Top Story
City report details layoffs' impact
Libraries might be open 12 fewer hours a week, parks might have to drop their day-care service and tree-trimming service might be abandoned under the city's pending layoffs and budget cuts, according to a city report issued Wednesday.
In a preliminary report to the City Council, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa detailed the first 542 out of the 1,000 positions to be eliminated and the impact on those departments, as tempers flared between council members over the cuts.
Early prison releases' statewide effects
Financial disclosure provision upheld
Budget Crisis: State and
Local News
Updates
New at L.A. County Jail: inmates serve half sentences
L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca released 343 nonviolent offenders from the county jail system this week, well before they had served their full sentences. The Sheriff’s Department says that budget cuts have forced changes to a longtime policy requiring inmates to serve at least 80 percent of their time before release. Now, those jailed for crimes such as check kiting, petty theft, and drunk driving will serve just 50 percent of their sentences.
Read more...
State prison cuts could backfire, report says
Bill to limit early release to state prisons
IN DEPTH: Early parole and its effect on the region: Wary of inmate release
Federal court action calls on LAPD gang and narcotics officers to disclose finances
Officials for the union representing Los Angeles police officers said Monday they are considering their legal options after a federal judge upheld a key provision of the federal consent decree that requires financial disclosures by gang and narcotics officers.
Read more...
LAPPL blog: My Last Word on Financial Disclosure by Director Tyler Izen
LAPD gang units feel the pinch of financial disclosure rule
LA Superior Court to lay off 329 employees on April 1
Los Angeles Superior Court officials informed employees Friday that 329 of them will be laid off on April 1 because of the ongoing budget crisis.
A memo from Executive Officer John Clarke said as many as 1,800 more positions will be lost to layoffs and attrition in the next four years or so.
"This is one of the saddest days for the L.A. Superior Court in its history," Clarke said in an interview. "This is an unprecedented layoff."
Read more...
Taking aim at rich pensions
L.A. council considers deactivating 10 ambulances at night
Cash-strapped Los Angeles wary of scaring off business
Justices signal they're ready to make gun ownership a national right
The Supreme Court justices, hearing a 2nd Amendment challenge to Chicago's ban on handguns, signaled Tuesday that they were ready to extend gun rights nationwide, clearing the way for legal attacks on state and local gun restrictions.
L.A.'s crime rates continue to fall, city statistics show
The Los Angeles Police Commission on Tuesday bid farewell to its inspector general; received a somewhat encouraging update on the saga to install video cameras in patrol cars; and heard that the city’s crime rates continued to plummet.
Bill to ban social networking for sex offenders
Sex offenders in California would be barred from using social networking Web sites such as Facebook and MySpace under a proposed law aimed at making the Internet safer for children as more and more of them flock to the Web.
State high court OKs 'John Doe' arrest warrant based on DNA
In a groundbreaking case out of Sacramento, a split California Supreme Court ruled Monday that the use of a DNA profile to identify an unknown suspect in an arrest warrant is a legitimate way to beat the deadline for filing criminal charges.
California Supreme Court upholds state enforcement of sex offender ban
Voter-approved limits on where sex offenders can live may be enforced on parolees who committed their sex crimes long before Jessica's Law passed, the California Supreme Court ruled Monday.
