Email Author Dennis Romero

Awards

• 2011 - Southern California Journalism Awards/LA Press Club, published December 30, 2010

  "Death, Money and Megaraves"

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2009 Stories by Dennis Romero

• CNN Rejects Anti-Dobbs Ad, Group Says

  published Oct 16, 2009

  Groups affiliated with a campaign to persuade CNN to drop commentator Lou Dobbs because of his anti-illegal-immigrant stance say the network is refusing to air its spot encouraging the network to drop... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  More Cop Files Found In The Open

  published Oct 16, 2009

  The new Los Angeles Police Department touted by Chief William Bratton as he leaves office this month seems a lot like the old one, at least if you peek down hallways and through back doors. On Tuesday... More >>

• Balloon Boy Story Has Wings

  published Oct 15, 2009

  In 1987 we had Baby Jessica, an 18-month-old who fell into a Texas well and remained stuck there between October 14 and 16. Her ordeal provided daily fodder for the relatively new 24-hour cycle of cab... More >>

• Tales From the Crypt: Monroe-Adjacent Spot On The Block

  published Oct 15, 2009

  That crypt directly above Marylin Monroe's resting place in Westwood is back on the auction block. In August the spot went for $4.6 million, but the winning bidder pulled out, apparently after he was ... More >>

• Mud-Raking: News Stations Tout Mudslides That Never Come

  published Oct 15, 2009

  Judging by local television news operations, yesterday's rains comprised a state of emergency. For three days all local news stations led with this story: The first rainstorm of the season could cause... More >>

• Shriver-gate: Maria Apologizes

  published Oct 15, 2009

  California First Lady Maria Shriver apologized after paparazzi snapped her driving while talking on a mobile phone, sans hands-free device. Husband and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger championed the st... More >>

• McCourts Split As Dodgers Vie For Championship

  published Oct 15, 2009

  What would baseball be without drama outside the diamondr On the eve of the Dodgers' National League Championship Series opener against the Phillies today, team owner Frank McCourt confirmed he is sep... More >>

• An Interview with Techno Kingpin Juan Atkins: "L.A. is Still Behind the Curve Three or Four Years"

  published Sep 17, 2009

  Cybotron's "Clear," from 1983 More than any other person, Detroit's Juan Atkins is credited with creating techno. Of course, electronic dance music, which fills clubs, warehouses and festivals each ... More >>

• Senior Citizen With Oxygen Tank Robs Bank

  published Sep 12, 2009

  Times must be really hard. A man described as 70- to 80-years-old walked into a San Diego bank today and robbed the place of an undisclosed amount of cash. He was actually seen with an oxygen tank and... More >>

• Legislature To Free 17,000 Prisoners

  published Sep 12, 2009

  The state legislature passed a bill that would open cell doors for 17,000 prisoners as a way to reduce California's budget by $300 million. The deal, part of a compromise that back-stepped away from a... More >>

• Disney Park Getting Upgrade, But Might Need More Realism

  published Sep 12, 2009

  Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Chairman Jay Rasulo today added details to announced plans to upgrade the Disneyland-adjacent California Adventure. The biggest part of the plan is to add a 12-acre theme... More >>

• Advertising -- Coming To A Tweet Near Your

  published Sep 12, 2009

  A few weeks ahead of its conference in Los Angeles, Twitter amended its terms of use to allow for advertising. The move means that the micro-blogging service might finally go for the brass ring by mon... More >>

• Was L.A. Founded by -- Gulp -- Mexicansr

  published Sep 12, 2009

  Celebrations for the city's 228th birthday last week got us thinking. Most thumbnail histories say the city was officially founded by the Spanish on Sept. 4, 1781. It was, in fact, forged and claimed ... More >>

• Tilagate: Tequila Fights Back With Photos

  published Sep 12, 2009

  Yesterday we told you how we had our doubts about Tila "Tequila" Nguyen's claims that her boyfriend, Charger linebacker Shawne Merriman, choked and restrained her during a spat in San Diego's North Co... More >>

• NBC Wanted Leno Out Earlier

  published Sep 12, 2009

  One of the bigger ironies surrounding Jay Leno's primetime debut Monday is that NBC, he says, wanted him out as host of The Tonight Show even earlier than planned. In today's New York Times, the comi... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  More Flooding in September: Ed Hardy Gets Wet

  published Sep 12, 2009

  A day after a Los Angeles Department of Water and Power spokeswoman told the Weekly that all the subterranean water-system carnage that's happened over the week is "normal," another pipe burst, closin... More >>

• Tequila vs. Merriman -- The Big Guy Wins

  published Sep 11, 2009

  Is anybody surprised that the San Diego County District Attorney today declined to press charges against NFL linebacker Shawne Merriman after reality television's Tila "Tequila" Nguyen reported that h... More >>

• City Fire Department Cutbacks Could Burn 'Mutual Aid'

  published Sep 11, 2009

  The city of Los Angeles' budget-fixing cutbacks for the city fire department could harm a tool firefighters across the region have relied on for years -- mutual aid. City fire union President Pat McO... More >>

• Ex-LAUSD Super Accused of Using Fake Badge to Pull Woman Over

  published Sep 11, 2009

  Ruban Zacarias, who left as the top dog of the Los Angeles County Unified School District in 2000, plead not guilty did not enter a plea* today in response to a charge of impersonating a police office... More >>

• What Recessionr USC Hospitals to Hire 300

  published Sep 11, 2009

  With 1 out of every 10 Golden State workers unemployed, the recession has been especially hard on California. Employment-seekers clog job fairs like so many American Idol contestants. Just today 500 p... More >>

• Gangs Lay Low, Rake in Dough

  published Sep 11, 2009

  Along the Olympic corridor between Koreatown and downtown, it's been a quiet year for crime. This despite the proximity of two of the largest gangs in the United States, 18th Street and Mara Salvatruc... More >>

• Insured Workers Still Often Split the Bill

  published Sep 11, 2009

  Sometimes lost in the debate about health care, public option or not, is the sad fact that even people with decent insurance end up going into debt to pay for procedures that aren't covered. A recent ... More >>

• Future Tech Nabs Murder-Rape Suspect From Bell-Bottom Era

  published Sep 11, 2009

  Talk about back to the future. A 16-year-old boy allegedly rapes and murders an 80-year-old Venice woman -- in 1975. He gets away with it, alleges the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office, un... More >>

• Another Pipe Bursts: Street Flooding 'Normal' in September, Says DWP

  published Sep 11, 2009

  The oft-arid nature of this city belies a subterranean water world that sometimes flows like an El Nino storm in reverse. This, of course, is what happened Saturday when a 95-year-old water main ruptu... More >>

• Monday Social Makes a Move: A Conversation with Mick Cole

  published Sep 10, 2009

  Monday Social is Los Angeles' longest-running, electronic dance music night. It started in 1996 as an off-night ode to a cast-off scene, a place where true fans of digitally flavored "progressive" hou... More >>