Free Republic

New details were released Friday, including the identities of both suspects and the victim connected to a violent kidnapping that ended with the deaths of the victim and one of the suspects in Chino Hills late Wednesday night. Investigators said 60-year-old Shukur Aikebaer stepped outside his home in the 2100 block of Monteverde Drive around 10:15 p.m. to inspect the home’s electrical panel after service to the residence was interrupted. That’s when the two suspects, identified as 67-year-old Zhengfeng Bo and 66-year-old Jianquan Bo, allegedly shot and kidnapped Aikebaer, according to the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department. Authorities said the...

SAN DIEGO (KSWB/KUSI) — A dramatic cliff-jumping rescue in the Sunset Cliffs area of San Diego is gaining attention across social media after a 17-year-old was seriously injured while attempting a jump into the ocean. But less than a day later, Nexstar’s KSWB/KUSI found more teenagers making similar dangerous jumps despite seeing the viral video. The video shows the teen jumping from the cliffs before appearing to strike the rock face on the way down and crashing into the water. Witnesses rushed into the ocean to help keep him afloat after he was unable to move on his own. San...

The widow of a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy killed in last year’s deadly grenade explosion has filed a lawsuit against the county, the Sheriff’s Department and several officials, alleging the tragedy was the result of inadequate training, unsafe practices and leadership failures. The complaint, filed Monday in Los Angeles County Superior Court by Nancy Lemus on behalf of herself, the estate of Deputy Victor Lemus and the couple’s two young daughters, names the County of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Sheriff Robert Luna, Commander Thomas Giandomenico and others as defendants. Victor Lemus was one of three...

A 23-year-old Airman assigned to Vandenberg Space Force Base died after the heavy equipment he was operating rolled down an embankment on base, military officials announced Friday. Airman 1st Class Cedric Eneluna was operating the equipment when the accident occurred Thursday, according to Vandenberg officials. He was pronounced dead at the scene, and no one else was injured. The Santa Barbara County Coroner’s Office has not yet determined his official cause of death. The circumstances surrounding the incident remain under investigation by a Department of the Air Force Safety Investigation Board, and base officials said additional details will be withheld...

An Ohio-based smoke bomb designer and two other companies have agreed to pay more than $4 million to the United States to settle a lawsuit over a gender reveal that literally went up in smoke back in 2020, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. A pyrotechnic device at a couple’s gender reveal party in Yucapia’s El Dorado Ranch Park on Sept. 5, 2020 sparked the El Dorado Fire, which burned nearly 23,000 acres and caused a firefighter’s death. Hubbard, Ohio-based Wholesale Fireworks Corp. and its Hudson, Ohio-based subsidiary, American Fireworks Wholesale Inc., agreed to pay the $4 million to settle...

Jewish community leaders are blasting California’s Secretary of State for publishing a voter information guide statement from a fringe gubernatorial candidate who espoused anti-Jewish conspiracy theories. Don J. Grundmann, an independent with no party affiliation and no prior political experience, is among dozens of candidates who qualified for the ballot. California residents are receiving their voter guides in the mail this month ahead of the June primary. Grundmann’s statement includes a litany of conspiracies, including claims that conservative commentator Charlie Kirk was killed by an Israeli bomb and that Israeli “art students” brought down the Twin Towers on 9/11. “These...

Surveillance video captured a Jewish man being assaulted outside a Los Angeles synagogue in an incident that police are now investigating as a hate crime.

A witness said she was awoken by the sounds of her neighbors yelling outside her home just after 8 a.m. Video showed a large group of neighbors standing outside watching the scene unfold. The balloon reportedly ran out of fuel and was forced to make an emergency landing right in the backyard of Hunter and Jenna Perrin’s home. The basket, which narrowly avoided fences and trees before landing on a small lawn, was filled with around a dozen people who were unharmed and seen waving at the couple as they incredulously filmed the interaction.

A man is now behind bars and being charged with a fatal stabbing in North Carolina that left a U.S. Marine from SoCal dead. The deadly incident occurred on April 5, according to authorities in Wilmington, North Carolina. Around 2 a.m., the Wilmington Police Department responded to reports of multiple fights in the 1300 block of Corbett Street, which is located in the city’s downtown area. The investigation revealed that two people were stabbed, including Daniel Montano of San Bernardino.

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — A Molotov cocktail was thrown at the San Francisco home of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman Friday morning, police and a spokesperson for the company confirmed. No one was injured and the suspect was arrested. The San Francisco Police Department said officers responded at around 4:12 a.m. regarding a fire investigation. At the scene, officers learned that a man had thrown an incendiary device at a home, setting an exterior gate on fire. The San Francisco Police Department said officers responded at around 4:12 a.m. regarding a fire investigation. At the scene, officers learned that a man...

A series of so-called “wrench attacks,” violent robberies targeting wealthy cryptocurrency holders, are making headlines after victims in Los Angeles and the Bay Area were targeted, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. On Nov. 22, a San Francisco man was robbed of $13 million in digital currency after thieves posing as pizza delivery drivers forced their way into his home, bound him with duct tape, beat him with a firearm and threatened to cut off his fingers. The victim told investigators he had been expecting a package when a man carrying a white box arrived on the front porch of his...

What the video is about: The video covers a heated legal and political battle in Riverside County, California. Republican Sheriff Chad Bianco (who is running for governor in 2026) used a judge-approved search warrant to seize over 650,000 ballots from the 2025 special election on Proposition 50 (a redistricting measure). Key events: Bianco's team (Riverside Election Integrity Team) flagged major discrepancies — for example, more votes tallied than ballots cast in some cases (over 45,000 in one reported instance). He launched an investigation into potential voter fraud. California's Democratic Attorney General Rob Bonta and other Democrats strongly opposed the move,...

A former Los Angeles Unified School District employee has been charged in what prosecutors described as a pay-to-play scheme that directed more than $22 million in contracts to a single technology company, making it one of the largest money laundering schemes in the district’s history. Officials with the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office allege that between 2018 and 2022, 53-year-old Pasadena resident, Hong “Grace” Peng, who worked as a technical project manager for LAUSD, of illegally awarding Innive, a Texas-based tech company, millions of dollars worth of contracts for work on the district’s My Integrated Student Information System (MiSiS)....

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his pediatrician wife Priscilla Chanhave bought a waterfront mansion in Miami that’s still under construction... The property on ultra-exclusive Indian Creek Island, otherwise known as ‘Billionaire Bunker,’ was on the market for $200 million. The price that Zuckerberg and Chan agreed to pay: a colossal $170 million. A message seeking comment from Zuckerberg was not returned by press time. The couple’s move from California to Florida follows in the recent footsteps of fellow online billionaires Sergey Brin and Larry Page, who are the co-founders of Google. They’re fleeing the Golden State as California prepares to...

Downtown Los Angeles’ infamous graffiti-covered skyscrapers may finally be closer to being cleaned up after a federal judge approved a bankruptcy exit agreement tied to the stalled Oceanwide Plaza development. The three unfinished towers have dominated the skyline since construction halted in 2019. KTLA’s Omar Lewis, reporting live from downtown Thursday morning, said residents have long pushed for action at the site. “It’s made the city a laughingstock,” one nearby resident told KTLA. “These buildings have sat empty for years. Something has to be done.” According to reporting by the Los Angeles Times, a federal bankruptcy judge signed off Tuesday...

A San Fernando Valley community is outraged and devastated after federal immigration agents forced their way onto the grounds of a church during a food giveaway and arrested a man who church officials say helps with children’s ministries. Church officials stated that “a beloved community member” by the name of Carlos Chavez was arrested. The raid interrupted the church’s food distribution ministry and an event for mothers and children in the church garden. Speaking to KTLA 5’s Kimberly Cheng, Pastor Aguilon said he was in contact with Chavez’s wife, who said Carlos, the sole provider for their family, has already...

Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman held a press conference Monday to discuss the murder charges a woman faces in connection with a DUI crash that left a high school tennis prodigy dead earlier this year. Jenia Resha Belt was hit with a murder charge last week after she allegedly struck 18-year-old Braun Levi around 12:45 a.m. on May 4.

University of California, Irvine professor Charis E. Kubrin has been awarded the Stockholm Prize in Criminology -often considered the field’s Nobel Prize equivalent- for decades of research challenging the notion that immigrants bring crime to their new communities, officials announced Thursday. A jury comprised of field experts and fellow professors selected Kubrin and her co-winner, Mark Lipsey of the Peabody Research Institute at Vanderbilt University, for their work. Lipsey was also recognized for his research demonstrating that rehabilitation programs can be effective for convicted offenders and reduce their crime rates. Kubrin, a professor of criminology, law and society at U.C....

Federal agents raided a car wash in Culver City on Tuesday, taking into custody eight people there and nearly 30 overall in the Los Angeles area, according to reports. Handy J Car Wash at 12681 Washington Blvd. was targeted alongside a Home Depot and several other sites. ... In a statement, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said it was “a targeted immigration raid … that resulted in the arrest of eight illegal aliens from Honduras and Mexico.” She identified several of those arrested as well. “Esteban Leal-Ramirez illegally entered the country TWICE in 2007 and has been...

Eleven alleged members of a street gang based in Los Angeles are facing federal racketeering and other charges for their roles in a suspected prostitution and sex-trafficking ring. Members of the Hoover Criminal Gang are accused of forcing girls and women into prostitution on the Figueroa Corridor of Los Angeles, resulting in a 31-count federal indictment, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a news release.