Greetings. My name is Chip Jacobs and I have a condition I can’t shake: it’s called writing. Until I’m cured, please bump around my website. You’ll find a batch of my articles in publications like The Los Angeles Times, the Daily News of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Business Journal, L.A. Weekly and the Pasadena Weekly.

Take heed. These are not touchy-feeling stories. You know, those heartwarming yarns about the coiffed humanitarium feeding the Third World, or the homeless-slob-turned-gazillionaire? If that’s what you are searching for, you’ve traipsed to the wrong place. Excuse the un-PCish sarcasm, too. What you will find here are some of the hard-nosed, dark and plain-out-there articles I’ve written for a variety of newspapers I’ve worked for since 1990. We’re talking toxic Valley water, coldhearted lawyers, acidifying subway tunnels, redneck serial killers, corporate welfare, secret spy planes, a crafty slumlord, an executed politician and a chili-cheeseburger baron.

You’ll also learn about my hometown – Pasadena, California — and details about my first book, Wheeling the Deal, The Outrageous Legend of Gordon Zahler, Hollywood’s Flashiest Quadriplegic, my co-written follow-up, Smogtown: the Lung-Burning History of Pollution in Los Angeles, and my profile of a famous Los Angeles politician in an important new anthology about the U.S.-Lationo Experience.