Author name: Toni Frank

January is usually an easy month to book a Southern California hotel room. Not this year. Driven by the fires that have uprooted hundreds of thousands of L.A. County residents, legions of displaced families and individuals are grabbing rooms in surrounding counties, especially along the coast and in the desert. Beyond those under mandatory evacuation, […]

“I’m gay so I can’t do the guitar solo,” quips Sam Buck. A grin plays across his face as the unmistakable jangle of Tim McGraw’s “I Like It, I Love It” wafts through the room. Members of the audience chuckle knowingly — the tall, bearded musician could absolutely shred it if he wanted to, but

As displaced residents scramble to find short-term lodging, local tourism organizations are updating lists on what’s available at what cost. The Hotel Assn. of Los Angeles, which has compiled the largest list, said its members have taken in thousands of Angelenos evacuated from the path of the Palisades and Eaton fires, often at discounted rates,

I’ve never felt weird about paying strangers to touch me. Massages, facials, martial arts — it’s all just bodywork to me. That is, until I booked my first professional back scratch with Julie Luther, the founder of Soft Touch ASMR Spa in Pasadena. Something about being touched softly made me nervous. In part, because that’s

Last summer I had a chance to strike a deal with the devil. I sat, contemplating my choice — what I could live without to acquire the one thing I most desired. This was no arbitrary crossroads. Over the past 40 or so minutes I had confessed long-held goals and romantic yearnings while revealing details

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Not everyone got the email. But the word spread, along with the dread. California’s Great America — Northern California’s best-known theme park — appears set to scrap its winter run for the 2025 season, according to a message sent to some seasonal pass holders, potentially spelling an end to the annual Snoopy Christmas

Jaclyn Cosgrove covers the (great!) outdoors at the Los Angeles Times. They started at The Times in 2017 and have written about wildfires, culture, protests, crime and county government. In 2022, they managed For Your Mind, a yearlong mental health project. Cosgrove is originally from rural Oklahoma and is a proud Oklahoma State University graduate.

Has it occurred to you that civilization might be overrated? Me too. So I’ve been thinking about the natural world — actually, the many natural worlds contained within California, and how whole they can make us feel. With that and the new year in mind, here are a dozen seasonally suitable classic California adventures. These

A phishing text message warning of a legal threat and financial penalties has been hitting users and even non-drivers of Los Angeles County’s Metro ExpressLanes. The spam has led to a flood of complaints from Metro ExpressLanes users, who have been calling the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority seeking verification and advice, Metro authorities

For years, Justine Lupe bopped back and forth between Los Angeles and New York. It wasn’t until the pandemic that she decided it was time to stop living out of her suitcase in hotels and short-term sublet apartments. “The world was in upheaval,” the actor says. “My idea of what my life was felt like