For Many Students in Salinas, Homelessness Has Become the Norm
Over the last few weeks, volunteers in many California cities have been out counting how many people are homeless. The idea is to get a snapshot of people living on the street at any given time, including kids who drift in and out of homelessness because of their family situation. You can really see this in one school district in Monterey County, where nearly 40 percent of the students are homeless. The California Report's education reporter Vanessa Rancaño talked to kids and teachers to find out how they're coping, and she tells Sasha Khokha what she discovered.
Busting Homeless Myths
There are a lot of myths out there about people struggling with homelessness. One of the most common is that there’s nothing one person can really do to make a difference. KQED’s Ryan Levi spoke to an 81-year-old man who’s proving that wrong. His name is Horace Crawford, and he's a volunteer at a homeless shelter in Walnut Creek, in Contra Costa County.
A Revolutionary Dream, from Jalisco to Berkeley
We've been asking you, our listeners, to write a letter to the first person in your family who came to California with a dream. This week's letter comes from Pasadena resident Lara Medina. She wrote it to her grandfather, who migrated to Northern California from Mexico more than 100 years ago. His California dream was bigger than himself: dignity for all workers on both sides of the border. Writing for a revolutionary newspaper, Lara's grandfather helped mobilize Californians in support of the Mexican Revolution.
What Makes Your Salad Taste Like California? Hidden Valley Ranch
Our next story is about something as ubiquitous as ketchup and mustard. It’s everywhere. And it’ll be showing up at Super Bowl parties across the nation this Sunday. Ranch dressing is a California concoction. And the place that gave the creamy buttermilk dressing its name was a real ranch. Reporter Peter Gilstrap brings us the story for our series Golden State Plate.