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LOS ANGELES >> Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein visited the Black Lives Matter encampment outside Los Angeles City Hall today where she said she agreed with the group’s demand that Mayor Eric Garcetti fire police Chief Charlie Beck. Stein pointed to the firing of police chiefs in other cities and said she came to Los Angeles City Hall today to “support the community that’s demanding justice by asking the police chief to step down.” “We need him to be replaced by someone who doesn’t simply dismiss death after death as being within police policy and refusing to even file charges,” Stein said. Beck in January did recommend that District Attoey Jackie Lacey file criminal char...

Hamstrung by strict limits on political contributions, Califoia lawmakers have found a way to continue to extract large sums from some of Sacramento’s most powerful special interests. Increasingly, they’re using “ballot measure committees,” little-known and barely regulated accounts that are supposed to promote or oppose state and local initiatives but in practice are paying for consultants and polling firms, new suits and trips to Mexico. And the money for the politicians’ perks comes in the form of five-figure donations from the same special interests that state rules were intended to curtail. An analysis by Digital First Media, which includes this news organization, shows that the number...

SAN FRANCISCO >> Califoia’s latest carbon auction brought disappointing results Tuesday as litigation and lagging support by lawmakers weigh down the state’s landmark programs combating climate change. State officials said only 34u2009percent of the available carbon pollution credits were sold in the latest auction under the program, which requires companies that emit climate-changing gases to buy the pollution permits. It was a slight rebound from this spring, when investors bought just 10u2009percent of the pollution credits offered, signaling a rocky period for the state’s overall campaign against climate-changing pollution from fossil fuels. The cap-and-trade program is a keystone...

PARAMOUNT >>The Paramount Unified School District will ask voters in November to approve a $106 million bond measure to help fund upgrades and repairs across its 19-campus system, officials said Wednesday. Superintendent Ruth Perez said many of the 15,500 students enrolled in the district attend campuses equipped with aging facilities, some built over 50 years ago. While many campuses are in need of repairs and upgrades, she said, top priorities include replacing outdated portable buildings at Paramount High School and other large campuses, upgrading school security systems and facilitating access for disabled students and faculty. “Our local schools need basic safety improvements,” P...

When Keldren Joshua stepped out of his mother’s gray hatchback, he greeted family and friends who had waited a decade to see him on the free side of a prison fence. “Hi, everybody,” he said. The 45-year-old was arrested in Los Angeles for conspiracy to distribute 500 grams of methamphetamine and sentenced in 2006 to 15 years in prison after his mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years was extended because of outstanding traffic warrants. He became one of more than 200 nonviolent federal prisoners whose sentences were commuted last week by President Barack Obama, and Wednesday, made his exit from the federal prison on Terminal Island in San Pedro to a waiting group of family and friends. Birth...

RIO DE JANEIRO — Green, not gold, was the color of the day at the Olympic diving venue. Sure, China won its third consecutive gold medal on Tuesday, but the buzz was about the color of the water in the diving pool — a murky green. That was in stark contrast to the pool’s light blue color the previous day and also that of the clear water in the second pool used for the water polo competition at Maria Lenk Aquatic Center. British diver Tom Daley, who eaed bronze in men’s synchronized 10-meter on Monday, tweeted a photo of the two pools next to each other and captioned it, “Ermmm...what happened?!” Water quality has been a major issue surrounding the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, but in the ocean a...

DES MOINES, Iowa — Donald Trump faced an all-too-clear sign of GOP divisions Friday in two Midweste battlegrounds, embraced by party leaders in one state but ignored in another as he strained to overcome deepening conces about his presidential candidacy. Some of Iowa’s Republican elite will appear alongside the celebrity businessman for an afteoon rally, his third appearance in the swing state over the past two weeks. But in neighboring Wisconsin, a state Trump insists he can win, the state’s best-known Republicans said they were too busy to attend his evening event. Sen. Ron Johnson and House Speaker Paul Ryan citied scheduling conflicts, while Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker said he’ll attend...

Long Beach voters now have three marijuana-related ballot measures to decide on come November. Adding to an already lengthy statewide general election ballot, the City Council on Tuesday voted to add a tax measure that City Clerk Maria de la Luz Garcia said would help fund public safety, police officers, emergency response, homelessness and general city services should voters pass ballot measures proposed at the local and state level. The two initiatives facing voters are: Proposition 64, a statewide initiative that would legalize recreational marijuana for those 21 and older; and a local initiative that aims to allow as many as 32 medical marijuana dispensaries throughout the city. The cit...

Continuing to cement his environmental legacy, Gov. Jerry Brown released sweeping blue-sky plans to propel the state’s commercial trucks, ships and trains toward a zero-emissions future. The unprecedented effort aims to reshape how cargo is moved around the state —from produce on supermarket shelves to massive ship-boue containers unloading at Southe Califoia ports to Amazon boxes that arrive at your doorstep. Over the past year, plaers from the state’s department of transportation, air-quality board, energy commission and Brown’s economic-development wing hammered out the Sustainable Freight Action Plan. With this collection of 82 goals, Brown aims to make the freight-moving industry run c...

The Democratic National Convention concludes tonight — Thursday, July 28, 2016, at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, with Hillary Clinton slated to accept the party’s nomination. The final speeches are scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. PST (7 p.m. EST), and Clinton’s speech should end around 8 p.m. PST (11 p.m. EST). Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti took the stage Thursday at 3 p.m. PT not quite primetime, but it was still an opportunity for him to address a national audience. • RELATED STORY: Mayor Eric Garcetti touts LA as model city in DNC speech Here is the list of the speakers scheduled to appear this evening. Exact times are not given but they will take the stage in this order, per th...

PHILADELPHIA >> On a night awash in history, Hillary Clinton triumphantly became the first woman to lead a major American political party toward the White House, breaking through a barrier that painfully eluded her eight years ago. She put an electrifying cap on the Democratic convention’s second night, appearing by video from New York and declaring to cheering delegates, “We just put the biggest crack in that glass ceiling yet.” Minutes earlier, former President Bill Clinton took on the role of devoted political spouse, declaring his wife an impassioned “change-maker” as he served as character witness. He traced their more than 40-year political and personal partnership in deep detail...

Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson’s long-shot campaign may have gotten a boost last week when Sen. Ted Cruz declined to endorse fellow Republican Donald Trump. But it’s uncertain if either of the major candidates would be hurt by a strong Johnson showing in November. Cruz’s “vote your conscience” speech at the Republican convention last week was “a backhanded endorsement” of his candidacy, Johnson said Tuesday during a meeting with Southe Califoia News Group staff. “You go into a booth and it’s multiple choice,” Johnson said, suggesting Cruz is “not going to vote for Trump and he’s not going to vote for Hillary (Clinton).” Johnson, a moderate 2-term Republican goveor of the De...

PHILADELPHIA >> Taking her place in history, Hillary Clinton on Tuesday night became the first woman to lead a major party toward the White House, a triumphant moment for Democrats to relish before plunging into a bruising general election against Republican Donald Trump. • PHOTOS: The Democratic National Convention - Day 2 After the roll call of states formalizing Clinton’s nomination, former President Bill Clinton will take the stage for a history-making appearance of his own at the Democratic convention. Former presidents often vouch for their potential successors, but never before has that candidate also been a spouse By night’s end, the Clinton campaign hopes to have moved past t...

LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted today to rescind last week’s vote to put a marijuana tax on the November ballot to fund the fight against homelessness. Supervisor Sheila Kuehl recommended backing away from the tax proposal, saying she was conceed by a lack of support among homeless advocates. Kuehl said it would take about $3 million to successfully mount a campaign for the measure, making it important to be sure “everyone is with you.” The board itself was divided on the measure, with Supervisor Mark Ridley- Thomas pushing hard last week for a quarter-cent general sales tax rather than a gross receipts tax on marijuana businesses. But Ridley-Thomas failed to...

When: 9 p.m. Tuesday. Where: The Federal Underground, 102 Pine Ave., Long Beach. Tickets: $20. Information: lb.thefederalbar.com. It’s probably a good thing that the Federal Underground was built out of a sturdy old bank vault. Why? Because it’s going to be ground zero for a heck of a party when one of music’s most hyperactive and trailblazing bands performs songs from its decades-long career during a one-night show. “We’ve been giving our fans a career retrospective. We give you some things from every era of the band and some of where we are right now. So it takes a while to get through it all,” said Norwood Fisher, bassist for the genre-blasting band Fishbone. The band, which has pa...

Protracted policy questions. Big-money battles. Contradictory proposals that are difficult to disce. It’s shaping up to be an all-too-typical fall election, once again confronting Califoia voters with an unwieldy ballot. This wasn’t supposed to happen. After polls confirmed that Califoia voters were frustrated by ballot overload, lawmakers two years ago made changes aimed at pre-empting at least some initiatives from landing on the ballot and improving those that do. One change gave the Legislature extra time to hold hearings to try to compromise with interest groups pitching complex issues. “We’re taking an important step to modeize and strengthen direct democracy,” Gov. Jerry Brown said a...

MINNEAPOLIS >> Deis Green, the trailblazing coach who led a Miesota Vikings renaissance in the 1990s before a less successful run with the Arizona Cardinals, has died. He was 67. Green’s family posted a message Friday on the Cardinals website’ aouncing the death. “His family was by his side and he fought hard,” the statement said. It did not disclose other details, though the Cardinals said Green had died of a heart attack. Green was the first black head coach in Big Ten history when he took over at Northweste in 1981 and was just the third black head coach in the NFL when the Vikings hired him in 1992. Through it all, Green worked hard to provide opportunities for minorities on his co...

ARTESIA >> One man was killed and two were wounded in a shooting at a graduation party in Artesia, authorities said Sunday. The shooting was reported at 10:20 p.m. Saturday in the 18000 block of Alburtis Avenue, according to Deputy Lisa Jansen of the Sheriff’s Information Bureau. One victim sustained gunshot wounds to his upper torso and was pronounced dead at the scene, Jansen said. Two others were taken to a hospital in fair condition, she added. A preliminary investigation revealed that four unknown men arrived at the backyard party and “a confrontation ensued, which resulted in the shooting of the three victims,” Jansen said. Anyone with information about the shooting was urged to...

14 shot outside Bakersfield house party By the Associated Press BAKERSFIELD >> Authorities say attackers have shot and wounded 14 people, two critically, in an attack on a crowd outside a house party in Southe Califoia. The Ke County Sheriff’s Office says about 150 people were attending the party in Bakersfield when a car drove past shortly before 1 a.m. Saturday. Shots rang out and people standing in the street and in front of the home were hit. Authorities say victims were shot in the arms, legs and chest. Two were critically injured but are expected to survive. No arrests have been made and there’s no immediate word on a motive for the attack. Advertisement ...

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump has chosen Indiana Gov. Mike Pence as his ruing mate, adding political experience and conservative bona fides to his Republican presidential ticket. Trump aounced his decision on Twitter Friday moing, capping a frenzied 24 hours of speculation about his choice. • PHOTOS: Donald Trump taps Indiana Gov. Mike Pence as ruing mate A news conference was set for Saturday for the two men who will take on Hillary Clinton and her Democratic ruing mate in November. Trump offered the vice presidential spot to Pence Thursday, and the goveor boarded a plane for New York in anticipation of a Friday aouncement, according to a Republican with knowledge of the process. But shortly af...