A vintage scale that has stood in front of a Los Angeles store for 30 years has a personality of its own. (LAT)

Los Angeles County gave 50 hardcore homeless on skid row a place to live with no strings attached. This four-part multimedia series tracks participants over two years. (LAT)

Working for Union Pacific Railroad for 38 years enabled Lee Wesley Gibson, now 100, to create his most cherished legacy -- his progeny. (LAT)

For Phan Plork, using his shrimp boat and crew for oil cleanup is filthy and dangerous work, and pays only half of what he made before BP fouled the Gulf of Mexico. (LAT)

California parents demand to know what environmental factors are causing the high number of birth defects in their community. (LAT)

Joe Mozingo set out to research his ancestry, never expecting to find that he's descended from a black slave. (LAT)

Reconnecting with the Torah helps heroin junkies, alcoholics, sex addicts and gamblers at a Jewish rehab center. (LAT)

In the ultimate conflation of brains and brawn, players alternately exchange punches and chess pieces at a gym in Hollywood. (LAT)

A sexually abused boy and his mother recount the anguish they suffered at the hands of a trusted teacher when he was in kindergarten. (LAT)

Former nurse Spencer Sullivan copes with life after a tragic medical error left him a quadriplegic. (LAT)