Today’s newsroom leaders are often pulled in endless directions: Should we use Snapchat or Facebook Live for this press conference? How do we apply 360-degree video to that story? When should we livetweet and engage with our audiences? Their to do lists are endlessly growing.

The Los Angeles Times is setting its sights on the stars, or more accurately, on Mars. Utilizing virtual reality and coding technology, the newspaper built its first ever VR story, “Discovering Gale Crater,” an immersive look at the Mars Gale crater. While there’s been a lot of discussion about VR as an empathy machine, Len DeGroot, director of data visualization, and Armand Emamdjomeh, Web developer and visual journalist, wanted to explore other human emotions through virtual reality: wonder,

Inside an unmarked white building in Santa Monica, Calif., Nonny de la Peña and her company Emblematic Group are settling into their new lab. After jumping from location to location, the company now has a place to call their own—a promising sign since de la Peña and her team need room to create the future.

Tony O. Champagne’s ballpoint pen glides across his sketch paper. His eyes dart up and down. He doesn’t have time to stare, but he needs to memorize the faces in front of him.

Laguna Beach businesses take a handcrafted approach to ensure fresh, high-quality food, drinks and specialty products.

The Orange County Museum of Art’s “Avant-Garde Collection” details decades of trendsetting works that reflect the institution’s move into the future.

In a dimmed room Kurt Weston stared intently at the photography negatives of beautiful models. He was working in the dark room of Pivot Point International, a beauty school in Chicago that produced fashion catalogs, but he dreamed of one day taking the pictures he was developing.

In her eighth-grade art class, Meg Burton would impatiently watch the clock tick by. One thing filled Burton’s mind. One thought, one thing she had to do. “I need to get home to binge and purge,” a 13-year-old Burton would think to herself.

Sean Price’s cardiologist told him last July that his heart was only pumping at 30 percent. After having two open-heart surgeries before he entered into college because of a birth defect, the prospect of having to undergo a third became a defining moment in the 22-year-old’s life. Price, a kinesiology major, said during his first two years at Cal State Fullerton he was known as the party guy.

The day Nick Ballinger was supposed to take his last final at Fullerton Junior College before transferring over to Cal State Fullerton, he ended up in the hospital instead. Shortly after Ballinger turned 21, a blood vessel in his brain ruptured.

Walking up to the cafe, Krista English looks like a dancer. English, 24, has been dancing since she was 3 years old. “I quit for a year,” she recalls. “I was five and Power Rangers was on at the same time that dance was … but then I instantly wanted to go back.” When Derek looks up at her with his bright blue eyes, English looks like a mother. English discovered she was pregnant with her first child, a son, at age 22. The dance major was three months pregnant when she began in fall 2011. B

Standing under the awning of a park building to shield himself from the rain, a young man stands alone near his bike. A young woman named Stephanie Gutowski, a volunteer with Families Forward, a non-profit organization, and Kaz Hirama, a student at The Village of Hope, approach the young man. “Do you speak English?” Hirama asks him. He shakes his head no.