The Times frequently hears from readers regarding online comments -- those on articles on latimes.com or on Times blogs.

The dialogue between readers and the newspaper is still evolving, and the hope is that the conversation online will continue to improve. Recent changes to the commenting system are intended to help that along.

In late April, The Times adopted a system of unmoderated comments on latimes.com articles. As the memo announcing the change explained, comments are “scrubbed against a word filter, which will block an extensive list of vulgarities.”  The memo warned, however, that the system was not foolproof and that inappropriate language was bound to slip by the filter. Users were encouraged to police the system by flagging offensive comments with the “Report Abuse” button. Two reports of abuse will automatically remove a comment and flag it for review by an editor.

The new system is designed to provide a better forum for debate, said Martin Beck, reader engagement editor.  “By allowing real-time discussion, we are aiming to enable actual conversations about our journalism,” Beck said. “And if it gets out of hand, we are depending on our readers to help identify wrongdoers.”

Blogs were excluded from this system; all blog comments are still moderated by journalists in the newsroom.

Some readers are confused by the different systems. Others have technical issues with trying to post. Yet others want to report an inappropriate comment but can’t figure out how to.

Here are answers to some recent reader e-mails regarding comments:

You have a pretty abusive rant attached as a comment to the article regarding testimony on safety and malfunctions aboard the Deepwater Horizon. A line in your Comments section suggests reporting abusive comments, but a link to do so is not readily apparent.

To reach the screen with the “Report Abuse” button, you must first click “View Comments” in the gray Comments header that appears below each article. That brings up a full screen of comments, each of which has a “Report Abuse” button next to it.

This step is more evident on a post that has a lot of comments. The article page displays only the three most recent comments, so if the Comments header shows that there are actually 17, a reader is more  likely to click “View Comments” to see the rest of them.

However, if there are only one or two comments, it is less intuitive to click “View Comments,” because you’re already looking at them. Editors say they will make this step clearer in the Discussion FAQs.

The salary scandal in Bell continues to unfold. This week, The Times revealed that allegations of election fraud have been raised about the election that made the runaway salaries in the city possible. The Times also learned that the state retirement system, CalPERS, found out about the exorbitant salaries four years ago during a routine audit designed to stop pay spikes that can unduly enlarge retiree pensions.

Sacramento bureau chief Evan Halper talks about questions being raised about CalPERS in light of its inaction. (You can find out about how much the city manager in your Los Angeles County city makes here.)

Another topic that is a continuing story in Los Angeles is that of homelessness. If you missed Thursday's live chat with reporter Christopher Goffard, you can listen to him offer his account of covering, over the last two years, a Los Angeles County program aimed at helping the 50 most vulnerable people on downtown L.A.'s skid row.

His four-part series on the "Project 50" program, "Four Walls and a Bed," began Sunday and will conclude Saturday. The series is illustrated with stunning photography by Genaro Molina. 

Speaking of compelling photojournalism, Pacific Time listeners get a preview of new L.A. Times online feature focusing on its visual journalism set to launch on Monday.

Senior photo editor Alan Hagman talks about what to expect in this exciting new visual town square and about the role of photojournalism at The Times.

Listen to the podcast by clicking the play button below, or subscribe here.

-- Michelle Maltais

Photo: Project 50 participant Bobby Livingston found it hard adjusting to life in his Senator Hotel room. Soon after moving in, he was screaming at neighbors and the management. Credit: Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times

On Feb. 17, Mitchell Landsberg told the story of Sounlove Zamour, a 19-year-old who lost both legs and her father in the Haitian earthquake in January. She is one of many new amputees in Haiti whose futures are in question. As Landsberg wrote, the disabled are often on the margins of society in a country where even the able-bodied struggle to get by.

Zamour was close to finishing high school, a rare accomplishment in Haiti. But her injuries and the death of her father, her sole means of support, put her education in jeopardy.

"I have no father," she told Landsberg. "I'd like to continue my education, but I can't."

Her plight tugged at the heartstrings of readers, about a dozen of whom contacted The Times to ask how they could help.

Several readers inquired about contributing toward her education. Another offered a prosthetic leg that had belonged to his late father. A group of elementary school girls who call themselves the Peace Troop asked what it could do.

The article also caught the attention of the executive director of a Los Angeles-based nonprofit organization that helps support Sheba Medical Center in Israel. Jack Saltzberg confirmed with the hospital that it could provide prosthetics, medical treatment and rehabilitation for Zamour.

Saltzberg e-mailed again soon after, saying he had "tears of joy" that L.A.-based Friends of Sheba Medical Center had committed to fully cover Zamour’s treatment. "I can't help think that her recovery will be eased by the love and support she is about to receive," he said in a Feb. 24 e-mail.

On July 24, Ken Ellingwood reported from Haiti that Zamour would soon be traveling to Israel, accompanied by her sister, to receive the treatment that Friends of Sheba had begun arranging in February.

"It’s been daunting," Saltzberg told Ellingwood. "I was hoping to get her out in three weeks and it's taken several months."

Saltzberg said that language and distance barriers had made the process of getting Zamour a passport and visa even more difficult. Zamour also needed to be well enough to make the long trip.

Wednesday morning, Saltzberg e-mailed to say that the plane carrying Zamour and her sister had taken off from Haiti en route to New York and then Israel.

Friends of Sheba has set up a fund for donations for Zamour, of which 100% will go toward her medical, educational and future expenses, Saltzberg said. Donations can be made at the Friends of Sheba website or by calling (310) 838-0700.

-- Deirdre Edgar

Photo: Sounlove Zamour with sister Baranatha at the general hospital in Gonaives, Haiti, in January. Credit: Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times

Christopher Goffard spent the last two years tracking participants in a Los Angeles County program aimed at helping the 50 most vulnerable people on downtown L.A.'s skid row.

His four-part series on the program, "Four Walls and a Bed," began Sunday and will wrap up Saturday. The first two articles, with stark and compelling photos by Genaro Molina, have drawn more than 150 comments from readers.

Goffard will be chatting with readers at 11 a.m. Thursday about the program and his observations. The chat will take place in the gray box below.

Times staff writer Scott Gold, who spent all of 2009 reporting on the progress, promise and peril in South Los Angeles, talks about the South L.A. of the mid-1980s, an environment so infused with economic distress, virulent drugs, rampant violence and pervasive cultural mistrust that serial killers could operate in obscurity and with impunity for about a decade.

He and colleague Andrew Blankstein write today about this dark chapter in the neighborhood's history. Read the story here.

Listen to the podcast by clicking the play button below, or subscribe here.

The culmination of Scott's yearlong project, Promise and Peril in South L.A., can be found at latimes.com/southla.

-- Michelle Maltais

The Times first alerted readers to the high salaries paid to city of Bell officials in an article July 15 headlined "Is a city manager worth $800,000?"

The controversy following the report has led to the resignation of the city manager, the assistant city manager and the police chief; and officials around the state have discussed damage control in their own cities.

(The story continues to develop, with L.A. County Supervisor Zev Yaroslovsky proposing Tuesday that the county post the salaries of department heads and California state Comptroller John Chiang announcing that his office will begin posting salary information for elected officials and other city employees.)

Readers have been writing and calling The Times to express thanks for the investigation. A sampling of their comments:

For those who would question the value and importance of newspapers in our daily life, one need only see what careful, investigative reporting has accomplished for the citizens of the city of Bell. Without your reporters uncovering this fiasco, the citizens of Bell would still be paying for a highly suspect group of grossly overpaid city employees.

-- Hal Gold, Woodland Hills

---

The real story in the expose of the obscene salaries of Bell city officials is the role of the Los Angeles Times in uncovering the story. The role of the free press, the 4th estate, has never been better displayed. Kudos to you! We can only hope that in this era of a  declining print media that you, and other journalists, are able to devote enough resources to keep government, at all levels, honest.  

-- John Hammargren, La Mirada

---

Kudos to the two journalists who did their homework and discovered this horrible injustice.  I hope The Times publishes a list of cities in California that are similar to Bell in demographics, municipal revenues and population and show the salaries of the top three city officials in those other cities. Thanks for encouraging more government transparency.

-- Fred Stern, Los Angeles

Just want to thank you for breaking this important story. This is what the people's right to know is about. Looking forward to your continued coverage as this outrage continues to unfold.

-- Tonya Gipson, Orange

---

I am a retired police officer from Bell, retired in 1979. I love the city; I moved there in 1940 and went in the U.S. Navy in 1953 at age 17. I appreciate the L.A. Times bringing the story to light on the Bell salaries. It is really sad. Bell's government has really changed over the years.

-- Frank Blake, Bell

---

I am an avid reader of The Times, and it is reporting on issues such as the city of Bell official's salaries that I will continue to be a reader. For all its power and influence, the Internet will never replace a hometown paper as a watchdog for its citizens. Thank you for uncovering what is sure to be one of the most talked about issues for some time to come.

-- Jim Garcia, Monrovia

Photo: Rocio Lopez joins other Bell residents in a protest July 19. Credit: Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times

More:

Full coverage of the city of Bell salary controversy

In Friday's episode, we go behind the text and photos of two compelling Los Angeles Times stories this week.

On July 15, The Times exposed that in one of the poorest cities in Los Angeles County, city officials were receiving some of the highest salaries in the country. This revelation culminated Thursday with the resignations of the Bell city manager, the assistant city manager and the police chief. Reporters Jeff Gottlieb and Ruben Vives talk about how they found the story.

Reporter Carol J. Williams' Column One on July 21 revisited a hijacking in Pakistan some 20 years ago that has survivors of the 1986 terrorist attack on Pan Am 73 now pitted against one another in a tangle of lawsuits over $150 million in compensation from Libya. We hear from survivor and Southern California native Gargi Dave about the harrowing experience and fight for closure.

Listen to the podcast by clicking the play button below, or subscribe here.

Photos: At the top of the post, after the Bell City Council met behind closed doors for roughly six hours, Pedro Carrillo, assistant to the city administrator, announces the resignations of the city manager, assistant city manager and police chief. Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times

Bottom right, Gargi Dave on the left with her mother, Niru Dave; brother, Datta Dave; and sister, Giatri Dave, in the Karachi hospital where the two girls were taken after the hijacking attempt on Pan Am Flight 73 in 1986. They were injured while escaping.

The following staff changes have been announced in the last week:

Josh Penrod has joined the design staff as senior designer, sports. Josh will serve as lead designer on a talented staff of designers in one of the greatest sports cities in the world. Josh most recently worked as the lead news designer for sports at the New York Times, working through three Olympics, a Giants' Super Bowl win and a Yankees' World Series title. He previously worked as a designer for the San Diego Union-Tribune, the State (Columbia, S.C.); the Herald-Journal in Spartanburg, S.C.; and the Aiken Standard in Aiken, S.C.

Julie Makinen will rejoin The Times staff, succeeding Tim Swanson as movie editor for the Entertainment Department. Julie has spent the last year and half in Hong Kong as deputy business editor of the Asian edition of the International Herald Tribune, fulfilling a longtime desire to live and work in Asia. Prior to that, she held a variety of editing and reporting jobs at The Times and at the Washington Post. As movie editor, Julie will supervise a talented team of reporters, bloggers, columnists and critics covering Southern California’s signature industry, mainly for Calendar and latimes.com. Over the course of her career, she has captained investigative projects, overseen front-page breaking news stories ranging from the Wall Street meltdown to Kobe Bryant’s 81-point game, and edited columns, blogs and Column One stories. In 2003, after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, she spent several weeks in Baghdad helping to edit and coordinate coverage. An early advocate of the Web, Julie is equally at home online and in print. At the Herald Tribune, Julie coordinates reporters and editors on three continents, assigning and editing business and technology stories for print and for nytimes.com.

Eryn Brown will be joining the Health/Science team as a general assignment science reporter. She’ll be reporting both on large scientific discoveries and on the practical science behind current events. As The Times’ Letters editor, a position she’s held since 2008, Eryn has been distilling the often passionate and personal views of L.A. Times readers. In her new job, she’ll be distilling the often passionate but scientific work of researchers and scientists. Her beat will be a broad one, covering science as it touches an array of disciplines and departments. Eryn previously worked at Fortune magazine in New York, writing features about technology, dot-com culture and heavy industry. She moved to Los Angeles in 2002, where she freelanced for The Times (including the Los Angeles Times Magazine), the New York Times, Wired and other publications. She joined The Times’ editorial board in January 2006, where she wrote about the economy, water policy and healthcare.

The photo that accompanied an article Saturday about deaths of illegal immigrants in the Arizona desert showed a sign that carried instructions in three languages. The sign was posted on a solar-powered emergency beacon, from which illegal immigrants in distress could summon help.

In English, the sign read: “If you need help push the red button. Rescue personnel will arrive shortly to help you. Do not leave this area.”

The warning was also posted in Spanish, but what was the third language? The caption did not say, and readers were curious.

“The third is a language that is a mystery to me and perhaps to some of your other readers. It has a degree of importance if it suggests the nationality of a group, other than Mexican, traversing that dangerous stretch of America,” wrote Godfrey Harris of Los Angeles.

The photo was taken by Scott Olson of Getty Images, and he did not address the language question in the caption information he supplied. After readers inquired, a Times photo editor contacted Olson, who in turn checked with the Tucson sector of the Border Patrol to get the answer:

Tohono O’odham.

The language is a dialect of the O’odham language and is spoken by members of the Tohono O’odham Nation.

According to the tribe’s website, the federally recognized Tohono O’odham reservation ends at the U.S.-Mexican border and its eastern boundary is near the Sasabe, Ariz., port of entry. However, the tribe considers its land to extend farther south to include nine communities in Mexico. The tribe’s website says increased enforcement of immigration law at the U.S.-Mexico border has “prevented the O’odham from crossing it freely.”

That may be driving tribal members to cross illegally – which could put them in the position of needing an emergency beacon such as the one pictured in Saturday’s Times. Hence the inclusion of Tohono O’odham on the beacon's sign. 

--Deirdre Edgar

Photo: An emergency beacon near Sasabe, Ariz. Credit: Scott Olson / Getty Images

Times technology reporters David Sarno (at left) and Alex Pham (center) and book critic David Ulin (right) talk about the evolution of the book and what it might mean for reading in a special Pacific Time podcast.

They'll continue that discussion with Times readers in a live chat at 1 p.m. Monday.

The chat will take place in the gray box below. Join us to ask questions and share your thoughts about technology and reading.

Photos: David Sarno, Alex Pham, David Ulin. Credit: Los Angeles Times

What is a book?

Some might describe it as a written work or composition that has been published, printed on pages bound together. Others might say it's just the content, separate from its container.

With the increasing prevalence of digital technologies, how we conceive, receive and relate to books will evolve.

Beginning Sunday, the Los Angeles Times will explore in an occasional series the future of reading, the technologies and their effect on the culture of reading and writing.

In this episode, we speak with Times reporters Alex Pham and David Sarno, L.A. Times book critic and former Book editor David Ulin, chief executive of the Assn. of American Publishers Tom Allen and author Jason Kelly.

Since reading is both a personal and a communal experience, we'd also love to hear from you about your perspectives on the changes in the reading experience. Comment below and check back on Monday at 1 p.m. Pacific Time for a live chat with Los Angeles Times staffers David Ulin, Alex Pham and David Sarno.

The podcast is in two parts. Listen to part one by clicking the first play button and part two below that, or subscribe here.

Part one -- Alex Pham, David Sarno and David Ulin (15:08):

Part two -- Tom Allen and Jason Kelly (9:28):

You can read the first article in the series this weekend at latimes.com/reading.

-- Michelle Maltais

Photo: Clara Aragon shops for books with her dog Penny during the 2009 Los Angeles Times Festival of Books at UCLA. Christina House / For The Times

Ann M. Simmons wrote a moving article July 5 about Lee Wesley Gibson, who at 100 was believed to be the oldest living Pullman porter -- one of the uniformed railway men who served first-class passengers in a train’s luxurious sleeping cars.

Gibson, of Los Angeles, was listed as the oldest surviving former porter by the A. Philip Randolph Pullman Porter Museum, named for the creator of the first labor organization for employees of the Pullman Co.

The article, which chronicled Gibson’s move to Los Angeles in 1935 in search of a better life and the introduction that landed him a job with Union Pacific Railroad in 1936, touched readers.

In a comment on the article, Cynthia Vanaria wrote, “Wonderful story. … God bless you, Mr. Gibson and thank you. It was a pleasure to meet you here in the LA Times.”

And mrsc5inla commented, “What a story this man has to tell, and all should listen.”

After the article was published, Simmons received a voicemail message from Andrew Isaacs. Isaacs, 88, “called to say that he loved the story on Lee Wesley Gibson, but he had one better,” Simmons said. When she called back, Isaacs told her about his brother Ben, who is 105 and was also a Pullman porter.

Ben Isaacs of Victorville began his railroad career in April 1936, according to the Chicago-based Newberry Library, which keeps data on Pullman employees, and retired in December 1968, records from the U.S. Railroad Retirement Board show.

Simmons dutifully wrote a correction to her original article, which was published Monday. But she went one step better: She interviewed Ben Isaacs and shared his experiences and memories with Times readers in an article published Thursday:

Isaacs, who is now blind, spoke fondly about his 32 years as a porter, although he acknowledged that "it got quite hard sometimes. ... Sometimes I would have a full car, and the car had 30 or 50 berths."

His favorite celebrity was cowboy singer and actor Roy Rogers. "I had a chance to talk to him," Isaacs said. "He had a car all by himself, for him and his friends, from Los Angeles to Chicago."

Isaacs appears to have struck a chord with readers as well. Richard Raddatz of Northridge left this comment on the article: “I would love to have you tell him that he was and is appreciated for who he was when he was working, and who he is now.”

Rafachavez wrote, “It's great to have these two men still around to tell us about those days. We should recognize the hard work that they did to make train travel such an exciting and comfortable mode of transportation in that era. History does not remember everything. The oral history that they give is, without a doubt, magnificent.”

And normbc9, who commented on the Gibson story as well, wrote: “Both of these former Pullman employees have every reason to be proud of their careers and the high quality of service they and their fellow employees offered. I traveled by train for 24 years and much of it in Pullman cars. I never had anything but high praise for the Pullman porters. Their service and dedication was legendary.”

Simmons said Isaacs’ family wasn’t looking for attention. “Andrew Isaacs didn’t ask for a correction, or a story on his brother. He said he just wanted me to know,” she said.

But Simmons wanted readers to know as well.

--Deirdre Edgar

Photos:

Top: Lee Wesley Gibson, 100, of Los Angeles with a 1937 Pullman dormitory/club car. Credit: Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times

Bottom: Ben Isaacs, 105, of Victorville gets a hug from daughter Dolores White. Credit: Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times
 

Nominations for the 31st Annual News and Documentary Emmy Awards were announced Thursday in New York, and for only the second time, the Los Angeles Times was nominated.

The online documentary "Alabama's Homeboys," produced by Katy Newton, Sean Connelly, Liz O. Baylen and Mary Cooney, follows members of L.A.’s Homeboy Industries, a nationally recognized gang-intervention organization, and their work with impoverished youths in Prichard, Ala.

The winners will be announced this fall.

Photo: Luis Colocio, an ex-drug addict, tells kids in Alabama about the tragic side of a life of crime, Credit: Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times

Jimmy Orr, online editor of the Christian Science Monitor, will be joining The Times in mid-August as deputy editor, online. In this new position, Orr will coordinate online news and features efforts.

While at the Monitor, Orr helped convert that newsroom into a 24/7 operation and then focused on growing traffic through the creation of blogs, search engine optimization and social networking, developing relationships with partner content providers, vastly increasing the frequency of publishing and acting as the principal liaison with leading aggregators.

In 2009, the Monitor became the first major U.S. newspaper to stop printing on parchment in a favor of an Internet-only distribution model. Orr was key to the successful transformation.

Before joining the Monitor in 2007 as the online editor, Orr served as the chief Internet strategist for both President George W. Bush and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. His groundbreaking online chats "Ask the White House" and "Ask Governor Schwarzenegger" were lauded by the media and leading government watchdog groups as examples of good government. His entertaining "Barney Cam" videos (Christmas through the eyes of the first dog) became a holiday tradition in the Bush White House and the most-watched videos on the White House website. While at the White House, Orr was named one of the most influential people in the world of politics and the Internet by PoliticsOnline.

He has been a contributor to The Times' Top of The Ticket blog since March.

Following is a memo from Editor Russ Stanton to the newsroom:

Jon Thurber is our new Book Review editor.

In his new post, Jon will work to continue the strong coverage directed by David Ulin, who ran the section for five years and was recently named book critic. Jon will lead a team of editors and writers who will produce a broader range of reviews, features and trend stories for the daily and Sunday Calendar sections and A1. He also will oversee the lively landing page online as well as the prize-winning Jacket Copy blog.

During the last year, Jon served as managing editor, print, where he directed the daily A1 process, oversaw the successful launch of the LATExtra section and, in recent months, has been working with me on a number of strategic initiatives tied to the future of the newsroom. Asst. Managing Editor Joe Eckdahl, who has been pinch-hitting for Jon during this stretch, will oversee the A1 operation.

Before being named managing editor last July, Jon spent 11 years as obituary editor, building our coverage into some of the best in the country. He also led by example, penning more than 400 obits during his time as editor.

Jon joined The Times as a copy boy and has worked on the copy desk and as an editor in Foreign and Calendar. As Book Review Editor, Jon will report to Alice Short, Asst. Managing Editor, Features.

The Times received some puzzled inquires about the article in Sunday’s National Briefing column headlined “Son of Mobster Spillane Dies.” The piece reported the death of Robert Spillane, “the son of legendary New York City mobster Mickey Spillane.”

Bob Bauer of Pacific Palisades said of Spillane, "In fact he was a well-known writer of crime novels,  and his most famous character was Mike Hammer. 'I, the Jury' sold 6.5 million copies in the U.S. alone,  according to Wikipedia."

And James Lincoln Warren of Los Angeles wrote, "Identifying author Mickey Spillane, the creator of Mike Hammer, as a notorious New York mobster is like calling James Joyce a famous Irish terrorist."

But Robert Spillane wasn’t the son of the bestselling author Mickey Spillane. Another man by the same name was his father, and that Mickey Spillane, who died in 1977, was an organized-crime boss who operated in New York’s Hell’s Kitchen.

In a blog post for the Village Voice on Monday, Tom Robbins wrote about Robert Spillane’s father. Robbins referenced a passage from "Paddy Whacked," a book by T.J. English on Irish American gangsters, in which the mobster Spillane, appearing before a grand jury but not saying much, is asked about the author Spillane:

"Finally," writes English, "the exasperated assistant D.A. asked: 'Well, can you tell me this: Are you related to the other Mickey Spillane? The famous writer?' After a momentary pause, Mickey leaned over to the microphone and said, 'No. But I'd be happy to change places with him at the moment.' "

Robbins also noted in his post that "most stories about the son's tragic death dutifully noted that dad Mickey Spillane was no relation to the pulp fiction writer of the same name."

However, the brief article in The Times did not. The Associated Press report posted Saturday did, but that point was omitted when the story was trimmed to six paragraphs for the briefing column. It would have been a helpful fact to retain.

— Deirdre Edgar

Photo: Author Mickey Spillane. Credit: Simon & Schuster.

Reports about a sickout by 911 operators in Los Angeles have drawn more than 80 comments from readers. Many of the initial comments, such as these, were critical of the employees:

TK: If a single call was missed, charge them all with obstructing justice.

Gary: Fire every one of those people. Hey civil servants welcome to our private sector world.

BLM: I guess being grateful for having a job in this economy is just not enough, especially if you're a union employee. Shame on them!!!!

LAPD dispatcher Luisa Goodwin was stung by the comments but felt that omissions in the article were to blame. She gives her side of the story in a Blowback column on latimes.com/opinion, which begins: 

The headline on Andrew Blankstein's article on July 3, " LAPD's 911 operators stage a sickout," has a glaring omission: The sickout was not the idea of dispatchers who work for the Communications Division. I know because I am one.

While some of those employees participated, this sickout was staged and directed by the Coalition of LA City Unions. It focused on a wide range of city workers in danger of being furloughed or laid off, not just dispatchers. It is unfair for Blankstein to lay the blame on our shoulders alone.

Goodwin is able to give a great deal of insight into conditions at the city’s 911 call centers and conveys the strong feelings of dispatchers such as herself. The article, on the other hand, is a dispassionate account of a news event.

It’s the newspaper’s job to report on newsworthy events and to generate discussion. Blankstein wrote that the sickout occurred. And that led to discussion -- which continues more than a week later.

Blankstein responded, "The fact remains that 50% of the dispatchers who handle emergency police calls did not show up for one of the shifts. These are not your average city employees. They are on the front lines of helping police safeguard public safety. That's why their work action merited a story in the L.A. Times and why the readers reacted so strongly. The issue of furloughs or layoffs of city employees is also important, and one that the paper has repeatedly covered."

Commenters were sympathetic to the dispatchers as well:

Ryan: You can't just hire someone off the street and make them a 911 operator. That's like making just anyone a police officer. … The problem is with money management. The city needs to … put what resources they have into the basic necessities of civil service.

That 9-1-1 Operator: I am a Dispatcher who was just ordered to work for the Federal Minimum Wage rate of $7.25 an hr until there is a State budget !!! I am very blessed to have a job, but won't be able to survive financially !! I'm glad LAPD PSR's had a sick out !

Goodwin concludes her column by affirming her colleagues’ commitment to the job:

In the end, while perhaps controversial, this sickout has finally brought to light the challenges the city's dispatchers face and how they will effect the public. ... I write this in the hope that the public will ignore the negative light this article has thrust us into, and instead see that we are grateful employees and dedicated to the city of Los Angeles, her officers and her citizens.

-- Deirdre Edgar

In this edition of Pacific Time:

After two decades, the LAPD says it has solved the "Grim Sleeper" serial killings, culminating in the arrest of a suspect on Wednesday. Police credit the use of a cutting-edge technology -- "familial search." Reporter Maura Dolan explains how it all works.

Spies in our midst are apparently not just the thing of novels and movies. Friday afternoon, the Department of Justice confirmed that the United States and Russia exchanged 10  spies arrested in the U.S. for four convicted in Russia in a carefully crafted diplomatic maneuver. Ken Dilanian in our Washington bureau offers some context on where the real action is in espionage.

Listen to this episode by clicking below, or subscribe here.

-- Michelle Maltais

In this edition of Pacific Time:

MacArthur Park's Polaroid photographers are the last of a dying breed. Reporter Esmeralda Bermudez talks about her childhood memories of these photographers in the park, hawking their skills, and the fading image that remains there today. (You can read the story here.)

Listen to this episode by clicking below, or subscribe here.

-- Michelle Maltais

Photo: Javier Prado sits in his folding chair waiting for customers at MacArthur Park. Prado shoots instant photos as he awaits his big break as a singer.

If this photo looks familiar, it may be because you saw it twice in Wednesday's print edition. It accompanied both the World Briefing column in the main news section and the Late Briefing in LATExtra.

John De Simio of Los Angeles asked what happened. "In the good old days when there was oodles of available column inches it wouldn't have been so egregious," he said. "But at least the LATExtra one was in color."

Assistant photo editor Mary Vignoles acknowledged, "It was a mistake."

It seems like this would be an easy error to catch. However, each section has a different set of editors. Different assignment editors compile the briefing columns, different copy desks edit them, and different design editors lay out the pages. On a busy night, they may not have time to check what the others are doing.

Still, communication is key.

--Deirdre Edgar

Photo: The Dalai Lama marks his 75th birthday with a group of children in Dharamsala, India. Credit: Abhishek Madhukar / Reuters