http://www.lajourno.com Robert J. Lopez - Multimedia Reporter Fri, 02 Dec 2011 00:08:30 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en The night began with Occupy L.A. protesters singing, dancing and chanting. But the festive mood changed as the LAPD swooped down on the City Hall encampment. In the end, nearly 300 people were arrested and the grassy park was cleared. I was one of a number of Times reporters who ... http://www.lajourno.com/web-video/occupy-l-a-protesters-arrested-camp-razed/ Bell is one of the poorest cities in L.A. County. Photo: Robert J. Lopez I was part of a team of 20 Los Angeles Times reporters and editors, led by Jeff Gottlieb and Ruben Vives, that was awarded the 2011 Pulitzer Prize gold medal for public service. Our series of articles ... http://www.lajourno.com/investigative-reporting/bell-coverage-wins-pulitzer-prize/ [caption id="attachment_471" align="alignnone" width="480" caption="Eight boxes of Ruben Salazar records. Photo: Robert J. Lopez"][/caption] In 1994, I filed my first California Public Records Act Request to review the Sheriff's Department files on Ruben Salazar. The department denied the request, saying the records were confidential law enforcement files. I made another CPRA ... http://www.lajourno.com/investigative-reporting/sheriff-agrees-viewing-of-ruben-salazar-files/ In the months leading up to the 40th anniversary of the killing of Ruben Salazar, I filed a California Public Records Act request with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department seeking documents that might shed light on what happened the day the newsman died. An L.A. Times columnist and ... http://www.lajourno.com/investigative-reporting/seeking-the-ruben-salazar-files/ 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/