Armed Forces

North Korean Missiles Could Reach California; U.S. Beefs Up Interceptor Defense

Can North Korea hit Los Angeles with a nuclear missile? Yes, theoretically. Its tests have been inconclusive and perhaps even unimpressive so far, but the United States government isn't taking any chances. Today Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced that 14 interceptor missiles would be added to ... More >>

Civil War Photography Exhibit at California African American Museum Is a Tribute to Black Soldiers

Frederick Douglas, Harriet Tubman and Abraham Lincoln are a few of the major figures people think of when it comes to the Civil War. But you won't find any of these people featured in the California African American Museum's new exhibit. Instead, "African American Military Portraits from the Ameri ... More >>

Kirby Dick Interview: Documentarian Takes on Rape in the Military

Update: Defense of Marriage Act: Federal Appeals Court Says Anti-Gay Marriage Law is Unconstitutional

Update, 11:25 a.m.: California gay rights activists respond to DOMA ruling, after the jump. The 1996 Defense of Marriage Act has been found unconstitutional by a federal appeals court in Boston, Massachusetts. The U.S. Supreme Court may weigh in on the ruling. "Under current Supreme Court authorit ... More >>

'Grand Theft Auto' Comes to Life at LAPD Gun Buyback: Dude Turns in Military Rocket Launcher

Confronting the cops via rocket launcher isn't just for gamers anymore. At the annual LAPD Gun Buyback over the weekend, someone actually turned in a military "anti-tank" rocket launcher, reports City News Service. The buyback allows civilians to turn in their firearms -- no questions asked -- in e ... More >>

Helicopters Buzzing Downtown Part of Joint Military Exercises Supported by LAPD

lewisha1990​As if the downtown area isn't already alive with the sound of ghetto birds, the LAPD announced this week that it will be conducting exercises with U.S. Armed Forces. And those nighttime exercises will include buzzing, ominous helicopters. So don't trip out, crackhead at Fourth an ... More >>

SoCal Powerlifter Steve Denison Says U.S. Powerlifting Federation Called Him a Child Molester

Steve Denison​There's a mean little feud brewing in the world of competitive power lifting. Sadly, it's not between two swollen-chested iron-pumpers with legs as thick as a child. It's between some of the guys who promote the sport and organize the competitions. And it's apparently gotten quit ... More >>

Sheng Chen Ran Hostess Club Out of San Gabriel Valley House, Authorities Say

Dernier ExileLadies of the mic.​If you're to believe the L.A. County Sheriff's Department, 38-year-old Sheng Hui Chen is a brave, shit-talking man. In fact, they claim, he pretty much made a lifestyle of it. Not only did Chen allegedly extort mom-and-pop Chinese immigrants by saying he was a ... More >>

Matt Fong, Former California Treasurer And Longtime Angeleno, Dies at 57

Matt Fong.​Updated at the bottom with reaction from L.A. County Supervisor Mike Antonovich. Matt Fong, a longtime Angeleno and onetime U.S. Senate hopeful, has died, according to the Sacramento Bee. Fong's mother is beloved Democrat March Fong Eu, who was elected California's Secretary of St ... More >>

Mexican Cartels in L.A: Alleged Arellano Felix Plot to Kill Five People Over Drug Debt Unravels, Three Arrested

They're here.​If you need evidence that Mexico's bloody drug war continues to spill across the border, look no further than Palmdale, where authorities this week arrested three men they say are linked to an Arellano Felix drug-cartel plot to kill five family members over a drug debt.

Will Gay Republican Fred Karger Run for White House in 2012? Something Very Interesting Is Brewing

Gay Republican Fred Karger​Fred Karger, the openly gay Republican who battled Mormons and the National Organization for Marriage during the Proposition 8 campaign, was featured in the Washington Post yesterday, gaining major recognition for his possible run for the White House in 2012. If Ka ... More >>

Talking Books Keep Visually Impaired Veterans Happy and Engaged

World War II veteran Peter Hobbs has listened to 630 talking books​ Vision impairment have become an increasingly common health problem among US military troops, 158,000 of whom are currently visually impaired or have poor vision. Such eye ailments make it close to impossible to enjoy activi ... More >>

Mystery Missile Over Los Angeles: If You Were Asia, Would You Be Runnin' Scared?

CBS San DiegoNevermind the missile -- how about the heart attack to the right? ​Either there's a lame UFO in our midst or an unidentified SoCal redneck (read: the Navy) is trying to punctuate President Obama's Eastern visit with one big Cold War chin-up -- just in time for the debut of "Black ... More >>

Former Marines Alleged To Have Sold Assault Weapons To 'Florencia 13' Gangsters In The San Fernando Valley

Guns like this, sold to gangsters -- allegedly.​Three former marines suspected of selling assault weapons to members of L.A.'s notorious Florencia 13 gang have been arrested in Southern California, federal officials announced Tuesday. The arrests by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firear ... More >>

Union Stagehand At USC's Obama Rally Sent Home For Wearing 'Bush' Sweatshirt

Navy ProsThe aircraft carrier on which Hammond's son serves as a marine​One union supervisor working the Obama event this Friday apparently didn't get the whole "Freedom of Speech" memo. KTLA interviewed stagehand Duane Hammond at the scene, where he had just been fired from the Internationa ... More >>

ACLU: Sheriff's Heat-Beam Gun Is 'Tantamount To Torture'

​ The American Civil Liberties Union this week denounced the sheriff's plan use of a heat-beam device to control violent inmates at Los Angeles County Jail. In a letter to Sheriff Lee Back the organization employing the weapon would be "tantamount to torture." The weapon known as the Assault ... More >>

Chocolate Weapons: Bust A Chocolate Cap In Your Ass

​ The only thing more hilarious than these chocolate weapons is the warning on the chocolate weapons website: "Due to excessive heat during the summer months, we regret that we will be unable to ship our chocolate products due to risk of melting (even with overnight shipping and ice packs)." H ... More >>

Was George Bush's AIDS Strategy Better Than Barack Obama's?

AIDS Healthcare Foundation​AIDS Healthcare Foundation founder Michael Weinstein came out swinging yesterday at a Washington D.C. press conference, offering up that President Barack Obama's AIDS strategy measures up poorly to his predecessor's, former president George W. Bush. "The New York T ... More >>

Air Force's Mystery Space Plane Headed To California

USAF​The U.S. Air Force launched its mysterious, unmanned space vehicle, the X-37B, late Thursday from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and it's expected to land in California, possibly at Vandenberg Air Force Base north of Santa Barbara, at an unknown time. The baby shuttle -- it's only about 28 fee ... More >>

Sanjay Gupta Teams Up With USC Surgeons In Haiti

USC​A group of USC doctors reached a quake-ravaged Haiti this week and were treating patients on a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier as well as at an Israeli Defense Force field hospital in Port-au-Prince, the university reported. Aboard the USS Carl Vinson a six-year-old boy who ended up under a fe ... More >>

WHO’S YOUR DREAMER?

The Assassination of Deputy Abel Escalante

A young father had nothing to do with LAPD’s killing of Danny Leon. But he was slain for it

Summer of Tough Love: Iraqi Double Agent Remains in Limbo

HOW DEEP IS YOUR LOBSTER?

Gimme Shelter: U.S. Military Deserters Once Again Flock to Canada to Avoid Iraq War

Looks like this time they picked the wrong country

Gaza Battle Continues -- On Wilshire Boulevard

Today will see two protest actions against Israel's counterattacks on the Hamas-led Palestinian territory in Gaza. At 3 p.m. Jews for Peace will assemble outside the Westwood Federal Building on 11000 Wilshire Blvd. Info: (562) 694-1637.Right: Gaza City ruins(NY Times photo: Abid Katiib/Getty I ... More >>

Petrae-ified

Iraq report reveals a failed state

General Petraeus From Cincinnati

Iraq policy is apparently in the hands of the supernatural

Must See Art

Hirsch Perlman’s “ergo despero” and Vincent Johnson’s “Civil Air Defense Project #1”

Homeless in Westwood

A shelter for vets sounds better than more car-dependent business

Shame. Shame. Shame.

But can Democrats fill the vacuum?

Insurgency Insipience

Flip-floppin’ again

The Black Album

Sean Huze’s snapshots of war

This GI Joe Won’t Go

Ex-soldier resists backdoor draft into Iraq war

Humvee Hell

Evan Wright talks about his two months riding with the Marines in Iraq, and his new book, Generation Kill

War by Numbers

The Torture Files

Iraqi detainees allege mistreatment and abuse

6 Photographs by Teun Voeten in Iraq, the Gaza Strip and Liberia

Queers in the Military

Ten years later, the casualties of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” may be nearing an end

L.A.’s Bunker Mentality

Peace Games

At Vandenberg Air Force Base, protest was just another military exercise

Caught in the Currents

Wading through conflicting views on the Middle East

Liberation Politics

Mexico’s long-imprisoned general is released from jail

What Kind of War?

Southern Front

The Bush administration’s shell game in Colombia

Breaking Ranks

A Mexican officer defects, seeks asylum in U.S.

Land Deal Yields
No Land, No Deal

Planning czar Shambra’s biggest deal never happened

Ill Wind

Producers Jack Smith and April Oliver's Rebuttal