- Reporter's Notebook: The MTA's Exposition Rail Line
For years, there's been heated dispute over the need for a rail line from downtown to Santa Monica--along Wilshire Boulevard through Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Century City and Westwood. It turns out that the Metropolitan Transit Authority has plans for a train to the beach and construction could start early next year, but the route will be different, as we hear from Martha Groves, who's been covering developments for the LA Times.
Will Disasters Unite Divided Communities in Los Angeles?
Immigrants from other parts of the world often reflect political and economic divisions in the places they come from, but when disasters occur in their home countries, grievances are often forgotten--at least for the moment. Two such disasters struck late last week. Saturday's 7.6 earthquake, which hit the Kashmir section of Pakistan, has killed between 30,000 and 40,000 and may have left millions homeless. Also late last week, Hurricane Stan brought torrential rains to the slopes of a volcano in Guatemala. Mudslides hundreds of yards long have buried whole towns under 15 to 20 feet of mud, rocks and trees. In many places, Maya villagers have given up hope and the government gave the go ahead to their designation as mass cemeteries on hallowed ground. We look at the local impact of Pakistan's massive earthquake and the Hurricane in Guatemala.