Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Stuff we like

They gave out the Pulitzer Prizes yesterday.

Some people wait all year for the Academy Awards.

I'm different. I can't wat for that onr day in April when the Pulitzers are announced.

The story below is one of the reasons why.

LOS ANGELES - It was the biggest story of the year in Southern California. Officials in the working class suburb of Bell were paying themselves exorbitant salaries, in one case more than $1 million. And it was all uncovered by two Los Angeles Times journalists: a veteran reporter, Jeff Gottlieb, and Ruben Vives, who is just three years on the job.

A jubilant newsroom toasted the pair as they were announced as Pulitzer Prize winners for their work Monday, reports CBS News correspondent Bill Whitaker.
[...]
But there's a story behind this story. Vives, a native of Guatemala, came to the U.S. at age 7 to join his mother, a housekeeper in Los Angeles. He lived here many years in the shadows, without proper documentation -- an illegal status he knew nothing about until he was nearly 18.

"You know I was in high school," said Vives. "My mother told me my senior year of high school. At the time I didn't think about how serious the situation was."

His mother worked for two L.A. Times reporters, who, one month before Vives' 18th birthday, helped him get a green card -- and a job as a copy boy at the paper.

"If you give one person a voice, you never know what will come of it," said Shawn Hubler, Vives' mentor. "We helped Ruben, in a small way, find his voice."

-via the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric

No comments:

Post a Comment

Feel free to comment on anything you read here.

All comments must first be approved. Spam and spam links will not be tolerated or approved.