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California

Ask a Reporter: Erika Smith and Ben Oreskes on covering California

Ask a Reporter is the L.A. Times' weekly live chat with a reporter.
(Los Angeles Times)
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Columnist Erika Smith and reporter Ben Oreskes will be live on video Tuesday to answer your questions about their work writing about California.

Erika and Ben will be live on Twitter and Facebook to answer your questions about their work, what it’s like to report on California’s biggest issues like social justice and homelessness, and how their jobs have changed with the coronavirus pandemic.

Visit our Twitter profile and Facebook page to share your questions ahead of time and to sign up to receive an alert when the video begins. You may also leave your questions for Erika and Ben in the comments at the bottom of this article.

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Here are some recent columns by Erika:

PALMDALE, CA - JUNE 15: People gather at a memorial under a tree for Robert Fuller in Poncitlan Square next to Palmdale City Hall where Fuller, a young black man was found hung last week. Nearby protestors are stationed at the doors to Palmdale City Hall which remain closed Monday morning with protestors stationed at each entry door with a sit-in at Palmdale City Hall as organizers demand justice for Robert Fuller, the young black man who was found hung in Poncitlan Square last week. The group is seeking more information on Fuller's case, including the release of the 911 call and the autopsy report. Palmdale City Hall on Monday, June 15, 2020 in Palmdale, CA. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

California

Column: All the stupid excuses for not investigating hangings of Black men in the high desert

With the hangings of Black men Malcolm Harsch and Robert Fuller, law enforcement has been inexcusably slow to investigate. ‘No evidence’ is no excuse.

June 18, 2020
WILMINGTON, CALIF. -- TUESDAY, MAY 14, 2019: After LAPD officers conducted a security sweep of an illegal marijuana dispensary, reporters were offered a view of the illegal business before the Department of Water & Power to shut off water and electricity to the dispensary in Wilmington Tuesday, May 14, 2019. City officials are cracking down, passing an ordinance last month that allows the Department of Water and Power to shut off utilities at unlicensed dispensaries. Photos taken in Wilmington, Calif., on May 14, 2019. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

California

Column: Defund the police? California is trying to hire more cannabis cops

“Defund the police” is the mantra, but California’s budget is likely to shift dozens of sworn officers to the Bureau of Cannabis Control — and make way for more.

June 13, 2020
This Thursday, May 2, 2019, photo shows a sign posted on a door alerting customers that cash is not accepted at Freshroll Vietnamese Rolls and Bowls in San Francisco. San Francisco is about to require brick-and-mortar retailers to take cash in payment for goods, joining Philadelphia and New Jersey in banning a practice that critics say discriminates against the poor. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

California

Column: As coronavirus surges, more stores are going cashless. The price tag is racism

As we rush into a “cashless” society to slow the coronavirus, know that there are trade-offs. Businesses could make existing racial inequities worse.

June 28, 2020
SANTA MONICA, CA - JUNE 01: A few protestors stood in the middle of Ocean Ave at Colorado where the National Guard stands at the Santa Monica Pier even as brigades of people with brooms descended on the upscale shopping district of Santa Monica Monday morning after looters spent hours yesterday smashing windows, stealing items and setting several fires. Protestors once again gathered en masse in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak to protest the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died last week in police custody after a white Minneapolis police officer pinned him down by his neck for several minutes. Santa Monica on Monday, June 1, 2020 in Santa Monica, CA. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

California

Column: The making of activists? How two Santa Monica women came to stand up for Black lives

Leilah Franklin and Chandler Kennedy don’t call themselves ‘activists.’ But life can foist labels on people, and sometimes those labels come to fit.

July 20, 2020

Here are some recent articles by Ben:

LOS ANGELES, CA - APRIL 03: U.S. District Court judge David O. Carter asks a skid row resident how long the water dispensers have been out of water while touring the area on Friday, April 3, 2020 in Los Angeles, CA. LAPD officer Deon Joseph, who was escorting the judge, said he noticed the water dispenser empty about 1 1/2 weeks ago. Carter is the judge at the center of the Orange County riverbed homeless case. (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

Housing & Homelessness

This federal judge is risking his life to save homeless people from the coronavirus

At 76, Judge David Carter knows he shouldn’t be on skid row exposing himself to the coronavirus. But he wants more for L.A.’s homeless people.

April 19, 2020
NORTH HOLLYWOOD, CA - JANUARY 21, 2020 - Gospel musician Clemmie Williams, 34, lives homeless in North Hollywood Park on January 21, 2020. Williams has been working on part time jobs but it’s not enough to make first and last for an apartment he says. “It’s a struggle to get back to normalcy,” Williams said. Williams was photographed on the first night of the 2020 LA County homeless count. On Tuesday, volunteers with the focused on the San Gabriel and San Fernando valleys. Other swaths of the region, such as the South Bay and Antelope Valley, will be covered Wednesday and Thursday.. The homeless count is overseen by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) The volunteers will canvas more than 80 cities and 200 communities across L.A. County over three days to count the number of homeless people living on the streets, according to the LAHSA. Last year's count found that nearly 59,000 people were experiencing homelessness countywide, an increase of 12% from 2018. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Housing & Homelessness

Homelessness jumped 13% in L.A. County, 14% in the city before pandemic

Despite hundreds of millions of dollars spent to curb homelessness, the number of people without a home in Los Angeles grew for the fifth time in the past six years, officials announced Friday.

June 12, 2020
VENICE, CA - JUNE 1, 2020 - - Wendy Brown, 58, walks through the hallway where she now resides at the Cadillac Hotel in Venice on June 1, 2020. Brown spent three years sleeping on Venice sidewalks. Now as part of the Project Roomkey response to COVID-19 pandemic she is sleeping in a $240 a night room off the Venice boardwalk, taking daily runs and painting. But she wonders why the city before the pandemic offered homeless people everything but housing. Project Roomkey is a coordinated effort by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority to secure hotel and motel rooms in L.A. County as temporary shelters for people experiencing homelessness who are at high-risk for hospitalization if they contract COVID-19. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Housing & Homelessness

As efforts collapse to place homeless in hotels, L.A. officials propose new, $800-million plan

Even as the COVID-19 pandemic is slashing statewide tax revenues, officials Tuesday unveiled an $800-million plan to house Los Angeles County’s homeless people who are most vulnerable to the disease caused by the virus.

June 23, 2020

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