Luis Moreno, left, and Author Bernal, both employees at Flaco's Tires, on March 26, 2020, in Los Angeles. Moreno, who lives with his girlfriend and their son, agreed to a pay reduction because the business has been hit hard by the pandemic. "We normally do at least 15 cars a day," said Moreno, "Now, it's maybe four." (Mariah Tauger/Los Angeles Times)
In honor of Women’s History Month, the Los Angeles Times photography department would like to highlight our award-winning female staff photographers.
Originally from Colorado, Mariah Tauger has spent her career dedicated to many facets of visual journalism. This includes photographing such diverse subjects as professional sports like the Olympics, celebrities, celebrity chefs, lifestyle and features. Her work has been featured in almost every major American publication.
Since joining the Times photo staff in 2019, she's been even more concentrated in food and lifestyle photography.
My favorite part of my job is engaging and meeting interesting and colorful people.
Mariah Tauger
Kat Von D poses with Nietzsche, one of her three cats on Feb. 27, 2020. (Mariah Tauger/Los Angeles Times)
Behind the photograph
When I took this photo, I remember thinking, "Oh, my gosh, I love these two!" Nietzsche, tattoo artist Kat Von D's cat, was a total ham and the sweetest.
Before the shoot, there were discussions with photo editors, designers, etc... as to the overall look and feel we hoped to achieve. The collaboration and communication beforehand helped me as a photographer to execute our team's overall vision.
Of course, Kat Von D's kickass personality, authenticity and energy (along with her incredible cat Nietzsche) made this photo what it is.
I hope this photo's impact is one of power, softness, strength and love
Mariah Tauger
House Special Noodles from Phnom Penh in Long Beach on Aug. 21, 2019. (Mariah Tauger/Los Angeles Times)
Local rapper and actor Jonathan Park, a.k.a. Dumbfoundead, in Koreatown on June 26 in Los Angeles. (Mariah Tauger/Los Angeles Times)
Taco trucks are just one of many facets of the food industry being hit hard amid the pandemic. (Mariah Tauger/Los Angeles Times)
Radicchio with Radicchio XO at Angler restaurant in Los Angeles on Sept. 3, 2019. (Mariah Tauger/Los Angeles Times)
Behind the photograph
One thing the viewer might not know about this image is I used a chair in the restaurant for the background.
When approaching how to take this photograph I remember thinking that it needed to be simple and elegant.
Mariah Tauger
Bento box (2-layer) from Kinkan on July 9 in Los Angeles. (Mariah Tauger/Los Angeles Times)
Co-owner of Tacos 1986, Jorge Alvarez, a.k.a. El Joy, turns up the heat as he prepares some meat Jan. 30, 2019. (Mariah Tauger/Los Angeles Times)
Faustino Martinez in his South L.A. neighborhood April 21 in Los Angeles. Martinez owns a pushcart business, Bolis El Oaxaca, which sells mostly ice cream treats, but since the Safer At Home orders due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Martinez has seen a devastating decline in sales. (Mariah Tauger/Los Angeles Times)
Auburn sommelier Rick Arline on Jan. 31, 2020. (Mariah Tauger/Los Angeles Times)
Behind the photograph
Outside of showing up with my camera and lighting gear, I spent time talking with Rick Arline and getting a feel for his personality.
What came across was that Rick is an extremely joyful and kind person. When I took this photo I remember thinking, "What an infectious smile!"
I hope this image comes across as one of joy.
Mariah Tauger
A vegan pisco sour from Yapa restaurant Jan. 22, 2020. o (Mariah Tauger/Los Angeles Times)
Bar Restaurant general manager and beverage director Pierluc Dallaire on Feb. 11, 2020 . Behind Dallaire is Sara Vanderbeek's "Roman Women III," 2013 digital c-print. (Mariah Tauger/Los Angeles Times)
Marcus Gladney and his bike off Abbot Kinney Boulevard on Aug. 20, 2020, in Venice. Gladney is the founder and organizer of the Venice Electric Light Parade, a fun-filled LED bike ride. (Mariah Tauger/Los Angeles Times)
Kung fu boiled beef from Xiang La Hui in Alhambra on Feb. 7, 2020. (Mariah Tauger/Los Angeles Times)
Behind the photograph:
Before taking the photograph I positioned myself above the bowl before the pour began. I remember thinking that it was a beautiful, interesting dish.
I hope this image encourages viewers to try the dish.
Mariah Tauger
Actress and dancer Julie Newmar in her colorful garden on July 18, 2019. (Mariah Tauger/Los Angeles Times)
Tabitha Brown at her home in the San Fernando Valley during the pandemic on May 14, 2020. (Mariah Tauger/Los Angeles Times)
Teron Stevenson, left, and Khalil Kinsey, two of the co-founders of Natural Action Wine Club on Jan. 9 in Los Angeles. (Mariah Tauger/Los Angeles Times)
Hollywood legend Robert De Niro is unable to turn down acting roles because he must pay for his estranged wife's expensive tastes, the actor's lawyer has claimed. Caroline Krauss told a Manhattan court that he is struggling financially because of the pandemic, a massive tax bill and the demands of Grace Hightower, who filed for divorce in 2018 after 21 years of marriage. The court has been asked to settle how much De Niro should pay Ms Hightower, 66, until the terms of the prenuptial agreement the couple negotiated in 2004 takes effect. “Mr De Niro is 77 years old, and while he loves his craft, he should not be forced to work at this prodigious pace because he has to,” Ms Krauss told the court. “When does that stop? When does he get the opportunity to not take every project that comes along and not work six-day weeks, 12-hour days so he can keep pace with Ms Hightower’s thirst for Stella McCartney?”
A crackdown by Pakistani security forces on protesting supporters of a banned Islamist party left at least three people dead and 20 others injured Sunday, a police official and a party spokesman said. Lahore police spokesman Rana Arif said supporters of the hard-line Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan party attacked police with a petrol bomb and took custody of five police officers, including Deputy Superintendent Umar Farooq Baluch.
Police in Pakistan said a hardline Islamist group had taken six security personnel hostage at its headquarters in Lahore on Sunday after a week of violent clashes following the arrest of the group's leader. The Tehrik-i-Labaik Pakistan (TLP) group had given the government an April 20 deadline to expel the French ambassador over the publication of cartoons in France depicting the Prophet Mohammad. The authorities responded by arresting its leader, prompting supporters to hold protests and sit-ins across Pakistan.
The Prince of Wales and the Duke of Cambridge will hold a summit to decide the future of the monarchy over the next two generations following the death of the Duke of Edinburgh. In consultation with the Queen, Britain’s next two kings will decide how many full-time working members the Royal family should have, who they should be, and what they should do. The death of Prince Philip has left the Royal family with the immediate question of how and whether to redistribute the hundreds of patronages he retained. Meanwhile the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s decision to step back from royal duties, confirmed only last month after a one-year “review period”, has necessitated a rethink of who should support the sovereign in the most high-profile roles. Royal insiders say that the two matters cannot be decided in isolation, as the issues of patronage and personnel are inextricably linked. Because any decisions made now will have repercussions for decades to come, the Prince of Wales will take a leading role in the talks. He has made it clear that the Duke of Cambridge, his own heir, should be involved at every stage because any major decisions taken by 72-year-old Prince Charles will last into Prince William’s reign. The Earl and Countess of Wessex, who were more prominent than almost any other member of the Royal family in the days leading up to the Duke’s funeral, are expected to plug the gap left by the departure of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex by taking on more high-profile engagements. However, they already carry out a significant number of royal duties – 544 between them in the last full year before Covid struck – meaning they will not be able to absorb the full workload left by the absences of the Sussexes and the Duke of York, who remains in effective retirement as a result of the Jeffrey Epstein scandal. In 2019 the Sussexes and the Duke completed 558 engagements between them. It leaves the Royal family needing to carry out a full-scale review of how their public duties are fulfilled. Not only do they have three fewer people to call on, they must also decide what to do with several hundred patronages and military titles held by the Duke of Edinburgh, the Sussexes and possibly the Duke of York, if his retirement is permanent. Royal sources said the Queen, the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Cambridge would discuss over the coming weeks and months how the monarchy should evolve. The issue has been at the top of the Queen and the Prince of Wales’s respective in-trays since the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s one-year review period of their royal future came to an end last month, but the ill health and subsequent death of Prince Philip forced them to put the matter on hold.
President Joe Biden called Georgia's new voting law an “atrocity.” “These are laws that respond to an increase in voting by people of color,” Abrams told The Associated Press recently. The approach demonstrates how Abrams, a former and potentially future candidate for governor, is navigating the politics in the new battleground.
She is said to be the Queen’s favourite daughter-in-law, and now the monarch is set to turn to the Countess of Wessex to fill the gap left by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in carrying out royal duties. The 56-year-old Countess was one of the most prominent members of the Royal family in the days following the Duke of Edinburgh’s death. She made the first public comments about his passing, repeatedly visited Windsor Castle and provided a photograph of the Queen and the Duke at Balmoral that Her Majesty chose to share with the world as a tribute to her late husband. The departure of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex from the UK, and the effective retirement of the Duke of York, has left a major hole in the roster of Royal family members available to carry out public duties, and the Countess has been groomed to step out of the shadows in the year since “Megxit”. Her husband, the Earl of Wessex, 57, is also expected to increase his public profile as he prepares to take on the title Duke of Edinburgh when the Prince of Wales - who automatically inherited the title from his father - becomes king.
The Queen was seated two metres apart from her loved ones on Saturday as just 30 members of the Royal family attended the Duke of Edinburgh’s Covid-complaint funeral. Buckingham Palace said the 94-year-old monarch had faced “difficult decisions” over who to invite to the 3pm ceremony at St George’s Chapel and the seating plan reflected a strict adherence to the Government’s coronavirus rules on indoor worship. Her Majesty was seated alone at the front of the quire, on the south side of the chapel, where only three years ago she and Prince Philip watched Prince Harry marry Meghan Markle. She was in the same spot for Princess Eugenie’s wedding to Jack Brooksbank three months later in October 2018.
Terrence James, 49, of Galveston, Texas, died on Feb. 19, 2021, after becoming ill with COVID-19. He is among the more than 565,000 Americans who have succumbed to the disease since the first known fatality in the United States in early 2020.
His wife, Ebony James, told Yahoo News that her husband was a man of faith who loved God and his family fearlessly and that he was also passionate about helping people.
“If someone were to tell him about an issue or concern that they had, he would always listen. He never missed an opportunity to say, ‘OK, let's pray for it right now,” Ebony said, adding that her husband “always made an effort to let people know that he cared.”
Two Russian warships transited the Bosphorus en route to the Black Sea on Saturday and 15 smaller vessels completed a transfer to the sea as Moscow beefs up its naval presence at a time of tense relations with the West and Ukraine. The reinforcement coincides with a huge build-up of Russian troops near Ukraine, something Moscow calls a temporary defensive exercise, and follows an escalation in fighting in eastern Ukraine between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian government forces.
The 12 European clubs pursuing a Super League have told the leaders of FIFA and UEFA that legal action is already being pursued to stop them from action intended to thwart the launch of the breakaway competition, according to a letter obtained Monday by The Associated Press. The letter was sent by the group of English, Spanish and Italian clubs to FIFA President Gianni Infantino and UEFA counterpart Aleksander Ceferin saying the Super League has already been underwritten by funding of 4 billion euros ($5.5 billion) from a financial institution.
