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The 68-year-old Crest Theatre has been declared a historic landmark by the City of Los Angeles as its owner struggles to keep the Art Moderne-style movie palace afloat.
During World War II the theater screened only newsreels, and after the war it was one of the first Los Angeles venues to show foreign films. The Times' Martha Groves is working on an update to an earlier story on the theater and the challenge to keep it open.
-- Jesus Sanchez
"Is there a doctor in the house? Would a doctor come right here?" Those were the words of David Steiner, a young Kennedy volunteer who grabbed the mike at the Ambassador Hotel as the charismatic politician lay on the ground, shot and bleeding. Steiner's life, as he explains in this haunting video, was never the same from that moment onward.
Please also see our (rapidly filling) RFK tribute page on Larry Harnisch's fine blog, The Daily Mirror, and Joe Mozingo's Column One on the assassination's lasting impact on young Kennedy supporters like David Steiner.
Also, a first-person account of the "stop-the-presses" moment as The Times got the news that Kennedy had been shot.
--Veronique de Turenne
Photo: AP
 If you grew up skateboarding in north San Diego County during the 1970s, you will get a kick out of an upcoming exhibit in Encinitas looking at the sport's roots in the region. You may not be so thrilled, however, by the fact that you and your childhood pastime are now considered historic. The show, which opens Saturday at the San Dieguito Heritage Museum, was organized to generate interest in recent history, says the North County Times.
"We wanted to have an exhibit that kids can relate to and to use skateboarding as a lens to learn more about local history in the '70s and '80s," said graduate history student Alex Moddejonge.
Bring your old skateboard. And your health insurance.
-- Jesus Sanchez
Photo: Ralph Starkweather / Concrete Wave
Take a tour of Angelino Heights, L.A's first suburb. this weekend. Artwork Leo Politi, who lived and worked in one of the gorgeous grande dames, will be on display. Or you could just click through our photo gallery here.
--Veronique de Turenne
Photo: Annie Wells / Los Angeles Times
Of the 320 complaints of racial profiling filed against LAPD officers last year, not one was found to be credible? That's the sixth year in a row that all claims have been dismissed, and more than a few people are, well, skeptical. Joel Rubin has the details.
Home prices fell almost 20% in L.A. and the O.C. Peter Y. Hong delivers the bad news.
While we're at it, we'll let the other shoe drop: The economy grew just 0.6% in the first quarter. Maura Reynolds reports.
That sound you hear? It's wallets slamming shut across the nation as consumers get really, really worried. Peter G. Gosselin has the story.
The Sierra Madre wildfire is 81% contained. Wire service via Long Beach P-T.
When wildfires burn California's thick and sheltering cover of brush, secrets are revealed. What lies beneath, from Janet Wilson.
Thirty-three years after the Vietnam war ended, the people of Little Saigon remember. My-Thuan Tran spends time with the expats on this emotional and, for some, difficult anniversary. Her story here.
The Swiss chemist who invented LSD has died. Thomas H. Maugh II writes about his life.
A 5.2 earthquake rocked northern California last night. AP via LAT.
Marcus Hill stutters. And he wins speech competitions. Mind over matter, and grace under pressure. Story from (who else?) Bob Pool.
-- Veronique de Turenne
Photo: Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times
Chart: Los Angeles TImes
He's white and Jewish, not your typical bluesman. But Bernie Pearl got the music bug when he was a kid, and he's been part of the blues scene every since. You can read all about this old-school L.A. musician in Louis Sahagun's story. Here's Pearl, recording a tribute CD to the old blues masters.
-- Veronique de Turenne
Video: Katy Newton / Los Angeles Times
More jail problems for the O.C.: A brawl in the Men's Central Jail leads to a lockdown. LAT
Church in Panorama City damaged by Molotov cocktail. LADN
Santa Monica Ferris Wheel: one bid ($50K) and two retractions. Four days left. EBay
The blog of unnecessary quotation marks. Because it's funny and "quirky" and there's "something for  everyone." And that's enough unnecessary quotation marks for "one post." (OK, now I'm done.)
State flower growers wilt under competitive pressure from imports. Ventura County Star
Smile. The Skunk Cam is watching. [ sic ]
Remember the request line on KGIL 1260. VanNuys Boomers
--Veronique de Turenne & Jesus Sanchez
Photo: Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times
When the last person who spoke fluent Samala died 43 years ago, it seemed the language of the Chumash people was doomed. Now, a new dictionary with 4,000 entries gives the ancient language new life, Steve Chawkins reports:
"This is awesome," said Nakia Zavalla, the 33-year-old cultural
director for the Santa Ynez band of the Chumash, handling the volume as
gingerly as a sacred text. "We won't have to constantly go searching
for our culture -- now it's right here."
The dictionary's 4,000 entries sound as foreign to most of the tribe
members as they were familiar to their ancestors. It's a tough language
for English speakers, filled with sharp interruptions called glottal
stops. Some words don't quite roll off the tongue -- qalpsik is to braid the hair tight -- and more than 100 prefixes can dramatically change the meaning of verbs.
"There are so many rules," moaned Zavalla. "Just a glottal stop -- it sounds like uh-oh -- can change the meaning of ma from 'the' to 'rabbit.'
Details about the unlikely author of the new text, and how it almost didn't see the light of day in Steve's full story.
--Veronique de Turenne
Photo: Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times
The Dodgers aren't the only ones with an anniversary - a nuclear test of an atom bomb lit up the eastern L.A. sky 55 years ago today. Info and some creepy pix from the late, lamented Her Ex at Metblogs.
Murals at the LA River whitewashed by county workers, says Nature Trumps. (And thanks to Chicken Corner for the heads-up.)
Lead found in a South Bay elementary school located near a firing range. Daily Breeze
California unemployment stats hit 6.2 percent, the highest in four years. Sacto Bee
Pork-forward dining at The Delcious Life.
 Three arrests in El Monte pot farm bust. LAT
More on the new head chef at LAUSD, questions about a shooting at Venice High, and at Disney Hall, 1,000-strong choir sings. All at our fine (and frequently-updated!) education blog, The Homeroom.
700 attend memorial service for four men killed in car crash. SGV Tribune
Another Route 66 motel to bite the dust. The Palm Desert Lodge to be replaced by a chain drug store. Press Enterprise
Prosecutors drop charges against woman accused of poisoning her Marine Corp. husband. Union Tribune
107-year-old Ventura woman dies. Ventura County Star
--Veronique de Turenne & Jesus Sanchez
Photo: Brian VanderBrug / Los Angeles Times
A parade took over Broadway before the Dodgers' first game in L.A. on April 18, in 1958. That's Manager Walter Alston sitting on the right in the snazzy convertible, and next to him is coach Charlie Dressen. (I love the well-dressed crowd, and those light posts.) A few hours later, the former Brooklyn Dodgers beat the San Francisco Giants in front of 78,672 fans
at the Coliseum. Final score: 6-5.
Check out the terrific anniversary package in today's sports section: vintage pix, highlights and lowlights, a quiz, some Chavez Ravine history and, of course Vin Scully.
--Veronique de Turenne
Photo: Los Angeles Times
A cliff swallows brings food to hatchlings hidden in a mud nest beneath a bridge on North River Road. A drainage canal provided mud for the nest and now helps breed bugs to feed the babies. The best-known story about the swallows, in this part of the world, anyway, is about their inevitable return each year to the mission at San Juan Capistrano.
-- Veronique de Turenne
Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times
How hot was it this weekend? Record-breaking at the beach, miserable everywhere else. And on Sunday, Anaheim's 102 degrees (in mid-April?) made it one of the two hottest spots in all of the Lower 48. Steve Hymon has more details.
¡Hablamos español! That's the new attitude at City Hall as the cultural mix of the city continues its Latino shift. (And I know how happy this topic made some readers last time around, so please note: No obscenities, websites, or name-calling in the comments.) Ari B. Bloomekatz and Francisco Vara-Orta have the story.
New restrictions on taco trucks? Some restaurateurs say "Si!" and the City Council is thinking it over. But taco vendors aren't saying adios just yet. Jean-Paul Renaud takes a look at the issue.
Oh Britney, you were doing so well. The popster has a teensy traffic accident on the Ventura Freeway over the weekend. No injuries and no damage. So why is this news? AP via LAT.
Rumblings of bad news from within the Screen Actors Guild. Richard Verrier explains.
The bridges of Los Angeles County -- the Conservancy wants to preserve them. David Pierson takes tour and explains why.
Lakers are the Western Conference front-runners. Mike Bresnahan celebrates.
-- Veronique de Turenne
A reader shares a photo of Convict Lake in the Sierra Nevada which, after the sub-baked weekend we just endured, looks deliciously cool. It takes its name from a group of 19th century prison escapees whose murderous escapades soon caused the original name, Mt. Diablo Lake, to be all but forgotten.
--Veronique de Turenne
Photo: EB / Your Scene
You could climb Mt. Whitney -- or, like writer Dan Koeppel, get exercise (and more vertical ascent) on a 16.2-mile 'walking tour' of Los Angeles' outdoor stairs. Janet Cromwell reports:
One . . . more . . . step. Almost there. Top of the hill. Don't step on
the smashed guavas. Step over the giant philodendron. Ignore the
snapping dog.
More than 75 years ago, Laurel and Hardy struggled to maneuver a piano
up these 131 Silver Lake steps in the classic comedy "The Music Box,"
cementing the staircase in cinematic history.
Hauling an oversized load up the oxygen-depleting ascent hasn't gotten any easier, but it's worth the trip.
Huff. Puff.
Wheeze a little while sucking a deep breath of eucalyptus into bursting
lungs -- and then, there it is: a dazzling string of vintage, eclectic
homes at the top of the longest outdoor staircase you've ever scaled.
Where? How? Answers in Janet's full story here.
Photo: Annie Wells / Los Angeles Times
 When it comes to landmarks, Wilmington it seems is best known for towering stacks of shipping containers and giant mechanical cranes that line the waterfront. Lost in the heart of this industrial landscape is a mile-long stretch of Mexican fan palms that rise about 80 feet above Avalon Boulevard. This week, the city of Los Angeles declared these palms, planted 77 years ago, a cultural historic landmark.
The palms, along with the nearby Phineas Banning museum, are a source of pride in a neighborhood that has seen much of its history wiped away by the ever-expanding Port of Los Angeles and related companies. The palms formed a welcoming landmark for the thousands of oceangoing passengers who once arrived and departed through the old Catalina terminal. "Pleasure-seeking motorists and those interested in beauty will, naturally, choose this route because of its beauty," said one businessman at the time the palms were planted.
Wilmington's passenger terminal is long gone (passenger ships now depart from nearby San Pedro). Even public access to the waterfront is limited to only a few hundred feet, which includes a parking lot. The palms of Avalon Boulevard certainly won't bring back throngs of tourists or beauty-seeking motorists. But their status as public landmarks might stir some more and much-needed neighborhood pride. "Declaring them as historic-cultural monuments will preserve and protect this
part of the cultural and community fabric of the community of Wilmington," said Councilwoman Janice Hahn.
-- Jesus Sanchez
Correction: A previous version of this story said the palms were planted more than 80 years ago.
Photo: Jacob Haik
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Veronique de Turenne
Veronique de Turenne is a journalist, essayist, book critic and blogger, and has been a staff writer at virtually every newspaper in Southern California. One of the highlights of her career was interviewing Vin Scully in his broadcast booth at Dodger Stadium, then receiving a handwritten thank you note from him a week later. She lives in Malibu.
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