Maywood residents facing pollution outline community goals
The invite was a pleasant surprise. Janet Wilson’s excellent report on the severe health struggles of one Maywood family and the polluted conditions that envelop them had run recently, and I was doing...
View ArticleLanguage limits jobs, health care for new Burmese refugees
Htoo Mlar’s son was born in a Thai refugee camp, and inexplicably, he never learned to walk. There weren’t any Western-trained doctors at the camp, so it wasn’t until Mlar’s family – refugees from...
View ArticleUC Davis study links traditional arts to health
Before she died last month at age 70, the respected Pomo basket weaver and activist Luwana Quitiquit was asked by a researcher for her personal definition of wellness. “Storytelling is wellness,” she...
View ArticleMexican cultural festival thrives in Marin County
On a cool, bright day last month, a party tent set up at a working ranch in west Marin County was transformed into a Mexican basilica, the scent of dozens of roses brought as an offering to the Virgin...
View ArticleIn Marin County, poverty exists alongside wealth
Those wanting to check the socioeconomic pulse of the Canal area of San Rafael need only peruse the bulletin board at The Canal Alliance, a nonprofit center serving the neighborhood’s largely...
View ArticleVideo: 'Valley of Shadows and Dreams'
Ken and Melanie Light embarked on a five-year photographic journey of a region known for its agricultural plenty – and the marginalization of its people. In their book, “Valley of Shadows and Dreams,”...
View ArticleNeglected for decades, unincorporated communities lack basic public services
Nearly every day, Modesto Junior College student Arleen Hernandez battles an aging septic tank that backs up into her toilet and shower, bringing with it “bits of paper and chunks of mold.” Hernandez...
View ArticleVideo: Unincorporated California
Roughly 1.8 million people live in low-income unincorporated communities in California. These communities are outside of recognized city boundaries and therefore lack many public services, including...
View ArticleMap: Learn more about 4 unincorporated communities
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View ArticleReact and Act: Contacts for unincorporated communities
Many residents in low-income, unincorporated neighborhoods across California are living in substandard conditions: These poor, dense communities lack some combination of safe drinking water, sidewalks,...
View ArticleUnincorporated South Dos Palos struggles with economic development
Once a thriving rural community with a nearly equal number of bars and churches, South Dos Palos, an unincorporated area in Merced County, has been in decline for decades.But it’s still possible to...
View ArticleRural towns devise unique plan to solve water problems
For a good part of its rich history, residents of unincorporated Allensworth, the first African American colony west of the Mississippi, have gone without a reliable supply of safe drinking water.This...
View ArticleDrop in immigration clouds future of school for Spanish speakers
English and Spanish alternate seamlessly in the classrooms at the Mission Education Center in San Francisco. Decorative signs identify objects that in other schools would seem too basic to name:...
View ArticleWithout federal recognition, tribe struggles to protect sacred sites
REDDING – Caleen Sisk, the chief and spiritual leader of the Winnemem Wintu tribe, wore a traditional basket hat – representing clear thinking – to her meeting with congressional candidate Jim Reed....
View ArticleReact & Act: Understanding ‘ghost tribes’
In “Without federal recognition, tribe struggles to protect sacred sites,” reporter Marc Dadigan introduces readers to the Winnemem Wintu, a “ghost tribe” that has fought to preserve traditions and...
View ArticleVideo: Ghost tribe
At least half of California’s 150,000 Native Americans lack official recognition by the federal government. The Winnemem Wintu tribe of Shasta County struggles to continue practicing its traditions...
View ArticlePrivate wells outside Fresno test positive for contaminants
Locals like to say that Easton is closer to Fresno than parts of Fresno, but as an unincorporated community seven miles south of downtown, residents relish its small-town ways.“We don’t have the same...
View ArticleMobile home park residents sue owner over sewage, electricity
Lilia Avila has lived for a decade in the Garcia Mobile Home Park in the Eastern Coachella Valley with her husband and three children. Ask her to describe the park, surrounded by farmland and empty...
View ArticleUnincorporated neighborhood finally getting sewer service
The unincorporated neighborhood of Parklawn, one of hundreds of impoverished California communities that lack basic services, celebrated a breakthrough this month when Stanislaus County broke ground on...
View ArticleCambodian youth confront ‘historical forgetting’
LONG BEACH – Youthful rebellion can come in many guises, from being anti-Google to defending animal rights. But for an all-female group of Cambodian American teens in Long Beach, home to the country’s...
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