Law Enforcement

Crime alerts for Del Rey, Silver Lake and 9 other L.A. neighborhoods
Crime reports are up significantly for the latest week in 11 L.A. neighborhoods, according to an analysis of LAPD data by the Los Angeles Times' Crime L.A. database. Six neighborhoods reported a significant increase in violent crime. Del Rey was the most unusual, recording four reports compared with a weekly average of 0.9 over the last three months. Silver Lake topped the list of five neighborhoods with property crime alerts.
Los Angeles Times

LAPD vows to better probe crashes involving officers
Acknowledging major problems with the quality of its investigations into serious traffic collisions involving police officers, the Los Angeles Police Department on Tuesday announced new rules intended to improve the thoroughness and credibility of the inquiries. The move follows a pair of Times' articles in January that examined the human and financial toll of officer-involved accidents. Police caused about 1,250 crashes over the last three years -- an average of about one a day--The Times found.
Los Angeles Times

ADL honors Valley heroes who fought bigotry
It was the 2008 murder of an African-American janitor in Canoga Park that marked the worst of a racist street gang that terrorized locals and dealt in extortion, murder, drugs and weapons. James Shamp, 49, was shot by Latino gang members as he was taking out the trash in an alley by Canoga Bowl. Shamp, who had just celebrated his 25th wedding anniversary, was left to die on the ground. It was the successful prosecution of Shamp's killers, along with local authorities' dismantling of the Canoga Park Alabama gang that led the Anti-Defamation League on Tuesday to honor LAPD Sgt. Ray Diaz and others involved in the effort with the Joseph Sherwood Prize for Combating Hate.
Los Angeles Daily News

AK-47 used in drive-by to shoot up L.A. house
Someone in a car used an assault weapon to shoot up a house in the Chesterfield Square area of Los Angeles on Tuesday, but a man inside the home was not hurt, police said. The drive-by shooting erupted around 3:43 a.m. and bullets went through the walls and windows of the house in the 5700 block of Cimarron Street, said Officer Roger Aguirre of the Los Angeles Police Department's 77th Street Station.
Los Angeles Daily News

UC Davis pepper-spray report puts spotlight on police officers' rights
Decades of debate over the public's right to know about police actions vs. officers' rights to privacy are coming to a head as a result of the pepper-spraying of students last November on the UC Davis campus. Lawyers for the officers who pepper-sprayed students and other protesters seated in defiance during a Nov. 18 demonstration are due in court Friday in Oakland to press their argument that a long-awaited report on the incident cannot be released unless officers' names and other information are redacted.
Sacramento Bee

FBI agent: Midwest militia group had 'kill' list
A Midwest militia group whose members are accused of plotting to murder police had a "kill list" that included current and former U.S. presidents, top government officials and members of Congress, an FBI agent testified Tuesday in a federal trial. The list from members of the group called the Hutaree was titled "Established Elite Still in Control" and included military officers, reporters and corporate executives, FBI agent Steve Haug said in federal court in Detroit.
Reuters

City Government

Pensions

CalPERS cuts assumed returns, but not by much
The financially beleaguered state government and school districts probably will be paying more for their employees' pensions, starting next summer. A key committee of the board of the California Public Employees' Retirement System on Tuesday voted 6 to 2 to cut its benchmark assumed rate of return on its investments to 7.5% from a two-decade-old target of 7.75%. The change, if approved Wednesday by a majority of the full 13-member board, would cost the state general fund an additional $167 million, boosting the total bill for the 2012-13 fiscal year to approximately $3.7 billion.
Los Angeles Times