South Los Angeles

A radio news reporter for KPFK-FM in Studio City was shot to death execution-style in South Los Angeles, Los Angeles Police Department homicide detectives said Monday. The body of Michael Taylor, 45, of Los Angeles, was found last Tuesday in a vacant lot off South Victoria Avenue, said Det. Alex Moreno of the LAPD's South Bureau. Residents of the area heard gun shots near the railroad tracks there about 1:30 a.m. and called police, he said.

They weren't necessarily famous--they didn't usually burst onto our television screens or grab headlines in the morning paper--but still they shaped Los Angeles. They changed the way we thought about our world. They entertained us, or inspired us. They achieved financial success, then donated their money to our hospitals, our schools or our libraries. When they passed on, they left their mark. What follows is a sampling, a brief memorial to just a few who died in 1996: * Irving P.

Yvonne Brathwaite Burke's life has been full of triumphs against tough odds--including her 1992 election to the County Board of Supervisors by a margin of 0.6 of a percentage point. As she runs for reelection March 26, the odds this time are entirely in her favor: She is running unopposed. The 2nd District supervisor is seeking reelection with $760,000 raised in the last year, a war chest that scared off prospective opponents.

The potential hazards of a major sewer line planned underneath Southwest Los Angeles have sparked neighborhood concern about the effect that noise, air pollution and gas odors will have on residences and schools. Some residents fear their communities will become "the stinkpot capital of the world" during the 2 1/2 years of construction, said one opponent, Minnie Sweet-Goings, who lives in the community of Baldwin Village near Baldwin Hills.

Yvonne Brathwaite Burke's life has been full of triumphs against tough odds--including her 1992 election to county Board of Supervisors by a margin of 0.6 of a percentage point. As she runs for reelection March 26, the odds this time are entirely in her favor: She is running unopposed. The 2nd District supervisor is seeking reelection with $760,000 raised in the last year, a war chest that scared off prospective opponents.

Amid the decay of a derelict factory, a small group of community and business leaders gathered in September 1993 to announce one of the largest post-riot efforts to funnel jobs and investment into south Los Angeles. The fledgling Neighborhood Beverage Co. pledged $28 million to reopen the former Seven-Up bottling plant on Alameda Street, south of downtown Los Angeles, and hire as many as 250 residents from the neighboring Pueblo del Rio housing project.

Julia Simmons, leader of a neighborhood organization that won Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan's support in its failed but vigorous fight to stop a mixed-use development in South Los Angeles, has been nominated by the mayor for a seat on a city's Board of Library Commissioners. If confirmed by the City Council, she will fill a vacancy for a term ending June 30, 1997.

African American community activists from South Los Angeles on Monday demanded a formal apology from teachers union President Helen Bernstein for describing their local school board representative as a "racist bitch."

The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday received a $100,000 grant to fund a special Los Angeles Police Department unit that will crack down on the profusion of problem liquor outlets in the northeast San Fernando Valley.