Miguel Contreras

What Happened at the Botanica

The death of a labor leader and its reverberations

The Final Hours of Miguel Contreras

The 911 call said he went in for a card reading. But the death of the labor leader prompted a prostitution raid. What really went down at the botanica?

Our Town, Our Paper

L.A. and the Weekly, in hindsight and foresight

Life of Labor

Miguel, Martin and Maria Elena

Trouble in the Big Purple Trucks

How SEIU's mobile phone bank and L.A. politicians may have landed on the wrong side of campaign law.

Terminatable

Beaten by unions and beset by Angelides, Arnold looks shaky for 2006

The Comeback Kids

Labor’s moment of victory

Element of Suspense

Unions are shaken — and that may affect the vote

Damn, Not Another Election

Sitting this one out could be bad news

Made for Each Other

How unique odysseys of Antonio Villaraigosa and Los Angeles brought them together

The Amazing Adventures of Super Mayor

Antonio’s heroics have suddenly inspired the citizens of Metropolis, but will he be brought down by his own brand of Kryptonite?

We Recycle!

Herb Wesson bids to succeed Ludlow, shuffling a familiar deck

In Miguel’s Shoes

Ludlow leaves the council to run L.A. labor

Snap!

Winners and Losers

Scenes from Election Night

The Architect

Miguel Contreras, 1952 – 2005

Miguel’s Legacy

Taking labor to the next step

Your City Council (Not) at Work

What keeps L.A.’s politicians from delivering on their progressive dreams

A Bobzilla-Tony Runoff?

Big Labor deals itself out of the deck

Labor's Dirty Move

County Fed’s unprincipled backing of Hahn kills the Latino-labor coalition

Antonio Moves for Mayor

After pledging to stay in council, Villaraigosa says duty made him do it

Hahn’s (Un)Finest Moments

The Mayor’s embarrassing performance in Sherman Oaks sums up his first term

Unplugging City Hall

L.A. reforms could cost commissioners their clout

Stuck in Idle

Political reasons for the sluggish MTA contract talks

Who’s Gonna Vote?

How a Democratic state could elect a Republican

Recallus Interruptus

Republicans on memory lane, Clinton on the pulpit and the Supremes on the spot

It’s Democracy, Stupid

The people want to vote

The Godfather

Miguel Contreras and the New Los Angeles

Labor Is Back

Ludlow’s victory revives dreams of L.A. movement

Running With Dennis

When war goes well, what else can a peace candidate do but hit up his L.A. fans for money?

Antonio Reborn

Loser of 2001 L.A. mayor’s race revives hopes of Latino-labor coalition

Los Lobos

Antonio "The Heartthrob" Villaraigosa vs. Nick "The Choirboy" Pacheco for the welterweight championship of the city

Say It. Ain't So, Miguel.

L.A.'s top labor leader shills for the HMO vultures

Undoing Davis

Issues, not Simon, pose greatest threat to the governor

A Place for Us?

Why the city needs a real affordable housing program

On the Edge

In times of war, living-wage backers fight for the jobless

A House Divided

On the Hahn coalition, and other short-lived phenomena

The Movement’s Mayor

The new-model unions pick a new-model candidate

Flying High

More money for airport workers

The Part-Time Machine

Sometimes it’s enough to save full-time jobs

MTA Game Plan

The poor walk, so that the middle class can shrink

What the Democrats Need To Know About Los Angeles

A guide to a city that has everything but a middle class

Free To Protest

Thanks to Judge Feess, you can say more things in more places

Amnesty!

Labor leads the battle to grant legal status to millions of America’s — and L.A.’s — undocumented immigrants

The Red Sea

How the janitors won their strike

Enter the Janitors

Transforming L.A.

Bore and Gush

America’s nominees

The New Unionism Finds a Home

Once the nation’s most anti-union big city, L.A. has now become America’s most dynamic labor town

Capital 1, Labor 1

Riordan and unions win big at the polls

No Justice, No Growth

A new labor-left alliance scrambles L.A.'s growth politics - and creates middle-income jobs in a city where they're vanishing