Clips

NEWS FEATURES

LGBTQ Youth in Foster Care See Higher Roadblocks Than Others

Foster youth who identify as LGBTQ face significantly more hurdles in their educational path, experiencing harassment, homelessness and depression at higher rates.

Many LGBTQ youth end up in foster care due to lack of acceptance from their own family about their sexual orientation or gender identity. They often fail to find that acceptance in foster care. “They urgently need our help.”

Who Decides How Minors Are Tried?

The scene that greeted Raymond Aguilar in his old Stockton neighborhood upon his release from prison four months ago was too familiar: boarded up windows, liquor stories, prostitutes and gang members walking the streets. Twenty-five years had passed since his conviction for second-degree murder, and nothing had changed.

NARRATIVE/INVESTIGATIVE

California Foster Students Get Patchwork of College Support

Challenges in meeting the educational needs of California youth in foster care remain. Educational funds aren’t always distributed as intended, a testament to the difficulties of a state widely spread over urban and rural areas.

There are more than 1,000 school districts, more than 80 of them in Los Angeles County alone. Programs aimed at helping high school students in care vary district by district.

Latinos Confront Demands to Sound Anglo

The letters were direct and to the point: “Go back to Mexico.” “You’re too Latina.” “We can’t understand what you say.” The hate mail rattled Minerva Perez when she was news anchor for KTLA-TV. Ms. Perez, a fifth-generation Texan, has always spoken perfect English. The issue wasn’t the way she presented the news but rather how she said her own name.

The Unbearable Stress of Being in a Community Under Attack

The life-altering, stressful impacts of ICE raids and shooting massacres don’t end with the events themselves.

Many are finding solace in online mental health resources at a time when many Latinx and immigrant communities are feeling persecuted, and many are marginalized from access to traditional mental health resources or feel more comfortable accessing these resources from home.

Lawmakers won’t expand role of nurse-midwives

Affordable homes with ample lots lure many families to the town of Apple Valley in the Mojave Desert. But amenities are limited—no department stores, no Costco and, more importantly, few affordable medical care options for pregnant women. “I was worried that I wouldn’t make it in time and give birth on the freeway,” Cassandra Lindstrom said.

She Never Came Home

The Orange County Register

CIUDAD JUAREZ, MEXICO — At times, it's as if Eréndira Ponce is still alive.

The 17-year-old girl keeps invading her father's thoughts, chasing away sleep in the dark of night. She sings, mimicking her favorite singers, Shakira and Gloria Trevi. She jokes with her family, placing a cigarette on each of her eyelids, holding them in place with her long eyelashes. She tells her father how much she loves him.

These are the happy memories Federico Ponce tries to focus on, but then other, more sinister thoughts overtake him.

He imagines the brutal way his daughter was killed. He thinks of the five years that have passed since Eréndira died. Five years of standing outside government offices demanding that law enforcement investigate. Five years of waiting for her killer to be arrested. Five years of nothing.

Rage builds inside him until he can no longer stand it. He gets out of bed, pulls on his cowboy boots and grabs a large kitchen knife.

MEXICO/BORDER

Border Business Woes

ROSARITO, MEXICO — Lupe Perez built his restaurant from the ground up, using his keen business sense to convert a food stand with no running water into one of the most popular eateries in Rosarito, offering fine fare such as venison and quail.

Today, El Nido restaurant stands as a symbol of how the city has matured from a quiet fishing town to a full-fledged tourist destination.

POLITICS

Female Vote is Newly Prized

MEXICO CITY — Candidates in Mexico's most competitive presidential election ever are courting the female vote by promising to create programs that will foster gender equality in a society still steeped in machismo.

They are talking about establishing a national women's institute, placing women in key government positions and banning workplace discrimination. About the only major issue candidates won't discuss is abortion.

Immigrants Seek Secret Medical Care

Associated Press

It's already dusk, the sun casting a pale glow over the low-slung houses of this industrious immigrant enclave, when Silvia Fernandez makes her way to work.

With an air of authority, and giving nods of recognition, she bustles past a small crowd, some waiting in their cars, others already in line for her services.

The woman they know as Dr. Silvia receives them in a somber room tucked behind an inconspicuous storefront, furnished with a few chairs and a desk. The room's dull lighting casts a pallor on the skin of her patient, a Mexican immigrant. Fernandez doesn't wear a white coat or use a stethoscope, and she has no examination table. But her hands move like a veteran's.

The pungent smell of alcohol is the sole suggestion that medicine, underground medicine, is practiced here. Fernandez is one of dozens of underground health providers who provide medical care that is familiar, discreet and cheap.

Mexico Clamps Down on Migrants From South

TECUN UMAN, GUATEMALA — For less than a U.S. dollar, anyone can cross the Guatemala- Mexico border illegally. No guards, no checkpoints and no inspections stop those who want to cross the Suchiate River.

Most migrants cross with the intention of going on to the United States to work, but many are finding their efforts thwarted these days despite the apparent ease of crossing from Guatemala. Once across, they're discovering that many areas in southern Mexico are teeming with military and immigration agents.

Proposal to Import Workers Stirs Fears

From the strawberry fields of Irvine to the power-filled halls of Washington, D.C., a proposed plan to import workers from Mexico is being praised as a possible cure for illegal immigration from south of the border.

Such talk dredges up disturbing memories for the men who took advantage of the largest U.S.-Mexico guest-worker program in history. Memories of decades spent toiling for little. And fears that their past will become someone else's future.