Current Affairs on a Daily Assignment

I shot five (not all of them represented here) photo assignments for the newspaper today. Well, yesterday at this point. So what? Right? Between furloughed and sick staffers that pretty much left me and one other photographer. Oh I don't mind...it was good to get out of the office and keep busy. A different kind of busy than managerial duties. An opportunity to use a different part of my brain...again.

First out of the gate was an assignment to cover the C-SPAN Civics Bus visit to California State University, San Bernardino. The bus is traveling around the nation visiting 100 schools in 100 days bringing its brand of political and public information coverage to the masses. Polictics.

Second, I visited a community center in one of the most economically disadvantaged neighborhoods that is slated for closure. The city is out of money, like the rest of us, and has decided closing community centers will help. Hmm. The community center provides lunches for those who can't afford them, homework club for those who have no other help, cooking classes and exercise programs for those who need to learn better nutrition and a computer room to help school aged kids do research, write papers and print reports. Kids who otherwise do not have access to a computer. On top of all of this the city is laying off police officers. Sounds like a recipe for disaster. The economy.

And last, I covered the aftermath of a head-on collision that sent seven people to the hospital and totaled both vehicles. One of the vehicles was driving by a teenage boy who had bought the car two hours earlier. Calamity.

Lesson for the day...POLITICS + THE ECONOMY = CALAMITY