Pug Nation LA to Host Fourth Annual Strut Your Mutt Walk and 5K

Pug Nation Rescue of Los Angeles rescues abandoned, abused, and otherwise displaced pugs throughout LA, offering sanctuary and striving to match each dog with a loving home. Each month, the organization holds multiple adoption fairs throughout the Los Angeles metropolitan area. It also hosts annual events such as Strut Your Mutt, a fundraising dog walk that benefits local shelters.

In 2014, Strut Your Mutt drew approximately 2,500 human participants and 1,400 canine companions, raising nearly $625,000 for LA’s homeless animals. On Saturday, October 10, 2015, Pug Nation LA will aim to top last year’s attendance with its fourth annual Strut Your Mutt walk at Exposition Park. In addition to a leisurely stroll through the park, which includes landmarks such as the California Science Center and the Los Angeles Coliseum, this year’s event will feature a 5K run, in which people can participate with or without their four-legged friends. Attendees can begin registering as early as 7 am, and both the walk and 5K run will kick off at 9 am.

Following the walk and run, participants will have the chance to enjoy a dog-themed festival featuring a variety of attractions. Dog owners and their companions can take part in a number of pet-friendly activities, compete in pet contests, have their photos taken, and enjoy delicious refreshments.                            

Sidney Lumet - Delving into Human Conscience

Sidney Lumet was an important figure in American cinema who took a unique approach to filmmaking, seeking not only to entertain audiences but also to encourage them to examine their own consciences. Many of his films, such as 12 Angry Men, Dog Day Afternoon, Serpico, and Network, deal with issues of conscience and morality and have inspired countless audiences to consider their themes. In fact, US Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor has credited 12 Angry Men, which revolves around a single jury member’s efforts to convince his fellow jurors of a defendant’s innocence, as a significant influence on her career in law.

Released in 1957, 12 Angry Men was Lumet’s first motion picture, but the acclaimed director entered the entertainment industry much earlier. Born in Philadelphia in 1924 to an actor father and dancer mother, he appeared in several Broadway and off-Broadway productions throughout his childhood and adolescence, and his love for New York shone through in the settings of many of his films.

Lumet transitioned from a career in television directing to work on 12 Angry Men, which garnered three Academy Award nominations and the Berlin Film Festival’s Golden Bear. He went on to direct such widely renowned films as Network, a satire of the American media that earned 10 Academy Award nominations and secured four wins, and Dog Day Afternoon, a complex crime drama featuring Al Pacino in a groundbreaking role.

Throughout his extensive career, Sidney Lumet created over 40 films, directed such noteworthy actors as Sean Connery, Marlon Brando, and Katharine Hepburn, and earned more than 40 Academy Award nominations. Despite this, Lumet did not receive an Oscar until 2005, when he received an honorary Academy Award. He died in 2011 at his Manhattan home, leaving a truly impressive cinematic legacy to be enjoyed by audiences for decades to come.                          

President Obama Establishes Three New National Monuments in Western US

On Friday, July 10, President Obama announced that he would set aside over 1 million acres for preservation in California, Texas, and Nevada to create three new national monuments. While signing the official designation, he referred to America’s national parks and monuments as one of the nation’s “great legacies,” noting that they not only preserve the country’s beauty but also represent its rich history.

The newest national monuments include Northern California’s Berryessa Snow Mountain, a 331,000-acre region comprising Native American cultural sites and numerous diverse ecosystems. In Texas, the Waco Mammoth National Monument boasts preserved remains of a variety of Pleistocene epoch animals, such as saber-toothed cats and giant tortoises. However, the aptly named region is best known for the fossils of 65,000-year-old Columbian mammoths. The third new preserved region, the Basin and Range National Monument, spans 704,000 acres in Nevada. In addition to containing prehistoric rock art and petroglyphs dating back 4,000 years, Basin and Range is the site of City, an abstract sculpture by Michael Heizer that serves as an impressive example of American land-art.

With these three additions, President Obama has established a total of 19 national monuments since taking office, highlighting the historical, cultural, and ecological significance of over 260 million acres of public land.