Tag Archives: Los Angeles Times

Perspective: Koreatown slayings, meningitis deaths – remember them all

Just wanted to update this today (9/23/21), about 8.5 years after I published the original story, which was really about how white privilege dictates what we see around societal violence and other misfortunes (such as illness) – though I didn’t have that language then, even though I recognized the operative theory. Over the past week, much has been made of “missing white woman” syndrome in the case of murdered Gabby Petito. And it’s not just white women, it’s also white men – who, as victims, are covered more than people of other races/backgrounds. This quite from a story today in CNN.com by Holly Thomas:

“Perhaps one of the most painful reasons stories about pretty young White women seem to capture the public imagination so completely is the subconscious prejudice that bad things aren’t “meant” to happen to privileged people. Safety is one of the aspirational perks of having an apparently perfect life. Well-off White people can generally assume that when they call the police, law enforcement will automatically be on their side and want to help them. But this level of support is far from a universal given, and far too often a function of racial privilege.”

Again, I want to emphasize that what happened to Sam and Bret are tragedies, and they deserve to be covered as much as anyone who experiences a similar crime or misfortune. But I do wonder if these stories would have been written at all if they both weren’t white and privileged.

Original Post about Sam Michel and Bret Shaad

cialis 5 mg A healthy and happier lovemaking session is a physical activity. This tadalafil 20mg cipla change in the lining of the uterus also helps to decrease heavy menstrual bleeding. Also early sexual trauma causing sexual dysfunction needed to purchase levitra online be taken. My little guy is now almost as tall as wouroud.com cialis sale I am and about to become a high school freshman.

I was touched by this Sam Michel murder story, which I saw just by accident in The Los Angeles Times over the weekend. I was struck by a couple of things beyond the mere horror – and maybe the complacency by which we accept such things as the hazard of living in the big, bad city.

First of all, it was the location of the murder, the Sir Francis Drake apartments on Serrano in Koreatown. This building is managed/owned by the Swel Group, and I’ve looked at many of their properties when searching for K-town apartments both in 2011 and also again very recently. The Sir Francis Drake is an amazing, beautiful building — hands down, it had the largest and probably nicest studios of any building in the Swel Group list. I almost moved into the building in summer of 2011 but found a larger (and cheaper) apartment elsewhere.

My quite recent inquiries into vacancies there were not responded to – don’t know if it had anything to do with this notoriety or not, but I was blissfully unaware of the murder.

The other thing that struck me about this sad story was Sam Michel’s love of Griffith Park, something I share and have since I was in my 20s. So that could’ve been me many years ago, or so many people I’ve known who come to L.A. to create their artistic life.

Our family recently lost someone about Sam’s age to a violent death (suicide, not murder) so I know somewhat of what this family is going through. I also hope someone with information comes forward to collect the newly-upped reward ($100,000) and that the person who did this gets caught.

One of the early reports of this murder in the Times also says that there’ve been 35 murders in Koreatown since 2007. I wonder how many of those have gone unsolved?

Interesting that this particular death, this unsolved murder is the one that’s focused on – and why is that, as there are so many unsolved murders in the city? Certainly his family is not going to let the matter drop, and they shouldn’t. But there’s also a facility with social media and press access that comes with education and class.

Continue reading →

Learning About about “Entitlement Programs” — and the Lies Surrounding Them

I’m just a few years away from being able to start using one of the two social insurance programs I’ve paid into all of my working life. So, this time the spin from the right wing, referring to these programs as the loaded “entitlements,” is personal. I thought Mike Hiltzik (disclosure – I’ve met Mike, he did a great piece on my former boss Ray Dolby when I was PR Director at Dolby in the early 2000s) really nailed it with this list of lies published in the Los Angeles Times.

First of all, a tax restoration (instituted to help avoid a depression) is not a tax hike — one of the Right’s favorite lies. Also, that temp payroll tax cut left out certain categories of people who don’t pay into the social security system anyway – teachers, for one.

Then there’s the problem that millionaires and billionaires also get social security – it’s a huge drain! Wrong again. Have you ever gone to the soc sec website and punched in different scenarios for your retirement benefit? I have – and after a certain point there’s not more than a hundred dollars or so month difference between what someone making $25K per year would get vs. someone making $250K per year would get – Social Security is set up as a baseline income for seniors.

Also, one shouldn’t think of these programs and the deductions that go into them as retirement funds like an IRA or 401-K. They’re not. They are insurance. Everyone’s ultimate benefit will be different, depending on circumstances. It’s more helpful to think of the situation along the lines of car insurance or homeowner’s insurance.
While these conditions generic cialis price are more typically thought of as affecting older men, they certainly can – and do – occur in younger men. This property of the Tadalis is plus point over all other medications used to cure the erection problems. tab sildenafil In fact nowadays all the newspapers and TV advertisements are filled with several pills claiming to enhance cheap viagra from uk your sexual life. However, people must know that there are side effects of certain medicines, alcoholics, drug abuse which directly brand cialis no prescription impact your sexual desire and function.
The last lie is the tendency of the critics on the Right to lump social security together with Medicare – which does have some very serious problems going forward. Medicare is hampered by a huge external, i.e., the for-profit, American carnivorous health care fiasco, aided and abetted by Congress on all sides – and as long as that’s the case, costs will rise much faster than inflation or premiums could ever keep up. But don’t take my word for it – read Mike, he says it much better than I can.

Perspectives from AARP on Social Security

California’s ‘first dog’ Sutter, a Media Sensation

photo, Robert Gauthier, Los Angeles Times

California’s ‘first dog’ gets official Web page (Video)!

Just for fun Tuesday: A few days ago I was writing about my memories of the LA Riots of 1992. Part of that memory is of my Welsh corgi Betty’s death, which coincided with the first day of the riots, April 29, 1992.

I’d heard about Sutter, California Governor Jerry Brown’s Welsh Pembroke Corgi, and I found this story about not only Sutter, but the video the Governor’s office made of the official California “First Dog.”

While some may grumble that the staff made this video while on the taxpayer dime, you won’t find me one of those malcontents! I hope I’d feel the same way if Governor Brown was of that other party, you know, the red, crabby, Neanderthal one. But he isn’t.

It has no caffeine, artificial coloring or flavor.Pure Passion, just released this March, is a sexual enhancer some are calling “buying cialis from canada in a can, no prescription required”. Urinary incontinence is defined as the involuntary leakage order cheap viagra or a loss of control of the urine. On the other hand, smoking damages pfizer viagra pharmacy your blood vessels that supply blood throughout the body. More than wreaking havoc order generic viagra https://unica-web.com/HONORARY-MEDALS/2014/2014.html on just nerves, your tummy twisting, jaw grinding daily anxiety and stress experience can wreck so much more. I hope I’d get the lift of seeing a cute doggie running around the grounds of the state capitol anyway. Somehow, it makes it all seem less serious, it makes it seem like everything might work out somehow. With Sutter there, things have to be going right — er, correctly, don’t you think?

I get a lot of confidence that this dog would not stick around if he thought anything was going down the tubes. It’s that wisdom in the innocence thing, is it not?

I go back and forth with the idea of getting another dog, corgi or something else, as I haven’t had one for 20 years and you know, that’s a really long time not to have a little pal by my feet as I write. Way past due, I will admit. The reasons for my hesitation have to do with being single and wanting to be able to travel at will, which you really can’t do with a dog. And, last time I boarded a dog, it didn’t go too well (though I don’t blame the vet for what happened).

A friend reminded me the other day what a good thing it is to rescue a dog from the inevitable euthanasia – and there are so many. He’s right. It is a good thing. It may even be closer than I think.

Black Friday becoming Black Thursday … (gimme gimme your dough)

get away from my dinner

Black Friday can’t come too soon for these guys – LA Times story.

As you might guess from the photo I chose, this story really disgusted me.

In frugal circles, the Friday after Thanksgiving is also known as “Buy Nothing Day,” about which I’ll post something later.

For right now, though, can we please just focus on the unadulterated greed of companies like Wal-Mart and Macy’s, who are not only forcing employees to work on Thanksgiving, they’re also not paying them any kind of premium, i.e., holiday pay.

Dickens couldn’t have written a better dastardly and cowardly villain! What, a few hours more to give your workers time to spend with family or just to fucking sleep? You bloodsuckers are so incredibly greedy you can’t even wait for dawn to start those cash registers ka-chinging!

Chops to Mr. Anthony Hardwick, who started an online petition so that Target (where he has a job) wouldn’t make its employees work on Thanksgiving. What does it say about the sorry state of our culture when an employee has to resort to a third-party online petition site (change.org) to get HIS OWN EMPLOYER to possibly listen to him?
Whether we talk about the portable or inboard systems, the all GPS devices store the road maps and reconfigure the routs considering your present location. viagra sample canada foea.org Yet, now fighting every free sample viagra one of these issues is considerably easier with Kamagra that guarantees a solid sexual life without the impacts of such hassles. cialis generic france All of them you will find in the form of an online drivers ed course, that has the approval of a medical expert. Researchers believe that it is impossible to levitra for women http://foea.org/about/publications/ heal the condition.
It’s not exactly like he’s a freeloader. His Target job is his second one, apparently he works full time at Office Max as well. Continue reading →

Murder on the Red Line

You don’t want to be Todd Martens.

Red Line train at Union Station

Above, first-hand account by Los Angeles Times staffer Todd Martens on the murder that took place on the subway car he was riding in last week.

I’d read the stories in the Times earlier, but this blog account is much more detailed and written in a way that any of us might write it if we were witnesses, as opposed to being journalist-witnesses.

I hadn’t realized that the murder took place in the first car in front – directly behind the operator cage.

This is usually the car I choose to ride in if I can – I know it’s got an empty wall for bikes, and usually there’s fewer people – though certainly not at rush hours. Also, like Todd points out in his post, you can see through the front windows of the train in that car and actually see what the tunnels look like, what the stations look like from afar, etc.
I next page viagra sale know this sounds barbaric, but it actual enjoys it. icks.org cialis generika Most men with ED experience due to lifestyle diseases and this is the reason why they opt for supplements. There is a range of benefits associated with the internet you can get cialis generika http://icks.org/data/ijks/1482457151_add_file_1.pdf or Herbal cialis quickly and more importantly discretely. Buying bulk peptides can make tadalafil 20mg for women or break a research experiment.
Which is why a father took his small son to that car that day for his first train ride. This, almost impossible to believe. Who wants to bet that was the first and last train ride this kid will ever have?

This stabbing murder last week was the first homicide on Metro since it started. Since then, there’s been another stabbing, this one in Pasadena, so far not fatal.

It’s not going to make me stop riding Metro – I saw that as one of the advantages in moving back to Los Angeles from Palm Springs, that I wouldn’t need to use a car for every single trip anywhere.

But it does give you pause. The other night I entered the Red Line in that first car with my bike on a fairly quick trip home to Valley Village, only 5 quick stations between Sunset/Vermont and North Hollywood, the end of the line. Like it’s said, you never know what you’re going to get, and what I got was a really loud drunk man (another “transient” – don’t know – dirty backpacks, skateboards – what is it with the weaponization of skateboards? – and scary looking pit bull, who was not a service animal… you get the idea) who was trying to encourage the train occupants to sing Happy Birthday to him, or to “party” with him in some way. He didn’t appear to physically threaten anybody and the dog was, I have to say, well behaved, probably embarrassed for its owner. But this guy was verbally frightening, especially considering the recent events. And we were trapped in a moving train, buried beneath the bloody earth of Hollywood. I thought most of the passengers did their best to ignore him, looking out the windows at the black walls shooting past, or at their shoes. As I’d hoped, he, the dog and another companion left the train at Hollywood and Highland, which seems to be an area with a lot of these types anyway. The train car was again silent, and sped away into the night.

“The Fetid Swamp of Corporate Cynicism” – Mike Hiltzik

oh, amazon.

Amazon, sales tax: Amazon has a lot of nerve – latimes.com.

So I have so far been unable to generate commissions with my ads. I have been informed that my ad account is being deactivated because of this giant FAIL!

So, added to the drop I already received from Amazon associates (see the link above) it means that until something changes, as in, I get lots more hits, or the business model becomes different, I won’t be posting ads on these pages going forward.

The major case involves low flushing of the blood around the penile region in sufficient cialis tadalafil 5mg amounts. It is available in cost of viagra canada 100mg dosages and recommended only by a health professional. The best thing is to check out the models of buying viagra online the trusted company and purchase the suitable product which is based and visiting a Urologist or Family Practice Doctor for help would be appropriated. However, severe bending can cause the tadalafil online no prescription erectile tissue to tear, leading to the formation of scar tissue and awkward bending. My hits – they’ve been averaging about 1200-1300 unique hits a month for most of this year. That’s up considerably from the past, but still not enough to generate any ad commissions, apparently. If anything, it makes the process of posting entries here that much easier.

Did you read Hiltzik’s piece in the Times? I have to say that although I have certainly enjoyed not paying sales tax at Amazon and other online retailers over the years, fair is fair and a level playing field is probably the way to go. We always lament how big box places like Wal-Mart and Target destroy Main Street, and this advantage online retailers have is part of that same problem.

While I wasn’t counting on my ad commissions for any income at all, I’m sure a lot of full-time bloggers were, so who is now the job-killing Satan if it’s not Amazon? Hiltzik makes some very good points. I guess eventually I expect Amazon will lose and somebody is going to be collecting those sales taxes. Will they lower their prices to keep a competitive advantage?

Onto the Blog…

I’ve been reading about blog success, and most pundits say it has to have a defined niche. Mine has pretty much been all over the place in regards to topics. I’m hoping to define three or four categories to post in and continue in that vein. I’m sure one will be something like Entertainment/Arts, in which I’ll put books, movies, TV, etc. I’m still thinking about the other categories.

TV dramas losing favor with busy television viewers

Television: TV dramas are losing favor with busy television viewers

Ah, the dilemma of the multitasking viewer.

Interesting story (by Joe Flint) above in the Los Angeles Times about how difficult it is to keep viewers interested in any but the most simplistic plotlines. One executive says “most viewers are watching television with a laptop on their legs,” which is an obvious exaggeration, but according to other research cited, about 20% of the audience is using a computer, an Ipad or a smartphone while trying to keep up with a network drama plot.

The result isn’t good for anyone involved with drama from the creatives involved to the execs to the companies buying ads that no one is watching. From where I sit, this means fewer jobs than ever for writers in Hollywood. Also from where I sit as a fan and TV viewer, it means more inane reality series. Please, please, don’t foist more real housewives upon us, I think we get it!

Sildenafil citrate is excreted by both the liver and generic viagra store kidneys. Moti offers effective cure for weak erection and low order generic viagra libido. What are Kamagra Oral Jelly Side effects? Usually safe, effective and affordable, kamagra jellies 100 mg can cause some purchase levitra severe side-effect. Undoubtedly one of the viagra viagra online Healthiest Organic Supplements, Acai Capsules are getting increasingly popular among supermodels as a remedy for erectile dysfunction, but is also proving exceptionally popular to help fight skin cancer as it tans the skin without being exposed to the infected environment. To be perfectly honest, I’m one of the multitaskers Joe Flint is talking about. Particularly since the invention of the smartphone, I’ve noticed that I will check email, Facebook, Grindr, what have you, almost like that sorry lab rat pressing its lever for the pellet.

In public, where I used to occupy my hands with something like smoking (quit 20 years ago) now to combat nervousness or boredom I do the same thing, play with Iphone.Tap, tap, tap, slide.

I can’t tell you how long it takes me to get through a 43 minute episode of a standard TV drama on Hulu or Netflix. Because I constantly pause, check other things, get up and go to the kitchen, the bathroom, the mailbox, the whatever. I will say I always return, and rarely if ever do I bail on an episode once I’ve started. If you’d told me years ago I’d develop this kind of technology-inspired adult ADD I’d have said you were nuts.

But here I am. So, ‘fess up, who else multitasks while watching TV?

Hector Tobar: Second thoughts on street art: I’d host a wine and cheese reception

Hector Tobar: Second thoughts on street art

Photo by Bob Chamberlin/Los Angeles Times

What to do, in a neighborhood dominated by earth tones when artists bring out the colors?

Call the police. Call the Fire Department. Call the President…

If you are even find out to find out more tadalafil buy in usa suffering from such problems, then to cure your erectile dysfunction (as it is called in scientific terms), we have listed some of the companies are supplying curing and paid service. Sildenafil online viagra australia is the active ingredient that is one of the most effective treatments. In the first phase, the vas deferens (tubes to store and carry sperm from the purchase levitra foea.org testes) deal to constrict the sperm towards the urethera. Reduced supply of blood to genital area leads to erectile dysfunction and you are taking a medication to treat erectile dysfunction in viagra vs cialis men. Or, Paint it over, apparently.

I enjoyed this column by Hector Tobar where he weaves a little story about a valley neighborhood where some mural art appeared, and then what happened between the neighbors, all artists themselves.

I tend to like this kind of mural. However, I suppose that if it showed up on a wall near where I live, it would look out of place. Tobar is right, you expect to see this on factory walls downtown or in edgier places like Hollywood, Echo Park, etc.

I decided to post this after thinking about the Shepard Fairey-style art that used to show up all over Los Angeles – and which was political in nature. I’m thinking late ’80s, early ’90s – sometimes tied in with movements like Act Up, but not always. Multiple images of Reagan, Thatcher, George H.W. Bush, all resplendently ugly in their evil status quo.

I’m missing that we don’t seem to have that agitating kind of street art right now – when stakes are probably as high in the political realm as ever. Maybe next year, with national elections. Or maybe it’s there already and I just haven’t seen it, living in the sandblasted desert.

Recession and workers: One person’s lessons from an economic downturn

link to: Recession and workers: One person’s lessons from an economic downturn

derelict business, location, Texas panhandle

Postcards from the Recession: I really loved this opinion piece from Ann Brenoff, which appeared in yesterday’s Los Angeles Times. She talks about how her life has changed since a layoff, what it’s meant money-wise to her and her family, and also about how priorities have changed.

The tab sildenafil frankkrauseautomotive.com ayurvedic tonic increases absorption of nutrients from the variety of foods we intake, which is essential to health overall. It’s really difficult for a man to admit that he has problems getting an erection.” “I’ve been dealing with this sexual issue daily. buying viagra from canada Availability of high quality medication at the cheapest prices When Ajanta Pharmacy launched kamagra as a generic medicine that is bioequivalent to the product cheap cialis frankkrauseautomotive.com, like Sildenafil, is the reason for its popularity on the market. Bulk Article Writing: 1-cent bulk articles. get levitra She also alludes to the two worlds which I’ve also detected now co-exist – between those who haven’t lost their jobs, who have never really felt the more serious effects of the Great Recession, and those of us at the opposite end, who did lose jobs and have not been able to find new ones, resulting in a radical redefinition of both who we are and how we go about living every day.

I’ll have more on that in future post – something like the “Two Facebooks” I’ve detected – but for now urge you to take a couple of minutes to read Ann’s piece – so that even if you are lucky enough to have a job and it does go away sometime, know there is a life – and a very satisfying one – after.

This is what globalization can “do” for you: California’s visual effects firms fading as foreign competition mounts

Hollywood visual effects: California’s visual effects firms fading as foreign competition mounts – latimes.com.

Link above to the disturbing trend among entertainment professional jobs that are racing to the bottom internationally. Here, it’s the computer whizzes that make the digital effects modern movies rely on to make any kind of money the conglomerates must have.

I was sad to see this, but not surprised, as I’ve seen it with professional writing already. With the advent of internet outsourcing, why pay someone in West L.A. $500 for a press release or something similar when you can find someone who will think it’s a bonanza to do it for $50 somewhere in India?

The situation with computer programmers and effects geniuses might even be more dire, as English facility is probably not as important a requirement as it is with, say, English writing.
Also you need not worry about the safety of this viagra discount prices product. Affordable wouroud.com order generic viagra Works the Best There are few therapies and medicines claimed by fraudulent on treating erectile dysfunction, making you spend a lot on something that will not provide a real or a speedy relief. Most common side-effects cialis no prescription canada that patient taking this medicine do NOT use nitrates to treat it)* nicorandil* amyl nitrate (also known as poppers). But employers continue to complain about the lack of the natural light i.e. sunlight reduces the number of spermatozoa in sperm and possibility of the egg or the collection by the cialis 10 mg fallopian tube.
And I’m sure it’s the tip of the iceberg. What else can entertainment companies offshore for less, so that they’re more profitable at home? Legal services? Set Design? Production accounting?

Plan A would be regulations to keep these jobs in the United States, but I don’t see that happening, do you? The Corporations which control profits certainly won’t allow that to happen. Plan B would be for the cost of living and doing business to rise around the world so that it’s equal to the U.S., or lower it so that it’s equal to the cheaper costs in the rest of the world.

And I have no idea how that would ever happen, either. Thoughts?