The Past Still Grips Rodney King

A quarter century has passed since the infamous beating of Rodney King. In the months before King’s death, he was profiled by Kurt Streeter, who portrays a man still very much haunted by the past.

Published: Apr 23, 2012
Length: 10 minutes (2,529 words)

The Manhunt for Christopher Dorner

On the trail of a disgraced ex-LAPD officer who went on a murder rampage after being fired:

The officers followed Dorner onto Interstate 15, heading north, hanging back a safe distance. They were trying to confirm it was Dorner’s truck.

Five miles along, the patrol car followed Dorner down the Magnolia Avenue offramp to the street. Dorner was waiting at the curb beside his parked truck. He opened fire with his assault rifle, riddling the patrol car with .223-caliber rounds.

The officers ducked. They tried to fire back with their handguns, futilely. Dorner was about 100 feet away, with firepower that vastly overwhelmed them. His rounds pierced the squad car’s windshield, punctured a tire, blew out the radiator. It was immobilized in seconds. One bullet grazed an officer’s head. Dorner sped away down Magnolia.

Published: Dec 15, 2013
Length: 82 minutes (20,731 words)

A Holocaust Survivor Raised a Fist to Death

She was Jewish, but to live she needed a Christian name. She could not be Natalie Leya Weinstein, not in wartime Warsaw. Her father wrote her new name on a piece of paper. Natalie Yazinska. Her mother, Sima, sobbed. “The little one must make it,” Leon Weinstein told his wife. “We got no chance. But the little one, she is special. She must survive.” He fixed a metal crucifix to a necklace and hung it on their daughter. On the paper, he scrawled another fiction: “I am a war widow, and I have no way of taking care of her. I beg of you good people, please take care of her. In the name of Jesus Christ, he will take care of you for this.”

Published: Aug 5, 2011
Length: 6 minutes (1,634 words)

Dorsey High’s football program is about more than athletics

Under Coach Paul Knox, football offers a haven from the streets where players can learn to break free of tackles, on field and off.

Published: Dec 4, 2009
Length: 24 minutes (6,063 words)