J. Patrick Coolican

Rep. Brad Sherman, a Democrat who represents the Valley, has become a Fox News star because he doesn't watch enough Fox News or read right wing blogs that have gone absolutely blotto about a 2008 voter intimidation case involving the New Black Panther Party. The awesome spectacle begins with Sherman......

In these lean budget times, services are being cut, which means more trash, potholes and unwanted liquor stores in your neighborhood, in a city already known for having well enough of all of the above. City workers have many more demands on them and are being asked for contract concessions,......

Unionized workers at Hyatt-owned Andaz in West Hollywood and the Hyatt in Century City have been without a contract since December, and next week they'll take to the streets at the Andaz in what is sure to be an entertaining labor demonstration. The chief sticking points in the negotiations are......

File this under: Your city government, not helping. (But with a nice ending.) Here's the story, as reported by the Giga Granada Hills blog. Several years ago the Department of Water and Power enacted an incentive program to get residents and businesses to rip out their lawns and put in......

Ron Kaye, former editor of the LA Daily News turned political activist and polemicist, launches the Los Angeles Clean Sweep Committee with a fundraiser Saturday at 1 at the Mayflower Club in North Hollywood. The goal is to field a slate of opposition candidates in the next city election. There's......

Democrats as a species are nearly always filled with dread and doubt, like Charlie Brown to the Republicans' Lucy. Except when they win, in which case they turn on each other with nearly as much venom as on their Republican opponents. David Plouffe, President Obama's 2008 campaign manager, is a......

"Jack Dunphy" is the pseudonym for an LAPD officer who blogs. Today, he laments what's bound to happen when Oakland fires 80 cops. His choice for the lament , National Review's blog The Corner, is an odd one. The conservative magazine was founded by the godfather of the movement, William......

A plan to reform the oversight of L.A. neighborhood councils has emerged from the Valley, the place where it all began. Recent events have made reform a necessity, and the Valley has a plan. Here'’s the quick recent history: The councils are largely independent, with their own bylaws and elections,......

Updated: Now with photos. Larina Corlew needed to be in Church Sunday. "Church is a good place to be because it reinforces the need to forgive," she said. "But it's hard." Corlew's beloved step-sister Barbara Ware was murdered in 1987 by the so-called Grim Sleeper, who police say is Lonnie......