Column One

It’s a tale of dedication, perseverance and obsession: one man’s effort to write the definitive history of the Illinois Watch Co.

A UC Davis professor’s simple mission: Record and identify every butterfly he sees. What he’s discovered has disturbed him.

My job is to write about the wonders and challenges of our coast and oceans, but I’ll admit: Before this story, I had no idea what an abalone looked like.

The mega-mansion boom in L.A.’s “Platinum Triangle” draws armies of workers to build them, and a squadron of caterers like Jennifer Ramirez to refuel their lines.

Rattlesnakes are part of life in Southern California, but there are plenty of misconceptions about them.

Snake-removal services sprang up because of a desire to tame nature, but the rattlers thrive just the same. Says one wrangler: “We build our homes on their homes, we just build nicer ones.”

We asked for your best snake story. Dozens of you came at us with your favorite (or most harrowing) encounters.

Mysterious black splotches are creeping over the gleaming Jefferson Memorial and other historic monuments and buildings in Washington. What’s causing the unsightly “biofilm”? Theories abound.

LGBTQ migrants face extortion, death threats and assault after they’re sent south of the border

It took a while, but the Rev. Suk-ki Kim found his calling in the U.S. — to minister to those in the Korean community who have gone astray, and the family members who suffer alongside them.

I wanted to know if he had come to accept the terrible loss of that day and how would he explain that acceptance. What words do you put on a tragedy that seems only to prove that life is fickle, random and cruel?

A 6-foot-5 man with size 17 feet traveled to the middle of nowhere in search of a boot maker. What he encountered was a life deeply touched by love and death and leather.