Free Republic

Testing, 1, 2, 3, testing. Jihadists never go on furlough. While shutdown theater preoccupies Washington, terror plotters remain on the clock. The question is: Will America keep hitting the post-9/11 snooze button? At Los Angeles International Airport, two dry ice bombs exploded this week, and two others were found in a restricted area of the airport. According to the Los Angeles Times, the devices "appeared to be outside the terminal near planes where employees such as baggage handlers and others work on the aircraft and its cargo." That reminds me: It's been more than a year since watchdogs warned Capitol...

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Detectives Tuesday continued their efforts to find the suspect wanted for planting dry ice bombs around Los Angeles International Airport. One dry ice bomb exploded and two plastic bottles containing the dangerous material were found around 8:30 p.m. Monday at the Tom Bradley International Terminal in a restricted area, Los Angeles Police Department Det. Gus Villanueva said. No one was injured, and no flights were delayed. Airport police and a bomb squad cleared the items around 9:45 p.m On Sunday, a dry ice device exploded inside an employee bathroom at LAX’s Terminal 2. No injuries were...

Dry ice bombs have exploded for two successive nights in restricted areas at Los Angeles international airport, the world's sixth busiest. Two other devices that were found on Monday night before they detonated appeared to have been placed outside the main terminal buildings in an area near planes, according to television news footage. Detectives in America are investigating how the bombs, which consisted of water containers packed with dry ice, were planted in locations where access is barred to the public.

During the first six months of 2013, 100 percent of the people bitten by dogs in the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Canine Services were black or Latino. That's 100 percent. As in every single one. The data comes from a report by the Police Assessment Resource Center, a nonprofit organization that aims to "strengthen police oversight so as to advance effective, respectful and publicly accountable policing." Clearly, these people have job security -- they have their work cut out for them in Los Angeles. According to PARC's records, the number of Latinos bitten by LASD dogs increased 30 percent...

For more than a year, Assembly Speaker John Pérez dated a Hollywood funeral director who faces fraud allegations in one of the biggest financial scandals to rock the U.S. funeral industry. During their relationship, Pérez, a Los Angeles Democrat, mixed political business with his personal life in ways that showed poor judgment, ethics experts say. A Pérez spokesman said the lawmaker conducted himself appropriately during a casual dating relationship. Tyler Cassity, proprietor of a boutique cemetery called Hollywood Forever as well as a Mill Valley cemetery, and defendant in a $600 million fraud lawsuit in his native Missouri, accompanied Pérez...

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Two operations in the Pico-Robertson area were ordered Friday by the Calif. Department of Food and Agriculture to shut down a traditional Jewish ritual involving slaughtering chickens. Bait Aaron, a Sephardic Orthodox outreach group, and Ohel Moshe, a synagogue, were performing kaparot, which is practiced by a small group of Orthodox Jews on the eve of Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement. Kaparot is an ancient ritual in which a person swings a live chicken overhead three times and recites a prayer. The bird is then slaughtered and given to the poor. “It’s not meant...

<p>LOS ANGELES TIMES EDITORIAL Making The Case Against Syria President Obama was right to seek Congress' approval on taking military action. But he also must ensure that any such mission remains limited.</p> <p>September 3, 2013.</p> <p>Last week, the Obama administration was signaling that it would take unilateral military action against the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad for what the administration insists was the deliberate use of chemical weapons to kill hundreds of civilians. On Saturday, the president abruptly — and appropriately — changed course, saying that he would seek support in Congress for action to "hold the Assad regime accountable for their use of chemical weapons, deter this kind of behavior and degrade their capacity to carry it out."</p>

Banks still might have a future in Atlanta, media sources reportThe Atlanta Falcons have waived Brian Banks, a Los Angeles linebacker who was imprisoned for five years after being convicted of a rape that never happened. Banks, 28, spent five years in prison and five years on probation following his conviction of rape and kidnapping charges a decade ago. The woman who made the charge when Banks was a 16-year-old football standout later recanted her accusation. The conviction was overturned by a California court last year.

sculpture in honor of San Bernardino Sheriff’s Detective Jeremiah MacKay, who was slain by former LAPD officer Christopher Dorner, will be revealed in Lake Arrowhead Sunday, Sept. 1. A resident of Lake Arrowhead, MacKay died February 12. He left behind a wife and two young children. Part-time resident and sculptor Khachik Khachatouryan decided to create something that would honor MacKay after meeting several sheriff deputies at a party in April. ... Khachatouryan said he didn’t want to make a sculpture just about a law enforcement officer, but also of a person, father, husband and hero. ... The bronze sculpture shows...

Longshore Union Quits the AFL-CIO In a surprise move, the 40,000-member International Longshore and Warehouse Union announced its disaffiliation from the AFL-CIO yesterday. The news comes just a week before the federation is set to hold its national convention in Los Angeles, the nation’s biggest port and an ILWU stronghold.. The ILWU, known for its militant traditions and progressive politics, has been drawn into turf wars with other unions in recent years—particularly in the grain export terminals of the Pacific Northwest, where longshore workers have been locked in a high-stakes battle over master contract standards since 2011. - See more...

In between bowls of chicken poodle soup and deciding to provide air cover for al-Qaeda in Syria, our Dear Leader, Barack Hussein Obama, found time to meet with mayors from our crumbling major cities. From Justin Sink of The Hill: *** "President Obama told a collection of big-city mayors Tuesday at the White House that he would continue to use executive actions to combat gun violence plaguing major cities. In the meeting with Attorney General Eric Holder and the mayors of 18 cities from across the nation, Obama discussed commonly applicable strategies to reduce youth violence. 'He also vowed to...

Los Angeles’ new mayor has vowed to help stanch the flow of film and TV production jobs out of Hollywood, starting with the appointment of a film czar at City Hall. But to make a real difference, Eric Garcetti needs to convince skeptical state pols to combat the lure of rich tax incentives from outside California. Two days after this year’s Oscars, Hollywood’s councilman Eric Garcetti, then running for mayor of Los Angeles, staged a media event at Sunset Gower Studios. Only a smattering of reporters and photographers showed up, perhaps because the gathering was to address “runaway production,” a...

MOORPARK, Calif. (AP) — More than two decades ago, two water distributors came up with a tantalizing idea to increase reserves in parched Southern California: Create an underground lake so vast it could hold enough to blanket Los Angeles — all 469 square miles — under a foot of water. The reservoir deep within the earth would be injected with water imported from the snowy Sierra Mountains and other distant sources, which could be pumped back to the surface when needed to soak avocado and lemon groves and keep drinking fountains, espresso machines and toilets gurgling. Officials boasted the subterranean...

Journalist Michael Hastings, who was killed in a fiery Los Angeles crash in June, died of "traumatic injuries" as a result of the accident and had traces of drugs in his system, Los Angeles coroner's officials said Tuesday. Hastings, 33, died June 18 in a single-vehicle accident. His car burst into flames and he was pronounced dead at the scene. Coroner's officials said Hastings had traces of amphetamine in his system, consistent with possible intake of methamphetamine many hours before death, as well as marijuana. Neither were considered a factor in the crash, according to toxicology reports.

The Los Angeles Coroner’s Office says journalist Michael Hastings, who won fame writing the Rolling Stone article that ended General Stanley McChrystal's career, had drugs including amphetamines and marijuana in his system when he was killed in a fiery car crash in June. However, a toxicology report states the amphetamines, likely meth, were "unlikely to have an intoxicative effect at the time of the accident,” and that Hastings likely ingested the marijuana hours earlier. Hasting’s cause of death was massive blunt force trauma, and the coroner determined he likely lost consciousness upon impact and died within seconds.

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — The Los Angeles County Coroner Tuesday classified journalist Michael Hastings’ death as accidental. Hastings, 33, died in the early morning hours of June 20 when his Mercedes crashed into a tree at a high rate of speed in Hancock Park. The coroner listed traumatic injuries sustained in the accident as his cause of death. Toxicology tests also discovered that a “small amount of Methamphetamine and Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) was detected. Levels indicate prior, but not recent usage,” the report stated. Hastings, a contributing editor at Rolling Stone, won a George Polk Award for magazine reporting for his...

A Superior Court judge on Wednesday threw out a controversial Los Angeles Police Department policy that allowed officers to release impounded vehicles to unlicensed drivers sooner than the 30-day period spelled out under state law. The LAPD policy had drawn criticism because it was seen as lessening the penalty for people who drove without a license — particularly undocumented immigrants who are unable to obtain California licenses. Special Order 7, approved in April 2012, allowed vehicles to be released to unlicensed drivers without a 30-day impound if they had proof of insurance, valid identification and no previous citations for unlicensed...

L.A. Unified and seven other California school districts on Tuesday won relief from some strict and costly provisions of federal education law. Besides Los Angeles, the school districts are Long Beach, Santa Ana, Fresno, Oakland, Sacramento, San Francisco and Sanger.

The Hollywood Reporter's Todd McCarthy shouldn't be surprised that director Neil Blokamp's "latest politically tinged sci-fi feature" falls apart during the third act. So did Blokamp's first politically tinged sci-fi feature, the overrated but promising "District 9." According to McCarthy's astute review, though, "Elysium" goes a step further into the arena of wild left-wing, Hollywood hypocrisy. Here is how McCarthy describes the world and plot of what is likely another box-office bomb from star Matt Damon: Blomkamp sets the dystopian juices flowing with images of future sprawling slums and urban ruin that one might initially take to be Mexico City...

LOS ANGELES – Three million Time Warner Cable customers in New York, Los Angeles and Dallas are losing the CBS channel, as the cable provider says it is dropping the network in a dispute over fees.

Dorothy, 77, showed him in. In the middle of the living room, Dave saw her son Steve, 50, propped up in a hospital bed. His right leg had been amputated below the knee because of diabetes. In the nearby bedroom was her husband, John, 78, who has Parkinson's disease. Recalling the moment, Dave told me that he "immediately felt and saw the life stripped out of Dorothy" because of the pressures she faced. He proceeded with his inspection of the Cothrans' bathroom. He saw an old tub unsuitable for a person with Steve's disability. He saw fixtures that made the...

Authorities released new video Wednesday showing an at-large shooter believed to have ambushed two detectives at a Los Angeles Police Department station earlier this week. Clad in dark-colored clothes, a man is seen on the video (embedded below) quickly walking past cameras set up near the Wilshire Community Police Station about 4:30 a.m. Tuesday.

Bryan Zuriff, the executive producer of the Showtime drama Ray Donovan, pleaded guilty in a federal court to his role in gambling operations with suspected ties to the Russian Mafia which took sports bets and ran poker tables for the fabulous people in Los Angeles, CA and New York, NY as reported by the Daily News. Earlier this year the feds indicted 34 defendants for their alleged roles in the gambling schemes, and Zuriff is the first to plead guilty. The 44-year-old degenerate gambler agreed to forfeit $500,000, and faces up to five years in prison when sentenced on November...

Shanghai's Greenland Holdings Group acquired a site in downtown Los Angeles from a California teachers' pension fund on Friday to build a $1 billion project that will include a hotel, office units and residences. The property purchase marks the latest foray by Chinese developers into overseas markets. The state-owned real estate developer – which is building China's second-tallest tower – acquired the 25,600 square-meter site from the California State Teachers' Retirement System, the second-biggest US pension fund. "We have a signed agreement for purchase of the property," said Michael Sicilia, media-relations manager for CalSTRS. He would not disclose the purchase...

Hundreds of Los Angeles residents gathered at a Federal court building downtown Saturday July 20, to join Reverend Al Sharpton, Pastor K.W. Tulloss and the National Action Network in a ‘Justice for Trayvon 100 City Vigil.’ Tulloss, who is NAN’s western regional director hosted the event. The Downtown LA vigil was one of many Trayvon Martin inspired gatherings, marches and rallies happening all over Los Angeles and the nation. “The purpose of this gathering,” stated Tulloss, ”was for us to come together and continue to ask the Department of Justice to file [and investigate the] civil right violations against Trayvon...

LOS ANGELES - A California gang member was convicted Wednesday of first-degree murder after authorities say a tattoo on his chest depicting the murder scene led to his apprehension. 25-year-old Anthony Garcia (pictured above) could face life in prison for his role in the 2004 shooting at a Pico Rivera liquor store. Garcia eluded police until 2008 when he was picked up for driving with a suspended license. Suspecting that he was an active member of the Rivera-13 gang, police then photographed his tattoos and took a mugshot. While looking for leads on an entirely different crime, Det. Sgt. Kevin...

Puddle of Mudd singer Wes Scantlin is behind bars in L.A. ... after allegedly vandalizing his neighbor's property WITH A BUZZ SAW ... TMZ has learned. Law enforcement sources tell us ... Scantlin and his neighbor have been feuding for a while -- and it all came to a head this afternoon when Wes allegedly whipped out a buzz saw and went all Leatherface on the neighbor's patio. We're told Wes was also took a sledgehammer to a brick or cinder block wall -- which Wes thinks the neighbor put up on his side of the property line. Cops arrived...

Hollywood Boulevard is the West Coast equivalent of Times Square, an urban reclamation project that transformed a strip once notorious for crime, drug-dealing and prostitution into a tourist destination, a thriving night life district and the home of movie premieres and the Academy Awards. But over the past month, two high-profile crimes — a fatal stabbing of a tourist by a homeless person and a robbery spree by a gang that bounded past people gawking at the Walk of Fame — have threatened this carefully cultivated and civically critical reinvention, worrying community leaders and presenting an early challenge to this...

Journalist Michael Hastings’ body was reportedly cremated by Los Angeles authorities against his family’s wishes, destroying possible evidence of his mysterious death in a car accident on June 18. Hastings was killed when his Mercedes crashed into a tree at a high speed and exploded. Only hours earlier, Hastings sent an email to friends at Buzzfeed.com stating that he was “onto a big story” and had “to go off the radar for a bit.” He also warned his colleagues that they might be questioned about him by authorities.

Thousands of high school students in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), including those who scored below average on their eighth grade reading and math tests, will soon be encouraged to learn how to sell Obamacare to their families under a $43 million federal grant. California was the first state in the nation to create a health benefit exchange to comply with the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The health care exchange, known as Covered California, will receive $43 million of federal funding. Of that amount, $37 million will be given to 48 organizations for outreach and...

On Tuesday night, a flash mob of some 40 to 50 teenagers invaded the busiest and most tourist-centric part of Hollywood, smashing windows, stealing cellphones, and assaulting passersby. The police described the incident as a “rolling crime wave.” One police official said that the George Zimmerman acquittal provided the flash point excuse for the flash mob. “They’re using Trayvon as an excuse,” the official said to local media. “They were saying, ‘Let’s go mess up Hollywood for Trayvon.’” The incident began when 911 dispatchers began getting calls about trouble on Hollywood and Vine, including young people running through traffic, bowling...

A peaceful protest of the Trayvon Martin verdict in Los Angeles unraveled into violence late Monday after a large group broke off and began smashing store windows, vandalizing cars and attacking bystanders, authorities said. More than 300 LAPD cops flooded the Crenshaw district in southwest L.A. after some 150 people splintered off from a prayer vigil in Leimert Park and blazed a trail of anarchy along nearby Crenshaw Boulevard, according to local reports. Protesters jump on a pickup truck in Los Angeles on Monday. Helicopter footage showed angry rioters jumping on cars, breaking storefront windows, setting fires in curbside trash...

The best part of this job is the people you meet and the relationships developed over the course of the years. To that end, it was an honor to sit down recently and talk with Vin Scully. It's mindboggling to realize that Scully has been broadcasting Dodgers games on radio-television in Brooklyn and Los Angeles since 1950, a year before I was born ... During the course of a 20-minute conversation, I asked him about his stellar career and the Dodgers of yesterday and today. You may be surprised at some of his answers ...

A Christian street preacher has been arrested and questioned about his beliefs after saying that he thinks homosexuality is a “sin”.Tony Miano, 49, a former senior police officer from the US, was held for around six hours, had his fingerprints and DNA taken and was questioned about his faith, after delivering a sermon about “sexual immorality” on a London street. Mr Miano, who served as a Deputy Sherriff in Los Angeles County, said his experience suggested that the term “thought police” had become a reality in the UK. He said he was amazed that it was now possible “in the...

WIMBLEDON, UK, July 5, 2013 /Christian Newswire/ — While on a public sidewalk in front of the Centre Court Complex during the Wimbledon Tennis Championships, an American preacher was arrested, fingerprinted, had DNA samples taken and then interrogated, after a woman out shopping called the police to complain that she was offended by what was being said. Tony Miano, a retired Los Angeles Deputy Sheriff who traveled to the UK with Sports Fan Outreach International as part of a mission to bring the Gospel to England, was speaking from 1 Thessalonians which mentions “sexual immorality” and had cited homosexuality alongside...

<p>Tony Miano, a retired deputy sheriff from Los Angeles County, Calif., was arrested in London, England, earlier this week for preaching on abstaining from sexual immorality, both heterosexual and homosexual, in downtown Wimbledon. He was found to be in violation of Public Order Act Section 5, for "using homophobic speech that could cause people anxiety, distress, alarm or insult," Miano said in a YouTube video posted on Wednesday. Preaching from 1 Thessalonians 4:1-12, Miano spoke about sexual sins for 25 minutes before being cut off by Metropolitan Police officers who said that although preaching in itself is not an offense, the specific part of the Bible he was preaching from was interpreted as homophobic by the woman who called to complain.</p>

Things to come....click on picture for video

The multitude of challenges that the new mayor of America’s second largest city will face starting tomorrow constitutes a laundry list of items. None needs greater focus than revamping the Office of Finance and the business licensing process. If Los Angeles ever wants to regain its business friendly status, this is where he needs to start. There are many tools the City of Los Angeles has found to antagonize current and prospective businesses, but the licensing process and the people who oversee it are at the top -- largely because Los Angeles has been in such need of revenue they...

Last month a woman jogging east of Palmdale was fatally mauled by a pack of pit bulls. The shocking attack landed the dogs' owner in jail, where he faces a rare murder charge for something four of his canines allegedly did. Now Los Angeles County authorities are cracking down on "dangerous dogs" with one of the best weapons around: Money. The office of county Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky this week announced that $3.5 million in new spending has been approved specifically for new animal control officers, vicious dog investigations and prosecutions, and a call center in Lancaster that could get help...

I was inclined to be kindly disposed toward the incoming archbishop of Los Angeles. Archbishop Jose Gomez faces a thankless task, taking over a church that has just suffered a major persecution – one conducted by his predecessor in office. Whatever the legal cloud following him up from Texas, Archbishop Gomez was formed for the priesthood by members of Opus Dei, a worthy and much-maligned group. That much sounds promising. The state of catechesis and even of liturgy should improve in that long-suffering archdiocese – though it's too much to hope that Archbishop Gomez will deconsecrate the $189.7 million monstrosity...

Mayor-elect Eric Garcetti still has a lot of decisions to make about his upcoming inauguration. Should he sit in with Moby, or would that be too show-offy? Which food truck should he hit first? But one decision seems to have been made. Garcetti -- L.A.'s first elected Jewish mayor -- will take his oath on a Christian Bible. His spokesman, Diego de la Garza, said the Bible belonged to Garcetti's Catholic grandmother. As a candidate, Garcetti often noted that he would be the first elected Jewish mayor in the city's history. (One was appointed in the 1870s.) However, his heritage...

<p>Police stations across Los Angeles beefed up security Tuesday after two detectives in an unmarked cruiser were ambushed and injured outside the LAPD's Wilshire Division station.</p> <p>"While this seems like an isolated incident, out of an abundance of caution, all of our stations are on heightened alert," Cmdr. Andrew Smith said. "That doesn't mean rifles out, but officers will be guarding stations."</p>

The woman who intervened when an officer pulled over one of her sons, leading to a racially-charged scuffle that set off the 1965 Watts riot, has died. The Los Angeles Times reports Saturday that Rena Price died of natural causes on June 10. She was 97. …

DENVER– Senate President John Morse issued a national plea for help to out-of-state supporters from Boston to San Francisco as Colorado Democrats went on the offensive Tuesday to save him from a recall vote. A spokeswoman for A Whole Lot of People for John Morse announced Tuesday that a protest had been filed to nullify the recall petitions within hours after the Colorado Secretary of State’s office declared that the petitions were sufficient to force a recall election. Meanwhile, Morse urged out-of-state supporters to help him keep his Colorado Springs legislative seat by donating their money and time. “[A]ny help...

Los Angeles Fire Chief Brian Cummings apologized Wednesday for a controversial photo depicting Mexicans he displayed on Twitter. “I sincerely apologize for any insensitivity or disrespect to anyone offended by posing for the photo from the Hope for Firefighters event,” he wrote. The picture, which was posted June 6, showed Cummings at a department fundraiser with three men who were wearing fake mustaches and sombreros.

In 2010 the LAPD completed an investigation into alleged gun purchases made by SWAT team members for the purposes of reselling the guns at a profit. Now the FBI has been called in to determine if any laws were violated. The investigation will attempt to determine why the LAPD's SWAT team, which has around 60 members, purchased over 300 specialized handguns from Kimber Manufacturing. The LAPD has a longstanding agreement with Kimber which allows the company to brand weapons with LAPD insignia and market them as "identical to" the ones used by LAPD's SWAT team. On the open market these...

Organized Labor: On the surface, the Los Angeles mayor's race looked like a choice between Coke and Pepsi. But Eric Garcetti's lopsided win over Wendy Greuel showed a major difference — in the public's view of unions. City Controller Greuel lost 54%-46% on Tuesday, bested by City Councilman Garcetti, who will become the mayor of America's second-largest city on July 1. It was an interesting result because the candidates are two peas in a pod. Both are left-wing Democrats with ideas so closely aligned they have been political allies; both grew up in the San Fernando Valley; and both hold...

Circa 1960 - LAPD Robbery Squad officers dressed as women “as part of an operation to catch a purse snatcher who murdered an elderly woman while she was on her way to church.”

NORFOLK Thirteen Somalis and one Yemeni captured after four Americans were killed aboard a yacht last month are scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court in Norfolk this afternoon on piracy, kidnapping and gun charges. The men were brought into the federal courthouse in downtown Norfolk this morning. The group was turned over to the Justice Department on Wednesday after being held aboard the carrier Enterprise since the Feb. 22 shooting deaths of the Americans. A Navy spokesman said the Somalis were removed from the ship by Department of Justice officials. A federal grand jury indicted 14 suspected pirates, the...

I am having a back and forth with Japan Today regarding their publishing of an article which appeared in Capitol Hill Blue that has subsequently been exposed to be false.Japan Today did not get the article from Capitol Hill Blue though. They got it from Truthout.org, a leftist propaganda outfit.I wanted to see if Truthout.org even had the story up on their site. I went to their main page, Truthout.org and checked. Nothing. I noticed a search box up at the top. So I took a phrase from the original article, sought significant quantities and hit search.Bingo.Here is what the...