Nevertheless, a number of different tales made the record, together with two notable faith-focused tales, how Cesar Galan joined the priesthood after belonging to a violent L.A. avenue gang and the way the hosts of a well-liked evangelical podcast referred to as “Girls Gone Bible” have grow to be unlikely non secular authorities.
To look again on the various tales that outlined this 12 months, we compiled our most-visited protection into three classes: The articles that attracted the very best variety of readers, the tales our viewers spent the longest time studying (most of them are accompanied by audio) and the most well-liked tales that solely our subscribers get to learn.
Most-read tales | Deep reads | Subscribers’ favorites
Most-read tales
(ranked by total variety of visits)
1
The Occasions printed numerous dwell blogs, tales, investigations and have items associated to the catastrophic January fires that blazed via hundreds of acres, killed 31, compelled the evacuation of roughly 100,000 individuals and destroyed greater than 16,000 buildings.
These tales, undoubtedly, acquired the very best variety of visits, because the Eaton and Palisades fires introduced disruption, displacement and uncertainty throughout the town.
Residents acquired defective emergency alerts, exposing early on the systemic failures in preparedness, evacuation protocols and emergency response. The Occasions reviewed the aftermath of L.A.’s double catastrophe to name metropolis and county officers to account, reveal important gaps and make the case for making certain that we’ll be higher ready subsequent time.
2
What we learn about Nick’s habit battle and the hours earlier than the director and his spouse have been killed.
3
A large earthquake of magnitude 8.8 in Russia introduced tsunami alerts to a large swath of the Pacific. After the tsunami waves arrived in California, advisories have been downgraded and canceled for a lot of the state. Southern California noticed solely modest waves and the very best tsunami waves reported on state shores peaked round 4 ft in Crescent Metropolis, about 20 miles from the Oregon border, the place a dock was broken. For the way monstrous the earthquake was, why was there so little injury?
4
In September, detectives found a woman’s badly decomposed stays in an deserted Tesla registered to rising singer D4vd at a Hollywood tow yard. Authorities recognized the stays as these of 15-year-old Celeste Rivas, an Inland Empire resident who was reported lacking in April 2024. In keeping with courtroom paperwork reviewed by The Occasions, the LAPD is now investigating Rivas’ dying as a murder.
5
The fifth-most learn story of the 12 months was these pertaining to the June immigration raids and protests in L.A. On June 6, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement brokers carried out a collection of immigration sweeps, together with two downtown that sparked a tense standoff. Within the following days, immigration brokers and protesters clashed throughout L.A. In a present of drive, President Trump despatched 2,000 California Nationwide Guard troops to the town, marking the primary time in 60 years {that a} president had deployed a state’s Nationwide Guard with out a request from that state’s governor.
6
Almost a 12 months later, residents and specialists are inspecting the weaknesses of L.A.’s water techniques and are calling to revamp Southern California’s water infrastructure.
Additionally broadly learn: State to probe why Pacific Palisades reservoir was offline, empty when firestorm exploded
7
Seven-month-old Emmanuel Haro disappeared on Aug. 14 after his mom, Rebecca Haro, stated she was assaulted by an unknown man in a sporting items retailer’s parking zone and was rendered unconscious. The lacking child’s mother advised investigators that when she awoke, her son was gone. Greater than per week later, child Emmanuel’s mother and father have been arrested on suspicion of homicide.
8
In late January, after President Trump stated on social media that the U.S. army had “entered” California and “TURNED ON THE WATER,” the U.S. Military Corps of Engineers dramatically elevated the quantity of water flowing from two dams in Tulare County. In a go to to L.A. the earlier week, Trump had additionally vowed to “open up the valves and pumps” in California to ship extra water. Native water managers have been caught off-guard by the choice, however they stated they satisfied Military Corps officers to launch much less water than initially deliberate.
9
Every week after the Palisades fireplace started, a number of areas reopened to residents as officers continued to analyze the reason for the wildfire. Officers targeted their efforts on a well-liked climbing path that reveals the well-known Cranium Rock and views of the Pacific Ocean. The overall space was the positioning of a small fireplace on New Yr’s Eve that burned for a couple of hours earlier than fireplace officers stated they extinguished it.
In October, authorities supplied an in depth timeline about what they allege induced the fireplace: The Jan. 1 blaze, now referred to as the Lachman fireplace, rekindled to grow to be the Palisades fireplace days later. In addition they concurrently introduced the arrest of a 29-year-old man whom they suspected of setting the preliminary fireplace on New Yr’s Eve. He has now been charged with intentionally setting the Lachman fireplace.
A Occasions investigation later discovered that firefighters have been ordered to go away the smoldering burn website, as a substitute of monitoring the burn space for reignitions.
10
Over the primary weekend of the January fires, firefighters have been in a position make progress with the assistance of calmer winds and better humidity. As a fleet of plane labored to stop the Palisades fireplace from scorching properties in Brentwood and Encino, officers warned that Santa Ana gusts have been anticipated to select up once more the next week and cautioned the general public to remain on alert.
Most-read tales | Deep reads | Subscribers’ favorites
Deep reads
(ranked by common time spent on the web page)
1
That is the story of Father Cesar Galan, a chaplain at St. Francis Medical Heart, who skilled the bottom second of his life and located the grace to vary within the very hospital wherein he now listens to sufferers’ fears, prays with them and presents to listen to their confessions if they’re Catholic. Galan grew up within the coronary heart of Chivas and belonged to its avenue gang till a bullet spun him right down to the bottom on his abdomen.
2
For Alejandro Sánchez, reclaiming a gold mine in Mexico, which was taken over by the sons of the drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, was greater than a enterprise proposition. It was a reckoning along with his previous.
For years, Sánchez had labored to revive the mine, encountering corrupt officers and cartel operatives who demanded hefty bribes. He as soon as needed to dive for canopy throughout a firefight. However now he was near resuming operations on the mine with deposits value billions.
Why did the billion-dollar mine matter a lot to Sánchez and was he in a position to reckon along with his previous and reclaim the billion-dollar mine?
3
Angela Halili and Arielle Reitsma are finest buddies who each have a background in modeling and appearing. Almost each week for the final two years, the 2 have shared heart-to-hearts which can be on the core of “Girls Gone Bible,” their faith-based podcast they launched in 2023. The evangelical podcast now has thousands and thousands of listeners and consequently, Halili and Reitsma have constructed a two-microphone megachurch. They’ve gone on a nationwide dwell tour and prayed at President Trump’s pre-inauguration rally.
The co-hosts of this podcast that tops non secular charts on Spotify predict {that a} Southern Californian Christian revival is coming.
4
Occasions workers author Christopher Goffard revists outdated crimes in L.A. and past, from the well-known to the forgotten, in his collection “Crimes of The Times.” On this installment of the collection, Goffard examined the 1968 assassination of Robert F. Kennedy in California, after the Trump administration launched a cache of categorized information.
Convicted gunman Sirhan Sirhan’s present legal professional, Angela Berry, stated a workforce of researchers is combing the information for brand spanking new proof. Have they been capable of finding something of use?
5
Because the Eaton fireplace devastated components of the San Gabriel Valley, Santa Anita Park stepped up and fulfilled its function as a neighborhood citizen. Though the 80-year-old monitor was unaffected by the fires and the air high quality was properly inside the vary for secure racing, the park canceled racing the primary week after the fires and opened up its expansive area for use as a middle for donation assortment and distribution amongst different charitable gestures.
However horse racing is a long time previous the times when spectators lined as much as watch the game. As attendance continues to say no from what it was years in the past, many battle with the unfathomable concept that the monitor could quickly shut or be bought.
6
That is the story of Jerardyn, a 40-year-old refugee from Venezuela, who on the top of the immigration raids and protests in Southern California, confronted a painful choice: After getting into the USA final 12 months together with her household in hopes of acquiring asylum, Jerardyn would migrate once more, this time, voluntarily.
7
Authorities initially dominated the 2023 dying of 18-year-old Amelia Salehpour an open-and-shut case of unintended overdose. The health worker’s workplace agreed, deciding towards a extra thorough post-mortem. However Salehpour’s household was unconvinced. They employed a high-end investigative agency that uncovered proof that Amelia was being groomed for intercourse work, that she was strangled to dying and that her dying had been made to appear like an overdose.
The contradictory findings have since triggered inside battle amongst L.A. County prosecutors and detectives from the LAPD’s murder and narcotics models.
8
From Andrew Garfield to Zendaya, Daniel Craig and Demi Moore, Hollywood’s largest stars dressed to impress on the 82nd Golden Globe Awards.
Additionally broadly learn: Oscars purple carpet 2025: Ariana Grande, Mikey Madison and all one of the best seems to be
9
Since L.A. skilled its first wide-scale homelessness throughout the Nice Melancholy and the housing crunch after World Battle II, it has suffered persistent homelessness. Former Occasions workers writers Mitchell Landsberg and Gale Holland explored the important thing occasions and insurance policies that formed L.A. to grow to be the homeless capital of the U.S.
10
In April 2024, USC employed a brand new coach for its males’s basketball program. USC athletic director Jennifer Cohen declared the day Eric Musselman was launched as a “transformational day for USC men’s basketball.” Virtually a 12 months later, in March, Occasions USC beat author Ryan Kartje joined Musselman towards the tip of a tough first season.
Most-read tales | Deep reads | Subscribers’ favorites
Subscribers’ favorites
(subscriber-exclusive tales ranked by variety of visits)
1
A brand new California housing invoice, which took impact July 1, has modified the best way owners associations are allowed to self-discipline owners. The modifications got here simply in time for Jinah Kim, who was set to be fined as much as $500 per day for fixing a doorway inside her apartment although her owners affiliation stated she couldn’t. Below the brand new guidelines, she now owes solely $100.
Will the brand new guidelines permit owners to get away with issues they shouldn’t and abuse neighborhood guidelines?
2
In July, discuss present host Phil McGraw’s TV community, Benefit Road Media, which launched final 12 months, filed for chapter safety from collectors and sued its distribution accomplice, Trinity Broadcasting Community. Throughout an almost three-hour listening to in Dallas in October, U.S. Chapter Decide Scott Everett stated that he’d “never seen a case” just like the Chapter 11 submitting Dr. Phil’s firm was making an attempt.
How did the genial celeb psychologist’s media community crash?
3
Coming into the job market is usually a traumatic endeavor for brand spanking new graduates and for a contemporary era of scholars behind them who’re making ready to begin their faculty journeys. The unemployment price for current faculty graduates is at its highest nationwide since 2021. What are the lowest- and highest-paying majors based on a Federal Reserve Financial institution of New York report?
4
This investigation was so in style, it additionally landed on our record of deep reads.
5
Yearly for the final 13 years, The Occasions has printed its important information to L.A.’s eating scene. This 12 months, Occasions restaurant critic Invoice Addison took the problem additional and spent months journeying California to seek out one of the best eating places that depict the state’s eclectic meals scene precisely. As a substitute of rating the eating places that make the Golden State, in Addison’s phrases, a “culinary juggernaut,” the record, which is just a starting, presents a glimpse into the cultures and diversities that make up California. Begin consuming!
Additionally broadly learn: These are the 101 finest eating places in Los Angeles
6
That is the grisly story of Patrice Miller, 71, who was discovered useless together with her proper leg and left arm partially gnawed off in her kitchen and whose post-mortem decided, officers stated, that she had in all probability been killed by an animal after it broke into her dwelling. Miller’s dying marked the primary recognized occasion in California historical past of a deadly bear assault on a human and has sparked more and more heated battles round predators within the state.
What options are lawmakers representing conservative rural districts within the state’s rugged northern reaches pushing ahead? Would measures to chase away California’s predators enhance security?
7
Tulsa Distant is a program that pays distant staff to relocate to Oklahoma’s second-largest metropolis for no less than a 12 months. Since its inception in 2019, this system has attracted greater than 3,600 distant staff. Greater than 7,800 Californians have utilized to this system and 539 have made the transfer.
Why are Californians transferring to Tulsa via this system, cementing California because the second-most in style origin state behind Texas?
8
In a newer version of the “Crimes of the Times” collection, Goffard writes a few 50-year-old West Virginia man, Alex Baber, who dropped out of highschool and taught himself codebreaking. Baber now says he has cracked the Zodiac killer’s id, and within the course of solved the Black Dahlia case as properly.
9
This collection attracted a excessive variety of readers and likewise landed on our record of deep reads.
10
Synthetic intelligence’s coding capabilities and instruments are quickly advancing, making skilled engineers extra productive. However these enhancements now outpace entry-level programmers, making job prospects for early-career software program engineers harder to seek out.”We don’t want the junior builders anymore,” stated Amr Awadallah, chief govt of Vectara, a Palo Alto-based AI startup. “The AI now can code better than the average junior developer that comes out of the best schools out there.”
