2025 was difficult for Angelenos. The 12 months started with the double firestorms, and chaos and uncertainty continued into June when immigration brokers and protesters clashed, because the Trump administration deployed 1000’s of Nationwide Guard troops to the town. Unquestionably, these information occasions have been among the many most-read articles revealed by the Los Angeles Occasions this 12 months.
Nonetheless, a number of different tales made the checklist, together with two notable faith-focused tales, how Cesar Galan joined the priesthood after belonging to a violent L.A. avenue gang and the way the hosts of a well-liked evangelical podcast often known as “Ladies Gone Bible” have change into unlikely spiritual authorities.
To look again on the various tales that outlined this 12 months, we compiled our most-visited protection into three classes: The articles that attracted the best variety of readers, the tales our viewers spent the longest time studying (most of them are accompanied by audio) and the preferred tales that solely our subscribers get to learn.
Most-read tales | Deep reads | Subscribers’ favorites
Most-read tales
(ranked by general variety of visits)
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The Occasions revealed numerous reside blogs, tales, investigations and have items associated to the catastrophic January fires that blazed by way of 1000’s of acres, killed 31, compelled the evacuation of roughly 100,000 folks and destroyed greater than 16,000 constructions.
These tales, undoubtedly, acquired the best variety of visits, because the Eaton and Palisades fires introduced disruption, displacement and uncertainty throughout the town.
Residents acquired defective emergency alerts, exposing early on the systemic failures in preparedness, evacuation protocols and emergency response. The Occasions reviewed the aftermath of L.A.’s double catastrophe to name metropolis and county officers to account, reveal important gaps and make the case for guaranteeing that we’ll be higher ready subsequent time.
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The information of the killings of “When Harry Met Sally” director Rob Reiner and his photographer spouse, Michele Singer Reiner, despatched shock waves throughout Hollywood and the nation’s political institution — Reiner championed progressive causes and was concerned in efforts to problem the proposition that had banned same-sex marriage in California in 2008. Reiner’s son Nick, who struggled with habit for years, was arrested on suspicion of murdering his dad and mom.
What we learn about Nick’s habit wrestle and the hours earlier than the director and his spouse have been killed.
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An enormous earthquake of magnitude 8.8 in Russia introduced tsunami alerts to a large swath of the Pacific. After the tsunami waves arrived in California, advisories have been downgraded and canceled for a lot of the state. Southern California noticed solely modest waves and the best tsunami waves reported on state shores peaked round 4 ft in Crescent Metropolis, about 20 miles from the Oregon border, the place a dock was broken. For a way monstrous the earthquake was, why was there so little harm?
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In September, detectives found a lady’s badly decomposed stays in an deserted Tesla registered to rising singer D4vd at a Hollywood tow yard. Authorities recognized the stays as these of 15-year-old Celeste Rivas, an Inland Empire resident who was reported lacking in April 2024. In keeping with courtroom paperwork reviewed by The Occasions, the LAPD is now investigating Rivas’ demise as a murder.
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The fifth-most learn story of the 12 months was these pertaining to the June immigration raids and protests in L.A. On June 6, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement brokers carried out a collection of immigration sweeps, together with two downtown that sparked a tense standoff. Within the following days, immigration brokers and protesters clashed throughout L.A. In a present of pressure, President Trump despatched 2,000 California Nationwide Guard troops to the town, marking the primary time in 60 years {that a} president had deployed a state’s Nationwide Guard and not using a request from that state’s governor.
Learn extra about what occurred within the days following the Nationwide Guard’s arrival in L.A. and discover extra immigration tales right here.
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Because the wildfires raged into Wednesday, Jan. 8, scores of fireside hydrants in Pacific Palisades had little to no water flowing out and all water storage tanks within the space rapidly “went dry.” Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered an investigation into the causes behind the dry fireplace hydrants that hampered firefighting efforts and L.A. Metropolis Council known as on the town’s water utility to elucidate why firefighters ran out of water and why a key reservoir was offline.
Almost a 12 months later, residents and specialists are inspecting the weaknesses of L.A.’s water programs and are calling to revamp Southern California’s water infrastructure.
Additionally extensively learn: State to probe why Pacific Palisades reservoir was offline, empty when firestorm exploded
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Seven-month-old Emmanuel Haro disappeared on Aug. 14 after his mom, Rebecca Haro, stated she was assaulted by an unknown man in a sporting items retailer’s parking zone and was rendered unconscious. The lacking child’s mother instructed investigators that when she awoke, her son was gone. Greater than per week later, child Emmanuel’s dad and mom have been arrested on suspicion of homicide.
In keeping with a information launch from the San Bernardino County sheriff’s division, the couple faked the story about their son being kidnapped. In November, Jake Haro, Emmanuel’s father, was sentenced to 25 years to life for the homicide of his son.
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In late January, after President Trump stated on social media that the U.S. navy had “entered” California and “TURNED ON THE WATER,” the U.S. Military Corps of Engineers dramatically elevated the quantity of water flowing from two dams in Tulare County. In a go to to L.A. the earlier week, Trump had additionally vowed to “open up the valves and pumps” in California to ship extra water. Native water managers have been caught off-guard by the choice, however they stated they satisfied Military Corps officers to launch much less water than initially deliberate.
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Per week after the Palisades fireplace started, a number of areas reopened to residents as officers continued to analyze the reason for the wildfire. Officers targeted their efforts on a well-liked climbing path that reveals the well-known Cranium Rock and views of the Pacific Ocean. The final space was the positioning of a small fireplace on New 12 months’s Eve that burned for just a few hours earlier than fireplace officers stated they extinguished it.
In October, authorities supplied an in depth timeline about what they allege precipitated the fireplace: The Jan. 1 blaze, now often known as the Lachman fireplace, rekindled to change into the Palisades fireplace days later. In addition they concurrently introduced the arrest of a 29-year-old man whom they suspected of setting the preliminary fireplace on New 12 months’s Eve. He has now been charged with intentionally setting the Lachman fireplace.
A Occasions investigation later discovered that firefighters have been ordered to go away the smoldering burn web site, as an alternative of monitoring the burn space for reignitions.
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Over the primary weekend of the January fires, firefighters have been ready make progress with the assistance of calmer winds and better humidity. As a fleet of plane labored to forestall the Palisades fireplace from scorching houses in Brentwood and Encino, officers warned that Santa Ana gusts have been anticipated to choose up once more the next week and cautioned the general public to remain on alert.
Most-read tales | Deep reads | Subscribers’ favorites
Deep reads
(ranked by common time spent on the web page)
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That is the story of Father Cesar Galan, a chaplain at St. Francis Medical Middle, who skilled the bottom second of his life and located the grace to alter within the very hospital by which he now listens to sufferers’ fears, prays with them and gives to listen to their confessions if they’re Catholic. Galan grew up within the coronary heart of Chivas and belonged to its avenue gang till a bullet spun him right down to the bottom on his abdomen.
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For Alejandro Sánchez, reclaiming a gold mine in Mexico, which was taken over by the sons of the drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, was greater than a enterprise proposition. It was a reckoning along with his previous.
For years, Sánchez had labored to revive the mine, encountering corrupt officers and cartel operatives who demanded hefty bribes. He as soon as needed to dive for canopy throughout a firefight. However now he was near resuming operations on the mine with deposits value billions.
Why did the billion-dollar mine matter a lot to Sánchez and was he in a position to reckon along with his previous and reclaim the billion-dollar mine?
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Angela Halili and Arielle Reitsma are finest pals who each have a background in modeling and appearing. Almost each week for the final two years, the 2 have shared heart-to-hearts which can be on the core of “Ladies Gone Bible,” their faith-based podcast they launched in 2023. The evangelical podcast now has tens of millions of listeners and in consequence, Halili and Reitsma have constructed a two-microphone megachurch. They’ve gone on a nationwide reside tour and prayed at President Trump’s pre-inauguration rally.
The co-hosts of this podcast that tops spiritual charts on Spotify predict {that a} Southern Californian Christian revival is coming.
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Occasions workers author Christopher Goffard revists previous crimes in L.A. and past, from the well-known to the forgotten, in his collection “Crimes of The Occasions.” On this installment of the collection, Goffard examined the 1968 assassination of Robert F. Kennedy in California, after the Trump administration launched a cache of categorized recordsdata.
Convicted gunman Sirhan Sirhan’s present lawyer, Angela Berry, stated a group of researchers is combing the recordsdata for brand spanking new proof. Have they been capable of finding something of use?
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Because the Eaton fireplace devastated components of the San Gabriel Valley, Santa Anita Park stepped up and fulfilled its position as a group citizen. Despite the fact that the 80-year-old monitor was unaffected by the fires and the air high quality was nicely throughout the vary for protected racing, the park canceled racing the primary week after the fires and opened up its expansive house for use as a middle for donation assortment and distribution amongst different charitable gestures.
However horse racing is many years previous the times when spectators lined as much as watch the game. As attendance continues to say no from what it was years in the past, many battle with the unfathomable concept that the monitor could quickly shut or be bought.
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That is the story of Jerardyn, a 40-year-old refugee from Venezuela, who on the peak of the immigration raids and protests in Southern California, confronted a painful choice: After getting into the US final 12 months together with her household in hopes of acquiring asylum, Jerardyn would migrate once more, this time, voluntarily.
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Authorities initially dominated the 2023 demise of 18-year-old Amelia Salehpour an open-and-shut case of unintended overdose. The medical expert’s workplace agreed, deciding towards a extra thorough post-mortem. However Salehpour’s household was unconvinced. They employed a high-end investigative agency that uncovered proof that Amelia was being groomed for intercourse work, that she was strangled to demise and that her demise had been made to appear to be an overdose.
The contradictory findings have since triggered inside battle amongst L.A. County prosecutors and detectives from the LAPD’s murder and narcotics models.
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From Andrew Garfield to Zendaya, Daniel Craig and Demi Moore, Hollywood’s greatest stars dressed to impress on the 82nd Golden Globe Awards.
Additionally extensively learn: Oscars purple carpet 2025: Ariana Grande, Mikey Madison and all one of the best appears to be like
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Since L.A. skilled its first wide-scale homelessness throughout the Nice Melancholy and the housing crunch after World Battle II, it has suffered persistent homelessness. Former Occasions workers writers Mitchell Landsberg and Gale Holland explored the important thing occasions and insurance policies that formed L.A. to change into the homeless capital of the U.S.
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In April 2024, USC employed a brand new coach for its males’s basketball program. USC athletic director Jennifer Cohen declared the day Eric Musselman was launched as a “transformational day for USC males’s basketball.” Nearly a 12 months later, in March, Occasions USC beat author Ryan Kartje joined Musselman towards the top of a tough first season.
Most-read tales | Deep reads | Subscribers’ favorites
Subscribers’ favorites
(subscriber-exclusive tales ranked by variety of visits)
1
A brand new California housing invoice, which took impact July 1, has modified the best way householders associations are allowed to self-discipline householders. The adjustments got here simply in time for Jinah Kim, who was set to be fined as much as $500 per day for fixing a doorway inside her condominium despite the fact that her householders affiliation stated she couldn’t. Underneath the brand new guidelines, she now owes solely $100.
Will the brand new guidelines permit householders to get away with issues they shouldn’t and abuse group guidelines?
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In July, discuss present host Phil McGraw’s TV community, Advantage Road Media, which launched final 12 months, filed for chapter safety from collectors and sued its distribution companion, Trinity Broadcasting Community. Throughout a virtually three-hour listening to in Dallas in October, U.S. Chapter Decide Scott Everett stated that he’d “by no means seen a case” just like the Chapter 11 submitting Dr. Phil’s firm was making an attempt.
How did the genial movie star psychologist’s media community crash?
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Coming into the job market generally is a worrying endeavor for brand spanking new graduates and for a recent era of scholars behind them who’re getting ready to begin their faculty journeys. The unemployment price for current faculty graduates is at its highest nationwide since 2021. What are the lowest- and highest-paying majors in accordance with a Federal Reserve Financial institution of New York report?
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This investigation was so common, it additionally landed on our checklist of deep reads.
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Yearly for the final 13 years, The Occasions has revealed its important information to L.A.’s eating scene. This 12 months, Occasions restaurant critic Invoice Addison took the problem additional and spent months journeying California to search out one of the best eating places that depict the state’s eclectic meals scene precisely. As an alternative of rating the eating places that make the Golden State, in Addison’s phrases, a “culinary juggernaut,” the checklist, which is simply a starting, gives a glimpse into the cultures and diversities that make up California. Begin consuming!
Additionally extensively learn: These are the 101 finest eating places in Los Angeles
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That is the grisly story of Patrice Miller, 71, who was discovered useless together with her proper leg and left arm partially gnawed off in her kitchen and whose post-mortem decided, officers stated, that she had in all probability been killed by an animal after it broke into her house. Miller’s demise marked the primary recognized occasion in California historical past of a deadly bear assault on a human and has sparked more and more heated battles round predators within the state.
What options are lawmakers representing conservative rural districts within the state’s rugged northern reaches pushing ahead? Would measures to push back California’s predators enhance security?
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Tulsa Distant is a program that pays distant staff to relocate to Oklahoma’s second-largest metropolis for no less than a 12 months. Since its inception in 2019, this system has attracted greater than 3,600 distant staff. Greater than 7,800 Californians have utilized to this system and 539 have made the transfer.
Why are Californians transferring to Tulsa by way of this system, cementing California because the second-most common origin state behind Texas?
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In a more moderen version of the “Crimes of the Occasions” collection, Goffard writes a couple of 50-year-old West Virginia man, Alex Baber, who dropped out of highschool and taught himself codebreaking. Baber now says he has cracked the Zodiac killer’s id, and within the course of solved the Black Dahlia case as nicely.
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This collection attracted a excessive variety of readers and likewise landed on our checklist of deep reads.
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Synthetic intelligence’s coding capabilities and instruments are quickly advancing, making skilled engineers extra productive. However these enhancements now outpace entry-level programmers, making job prospects for early-career software program engineers tougher to search out.”We don’t want the junior builders anymore,” stated Amr Awadallah, chief govt of Vectara, a Palo Alto-based AI startup. “The AI now can code higher than the typical junior developer that comes out of one of the best colleges on the market.”
