Protests after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis grew as demonstrators rallied in Los Angeles, marching through the city and blocking both sides of a freeway.
Floyd, who was black, died after a white police officer knelt on his neck for several minutes, which was captured on video
Fire department says 230 firefighters responded to blaze
An explosion in downtown Los Angeles has injured 11 firefighters, with scores more sent to put out the blaze in what was described as a factory making cannabis oil.
Captain Erik Scott of the Los Angeles fire department said “one significant explosion” shook the neighborhood around 6.30pm on Saturday and as first responders arrived they saw firefighters emerge from the building with burns and other injuries. Some of their uniforms were on fire.
Continue reading...Crowds are coming to see the light show as beaches begin to reopen after an almost month-long closure due to coronavirus
Mother nature has provided a radical gift to nighttime beach-goers in southern California, in the form of bioluminescent waves that crash and froth with an otherworldly light.
Related: California eases Covid-19 restrictions, allowing some businesses to reopen
Continue reading...Prosecutors accuse film producer, serving 23-year sentence in New York, of sexual battery by restraint in 2010 incident
Los Angeles prosecutors have filed a new sexual assault charge against Harvey Weinstein, the film producer serving a 23-year prison sentence in New York for rape.
The LA district attorney’s office, which filed its original case in January, announced on Friday that Weinstein was facing a new felony charge of sexual battery by restraint, stemming from an incident at a Beverly Hills hotel on 11 May 2010.
Continue reading...The royal couple are tipped to be the toast of the celebrity circuit but they will have to work hard to maintain their A-list status
Touching down to a city in lockdown cannot have been what the Duke and Duchess of Sussex had in mind when they had imagined starting a new life in Los Angeles. With a stay-at-home order in place, all activities usually associated with the city – premieres, parties, events and schmoozing – were on hold when they reportedly arrived last month, and studios had stopped production.
Following months of drama swirling around Harry and Meghan’s decision to step down as working royals, which officially came into force on Wednesday, in the face of a deadly global pandemic they have finally taken a backseat in the public consciousness.
Continue reading...Franco denies allegations and asks Los Angeles county superior court to dismiss lawsuit against him
James Franco has responded to allegations of sexual harassment by two former students by claiming they were an attempt to “jump on the [#MeToo] bandwagon” and played into “the media’s insatiable appetite to ruin the next celebrity”.
In a demurrer filed on 28 February to the Los Angeles county superior court, Franco’s lawyers asked that the lawsuit filed in October by Sarah Tither-Kaplan and Toni Gaal be dismissed, saying none of the alleged events detailed had happened, and the statute of limitations had passed for the accusations.
Continue reading...LA case, announced before Manhattan trial began, focuses on charges for two alleged attacks over two days
The verdict in the New York case against Harvey Weinstein is only the beginning of the movie mogul’s prosecution, with separate charges against the disgraced producer ahead in Los Angeles.
In the most high-profile trial of the #MeToo movement yet, a New York jury on Monday found Weinstein guilty of third-degree rape for an attack in a New York hotel and guilty of a criminal sex act for forcing oral sex on a former television production assistant. The fallen titan of Hollywood, who was taken away in handcuffs, could face 25 years in prison and will have to register as a sex offender.
Continue reading...Two masked and hooded men are reported to have attacked the rapper, regarded as one of the most promising talents in the US
New York rapper Pop Smoke has been shot and killed in an apparent home invasion, according to multiple sources speaking to NBC and TMZ.
The rapper, real name Bashar Jackson, 20, was at home in Hollywood, Los Angeles, when two men wearing hoodies and masks entered the house and fired multiple shots, according to police sources quoted by TMZ. He was pronounced dead at a hospital in West Hollywood early on Wednesday.
Continue reading...Bean, 91, who starred in Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman and Desperate Housewives, died on Friday night after collision in Venice
Orson Bean, the witty actor and comedian, was hit and killed by a car in Los Angeles, authorities said. He was 91.
The Los Angeles county coroner’s office confirmed Bean’s Friday night death, saying it was being investigated as a “traffic-related” fatality. The coroner’s office provided the location where Bean was found, which matched reports from local news outlets.
Continue reading...A jet with an engine problem dumped fuel to reach a safe landing weight before making an emergency return to LA international airport. The vapour from the fuel fell on five elementary schools and caused minor skin and lung irritation to more than 50 children and adults, officials said
Continue reading...Forty children and adults suffer minor irritation after incident as plane makes return to airport
Fuel dumped by an airliner making an emergency return on Tuesday to Los Angeles international airport due to an engine problem fell on to three schools, causing minor irritation to 40 children and adults, officials said.
The incident occurred around noon in the Cudahy area of south-eastern Los Angeles county, about 13 miles (21km) east of the airport.
Continue reading...Movie mogul charged with raping one woman and sexually assaulting another over two days in 2013
Los Angeles prosecutors have announced criminal charges against Harvey Weinstein on Monday, following the start of the disgraced movie mogul’s rape trial in New York.
Weinstein was charged with raping one woman and sexually assaulting another in separate incidents over a two-day period in 2013, officials said on Monday. The felony charges include forcible rape, forcible oral copulation, sexual penetration by use of force and sexual battery by restraint.
Continue reading...Son of Rupert Murdoch purchases house seen in credits of the TV show, setting new highest home price ever in California
A Los Angeles mansion built in the 1930s and seen in the credits for the TV show The Beverly Hillbillies has been sold for about $150m, the highest home price ever in California.
The buyer of the Chartwell estate is Lachlan Murdoch, son of Rupert Murdoch and co-chairman of publishing company News Corp, the Los Angeles Times reported on Wednesday.
Continue reading...Vernon Unsworth’s legal team had sought at least $190m in damages after Tesla CEO called him ‘pedo guy’
Elon Musk did not defame British cave explorer Vernon Unsworth by calling him a “pedo guy” on Twitter, a Los Angeles jury found Friday.
Musk shook hands with his lawyer at the close of the four day trial in Los Angeles. He did not address Unsworth, whose team had told the court earlier on Friday the Tesla CEO should pay at least $190m in damages for his tweets about the diver.
Continue reading...Tens of thousands of people in California have been ordered to evacuate their homes as wildfires spread over the weekend. The Kincade fire in Sonoma County doubled in size on Sunday because of high winds, and wildfires broke out in Los Angeles near the J Paul Getty Museum. About 200,000 people are under evacuation orders across the state and millions are without power.
Continue reading...‘If cities are invited to be at the table, I believe they will help accelerate the work that needs to be done’ said LA mayor Eric Garcetti
US mayors are seeking to go over President Trump’s head and negotiate directly at next month’s UN climate change conference in Santiago, they said as they met in Copenhagen for the C40 World Mayors Summit.
Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti, who rallied US mayors to commit to the Paris climate agreement after Trump announced his intention to withdraw the country in 2017, said he would ask the UN secretary general, António Guterres, on Thursday to give American cities a new role in UN climate talks.
“I’m going to bring it up with the UN secretary general,” Garcetti said. “If cities are invited to be at the table, I believe they will help accelerate the work that needs to be done. Hopefully, we can do it in concert with our national governments, but [we can do it] even where there is conflict.”
Garcetti, who was announced on Wednesday as the next chair of the C40 group of global cities, said he would use his position to seek “a more formal role in the deliberations” at the conference.
“The United Nations works directly with cities all the time ... so they shouldn’t feel feel scared about jumping down to that local level,” he said.
A Los Angeles county deputy lied when he said he was shot in the shoulder while standing in a sheriff’s station parking lot last week and will face a criminal investigation, authorities said.
“The reported sniper assault was fabricated” by deputy Angel Reinosa, assistant sheriff Robin Limon said at a news conference on Saturday.
Continue reading...The 157-acre lot in the Hollywood Hills has been the subject of complex litigation over who actually owns the property
A billion dollars for an empty tract of land always sounded like a Hollywood fairytale. This week reality came crashing down on the investors, real estate agents and feuding litigants who – all too briefly – became embroiled in the greatest property story on earth.
The land in question is a 157-acre parcel perched high in the Hollywood Hills that overlooks the mansion-studded hills of Bel-Air and Los Angeles. Down the years, it has interested an eclectic mix of would-be buyers including the sister of the Shah of Iran, Merv Griffin, Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise.
Continue reading...Police have arrested suspect who fatally shot his father, brother and two others in the San Fernando Valley
A man fatally shot his father, brother and two others on Thursday during a 12-hour rampage in Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley, eluding an intense manhunt until plainclothes officers arrested him soon after he gunned down a city bus passenger, authorities said.
Police said they did not know what had motivated the suspect, identified as Gerry Dean Zaragoza, 26, in the attacks. “It is obviously an individual that went on a violent spree,” Capt William Hayes said. “We knew he was a danger to the community.”
Continue reading...Case is one of several across the US of police targeting anti-Trump and anti-fascist groups with monitoring and criminal trials
The Los Angeles police department has revealed in court that it infiltrated an activist group planning anti-Trump protests, in the latest case of US law enforcement spying on leftwing organizers.
A confidential informant working with the LAPD secretly recorded multiple meetings of a group called Refuse Fascism in 2017, according to newly disclosed police documents. The LAPD transcripts, first reported by the Los Angeles Times and reviewed by the Guardian, were submitted in a criminal case against activists who blocked a California freeway during an anti-Trump demonstration.
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