Los Angeles Area News (BETA)

A few counties have begun offering inoculations to the public, health officials say. The shortage of H1N1 flu vaccine appears to be easing in California, prompting a few counties to begin offering inoculations to the public, health officials said Thursday.

The justices are weighing whether a trial judge can consider the director's dismissal request without the filmmaker's return to California. An attorney for Roman Polanski urged a California appeals court panel Thursday to throw out the filmmaker's 1977 child sex case, citing what he called an "astonishing record of misconduct" by the district attorney's office and the judge who originally ...

Investigators are looking at Jeffrey Tidus' cases for a possible motive and have not ruled out anything from a targeted killing to an unplanned confrontation. Authorities declared the death of a prominent L.A. attorney shot in the head outside his Rolling Hills Estates home a homicide and said they were now scrutinizing his casework for potential clues.

An Illinois man has pleaded guilty to stalking ESPN reporter Erin Andrews and shooting videos of her that he posted on the Internet and tried to sell, federal authorities said today.

The men failed to get a required permit and sparked the May blaze using gas-powered weed cutters to clear a trail, a prosecutor says. Santa Barbara County officials charged two men Thursday with misdemeanors for allegedly sparking the destructive Jesusita fire in May by clearing a trail with gas-powered weed cutters.

Southern Californians living near areas burned by wildfires are again facing worries about the possibility of flooding and mud flows.

A flight instructor and a student have been killed in a single-engine plane crash near a spiritual center in the Ventura County town of Ojai.

A traffic-stopping flood in a busy North Hollywood intersection occurred today when a 12-inch water main ruptured, officials said.

Gene Barry, who played the well-dressed man of action in the television series "Bat Masterson," "Burke's Law" and "The Name of the Game," has died. He was 90.

Officials say a body was discovered near the Hollywood (101) Freeway Thursday.

Cool Kid Alex Morency uses a paint brush to deliver a message of inspiration and hope for homeless children.

Investigators say a prominent attorney who was found shot in the head outside his home was the victim of a homicide.

A driver suffered a fatal heart attack while driving passengers, causing a major accident in Harbor Gateway Wednesday.

Police need your help finding a Hermosa Beach woman who has been missing for nearly a month.

Arcadia police released composite sketches of three suspects wanted in a home-invasion robbery.

SANTA ANA Juan Antonio Hernandez carries his life in a bag: two pairs of pants, two shirts, two pairs of shoes, one pair of underwear. Another man took his wife, he says; a misunderstanding cost him his job as a hotel cook. He has 35 cents in his...

SAN CLEMENTE – About 20 teachers, kids and parents rallied outside Las Palmas Elementary School today to express their unhappiness with Capistrano Unified trustees' insistence on 10 percent employee pay cuts to balance the district's budget. The...

NASA combined satellite images to create highly detailed photo of storms in Southern California and the rest of the western U.S.

SANTA ANA – A one-time motivational speaker was indicted today on charges that include murder in connection with the disappearance of a retiree who had given him roughly $1 million. Gary A. Shawkey, 46, has been in custody since he was arrested in...

ANAHEIM - The field lights at Angel Stadium are on – even while nobody's home. The stadium lights were turned on Tuesday morning and will continue to run constantly – even while no events are happening inside the stadium – until they are turned...

The MTA unanimously approves a $1.3 billion light rail transit project for the 8.5-mile corridor from Crenshaw to LAX.

Michael Zislis of Rock 'N Fish in L.A. Live stops by News Raw to talk about his restauraunt.

It's time for some ice skating at the zoo.

It's not a Jason Bourne movie. It's Los Angeles.

John Perez, Mayor Villaraigosa's cousin, gets the unamious support of democrats to be the next speaker. The official vote will be held in January.

Results of one of the nation's largest women's health studies suggest that common bone density drugs may reduce the risk of breast cancer by 32 percent.

Gardena police today found a cache of weapons at a house where two men were arrested after nearly an 11-hour standoff. RELATED LINKS: » BLOG: Keep up to date with South Bay crime and court news » BLOG: Track South Bay court cases » South Bay crime stats

The MTA board approved the Crenshaw light-rail line on Thursday, as well as further environmental study of a Green Line extension into Torrance. Though the votes were expected, they represented two major steps forward in improving transit in the South Bay.

Here is a list of restaurants and food vendors closed or allowed to reopen by the county Department of Health Services for the week ending Dec. 6.

The Los Angeles City Planning Commission on Thursday recommended a yes vote for Playa Vista's second phase, which has been delayed for more than two years because of a court ruling.

The Hollywood (170) Freeway off-ramp at Magnolia Boulevard is being closed due to unspecified "flooding" at the intersection of Magnolia Boulevard and Tujunga Avenue, says Brian Humphrey of the Los Angeles Fire Department.

The city wastes millions of taxpayer dollars each year by paying its bills too early and failing to get volume discounts, according to two audits released Thursday.

A hearing that could decide the fate of Roman Polanski's long-delayed sex case has ended without a ruling by a California appeals court.

The text of President Obama's Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, delivered Thursday in Oslo, Norway, as provided by the White House:

President Barack Obama entered the pantheon of Nobel Peace Prize winners Thursday with humble words, acknowledging his own few accomplishments while delivering a robust defense of war and promising to use the prestigious award to "reach for the world that ought to be."

That was the sentiment of John Perez of Los Angeles after Assembly Democrats unanimously chose him today to be the fifth Speaker of the Assembly in just the last nine years. Perez, 40, emerged from a long private meeting of Assembly Democrats this afternoon arm in arm with the outgoing Assembly Speaker Karen Bass and his [...]

Just a little over a year after voters created an independent commission to draw most of California's political maps, the process is costing a lot more money than was allocated. In fact, it's possible the commission that's slated to convene in 2011 may have as its first task to ask lawmakers for more funding. [...]

No major news today on whether Abel Maldonado will… or won't… be California's next lieutenant governor. But new comments from the leader of the state Senate seem to acknowledge one part of the deliberations… or rather, six billion parts. As in the $6.3 billion of missing dollars needed to balance the current budget… a deficit [...]

"It's very simple what people want," said Mark Baldassare. "People want progress." That was the context for… and the motivation behind… a provocative two hour discussion on Friday morning at our KQED studios in San Francisco, a discussion among eight thoughtful veterans of the good and bad of government and public policy in California. They were [...]

Two (or three, actually) legislators angling for two separate high-profile jobs at the same time? Sounds like a podcast theme! In this week's Capital Notes Podcast, we discuss the battle over who will be the new Speaker of the California Assembly, and this question: will there be any discernible differences in the policies pursued by either [...]