From Los Angeles Times

  • USC students protest the 'silencing' of valedictorian with cancellation of speech

    USC students, faculty and pro-Palestinian protesters responded to a call to action Thursday to fight back against what they say is the "institutional silencing" of valedictorian Asna Tabassum. "Let her speak! Let her speak!" the crowd of hundreds chanted, a few holding up signs bearing Tabassum's face. USC is barring the valedictorian from speaking at its May 10 commencement — a first in the university's 143-year history — over unspecified safety threats, Provost Andrew T. Guzman announced in a...

  • Taylor Swift turns heel, owning her chaos and messiness on 'The Tortured Poets Department'

    Taylor Swift has spent years warning us not to believe everything we hear about her. As the biggest star of pop music’s parasocial age, she argues that the facts of her existence are constantly warped by gossip and misinformation, which is one reason the Easter eggs and coded messages she’s long built into her work have helped create such a tight bond between her and her fans. Pay close enough attention, the thinking goes, and her art will always tell you the truth. Except when it doesn’t....

  • Two shootings by LAPD officers are under investigation

    The Los Angeles Police Department was investigating two separate shootings by officers Thursday that left one officer and two men injured. The first shooting occurred in the early hours in the 4800 block of Torrance Boulevard in Torrance, according to Charles Miller, a spokesman for the department. He said LAPD officers and U.S. marshals were serving an arrest warrant for a man suspected of child abuse when at some point he opened fire at them, grazing an officer and prompting the others to fire...

  • Column: Disneyland just promised electric cars at Autopia. Gas will be gone by 2026

    When Walt Disney Co. announced earlier this month that it would at long last ditch the smog-spewing gasoline engines at its beloved Autopia attraction in Anaheim, the company left a few key details to the imagination. Would the new ride vehicles be purely electric? Or would they be hybrids that still burned some climate-wrecking, oil-based fuel? And how long would it take for Walt Disney's creative and engineering heirs to make the long-overdue switch? After I wrote a story breaking the news...

  • LAPD officer from scandal-plagued gang unit is charged with thefts of brass knuckles, knives

    A Los Angeles police officer was charged Thursday with stealing brass knuckles and other weapons and tampering with evidence during enforcement stops carried out by an scandal-plagued gang unit, prosecutors said. The officer, Alan Carrillo, has been charged with two counts of altering, planting or concealing evidence as a peace office and three counts of petty theft, according to a news release from the office of Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. George Gascón. Carrillo was previously a member of...

  • Sony in talks to team with Apollo to bid for Paramount

    Sony Pictures Entertainment is in talks to join Apollo Global Management in its $26-billion bid for Paramount Global — a partnership that would boost the private equity firm's efforts to wrangle the prize. While the talks are preliminary, the two sides have been hashing out the contours of a deal that would have the Culver City-based Sony film and television studio take the lead in the partnership. If a deal were consummated, Sony would control a significant majority stake in Paramount,...

  • Chicano Batman discusses 'Notebook Fantasy,' playing at Forum

    In the summer of 2017, Chicano Batman played a free show at One Colorado, the shopping complex in the heart of Old Pasadena, as part of KCRW’s Summer Nights concert series. The band had just released “Freedom Is Free,” its third album. Organizers had anticipated a large turnout for the event and warned fans for a week that they expected to reach capacity early. The place was packed an hour before the band hit the stage. Fans arriving late, many of them Latino, climbed over and crawled under...

  • Clippers still unsure if Kawhi Leonard will play Game 1: 'Very unpredictable'

    Day 3 of the continuing injury update regarding Kawhi Leonard brought in Clippers president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank to explain more details and to tell the media that his All-Star forward will be listed as “questionable” for Game 1 of the playoffs Sunday against the Dallas Mavericks. Leonard, who missed the last eight games of the season, has had swelling in the knee that has prevented him from participating in full-contact practice for the Clippers’ first-round series. “Kawhi...

  • Chargers ready to trade No. 5 pick in NFL draft if the price is right

    Former USC quarterback Caleb Williams going first to Chicago next week is the greatest certainty entering the 2024 NFL draft. And the next surest thing? The Chargers trading out of the No. 5 spot, at least if the overwhelming outside speculation is correct. In an endeavor that can defy logic and prediction, the public consensus has reached a point where new general manager Joe Hortiz dealing his first career selection in order to add draft capital seems to be a foregone conclusion. “If we’re...

  • Letters to the Editor: Canceled valedictorian speech is another self-inflicted black eye for USC

    To the editor: The removal of Asna Tabassum as the valedictory speaker at USC's upcoming commencement reminds me of another sad chapter in USC's history — the school's lackluster response to the sexual abuse accusations made against Dr. George Tyndall. In both cases, I am struck by my alma mater's failure to protect its greatest asset: its students. I can appreciate USC's predicament in choosing to avoid taking a position on the war in the Gaza Strip. Allowing Tabassum to speak might enrage...

  • Body discovered in the back of stolen U-Haul truck in Mid City

    A foul odor emanating from a moving van parked in a Mid-City neighborhood Thursday led authorities to a dead body in the back of a U-Haul truck, police said. Los Angeles Police were called to the 2400 block of South Redondo Boulevard just before 11 a.m., said Officer Charles Miller. A passerby told police they saw what they thought was a body under a tarp in the rear of the truck. The passerby also reported a foul odor coming from the truck. When officers arrived, they discovered that the truck...

  • How LeBron James and the Lakers are planning to end Denver's dominance against them

    The outline hasn’t really differed much in their past seven meetings, the four from last year’s Western Conference Finals and the three chances for revenge that the Lakers couldn’t grab. Generally, the game has been close, the Nuggets will then get into their late-game offense, and the game won’t be close anymore. Thursday, the problem-solving phase of the Lakers’ preparation began, the late-game struggles against Denver obviously a piece of that planning. “Well, we just gotta be better all...