Law Enforcement

Highland Park shootings, gang-related violence up in July, LAPD says
The LAPD says July was a really bad month for Highland Park. There were numerous shootings, and many residents say they're afraid to leave their homes. Those who want something done attended a community meeting Thursday. But just before that meeting, police swarmed a Highland Park neighborhood searching for two armed men. The suspects, described by authorities as known gang members, were taken into custody.
ABC7

Los Angeles police pin old murders of three women on dead serial killer
Three decades after a serial killer began murdering women in Southern California, police have used DNA and forensic evidence to identify him as Larry D. Hubbard, who died in a Florida jail in 2007. Los Angeles Police Department cold case detective Lou Rivera and his partner, Peter Lee, began piecing together the clues shortly after Rivera was assigned the case in 2010. "It was like finding a needle in a haystack," said Rivera. "But if you stick with it long enough it will unravel."
Daily Beast

LAPD: Ongoing investigation and $50,000 reward for hit-and-run cyclist
LAPD Valley Traffic is reminding the community that the investigation is still active and information is still being sought on the June 22 hit-and-run accident in Northridge. The investigation is still active and the $50,000 reward is still up for grabs for substantial leads on the June 22 hit-and-run accident which left an elderly man dead, according to LAPD Valley Traffic. Paul Albert Helfen, 76, of Northridge, was riding his bicycle eastbound on Nordhoff Street approaching Woodley Avenue when he was struck from behind by a vehicle also traveling eastbound.
Northridge Chatsworth Patch

$50,000 reward may be offered in Hollywood Hills severed head case
The Los Angeles City Council is expected to vote Tuesday on providing a $50,000 reward for information leading to conviction in the murder of a man whose severed head was found in the Hollywood Hills. The head of Hervey Medellin Coronado, 66, was found Jan. 17 in a plastic bag by dogs being walked in Bronson Canyon Park. The next day, cadaver dogs from the Los Angeles County coroner's office found his hands and feet buried in a shallow grave.
Los Angeles Times

Politics

Villaraigosa says he'd like to be governor of California
As Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa prepares to take the gavel for the Democratic National Committee's national convention in Charlotte this summer, Yahoo! News asked whether the termed-out mayor could be the nation's first Latino president. Villaraigosa assured his interviewer that he has no interest in national office, but he does have another job in mind after 2013, when he will be forced from Getty House. "The job I've said to people I would like is I would like to be governor of the state of California," he said.
Los Angeles Times

City Government

Outrage over City Hall employees watching Olympics at work
A city councilman has expressed concern amid reports that so many city workers are watching the Olympics that it is causing computer problems at City Hall. "City employees aren't paid to watch the Olympics on their computers or TV. That is not what the taxpayers are paying them to do," said Councilman Dennis Zine. "The question is where are the supervisors when this is going on?" In an email, the city's chief technology officer begged them to stop for fear of a municipal computer meltdown.
Los Angeles Times

Prisons

Immigrants prove big business for prison companies
Locking up illegal immigrants has grown profoundly lucrative for the private prisons industry, a reliable pot of revenue that helped keep some of the biggest companies in business. And while nearly half of the 400,000 immigrants held annually are housed in private facilities, the federal government - which spends $2 billion a year on keeping those people in custody - says it isn't necessarily cheaper to outsource the work, a central argument used for privatization in the first place.
Associated Press