As summer temperatures rise, so do fears of asthma and other illnesses caused by all the air pollution converging on the east Los Angeles community of Boyle Heights.
Culture
Young people define a healthy future for Boyle Heights
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New community collaborations in Los Angeles are giving young people a leading role in improving their communities.
Culture
Noisy neighborhood? One family lives with it: SJ Toxic Tour Blog
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By Donovan Farnham and Isaiah Guzman
Alison Soman, her husband John and their five-year-old son Ben live in perhaps the loudest area in San Jose. Their home in the Newhall-Sherwood neighborhood sits within steps of Highway 880, a train yard sits about 1,500 feet to the east and San Jose International Airport is just beyond that. Photo (c) by Donovan Farnham
Yet Alison said her family has gotten used to the planes, trains and, particularly, the whoosh of the automobiles. “The neighbors and I joke about it being the beach,” she said. The San Jose Toxic Tour is produced by the San Jose State University journalism students of Professor Michael Cheers, in collaboration with Newsdesk.org.
Culture
Reading, writing, low-flying jets: San Jose Toxic Tour Blog
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Washington Elementary School is under the direct flight path of the San Jose International Airport. As many as 10 jets fly overhead per hour, producing constant noise, fumes and exhaust, that disrupt students’ education and possibly their health as well.
Culture
Interview with “Smogtown” authors
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In the kickoff to Here in the City’s “Air Check: petroleum and air pollution from a community perspective,” Sara Harris interviews Chip Jacobs and William Kelly, the authors of “Smogtown: The lung-burning history of pollution in Los Angeles.”
Culture
Lesser known facts about air pollution in Los Angeles
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The Coalition for Clean Air houses a wealth of information about quality in California. Here are some surprising assertions I encountered about Los Angeles recently on their site:
Culture
“The Smogometer”
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I’m knee deep in Smogtown: The Lung-burning History of Pollution in Los Angeles by Chip Jacobs and William Kelley. It’s written like the pair wishes they were really James Elroy, but it’s chock-full of archival research and unbelievable anecdotes about just how toxic the miasma called air was in Los Angeles before the oil companies and defense manufacturers were ever subject to regulation.
Culture
The Toxic Tour: Networked public-health journalism
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Newsdesk.org’s award-winning, crowd-funded “Toxic Tour” is expanding to Los Angeles, Oakland and San Francisco, where we’ll put the neglected issues and neighborhoods “on the map,” and create a new model for independent journalism.
Culture
The Los Angeles Toxic Tour: Request for Proposals
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[Download this RFP as a PDF]
Would you like to bring the award-winning “Toxic Tour” reporting project to Los Angeles? Newsdesk.org and Spot.Us welcome proposals from journalists interested in developing new coverage of pollution and environmental health in Los Angeles communities. Proposals are due Nov. 12 for short-term projects using text and multimedia to document pollution and communities in greater Los Angeles. Topics include neighborhoods, economics, industry, land use, transportation, politics, activism, environment and health.
Culture
AIDS hits African women, funding shortfall threatens progress
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An additional $10 billion will be required to provide universal access to powerful pharmaceuticals, prevention efforts and early diagnosis methods to stem the transmission of HIV from mothers to their newborns.
Culture
In rural U.S., a veterinary crisis
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The United States Department of Agriculture is stepping into one of the more perplexing situations facing rural America today: a shortage of large animal veterinarians.