Law Enforcement

Police arrest suspect in beating of Giants fan at Dodger Stadium
Giovanni Ramirez, 31, an ex-convict and documented gang member, is arrested on suspicion of attacking Giants fan Bryan Stow at Dodger Stadium on opening day. After hundreds of dead-end leads and bogus tips from reward seekers, it was a routine meeting between an ex-con and his parole agent that may have cracked open the case.
Los Angeles Times

Crime alerts for Historic South-Central, Harvard Park and 11 other L.A. neighborhoods
Crime reports are up significantly for the latest week in 13 L.A. neighborhoods, according to an analysis of LAPD data by the Los Angeles Times' Crime L.A. database. Eight neighborhoods reported a significant increase in violent crime. Historic South-Central was the most unusual, recording 21 reports compared with a weekly average of 10.5 over the last three months.
Los Angeles Times

Fraudulent use of disabled parking placards explodes in last decade
Fraudulent use of disabled parking placards - those blue or red badges that allow motorists to park for free or in specially reserved spaces - has exploded in the last decade, according to state motor vehicle officials. With 1 in 10 California drivers now legally registered to carry the passes, transportation experts say abuse has become commonplace.
Los Angeles Times

Local officers to receive LAPD's highest honor
San Gabriel Valley residents and Los Angeles Police Department detectives, Rafael Acosta and Daniel Hanabusa, will receive the department's highest award at the 50th Medal of Valor Ceremony on Thursday at the Grand Ballroom at Hollywood and Highland. They will receive their medals for bravely demonstrating an exceptional level of professional commitment to protect and serve the citizens of Los Angeles, officials said.
San Gabriel Valley Tribune

City Budget Crisis

City leaders can't have it both ways
While it's hardly surprising to hear politicians say one thing but do another, it's unsettling to see these contradictions happen with public safety. Some elected officials in Los Angeles may claim that public safety is a top priority, but their actions tell a different story. Claims that the Department is fully funded and that there are more officers patrolling the city are both over-simplified and misleading. We understand that balancing the city budget forced some painful choices, but telling residents that public safety is a priority and then cutting its funding is, at best, disingenuous.
LAPPL Blog

City Government

L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa kills Gold Card parking ticket service
A day after Los Angeles officials publicly disclosed the existence of a little-known parking citation system that had long been available to the mayor and City Council, the program came to a swift end Friday. On the heels of an audit in which City Controller Wendy Greuel singled out the ticket review program for its lax oversight and potential for misuse, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa called for an immediate end to it.
Los Angeles Times

Prisons

Wide open spaces at L.A. County lockup
Amid steep budget cuts, L.A. County jails have been forced to shed inmates in droves, more than any other jail system in the nation. That drop is most striking at the Castaic facility, where the Sheriff's Department has cut the inmate count to the bare minimum needed to keep the lockup from falling into disrepair. Soon, however, facilities like this one might again be bustling, as the state considers moving inmates from its overcrowded prisons to county jails, a plan Sheriff Lee Baca is betting could be a boon for his cash-strapped department.
Los Angeles Times

Pensions

Analyst's office hammers Brown's pension study proposal
The Legislative Analyst's Office has given a thumbs down on Gov. Jerry Brown's budget proposal to give CalPERS $1.5 million to develop a hybrid pension plan study. "We have no idea what the Governor is contemplating in his hybrid proposal or whether the study to be funded from this money would have any value at all," the LAO says in a report released this afternoon, calling the plan "amorphous" and inscrutable."
Sacramento Bee