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Vasquez had been in either prison or a state hospital since 1995, when he pleaded no contest to multiple counts of child molestation, court records show. He allegedly lured several children between the ages of 6 and 8 to an alleyway in South L.A. with the promise of candy, where he performed oral sex on three of the boys and forced one to perform oral sex on him, court records show. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison. But in 2000, L.A. County prosecutors sought to have him committed to a state hospital under California’s sexually violent predator act....

Confirmed: Demoralized Cops Equal Higher Crime Jack Dunphy Gentle readers, fasten your seatbelts. We are about to embark on a virtual tour on which you will join me in a Los Angeles Police Department patrol car cruising some of the city’s most crime-ridden neighborhoods. We will be patrolling the LAPD’s 77th Street Division, which year after year ranks at or near the top in violent crime among the city’s 21 patrol divisions. The Los Angeles Times tracks crime in more than 200 communities across L.A. County, and five of the top ten on the list are in 77th Street Division....

A much-hailed law that restricted the opening of new stand-alone fast-food restaurants in one of the poorest sections of Los Angeles did not curb obesity or improve diets, a new study found. City lawmakers passed the zoning ordinance in 2008 that limited the opening or expansion of fast-food outlets in a 32-square-mile area south of Interstate 10 that struggles with high obesity rates and other health problems. The law, believed to be the first effort of its kind by a major city to improve public health, did not ban new eateries in strip malls. The research by the Rand Corp....

Note: The following text is a quote: For Immediate Release February 4, 2010 United States Attorney's Office Central District of California Fifth Gang Member Sentenced to Life Without Parole After Convictions in Massive Federal Racketeering Case Other Members of Florencia 13 Gang Receive Multi-Decade Sentences for Numerous Crimes, Including Race-Based Attacks, Committed in Bid to Control Drug Trade and Extend Gang Territory into Other Neighborhoods A fifth member of Florencia 13 (F13), a street gang involved in narcotics distribution and shootings of African-Americans, has been sentenced to life in federal prison for his conviction on a host of federal criminal...

LOS ANGELES - Police investigating a report of a kidnapping found 27 suspected illegal immigrants who had been held by smugglers at a small hotel. Authorities were tipped off Tuesday by a 911 call that people were being held at the Polaris Hotel in South Los Angeles, said police Sgt. Michael Parlor. The suspected smugglers fled before police arrived with their lights and sirens on, Parlor said. Officers who went to the hotel to investigate a possible kidnapping found 13 people crammed into one motel room and 14 in another, he said. "We got food for everyone. It looks like...