A year ago, this middle-aged lawyer decided to go back to school. Not to get more education for myself, but to serve the students at my local public high school. If you read my post: A Personal Investment in Public Education, you know the story. I was looking...

If you are like most people, you have been impacted by the downturn in the global economy. Yet if you are like most Americans, you haven't stopped giving. You may think big corporations do the most charitable giving because they blow their own horns about it for advertising purposes, but...

December, 2011 arrived bearing gifts for those opposed to the concept of "corporate personhood" as set forth in the U.S. Supreme Court Decision "Citizens United." On December 6th, after 45 minutes of public testimony from a crowd that swelled past capacity into an overflow chamber of LA's City Hall, the...

Dear Kermit: When I was an odd little girl who liked to wear sparkly gold dresses to school, I loved you and your song about being different,"It's not easy being green." My favorite part is the end when you sing:"I am green, and it'll do fine; It's beautiful,...

The Occupy Wall Street Movement reflects a growing realization that our Democracy has been usurped by corporate power that drowns the voices, votes and concerns of average Americans. While the corporate hijacking of our democracy has been made clear for most Americans in the realm of finance with the Wall...

It's amazing how powerful the word "no" can be. Columbian Women had waited 20 years to get the dirt road to their village paved when they engaged in a crossed-legs strike, denying sex to their men until the improvements were made. Thirty-eight days into the strike, with some...

Film has a remarkable ability to connect with people on the emotional level as well as to convey ideas. This makes film an extremely powerful medium for environmentalists who aim to sound the alarm; awakening sleeping caretakers of the lifeboat we call earth. Research in the field of...

What do cigarettes and single-use plastics have in common? Most cigarettes have a single-use plastic filter -- so smokers get a dose of petrochemicals along with their tar and nicotine. Also, single-use plastics are becoming recognized as a public health crisis just like cigarettes were decades ago. Finally, both the...

"You think you're special. You're Plastic! Made to be thrown away!"
Lotso, to plastic toys about to be incinerated, "Toy Story 3"

The Problem with Plastics

Every day, disposable plastics (bottles, bags, packaging, utensils, etc.) are thrown away in huge quantities after one use, but...

"The Children, Victims of Adult Vices" is effective public art that forces us to confront our vices and how they jeopardize the future of humanity. This group of sculptures features thirteen bronze figures depicting adult vices such as alcoholism, drug addiction, war and prostitution. The vices form...

Anyone who grew up in the 1970's in Tennessee like I did can sing a bit of "Tennessee Trash," a comic and catchy PSA that was sponsored by the State Department of Transportation to discourage littering. The spot featured a wild looking ruffian sporting...

The Los Angeles River may be most famous as a film set for chases down its concrete path in The Terminator, but there is a new film in the works that actually stars the Los Angeles River. Like The Terminator, Rock the Boat, features plenty of action, including...

The video "Treatment of Children in Islamic Schools" (the video) is sadly familiar to me. I saw plenty of paddlings as I went through school right here in America, and can recall most distinctly my own such punishment. I was 7 years old, a new third...

There was an old woman who lived in a shoe,
She had so many children, she didn't know what to do.
She had a young neighbor who lived in a house,
Who was wise as an owl -- not timid as a mouse.
The young woman...

Dear Planned Parenthood: I should have thanked you long ago for all you have given me. When I saw you in the news taking such a beating, I knew I had to write. While politicians slur you, spread false information about your services and...

The City of Los Angeles has given the green light to an epic project, hoping to recreate itself with the help of a timeless star who has been in a state of semi-retirement, neglect and outright abuse for decades. That star is the Los Angeles River. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio...

Some California environmental groups got a last minute invite to an unusual spectacle taking place on Earth Day to launch Coke's new "plant bottle" packaging for Coca-Cola brand "Dasani" bottled water. The invitation cheers the "exciting packaging advancement" that will allow Coca-Cola to bottle its plain old municipal water without...

I just had a lock of my hair chopped off to benefit science and the planet. I was joined by other moms, children and babies in more than 25 cities across the nation who have submitted to such snipping for a Sierra Club sponsored project to test for toxic Mercury...

It's beach weather already in Southern California, and when I hit the beach yesterday at Malibu Lagoon, I discovered that I was sharing the sand with some pint-sized visitors who had a VIP section roped off to themselves. Reading the signs posted around the area, I discovered that I was...

Lisa Jackson, head of the EPA, should have a giant letter P on her chest because she is the most powerful and determined administrator to date fighting to Protect us all from pollution in our environment. Although Jackson is an environmental Super Hero, she needs backup from some Super Friends...