Redmond Carolipio

Dec. 5, 2004: Lee-Ping Wang and Shawn Woolley never met. But they shared the same prison. And neither of them wanted to leave. Their jail was an online video game called “EverQuest.” Both found things in this fantasy realm of creatures and magic that the real world couldn't give them, and it consumed them. At one point, they both thought about killing themselves.

Dec. 25, 2010: Cesar Guerrero remembers fixing French toast and sausage for his son on Christmas Eve. On Christmas, he had to come to Baxter Street near Echo Park Avenue – a neighborhood he and his family left behind two years ago – to identify his son's body. Eighteen-year-old Caesar Frank Guerrero of Bell Gardens was the lone fatality in a Christmas morning shooting that also left three other men wounded. Police reported the shooting took place just before noon at Innes Avenue near Sunset Boulevard, with Guerrero's body being discovered in an otherwise empty Honda Civic on Baxter Street.

April 4, 2005: Columbine. The Washington snipers. Gang shootings in Oakland. Violent video games were blamed in all of them. The latest exhibit in the People v. Video Games involves an Alabama teen who an attorney says was inspired by the "Grand Theft Auto" franchise to steal cars and shoot three people. As the electronic entertainment industry prepares to defend itself in that case, Rep. Joe Baca, D-Rialto, is lobbying for his second piece of legislation targeting games this time a call to re-evaluate the rating system designed to keep violent games out of children's hands.

April 15, 2006: Sexual predators prowling on the Internet is not a new concept, but many believe the advent of Web sites like MySpace.com - and the freedom of information that comes with them - has given child molesters the ultimate tool in tracking down prey.

Sept. 15, 2005: From USC to MIT, video game design has become a legitimate field of study at schools across the country and around the world. It hopes to do for wannabe Shigeru Miyamotos what film schools have done for the likes of Lucas and Spielberg while facing perceptions that have dogged gamers for years.

Oct. 26, 2006: Guns, drugs and cop killing came first. Now, the great debate about video-game content is showing some school spirit. Games and violence in schools have been talked about in the same discussions for years. But the material in the new video game "Bully" - which includes fighting on school grounds - comes at a time when the region is still reeling from the massive Fontana High School riot and a major brawl at San Bernardino's Pacific High School, and sensitivity to school violence and bullying in the U.S. is steadily rising.

May 29, 2010: They don't get it. Like it or not, those four words typically epitomize the feelings of younger generations when it comes to baby boomers and technology. You'll usually hear it from the exasperated, eye-rolling teen who relentlessly posts Twitter updates in the presence of grandparents. Or perhaps the 20- or 30-something who has to help their father set up their cell phone or iPad. But what perhaps the younger set doesn't realize is that baby boomers are a generation once known for being free-spirited, experimental and open-minded.

Sept. 7, 2006: Enter the Alternative Analysis Program, the department's call to creative arms. In an entertainment era that turned fictional federal ninja Jack Bauer into a household name, the program gathers various thinkers ranging from academia to the world of entertainment together to add an outside-the-box dimension to the war on terror.