Law Enforcement

Suspected arsonist arrested after string of fires in Sherman Oaks
A man in his 50s was arrested shortly after midnight Thursday in connection with six fires started within about an hour along Ventura Boulevard in Sherman Oaks. The suspect was spotted by authorities and taken into custody near the intersection of Katherine Avenue and Moorpark Street, said Los Angeles Police Department Sgt. J. Hensley. Reports of rubbish fires began as early as 8:15 p.m. Wednesday. Around 9 p.m., fire crews fought back a blaze that started in the back of a strip mall in the 13900 block of Ventura Boulevard. That fire spread to a nearby apartment building. No one was injured and the structure fire was knocked down in 17 minutes, with the damage occurring mostly on the exteriors of both buildings, Katherine Main, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Fire Department said Thursday. Preliminary estimates put the damage at $20,000. The latest reported fire occurred west of the structure fire at about 9:30 p.m., Main said.
Los Angeles Times

Serial rapist sought in attacks on at least 30 massage parlor workers
Authorities believe a serial rapist has attacked at least 30 women in massage parlors across Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Riverside counties, according to Riverside police. The attacks began at least four years ago and stretch from East San Gabriel Valley to Riverside. DNA evidence gathered at the crime scenes was recently matched, allowing police to make an attack-to-attack link in some of the cases to the same perpetrator, law enforcement sources said.
Los Angeles Times

Former pro fighter arrested in cold case murder
A former heavyweight boxer was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of murdering his former manager in West Los Angeles more than a quarter-century ago. Exum Speight, 50, was arrested in San Fernando by officers on a joint FBI-Los Angeles Police Department task force at his home around 10:45 a.m., after DNA found at the scene of the murder linked him to the killing, according to investigators.
Los Angeles Daily News

All hit-&-run suspects could have $50,000 rewards over their heads
When heinous crimes happen in Los Angeles and the LAPD has a hard time finding the bad guy, the City Council will often step in and offer a $50,000 reward for information leading to the capture and conviction of suspects. Councilman Joe Buscaino is proposing that City Hall establish a standing reward for $50,000 that will be available for any unsolved hit-and-run. The councilman plans to announce the proposal for a standing reward at 8 a.m. Thursday at Pacific Coast Highway and Wilmington Boulevard, the site of a fatal hit-and-run Sept. 16 that took the life of 26-year-old Emanuel Ayala.
L.A. Weekly

As LAPD campaigns for body cameras, privacy questions emerge
One of the largest law enforcement departments in the United States wants to give body-worn cameras to all of its officers, but the specter of constant surveillance is raising privacy issues for both police and the suspects caught on video. "Balancing everyone's right to privacy with technology that could, in effect, capture every moment of every day, will be our emphasis as we consider and negotiate work rules," said a LAPPL statement released Monday. "Among other issues, recording a very personal moment or a deeply visceral reaction to a violent or tragic crime scene may serve no purpose other than to satisfy morbid curiosity and embarrass someone."
Huffington Post

Public Safety

Twitter turns its social messaging platform into an emergency alert system
Building on previous disaster response efforts, Twitter is rolling out a feature that will let agencies broadcast messages in a crisis. The program, called simply Twitter Alerts, lets users sign up for emergency messages from agencies like FEMA, the World Health Organization, and local police departments. Once you opt into an individual organization's alerts, it can send you push notifications and text messages in case of an emergency, like a less formal version of the severe weather warnings the National Weather Service sends straight to smartphones.
The Verge

Prisons

Brown says court exceeded authority in blocking out-of-state prison transfers
When a federal court gave California another four weeks to reduce its prison population, Gov. Jerry Brown was furious - not because of the extension, but because the court prohibited the state from transferring inmates to out-of-state private prisons in the meantime. "This order, like the court's other recent actions, disregards the law and the role of the judiciary," the Brown administration's lawyers told the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday in a plea to overturn the lower-court order and lift the deadline.
San Francisco Chronicle

New Law

Brown signs minimum wage law
In a ceremony in downtown Los Angeles this morning, Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law a bill that will increase California's minimum wage to $10 an hour over three years. It is the first hike to the state's minimum wage in six years, and will make the rate one of the highest in the nation. The legislation gradually raises the current minimum of $8 an hour to $9 on July 1, 2014, then to $10 on Jan. 1, 2016. The federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour.
Los Angeles Business Journal

City Government

L.A. Mayor Garcetti's goal: modernize city government
They appear to be routine job interviews: One by one, the top managers of city agencies spend an hour with Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti as he ponders who should stay and who should go. But with Garcetti wrapping up three months of evaluations, far more is at stake than who will administer parks, libraries or traffic lights. The mayor's sessions with city managers are the first move in what he is portraying as a signature initiative: a top-to-bottom modernization of an often-lumbering, 50,000-person bureaucracy that controls the critical machinery of daily life in Los Angeles, from the water supply and power grid to the police and fire emergency dispatch system.
Los Angeles Times

DWP contract approved by union
A new, controversial contract with Department of Water and Power workers received overwhelming approval from their union's 8,500 members, leaders of IBEW, Local 18, announced Wednesday. "This contract makes sense and results in billions of dollars of savings for the city and DWP ratepayers," said Brian D'Arcy, business manager of the union. "We have addressed a number of substantive issues in a thoughtful and mutually satisfactory way."
Los Angeles Daily News