Law Enforcement

1 killed, 1 wounded in Highland Park shooting
One man was killed and his brother was wounded Saturday in a shooting in a Highland Park neighborhood, police said. Pedro Morales, who was shot in the upper torso, was pronounced dead at a local hospital, said LAPD Officer Norma Eisenman. His brother, whose name was not released, was in stable condition Sunday. The shooting on the 5300 block of Monte Vista Street stemmed from a verbal tussle between the brothers and the gunman around 6:15 p.m., authorities said.
Los Angeles Times

Justin Bieber gets speeding ticket thanks to L.A. Councilman Dennis Zine calling 911
It's an only in L.A. kind of story - a young pop singer being chased by paparazzi on the freeway is ratted out by a city councilman, who worked as a motor cop for 18 years. The pop singer is 18-year-old Justin Bieber, who was spotted weaving in and out of traffic in his chrome Fisker Karma on the Ventura Freeway between Coldwater Canyon and Vineland boulevards about 10 a.m. Friday.
Los Angeles Daily News

Singer in punk band AMEN arrested on suspicion of DUI, crashing into 3 cars
The lead singer of the punk rock band Amen was arrested Friday on suspicion of driving under the influence after allegedly crashing his SUV into three parked cars in a residential neighborhood in Studio City, police said. Karim Chmielinski, 46, whose stage name is Casey Chaos, was arrested early this morning and was booked on suspicion of misdemeanor driving under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs, Los Angeles Police Department Officer Norma Eisenman of the Media Relations office said.
City News Service

Police arrest armed suspect after stand-off
Police arrested a man who had barricaded himself inside an extended-stay hotel in downtown Los Angeles early Saturday after pointing a semiautomatic gun at a motorcycle officer, authorities said. Patrick Maxwell Farmer, 50, was booked on an assault with a deadly weapon charge in the Parker Center jail about 5:15 a.m., Sgt. Mark Wright said. Police surrounded the building in the 500 block of Maple Avenue before a SWAT team stormed inside, located Farmer and confiscated his weapon.
Los Angeles Times

Man sought in armed robbery of warehouse in Venice area
Authorities on Friday released surveillance photos of a man accused of robbing a warehouse store at gunpoint. Los Angeles police said in a department statement the robbery in the 10100 block of Venice Boulevard occurred around 8:40 p.m. on March 16. According to the statement, the suspect held a gun to the victim's back and demanded money. Fearing for their safety, the victim removed the money from a safe and into the suspect's bag.
CBS2

More demands on cell carriers in surveillance
In the first public accounting of its kind, cellphone carriers reported that they responded to a startling 1.3 million demands for subscriber information last year from law enforcement agencies seeking text messages, caller locations and other information in the course of investigations. The cellphone carriers' reports, which come in response to a Congressional inquiry, document an explosion in cellphone surveillance in the last five years, with the companies turning over records thousands of times a day in response to police emergencies, court orders, law enforcement subpoenas and other requests.
New York Times

LAPPL in the News

St. Francis grad earns $7,500 scholarship
St. Francis High School graduate, Matthew Casciani '12, was recently honored by the Los Angeles Police Protective League with a $7,500 educational scholarship. The mission of the LAPPL is to vigilantly protect, promote, and improve the working conditions, legal rights, compensation and benefits of Los Angeles police officers. The organization, under the motto "Protecting Those Who Protect Others," offers scholarship funds for members' dependents. This year a committee of 20 police officers reviewed and scored the essays from 48 dependent applicants.
La Cañada Flintridge Patch

Pensions

Lawmakers, Gov. Jerry Brown dicker over pensions
While lawmakers this week acted on two major issues - passing protections for homeowners and authorizing the issuance of the high-speed rail bonds - they were unable to tackle what many observers see as an issue that could roil the November elections: the growing cost of public employee pensions. Legislators and Gov. Jerry Brown want to do something significant on the issue, especially before the November election, when they will be pushing hard for voters to support Brown's tax-raising initiative.
San Francisco Chronicle

Immigration

Nation's first 'anti-Arizona' law likely headed to Gov. Jerry Brown's office
California's Legislature is poised to become the first in the nation to pass an "anti-Arizona" law instructing police to release illegal immigrants if they haven't committed serious crimes -- instead of handing them over to the federal government. The law could put a Democratic state at odds with a Democratic president whose administration has counted on local-federal law enforcement partnerships to find and deport illegal immigrants with criminal records.
Contra Costa Times

Prisons & Parole

Calif. underestimated number of prisoners sent to county jails under realignment
Nearly 250 more criminals will serve their time in county jails instead of state prisons each year under a new California law, a sharp increase from the state's original projections. The corrections department said Thursday that it miscalculated the effect of changing where some criminals serve their time. Republican lawmakers say the shift that took effect last month will send more violent offenders to local facilities, violating the state's pledge to keep people convicted of violent crimes in state prisons.
Associated Press

Jail shift makes waves in California
Under a court order to ease overcrowding in state prisons, California moved last year to divert thousands of lower-level offenders to local jails. Now the fallout from that shift is reverberating through several sections of the state. In Kern County, Sheriff Donny Youngblood's jail was so near capacity this spring that he had to release hundreds of inmates-monitoring them with electronic devices or assigning them to do supervised labor such as working as janitors. But the sheriff's approach drew criticism when a man convicted of driving under the influence, who also had several prior convictions, was released after serving a few months of his six-year sentence and when local news reports documented an increase in burglaries this year.
Wall Street Journal