Charles Rappleye

Jerone Woods had no intention of becoming a landmark in the affairs of L.A. County government when he surrendered to Sheriff’s deputies in September 1999 to serve a 45-day sentence for driving under the influence. The 55-year-old Woods informed his jailers that he suffered from hypertension, diabetes and high cholesterol,......

With millions of dollars and the future of northern L.A. County at stake, debate over the massive Newhall Ranch development can turn passionate, vexing and, sometimes, simply absurd. Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky achieved all three toward the conclusion of a marathon hearing last week over new environmental studies conducted after a......

Against the backdrop of occasionally hostile peace rallies across Los Angeles, the LAPD lost a key ruling in a federal lawsuit filed over its handling of protests at the 2000 Democratic National Convention. The lawsuit focuses on the night of August 14, when Rage Against the Machine played a scheduled......

Taking another tack to break the stalemate that leaves thousands living on downtown sidewalks each night, the L.A. City Council last week unanimously voted to keep emergency winter shelters open for a month past the usual March 15 closure date. Located in warehouses, armories and industrial buildings around the county,......

The City Attorney's Office won a court ruling last week that dislodges a homeless man from an encampment he has maintained downtown for more than a year. William Nowell, who lived on the fringe of an empty, state-owned lot across the street from the L.A. Times building, was convicted of......

IT'S BEEN SIX YEARS SINCE BLANCA PRUDHOMME LOST HER son Erik to a gang shooting on a gritty stretch of Pico Boulevard near the Harbor Freeway downtown. She buried her boy back in her native Guatemala, then returned to her home in South-Central to mourn and to wonder: Did the......

Photo by Ted Soqui IT'S BEEN SIX YEARS SINCE BLANCA PRUDHOMME LOST HER son Erik to a gang shooting on a gritty stretch of Pico Boulevard near the Harbor Freeway downtown. She buried her boy back in her native Guatemala, then returned to her home in South-Central to mourn and......

ACTIVISTS FIGHTING TO SAVE THE OAK TREE they've dubbed Old Glory sought to bring their fight to the L.A. County Board of Supervisors this week, but got tripped up by red tape and a staff critique they denounced as "outrageous." The February 3 staff report held that Pico Canyon Road,......

A tentative court ruling issued early this month could break the legal stalemate that has kept on hold for as long as three years more than 100 lawsuits arising from the LAPD Rampart scandal. Yet, at least in its tentative form, the order suggests that details of the police misconduct......

If you’ve spent much time at all in downtown Los Angeles over the past couple of years, you‘ve probably run across William Nowell. Or at least, you probably caught a whiff of him. Nowell passes his days crouched on the sidewalk on Broadway, midway between the Criminal Courts Building and......