Category: Los Angeles

A 25-year-old woman with an unspecified medical disorder that requires medication was reported missing after last being seen Friday near Palmdale Regional Medical Center. Ruby Godinez was last seen in the 38600 block of Medical Center Drive around 7:30 a.m. Friday, according to the Sheriff’s Information Bureau. Deputies described Godinez as a 5-foot-2-inch tall Hispanic woman weighing 115 pounds with black hair and brown eyes. She was last seen wearing a black sweatshirt and gray sweatpants. Anyone with information regarding Godinez’s whereabouts was urged to call the Sheriff’s Homicide Bureau Missing Persons Detail at 323-890-5500. Tipsters who prefer to remain anonymous can call Crime Stoppers at 800-222-8477 or visit lacrimestoppers.org.

A Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputy was killed Friday in an off-duty traffic collision in Torrance. Deputy Daniel Okamoto joined the department in 2017 and was assigned to the Lomita Sheriff’s Station. The crash occurred in the early morning hours at the intersection of Crenshaw Boulevard and Skypark Drive, according to the Sheriff’s Information Bureau. Okamoto “was known for his professionalism, humility and unwavering commitment to his friends and colleagues,” Sheriff Robert Luna wrote on social media. Okamoto’s survivors include his parents, grandmother and brother.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. —  On one end, you had the Lakers fumbling their way through the game like someone waking up in a strange, dark room with no idea how to flip on the lights. And on the other end, you had the team the Lakers battled in the first round of the playoffs — all in their street clothes watching a collection of young players, others on 10-day contracts and G Leaguers threaten any shot the Lakers have to move up from 10th place in the Western Conference standings. In all the combinations and permutations that would decide the Lakers’ play-in future, Friday night in Memphis was the gimme. The Grizzlies had lost their last three games by a total of 47 points, their regulars either injured or shut down for the season. Thirteen different players were inactive. No one who played for Memphis on Friday touched the court last year for the Grizzlies in the playoffs. Yet the Lakers got caught, their hands down at their waists, the Grizzlies’ repeated jabs to the chin staggering the team with everything to play for. The Lakers eventually

A Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy was killed in a crash Friday. The deputy was identified as Daniel Okamoto, according to L.A. County Sheriff Robert Luna. Okamoto was killed in an off-duty crash early Friday morning. Details surrounding the collision were not immediately released. Okamoto joined LASD in 2017 and served the communities of Lomita, Rancho Palos Verdes, Rolling Hills, Rolling Hills Estates and San Pedro. Daniel Okamoto seen in a photo from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Daniel Okamoto seen in a photo from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. “He was known for his professionalism, humility, and unwavering commitment to his friends and colleagues,” Luna wrote in a post to X. “Our @LASDHQ family is mourning his loss, and our thoughts and prayers are with his loved ones and partners during this difficult time. Okamoto is survived by his parents, brother and grandmother. “May Daniel rest in peace,” Luna said.

Corona, Huntington Beach, Harvard-Westlake and Orange Lutheran are so evenly matched that it came as no surprise it would take walk-off hits to decide the winners in semifinal games played thousands of miles away in Cary, N.C., on Friday. Down to its final two outs with no runners aboard and trailing by a run in the bottom of the seventh inning, Corona got consecutive hits from Brady Ebel, Seth Hernandez, Josh Springer and Billy Carlson to pull out a 6-5 victory over Huntington Beach to advance to the championship game of the National High School Baseball Invitational. Springer’s RBI single tied it 5-5 and Carlson delivered a walk-off double. A couple of hours later, Orange Lutheran and Harvard-Westlake went into extra innings before the Lancers delivered their own walk-off single from pinch-hitter Vinny Hudson in the bottom of the eighth inning for a 3-2 victory. Corona improved to 17-2. Coach Andy Wise has Hernandez, one of the best pitchers in Southern California, set to pitch Saturday’s title game at 1:15 p.m. PDT against Orange Lutheran (18-4). Corona lost to Orange Lutheran 4-2 last month in

Friday’s kickoff of the annual “Make Waves” Film Festival, hosted by the local chapter of the Surfrider Foundation, was slated to be the culmination of months of planning by 21-year-old Cal Poly San Luis Obispo junior Kenneth Taylor. The mechanical engineering student from Richland, Wash. was known as much for his advocacy for the outdoors as he was for his enjoyment of it. Taylor was a founding member of the school’s Alpine Club and served as a trip leader for the campus’ Poly Escapes program, which offers trip-planning services and outdoor training for students. He loved snow sports and rock climbing, friends said, up until the end. School officials sent a campus-wide email Monday morning confirming that Taylor died Saturday “after an accident during a trip to Big Sur.” “The university is in touch with Kenneth’s family and is extending its full support to them and his friends,” Cal Poly San Luis Obispo University President Jeffrey D. Armstrong wrote in the email. “Our thoughts are with them as they grieve their loss.” Kenneth Taylor, right, was known as one half of “Kenneth squared,” a nickname

Ballet flats, low-rise jeans and Cosmopolitans are back in style, so it is the perfect time for all six seasons of “Sex and the City” to stream on Netflix. The HBO series, previously exclusively on Max, premiered April 1 on the streaming service, where a wider subscriber base pulled in first-time viewers and rewatchers who are ready and willing to share their thoughts on social media. This week, there has been increasing buzz about one of the iconic episodes in the series, when Carrie Bradshaw invites Mr. Big, the ex-boyfriend with whom she cheated on her current boyfriend Aidan, to the latter’s cabin. I couldn’t help but wonder — does Carrie Bradshaw’s Big versus Aidan love triangle still feel relevant? When it first premiered in June 1998, “Sex and the City,” an adaptation of Candace Bushnell’s newspaper column and book, broke a lot of barriers with its depiction of four single women in their 30s and 40s navigating their friendship and vibrant sex lives in NYC. (It also fell short in a myriad of ways, namely in how incredibly white, heteronormative and privileged the characters

Hard-drinking artist and itinerant contractor Charley (Alex Hurt) hasn’t been much of a morning person of late. Recalling the previous night’s events is a problem for him. But since Charley is the protagonist of a Larry Fessenden horror film, “Blackout,” he’s also been waking up half-naked in the woods and some of the splotches on his torn clothes are clearly blood. Already a sensitive sort, bitterly consumed with the economic, environmental and societal direction of his small town, Charley is also processing the death of his father — this in addition to grappling with the fact that he may be a hairy creature with an after-hours body count. It’s the kind of dilemma that doesn’t exactly help one’s sense of helplessness. Fessenden has long been a cult-horror mainstay as producer, director, writer and actor. He’s no stranger to the alchemy of woolly terror and human anguish, on budgets that favor ragged immediacy over slick, empty shocks. The appealingly scrappy and thoughtful “Blackout” continues an ongoing project to put a modern spin on the legendary figures of horror cinema, from using vampires to explore urban love

Over 100 dogs that were rescued from a hoarder in Riverside will now be placed for adoption. On Thursday, officials responded to a fire that ignited in a two-bedroom townhome. Inside the home, 113 small dogs that were being hoarded were discovered by Riverside Animal Shelter Rescue Department workers. All dogs were removed from the home and impounded at an animal shelter. Riverside shelter workers contacted Mission Viejo Animal Services Center for help and seven dogs were transferred to the center’s “A Mission for Home” program. The dogs will soon be available for adoption after they are bathed, spayed/neutered and evaluated by a veterinarian. Several dogs available for adoption after being rescued from a hoarder. (City of Mission Viejo) Several dogs available for adoption after being rescued from a hoarder. (City of Mission Viejo) Several dogs available for adoption after being rescued from a hoarder. (City of Mission Viejo) Over 100 dogs that were rescued from a hoarder in Riverside will be placed for adoption. (City of Mission Viejo) All surgeries, including dental operations on older dogs, will be funded by the center’s nonprofit organization

How an Iranian attack on Israel could impact the Middle East – CBS News Watch CBS News A White House official says the U.S. is adjusting its posture in the Middle East as it monitors escalating tensions between Israel and Iran. CBS News national security contributor Sam Vinograd joins with analysis. Be the first to know Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. Not Now Turn On

Dozens of horses seized during a neglect investigation in the San Jacinto Valley, where more than 40 dogs were impounded as a result of the same investigation, came up for adoption Friday, though authorities cautioned that only experienced equestrian handlers would be able to manage the steeds. “We are at a point in this on-going investigation where we are able to reach out to residents and rescue groups that would want to help rescue or adopt and care for these animals and give them the quality of life that they deserve,” Riverside County Department of Animal Services Director Erin Gettis said. According to agency spokesman Lt. James Huffman, the 60-plus horses and nearly four dozen canines were seized on March 28 from two different properties operated by the same individual, whose name was not disclosed. Huffman told City News Service that the seizure stemmed from an 18-month investigation that has not yet led to the filing of criminal charges. No one has been arrested in connection with the neglect case. According to officials, most of the horses are untamed, so they will require breaking in

An Orange County man was sentenced Friday to three years’ probation and time already served for attempting to run endangered “good luck” songbirds into Los Angeles from Vietnam. Quang Truong, 54, of Westminster, pleaded guilty in 2017 to a federal conspiracy charge after his arrest at Los Angeles International Airport. When LAX screeners checked Truong’s luggage following the 8,000-mile journey, they found more than two dozen birds in suitcases rigged to include hidden cages. The tiny Chinese hwamei songbirds — which can cost a few dollars apiece in Southeast Asia — fetch up to $1,000 when sold illegally at certain Chinese markets in Southern California and are thought to bring good luck. Truong had been detained five months before the LAX arrest by Vietnamese officials on suspicion of attempting to smuggle the high-value birds, prosecutors said. Truong was going to be paid $2,000 for smuggling the songbirds into the United States, according to papers filed in Los Angeles federal court. A co-conspirator, Sony Dong, 61, of Garden Grove, was sentenced in 2018 to 18 months in federal prison for conspiring to smuggle the songbirds into

Italian fashion designer Roberto Cavalli dies at 83 – CBS News Watch CBS News Italian fashion designer Roberto Cavalli has died at 83. Cavalli became famous in the early 1970s for his animal prints and bold and sensual styles. Be the first to know Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. Not Now Turn On

More than 1,000 pages of confidential documents from a federal criminal investigation into the Los Angeles city attorney’s office and the Department of Water and Power will be unsealed, a federal judge signaled Friday. The Times and Consumer Watchdog had requested the documents to better understand the government’s criminal case and whether former City Atty. Mike Feuer bore any culpability for a scandal involving a sham lawsuit and an extortion plot. Feuer has long denied wrongdoing. In a tentative ruling, U.S. District Judge Stanley Blumenfeld Jr. said the documents, which consist mainly of dozens of search warrants filed during the government’s investigation, will be unsealed, with personal data redacted. The names of public officials, along with individuals who are “wrongdoers,” will not be redacted, Blumenfeld said at a hearing Friday — a blow to prosecutors who had sought to keep the officials’ names from the public. The Times and Consumer Watchdog are expected to work with the U.S. attorney’s office to ready the documents for release in the coming weeks. Much of Friday’s hearing centered on Feuer and whether an FBI agent’s alleged assertions that

The city of Lancaster has sued Los Angeles County, saying the Sheriff’s Department is raking in an “illegal profit” of more than $10 million by overcharging dozens of cities for its policing services. Like more than 40 other cities in the county — including Palmdale, Compton, Carson and West Hollywood — Lancaster pays for sheriff’s deputies to police its area. But amid a staffing crisis, the Sheriff’s Department isn’t assigning as many deputies to Lancaster as the city has paid for, says the suit, which was filed in March. Instead, existing deputies are working more overtime to make up for it. But more overtime costs less than more deputies, and the county allegedly isn’t passing along the savings, according to the lawsuit. Attorneys for the city filed the case as a proposed class-action on behalf of all 42 of the county’s contract cities, pending the court’s approval. Mayor R. Rex Parris said Lancaster’s lawsuit aims to hold the county accountable, but stressed that the city still supports the sheriff’s deputies who patrol its streets. “Let me make this crystal clear: Our deputies are our community’s

A man injured by a falling street lamp part will receive a settlement of up to $21 million from the city of Los Angeles. In November 2020, Ismael Soto Luna was at the corner of Roscoe Boulevard and Noble Avenue in Van Nuys when a two-pound metal cap from a street lamp struck his head, knocking him to the ground, according to a lawsuit he filed against the city. The impact fractured his skull, and three months later he was diagnosed with a mild traumatic brain injury, the lawsuit said. His condition progressively worsened, and in 2023 he was diagnosed with dementia, according to the lawsuit. City regulations require a street lamp cap “to be secured in place such that the regular forces of nature would not cause it to become loose and fall,” the lawsuit said. Ivor Pine, a spokesperson for the city attorney’s office, did not immediately return a message seeking comment. The City Council approved the settlement Friday. The council also approved other settlements, for a total of more than $40 million. A man who alleged that an LAPD officer in a

SAN DIEGO (Border Report) — During the COVID-19 pandemic, more and more Americans sought medications south of the border in cities such as Tijuana, according to activist Marck Rivera García. He says the pattern continues to this day, but now people from north of the border are seeking cheaper narcotics that are more potent and readily available in Mexico. “Addicts from the United States are crossing the border motivated by the lower cost of drugs,” Rivera García said. “When they come here, they stay for about a week, then they go home for more money only to return to Tijuana for more drugs.” He says some never go back to the U.S., only to end up homeless on the streets of Tijuana. Rivera García works with Tijuana’s homeless and drug users in the Zona Norte, an area that requires only a short walk from the San Ysidro Port of Entry. It’s also a neighborhood notorious for drug use, strip joints and prostitution. “We try to support them with food, keep them from wasting their money on drugs. Some require counseling, a shower or help in

Billy Joel plays 100th show at Madison Square Garden – CBS News Watch CBS News Billy Joel is marking his 100th show of his record-breaking residency at New York City’s Madison Square Garden. He’s played the famed arena since 1978, and Sunday night you can watch his first-ever show to be broadcast on television on CBS. Be the first to know Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. Not Now Turn On

House Speaker Mike Johnson visits Trump at Mar-a-Lago – CBS News Watch CBS News House Speaker Mike Johnson traveled to Mar-a-Lago Friday, where he met with former President Donald Trump. Johnson is hoping to get some public support from Trump amid ongoing criticism from some Republicans who claim he is not delivering, and a threat to his speakership from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. Robert Costa reports from Palm Beach. Be the first to know Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. Not Now Turn On

Steve Hartman goes “On the Road” to catch a glimpse of the eclipse – CBS News Watch CBS News This week’s total solar eclipse brought millions of Americans together for a moment of inspiration and awe. That includes CBS’s Steve Hartman and his family in this week’s “On the Road.” Be the first to know Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. Not Now Turn On

When it comes to the fiercely political British director Ken Loach’s latest film, “The Old Oak,” a bit of classic Hollywood promotional language comes to mind: Ken Loach is “The Old Oak.” Because seemingly forever, the sturdiest, tallest figure in the cinema of working-class struggle has been Loach, the man behind such raw, forthright classics as “Kes,” “Riff-Raff,” “The Wind That Shakes the Barley,” “I, Daniel Blake” and “Sorry We Missed You.” If this is the final round for the 87-year-old filmmaker, he’s going out with a protest sign in one hand and a pint in the other. That’s because “The Old Oak,” written by longtime collaborator Paul Laverty and named for the last remaining pub in a downtrodden town in northeast England, shows Loach no less committed to the cause but also as faith-filled as he’s ever been. It’s 2016 when we enter the story via black-and-white photographs of a busload of displaced Syrians, mostly mothers, children and the elderly, being dropped off in the mining town of Durham, the film’s audio dominated by locals loudly and bigotedly condemning their arrival. When the film