L.A

Drawn by a message on the WeChat app, the Chinese immigrants lined up for free bags of leafy greens that volunteers handed out from a battered minivan in a Monterey Park parking lot.Many had recently survived a novel and dangerous journey — flying from China to Ecuador, braving the treacherous rainforest of the Darien Gap on foot, then traversing Mexico by car and bus before crossing the border.A woman who wore an ankle monitor on this hot June afternoon so immigration authorities could track her said she had been “just…

Taylor Swift has been proven to be a hot commodity, not just to her fans but also to the American economy. As a result, the music icon’s support is being sought by local hotel worker union Unite Here Local 11 in its strike for better wages and against “junk fees,” which are extra charges added on to room rates that help the companies, not the workers. “We want Taylor Swift to postpone her upcoming concert until our employers agree to a fair wage and our demands that we have already requested for over a…

The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees’ West Coast office is hosting a food drive in support of striking workers and other entertainment industry members. IATSE has teamed with the L.A. Food Bank and L.A. County Federation of Labor to host a three-hour food drive aimed at addressing the food insecurity among industry members amid the ongoing Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA work stoppages. In May, the Writers Guild went on strike after the Alliance of Motion Picture and…

Michael Torres was an unlikely chief executive.He had a fifth-grade education. On paper, at least, he was indigent. And he was serving a prison term of 133 years to life for attempted murder, conspiracy and witness tampering. Yet Torres, 59, ran one of the most intricate and lucrative black market businesses in Los Angeles County: the jails. His tenure running this illicit empire ended two weeks ago, when two inmates stabbed him to death on the yard of California State Prison, Sacramento. New players are already muscling…

Hassan Emilio Kabande Laija is having his moment. Better known as Peso Pluma, the young singer from Jalisco, Mexico, has embarked on his first U.S. tour that should solidify him as one of the biggest names in music, no matter the language or genre.Commercially, there is little doubt that Peso Pluma is in a class of his own. “Genesis,” his third album in his short two-year career, has enjoyed one of the best releases, in terms of streams on Spotify and Apple Music, in the history of Mexican regional music.He has…

A Los Angeles teen who designed and made a Marie Antoinette-style prom dress completely out of duct tape was named Wednesday as the winner of a national scholarship contest.Karla Torres, who graduated this spring from Francisco Bravo Medical Magnet High School in Boyle Heights, won a $10,000 scholarship after amassing the most votes for her dress in the competition’s online poll. Torres, 18, was named a finalist last month for the 23rd annual “Stuck at Prom” scholarship contest sponsored by Duck Tape, a trademarked brand…

Emmett Brock thought he was dying, and his mind raced. This isn’t supposed to happen to me. This doesn’t happen this way. I can’t die like this. He tasted the blood inside his mouth. He felt the fists land on his head. And he heard the shouts of the sheriff’s deputy on top of him, pressing him into the pavement of the 7-Eleven parking lot. Three minutes later, the 23-year-old teacher sat in the back of a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department cruiser not even knowing, he said, why the deputy had stopped him.Brock was…

Steve Curry lived for adventure. The 71-year-old Sunland resident loved nothing more than to hike, climb and spend time outdoors — so much so that he sometimes set up a tent in his own backyard.But on Tuesday, Curry collapsed after completing a hike in Death Valley, one of the hottest places on the planet, and died of what officials believe were heat-related causes.“He went having accomplished something he wanted to do,” said Rima Evans Curry, his wife of 29 years. “He wanted to go to Death Valley. He wanted to do a…

One star not slowing down amid the actors strike is Keanu Reeves, who on Tuesday night returned to his rockstar side gig as bassist for band Dogstar. The group, comprised of Reeves, guitarist/vocalist Bret Domrose and drummer Rob Mailhouse, was active between the mid ’90s to early 2000s, before taking a pause in 2002; they reunited for a show at BottleRock Napa Valley music festival in May, and on Tuesday played their first headlining concert in more than 20 years at The Roxy in Los Angeles.…

Los Angeles City Councilmembers Hugo Soto-Martínez and Nithya Raman sat cross-legged in the middle of Century Boulevard last month, helping to block cars from reaching Los Angeles International Airport in a show of solidarity with the region’s hotel workers. That demonstration — and the subsequent arrest of Soto-Martínez, Raman and nearly 200 others — generated headlines for obvious reasons. Zip ties and police processing aside, the presence of the two council members was hardly surprising.In recent months, an array of…