Law Enforcement

LAPD investigating year's first homicide after man shot on bicycle
Los Angeles police began investigating their first homicide of the year Sunday after a 46-year-old man was shot to death while riding his bicycle in South L.A., authorities said. Don Jackson was approaching the 10000 block of South Main Street about 12:20 a.m. when an unknown suspect approached on foot and opened fire, the Los Angeles Police Department said. Jackson was struck multiple times, police said. Paramedics transported him to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Los Angeles Times

LAPD detective maimed in New Year's Day motorcycle crash in Redondo Beach
A Los Angeles police detective who specializes in rescuing teenage prostitutes from the clutches of their pimps lost a portion of his leg in a New Year's Day crash in Redondo Beach, authorities said Friday. Detective Shaun King, who was riding a motorcycle with his 11-year-old daughter, Mackenzie, on the seat behind him, might have had his life saved by a male nurse passing by. The nurse, using another man's belt as tourniquet, reduced blood flow from King's leg, witnesses and police said.
Torrance Daily Breeze

LAPD searching for driver who crashed into South L.A. store
A search was underway Sunday for the driver who crashed into a store in South Los Angeles and took off, authorities said. The crash occurred at a health food store near the corner of Broadway and West 85th Street (map) around 12:15 a.m., according to the Los Angeles Police Department. Video of the scene showed skid marks on the road, a damaged street sign and a mangled metal gate on the front of the store. When officers arrived, they found a 1999 Lexus but the driver was long gone, according to police.
KTLA

LAPD detective stands accused of sexual battery on 3 women
Authorities say a veteran Los Angeles police detective has been charged with sexual battery on three women who worked at massage parlors in the San Fernando Valley. The Los Angeles County District Attorney's office said in a statement that Oris Pace was arrested on Jan. 2, but has since been released on bond. A criminal complaint filed against Pace says he faces felony charges of assault by a police officer and sexual battery by restraint following an investigation by his own department. The alleged crimes occurred between Jan. 2011 and Jan. 2012.
CBS LA

Prisons

L.A. County struggles with issue of felons bolting from probation
Peter Azevedo is a hard man to keep on the straight and narrow. Released from state prison in early 2012, he has been in and out of L.A. County jail at least half a dozen times, serving a few days, a few weeks or a few months for skipping out on probation, using drugs and carrying a knife. As of Christmas Eve, he was gone again. Two years into a major redistribution of responsibility for convicted felons, Los Angeles County officials are struggling to deal with a recalcitrant group of former state inmates like Azevedo, who keep absconding and cycling through an overcrowded jail system.
Los Angeles Times

Push for sentencing changes underway in Congress
An unusual alliance of tea party enthusiasts and liberal leaders in Congress is pursuing major changes in the country's mandatory sentencing laws. What's motivating them are growing concerns about both the fairness of the sentences and the expense of running federal prisons. The congressional push comes as President Barack Obama and his Cabinet draw attention to the issue of mandatory sentences, particularly for nonviolent drug offenders.
Associated Press

Ballot Measure

Hike in California 'car tax' would raise up to $4 billion
A proposed ballot measure to more than double California's vehicle license fee would raise $3 billion to $4 billion annually for state and local transportation programs, according to estimates by the Legislative Analyst's Office. Both versions of the proposed ballot measure by Transportation California would phase in a surcharge to the fee, charging motorists an extra one percent of the vehicle's value each year.
Sacramento Bee

Guns

White House seeks to tighten gun background checks on mentally ill
The Obama administration on Friday unveiled two measures to bring more mental health records into the federal background check system for gun purchases, the first new proposals on firearms violence since a spate of gun control bills died in Congress last spring. The proposed changes, which don't require congressional action, fall far short of the ambitious agenda the administration launched early in 2013 in the wake of the Sandy Hook school massacre in Connecticut.
Los Angeles Times

Crossroads of the West gun show in Ontario draws thousands, many seeking ammunition
They came 4,000 strong from places like Costa Mesa, Whittier and Covina. It was the Southland's first gun show of the year Saturday, and buying ammunition seemed to be the top reason to make the trip to Ontario. Gun shows have been banned in Los Angeles County for years. Last year this same show opened to a many-hours-long line, coming a few weeks after anti-gun sentiment strengthened nationally in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings in Newton, Conn.
San Bernardino Sun

City Government

L.A. City Atty. Mike Feuer vows to crack down on 'patient dumping'
Nearly a decade after local hospitals were exposed abandoning homeless patients on downtown's skid row, Los Angeles City Atty. Mike Feuer on Friday vowed to crack down on the illegal practice that still continues. In a settlement announced Friday, the 224-bed Beverly Hospital in Montebello agreed to pay $250,000 in civil penalties and legal fees after it was accused of taking a patient by taxi to skid row and leaving her there without making any arrangements with a shelter.
Los Angeles Times