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When a bushy-haired 28-year-old with a magnetic podium presence became music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic five years ago, Gustavo Dudamel galvanized the classical music world and beyond. At the Venezuelan conductor's insistence, the gates of the Hollywood Bowl were thrown open to the community, with free tickets for all. After a proud-papa warm-up with youngsters in Youth Orchestra Los Angeles — a group inspired and founded by Dudamel — he led the L.A. Phil, Master Choral and stellar vocal soloists in an exuberant performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. The Dude, as he was affectionately called, spread the joy...

A new aggressive daytime-biting mosquito capable of transmitting debilitating and possibly deadly viruses has been found in the Los Angeles region, officials announced Wednesday. Known as yellow fever mosquitoes, the insects were found Oct. 7 and 8 in Commerce and Pico Rivera, respectively, according to the Greater Los Angeles County Vector Control District. The Aedes aegypti species, which has black and white stripes and grows to about a quarter-inch in size, can transmit dengue, chikungunya and yellow fever -- viruses that can cause painful symptoms including headaches and high fever, officials said. "While these debilitating viruses, so far, aren't locally...

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) LA football fans have been waiting nearly 20 years for a team to call their own. LA is the second largest TV market, host to plenty of baseball, basketball and hockey franchises, not to mention college teams. But the idea of a pro football team in this area has been nothing more than rumor for decades. According to a report, one or two NFL teams are on the way, “fairly soon.” “As the 20th anniversary of the NFL’s departure from Los Angeles, the NFL seems closer than ever to returning,” said the report. “Per a league source,...

On the field, Sandy Koufax wasn't just any baseball player. Off the field, he wasn't viewed that way either. The Hall of Fame pitcher isn't just remembered by baseball fans as "the man with the golden arm," but is revered by his Jewish admirers as "the left arm of God" for his talent as well as the public observance of his faith, most notably during the 1965 World Series. A legendary left-handed pitcher who spent his entire career with the Dodgers, Koufax dominated batters like few ever have, atop mounds in Brooklyn and Los Angeles -- as well as just...

A Six Flags fight this past Saturday turned a Halloween celebration called Fright Fest into a fight fest that resulted in multiple injuries at Six Flags America. One 15-year-old boy was beaten so severely during the Six Flags fight that heÂ’s in a coma. In a related report by The Inquisitr, earlier this month the iconic Colossus roller coaster at Six Flags Magic Mountain caught fire and the peak of one section even collapsed. There was also a belief that a Six Flags fight might break out when Six Flags held military appreciation day at the same time as Muslim...

Authorities say the mayor of the Los Angeles suburb of Bell Gardens has been shot to death and his wife is in custody. Los Angeles County sheriff’s Deputy Crystal Hernandez said Tuesday that Mayor Daniel Crespo got into an argument with his wife, Levette Crespo, and their 19-year-old son tried to intervene. …

You probably know your Social Security number, your driver’s license number and perhaps the latest wrinkle in mattress marketing, your sleep number. But do you know your drought number? The latter represents the amount of water you are allowed to use per day. If you don’t know it, you probably should. Not knowing could cost you money. As California’s severe drought moves into a fourth year, state and local water agencies are working on something called “allocation-based rate structures,” a kind of precursor to water rationing that’s all the rage in Sacramento and in some areas such as Santa Cruz,...

Democratic activist Sandra Fluke -- who is running for a state Senate seat in California -- leads her opponent by seven percentage points, according to a new survey from the Fluke campaign. Forty-one percent of voters in the poll of California’s 26th Senate District said they prefer Fluke. Ben Allen, a member of the Santa Monica-Malibu school board, took 34 percent. Twenty-five percent of voters in the Los Angeles area district remain undecided. Fluke holds advantages among Democratic voters (53 percent-25 percent) and non-affiliated voters (44 percent-28 percent). Her opponent leads among Republicans (58 percent-15 percent).

The Los Angeles Ethics Commission (the term “ethics” is used rather loosely in this case) has a plan to get more voters to turn out on Election Day. Basically, they think the city should bribe people to show up at the polls. According to LA Times:Alarmed that fewer than one-fourth of voters are showing up for municipal elections, the Los Angeles Ethics Commission voted Thursday to recommend that the City Council look at using cash prizes to lure a greater number of people to the polls. On a 3-0 vote, the panel said it wanted City Council President Herb Wesson's Rules,...

Time Warner Cable has agreed to broadcast the final week of the Los Angeles Dodgers' regular season baseball on local broadcast station KDOC. The move -- in a show of goodwill to Los Angeles area baseball fans -- enables millions of viewers throughout the region to watch the final six games of the regular season. The Dodgers are locked in a tight race to clinch the National League West Division title.

The Department of Labor coordinated with the White House on whether or not to release hidden portions of former Labor Secretary Hilda Solis’ schedule as Solis battled an FBI investigation into her illegal fundraising for President Obama. New emails provided to The Daily Caller from the nonprofit legal research firm Cause of Action show the White House thanking the Department of Labor for “flagging” a public information request for “withheld” portions of Solis’ schedule. (SEE THE EMAIL CHAIN). The White House then asked for the name of the conservative group making the request — information that Labor officials were eager...

Immigration: When California Gov. Jerry Brown hung out the "all welcome" sign for illegals, Mexico's drug cartels heard him loud and clear. Raids on Thursday left lawmen declaring Los Angeles a cash-laundering mecca. Roping off 100 blocks of downtown Los Angeles this week, federal agents from the U.S. attorney's office raided roughly 70 garment district businesses along with a few houses in tony Westwood and Beverly Hills. The suspected crime was laundering money for Mexico's Sinaloa cartel. Agents hauled out $65 million in cash stuffed in duffel bags, suitcases and boxes, some of it blood-spattered. The cash came from hostage...

Democratic state Sen. Roderick D. Wright, convicted earlier this year on felony perjury and voting fraud charges, was sentenced Friday to 90 days in county jail and barred for life from holding public office. After turning down Wright's request for a new trial, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Kathleen Kennedy also sentenced the senator to three years' probation and 1,500 hours of community service. He was ordered to surrender and begin serving his sentence Oct. 31. Some observers have speculated that Wright will serve little or no time behind bars, given his heretofore clean record, the nonviolent nature of...

Los Angeles Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully opens the broadcast from Dodger Stadium on Sept. 17, 2001, six days after al Qaeda attacked the United States:

Deputy L.A.City Attorney Arrested On Multiple Child Porn Charges By JOSEPH SERNA, RICHARD WINTON Deputy L.A. city attorney arrested on child porn charges; free on $40,000 bail A deputy Los Angeles city attorney has been arrested and charged with possession of child pornography, authorities said Friday. Christopher Richard Garcia, 57, was arrested Thursday afternoon at his home in San Pedro and booked on suspicion of possessing and distributing child pornography, said Officer Liliana Preciado, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Police Department. Garcia had been under investigation since at least November, when authorities served a search warrant at his home...

Op-Ed Hiking L.A.'s Minimum Wage Is A No-Brainer Minimum wage Fast food workers protest low pay, demanding a $15/hour minimum wage outside during a two-day nationwide strike. (Los Angeles Times) By ELI BROAD Raising the minimum wage isn't just good for workers: It's good for business Could you support your family in Los Angeles on the current minimum wage? Raising L.A.'s minimum wage will be a win all around Of all major cities in the country, Los Angeles has the highest percentage of population living in poverty. After decades of slow job growth and stagnant wages, 28% of Angelenos —...

LOS ANGELES -- There's only one place to correctly start this column and that's with the scene because it was, honestly, something to be seen. Steve Ballmer officially arrived here Monday -- showing up several weeks after his reputation did, Ballmer's reputation being that, as a public speaker, he's passionate, motivating and spirited. Or, said another way, he's as outrageous as someone who has had one too many drinks or one too few meds.

Elections: The city of Los Angeles is considering paying voters to encourage turnout. Needless to say, it's a ridiculous idea that will reward low-information voting, foster political demagogues and breed corruption.Sure, some in the political class will say what's not to like? Higher voter turnout sounds good and, more to the point, the political left likely will benefit from paying people to vote.This is what's done, officially or not, in places like Venezuela, Central America and southern Mexico, where the political class doles the goodies and subliterate voters sell their votes for bags of beans. Lots of left-wing demagogues have...

Continued violence in Ferguson, Missouri, brings back memories of the urban riots of the 1960s. As it happens, I had a front-row seat back then, as an intern in the office of Detroit Mayor Jerome Cavanagh during the six-day riot in July 1967. At one point I was alone in the so-called command center with Cavanagh and Michigan Gov. George Romney. Forty-three people died in that riot. Many were bystanders who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. One was a deaf man who did not heed a policeman's command, which he couldn't hear. Sadly, nearly...

Students at the nation’s second largest school district will be shielded from prosecution and sent to administrators for low-level offenses as part of a sweeping reform to the way school police respond to bad behavior. Zoe Rawson of the Community Rights Campaign says students caught fighting or possessing alcohol or marijuana will receive interventions by a guidance counselor or school administrator, a shift that will prevent students, especially minorities, from becoming mired in the criminal justice system. …