Pride Organization

What do you do when so many people are saying bad things about illegal immigrants? You form a new group with a catchy name, and then you do the American thing: get yourself a political PR agency. That's exactly what Proponents for Responsible Immigration Debate and Education did. But the new pro-immigrant coalition didn't hire just anybody. It hired a firm that has worked for Jimmy Carter, Jesse Jackson and even Boris Yeltsin.

Gov. Pete Wilson and a delegation of Latino officeholders seeking to improve the quality of debate over immigration met Friday and found themselves in agreement on at least two important issues. Wilson and the elected officials from Los Angeles agreed on the need for greater economic development in the home countries of immigrants and on the importance of retaining civilian control of U.S. borders, participants said. Two other issues--the right to U.S.

With a mailing list of about 2,000, the northwest-Valley based PRIDE is one of the most far-reaching of San Fernando Valley homeowner groups. But the group's political aims tend not to reach the highest levels of city government, said Walter Prince, PRIDE land-use chairman. Prince said that for many of the group's members, the newly elected city officials may have less impact on their lives than lower-level bureaucrats in the planning, building and traffic departments.

Latino elected officials in Los Angeles County announced the formation Tuesday of a group called PRIDE (Proponents for Responsible Immigration Debate and Education) to fight "immigrant-bashing" and raise the level and tone of the immigration debate. The group is expected to become the main adversary of another group with an acronym--FAIR (the Federation for American Immigration Reform), which has advocated limiting legal immigration and cutting off public services to illegal immigrants.

Responding to a public outcry for a renewed war on gang crime, the City Council on Monday approved a major program to help fight gang violence by doubling the city's after-school recreation program, encouraging jobs for local youths and providing incentives for neighborhood improvements. Voting unanimously, the council approved a sweeping proposal by Councilman Miguel A. Pulido Jr., one of two Latinos on the council, that also included anti-graffiti measures.

Capistrano Unified School District trustees have unanimously approved sending a pilot drug education guide to about 4,000 parents of seventh- and eighth-grade students. The 20-page Parent Resource, Information, Drug Education guide, known as PRIDE, is designed to help parents detect the signs of substance abuse and offers facts on chemical dependency and how it is treated.

Post-election tension between Los Angeles City Councilman Hal Bernson and challenger Julie Korenstein prompted charges of racial polarization and campaign fraud Wednesday in the aftermath of Bernson's narrow victory in Tuesday's runoff. Bernson defeated Korenstein, a city school board member, by 746 votes in a bitter campaign in which he accused her of having liberal views that are out of step with voters in the moderate-to-conservative 12th Council District.

Los Angeles city planning commissioners Thursday gave a cool reception to a proposal to shield the Porter Ranch development from slow-growth restrictions for 20 years, encouraging the proposal's critics. "This plan troubles me greatly," Commissioner Fernando Torres-Gil said after the Planning Commission held a two-hour public hearing on the proposed agreement between the city and the project's developer.

A north San Fernando Valley neighborhood group filed suit Wednesday to void the Los Angeles City Council's approval of the 1,300-acre Porter Ranch project, saying the $2-billion development would create gridlock, crowd schools and overload sewage and garbage systems.