Senior writer Doug Smith scouts Los Angeles for the ragged edges where public policy meets real people, combining data analysis and gumshoe reporting to tell L.A. stories through his more than 50 years of experience covering the city. As past database editor from 2004 through 2015, he hunted down and analyzed data for news and investigative projects. Besides “Grading the Teachers,” he contributed to investigations of construction abuse in the community college system and the rising toll of prescription drug overdoses. Smith has been at The Times since 1970, covering local and state government, criminal justice, politics and education. He was the lead writer for Times’ coverage of the infamous North Hollywood shootout, winner of a 1997 Pulitzer Prize. Between 2005 and 2008, Smith made five trips to Iraq on loan to our foreign desk.
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In a move that has alarmed veterans, Brentwood School is asking an appeals court to toss out a judge’s ruling voiding a lease for veteran land where it maintains athletic facilities.
Los Angeles County has opened its first safe parking location for recreational vehicles. The pilot has spaces for 14 RVs that can stay for up to six months while their owners seek permanent housing.
The historic increase of homelessness reported by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in 2024 was largely the result of tens of thousands of immigrants arriving in a handful of states, grossly inflating the actual rise of America’s domestic homeless population.
A fire in the battery of a hybrid electric vehicle forced the evacuation of several dozen homes in Ojai on Saturday.
The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department said Cecilia Pulido, 42, of Moreno Valley was booked on suspicion of annoying and molesting a child, and sexual contact with a prisoner or inmate.
FEMA is opening a new disaster recovery center in Altadena to assist Eaton fire victims, and the sheriff’s department says it will conduct property checks of vacant homes.
As officials rush to remove barriers to rebuilding fire-ravaged communities, are they passing up a rare opportunity to craft a new vision for Los Angeles?
Released after just under 30 years in prison for a murder he committed at 16, Nicholas Nabors was bogged down in transitional housing until a volunteer for the nonprofit Homecoming Project took him into her Compton home.
When the matriarch died, investors eyed the Cypress Park rental she had owned since the 1970s. Then a local nonprofit stepped in to buy the property and preserve affordable rents for its nine residents.