Author Archives: Merdies Hayes

Posted inCovers

Top acts in music and comedy highlight LPAC fall season

by Merdies Hayes

An exciting line up of some of the most popular acts in music and comedy will appear this fall at the Lancaster Performing Arts Center.
First up on Sept. 8 is comedian and variety show host Howie Mandel. The Canadian-born funnyman arrived in Los Angeles in 1979 on an ordinary business trip, but he passed by the Comedy Store in West Hollywood and decided to try out for amateur night.

Posted inFeature

Coyote sightings increase locally

by Merdies Hayes

Coyote sightings continue to rise around the southland, with some of these incidents culminating in deadly results.
Shortly after dawn on July 30, Baldwin Hills Estates resident Greta Seshta was awakened by the frightening screeches of one of her cats. Her little felines rarely stray far from the house—just the typical exploring the innate desire to hunt—but this time something was different. Her daughter looked outside toward the commotion and saw a a pair of coyotes running off with one of her cats.

Posted inLocal Politics

New plan for Crenshaw Plaza continues makeover of South LA

by Merdies Hayes

The Los Angeles City Planning Commission has unanimously approved a proposal for a major redevelopment of the Baldwin Hills-Crenshaw Plaza, which would add an office complex, a hotel, 1,000 residential units and more than 300,000 units of retail space. The project will be done in phases, and officials expect construction to begin near the end of the year. Completion is anticipated in about six years.

Posted inLocal Politics

Animal shelters get makeover; public can adopt at no charge

by Merdies Hayes

Bernie and Ed Massey, two of Los Angeles County’s most celebrated public artists, will present their latest project tomorrow at the Agoura Animal Care Center. What is of interest locally, however, is that the Massey brothers joined recently with thousands of southland youth to help in an artistic makeover of each of the seven county animal care centers, including those in Carson and Downey.

Posted inLocal Politics

Operations to resume at Aliso Canyon

by Merdies Hayes

State regulators this week cleared the way for natural gas injections to resume at the Aliso Canyon storage facility that has been largely out of service since a four-month leak in 2015-16, but the facility will be operated in a limited fashion primarily to prevent Southland energy shortages.
The state’s Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources and the California Public Utilities Commission determined that with new safety protocols in place, the facility is “safe to operate and can reopen at a greatly reduced capacity.”

Posted inHealth

GOP abandons healthcare plan

by Merdies Hayes

The Republican-led effort to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act (ACA) collapsed this week when two additional GOP senators, Utah’s Mike Lee and Jerry Moran of Kansas, said they would vote “no” in a crucial vote that had been expected as early as next week. Their announcement meant that at least four of the 52 GOP senators were ready to block a measure that Republicans had promised for the past seven years to undertake.

Posted inCovers

Medical issues among African Americans encourage doctors to discover solutions

by Merdies Hayes

Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital in Watts is taking bold steps to break through the barriers to good health within the African American community. And there is good reason why this proactive stance is so important, because the Black community—nationwide—has been witness to some of the worst health outcomes of any population. Officials at King Hospital are trying to remedy that situation by focusing on preventative measures that, they believe, will not only shine a light on historic health disparities in South Los Angeles, but also foster a better sense of health ownership and well-being.

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