Law Enforcement

Making passage safe
Crossing guard Esther Munguia frantically waved her stop sign at the cars speeding toward her. But instead of being able to escort children and their parents across Winnetka Avenue, Munguia could only watch as cars and SUVs whizzed by them. Unfortunately for the drivers, police were watching, too. More than 40 of them were pulled over during a 90-minute period Monday as part of a pedestrian safety operation near Winnetka Avenue Elementary School. Officers from the LAPD's Valley Traffic Division cited errant motorists for violations such as speeding, failing to yield to a crossing guard and making a U-turn in front of a crosswalk.
Los Angeles Daily News

Venice guests use wrestling hold to detain burglar
A suspected burglar at a Venice home was arrested early Monday after he was confronted by guests who disarmed him and took his identification before officers caught him hiding under a pile of clothes at a nearby house. The Maine resident scaled a wall, climbed onto a roof and pulled off some "acrobatic moves" to enter a home in the 800 block of Vernon Avenue about 2:30 a.m. Monday, said Officer Jeff Bert of the Los Angeles Police Department. The suspect took a laptop but was unable to make a quick getaway because of double locks on the doors, Bert said.
Los Angeles Times

California violent crime at lowest since 1968
California's crime rate dropped across the board in every major measured category, with violent crimes - including murders and rapes - at their lowest comparable levels in more than 40 years, the state Justice Department says. The department's report, "Crime in California," tracked offenses, arrests, judicial dispositions of felonies, probation, complaints against peace officers, domestic violence calls and other data over time. The full study can be seen here. Meanwhile, some 67.6 percent of those arrested for felonies wound up getting convicted -- the lowest level in a decade.
Capitol Weekly

Homeland Security

FBI interviewed, cleared more than 300 people on 9/11 attack threat
The FBI has interviewed more than 300 people while investigating threat information that terrorist operatives might attack New York City or Washington around the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, a federal law enforcement official said Monday. But all those people were cleared and there is no evidence al Qaeda operatives entered the United States to attempt to strike with a vehicle bomb or some other form of violence. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said Monday that the intelligence received last week "was not useless chatter" and that officials would continue "pulling all the threads on that threat and chasing it down."
CNN

Prisons & Parole

Contra Costa scrambles to prepare for prison reform
"All of us are in frantic mode," said Contra Costa County's Chief Probation Officer Phil Kader. He spoke as he passed out a tentative budget to the 14 criminal justice and social service professionals who attended a recent budget meeting of the Public Safety Realignment Executive Committee for Contra Costa County. On October 1, AB 109, called Public Safety Realignment, will shift responsibility for people convicted of non-serious, non-violent, non-sexual offenses to counties.
Healthy Cal

City Budget

L.A. budget officials seek 40% sewer fee increase
Los Angeles' top budget officials are calling for a five-year package of sewer fee increases totaling nearly 40%, a proposal that at least one council member says is badly timed, given the financial pressures on households and businesses. A key council committee is expected to vote Tuesday on the proposed package, which consists of 6.5% increases in each of the first three years, followed by 7.5% in the fourth and fifth years. Under the proposal, the Bureau of Sanitation would collect $501 per year in sewer fees from an average single-family household in 2015, an increase of $142 annually.
Los Angeles Times

The Economy

Gasoline prices on track for a record year of pain at the pump
U.S. motorists are on pace to spend $491 billion for gasoline this year, the most ever. Fuel prices have been rising again because of expensive crude oil and increased exports of gasoline and diesel to other countries. Although gasoline prices may decline for a few weeks after the switch to winter blends, which are less costly to produce than summer blends, our pump-price woes won't be going away, fuel experts said.
Los Angeles Times

Politics

Jerry Brown rallies unions in Las Vegas, slams GOP
Fresh off a legislative session in which Republicans killed his tax plan, Gov. Jerry Brown went into campaign mode Monday, attacking the GOP in a barn-burning speech before thousands of union delegates at a labor convention in Las Vegas. Brown told union members to focus their energies on reelecting President Obama, retaking the U.S. House of Representatives -- and perhaps helping him increase his Democratic majority in the California Legislature.
Los Angeles Times