California Weeding Out Illegal Sales by Pot Clubs

California Attorney General Jerry Brown has ordered a crackdown on medical pot clubs, charging that some are illegally selling marijuana for profit. In an 11-page directive issued this week, Brown laid out the guidelines medical marijuana cooperatives must follow to be in compliance with Proposition 215. “The voters wanted medical marijuana dispensaries to be used […]

Murder, Mayhem Highlight New Hollywood Tour

Murder, mayhem, drugs and the other excesses of Hollywood’s rich and famous are the highlight of a new offbeat Hollywood tour. Dubbed the “Dearly Departed” tour, entrepreneur Scott Michaels gives tourists a glimpse of the dark side of fame and fortune. Murdered starlets, brutal beatings, celebrity drug overdoses, suicides, mob hits — all provide grisly stops […]

California Supreme Court Redefines Parole

A recent decision by the California Supreme Court changed radically how parole works in California.  The court made it easier for prison inmates to win parole despite a governor’s objections, ruling that a woman who fatally shot and stabbed another woman with a potato peeler should remain free.
The 4 to 3 ruling, written by Chief Justice […]

L.A. Robbery Epidemic Targets Trendy Melrose Ave.

For the eighth time in two weeks, robbers again struck Los Angeles’ trendy Melrose Avenue shopping district. During Wednesday’s evening rush hour, three young men jumped out of a silver Chevy Malibu to snatch the purse of a woman strolling along Genesee Avenue near Fairfax High School, said a spokesperson for the Los Angeles Police Department. No […]

Feds Arrest 7 in L.A. Child Porn Ring

Federal and local law enforcement officers arrested 7 men in Los Angeles this week for participation in a computer child pornography ring. Charges of alleged possession or production of computer child pornography were filed against a total of 55 L.A. and Southern California individuals as a result of the 8-month investigation. Peer-to-peer computer networks like […]

Parental Kidnapping Takes Bizarre Turn

A parental kidnapping crime took a bizarre turn of events last week when Los Angeles homicide detectives travelled to Boston to interview Clark Rockefeller about the 1985 disappearance of a San Marino couple. They called Rockefeller a “person of interest” in the 20-year-old missing persons case. Rockefeller was arrested by police and arraigned in Boston for […]

Murder Down But Shootings Up in LA

Despite a well-publicized decrease in LA murder rates last month, shootings between June 29 and July 26 increased a dramatic 24% from the previous reporting period. While July marked the lowest number of homicides –19 — in Los Angeles since March 1970, 141 people were shot.
In California, gun and weapons charges are serious crimes that […]

LA Crime Rate Drops to ‘Historic’ Lows

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Police Chief William Bratton and City Council members are celebrating an across-the-board drop in Los Angeles crime rates that the mayor categorized as “historic” lows. At a news conference last week, Villaraigosa praised Chief Bratton and the Los Angeles Police Department, saying, “a tide of safety and security is surging throughout […]

Protect Yourself from Internet Identity Theft

Identity theft can turn your life into a nightmare. Just this week laptop thefts at brewing giant Anheuser-Busch has placed the personal data of 150,000 people nationwide and 55,000 Californians at risk. Unfortunately the risk of identity theft isn’t relegated to corporate and government computers. Computer phishing scams that solicit personal information through bogus emails […]

The Death Penalty Faces Many Challenges

Already a highly controversial subject, the last couple of weeks has seen rising challenges to the death penalty.  For example:

In Texas, a man by the name of Jose Medellin was executed for his part in the rape and murder of two young girls.  However, Medellin wasn’t an American citizen, he was a Mexican citizen, and now […]

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