Community

Advocates gathered at the state Capitol yesterday to testify about how to improve the lives of boys and men from ethnic communities.

Joshua Ham from South Central Los Angeles was one of many young men who came from all over the state to tell lawmakers how to improve the lives of people like him.

“It’s better for us to step up like this than to lash out and have something like 1992 riots or something weird like that you know. But actually have it like a structured way, you know, like have people think critically about what they want.”

When it comes to the season of political contests, free speech is rarely free, what with non-stop political ads on radio and television in many so-called battleground states. On this edition of Valley Public Radio’s commentary series The Moral Is, Fresno State professor Diane Blair says the rise of the Super PAC has big implications for the future of our democracy.

The views expressed on The Moral Is are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of Valley Public Radio.

It's lunchtime at the Sanger High School Cafeteria. But instead of hundreds of teenagers, the room on this Saturday is filled with ordinary Valley residents of all ages and ethnicities, some writers, and a handful of theatre professionals from LA's Cornerstone Theatre. And even though many of them just ate, the conversation quickly turns to the issue of the day… hunger.

It’s Saturday afternoon, and the normally quiet park in the middle of downtown Exeter is packed, nearly shoulder to shoulder with people enjoying kettle corn, something called the tornado potato, and of course, a little barbeque.

“This is the barbeque chicken plate, it’s six dollars and it’s fantastic!,” says Wanda, an Exeter resident.

“There’s also some pulled pork over there that people are really waiting in line for and the bratwurst over here by The Dorksmen, if you want a really homemade bratwurst, that’s the place to go.”