For the second year in a row - and likely continuing for the foreseeable future - Los Angeles city leaders have had to live with diminished expectations.
"This past year was a year of holding the line," Council President Eric Garcetti said in a recent...
The murders of five police officers and this week's shooting of two more have lawmakers thinking about more than a looming budget deficit as they prepare to return to the state capital in January.
A handful of bills sparked by the recent shootings have...
L.A.'s unemployment is 13.4%, meaning 259,000 people are out of work. In response, the mayor plans to target three sectors for job growth: biotechnology, clean technology companies and entertainment.
Whether talking about...
Los Angeles police Chief Charlie Beck has sent an open letter to California's attorney general urging him to appeal a recent court ruling that overturned a ban on felons wearing or owning body armor.
In his letter, released Thursday, Beck told Attorney...
There are a variety of choices available this holiday season, to help people avoid getting into the car if they've had a little too much to drink. Here are some of the services:
Motorists, bartenders, restaurant managers, party hosts or passengers of a...
Reporting from Sacramento - Facing a budget deficit of more than $20 billion, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is expected to call for deep reductions in already suffering local mass transit programs, renew his push to expand oil drilling off the Santa Barbara coast...
Central Division posted another drop in Downtown crime this week, dragging the overall crime level down 10% compared to last year.
The 10% drop includes all violent and property crimes. Looked at individually, violent crime is down 13% and property crime...
The Los Angeles Police Department's Explorers youth program will end its nearly 50-year relationship with the Boys Scouts of America, pledging not to tolerate discrimination.
As of New Year's Day, LAPD Deputy Chief Earl Paysinger said the department will...
Police Chief George Gascon sent letters Tuesday to Attorney General Jerry Brown and Board of Supervisors President David Chiu asking for help in overturning a court decision that would allow convicted felons to buy body armor.
Gascon sent the letters...
Streamlining the upper management of the Los Angeles Police Department, Chief Charlie Beck said Tuesday he plans to take 130 officers off desk duty and return them to the streets.
"This will be the first wave of officers as we move forward," Beck said as...
Santa Monica Police Chief Tim Jackman has extended for one month a pilot program in which rank-and-file officers work three, 12.5-hour days instead of the traditional 10 hour, four days a week schedule, a move that is expected to raise morale while putting more...
Two Pierce County sheriff's deputies were seriously wounded late Monday after they were "ambushed" while responding to a domestic-violence call, according to the Sheriff's Department. The shooting suspect was shot and killed in the Monday night...
Critical minutes were lost in two recent emergency medical calls because nearby Los Angeles Fire Department engines had been taken out of service due to budget cuts, according to fire officials. In both cases, units from farther away responded to the calls....
Six months into the leanest fiscal year in memory, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and California legislators soon will begin wrestling with a new state spending plan - and a new budget deficit.
And while revenues are in relatively short supply, there is an...
The new chief tells Latinos at a posada gathering that he will continue Special Order 40, which bars police from initiating action against people solely to discover their legal status.
A police advocacy group has criticized an appeals court judgment last week overturning a law that prevented violent felons from owning body armor, saying the ruling will put officers and the public in danger.
The decade-old ban was enacted after the 1997...
The Schwarzenegger administration is indignant that the endorsement by inmates' attorneys of the state's plan to reduce prison population ignores everything that it feels is wrong with the plan.
Earlier this month, the attorneys said they were happy with...
The exodus of employees approved to ease budget problems will drain the workforce of many experienced people and leave Los Angeles officials hampered in hiring replacements until 2024.
Spurred by its biggest economic crisis in a...
Although the state's lethal injection table has been idle for the...
The Obama administration will abandon a Dec. 31 deadline for states to tighten security requirements for driver's licenses, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced Friday.
Delaying the requirement, which faces opposition from governors and...
With California teetering perpetually on the edge of financial ruin, marijuana activists have seized the moment, claiming that legalizing and taxing pot could help bail out the cash-strapped Golden State.
The images of a graying, heavier man are based on a description given to police by the only woman known to have survived one of his attacks. He is believed responsible for at least 11 deaths.
A California lawmaker is trying to make it a crime for witnesses not to report homicides, rapes and other violent attacks.
The legislation, sponsored by Assemblyman Pedro Nava (D-Santa Barbara), was prompted by the gang rape of a 16-year-old Richmond...
An Alameda Superior Court judge has ruled that furloughs Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ordered are illegal for state prison officers whose pay is reduced but who have to wait to take the time off.
The order by Judge Frank Roesch means that roughly 40,000...
A former Los Angeles Police Department deputy chief was chosen Thursday to serve as interim chief of the embattled Burbank Police Department.Scott LaChasse will take over as interim chief Jan. 7, replacing Chief Tim Stehr, who is expected to retire at the end...
California faces at least another year of recession, and the state budget is so far upside down that it's now "more likely to default than not," on some of its debt, a new economic forecast from California Lutheran University's economists declares.
The...
The CalPERS board today approved a modest increase in the state's annual contribution to the pension fund, setting aside protests from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration.
Schwarzenegger wants the state's payment to CalPERS to jump by at least $1...
All but five of the city's estimated 800 to 1,000 medical marijuana clinics would be forced to shut down or move under the latest restrictions being considered by the Los Angeles City Council, officials said Wednesday.
The council had intended to reduce...
The City Council approved a new program Wednesday to train gang intervention workers, advancing the city's push to overhaul its anti-gang efforts.
In its 12-0 vote, the council awarded $200,000 to The Advancement Project, which will open the Los Angeles...
Andrea Ordin, formally approved Tuesday as the Los Angeles County government's top lawyer, said the new job means she will step down from her current post on the Los Angeles Police Commission, the civilian board that oversees the LAPD.
"It would be two...
