Mike Penner, sportswriter at the Los Angeles Times, died on Friday in an apparent suicide. Penner was best known for his sports journalism until April 2007, when he publicly announced that he was transsexual and would begin writing as Christine Daniels (previously). He detransitioned in October 2008, returning to work under his original name, but without offering explanation. [more inside]
posted by Sova on Nov 29, 2009 - 183 comments

"Ransom kidnapping is a rare crime in America. Most cops go their entire careers without handling one. These days, most kidnappings involve a husband taking a child from an estranged wife. That's how things were in Phoenix until a few years ago." via 2blowhards.com
posted by cgc373 on Feb 16, 2009 - 26 comments

The Homicide Report, by Jill Leovy: An L.A. Times blog built on the list of homicide victims reported to the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office each week.
posted by docgonzo on Feb 14, 2007 - 12 comments

Newspaper reporter tells readers not to email him, because "I don't want to talk to you". Nice long rant by frustrated reporter. Sounds like MeFites should drop him a line.
posted by Argyle on Jan 2, 2007 - 132 comments

Joe Francis Gone Wild: Claire Hoffman, L.A. Times adult entertainment correspondent, rides along with Girls Gone Wild (Slate, SFW) producer Joe Francis on an expedition to a Chicago nightclub. Hoffman claims that over the course of the night, Francis pinned her against the hood of a car. A woman who agreed to be filmed in the crew's bus claims that Fancis had non-consensual sex with her. Reposted with safer language.
posted by KirkJobSluder on Aug 5, 2006 - 57 comments

Ray Bradbury proposes monorail-bulding in LA.
via
posted by Afroblanco on Feb 11, 2006 - 73 comments

One week after publicly declaring his lack of support for our troops, LA Times columnist & professional nerd humorist Joel Stein comes out in favor of Grand Theft Auto's Hot Coffee mod, which has recently been the focus of a lawsuit brought by the city of Los Angeles against Rockstar Games, the makers of GTA. "Because if these teen computer geniuses are given the opportunity to unlock a video-game sex scene, then they'll be just one step away from breaking the code that allows them to type dirty words into Google."
posted by jonson on Jan 31, 2006 - 17 comments

Sheikh Khalid Yasin grew up as a Christian in the United States but converted to Islam under the influence of Malcolm X. Last week he was interviewed (Video) by Australia's 60 Minutes. Yasin's claims—Muslims should not attend university because it's a "gateway for deviation", homosexuality is punishable by death, and Muslims cannot truly befriend non-Muslims—have caused controversy among LGBT groups & moderate Muslims, yet despite his naysayers, Yasin does not lack for a following in Australia, and is frequently honored as a guest speaker & VIP around the world. The LA Times has more on US-born extremists.
posted by jenleigh on Aug 2, 2005 - 17 comments

"The Bush administration intervened to argue that their claims should be dismissed" I seriously can't believe it. This is Brechtian. Something has to be missing. This can't be my government.
posted by Smedleyman on Feb 16, 2005 - 60 comments

A Senior Moment The sign of a good specialist writer is the ability to amuse those who aren't specialists, or even enthusiasts, of their particular field. Dan Neil of LA Times is probably the most entertaining automotive writing around. Here, regarding the Montego, he asks the Mercury people, "What were you thinking?" (Registration might be necessary). He's also funny when doing positive reviews, as when drooling over the Acura. No particular car lust required.
posted by QuietDesperation on Dec 11, 2004 - 17 comments

Body sushi by Gary Arabia. (SFW)
posted by xmattxfx on Aug 19, 2003 - 61 comments

Cartoon in Times Prompts Inquiry by Secret Service I know these guys have to investigate jokesters and fools who threaten the President, but this has the broad outlines of Federal intimidation of the press. Bah humbug on the SS, good for the lawyers for smackin' the guy down, and double good for the L.A. Times for reporting it to their readers. (Reg. req. to read story. Sorry 'bout that, kittens.)
posted by jengod on Jul 22, 2003 - 35 comments

This lengthy Los Angeles Times photo correction addresses the manipulation of a front page photo and the subsequent firing of its photographer. Working from two source photos, Brian Walski combined them in Photoshop to create a more compelling image, but was caught when someone noticed that some people appeared twice in the background of the modified photo. (via Fimoculous and others)
posted by waxpancake on Apr 2, 2003 - 34 comments

The Los Angeles Times goes multimedia. For the past few weeks, the LA Times has begun a significant push into offering video, audio, and interactive Flash on their website. One of the most interesting aspects is that the paper has moved one step beyond simply replaying AP Television clips as many sites have done; the LA Times writers are stand before the cameras and microphones themselves and report stories in a stuttering, non-hairsprayed, introverted demeanor that I find very refreshing, though so far I have gleaned very little additional information from it. When does (or can) this mode of journalism on the web rise above gimmickry or 'just because we can' and add value to a written article? Can video/tv news rise above mere spectacle?
posted by 4easypayments on Mar 20, 2003 - 3 comments

This LA Times article will get you clued in to some recent developments. But what is the most responsible course of action to deal with the Salton Sea? It's part of a complex hydrologic system and has a pretty unusual history. To me, this seems one of the best reminders that ecological issues are among the trickiest we face.
posted by Nicolae Carpathia on Sep 14, 2002 - 7 comments

Can the LA Times write a decent story about bloggers and blogging? They certainly didn't in their latest piece. Plus they took an interesting angle of writing about bloggers, but ignoring every single LA-based blogger despite the fact that LA just might be home to the largest community of bloggers on the planet. But LA shouldn't feel shunned, the Times didnt mention the Instapundit, Ev, or Metafilter either.
posted by tsarfan on Sep 13, 2002 - 48 comments

Who Killed Tupac Shakur? More importantly, does the L.A. Times run the risk of re-igniting an east-coast/west-coast rap "war" by implicating a certain notorious indivdual in a feud that was virtually nonexistent until the media hyped it up the first time around?
posted by aflores on Sep 6, 2002 - 34 comments

"The Associated Press, which usually does not report names of sexual assault victims, stopped identifying the girls by name after authorities said they had been raped. The AP resumed reporting Marris' name Friday after she came forward and used Brooks' name after she appeared on national television Monday." Richard Roeper and the Los Angeles Times cover the media decision to cover rape differently than other crimes.
posted by rcade on Aug 5, 2002 - 41 comments

This LA Times article goes into some of the details of the Bush/Harken SEC investigation. While it leaves a lot of questions unanswered, it's largely exculpatory.
posted by electro on Jul 14, 2002 - 1 comment

News Sites Hustle for Profitability
In a recent survey of 429 newspaper Web sites worldwide by media consulting group Innovation, only 5.5 percent of North American sites currently charge a subscriber fee. But many are re-considering that model. Steve Barth, general manager of L.A. Times Interactive feels the need to condition us.
"If we took a leadership position and did our part in helping condition the reader that not everything is free forever, hopefully other substantial news organizations would follow," says he.
posted by Blake on Jul 12, 2002 - 5 comments

High Finance Run Amok [latimes free reg req] is a Kevin Phillips editorial on the "financialization" of the US economy. "As the financial sector, in short, became too important to fail, the Fed and the Treasury abandoned market economics to embrace socialization of credit risk. No other sector of the U.S. economy, save possibly defense, received such governmental assistance."
posted by electro on Jun 24, 2002 - 13 comments

2nd Degree Murder Verdict Thrown Out in SF Dog Mauling Case. Though Superior Court Judge James Warren said Knoller and Noel are "the most despised couple in this city," he said the evidence did not support a murder conviction because Knoller had no way of knowing her dogs would kill someone when she left her apartment that day.
posted by Danf on Jun 17, 2002 - 12 comments

Punks vs. Yuppies in San Francisco I don't know how I feel about trying to get yuppies and punks to reconcile but I do like the idea of a yuppies vs. punks Olympics. It'd be funny if they had one here in NYC (I'd nominate Willimasburg as the location).
posted by zinegurl on Jun 16, 2002 - 27 comments

Music industry makes first mature move in years!
Universal and Sony will respond to piracy by selling CDs at $9.99 - and singles at .99. How easy was that? (Link requires free registration but well worth it, IMO)
posted by magullo on Jun 12, 2002 - 51 comments

Star Trek's George Takei scoops LA Times by two months. Los Angeles is so big that The Valley wants to secede as does Hollywood. Takei, who grew up in LA, pointed out in his web site months ago that if Hollywood split away, the world famous sign, which isn't technically in Hollywood would be on LA real estate. Not until today, LAEXAMINER.com reported, did the LA Times seem to think this newsworthy.
posted by tsarfan on May 6, 2002 - 6 comments

Antidote to the Liberal Monotone: Blogging After reading MetaFilter for a while, I would assume that blogging ticks off all people, left and right, equally. Does exposure like this on a major Op-Ed page show that blogging is on the verge of becoming something big?
posted by dewelch on Apr 4, 2002 - 49 comments

Gay Life in Kandahar, Afghanistan. This is an interesting article in the LA Times about a phenomenon that I noticed 20 years ago when I had a bunch of Iranian teenage boys in a school I worked in for awhile. It seems that every society has its constraints, and ways of getting around these constraints.
posted by Danf on Apr 3, 2002 - 4 comments

"Dude, Where's My Lawyer?" Note to self: Leave 3,600 grams of opium (allegedly) at home.
posted by KevinSkomsvold on Mar 12, 2002 - 13 comments

Utah Leads Nation in Rate of Anti-Depressant Use. It is interesting (to me) in that the people doing the study credit a "Mother of Zion" syndrome of married Mormon women putting on the happy face regardless of how happy they truly are. My state is up at the top also. Could be all the rain I guess. . .*sigh*
posted by Danf on Feb 20, 2002 - 45 comments

The Texas sleeping lawyer case is being submitted to the supreme court by the TX Attorney General in hopes of overturning the 5th Circuit Court's ruling that maybe the lawyer in question did doze a little too often during the trial. It seems the issue is " how often an attorney can sleep during a trial without violating his client's constitutional right to effective assistance of counsel."
posted by kittyloop on Jan 6, 2002 - 8 comments

"It's not propaganda, it's the truth" Rumsfeld declared. OK, but leaflets with radio broadcasts, and Information Programs, is this the best we can do? How about some Daffy Goes to War, even some inspirational Soviet and Cuban communist posters, as we do battle on the psyops war front?
posted by Voyageman on Nov 29, 2001 - 5 comments

Judge May Reject Olson Guilty Plea "A day after Sara Jane Olson pleaded guilty to attempted bombing charges and then denied her guilt outside the courtroom, a Los Angeles judge announced he will hold a hearing next week to decide whether to toss out the plea." Even if she's actually innocent, I can't help but think the former Symbionese Liberation Army fugitive should've kept her mouth shut until after the sentencing at least. The LA Times isn't very sympathetic, either.
posted by phartizan on Nov 2, 2001 - 6 comments

Once Insular Americans Now Studying Up on The World
According to this LA Times article, Americans are suddenly getting interested in the world outside its borders, with a special emphasis on Islam and the Middle East. How about you? Run into any websites or books that help make sense of it all?
link via AllAboutGeorge via mefi text ad
posted by cell divide on Oct 22, 2001 - 33 comments

The Science Behind the Song Stuck in Your Head

Whoa, there is actually a scientific debate about this ("cognitive itch" theory, songs as "recurring dreams", the "cooties" method).

The last song that was in my head was Pete Rock's "What You Waiting For". [link courtesy Running Red Lights]
posted by youthbc1 on Oct 10, 2001 - 48 comments

Kevin Phillips on the U.S. economy and the War Ahead. Sobering historical context for where we're at now (short article via SmirkingChimp).
posted by aflakete on Sep 16, 2001 - 6 comments

A Comprehensive Flow Chart of Life's Causes and Effects. Public school, halitosis, cirrhosis, logo worship, and the inexplicable desire to evaluate self-worth in financial terms. From the LA Weekly's drug-related art gallery.

My favorite is Bovine Milk--> BGH--> GHB--> Raping Drunk Cows.
posted by thebigpoop on Jul 11, 2001 - 3 comments

Highest gas prices in the country will accompany your vacation to the beautiful redwood country. They're now the subject of a folk song (mp3) (framed parent link: khum.com).
posted by fleener on May 7, 2001 - 19 comments

I stole this link from Slate, which ran the news under the headline L A Times circulation drops
posted by u.n. owen on Mar 30, 2001 - 2 comments

The official newspapers of staples.com gets huffy about integrity. Back in 1999 the L.A. Times produced a special section praising the Staples center and sort of forgot to mention that they were splitting the ad revenue with Staples. At the time their management was pretty upfront about tearing down the wall between news and advertistisement. Now they've decided to act like journalists again. However, I'm not so sure that what this guy did was all that unethical. Maybe it is. Maybe it isn't.
posted by rdr on Feb 12, 2001 - 5 comments

Nader Pro and Con (omnibus). The L.A. Weekly brings you about 20 prominent liberals' statements on whether they are voting Nader or Gore, and why ... captures pretty much all of the nuances in once place.
posted by MattD on Nov 2, 2000 - 0 comments

We're all a bunch of ignorami. Hooray! Hurrah! It's bliss!
posted by Mr. skullhead on Jul 17, 2000 - 13 comments

Yet another story on geeks having a form of autism. This one sounds a bit farfetched, it's almost as if someone made up a syndrome for all the classic geek 'symptoms.' I know a lot of geeks with an amazing capacity for empathy, in fact I think geeks understand human suffering more than the average joe because much of their childhood is spent being tormented.
posted by mathowie on Sep 27, 1999 - 0 comments

The LA Times is working on a new look. My first impression is 'huh?' I know they contracted out Frog Design, which usually does good work, but have these guys ever tested this on anyone? It's over 700 pixels wide, the custom tabs on the left take up half the screen space, leaving little for articles (and taking all the focus away from the news). Why would you go to a Newspaper site, but for news? I hope this is an early beta, because it needs work.
posted by mathowie on Sep 22, 1999 - 0 comments