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Elizabeth Aguilera, CalMatters

Elizabeth Aguilera | photo CALmatters.org

Elizabeth Aguilera is an award winning multi-media journalist who will cover health and social services for CALmatters. She joins CALmatters from Southern California Public Radio/KPCC 89.3 where she produced stories about community health. Her recent reporting revealed lead-tainted soil on school campuses near a former lead battery recycling plant that spurred district action. Previously Aguilera was a staff writer at the San Diego Union-Tribune where she covered immigration and demographics. There, she won a “Best of the West” award for her coverage of sex trafficking between Mexico and the United States. At the Denver Post, where Aguilera wrote about urban affairs and business, she was named a Livingston Award finalist for her reporting on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Aguilera has also worked at the Orange County Register. She is a Marshall Memorial Fellow and an International Center for Journalists alum. She is also a lifetime member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. The L.A. native is a graduate of Pepperdine University and earned an MA in Specialized Journalism from the University of Southern California.  She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two dogs.

Elizabeth Aguilera | photo CALmatters.org
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Cynthia Bassett, a child care provider, in her backyard in San Bernardino.
La pandemia de coronavirus ha diezmado los centros de cuidado infantil en California, y muchos han cerrado de forma permanente. Además de los niños, los padres y las personas que dirigen los centros, los cierres afectarán negativamente a la economía estatal.
Cynthia Bassett, a child care provider, in her backyard in San Bernardino.
The coronavirus pandemic has decimated child care centers in California, with many closing permanently. The consequences will adversely affect children, parents, center operators and the state economy.
Jonathan, 4, holds a marker to draw on a paper set in front of him on a table. Next to him is his mother, watching him draw. She's wearing a face mask.
Muchos padres informan que sus estudiantes con necesidades especiales han retrocedido en su desarrollo durante el año pasado que los aisló a la pandemia.
Jonathan, 4, holds a marker to draw on a paper set in front of him on a table. Next to him is his mother, watching him draw. She's wearing a face mask.
Many parents report that their special-needs students have gone backward in development during the pandemic-isolating past year.
Family daycare provider Lucre-ce Lester takes a student’s temperature as he arrives for the day at her home-based daycare in Antioch on February. 17, 2021.
The state Senate budget committee approved disbursement of $144 million in federal funds to give child care providers some financial relief in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. If approved by the Legislature, it will be a major win for Child Care Providers United, which is still negotiating a master contract with California.
Maria Echeveria and her 18-month-old son waiting to see a lawyer at CHIRLA. | Photo by Elizabeth Aguilera/CALmatters
Who cares for children when parents are sent away?
Site of the Exide battery recycling plant in Vernon, in southeast Los Angeles. photo Nick Ut/AP
Homes near Exide plant in Vernon may be bumped off of cleanup list
California border along Algodones sand dunes | photo via CALmatters
A border wall is not a new concept
Undocumented children in California could lose health coverage if the Trump administration ends Obamacare | photo by Maria J. Avila
Is the state obligated to care for sick children regardless of immigration status?
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