Category Archives: Los Angeles

California man died screaming ‘I can’t breathe’ as police restrained him, video shows

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Newly released clip from two years ago shows Edward Bronstein being forced to a mat with at least five officers holding him down

A southern California man died nearly two years ago as he screamed “I can’t breathe” while multiple officers restrained him as they tried to take a blood sample, according to records and a video.

Edward Bronstein, 38, was taken into custody by California highway patrol (CHP) officers on 31 March 2020 following a traffic stop. Bronstein died less than two months before George Floyd was killed by police in Minneapolis as he, too, repeatedly told officers “I can’t breathe.”

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‘It’s not worth it’: rising gas prices force drivers to work for less than minimum wage

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Drivers already hit by low wages and poor working conditions are spending more time driving to keep their wages the same

By Tuesday afternoon, Lyft driver Elida Zabaleta had earned $100 in the five hours she spent ferrying passengers across the city of San Jose. With gas prices in California surging, she’d have to use more than half of that to cover fuel for the day, leaving her with just $45.

The rising cost of gas has made a difficult job all the more difficult, Zabaleta said, forcing her to spend more time behind the wheel to earn enough to afford living in one of the country’s most expensive cities.

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‘Pretty awesome’: celebrity mountain lion’s walkabout excites Los Angeles residents

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P22, known as the Brad Pitt of his species, has been visiting residential neighborhoods and welcomed like a star

On Tuesday night, a quiet street in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles had a rare celebrity visitor. P22, the city’s most famous mountain lion, was spotted around 7pm on Berkeley Circle, about three and a half miles south of his home in Griffith Park. The National Park Service later confirmed his presence through a radio collar.

Residents shared photos from doorbell cameras and grainy pics from inside their homes. “Ultimately, it’s pretty awesome,” one resident told the LA Times. “The whole neighborhood’s excited.”

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Lindsey Pearlman, US TV actor, found dead after being reported missing

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  • Pearlman, 43, appeared in General Hospital and Chicago Justice
  • Los Angeles police said Pearlman had failed to return home

Lindsey Pearlman, an actor known for television series including General Hospital and Chicago Justice, was found dead in Hollywood several days after going missing, authorities and her husband said. She was 43.

“Today around 8.30am, Hollywood area officers responded to a radio call for a death investigation at Franklin Avenue and North Sierra Bonita Avenue,” Los Angeles police said on Friday.

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‘The Brad Pitt of mountain lions’: how P22 became Los Angeles’ wildest celebrity

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Griffith Park’s famous feline – who evades sightings better than any movie star – has inspired murals, songs and even an exhibit on his life

The mountain lion known as P22 has become something of a celebrity in the city of Los Angeles. The big cat resides in Griffith Park, a 4,000-acre park tucked in the Hollywood hills, and has inspired murals, songs and even an exhibit about his life.

This February marks 10 years since scientists first found P22 while setting up camera traps in the area. His discovery was considered jaw-dropping, and scientists say that P22 has come to symbolize something uniquely LA, a city where wild landscapes rub shoulders with dense urbanism.

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Nipsey Hussle’s family to open Marathon store No 2: ‘Fulfilling his dream’

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Samiel Asghedom, Nipsey’s brother, also told the Guardian of plans for a free music program for youth at Crenshaw and Slauson


Nipsey Hussle’s family is planning to open “The Marathon Clothing store No 2” in Los Angeles this year, fulfilling a longtime dream of the late rapper.

Samiel Asghedom, Hussle’s older brother, said his family had purchased commercial property in the Melrose arts district in LA and will open The Marathon store No 2 there for the popular clothing brand.

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Suspect arrested after violence outside LA’s SoFi Stadium left man in coma

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  • Altercation took place in parking lot after Rams-49ers game
  • Daniel Luna, 40, in medically induced coma in hospital

Police have arrested the suspect in a violent altercation that badly injured a San Francisco 49ers fan after last weekend’s NFC championship game between the 49ers and the Los Angeles Rams at LA’s SoFi stadium.

Inglewood police lieutenant Nicole Loudermilk confirmed that the suspect was taken into custody Thursday night, but released no further details.

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Killings in LA spotlight a crisis: ‘Black women are being murdered and no one is paying attention’

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Killings took place two weeks apart but neither received national coverage, prompting questions about whose stories are told

Three recent killings in the Los Angeles area have put the spotlight on the disparate impact of American gun violence on Black women and the lack of attention their stories receive, as the country reckons with some of the most intense spates of gun violence in years.

Both killings took place on weekends, a mere two weeks apart. On 8 January, California officials found the body of Tioni Theus, a 16-year-old girl who was found shot at a busy onramp of the 110 freeway. On 23 January, sisters Breahna Stines and Marneysha Hamilton were among four people shot dead during a mass shooting at a birthday party in Inglewood.

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‘Trying to disappear the poor’: California clears homeless camp near Super Bowl

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Advocates and displaced residents condemn move amid fears for safety: ‘They are just trying to survive’

Officials in Los Angeles have cleared a homeless encampment near SoFi stadium, where the Super Bowl will take place in three weeks, drawing backlash from human rights groups and the unhoused residents who have been displaced.

On Monday and Tuesday, the state transit agency Caltrans shut down the tent community, which visitors would probably have passed on their way to the big game, calling it a “safety issue”.

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Rapper Nipsey Hussle and the problem of predictive policing

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He was one of LA’s most-loved rappers, and a pillar of his community. But records disclosed after his death revealed that he was also the target of an extensive Los Angeles policing operation

When the rapper Nipsey Hussle was shot and killed in 2019, the city of Los Angeles mourned a charismatic businessman and community figure who had poured the profits of his success in the music industry back into the Crenshaw neighbourhood where he grew up.

Hussle’s funeral was a celebration attended by thousands. Stevie Wonder performed; former president Barack Obama sent a letter celebrating his hopeful vision; and the Los Angeles police chief praised Hussle’s efforts as a peacemaker. But Guardian Los Angeles correspondent Sam Levin tells Michael Safi that, in fact, the Los Angeles police department had long invested extensive resources into policing Hussle’s street corner and his store, Marathon Clothing.

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Arnold Schwarzenegger unhurt in four-vehicle Los Angeles crash

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Film star and California governor pictured at scene of accident in which police confirm one woman taken to hospital

Arnold Schwarzenegger has reportedly been involved in a multi-vehicle crash that resulted in a woman being taken to hospital.

The former bodybuilder and governor of California was pictured at the scene, in photos shared by the TMZ website, in Los Angeles on Friday afternoon.

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Train smashes into crashed plane seconds after pilot is rescued – video

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Police in Los Angeles pulled a pilot from a plane that had crashed on to rail tracks near Whiteman airport in Pacoima just moments before it was hit by an incoming train.

Video showed the train ramming into the wreckage full force, sending debris flying across a fence and nearly hitting bystanders. 

The pilot was treated at hospital for cuts and bruisesl and no one on board the train was injured, local media reported

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Golden Globes: The Power of the Dog and Succession win at celebrity-free ceremony

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Jane Campion’s Netflix drama and HBO hit triumph as stars distance themselves from Hollywood Foreign Press Association

The Power of the Dog and Succession were the big winners at an unusual, stripped-back Golden Globes.

Traditionally, the ceremony is a glitzy telecast with A-listers in attendance but after a year of controversies surrounding diversity and amoral practices, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association lost its footing in the industry, with publicity firms, studios and celebrities choosing to distance themselves.

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Rapper Drakeo the Ruler dies at 28 after stabbing at music festival

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Cult Los Angeles lyricist reportedly attacked by group of people at Once Upon a Time festival in his home city

Drakeo the Ruler, the critically acclaimed Los Angeles rapper, has died after a reported stabbing at a music festival. His press representative confirmed his death to the Guardian but did not give further details.

The 28-year-old, whose real name was Darrell Caldwell, had been scheduled to perform at the Once Upon a Time festival in Los Angeles. A source speaking to the LA Times said Caldwell had been attacked on the festival site by a group of people on Saturday evening. He was taken to hospital in a critical condition, where he later died.

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The #FreeBritney movement finds its moment: ‘All the hard work was worth it’

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From being called conspiracy theorists to working on legislation to reform conservatorships in California, organizers are realizing their power

Friday’s liberation of Britney Spears from her nearly 14-year conservatorship was a landmark moment for the pop star. It was also a once-unimaginable triumph for the #FreeBritney movement, the fan-led campaign that was largely dismissed by the public and that Spears’s father had called a “joke” run by “conspiracy theorists”.

Fans had been pushing to “free Britney” from the conservatorship for years, but the movement took off in 2019. With full-time jobs and no professional organizing background, they took it upon themselves to investigate the arrangement that controlled Spears’s life, scouring the star’s social media posts for clues, examining court documents, organizing online and holding demonstrations outside court hearings and concerts to raise awareness of what was going on.

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LA has imposed one of the US’s strictest vaccine mandates. Will it prevent a Covid surge?

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Stringent proof-of-vaccine measures are an attempt to prevent the ‘incalculable loss’ of lives that struck the area last winter

This week, Los Angeles embraced one of the strictest vaccine rules in the United States, requiring residents to show proof of full vaccination before entering restaurants, movie theaters, gyms and other public spaces.

The latest rules are expected to boost vaccination rates in the US’ second most populous city. But they also prompted backlash. On Monday, demonstrators including municipal workers, police officers, dock workers, parents, and teachers protested in front of city hall, carrying signs reading “Freedom Not Force!” and “My body, my choice.”

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Britney Spears’s conservatorship terminated after nearly 14 years

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Musician regains independence after legal arrangement denied her right to make key life decisions

A judge has approved the termination of Britney Spears’s conservatorship, freeing the pop star from the controversial legal arrangement that has controlled her life for nearly 14 years.

The ruling marks an extraordinary victory for the singer who had fought for years to regain her independence from the courts, which in 2008 took away her rights to make basic decisions about her finances, career and personal life.

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Netflix employees join wave of tech activism with walkout over Chappelle controversy

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Slew of walkouts by tech workers, unthinkable mere years ago, shows workers ‘now understand their labor power’, expert says

Employees at Netflix halted work on Wednesday and staged a protest outside the company’s Los Gatos, California, headquarters to condemn the streaming platform’s handling of complaints against Dave Chappelle’s new special.

The actions – which hundreds participated in – are the latest in a string of highly visible organizing efforts in the tech sector, as workers increasingly take their grievances about company policies and decisions public.

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Robert Durst sentenced to life in prison for murdering his friend Susan Berman

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The real estate heir had been convicted of first-degree murder last month as prosecutors argued he shot Berman in her home

Robert Durst, the real estate heir suspected in a string of killings over nearly four decades, was sentenced to life in prison without parole for murdering his friend and confidante Susan Berman.

A Los Angeles jury convicted Durst, 78, of first-degree murder last month for the 2000 killing. Prosecutors argued that Durst had shot Berman at point-blank range in her home to prevent her from telling police what she knew about the 1982 disappearance of Durst’s first wife, Kathie McCormack Durst. The verdict marked the first homicide conviction for Durst, who has been linked to the deaths of three people in three states.

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Real estate heir Robert Durst found guilty of murdering his friend Susan Berman

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Prosecutors said multimillionaire killed friend because she planned to tell police what she knew about his wife’s death

The multimillionaire New York real estate heir Robert Durst has been convicted of murdering his best friend Susan Berman more than 20 years ago, in a case that took on new life following the documentary The Jinx.

Related: Cockroaches, staged wrestling and more lies: the peculiar murder trial of Robert Durst

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