L.A.

Last month when L.A. Weekly broke the story that a police detective had connected the violent deaths of several prostitutes as the work of one individual, Fresno inmate Roger Hausmann was named as the leading suspect. However, L.A. Weekly revealed Friday that a DNA test has subsequently cleared Hausmann, who remains imprisoned on unrelated charges. "Obviously there is still someone out there," said Captain Ed Winter from the L.A. County coroner’s office.

From a collection of "panty-dropping comics" to a philosophical argument that our culture is shifting from material to spiritual, recent books penned by L.A. Weekly contributors are a diverse lot. The paper provides a round-up in its July 5 issue.

Esquire, which published Nasdijj's first feature story in 1999, issues a "correction" and a profile of Tim Barrus, aka Nasdijj, in its May issue. (Available here to Esquire subscribers.) The magazine gives plenty of credit to L.A. Weekly, which broke the story of Nasdijj's true identity in the Jan. 23 article "Navahoax," calling it "an excellent report" that "created a small sensation." Esquire confirms the details of "Navahoax" and fills in some of the blanks, such as ascertaining that Barrus did have a son with developmental problems named Tommy, as he described in that first Esquire essay, but the details of Tommy's relationship with Barrus "are almost the opposite" of what appeared in the magazine in 1999.