Alejandro Lazo

Photo by joelarubin • Instagram

instagram.com — joelarubin's photo on Instagram

Guatemala’s Highest Court Overturns Genocide Conviction of Former Dictator

nytimes.com — MEXICO CITY - Guatemala 's highest court on Monday threw out the genocide conviction and prison sentence of the former dictator Gen. Efraín Ríos Montt. The decision by Guatemala's Constitutional Court was a dramatic legal victory for General Ríos Montt, 86, and a blow to human rights advocates who had called his conviction a sign that Guatemala's courts would no longer allow impunity for the country's powerful.

As rich gain optimism, lawmakers lose economic urgency

washingtonpost.com — Yet economic growth remains slow by historical standards, and 11.5 million Americans are still looking for work. More than 4 million people have been unemployed for longer than six months. A Washington Post-ABC News poll found in April that two-thirds of Americans said jobs were difficult to find in their communities.

Staffing, pay at issue in UC medical center strike

latimes.com — University of California patient care workers took to the picket line early Tuesday to begin a two-day strike for better staffing and higher pay. At Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, they wore green shirts, carried noisemakers and chanted, "All day, all night, safe staffing is our right!"

White-collar workers are turning to labor unions

latimes.com — NEW YORK - The next wave of union protesters isn't blue collar. It's lawyers, paralegals, secretaries, helicopter pilots, judges, insurance agents and podiatrists. These white-collar workers are not exactly the picture of the labor movement, but they are becoming a more essential part of it as they turn to unions for help in a tough economy as bosses try to squeeze out more profits.

Patient care workers set to start walkout at five UC hospitals

latimes.com — Respiratory therapists, nursing aides, surgical technicians and other patient care workers plan to stage a walkout starting Tuesday morning at five University of California medical centers. More than 12,000 workers from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees are expected to participate in the two-day strike over staffing, pay and pension reform, union officials said.

Molecular trigger for Alzheimer's disease identified

sciencedaily.com — Researchers have pinpointed a catalytic trigger for the onset of Alzheimer's disease - when the fundamental structure of a protein molecule changes to cause a chain reaction that leads to the death of neurons in the brain.

5 Los Angeles Rental Neighborhoods Under The Radar

blogs.laweekly.com — Eric Lassiter / LA Weekly With average rent in Venice reaching more than $2,800 according to one report, it's getting hard to find affordable housing in L.A. that hasn't lost its soul. Lucky for us there's nearly 500 square miles of space in the city alone, so there's always an up-and-coming community just around the corner.

Nobel laureate Coetzee calls on Spain to drop pro-bullfighting legislation

washingtonpost.com — LONDON - Nobel Literature laureate J.M. Coetzee has called on Spain to abandon plans to protect bullfighting, making a rare public appeal against what he called "an archaic form of entertainment." In an open letter to Spain's legislature released Thursday, Coetzee called bullfights "a throwback to a time when people took no heed of the feelings of animals."