San Fernando

Sex Scandals Ravage San Fernando City Council: Brenda Esqueda and Maribel De La Torre Poised to Lose Seats if Landslide Holds

See also: San Fernando: America's Sexiest, Most Scandal-Ridden City Government The citizens of San Fernando have taken their disapproval from San Fernando City Council chambers to the voting booth--and they appear poised to unseat both Mayor Brenda Esqueda and Councilmember Maribel De La Torre by m ... More >>

Larchmont Development Wars and Women in EDM Have Readers Talking

San Fernando: America's Sexiest, Most Scandal-Ridden City Government

Major Heat Wave For L.A. This Weekend: 107 Degrees For Valleys Next Week

Prepare for a major heat wave, Los Angeles. Yeah, we know: Your calendar now says that it's fall. But the weather patterns of an Indian summer, mixed with our traditional, fall offshore winds, will create at least three days of blistering heat in Southern California starting on Sunday, with tempera ... More >>

Zombie Joe's Goes Saucy in Down & Dirty, Memphis at the Pantages, Plus the Latest New Theater Reviews

Adam Szymkowicz's comic book parody, Hearts Like Fists at Theatre of NOTE takes unrequited love to camp, and gets this week's Pick of the Week. Click here for all the latest New Theater Reviews, or after the jump.Also check out this week's Stage feature on performance beyond the theater walls: an i ... More >>

San Fernando's JCPenney Drama Comes to a Head: Guerilla Preservationists Block Midnight Sign Removal (VIDEO)

The drama is once again on blast in the city of San Fernando, where an affair-gone-south between councilmembers recently turned City Hall into the set of a live soap opera. This time, the estranged lovers are more unlikely: On the one end, we have JCPenney, who wants to cut ties with its historic o ... More >>

Mario Hernandez and Maribel De La Torre, Feuding Lovers on San Fernando City Council, File Restraining Orders; Hernandez Resigns

At a San Fernando City Council meeting last November, then-Mayor Hernandez abruptly announced he was filing for personal bankruptcy. "And secondly," Hernandez added, "I'd like to put out there, to squash the rumors that, yes, I have been in a relationship with Councilwoman De La Torre." Audible gasp ... More >>

Gil Carrillo Fired as San Fernando Police Chief

When we heard last March that the city of San Fernando had appointed Night Stalker serial-murder investigator Gil Carrillo as its interim police chief, we though it was a smart move. After all, the city had been rocked by chaos and drama, not the least of which was an affair between its mayor, Mari ... More >>

Night Stalker Hero Detective Gil Carrillo Becomes Chief of San Fernando Police Force

Gil Carrillo is the man who helped crack the Night Stalker case, one of the Southern California's most terrifying murder sprees. Richard Ramirez killed and attacked from South Orange County to San Francisco, and he seemed to do so at random. You can only imagine the sweat he generated as Angelenos k ... More >>

10 Things I Learned From Working in a Porn Store

Before becoming a writer, I had many trades: Steelworker, warehouse clerk, advertising salesman, boutique manager. But the most educational job was clerking at a porn store across the street from a middle school in Portland, OR. It wasn't just a porn store. It also featured an arcade in the back - ... More >>

Mario Hernandez, San Fernando Mayor, Announces Affair With Councilwoman in Front of Wife And World (Really)

You miss the days when L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa made headlines not for his politics but for his dating policy? Alas, look no further than the little city to the north, San Fernando, which appears to be embroiled in a full-on, true-life telenovela, complete with a cheating mayor and a wife wh ... More >>

Earthquake Measuring 4.3 Awakens L.A. From Late Summer Siesta

Camp and Hotel Siesta​You see, East Coast, this is how the pros do earthquakes. A 4.3 hit Southern California (4 miles southeast of Newhall, to be precise), and we barely even noticed. In fact, much of the LA Weekly daily news staff was at lunch and didn't notice at all. You want to know why ... More >>

Six L.A. Neighborhoods With the Most Distinctive Fashion Styles

Jason Levesque​ How we dress can send messages not only about who we are and what we like but also where we're from. There is no singular "L.A. look," and Silver Lake isn't all beards and ironic T-shirts, either. Still, there are certain aesthetics -- in the form of everything from accessorie ... More >>

Strip Club Shooting in Valley Takes Life of Thomas Valdez, 30: Club Employee Allegedly Flees With Murder Suspect

VIP Showgirls.​A strip club patron was fatally shot over the weekend, police said. It happened about 10 p.m. Saturday inside VIP Showgirls Gentlemen's Club at 12147 Victory Blvd. in North Hollywood's struggling Valley Plaza shopping center, according to the LAPD. It's not clear what set off ... More >>

RIP: Influential Guitar Maker Travis Bean Is Dead

Guitarmaker Travis Bean died earlier this week at his home in Burbank. His guitars were played by everyone from Jerry Garcia to Steve Albini to Slash, and were known for their sustain and durability. You just can't break one of them. Born in San Fernando, his eponymous Valley-based company was fo ... More >>

Heat Wave in Los Angeles: 5 Ways to Revel in the Two-Day Hot Flash

Halle-freaking-lujah​Update: L.A. temps are expected to brush record highs today: Downtown, the number to beat is 90 degrees. Eat it up, after the jump! Welcome back, Los Angeles. We missed you. After as painful a winter as ever there was -- enough for Governor Jerry Brown to declare the Cal ... More >>

Sony HD Tape Shortage Caused by Japan's Tsunami Panics California and NY Filmmakers

By Michael Stabile Indy filmmakers are scrambling for vanishing $1,000 HD tapes​When directors of the independent feature Gone wanted to send a copy of their documentary about a missing ex-pat to the Tribeca Film Festival a few days ago, they discovered that the high-end tape stock they neede ... More >>

Review: The Proof Is In the Pudding & The Strata & The Sweets at Proof Bakery

The stretch of Glendale Blvd. between San Fernando and the 5 -- broad and friendly, still dotted with genuine neighborhood businesses -- wasn't hurting for sweets or caffeine when Proof Bakery opened in mid-November. Neighborhood favorite Kaldi brews its house-roasted coffee strong, but its select ... More >>

GRIFFITH'S ARC

Surprise: Rest Of The Shoo-Ins Win* California State Senate, Assembly And Congressional Districts In Election 2010, Banding Together For Mass Extermination Of Opponents

In a startling upset, Gerrymandering Congressman Howard Berman wins again​*OK, so we fibbed in the headline. The final results aren't in. But -- thanks to sleazy incumbent fixing of elections in California by the Berman brothers -- the new crop of California Senators, Assemblymen and Congressm ... More >>

Proposition 19 Dreams of Legal Weed

Bruce Margolin has defended 25,000 pot cases and Timothy Leary. Now he's primed for ganja tourists and sensimilla spas

San Fernando Valley Porn Actor Tests Positive For HIV; AIDS Activists Who Want Mandatory Condoms In Porn Say We Told You So

Steve LaAIDS Healthcare Foundation protested outside Larry Flynt Publications recently. ​A porn actor has tested positive for HIV, the industry's health care foundation has told reporters. It doesn't come as a surprise: Several actors in the San Fernando-based biz have tested positive in the ... More >>

Photo Gallery: What's In Season At The Farmers Market

Summer may not be technically over, but now that Labor Day has come and gone and schools are back in session, it kind of feels like it. Early September, however, can be one of the hottest times in Southern California, especially in the San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys. Not so good for us, but no ... More >>

Heat Alert For L.A. County Friday And Saturday

​Summer's late, like Pamela Anderson to an interview, but we'll take what we can get. On Thursday the county of Los Angeles issued a "heat alert," warning that it'll be a blazer Friday and Saturday in L.A. basin, especially for Lancaster and the Santa Clarita, San Fernando and San Gabriel Vall ... More >>

A 15-Cop Officer-Involved Shooting? LAPD Names Names

​Fifteen officers were identified has having been "involved" in the shooting death of a suspect near San Fernando last month, Los Angeles police reported Tuesday. That the suspect pointed a fake gun at authorities -- making the incident sound like a case of "suicide by cop" -- is not that unu ... More >>

Officials To Consider Four High Speed Rail Stations In The Valley

​According to the Burbank Leader, officials are set to meet next week to hear reports on possible high-speed rail locations in the San Fernando Valley. California's planned 800-mile high-speed rail system will include one station in the Valley. Representatives of the California High-Speed R ... More >>

L.A. Art Fabricator Known For Jeff Koons Work Goes Under

jeffkoons.com'Balloon Dog.'​Los Angeles area art fabricator Carlson & Co., perhaps best known for its work giving life to some of Jeff Koons' visions, announced it is going out of business, according to Bloomberg News.

Alleged 'Fight-Club Teacher' Arrested For Encouraging Teens To Go At It

​A teacher who allegedly organized fights between teenage boys at youth probation Camp Karl Holton in San Fernando has been arrested on suspicion of six counts of child endangerment, a sheriff's spokesman said. Stephen Wesley, 43, was arrested about 7 a.m. Tuesday, spokesman Steve Whitmore sa ... More >>

Photo Gallery: Drowning, Not Eating; L.A.'s Tortas Ahogadas

Need a visual aid for your print edition? Jonathan Gold explores the tortas ahogadas of Los Angeles ("you do not nibble at a torta ahogada; you dive straight into it, trusting that you will come out alive"). Click through for Anne Fishbein's spectacular photos and read more in Gold's Counter Intelli ... More >>

Morning Sixpack: A News Roundup

Maywood RFD California Attorney General Jerry Brown is seeking a court order to impose and monitor reforms on Maywood's troubled police department. L.A. TimesGetting the Lead Out The Department of Toxic Substances Control has discovered San Fernando warehouses containing jewelry that has higher than ... More >>

Villaraigosa Density Hawks Vs. Angry Valleyites

A Valley smackdown is brewing for tonight's 6 p.m. density Town Hall at the Beverly Garland Holiday Inn in Studio City, with scores of pissed-off San Fernando Valley residents from five different Neighborhood Councils in the Valley confronting Antonio Villaraigosa's administration over its quiet pla ... More >>

Those Fabulous Fabricators and Their Finish Fetish

At Carlson & Co., they do it with art

Art Utopia

Jim Shaw and Marnie Weber have it made — and so do their assistants

The Mission Position

San Gabriel and San Fernando missions

Exiles On Main Street

Portraits of downtown's endangered artists. Case study: The Canadian Building

Shameless in Sacramento

The strange ways of Richard Alarcón

I Left My Heart in San Fernando

Exploring the Valley’s first city

Highs and Lows of L.A. Rail

The Man With the Golden Camera

Cannes 2005: The verdict is in

Down on Main Street

A guide to living among the crack addicts, mentally ill, homeless and young-pros-on-the-go in a changing downtown

Letters

Gray in His Groove

Primary matters: The false spring of the Republican right, the real spring of the Democratic left

A Scary Abundance of Water

Part 2

Out and About Food

Tasteful summer adventures that redefine Saturday afternoons at the ballpark

Hang On

Let’s not do away with the summer ritual of drag racing

A School System is a Terrible Thing to Waste

Sierra’s

The Mayor Blinked

And for L.A. it came just in time

1984 Timeline