Crosscurrents

In last week’s State of the Union address, President Obama proposed something radical, that dropping out of high school no longer be allowed. But that might be complicated. Every school district has tried numerous solutions to the dropout dilemma without success.

Last week BreakOut!, a New Orleans based LGBTQ organization that focuses specifically on youth impacted by the juvenile justice system, began the first of their anti-discrimination training seminars for the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD). The training comes as a result of an investigation and subsequent consent decree by the United States Department of Justice mandating sweeping reforms and trainings throughout NOPD.

When you look at the numbers, many long held truths about crime crumble. Like this one: who do you think is more likely to become a life-long criminal: a rapist or a car thief?

UCSF Medical Center administrators are in a bind over what to do with dying patient Jesus Navarro. It’s not an issue of money or resources – the Oakland resident has private insurance and a kidney donor – but of immigration. Since learning that Navarro is an illegal immigrant, UCSF has refused to go forward with the transplant…

When it comes to making it big at anything, you’ve got to do some hard work. Behind every rock star, there are thousands of hours of practice, touring and rocking out. Of course, to rock out, you don’t actually need to know how to play an instrument – at least not at the San Francisco Regional Air Guitar Championships. There, rock gods are judged on their stage presence, technical merit, and something called “airness.”

To find out what that is, just take a listen to this story from KALW’s Christopher Connelly, who was there to witness it all firsthand.