The Progress Pride Flag,, adds a chevron on one side of the classic rainbow Pride Flag, to celebrate transgender people, people who died of AIDS and (with a brown stripe) people of color. While the Bay Area served as the setting for the genesis of much of the gay rights movement, Los Gatos has a solid contingent of older, more conservative, residents, people from a variety of faith traditions and Republican voters
The Christmas lights have gone up in Stirchley. A multifaith mix of stars and swirls add a festive air to the lamp-posts along the main street of this south Birmingham suburb. Stirchley is a modest kind of place, sandwiched between better known (and better off) areas such as Bourneville and Moseley, but there is plenty of evidence here of the lively community spirit that last year resulted in the area being named the best place to live in the Midlands.
For nearly 20 years, Diane Williams has seethed whenever she walked by a street mural depicting the genocide of Ohlone people by Spanish colonizers artwork she finds demeaning because the Native American men are depicted as fully nude. Just this week, plans to remove the wall art were halted at the last minute, after tenants of the building's apartments at 41st Street and Piedmont Avenue demanded that the history on display be left alone.
Today, the Rio Blanco mining camp in south-central Ecuador lies in ruins. Shattered china litters the ground not far from a hollowed-out kitchen with no walls left standing. An abandoned mine tunnel as wide as a house stands on a hillside, overlooking the charred remains of a diesel station. In 2018, environmentalists hailed Rio Blanco's closure as a landmark win for conservation.