Special City Election

Congratulations, Officer Buscaino!
We are pleased and proud that LAPD Officer Joe Buscaino was the top vote-getting candidate in Tuesday's election to fill Janice Hahn's vacant City Council seat. Joe ran an impressive campaign in a crowded field. He will now face Assemblymember Warren Furutani, who came in second place, in the January 17 runoff election. The League enthusiastically endorsed Joe Buscaino in the primary. Joe is a fresh face, a favorite son of the community, and will undoubtedly be an outstanding addition to the L.A. City Council.
LAPPL Blog

Law Enforcement

Ask the Chief: LA's top cop Charlie Beck takes your questions
Prison realignment programs started Oct. 1st, with low-level felons shifted from state to local control, putting a frown on LAPD Chief Beck's face. He is concerned about stress on resources and risk to the general population, anticipating that 4,000 early release ex-convicts will be walking Los Angeles streets. To counter the move, he has transferred 150 cops from patrol and other assignments to deal with the fallout. Exacerbating the problem of peace keeping is the theft of about 25 weapons from an LAPD storage facility, only five of which have been recovered.
Southern California Public Radio

Craigslist used to con potential L.A. renters
The Los Angeles Police Department is looking for people who may have been conned by a gang that used Craigslist to target people looking for rental housing. LAPD officials held a news conference at the department's Southwest Station on Wednesday to discuss the arrests in the case and urge anyone who may have been victimized to come forward. "The suspects preyed on a lot of people with not a lot of money who were looking for a better place to live," LAPD Detective Joe Chavez told CBS2.
Los Angeles Daily News

LAPD looks for hit-and-run driver who injured USC student
Los Angeles police Wednesday were looking for a driver who seriously injured a USC student in a vehicle accident in East Hollywood and fled the scene. The 21-year-old student was riding a motorcycle about 6:40 p.m. Tuesday near Vermont and Lexington avenues when he was struck by the vehicle, the Los Angeles Police Department said. The vehicle was described as a burgundy 1993 GMC Safari van with the license plate number 4MYH882, police said. The van was last seen heading west on Lexington.
Los Angeles Times

California fugitive hiding in Las Vegas arrested
Members of the Violent Crimes Task Force located and arrested an alleged Los Angeles gang member wanted for homicide who had been hiding in Las Vegas. Earlier this month members of the Task Force received information from the Los Angeles Police Department that Emanuel Lopez, a fugitive from justice, was attempting to hide in Las Vegas. Las Vegas Metro police said members of the Violent Crimes Task Force arrested Emanuel Lopez this week and he is awaiting extradition back to California.
NBC4

AG pulls out of 34 drug, gang units
The state Department of Justice has notified local and federal law enforcement agencies that it is ending its involvement in two-thirds of California's 52 drug- and gang-fighting task forces next year because of budget cuts. Larry Wallace, chief of the department's Division of Law Enforcement, told The Associated Press the state will keep running 18 task forces using federal money. It's unclear whether the 34 others will be able to continue without the state's leadership. The attorney general's office released the list of the endangered task forces to the AP on Wednesday.
Associated Press

Seven accused in $14 million click-hijacking scam
The U.S. Department of Justice said Wednesday that it has uncovered a large, sophisticated Internet scam ring that netted $14 million by infecting millions of computers with malware designed to redirect their Web searches to sites that generated ad revenue. Six people have been arrested in Estonia and a Russian is being sought on charges of wire fraud and computer intrusion, the FBI said. They are accused of infecting about 4 million computers in more than 100 countries--500,000 in the U.S. alone, including NASA--with malware called DNSChanger.
CNET

City Government

Villaraigosa wants to borrow future tax money to fix L.A. streets
Looking to end his tenure at City Hall with a burst of public works projects, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has been quietly assembling a plan to borrow 27 years worth of tax revenue and spend it repairing nearly one-fourth of the city's streets. Villaraigosa, who leaves office in 2013, hopes to spend as much as $800 million on accelerated road repairs using proceeds from Measure R, a half-cent sales tax passed by county voters in 2008. The money could fix some 1,500 miles of streets within two to three years, mayoral aides said.
Los Angeles Times

Prisons

Veteran vendors, prison inmate workers battle over contracts
Who puts the "R" in CDCR? Lately, by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation's own admission, almost no one. But two groups who claim they do are the Prison Industry Authority, which employs thousands of prisoners while they're incarcerated, and the small vendors who contract with the state and who hire some of the inmate workers when they get released. They're not only fighting over who rehabilitates better, but who has the right to sell peanut butter and other food products to Corrections and other state agencies.
Capitol Weekly

Pensions

Cut public employee pensions, California voters say
From San Francisco to Modesto, California voters Tuesday sent a strong message that they want to cut generous public employee pensions, whose soaring costs are devouring funds for cops, libraries and other services. The results cheered local officials such as San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed, who's seeking a March special election on his own controversial pension reform proposal, as well as advocates for a statewide measure aimed at slashing the costs of public retirement packages. Yet voters Tuesday also signaled that there are limits to how far they're willing to crack down on police, firefighters, teachers, librarians and other public workers.
Contra Costa Times