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Thousands of Califoia’s foster care kids may be overdrugged with psychotropic medications, often without medical follow-up or a legally required approval from a judge or parent, according to a stinging report by the Califoia State Auditor. “The state and counties have failed to adequately oversee the prescribing of these medications,” wrote auditor Elaine M. Howle. The long-awaited report, released in August by State Auditor Elaine Howle, mirrors many findings of Bay Area News Group’s investigative series “Drugging Our Kids.” Those stories, which appeared in Southe Califoia News Group publications, including this one, highlighted how only 10 percent of the state’s 1,280 highest prescribers w...

A group of students at Rim of the World High School in Lake Arrowhead have created a stir for displaying Confederate flags, staked into the beds of their pickup trucks, in the school parking lot. On Friday, two Ford pickups, parked side-by-side, sat parked in the school parking lot, one Confederate flag and one American flag displayed in the bed of each truck. The black pickup also sported stickers from Patriot Alliance, an online retailer of clothing, National Rifle Association, and Donald Trump campaign signs. Also on Friday, Ruing Springs resident Jeifer Celise-Reyes, whose daughter began her freshman year at the high school last month, said she sent emails to school board president Cind...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — For one day, a mother says, she didn’t have to worry about her autistic son eating lunch by himself. A small gesture of kindness by Florida State University wide receiver Travis Rudolph — captured in a photo and shared on Facebook — had tears streaming down the face of the sixth-grader’s mother, Leah Paske. “I’m not sure what exactly made this incredibly kind man share a lunch table with my son, but I’m happy to say it will not soon be forgotten,” she wrote. “This is one day I didn’t have to worry if my sweet boy ate lunch alone, because he sat across from someone who is a hero in many eyes.” Rudolph was among several FSU players visiting Montford Middle School in Tallah...

LONG BEACH (CNS) - One of two men charged in the shooting death of a 19- year-old man in Long Beach appeared in court Monday but did not enter a plea. Edgar Miguel Espinoza, 18, of Downey, was arrested in San Diego Thursday in coection with the killing of Nick Cubas. Cubas, also of Downey, was found dead about 6:30 a.m. on Aug. 4 in the area of Willow Street and the San Gabriel River, according to the Long Beach Police Department, which has not released additional details. Espinoza appeared in a Long Beach courtroom Monday where a judge ordered him held without bail. His arraignment was postponed to Sept. 14. Espinoza and co-defendant Rueben Alexander Ortega, 19, of Lakewood, are both charg...

School starts Wednesday in most of Long Beach and it’ll likely be a hot day. Unbearably hot? Depends what you can bear. While we type this, the forecast is for a high of 86 degrees. We can, theoretically, bear that, coming from hardy pioneer stock. But we won’t. We will wake up in our air-conditioned home, make a mad sprint to our air-conditioned car and drive to our air-conditioned office. Hours later, we will do the whole thing in reverse. We don’t live in an average temperature. It’s 72 degrees all the time in our little world. Meanwhile, more than half the students in Long Beach in the K-12 grades will be sitting in classrooms without air conditioning, not made any cooler by 25-30 sweat...

From Hollywood to Westchester, fans honored the legendary life of Mexican superstar Juan Gabriel with music, candles and flowers. The Hollywood Walk of Fame became a shrine to the late singer-songwriter on Monday, with large floral arrangements, balloons and candles lining the street. • RELATED VIDEO: Juan Gabriel fans sing his songs at mortuary in Westchester The Hollywood Historic Trust, an arm of the Chamber of Commerce, placed flowers at Gabriel’s star at 7060 Hollywood Blvd. at 10 a.m. The massive memorial to the singer continued to grow throughout the day. Ana Martinez, a spokesperson for the Walk of Fame, posted a simple message on Twitter saying “may he rest in peace.” • RELATED PHO...

Late Sunday night, Twitter was abuzz with reports of an active shooter at Los Angeles Inteational Airport and evacuations at several terminals. Police later reported that there was no shooter, but those who were evacuated were required to pass through TSA security again, flights were delayed and traffic backed up around LAX. Reports of an active shooter at LAX briefly shifted the Twitterverse’s focus away from the VMA’s Sunday night. • Related Story: Unfounded fears of shooting at LAX create panic, chaos, gridlock Just before 9 p.m. hundreds reported being evacuated from LAX’s terminals for what they said was an active shooter situation. Within an hour, police officials reported there was n...

EXPOSITION PARK >> The 13th aual FYF Fest got started this year under cool temperatures as thousands of music fans came to Exposition Park to see more than 30 bands perform on several stages during day one of the festival. Saturday’s headliner was Long Beach native Kendrick Lamar who was joined on the eclectic bill by fellow hip hop artist Vince Staples and the psychedelic Australian band Tame Impala. • Photos: Inside day one of FYF Fest 2016 The festival, which started in 2004 as a cluster of punk-rock-oriented shows at various venues in Echo Park, has grown into one of the most popular area music events and the Saturday crowd seemed to be into the mix of well-known acts and up-and-co...

While a majority of Americans see undocumented immigrants in a positive light, a new poll found that staunch Donald Trump supporters have a more threatening view of people who are in the U.S. without legal status. More than 76 percent of those surveyed said undocumented immigrants are as hardworking and honest as U.S. citizens, according to a poll conducted by the Pew Research Center. And, 67 percent said undocumented immigrants are no more likely than citizens to commit serious crimes. Also, 61 percent oppose building a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico. Trump backers offer a different perspective. The poll, released Aug.u200925, found that half of all Trump supporters surveyed said u...

As part of a wide-ranging bust focused on mail-related crimes in Southe Califoia, federal officials said Friday that they’d charged 33 people — including one from Long Beach and one from Lakewood — with committing crimes including stealing cellphones from a mail-processing center and hoarding almost 50,000 pieces of undelivered mail. The charges span 28 separate criminal cases, according to the U.S. Attoey’s Office in Los Angeles. Authorities have so far issued arrest warrants for six of the 33 defendants. Most of the suspects are U.S. Postal Service employees or contractors. About half are facing charges for mail theft or possession of stolen mail, but other cases include charges of conspi...

LOS ANGELES >> Days after the body of a woman was found in the Los Angeles area, a couple suspected of killing her and kidnapping her three children have been arrested in Colorado. Joshua Aaron Robertson, 27, and Brittany Humphrey, 22, were arrested Thursday without incident in Pueblo, about 40 miles south of Colorado Springs, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. The couple was wanted in coection with the death of Humphrey’s half-sister, Kimberly Harvill, whose body was found with multiple gunshot wounds along a road in a remote area of Los Angeles County on Aug. 14. Investigators said the couple kidnapped Harvill’s three young children, who were found safe Wednes...

More than a year after the Califoia Coastal Commission halted the demolition of three waterfalls at Trump National Golf Club, the club was given a go-ahead this week by commission staff to move forward with restoration work. The initial infraction stemmed from demolition work at three man-made waterfalls at Trump National. The club had received a building permit from the city of Rancho Palos Verdes in April 2015, but didn’t get approval from the Coastal Commission for construction work inside the coastal zone. Parts of the course are home to protected bird species, including the Califoia gnatcatcher, which nests exclusively in the coastal sage scrub along a limited range of the Califoia coa...

Julie Jeffs had taken a 6 a.m. flight from Michigan last week and arrived late in the moing to LAX, where she expected to spend a long day hunkering down at the Tom Bradley Inteational Terminal before hopping on an 11:30 p.m. red eye to Fiji. But the airline ticket counter wouldn’t be open until 7 p.m., so Jeffs was unable to get a boarding pass and clear security, denying her access to the extensive variety of gourmet restaurants near the gates at the newly revamped terminal at Los Angeles Inteational Airport. So she began looking for a sit-down restaurant, lugging around a 50-pound suitcase so she could have a decent meal and a cold glass of beer. It was a long search. There are just two ...

Plaing beach days may be a little easier thanks to a new water quality prediction tool that forecasts bacteria levels at a handful of Califoia beaches — and Long Beach is one of them. Heal the Bay, known for its aual Beach Report Card, offers daily “nowcasts” based on various environmental conditions, such as rainfall, waves, tides and past bacteria concentrations. The information is available via a free mobile app or through Heal the Bay’s website. Created in collaboration with Stanford University, UCLA and Heal the Bay, spokesman Matthew King said the “nowcast” system makes predictions during the summer months (April 1 to Oct. 31) at five beaches: Belmont Pier in Long Beach; Doheny State B...

IRVINE — Former USC star and Raiders quarterback Todd Marinovich was arrested after he was found naked with marijuana in someone else’s backyard, police said Monday. The 47-year-old was cited for trespassing, possession of a controlled substance, possession of drug paraphealia and possession of marijuana, Irvine police Commander Mike Hallinan said Monday. Police received a complaint call At about 9 p.m. Friday, police received a complaint call. “The caller stated that there was a naked person on Venta Spur Trail,” said Hallinan, referring to a paved bike and walking path that runs along a greenbelt between homes. Hallinan said that Marinovich, an Irvine resident, was in a backyard of a home...

RIO DE JANEIRO >> With her arms raised in victory, coach Silvia Neid ran onto the field to join the celebration of Germany’s first Olympic gold medal — even jumping onto the players’ dogpile. What a way to go out. Dzsenifer Marozsan scored early in the second half Friday and Germany went on to give Neid a 2-1 victory over Sweden for the nation’s first Olympic title in women’s soccer. Neid, a two-time FIFA Women’s Coach of the Year, is stepping down following the Olympics. The win at the iconic Maracana Stadium gave her one more championship to cap her 11-year career as Germany’s coach. “What I felt was pure joy, because I know that was what we had eaed and what we have worked so hard ...

Rams fans retu to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Saturday, where they’ll see their team play the Kansas City Chiefs on the field. What they don’t want to see are fights off the field and in the stands. That’s why officials this week assured fans that security is priority No. 1 at the Coliseum after last week’s preseason opener against the Dallas Cowboys. The long-awaited game ended in a victory for the home team, but three people were arrested and seven were ejected from the stands after some tempers flared. Eleven ambulances also were requested, but only one person had to be taken to the hospital, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. “The security of fans attending our games ...

Authorities filed charges against a 57-year-old man accused of striking a teen over the head with a metal pole while he was playing Pokemon Go in Long Beach, the Los Angeles County District Attoey’s Office said Friday. Jayson Louis Lingen has been charged with one count of assault with a deadly weapon. He is scheduled to be arraigned at the George Deukmejian Courthouse in Long Beach today, a district attoey press release said. According to prosecutors, the 17-year-old was playing the augmented reality game Wednesday night, near the Aquarium of the Pacific, when Lingen began yelling at the boy before attacking him with a metal pole. Authorities were contacted and police took the suspect into...

Kanye West to open 21 ‘Pablo’ pop-up stores worldwide, and LA is getting one Kanye West aounced on Twitter that he will open 21 temporary “Pablo” stores worldwide on the weekend of Aug. 20 in cities that include Los Angeles. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision/AP, File) NEW YORK (AP) — Kanye West fans can buy a taste of “The Life of Pablo” this weekend following the rapper-tued-fashion mogul’s aouncement of 21 pop-up stores worldwide that will be open just this weekend. West tweeted a map with red dots indicating the stores’ locations Wednesday night. Fourteen of the stores will be in major cities in the U.S. The pop-up store locations include Los Angeles and San Francisco, accord...

RIO DE JANEIRO — Three American Olympic swimmers plaed to meet with Brazilian law enforcement Thursday to discuss a reported robbery targeting 12-time medalist Ryan Lochte and his teammates, a U.S. Olympic Committee official said. USOC spokesman Patrick Sandusky said late Thursday moing that Jack Conger, Guar Bentz and Jimmy Feigen were scheduling a time and place to meet with authorities. “All are represented by counsel and being appropriately supported by the USOC and the U.S. Consulate in Rio,” Sandusky said. Conger and Bentz were released by local authorities early Thursday after being pulled from a flight at the Rio de Janeiro airport amid uncertainty over what truly took place during ...