In Focus: Staff Photos from July 6 - July 12

Saul Lopez peers into a tank holding a turtle his mother bought him during a weekend outing on Broadway in downtown Los Angeles. The street is a major retail zone for Latino shoppers.  (Michael Robinson Chavez / Los Angeles Times)

Artist Marcus Suarez paints a section of a mural on a construction wall around the Los Angeles Police Department’s new downtown detention center. The 260-foot-long mural, consisting of painted images and enlarged photographs of children, is titled “Do Time at L.A.’s BEST” -- an after-school program in its 20th year, serving more than 26,000 students at 180 schools in L.A..  (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

Lindsey Gage and her husband, Daniel Gage, of Costa Mesa, run into the surf in the buff on the Trail 6 section of San Onofre State Beach, which has traditionally been used by nudists. A battle over the beach is brewing as authorities plan to reverse a decades-old informal policy that has tolerated nudity.  (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

The state has ordered Kaiser Permanente to cover treatment that specialists recommended for Andrew Arce, 2, who suffers from autism. As diagnoses of autism surge, parents, insurers and the government are battling over who should pay for treatment.  (Richard Hartog / Los Angeles Times)

Andrew Greer takes a snapshot of his friend, stuntman Jim Purol, who is attempting to set his 23rd world record by sitting in all 92,542 seats in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. The feat is expected to take about five days.  (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)

A firefighter from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection works the ridgeline along Camino del Cielo to prevent the Gap fire from crossing the road. The fire has burned more than 9,000 acres above Goleta.  (Michael Robinson Chavez / Los Angeles Times)

Joshua Ambriz and his fellow firefighters establish a ridgeline break to deter the Gap fire in the Santa Ynez Mountains above Goleta.  (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

In Garden Grove, 3-month-old Harry Tran gazes at his reflection during a home visit by Annie Nguyen, coordinator of VietMOMS, an Orange County agency that works with healthcare education in the Vietnamese community.  (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

Wildlife researcher Scott Thomas sets a trap net to capture screech owls as the sun sets on Tejon Ranch. Biologists are studying many species in the area, which is covered by an agreement between environmentalists and developers to set aside 240,000 acres as wilderness.  (Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times)