H
Robert Haag Recital - Auditorium at El Camino College near the Marsee Auditorium
Hacky Sack - A toy/game made by Wham-O consisting of a little cloth-covered sphere slightly bigger than
a pingpong ball. Idea is to balance it and throw it from person to person without using your hands and without letting it touch the ground. Generic: footbag.
Hahn, James (Jimmy is allowed in quotes and columns only)
Handheld (electronic devices)
Handover (as in the handover of power. But they will hand over power.)
harbor commission
Los Angeles Board of Harbor Commissioners
Board of Harbor Commissioners
harbor commission
Los Angeles harbor commissioner
Harbor Commissioner Rat Dougherty
harebrained (one word; Note: it's NOT hairbrained)
Hanukkah (as per AP as preferred spelling)
Harman, Sidney - husband of 36th District Rep. Jane Harman, D-El Segundo, and founder of Harman International Industries Inc., which manufactures audio equipment. Also, he was undersecretary of commerce, from 1978-79.
Harbor Area/harbor area - Harbor Area refers to the land areas surrounding the harbor including San Pedro, Wilmington, Harbor City, Harbor Gateway. harbor area: when referring to actual working areas of the ports, "waterfront" or "port area" is preferred
Harbor Gateway (not the Harbor Gateway)
County Harbor-UCLA Medical Center (see hospitals)
hard row to hoe (not "hard road to hoe")
hate crimes (no quotation marks needed; phrase is well-known enough)
hazmat
Head Start (two words; source: L.A. County Office of Education)
helpline
health care (So saith AP, in an exception to Webster's)
health care reform/cost/coverage/battle/debate/etc. (DON'T hyphenate the compound modifier)
health care reform plan
Hewlett-Packard, HP
Hicks, De De
hideout
high concept (n.) - a simple and often striking idea or premise, as of a story or film, that lends itself to easy promotion and marketing. (from the national newsletter "Copy Editor" 11/92)
high-definition TV/television
hike (as in tax hike, not mountain hike) - acceptable in a pinch in headlines; try to avoid in copy, use increase instead
The Hill - Informal name for Palos Verdes Peninsula. Mostly confined to quotes or feature material
Hispanic/Latino/Chicano - See "race" entry.
Ho Chi Minh City (do not use Saigon)
Hollywood Park, Inglewood (note: race track is not part of official name) - to abbreviate in headlines (only): use HollyPark (capital P implies the merging of two proper nouns). It's days as a horse track are numbered in 2009.
Homebuilder, homebuilders
homebuyer
home page (also listed under Internet) - The first page of a Web site or document, an electronic front door that often includes an index to further information.
home page titles (also listed under Internet) - We'll treat this material as primary "catalogues of reference material" (in the words of the AP Stylebook) so these titles are capitalized but do not take quotation marks.
homeschooled, homeschooler (nothing looks good on this)
homosexual (see gay/homosexual entry)
honorifics (see Mr./Mrs. entry)
Torrance Memorial Medical Center
hospitals
(caution: some may have closed or changed their names)
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center (Los Angeles)
Centinela Hospital Medical Center (Inglewood)
County Harbor-UCLA Medical Center (near Torrance -- "near" is a must, it's in unicorporated county) or, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center
County-USC Medical Center (Los Angeles)
Daniel Freeman Memorial Hospital (Inglewood)
Gardena Memorial Hospital
Harbor-UCLA Medical Center (see County-Harbor above)
Kaiser Permanente South Bay Medical Center (Harbor City) (Hospitals are Kaiser Foundation hospitals, and clinics are Permanente Medical Clinics. Harbor facility is both.)
Robert F. Kennedy Medical Center (Hawthorne): closing in 2004
Little Company of Mary Medical Center San Pedro*
Little Company of Mary Medical Center Torrance*
(* full name: Providence Little Company of Mary Medical Center San Pedro, etc.,
but use that only in special circumstances. It's just too long. Use your good judgment)
Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital
(formerly Martin Luther King Jr.-Drew Medical Center) (Willowbrook)
Memorial Hospital of Hawthorne
(San Pedro Peninsula Hospital – now Little Company of Mary San Pedro Hospital)
Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center (was Santa Monica Hospital Medical Center until Sept.1995 when UCLA Medical Center took it over in an effort to build a regional health-care network)
Childrens Hospital Los Angeles (no apostrophe)
Shriners Hospital for Crippled Children (no apostrophe)
South Bay Medical Center (Redondo Beach; formerly South Bay Hospital)
St. John's Health Center (Santa Monica) -- dropped "hospital" in 1997
Torrance Memorial Medical Center (changed to this as of 7/89: formerly Torrance Memorial Hospital Medical Center)
UCLA Children's Hospital (Westwood)
UCLA Medical Center (Westwood) -- they've asked us to refer to the facility as Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center.
Veterans Affairs Medical Center (proper name for the U.S. government's veterans hospitals with branches throughout the U.S. including those in West Los Angeles and Long Beach; can refer to them as West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs
Medical Center or the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in West Los Angeles, etc.)
John Wayne Cancer Institute at St. John's Hospital and Health Center
Westlake Medical Center (changed to this as of 6/6/91; formerly Westlake Hospital)
Host - We'll allow host to be used as a verb. Holds is often better, but we can live with hosts.
Hotline - one word; note this overrides Webster's Fourth and we do so as nearly every rape, crisis, etc., hotline organization spells it as one word.
hourlong
Saddam Hussein (As of 1/08 to match Daily News style, make it SADDAM on second and ensuing references for the former president of Iraq.
Hyperion - If it's clear that a story is sewage-laden (so to speak), then use Hyperion Treatment Plant
(the official name). If the context of a story is not sewage -- say it's about a planned parking lot on the beach near the plant -- use Hyperion sewage treatment plant (upper/lowercase).
I
"ice" - (needs quotes, probably, because it’s not widely known) Defined as a pure grade of crystal methamphetamine; a smokable, highly addictive stimulant
ID
Ikea (not IKEA -- it's not a true acronym but a collection of the founder's initials and first letter of his hometown)
immigrants (see aliens/immigrants entry)
Immigration and Naturalization Service NO longer exists. It is now the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services.
impact (from As the Word Turns 3/20/91) - Impact is best used as a noun, when describing something hitting something else: "The impact snapped the power pole in half." As a verb, impact is better left to bureaucrats and public relations people. Do not say: "The negative EIR will impact Edison's plan to expand its plant." Most editors also discourage the use of impact when used as a noun meaning effect. Do not use: "The resignation will have a serious impact on our prom plans." Usually, effect is better.
impeachment process
1) House Judiciary Committee decides whether the president should, in essence, be indicted
2) Full House votes on Judiciary Committee's recommendation (simple majority vote needed)
3) Senate (with senators as jurors, House leaders as prosecutors and the chief justice as presiding judge) "tries" the president. A two-thirds vote is required to remove a president from office.
inbox
innocent: use not guilty. As of 2004, this conforms with AP style. (Background on previous AP style, which was innocent: This, we believe, harkens back to the days of cold type when "not" could be easily separated from "guilty" and from more recent days when headlines were filmed separately from stories and before area composition
made a lot of cutting and pasting unnecessary. We've made the change because those circumstances no longer exist and because the idea of saying "innocent" vs. "not guilty" in the O.J. Simpson trial was too inaccurate. Also, say not guilty by reason of insanity.
Insanity say “not guilty be reason of insanity”
Instant Messenger/AOL Instant Messenger are brand names, and don’t you forget it. If it’s not the AOL service, then call it an instant-messaging service or something like that.
International Space Station
Internet address, Breeze - www.dailybreeze.com.
Internet addresses, general - Do not use "http://" -- unless the site cannot be accessed otherwise -- as this is a commonly known part of almost all addresses (as of 9/97). Put in parentheses when listed in the middle of text: The California State Home Page (www.ca.gov) provides tons of information about the state and state agencies, including links to dozens of public documents.
Try to keep addresses from hyphenating: As some addresses do use a dash or hyphen, we should make efforts to avoid having a hyphen appear when an address won't fit on one line and so spills onto the next.
Internet/Net - Appropriate style for Net is upper case, no apostrophe. Please make reference to the Internet at some point in the story: Roe No More Ministry: www.roenomore.org; National Organization for Women: www.now.org
Internet terms (also see AP Stylebook)
browser: generic term for programs that allow a person to navigate and view documents on the Web.
home page: The first page of a Web site or document, an electronic front door that often includes an index to further information.
home page titles: We'll treat this material as primary "catalogues of reference material" (in the words of the AP Stylebook) so these titles are capitalized but do not take quotation marks.
internets: company's computers that are linked through a private corporate network.
newsgroup: an electronic message board used for reaching any number of users simultaneously on the Internet.
World Wide Web: An information space on the Internet, unified by a common addressing system and distinguished by documents capable of being linked from one computer to another. It's acceptable to say Web on first and all ensuing references.
-ish (suffix) - don't use a hyphen. Examples: 40ish, boyish, youngish
Italics (see composition titles)
J
Jack in the Box (the fast-food restaurant chain)
Jail - Also, do not use prison and jail interchangeably; see the "prisons/jails" entry in AP Stylebook
jailhouse (one word)
James Armstrong Theatre
Jamaah Islamiyah
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena (JPL acceptable on second reference)
JetBlue
Jetliners - Jets always are designated with hyphen: L-1011. Engines never have hyphens: F101.
Jet Ski
Jew - do not refer to Reformed Jews; they are Reform Jews (yes, upper case)
job seeker
Job Titles - Generally, capitalize formal titles when used before a name, but lowercase occupational descriptions: Principal Michael O'Sullivan, but janitor Pete Smith.
board member -- Lowercase when it's a title: Let's Toil Harder in Torrance board member Sally Sweat... When "Board" comes at end of organization's official title: Rent Control Board member
Joe Blow; also lowercase in informal reference to organization: The picnic was originated by rent board member Joe Blow.
police -- deputy, officer should be lowercase: Hawthorne police officer I.B. Dalaw, L.A. County sheriff's deputy Joe Blow; higher-ups get caps: Cucamonga Police Chief Sam Spade; Beverly Hills police Sgt. Eddie Murphy. (we uppercase Police Chief because Chief of Police is the formal title). NOTE: "police" and "sheriff's" are lowercase because we are not giving the full, proper name of the department. Were we to say "Hawthorne Police Department officer I.B. Dalaw" we would upper-case "Police"...but, given that's a waste of space, it's inappropriate.
lifeguard -- lowercase in front of name or rank: "...said lifeguard Lt. Biff Waterman."
Josephson Institute of Ethics (according to institute's media relations office 11/96)
Earvin "Magic" Johnson
The Juilliard School - is the name for the overall entity. Areas of study, all of which offer degrees, include the drama division, music division and dance division and a pre-college division. It is incorrect to say someone "studied at The Juilliard School of Music" as there is no such entity. Instead, say "studied music at The Juilliard School." (from Juilliard's communication dept 10/31/96)
Juilliard String Quartet
junkyard (one word)
jury, grand - Los Angeles County grand jury (lower case grand jury)
Juvenile names - In general, use first names on second reference in feature stories for people who are under 18 and who have not yet graduated from high school, but be guided by the nature of the coverage. Juveniles arrested for a crime will generally be identified by last name, but exceptions in local stories are at the discretion of the City Desk. Exceptions elsewhere include juvenile athletes and performers, who can be identified by last names on second reference at the editor's discretion.
K
K - This is preferred over k when referring to computer modems.
karat/carat - karat refers to the percentage of gold in a metal: 24 karat gold is pure gold (14 karat gold is 14 parts pure gold and 10 parts alloy) carat is a unit of weight for precious stones and jewels; equal to 200 milligrams
Kazakstan - AP changed its spelling of Kazakstan, dropping the ``h'' that had appeared after the second ``k.'' This reflects the Kazak government's official English spelling. (5/1/96)
"Keating Five - In body copy: It's "Keating Five" (using quotation marks) In headlines: It's "Keating 5" (also using quotation marks but a numeral instead)
Reggie the gator -- former
Ken Malloy Harbor Regional Park resident
Ken Malloy Harbor Regional Park
Khadafy - pls use Gadhafi (as per AP)
Kids - In general, "kids" should be used in place of "children" only in featury heads where the vernacular seems appropriate. It can also be used in a tight squeeze in teasers as appropriate. Usually, "kids" is NOT acceptable in place of "children" in body copy and captions, except in a quote or in a featury store where the vernacular seems appropriate.
killer bees (Africanized killer bees)
killer, mass - one who kills his/her victims more or less at the same time
killer, serial - one who kills his/her victims one at a time over a period of time
Kitty Litter - a registered trademark. If used, it must be capitalized. For a generic substitute, use "cat box filler."
Kmart (as of 8/92)
Knifepoint (he was held at knifepoint)
K-9
Koon, Sgt. Stacey - Koon is relieved of duty without pay pending a board of rights hearing; he is still on the LAPD force (as of 10/14/93)
koi (as in fish)
kudos - credit or praise for an achievement. Please note this is the SINGULAR form, there is no
word "kudo"
Kwan, Michelle - Refer to her as a South Bay native. She is from the Torrance area.
L
La Cañada Flintridge - (no hyphen, slash, etc.-- but use the tilde)
Osama bin Laden
The Lakes at El Segundo
LAX (see Los Angeles International Airport)
Lay low = to cause to fall; lie low = to keep oneself hidden (Webster’s)
Legislators - For South Bay legislators and their districts, see their Internet sites. The first reference on their site to a local address is the one we use as a city designation.
Leningrad - Became St. Petersburg 10/1/91
Library - Santa Monica Library main branch, Santa Monica Library Montana branch (name of branch is uppercase, word "branch" itself is lowercase)
lie low = to keep oneself hidden; lay low = to cause to fall (Webster’s)
life support, life-support ruling
lifeguard, job titles - lowercase in front of name or rank: "...said lifeguard Lt. Biff Waterman."
lifestyle (one word)
-like (as per AP) - no hyphen unless the letter "l" would be tripled: lecherlike but shell-like
liquefied (natural gas, etc.)
lockdown is OK for schools, etc.
-long; NO hyphen - daylong, milelong, monthlong, weeklong
Queen Mary, Long Beach
Long Beach areas (for Press-Telegram) – still working on this list
Alamitos Beach (a neighborhood, not a beach!)
Belmont Shore
Downtown Long Beach but downtown when by itself (the new stores will open downtown).
Eastside/East Long Beach
North Long Beach
Westside
longboard
longshoremen – we use the nonsexist longshore workers when the reference is generic(contary to AP stylebook). This is lowercase in virtually all references as we are most frequently describing an occupation as opposed to membership in a specific union. So, capitalize only if it's imperative to denote the individual is a member of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union or the International Longshoremen's Association. Caution: you need to be certain the longshoreman is a union member before capitalizing. Can be referred to as longshore workers.
long-term (Clark Kent has a long-term assignment.)
long term (Superman will win in the long term.)
longtime (They are longtime subjects of gossip.)
long time (Clark and Lois have known each other a long time)
looky-loo, looky-loos
Los Angeles basin (lowercase as there are at least 2 different applications for the term -- see below) -- eff. 8/93
1) air basin (for smog, weather and other climate-related stories) - This refers to the area between the coast and the "high" mountains, which form a ring and can "trap" smog or affect weather systems. Specifically, this includes the area from the Santa Monica Mountains south to Cleveland National Forest near San Juan Capistrano; and from the Pacific east to the San Gabriel, San Bernardino and San Jacinto mountains, including the San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys.
-Sources: South Coast Air Management District (909-396-3456 press office) and Prof. Orme at
UCLA dept. of geography 825-1516.
2) geologic basin (for earthquakes) - This is a much tighter area, which is restricted to the actual lowlands sitting next to the Pacific. These lowlands are a depression which has been filled with material eroded from the mountains surrounding it; and so it is not hard rock but loose rock and soil which can
amplify seismic waves. -The area is difficult to specifically define as the mountains don't form a nice, neat ring (so you may find some minor variance in talking to other sources). But, basically, the area is bordered by the Santa Monica and San Gabriel mountains on the north (including San Fernando Valley, Pasadena, Arcadia); bordered on the east near LaPuente and Covina and the Anaheim/Chino Hills; and on the south by northern Orange County around Huntington Beach.
-Source: USGS at CalTech, Jim Mori 818-405-7811
3) demographic information (population, office/hotel occupancy, etc.) Do NOT use the term L.A. basin -- as the population has spread over mountains, into deserts, etc., the geography is no longer relevant to how L.A. is defined in terms of people (i.e. the population isn't confined to the geologic basin or the smog basin for that matter). Instead, please use Los Angeles metropolitan area (lowercase on "metropolitan area"). This, however, can include all or parts of L.A., Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and/or Ventura counties. So, because you're not really getting a nice clean break here either, ask your source generally how he/she is defining the metropolitan area and be sure to include that on first reference to the metro area in your article.
Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute – The new name for the Research and Education Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, effective July 1, 2004. It will be known as LA BioMed for short, but until the community becomes used to the name, it might be better to refer to it as “research institute” in headlines and captions.
Los Angeles County departments - County Sanitation Districts: The County Sanitation Districts, is always plural, but it is a single entity. The County Sanitation Districts' position is to protect its interest.
Los Angeles County regions/neighborhoods
Harbor Area (referring to general San Pedro/Terminal Island geographic area)
East Los Angeles (don't abbreviate L.A. in copy)
Harbor Gateway
Mid-Wilshire
Palos Verdes Peninsula: east side (noun); eastside (adj)
Redondo Beach: south Redondo Beach, north Redondo Beach
Santa Monica: Ocean Park
San Fernando Valley (or the Valley, as long as it isn't confused with the San Gabriel Valley)
San Gabriel Valley
Skid Row
South Bay
South Los Angeles
South-Central Los Angeles (South-Central also on 2nd reference as L.A. is implied) Torrance: north Torrance
the Valley* (*see San Fernando Valley above)
Venice: Oakwood
Westside
Los Angeles Harbor
Los Angeles International Airport – needs update Ranking: Los Angeles International Airport comes in 4th in PASSENGERS (after Chicago, Dallas, Atlanta); 2nd in CARGO (to Memphis); and 4th in TAKEOFFS AND LANDINGS TOGETHER (after Chicago, Dallas, Atlanta). It's No. 1 in terms of people who begin and end their trips at the same airport. (updated by Gregor 1/4/99)
Los Angeles Police Department - LAPD is acceptable on second reference but it must be spelled out on first reference.
Lottery - California State Lottery on first reference.
Lotto
Lou-e-Luey’s restaurant
Lowenthal family (Long Beach area)
as of 3/5/08
Alan - State Senator, 27th District
Bonnie - Ex-wife of Alan, 54th Assembly member, former 1st District Councilmember and vice mayor
Suja - Daughter-in-law of said Lowenthals, 2nd District Councilmember
Josh - Alan's son, I think (but not Suja's hubby). Prospective LBUSD board member at one time, after Chamber recall of Michael Ellis, currently runs a kids/poverty operation..
Lower Manhattan (New York)
