Socal Week in Review

1. Backing down on the state park issue after several months of vehement criticism, Gov. Schwarzenegger has requested that the Department of Finance minimize the number of total park closures and cut alternative areas of the budget instead.
2. And in life after the Governator, former eBay CEO Meg Whitman has thrown herself into the gubernatorial race, vowing to cut 40,000 state government jobs and lower state taxes on behalf of the Republican Party.
3. Whoever does "win" the title of California Governor will have their hands full, as the unemployment rate in California arrived at a seventy-year high this month. What's to blame? Take a look at our state's strong ties to the recently-decimated construction industry.
4. With the economy in disarray, the federal government supposed this is the time to bust a mob. A thousand law enforcement officers descended on and indicted 88 suspected members of the infamous Avenues gang. The suspects' criminal activity allegedly reaches back into the 1990s.
5. But could it be that the true battle against crime should be waged in the classroom, rather than the streets? A study this week found that criminally-prone high school dropouts cost the state $1.1 billion annually in additional law enforcement.
6. So all we have to do is curb the dropout ? Doesn't seem that easy, especially as recent budget cuts now have kids sitting on floors in classrooms with fifty students to a single teacher.
7. Even in the midst of this budget mess, some kids are trying to do good, launching a website to combat obesity through increasing awareness. And they still say these kids these days are all a bunch of good-for-nothings.
8. Actually, doesn't it seems like it's the older crowd that is increasingly obsessed with 'mindless' social networking sites these days? At the Skirball this week, it was adults who gathered for a two-day conference focusing solely on, you guessed it, Twitter.
9. Someone is still angry at ACORN about their, er, ties to prostitution. Graffiti reading 'ACORN Funded Prostitution Zones' popped up throughout Echo Park this week, but we'll do our homework before believing it, thanks.
10. Finally, the idea of building a NFL stadium right outside of Los Angeles is now much closer to reality. With the Trojans and Bruins already dominating the region's football landscape, does the city have room for another team?

This image was taken by flickr user erjkprunczyk. It was used under the Creative Commons license.