Free Republic

Long Beach police have arrested two men accused of stealing plaques from the statue of Martin Luther King Jr. at MLK Park late last month, authorities announced Thursday. According to the Long Beach Police Department, the theft occurred in the early morning hours of Nov. 27, when two suspects removed several plaques from the MLK statue and loaded them into the bed of a pickup truck before leaving the area. Detectives launched an investigation immediately, collecting security camera footage, canvassing the surrounding area and reviewing Automatic License Plate Reader data. That work ultimately led to the identification and arrest of...

Almost a decade after the abduction, molestation and slaying of 10-year-old Anthony Martinez, Riverside County prosecutors Thursday filed murder charges against the Beaumont boy's suspected killer. Story continues below Anthony Martinez was killed in 1997. Prosecutors will seek the death penalty against Joseph E. Duncan III and try to immediately extradite him from Idaho, where in October he pleaded guilty to murdering three people, District Attorney Rod Pacheco said at a news conference outside the county courthouse in Indio. Yet Pacheco acknowledged that it could be years before Duncan, 43, is tried for Martinez's death, because federal prosecutors are preparing...