Free Republic

The memorial services for John Altobelli, his wife Keri and their daughter Alyssa will be held at Angel Stadium on Monday, Feb. 10 at 4 p.m. The public is invited. John Altobelli was Orange Coast College’s baseball coach for 27 years. The Altobellis died Jan. 26 in the helicopter crash that killed six others, including Lakers legend Kobe Bryant and Bryant’s daughter Gianna.

All the items left outside the Staples Center in a tribute to Lakers great Kobe Bryant will be collected and given to his family. In a statement Lee Zeidman from the Lakers said, "The Lakers asked L.A. LIVE and STAPLES Center to collect, catalog and store all of the donated items until further directions are provided by the Bryant Family." Bryant and eight others, including his 13-year-old daughter Gianna, were killed in a helicopter crash in Calabasas last weekend. Since his death, fans have gathered outside Staples Center to pay tribute to the late basketball legend. Fans left flowers, pictures,...

Over the course of Kobe’s 20-year-long career, he remained consistently silent on political issues, in a way that by the time of his retirement seemed wildly anachronistic. Bryant’s apolitical attitude reflected the individual-focused, Jordan-era status quo in which he entered the league, but it eventually made him out of step with his younger counterparts, who have largely taken up the activist mantle of older icons like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Oscar Robertson. Today’s NBA stars are eager not only to use their platform to amplify political and social causes, but to establish activism as a responsibility in its own right, as...

LOS ANGELES - According to the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner, through the use of DNA and fingerprints, has identified all nine of the victims who died in a helicopter crash on Sunday involving Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna, announced on Wednesday evening. The department released the IDs of four crash victims. They included: John Altobelli, DOB: 5/8/63 Kobe Bryant, DOB: 8/23/78 Sarah Chester, DOB: 6/29/74 Ara Zobayan, DOB: 1/2/70 The IDs of the three men and one woman were determined through fingerprints. Following round-the-clock testing and analysis of DNA, the department officially identified the five other...

The helicopter that crashed Sunday killing basketball star Kobe Bryant and eight others was owned by a charter company that only operated under visual flight rules, and its pilots were not permitted to fly solely based on their cockpit gauges if they encountered weather that limited visibility, a former pilot for the company told Forbes. The pilot of the doomed flight, Ara Zobayan, was licensed to fly by cockpit instruments, but he likely had little real-world experience in doing so given the operating limitations of Island Express Helicopters, says Kurt Deetz, a former pilot for the company who flew Bryant...

Abigail Disney has weighed in on Kobe Bryant's controversial past, after actress Evan Rachel Wood and a Washington Post journalist were berated for tweeting about a rape allegation against him from 2003, just hours after his death in a helicopter crash Sunday. Disney - whose grandfather Roy O. Disney co-founded The Walt Disney Company - tweeted: 'I haven't said anything about Kobe so far because I felt some time needed to pass before weighing in. But yes, it's time for the sledgehammer to come out. The man was a rapist. Deal with it.'

One of the last things Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna did before they died in a fatal helicopter crash on Sunday was attend church. Father Steve Sallot with Our Lady Queen of Angels church in Newport Beach, Orange County, spoke to a local media outlet about the father and daughter attending mass. "He was here before the 7 a.m. mass and that's our first mass of the day," Father Sallot told KABC in an on-camera interview. "So he would obviously have been in the prayer chapel before that and he was leaving about 10 to 7." CBS News...

In the 40 years since Diana Munson lost her husband, Thurman, in a plane crash, she’s had countless conversations with fans who tell her where they were when the accident happened and she never stops them. Rarely, though, does what happened on Aug. 2, 1979, come into focus as much as it did Sunday, when Diana and the world learned that Kobe Bryant had been killed — along with his daughter Gianna and seven others — in a helicopter crash outside of Los Angeles. “[Sunday] opened up a lot of wounds for me,’’ Diana said by phone Monday. “It brought...

Kobe Bryant’s death sent shock waves across the world Sunday and fans of the five-time NBA champion and the late Los Angeles Lakers legend called on the league to make a change. Fans urged the NBA to change the logo from a figure of Jerry West to Bryant in honor of the sharpshooter who was among those killed in a helicopter crash in California.

“A friend texted me today to tell me that a friend of her’s saw #KobeBryant at #Catholic Mass this morning,” Boston priest David Barnes said via Twitter on Sunday. “Mass is the worship of God. Heaven is the worship of God. Go to Mass here so that you can worship God forever in heaven.” In the wake of the fatal accident, fellow Catholic and singer Cristina Ballestero posted about an encounter she had with Bryant at Holy Family Cathedral in Orange, California, during a weekday Mass. I want to tell a story about the time I met Kobe Bryant. “I...

The helicopter carrying Kobe Bryant, his daughter, Gianna, and seven others that crashed into a rugged hillside outside Los Angeles was flying in foggy conditions considered dangerous enough that local police agencies grounded their choppers. Bryant's helicopter left Santa Ana in Orange County, south of Los Angeles, shortly after 9am, a time when conditions were not suitable for flying, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. There was an overcast at 1,300 feet and visibility of about five miles. The pilot, who was named as Ara Zobayan was flying under visual flight rules (VFR), meaning that he was relying on...

A girls’ basketball coach was identified as one of the fatalities in the crash that killed Kobe Bryant and his daughter Sunday, officials said. Christina Mauser — who worked at a private school in Orange County, California — was among nine people killed instantly when their helicopter crashed in Calabasas, according to Costa Mesa Mayor Katrina Foley. “My kids and I are devastated,” Christina’s husband, Matt Mauser, wrote on Facebook. “We lost our beautiful wife and mom today in a helicopter crash. Please respect our privacy. Thank you for all the well wishes they mean so much.” Also killed in...

The BBC is being widely mocked online for showing footage of Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James while airing a segment about the death of Kobe Bryant. Evening news program “BBC News at Ten” committed the embarrassing gaffe Sunday night — but later apologized and chalked it up to “human error,” according to The Daily Mail. The clip being distributed online begins by showing Bryant and his daughter Gianna — who both died Sunday morning in a California helicopter crash in Calabasas that killed at least nine. The footage then cuts to current Lakers great, Lebron James, high-fiving a fellow...

Jill and I are sending our prayers to the Bryant family and to everyone who lost loved ones in today’s crash. It’s a reminder of how special — and fragile — life is. And it’s a reminder that we’ve got to make every day count.— Joe Biden (Text Join to 30330) (@JoeBiden) January 26, 2020

Wow! A big enough story to bump the Impeachment trial off the front page.

According to the ADSB transponder data he was following the 101 Fwy to Thousand Oaks. Then suddenly turned and dropped rapidly. Last data point shows he was dropping at 4,000 FPM which is pretty extreme...

NBA legend Kobe Bryant and his daughter, Gianna, were killed in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California on Saturday morning. While covering the tragic story, MSNBC reporter Allison Morris appears to have used the word n***** in reference to the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team which Kobe played on for 20 years. NBA legend Kobe Bryant and his daughter, Gianna, were killed in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California on Saturday morning. While covering the tragic story, MSNBC reporter Allison Morris appears to have used the word n***** in reference to the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team which Kobe played on for 20 years.

According to a report from TMZ, NBA star Kobe Bryant and his 13- year-old daughter Gianna Maria Onore, were killed Sunday morning in a helicopter crash in California.

Even though retired NBA legend Kobe Bryant was born and raised a Catholic, he made a few bad turns. But thankfully, the basketball star was able to turn his life around, and it was all thanks to a kind-hearted priest.

Kobe Bryant died in a helicoper crash in Calabasas Sunday morning ... TMZ Sports has confirmed. Kobe was traveling with at least 3 other people in his private helicopter when it went down. A fire broke out. Emergency personnel responded, but nobody on board survived. 5 people are confirmed dead. We're told Vanessa Bryant was not among those on board. The cause of the crash is under investigation.