Inglewood

The last time the Rev. Gordon Solomon spoke from the pulpit at Christ's Community Church in Inglewood, he asked the congregation to pray for him and his family as he faced troubling times. Members had assumed last month that the 50-year-old pastor had an illness in the family. But on Wednesday, they discovered Solomon was battling allegations that he had sexually abused a teenage congregant. "I didn't think it was something like this," said Walter Woodard, 57, a musician for the church.

It's Friday night, the lights are low, and music by Beyoncé is pumping, but this is no ordinary nightclub. Dancing couples glide by doing sophisticated ballroom dance steps. And there's no one checking ID at the door: The average age here is 50. Welcome to Urban Ballroom Fridays, a gathering held at the Los Angeles Steppers Connection (LASC) dance studio in Inglewood every second and fourth Friday of the month for devotees of urban ballroom, a partner dance that combines the refinement of ballroom dance steps with the soulful music of old-school Motown such as the Temptations and contemporary R&B like Queen Latifah, Ne-Yo, Babyface, even George Michael.

The news that Madison Square Garden's parent corporation is buying and renovating the Forum in Inglewood should prompt cheers from L.A. music fans. Those who have been around a while remember it as the marquee concert venue in the area for much of rock and roll's heyday, hosting concerts from the big names of the '70s, '80s and '90s -- Bob Dylan, Fleetwood Mac and the Rolling Stones, among them. Downtown venues such as Staples Center and the L.A. Live complex have stolen much of the venue's musical thunder in recent years, but this investment is a watershed in the venue's history and a major transition back into the local spotlight.

In its glory days, the Forum was Southern California's preeminent entertainment venue, a behemoth with Roman columns where adoring fans came to see the likes of Wilt Chamberlain, Wayne Gretzky and Bob Dylan. But the famous round building fell on hard times. The Los Angeles Lakers and Kings moved downtown. Other venues in up-and-coming neighborhoods came along to nab the concert business. And, in the end, the Forum was bought by the Faithful Central Bible Church and all but forgotten.

Gale Swan has lived for 62 years by the eastern slope of the hills below where La Cienega Boulevard and La Brea Avenue crest a few miles south of the Santa Monica Freeway. The upscale homes that spider down these curving streets offer enticing views of the Los Angeles Basin. Yet, Swan is worried. She has been through L.A.'s heavy winter rains and the 1963 collapse a few neighborhoods away of the Baldwin Hills Dam. But now the foundation of her 1946 house in View Park has cracks.

A teacher at the center of a dispute at a well-known charter school has launched a novel defense to save his job and that of a fired colleague: They're too good to be dismissed based on their students' standardized test scores. Biology teacher Mark Friedman has been suspended, and history teacher Sonia Del Pino has been dismissed from Animo Leadership Charter High School in Inglewood, which is operated by Green Dot Public Schools. Friedman was suspended because of allegations by one or two co-workers that he bullied colleagues, negligently supervised students and inappropriately involved them in personnel decisions, and created a "negative and hostile work environment," according to a letter sent to him this month.

The Inglewood where young Fredrick Martin Jr. grew up was plagued by crime, gangs and the fear that came with both. But by the time he returned in 2006, after graduating from college in Texas, the city was slowly turning around. Crime was down. Graffiti had largely disappeared. The barred windows and gated front doors were still fixtures on the street where he lived with his wife and child and grandmother, but every day they seemed less relevant in this community under the flight path to LAX. Until a week ago. Martin, 28, was cleaning the garage on the evening of April 3 with his 8-year-old son and a friend when two gunmen approached on foot and began firing.

Fredrick Martin Jr. made no effort to conceal the pride he felt for his son. He bragged about the 8-year-old's skills at karate and baseball, and showed family members copies of the boy's completed homework. "I have a young child genius," Martin told his half-sister recently. On Tuesday evening, Martin, 28, was cleaning the garage of his grandmother's Inglewood home, along with his son, Fredrick "Tre" Martin III, and the boy's godfather, Joseph Hickman. Just after 7 p.m., they heard gunfire nearby.

Classic Party Rentals, one of country's largest suppliers of tents, chairs and china for events, has agreed to move its headquarters and a fulfillment center to Inglewood. The party-rental business will relocate its Culver City fulfillment center to 901 Hillcrest Blvd. in Inglewood by June, real estate brokerage the Klabin Co. said. The headquarters will be moved from West Los Angeles next year. Terms of the 10-year lease for the 96,000-square-foot site were not disclosed, but rents for warehouses near Los Angeles International Airport average 83 cents per square foot per month, according to brokerage Cushman & Wakefield.

SACRAMENTO — California lawmakers donned hoodies Thursday to protest the killing of Trayvon Martin, the unarmed Florida teenager who was shot to death last month by a neighborhood watch volunteer. At a Capitol news conference, members of the black, Latino and Asian Pacific Islander caucuses called on the federal government to intervene in the investigation and used the case to highlight the problem of racial profiling in America. One by one, lawmakers spoke from a podium draped with a hoodie and holding a can of iced tea and a bag of Skittles –- items Martin was carrying when he was shot.