Miller Sanford

1 Licorice root, reishi mushrooms and vitamin B-6 are often among the ingredients listed in various adaptogenic drinks. (Rebecca Peloquin / For The Times) It’s not enough for a drink just to taste good anymore. Most specialty grocery or liquor stores now offer colorful cans and bottles that advertise so-called adaptogens, ingredients that beverage companies … Read more

Members of Smart & Final Warehouse Workers, holding signs protest during a news conference outside Smart & Final Super Market in Burbank last year. (Ringo Chiu / For The Times) Hundreds of employees at two Smart & Final warehouses went on strike last week amid accusations the retail chain’s parent company retaliated against them for … Read more

UnitedHealthcare ran afoul of a New York law requiring coverage of contraceptives without copays. (Jim Mone / Associated Press) There’s good news and bad news about a legal settlement that New York state just reached with the giant health insurer UnitedHealth over its denial of contraception coverage for a member, which violated state law. The … Read more

Review: A giant meatball is the gateway dish to L.A.’s best new Persian restaurant in years It’s hard to miss the giant meatball. Anyone on their way to ordering at the counter inside Azizam, while passing through its patio along Sunset Boulevard in Silver Lake, might instinctively sweep their gaze over the tables already full … Read more

Needing a break from L.A., artists turn a cabin near Joshua Tree into a family escape On a sunny spring afternoon in the high desert, Adam Miller and Devon Oder prepared to welcome guests — friends, neighbors, artists and family members — to a reception for artist B. Wurtz at their one-bedroom cabin in Yucca … Read more

Sabrina Carpenter, from left, Charli XCX and Chappell Roan. (Andy Kropa, Evan Agostini and Amy Harris / Invision / Associated Press) There were lime-green tube tops, lime-green beanies, lime-green hoodies and cowboy hats and sunglasses and at least one lime-green mesh vest like something an especially with-it street paver might wear. But even those not … Read more

Plastic surgery, therapy, a pageant: In 2004, ‘The Swan’ predicted reality TV’s future Twenty years ago, Rachel Love took part in a bizarre televised experiment that transformed her — inside and out. It all began one morning as she drove to work in downtown Seattle. An ad came on the radio announcing a casting call … Read more