Nice story for tomorrow's L.A. Times talking to co-workers and friends of Laura Ling and Euna Lee, and especially nice to see the Times finally acknowledge that it's a local story for them — that the reporters held in North Korea live and work in Los Angeles. Up to now the LAT has called them reporters for San Francisco-based Current TV. Ling, incidentally, is a 1998 graduate of UCLA. Excerpt:

Both women work in Current's Vanguard journalism department -- Ling as a vice president and correspondent and Lee as a film editor. Current, founded by former Vice President Al Gore and others, is a television network carried on cable and satellite that is aimed at young people and strives to serve as a platform for citizen journalism while also producing documentaries on topics not covered elsewhere.

Ling also traveled overseas for Channel One and a former algebra teacher in Northern California observes, "She's done some pretty hairy stuff." Ling is 32 and Lee is 36.

Previously on LA Observed:
Clinton calls for humanitarian release
Obama deeply concerned by sentences
Laura Ling & Euna Lee: 12-year sentences
Laura Ling and Euna Lee vigil photos
Lisa Ling urges petition support
Trial coming for journos Laura Ling & Euna Lee