L. A. Times covering the trials for the officers and the beating o. J. Dney king and then the simpson case. He always wrote with amazing speed and great pelicans. I got to know him in another capacity in the late 1990s when he was covering the charter reform process in los angeles as part of covering city government. I was chairing an elected commission in los angeles to revise the city charter. I saw not only was he amazingly talented but a reporter of incredible integrity. He believed the Los Angeles Times was not devoting enough to reform and quit his position in protest of this. He put his very job on the line because he believed in the importance of stories. Atthen as now was a star the times, and as a result, they gave tremendous attention to charter reform. I will always believe charter reform succeeded because of what jim newton did. A few years ago, he mentioned to me he was planning on taking time off to do a biography of earl warren. I thought it was a great idea, and that i