LA Weekly

Axl Rose and Izzy Stradlin weren’t the only ones whose songwriting contributions made Appetite for Destruction one of the biggest rock records in history. Thirty years after the album’s debut, here are the stories of the two Los Angeles musicians who co-wrote two of Appetite‘s songs and contributed to the band’s legacy.

Rape in film is difficult enough to deal with as a viewer — but what about the actors who have to physically endure the portrayal, or the directors and film editors who spend countless hours re-watching the footage?

In southern California, ICE is deporting people of Mexican descent who have lived most of their lives in the U.S. and feel only a vague connection to the Mexico they’re sent “back” to. “Trump says he’s up there removing criminals,” José Armando Guerrero said from a Tijuana hotel. “I was working. I’m not a criminal.”

Something is driving female inmates at the California Institution for Women to attempt suicide at a rate five times higher than the state and national averages. Prevention is not a priority.

An in-depth investigation into an exceedingly shady drug rehab mogul: Christopher Bathum built a veritable empire of more than 20 sober-living houses and outpatient clinics in the Los Angeles area, despite being neither a licensed drug counselor nor a therapist. Amidst allegations of sex abuse, drugs, and fraud, he’s now the target of probes by nearly every large insurance company in California, as well as the FBI, LAPD, L.A. County District Attorney and California Department of Health Care Services.

First, an LA landlord made a film about murdering his tenants. Then he knifed one.

Daniel Crespo, the mayor of a small industrial city in southeast L.A. County, battered his wife for 28 years. She shot him the day he turned on their son.

A look at the history of women in Hollywood, and the systemic bias against female directors.

Inside the strange, often lucrative world of Hollywood background actors.

A look at LA’s vast underground cycling community, where intense training and occasional sponsorship meet drag racing and wild, late-night cycling escapades.