"No law can force good communication in our families," Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa tells La Opinión readers in a Spanish-language ad. The mayor and the ACLU of Southern California have joined forces to warn all Californians about the risks Proposition 85 poses for pregnant teens and our families. As a father of three daughters, Mayor Villaraigosa urges parents to protect children who live in dangerous homes by voting no on Proposition 85.

The ACLU/SC and the state's leading medical groups oppose Proposition 85 because it would threaten teenage girls who live in abusive homes where they can't talk with their parents about their pregnancy. In an editorial, La Opinión also urged its readers to vote no on Proposition 85: "There are special circumstances that require that we maintain the privacy of our daughters in cases where there is violence or sexual abuse at home."

Five months after a federal judge called conditions in L.A. County jails "inconsistent with basic human values," the ACLU of Southern California exposed fresh evidence of overcrowding and filthy conditions.

This week, Judge Dean D. Pregerson wrote that the central processing hub for the seven-facility L.A. County jail system has "defaulted to the lowest permissible standard of care" and ordered strict new measures to correct the situation.

According to eye-witness accounts and more than two dozen statements collected by the ACLU/SC, hundreds of men arraigned but not convicted of any offense have been held at the Inmate Reception Center for as long as four days in unspeakable conditions.

ACLU/SC jail monitors found that "thirty to forty men are being crammed into holding cells so small that they must take turns lying down on the hard filthy floor." They are held "without regular meals and with no access to showers, beds or mattresses."

Judge Pregerson prohibited the Sheriff's Department from holding more than 20 inmates for more than 24 hours in small holding cells at the Inmate Reception Center.

"Inmates should not be stripped of the bare requisites of dignity and decency," said ACLU/SC legal director Mark Rosenbaum.

California's vote-by-numbers system sends many of us scrambling for our voter guide, newspaper, or favorite political website every election year. Want to keep up with the initiatives -- 13 this year -- and follow the money to find out who benefits and who loses? Need help peeling back the misleading labels: eminent domain, parental notification, "Jessica's law"?

Then you need the ACLU Foundation Advisory Board's Fall Salon, Wednesday, Nov. 1.

Click here to learn more.