1: What I’m Working On Now
Now 82 years old, I’m working on a documentary titled “The Financial Abuse of Older People.” It still surprises me that so many Americans, after a lifetime of work, are…
Stories
2: Showers for Those Without Homes
The homeless situation in Los Angeles has actually gotten worse since I did a story on it for PBS SoCal. Every day in parts of the city, a truck that…
3: When the Twin Towers Came Down
On September 11th, 2001, I was vacationing at my sister’s place on Long Island about 110 miles from New York City. Just as I was getting ready to play golf…
4: The Dodger Hurler Who Fought for a Hotel Room
I’ve been connected to the Dodgers baseball team ever since I grew up living a couple of blocks from Ebbets Field where the Brooklyn Dodgers played their games. One of…
5: Hawking Hot Dogs
My first actual job at age 15, in 1955, was selling hot dogs at Brooklyn Dodger games. One day I was chased out of the ball park by one of…
6: What’s Wrong with This Picture?
This was the first newsroom where I worked as a TV reporter, KXTV Sacramento. There was one woman on the reporting staff, a former Miss Texas. But she worked strictly…
7: Michael Jackson and the $50,000 Paparazzi Photos
My station in Los Angeles sent us to Las Vegas in 2005 to see if we could locate Michael Jackson, who was about to be charged with sexual abuse in…
8: Anchorman Kidnapped
At my station in Sacramento, the popular news anchorman Dick Cable was kidnapped by one of his fans. The news director who engineered this fiasco was Tom Capra, son of…
9: The Sad Tale of a Friend Who Wanted to Do Some Good
Mike Prokes One of my reporter friends at the Sacramento station was Mike Prokes, a quiet and intense guy who grew up in California’s fertile Central Valley. We often went…
10: LA Legends – Langer’s Deli
There’s been a steady decline in the number of kosher-style delis in Los Angeles. Even though pastrami and corned beef sandwiches are delicious, they’re not considered the kind of healthy…
11: TV News History
Here’s a video story that looked back at a portion of TV News history in Los Angeles. It aired on my PBS SoCal show, the “Drive-By Economist.”
12: Goodbye, KNBC
I spent 31 years working for the NBC station in Los Angeles. They sent me many places to cover news stories, it was often interesting and exciting. Covered some big…
13: US Marines
13 usmc Joined the Marines when I was 18 and it changed my life in a positive way. My life needed changing. I was a below average student in high…
14: Inside The Newsroom Stuff
14 lariots The unsettling part of the L.A. Riots in 1992 was that people were firing shots randomly all over the place. Some TV stations issued bullet proof vests to…
15: First Entry-level Job
Spent ten months earning a Master’s Degree in Journalism at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. I was exposed to a faculty of veteran journalists and it was a…
16: LA Legends – Remembering Vin Scully
Vin Scully has earned a place in the pantheon of great American storytellers that includes Mark Twain and Will Rogers. Scully’s art was so much more than the 67 years…
17: One Dribble At A Time
My final story for Spectrum News One in Los Angeles before the pandemic involved a unique guy at the beach in Venice who is trying to make the world safe…
18: Immigrant Nail Salons
Immigration has become a hot button issue the past couple of years. Still, this story shows how much hard-working immigrants can contribute, especially with a little help from their friends.…