3 Gainesville (Fla.) High School students investigate: Why are we so dumb, yo?......

We continue our series of interviews with cast members of HBO's The Wire with Andre Royo. The actor born and raised in the Bronx plays Bubbles, a junkie/entrepreneur/informant who has been a central character to the show since its beginning. Royo, who recently moved to Silverlake, took time to speak to LAist about working on what he calls, "the most intelligent show on TV." This season is about the media, what did you think......

School cafeteria food doesn't have the draw it used to, it seems. The Daily News is reporting today that the LAUSD is having to lose out on millions of dollars in federal funds "because just half of its eligible students are taking advantage of a lunch program in which kids eat for free or at reduced prices." Currently, the LAUSD receives $2.07-$2.47 for each meal they provide to a student for free or at a......

In a story of truly fucked notions, the LAUSD is short $53-million because they overpaid around 36,000 employees due to a rushed installation and implementation of Business Tools for Schools, a payroll system that couldn't handle calculating the nuances of a teacher's "complicated job assignments and unusual work schedules," according to the LA Times. It's not only that they overpaid employees, they also underpaid and didn't even pay some employees, owing some $7 million.For......

After graduating high school outside of Chicago, most peers of mine got jobs as lifeguards at the beach, day camp leaders or book worms at Borders. For me, I went straight back to the place I was so excited to leave... to be a janitor for the summer. My high school was not just any public school, it was New Trier, a well tax-funded North Shore suburban institution, standing four stories high (five if......

Deadliest attack of the Iraq war claims at least 250 lives and as many as 500. Want to learn more about the local opportunities and challenges presented by global warming? Check out the Global Warming Forum at Cal State LA tomorrow from 9 AM to 3 PM. Progress made in improving California's public school system stalled this year after two years of promising gains. The L.A. City Council says no dice to Home Depot's......

Texas is thawing, the Northeast is freezing, and a sort of natural order seems almost restored to the Ist-A-Verse. Almost. Londonist HQ—that is to say, the city of London—was battered by heavy winds, making it a bad time to be a twelve-meter (nearly forty-foot) tall snowman. Still, not everyone decided to keep warmly covered. Meanwhile, back indoors, the Big Brother racism is now causing all kinds of headaches for international diplomats, and Londonist got into......

Sunday. Usually, a quiet, contemplative day in the Blogosphere. But not here in the Ist-a-Verse. Nonono! Just look below and see all of the wild and crazy stuff our staffs are up to. In Austin, bands are beginning to confirm for SXSW and the rumor mill is up and running. Good thing, too, because we all know how much Austinites love live performances. Austin also found itself in the national spotlight, with Longhorn Legend......

LAist is going on a delicious spree around LA from A to Z. This week is brought to you by the letter G. We learn that Lebanese is indeed Mediterranean at Gaby's Mediterrenean on the Westside. Back when Trivial Pursuit was first created, blue was Geography. But then U.S. gamemasters took Trivial Pursuit over from the Canadians, and must have realized that Americans just don’t know enough about world geography if we’re educated through......

Speaking of local TV, there's a lot of locally based television going on right now. The N -- Nickelodeon's brainy older sister -- just greenlit "South of Nowhere", a high school drama about a family who moves from Ohio to Los Angeles and finds itself in the middle of a fast-paced, metropolitan environment and a overcrowded "anything goes" L.A. public school. Considering how forward thinking and 'real' their current youth hit series, Degrassi: The......

The nervous anticipation and anxiety that greets each new school year just increased for 10,000 California students. California Charter Academy, the largest operator of charter schools, announced the closing of 60 campuses throughout the state [via L.A. Times]. Investigations surrounding the organization’s misdeeds and problematic academic programs and performance are in part to blame. The Charter Schools Association is now rushing to find seats at other schools for the California pupils whose schools will......

In a vote that could have future ramifications in Los Angeles, San Franciscans decide today whether or not non-citizens will be allowed to vote in school board elections. The measure is intended to enfranchise immigrant parents by allowing them to be more involved in school-related decisions that affect their children. Opponents say that this is the first step toward allowing non-citizens the right to vote, a privilege that is historically only open to US......