Free Republic

An 8-foot alligator found in a Van Nuys backyard earlier this week may have been killing and eating neighborhood pets for decades, a Los Angeles Department of Animal Services officer told the Daily News. The residents at the home in the 13200 block of Sylvan Street said they got the alligator when it was a baby and have had it ever since, Ani­mal Services Commander Mark Salazar said.

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — The Los Angeles Police Department is asking for the public’s help to identify a woman they say was kidnapped. Authorities said the unidentifed woman walked into a business in the 5600 block of York Boulevard in the early morning hours of December 20, 2014. Witnesses said the woman had just gotten out of a gray or silver SUV. The woman ordered a coffee and began texting or emailing someone using her cell phone. Around 5:55 a.m., the woman left the business wearing her black coat and walked toward Avenue 56. Less than a minute later, the...

**SNIP** After all, a Senate seat is a plum job anywhere, but especially for Democrats in California, where it’s been decades since any of them lost a reelection bid for statewide office. Whoever takes Boxer’s place can expect to become the state’s senior senator after 2018, when the then-85-year-old Dianne Feinstein is also widely expected to retire. But ambitious Democrats should beware: Their eagerness, even greed, could do in their party’s hold on Boxer’s spot. It has happened before in California, and very recently. The field of potential Democratic candidates for Boxer’s slot is large, possibly going beyond obvious prospects...

The Hollywood Land Company, a joint venture between Stockbridge Capital Group and The Kroenke Group, plans to build a 80,000-seat stadium, a 6,000-seat performance venue, a 300-room hotel, 2,500 residential units, 1.7 million square feet of retail and office space and 25 acres of public parks, playgrounds and open space on the site. The development, named the “City of Champions Revitalization Project”, will be built at no cost to taxpayers.

The owner of the St. Louis Rams has announced intentions to build a massive new NFL stadium and entertainment complex in the Los Angeles suburb of Inglewood. Stan Kroenke revealed the grand plan to the LA Times on Monday. In addition to an 80,000-seat stadium, the billionaire and his partners are proposing an adjacent 6,000-seat performance venue. Los Angeles was home to the Rams from 1946 to 1994 and, as St. Louis scrambles to come up with a plan for a new stadium in order to retain the team, the City of Angels appears ever more likely to get a...

Apparently, pedophilia is an entrenched part of Hollywood culture — but you wouldn’t know that if you only consulted The New York Times for news. Check out this Fox News account of just some of the muck that underlies Hollywood’s glamorous gilding: If a spate of recent allegations proves true, Hollywood may have a hideous epidemic on its hands. The past two weeks have brought three separate reports of alleged child sexual abuse in the entertainment industry. Martin Weiss, a 47-year-old Hollywood manager who represented child actors, was charged in Los Angeles on Dec. 1 with sexually abusing a former...

Starting Jan. 1, the final phase of New York's 2010 electronics recycling law takes effect, making it illegal for consumers to throw so-called "e-waste" in the garbage. "Now you have to recycle it," said John Shegerian, CEO of Fresno, Calif.-based Electronic Recyclers International, which provides e-waste recycling services for New York City, Los Angeles and 150 other municipalities across the country. "You need to find a legitimate recycler and get your material to them." Violators can be fined $100.

Back in August, shortly after the shooting of Michael Brown, there was another, similar incident which took place in Los Angeles. 25 year old Ezell Ford, a man reported to have a history of mental problems as well as a police record including drugs and illegal possession of a loaded firearm, was walking through one of the more gang-heavy districts of the region. For some reason, he found himself in an encounter with the police and wound up being shot three times by the two officers and later died. At the time, a witness who was described as a friend...

The Los Angeles Police Department has declared a citywide tactical alert after two suspects fired at a patrol car with a rifle Sunday night. The incident occurred at 62nd and Hoover streets at around 9:20 p.m. Police say every available officer has been sent to the area. One suspect is in custody. A perimeter was set up as officers searched for the second suspect.....

Colorado emerged as the state with the second-highest percentage of regular marijuana users as it began legalizing the drug, according to a new national study. The Denver Post reports the study by the National Survey on Drug Use and Health found about 1 out of 8 Colorado residents older than 12 had used marijuana in the past month. Only Rhode Island topped Colorado in the percentage of residents who reported using pot as often, according to the study. The study averaged state-specific data over two-year periods. It found that, for the 2011-2012 period, 10.4 percent of Colorado residents 12 and...

"What will you tell the President when you see him?" was my daughter Eva's first reaction when I told her I'd been invited to the White House Channukah party (Actually, it was her second reaction. Her first was, "Take me!"). Kids are innocent that way. They don't realize that when you have over a hundred people crowding the leader of the free world, it's not so easy to get in a word edgewise. But I got lucky. It's not what I told the President that mattered, it's what I heard him say when few people were paying attention. After the...

In the latest NY Daily News article (link below) in which a friend of the cop killer Brinsley known as Jay Romero was interviewed, this friend indentifies Brinsley as a Muslim. Some say this is not relevant, that it would be like reporting that liquor store robbery suspect was a Catholic. But I disagree in this case. This guy clearly was part of the entire mindset advocated by the communists left, led by Al Sbarpton rent a mobs, pushed as part of a political agenda by the Democrats in the big lie and narrative that cops are collective racists. We...

Subway Manspreaders Told: Close Your Legs And Let Other People Ride Poster campaign will attempt to stop antisocial practice Doctors say crossing legs will not affect reproductive powers. Amanda Holpuch Saturday 20 December 2014 Comments As 2014 comes to an end, one thing New York commuters can expect in 2015 is an official city campaign against a growing problem: “manspreading”. Manspreading is the act or practice – typically male – of spreading one’s legs in a manner which prevents others from occupying nearby seats on the subway, commuter train or bus. A Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) spokesman, Kevin Ortiz, described...

Full Title: Why do you MANSPREAD? Woman with her tape measure confronts splay-legged men on the subway about the space they consume It is a gripe that frustrates subway riders daily: men with their legs splayed. So one woman decided to confront male commuters about the amount of space they consume. The investigation comes a month before New York City's MTA launches a campaign targeting 'manspreaders'.

It is the bane of many female subway riders. It is a scourge tracked on blogs and on Twitter. And it has a name almost as distasteful as the practice itself. It is manspreading, the lay-it-all-out sitting style that more than a few men see as their inalienable underground right. Now passengers who consider such inelegant male posture as infringing on their sensibilities — not to mention their share of subway space — have a new ally: the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Taking on manspreading for the first time, the authority is set to unveil public service ads that encourage men...

Until we have some actual progress involving an NFL team moving to Los Angeles, maybe it's best to stop the breathless speculation about which teams will move there. There won't be a team moving to Los Angeles in 2015. ESPN.com's Adam Schefter said commissioner Roger Goodell told the Oakland Raiders, San Diego Chargers and St. Louis Rams – the three hottest candidates to move to L.A. if that ever happened – that there will be no team in Los Angeles next season.

McDonald’s and its franchisees illegally retaliated against employees for participating in union-related activities, the National Labor Relations Board’s top lawyer alleged Friday in a case with sweeping industry implications. NLRB general counsel Richard Griffin announced Friday he will issue 13 complaints involving 78 charges against franchises and McDonald’s USA, LLC. Though many of these alleged labor violations were committed by independent franchise owners, Griffin ruled earlier this year that McDonald’s can be held liable for those actions as a so-called joint employer, leaving the corporatrion — and potentially other franchisors — exposed to such claims. McDonald’s said the decision will...

State Senate Democrats have decided to resume the annual Pro Tem Cup golf fundraiser in 2015, a year after the event was canceled in the wake of criminal charges filed against three Democratic Senators. The event at Torrey Pines golf course in San Diego is the Senate Democrats' largest political fundraiser for the state party and has been criticized for allowing special interests to mingle with lawmakers in exchange for tickets costing between $15,000 and $65,000 per person. The indictment of Sen. Leland Yee (D-San Francisco) on public corruption charges a week before this year's event was to be held...

There is growing evidence that birds flying in the vicinity of a solar thermal power project in California’s Mojave Desert are being injured and even killed either by the solar heat that’s focused with mirrors on its three energy-collecting towers, or by colliding with the mirrors themselves. Yet a task force set up to investigate the problem at the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System (ISEGS) has brushed aside several recommendations by the forensics laboratory of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), according to the minutes of a meeting on the subject obtained by the Los Angeles public television station...

Two major law enforcement stings targeting Southern California gangs have rocked the Los Angeles and San Diego underworld. The FBI conducted raids against two major gangs this week, arresting more than 50 gangsters and associates involved in numerous rackets, from drug trafficking to underage prostitution. Members of East LA's Big Hazard gang were rounded up Wednesday morning, while Federal officials in San Diego Thursday indicted 22 members of the Tycoons syndicate, involving members from various local street gangs. Big Hazard, aka Hazard Grande, East Los Angeles In a massive undertaking dubbed Operation Resident Evil, more than 800 law enforcement officials from various...