Mayor must not forget the elephants I wanted to clarify a glossed-over passage on animal welfare in “Villaraigosa at one year” (News, July 10). Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, for whom many voted in large part based on his campaign promises, told voters, “I have believed for some time that a zoo is not an appropriate place for an animal as large as an elephant.” After being elected, he allowed the city council to move ahead with expanding the Los Angeles Zoo’s elephant exhibit rather than pressing to have Gita, Billy and Ruby sent to a sanctuary, which would offer far more acreage and socialization for them than even the largest L.A. Read more...

I’m not against the idea that young people have to give a lot of their work away for free. Even before college, volunteer work seems like a prerequisite to give off the impression of the well-rounded student for college admissions. Read more...

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Racial diversity not academically relevant Black Graduate Student Union president Therí Alyce Pickens’ Letter to the Editor (“Lack of diversity lets down students,” Viewpoint, July 3) claims that because of declining black student enrollment at UCLA, black “perspectives are not only lacking but in some cases missing altogether.” Just what exactly is this unique perspective of which Pickens speaks? Read more...

This past Thursday, the Westwood Farmers’ Market returned after being gone for 98 days. Only it wasn’t in Westwood. In fact, it wasn’t anywhere near UCLA. Read more...

“A sluttily dressed train wreck!” a man shouted from my TV. I thought I’d turned to the wrong station, but MSNBC’s logo flashed at me from the bottom-right corner. Read more...

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