Free Republic

by Joshua Ford | 24NewsShocking surveillance video shows a ‘street takeover’ mob of thieves ransacking a 7-Eleven in Los Angeles Monday night. “The suspects are facing multiple charges to include grand theft, looting, and vandalism,” the LAPD said in a statement. “We are seeking the public’s help in identifying persons observed on video committing these acts.” No arrests have been made in connection with the robbery. NBC Los Angeles reported: The large crowd gathered for the street takeover on Monday night in the Harbor Gateway area swarmed the store at the corner of Figueroa Street and El Segundo Boulevard in...

by Greg Reynolds Two Los Angeles County Sheriff Deputies, a man and a woman, are in surgery “fighting for their lives” after each was shot in the head in an ambush attack by lone gunman at a Metro station in Compton Saturday night, according to reports and statements by the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Office. “Moments ago, 2 of our Sheriff Deputies were shot in Compton and were transported to a local hospital. They are both still fighting for their lives, so please keep them in your thoughts and prayers. We will update this thread with information as it becomes...

William Shatner, known for his roles on Star Trek, T.J. Hooker, and The Twilight Zone, has already shown he's full of holiday spirit. The actor-turned-musician has released an entire album of Christmas music, not to mention his impressive roster of Christmas movies. But this time Shatner Claus has taken it a step further. On Christmas Day 2019, the Los Angeles Police Department was surprised with a visit from Captain Kirk himself. But he didn't just come by to give his thanks for working on Christmas— he brought along plenty of food. Shatner reportedly brought beef and pastrami sandwiches, bagels, lox,...

Fourteen survivors and victims of the Oklahoma City bombing in April 1995 filed suit against Iraq in federal district court in Washington, D.C., last week, claiming that Iraqi officials gave money and training to Tim McVeigh and Terry Nichols. McVeigh was executed last April. Nichols, convicted of manslaughter and given a life sentence in federal court, is awaiting trial in Oklahoma state court, where survivors are determined that he get a death sentence. Nearly a year after McVeigh's execution, the case remains controversial. Families of victims have accused the federal government of shoddy detective work, and some even have claimed...

24358 The Los Angeles Times apparently doesn’t think “women who were born during botched abortions in the 1970s” are abortion “survivors,” as a Wednesday article about two such women featured a title that put the term in scare quotes: “Abortion ‘survivors’ criticize Planned Parenthood on Capitol Hill.” Marcus E. Howard led the item by hyping that “House Republicans on Wednesday fueled an already emotional and partisan debate by hearing testimony” from Gianna Jessen and Melissa Ohden, who “survived failed saline-infusion abortion attempts.” Howard noted that Jessen was “left with cerebral palsy due to a lack of oxygen during her mother’s...

Until we have some actual progress involving an NFL team moving to Los Angeles, maybe it's best to stop the breathless speculation about which teams will move there. There won't be a team moving to Los Angeles in 2015. ESPN.com's Adam Schefter said commissioner Roger Goodell told the Oakland Raiders, San Diego Chargers and St. Louis Rams – the three hottest candidates to move to L.A. if that ever happened – that there will be no team in Los Angeles next season.

by John HillStand With Arizona No, this is not an episode of the Twilight Zone, nor an escaped mental patient ranting on camera before being taken away in a straight jacket. This is the sitting mayor of America's 2nd largest city, and a predicted Democrat Presidential candidate for 2016. But that doesn't make it any less crazy. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa yesterday urged this much at a National Press Club appearance by supporters of illegal alien amnesty: "It is time to put an end to the practice of deporting non-serious criminals," said Villaraigosa. "Our neighborhoods will be safer and our...

Los Angeles City Atty. Carmen Trutanich is throwing the book at dozens of people arrested during recent political demonstrations — a major shift in city policy that has him pressing for jail time in types of cases that previous prosecutors had treated as infractions. Some of the activists arrested, including eight college students and one military veteran who took part in a Westwood rally last year in support of the DREAM Act, face up to one year in county jail. Trutanich's aggressive stance is the latest episode in the city's decades-long legal struggle over the rights of protesters.

Ever since the bombing of the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City, critics have contended that more people were involved than Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols. A recent federal lawsuit alleges that Iraqi agents also played a role and McVeigh’s former defense attorney claims that prior to the bombing Nichols made contact with international terrorists. In a special report CBS 11’s Steve Narisi says the trail some investigators are following leads to the Philippines. “The U.S. Government has contended all along that any link between Nichols and Islamic extremists is strictly coincidental. During Nichols and McVeigh’s trial, the court didn’t allow...

A wildfire in the foothills north of Los Angeles that has claimed the lives of two firefighters, ravaged more than 250 square miles and destroyed more than 60 homes was caused by arson, the federal Forest Service said. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has begun a homicide inquiry looking for the person or people responsible for the wildfire, which continues to burn. The blaze, known as the Station Fire, has burned for over a week in the Angeles National Forest outside Los Angeles. After a forensic investigation, officials with the U.S. Forest Service determined on Thursday that the fire...

One in five Los Angeles County residents -- nearly 2.2 million people -- are receiving public assistance payments or benefits, a level county officials say will rise significantly over the coming months as the fallout from the recession continues. The percentage of people on county aid already equals the figure at the height of the 2001-03 recession and far exceeds the one in seven who needed help during the economic downturn in the early 1990s and the one in nine assisted in the collapse of the early 1980s.

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 3 (Xinhua) -- A 114-year-old Los Angeles woman has become the oldest person in the world, hospital sources said on Saturday. Gertrude Baines, a resident of a nursing home, assumed that title when a 115-year-old woman in Portugal died Friday. Baines was born in 1894 when Grover Cleveland was U.S. president. Her parents were both slaves as children. She cast a ballot for Barack Obama in November's presidential election, according to the local media report. The previous holder of the title, a 115-year-old woman in Portugal named Maria de Jesus, died quietly after breakfast Friday. Hospital officials...

MINDANAO, PHILIPPINES - There are so many links between the Abu Sayyaf Group of the Philippines, which beheaded an American hostage a few months ago, and Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda terrorist network, that on paper they look like the route map for a Peshawar-based airline. The links run from that high, bleak border city in Pakistan to terrorist dens in Afghanistan and Yemen; to murders and bombings in the Philippines; to the first attack on the World Trade Center; to a foiled attempt to assassinate the pope during a 1995 visit to Manila. A captured Abu Sayyaf guerrilla, ...

Disaster drill preps Los Angeles for the inevitable by Zachary Slobig Fri Jul 21, 12:15 PM ETAFP Photo: LA Metro Police practice riot control during an exercise to simulate the response of local... LOS ALAMITOS, United States (AFP) - Helicopters swooped in and unloaded cops to quell angry crowds -- with batons that never made contact and rubber bullets that were only props in a disaster response drill. Federal military and Southern California law enforcement teamed up for an elaborate simulation of a disaster response system that authorities hope would avoid the horrors following Hurricane Katrina last August. US Marines...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 9, 2006 – Al Qaeda terrorists were planning to fly a plane into the tallest building on the West Coast not long after they'd launched the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York City and Washington, President Bush said here today. The terrorists' target was a notable Los Angeles office building, he said during a speech given at the National Guard Association of the United States' headquarters. The 73-story Los Angeles office building, the tallest structure west of the Mississippi River, was called the Library Tower at the time of the terrorist plot. It was renamed US Bank...

A formerly Spanish-only radio station in Los Angeles has become the first in the area to go bilingual – and it’s shot to the top of the ratings. KXOL-FM, better known as "Latino” 96.3, has soared from 18th in the ratings to second overall since the changeover in May, and it now ranks first among 12-to-24-year-olds. The station’s music and ads switch back and forth from one language to the other. "Sometimes the station’s back-and-forth by its disc jockeys comes much faster, even sentence-to-sentence or phrase-by-phrase,” the Los Angeles Times reports. "It’s not unusual to hear callers intermix their languages...

Rest, health favor White Sox By Jim Caple ESPN.com Archive Why Chicago could win: Who said the White Sox were choking down the stretch? Chicago is on a roll, winning eight of its final 10 regular-season games and then sweeping the Red Sox in the division series. The White Sox haven't lost in two weeks. Evidently, they led the league in wins and ERA for a reason. Why Anaheim could win: Sure, the Angels are tired, but they still have a deep bullpen and enough depth in the rotation to rebound if they can get by the first two games....

LOS ANGELES – The killers cross the U.S.-Mexico border, assume new identities, get jobs, blend in among Spanish speakers and sometimes enjoy freedom for years. But these fugitives from the law aren't border-jumpers heading south. As the recent arrest of one of Mexico's most notorious fugitives at a modest home outside Los Angeles showed, some criminals escape justice by heading north. In the last 10 months, federal immigration officials have helped locate 13 Mexican murder suspects, along with hundreds of other criminals, hiding in plain sight in the Los Angeles area. Alfredo Ríos Galeana, wanted for bank robberies, kidnappings, murders...

Conclave Confidential: One Cardinal's Secret DiaryLocked down amid the frescoes and thoughts of flan. Patt Morrison April 20, 2005 The conclave journal of Roger Cardinal Mahony:Opening Day, minus 1. Checked into the Casa Santa Marta hotel — and I got a top-floor room! I asked about a low-carb menu; I don't want to nod off after a big pasta lunch — huge embarrassment. Isn't it funny — I have to come all the way to Rome to cast a vote that actually counts. The first ballot is tomorrow, but even four votes a day plus prayer surely can't take up...

Storm troopers of the American Civil Liberties Union have chalked up their latest victory in their ongoing campaign to stamp out any hint of religion in American public life. Under threat of an ACLU-initiated lawsuit, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted to remove a small cross from the seal of the State of California because of its alleged unconstitutional endorsement of Christianity. Contrary to ACLU claims, these actions make our country less rather than more free. This is of more than academic interest to me. The ACLU has invaded my home turf. The headquarters of my organization, the...