A red flag fire warning is to remain in effect until 3 p.m. Sunday for the mountains of Los Angeles and Ventura counties.
The National Weather Service said an upper-level high-pressure system and weak offshore flow will maintain warm, dry conditions through Sunday in inland areas.
Single-digit humidity and offshore winds gusting to 30 mph are expected in the mountains.
-- Bettina Boxall
A 76-year-old man collapsed and died Saturday morning while hiking with his wife and a group of friends on the Limekiln Canyon trail north of Porter Ranch.
Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics, some of whom were flown there by helicopter, worked for 20 minutes trying to revive the hiker, department spokesman Brian Humphrey said. The man, who was not identified, was pronounced dead at the scene.
The department received the call at 8:36 a.m.
-- Bettina Boxall
The man who fatally shot himself on a Monrovia street Saturday afternoon did so in front of his ex-wife and their child, according to police.
He was holding his ex-wife at gunpoint on the 300 block of South Myrtle Avenue when police arrived around noon. When officers ordered him to drop the weapon, he turned the gun on himself and pulled the trigger, Monrovia Police Sgt. Daniel Verna said.
The man, who lived in Texas, had been following the woman and their 7-year-old daughter, who are Los Angeles County residents, when he confronted them near Library Park.
A number of witnesses saw the shooting, but no one else was injured. The man died at the scene.
Police did not identify any of those involved or provide any further details.
RELATED:
Man fatally shoots himself on busy Monrovia street, police say
-- Bettina Boxall
A shark attacked a surfer on the Central Coast on Saturday morning, biting him on the neck and forearm and taking a chunk out of his surfboard at Marina State Beach, the Monterey County Herald reported.
Fellow surfers used beach towels to apply a tourniquet to Eric Tarantino's arm wound after he got to shore with the help of a friend, the newspaper said. He was later airlifted to San Jose Regional Medical Center. Authorities said his injuries did not appear life threatening.
They plan to post signs warning of shark danger at beaches from Fort Ord to Moss Landing.
-- Bettina Boxall
Australia-based Qantas Airlines grounded flights across the globe Saturday amid an intensifying labor dispute that is disrupting international travel for thousands of passengers.
The company’s domestic and international departures were canceled after Qantas announced that it is locking out workers represented by three of its employee unions, including those that represent pilots and baggage handlers. Qantas advised its customers not to go to the airport until further notice and said a full refund will be available to any customer who chooses to cancel a flight.
“Qantas regrets that this action has become necessary and apologizes sincerely to all affected passengers,” the company said in a statement.
Los Angeles World Airports Executive Director Gina Marie Lindsey said the company informed her that its actions would ground five of its aircraft -– three 747s and two A-380s -– at LAX. “I think it’s significant for us,” she said. “Qantas is a major customer of ours. Whenever disruption occurs for a major business customer, we feel their pain.”
[Updated 3:44 p.m.: LAX officials officials said Saturday that Qantas’ decision would actually leave nine of the company’s aircraft grounded at LAX, including six 747s and one A380.]
So far, one 8:50 a.m. flight from LAX to New York has been canceled, an airport spokeswoman said. LAX staffers are referring all customer calls to the Qantas web site, www.qantas.com.
Qantas’ decision is expected to cost roughly $20 million per day. It was the latest move in a protracted labor dispute that has affected 70,000 passengers and led to the cancellation of 600 flights, the company said.
Every day of 2011, we're featuring reader-submitted photos of Southern California Moments. Follow us on Twitter and visit the Southern California Moments homepage for more on this series.
Monrovia police are investigating an incident in which a man apparently shot and killed himself in front of a car that was parked on a busy street Saturday.
The shooting took place about noon on South Myrtle Street, next to Library Park, which is the heart of the city’s redeveloped business and restaurant corridor and home to a newly built library.
Monrovia Police Sgt. Dan Verna said the shooting grew from a domestic violence incident between a man and a woman. The man reportedly shot himself during the confrontation.
“We’re still investigating,” Verna said. “The female half only speaks Mandarin Chinese and we have a translator out there.”
No one else was hurt. The woman has not been arrested. The man's name was not immediately released.
ALSO:
Day of the Dead celebrations coming Southland
Classic Porsche stolen 23 years ago seized at port
Outrage after Dodgers attorney suggests Bryan Stow partly to blame
-- Sam Quinones
Image: Map shows approximate location of where a man fatally shot himself in Monrovia. Source: Google Maps
The company’s domestic and international departures were canceled after Qantas announced that it is locking out workers represented by three of its employee unions, including those that represent pilots and baggage handlers. Qantas advised its customers not to go to the airport until further notice and said a full refund will be available to any customer who chooses to cancel a flight.
“Qantas regrets that this action has become necessary and apologizes sincerely to all affected passengers,” the company said in a statement.
Los Angeles World Airports Executive Director Gina Marie Lindsey said the company informed her that its actions would ground five of its aircraft -– three 747s and two A-380s -– at LAX. “I think it’s significant for us,” she said. “Qantas is a major customer of ours. Whenever disruption occurs for a major business customer, we feel their pain.”
So far, one 8:50 a.m. flight from LAX to New York has been canceled, an airport spokeswoman said. LAX staffers are referring all customer calls to the Qantas web site, www.qantas.com.
Qantas’ decision is expected to cost roughly $20 million per day. It was the latest move in a protracted labor dispute that has affected 70,000 passengers and led to the cancellation of 600 flights, the company said.
A fire in a North Hollywood commercial building early Saturday revealed what police say is an extensive indoor marijuana growing operation.
Firefighters responded shortly after midnight to a building on the 7400 block of Bellaire Avenue, near Saticoy Street, just off Highway 170, to a report of a roof fire, said Brian Humphreys, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Fire Department. The fire was knocked down within 20 minutes, with no injuries, he said.
However, inside the building firefighters discovered hundreds of marijuana plants grown under artificial light, said Sgt. Aaron Ponce, the Los Angeles Police Department’s North Hollywood division.
A narcotics investigator has been called in, Ponce said.
“We’re just beginning the investigation,” Ponce said. “We don’t know who owns the building.”
A cause of the fire remains under investigation.
ALSO:
Classic Porsche stolen 23 years ago seized at port
Occupy Oakland regroups; injured Iraq war veteran recovering
Outrage after Dodgers attorney suggests Bryan Stow partly to blame
-- Sam Quinones
Image: Map shows location of a fire in a North Hollywood commercial building. Source: Google Maps
The Mexican Day of the Dead celebration takes place Tuesday and Wednesday.
In the holiday, Mexicans honor the dead by building altars to those who’ve passed away that include food, flowers, candy, candles and photos of the departed, as well as elaborately painted calaveras -- skulls made of paper mache or sugar.
The tradition has spread to parts of Southern California. Among the local Day of the Dead events over the next few days:
-- San Pedro holds a celebration Sunday from 3 to 10 p.m. The event takes place on 6th Street and Pacific Avenue. For more information, call (310) 832-5482 or go to diadelosmuertossanpedro.com.
-- El Centro de Accion Social in Pasadena holds a celebration Wednesday, between 6 and 8:30 p.m., at Villa-Parke Community Center, 363 E. Villa St., in Pasadena. For more information, call (626) 792-3148.
-- Libros Schmibros in Boyle Heights presents Orale!: An Evening of Boyle Heights Stories on Wednesday, between 7:30 and 9:30 p.m., at the Breed Street Shul, 247 N. Breed St.
-- East Los Angeles holds its annual Day of the Dead procession down Cesar Chavez Avenue and carnival that follows it on Wednesday, beginning at 4 p.m. The procession starts at Cesar Chavez Avenue and Lorena Street. For more information, click here.
-- Olvera Street in downtown Los Angeles holds its celebrations during the day on Tuesday and Wednesday, including processions. For more information, call (213) 625-5045.
ALSO:
National Prescription Drug Take Back Day today
Scarlett Johansson hacker suspect allegedly stalked woman
North Hollywood building fire reveals indoor marijuana farm
-- Sam Quinones
Photo: A Day of the Dead skeleton. Credit: Sam Quinones
Working from his home computer in Jacksonville, Fla., authorities say, Christopher Chaney, 35, allegedly hacked into the email accounts of several celebrities. Authorities say he did it the hard way. Mining details of the stars’ personal lives in celebrity magazines and websites as well as Twitter and Facebook posts, Chaney looked for potential passwords that would give him access to their accounts, the FBI said.
But new court records obtained by the Associated Press say that Chaney had been chatting online with a Connecticut woman since she was 13 years old.
The woman said in the documents that Chaney caused her "serious emotional distress" by taking photos and other materials he hacked from her computer and posting them on porn websites, according to AP.
A man who identifies himself as a woman said she has been expelled from a nursing program at California Baptist University for appearing on a television program to discuss her gender identity, a local newspaper is reporting.
Domaine Javier, 24, told the Riverside Press-Enterprise she was expelled from the school after appearing on MTV’s "True Life” and declaring that she is biologically male. Javier dresses as a woman and has identified herself as female since childhood.
The show’s episode was called “I’m Passing As Someone I’m Not,” the newspaper reported.
Javier told the paper that she clicked the space next to “female” on the school’s online application form.
“They said, ‘On your application form you put "female," ’ " Javier told the paper. "And I was like, ‘Yeah, that’s how I see myself.’ ”
Javier told the Press-Enterprise she was expelled in August, a week before she was to begin a nursing program. A Cal Baptist spokesman told the paper that the school doesn’t comment on student disciplinary matters.
Javier said she had passed up admission at Cal State San Bernardino University, which as a public university cannot discriminate against transgender students, the paper reported. Cal Baptist, a private university, reportedly awarded Javier a $3,500 academic scholarship.
Javier said she is back at Riverside City College but she cannot enter the nursing program until next fall.
“This totally ruined my career path,” she told the paper. “I’ve been trying to finish as soon as possible.”
ALSO:
Classic Porsche stolen 23 years ago seized at port
Occupy Oakland regroups; injured Iraq war veteran recovering
Outrage after Dodgers attorney suggests Bryan Stow partly to blame
-- Sam Quinones
Leopoldo Anaya, 19, of El Sereno died of a single gunshot wound to the chest after being driven by friends to Los Angeles County/USC Medical Center, said Alhambra Police Sgt. Joe Flannagan.
Just after midnight, officers received reports of shots fired near the corner of Winchester and Concord avenues in Alhambra. When they arrived, they found no one, but discovered shell casings on the ground.
Soon thereafter, they received a call from hospital officials that Anaya had been brought in by two friends in a Ford Explorer. He died soon after that.
Flannagan said one of Anaya's friends in the car ran off, but the driver remained at the hospital. He was questioned by officers and said he and his friends had just come from a Halloween party. It's unclear if an incident at the party sparked the shooting, Flannagan said.
“We’re thinking it’s a gang-related shooting; it appears to be a car-to-car drive-by,” he said.
He said shots were exchanged between the Ford Explorer and a black Honda sedan, for which detectives are now searching.
Anyone with information in the case is asked to call Alhambra investigators at (626) 308-4844.
ALSO:
Classic Porsche stolen 23 years ago seized at port
Occupy Oakland regroups; injured Iraq war veteran recovering
Outrage after Dodgers attorney suggests Bryan Stow partly to blame
-- Sam Quinones
Map: Shows location of Saturday's shooting in purple, as well as 19 other homicides, in red, since January 2007. Credit: Los Angeles Times
Alhambra police have arrested a former elementary school aide and charged him with sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl earlier this year while he was employed at a local elementary school.
Johnny Lagunas, 20, of El Monte, is in custody at Alhambra city jail, Alhambra police said.
Lagunas is accused of sexually assaulting the girl, with whom he’d struck up a friendship, while he was an aide at Garfield Elementary School in Alhambra in January and February, police said.
Police said they received a report of the alleged assault on Friday, but did not detail how the information came to them, why it took so long before it was reported, and what connection the girl had to the elementary school.
Alhambra police ask anyone with information about other possible victims in the case to call (626) 570-5151 or (626) 570-5159.
ALSO:
Classic Porsche stolen 23 years ago seized at port
Occupy Oakland regroups; injured Iraq war veteran recovering
Outrage after Dodgers attorney suggests Bryan Stow partly to blame
-- Sam Quinones
An Irvine swim coach pleaded guilty in court Friday to sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl while working as her swim instructor, authorities said.
Todd Robert Sousa, 37, will serve 16 months in state prison after agreeing to an offer to plead guilty to 13 counts of lewd acts on a child, three felony counts of unlawful sexual intercourse and two misdemeanor counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, according to a news release from the Orange County district attorney's office.
Sousa was working as an instructor at Swim Venture when he began assaulting the 15-year-old girl, according to prosecutors. The D.A.'s office said that the assaults occurred between April 2010 and February 2011 in the Swim Venture office, an equipment closet and his car, according to the Daily Pilot.
During the sentencing Friday, the victim's mother and stepfather said the assaults left the once-avid swimmer depressed and uninterested in the sport, and Sousa's actions have ruined their lives, according to the D.A.'s office.
ALSO:
Classic Porsche stolen 23 years ago seized at port
Occupy Oakland regroups; injured Iraq war veteran recovering
Outrage after Dodgers attorney suggests Bryan Stow partly to blame
— Lauren Williams, Times Community News
California Highway Patrol officers are investigating two separate fatal accidents on Southern California roadways Saturdat morning.
The first took place about 2:50 a.m. on the eastbound 60 Freeway at Azusa Avenue, involving a sedan and a big rig carrying 20,000 pounds of produce, according to a CHP report.
The accident has closed all but one lane on the eastbound side of the freeway until at least 8 a.m., the CHP reported.
The second accident took place an hour later on Lambert Road and Fireside Drive in Santa Fe Springs when a car carrying four people crashed into a pole, according to a CHP report. One woman in the car died on the way to the hospital, according to the report.
No further details were available early Saturday.
-- Sam Quinones
A Navy commander Friday was sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting two female sailors while he was the captain of the guided-missile destroyer Momsen.
Cmdr. Jay Wylie was also sentenced to be dismissed from the Navy, under a plea bargain with military prosecutors. Wylie was relieved of command of the Everett, Wash.-based ship in April when the allegations surfaced.
Wylie, 40, a 19-year veteran of the Navy, pleaded guilty to rape, aggravated sexual assault, abusive sexual content and conduct unbecoming an officer.
One incident occurred while the ship was at its home port, the other during a visit to the Seychelles. During one of the incidents, Wylie was drunk, according to court documents.
The trial was shifted to San Diego after Wylie was reassigned to a command here. He was immediately taken to the brig at Miramar Marine Corps Air Station after Friday's court hearing.
-- Tony Perry in San Diego
Photo: Navy Cmdr. Jay Wylie was sentenced in two sexual assault cases. Credit: Associated Press
DNA evidence, ballistics and a 911 voice recording of the Grim Sleeper serial killer suspect helped Los Angeles Police Department detective link him to the killings of six more victims, sources told The Times.
The new cases bring to 16 the number of killings linked to Lonnie Franklin Jr., 59, , who is already charged with murder in the slayings of 10 women whose bodies were found on the streets of South Los Angeles over two decades.
Detectives continued look for additional victims, taking the unusual step of releasing photographs of dozens of women found at Franklin's home, hoping the public could help determine if they too were victims, said the sources, who spoke of the condition of annoymity becuse the case was ongoing.
PHOTOS: Cache of images found by police
Three of the newly identified six victims were allegedly tied to Franklin through physical evidence, said a police source with knowledge of the investigation, who requested anonymity because the additional cases have not been made public. In two of those cases, ballistic evidence showed that the bullets used to kill the women were fired from a gun Franklin is accused of using in other killings, while DNA and ballistic tests connected him to a third woman, the source said.
Franklin's link to the other three cases is more circumstantial. Police concluded Franklin killed one woman based on a 911 call made at the time of the slaying to report the location of the body. According to the source, police have matched the caller's voice to Franklin's. Police believe Franklin made a similar call to dispatchers in one of the cases in which he has been charged. The remaining two victims recently linked to Franklin were reported missing years ago and have never been found. However, possessions of theirs were discovered at Franklin's house, leading police to the conclusion that he killed them.
ALSO:
Educator girl to eat out of trash can
RELATED:
Release of photos in Grim Sleeper case brings major response
Interactive map: Grim Sleeper killings, 1985-2007
--Joel Rubin
Photo: Lonnie David Franklin Jr. is shown at his arraignment last year. Police say they have linked him to a total of 16 slayings in the Grim Sleeper case. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times / July 8, 2010)
A SigAlert was lifted on the 405 Freeway just before 11 p.m. after a fatal rush-hour motorcycle accident snarled traffic for more than 3 1/2 hours.
Traffic on the northbound 405 freeway south of Sunset Boulevard was down to a single lane after the 6:14 p.m. accident, and traffic piled up back to the Marina Freeway, said Officer Anthony Martin of the California Highway Patrol.
"They were trying to funnel as much traffic as they could into that lane, but there was a quite a bit of congestion," Martin said.
The motorcyclist, who was not identified, appeared to be the only one injured, Martin said.
The cause of the crash is under investigation, he added.
ALSO:
FULL COVERAGE: The trial of Conrad Murray
California fir to be Christmas tree at nation's Capitol
Ex-Penthouse model's death probed by Navy investigators
-- Gale Holland
