Free Republic

Newly-released body cam footage shows the tense moments before Jillian Shriner, 51, wife of Weezer bassist Scott Shriner, was shot by officers who were searching for hit-and-run suspects in Los Angeles. On April 8, California Highway Patrol responded to a three-vehicle crash in which three male suspects fled the freeway on foot and into an Eagle Rock neighborhood near the 134 Freeway and Figueroa Street at 3:25 p.m. CHP called the Los Angeles Police Department for backup. While officers were searching for a suspect in backyards on the 1200 block of Eagle Vista Drive, police said Shriner emerged from her...

LOS ANGELES — Jurors convicted a Southern California judge of second-degree murder on Tuesday for fatally shooting his wife while the couple argued and watched television at home. Orange County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Ferguson, 74, was on trial for the 2023 death of his wife Sheryl, 65, in their Anaheim Hills home. Ferguson took the stand in his own defense, admitting to shooting his wife but saying it was an accident. Jurors reached their decision Tuesday afternoon, a day after deliberations began. After the verdict was read in court, Ferguson was given a moment to hug his son before...

Several major blue cities in the U.S. have been marred by a slate of massive budgetary problems in recent years. City officials in Chicago and Los Angeles are currently grappling with how to address substantial budget shortfalls. Meanwhile, Philadelphia is struggling with various financial issues across several sectors, with both its school district and the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA), the city’s public transit system, facing massive budget deficits. Chicago is facing a projected budget gap of nearly $1.2 billion for fiscal year 2026. The city’s budget deficit has largely been exacerbated by soaring pension costs, declining state revenue and...

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said Monday the city faces an $800 million deficit, plans plans to lay off 1,647 staff, is seeking a state bailout and has “identified new revenue.” Bass blamed the Trump administration and the economy for falling revenue. ... With 61,455 employees, 1,647 layoffs equate to a workforce reduction of 2.7%. With just over $8.3 billion paid out in payroll last year, the city pays its employees an average of $135,355 per year, or more than double the median citywide salary of $57,247 per year. This means the announced layoffs would only cover about a quarter...

Homelessness keeps rising, homeless taxes keep rising and the money disappears. In Los Angeles County, spring is in the air and so are higher taxes. Beyond the usual punishing ritual of April 15, county residents also now face some of the highest sales taxes in the country. Sales taxes in the area have shot up from 9.75% to as high as 11.25% to fund still more services for the ‘homeless’. The permanent sales tax increase is supposed to raise $1 billion a year to replace the stolen billions spent by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority. Families will pay even...

The American branch of Russian state-funded media network Russia Today (RT) is shutting down and laying off most of its staff, CNN reports. According to a memo, RT America will be “ceasing production” due to “unforeseen business interruption events.” “Unfortunately, we anticipate this layoff will be permanent, meaning that this will result in the permanent separation from employment of most T&R employees at all locations,” the memo said, via CNN. Per CNN, Misha Solodovnikov, the general manager of T&R Productions, the production company behind RT, delivered the news in person to hosts, correspondents, producers and others in the Washington, D.C....

A glamorous city known for sprawling mansions, boutique shops and glamor is at risk of becoming 'the next Detroit,' according to experts. Los Angeles is being rocked by an exodus of big budget TV and film production companies — long considered the backbone of the local economy. Detroit was once the center of America's auto production, but fell into decline when factories began to shut, triggering a major housing crisis. Now, some fear LA faces a similar threat. FilmLA reports that on-location production in the city fell by 22.4 percent in the first quarter of 2025 compared to the same...

L.A.'s fragile urban canopy was dealt a vicious blow this weekend when a chainsaw-wielding vandal cut down a number of shade trees along South Grand Avenue and other areas of downtown, according to media posts and photos uploaded to Reddit and Instagram. The Los Angeles Police Department told The Times it had no information about the tree destruction, and an email and phone call to the city's Urban Forestry Division went unanswered Sunday.

For years, the bright green turf of Whitsett Fields Park has served as a joyous hub for Los Angeles youth soccer — particularly for thousands of immigrant families in the San Fernando Valley. On most weekends, the sprawling North Hollywood complex echoes with the shouts of hundreds of boys and girls, as vendors hawk aguas frescas, balloons and candy along the sidelines. But recently, immense grief and worry have settled over this close, Latin American community. Just last week, a well-known coach and Salvadoran national was charged with murder in the killing of 13-year-old soccer player Oscar Omar Hernandez during...

Grammy-nominated musician and former OneRepublic bassist Tim Myers is making the leap from the stage to the political arena with a high-profile challenge to long-serving Republican Rep. Ken Calvert in California’s 41st Congressional District. Myers, a Corona native turned music industry entrepreneur, announced his candidacy Thursday in a video posted on Instagram, setting the stage for one of the most closely watched House races in the 2026 election cycle. “Ken Calvert has been in Washington for 30 years, and all he’s done is make himself millions,” Myers says in the campaign video, filmed in a recording studio. “The status quo...

Officials at the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) are facing scrutiny for refusing to release public records related to allegations of significant wrongdoing that led to $800,000 in taxpayer-funded settlements. LAist, a local news outlet, has been denied access to documents detailing wrongful termination and whistleblower retaliation claims filed by two former executives who departed the agency in 2024. The two executives are Kristina Dixon, former chief financial and administration officer, and Emily Vaughn Henry, former data and IT director. Their terminations occurred during Va Lecia Adams Kellum’s first year as LAHSA’s chief executive. LAist initiated its request for...

When residents of a ritzy West L.A. neighborhood experienced an increase in burglaries last year, they decided to invest in technology to fight the problem. The neighborhood association in Cheviot Hills — a community of million-dollar homes sandwiched between the 10 Freeway and Century City — raised more than $200,000 to purchase scores of controversial, high-tech cameras that scan license plates. The automated plate readers, as they are known, enable authorities to track when vehicles of interest pass through certain intersections. The devices can also be mounted on police cars, allowing officers to sweep up troves of license plate data...

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department is asking the public for help in locating a transgender girl who went missing in the Antelope Valley. An LASD bulletin states that Raymond “Sophia” Chavez, 14, was last seen just before 10:50 a.m. Friday in the 1700 block of East Avenue J in Lancaster.

Due to his criminal history, Hunter Biden has agreed to revoke his license to practice law in Washington, D.C. Hunter was previously convicted on three felony tax offenses and six misdemeanor tax offenses, according to the Department of Justice. He was also convicted of three felony charges related to the purchase of a revolver in 2018. Nevertheless, his father, former President Joe Biden, pardoned him in December 2024 — despite the fact that the former Democrat president had vowed not to pardon him numerous times prior. “I believe in the justice system, but as I have wrestled with this, I...

Dallas Mavericks minority owner Mark Cuban is facing calls from his own former employees to flee the Texas city following recent controversy. The NBA organization recently descended into a meltdown when the team traded away its biggest star, Luka Doncic, to the Los Angeles Lakers. And despite selling his majority stake in the Mavericks in 2023, Cuban, who has been outspoken critic of Donald Trump's agenda in Washington DC, has found himself in the firing line. Last week, a former Mavericks event manager, Gavin Mulloy, took aim at the billionaire on Facebook, claiming that he 'should be run out of...

President Donald Trump has begun his war against Democrat-dominated, left-wing California, according to the New York Times, enacting six policies against the state in the space of just 24 hours last week.The Trump administration waited to take on Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), initially, because of the devastation of the January 7 wildfires in Los Angeles.However, that did not stop Newsom from spending $50 million to fight Trump, even while asking for federal aid.The Times reports on what happened next — on Thursday, March 26:The U.S. Education Department announced early in the West Coast morning that it would challenge a major...

On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) defended California law allowing teachers to not tell parents about students changing their gender identity by stating that under the prior law, “a teacher would be fired if a teacher did not report or snitch on a kid talking about their gender identity. I just think that was wrong. I think teachers should teach. I don’t think they should be required to turn in kids.” After Newsom criticized Democrats, host Bill Maher asked, “So, what do you say to people who say, well, this sounds all very good,...

The Department of Justice has opened an investigation into the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department for possible Second Amendment violations. The DOJ posted that it is looking at a potential "pattern or practice" of the department purposely, "depriving ordinary, law-abiding Californians of their Second Amendment rights." The Department pointed to a recent federal lawsuit where the court found the facts and the law went against the county for imposing delays of up to 18 months to process concealed handgun applications. The DOJ Civil Rights Division said it has reason to believe other LA county residents have been similarly affected by...

Afederal judge excoriated officials who were unable to account for $2.4 billion in taxpayer funds meant to go toward solving homelessness in Los Angeles.U.S. District Court Judge David Carter threatened to appoint a court-ordered receiver if officials didn't improve their efforts to account for the money spent, according to an LAist report. (snip) The judge gave them until May to fulfill their responsibilities or have a receiver take over the spending. While he acknowledged that they had inherited a "mess" from former officials, Carter demanded that they take accountibility.“I am your worst nightmare,” Carter told them. “I can make your...

Loud jets flying by. I missed the first time. Then they’ve continued and I saw them. Two fighters, been circling about. Unusual.