Free Republic

In 2010 the LAPD completed an investigation into alleged gun purchases made by SWAT team members for the purposes of reselling the guns at a profit. Now the FBI has been called in to determine if any laws were violated. The investigation will attempt to determine why the LAPD's SWAT team, which has around 60 members, purchased over 300 specialized handguns from Kimber Manufacturing. The LAPD has a longstanding agreement with Kimber which allows the company to brand weapons with LAPD insignia and market them as "identical to" the ones used by LAPD's SWAT team. On the open market these...

Organized Labor: On the surface, the Los Angeles mayor's race looked like a choice between Coke and Pepsi. But Eric Garcetti's lopsided win over Wendy Greuel showed a major difference — in the public's view of unions. City Controller Greuel lost 54%-46% on Tuesday, bested by City Councilman Garcetti, who will become the mayor of America's second-largest city on July 1. It was an interesting result because the candidates are two peas in a pod. Both are left-wing Democrats with ideas so closely aligned they have been political allies; both grew up in the San Fernando Valley; and both hold...

Circa 1960 - LAPD Robbery Squad officers dressed as women “as part of an operation to catch a purse snatcher who murdered an elderly woman while she was on her way to church.”

NORFOLK Thirteen Somalis and one Yemeni captured after four Americans were killed aboard a yacht last month are scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court in Norfolk this afternoon on piracy, kidnapping and gun charges. The men were brought into the federal courthouse in downtown Norfolk this morning. The group was turned over to the Justice Department on Wednesday after being held aboard the carrier Enterprise since the Feb. 22 shooting deaths of the Americans. A Navy spokesman said the Somalis were removed from the ship by Department of Justice officials. A federal grand jury indicted 14 suspected pirates, the...

I am having a back and forth with Japan Today regarding their publishing of an article which appeared in Capitol Hill Blue that has subsequently been exposed to be false.Japan Today did not get the article from Capitol Hill Blue though. They got it from Truthout.org, a leftist propaganda outfit.I wanted to see if Truthout.org even had the story up on their site. I went to their main page, Truthout.org and checked. Nothing. I noticed a search box up at the top. So I took a phrase from the original article, sought significant quantities and hit search.Bingo.Here is what the...

In a groundbreaking resolution, the Los Angeles Unified District school board voted Tuesday to ban suspensions for “willful defiance,” making it the first district in the state to do so. This decision will stop suspensions for a variety of misbehaviors—anything from mouthing off to teachers, eating food in the classroom, or violating the school dress code—which critics have maintained are too broad and arbitrarily enforced. Instead, starting next year, principals will install alternative disciplinary measures while students remain in school. The ban in LAUSD, the second largest school district in the country, marks a major shift from a zero-tolerance policy...

A magnitude-3.9 earthquake has struck six miles south of Rancho Palos Verdes and seven miles southwest of San Pedro, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

A new report has revealed the City of Los Angeles has been sitting on over $42 million accumulated over the last 17 years, left unspent during the worst recession in modern times. While the city was laying off firefighters and teachers and pulling cops off the street, $42.6 million was ready for transfer into its general fund, used to pay city bills. KCAL9′s Dave Bryan reports it was only transferred this week after sitting in a special transportation fund where the money accumulated for over a decade and a half. A report from the City of Los Angeles Department of...

An Antelope Valley woman jogging in Littlerock was mauled to death Thursday by a pack of pit bulls, officials said. The dogs remained on the loose Thursday afternoon. L.A. County Sheriff's Department deputies were warning people to stay away from the area, department spokesman Steve Whitmore said.

PALMDALE (CBSLA.com) — Authorities were searching for what were described as “vicious” pit bull dogs Thursday after a woman was fatally attacked in Antelope Valley. Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies in Palmdale announced a search was underway along 155 Street East and Avenue S in the city of Littlerock. The search comes after Los Angeles County Fire officials responded to a report of a female adult attacked by as many as four dogs around 9:30 a.m. near 110th Street East and Avenue S, according to Los Angeles County Fire Inspector Scott Miller. The victim reportedly passed away while being transported...

“The Assembly Agriculture Committee unanimously passed Assembly Bill 38 by Speaker John A. Pérez (D-Los Angeles), which is an effort to ensure every California child has access to healthy and nutritious food by creating the Office of Farm to Fork in the Department of Food & Agriculture. The new office will be tasked with promoting access to healthy, California grown foods in underserved communities by bringing public health officials, agriculture industry leaders and educators together to make sure California’s children receive nutritious meals.” See the full story by clicking on the blue headline

Threats by members of the Los Angeles City Council to use the city’s pension funds to penalize investors if they sell the Los Angeles Times to Charles and David Koch could be illegal and unconstitutional, experts say.A proposal by councilman Bill Rosendahl would allow the city to yank investments by the city’s three pension funds in the Tribune Co., which owns the Times, if the company opts to sell the paper to someone who does not uphold “the highest terms of professional and objective journalism.”Rumors that libertarian industrialists Charles and David Koch might buy the paper spurred him to propose...

>Last year, the average American driver wasted 38 hours sitting in traffic. While the occasional traffic jam inconveniences most drivers, some unlucky people live in the nationÂ’s most congested cities. In addition to spending an average of 42 hours a year in traffic, drivers in these cities face peak hour congestion that can increase travel time during rush hour by 15% or more. INRIX, a traffic information and services group, collects data for individual road segments. In its 2012 Traffic Scorecard, INRIX calculated the amount of time that congestion added to driversÂ’ peak hour commute for each road. After aggregating...

A Southern California wildfire fueled by strong winds was raging through 2½ square miles of Riverside County on Wednesday as wind-fanned fires scorched parts of wine country north of San Francisco. The fast-moving wildfire about 90 miles east of Los Angeles broke out just after noon and was moving westward through largely undeveloped foothills of the San Bernardino Mountains, but it was dangerously close to subdivisions to the south, in Banning. At least 425 firefighters were working to gain control of the fast-moving fire, which has destroyed one structure, said Jody Hagemann, spokeswoman for the county fire department. Six helicopters...

When Daniel Wilson learned earlier this year that the state of California wants to bulldoze his family's pear orchard to build a giant Sacramento River water diversion, he and his brother were making a major new investment in the crop. Located near the town of Hood, in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the orchard has grown Bartlett pears for 50 years as the foundation of the family farm. But Bartletts are not as marketable as they once were. So the brothers were grafting thousands of trees to grow new pear varieties – Bosc and River Maid Red – to ensure viable...

Deutsche Bank, Germany’s largest, will face legal action in Los Angeles after a US court denied the bank’s bid to dismiss a case claiming it let hundreds of properties fall into disrepair and illegally evicted tenants. … Slamming the bank as a “slumlord,” Los Angeles accused it of illegally evicting low-income tenants to sell houses off at a higher price, letting empty properties fall into disrepair and failing to maintain those being lived in, the website of Der Spiegel magazine reported on Thursday. …

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The city of Los Angeles reached a $4.2 million settlement on injury claims by two women who were injured when police mistakenly opened fire on them during the manhunt for disgruntled ex-cop Christopher Dorner, an official said Tuesday. City Attorney Carmen Trutanich announced the sum to KNBC-TV Los Angeles, and an attorney representing the women confirmed the amount to The Associated Press. The settlement must still be approved by the Los Angeles City Council. Margie Carranza and her 71-year-old mother, Emma Hernandez, were delivering papers around 5 a.m. on Feb. 7 when LAPD officers blasted at...

Some passengers headed to Los Angeles International Airport were met with long delays on the first day of staffing cuts for air traffic controllers resulting from government spending reductions. The Federal Aviation administration said on its website late Sunday that a “traffic management program” was causing delays averaging more than three hours for flights arriving at LAX, reports CBS L.A. station KCBS-TV. The agency did not say how many flights were affected. …

Outrage as student who raped at US college was punished by being made to write five-page book report 37 Women filed a complaint against Occidental College saying officials mishandled their reports of rape or sexual abuse while students on the campus Women say the exclusive college is indifferent to rape victims and hands out 'light' punishments to perpetrators The school says it has implemented reforms and is calling in consultants Sex crimes at a prestigious Los Angeles school, including rapes and sexual assaults were covered up and not taken seriously by the college's staff. On one occasion a student who...

Film permits requested by the porn industry have all but ceased in Los Angeles County as producers decide how to work around much opposed law that requires actors to wear condoms during shoots. Film LA, the non profit organization that processes permits for motion picture, television and commercial production across Los Angeles, has seen applications for permits from the adult film industry plummet to only two so far this year. In previous years, an estimated 500 film permits are requested by the adult film industry annually. "Most production companies have ceased shooting in LA County," said Diane Duke, chief executive...

Famed astrophysicist Stephen Hawking warns that humans will need to go beyond the planet Earth if they are to survive as a species. “We must continue to go into space for humanity,” Hawking told a gathering this week in Los Angeles, California. “We won’t survive another 1,000 years without escaping our fragile planet.” Hawking, 71, has long been a proponent of space exploration. Speaking at a 2008 ceremony marking the 50th anniversary of the U.S. space agency, NASA, Hawking called for a new era in human space exploration, comparable, he said, to the European voyages to the New World more...

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — A young actress was allegedly assaulted and mugged for her cellphone last week in Los Angeles’ Fairfax District. JT Vancollie said she was walking home from babysitting Friday night when a teenage girl approached her at Sierra Bonita Avenue and 8th Street. “She said, ‘Hey, I’m trying to get my friend to help me get home. Could I use your cellphone?’” said Vancollie. The victim said the suspect started dialing repeatedly. “She starts to run away. I run after her like, ‘Are you kidding… I was trying to help you…like, what are you doing?’” Vancollie told...

**SNIP** "She's operational, she gets the job done," Pelosi (D-San Francisco) said during a round table meeting at the Feminist Majority Foundation's headquarters in Beverly Hills. "She's going to be focused on what she is doing here, but her election will lift up people across our country." Pelosi appeared with Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), U.S. Rep. Judy Chu (D-Monterey Park), U.S. Rep. Janice Hahn (D-San Pedro) and legendary Democratic party activist Roz Wyman, who in 1953 became the youngest person to win a Los Angeles City Council seat. Speaking in front of vintage pictures of suffragettes, the women all returned...

On Friday, Los Angeles police arrested Luis Bucio-Cedeno, 24, after two years of chasing the man known as the "red car flasher." An LAPD press release stated: After two years, dozens of sightings, several composite sketches, we got a break in February when a female jogger wrote down a license plate for the van of a man who had exposed himself to her. During that same exposure incident, a red Toyota was parked in front of the van. The victim remembered seeing the Toyota’s driver speaking to the van’s driver, but when the van left, she was astounded to see...

Snippet: "An Orange County pharmacist who admitted to wiring $2,050 to Pakistan to be used to fund terrorist activities was sentenced Friday to five years in federal prison."

Motoring through LA in the early 1950s one's shocked to see freeways that are wide open, streetcars, even Model A Fords still on the streets, a bustling downtown and the first malls, a Ford and Chevrolet Factory and it all looks so clean.

The districts that contain Chicago, Los Angeles and New York City ranked last in terms of federal gun law enforcement in 2012, according to a new report from Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, which tracks federal data. Federal gun crimes include illegal possession of a firearm in a school zone, illegal sale of a firearm to a juvenile, felon, or drug addict, and illegal transport of a firearm across state lines. In Chicago, the majority of gun charges last year were for firearms violations.

A jury Tuesday ordered the city of Los Angeles to pay $1.2 million to a black police officer who alleged he was the butt of vulgar racial harassment by a white supervisor and other officers. In his lawsuit, Earl Wright, who joined the department in 1989, accused the supervisor, Sgt. Peter Foster, and a handful of officers of carrying out racial pranks and making comments that left him "embarrassed and humiliated."

FULL TITLE: How gang members behave like animals... and maths experts are now predicting where they will fight rivals with 99% accuracy ~Jeffrey Brantingham, UCLA anthropologist, uses statistics to study crime ~He used the Lotka-Volterra equation to accurately predict fight locations ~The theory states that species claim territories whose boundaries form a perpendicular line halfway between each group’s home Maths experts have used geometric equations learned from wild animals to predict the location of fights between rival gangs with almost 99 per cent accuracy. Jeffrey Brantingham, an anthropologist at UCLA, in California, who uses statistics to study crime, has employed...

The word arid has two meanings: insufficient rainfall to grow trees or dull and boring. The second meaning seems to characterize the level of intelligence that’s on display in the recent media water war that has broken out between the major newspapers in Los Angeles and Phoenix. This e-water war was provoked by William deBuys’ op-ed article in the March 14 Los Angeles Times, “Phoenix’s Too Hot Future.” The Phoenix-based Arizona Republic newspaper retorted on March 15 with an editorial, “Los Angeles More of a Water Vacuum than Phoenix.” DeBuys is the author of the book: “A Great Aridness: Climate...

Sources say some network execs want to launch with Olympics in February; exec producer Lorne Michaels might want more time. It has become clear that Jimmy Fallon is going to become the host of The Tonight Show, but sources say an internal debate among key players is underway regarding the timing.According to these sources, some top executives at NBCUniversal are leaning toward a February launch to take advantage of the promotional platform of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. Others, including Late Night executive producer Lorne Michaels, are said to have concerns about rushing the transition.STORY: Sources: NBC Discussing...

What futurists in 1988 imagined Los Angeles would be like in 2013 With the year 2013 a quarter of a century away, the Los Angeles Times in 1988 asked 30 futurists and other experts what they thought life in their city would look like in 2013. They may have overshot the sophistication of our robots, but many of those predictions for 2013 have come true—or at least come close. Reporter Nicole Yorkin wrote the futurism pieces for the April 3, 1988 issue of the Los Angeles Times Magazine, compiling the information from her various interviews. The articles include illustrations by...

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Approximately 24,000 people from across the country and 61 nations are expected to participate in Sunday’s sold-out ASICS Los Angeles Marathon. The race will get underway at Dodger Stadium around 7 a.m. with a temperature forecast at about 53 degrees, according to the National Weather Service. The popular “Stadium to the Sea” course will take participants through four cities and past many iconic landmarks. The race will end at the intersection of Ocean and California Avenues in Santa Monica. Streets along the marathon route will start closing as early as 4 a.m. and will reopen on...

<p>LOS ANGELES (AP) — The city has agreed to give $40,000 to two women whose pickup was shot up by LAPD protection detail that mistook their vehicle for the truck driven by rogue ex-cop Christopher Dorner during his rampage, officials announced Thursday.</p>

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — A new threat emerges as a strand of untreatable and potentially deadly bacteria has begun spreading throughout the U.S., and health officials say one of these bugs is in Los Angeles. The bacteria, called C.R.E., is spreading throughout hospitals all across the country. These “superbugs” are resistant to almost all antibiotics, have high mortality rates, and can spread their resistance to other bacteria. Dr. Suman Radhakrishna, the chair of infection control at the California Hospital Medical Center, says that these bacteria are usually found in the colon. “They can cause bloodstream infections, urinary type infections, and...

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, Cardinal Roger Mahony and a former priest have agreed to pay a total of nearly $10 million to settle four child sex abuse cases brought against them, lawyers for the victims said on Tuesday. Mahony, who retired in 2011 as head of the largest U.S. archdiocese and is now in Rome taking part in choosing a new pope, was accused of helping a confessed pedophile priest evade law enforcement by sending him out of state to a church-run treatment center, then placing the priest back in the Los Angeles ministry. As part of...

A campaign committee controlled by the newly elected chairman of the state Republican Party donated $1,300 to Democrat Wendy Greuel’s Los Angeles mayoral bid. Jim Brulte, who was elected chairman Sunday at the party convention in Sacramento, said he made the donation before he realized Kevin James was a viable Republican candidate.

The California camp ranger carjacked by ex-cop turned fugitive Christopher Dorner last month has filed a lawsuit seeking claim to the entire $1.2 million reward leading to his capture. Rick Heltebrake, who was robbed at gunpoint by Dorner while driving on a Big Bear-area road last month, has filed his suit against the city of Los Angeles claiming that it was his 911 phone call that led to Dorner's cornering. The full-time Boy Scouts ranger's life was spared during that carjacking while allowed to safely exit his truck and later call 911. According to his claim, it was that call...

Jimmy Kimmel did some on-the-street interviews on Hollywood Blvd. with people about the “Sequester.”These aren’t low-information voters; they are no-information voters. They are clueless. They vote in terms of race, feelings, and what other people are telling them. Actually, it’s worse.The most frightening part of what you’ll see in this three-minute video is how they go on even after admitting that they don’t know anything about what the Sequester is.One day these people will have children. The gene pool is beginning to grow algae.We are witnessing a world that is depicted in the 2006 film Idiocracy where “advertising, commercialism, and...

Few people should have been surprised when Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder said last week that he was beginning a state takeover of insolvent Detroit. After all, the city's schools have been operating under state control since 2009, while Detroit government itself has been running an accumulated deficit since 2005 and papering over its finances with borrowing. No one would mistake Los Angeles for Detroit, however, and not just because of the weather. Los Angeles is not a fading rustbelt metropolis but a global city, a center of entertainment, finance and trade. But at a forum for mayoral candidates last month,...

SANTA MONICA (CBSLA.com) — Authorities say a foul odor that spurred calls to fire departments throughout the city on Sunday is possibly the result of the large release of methane in the Santa Monica Bay. Santa Monica Fire said in a department statement that they believe the strong odor was caused by a naturally occurring methane leak below the ocean floor. “This morning there was a large release of natural ocean floor methane released in the Santa Monica Bay,” the statement said. “This methane is not toxic and dissipates quickly.” Sam Atwood, a spokesman for the Air Quality Management District...

On March 5, Los Angeles will be voting for a new mayor. This is more like a primary, since there will be a run-off unless someone gets over 50% of the vote, which is very unlikely. Los Angeles is in the same position as many other large cities, with huge deficits and free-spending Democrats who cater to the unions. All of the candidates except one have actively participated in creating Los Angeles' woes. Kevin James stands out as a clear choice. He is a former prosecutor and is currently a radio talk show host. American Thinker interviewed Mr. James to...

Public health officials have launched a new, coordinated effort to contain a persistent outbreak of tuberculosis in downtown L.A.’s skid row, including searching for more than 4,500 people who may have been exposed to the disease.

United Teachers Los Angeles made a bold and revealing statement about its radical political principles when the union endorsed Ron Gochez for L.A. City Council this month. The endorsement is significant for a couple of reasons. First, Gochez is an extreme left-wing L.A. teacher known for racist, anti-American rants. He also has decades-long ties to the African People’s Socialist Party—which is very open and passionate about its hatred of Jews, whites, Barack Obama, Martin Luther King Jr., Jesse Jackson, Koreans, basically everyone. Second, the UTLA didn’t have to endorse him. The union’s leaders wanted to. …

<p>A federal hate-crimes indictment highlights differences in response between Barack Obama and previous presidents when racists target blacks with violence.</p> <p>The Feb. 8 Department of Justice press release says that members of the Compton 155 gang, whose members call themselves “nigger killers” (the release spells it out N***** Killers) or “NKs,” use “violence and threats of violence in an effort to drive African-Americans out of their ‘territory’ on the west side of Compton.” Further, “[t]o instill fear in African-Americans, members of the gang tag their gang moniker and ‘NK’ throughout their ‘territory.’”</p>

There is certainly no ‘waste not, want not’ badge for Girl Scouts of America, at least not in Southern California where over 13,000 boxes of the organization’s famous cookies were bulldozed to bits in a warehouse as bulldozer operators gleefully yelled ‘Goodbye girl scout cookies!’ After the May incident, when the cookies were sent off to a landfill, leaders of area food banks are up in arms about the so-called service organization's wastefulness. Bruce Rankin, Executive Director of Santa Monica’s West Side Food Bank, watched footage from CBS 2 in Los Angeles, and was shocked as two heavy-duty construction vehicles...

One of the deputies involved in a gun battle Tuesday afternoon with fugitive former police officer Christopher Dorner has died of his wounds, law enforcement sources told The Times. The San Bernardino County sheriff's deputy was airlifted to Loma Linda University Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, according to the sources. Another deputy was also wounded in the shootout near a cabin where Dorner was believed to be holed up in the snow-covered mountains near Big Bear. His condition was not immediately known. The afternoon gun battle in which hundreds of rounds were exchanged was part of a quickly...

Seeking leads as the massive manhunt for Christopher Dorner -- the former Los Angeles police officer suspected in three killings -- progressed into its fourth day, authorities on Sunday announced a $1 million reward for information leading to his arrest. LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced the reward at a news conference at Los Angeles Police Department headquarters. “This search is not a matter of if, but a matter of when," he said. "I want Chris Dorner to know that.” Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/02/10/searchers-struggle-to-pick-up-trail-former-los-angeles-cop-wanted-in-killing/#ixzz2KY18yu4g

A new shift of officers has been called in tonight to continue the search for Christopher Dorner in Big Bear. The LAPD has announced it will reopen the investigation into Dorner’s termination.Bulletin: Sgt. R. Collins of the San Bernardino Sheriff's Department Big Bear station said at 6:15 p.m. that a new shift of officers had been called in to continue the search for Christopher Dorner. LAPD Police Chief Charlie Beck has announced the department will reopen the investigation into Dorner's employment termination. He plans to publicly address Dorner's allegations of wrongful termination and review the 2007 complaint against his supervisor....

Nice job, LAPD… rapid and promiscuous FAIL! nquiring minds would certainly like to see the video from the squad car involved where two LA Police officers rapidly and promiscuously opened fire on a pickup truck, thinking they had the far left-wing murderer Christopher Dorner in their sights. If you or I had opened fire on a pickup truck whose occupants weren’t trying to run us over or shooting at us, we’d be in jail for a long time to come. While police have a little additional leeway in using deadly force, it would seem this was a grossly inappropriate use...