by GLORIA HILLARD

January 4, 2020 5:00 AM ET

Hawaii is known as a natural paradise. It's also known as the endangered species capital of the world. One of the state's most threatened seabirds, the Newell's shearwater makes its home on the island of Kauai, where a small group of environmentalists is working to keep the iconic seabird from disappearing because of collisions with power lines and confusion from artificial light.

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by GLORIA HILLARD

March 2, 2019 8:22 AM ET

Many workers in the commercial sex industry have trouble getting out because they enter at a young age, have no family support and have been traumatized on the job. An organization based in LA called Treasures provides these women with a safety net that includes support groups, peer mentoring, education, job counseling, and sometimes even child care.

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by GLORIA HILLARD

June 30, 2019 8:12 AM ET

As the women's World Cup continues in France, there's another group of tough athletes taking the field in the San Diego area. Many are age 70 and older. Don't even think about telling them to sit.

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by GLORIA HILLARD

June 1, 2018 4:59 AM ET

To capture the specific horror of Los Angeles' homeless crisis, one just needs to enter the 50-block perimeter of downtown known as Skid Row. The sidewalks have disappeared, buried beneath endless rows of sagging tents and what spills from them: stuffed animals, clothing, a bicycle tire, blankets, condoms and hypodermic needles.

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by GLORIA HILLARD

July 16, 2018 7:38 AM ET

The lack of affordable housing is at the forefront of the homeless crisis in Los Angeles County. But the city's annual point-in-time homeless count, released on June 1, showed that the veteran homeless population had declined 18 percent.

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by GLORIA HILLARD

December 29, 2018 5:00 AM ET

A strong gust of wind is answered by a chorus of wolf howls in Southern California's high desert.

Wearing hoodies and well-worn sneakers, city kids make their way up a mountain. Navigating the high desert terrain can be a challenge for some, and a few lag behind. Leading the way is a wolf named Malo.

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by GLORIA HILLARD

July 24, 2017 5:23 PM ET

In Hawaii's Kauai island, the native forest birds are in peril. Once considered a paradise for the colorful songbirds, the island has lost more than half of those native species.

What's happening on Kauai could be an early warning for the other Hawaiian islands.

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by GLORIA HILLARD

November 1, 2017 1:35 PM ET

California is now the first state to ban pet stores from selling animals from commercial breeders, thanks to a new law signed by Gov. Jerry Brown in October. Animal advocates say it will reduce what they claim is the needless suffering of animals like puppies, kittens, and rabbits bred for sale. But critics say it will hurt pet store owners and force consumers to go underground.

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by GLORIA HILLARD

June 30, 2016 4:25 PM ET

Holding the coffee she received at Los Angeles's Downtown Women's Center, Sylvia Welker steers her electric wheelchair toward the curb. It's at this spot every day that she feeds the pigeons of LA's Skid Row.

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by GLORIA HILLARD

September 18, 2016 5:21 PM ET

Marge Giaimo makes her way to a picnic table under the shadow of an oak tree. Santa Barbara's trees, like its oceans and mountains, are one thing she says she never tires of here. After losing her senior housing three years ago, this table is where she does her painting these days.

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by GLORIA HILLARD

March 15, 2015 5:15 PM ET

From bomb and drug-sniffing duties to neighborhood patrol, dogs are widely used in law enforcement. Many agencies rely on volunteer canine teams to assist them with search and rescue operations and criminal investigations.

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by GLORIA HILLARD

April 30, 2015 6:05 PM ET

In the middle of a gritty urban landscape in Southern California, some modern-day cowboys are trying — against great odds — to keep a little bit of the Old West alive.

Andrew Hosley gently tightens the bridle on Jade, a chestnut mare. More times than he can count, Jade has given kids in this Compton neighborhood a ride.

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by GLORIA HILLARD

February 27, 2014 9:32 PM ET

They're a quiet bunch, the hundreds of animals residing at the well-guarded botanical oasis in California's Ojai Valley. They've been brought to the Turtle Conservancy from countries around the world, like modern-day refugees escaping certain and persistent perils.

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by GLORIA HILLARD

June 21, 2014 5:17 AM ET

Los Angeles' Griffith Park is home to an abundance of wildlife, but a mountain lion known as P-22 is arguably its most well-known four-legged resident. But reports this spring that P-22 became ill from exposure to rodenticides has heightened concerns about the use of the poisons in the state.

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by GLORIA HILLARD

January 7, 2012 9:06 AM ET

On the edge of downtown Los Angeles, Rae Marie Martinez looks for familiar landmarks. The 60-something grandmother turns in a slow circle and shakes her head. In 1957, she still had long braids and wore long dresses.

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by GLORIA HILLARD

August 4, 2011 10:13 AM ET

When the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines ended its eight-month tour in Afghanistan earlier this year, it came home to Camp Pendleton with an unenviable record. The unit had suffered the highest casualties of the Afghan war to date: 25 Marines had died and more than 150 were wounded — many forced to undergo double and triple amputations.

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by GLORIA HILLARD 
September 23, 2013 4:27 PM

When Staci Freeman and her sister Jami Valentine first took in a child ravaged by war in Afghanistan last year, Arefa was a 6-year-old in Hello Kitty shoes, who quickly turned the daily routine of changing her head bandages into a counting game.

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by GLORIA HILLARD
September 21, 2012 3:30 PM

There is limited medical infrastructure in war-torn Afghanistan, so severely wounded children are sometimes brought to the U.S. for medical care. Doctors in America say that for one little girl, her struggle to stay alive for three years until finding her way from central Afghanistan to a hospital in Los Angeles is nothing short of a miracle.

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by GLORIA HILLARD
January 24, 2012 3:44 PM

There are no signs leading to Slab City. From Los Angeles you head east deep into the desert, and then south, past the Salton Sea. For years, a diverse group of people has been drawn to the abandoned Marine base, but the troubled economy has driven even more travelers to the place dubbed "The Last Free Place in America."

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Hinkley, Calif., is the small town that battled toxic groundwater and inspired the 2000 film Erin Brockovich. Now residents say they are experiencing a sequel to their story.

A few years ago, people started talking about the water again. Residents developed strange rashes and Pacific Gas & Electric Co. — blamed for the town's groundwater pollution — was offering to buy homes again, this time in areas previously believed to be unaffected by the contamination.

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by GLORIA HILLARD
October 01, 2011 9:50 PM

There is a rich history of cowboys on the Hawaiian Islands going back to the 18th century. They were called paniolos, and some claim Hawaii had them before Texas and Wyoming ever saw a cowboy.

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by GLORIA HILLARD
April 12, 2011 2:21 PM

Behind the wheel of an SUV is a man in a checkered shirt, and on his face is maybe a day's growth of salt and pepper. Sgt. Eric Hernandez runs the Drug Endangered Children Program for Riverside County Sheriff's Department. He's headed down a two-lane highway, following up on a report that a couple with small children is using and selling methamphetamine.

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by GLORIA HILLARD
July 15, 2011 11:14 AM

The military's four-legged warriors now have a more hopeful future in store.

Military working dogs were once euthanized when their service days were over.

But, their fate is changing as military and civilian families pressure the Defense Department to make it easier for handlers to adopt their canine colleagues.

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by GLORIA HILLARD
December 25, 2013 7:06 AM

When Jerral Hancock came home from serving in Iraq six years ago, he received a hero's welcome in the Mojave Desert town of Lancaster, Calif. He'd been severely wounded but looked forward to returning to his family and getting on with his life.

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by GLORIA HILLARD
August 22, 2012 9:27 AM

This November, California voters will decide on a ballot initiative that would strengthen penalties for those involved in the sex trafficking of women and children. The CASE Act — or Californians Against Sexual Exploitation — would make those cases easier to prosecute. And if it passes, those convicted of the crime would have to register as sex offenders, which they're not currently required to do.

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by GLORIA HILLARD
January 03, 2013 3:55 PM

Pedestrian and cyclist fatalities are increasing nationwide, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and Los Angeles and New York City have the highest rates of those deaths.

In Los Angeles, where the car is the major mode of transportation, hit and runs involving pedestrians occur almost daily. But these crimes can be the most difficult for law enforcement to investigate and solve.

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by GLORIA HILLARD
March 21, 2012 3:00 PM

Before sunrise, cargo ships and oil tankers from around the world start lining up for entry into the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the busiest container handling complex in the nation. The giant ships cannot enter the port without the assistance of a harbor pilot, who boards the towering vessels in open seas. The average salary of harbor pilots nationwide is more than $400,000. But the highly-skilled pilots maintain they earn every dollar on a job that is often treacherous and unpredictable.

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by GLORIA HILLARD
May 14, 2011 7:47 AM

It's that moment between dusk and nightfall on Hollywood Boulevard — when neon blooms a little brighter and the small swarms of tourists start to disperse. Now you notice the figures huddled against the buildings, a hand touching the air. Moises Cabrera spots the signal and pulls the long van to the curb.

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by GLORIA HILLARD
October 05, 2012 2:43 PM

Brenda Clubine is a platinum blonde with focused blue eyes and a no-nonsense demeanor.

She spent 26 years in prison for killing her husband. After enduring beatings and emergency room visits, she says, it finally ended in a locked motel room where he told her to give him her wedding rings.

"I said, 'Why?' He said, 'Because tomorrow they won't be able to identify your body without them,' " Clubine says.

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