I just discovered a local website gem: the L.A. EXAMINER. this is exactly the sort of alternative content I was after. It's tough when this whole town's printed papers are pretty much at the mercy of one bohemoth, the LA Times. Atlanta suffers from this problem as well, as it's only paper consistently pushes out the competition at whatever cost. well, apparently the same thing happens here. the la examiner site has a good blurb on this article on their front page.