Law Enforcement

Child safety demonstration shows dangers of hot cars
Wielding thermometers, Los Angeles police officers Thursday gathered with representatives of Children's Hospital Los Angeles in the parking lot of the Valley Traffic Division, where they set up two cars - one with the windows closed and one with them cracked - to demonstrate just how quickly each interior heats to potentially fatal levels.
Los Angeles Daily News

Suspect in fatal USC attack entered country illegally, feds say
A 19-year-old charged with murder in connection with last week's fatal assault on a USC graduate student told immigration officials that he entered the country illegally about seven years ago, a federal official said. The official, who was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, said Jonathan DelCarmen made the comments during an interview at a Los Angeles County jail where he is being held in connection with the death of Xinran Ji, 24.
Los Angeles Times

Woman at UCLA attacked by man armed with a knife, police say
Police on Thursday were looking for a man they say was armed with a knife when he assaulted a UCLA student while she was jogging on campus. UCLA police said the woman sustained three minor cuts to her upper arm after she was attacked by the man Wednesday around 8:30 p.m. while she was jogging on the northeast side of the Murphy Sculpture Garden south of Macgowan Hall.
Los Angeles Times

Teen pedestrian killed, brother injured in possible NoHo street race
A driver involved in a possible street race fatally struck a 17-year-old boy and injured his brother as they crossed a San Fernando Valley street. The accident happened around 8:30 p.m. Wednesday in the 7000 block of N. Whitsett Avenue in North Hollywood, the Los Angeles Police Department said. The brothers Milton Marquez, 17, and Daniel Menjivar were returning from a trip to a pharmacy when they crossed and were hit.
CBS LA

Shotgun falls off LAPD motorcycle; suspect sought
LAPD officers are searching for a suspect in South Los Angeles reportedly carrying a shotgun that fell from a police motorcycle. Officers set up a perimeter near Martin Luther King and Vermont at about 12:55 p.m. Thursday. Brighton Avenue at Martin Luther King was closed around 7:30 p.m. as the search continued. According to an LAPD captain, an officer was riding down the street and a motorist noticed the shotgun had fallen from the motorcycle blocks away.
NBC4

San Jose police drone inflames surveillance-state rumblings
San Jose police say what is believed to be the Bay Area's first police drone will only be used for bomb cases. Critics fear it's the first step toward streamlined spying on residents and gathering information without a warrant. The $7,000 drone purchased earlier this year looks like a homemade contraption, and it comes with a mount for a standard Go-Pro video camera. Police officials say the drone is far from being air-ready, pending approval from the Federal Aviation Administration and the creation of policies governing its use, which police contend will be for only one purpose.
San Jose Mercury News

DMV

DMV says 'no' to vulgar vanity plates
For many Californians, a vanity license plate is a conduit for personal expression - a nickname, a tribute to a pet or a hobby, or an ode to a lover. But some plates are too rude for the road. Welcome to the Department of Motor Vehicles' office of vanity plates, where three full-time state employees review some 90,000 applications for personalized license plates each year and, citing poor taste, turn down thousands.
San Francisco Chronicle

City Government

City probe calls for anti-nepotism reforms at LAFD
The Los Angeles Fire Department needs new rules to prevent conflicts of interest and reform a firefighter hiring process "tainted" by concerns of nepotism, according to a new study by the department's top watchdog. The 55-page report released Thursday is the result of a probe triggered in March when Mayor Eric Garcetti suspended LAFD hiring, calling the system "fatally flawed" because it potentially favored department insiders and failed to increase the number of women and minorities in the department's ranks.
Los Angeles Times

L.A. street repair agency riddled with problems, audit finds
City auditors revealed Thursday that the bureau charged with fixing and maintaining Los Angeles' streets is beset with problems that include failing to collect or spend hundreds of millions of dollars, keeping shoddy records and neglecting to address the most heavily trafficked roads first. The woes of L.A. streets are already obvious to anyone on wheels or foot: Streets so pockmarked or broken that the city gives them a D or F grade make up nearly 40% of city roadways.
Los Angeles Times

DWP may complete Sunset pipe repairs Friday or Saturday
Los Angeles Department of Water and Power workers expect to complete repairs on broken pipes under Sunset Boulevard by late Friday or early Saturday, officials said. After that, city crews could fill the crater from Tuesday's rupture of a major pipeline, but officials late Thursday said it could take at least another day to complete the roadwork repair. The goal is to let all the water and traffic flow again to the busy area around UCLA, which was inundated with 20 million gallons of water.
Los Angeles Daily News