Free Republic

In the newly redrawn 45th congressional district, Republican incumbent Michelle Steel is facing up against Democrat real estate firm owner and Navy reserve officer Jay Chen. Steel will be running for her second term in Congress, where she last beat incumbent Rep. Harley Rouda in the 48th district in 2020. Previously, she was an Orange County Supervisor since 2015 and also served on the California State Board of Equalization. Chen has also served on elected boards before, where he was a member of the Hacienda La Puente Unified School District from 2007 to 2015 and is currently a trustee of...

Police have learned that 17 gangs have honed in on the wealthiest residents of the Los Angeles area by robbing them after they leave venues catering to the rich and famous. Police said the robberies are often carried out by crews working from multiple vehicles and that the high-end handbags, watches and other items are then sold regionally on a thriving black market, according to the Los Angeles Times. Violence towards victims is becoming a hallmark of the crimes, said Capt. Jonathan Tippet, who leads a Los Angeles Police Department task force formed as the number of high-end violent robberies...

More than a dozen Los Angeles gangs are targeting some of the city's wealthiest residents in a new and aggressive manner, sending out crews in multiple cars to find, follow and rob people driving high-end vehicles or wearing expensive jewelry, according to police. In many cases, they're making off with designer handbags, diamond-studded watches and other items worth tens of thousands of dollars — if not more — and then peddling them to black-market buyers who are willing to turn a blind eye to the underlying violence, police said. In some cases, suspects have been arrested but then released from...

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Los Angeles City Council is scheduled to vote Wednesday on whether to end a requirement that many indoor businesses and large outdoor events verify that customers have been vaccinated against COVID-19. The motion proposed by council President Nury Martinez would make vaccination verifications voluntary at such establishments as restaurants, bars, gyms and personal care businesses. The measure needs at least 12 votes to pass to meet the council’s “urgency” threshold and so it could go into effect quickly. A simple majority would also approve the measure, but it wouldn’t go into effect for several weeks...

KANSAS CITY, Mo — American Airlines flight 1775 had to make an emergency landing at MCI this afternoon. The flight was headed from Los Angeles to Washington D.C. when an unruly passenger tried to cause chaos mid-flight. According to another passenger on the plane, Mouaz Moustafa, some aboard weren’t initially aware of what was going on. “A flight attendant comes to the middle of the plane where I am, yells to another flight attendant in the back to turn on the lights. At this time, the plane starts descending very rapidly, I think we reached 5,000 feet per minute,” Moustafa...

CLA canceled in-person classes Tuesday after a former lecturer and postdoctoral fellow sent a video referencing a mass shooting and an 800-page manifesto with “specific threats” to members of the university’s philosophy department Monday. Several emails from department leaders and obtained by The Times inform students and faculty that Matthew Harris made threats toward the philosophy department and people in it. In some of the emails, sent over the course of Monday evening, department heads recommend moving to virtual learning, and multiple instructors did so, alerting students that in-person classes would be canceled. A campus alert sent shortly after midnight...

Dozens of handguns and shotguns were among items stolen by thieves who raided cargo containers aboard trains near downtown Los Angeles for months, authorities said. Only a handful of the 82 guns known to have been stolen from trains passing through Lincoln Heights have been recovered.

Hollywood producer Ryan Kavanaugh is fleeing Los Angeles, California, amid rising crime, homelessness, and higher taxes. Flight from the Democrat-run city is trending as “a growing chorus of Hollywood executives are talking about leaving the city,” one entertainment industry insider told The Wrap. Ryan Kavanaugh, American film financier and founder and CEO of the video-sharing app Triller — who grew up in Los Angeles and has called it home for 47 years — is now getting ready to pick up and move his family and business headquarters to Florida. Kavanaugh — who’s backed over 200 films, including Limitless, Hancock, Mamma...

WEST HILLS (CBSLA) — The Los Angeles Coroner’s Office has identified the man involved in the horrific motorcycle accident that made waves across the Southland on Thursday. The incident took place on Thursday afternoon, when undercover officers with the Los Angeles Police Department began tailing the motorcycle after witnessing something that caused suspicion. After running the license plates through their system, it was determined that the vehicle was stolen. When they attempted to pull the suspect over, now identified as Ruben Contreras Jr., 30-years-old, he fled. Aerial footage from CBS LA’s Sky2 Chopper showed Contreras traveling at speeds well over...

Union Pacific, the nation’s largest railroad franchise, is considering rerouting its trains around Los Angeles amid a spike in railcar thefts, according to a CBS News affiliate. In the past year, Los Angeles County has seen a 160 percent jump in criminal rail theft, with October 2021 showing a 356 percent increase from the year before. Offenders have stolen from, assaulted, and even committed armed robbery of Union Pacific employees, amounting to “$5 million in claims, losses, and damages,” according to the company. The railroad is faulting L.A. County district attorney George Gascón’s (D.) “well-intended social justice goals,” such as...

While the elite flock to Beverly Hill’s only gun shop looking for guns for self-defense, poor California minorities are finding it difficult to get through the state’s many gun control laws and acquire a firearm to use to keep themselves and their families safe. On December 30, 2021, Breitbart News noted that the rich and famous were flocking to Beverly Hill Guns for protection from the craziness that has overtaken day-to-day life in Los Angeles. FOX News now reports that other Californians, particularly minorities, are finding the acquisition of a firearm difficult. Geneva Solomon, owner of Los Angeles County’s Redstone...

Joseph Iniguez, the chief of staff for Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón, allegedly threatened to place a policeman on a list of dishonest officers after the staffer’s fiancée was stopped Dec. 11 for an illegal U-turn in her Tesla. The UK Daily Mail reports: Iniguez, according to a prosecutor, called the officer a ‘f—up’ and said he’d ‘put him in the Brady system,’ the outlet reported. The Brady list, established by a 1963 Supreme Court ruling, adds officers who have a record of knowingly lying in a professional capacity to said list. If an officer gets put on...

If so many container ships are stuck in the Pacific Ocean, waiting for weeks for a berth in Los Angeles or Long Beach, why not reschedule calls to another port? Why not make like Kurt Russell as Snake Plissken in the circa-1996 film and “Escape from LA”?It’s not that simple, given how much warehousing and transloading capacity is built around the Southern California gateway — and congestion is affecting every port in America. Even so, shippers and carriers are indeed moving to sidestep Los Angeles/Long Beach. In the ongoing battle for Asian imports between the West Coast and East Coast,...

Kiddie criminals in Los Angeles accused of serious crimes are set to get a pass under new rules from District Attorney George Gascon. The Los Angeles County District Attorney will expand its “restorative justice” diversion programs for youths to include those facing charges like burglary, arson, robber and even sexual battery, among other crimes, according to a leaked memo from the DA’s office. Diversion programs are a form of pre-trial intervention which allows alleged juveniles to avoid prosecution, conviction — and serious jail time — in favor of more rehabilitative approaches. The DA’s office launched a pilot for the Restorative...

Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón is expanding a program to drop criminal proceedings against juveniles charged with a range of felonies, according to a leaked memo. The Restorative Enhanced Diversion for Youth (REDY) program was launched as a pilot basis last month, and Gascón is expanding it to cover a range of felony charges, according to the memo obtained by KTTV reporter Bill Melugin. Under the expansion, youth would be eligible for 'diversion' after being charged with burglary, assault, vehicle theft, robbery, grand theft person, sexual battery, and arson, according to the memo.

US Rep. Maxine Waters was spotted without her mask on during a United Airlines flight - and a witness claims she kept it off for an entire hour - despite the mandatory mask regulations in place and the growing risk of COVID-19 as cases of the Omicron variant soar. Waters, a California Democrat, was pictured on a flight from Dulles Airport, in Virginia, to Los Angeles International without her mask on and even took a nap maskless, all while flight attendants supposedly nagged other passengers to wear their masks, the Daily Wire reported. Attendants brought her fresh coffee while she...

A Los Angeles detective has warned against people visiting the city due to rising crime rates while adding that police are unable to guarantee their safety. “We’re telling people don’t visit because we don’t think we can keep you safe right now. And that’s just sad to say,” Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) detective Jamie McBride told Fox News on Tuesday. McBride blamed Governor Gavin Newsom, L.A. County DA George Gascon, and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) for propagating the Proposition 47 bill that has led to such a situation. “How did we get here? The ACLU advocated for...

Black-clad counterprotesters fight a woman on the boardwalk near Crystal Pier in Pacific Beach during pro-Trump Patriot March In this Jan. 9 file photo, black-clad counterprotesters fight with a woman on the boardwalk south of Crystal Pier in Pacific Beach during a pro-Trump “Patriot March.” (Nelvin C. Cepeda - U-T file) At least 11 anti-fascists face counts based on conspiracy to commit a riot; they’re also charged with assaults and using tear gas SAN DIEGO — Prosecutors on Monday charged at least seven people, whom they described as self-identified anti-fascists, in connection with eight alleged assaults that occurred in January...

A Temple City-based COVID-19 testing firm that contracts with Los Angeles County vehemently denied allegations Tuesday by Sheriff Alex Villanueva that the company shares patient DNA data with the Chinese government, a concern that prompted the sheriff to announce his department will no longer use the county’s chosen testing provider. “Fulgent is an American company, and its founder, board of directors and leadership team is made up of United States citizens,” Fulgent Genetics Chief Commercial Officer Brandon Perthuis said in a statement Tuesday. “Fulgent Genetics operates privately and independently in the People’s Republic of China and does not share personal...

- Wild hogs are running rampant in Corona and residents say it's becoming a growing problem that's posing a threat to the safety of families and pets all across the area. "The pigs have been coming," said Corona resident Judy Gardner. "They came here to my house on Halloween night, and then they came back on Veterans Day, and probably going to be here for Thanksgiving. Resident Robert Esquizel told Eyewitness News a pack of 15 pigs damaged his street. Department of Fish and Wildlife discuss possible options to deal with the feral pig population, which included allowing homeowners and...