Palm Trees

When Santa Monica publicist Kevinie Woo got the word of a looming shortage, "at first I was a little bit panicked. " The product in question: yoga pants. But not just any yoga pants. Lululemon Athletica Inc., the purveyor of pricey athletic wear, is warning of a squeezed supply of its signature black yoga pants, form-fitting women's garments that have developed an almost cult-like following nationwide. The news came after the company announced it would be recalling thousands of pairs from store shelves because of a manufacturing defect.

Sam Michel was in love with Los Angeles. Born and raised on the East Coast, he felt he fit best on the West. He lived for music, hunting down strange videos and tinkering with broken-down objects. L.A., he thought, would let him grow as an artist, free to explore without stricture. He came to CalArts to study photography, but he wasn't one to stay on the path. For his senior project, which was photo-less, he improvised on a piano in a public gallery and built an art installation in which casts of his arms held a backyard hot tub in the air. After graduation, he went home to South Salem, N.Y. But L.A. kept tugging.

Our city of Los Angeles is a very beautiful city, and I am always very proud to show visitors around. One reason that makes L.A. so beautiful is our trees, tree-lined streets and avenues. Not only do our trees give our city wonderful (vistas), they help combat our smoggy environment. Therefore, it is with extreme anger I write! Throughout our city, a cable company is hanging a cable, several feet below existing wires, using existing telephone poles. In hanging this cable, the company is beheading our palm trees.

When Santa Monica publicist Kevinie Woo got the word of a looming shortage, "at first I was a little bit panicked. " The product in question: yoga pants. But not just any yoga pants. Lululemon Athletica Inc., the purveyor of pricey athletic wear, is warning of a squeezed supply of its signature black yoga pants, form-fitting women's garments that have developed an almost cult-like following nationwide. The news came after the company announced it would be recalling thousands of pairs from store shelves because of a manufacturing defect.

Work began this week to trim decaying palm trees in Capistrano Beach. About 55 of the 275 palm trees in the area have been diagnosed with Fusarium Wilt fungus, an incurable disease. Over the next six weeks, those trees and 40 other healthy palms will be trimmed. The main streets where trimming will occur are Calle Fortuna, Avenida Las Palmas and Palisades Drive. Residents will receive notices regarding the project before work begins on their streets. Information: (714) 248-3596.

The government is trying to halt an alarming decline in palm trees on the Persian Gulf island state in recent decades, a government official says. Sheik Mohammed ibn Abdul-Wahab al Khalifa, director of research for the Ministry of Commerce and Agriculture, said Thursday that in the past 30 to 40 years the number of Bahrain's palm trees has dwindled from about 1 million to a little more than 250,000.

More than 900 palm trees at four Westside beaches will be trimmed in August, Supervisor Deane Dana said last week. Contract bids will be opened May 6 for the work on 110 palms at Zuma Beach, 190 at Will Rogers Beach, 315 at Venice Beach and 300 at Dockweiler Beach.

An abundance of palm trees on the Nobel Middle School campus in Northridge has left the school a little bit richer and a little less green. After a number of tall palm trees began to obstruct views of buildings and caused school administrators to worry about them possibly falling on school buses, Nobel's Leadership Council voted to sell the trees.

It may be bad or it may be a blessing that a bunch of palm trees are dying in Capistrano Beach ("Palm Tree Plan Axed to Dismay of Homeowners," Feb. 19). But one thing is for sure, and that is that their mayor is showing a lot of common sense in not wanting to spend about $100,000 of taxpayer money to replace 12 trees in just one neighborhood. It's too bad more government people can't demonstrate such care with the taxpayers' dollars. On the other hand, it was all too typical to read in the same article that a representative of a Capistrano community association who wanted the city to spend the money is quoted as saying, "Now we just don't know what we are going to do."

The Ventura Parks and Recreation Commission will decide tonight whether to plant nine palm trees on the north side of Marina Park, a move that neighbors are protesting because they say it will block their ocean views. The city of Ventura had planned to put in 67 Mexican fan palm trees in July as part of a $258,000 improvement of the 14-acre park, but angry residents managed to temporarily halt the project.

Jonathan Grahm, the owner of Compartés Chocolatier in Brentwood, is just back from a whirlwind pre-Valentine's Day tour of Japan, where 100 Compartés pop-up shops opened for the holiday in Tokyo, Osaka, Yokohama, Hiroshima, Nagoya and Kobe. Grahm's face has been plastered on billboards, little old ladies in kimonos vied for his autograph, designers wanted his chocolates to coordinate with their products (underwear, for example) and fans showered him with gifts (such as a Mickey Mouse action figure)

The new $45-million concourse at Long Beach Airport has opened its doors, giving passengers their first look at a project 10 years in the making. Scores of travelers - arriving and departing - made their way Wednesday morning through the 35,000-square-foot eco-friendly structure, with its rows of palm trees and native plants in an open courtyard. The new terminal is also equipped with a fire pit and lounge chairs. The food area inside the northern concourse offers samples from Long Beach restaurants.

Vin Scully has been a Dodgers broadcaster since 1950, when the team was in Brooklyn. The current players have grown up listening to his unique voice and many even recall the first time  they heard the broadcasting legend say their name. In the video above, the players talk to The Times about what Scully means to the team - and America. Said Andre Ethier: "Just to hear him talk in person gives you chills every once in a while. " Said Adam Kennedy: "Vin Scully to me is not just California baseball, but baseball in general.

Perhaps the biggest surprise as the Oscar nominations were announced was the inclusion of a name familiar to few American audiences. As those early morning viewers waited to hear the expected announcement of Leonardo DiCaprio, they heard instead the name Demian Bichir. But the inclusion was baffling only to those who haven't seen his performance in"A Better Life. " As Carlos Galindo, an undocumented Mexican gardener desperate to achieve some tiny slice of the American dream for his son, Bichir gives poignant life to an invisible man. He's famous in his home country of Mexico, with dozens of film and stage credits to his name.

Return to David L. Ulin's review of this essay. PARADISE I shall attempt, in this piece, an appraisal of the civilization of Southern California, but it occurs to me that before I begin I had better give you some idea what the place looks like. If you are like myself before I came here, you have formed, from Sunkist ads, newsreels, movie magazines, railroad folders, and so on, a somewhat false picture of it, and you will have to get rid of this before you can understand what I am trying to say. Wash out, then, the "land of sunshine, fruit, and flowers": all these are here, but not with the lush, verdant fragrance that you have probably imagined.

Welcome to the City of Fallen Angels, Mike Brown. On behalf of the Welcome Wagon of Los Angeles, we'd like to offer up this basket of oranges while urging you never to eat anything you buy from folks standing at a traffic light. Buy it, just don't eat it. Better yet, send it to the Spurs. You have landed in a very special place, a town that really embraces outsiders. John Wooden was from Indiana. Tommy Lasorda, Pennsylvania. Heck, even our teams are from somewhere else. Minnesota.

The government is trying to halt an alarming decline in palm trees on the Persian Gulf island state in recent decades, a government official says. Sheik Mohammed bin Abdul-Wahab al Khalifa, director of research for the Ministry of Commerce and Agriculture, said last week that in the last 30 to 40 years the number of Bahrain's palm trees has dwindled from about 1 million to a little more than 250,000. Mohammed, a U.S.

Felony arson charges were filed Wednesday against a Riverside man in connection with several palm tree and vegetation fires, officials said. Michael Espalin, 41, faces 41 charges. If convicted on all counts, prosecutors said, he could be sentenced to 60 years in prison. Authorities say Espalin burned palm trees and other vegetation in Riverside during a seven-month stretch from May to December of 2004. The palm tree fires were roaring and explosive, prosecutors said.

I'm on the city's surface streets, heading from downtown to Hollywood. Only a few cars share the road. I don't bother to pull onto the 101. Because it's not there. No, this isn't 3 a.m., or the apocalypse. It's L.A. Noire, the latest interactive world from Rockstar Games. In a dark suite at the Roosevelt Hotel, I'm test-driving this single-player detective thriller set in 1947 Los Angeles. Launching May 17, the graphic procedural takes place before Miranda rights and DNA testing.

Javier Prado marks his turf with a plastic folding chair. Ramon Alvarez guards a concrete bench. Efren Castellanos, the one they call La Hormiga ("the Ant"), brazenly goes wherever he pleases. He should, he argues. He's been here the longest. "Just let them try and tell me something," he says. "I've earned my spot." The Polaroid photographers of MacArthur Park are old-timers, the last of a dying breed. They've been sparring under the palm trees now for nearly 40 years.