Residents speak out
A group of Westchester residents who oppose plans to relocate an Los Angeles International runway 260 feet closer to their homes will have their first chance to voice their concerns tomorrow during a scheduled public hearing run by airport officials and the city’s Planning Department.
Los Angeles World Airports and planning staff will hold an afternoon open house for people to ask questions about the plan, followed by an official public hearing to register public comments.
Archdiocese to turn over names
A judge today ordered the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles to turn over the names of upper level church officials identified in internal church documents that deal with priests accused of sexually abusing children.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Emilie Elias’ order reverses part of a 2011 ruling by retired Judge Dickran Tevrizian, who said he feared including the names of the hierarchy could be used to embarrass the church further.
Parking meter bill introduced
On the heels of a recent Los Angeles City Council decision to ticket drivers who park at broken meters, Assemblyman Mike Gatto, D- Los Angeles, introduced a bill today that would block the city from enforcing the fines.
Gatto’s bill would enable drivers to park for free at broken meters for the maximum time allowed. Assembly Bill 61 also would block local governments from enacting ordinances that ban on street parking at broken meters or kiosks.
Crime drops
Crime in the city dropped for the 10th consecutive year in 2012, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Police Chief Charlie Beck announced today.
The pair attributed the 1.4 percent reduction in crime from 2011 to continued police hiring despite the city’s large budget deficit. Villaraigosa said he would keep police hiring as a top priority in the city’s next budget, his last as mayor.
Villaraigosa will be termed out of office and replaced by a new mayor July 1.
Pot distribution
The head of an Inland Empire marijuana-growing and distribution business was sentenced today to 10 years in federal prison for distributing hundreds of pounds of marijuana.
Aaron Sandusky, 42, of Rancho Cucamonga, founder and owner of G3 Holistic, was convicted at trial in October of conspiring to grow pot, possessing it and distributing it.
30-year-old crime
A former Torrance resident whose wife vanished more than 30 years ago was sentenced today to 15 years to life in prison, hours after agreeing to lead a sheriff’s dive team to the site where he dumped the woman’s body in 1981.
Michael Lubahn Clark, 59, was convicted in October of second-degree murder for the slaying of his high school sweetheart, Carol Jeanne Lubahn. The 26-year-old woman was last seen alive March 31, 1981, and her body has not been found.
Child pornography
A federal court appearance was delayed for a San Fernando Valley woman accused of posing in 11-year- old photos depicting child pornography.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations agents and Los Angeles Police Department officers arrested Letha Mae Montemayor, 52, outside a North Hills apartment complex around 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Virginia Kice of ICE said.
Campus patrols
The Los Angeles Police Department, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and at least a dozen other law enforcement agencies in Los Angeles County added school campuses to their daily patrols today as students returned to campuses from winter break.
“Today is about making sure that parents understand that their kids are going to be as safe as we can physically make them when they go to school,” LAPD Chief Charlie Beck said.
Feuer endorsed
Former Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg endorsed Mike Feuer for city attorney. Hertzberg’s endorsement marked a change in allegiance for the former speaker.
Hertzberg served as co-chair of City Attorney Carmen Trutanich’s transition team after Trutanich was elected to the office in 2009.
Embezzled funds
Two former Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum employees pleaded not guilty today to conspiring to embezzle nearly $3,900 from the payroll system.
Former warehouse employee Ulises Luna, 33, and former payroll clerk Maria De La Torre, 38, are charged with one misdemeanor count each of conspiracy, grand theft by an employee, embezzlement, receiving or possessing stolen property and passing a forged document, according to the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office.
High winds
Winds gusting at times at more than 60 miles per hour flailed at the Southland, prompting forecasters to urge residents to beware of hazardous mountain-driving conditions and downed trees and power lines around the region.
Strong upper-level north-to-northeast winds are the result of a cold upper-level low-pressure system now over the state’s southeastern tier, according to the National weather service.
Gasoline prices
The average price of a gallon of self-serve regular gasoline in Los Angeles County rose today for the 10th time in 11 days, increasing three-tenths of a cent to $3.663.
The average price is 4.5 cents more than one week ago but 6.4 cents less than one month ago and 5.8 cents lower than one year ago, according to figures from the AAA and Oil Price Information Service.
The Bachelor begins
“The Bachelor” begins its 17th season on ABC with Sean Lowe, the last bachelor to be eliminated before the finale of the most recent edition of “The Bachelorette,” having 26 bachelorettes to pick from, among them five women from the Southland.
Desiree Hartsock, a 26-year-old bridal stylist from Los Angeles, said she loves it when her date “isn’t trying to be someone else or act different to impress me.”
Solar lights installed
New solar-powered lights were officially switched on for the first time today at the St. Andrews Stairway in Los Feliz.
The public staircase was built in the 1920s, just north of Immaculate Heart High School. It is believed that plans to install lighting were thwarted by the 1929 stock market crash and resulting depression, according to Scott Levin-Gesundheit, communications deputy for Councilman Tom LaBonge, whose district includes Los Feliz.
Suspect charged in old case
A 72-year-old man suspected in the killings of three women in Los Angeles in the 1980s was charged today with multiple counts of murder.
An arraignment date was not immediately set for Samuel Little, since he is serving prison time on unrelated narcotics charges, according to police and prosecutors.
Dodger Stadium beating
The man who was initially arrested — but later cleared — for the beating of San Francisco Giants fan Bryan Stow outside Dodger Stadium appealed a judge’s dismissal of his civil rights lawsuit against the city and Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck, according to papers obtained today.
Giovanni Ramirez served 10 months behind bars for violating his parole following his May 2011 arrest in connection with the attack on Stow, a Santa Clara paramedic who was beaten into a coma in a Dodger Stadium parking lot on opening day two years ago.
Pedophile sentenced
A high school teacher who had sex with two of her male students was sentenced to five years probation and barred from teaching.
Gabriela Cortez, 43 — a Spanish teacher at Roosevelt High School in Boyle Heights — pleaded guilty Nov. 19 to six felony counts of unlawful sexual intercourse.
Temporary stay away order granted
A judge has granted actor Laurence Fishburne a temporary stay-away order for a man who allegedly came to his home New Year’s Day and said he was there to evict him.
Los Angeles Superior Court Commissioner Alan Friedenthal issued the order Thursday against Anthony Francis, who was ordered to keep at least 100 yards from the actor, his wife, 43-year-old Gina Torres Fishburne, and their 5- year-old daughter, Delilah Fishburne.
Missing woman
Authorities continue their search for a missing 19-year-old Santa Clarita woman last seen while leaving a New Year’s Eve party.
Sarah Katlyn Alarid was last seen at 3 a.m. Tuesday as she had a spat with an ex-boyfriend and left in her car. The party was in the Shadow Pines neighborhood of Canyon Country, at a friend’s house on Poppy Meadow Street.