Getting Steve Nash is a steal for the Lakers: Lakers shouldn’t stop with the acquisition of the future Hall of Fame point guard. This makes them more attractive to Dwight Howard.
Photo: The Lakers sent point guard Derek Fisher packing in a trade earlier this season and have now brought in Steve Nash. Credit: Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times
Despite efforts to portray Social Security and Medicare as giveaways to undeserving seniors that rip off the young, some young people believe they must work with older people to make the programs work.
“Wall Street and everyone who crashed the world economy has a really strong incentive to get young folks who are struggling to blame older folks who are likewise struggling, and no one will notice that the people pointing their fingers are the real culprits,” Lawson told me. “But once you get the truth out, young folks are well suited to figure out that the young and the old need to work together for the entire system.”
Watts Coffee House is a soul food joint that feeds the soul: Desiree Edwards’ coffee shop-museum caters to the tastes of those who remember when it was the Watts Happening Coffee House, which rose from the ashes of the ‘65 riots.
Photo: Desiree Edwards greets customers at Watts Coffee House, which she has owned since 1994. “I didn’t take a single loan,” she says. “I ran on faith and prayer.” Credit: Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times
A summer serenade to Los Angeles: With the smog and haze, it can get ugly this time of year, but this is also the season when our L.A. freedoms flow out through open windows and doors, down highways and up mountain paths.
Hector Tobar’s final metro column (he’s moving to Books) is an ode to L.A.
Photo: Venice Beach. Credit: Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times
Sunken wagon wheel’s origin a mystery: Pony express, stagecoach or grain wagon? Experts, historians go to work analyzing a wheel, axle and part of the undercarriage of a cart found under Echo Park Lake.
Photo: Michael Kay examines what appears to be an axle from a 19th century wagon found in Echo Park Lake. Credit: Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times
This felt like the end of a Lakers era: The playoff loss felt like more than the end of the season. For a team that is 9-13 in the last two postseasons, the question is “What now?”
Photo: Thunder point guard Derek Fisher gets past Lakers guard Kobe Bryant after faking a shot during Game 5 on Monday night in Oklahoma City. Credit: Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times
Nuns feel shaken and insulted after the Vatican rapped them hard on the knuckles for not toeing the line.
Like baseball’s purity, Vin Scully never gets old: Anyone who thinks the Dodgers’ legendary play-by-play man has ‘lost it’ really ought to just get lost. Or simply listen to Scully enthrall listeners while losing himself in the beauty of the game.
Photo: Legendary broadcaster Vin Scully, shown in August 2010, is continuing his “love affair” with baseball in the Dodgers’ booth this season. Credit: Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times
20 years after riots, hope and despair in South L.A.: The LAPD’s better relationship with the community, plummeting crime and less graffiti are improvements. But frustration, isolation and the lack of enough jobs still plague the area.
As we kept going — past one of L.A.’s least-appreciated gems, the cozy business district in Leimert Park — I mentioned how, in some ways, many of these neighborhoods look and feel different than they did even 10 years ago. Back then, I’d roll to a stoplight and look around warily, on guard for gang-bangers or cowboy cops itching to pull me over for driving while black. Not anymore.
Mack agreed, noting more positives. The relationship between African and Korean Americans has gotten better. The Latino community keeps growing, forming the majority in most neighborhoods in South L.A., and while there’s black and Latino tension, diversity is a strength.
Photo: Tray Ware, left, hugs Police Commissioner John Mack at Florence and Normandie avenues, where rioting broke out soon after the verdicts were read in the Rodney King beating case. Credit: Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times
A telling GOP defection: Loss of Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher should be a wake-up call for party in California.
This marker is only the latest along a trail to self-destruction for the California GOP.
That said, Fletcher’s timing certainly was suspect. It came only 17 days after he had lost the San Diego County GOP endorsement for mayor in the June 5 primary.
The party endorsed City Councilman Carl DeMaio, an orthodox conservative. Fletcher — a fiscal conservative but a moderate on the environment, gay rights and immigration — is running a distant third behind DeMaio and Democratic Rep. Bob Filner. The underdog assemblyman needed to shake things up and attract independent voters.
Photo: Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher of San Diego last week changed his party affiliation from Republican to independent. Credit: Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press
A tale of two California tax plans: In a state where the GOP has all but disappeared from decision-making, this is what constitutes a debate today — two leading liberals arguing over how best to raise taxes.
Photo: Gov. Jerry Brown talks to reporters about his tax initiative on March 20. Molly Munger, right, is pursuing a rival initiative for the November ballot seeking to raise taxes. credit: Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Pres
Say adios to Pio Pico park: The last governor of Mexican California was the quintessential Californian, but his story will get further buried with the impending closure of the southeast L.A. County homestead where he once lived.
Photo: Carolyn Schoff, president of Friends of Pio Pico, walks near the adobe at the state historic park in Whittier. Credit: Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times
The lawyer beside Lindsay Lohan: Attorney Shawn Holley was a steady presence in the star’s courtroom saga, and perhaps, to some extent, in her life.
A few hours after Lohan was freed, I headed off to meet her lawyer. In my 30-minute drive, I heard the story of Lohan’s court hearing three times on the radio. She was wearing a “tight-fitting blue pantsuit,” one announcer intoned.
She wasn’t. It was more like teal, and it was tailored and tasteful — conservative, if you’re 25.
It seems we can’t resist a dig, even on her most triumphant morning. That reflects our investment in her bad-girl persona. And that troubles Holley.
Photo credit: Mario Anzuoni / Getty Images
Magic Johnson is perfect fit for Dodgers: Former Lakers great is the perfect guy to help reestablish bond between the fans and the franchise.
Photo: Lakers great Magic Johnson has all the skills necessary to be a strong owner for the Dodgers. Credit: Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times
Sandy Banks: From wardrobe staple to symbol of urban terror: The shooting of Trayvon Martin has cast a spotlight on the humble hooded sweat shirt, raising questions about the messages it sends — and why.
Photo: Ben Taylor, 10, of North Hollywood, foreground, attends a rally in Pershing Square in remembrance of Trayvon Martin, the unarmed teenager shot to death in Sanford, Fla., by a neighborhood watch captain. Credit: Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times
