press-news

LOS ANGELES — A taxpayer lawsuit will be filed today against the city of Los Angeles alleging an unlawful “gift of public funds” to the Los Angeles Rams in the form of security at home games. The lawsuit will be filed by former Los Angeles City Councilmember Deis Zine and Los Angeles resident James Bibeau “to prevent the city from expending any additional taxpayer funds to provide over 200 LAPD officers free of charge to secure Rams home games,” according to a statement from the Los Angeles Police Protective League. “Rams owner Stan Kroenke has refused to pay in full for the police services necessary to ensure public safety at his team’s home games,” the statement said. “This free use of LA...

A Labor Day tradition, this year’s Conquer the Bridge Race over the Vincent Thomas Bridge will get a cadenced sound track this year as hundreds of sailors in town for LA Fleet Week join the challenge. “They’ll run as part of teams and formations, they’re supposed to be in cadence,” said Michael-Patrick Hogue, producer of the aual Labor Day race now in its eighth year. Also participating Monday along with the Navy will be members of the Coast Guard and Marine Corps. Online registration ($50 entry fee) remains open until Thursday night at www.active.com and, after that, will be available through Road Ruer Sports, 25359 Crenshaw Blvd. (across from Mimi’s Cafe) Torrance, (310-326-8530, Ext. 2) a...

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles and a funeral home company have settled dueling litigation conceing the lease of land at six Catholic cemeteries for the operation of mortuaries, including one in Long Beach. Lawyers for S.E. Funeral Homes of Califoia Inc. filed paperwork Aug. 18 in Los Angeles Superior Court stating that the resolution includes the sale and transfer of the mortuaries to a subsidiary of the archdiocese in a deal scheduled to close Nov. 30. No additional specifics were given. S.E. Funeral Homes filed suit in September 2014, alleging breach of contract and seeking a court order to prevent the archdiocese from taking possession of the premises. The archdiocese countersued in June...

Long Beach health officials are asking people to take precautions against West Nile Virus in light of state reports confirming the first death this year involving a senior citizen in Sacramento County. Although Long Beach has not documented any West Nile virus activity this year, it has been detected in Orange and Los Angeles counties, prompting Interim Health Officer Dr. Maura Too to remind residents to protect themselves during the summer months. “The first death of a Califoia resident due to West Nile virus is a sad and sobering reminder of the risk posed by mosquito bites,” Too said in a statement. “I would like to take this time to remind Long Beach residents to take precautions to avoi...

RIO DE JANEIRO >> When the Inteational Olympic Committee awarded Riou2009de Janerio the 2016u2009Olympic Games on Oct.u20092, 2009, in Copenhagen, Brazil’s then-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was so overcome with emotion that he couldn’t stop sobbing, spending much of a post-aouncement press conference with his face buried in a white handkerchief. “You catch up quickly to what this means for the city, for the country, for the continent,” Carlos Arthur Nuzman, head of the Rio bid organizing committee, told the president. The question as the first Olympicu2009Games held in South America open Friday is whether Rio’s 17-day center stage tu in the global spotlight will have the same m...

A judge stripped several claims from a lawsuit filed by the parents of a college student shot and killed by a Long Beach police officer in 2015, court papers show. In a 13-page ruling issued Monday, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Holly Kendig dismissed claims by Amr Morad and Amal Alkabra for intentional infliction of emotional distress as well as negligent supervision, training, hiring and retention. The judge also dismissed the couple’s claims for civil rights violations, but said the estate of their son, Feras Morad, can move forward with the claim. Kendig additionally found that the plaintiffs’ attoeys will have to shore up their claims for punitive damages against Officer Matthew Hea...

A judge stripped several claims from a lawsuit filed by the parents of a college student shot and killed by a Long Beach police officer in 2015, court papers show. In a 13-page ruling issued Monday, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Holly Kendig dismissed claims by Amr Morad and Amal Alkabra for intentional infliction of emotional distress as well as negligent supervision, training, hiring and retention. The judge also dismissed the couple’s claims for civil rights violations, but said the estate of their son, Feras Morad, can move forward with the claim. Kendig additionally found that the plaintiffs’ attoeys will have to shore up their claims for punitive damages against Officer Matthew Hea...

The Brenda Martinez story is bigger than Brenda Martinez. The 28-year-old former Rancho Cucamonga High and UC Riverside track star is now an Olympian. It’s a jouey that started from humble begiings and featured plenty of rejection and disappointment along the way. It’s a jouey that’s molded Martinez into a fighter in tough times and humbled her through the glorious times and celebrations. It’s a jouey that’s made Martinez a role model to young fans, especially girls in the Inland area, and while Olympian has a nice ring to it, it’s the role model title that she embraces. “She doesn’t run for herself, she runs to inspire more people,” husband and coach Carlos Handler said. “She knows she won...

Raynard Collins has been a die-hard NFL fan ever since he sat glued to the first “Monday Night Football” kickoff 46 years ago this September. He was so thrilled to see the Rams retu to Los Angeles this year he joined thousands who waited in lines for hours Friday for a shot at work in their football stadium. “It would be awesome. A blessing. A dream job,” said Collins, 50, an unemployed resident of Koreatown. “‘Cause I’d get to be around the game — the smell of the turf, the whiff of the stadium, the sound and fury and passion for the game.” • PHOTOS: L.A. Rams hold job fair at Expo Center The L.A. Rams job fair at the Expo Center, hosted by independent contractor Contemporary Services Corp...

The parents of a mentally ill man who died after a Long Beach police officer shot him at Looff’s Lite-A-Line gaming parlor in December aounced Thursday they have filed a federal lawsuit against the city. The suit, which seeks punitive damages against Police Chief Robert Luna and the officers involved in the shooting, alleges the Long Beach Police Department failed to properly train officers to deal with people living with mental illnesses and that officers’ actions on the night of the shooting “escalated a peaceful encounter” and led to an unjustified use of deadly force. Mharloun Verdejo Saycon, 39, of Carson died after police shot him the night of Dec. 14. The Police Department reported a...

The family of a mentally ill man who died after a Long Beach police officer shot him at Loof’s Lite-A-Line this past December aounced Thursday they have filed a federal lawsuit against the police department. The filing, which seeks punitive damages against Police Chief Robert Luna and the officers involved in the shooting, alleges the Long Beach Police Department failed to properly train officers to deal with subjects living with mental illnesses and that officers’ actions on the night of the shooting “escalated a peaceful encounter” and led to an unjustified use of deadly force. The police department referred a request for comment to the City Attoey’s office. Officials there declined to co...

Among the most highly paid blue-collar workers in the United States, West Coast dockworkers will decide next month whether to enter labor talks three years before their contract expires. The unusual push for early negotiations comes amid pressure from manufactures, retailers and other local, regional and national groups dependent on the ports to move everything from flat-screen TVs from China to Central Califoia grain for export as consumer demand for fast, cheap products continues. Delegates representing 20,000 Inteational Longshore and Warehouse Union workers at 29 ports will meet at district headquarters in San Francisco from Aug. 10-12 to discuss whether to extend their current five-year...

TOKYO — While Rio Olympic organizers are under immense pressure to finish preparations before Aug. 5, their Tokyo counterparts are already facing skyrocketing costs for an event four years away. Tokyo 2020 organizing committee president Yoshiro Mori acknowledged at an executive board meeting this week the cost of building seven temporary venues for the Olympics has surged to an estimated $2.6 billion, up from an initial estimate of $690 million. Mori said the original figures were the result of sloppy calculations which he blamed on the Tokyo metropolitan govement and the Japanese Olympic Committee. The organizing committee hasn’t disclosed an official estimate of the overall costs but has ...

With fast moving flames continuing to bu tens of thousands of acres in and around the Santa Clarita Valley, the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors agreed Tuesday to declare a local state of emergency to bolster resources to help fight the now five day old Sand Fire. The fire has charred more than 37,000 acres, forced 20,000 people to evacuate, destroyed 18 homes and caused one death. “The Sand Fire is considered unprecedented by fire officials,” said Supervisor Michael Antonovich. “There is a need to take immediate action.” In addition, U.S. Rep. Steve Knight. R-Palmdale, asked Gov. Jerry Brown to declare a state of emergency as well. “The historic drought Los Angeles County is enduring this ...

HOUSTON — A Texas judge has dismissed the last remaining charge against two Califoia anti-abortion activists who made undercover videos of themselves trying to buy fetal tissue from Plaed Parenthood. District Judge Brock Thomas dismissed the charge of tampering with govement records against 27-year-old David Daleiden and 63-year-old Sandra Merritt upon the request of the Harris County prosecutor’s office. The pair’s attoeys had pushed to have the charge dismissed, saying they never should have been indicted. If they had been convicted of the felony charge, each could have been sentenced to up to 20 years in prison. Prosecutors alleged that Daleiden and Merritt used fake driver’s licenses to...

LOS ANGELES >> A judge has rejected arguments to dismiss charges against two former Los Angeles County social workers and their supervisors, charged with child abuse and falsifying records that resulted from the death of an 8-year-old Palmdale boy. Defendants Stefanie Rodriguez, 31, and Patricia Clement, 65, and supervisors Kevin Bom, 37, and Gregory Merritt, 60, were originally set to be arraigned Monday moing on one felony count each of child abuse and falsifying public records. However, defense attoeys for the four filed court papers asking that the charges be dismissed. The hearing was assigned to a courtroom just before the lunch hour and Los Angeles Superior Court Judge M. L. Vi...

Los Angeles County sheriff’s union leader George Hofstetter has a stark waing: words can kill. Hofstetter believes recent “verbal attacks on police” including by politicians, the media and Black Lives Matter activists contributed to the shooting deaths of five Dallas police officers on July 7 and likely the deaths of three officers Sunday in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Politicians and candidates “jump in on the side of the left and these organizations that are out there condemning all police officers” before investigations of high-profile police shootings are even complete, Hofstetter, president of the Association of Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs, said Monday. But some civil rights activists and ...

The Califoia Public Utilities Commission aounced today it will review whether Southe Califoia Edison violated any rules or regulations and should face fines stemming from repeated power outages that left close to 30,000 Long Beach residents in the dark last summer. The commission opened a “penalty consideration case” against Edison over the outages, which left thousands of customers without power July 15-20 and July 30-Aug. 3, and were highlighted by an underground blast that sent manhole covers flying into the air. According to the CPUC, a staff investigation identified failures dealing with the maintenance, inspection and management of the electrical system in Long Beach, and deficiencies...

Long Beach officials aounced this moing they have prevailed in a lawsuit filed four years ago challenging the city’s ban on medical marijuana dispensaries on the grounds the ban violated the rights of those with disabilities. The decision, handed down July 12 by the Court of Appeal, isn’t surprising, said Matthew Pappas, the attoey who filed the case. Pappas, who has worked on behalf of medial marijuana patients for several years and is behind a number of ballot initiatives to regulate dispensaries, said this is an old case filed before the Califoia Supreme Court rule in 2013 that cities have a right to ban the sale of marijuana. “Since then we’ve moved from litigation to working from the p...

CLEVELAND >> A year ago, few imagined Donald Trump as a headline speaker at the Republican National Convention — let alone as its star. Back then, maybe the billionaire Newu2009Yorker was alone in thinking he would arrive in Cleveland this week as the GOP’s presumptive nominee for president. There are still some Republicans trying to stop him, but the party’s four-day coronation of its unlikely White House hopeful will complete his rise from real estate mogul to potential leader of the free world. “It was quite a jouey,” Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said. “Not just what he was able to do in getting more votes than any Republican in the history of our party, but...