By Josh DuBose
September 19, 2017
photo by navymailman
LOS ANGELES – “Restorative justice is a philosophy and a way of being in a school community,” says Deborah Brandy, director of district operations for Los Angeles Unified School District. In many ways, LAUSD, the largest district in California and the second largest in the country – behind the New York City school system – is leading the charge to change the way public schools approach discipline in the K-12 educational system.
written for Inspire Malibu
A little more than a week ago, on August 10, President Trump announced plans to declare a national emergency in lieu of the nation’s crisis of opioid overdose deaths. According to the White House’s own survey, opioid related fatalities now kill 142 Americans every single day.
written for Inspire Malibu
August 2, 2017
There’s good news and bad news. The number of prescriptions for opioid painkillers, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), is in decline. Since 2010, the peak of opioid prescriptions, the agency tracked a 41 percent decrease. However, the analysis also revealed the prescribing rate is still three times higher than in 1999, near the beginning of America’s opioid crisis.
written for Inspire Malibu
The crisis of opioid addiction in the United States is an ever-evolving tragedy. Healthcare professionals, state and federal legislatures and law enforcement have, so far, been unable to stop or contain the spread of opioids and heroin spiked with even more powerful and deadly drugs. In fact, it has become increasingly difficult for scientists to keep pace with new heroin cocktails.
written for Inspire Malibu
April 25, 2017
LOS ANGELES – Like other states in the U.S., California has seen a spike in overdoses as a result of heroin and prescription painkillers. While the news cycle appears to have moved away from the country’s opioid epidemic, the problem persists. In 2015, an estimated 33,000 people fatally overdosed on heroin or opioid medication, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
written for Inspire Malibu
February 28, 2017
LOS ANGELES – Before the ink on new marijuana laws has even dried, there are looming signs of trouble. To coin a phrase, where there’s smoke, there might be a federal raid underway.
December 15, 2016
LOS ANGELES – Landlocked in the middle of city, Koreatown is dense and diverse. In less than five-square-miles, it’s the most populated neighborhood in the city, housing an array of cultures made up of lifelong L.A. denizens to young people just arriving from other parts of the country. Though for many low-income, minority residents, like 46-year-old Umberto Gutierrez, an undocumented immigrant, working and living in K-town means coping with exploitation.
September 3, 2016
STUDIO CITY, Calif. – Freelance photographer and writer, Allen Nalasco, walks in the dim, early morning hours to make his Thursday shift as an assistant manager of a neighborhood sporting goods chain.