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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...

The mother of Syed Rizwan Farook has denied in a court document that she had any knowledge and did not participate in the San Beardino Dec. 2 terrorist attack by Farook and wife Tashfeen Malik that killed 14 people and wounded 22. Neither Rafia Farook nor her daughter Saira Khan took took part “in any way with the tragic attack,” the court document said. The statement was included in a claim of interest filed Wednesday in federal court for the $280,756.17 in life insurance benefits left behind by Syed Farook, who died with Malik in a shootout with law enforcement a few hours after the deadly, Islamic State-inspired attack. The disputed money has not been paid out. It is in the custody of th...

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...

Thirty years ago today was a Sunday, the heart of the Labor Day weekend, and just as two planes were about to collide a mile and a half above the young city of Cerritos, things in the suburban town were quiet, as you’d expect. That’s how many people described the day up until 11:56 a.m.: quiet. If anyone had any plans for the day, they weren’t ambitious. Some residents were in church, some were shopping for groceries for backyard barbecues. Then-Plaing Commissioner George Ray, who today is the mayor of Cerritos, was doing some work at home on his dining room table. Ray, an executive for a Santa Fe Springs-based manufacturing firm that makes parts for airplanes and the space program, heard wh...

An estimated 75,000 students will retu to classes in Long Beach Unified today, and police are urging motorists and pedestrians to be safe out on the road. Drivers, police say: Yield the right of way to pedestrians in crosswalks, do not pass cars that are stopped for pedestrians, obey speed limits, stop for school buses with red lights flashing and don’t drive distracted. Pedestrians: Yield to vehicles if you are outside the crosswalk, and do not cross between intersections controlled by traffic signals. And finally, parents: Do not double park in front of school, follow school drop-off procedures, and teach your child to always cross the street at a crosswalk. It is equally important for pe...

Seven southe Los Angeles County cities are suing Metro over its proposed half-cent sales tax increase on the Nov. 8 ballot, arguing the language is misleading and the agency didn’t specify most of the transportation projects it would fund. The ballot description takes a kitchen-sink approach, saying Measure M is needed “to improve freeway traffic flow/safety; repair potholes/sidewalks; repave local streets; earthquake retrofit bridges; synchronize signals; keep senior/disabled/student fares affordable; expand rail/subway/bus systems/ improve jobs/school/airport coections; and create jobs ...” But it doesn’t mention that the vast majority of transportation improvements won’t touch the southe...

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...

May 2014: The Teachers Association of Long Beach distributed surveys to its members to determine how many classrooms in Long Beach Unified experience stifling heat. TALB received 200 responses from teachers with mixed results. September 2014: The district asked schools to curtail physical activity and canceled all nonleague and league competition for two days. Additionally, Long Beach Unified communicated with parents about “hot weather precautions, including the need to stay hydrated.” Parents, meanwhile, attend a school board meeting, pleading with the district to do something about the lack of air conditioning in older buildings across the district, which they say creates an unhealthy lea...

Long Beach’s Plaing Commission will decide Thursday whether to allow plans and permitting for the Belmont Beach and Aquatic Center to move forward. If all the approvals are granted, the $103 million project would move on to the City Council, then the state Coastal Commission. The center is designed to replace the Belmont Plaza Olympic Pool, which was to down after engineers determined the natatorium was in danger of collapse in the event of an earthquake. The proposed replacement, designed by architect Michael Rotondi, includes two Olympic-sized pools (one inside a structure, the other outside), an indoor diving well, a recreational pool and other amenities. If approved, a transparent oval ...

ISTANBUL >> One Turkish soldier was killed and eight others wounded in two separate blasts Sunday in the country’s Kurdish-dominated southeast, and Kurdish militants launched a rocket-propelled grenade at a civilian airport, officials and the state-run news agency said. The Anadolu Agency said one soldier was killed and three were wounded after a roadside bomb was triggered remotely by rebels linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, in the Hakkari province. In another attack, five civilian village guards were wounded in Siirt province after their van hit an improvised explosive device on a road, the news agency said, blaming PKK for the blast. Earlier Sunday, Kurdish rebels, ap...

For many people heading to the 13th aual FYF Fest at Exposition Park, the train was the way to go. The Metro Expo trains coming from Santa Monica were ruing about five minutes apart as they headed to the concert today. And that was a nice surprise for Westside residents like Emily Diaz and Tony Lopez, who were coming from Palms. • Related: This is the best way to get to FYF Fest They missed one train as they bought their one way tickets but were surprised by how quickly another arrived shortly “That’s pretty awesome that they’re coming this fast, that’s probably why they’re not packed,” she said as she boarded the train shortly after an aouncement from Metro over the speakers at the station...

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...

PIGEON PASS >> Want to know what it cost to buy more than two-dozen acres for the DonkeyLand wild-burro rescue operation in Reche Canyon? It’s no trick question. Just ask Bob Barker. The former “Price is Right” host donated $400,000 from his DJ&T Foundation to help the small animal-rescue operation run by Amber Levoe and her father, Phil Saavedra, acquire land of its own. The two work tirelessly on behalf of DonkeyLand, an organization they and others founded about five years ago on rented land, in a secluded area north of Moreno Valley, with no identifying sign. When orphaned baby burros are brought to them, and Saavedra, 67, stays up all night, feeding them a special milk-replac...

Detectives have waed the public of a sudden increase in tire and wheel thefts from late model Chevrolet trucks in the Harbor Area, releasing a photograph of a man in a ski mask captured as he loaded stolen wheels into a van. Residents have reported 12 crimes in the last month in Wilmington, San Pedro, Harbor City, and Harbor Gateway, Los Angeles police Detective Carmine Sasso said. “They kind of made their rounds,” Sasso said. “It’s just crazy.” Thieves primarily targeted Chevrolet trucks parked on the street. Using cinder blocks, bricks or wood blocks to prop up the vehicle, they take all four wheels and tires. “A good crew can prop them up on cinder blocks and remove all four tires and wh...

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...