Law Enforcement

Suspect in San Pedro car chase captured on foot
Los Angeles police said they detained a suspect Wednesday who at the end of a high-speed car chase tried to flee on foot under a freeway overpass. The man was tackled on a street in northern San Pedro after the vehicle, which belongs to a wanted parolee, stopped, a department spokesman said. An officer was injured in the incident and required medical treatment, police said.
Los Angeles Times

Thief steals cremation ashes from parked car
Police were searching Wednesday for a thief who stole cremated remains from a parked SUV just hours before the victim could transport her mother's ashes to the East Coast. The burglar broke into the sport utility vehicle in the parking lot of the Westfield Promenade shopping center in Woodland Hills early Monday evening and took two bags of luggage and a black canvas carry-on, Los Angeles Police Department officials said.
Los Angeles Times

LAPD hopes sobriety checkpoints scare Halloween drivers to stay sober
Sobriety checkpoints will be conducted Friday in Studio City and Saturday in Hollywood by the Los Angeles Police Department, in connection with higher-than-usual drinking expected during the weekend preceding Halloween. A sobriety checkpoint will be conducted between 8 p.m. Friday and 2 a.m. Saturday at Ventura Boulevard and Big Oak Drive in Studio City. Another sobriety checkpoint will be conducted between 8 p.m. Saturday and 2 a.m. Sunday at Sunset Boulevard and Bronson Avenue in Hollywood.
City News Service

FBI going to court more often to get personal Internet-usage data
The FBI is increasingly going to court to get personal e-mail and Internet usage information as service providers balk at disclosing customer data without a judge's orders. Investigators once routinely used administrative subpoenas, called national security letters, seeking information about who sent and received e-mail and what Web sites individuals visited. The letters can be issued by FBI field offices on their own authority, and they obligate the recipients to keep the requests secret.
Washington Post

Pensions

Brown to seek sweeping pension cuts
Gov. Jerry Brown will propose sweeping rollbacks to public employee pension benefits in California, including raising the retirement age to 67 for new employees who are not public safety workers and requiring state and local employees to pay more toward their retirement and health care, according to a draft of the plan obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press. The governor will also propose Thursday a mandatory "hybrid" system in which future retirees would get their retirement from a guaranteed benefit and a 401(k)-style plan subject to market whims.
Associated Press

Prisons

Reform could transfer hundreds of inmates out of isolation units
Hundreds of California prisoners locked in stark segregation units could be transferred to regular prison cells under new policies being developed by state corrections officials. The transfers could include inmates who have been held for decades at Pelican Bay State Prison's windowless Security Housing Unit, which was the center of two recent hunger strikes that drew participation from thousands of inmates.
California Watch

State prison jobs face downsizing
A California prison system that has grown over the past several decades to be the nation's largest and has been criticized and sued for severe inmate crowding is heading for an historic downsizing. Some 26,000 guards, janitors, cooks, records clerks and correctional counselors are being warned they could be laid off, though far fewer will actually lose their jobs.
Associated Press

City Government

L.A. council's Arizona boycott stays in effect
Three months after the red-light camera program in Los Angeles ended, a backlog of 50,000 tickets remains uncollected or unresolved, officials said Wednesday. To get through the collection, the City Council voted to extend a contract for six months with the Scottsdale-based company that ran the program, even though the cameras themselves were shut off as of July 31. The contract extension with American Traffic Solutions also represents a continued exemption to the city's boycott of Arizona firms, imposed last year after that state passed a tough new anti-immigration law.
Torrance Daily Breeze

Mayor Villaraigosa: Occupy L.A. 'cannot continue indefinitely'
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said Wednesday that the Occupy Los Angeles encampment outside City Hall "cannot continue indefinitely" and has asked city officials to draft restrictions limiting when people are allowed on city property. "I respect the protesters' right to peacefully assemble and express their views," Villaraigosa said. "City officials have been in a continuous and open dialogue with the organizers of Occupy L.A. However, the protesters must respect city laws and regulations, and while they have been allowed to camp on City Hall lawns, that cannot continue indefinitely."
Los Angeles Times

City Controller expands fraud hotline to 150 languages
In the wake of a scandal at the city's Housing Department involving Korean speakers, City Controller Wendy Greuel announced Wednesday that a hotline to report abuse can now handle whistleblower tips in 150 languages. The waste, fraud and abuse hotline at 1-866-428-1514 can accommodate reports in dozens of languages, including Armenian, Arabic, Cantonese, German, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Persian, Spanish and many more. Greuel said the multilingual hotline would send a message that the city is serious about investigating credible tips.
Los Angeles Daily News