Exclusive 2019 Update: VICTORY AT THE VA – West LA Veterans Administration master plan protects old nuclear dump from development ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ FEBRUARY 13, 2019 To: Director, Office of Regulation Policy and Management (00REG) Department of Veterans Affairs 810 Vermont Avenue NW Room 1063B Washington DC 20420 Comment URL: https://www.regulations.gov/comment?D=VA-2018-VACO-0001-7030 Subject: […]

This compilation of articles written by my colleague and friend Joan Trossman Bien is amazing for its quantity, scope and expertise. The collection may not be complete, and we will add any new Joan articles that friends, family and colleagues may send us. The Ventura County Reporter, which Joan (and […]

While celebs lead the pet-reptile rampage, Winged Iguana helps prevent cold-blooded murder By Michael Collins Los Angeles magazine – January 1998 AN IGUANA CAN SLICE THROUGH human skin with its long claws or break your arm with a whip of its tail. If it goes for your nose with its […]

Hollywood is sinking its fangs into Adam Parfrey’s bloody books By Michael Collins Los Angeles magazine – January 1998 AFTER A FOUR-YEAR SABBATICAL IN Portland, Oregon, Adam Parfrey has brought his twisted Feral House imprint back to Los Angeles for, as he puts it, “front row seats to the apocalypse.” […]

May 1, 2009 Mr. Robert Romero, Project Manager Department of Toxic Substances Control 5796 Corporate Avenue Cypress, CA 90630-4700 rromero1@dtsc.ca.gov Thank you for this opportunity to comment on and ask a few questions about the OB/OD Unit Closure Determination and Report on Completion of Third Party Quality Assurance Confirmation Surveys […]

2000-2024 Aerojet Chino Hills Investigation Main Page June 13, 2016 Mr. Robert Romero DTSC Project Manager 5796 Corporate Avenue Cypress, CA 90630-4732 Re: Second Public Comment Period, Draft Corrective Measures Proposed For Portion of Former Aerojet Facility Dear Mr. Romero, Thank you for this opportunity to comment on and ask […]

Ocean activists target Royal Caribbean’s “sludge boats” by Michael Collins Ventura County Reporter – December 3, 2003 They are called “cities on the sea,” ocean liners carrying up to 5,000 travelers on the cruise vacation of a lifetime. Pampered by gobs of buffet grub, restaurants, casinos, nightclubs and every imaginable […]

By Michael Collins Los Angeles CityBeat/ValleyBeat – September 13, 2007 While other farmers markets are better known in the Southland, none can match the bounty and beauty of the Westwood Farmers Market, situated in the West Los Angeles VA campus every Thursday afternoon from noon to 7 p.m. Nestled in […]

By Michael Collins Los Angeles CityBeat/ValleyBeat – September 13, 2007 Got a hankerin’ to reach your inner Mexican and didn’t at that torpid Marc Anthony concert? Wanna know more about your white Valley roots than you can learn from your brother’s Van Halen collection? No problem, because SoCal has plenty […]

By Michael Collins Los Angeles CityBeat/ValleyBeat – September 13, 2007 Every fall comes a bevy of bombastic events that blow away folks like me and my gun-lovin’gal: war reenactments. The Marching Thru History Exposition at the Prado Regional Park in Chino, October 21-22, is billed as an “educational tribute.” It’s […]

By Michael Collins Los Angeles CityBeat/ValleyBeat – September 13, 2007 “It was huge; it was just enormous, and it was practically right over my house,” said the air-raid warden in later testimony during World War II’s darkest days. “It was just hovering there in the sky and hardly moving at […]

By Michael Collins Los Angeles boasts some of the world’s best inline skating paths, including the Strand, the famed 26-mile-long concrete ribbon stretching along the beach from Malibu to Palos Verdes. Speed skaters, however, have an aversion to the sun-drunk masses who crowd the path, often trundling along in family […]

By Michael Collins LA Weekly – February 2, 2001 Protesters gathered last week at the gates of Rocketdyne’s Santa Susana Field Laboratory as trucks rolled out, hauling 14,000 tons of radioactivity-contaminated soil from the military contractor’s site above the San Fernando Valley to a dump in Kern County. Over residents’ […]