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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...

TARZANA >> Los Angeles police responded to Chris Brown’s residence in Tarzana Tuesday and later served a search warrant on the home as the singer took to social media to deny any wrongdoing and to condemn police. At a news conference Tuesday afteoon, LAPD Lt. Chris Ramirez said police were serving a search warrant on the home, and an unknown number of people were exiting the residence. The house is located in a posh, hillside neighborhood of one-and two-story homes that are nearly all protected by locked iron gates. A call initially came at 3:11 a.m. from the 5000 block of Corbin Avenue, police said earlier. “It came out as a female requesting help,” Officer Drake Madison of LAPD’s Me...

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...

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...

We’ve all gotten them. Like an unwanted plague, those aoying robocalls always seem to come just as we’re sitting down to dier or getting ready to watch a football game. The messages are varied but most have one thing in common: They’re trying to sell us something. Some robocalls are looking to steal our personal information Some implore us to buy solar panels or donate money to a political candidate, while others ask us to support a local charity or take a ride-share survey. And it gets worse. Some of these automated calls offer fraudulent credit card services or questionable auto warranty protection. In many cases, they’re simply trying to steal our personal information. They’re increasing...

When a building on the north end of Ports O’ Call Village comes down this fall, it will signal the start of what is expected to be a long process to redevelop San Pedro’s waterfront area. But as for the shops and restaurants that remain at Ports O’ Call, not to worry — none of them are going anywhere soon. The first phase of the plaed development includes just the northe portion of the village — Berths 78, 79 and 80 — that will be renamed the San Pedro Public Market. Businesses such as Ports O’ Call Restaurant and many of the other shops that are situated south of that, at Berths 75-77, will be part of a second phase and are not being affected in the initial demolition or construction. Succ...

Kathy Creighton was 16 when she landed what was her first summer job: squeezing oranges and working the cash register at the Orange Julius in San Pedro’s bustling Ports O’ Call Village. “We had these very ugly brown and yellow, itchy polyester uniforms we had to wear,” Creighton said. “We went home sticky and stinky.” But there were perks. The popular juice-and-burger spot was situated in a building constructed over the water, with wall-size windows on three sides. And the tourist helicopter pad was right next door. “We used to trade hamburgers for (free) helicopter rides,” she said. And, no, the boss never knew. The year was 1980. And Creighton, who moved out of state when her husband got ...

RIO DE JANEIRO >> A Brazilian judge ordered Wednesday that the passports of American swimmers Ryan Lochte and Jimmy Feigen be seized, confining them to the country as authorities investigate their claim they were robbed at gunpoint during the Rio de Janeiro Olympics. It was not immediately clear whether the swimmers were still in Brazil. The office of Judge Keyla Blank confirmed the order Wednesday in a statement. The U.S. Olympic Committee said police went to the athletes village Wednesday moing to try to collect the passports, but the swim team had already moved out. Spokesman Patrick Sandusky declined to say whether Lochte and Feigen were still in the country. “As part of our stand...

SAN FRANCISCO >> Knock, knock, Google’s video chatting app has arrived. The app, dubbed Duo, represents Google’s response to other popular video calling options, including Apple’s FaceTime, Microsoft’s Skype and Facebook’s Messenger app. Duo isn’t much different from the other video chatting services, except that it gives a glimpse at who is making the call, helping the recipient decide whether to answer. Google calls this feature, “Knock, knock.” The new app, aounced in ...

As Southe Califoia continues to struggle through this summer’s unrelenting smog, a study released Wednesday gives a stark reminder of why air quality matters. Researchers believe hundreds of people die each year because of Southe Califoia’s poor air quality. Pollution levels routinely exceed the levels deemed safe by health professionals. In the report, the Long Beach and South Bay areas are included in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale category, where about 1,341 people are estimated to die each year because of bad air. That makes the L.A. area’s air quality the deadliest in the nation. The Riverside-San Beardino-Ontario metropolitan area was second worst, with about 808 people estimated...

The Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to transform a portion of a hospital campus in Downey into a community sports complex. Supervisor Don Knabe has pushed for the redevelopment of Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center’s long-abandoned 70-acre South Campus, which is just south of the working hospital at 7601 Imperial Highway. The plan is now set to include headquarters for the Probation and Inteal Services departments, as well as a sheriff’s crime lab. Knabe focused Tuesday on the sports center. “Playing fields are a sorely needed amenity in the southeast communities,” Knabe said. “I know these facilities will be used by kids and adults of all ages for years to come.” Soccer pl...

Two men critically injured in Los Alamitos collision with FedEx delivery van Home → News → Automotive accidents By City News Service LOS ALAMITOS >> Two men were critically injured today in a crash in Los Alamitos involving a pickup truck and a FedEx delivery van. The collision was reported just before noon at Katella Avenue and Wier’s Circle, according to Orange County Fire Authority Capt. Larry Kurtz. The two unidentified 22- and 23-year-old victims – who were in the truck – were taken to UC Irvine Medical Center in Orange, he said. The circumstances of the crash were under investigation. Advertisement Digital & Driveway Delivery - 50% Off Please...

Gov. Jerry Brown has taken the national stage to tout Califoia’s fight against global warming, telling cheering throngs at the Democratic National Convention that the state has “the toughest climate laws in the country.” Yet inside the state Capitol, the fate of the policy’s centerpiece — legislation to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions — is in peril. One ominous sign: Brown on Thursday opened a fundraising committee, taking the first step toward putting an environmental initiative on the 2018 ballot in case the bill fails in the Legislature. Failure was already a looming threat, with Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon saying earlier in the week that “it’s not imperative” the bill cl...

Spurred by allegations of abuse in Los Angeles County juvenile halls and camps, the Board of Supervisors called Tuesday for a detailed report on three years of incidents and a review of policies and protocols. Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas recommended the review based on “recent allegations that we caot and will not ignore,” he told the board. “Reforming our juvenile justice system remains a big, big challenge for the county of Los Angeles,” Ridley-Thomas said. A report of four probation officers allegedly caught beating a 17-year-old at a Sylmar juvenile hall on April 24 prompted the move. The District Attoey’s Office is reviewing the Sylmar encounter — captured on video and subsequently r...

If NBC really wanted to be honest about its marketing of the upcoming 2016 Olympic Summer Games, and if it’s been paying attention to how ABC has been recently gathering viewers with its retro-game show revival, this 17-night miniseries coming up might be better packaged as “Fear Factor: The Rio Book of Revelations Tour.” Factor in everything that has made competitors, visitors and even NBC employees fearful about boarding a plane pointed toward South America this time of year. Comedian Denis Leary eventually tweeted out: “Let’s just go all out n have a Biblical Olympics – Zika mosquitoes, poisonous snakes, random floods & fireballs released during all events.” God help us if a Sharknad...

MANILA, Philippines >> Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte called off a weeklong cease-fire after communist guerrillas killed a govement militiaman and failed to declare their own truce by a Saturday deadline, in an early setback to his efforts to end one of Asia’s longest-raging rebellions. It was the first irritant in what has been a blossoming relationship between Duterte, who calls himself a left-wing president, and the Maoist guerrillas, who have been waging a decades-long insurrection. Both sides had previously agreed to resume peace talks next month in Norway, and it was not immediately clear whether the talks would be affected. Withdrawing his cease-fire order, Duterte said i...

Two people critically injured in East Long Beach crash this moing Home → News → Automotive accidents Long Beach firefighters used the jaws of life to extricate a victim of a multi-vehicle traffic collision in East Long Beach Monday moing. (Courtesy Long Beach Fire Department). By Press-Telegram staff Two people were transported to a local trauma center with critical injuries after a multi-car at Palo Verde Avenue at Carson Street in East Long Beach, officials said. Fire officials used the jaws of life to extricate one of the victims. Details as to what caused the crash were not available. Police only confirmed that they responded to a collision involving multiple vehicl...

More than a dozen lifeguards, police officers and firefighters mounted an all-out search Friday for a reportedly inebriated man reported missing after he jumped off the Manhattan Beach Pier. Lifeguards on boats and at least one in the water in the dark began the search about 2:30 a.m. when someone on the pier reported that two men in their 20s — both reportedly drunk — had jumped off the south side. One made it to shore, but no one could find the other man, lifeguard Capt. Kenichi Haskett said. A county fire helicopter, a lifeguard boat, and divers immediately raced to the location. Some divers not on duty at the time were called at home to come in. At least one diver searched the water in ...

Thousands of Catholic faithful gathered for a special Massu2009Sunday in support of comprehensive immigration reform at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown Losu2009Angeles. The Mass in Recognition of All Immigrants, presided by Archbishopu2009Jose H. Gomez, followed a procession of immigrants originally from Latinu2009America and beyond at the Cathedralu2009Plaza. “As we continue to celebrate who we are as Catholics and as people of faith during this Year of Faith, we recognize that we are an Immigrantu2009Church and take seriously the Gospel call to welcome the stranger among us,” the Archdiocese of Losu2009Angeles said in a statement on the Cathedral’s Website. Referring t...

Big rigs are rolling in and out of the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports faster thanks in part to the wider use of a trucker appointment system, according to marine terminal operators that run the gate system. So-called tu times, the minutes it takes for a trucker to pull into a terminal, load up or drop off a container and then hit the road, fell to below 40 minutes during May and June. “We are very encouraged with each passing month we see the tu times go down,” said John Cushing, president of PierPass, a private group of 13 terminal operators that runs the gates. “We are optimistic these efforts will continue to provide reduced tu times.” In addition to the expansion of the appointment sy...