Latest news with #ElSereno
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Letters to the Editor: Amid tree house standoff, 'what options do the unhoused have left?'
To the editor: Benito Flores' efforts in El Sereno must be commended ('Elderly man builds tree house to protest eviction from state-owned home,' June 3). Given the Grants Pass vs. Johnson ruling, Gov. Gavin Newsom's persistent encampment sweeps and local sit/lie bans, what options do the unhoused have left but to live in trees? The displacement of elders from our communities is cruel and often amounts to a death sentence. Surely Newsom is aware that an average of nearly seven people die on the streets of L.A. each day — many of them elderly. How powerful it would be to see real leadership from our governor. Why are there dozens of vacant homes on state-owned land amid this humanitarian crisis? In fact, years ago, just across the street from Flores' home, the state granted a parcel of land to the city at a discount and it is now a thriving community garden. Does Newsom truly believe he can charm his way to Washington while making negligible progress on our state's central political and moral crisis? Zach Murray, Los Angeles This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
2 days ago
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
Letters to the Editor: Amid tree house standoff, ‘what options do the unhoused have left?'
To the editor: Benito Flores' efforts in El Sereno must be commended ('Elderly man builds tree house to protest eviction from state-owned home,' June 3). Given the Grants Pass vs. Johnson ruling, Gov. Gavin Newsom's persistent encampment sweeps and local sit/lie bans, what options do the unhoused have left but to live in trees? The displacement of elders from our communities is cruel and often amounts to a death sentence. Surely Newsom is aware that an average of nearly seven people die on the streets of L.A. each day — many of them elderly. How powerful it would be to see real leadership from our governor. Why are there dozens of vacant homes on state-owned land amid this humanitarian crisis? Does Newsom truly believe he can charm his way to Washington while making negligible progress on our state's central political and moral crisis? Zach Murray, Los Angeles
Yahoo
19-04-2025
- Yahoo
From Grief to Justice: How One Man Helps Families Find Answers in the Autopsy Room
Tucked away in a corner of the sprawling county hospital campus in Boyle Heights, the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner and Coroner's office welcomes some 13,000 visitors every year. The deceased are wheeled in through the 1970s-era concrete building where sudden, violent or unattended deaths are investigated. When Vidal Herrera started working there as a 23-year-old unpaid volunteer as part of an innovative on-the-job-training apprenticeship program, his boss was legendary 'coroner to the stars' Thomas Noguchi. Noguchi ran the department in the 1960s, '70s and '80s, and examined the bodies of Marilyn Monroe, Robert F. Kennedy and Janis Joplin. 'I learned all my chops from Noguchi. One job was a motorcycle that lost control and flipped over,' Herrera says. 'The driver was decapitated and the head was still in the helmet. It was an easy case.' In 1984, Herrera sustained major injuries while picking up an overweight suicide victim and was forced to retire. The Downtown L.A. native participated in the Chicano Blowouts protests when he was a teenager and stumbled into the world of post-mortem care after youthful stints working in junkyards, washing dishes and selling maps to movie stars' homes. When he found Noguchi's program, 'I found my calling,' he says. 'I knew this was my purpose. Death really appealed to me on a primal level.' His inability to work nearly broke him, but the burly 72-year-old former football player found a new way to help those unable to accept the coroner's ruling on their loved ones' official cause of El Sereno company 1-800-AUTOPSY provides a second opinion for 600 families a year. 'We get calls from wives and daughters saying, 'I can't sleep. I need to know what happened. I don't understand why my father died,'' Herrera says. 'We open him up and we find cancer the doctor never told us about. We have families trembling with anger and grief, and we give them results in 24 hours.' His forensic pathologist's discovery of possible negligence or malpractice has led to multiple lawsuits. Herrera blames insurance lobbyists for cutting funds for many autopsies in the last few years, citing examples of unregulated examination rooms, untrained technicians and outsourcing. 'L.A. County is 4,070 square miles and 217 people die here every single day,' Herrera says. 'They triage. They give a predictable cause of death. They cite heart failure, but everybody's heart fails when they die." Investigations Herrera participated in led to new ways of examining teeth and tool marks on murder victims, and a fingerprint he discovered helped identify the notorious Night Stalker serial killer in the '80s. 'I've assisted with over 20,000 autopsies in my 50 years,' he says. 'The deceased must be protected and given a voice. That's always been my motto. We're here to find the truth."
