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Saul Gonzalez

Saul Gonzalez is a producer and reporter with public radio station KCRW in Santa Monica.

Saul Gonzalez is a producer and reporter with public radio station KCRW in Santa Monica. Before that, he was the Los Angeles producer for PBS NewsHour and a contributing correspondent for public television's "Religion and Ethics Newsweekly." For The World, Saul has reported on such topics as the lives of immigrant long-haul truckers, Japanese American artists threatened by gentrification and a bi-national adoption program for aging Tijuana racing dogs.

People sit on the steps outside Los Angeles immigration court, which has been closed since Dec. 22 due to a partial government shutdown over funding for a southern border wall.

This busy LA immigration court is now a ‘ghost town’ in wake of government shutdown

Immigration

Nearly 43,000 cases are estimated to have been canceled nationwide. California has seen the most cancellations — about 9,000 — followed by New York with more than 5,100. And immigrants who’ve waited years for their court date will now have to wait even longer.

At a counter in a Latino market, customers wait to buy food while workers cook in the back. In the foreground are huge steel pots.

In LA, unwrapping tamales is the heart of the holidays

Food
Syrian refugees look at the camera as they stand in front of their homes at Azraq refugee camp

Limits on refugee resettlement lead to agency closures in Los Angeles

pamhplets, T-shirt with man's face on table

This Latino, Arab American was a long-shot candidate — until his opponent was indicted for corruption

Politics
Bassem Youssef stands in front of a microphone in a recording studio. Behind him is a screen lit up with the title of his new podcast: "Remade in America with Bassem Youssef."

After the Egyptian military took away a political satirist’s show, he podcasts about his new life in LA

Arts, Culture & Media
Courts

Inside one of the busiest immigration courts in the country

Immigration

If you are an immigrant in the US fighting deportation, what happens inside this building is all-important.

Cross-border dog adoption

Why a trailer filled with 23 greyhounds is crossing the US-Mexico border

Culture

A couple in California crosses the border on a regular basis to give greyhounds a second chance at life.

Game of Thrones: How to Speak Dothraki

Arts, Culture & Media

The Scene: Los AngelesFrom KCRW’s The Business, hosted by Kim Masters
As it tries to keep up with increasingly savvy audiences, Hollywood hires experts to bring authenticity to its …

Jonathan Erland says the VFX crew working on "Star Wars" didn't just create the things you saw on screen. They had to build from scratch the equipment that made those visual effects.

The visual effects pioneer responsible for the original ‘Star Wars’ thinks movies today may rely too much on effects

Arts

Jonathan Erland and the visual effects crew that worked on the original “Star Wars” had to build everything from scratch. And afterward, they threw a lot of it in a dumpster, including the models for the original Death Star.

Painter and sculptor Nancy Uyemura

LA’s Little Tokyo is gentrifying and pushing out some of the city’s most prominent artists

Arts

A tight community of artists in LA are pushing back against rising rents. But they worry they may lose the battle.