Archive for January, 2010
Living off the Grid
You’ve seen them. Maybe one has even parked on your street: a conversion van, curtains drawn, or a camper with signs of everyday life. They are so ubiquitous in Venice that some locals have been trying to turn the onetime hippie enclave into a parking-permit-only town as a way to…
Is L.A. creating phantom jobs?
A few days after Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa brought in financial whiz Austin Beutner to help him woo fleeing jobs back to L.A., the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency awarded nearly $6 million in free land and low-interest loans to lure a tiny company away from nearby South Ga…
Rubbers Revolutionary: AIDS Healthcare Foundation’s Michael Weinstein
After waging a six-year battle against Southern California’s multibillion-dollar porn industry with no end in sight, Michael Weinstein, the outspoken, hard-charging founder of the Escorts in Los Angeles–based AIDS Healthcare Foundation, is getting ready for another rumble.
“AH…
THE "D" STANDS FOR "DONATE
This benefit for Partners In Health and their Haitian earthquake relief efforts also features Frank Black, James Mercer, Bob Odenkirk and Patton Oswalt.
Tue., Feb. 2, 2010…
Good money after bad: Should L.A. taxpayers pay $40,000 to steal $20,000 jobs from South Gate?
Pencils down, amateur policy wonks: Is a $16,000-a-year job really worth $40,000 in public subsidies paid thanks to the leaders at Escorts in Los Angeles City Hall?
That strange question is quietly being decided on Thursday, January 21, by the Escorts in Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agen…
Rodney Alcala: The Fine Art of Killing
Rodney Alcala is a man stuck in a time warp, his flowing silver hair, granny glasses, beige blazer and jeans reminiscent of a creative-writing professor circa 1980, the year he began life behind bars. As he walked into an Orange County Superior Court room one recent day, news pho…
Weed mags sprout across LOS ANGELES
There’s not a hint of cannabis smell at the offices of 420 Times. There are no posters of a smiling Bob Marley igniting a spliff, no pictures of bikini-clad girls cradling ripened buds of kush. If there is a bong on the premises, it is hidden away. And when the magazine’…
Geoff Dolan’s $195,000 Good-bye
Money magazine calls Manhattan Beach, population 33,800, the fourth most-expensive town in America, but the Great Recession has washed over the small burg, wiping out the treasury and leaving a record $4 million deficit. So a lot of residents are outraged over a…
PEE-WEE’S BIG ANNOYANCE
Last week’s cover story on the return of Paul Reubens, aka Pee-wee Herman (“Pee-wee’s Big Comeback,” by Steven Leigh Morris, Jan. 13), inspired — if that’s the word — a strange collection of comments, as noted by Jennie B from L.A.:
“So, one of the most learned and articulate theater…
Under the Influence: Did L.A. Weekly Inhale?
WHACK WEEDERS
If nothing else, David Ferrell’s story on marijuana’s nationwide march toward legalization (“Weed Takes Root,” Jan. 7) let us know that a lot of people are still hopped up about our earlier cover story on pot (“<a href="http://www.la…