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LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- For many years on ABC7, Elmer Dills told us about great places to eat, the road, travelling and reporting back on his finds. On Monday, Sept. 15, we are sad to report the death of our good friend.

A powerful winter storm that unleashed a thick blanket of mountain snow, heavy rain and at least one tornado pounded Southern California for a fifth straight day Friday. Some areas had received more rain in the storm than they did the entire year before, National Weather Service meteorologist Jamie Meier said, though experts said the moisture would do little to improve local water supplies. By Friday morning, Long Beach Airport had received 2.76 inches of rain, compared to 2.1 inches over the previous 12 months, Meier said. Downtown Los Angeles had received 2.54 inches and Gibraltar Dam near Santa Barbara...

Gale-force winds downed power lines and toppled trees in Southern California, briefly trapping motorists and leaving thousands without power, officials said Thursday. Cold winds from the north prompted warnings about gusts through the afternoon. The winds could remain strong at times through Saturday, said Stuart Seto of the National Weather Service. An 83 mph gust - the equivalent of a Category One hurricane - was recorded in La Crescenta on the southern side of the San Gabriel Mountains in the San Fernando Valley. Similar wind speeds were recorded in Angeles National Forest, northeast of Los Angeles. Gusts of 74 mph...

The fiery truth about California blazes Liberal Democrats really are soulless creatures. This week, they tried to throw gasoline on a politically combustible catastrophe in Southern California. Fortunately, our country was rescued by cool clean facts. Why don't Democrat political leaders have even the slightest regard for the truth? Where is their compassion? While thousands of California families are combing through ashes where their homes once stood, my anger toward the Democrats grows, blowing as hot and hard as the Santa Ana winds that leveled 2,000 homes, stripping so many people of their lives, their possessions and their pets. First...

Most of you may be surprised to hear that my columns are also published in the Canyon News, in Los Angeles. That fine paper circulates in Bel Air, Benedict Canyon, Beverly Hills. Brentwood, Laurel Canyon, Los Feliz, Malibu, Pacific Palisades, Melrose, Santa Monica, Sherman Oaks, Studio City, Topanga, Canyon, Westwood & Hollywood Hills. This column is written for people returning to their homes there – if their homes are still standing. Genius consists of not making the same mistake once. By that standard, y’all are not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed concerning fires in Southern California. Such fires...

Just happened ,

ANAHEIM HILLS, Calif. —  Authorities evacuated more than 200 homes as a fast-moving brush fire scorched more than 500 acres of parched hillside Sunday and crept into backyards, Orange County fire officials said. Click here for FOXNews.com's Natural Disasters center. The fire, stoked by hot dry winds and fueled by dry chaparral, quickly doubled in size in an unincorporated part of Orange County and threatened homes here and in Anaheim Hills. Police were going door to door to warn residents to evacuate, said Anaheim city spokesman John J. Nicoletti. "There is a lot of fire personnel out there and they are...

TUSTIN – Tom Egan should have been home – his shift had ended at 7 a.m. – but he had lingered at the Tustin Marketplace Home Depot on Friday, talking to his employees and making sure things were in order...

ESCONDIDO -- Marking the division of a community, a shouting match erupted Wednesday night outside of Escondido City Hall after the City Council approved an ordinance barring landlords from renting to illegal immigrants. What started as a crowd of about 30 people before the meeting then grew into two raucous crowds totaling about 100 people. One was predominantly Latino, carrying religious symbols and picket signs. The other was predominantly white, carrying American flags and photos of officers the group said were killed by illegal immigrants. A line of about 15 law enforcement officers kept the two sides apart in front...

Regular listeners to Larry Elder's show are familiar with this story. For the rest of you, you can read about it by clicking on the link. However, you are risking apoplexy if you do.

SANTA YNEZ, Calif., September 26, 2006 - Southern California broadcasting pioneer Ralph Story has died. The Emmy award winning reporter and anchor lost a long battle today with emphysema. Story started in broadcasting in Buffalo in 1948 and went on to work at KNX radio in Los Angeles in the late 1940s. He then moved to CBS's sister TV station in Los Angeles, KNXT, now KCBS-TV in the early 1960s. Story was a part of "The Big News," one of the nation's first hour long local newscasts, working as the newscast's feature reporter. The popularity of his segments led to...

Six groups, including the Anaheim-based Council on American Islamic Relations in Southern California, filed a Freedom of Information Act request Monday asking about suspected law enforcement monitoring of Islamic religious institutions. The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California filed the request on behalf of CAIR, the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California, area mosques and six leaders in the Muslim community. Four from Orange County include: Muzammil Siddiqi, imam of the Islamic Society of Orange County in Garden Grove. Hussam Ayloush, executive director at CAIR. Sabiha Khan, CAIR spokeswoman. Shakeel Syed, executive director of the Islamic Shura Council of...

SAN DIEGO - A Chula Vista man suspected of leading a methamphetamine trafficking ring that used juveniles to sell or smuggle the drug was in federal custody Monday after being charged in a two-count indictment, authorities said. Jorge Arreola-Gomez was among 19 people named in the indictment unsealed Friday by the U.S. Attorney's Office alleging that the defendants used numerous couriers, many of them teenagers, to smuggle methamphetamine across the U.S.-Mexico border. An investigation led to the seizure of more than 140 pounds of methamphetamine, more than $25,000 in cash, a firearm and 20 pounds of pseudoephedrine, a nasal decongestant...

Per scanners and TeamSpeak, large brush fire in the area, threatening Anaheim Hills Area (Serrano). Large power outages in Anaheim, Orange, and other areas per Edison. OrCo Trunked TG2896....and 2704 166.675 Helos 271 and 301 122.575 Victor

LANCASTER - An apartment complex near Avenue K and Gadsden Avenue in Lancaster was cordoned off as deputies searched for a suspected sniper who is believed to have shot at three deputies Thursday night. A Lancaster Sheriff's Department team originally responded around 9 p.m. to a report of a shot fired that shattered a display window at the Lancaster Auto Mall's Suzuki Mazda dealership, in the 43000 block of Drivers Way. The dealership's employees called 911. Upon arriving, the trio of deputies sent onto the scene said there was no other evidence of any other shots fired. The rest of...

LOS ANGELES — A favorable turn of the weather helped thousands of firefighters battling a 16,200-acre wildfire that burned early Friday in the hills and canyons along the city's northwestern edge. Cooler temperatures, higher humidity and calmer winds had slowed the progression of the fire, which had burned nearly 26 square miles, forcing hundreds to evacuate and threatening upscale homes, officials said. Firefighters hoped to have the blaze 35 percent contained by day's end, said Los Angeles County (search) fire Deputy Chief Mike Bryant, the incident commander. The fire was 12 percent contained Friday morning, up from 5 percent the...

LOS ANGELES - Park visitors have gone from feeding ducks and fish to nourishing a scaly green creature more likely found in Amazonian swamps than a Los Angeles lake — a giant crocodile-like caiman. Since a gardener spotted it last Friday, people have tried to glimpse the 200-pound reptile wading and sunbathing at Ken Malloy Harbor Regional Park. Like many Angelenos, the animal is an immigrant who is quickly adopting to its new home. It has already acquired, for example, a nickname matching its Latin American roots and its penchant for tortillas tossed by visitors: Carlito.

Santa Monica Police Chief James T. Butts Jr. met with reporters this week and declared a potential homeland security threat. Police received a call last month from a citizen who had taken photos of "Middle Eastern individuals" as they shot video of the Santa Monica Pier and surrounding area in a manner that authorities said was "inconsistent with tourist documentary." ... (Councilman Herb Katz) said the three photos Butts showed the council during the closed session meeting left him with concerns. "There were three people taking pictures on a pier that's a tourist attraction," he said. "They were going under...

Dean Koontz book signing in Southern California Sunday, June 5, 2005 12:00 noon to 5:00 pm "Velocity" Bantam $27.00 Book Carnival 348 S. Tustin Avenue Orange, CA 92866 Phone: (714) 538-3210 Fax: (714) 538-3273 Toll Free (for orders only): 1-800-963-9266 Please not that although the store is normally closed on Sundays, it will be open for this signing and you can buy books at that time.

LOS ANGELES - The federal government announced the nation's largest conservation plan for 9.5 million acres of desert in Southern California that would protect wildlife but make development easier in fast-growing regions. The 30-year plan unveiled Thursday by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management seeks to balance an ancient landscape of rugged volcanic mountains, 11,000-year-old creosote bushes and more than 100 species, including the threatened desert tortoise and the Mohave ground squirrel, with developers' push for new homes and businesses. More than 10 years in the making, the plan covers parts of the Mojave Desert, Joshua Tree National Forest and...

PASADENA -- Despite its distance from a zone of the type that created the Sumatran disaster in December, Southern California faces a real tsunami threat, according to a speaker at a seminar sponsored by the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute Wednesday at Caltech. "I've been sort of a crusader to tell people in Southern California that yes, we do have a tsunami hazard,' said Mark Legg, president of Legg Geophysical in Huntington Beach. While he said he characterizes Southern California's tsunami risk as moderate to low, "people should be wisely concerned.' During his presentation, he said the notion that strike-slip faults...

Los Angeles Daily News Street vendors push it to the limit Though illegal, business is booming throughout the Southland By Rachel UrangaStaff Writer Sunday, March 06, 2005 - PACOIMA -- Like thousands of vendors working the streets of Los Angeles, Margarita Perez depends on the $50 a day she earns selling corn on the cob. Every day, she pushes a hand cart from the converted garage she shares with her husband and sister-in-law to a park in Pacoima, where she helps pay the rent by selling home-roasted corn for $1 apiece. "We don't want to bother people. We are only...

As the chair of Orange County’s Republican Party from 1984 until last year, Tom Fuentes distinguished himself by waging vindicative, sometimes bizarre campaigns against enemies real and perceived. As a trustee for the South Orange County Community College District (SOCCCD), Fuentes continues his GOP battle plan by launching a campaign against . . . Spain?! Sí: España. Fuentes unveiled his new crusade at the Feb. 28 SOCCCD Board of Trustees meeting, when he requested a discussion on Item 10 from the night’s consent calendar. The item would have allowed Saddleback College students to study abroad in Santander, Spain, during the...

CHINO, Calif. (AP) -- Herds upon herds of Southern California dairy cows are mired udder deep in a thick stew of water, manure and mud - a consequence of record rainfall that has brought economic disaster to farmers. Dairy farmers said this month's deluge in an important region of the nation's top milk-producing state has cost at least $38 million - or at least $2,000 per day per dairy - in lost milk production, dead and sickened animals and damaged infrastructure. The economic hit to the region is the worst since 1997, an infamous El Nino year when dairy farmers...

Commuter train derails in Glendale Associated Press GLENDALE, Calif. - A Metrolink commuter train derailed early Wednesday in this Los Angeles suburb, and firefighters were searching through the wreckage. Television reports showed smoke coming from twisted wreckage at the scene of the crash, where two separate trains could be seen derailed. The derailment in this Los Angeles suburb was near San Fernando Road and Chevy Chase Boulevard.

Michael Medved, whose syndicated radio talk show is heard daily in Southern California, on KRLA-AM 870, from Noon to 3, will be doing two Southern California book signings in the area, one in Burbank, the other in Orange. ----- Michael Medved, nationally syndicated radio talk show host heard locally 12 Noon ­ 3:00 pm, film critic and best-selling author comes to Southern California January 24 and 25 to broadcast live, meet local listeners and sign his new book, the autobiographical "Right Turns." Michael Medved LIVE broadcast and book signing - BURBANK Monday, January 24th ­ Burbank Town Center 201 East...

PALMDALE -- A toddler died in a flooded desert wash after she fell into the fast-moving water as a helicopter was plucking her family from their partly submerged sedan. Two-year-old Jamaia Davis' mother had driven around barricades trying to get home Sunday night to Lake Los Angeles and drove into what firefighters said was water 3 or 4 feet deep where normally dry Little Rock Wash crosses Avenue N.

ANAHEIM – Angels Baseball announced that, effective today, the team has changed its official name to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

Hello All, For you that can attend an event in Ventura County... please support this if you are able... = "Veterans Day Historic Re-enactmenty Event in Ventura Nov 11th 04, 12 noon." Private James Sumner, Comp G, 1st US Cavalry has passed away. His funeral procession & burial Re-enactment will be VETERAN'S DAY, NOV 11TH 2004, at 12 NOON. Starting at San Buenventura Mission (Mission Park) in downtown Ventura where 3 Presidents of the US: President A. Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, and US Grant will join the funeral procession going EAST on E. Main Street to end procession at St. Mary's...

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. (AP) - More than 600 Marines who saw bloody fighting in Iraq returned home to a flag-waving crowd of relatives and friends. The 1st Battalion, 5th Regiment of the 1st Marine Division was bused to this San Diego County base Thursday after flying from Germany to March Reserve Air Force Base in Riverside. "This is fabulous," Lance Cpl. Ronald Howard said as he gazed at the 2-week-old son he had never met. Gloria Barrera of Victorville hugged her son, Lance Cpl. William Barrera. "God has answered my prayers and brought my son home safe," she said tearfully....

ONTARIO, Calif. (AP) - Hundreds of protesters marched through San Bernardino and Los Angeles counties in opposition to a federal crackdown on illegal immigration resulting in 160 arrests. As many as 1,000 demonstrators hoisted signs and shook maracas while trekking from Ontario to Pomona on Sunday, accusing immigration authorities of unfairly targeting Hispanic communities. "Why are they targeting Latinos?" Abel P. Medina, an organizer and member of Hermanidad Mexicano Nacional Ontario, said during the march. "We haven't received any numbers (showing) they have arrested any Canadians or any Europeans." U.S. Border Patrol agents have stopped people on streets and coming...

LOS ANGELES – Supermarket operators involved in a 4-month-old strike-lockout with Southern California grocery clerks rejected an offer from the workers' union Wednesday to have its members return to work immediately if the markets would agree to binding arbitration. In a joint statement issued shortly after union officials announced their offer, Albertsons Inc., Kroger Co. and Safeway Inc. rejected the union's proposal, calling it an effort to "shift the focus" away from the union's "inability" to negotiate a settlement. "Labor disputes are resolved by face-to-face negotiations with people familiar with the issues," the companies' statement said. "Only the parties to...

Does anyone familiar with talk radio in the Southern California area know if George Putnam will be returning? He had mentioned coming back to KRLA but I have no information on the station's site and have had no response from them.

<p>RIVERSIDE, Calif. (AP) - Sen. Dianne Feinstein urged Southern California county and city officials to unite to ensure the federal government continues providing funds for forest-thinning to reduce risk of wildfires like the ones that recently ravaged the region.</p> <p>"I'll do everything I can, but the squeaky wheel continues to get the grease," Feinstein, D-Calif., told over 500 people at a luncheon sponsored by the Greater Riverside Chambers of Commerce. "So squeak loudly."</p>

<p>Q: Why did you give $10,000 to oppose the recall?</p> <p>A: I don't think it's a good thing for California as a state to elect people in November and change its mind in March. A recall is also very expensive. There will be at least $70 million spent on this recall.</p>

. Shooting Sports Fair Three days of hands-on shooting fun June 6th, 7th, 8thCome experience three full days of hands-on shooting fun and information from the industry's leading firearms manufacturers. Bring the whole family to try out the newest and best in outdoor and sporting equipment. Enjoy free admission when you join the NRA at the entrance. Other scheduled events include game and varmint calling, dog training, shooting demonstrations by some of the nation's top competitors, personal protection, archery, conservation, and numerous industry exhibitors. Try your hand at sporting clays or five-stand games, shoot the Gatling gun, and enter to...

The Free Republic Network and The Los Angeles Chapter of Free Republic are proud to announce the first regional scheduling of "Activism 101" Conference! When - April 26, 2003 8am-5pm! Where - LAX Hacienda Hotel, 525 N. Sepulveda Blvd, El Segundo, CA 90245 - 800-421-5900 Price - $69! This conference was rolled out at last year's "FRiva LAS VEGAS" event to rave reviews by the attendees! Partnering with the Leadership Institute, the premiere training ground for conservatives and republican activists and candidates, this conference is a "must do" for all conservatives interested in learning the basics about activism! LA Chapter...

<p>A little-known $3.46 billion bond measure to buy coastal lands and improve water quality has landed on the statewide ballot for November amid criticism that it is skewed toward environmental priorities and projects in Southern California.</p> <p>The initiative -- called the Water Security, Clean Drinking Water, Coastal and Beach Protection Act of 2002 by its proponents -- was drafted principally by Joe Caves, an environmental lawyer and lobbyist in Sacramento, and is backed by the Nature Conservancy and Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.</p>