Jessica Ritz

West Hollywood political life will have to go on without the constant guard of muckraker James Fuhrman, the self-appointed autonomous "ethics commission" for the city. And as Bob Pool reports in the LA Times, many folks in WeHo seem to be just fine with that. Over the past eight years, Fuhrman has acquired local infamy for his email newsletter and public access television show, which have served venues for his skewering of public figures...

01. Age and Occupation: 33, City Councilmember 02. What area of Los Angeles did you grow up in, and what neighborhood do you now call home? Straight outta Encino (from age 1-17), but I now live in Echo Park, home of the city's first Jewish cemetery, first oil discovery, and newest library. 03. You’ve lived in other major cities such as New York and London. What brought you back to Los Angeles, and what...

01. Age and Occupation: 33, City Councilmember 02. What area of Los Angeles did you grow up in, and what neighborhood do you now call home? Straight outta Encino (from age 1-17), but I now live in Echo Park, home of the city's first Jewish cemetery, first oil discovery, and newest library. 03. You’ve lived in other major cities such as New York and London. What brought you back to Los Angeles, and what...

Another potential local strike is on the horizon, proving once again that events in Los Angeles are critical to the evolution of the organized labor movement. Eighty-three percent of the 75% of Hotel Employee and Restaurant Employee (HERE) Local 11 members who voted Monday authorized a strike if negotiations with the nine members of the Hotel Employer’s Council collapse. The hotels involved have already taken a page from the book of supermarket labor management...

Another potential local strike is on the horizon, proving once again that events in Los Angeles are critical to the evolution of the organized labor movement. Eighty-three percent of the 75% of Hotel Employee and Restaurant Employee (HERE) Local 11 members who voted Monday authorized a strike if negotiations with the nine members of the Hotel Employer’s Council collapse. The hotels involved have already taken a page from the book of supermarket labor management...

Because we are so fond of this city and all the great things about it, we here at LAist decided to focus on some of the people that make LA such a unique and interesting place. With that in mind, here is the inaugural edition of a new LAist feature. Today we introduce a new, biweekly interview series featuring conversations about Los Angeles with interesting and opinionated Angelenos, which we are kicking off off...

Because we are so fond of this city and all the great things about it, we here at LAist decided to focus on some of the people that make LA such a unique and interesting place. With that in mind, here is the inaugural edition of a new LAist feature. Today we introduce a new, biweekly interview series featuring conversations about Los Angeles with interesting and opinionated Angelenos, which we are kicking off off...

LAist has been too busy bombarding you with other notable happenings to give our readers the proper heads-up that the Los Angeles Conservancy Modern Committee 20th Anniversary event deserves. This is coming up next weekend, so get your tickets ASAP. (Order form here.) The ModCom 20th Anniversary Tour, billed as "20/20/20" 20 Years, 20 Sites, 20 Bucks, offers two days of tour itineraries with so many treats that LAist is already stressed about seeing...

LAist has been too busy bombarding you with other notable happenings to give our readers the proper heads-up that the Los Angeles Conservancy Modern Committee 20th Anniversary event deserves. This is coming up next weekend, so get your tickets ASAP. (Order form here.) The ModCom 20th Anniversary Tour, billed as "20/20/20" 20 Years, 20 Sites, 20 Bucks, offers two days of tour itineraries with so many treats that LAist is already stressed about seeing...

The commencement of the school year typically generates all types of education-related news and anecdotes. This year they sadly range from the tragic to the bizarre. NYU was shocked by the suicide of 23-year-old grad student Joanne M. Leavy, the second Tisch School of the Arts student to die within a week and the seventh death of an NYU student in a year. Fortunately, however, a local recent case involving a missing UCLA undergrad...