Column One

Most recent stories in Column One

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  Los Angeles Times

  

  1 day ago

  France’s wildfire nightmare echoes California’s hard lessons on building in the woods

  Los Angeles Times - Michael Finnegan

  LE PORGE, France — A monster fire-induced thundercloud towered over Bordeaux this summer, the first time firefighters had ever seen this type of ominous smoke-and-lightning weather system in France. The wildfire that produced it drove more than 200,000 people to evacuate in July and tore through 162 …

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  Los Angeles Times

  

  Flying for El Chapo’s sons: The rise and fall of a mysterious cartel pilot

  Los Angeles Times - Keegan Hamilton

  On a July afternoon in 2024, a private plane carrying three men from Mexico touched down at a small airport a few miles west of El Paso. Federal agents were waiting on the tarmac to greet them, handcuffs at the ready. The first to disembark was Joaquín Guzmán López, a son of the infamous Sinaloa …

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  Los Angeles Times

  

  Inside the bitter war over cows and wilderness at Point Reyes

  Los Angeles Times - Susanne Rust

  POINT REYES NATIONAL SEASHORE — For nearly 60 years, warring camps have battled one another for the soul of a wind-swept peninsula with breathtaking hills, rugged cliffs, granite outcroppings, oak forests and wide expanses of pasture land and beach. Jutting off the coastline like an upside-down ice …

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  Los Angeles Times

  

  How Colorado became the unlikely epicenter of American yak ranching

  Los Angeles Times - David Kelly

  RIDGWAY, Colorado — Namgyal Sherpa speaks yak. So when a calf disappeared into the tall grass recently, he roamed among the herd making low, rumbling grunts. Then a few higher-pitched calls. There was a rustle and a flash of black. A youngster sprang from the grass, running toward its mother, draped …

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  Los Angeles Times

  

  They started playing L.A. Municipal softball 50 years ago. They’re still at it

  Los Angeles Times - Christopher Buchanan

  As Al Michel and Mike Sugerman tell it, the first rendition of their L.A. softball team was overflowing with “geeks,” “nerds” and “goofs.” So they took a name straight out of National Lampoon, a humor magazine that featured “Doc Feeney’s Scrapbook of Sports Oddities,” showing outfielders making …

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  Los Angeles Times

  

  Killing of vigilante hero in Mexico leaves his wife with an agonizing choice

  Los Angeles Times - Kate Linthicum

  URUAPAN, Mexico — Grecia Quiroz sometimes felt as if she were married to a superhero. Most nights, after her husband, Carlos Manzo, tucked their small sons into bed, he donned a bullet-resistant vest, made the sign of the cross and strode out into the night. The mayor of Uruapan, the capital of …