Skip to Content
News

Headlines: Fire Damages ‘Karate Kid’ Apartment; Exploring Lao Cuisine in SoCal

6:55 AM PST on March 8, 2022

photo: Lord Jim/Flickr CC

Happy International Women's Day! Welcome to L.A. TACO’s daily news briefs, where we bring our loyal members, readers, and supporters the latest headlines about Los Angeles politics and culture. Stay informed and look closely.

—Melissa Lucio, a mother of twelve, is scheduled to be executed in Texas next month despite several judges concluding that her trail was unfair as well as a coerced confession in the falling death of her daughter. [Innocence Project/HBO]

—LAUSD has seen a 40% drop in enrollment in the last 20 years, as some schools struggle to operate with declining numbers. [LAT]

—A new book looks at the rise of Mexican neighborhoods in Chicago and their fight against gentrification. [Borderless Mag]

—Reseda's South Seas apartment building, made famous as Daniel LaRusso's place in Karate Kid and Cobra Kai, was damaged in a fire last night, with no reported injuries to residents. [KTLA]

—An injured, beached pygmy sperm whale was euthanized on Malibu's Surfrider Beach on Sunday. [KTLA]

—The New York Times explores four Lao restaurants in Southern California. [NYT]

—Artist Noni Olabisi, known for powerful community murals in Los Angeles, is dead at 67. [LAT]

—The City of L.A. is suing three companies, including Monsanto, for polluting our local waterways with dangerous PCBs. [SMDP]

—Help Stop Mobil Exxon's "dangerous proposal to restart three offshore oil platforms in the Santa Barbara Channel and send nearly 70 oil-filled tanker trucks per day on our coastal highways." [Environmental Defense Center]

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More Stories

Scoop: Former L.A. Sheriff’s Deputy Sent Dick Pics To ‘Vulnerable’ Women That He Met While On Duty

A criminal case for “misdemeanor sexual battery” was presented to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. However, “the case was declined due to insufficient evidence,” a spokesperson for D.A. Nathan Hochman tells L.A. TACO.

July 24, 2026

10 Rising L.A. Directors You Need to Follow

From local short film screenings to Sundance Film Festival, these are the city’s emerging directors keeping the industry alive.

July 24, 2026

Get These Smoked Guinness Chili Burgers For One Day Only In Boyle Heights

The chili is made with Guinness Extra Stout, fire-roasted chiles, chipotles en adobo, spices, dark chocolate, and a beef ball that is smoked over the chili, allowing its fat to drip into the pot, before the meat is folded back in.

July 24, 2026

The Country’s Most Famous Strip Club Hosted Its First Trans Night and We Were There

This wasn't a queer venue making room for trans performers—that already exists. This was one of the country's most recognizable strip clubs deciding that supporting trans dancers is just . . . normal.

July 24, 2026

The 21 Best Soft Serve Shops in Los Angeles, Ranked

Our guide has it all: one dollar cones, hidden gems worth the drive, spots doing something you've never seen before, and the classics that have been here longer than most of us.

Catch Chicano Arts Innovator Gronk In Conversation at Moveable Feast, August 27 In Pasadena

A true legend of L.A. art and innovation, Gronk is the East L.A.-raised, multi-hyphenate artist that formed one quarter of the main nucleus of ASCO, the 1970s and 80s avant garde artists collective famous for confronting and skewering the systems set against Eastside Angelenos and Chicanos.

July 23, 2026