Low Income Neighborhoods

When 17-year-old Mary Albanese decided to organize a book drive for underprivileged children in inner-city schools, never in her wildest dreams did she imagine she would end up with a pile of 5,600 volumes. But as soon as Mary told classmates and friends in Simi Valley of her plan, the books started to pour in, from schools, libraries and personal collections. In the hundreds, eventually thousands. "I'm overwhelmed.

Thousands of low-income pet owners will receive coupons for free spaying and neutering, part of a new animal-population control pilot program approved by the Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday. The action was a rejection of a recommendation from the Animal Regulation Commission that the city require checks on income levels to ensure vouchers go to needy people. Dan C.

It's Amateur Night at the Apollo Theatre, and a parade of aspiring black stars is getting ready to face one of the toughest crowds in show business. Apollo audiences have seen it all over the years: Jazz divas like Billie Holiday and Sarah Vaughan, a kid named Stevie Wonder, a mystery group called the Jackson 5. But tonight there's something different on stage: a white teenager who leaps out of the crowd to join in a hip-hop dance contest.

The Catholic Education Foundation has awarded $4.7 million to 5,021 students from low-income families to help them attend Catholic schools in Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, officials said Wednesday. About 93% of the scholarship recipients for the coming school year are Catholic, 74% are Latino and 45% live in homes with single mothers, said Hugh Ralston, executive director of the foundation.

A report that recommends ways to spark economic development in L.A.'s poor minority neighborhoods will serve as a launching point for a discussion today by the Los Angeles mayoral candidates, business executives and community leaders. The report, published by the nonprofit Operation Hope and UCLA's Anderson School, stemmed from Operation Hope's Inner-City Economic Summit held in South Los Angeles last year.

The Senate voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to move forward with its work on a major education bill as negotiators neared a deal to boost federal aid to schools serving impoverished children while demanding better academic results. The 96-3 vote cleared the way for the Senate to begin debate as early as today on a bill to reauthorize federal programs and funding for elementary and secondary schools.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich attacked Mayor Richard Riordan on Tuesday for making what he called reckless charges that county officials had neglected poor neighborhoods. Antonovich said it was Riordan, a fellow Republican, who had ignored the needs of the poor. "Mayor Riordan can serve his city better by bicycling in downtown Los Angeles--instead of the south of France--so he could see firsthand the horrible conditions," Antonovich said.

The Los Angeles City Council on Thursday gave its unanimous blessing to a proposal to use federal grants and loan guarantees for a pioneering community development bank aimed at bringing in new jobs and boosting the economies of the city's poorest neighborhoods. In signing off on the application to be submitted today to the U.S.