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112 PAGES © 2015 WST
latimes.com
SUNDAY, MARCH 1, 2015
On docks,
workers still
have power
Longshoremen have
weathered industry
forces that crippled
many labor unions.
By Chris Kirkham
and Andrew Khouri
Photographs by
Barbara Davidson Los Angeles Times
BRITTANY , 16, tells a social worker: “All you need to know is that I hate this place and I hate the law.” She
said that she had lived for months behind a tennis court in a city park.
A BLEAK LAST STOP
FOR LOST YOUTHS
More than 4,400 ships
bring nearly $400 billion
worth of goods through the
ports of Los Angeles and
Long Beach every year, a
crucial link in the global supply chain of factories, warehouses, docks, highways and
rail lines.
Most blue-collar workers
along the chain have seen
their wages slashed with the
quick rise of global trade.
But the longshoremen who
move the goods the shortest
distance, between ship and
shore, have shrewdly protected pay that trumps that
of many white-collar managers.
About half of West Coast
union longshoremen make
more than $100,000 a year —
some much more, according
to shipping industry data.
More than half of foremen
and managers earn more
than $200,000. A few bosses
make more than $300,000.
All get free healthcare.
Longshoreman
pay
dwarfs that of almost all
other transit employees,
such as trucking, railroad or
airline workers. At massive
warehouse complexes in the
Inland Empire, just an
hour’s drive from the ports,
goods for the nation’s largest
retailers
are
shuttled
around by temporary workers making as little as $10 or
$11 an hour, with no benefits
or job security.
The unique clout of the
International
Longshore
and Warehouse Union came
into sharp relief recently
with the partial shutdown of
29 West Coast ports. The crisis passed with a contract
deal a week ago, but it will
take up to three months to
clear the backlog of cargo on
[See Dockworkers, A16]
Intended as a temporary facility, the Youth Welcome Center is a
holding place for L.A. County foster care system’s toughest cases
By Garrett Therolf
H
er entrance caused a stir.
A 15-year-old girl with
appraising eyes and a
gruff, resonant voice, she
radiated bridled ambition in a room filled with children who
were mostly slumped and lost.
She was dressed as if heading to a
party, the red of her cropped jacket a
pop of bright color against the black
and white geometry of her dress. But
the bandages on her arms told a different story.
A social worker and two guards
drew close for the daily inspection as
she crouched to the floor to unload a
bag holding her only belongings: deodorant, a package of Cup Noodles,
hand cream, underwear, a brush and
nail polish.
“That’s contraband. You can’t
have the nail polish,” said the social
worker, a clipboard pulled tightly to
her chest. She was enforcing a policy
aimed to prevent foster youths from
using a shard of glass to harm themselves or others.
Ashley had returned for the third
straight night to the foster care sys[See Foster, A12]
Asian market prizes
flavor and feng shui
of the variety grown
mostly in Wisconsin.
By Frank Shyong
One of the most popular
holiday gifts in China is ginseng, stamped with an unusual
guarantee:
100%
American.
Few consumers are more
faithful to American products than Chinese users of
ginseng: the U.S. exported
$77.3 million in ginseng roots
last year, most of it to Hong
Kong, and American ginseng fetches the highest
price of any cultivated variety.
The Asian market prizes
Marlon Brando’s
slice of paradise
The actor’s South Seas
island is home to an
eco-friendly, ultra-expensive resort. TRAVEL
to outweigh the state’s struggles with crowding,
education and housing costs, those polled say.
USC DORNSIFE / TIMES POLL
Californians
still dreamin’
COTS ARE rolled out at the center, built in an old dining hall at Los
Angeles County-USC Medical Center and intended as a waiting room
for children newly removed from their families.
Crisis puts GOP
on unsure footing
By Lisa Mascaro
Irfan Khan Los Angeles Times
JENNY TRINH holds a
piece of U.S. ginseng sold
for $2,300 a pound at a
store in San Gabriel.
the American strain for its
stronger flavor and high
levels of the active ingredient that is said to unlock the
root’s myriad but unproven
health benefits.
The other part of the
U.S.’ competitive advantage
is favorable feng shui. Ginseng grown in North America is said to have a “cool” nature and calming effect,
which means it can be taken
daily; Asian ginseng is considered “hot” and must be
consumed in limited quantities.
American ginseng is
cheaper in the U.S. than in
China. In the San Gabriel
Valley, herbal stores cluster
on streets near hotels popu[See Root, A17]
TODAY’S SECTIONS
California, Business,
Sports, Calendar,
Arts & Books, Travel
Weather: Showers.
L.A. Basin: 63/49. B10
WASHINGTON — The
leaders of the Republican
Congress never wanted it to
be like this: another cycle of
lurching from crisis to crisis,
fueling the impression that
the GOP cannot govern.
But two months into the
new
Congress,
House
Speaker John A. Boehner
(R-Ohio) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell
(R-Ky.) are struggling to
maintain their grip on power
and their ability to carry out
the lofty political agenda
that they promised voters
last fall.
In a late-night drama Friday, Congress barely averted letting money run out at
Homeland Security, which
includes agencies that oversee the nation’s borders, customs enforcement, airport
screenings, presidential security and other critical responsibilities. As the mid-
night deadline approached,
the House and Senate finally
agreed to a one-week funding measure that only prolongs the uncertainty. President Obama signed the bill
just before midnight.
[See Congress, A22]
Beauty of the weather and beaches
beats voters’ costs, traffic nightmares
By Cathleen Decker
It has beckoned for generations. To California came
the Spanish missionaries, the Gold Rush buccaneers, the
Dust Bowl refugees, émigrés from the East and the South
and other lands, entrepreneurs and hippies and assembly
line laborers and farmworkers, all seeking refuge in this
quirky and lyrically named place.
The power of dreams and desperation shielded the
eyes from myriad hardships, and insults too: California —
the land of fruits and nuts, emphasis on nuts. Take off the
blinders and its current difficulties snap into relief: traffic
and crowds, a faltering education system and astonishing
housing costs, a sputtering job market and high taxes.
But is the curtain falling on the California Dream? Not
by a longshot, according to the people living it. To most of
them, a tradeoff has been made: Suffer if you must for a
place in the sun.
Those are the findings of a new USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll. When pollsters asked California voters
[See Poll, A20]
whether they would rather live here
©T&CO. 2015
American
ginseng is
quite the
root seller
Allen J. Schaben Los Angeles Times
THE QUALITY OF LIFE in California continues
Printed with soy inks on
partially recycled paper.
WILL YOU?
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