Investigative Reporting

Micky Payne throwing Mark Spratt over a handrail at a Riverside County jail. (Riverside County Sheriff’s Department)

In Riverside County jails, a rash of homicide and negligence

By Content Contributor

April 23, 2025 at 11:33 a.m.

The jails have had high murder rates and recurring security failures by inexperienced staff.

Huntington Park Mayor Karina Macias addresses an angry crowd about a corruption probe on Feb. 28, 2025 (Huntington Park video screengrab)

Embattled Huntington Park mayor vows stalled pool project will proceed despite corruption probe

By Scott Schwebke

March 5, 2025 at 4:41 p.m.

City attorney resigns during tense meeting following raids at the homes of Mayor Karina Macias...

Lucca van der Woude (left) competes in a high school water polo game for Newport Harbor in November of 2024.(Photo by John McCoy, Contributing Photographer)

Despite arrest, no-contact order, court admission, water polo star continues to compete and teach

By Scott M. Reid

March 27, 2025 at 12:11 p.m.

Newport Harbor transfer from Harvard-Westlake is an admitted sex offender, but authorities have allowed him...

How ‘pig butchering’ romance scams siphon millions from Californians every year

By Jason Henry

October 13, 2024 at 11:47 a.m.

The fast-growing, sophisticated romance con has destroyed families, erased plans for retirement and pushed some...

Lamps Plus will pay $4.1 million to settle civil complaint alleging the Chatsworth retailer engaged in false advertising and unfair competition. The company allegedly offered to price match products that were made only by Lamps Plus. (Photo courtesy of Google street view)

Lamps Plus to pay $4.1 million to settle false price-matching claims

By Pat Maio

October 10, 2024 at 3:49 p.m.

The Chatsworth company advertised a 120% price match guarantee without disclosing that it only applied...

This image from a Redlands police officer’s body camera shows Cpl. Martin Gonzalez having Mark Winters, 74, of Patagonia, Az., blow into a preliminary alcohol screening device, or PAS device, at a DUI checkpoint near Kingsbury Elementary School on Dec. 16, 2022. Winters, a retired Delta Airlines captain and Air Force veteran whose blood alcohol level was between five and seven times less than the legal limit of .08% at the time of his arrest, was charged with DUI and an enhancement for having a blood alcohol level of nearly twice the legal limit. Authorities misread Winters’ blood alcohol concentration numbers, and the case was dismissed a year after Winters’ arrest. In June, the city authorized a $150,000 settlement with Winters, who was threatening to sue the city.

Retired airline captain vindicated in baffling Redlands DUI arrest

By Joe Nelson

October 10, 2024 at 3:23 p.m.

Mark Winters, a retired airline pilot, was arrested at a DUI checkpoint in 2022 even...

Wreck of ‘Ghost Ship of the Pacific’ found off California

By New York Times

October 1, 2024 at 1:30 p.m.

Some 3,500 feet beneath the surface, an apparition popped up on a robots' powerful sonar....

Rialto School Board member Evelyn P. Dominguez, present during a board meeting at the Rialto United School District, Wednesday, in Rialto, Ca., November 15, 2023. (Contributing Photographer/John Valenzuela)

Did Rialto Unified board member Evelyn Dominguez harass employees, stiff a vendor?

By Beau Yarbrough

August 14, 2024 at 4:45 p.m.

The first-term board member ran unopposed in November 2022.

Zaynab Joseph fell 140 feet to her death from an Arizona hiking trail. Police are trying to unravel the mystery of what she and her baby were doing on such a difficult trail and how she went over the ledge. (Photos courtesy of Hassanayn Joseph)

Police try to unravel mysterious death of Huntington Beach woman on Arizona hiking trail

By Tony Saavedra

July 26, 2024 at 11:17 a.m.

Zaynab Joseph, a novice hiker, fell 140 feet to her death during a trek with...

Optum Rx is one of several pharmacy benefit managers named in a federal report blasting the companies for raising prices and squeezing out independent pharmacies. (Evan Ramstad/Minneapolis Star Tribune/TNS)

FTC slams pharmacy benefit managers CVS, Cigna, UnitedHealth for high drug prices

By Bloomberg

July 9, 2024 at 1:00 p.m.

Years of dealmaking have created much larger enterprises the FTC says exert “significant control" over...

This Jan. 24, 2016 staff file photo shows inmates at the Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall in Sylmar, California.

Pepper spray still used every day in LA County juvenile halls, despite supervisors’ orders to stop

By Jason Henry

July 10, 2024 at 5:14 p.m.

Weeks after the chemical irritant was banned at Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall, probation officials brought...

Santa Monica-based Snap Inc., the owner of the Snapchat social media platform, will pay $15 million to resolve a state investigation into allegations of discrimination, harassment and retaliation against women at the company, state officials said today. (AP File Photo/Richard Drew, file)

Snap in Santa Monica paying $15 million to settle harassment allegations

By City News Service

June 19, 2024 at 3:41 p.m.

The fine, if approved, ends a three-year probe of allegations of discrimination, sexual advances and...

Fontana’s widely condemned interrogation helps fuel efforts to stop police from lying

By Tony Saavedra

June 14, 2024 at 4:56 p.m.

California is shifting to police interrogation training based on empathy and honesty rather than deceptive...