A Los Angeles protester whose testicle exploded when an LAPD officer shot him with a hard-foam projectile during a street demonstration in 2020 has received a $1.5 million settlement from the city.

latimes.com/california/sto…

Welp. After laying off the editorial staff of VICE, a 'venture operator' called Savage Ventures is resurrecting its big verticals—Motherboard, Noisey, Munchies etc—presumably with part-time contractors. Or even, judging by a quick look at Savage's offerings, AI-generated content

I know DEA just said it would reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug.

So why does their latest drug threat report, out today, devote 6 pages highlighting public safety risks from weed? By contrast, only 2 pages to cocaine despite a spike in ODs. dea.gov/press-releases…

Meanwhile, most reporters and nonfiction writers are gripped by what Maurice Chammah🍹🎻 calls 'the error terrors': staring at the ceiling at 3 a.m. right before a story comes out, agonizing over whether you made the teeniest, tiniest mistake

Woo! Keri Blakinger is The Pulitzer Prizes finalist 'for her insightful, humane portrait, reported with great difficulty, of men on Death Row in Texas who play clandestine games of 'Dungeons & Dragons,' countering their extreme isolation with elaborate fantasy' !!!

themarshallproject.org/2023/08/31/dun…

BREAKING: In a historic shift, the U.S. moves to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug, AP sources say. apnews.com/article/mariju…

A federal judge in New York has sentenced a former DEA supervisor to four years in federal prison for leaking intelligence to defense lawyers in a $100K bribery scheme

'Costanzo acted purely out of greed,' prosecutors said.

W/ Jim Mustian @lneumeister
apnews.com/article/dea-co…

so... the feds are closing the prison bc the employees won't stop abusing the women but also... 'no employees will lose their jobs' apnews.com/article/federa…

Hundreds of thousands of court hearings in California are being held without any precise record of what occurred - undercutting litigants' legal rights in high-stakes cases including domestic violence restraining orders and child custody disputes.

latimes.com/california/sto…

Video shows L.A. probation officers letting group beat teen one at a time in Los Padrinos juvenile hall.

Some officers appear to laugh and smile during the assault

w/ James Queally

latimes.com/california/sto…

Stop what you’re doing and read this, this is ABSOLUTELY FUCKING WILD

Wild new James Queally Scientology story:

In a speech last fall, L.A. County Deputy Dist. Atty. Reinhold Mueller delivered remarks that contained allegations nearly identical to those from the lawsuit, according to a video reviewed by The Times.

latimes.com/california/sto…

'In one of the largest cash heists in Los Angeles history, thieves made off with as much as $30 million in an Easter Sunday burglary at a San Fernando Valley money storage facility…'

latimes.com/california/sto… via Richard Winton

NEW: Following a 3-year investigation by the state DOJ, sources say LASD seems headed toward a settlement agreement after findings recommending deputies curtail traffic stops, stop enforcing some drug laws and complete 100s more hours of training. latimes.com/california/sto…

During the Danny Masterson trial, a prosecutor says he was nearly 'run off the road' and reported an attempted break-in. Detectives say they were harassed. Did Scientology try to 'derail' the case, as one lawsuit claims? My latest investigation Los Angeles Times: latimes.com/california/sto…

Another week, another case of US weapons being trafficked to cartels in Mexico. This one involves:

-AR-15s and rocket-propelled grenade launchers
-40 AM-15 multi-caliber firearms
-Mac-10-type machine gun w/ a silencer

justice.gov/usao-mdfl/pr/g…

.Connor Sheets and I dug into Ippei Mizuhara, Shohai Ohtani's former interpreter who's been accused of stealing $4.5 million. It's a strange one -- big parts of his public biography are either difficult to confirm or outright false. latimes.com/california/sto…

The baseball star went into his first conversation w/ federal investigators assured he was “not a target.”

Now, he's staring down two federal charges.

My latest: Shohei Ohtani says he’s cooperating w/ investigators. Yasiel Puig offers a cautionary tale:

latimes.com/california/sto…