David Cogan

Fully four years after the scheme was hatched and more than a year after the city controller released a damning report on the affair, the Riordan-administration scandal dubbed "Whitewater West" finally got a public airing last week at a hearing before the City Council's Commerce, Energy and Natural Resources Committee......

The story of community activist Michael Taylor's life and death - of his rise from L.A.'s Skid Row to the broadcast booth at KPFK 90.7 FM, of his ill-fated venture into micro-radio and his execution-style murder - reached some kind of closure this week. A Los Angeles Superior Court jury......

Thanks to the state’s new term-limit laws, this June’s election will give L.A.’s African-American community its first taste of competitive politics in decades. But political operator and onetime Assemblyman Willard H. Murray Jr. casts a long shadow over the Crenshaw District: With two open seats in the California Legislature, the......

The demise of Santa Monica’s daily newpaper, after 123 years of continuous publication, has ignited a flurry of activity among area newspapers jousting for readers in one of the region’s richest cities. But despite the launch of at least two new community papers, the future of journalism in Santa Monica......

Landlord-tenant disputes don't usually hasten the spread of AIDS. But there's widespread concern that an eviction proceeding against the city's most popular needle-exchange program will do just that. An apparent victim of Hollywood gentrification, Harm Reduction Central is facing eviction this month from its Cahuenga Boulevard storefront by its new......

Santa Monica has long been on the front lines in the civil wars over rent control. That contest was decided last year in Sacramento, but reports from the beach city suggest that landlord-tenant relations have again deteriorated into street fighting. Assault, racism, death threats and larceny are just a sampling......