Tuesday news, sans Globes

Quick, where were you 12 years ago today? Here's a hint: at 4:31am, the Northridge Quake hit. The Daily News remembers and looks at new earthquake sensing technologies.

Sewage is all over the Santa Monica Bay after malfunctions at a treatment plant. Apparently it started bubbling up through manholes in Manhattan Beach, and then things just got ickier. The LA Times tries to figure out what went wrong.

Fellow bloggers the 1947 Project conducted bus tours of crime sites this weekend; Channel 2 news went along for the ride.

In LA, thousands watch the Martin Luther King Jr Day parade (we tried, but streets were barricaded for blocks). Across the country, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin went a little crazy at his MLK Day speech: "This city will be a majority African-American city. It's the way God wants it to be." Um, who's got God's quota sheet? We wanna see next. The New Orleans Times-Picayune has the story (requires free registration).

California has executed Clarence Ray Allen, a bad guy who arranged to have his son's girlfriend killed, then other witnesses, too. That he was 76, legally blind and had to be wheeled to the execution table didn't inspire mercy in the heart of our Governor nor the Supreme Court. Is it right to execute anyone? By what measure should we decide who dies? By the vileness of their deeds? What if they repent? If their trial wasn't actually fair? Or if they are sick?