Settlement opens door for hundreds of legal immigrants to become U.S. citizens [Updated]

Hundreds of legal immigrants in Southern California who have been waiting years for citizenship will have their cases resolved as a result of a settlement with the federal government, attorneys announced today.

The immigrants were stuck in lengthy delays as they waited for the FBI to complete their security name checks and for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to approve their citizenship applications.

The settlement, approved Friday in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana, sets a six-month deadline for the government to decide on hundreds of citizenship applications from Los Angeles, Santa Ana and San Bernardino.

The settlement also ends indefinite delays in processing naturalization applications, according to the plaintiffs.

L.A. Unified has fewer students; charter school enrollment rises sharply

Enrollment in traditional Los Angeles-area public schools has declined this fall, even as the number of students enrolled in charter schools has exploded, according to just-released data.

The drop at traditional schools is slightly more than 3%, with enrollment falling to 617,798 students. The number of students at independent charters is up nearly 19%, to 60,643 students. More students attend charter schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District than in any other district in the country.

Charter schools operate like their own school districts, with control over most of the funding generated by their students. With the opening of new charters in the Los Angeles area, the enrollment shift was not entirely unexpected, but it nonetheless has broad implications for the nation's second-largest school system. When the district sheds students, it also loses the funds that accompany them, which puts pressure on a district budget with built-in costs for services and facilities.

Fewer students ultimately result in staff reductions --- over and above those already caused by the state budget crisis.

Even if the charter students are added in, district enrollment is down 1.4% from last year, continuing a recent trend. The latest numbers are culled from an annual survey called “norm day,” which is important for setting staffing levels at schools as well as determining future funding.

-- Howard Blume

Lake Elsinore has L.A. area's longest commute, census report finds

Think your commute is bad? Others have it worse – unless you happen to live in Lake Elsinore.

The U.S. Census Bureau on Tuesday released new data showing how long it takes people to get to work. In Southern California, Lake Elsinore in Riverside County topped the list, with residents taking an average of 41.8 minutes to get to work. Palmdale and Adelanto were behind, at 40.5 minutes.

The report, which examined data collected between 2006 and 2008, confirms something veteran commuters know well: The worst drives to work are often shared by residents who live in far-flung suburbs. Other Southern California cities high on the list: Walnut, Perris, Murrieta, Moreno Valley, Diamond Bar, Chino Hills, Santa Clarita and La Puente.

The study found that the average Los Angeles resident spends an average of just under half an hour getting to work – putting the city at No. 26 for cities in the region.

Palm Springs and Indio in the Coachella Valley posted some of the shortest commutes in Southern California, about 20 minutes. But not far behind were some Orange County suburbs: Costa Mesa (22.3), Tustin (22.3) and Irvine (22.5).

--Ari B. Bloomekatz and Sandy Poindexter

Photo: Hollywood Freeway traffic.

Credit: Richard Vogel / Associated Press

Church pastors urging Latino organizations not to boycott census

Pastors representing 1,200 Latino evangelical churches in Southern California speak out today against calls to boycott the 2010 census by some Latino evangelical and political organizations.

The boycott call, launched to protest the lack of progress on immigration reform, has Latino leaders worried that it could dissuade some from participating in the decennial count, which is used to apportion political representation and allocate $400 billion in federal funding.

But the massive Latino evangelical network, La Red de Pastores del Sur de California, has organized a yearlong game plan to encourage census participation under the motto, "We call count in God's eyes: Make yourself be counted."

The network was formed in 2006 to organize for immigration reform and now is championing the census. The campaigns represent the first time most of the pastors have taken political action in what many say illustrates the awakening power of the Latino evangelical movement.

--Teresa Watanabe

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Recession, housing crisis pose major challenges for accurate census count

The nation’s census chief said Tuesday that the housing crisis, economic recession and waves of new immigrants pose enormous challenges that could make an accurate 2010 count more difficult and expensive in California and elsewhere than a decade ago.

Robert Groves, U.S. Census Bureau director, said widespread housing foreclosures have displaced many people, making them harder and more expensive to count. Increased immigration has heightened the challenge of reaching people in their own language -- a task more complex in Los Angeles than nearly anywhere else in the nation.

At the same time, the recession has prompted major reductions in state and local funding for census outreach, Groves said at a breakfast meeting in Los Angeles.

California has cut its census funding to $2 million from $24.7 million a decade earlier, and a Pew Charitable Trusts study released this week found that L.A. funding has also plunged.

But the census director outlined several new initiatives to combat the problems as officials prepare to launch the count next April. They include a fivefold increase in local outreach staff, financed by an overall federal funding hike to $14.7 billion, more than double the $6.2 billion spent on the last census.

In addition, private foundations such as the California Community Foundation and the California Endowment have kicked in census funds.

Asian business owners say food regulation on noodles threatens custom

For 25 years, the El Monte-based Kim Tar noodle factory has been making fresh rice noodles to supply hundreds of Asian restaurants and supermarkets in Los Angeles and around the country.

But a state law requiring manufacturers to refrigerate the pasta instead of allowing it to be stored at room temperature according to custom threatens to wipe out this popular Asian food staple from the American menu, critics say.

“The health inspectors don’t understand our culture,” said Tom Thong, owner of Kim Tar, the noodle factory. “We’ve been eating it this way for thousands of years and we’ve never had a problem. Everyone from Southeast Asia knows that if you put the noodles in the refrigerator it would be ruined.”

The issue first came to light when a San Francisco noodle factory was recently cited by state inspectors for violating the law, which states that such food should either be kept at or below 41 degrees or at or above 140 degrees.

Hispanic unemployment rate in California exceeds that of blacks

Hispanic unemployment in California, which has been rising rapidly, reached 15.7% in the quarter ending June 30, exceeding African American joblessness for the first time in the current economic downturn, according to a new analysis.

The state’s Latino unemployment is projected to hit nearly 18% a year from now, says the report released Monday by the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington-based think tank.

Nationally, black unemployment continues to surpass Hispanic joblessness and that pattern is not expected to change soon, according to Algernon Austin, the study’s author. Still, across the country, unemployment among Hispanics has increased faster than for other groups.

Among 12 states with enough data to compare unemployment by ethnicity, California is the only one where Hispanic joblessness leads all other groups.

“One thing that is driving the Hispanic unemployment rate is the collapse of the housing market, which means the collapse of construction,” Austin said. “That has been a big factor.” 

But in California, it is Hispanic women who appear to be tipping the unemployment scales. Latino female unemployment began overtaking that of black women earlier this year, according to Austin’s data. Black males still have higher unemployment in the state than Hispanic males. “Construction is certainly part of the story," he said, "but I don’t think it’s the full story” of Latino job losses.

As the recession took hold in late 2007, black unemployment in California was 9.8%, compared with 7% for Hispanics and 4.6% for whites, the report says. For the second quarter of this year, black unemployment is estimated at 15.3% -- slightly less than Hispanics -- and white unemployment was 8.6%. 

The full unemployment report is available at the institute's website.

-- Rich Connell

Iranian Americans in L.A. and nationwide seek greater voice

The violent crackdown against Iranians who continue to protest the outcome of the country's disputed presidential election has galvanized Iranian Americans, especially in Los Angeles, which has the largest Iranian community outside Iran and is dubbed "Tehrangeles."

Although Iranian Americans have never achieved the political clout to match their wealth, numbers and professional accomplishments, some in the community now see an opportunity to seek a greater voice in U.S. politics.

The question is: Will the newfound unity on the streets translate into an ability to reach consensus on a domestic agenda? Read more.

-- Alexandra Zavis

L.A. military veterans call Gramercy Park, Bel-Air home

Gramercy Park, a neighborhood in South Los Angeles east of Inglewood, might not seems to have a lot in common with ritzy Bel-Air. But The Times' Mapping L.A. project found that the communities lead the city of Los Angeles in the number of U.S. armed forces veterans living there. Here's the full Top 10 list:

The percentage of veterans measures the portion of adult population that once served in the armed forces.

• 1. Gramercy Park 13.1%
• 2. Bel-Air 13.0%
• 3. Century City 11.9%
• 4. Sunland 11.8%
• 5. Pacific Palisades 11.7%
• 6. West Hills 11.4%
• 7. Leimert Park 11.1%
• 8. Toluca Lake 11.1%
• 9. San Pedro 11.0%
• 10. Playa Vista 11.0%

Digging Into L.A. uses Times databases to discover facts and trends.

When it comes to population density, Koreatown is king

It's often said that the Pico-Union district west of downtown Los Angeles has one of the highest density levels in the nation. The neighborhood of old apartment buildings saw a huge influx of Central American immigrants in the 1980s and '90s. But The Times' Mapping L.A. project found that Koreatown actually has a higher population density level.

Population density measures the number of people per square mile.

• 1. Koreatown 42,609
• 2. Westlake 38,212
• 3. East Hollywood 31,093
• 4. Pico-Union 25,351
• 5. Harvard Heights 23,472
• 6. Chinatown 22,515
• 7. Hollywood 22,150
• 8. Palms 21,983
• 9. Adams-Normandie 21,848
• 10. South Park 21,638

Drilling into L.A. uses Times databases to mine interesting facts and trends about the region.

Most Latino children born in U.S. have immigrant parents, study finds

The majority of Latino children born in the United States are sons and daughters of immigrants, most of whom arrived in the U.S. from Mexico and Central America in the 1980s, according to a new report released today by the nonpartisan Pew Hispanic Center.

The U.S.-born children of immigrants make up 52% of the 16 million Latino children living here, a finding that highlights how immigration continues to shift the nation's demographics.

In 1980, only three in 10 Latino children were second-generation, or born in the U.S. to immigrant parents. That same year, six in 10 were in the third generation or higher, meaning their parents or grandparents were born in the United States.

Now, 11% of Latino children are first-generation, or foreign-born, and 37% are third generation or higher.

The study, based on an analysis of U.S. Census data, also reported that first- and second-generation Latino children are less likely than third-generation or higher to speak fluent English and are more likely to live in poverty and have parents who didn't finish high school.

Nearly four in 10 second-generation Latino children have at least one parent who is undocumented. The authors also report that the number of Latino children is rapidly growing, nearly tripling since 1980.

--Anna Gorman

Los Angeles County's non-white population continues to grow

Los Angeles County deepened its ethnic diversity last year, with the proportion of non-white residents growing to 71%, according to new U.S. Census data.

Latinos grew to 47.7% of the county’s 9.8 million residents in 2008, with whites at 28.9%, Asians at 12.9% and blacks at 8.6%.

Among the state’s 58 counties, Stanislaus in Central California was the 21st to become “majority minority,” with Latinos, Asians, African Americans and other non-whites making up 50.4% of the population. Riverside, Orange and San Mateo counties also became “majority minority” this decade.

Nationally, the U.S. population is also becoming more diverse, with minorities making up about one-third of residents. That trend is expected to accelerate, with nearly half of the nation’s children younger than 5 a minority.

And Americans are becoming older, with a median age of 36.8.

The full data is available at http://www.census.gov/

-- Teresa Watanabe

California's rising unemployment rate

Since January 2007, California’s unemployment rate has more than doubled, rising from 5.4% to 11.4%.

The Times has created an interactive unemployment map that lets readers look more closely at the loss of jobs statewide. The map allows readers to see the progression of joblessness over time, as well as look more deeply at changes month to month.

Statewide, the hardest-hit counties are Imperial and Colusa counties, where more than 25% of the workforce is unemployed.

For Southern California, the map breaks out the rates in cities and other communities. By the end of March, the most recent month available, nearly 1.1 million people were on the unemployment rolls in the Southland -- just under 11% of the workforce. 

Among the highest local rates: Cabozon, with nearly 31% of its workforce unemployed, and Murrieta Hot Springs at more than 26%. The places with the lowest unemployment rates include Coto de Caza at 3.5% and Foothill Ranch at 2.7%.

Visit the map and click on the play button to see unemployment rates intensify over time, and to  watch the raw numbers of those without jobs grow. The Times will update this feature as new monthly numbers are available from the California Employment Development Department.

-- Megan Garvey

State population growth flattens out

As California began nose-diving into recession last year, the state’s population growth flattened out, with some of the most significant slowing occurring in once-burgeoning inland counties, such as Riverside County.

Statewide in 2008, California grew 1.1% to 38.3 million residents, about the same growth rate as the previous year, according to annual figures released today by the state Department of Finance.

Riverside County, one of the fastest-growing areas of the state for several years, has been hit hard by high unemployment and foreclosure rates. It grew by 1.4%, compared with 2.4% the year before and an average of about 4% annually since 2000, state records show. The county's population is now 2.1 million, according to the state estimates, which cull data from a variety of sources.

"I definitely think some of those areas have slowed down," said Mary Heim, chief of the Department of Finance's demographics research unit. 

Obama's election most diverse in U.S. history, study shows

Nearly one in four voters who participated in last November’s presidential election was nonwhite, making it the most racially and ethnically diverse election in U.S. history, according to a Pew Research Center report released today.

Blacks, Latinos and Asians -- the country’s largest minority groups -- accounted for unprecedented shares of the presidential vote, according to the analysis of U.S. Census data. Overall, whites made up 76.3% of the record 131 million people who voted in the election, while blacks made up 12.1%, Hispanics 7.4% and Asians 2.5%, according to the report.

Vigil planned tonight to mark anniversary of 1992 L.A. riots

The Korean American Coalition will hold a candlelight vigil tonight to commemorate the 17th anniversary of the Los Angeles riots in 1992, when thousands of shops owned by Korean Americans were looted and destroyed.

Organizers expect hundreds of Korean American college and high school students to attend, said Allen Park, community outreach coordinator for the coalition.

Rioters took to the streets on April, 29, 1992, after four Los Angeles police officers were acquitted in the beating of Rodney G. King. The Koreatown area was one of the hardest hit as violence extended to a second day.

Census takes center stage at Fiesta Broadway

At Sunday’s Fiesta Broadway, an annual downtown festival of music and culture, the testaments to Latino economic clout were as plentiful as they were creative. At the Home Depot booth, kids could hammer together wooden toys. State Farm Insurance offered a batting cage. Ocean Spray built a cranberry bog complete with a farmer in hip-waders.

The array of big-name exhibitors at the 20-year-old festival was proof that corporate America knows well the size of the Spanish-speaking market. But in smaller, less flashy booths city and federal officials were urging the Latino community to make sure the government knows their numbers.

Representatives for the 2010 Census pressed leaflets into the hands of those strolling the mile-long festival and handed out water bottles, stickers and tote bags touting the national count. The hundreds of thousands of Latinos drawn to the event are an attractive crowd for those seeking to boost participation in the census.

City officials have said Los Angeles lost out on $184 million in federal funds because of people missed by the 2000 Census. In preparing for next year’s count, officials are focusing on immigrant communities, where personal questions posed by government workers may be greeted with fear

"Our biggest challenge is education. It’s just getting people to understand the importance and what I call the what’s-in-it-for-me factor," said Norma Vega, executive director of the mayor’s census office.

She said workers were explaining that the census count will help determine how schools and social service programs are funded. The outreach included an announcement from the main musical stage just before a performance by singer and festival queen Paquita la del Barrio.

At a census booth near 9th Street, workers ran out of tote bags -- or "walking billboards," as one called them -- before noon. Henry Mendoza, a partnership specialist with the Census Bureau, said he was pleasantly surprised that many who stopped by his booth were well versed in the aspect of the count that's often most important to immigrants -- the privacy and confidentiality of the information they give.

"We’re certainly ready to answer questions, but most of the people are very aware already," he said. "They know it’s safe and secure."

 -- Harriet Ryan

Armenian genocide events planned in L.A. area

Armenian American songwriter Shant Bismejian and his band, Visa, are scheduled to perform a concert tonight in West Hollywood to memorialize the Armenian genocide, one of several commemorative events planned in the Los Angeles area.

A protest also is planned today at the Turkish Consulate on Wilshire Boulevard and a laying of wreaths at a genocide memorial monument in Montebello.

The Armenian genocide of 1915 to 1918 claimed the lives of about 1.2 million Armenians under the Ottoman Empire, which became modern-day Turkey. The Turkish government disputes that a genocide took place.

Read more about today's genocide events.

-- Teresa Watanabe

Migrants being replaced by homegrown majority

A profound shift away from California’s more transient and migrant-dependent past will soon produce the state’s first generation of adults whose majority will be native-born, researchers at USC said in a study released Monday.

More than 70% of Californians ages 15 to 24 were born and raised in the state, according to the report, “The New Homegrown Majority in California.”

By contrast, nearly two-thirds of state residents 45 to 54 years old were born out of state. The change has far-reaching implications for everything from investment in the public education system to who will buy retiring baby boomers’ homes and shoulder the burden of future taxes, said Dowell Myers,one of the study’s principal authors.

“It’s a sea change in demography, but also in political perceptions,” Myers said. “We’ve transformed from being a state of migrants to a settled state of native Californians. “We’re basically becoming more self-reliant on who we have here. And we’re going to be prospering or suffering on who we have here.”

Significantly — and in contrast to the past — the emerging homegrown majority will have been shaped entirely by their life experience in California, notably their schooling, the report says.

“They are products of the school system, for better or for worse,” Myers said. The recent trends, which cut across racial and ethnic groups, mark a reversal in losses of native-born Californians during the recession of the 1990s.
 --Rich Connell

State Senate approves bill banning language discrimination

Alarmed that a professional golf association proposed to exclude competitors who don’t speak English, the state Senate acted today to prohibit businesses in California from discriminating against customers, including refusing them service, based on the language they use.

The Ladies Professional Golf Assn. last year backed down from a policy that would have suspended golfers who do not speak adequate English on the premise that language fluency in speeches and media interviews was critical to the sport's promotion efforts.

The golfers were considered "patrons" of the LPGA, not employees.

State Sen. Leland Yee (D-San Francisco) said the policy raised an issue that required changes to state civil rights laws that already protect employees from discrimination based on language.

"I don’t understand the connection between speaking English and playing golf," Yee said on the Senate floor. "This is really about protecting our ability to speak the language that we wish."

2010 census kicks off with rally at L.A. City Hall

Hundreds of U.S. census employees gathered with city officials outside Los Angeles City Hall this morning to kick off the first major field operations for the 2010 count.

“The census is here!” shouted Esther Cepeda, manager of the local census office downtown.
Music played and employees carried signs that read: “The census, coming to your neighborhood” and “Yes we can! 2010 census.”

“Census data touches our lives every day,” Cepeda said, adding that workers during the initial field operation would use hand-held GPS devices for the first time to update an address list so they can accurately mail 2010 census forms.

L.A. City Hall rally kicks off 2010 census

A rally is scheduled this morning outside City Hall in downtown Los Angeles to kick off the 2010 census.

City Council members and about 500 census employees are expected to join at about 9:30 a.m. to mark the beginning of “field operations” for the upcoming count.

“During this operation, Census Bureau workers will canvass all known streets and roads, identify every living quarter where people could potentially live, and verify more than 145 million addresses,” according to a news release from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Census workers will first use hand-held GPS devices to update an address list so they can accurately mail 2010 census forms.

-- Ari B. Bloomekatz

Tibetan supporters to march to Chinese Consulate

To mark the 50th anniversary of the first Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule, which forced the Dalai Lama into exile, members of the Tibetan Assn. of Southern California, Los Angeles Friends of Tibet and several other groups plan to march today from Los Angeles City Hall to the Chinese Consulate.

The marchers will gather at 11:30 am. outside City Hall at 200 N. Spring St. and begin walking south on Grand Avenue to the consulate at 443 Shatto Place, where they will hold a demonstration about an hour later.

-- Ruben Vives

Photo: Tsewang Dakpa and other demonstrators gathered near City Hall to mark the 50th anniversary of the first Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule.  Credit: Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times

Mapping L.A.: Comment by Friday the 13th [UPDATED]

A little more than two weeks ago, The Times asked for help mapping neighborhoods in the city of Los Angeles. The response has been tremendous.

So far more than 1,400 posts have been made to our Mapping L.A. database. More than 40% of those commenting have used our mapping tool to draw their own versions of neighborhoods or make corrections to ours.

Readers have commented on 86 of the 87 neighborhoods we proposed, the one exception being Griffith Park, which has thousands of visitors daily but few homes.