About this Series

Times reporters Michael Finnegan and Gale Holland spent 18 months investigating the $5.7-billion program to rebuild L.A.'s community colleges. They interviewed more than 200 people, visited construction sites at all nine colleges and examined thousands of documents obtained through the California Public Records Act. The documents include contracts, payrolls, inspection reports and extensive e-mail correspondence between college officials, contractors, safety inspectors, consultants and others.

Also contributing were Paul Pringle, a Times investigative reporter, and Doug Smith, Ben Welsh and Sandra Poindexter of the Times data team, who analyzed contracting costs and political fundraising by college trustees.