U.S. Department of Homeland Security

Theatre to See in L.A. This Week, Including Broadway's Scottsboro Boys at the Ahmanson

Kander & Ebb's musical The Scottsboro Boys, a Broadway-import minstrel show about Jim Crow, rolled into the Ahmanson and grabbed this week's pick. Good notices also for Zayd Dohrn's immigration saga Long Way Go Down at the Art of Acting Studio, and for the silly Aussie import Priscilla Queen of ... More >>

Theater to See in L.A. This Week, Including Richard III In Overdrive

Zombie Joe's Underground and director Denise Devin turn Shakespeare's Richard III into an enthralling one-hour redux, says critic Jenny Lower. The production is this week's pick of the week. For all the latest new theater reviews, and comprehensive theater listings, see below. Beauty to be found in ... More >>

Theater to See in L.A. This Week, Including a Pulitzer Finalist About the Iraq War

Lee Melville, a true gentleman and decades-long friend of our theater, died last night. Melville was a critic and editor at Drama-Logue and, most recently, L.A. Stage. More details as they come in. Christopher Shinn's drama Dying City, about a family in the wake of the Iraq War, being performed a ... More >>

Theater to See in L.A. This Week, Including a Jacobean Incest Melodrama

The scandal surrounding a love affair between a brother and his sister forms the centerpiece of John Ford's 17th century play, 'Tis Pity She's a Whore. Archway Theatre's downtown production is this week's pick. See below for all the latest new theater reviews and comprehensive theater listings. Thi ... More >>

LAPD Spied on 21 Using StingRay Anti-Terrorism Tool

Mimicking a cellphone tower, it bypasses checks and balances

LAPD Spy Device Taps Your Cell Phone

StingRay is secretly used without warrants

Marijuana Haul Off San Pedro: Coast Guard Fishes $7.7 Million Worth

The U.S. Coast Guard is boasting that one of its cutter crews seized 8,500 pounds marijuana off the coast of San Pedro this week. That's a lot of weed headed for a region where it's essentially legal to sell it in storefronts. Makes you wonder. Anyway, Coast Guard officials said the catch was wort ... More >>

License Plate Recognition Logs Our Lives Long Before We Sin

Disruption, Rebellion and Resistance: Activists Call for Action

Low Morale at Los Angeles Fire Department? Chief Brian Cummings Says It's Simply A Nationwide Epidemic

Someone needs to pull aside Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Brian Cummings and give him a few pointers on talking to the press... or maybe he needs a refresher course in owning up to things. When L.A. Weekly approached Cummings last week and asked why firefighters were suffering from low morale, ... More >>

Is the TSA on a Terror Kick at L.A.'s Union Station?

Not any more than it has been for the last four or five years, says Nico Melendez, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) spokesman for Los Angeles. And not any more than at any of L.A.'s other stations -- Metro, Greyhound, etc. He says the CBS LA piece today on increased TSA presence at ... More >>

Feds Raid L.A. Union Station for Illegals, Tweeters Claim; 'Union Station' Starts Trending on Twitter

​[Update: Erick Huerta, who says he was one of the first to Tweet about the feds at Union Station on Friday morning, says he saw three men from the Department of Homeland Security -- one in full Transportation Security Officer uniform, another in "dress pants and a polo shirt with a 'Homeland ... More >>

SoCal U.S. Immigration Services Supervisor And His Son Convicted of Fraud, Bribery

Liberte, egalite, bribery.​A father who worked for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and his adult son, faced the possibility of a century behind bars after the pair profited from immigrants and travelers who wanted to come to the country. In one case the cost of legalization was ... More >>

Man Claims He has Videotape of San Bernardino Deputies Beating Him Unconscious

www.charlydmiller.comCruz (not pictured) claims he was restrained and beaten​Lawsuits alleging physical abuse against police officers are notoriously difficult to win. They're the ultimate he-said, she-said, and since there is generally not much proof other than bruises and black-eyes, most folks ... More >>

Return to Sender

What would comprehensive immigration reform look like if the Feds got off their duffs?

The Feds Bury Border Patrol Abuses of Immigrants, But What's Been Unearthed Reveals a Culture of Cruelty

FAIRY-y Tales

Theater Reviews: Loveland, Blithe Spirit, The Butcher of Baraboo

Also, Hamlet, Prince of Puddles and more

Stage Raw: Hamlet, Prince of Puddles

COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGSNEW THEATER REVIEWSTheater Feature on La Razon Blindada and A Wolf Inside the Fence and NEW REVIEW GO HAMLET, PRINCE OF PUDDLES ​ Photo by Justin Zsebe Scholars have teased out new layers in Shakespeare's tragedy for 400 years. A new company, L'Enfant Terrible, co ... More >>

ACLU Adds New Names In Their Lawsuit Against U.S. Government Challenging Their Policy Of Detaining Immigrants Indefinitely Without A Hearing

​The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California announced Tuesday that they're adding new plaintiffs to its lawsuit against the U.S. government, challenging the government's right to hold immigrants indefinitely while they wait for their cases to be heard in immigration hearings. T ... More >>

Cowboy Down

Murdered Arizona rancher Rob Krentz's family talk about his life and death

Badlands: From Ground Zero of the Immigration Crisis Along the Mexican Border

California's Illegal-Immigration Enforcement Law Is Tougher Than Arizona's

​The conservative Washington Times newspaper recently pointed out that California law actually mirror's Arizona's controversial new immigration legislation that encourages police to verify the immigration status of suspects they believe are in the country illegally. The paper quotes Californ ... More >>

Janet Napolitano = Homeland Futility

Governor Napolitano's sorry service in Arizona makes her a terrible choice for Homeland Security secretary

Lost in Tijuana

A mother’s search for a son, born in East L.A. but deported by County Sheriffs

Film Reviews

Including this week's pick, Cavite

The Erik Cheeseburger Menace

The Trials of Mandla Dube

During a mysterious psychotic episode, a South African filmmaker threatened to kill his children. Did our justice system protect his family over the next year — or simply destroy it?

Inherit the Wind

George W. Bush and his father’s failed federal agency

Eyes Wide Shut

Glenn Spencer, frightened by what he saw in L.A., moved to Arizona to keep watch over the border

Lawn-Chair Militias

Surviving a weekend with the Arizona Minutemen

Empire of the Senses

Jacques-Louis David, Napoleon’s dynamite painter

Thrilla on Third

Bush’s Kingmaker

Alberto Gonzales’ tortured arguments for reigning above the law

Dirty Little Secrets

Bush’s Homeland Security czar Mike Chertoff and his days in New Jersey

The Bush Theocracy

Righteous homophobe Claude Allen brings his agenda to the White House

More Lists

Moments of Noise

The people behind the most protests on the convention floor

The Chilling Fields

Homeland’s ICE cools Cambodian’s hopes

Letters

Light of Justice

Federal judge agrees to take another look at secret deal in Inglewood brutality case

Under the Rug in Inglewood

A judge wants to seal a settlement in a police-brutality case

Exiled by Love

Immigration law snubs gay partners

On the Border of Hypocrisy

The unintended consequences of getting tough on illegal immigration

Ghosts in the Machine

When you're lost in El Centro's immigrant detention center you may be lost for good

The List

A Doctor in the House

The asylum case of a Pakistani physician that no one wants to touch

Letters

Soldiers of Fortune 500

The Accidental Artist

Or, how to succeed in comics without really trying