County

A 14-year-old boy and a man were shot and killed outside elementary schools in Cudahy and Bell during a violent night that claimed a total of four lives in four separate shootings, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said. Javier Pedraza Jr., 14, was killed Monday outside Ellen Ochoa Learning Center in the 5000 block of Live Oak Street in Cudahy, the Sheriff’s Department said. He and another boy were shot and found by deputies, who responded after receiving reports of gunfire in the area. Paramedics were called…

The costs to defend Los Angeles County — and its army of sheriff’s deputies, firefighters, social workers and doctors — against lawsuits skyrocketed in the last fiscal year, according to twin reports released this week.The annual tally of the county’s legal tab, which tracks payouts made between July 1, 2022, and June 30, 2023, found the county spent $257 million on settlements and judgments — triple what it spent the year before.The cost to defend the Sheriff’s Department, which settled a slew of big-dollar cases,…

With this week’s monster storm now expected to make a direct hit on Los Angeles County on Sunday and Monday, officials are urging people to stay off roads amid concerns about flooding and mudslides.The intense, sustained rains are going to make for an ugly and potentially dangerous Monday commute, and officials said people should avoid being on the roads if possible.“If anyone has an opportunity to work remotely on Monday, that’s definitely the day to do it,” said Ryan Kittell, a meteorologist with the National Weather…

A statewide warning was issued to every California prison after roughly 200 prisoners were involved in an attack on officers at Ironwood State Prison in Blythe on Wednesday, officials said. Eight staff members and one prisoner were briefly hospitalized and treated for undisclosed injuries in the incident, prompting the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to conduct a threat assessment at all its prisons.The incident occurred Wednesday morning while members of CDCR’s Investigative Services Unit were…

Key systems in Fulton County, Georgia have been offline since last week when a 'cyber incident' hit government systems. While the county has tried its best to continue operations as normal, phone lines, court systems, property records and more all went down. The county has not yet confirmed details of the cyber incident, such as what group could be behind it or motivations for the attack. As of Tuesday, there did not appear to be a data breach, according to Fulton County Board of Commissioners Chairman Robb Pitts.Fulton…

Lunar New Year is coming, and at our local Costco stores here in Southern California that means pineapple cakes, mochi, glutinous rice cakes, red and gold willow arrangements and a New Year collection of frozen dim sum. There are also products specific to the zodiac calendar, like the Lego Auspicious Dragon set, Year of the Dragon gold and a Napoleon XO bottle of brandy shaped like a dragon.Surprised you can find baijiu (Chinese sorghum liquor) at Costco? Frankly, we are constantly surprised by the Costco offerings that…

If your rain gutters are overflowing now, just wait.Forecasters say a second storm fueled by an atmospheric river will hit California next week, roughly doubling the amount of rain falling Thursday on Los Angeles and surrounding areas. All told, the city of L.A. is expected to receive almost 5.9 inches from the storm that started Wednesday and the more enduring one that’s expected to peak on Sunday and Monday, the National Weather Service said this week. The totals within L.A. County range from 2.7 inches in Lancaster to…

An oversight panel has recommended that former Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva be deemed ineligible for rehire after officials found he discriminated against Inspector General Max Huntsman, according to records obtained by The Times.In the initial complaint filed in March 2022, Huntsman accused Villanueva of “dog whistling to the extremists he caters to” when he repeatedly referred to the inspector general by his foreign-sounding birth name, Max-Gustaf. In an interview with The Times editorial board a few…

For years, Native American residents in Fresno County have campaigned to remove the word “squaw” from the name of an unincorporated town in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada.The word, many Native Americans say, has been used as a slur and insult against Native women, part of a broader perpetuation of violence against them. In 2022, organizers scored a victory when the U.S. Department of the Interior, which sought to remove the “S-word” from federal lands, re-designated the town as Yokuts Valley for federal use. That…

The Colorado Supreme Court on Monday dismissed an aircraft noise violations case against Denver International Airport that had prompted a lower court to award $33.5 million to Adams County and other plaintiffs. The high court concluded that Adams County’s 2018 lawsuit against DIA was filed 20 years too late. The county and other participating communities, including Aurora, alleged that the airport had been underestimating its noise impacts on surrounding communities for years by using a method that violated an…