Law Enforcement

LAPD raids homes in Silver Lake area amid search for Joseph Gatto's killer
A police raid seeking probation violators in the Silver Lake area on Thursday morning was prompted by the continuing search for the killer of an assemblyman's father, multiple sources have told KTLA. Dozens of officers were targeting ex-convicts with links to past burglaries as part of an effort to find links to a violent home-invasion that left 78-year-old Joseph Gatto, father of Assemblyman Mike Gatto, dead in his Silver Lake home on Nov. 13, 2013.
KTLA

Man charged with murder in death of 7-Eleven clerk in Highland Park
Prosecutors have filed murder and other charges against a 19-year-old Compton man accused of killing a 7-Eleven convenience store clerk during a series of armed robberies while on probation for two prior convictions. Rasheen Childs has been charged with one count of special circumstance murder during a robbery, 11 counts of second-degree robbery, one count of attempted second-degree robbery, one count of assault with a deadly weapon and one count of false imprisonment by violence, according to the L.A. County district attorney's office.
Los Angeles Times

Alarm foils attempted robbery of Chase Bank in Van Nuys
A suspect made an unsuccessful attempt to rob a Chase bank branch in Van Nuys on Wednesday, police said. The man, wearing a baseball cap and a gray hoodie zip-up sweatshirt, entered the bank at 7108 Sepulveda Blvd. and handed a note to a teller at 4:42 p.m., said Officer Norma Eisenman of the Los Angeles Police Department. She said that an alarm was activated, bringing police to the location, which may have also scared the robber away.
City News Service

Police search for woman in Westchester hit-run of pedestrian
Police searched for a female driver who struck a male pedestrian Thursday in a hit-and-run accident in Westchester. The accident occurred at the intersection of LMU Drive and Lincoln Boulevard near Loyola Marymount University around 4:15 a.m., said Officer M. Scott of the Los Angeles Police Department's Pacific Station. The suspect fled on foot, he said. An LAPD sergeant at the scene said the pedestrian, a man in his 60s, had been jogging or walking northbound on the sidewalk of Lincoln Boulevard near LMU Drive when he was struck by the vehicle. The sergeant said in a broadcast interview that the vehicle first struck a pole, then the pedestrian, who suffered possibly life-threatening injuries.
City News Service

Police continue search for gunman in Encino shooting
Police asked for the public's help Thursday as they try to solve the mysterious shooting of a San Fernando Valley man in the driveway of his Encino home with his two young children nearby. Investigators say the 47-year-old man, who has not been publicly identified, was found on the ground in his driveway next to his black SUV just before 6 p.m. Wednesday. He had been shot several times in the torso.
Los Angeles Daily News

Terminally ill boy who dreamed of becoming a police officer dies
His death was set in motion last fall. The terminal illness was finally taking its toll on 8-year-old Erick Casillas that winter. He was unable to walk and speak full sentences, and he needed around-the-clock care. On Monday morning, with his family by his bedside and more than a year after he was diagnosed with brain cancer, Erick died. Many who knew or had come to know the boy recently were mourning his death this week, including members of the Gardena Police Department.
Los Angeles Times

Driver's Licenses

Latino caucus wants DMV to move faster on immigrant driver's licenses
Lawmakers in California's Latino Caucus are pressuring the Department of Motor Vehicles to speed up its process for issuing driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants. Assembly Bill 60, which Gov. Jerry Brown signed last year, allows immigrants who are in the United States illegally to obtain a California driver's license. It calls for the new licenses to be available by Jan. 1, 2015, or "an earlier date as determined by the Director of the DMV," says a statement the California Latino Legislative Caucus sent to the media today.
Sacramento Bee

State Budget

California budget surges to record high
A robust economic recovery and surging revenue propelled by voter-approved tax increases have sent California's general fund spending to a record high, marking a dramatic turn-around from the state's days as the nation's poster child of fiscal dysfunction. Yet Gov. Jerry Brown, in releasing his budget proposal Thursday, pledged to take a somber approach in spending the windfall. He said California must begin paying down what he has called its massive "wall of debt," a stew of unfunded liabilities, bond debt and borrowing that is estimated at $355 billion.
Associated Press

Budget details for Calif. prison, jail spending
Gov. Jerry Brown's budget for the coming fiscal year includes several proposals to help comply with a federal court order requiring the state to reduce prison overcrowding by mid-April to improve medical and mental health care for inmates. It also assists counties that are increasingly handling felons who previously would have been housed in state prisons.
Associated Press

Politics

Wendy Greuel says she won't run for L.A. County supervisor
Former City Controller Wendy Greuel said Thursday that she has decided not to run for the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, dynamically shifting the race to replace termed-out Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky. "I just decided it's not the right time for me," Greuel said in an interview. "That does not mean I'm saying goodbye to the idea of running for office." She said the proximity of the mayor's race, which she lost to Eric Garcetti in May, factored into her decision.
Los Angeles Times

City Government

DWP chief Ron Nichols resigns amid controversies
Ron Nichols announced his resignation Thursday as general manager of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, which is struggling through a pair of public-relations debacles. Despite repeated demands from elected officials, Nichols has been unable to produce records showing how two nonprofit trusts created to help improve relations with the utility's largest union have spent more than $40 million in ratepayer money over the last decade.
Los Angeles Times