Category Archives: Los Angeles

Harvey Weinstein accuser testifies she wanted to ‘destroy’ herself after assault

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The woman alleges the producer raped her in 2013 and is the first of eight witnesses providing testimony during the trial

A woman who accused Harvey Weinstein of raping her in 2013 testified on Tuesday that the attack left her wanting to “destroy” herself.

The woman, a model and actor living and working in Rome who was in Los Angeles at the time for a film festival, is the first of eight Weinstein accusers set to testify in a courtroom in Los Angeles where the 70-year-old movie mogul is on trial on multiple counts of rape and sexual assault.

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California sheriff’s office stops Black drivers five times more often than white people, data shows

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A new report says sheriffs’ patrols spend more time conducting racially biased stops than they do responding to calls for help

Black drivers in California’s capital are nearly five times more likely than white motorists to get pulled over by sheriffs for traffic violations, according to a new report on racial profiling across the state.

Records from the county sheriff’s departments of Los Angeles, San Diego, Sacramento and Riverside show that Black Californians were disproportionately stopped across those regions in 2019, especially for minor infractions.

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Los Angeles leaders condemn Kanye West as antisemitic incidents rattle city

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Karen Bass, LA mayoral hopeful, told Adidas to sever ties with the rapper while talent agency CAA reportedly dropped him as a client

Kanye West is facing a growing backlash among Los Angeles’ political and Hollywood leaders following several antisemitic incidents in the city that came after the artist made bigoted comments about Jewish people.

On Monday Karen Bass, the congresswoman and LA mayoral hopeful, called for Adidas to cut ties with West, referencing an incident over the weekend in which protesters on a freeway overpass were photographed giving Nazi salutes with banners referencing antisemitic comments made by West. In addition, Los Angeles police are investigating a recent distribution around the city of fliers spreading antisemitic conspiracy theories.

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Danny Masterson’s rape trial opens with tearful accuser testimony

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That ’70s Show star faces three counts of sexual assault in case that also shines spotlight on Church of Scientology

The trial of actor Danny Masterson began this week with emotional testimony from one of the women who has accused the TV star of rape – marking the latest of several high profile cases now under way in Hollywood, and one in which the Church of Scientology has come under scrutiny.

Inside a Los Angeles courtroom, just down the hall from the trial of disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, the first of Masterson’s accusers took the stand on Tuesday and Wednesday. She tearfully recounted a 2003 incident when she says that the actor, best known for his role in That ’70s Show, raped her.

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Mel Gibson can testify in Harvey Weinstein’s Los Angeles trial, judge says

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Actor and director was one of many witnesses whose identities were revealed in Los Angeles superior court

Mel Gibson can testify about what he learned from one of Harvey Weinstein’s accusers, a judge ruled on Friday in the rape and sexual assault trial of the disgraced movie mogul.

The 66-year-old actor and director was one of many witnesses whose identities were revealed in Los Angeles superior court. The judge and attorneys had taken a break from jury selection for motions on what evidence will be allowed and who can testify. The witness list is sealed.

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Nury Martinez resigns from LA city council after racist remarks leaked

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The former city council president faced intense pressure to step down, including from Joe Biden

The embattled former president of the LA city council stepped down from the board , days after a recording surfaced documenting her and two other Latino council members using racist language to mock colleagues and constituents while they planned to protect Latino political strength in council districts.

Nury Martinez announced her resignation in a statement on Wednesday, hours after the state attorney general announced an investigation into possible criminal charges involving the meeting where she made the remarks.

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Couple encounter famous LA mountain lion P-22: ‘True natural beauty’

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Mountain lion sauntered up to Damon Ross and Cylin Busby’s driveway and had a lie in front of their home over the weekend

No matter how famous the mountain lion known as P-22 is in the Los Angeles area that is home to him, few people have gotten to see the big cat from a yard away.

But Los Feliz couple Damon Ross and Cylin Busby can now make that claim after the mountain lion sauntered up to their driveway and had a lie in front of their home over the weekend.

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Los Angeles city council president resigns from post over racist comments

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In leaked audio clips from October 2021, Nury Martinez can be heard making disparaging comments about a colleague’s Black son

The president of the Los Angeles city council has stepped down after a series of bombshell audio clips captured her calling a colleague’s Black son “a little monkey”, among other racist and disparaging remarks.

Nury Martinez apologized for the October 2021 remarks during a meeting over redistricting with fellow council members Kevin de León and Gil Cedillo and labor leader Ron Herrera, and stepped down as city council president on Monday.

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New Weinstein trial to begin in Los Angeles, five years after bombshell reports

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Disgraced producer, already poised to spend life in prison, faces 11 additional sexual assault charges

Five years after the bombshell reports that ended his career, the disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein will go on trial in Los Angeles on Monday over a series of alleged sexual assaults involving five different women.

It’s the second trial of the former Hollywood titan, who has been incarcerated since February 2020 when he was convicted of sexual assault and rape in proceedings in New York.

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TV producer Eric Weinberg charged with multiple counts of rape and sexual battery

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Scrubs and Californication producer accused of using ‘his Hollywood credentials’ to sexually assault women during photo shoots

Eric Weinberg, a veteran television producer and writer who worked on shows including Scrubs and Californication, has been arrested and charged with 18 counts including rape, sexual battery and false imprisonment by violence.

The 61-year-old was initially arrested at his Los Angeles home in July and released on $3.2m bond. On Tuesday, he was arrested again and later released on $5m bond.

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Hypothermia deaths of unhoused people rise sharply in Los Angeles, records reveal

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Data obtained by the Guardian shows at least 14 unhoused people froze to death in 2021, part of an overall surge in homeless deaths

At least 14 unhoused people froze to death on the streets of Los Angeles in 2021, new county data reveals, marking a sharp increase in reports of hypothermia fatalities and a grim sign of how dire the region’s homelessness catastrophe has become.

Out of 14 deaths where the LA coroner’s office cited “cold exposure” and hypothermia last year, six victims died on sidewalks, according to public records obtained by the Guardian. Four died in hospitals, and the others were found at a bus bench, a parking lot, a dried-up riverbed and an abandoned building. The death toll is significantly higher than previous years, with six reported hypothermia deaths in 2020, nine in 2019, seven in 2018 and three in 2017.

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Hollywood high school student dies after taking fentanyl-laced pill in apparent string of overdoses

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Death at Bernstein high school comes as new data shows 200 people dying a day of fentanyl overdoses

A teenage girl at a Hollywood high school died on Tuesday and another was hospitalized, after taking what police believe were counterfeit pills filled with fentanyl.

The incident, which is being investigated as a homicide by Los Angeles police, comes as federal officials announced new national counts of overdose deaths, showing nearly 200 people in the US are dying each day due to overdoses of fentanyl and other synthetic opioids.

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Los Angeles county is home to more than 69,000 unhoused people, count finds

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Number marks 4% increase since last count, in January 2020, but is believed to be an undercount

Los Angeles has experienced a 4% increase in its homeless population during the pandemic, with 69,144 unhoused people counted across the county this year, according to government data released on Thursday.

The Los Angeles homeless services authority (Lahsa), which conducted the count in February 2022 after skipping a year during the pandemic, said the growth of the unhoused population had slowed in the last two years, in part due to pandemic programs and funding. The previous count, conducted in January 2020, showed a 13% jump from 2019.

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Anne Heche was trapped in burning house for 45 minutes after crash

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Firefighters battled flames and smoke to extract Hollywood actor after her car crashed into building in Los Angeles last month

First responders could not reach Anne Heche to begin treating the actor as she was trapped, mortally injured, for 45 minutes after her car crashed into a house in Los Angeles last month, according to a report.

Amid appalling flames and smoke from the crash, firefighters could not reach the car for 20 minutes and then couldn’t get it out of the building to extract her for at least another 20 minutes, NBC reported, citing fire department documents and radio communications.

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Leon Vitali, Stanley Kubrick collaborator and Barry Lyndon actor, dies aged 74

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Vitali, who gave up acting to become the demanding director’s right-hand man, died in Los Angeles on Friday


Leon Vitali, the Barry Lyndon actor who became one of Stanley Kubrick’s closest associates, has died at the age of 74.

Vitali died on Friday in Los Angeles, his family said on Sunday. He died peacefully surrounded by loved ones including his three children, Masha, Max and Vera.

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‘I live in fear’: Vanessa Bryant testifies at trial over Kobe’s crash images

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For three hours, Bryant provided testimony against Los Angeles county for invasion of privacy over photos of her husband’s corpse

Vanessa Bryant testified on Friday that she was only beginning to grieve the loss of her husband, basketball star Kobe Bryant, and their 13-year-old daughter Gianna when she was faced with the fresh horror of learning that sheriff’s deputies and firefighters had shot and shared photos of their bodies at the site of the helicopter crash that killed them.

“I felt like I wanted to run, run down the block and scream,” she said, her tears turning to sobs and her voice quickening. “It was like the feeling of wanting to run down a pier and jump into the water. The problem is I can’t escape. I can’t escape my body.”

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California man found guilty of two 1980s murders thanks to new DNA technology

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In 2006 detectives discovered DNA evidence, but it was 12 more years before they could identify suspect using genealogy websites

Prosecutors in California secured the conviction of a 1980s double murderer after the first use by Los Angeles county detectives of online genealogical databases to identify a suspect.

Horace Van Vaultz, now 67, killed Selena Keough, 20, in Montclair in 1981, and Mary Duggan, 22, in Burbank in 1986, but escaped justice for 36 years until investigators were able to link him to DNA from the victims.

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Anne Heche’s death ruled accidental after fiery car crash

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The actor died of smoke inhalation and burns after her car smashed into a west Los Angeles home, coroner’s report says

Anne Heche died from inhalation injury and burns after her fiery car crash and the death was ruled an accident, according to coroner’s results released on Wednesday.

Heche, 53, also had a fractured sternum caused by “blunt trauma”, according to information on the website of the Los Angeles county medical examiner.

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Anne Heche ‘stable’ after suffering severe burns in Los Angeles car accident

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Fans and friends express support for Hollywood star who drove her car into house, which was left ‘uninhabitable’

Actor Anne Heche was “stable” in hospital amid a wave of support from fans and fellow stars following an accident in which she drove her car into a Los Angeles home, causing severe burn injuries to herself as well as damaging the house which has become “uninhabitable”.

As of Saturday, the Los Angeles police department (LAPD) said it was investigating the incident but had not determined its cause. The Los Angeles fire department (LAFD) said in a statement it took 59 firefighters to extinguish the fire.

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Actor Anne Heche reportedly in critical condition after car crash in Los Angeles

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Collision near the home of actor known for films including Donnie Brasco left her vehicle ‘engulfed in flames’

The US actor Anne Heche has reportedly been taken to hospital in a critical condition after a collision that left her vehicle “engulfed in flames”.

The incident occurred on Friday morning in the Mar Vista area of Los Angeles, near to Heche’s home.

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