* UPDATED Barely a week after losing to George McKenna for an LA Unified School District board seat, Alex Johnson is eying another board seat. His former boss, LA County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, has nominated him to fill a soon-to-be vacant seat on the LA County Board of Education, a body that hears appeals of...

Alex Johnson has no greater supporter in his bid for LA Unified’s District 1 board seat than Mark Ridley-Thomas, the LA County Supervisor he has served as an education aide. But it’s more than Ridley-Thomas’s vocal support that’s helping Johnson in his quest to beat George McKenna in the Aug. 12 runoff after McKenna outpolled him in...

In keeping with the start of the baseball season this week, let’s use a baseball analogy: Rachel Johnson has a Hall of Fame batting average in running for office. Since 2001 when she was first elected as the City Clerk of Gardena, Johnson has run four successful campaigns for elected office — a second term for...

LA Unified school board hopeful Alex Johnson kicked off his campaign last night at a west side home, filled with elected officials, education advocates and political funders. “We’ve waited long enough.” Johnson told the room of supporters. “We can’t leave a generation of kids behind… every child should have an opportunity to succeed, to graduate from...

The sides are digging in. With the holidays offering no break for the forces pushing to fill the vacant LA Unified school board’s District 1 seat, factions have firmly aligned behind US Representative Maxine Waters, for an appointment, and LA County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, for an election. Whatever the six board members decide at a...

The LA Unified school board today postponed until next month any consideration of how to fill the board seat left vacant by the death of Marguerite LaMotte, bowing to a wave of pleas from speakers asking the board to wait until after her funeral. A 3-3 vote on a motion to allow discussion to begin...

UPDATE | 10:50AM At a press conference, US Representative Maxine Waters softened her position of favoring an appointment and asked the school board to delay today’s vote. As the LA Unified school board gears up for today’s meeting, only one thing is certain: it will be controversial. The highest profile issue on the agenda is...