Law Enforcement

LAPD hunts for serial robber targeting fast food eateries
Los Angeles police are looking for a serial robber who has held up fast-food restaurants across L.A.'s Eastside and Northeast areas in recent weeks. Los Angeles police detectives say between Dec. 9 and Jan. 7 he has struck numerous times at popular brand-name restaurants. Each time he pulled out a handgun, threatened to kill employees unless they handed over money from the register, then escaped with the money on foot.
Los Angeles Times

Search on for man who hit woman on bus, took her cellphone
Police said Thursday they are looking for a man who hit and robbed a woman on a bus in Mid-City and released surveillance video of the incident to help with their search. The man and woman were riding the bus Jan. 9 about 6:15 a.m. when he struck her in the face twice, took her cellphone and ran off when it stopped at Pico and La Cienega boulevards. Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics treated the 26-year-old woman for minor injuries at the scene.
Los Angeles Times

Hills below Hollywood sign combed for more body parts
Police combed the hills below the famed Hollywood sign for more human body parts on Thursday as the mystery surrounding the discovery of a severed human head, feet and hands there deepened. Authorities believe the decapitated head and other body parts came from the same body. The parts were found separately this week in the same general area of the 4,200-acre Griffith Park, near hiking trails and not far from the Griffith Observatory.
Reuters

Federal websites back online after Anonymous attack
Most of the websites shut down by a hackers group were up and running early Friday, including the U.S. Department of Justice, FBI and some entertainment sites after one of the federal government's largest anti-piracy crackdowns. "Hacktivist" collective Anonymous took credit for taking down the sites Thursday after the arrests of leaders of Megaupload.com and shut down the popular hub for illegal media downloads.
CNN

After $350 million, law enforcement wireless network success still "doubtful"
A new report from the Justice Department's Inspector General finds DOJ has spent $350 million on developing an integrated wireless network that has "yet to achieve the results intended," and that after 10 years of trying "its success is doubtful." This stunning assessment comes a decade after the 9-11 tragedy highlighted a lack of coordination and effective communication between law enforcement and first responders, and spurred a commitment to fix the problem.
ABC News

Artists create murals in police station "soft rooms"
The rooms where victimized children of sexual abuse and neglect are held during police investigations are stark white with metal chairs and steel desks. Once Adrienne Mack, the head of the nonprofit organization, Preparing Parents Foundation, saw the rooms, she knew she had to make a change. Mack began the mural project by making dozens of phone calls to artists and muralists, asking them to donate their time and talents to help transform the soft rooms.
NBC4

A grieving father and the cold face of authority: Are unlicensed drivers a threat to public safety?
Advocates for illegal immigrants like Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa argue that illegal immigrants should be given a pass to state laws requiring driver licenses, insurance and car registration as an act of compassion for the hardships they face. Obedient as always to the politicians, our own Police Chief Charlie Beck is prepared within days to take a giant leap farther by barring his officers who stop a motorist for a moving violation of one sort or another from ordering cars impounded just because the driver isn't licensed, insured or registered.
Ron Kaye LA

Medical Marijuana

Medical marijuana dispensary laws to get state Supreme Court hearing
The California Supreme Court has again jumped into the fray over the legality of medical marijuana laws, deciding this week to review two lower-court rulings that affect how and whether local governments can regulate pot dispensaries across the state. The justices voted unanimously to review cases from Long Beach and Riverside that dealt with the ongoing conflict between California's 1996 voter-approved law allowing medical marijuana and federal laws barring the use or sale of the drug.
San Jose Mercury News

Prisons & Parole

Convicted felons sent to Bay Area nursing home
Four prisoners are among the first 29 prisoners to be granted medical parole under a 2010 California law intended to save the state tens of millions of dollars in medical and guarding costs for permanently, medically incapacitated prisoners. Some of the parolees are bedridden, while others can be moved by wheelchair, and officials said that the parolees posed no threat to others. Yet the medical parole program is raising concerns among the state's long-term care ombudsmen, who investigate complaints from residents of nursing homes.
The Bay Citizen

Politics

L.A. mayoral candidate Beutner touts business-friendly agenda
Los Angeles mayoral candidate Austin Beutner took aim at "the barnyard called City Hall" on Thursday in a speech intended to outline his economic vision for the city - and distance himself from the lawmakers now governing it. Beutner, a former investment banker who served as Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's "jobs czar" for 15 months, said city leaders, and particularly the City Council, have dragged their feet on key infrastructure projects, including a new rail cargo-handling facility near the Port of Los Angeles and road improvements.
Los Angeles Times

Key Villaraigosa aide emerges as possible City Council candidate
He negotiated with protesters from Occupy L.A. who camped outside Los Angeles City Hall. He has been Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's in-house advisor on the city's budget crisis. Now, Villaraigosa's Deputy Chief of Staff Matt Szabo is being talked up as a possible contender for a different job: member of the City Council. That rumor has taken firm hold over the last several weeks among political consultants, council staffers and others who follow city government. And Szabo, who lives in the district represented by Councilman Eric Garcetti, would not preclude the possibility of a run in 2013 when asked by The Times.
Los Angeles Times