Police impounds in Bell not an LAT story

The L.A. Times has rightfully been receiving a lot of credit for its disclosures of the corruption in the city of Bell (and probably too little criticism for enabling the corruption by abandoning its watchdog role in the small cities over the years.) But one story the Times is getting credit for, police feeding the city's coffers through aggressive use of towing and impound powers, irks some at the paper that actually wrote about it first: La Opinión. "I wanted to point out that the LA TIMES did not break this story," senior political writer PIlar Marrero says in an email she sent to media that have not credited the Spanish-language daily. Here's her stories on Bell police from July 20 and August 1.