Patt Morrison

California, ever the pioneer, was the first state to legalize no-fault divorce in 1969, signed into law by none other than then-Gov. Ronald Reagan.

Ugly? You have no idea.

Over and over again, they stretch out their spindly little matchstick fingers into the mighty Pacific, and over and over again, they get their knuckles rapped.

Over and over again, they stretch out their spindly little matchstick fingers into the mighty Pacific, and over and over again, they get their knuckles rapped.

Welcome home. Not your home. Probably not a place you'd even want to be your home. But welcome to some of the Houses of Los Angeles — notorious, historic and just plain fabulous.

Detroit has cars. Chicago has slaughterhouses. New Orleans has jazz. We have orange groves. Had.

When a Medfly quarantine in L.A. ended this summer, you could be forgiven for asking, "A what quarantine?" This is the tale of California's long fight against an agricultural pest.

If Charles Dickens had lived in, say, Indio instead of London, and if, instead of writing about the brutalities and indignities of an English boarding

Isn't this just a classic Los Angeles story? Fighting over land — who had it, who has it now, who'll get it?