Memo Flores

Memo Flores calls himself Don Regalon--Mr. Gift Giver. On the last Sunday of each month, he mounts the band shell at MacArthur Park and presents a gift of culture called Jugaremos en Familia , or Play as a Family, to the residents of Pico-Union. With mariachi bands, marimba music, folk dancers and singers from throughout Latin American, he transforms the park into a stage for a community fiesta.

Memo Flores calls himself Don Regalon--Mr. Gift Giver. On the last Sunday of each month, he mounts the band shell at MacArthur Park and presents a gift of culture called Jugaremos en Familia , or Play as a Family, to the residents of Pico-Union. With mariachi bands, marimba music, folk dancers and singers from throughout Latin American, he transforms the park into a stage for a community fiesta.

San Fernando's former police chief may have violated the law when he successfully sought to dismiss a congressional aide's traffic ticket last year, prosecutors concluded. The Los Angeles County district attorney ultimately decided not to charge the police official, Jeff Eley. But revelations in a district attorney's memo obtained by The Times add another chapter to the political soap opera in the small San Fernando Valley town that has been buffeted by scandal. County prosecutors said Eley, then the department's acting police chief, received a call on his cellphone from the aide within minutes of an officer issuing the ticket in November 2011.

When Ron House and Diz White created "El Grande de Coca Cola," they probably didn't realize how many royalties they'd rake in down through the years. This show is one of the audience-pleasers of all time. An evening of entertainment at the Cafe Hernandez, always guided over enthusiastically by the buoyant Senor Don Pepe Hernandez of the estimable Familia Hernandez, is tongue-in-cheek, but that tongue rarely gets in the way of the laughter. There is no plot.

Los Angeles Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores has urged the Harbor Department to negotiate a "more reasonable" lease for the merchant ship Lane Victory, after learning a proposed agreement was too expensive for the nonprofit group that has turned the vessel into a floating merchant marine museum. "I want the port to remember this is a nonprofit group . . . and that it brings some glory, some honor and some recognition to the port itself," she said.

Los Angeles Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores has urged the Harbor Department to negotiate a "more reasonable" lease for the merchant ship Lane Victory, after learning a proposed agreement was too expensive for the nonprofit group that has turned the vessel into a floating merchant marine museum. "I want the port to remember this is a nonprofit group . . . and that it brings some glory, some honor and some recognition to the port itself," she said.

At dawn, MacArthur Park belongs to the scavengers. First light brings hundreds of robins, gulls and blackbirds, swarming over the park grounds for scraps of sustenance. Trudging among them are dozens of human companions. Like the birds, the humans move with their heads lowered, scouring the earth. They are crack addicts and dealers, methodically searching for packets of rock cocaine dropped hours earlier during nightly police sweeps of the park.

At dawn, MacArthur Park belongs to the scavengers. First light brings hundreds of robins, gulls and blackbirds, swarming over the park grounds for scraps of sustenance. Trudging among them are dozens of human companions. Like the birds, the humans move with their heads lowered, scouring the earth. They are crack addicts and dealers, methodically searching for packets of rock cocaine dropped hours earlier during nightly police sweeps of the park.

Three federal agencies have decided to investigate the personnel practices of the South Coast Air Quality Management District in the wake of charges of job discrimination and reports of political espionage, including clandestine attempts to gather information on a key Orange County race, The Times has learned. The inquiries are based on sweeping complaints filed by the district's former affirmative action officer, Doris Wright, on behalf of nearly 180 minority employees.

Three federal agencies have decided to investigate the personnel practices of the South Coast Air Quality Management District in the wake of charges of job discrimination and reports of political espionage, The Times has learned. The inquiries are based on sweeping complaints filed by the district's former affirmative action officer, Doris Wright, on behalf of nearly 180 minority employees.