National

The 14th annual Newport Beach Film Festival started April 25 and ends this Thursday, May 2. After the extravagant weeklong festival ends, they will have screened over 350 films, screening at five different venues and at times occupying 12 screens at once. I knew very little about this festival, other than a few key programmers—Max Naylor, Amanda Salazar, Adam Gentry, Jay Winterstein, and executive director Gregg Schwenk—whom I had met in previous years attending Sundance standing in lines, sitting near one another at screenings, and meeting up at parties. (On opening night, I was blown away by the fact there were some announced 500 volunteers that would work over 50,000+ hours, year-round and during the festival to make this event happen!) This past January at Sundance, I was asked to participate at the festival as a jury member and there was no way I was going to say no.

Since 1970, more than 900,000 Americans have been killed by guns, in this country, not counting casualties sustained in our numerous military operations since then.

At a recent rally in Minneapolis, representatives from labor, business and the faith community stood shoulder to shoulder with immigrant communities in calling for commonsense immigration reform (see story, page 12). Few issues have so polarized our nation in the past. Yet, in recent months, a national consensus is growing that we must take action to amend our immigration laws and create a pathway to citizenship for millions of people who have come to the United States to work and create a better life for their families.