Category Archives: Los Angeles

Man who shot Lady Gaga’s dog walker and stole bulldogs sentenced to 21 years

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In a deal, James Howard Jackson pleaded guilty to one count of attempted murder after he was accidentally released from custody

The man who shot Lady Gaga’s dog walker and stole her French bulldogs in Los Angeles last year has been sentenced to 21 years in prison for the high profile robbery that saw the star offer a $500,000 reward for the return of her pets.

James Howard Jackson, one of three men and two accomplices who participated in the violent robbery of dog walker Ryan Fischer, pleaded no contest to one count of attempted murder, the Los Angeles county district attorney’s office said on Monday.

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Two-year-old girl survives coyote attack in Los Angeles daylight

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Security footage shows animal drag child across lawn and sidewalk before father intervenes

A coyote grabbed and injured a two-year old girl outside her Los Angeles home in a daytime attack before her father chased the animal off, her family said.

Home security video obtained by KTLA-TV showed the animal grab and drag the toddler across her lawn and sidewalk, seconds after her father took her out of a car seat, set her down and turned back inside the vehicle to gather her toys. They had just arrived home from preschool.

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Judge declares mistrial in actor Danny Masterson’s rape trial

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The jury said they could not come to a consensus over the allegations after a month-long trial

A judge declared a mistrial Wednesday after jurors said they were hopelessly deadlocked at the trial of That ’70s Show actor Danny Masterson, who is charged with three rapes.

Los Angeles judge Charlaine F Olmedo had ordered the jurors to take Thanksgiving week off and keep deliberating after they told her on 18 November that they could not come to a consensus about the rape allegations after a month-long trial in which the Church of Scientology played a supporting role.

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Weinstein trial: prosecutor says ‘hotels were his trap’ in closing arguments

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Six-week Los Angeles trial wrapping up after graphic testimony from four women accusing ex-producer of rape and sexual assault

Closing arguments began on Wednesday in the Los Angeles rape trial of Harvey Weinstein, following weeks of emotional testimony that saw multiple women take the stand, including the wife of California’s governor.

Marlene Martinez, a prosecutor in the case, began her final arguments with a photograph of Weinstein smirking at the camera, at the height of his power as a “titan of the film industry”. Seated in the courtroom, Weinstein, looking shrunken and pale as a corpse, stared at the photograph of himself on the screen.

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Six men charged over international drug ring after Sydney dawn raids seize cash, cocaine and crypto

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NSW police say several transnational organised criminal networks were collaborating on drug imports

Six Sydney men have been charged and millions of dollars in cash and drugs seized after a multi-agency police investigation into an international drug ring.

Another man was arrested in Los Angeles as part of a joint operation with US homeland security.

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More than 20 Los Angeles county sheriff’s recruits injured after SUV hits class

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The cadets were on a training run when a 22-year-old driver going the wrong way crashed into them, critically injuring five

More than 20 Los Angeles county sheriff’s academy recruits were injured early Wednesday morning when an SUV driving the wrong way hit the class while they were on a training run.

Authorities have detained a 22-year-old driver in connection with the incident, which left 25 people injured, five critically, including head trauma, broken bones and “loss of limb”, said Sheriff Alex Villanueva.

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Karen Bass becomes the first female mayor of Los Angeles

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The Democrat takes over as the second Black mayor in LA’s history, beating a rival who spent over $80m of his own money on the race

The congresswoman Karen Bass was elected mayor of Los Angeles, defeating billionaire real estate developer Rick Caruso and becoming the first woman to run the second-largest city in the US.

The Democrat, who has served as a US representative for more than a decade, had amassed an insurmountable lead of nearly 47,000 votes, with 70% of the votes counted, the Associated Press reported on Wednesday, nearly one one week after the election. Caruso had a slight lead in the first counts after the polls closed, but Bass soon surpassed him and steadily increased her lead as ballots were counted.

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Jay Leno’s face burned in LA garage after car bursts into flames

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Comedian taken to burn center but eye and ear are not severely damaged: ‘I am OK’

Jay Leno was taken to Grossman Burn Center after his face was burned in his Los Angeles garage when one of his cars burst into flames.

The left side of former The Tonight Show host’s face was burned, but Leno’s eye and ear were not severely damaged.

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Influencer ‘Ray Hushpuppi’ jailed over plan to launder $300m

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Ramon Abbas, described by FBI as one of world’s most prolific money launderers, sentenced to 11 years

A social media influencer who called himself Ray Hushpuppi and flaunted a lavish lifestyle fuelled by his efforts to launder millions of stolen dollars has been sentenced in Los Angeles to more than 11 years in federal prison.

Ramon Abbas, 40, also was ordered by a federal judge to pay $1.7m in restitution to two fraud victims, according to a statement from the US Department of Justice.

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Kanye West escorted out of Skechers office after showing up unannounced

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Executives removed the rapper from the Los Angeles building and said the footwear brand has ‘no intention of working with West’

Executives at Skechers escorted Kanye West out of the company’s corporate offices in Los Angeles, after the rapper and fashion designer showed up “unannounced and without invitation” on Wednesday.

In a statement released after the incident, the footwear brand said it “has no intention of working with West” and that the artist, now known as Ye, was engaged in “unauthorized filming”.

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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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