Apprenticeships

A closer look at Friday's jobs numbers reveals, well, more trouble on the economic front. For the general population, the unemployment rate is now 8.2%. But for teens ages 16 to 19, the jobless rate soars to about 25% . For Hispanic teens, that stat rises to 30%. For black teens, 40%. Not good. Part of the problem is that companies just aren't hiring much. Also, jobs in the fast-food and retail sectors that might usually go to young people just getting a start in the work world are being jealously clung to by grown-ups grateful for any paycheck.

Motion picture executive Brad Kembel and his partner Jimmy Ferrareze have bought the landmark James Eads How House in Silver Lake for $1.3 million. Designed by modern architect Rudolph Schindler in 1925, the restored and updated International Modern-style house had been priced at $4.995 million when movie producer and prolific renovator Michael LaFetra first listed it in 2008. The 2,426-square-foot home, a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument, is considered a triumph of Schindler's early career and was influenced by his apprenticeship under Frank Lloyd Wright.

During most of her working life, Lynn Dabney, a 36-year-old Los Angeles journeyman electrician, has groused about being the only woman on the job. Most women in construction know the feeling. In an era of countless feminist advances, the proportion of women in the building trades has lingered at around 2% for at least a decade. Contractors are still sexist and unions are still clannish, critics say. Dabney thinks she has found an answer, though.

A closer look at Friday's jobs numbers reveals, well, more trouble on the economic front. For the general population, the unemployment rate is now 8.2%. But for teens ages 16 to 19, the jobless rate soars to about 25% . For Hispanic teens, that stat rises to 30%. For black teens, 40%. Not good. Part of the problem is that companies just aren't hiring much. Also, jobs in the fast-food and retail sectors that might usually go to young people just getting a start in the work world are being jealously clung to by grown-ups grateful for any paycheck.

Having appeared successfully with a number of regional and urban opera companies--like those in Washington, St. Louis, Arkansas, Kansas City and Long Beach--Ruth Golden would seem ready for her debut in July with New York City Opera. And the debut comes right on schedule in a career which in the last half-decade has moved steadily, rather than meteorically, upward.

Martha Stewart's "Apprentice" reality show, in last place in its time slot Wednesday nights, will end after its first season, NBC said Monday. "The Apprentice: Martha Stewart" will air its finale Dec. 21, the network said. Stewart, founder of publishing company Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc., has drawn an average of 6.8 million viewers a week, ranking 67th for the season, according to Nielsen Media Research. The show, which airs at 9 p.m.

Re: "High School--If You Earn It," by Carol Jago, Commentary, May 28: When I finished a tool-and-die-making apprenticeship at Buick Motor Division, Flint, Mich., in 1960, I had completed courses in advanced algebra, advanced projection geometry and trigonometry as well as other related studies. Before being accepted for enrollment, a transcript of my high school grades was necessary. My fellow apprentices and I spent many all-night sessions completing the associated homework, while working full-time.

Aproper dilemma needs two horns; and, it would appear from Howard Gardner's provocative new book, the dilemma of contemporary education is no exception. The horns, in this case, are freedom and discipline. The question before the house is how to incorporate both into one's educational scheme without slighting either.

Marko Lueder can see into the future: 20 years from now, he plans to work in a vast electronics plant housed in a series of red-brick buildings in the heart of Berlin. "I expect to be a boss, though," said the brash, 17-year-old Berliner with a young man's dreams and a grown-up job. Lueder is one of 1.8 million Germans aged 15 to 18 who have apprenticeships under the nation's rigidly organized vocational education system, one of the oldest and most successful in the world.

The chiefs of the departments of Education and Labor said Monday that they are reviewing experimental school-to-work programs in communities across the country, hoping to find some that can serve as models for the Clinton Administration's national apprenticeship plan. Education Secretary Richard W. Riley said the Administration is determined to link education and work to help non-college-bound high school students prepare for jobs.

Regional theater wasn't a big turn-on for me when I was a theater student in the late 1980s, early 1990s. Off-Broadway was cool; off-off-Broadway was cooler. Those subscription-based behemoths scattered around the country like giant shopping malls sounded dorky to me. My view of the world beyond the five boroughs of New York City was admittedly cramped back then. I didn't realize that the theater that gave me my start, the Public Theater, was part of the very same nonprofit network my callow ignorance was prepared to completely write off. As the Public's literary intern, reading scripts all day in the complex of offices shared by head honcho Joseph Papp and his wife, literary director Gail Merrifield Papp, I had a lot to learn.

Jake Lemmerman remembers the day he was taken in the Major League Baseball draft like it was yesterday — in fact, it's been nearly a year. "It's kind of surreal, basically. This is what I always wanted, with the team I always wanted to play for," says the Dodgers minor leaguer who was taken in the fifth round last June. Teammate Blake Smith, a second-round selection in 2009, won't soon forget his selection, either. "I think about it all the time," he says. "It definitely changed my life.

It's good for both Archbishop Jose Gomez and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles that the new shepherd and his flock are embarking on a getting-acquainted period that will last almost a year. Instead of abruptly replacing Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, Gomez, a native of Mexico who is now the archbishop of San Antonio, will serve as the cardinal's coadjutor -- ecclesiastical parlance for being in the on-deck spot -- and will thus have the opportunity to learn from the man who has defined Southern California Catholicism for 25 years.

It's been called the longest apprenticeship in America. Longer than the most elite medical residency. Longer than going through law school -- a couple of times. The lead-up to becoming president of the Tournament of Roses, the person who presides over the nation's most-watched parade and its accompanying bowl game, involves years spent staking out barricades in the middle of the night, supervising the parade's equestrian participants, and organizing a stream of parties -- all with the kind of devotion usually associated with religious crusades.

Rich Gonzalez has everything he needs to fulfill his dream of becoming a major league umpire. He has the skills, the character, the intelligence, the passion. "It's what I want to do with my life," he says. What he may never get, however, is the opportunity. That's because the big league umpire roster has only slightly more turnover than the U.S. Supreme Court. In fact, between 2004 and last season the Supreme Court actually got more new justices (two) than baseball did new umpires (one).

Two giant 16-year-old sophomores who didn't play tackle football until they reached high school have discovered that smashing their smaller opponents to the turf can be fun and rewarding. Chris Ward, 6 feet 4 and 285 pounds, and Matthew Jakubiec, 6-8 and 275, are important contributors for Santa Ana Mater Dei (7-1) and Anaheim Servite (7-1), respectively, and they've become the anointed successors to All-American offensive linemen Khaled Holmes and Matt Kalil.

Two giant 16-year-old sophomores who didn't play tackle football until they reached high school have discovered that smashing their smaller opponents to the turf can be fun and rewarding. Chris Ward, 6 feet 4 and 285 pounds, and Matthew Jakubiec, 6-8 and 275, are important contributors for Santa Ana Mater Dei (7-1) and Anaheim Servite (7-1), respectively, and they've become the anointed successors to All-American offensive linemen Khaled Holmes and Matt Kalil.

IT'S tempting to call any young company that works on a small scale the "garage band" of its genre -- but in the case of one Echo Park architecture firm, it's almost literally the case.

Martha Stewart's "Apprentice" reality show, in last place in its time slot Wednesday nights, will end after its first season, NBC said Monday. "The Apprentice: Martha Stewart" will air its finale Dec. 21, the network said. Stewart, founder of publishing company Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc., has drawn an average of 6.8 million viewers a week, ranking 67th for the season, according to Nielsen Media Research. The show, which airs at 9 p.m.