Public Insight Network: Share your story

It seems that every March, budget stressed school districts issue provisional layoff notices to teachers to warn them they might not have a job in the next school year. Has this happened to you or to a teacher you know?

Help KPCC's reporters cover what happens to professional teachers when school districts have to cut payrolls.

If you've gotten a "Reduction in Force" letter this year or in the past, what does it do to your loyalty to the teaching profession? Does it affect your classroom performance? How do you plan your life around a job that might vaporize?

Do you know someone affected by the earthquake in Chile? Will you be involved in the emergency response or recovery effort? Do you have original photos to share?

Help KPCC cover how this earthquake is resonating in Southern California.

If you attend a college or work on campus, what have you seen of your school's efforts to prevent and respond to sexual assaults? Does the campus carry through on reporting crimes to local authorities? Are perpetrators being charged with crimes? Who gets away with rape and sexual assault on campus?

Who do you like for governor and U.S. senator in the June 8 primary election? What issues will guide your votes on the ballot propositions? What experiences will shape your vote this year?

How easy is it to cheat the state auto smog test? Have you ever been offered a passing grade for a payment on the side?

A new law aims to cut down on fraudulent auto smog testing. It's already illegal, though. Smog testers can take emissions from a different car, or use a special device to make your smoking clunker emit clean exhaust. Share what you know of the smog fraud trade.

How has the recession that began in late 2007 and which appears to have ended by early 2010 helped or hurt you? What signs of economic recovery do you see?

Government budgets are in distress throughout Southern California, but how are cuts playing out in your community, your career and your family?

If you've been laid off from a government job, or fear you might be, please take a few minutes to share your story confidentially with the KPCC newsroom. If you've been furloughed, how are you juggling the sudden cut in pay? And how is your agency managing through lean times?

Are you the owner of a recalled Toyota?

How has the recall changed your confidence in your vehicle or in the overall brand? What communciations are you getting from the carmaker? What questions do you have about the recall?

KPCC is looking at the recall's impact on Southern California drivers. We're looking for your experiences as well as a few people willing to speak with a reporter about the recall.

How safe are the places you ride your bike? When you drive your car, are the bicycles around you at risk? Are drivers who hit cyclists and then drive off being charged with crimes?

Riding a bicycle in Southern California can be a dicey proposition in some areas where road markings are not clear, where gutters and bike lanes are debris-filled or cars drive too close to bicycle traffic.

What's your experience from a driver, bicyclist or pedestrian perspective? Help KPCC cover this story.

End-of life care is one of the most difficult issues to emerge during the national debate on healthcare reform. Share your real-world experience with our newsroom, help inform our reporting on this topic.

Do you live in an area where mud and debris flows are a post-fire threat? You can help KPCC stay on top of this story by sharing your experience. How are you preparing your home or business? What are officials telling you about potential danger? What lessons have you learned from past mud flows or floods?

Are inmates getting timely care in the places that you work? Why or why not? What changes have you seen in the medical system since a receiver took over? Do you find reports of inmate neglect or unnecessary deaths to be credible?

How are you responding to the Haiti earthquake and how does it change how you prepare for one here in Southern California, where the next big earthquake could be days or years away? Your response will help us cover this story.

Can school safety collide with individual rights? Are you subject to a daytime curfew? Ever gotten a truancy ticket or fine? How well do the school police protect your kids versus your campus? Responses are confidential.

An education at one of the UC or Cal State camupses used to be a great bargain and, compared to private and some other states' public universities, it still is.

Are rising tuition and fees, staff furloughs and falling tax revenues throughout California making today's state-funded college education very different from earlier generations' experiences?

Share your insights on how California's public universities are changing with the economy.

How are you liking the new privacy controls on Facebook? Meanwhile Some workplaces are embracing social media, but others are putting a lid on how employees may use Facebook, Twitter and other sites. What's going on at your workplace?

A new study says that many people who could qualify for food stamps cannot get access to the food stamps. What's your experience with the food stamp program? If you're an applicant, recipient, merchant or if you work with an agency or company that deals with food stamps, please share your story with KPCC.

New medical guidelines recommend women over 50 get mammogram screening for breast cancer every two years, reducing the annual screening that had been recommended for women over 40. The new guidelines are billed as reducing the risk of many screenings and the anxiety from false positive results. How will you change your screening schedule?

You served your country by joining the military, now you're a civilian. What story do you have about the ease or difficulty of veteran life? What could your country do better? What do we get right in the way we treat veterans?

If you use medical marijuana, KPCC would like to hear about your experience getting a doctor's recommendation and going to a dispensary. Did you have an unexpected legal or health issue using medical marijuana? Responses are confidential, nothing shared here is aired or published without permission.

Some states are outlawing bans on outdoor clotheslines imposed by some private communities. How do you dry your clothes? Are clotheslines permitted where you live?

The federal government is pouring billions of dollars into "shovel ready" projects to stimulate the economy. But will the money be wisely spent? What have you seen go right or wrong?

Economic troubles can deeply stress our relationships, but they can also lead to greater teamwork and togetherness. Is the recession helping or hurting your love life or family ties?

What were you doing during today's earthquake? Did you see any damage? How prepared is your family for a much bigger earthquake?

What personal experiences have drawn you to (or kept you from) the Catholic Church in Southern California? Share your reflections on the church, its challenges and your relationship with the institution and its people.

Your insights and questions will help shape KPCC's coverage of the largest gathering of Catholics in the nation -- the 2010 Religious Education Congress. Roger Mahony will welcome some 40,000 Catholics from the United States and other countries to Anaheim for a four-day event starting March 18.

Are you involved in a Catholic parish? A parochial school? What do you think of the church's campaign to grant legal status to illegal immigrants? To end abortion? To relieve poverty? What issues matter most to you?

Every family has a story that ties today's generation to parents, grandparents and ancestors. Some are migration dramas from another state or country, others are stories of wealth built and wasted, or of heroism and public service.

If there's a story in your family that shows your link to prior generations, share it here.

Homicide and overall crime rates are down nationwide, but crime still hurts families, businesses and entire neighborhoods. Share what you know and help KPCC's newsroom cover crime from your perspective.

Take a few minutes to tell us how crime has changed your family, career or community. It's confidential, nothing is aired or published without your permission.

America is a land of immigrants, and some find it easier than others to assimilate. What's your assimilation story? If your family has been in the U.S. for a long time, what culture clash or assimilation stories have been handed down to you?

Have you ever been hit by a car, truck, bus or bike while walking in Southern California? Have you ever hit a pedestrian with your vehicle? What happened? What, if anything changed at the site of your collision to improve safety there?

Economists are saying the recession is ending, but what are you feeling at home, at work and in your neighborhood? Are you seeing signs of recovery? What will it take for you to regain confidence in the local economy?

With nearly 300,000 people living behind bars in California, it's likely you know someone who has been an inmate, prison worker, or someone who does business with the local, county, state and federal lockups in our state.

Tell KPCC what you've experienced. What works, what doesn't and what needs changing? It's confidential, and our reporters may use your insights to shape future coverage of our jails and prisons.

What does gardening do for you and your neighborhood? What space have you found to cultivate veggies, herbs and better relationships in your community? Tell your garden stories and share photos, too. We'll add some to our special garden page.

A broken century-old water main is only the latest public structure to fail. And with the recession causing state and local tax revenues to fall, some planned fixes may be further delayed. What's crumbling in your part of California? Help KPCC build a map of the streets, bridges, water and sewer lines, and other taxpayer-supported assets that you see deteriorating. Send your photos, too.

What blogs are part of your local media diet? Which are indipsensible, which clue you in to neighborhood news? If you're blogging, what's your topic and why do you blog?

The more you tell us about yourself, the better we can find you when a story or talk show needs your expertise, and the better we can match our future questions to your interests. What kind of work do you do? Where do you live? What are your hobbies and passions? Share it here.

There has been a sharp growth in the amount of money students are borrowing to pay for college, according to the U.S. Department of Education. What's your story? Are you borrowing more than you can afford to repay?

What are student loans doing to your future financial security? How do you decide if the degree you are buying with borrowed money is worth what it will cost to repay?

The recession has caused the state to cut what it spends on public schools. At the same time, the number of charter schools is growing. What does all this mean to parents, students and those who teach and work in schools?

The U.S. role in Iraq is winding down but expanding in Afghanistan. How do those far-away wars make you richer or poorer? What's the economic impact of war on our lives here?

Buy, sell, hold or walk away? In an age of falling home values and underwater mortgages, what's your real estate strategy?

What are you doing to keep from getting the H1N1 Influenza virus? What about your school or workplace?

When gas prices went sky high in 2008, more people turned to bicycles to cut the cost of commuting. With prices back down, are you continuing to use your bike as much? In what ways is your bicycle helping or hurting your bottom line?

Are you a recent immigrant? Descended from immigrants? How does your own immigration saga, or that of your forebears influence how you view today's immigration debate?

Was yours one of the more than 6 million jobs that have disappeared from the U.S. economy since the recession began in late 2007? How are layoffs changing you, your family or your worklife?

California is holding talks to decide how to protect ocean fish, mammals, birds and plants. What experiences shape your views on what to protect and what restrictions go too far?

If an authority figure stops and questions you solely because of your race, that's racial profiling. There are other types of profiling -- gender, religious, even class profiling. What experiences have you had that made you feel profiled?

What news would you like to hear on KPCC?

What are you doing, buying, learning or changing to get through this recession? What signs of recovery do you see?

California's new budget puts state employees on furloughs and enacts deep cuts in education, health care, and other important government services. How are you feeling these cuts in your own life?

Share your experiences with health insurance, good and bad, to help inform our reporting on this issue as Congress debates an overhaul in health care policy.