http://www.lajourno.com Robert J. Lopez - Multimedia Reporter Tue, 04 May 2010 22:59:57 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en This 2005 multimedia project took me across the United States and into Mexico and Central America. We showed how a U.S. immigration policy of deporting "criminal aliens" backfired with members of the Mara Salvatrucha, spreading what was once a Los Angeles gang across six countries and 33 states. We captured ... http://www.lajourno.com/web-video/spread-of-an-international-street-gang/ This investigation took me into the underworld of human smuggling, organized crime and narco-trafficking in the badlands east of Tijuana. The area was controlled by the ruthless Arellano-Felix drug cartel. My colleagues and I investigated the Mexican smuggling village of Jacume and the corrupt law enforcement officials who allowed the ... http://www.lajourno.com/investigative-reporting/crime-corruption-on-u-s-mexico-line/ Ruben Salzar's Legacy Lives On from Robert Lopez on Vimeo. To this day, questions still swirl around the death of L.A. Times columnist and KMEX news director Ruben Salazar, who was killed by a Sheriff's deputy on Aug. 29, 1970. I produced this Ruben Salazar video, pictured above, in 2008 after ... http://www.lajourno.com/web-video/ruben-salazars-suspicious-slaying/ View Westside traffic -- some of the worst in the U.S. in a larger map Sometimes visualizations are the best way to convey information. I produced this interactive map as part of a news package about traffic on the Westside of Los Angeles -- some of the nation's worst. The map ... http://www.lajourno.com/web-video/mapping-traffic-problems/ I produced this 2009 video and article while investigating a proposal to ban overnight parking in Venice, an affluent beach community in Los Angeles. The proposal, ultimately rejected by the state Coastal Commission, would have prevented people from sleeping in their vehicles. In recent years, Venice has become a magnet ... http://www.lajourno.com/web-video/httpwwwyoutubecomwatchvmocuz8m62ym/ This 2008 project was a great opportunity to shoot video footage in a classic boxing gym, as well as shine a light on a program that helps keep kids out of trouble. The place is a throwback to an era when cigar-chomping managers oversaw prizefighters who had little more than ... http://www.lajourno.com/web-video/boxing-keeps-youths-away-from-gangs/ This 2008 video, along with the article I wrote, shocked many of our viewers. Armed with my camera, I documented how alleys in some of the city's poorest neighborhoods were filled with trash, festering for up to six weeks before being cleaned by city crews. The refuse included household garbage ... http://www.lajourno.com/web-video/illegal-dumping-plagues-la-neighborhoods/ L.A. city responded quickly to my illegal dumping investigation. The mayor ordered reforms in the Public Works Department, the main agency responsible for enforcing illegal dumping and keeping alleys clean. On top of that, the LAPD formed a task force to arrest violators caught dumping refuse in South Los Angeles. ... http://www.lajourno.com/web-video/lapd-cracks-down-on-illegal-dumping/ This was a fun 2008 video to produce. I got to surf and shoot footage in the water with a special housing for my camcorder. Shooting in the water poses an entirely different set of challenges, chief among those is that there is no stable footing. You have to hold ... http://www.lajourno.com/web-video/venice-beach-surfing-lifestyle/ I traveled to disaster-ravaged Nicaragua for this 1999 story. This was intended to be a warm-and-fuzzy feature about aid for Hurricane Mitch victims that was donated from people in Los Angeles. The relief supplies -- hundreds of tons -- were supposed to be passed out by the Catholic Church. But ... http://www.lajourno.com/investigative-reporting/hurricane-aid/