The Well-Oiled Deal: OK, so who cares that the state Energy Commission wants to take away local control on all matters dealing with oil refineries? For starters, it involves a high-placed husband-wife team. BY WILLIAM J. KELLY

Deluged at City Hall: Sparks this week over a proposed DWP increase speak to the larger issue of who is running the show. BY ROBERT GREENE

Duped by Wal-Mart: How the poster girl for Wal-Mart’s ballot measure in Inglewood got fooled. BY ERIN AUBRY KAPLAN

COVER
Pullout: The Now Garde
Ten L.A. designers who transform cloth into art; photographed by DEAN CHAMBERLAIN. Edited by KATERI BUTLER

On the cover: Ensembles by Louis Verdad photographed by Dean Chamberlain. Makeup by Dawn Broussard; hair by Bo Mattie; studio manager: Stacy Valis.

Invasion of the Elegant Trogons
The roots of the most recent brawl over control of the Sierra Club go back at least 30 years, when white Protestant elites ran the country’s premier environmental organization and three idealistic men worked at Paul Ehrlich’s Zero Population Growth.
BY SUSAN ZAKIN

University of Fear
Homeland Security is now the big man on campus, doling out scholarships and creating a stampede for research dollars not seen since the dawn of the space program. Even Tommy Trojan’s alma mater has a chunk of the action. BY STEVEN MIKULAN

An American Family: Chapter 2
What a tense, unpredictable month it has been for Luis and Frances Aguilar. Turns out that Luis’ drug rap may not be what it seems. Meanwhile, Frances delivers a beautiful girl named Gennisis. The lives of the Aguilars are part of a continuing series by CELESTE FREMON.

BEK’s Life in Cartoons
An excerpt from This is a Bad Time, a new collection by cartoonist BRUCE ERIC KAPLAN.