrest of veteran LAPD Detective Stephanie Lazarus for the 1986 murder of Sherri Rasmussen on the surface doesn't have anything to do with parenting.But these days, in just about every hot ...
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| • | NOT READY FOR ADULTHOOD
06-07-2009
WE just might just have to go kinda easy on the June 2009 high school graduates, especially those who no one told the 12 years they just completed were part of their prep course for the real world.Say ...
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| • | LIFE WITH AND WITHOUT "BABY-BOY"
05-31-2009
"If you can't beat `em, join em." This old saying has been around long enough to have worn itself weary, but not so according to one parent with an unruly young man in her household.Teenager ...
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| • | AMERICA'S KILLING FIELDS
05-23-2009
The names? Can't remember. Doesn't so much matter, anyway, because there are so many and by the time this column gets into print there will be many more added to the list.Where did it happen? That doe ...
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| • | NOT A BAD IDEA!
05-17-2009
MARIAM said money was short in her household. So short, she said, that planning, shopping and preparing meals had become classified as drudgery.The good stuff just doesn't get into her shopping cart a ...
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| • | MOM'S DAY BRUNCH OR WORLD PEACE
05-10-2009
This piece isn't going to be anywhere near what's generally written about Mother's Day celebrations. While mom often expects to receive presents and special treatment, this year, with an economy produ ...
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| • | LA COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF CHILDREN AND FAMILY SERVICES WITH MORE DEAD CHILDREN
04-26-2009
WHILE most of my e-mail "alerts" or "be sure to read" messages over the past week have focused on the recently released government memos authorizing torture tactics that were previ ...
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| • | CATHOLIC PRIEST AND CHRISTIAN GIRLS
04-18-2009
There's nothing much to be said about the horrific kidnap, rape and murder of 8-year-old Sandra Cantu that hasn't already been said and whatever hasn't been verbalized has most certainly ...
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| • | "A KNOWN TROUBLEMAKER!"
04-04-2009
“That woman Shirlee Smith is a known troublemaker,” said the woman who was sitting at the table next to mine. It was a loud stage whisper, which was, I suspect, intended to be ...
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| • | MILITARY RECRUITERS? AFGHANISTAN?
03-29-2009
Is the military, with so many career paths open to graduating seniors, an option families really want their sons or daughters to grab on to?Families need to know the real story and not just what the a ...
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| • | KCAL 9's PAT HARVEY DEAD WRONG
03-22-2009
Nowadays, with the economy tanking, lots of folk are providing the public with suggestions on how to stay afloat. Turn on television news and on just about every local channel there is a segment on wa ...
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| • | TICKETS AVAILABLE TO HEAR HER EXCELLENCY, ELLEN JOHNSON-SIRLEAF, PRESIDENT OF LIBERIA
03-16-2009
Her Excellency, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, President of Liberia will be speaking in Pasadena on April 8 as part of the Distinguished Speakers Series.Tickets are only for "Series Subscribers," BU ...
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| • | HER EXCELLENCY,ELLEN JOHNSON-SIRLEAF,THE PRESIDENT OF LIBERIA BE COMIN' TO TOWN
03-14-2009
"Where’d you get that from?” is a common enough query, especially if it’s a hot piece of news circulating through the hood. Now, when it comes to inqui ...
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| • | SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT ON THE FREE THROW LINE
03-06-2009
ONCE again top folk in the Pasadena Unified School District are scratching heads and adjusting their game plan to give the public some measure of understanding.
This time it's about how or why 42 pe ...
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| • | TRUANT DAMSELS IN DISTRESS
02-28-2009
Ah, the young damsels, the ones who decided a day at Paseo Colorado trumped a day in their respective classrooms, weren't, in my opinion, lured anywhere. I knew this when the first news reports claime ...
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| • | IN TODAY'S TROUBLESOME CLIMATE, HOW IMPORTANT IS BEDTIME?
02-22-2009
A simple question, but not such a simple answer. I suspect there are many more parents facing the same issue as the two moms who looked me up to ask for my input.Jen and Barb from "The Mom Life S ...
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| • | Let's Stop Obsessing Over Octomom
02-14-2009
PLEASE, people, let's band together and put the octuplets to rest. We can do this. With enough support, we can actually make this happen.
var requeste ...
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| • | LET'S DIM OCTUPLET MOM'S TV SPOTLIGHT
02-07-2009
IT'S difficult to determine what's to be said about a 33-year-old woman who would add a set of octuplets to the six children she was already attempting to parent as a single mom.The sane among ...
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| • | HERE ARE MY THOUGHTS ON THE WILMINGTON FAMILY MURDER-SUICIDE
02-01-2009
SO many people are asking themselves and each other what drove the Wilmington man, who authorities say is responsible for shooting to death his wife, their five children and then himself, to commit su ...
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| • | INAUGURATION - PICTURES AND REPORT
01-25-2009
“Start at the beginning, “ Brandi advised, when I declared it was impossible to write something short but all ncompassing about our trip of a lifetime to the 2009 inauguration of Pre ...
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| • | MLK DAY OF SERVICE
01-18-2009
Across America, in celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day 2009, we're all being asked to support the American spirit of volunteerism and community service by making a commitment to help in our com ...
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| • | INAUGURATION QUESTIONS AND ADVICE
01-11-2009
We're counting down the days and there aren't that many left before Brandi and I head for the historical inauguration ceremony of President-elect Barack Obama.Readers have posed some interesting quest ...
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| • | MONEY GROWING ON TREES?
01-03-2009
The one resolution I hope parents have made for this New Year is to make sure their children come to understand the changes in the household economy.Go ahead and correct me with the phrase that's alre ...
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| • | DOUBLE WHAMMY HOLIDAYS
12-28-2008
Whew! I sailed through the first of this year's holiday double whammies unscathed and with my head held high.But it seems, perhaps, people my age just do this anyway and that would mean there was no c ...
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| • | THEIR CHRISTMAS WAS ABOUT CHRIST
12-20-2008
Stockings, I'm told, were never hung by the chimney with care in hopes that ol' St. Nick might be there.The family had no stockings to spare and there wasn't a chimney anywhere. They didn't miss this ...
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| • | NAUGHTY OR NICE DON'T MATTER
12-14-2008
It's that time of year when we're reminded about that list that gets checked twice and the additional fun experience of determining who's naughty and who's nice.But recognizing the condition of the ec ...
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| • | EDUCATORS RESPOND TO SCRUTINY
12-07-2008
Following last week's newspaper column/blog about my daughter's teachers and counselor who didn't seem to think their job description included communicating with parents, I've had a flood of responses ...
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| • | DON'T PARENTS DESERVE BETTER SERVICE?
11-29-2008
This is an appeal to the public, although the high school counselor indicated this approach along with seeking assistance from school board members and Pasadena schools Superintendent Edwin Diaz were ...
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| • | AH, BUT IT'S A LONG DRIVE TO NEBRASKA
11-22-2008
WITHOUT a full look at the reasons older children were abandoned at hospitals in Nebraska under that state's safe haven law, one would think the parents who did this were pretty awful.That may not be ...
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| • | MICHELLE OBAMA DOESN'T NEED TO DRESS LIKE OPRAH WINFREY
11-15-2008
QUITE frankly, I'd rather not write about the soon to be occupants of the house on Pennsylvania Avenue in the District of Columbia but the public interest in our first African American family moving i ...
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| • | NEW YEAR CELEBRATION
11-09-2008
ON Nov. 4, the Cobb family, all six of them - young, old and middle-aged - got to their Altadena polling place at 5:15 a.m.Dressed for the rain, and also prepared for the almost two-hour wait with the ...
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| • | HISTORY NIGHT '08
11-07-2008
Where were you on History Night ’08?Joyce, who lives in Duarte, California, watched history unfold November 4th on the television set in her family room. At what she thinks was 8:00 p.m., the ph ...
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| • | LESSONS FROM THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL____
11-03-2008
MY daughter who lives in Inglewood got into a tiff with her neighbor over a Proposition 8 yard sign.Another of my offspring dropped a guy she'd been dating once she found out who his choice was for re ...
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| • | IT'S LEGAL
10-30-2008
It’s legal. You can do it. You might have already done it and, then again, you might have never thought of it. Radical? Probably not. Life-changing? Just might be ...
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| • | OUR GASTLY ECONOMY ISN'T CHANGING HALLOWEEN
10-26-2008
WHO said the economy was in a bad way? Aren't we being told families are having it hard because of, among other things, high prices at the gas pump and continually rising food cost?Back when prices at ...
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| • | GET 'EM REGISTERED TO VOTE
10-19-2008
DID our high school teachers and administrators remember to get students who are or will be 18 on or before Nov. 4, registered so they can vote?Maybe the civic teachers, government teachers and all th ...
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| • | FLOORED IN THE FAST FOOD LINE
10-05-2008
'GOT what she deserved," was the consensus of the group.""Well," said a quiet lady who was sitting on the sideline and who hadn't ventured to join in the conversation until things ...
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| • | AN UPBEAT STORY
09-29-2008
WANT an upbeat story? Check out your neighborhood public library and there's a plenty. While I suspect I'm known for continually shining light on the nonsense that prevails in our society, libraries a ...
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| • | TALK ABOUT VOTING!
09-20-2008
THE 2008 presidential campaign provides families on both sides of the political aisle some of the best lessons life has to offer.Hot off the grill we get a look at unsafe sex resulting in teenage preg ...
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| • | DEFERENCE
09-13-2008
WHAT started as a simple search for T-shirts ended in an understanding of what Sen. John McCain's Republican presidential campaign wanted the news media to afford their vice-presidential candidate in ...
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| • | MEET MICHAEL
09-07-2008
We owe you a big apology. Our website has been pretty much out of "whack" for the past too many months. You should now be able to post comments here on the blog and, by the way,& ...
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| • | PUMP UP YOUR KIDS FOR THE ELECTION
08-24-2008
TITLE on my e-mail was a simple WOW with an exclamation mark. Born in 1965 just before Watts - in the first Los Angeles Riot - went up in flames, my daughter who lives in Colorado exclaimed she'd rece ...
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| • | SUPERVISOR MICHAEL D. ANTONOVICH
08-21-2008
What makes Mike Antonovich, a Los Angeles County Supervisor, so dedicated to the well-being of children in the foster care system?As guest on Wednesday’s Talk About Parenting with Shirlee Smith ...
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| • | WHERE'S CAYLEE? A CASE OF LIES AND DENIAL
08-15-2008
THE troublesome story of Caylee Anthony, the 3-year-old Florida girl who has been missing for over a month, follows a pattern the public has been introduced to before. &nb ...
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| • | Unusual Suspects
08-13-2008
While the YWCA’s mission to eliminate racism and empower women is, indeed, lofty, the steps they are taking pretty much depend on the rest of us. The forums, workshops and other programs develop ...
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| • | SENIOR YEAR MUST-HAVES ADD UP
08-09-2008
THE listed requirements for graduating from high school in California are reasonably straightforward. There's no fuzzy language. There's no small print. There's nothing parents need to figure out.
O ...
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| • | WHO TOLD THE FELONS OR THE HOMELESS?
08-07-2008
My friend Chile who was a guest on our Talk About Parenting with Shirlee Smith interview show some months ago talked about her early years in foster care, teenage years as a r ...
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| • | ARROGANT THUGS
08-02-2008
`THUGS!""Where?""Come on, now; you see them."The descriptive comment was meant for the group of black teenage males strolling north on Lincoln Avenue in Northwest Pasadena. So ...
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| • | JACKSON REALIZED THE SHOE FIT
07-11-2008
Who would have thought longtime civil rights activist Jesse Jackson's lengthy relationship with microphones hadn't taught him a thing or two?And one of those things, I would think, would have been: Yo ...
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| • | IS HILLARY THE POT CALLING THE KETTLE BLACK?
05-31-2008
The long-running 2008 presidential campaign just keeps showing up in my house. It seems to have taken up a permanent residence. Thanks to my Brandi b ...
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| • | A MOTHER'S DAY REMINDER: DON'T FORGET THE HUMOR
05-10-2008
Back in the day when I was doing stand-up comedy, a significant part of my routine was my Mother’s Day special.The concept of once a year good treatment for us, when we toil 24/7 all the other d ...
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| • | RAMON CORTINES: A SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT WORKING FOR PARENTS
05-06-2008
LAUSD Superintendent, Brewer, has hired former Pasadena Superintendent and local resident, Ramon Cortines, as his number two man.Brewer has come under criticism for not, as yet, putting his dist ...
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| • | RECESSION?
03-28-2008
I suspect I’m not the only head of household who has noted the controversy going on that could be headlined, “Recession or What?”The big boys, maybe some girls too, apparently have s ...
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| • | CALIFORNIA HOMESCHOOLING TAKING A HIT
03-12-2008
Some happenings in our society are just too stupid to comment on. But, then again, there just may be some folk who fail to see the stupidity in the social action or there, also, may be some peop ...
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| • | WHAT DO PARENTS KNOW, ANYWAY?
02-22-2008
Parents with an ear and an eye trained on the mental health, academic success and general well being of their children are frequently labeled as both troublesome, meddlesome and, equally as uncomplime ...
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| • | HISTORY REPEATS
02-14-2008
Among those listed on the tattered and torn copy of a slave sale document that hangs on my wall, (for a good price) are families - husbands, wives and their children. The conditions for sale indicate ...
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| • | YEAR OF THE RAT
02-07-2008
Let’s give our family members the opportunity to expand their cultural horizons by helping them to learn about and to appreciate our Chinese American neighbors.At the top of our cultural awarene ...
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| • | "OH, NO THEY DIDN'T"
01-29-2008
My kid will be with me at my polling place on Super Tuesday. Why? She’s got a job to do just like I do. What’s that supposed to mean when she’s o ...
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| • | WHERE'S THE BRIDGE OVER OUR TROUBLED WATERS?
01-27-2008
Stop for a few moments, well, okay we probably need more than moments which, actually, is no more than on overused figure of speech, anyway. Since I want this to be an honest look at the behavio ...
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| • | WHAT COLORADO SPRINGS HAS TO SAY ABOUT HOLMES MIDDLE SCHOOL
01-18-2008
Here’s how the story I broke on the Blog earlier this week played out yesterday in Colorado SpringsReprinted from Colorado Springs GazetteFriday, January 18,2007School segregationHow King ...
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| • | NON-BLACK STUDENTS LEFT OUT OF DR. KING CELEBRATION
01-15-2008
In celebrating the birthday of Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. administrators at a middle schools have seriously misunderstood this great Nobel Peace Prize winner’s dream that one day children would ...
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| • | PARENTS RAISING KIDS FOR JAIL TIME
12-31-2007
The so-called cute little 3-year-old sat across from me. While I was trading stories with other adults at the table, she, with a strong arm and an accurate aim, pitched a tennis ball that hit me dead ...
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| • | OMAHA NEBRASKA MALL MASSACRE
12-09-2007
Since the Virginia Tech campus killings last April, administrators of America’s institutions of higher learning are stepping up efforts to make their campuses safe by, in part, ruling out applic ...
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| • | IF YOU CAN'T BEAT THE XMAS PRESENT GAME, THEN WHAT?
12-02-2007
Having just heard Bing Crosby crooning the popular tune, “It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, ” made me all too pleased that the Advent Calendar in our household was r ...
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| • | TOUGH TEACHER ON THE LOOSE
12-02-2007
It seemed like a page from yesteryear. The teacher was poised upright at her desk doing paper work. About twelve students were sitting quietly about the classroom with their heads bu ...
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| • | HOW MUCH HURT DID THE BOUNTY HUNTER CAUSE?
11-10-2007
My sister has a doctoral degree in anthropology from Harvard University. She has taught at numerous prestigious universities across the country and for many years she served as a Peace Corps director ...
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| • | CANDY VERSUS SAFETY
10-31-2007
There's got to be some safe places for youth to dress-up, parade around and grab onto an identiy that won't belong to them the next day. Roaming the streets and knocking on doors for that elusiv ...
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| • | TOY RECALLS ARE A BLESSING IN DISGUISE
10-21-2007
I saw one of my favorite little characters on television nightly news the other night and the reporter, who flopped him around in front of the camera for all to see, wasn’t giving up any respect ...
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| • | THE JENA SIX
10-09-2007
The Jena Six story is a hard cold lesson for parents of young black males that keeps before us the ugly reality called our sons don’t hold golden boy cards.The six high school students in Jena L ...
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| • | I WROTE IT AND I STILL MEAN WHAT I WROTE!
09-25-2007
I’ve got a book on the market called “They’re Your Kids Not Your Friends.” The publishers in Mexico who picked up the rights went along with that ...
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| • | CHARTER SCHOOL FAILING THE STUDENTS
09-15-2007
A local resident and education-for-all- kids advocate voiced concern the other day because students attending Nia Charter School wouldn’t be able to receive Cal Grants b ...
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| • | MILITARY RECRUITERS GETCHA IF YOU DON'T OPT OUT
09-08-2007
There’s a little known section of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation that was approved by Congress back in 2001. No, the public probably doesn’t need to know all aspects of this c ...
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| • | DO SOMETHING
08-23-2007
Time to act. Time to do something. This week’s blog on the shooting death of 16 year-old Ebony Huell has prompted comments, here, that sound like folks believe in action.Reese says t ...
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| • | TROUBLE IN THE LAND
08-21-2007
Ebony Huell has, unfortunately, become the talk of Pasadena. The 16 year-old who was shot to death last Friday night on the sidewalk outside a teen party on Lincoln Ave. ...
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| • | ANOTHER KILLING - ANOTHER MEETING
08-14-2007
There was another shooting in my town - Pasadena the city of roses. There will be many more. There was another meeting. There will be many more. No one at the ...
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| • | WHO'S MINDING THE KIDS?
07-11-2007
You tell me who should be arrested in the troublesome story of the ten and twelve year old girl kidnappers.While this lawless caper took place in a distant land called Enid Oklahoma, a place most of u ...
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| • | PARIS HILTON LIVES NEXT DOOR
06-12-2007
Is there anything to be gained from the incessant media coverage of Heiress Paris Hilton receiving a jail sentence from a judge for violating conditions of her probation, checking i ...
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| • | FOSTER CARE AWARENESS MONTH - AWARE OF WHAT?
05-02-2007
I’m not too sure that something like Foster Care Awareness Month can get the job done. But then, I don’t suppose the purpose of this month, which is really dedicat ...
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| • | Don IMUS
04-25-2007
“Well!” said my sister, with much indignation expressed by her, in one of the frequent telephone calls she makes to me from her apartment in New York city. Beverle ...
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| • | COLORED CHICKS RUIN THE DAY
04-06-2007
Little girls with ruffled dresses, hair filled with bows and curls, shinny new shoes and baskets filled with spring time goodies hanging from their small arms – it must be Easter time.&nbs ...
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| • | WHO DIED THAT NEWS DAY?
04-05-2007
The teenage uncle told the interviewer he found nothing wrong with helping his toddler nephews smoke pot because, he said, the little ones had done it before. Uncle also said the youngsters had ...
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| • | LIFE AIN'T EASY
04-05-2007
One of my grandmothers had a quince tree in her backyard and every year she picked them, canned them and I suppose even ate the fruit I wouldn’t touch.Quince? I never saw them for sale at ...
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| • | Is The Military A Dumping Ground?
02-20-2007
“I don’t think you know the half of it,” said the young man sitting behind the desk at the public access television station in Los Angeles when I told him the title of the program I ...
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| • | Military Recruitment:What Families Need To Know
02-04-2007
From somewhere back in time I recall a tune with a calypso beat and lyrics claiming, “There are more questions than answers.” A catchy phrase but not a concept we, as p ...
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| • | DR. GRETA PRUITT,TALK ABOUT PARENTING WITH SHIRLEE SMITH BOARD MEMBER, NAMED TO LOS ANGELES MAYOR'S EDUCATION LEADERSHIP TEAM
12-10-2006
Talk About Parenting Board Member, Dr. Greta Pruitt, named to Los Angeles Mayor Villaraigosa's Education Leadership Team!L. A. Times, Sunday morning, December 10, 2006LOS ANGELES - With legislation po ...
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| • | WHO IS TO SAY BRITNEY SPEARS IS AN UNFIT PARENT?
12-08-2006
Britney Spears isn’t someone I’d normally write about but recent condemnation of the big-time entertainer’s parenting grabbed my attention. Months ago the paparazzi ...
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| • | TURKEY SQUABBLE
12-01-2006
Whatever squabbles emerged at this year's turkey gathering of relatives can't equal the allegations of criminal intent and the filing of a police complaint regarding the alleged assa ...
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| • | STUDENT'S WINNING ESSAY PUTS HER ON A FLOAT IN THE 2007 ROSE PARADE
11-22-2006
Congratulations Christina! Thanks much for submitting your winning essay. ...
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| • | KEEP THE FAMILY CONVERSATION CURRENT
11-12-2006
I’m generally amazed when astonished parents discover their student is able, in some meaningful way, to discuss current events. “I just couldn&rs ...
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| • | MEDIA FOCUS ON ADOPTION IS SKEWED
10-25-2006
November is National Adoption month here in America. When we compare media coverage of our own children needing permanent families with that given to one-year old David Banda from Malawi who is ...
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| • | KIDS CAN DO IT!
10-08-2006
We encourage parents to have their children submit school work - and here is our first. A book report from Lyndon, 5th grader, who lives in Colorado. Congratulations! An "A" ...
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| • | CONGRESSMAN FOLEY'S FOLLIES
10-08-2006
The despicable behavior exhibited by former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley in his alluring emails to young Pages who worked in the program that have recently been made public is indeed news and political news a ...
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| • | WE'RE HERE TO SERVE
09-06-2006
Thanks for being a "blog friend." We've had some technical troubles with our blog but tech folks say we are now back in service! Friend, Allen, sen ...
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| • | STILL BILL (COSBY)
08-28-2006
In days past, or as my grandson likes to characterize my commentary, “back in the day,” the start of a school day often began with the clanging of the bell.Nowadays, the clanging starts wa ...
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| • | JONBENET RAMSEY OVERKILL
08-17-2006
If you formerly disagreed with those of us who said the news we're fed is basically crap and that these over rated media conglomerates fail to provide people with the issues and events they need to kn ...
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| • | ONE MORE GADGET TO SNATCH
08-15-2006
Recent news tells us iPod theft is on the rise. The media has gone all out to give Apple some un-paid for promotion for their trendy little gadget. A gadget that’s little in size but ...
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| • | IS McDONALD'S FOR EVERY BODY?
07-30-2006
The other morning, Saturday to be exact, I tried pulling my red Oldsmobile into my local McDonald's drive-thru. The place in the "hood" was jammed. SUV's hanging out into the str ...
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| • | MORE QUESTIONS THAN ANSWERS IN PRE-SCHOOLER'S DEATH
07-10-2006
Rita Foster? Folks in my hometown are beginning to wonder if that’s the real name of the 4-year-old child who was hit and killed by a bus in front of her apartment complex as she rod ...
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| • | PARENT SHOULD BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR PRE-SCHOOLER'S DEATH
07-03-2006
The recent death of 4-year-old Rita Foster is being called an unfortunate accident, with no one at fault, according to Pasadena Police spokesperson Janet Pope Givens.At 8 o’clock p.m., when it w ...
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| • | DAVID SANDERS QUITS POST AS LOS ANGELES COUNTY DIRECTOR OF CHILDREN AND FAMILY SERVICES
06-29-2006
Everyone's favorite department, which is also fondly called "The Kid Snatchers," will be looking for a new commandant. Everybody's buddy, David San ...
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| • | THEATER ANYONE?
06-18-2006
There's so much more to life than television and to that end our organization, through the Center Theater Group, works to provide "curtain time" experience for families . The latest venture ...
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| • | WHO CARES ABOUT JOLIE-PITT AND DOMINIQUE CALLOWAY?
06-12-2006
It's been a couple of weeks, now, since the much heralded birth of the Jolie/Pitt baby came to pass. Thank God for the media's short attention span we are now being bombarded ...
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| • | AKEELAH AND THE BEE
05-28-2006
Sometime I just gotta wonder what's up (or down) with parents. You folk claim you want the best for your kids and then when something good comes along, like the movie "Akeelah and th ...
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| • | HOW MANY KIDS ARE IN FOSTER CARE?
05-03-2006
A simple answer to this question is; too many! But what's to be done to decrease the numbers? Some would suggest adoption. Others might say placement with relatives and then there's that bunch of h ...
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| • | FOSTER CARE-
04-29-2006
Reprinted from "They're Your Kids Not Your Friends" (c) 2001 by permission,Sorin Press, Notre Dame, IN I once told someone my favorite pasttime was sitting on the bea ...
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| • | 20,000 Young Adults Age Out of Foster Care Every Year
04-29-2006
Aging out of foster care is a most outrageous concept and practice. Biologiclal parents aren't afforded the luxury of waving a fond farewell to their offspring once the kids h ...
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| • | Disproportionate Number of African Americans in the System
04-29-2006
With such an overwhelming number of African American children in foster care, a quick thinking person might determine my folks don't know how to raise their kids. But let's please ask that you give th ...
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| • | OCTAVIA BUTLER - A VERY TIMELY DEATH
03-14-2006
“Kindred,” by Octavia Butler, Pasadena’s selection committee’s choice for this year’s March 2006 “One City, One Story” provides a clear view of how the ...
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