Chris Amico: Journalist

Last night the NewsHour went all-in covering State of the Union. We had on-air analysis, video from the Capitol and coverage on our new blog, and a new app to annotate the speech as it happened.

The Analyzer (I can never think of clever names for my apps; this is what everyone here calls it) is built in Django, with a lot of help from jQuery. From pitch to launch took exactly a week, including a working weekend.

Read more about the project on my blog.

LITTLEROCK — Lancaster Mayor Henry Hearns apologized to the Antelope Valley and the Lancaster City Council on Wednesday for allowing a convicted child molester to help plan a youth sports camp at Jackie Robinson Park.

The camp is a church event sponsored by the Living Stone Cathedral of Worship, where Hearns serves as bishop.

Maurice Wyre will no longer work with the camp, which ends Friday, Hearns said at a press conference at the park. He was responding to an article published in Sunday’s Valley Press disclosing Wyre’s role in the camp. While Hearns spoke, about 50 children inside the park’s gym listened to a former Olympic athlete instruct them to work hard, persevere and live a balanced life. Read the rest of this entry »

A half-dozen residents blockaded the intersection of Avenue A and 190th Street West, protesting farm trucks they claim have destroyed the only roads in and out of an isolated rural community between Neenach and Rosamond.

Grimmway Farms had sent trucks to harvest fields just north of Avenue A, the dividing line between Los Angeles and Kern counties. A line of 20 big rigs stood idle for several hours while company representatives negotiated with residents. Kern County sheriff’s Deputy Ed MacKay eventually convinced both parties to settle it in court if they could not reach an agreement.

Several protesters were confident that the confrontation was enough to keep Grimmway’s trucks off 190th Street West, a road they say is their only connection to the rest of the Antelope Valley.

“Until this thing today, there was no interest on the part of Grimmway in our situation,” said Mike Houchen , who led the protest. He said the grower agreed not to use 190th Street West. “But it took this kind of action to reach this solution.” Read the rest of this entry »

ACTON — The interim principal of Vasquez High School, Sharon Millen, said she has resigned following a scuffle prompted by a parent’s attempt to seize records of his son’s suspension.

Millen, interviewed Thursday evening, said she is pressing charges in the May 4 incident, in which she said the parent shoved her and slammed her against a wall. She said a restraining order has also been filed.

“I am pressing it to the full extent of the law, for all the school’s benefit,” she said. Read the rest of this entry »

AGUA DULCE — County officials brokered a shaky truce Tuesday afternoon between the manager of a trailer park and residents who, until a few days ago, drove through the park to get to their homes on Briggs Road.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department began receiving calls about a makeshift roadblock behind the Oasis trailer park and campground on Friday.

Rick Helton, a Briggs Road resident, was one of the first to encounter the hastily erected roadblock. On Tuesday, the barrier took the form of a dirt berm and a wrecked car.

“I came home Friday and everything was locked up. I couldn’t get home,” he said Tuesday, standing just outside the boundary of Oasis with other disgruntled residents. “My wife and children are in Canyon Country right now because we can’t get to our home.” Read the rest of this entry »