The back to school season is in full swing, and what better place to shop but in Santa Monica. The youth market spends over $100 billion each year on back to school products, a huge […]

After an assault in March on Celia Carroll, head librarian at the Ocean Park Library, the City has decided to increase security throughout the library system. On June 20 the City Council approved the funding […]

From exit exams to sugared soda pop to pedophile teachers, California schools are continually dealing with problems both systemic and individual. But they often gloss over or try to hide the biggest one of all: […]

Congressman Adam Schiff and L.A. City Councilmember Wendy Greuel, along with Santa Monica resident and political activist Leah Mendelsohn, hosted an intimate reception for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides. Former Senator Max Cleland – a […]

Why is poetry so captivating? Yes, I often feel captive to its call, its demands, its complexities and unfathomabilities, its ability to distill-penetrate-magnify to the nth power, its uncanny (in the hands of masters) capacity […]

Two weeks ago Catalina scooped Santa Monica in the critical sea monster wars. A sinuous deep sea creature, 15 feet long, was found in Catalina’s Big Fisherman’s Cove on August 16. The creature turns out […]

Sasha Stone’s film reviews are usually perceptive, and his [sic] “Quinceanera” review seems well written. My problem is not with the review itself, but with Stone’s characterization of the Quinceanera as “Not unlike a Jewish […]

When Fidel Castro recently underwent intestinal surgery suddenly there was a whirl of news stories in the U.S. media, the type of attention usually reserved for rock stars and champion athletes. What is this love-hate […]