Law Enforcement

Legality of LAPD Chief Beck's proposed impound rules questioned
With the Los Angeles Police Department on the verge of implementing controversial changes to when officers impound vehicles of unlicensed drivers, the legality of those changes was thrown into some question Monday by a nonpartisan state agency. The Legislative Counsel Bureau, which provides legal opinions to state lawmakers, concluded that once a police officer opts to impound the car of a driver who has never been issued a driver's license the officer should invoke the part of the state's vehicle code that requires the car to be impounded for 30 days.
Los Angeles Times LAPPL Press Release

Search for robbery suspect shuts down several streets in Woodland Hills
Police hunting for a suspected bank robber cordoned off several streets Monday afternoon west of the Westfield Topanga mall. The search began at 3 p.m. as Topanga Station police saw the man suspected of sticking up a bank two weeks ago near Victory Boulevard and Hanna Avenue, Los Angeles police spokeswoman Officer Karen Rayner said. Police set up a dragnet of several blocks from Topanga Canyon Boulevard to Glade Avenue, she said, calling in the Metro Division and the Canine Unit.
Los Angeles Daily News

Suspect sought in strong-arm gas station robbery
The LAPD is asking for the public's help tracking down a suspect who robbed a gas station in El Sereno. It happened just after 10 p.m. on Jan. 29 at a gas station in the 5300 block of South Huntington Drive. The entire incident was captured on surveillance video, and authorities hope someone will recognize the suspect.
KTLA

Activists press council to ease truancy fines
The two groups of high school protesters - one dressed as graduates with caps and gowns, the other donning orange jail jumpsuits - huddled together outside Van Nuys City Hall on Monday chanting: "Pre-med! Pre-jobs! Not pre-prison!" Inside, a special meeting of the City Council's Public Safety Committee discussed a proposal that would strike down a long-standing law allowing police to cite students who are late to class.
Los Angeles Times

Prisons

Inmate on hunger strike dies at California State Prison, Corcoran
An inmate on a hunger strike at California State Prison, Corcoran has died after refusing food for four days. A spokesman with California's Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation confirms that Christian Gomez died Feb. 2. That's just four days after Gomez began to refuse prison meals to protest conditions in the Administrative Segregation Unit at Corcoran. Inmates in an isolation unit at Corcoran have been refusing food since December to protest existing conditions at the prison, according to prison officials.
KPCC

Ballot Initiatives

Billionaire George Soros donates $500,000 to three-strikes drive
Billionaire investor George Soros has given a half-million dollar boost to efforts to overhaul California's three-strikes law. Soros' $500,000 donation to the "Three Strikes Reform Act of 2012" was reported Friday by the ballot drive's fundraising committee, sponsored by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, records show. Stanford University professor David Mills, the measure's proponent, invested an additional $250,000 last week.
Sacramento Bee

Election 2013

Councilman Zine criticizes candidate's negative campaign for D.A.
Los Angeles City Councilman Dennis Zine announced Monday that he had pulled his endorsement of county prosecutor Alan Jackson in this year's election for district attorney and faulted Jackson for running what he described as a campaign aimed at "tearing someone else down." Zine, who endorsed Jackson more than a year ago, said he decided to instead support City Atty. Carmen Trutanich, in part, because he had grown disenchanted with the Jackson campaign's attacks on Trutanich.
Los Angeles Times

Pensions

Bill puts $100,000 cap on future state and local pensions
Assemblyman Donald Wagner has introduced a bill that would cap state and local pensions. The Irvine Republican's measure, AB 1633, would cap pensions for workers who don't participate in Social Security at $100,000 per year. Workers who do participate in the federal program couldn't receive more than $80,000 per year from a state or local pension.
Sacramento Bee

The Economy

California 'underemployment' among worst in nation
California was among five U.S. states with the highest "underemployment" rate for 2011, according to a new Gallup poll. California and four other states - Nevada, Florida, Michigan and Mississippi - all ranked in the above-average underemployment category of 21 percent to 24 percent. Gallup defines underemployment as someone who is out of work or employed part time (less than 30 hours per week) who would prefer to be working full-time.
San Gabriel Valley Tribune

Federal Budget

Obama's budget plan cuts aid for California farms, beaches, illegal immigrants in prison
California has a big stake in the debate begun Monday with release of the Obama administration's proposed fiscal year 2013 budget, even if the sprawling document has only a short lifespan. If adopted, Obama's budget would mean fewer subsidies for Central Valley farmers, smaller grants for Valley counties and less money for incarcerating the illegal immigrants who crowd the state's jails and prisons.
Sacramento Bee