Los Angeles, CA -- The recession that currently has the nation in a chokehold is different from past economic downturns because its root cause is an inside job.

According to Jed Kolko, an associate director and research fellow with the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC), the cause of the current economic malaise is the imploding housing market, which in turn tugged the banking and financial systems down the drain.

 Los Angeles, CA -- It is not often that a person has the opportunity to touch history and make history all in one lifetime. But that is Gwen Moore’s story.

Moore was first elected to public office in 1975, when voters sent her to the Los Angeles Community College District. Then in 1978, she won the right to represent Angelenos in the California Assembly, where she would stay for 16 years.