Jeffrey Anderson

For anyone wise to the socio-economic realities in blue-collar L.A., and for any of the hundreds of thousands of working-class folks who shopped at Numero Uno grocery stores over the past 20 years, the federal racketeering trial of George Torres in downtown Los Angeles was a chilling affair. Here was......

RAY BOUCHER, THE EMBATTLED plaintiffs’ attorney for more than 300 victims of Catholic-priest molestation, emerged from a small conference room at the Biltmore Hotel and wanted a hug. After five years of bitter litigation against an obstinate religious institution with an unrelenting will to keep its secrets hidden, who could......

Terry Rosales didn’t look or feel right sitting on a bus bench at First and Hope streets on July 5, in the shadow of the John Ferraro Building, the home of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. “Are you feeling okay?” asked a woman sitting next to him......

A SEARCH BY LOS ANGELESPOLICE and the FBI of Bell Gardens Councilman Mario Beltran’s home and City Hall office last Wednesday, seeking information regarding a lucrative city towing contract, could be the beginning of an uncomfortable summer for Beltran — and his political allies. Police on June 20 also searched United......

It’s doubtful that when Bell Gardens City Councilman Mario Beltran and Mayor Jennifer Rodriguez went to an Applebees restaurant last October to meet two men angling for a lucrative city tow-truck contract, they anticipated a police search of Beltran’s City Hall office and home, but that’s what happened this week......

At the trial’s start, Hector Marroquin Jr.’s lawyer argued that his client was just doing a good deed when he went with a friend to the home of a former colleague just after Christmas 2005. But in the end, Marroquin Jr., a purported anti-gang activist and son of Hector Marroquin......

FEDERAL PROSECUTORS on Wednesday afternoon charged George Torres, one of South Los Angeles’ largest property owners and the owner of the Numero Uno supermarket chain, with conspiracy to commit murder. Also charged on a variety of racketeering offenses, such as extortion and bribery, were several codefendants, including Torres’ brother Manuel,......

Bringing an end to a decadelong investigation, federal task-force agents on Tuesday morning arrested George Torres, one of South Los Angeles’ largest property owners and the owner of the Numero Uno supermarket chain, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Agents with the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program took Torres......

{mosimage}Connie Rice knew it all along. She knew that Hector Marroquin, veteran of the 18th Street Gang and a self-proclaimed anti-gang activist, was still in the life.That’s what Rice stated last week, as news broke that Marroquin allegedly sold automatic rifles and silencers to undercover ATF agents on three separate......

A DECISIVE MOVE by Councilman José Huizar spells trouble for the rowdy 740 Club, a notorious gang magnet on Broadway in downtown’s historic core that until recently was frequented by Huizar and a number of other local politicos. The question is, what took him so long to act, and how......