Steve Lopez

'Farmers Field' Plans Pushed Forward by L.A. City Council, Despite AEG Sale

See also: "Farmers Field or Blade Runner Stadium?" and "Farmers Field's Fanciful Green Promise." There was never a doubt in anyone's mind that the L.A. City Council, completely obsessed with the idea of integrating an NFL stadium into the L.A. Live complex downtown, would approve the Anshcutz Enter ... More >>

Carmen Trutanich Breaks Another Pledge, Fails To Deliver $100,000 To Kids' Program By His Birthday

Carmen Trutanich, the L.A. city attorney, has been keeping a low profile since being drummed out of the D.A.'s race earlier this summer. Sure, he announced a big crackdown on ticket scalpers last week, but he sounded subdued about it, as though he no longer takes the same satisfaction from pummeling ... More >>

Los Angeles Corruption is Second Only to That of Chicago

Sure we use a bit of hyperbole over here at LA Weekly. But we weren't kidding when we told you there's some corruption in this town. Building inspectors have been accused of bribery (at least one was convicted). We have a mayor who took lots of valuable, free tickets to high-end events like the Os ... More >>

Millions of Latinos Deny Their Own Ethnicity on Census Forms, USC Study Says

What race is Latino? We've pondered the issue before, and the correct answer is any of the above: Latinos can be black, white and almost anything in between, because Latino isn't a race, it's an ethnicity. That makes things difficult enough for the folks who tally data for the U.S. Census, but now ... More >>

Skid Row L.A. Trash, Belongings Pile up Third World-Style After Court Tells City It Can't Take Homeless' Stuff

Courtesy Central City East AssociationDon't let the bed bugs bite.​The flurry of coverage about the horrific conditions on Skid Row started in 2004 with an LA CityBeat cover story and soon flourished with Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez's observations, which culminated in the movie The ... More >>

Deputies Made up Good Excuses, Got Away With Beatings in Lee Baca's Jails -- Report

"County."​If Sheriff Lee Baca thought the controversy over L.A. County Jail inmate beatings at the hands of his deputies was going to go away quietly, he better think again. Yesterday we told you how Baca, for the first time, it seems, struck a conciliatory tone by saying he would meet with t ... More >>

Lee Baca Bends, Says He'll Meet With ACLU Over Accusations of Deputies Beating Jailhouse Inmates

Lee Baca.​Strange days when L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca does an about face and starts mumbling about cooperating with the ACLU. On KCRW (89.9 FM) show "Which Way L.A." last night Baca said he would meet with the ACLU regarding allegations that his deputies have regularly beaten inmates over ... More >>

L.A. City Hall Offers Gensler, Wealthy SaMo Architect, $1 Million in Community Grants to Move East

Funny how L.A. City Councilmembers are acting all sympathetic toward the 99 percent camping on their front lawn -- then making sweet deals with millionaire companies so the well-off don't have to pay a dime. When as far as we can tell, that's pretty much exactly the type of behavior Occupy is spitti ... More >>

L.A. Mayor's Choice to Head Embattled Transportation Department, Jaime de la Vega, Drove a Taxpayer-Funded Hummer

Your taxpayer dollars at work.​The L.A. Department of Transportation has been in hot water lately. Not only have a couple of parking enforcement officers been caught doing porn on-the-job, but city Controller Wendy Greuel recently revealed a special, get-out-of-parking-tickets-free program for ... More >>

Mildred Patricia Baena PHOTO: Mother of Schwarzenegger's Love Child Has Nothing on Maria Shriver

MySpace50-year-old Mildred Patricia Baena​Updated after the jump: Photos of the snazzy $268,000 Bakersfield spread, rumored to have been purchased for Baena by her loving baby daddy. Do we smell a buy-off? Also, a photo of the "couple" in 1994 confirms: She's got nothing on Maria Shriver. Upd ... More >>

How Lobbyist John Ek Gets His Way at City Hall

Steve Lopez Will Look at Grand Plans For L.A. NFL Stadium Downtown on KCET's 'SoCal Connected' Tonight

Steve Lopez better wear a helmet if he's going to take on AEG.​Lots of questions about this proposed downtown NFL stadium. It already has a name, Farmers Field, and a place, space taken up by the Convention Center's old West Hall. But there are no blueprints yet, and its potential environment ... More >>

Gardena High Shooting Prompts Debate About Who's to Blame, Gun Control

Gardena High School.​It was a shooting that awoke the local news media out of its post-holiday slumber: Shots were fired at Gardena High School Tuesday morning, and initial reports had three students down with a black-clad gunman on the loose. Then it turned out it was accidental, with two vic ... More >>

'Golden Voice' Homeless Man Ted Williams Had A Foot In The Door In Broadcasting Before: Is He Skipping A Step?

CBSMaybe we should just call him 'The Voice.'​Even with his vow to enter rehab, the story of Ted Williams, a homeless man discovered on the streets of Columbus, Ohio, is a real American fairytale. Only days ago he was panhandling at the side of a highway. And now he's touring L.A. (getting de ... More >>

Meg Whitman's Campaign Spending Could Have Gone Toward Two Pizzas For Every California Household: Would You Have Preferred The Pies?

dominos.comPizza, or politics?​As it seems almost a sure thing that Meg Whitman is going to lose this gubernatorial battle (want to bet? No? Didn't think so.), Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez asks if the $140 million she pumped into her own $160-million-plus campaign could have been pu ... More >>

Campaign Finance Reform: Ads or Pizza?

Flickr/VirtualEm​ Over in The Weekly's news blog -- yes, we care about who you vote for as much as what you eat, at least sometimes -- Dennis Romero reports that Steve Lopez has been doing some numbers crunching about the money spent on the gubernatorial race. It seems that the $140 million t ... More >>

Frank McCourt On The Stand Today In Dodger Divorce

Frank McCourt will be on the stand today.​The fight for the Dodgers between Frank and Jamie McCourt continues today, as Frank McCourt again takes the stand. His opponent: Super lawyer David Boies, who, as the Weekly's Gene Maddaus noted last night, "has a reputation for turning witnesses aga ... More >>

Should Some L.A. Probation Officers Be Put On Probation?

​The new head of the Los Angeles County Probation Department this week vowed to investigate allegations that employees had used government-issued credit cards to buy what appeared to be personal items, including flat-screen TVs, DVD players, Sony PlayStations video games, and barbecues. The re ... More >>

Weed mags sprout across LOS ANGELES

Publications reap windfall from pot ads

L.A.'s Medical-Weed Wars

How the potheads outwitted Antonio Villaraigosa and the L.A. City Council

Mannywood: Too Big to Fail

​L.A. Times columnist Steve Lopez makes what many Dodger fans will find an indecent proposal: Lopez says he will hand over a pair of World Series (Game 4) tickets worth $500 to the person who writes the best 50-word essay scolding Left Fielder Manny Ramirez for being . . . Manny Ramirez. "I can't ... More >>

Steve Lopez Sends a Message to Car-Insurance and Billboard Giants

Consumer Watchdog.org​In his L.A. Times column today, Steve Lopez rails against Mercury Insurance and billboard giant CBS Outdoor. The two companies have been in the news lately because the insurance company pressured CBS into taking down an anti-Mercury ad paid for by Consumer Watchdog. On August ... More >>

Soloist Nathanial Ayers: Still Playing Cello on Skid Row?

According to this recently uploaded YouTube clip, Nathanial Ayers, who was portrayed by Jamie Foxx in The Soloist, is still living on Skid Row. The film, which opened in the spring after much publicized delays, bombed at the box office, which obviously didn't help Ayers' cause -- through no fault ... More >>

More Ozo, Pink Slips and Villaraigosa Misgivings

Movie Reviews: Big Man Japan, Management, Not Forgetten

Also, Brothers at War, The New Twenty, The Skeptic, The Brothers Bloom and Next Day Air

Movie Reviews: Earth, The Garden, Obsessed

Also, The Informers, The Mutant Chronicles and more

Mayor Sam's Sister City: Moore Is Less

The blush is definitely off the romance between the city's leading center-right blog and immigrant-bashing, billboard-friendly mayoral candidate Walter Moore. Of all the snowball-in-hell long-shots running against incumbent Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Moore, an L.A. attorney, has raised the most mon ... More >>

Billboards Gone Wild, L.A. City Council Defiled

Citizens take matters into their own hands

Shoving 850 digital billboards down LA's throat

We're thrilled to see Steve Lopez skewering the blazing, flashing, crass digital billboard clutter now sweeping L.A. while billboard-industry financed, highly conflicted members of the City Council, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo let it all happen. Lopez has joined t ... More >>

Art School or LAUSD Folly?

A gorgeous downtown high school has no plan, no curriculum — but sure looks fab

Visions of Obamaland

I couldn’t help but think that what happened in the row in front of me was one of those amazing moments when you see the present moving into, and helping create, the future.

A Street Musician's Symphonic Movement

Down and out at Disney Hall and coming soon to a theater near you

The Jig Is Up, Tracey Ullman!

What to do in L.A., April 25-May 1

Onward! The Philharmonic's Concrete Frequency

And Esa-Pekka Salonen’s final season

Rocky Delgadillo's Flameout

Once a rising star, the city attorney muffs it with endless screwups

Shades of Brown

The L.A. Times’ Latino problem

Skid Row

People-Watching

Mr. Old School

Steve Lopez

The Andrés Martinez Mystery

Can the Times’ new opinion maker solve the paper’s political conundrum?

Bulworth? B.S.

The problem with Warren’s posturing

Blessed by the Times

Inside one of the newsroom deals to go soft on the man in the red robe

Raw Deals

The Times’ funny numbers, Sharon Davis’ secret memo and a loophole that could help Cruz rake in Indian casino money

Black Dahlia Backlash

Family members take Hodel’s Avenger to task

Urban Myths: Busting the Black Dahlia Avenger

My Secession Confession

Ex-Times columnist looks back on his days covering Valleyistas

Imperial Times

Why one Owens Valley is enough for all of us

A Platter of Prejudice

Indigestible stands on immigration from the L.A. Times

Spiking the Punch

'This Is a Town Where . . .'