NEWS
May 7, 2013 | By Mary Forgione, Los Angeles Times Daily Deal and Travel Blogger
Campgrounds and trails remain closed at Point Mugu State Park in the Santa Monica Mountains after the Springs fire last week cut a blazing path from Newbury Park to Pacific Coast Highway. The 28,000-acre wildfire is expected to be fully contained as soon as Tuesday afternoon. Popular campgrounds at Sycamore Cove and Thornhill Broome Beach, accessed by Pacific Coast Highway, are to be closed until later in May, officials said. ReserveAmerica , the service that handles campground reservations, has been informing campers who had booked sites about the closure and refunding their money.
NEWS
April 25, 2013 | By Karin Klein
The California state parks system is pretty clueless about parking -- which, strange to say, is kind of an important issue for it these days because it's how we pay to get in and how it gets a lot of its money. Much of the time, at many of the parks, there's no one around to collect parking fees and no iron ranger for visitors to pay. At the same time, the fees for entering the most popular of the parks have reached the stage -- $10 to $15 a day -- at which repeat visits get a little painful to the wallet.
OPINION
March 28, 2013
Re "State urged to give up some parks," March 26 The public and its elected and appointed representatives should be very cautious about relinquishing control or ownership of California's state parks to other groups or agencies, as recommended by a government oversight group. The parks are part of our common heritage; they belong to the people. What guarantees are there that cities, counties, regional agencies or other organizations can manage the state parks better? Maybe with renewed attention and interest from the governor and others, the state itself can do a better job. Daniel Fink Beverly Hills Until the California Department of Parks and Recreation ceases to be primarily a law enforcement agency, no real change can occur.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
March 25, 2013 | By Chris Megerian
SACRAMENTO -- California's park system has been marred by management problems that run much deeper than an accounting scandal revealed last year, according to a new report released by a government oversight agency on Monday morning. The problems have resulted in an ossified parks department that needs to cede control of scores of natural and historic sites, the report says. If changes aren't made, parks will probably have to close. The study is the result of a yearlong examination by the nonpartisan Little Hoover Commission, which advises lawmakers on policy issues.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
March 16, 2013 | By Louis Sahagun, Los Angeles Times
BORREGO SPRINGS, Calif. - Locals call it "The Miracle of March. " If spring rains and temperatures are just right, the forbidding mountains and parched badlands here are transformed into dazzling panoramas of wildflowers that draw thousands of tourists. The crowds provide a major boost to Borrego Springs, a community of about 3,500 permanent residents in the heart of 640,000-acre Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. When blossoms abound - every five to seven years or so - visitors spend freely on gasoline, groceries, souvenirs, sun hats and cold drinks as they seek directions to "flower hot spots.
ENTERTAINMENT
March 7, 2013
Like a snippet of a hit song in one of their fast-moving disc jockey sets, the dance-music megastars of Swedish House Mafia are leaving us almost as soon as they arrived. The Stockholm trio — which started affecting Top 40 charts in 2010 with the Pharrell Williams collaboration "One" — will launch its so-called One Last Tour, a global trek scheduled to play the 35,000-capacity Los Angeles State Historic Park next March. You can understand the group's early retirement as a going-out-on-top maneuver.