Jessica Koslow

Luther Vandross once told Barry Krutchik the meaning behind his middle name: Ronzoni (yes, like the pasta). Vanilla Ice was the first cover story he ever wrote, and he was paid $200. R. Kelly revealed the time he almost fainted when he met his idol Stevie Wonder in the men’s room, and he sang for him on the spot.

What’s a person to do with so many spoken treasures — verbal gems collected over a lifetime of interviewing celebrities? During the pandemic, when life slowed to a standstill, Krutchik decided to move into high gear and compile his sessions into a book: “Classic Conversations: ’90s Hip Hop & R&B.”

Krutchik has lived a “crazy, interesting,” celebrity-filled life, one that he could never have imagined growing up in North Miami Beach, Florida. After attending college in the Midwest, he decided on a whim — responding to what he called a gravitational pull — to move to Los Angeles. He had big plans to be a screenwriter . . . until, he explained, “reality stepped in and you kind of have to go with it.” . . .

TRead the entire article at Pasadena Weekly.

Malia Mills has loved having a store for her swim and ready-to-wear brand at the Brentwood Country Mart for the past 17 years, but as of March 1, her seventh store nationwide has moved to Montana Avenue. 

“I think that change is good for everybody,” Mills said. “It’s good for the Mart community. It’s good for our community. We were lucky that we moved not too far away. We have a space that’s much bigger, and we also have a beautiful back garden that gets sun from both sides, and we can keep four glass doors open in the back. It creates such a different vibe when you come into our store.”

Mills was born and raised in Honolulu, and at age 13 her parents moved to Hanover, New Hampshire. As far back as she can remember, she has always loved fashion. . . .

Read the entire article at The Argonaut.

Since the January 2025 wildfires, rebuilding has become a hot topic for Angelenos, even for those who did not lose their homes. Aaron Liu, founder of Builtech Construction and a certified wildfire mitigation specialist, is especially concerned. He has seen that many of the new homes look similar to the old ones that burned. Hoping to affect change, Liu is dedicated to helping people rethink fire safety.

His interest in advancing resilient construction solutions was piqued before 2025. It was when he witnessed the devastation of the 2020 wildfires that he set out on his current path: building non-combustible homes in high-risk wildland-urban interface (WUI) zones in Los Angeles and San Jose.

Since 2025, Builtech has been constructing noncombustible homes using insulated concrete form (ICF) technology, including the first known ICF-based residential project in California designed to meet Type I, the highest fire-resistance classification under the International Building Code (IBC) and California Building Code (CBC). . . .

Read the entire article at Pasadena Weekly.

What Estela Zarate was seeing and hearing from the city’s school leaders and administrators, teachers and Loyola Marymount University (LMU) faculty and staff was that mental health had become a defining challenge for schools and communities. As LMU’s School of Education Dean, Zarate had the power and resources to do something about it.

On March 12, K-12 principals, educational leaders, policymakers, practitioners and clinicians, district and community partners and other stakeholders invested in the mental health of today’s youth convened in the Life Sciences Building at LMU to discuss the far-reaching impacts of federal immigration enforcement actions on children and adults. . . .

Read the entire article at The Argonaut.

In 2001, Lise Bornstein joined — and now co-leads — KFA Architecture, which has completed approximately 60 buildings in Santa Monica, Venice, The Marina and Westchester, including Santa Monica Swim Center, Santa Monica Boys & Girls Club’s JAMS Clubhouse and Mar Vista Youth Center. She alternates projects between market rate and affordable housing and community-enhancing buildings.

“I love creating places where people flourish,” said Bornstein. “I love working with great people, both in our office and partnering with great developers, who have vision and also similar values of community-building: making sure that we have a good pedestrian experience, that we are not closing ourselves away from our neighbors and that we’re creating neighborhood.”

Bornstein was always building things as a kid. Her dad was an engineer, so she followed suit and started out in engineering. But then she switched courses to dig deeper into her fascination with cities and the built environment—”all the complexity and simplicity that goes into it,” she said. . . .

Read the entire article at The Argonaut.

To say Sandra Mejia and her husband Bantalem have green thumbs is an understatement. The owners and founders of The Plant Chica, now located in Leimert Park, are spreading green love and oxygenating the atmosphere one indoor plant at a time.

The Plant Chica started as a side project in 2018 when the couple welcomed their son, Alem. They grew and cared for the indoor plants at their at-home greenhouse.

“We didn’t think anything of it,” Mejia explained. “It was just us setting up on random corners, selling plants and then it kind of took off. We started selling plants online on Etsy, and we became very popular there.” . . .

Read the entire article at LA Downtown News.