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Lexis-Olivier Ray

Lexis-Olivier Ray is an award-winning staff investigative reporter for L.A. TACO known for holding powerful people in Los Angeles accountable and his reporting on Los Angeles culture. As well as an artist and filmmaker. In 2022, the Society of Professional Journalists’ Los Angeles chapter named Ray one of their “distinguished journalists.” In 2023, Ray won a second place Anthem Award in their Health Innovation category for a texting service geared towards the unhoused community and service providers that he launched in 2021 with L.A. TACO and Subtext. Ray was a 2020 USC Center For Health Journalism (CHJ) Data Fellow. As well as a 2022 CHJ Impact Fellow. As a freelancer, Ray has contributed to the L.A. Times, Men’s Health Magazine, KCET and SFGATE.

Electric Car-Share Stations For Low-Income Drivers Are Reopening in South L.A., Following L.A. TACO Report

“Blink Mobility currently has a conditional use permit to operate three former BlueLA stations as private carshare services while city council reviews and approves LADOT’s plan for repurposing former stations and a new permanent permit program,” Colin Sweeney, public information director for the Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT), told L.A. TACO in a written statement.

June 4, 2025

LAPD Rejects Over 1,700 ‘Biased Policing’ Complaints

Community members and LAPD staff made 15,000 allegations against department staff. But only 4.7 percent (or 701) allegations were sustained.

June 4, 2025

Twenty-One-Year-Old From Baja Becomes First Mexican Cyclist To Lead One Of Professional Cycling’s Biggest Races

The young rider who grew up mountain biking in Baja, Mexico, is the first Mexican cyclist to ever wear the pink jersey (the jersey that the leader of the race wears) at the Giro. Will Isaac del Toro make history and become the first Mexican cyclist to win a Grand Tour?

May 30, 2025

L.A. Homeless Services Authority Facing Staff Cuts, Seeks Volunteers to Avoid Layoffs

In total, 11 staff members received layoff notices earlier this year, according to Ahmad Chapman, LAHSA’s director of communications.

May 27, 2025

California DOJ Finally Begins Reviewing Wrongful Convictions, Following L.A. TACO Report

This comes four months after L.A. TACO first reported that the PCJU had not begun accepting applications from defendants who say they were wrongfully convicted, nearly two years after Attorney General Rob Bonta made headlines for launching the DOJ’s first-ever post-conviction review unit. 

May 22, 2025

City of L.A. Quietly Abandons Plans To Expand Electric Car Share Program To South L.A.

BlueLA shut down last month after the city received a multi-million dollar grant to expand the car share service into South Los Angeles.

Iconic Virgil Village Pink Trumpet Trees Illegally Trimmed ‘Beyond Recovery’

The trumpet trees were picked by a coalition of Mexican, Salvadoran, Filipino, Japanese, Black, and Ukrainian residents for their sturdiness and colorfulness. Some of the trees were even given names.

L.A. Dispensary Owners Say Excessive Permit Fees Are Pushing Them Out Of Legal Market

Speaking in solidarity with social equity licensees, Catalyst Cannabis CEO Elliot Lewis said the Department of Cannabis Regulation has “done nothing to earn the tax money of this industry. The [social equity] program is an abject failure.”

April 25, 2025

Westlake’s Oldest Gay Bar Launches GoFundMe to Raise Funds For Relocation Costs

This unforeseen situation has put us in a precarious position, and we urgently need your help to relocate and continue our mission of serving the community that has supported us for so many years,” Vasquez wrote.

April 21, 2025