In light of the passing of the immigration bill in Arizona, Phoenix Suns owner Robert Sarver is making a statement by having players wear “Los Suns” jerseys at tomorrow’s game, The Arizona Republic reported.

It’s nice to know that the organization is using the popularity of the team to show their fans that they are against the political move. With many people boycotting the state of Arizona, it would be difficult to root for a team that said nothing about the issue.

The small gesture of the three-letter word is meant to spark some discussion about the bill and to celebrate diversity in Arizona and in NBA, the owner said.

In 1998, Tupac Shakur released his a single Changes. The song is about the rapper’s view of the world as an entertainer and as an African American man in South Los Angeles.

This past weekend, as an Intersections mentor, I used the song to help teach a workshop on cultural identity and broadcast journalism.

Students from the Urban Media Foundation had a discussion about how music, religion, and their cities define who they are as individuals. Using Tupac’s song as an example, we spoke about how he used his success as a rapper to talk about issues in the community such as race and class.

I felt like this related to our broadcast exercise because it allowed the students an opportunity to have an open discussion about how they view themselves and how they view others based on what school they attend, the city they live in and the clothes they wear. By talking about cultural identity, we were able to better understand what stories are important to us and important to our communities.

There were about a dozen students at the Urban Media Foundation workshop—a smaller group because of the SAT—all from different high schools in Los Angeles. In the second half of the session students were taught how to use video cameras for interviewing. They took turns asking questions and created short video clips where they discussed cultural identity.

Posts will be up this week in High School Notebook.

In bright color gowns, hundreds of girls shared one of the most important days of their life. 

Mexico City’s Youth Institute of the Distrito Federal organized the event in the Zocalo for at-risk youth not able to afford a private party. All the necessities including dresses, make-up and shoes were donated by various businesses. Marking the 15th birthday, Quinceañera celebration are arguably as lavish and important to a girl as a wedding.

Just like a wedding, the last thing you would want is rain! That’s just what these lovely ladies got on Saturday as they danced through the city.

It must have been a magical celebration for not only the girls but also the public in the main square of Mexico City. I can just imagine how fun an event like this would be in Los Angeles!

Meagan Fox and boyfriend Brian Austin Green are raising awareness about proposed budget cuts of $2.5 billion throughout California schools in a short and drama-filled online video.

With no teachers, school nurses or janitors, students are crammed into a classroom with no supervision.

Though I would have never guessed Fox would participate in the discussion of schools, it is very charitable for her to lend her name to the cause. The Funny or Die video has been seen by more than 900,000 viewers when calculating the youtube hits.

The stars urge viewers to contact Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and tell him not to “terminate our teachers.”

Also, the ad circulates a petition created by saynotocuts.com that will be sent to legislative officials on April 21, 2010.

Taking into consideration that not all the viewers will actually take the time to call and write for a change, the video, if nothing else, is a satire on what some of the repercussions could be if the state goes through with the cuts.

Four out 10 babies born in Los Angeles County are a result of an unplanned pregnancy, according to a study released last week by the L.A. County Department of Health.

The study found that the results were consistent with numbers throughout California, based on the data gathered in 2006.

With almost half the infant population in the county being accidental, the number of unplanned births are more of a norm than what would naturally be seen as an outlier situation.

What do you think? Should the county be working toward efforts to improve these numbers?

Photo credit: Creative Commons