Dennis Romero

A look inside USC University Hospital; Credit: USC

What Recession? USC Hospitals to Hire 300

With 1 out of every 10 Golden State workers unemployed, the recession has been especially hard on California. Employment-seekers clog job fairs like so many American Idol contestants. Just today 500 people reportedly showed up at a health-industry career event in Pasadena. But the clouds continue to part. Witness the......
Leeward Avenue in Koreatown is Mara Salvatrucha turf; 18th Street turf is but a block away; Credit: Dennis Romero

Gangs Lay Low, Rake in Dough

Along the Olympic corridor between Koreatown and downtown, it's been a quiet year for crime. This despite the proximity of two of the largest gangs in the United States, 18th Street and Mara Salvatrucha, which used to be at each others throats. The former was declared the largest such criminal......
UCLA Medical Center; Credit: UCLA

Insured Workers Still Often Split the Bill

Sometimes lost in the debate about health care, public option or not, is the sad fact that even people with decent insurance end up going into debt to pay for procedures that aren't covered. A recent UCLA Center for Health Policy Research study found that 2.2 million Californians -- more......

Future Tech Nabs Murder-Rape Suspect From Bell-Bottom Era

Talk about back to the future. A 16-year-old boy allegedly rapes and murders an 80-year-old Venice woman -- in 1975. He gets away with it, alleges the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office, until 34 years later, when DNA testing puts him at the scene of the crime. Today the......
Credit: KTLA

Another Pipe Bursts: Street Flooding 'Normal' in September, Says DWP

The oft-arid nature of this city belies a subterranean water world that sometimes flows like an El Nino storm in reverse. This, of course, is what happened Saturday when a 95-year-old water main ruptured on Cold Water Canyon Avenue near Ventura Boulevard in Studio City, sending cars adrift, flooding businesses......
Mick Cole

Monday Social Makes a Move: A Conversation with Mick Cole

Monday Social is Los Angeles' longest-running, electronic dance music night. It started in 1996 as an off-night ode to a cast-off scene, a place where true fans of digitally flavored "progressive" house music could get their fix away from the celebrity crowds. It turned into an affair of its own,......
Credit: Dennis Romero

New LAPD HQ Has Eye on L.A. Times

Los Angeles police Chief William J. Bratton today gave the news media a tour of his department's gleaming new headquarters at 100 W. First St. downtown. The 10-story box contains a media room with live streaming, a gym three times the size of the one at the circa-1955 Parker Center......
DJ Magda plays the Standard downtown on Saturday night

DJ Magda Gigs the Standard, Talks Techno

Magdalena Chojnacka was born in Poland but grew up in the original techno city, Detroit. She started DJing in 1996 and was spotted by techno star Richie Hawtin in 1999. He tapped her to open for him at clubs, festivals and tours. It was good timing. Hawtin, a second-wave techno......