A man was arrested on suspicion of sexually assaulting a young boy in the electronics section of Walmart in Oxnard. The incident occurred around 8 pm on Friday night and it was caught on the store's surveillance video. more ›

A 20-year-old woman pleaded guilty Tuesday to fatally stabbing her newborn baby girl multiple times and hiding the corpse in a closet. The trial of Yoselin Torres Tovar commenced Monday afternoon, and Tovar pleaded guilty to second-degree murder Tuesday morning, agreeing to an offer by Deputy District Attorney Steve McGreevy. more ›

After a series of death threats and vandalism at her La Habra home (which she can't afford), Octomom Nadya Suleman received a knock at the door Tuesday evening, this time by child welfare and police officials responding to a complaint from her hairstylist that Suleman's 14 children were living in squalid conditions. more ›

A Corona pastor and two other men were arrested Tuesday for allegedly kidnapping and torturing a 13-year-old boy as part of a discipline regimen. The teen's mother brought the boy to a men's group, operated by Heart of Worship Ministry, for help with discipline on March 18 after he was accused of molesting another kid. more ›

Right now teachers' contracts require the district to toss out anything in their files older than four years old that doesn't result in any discipline. So if a parent makes a serious allegation or a principal includes a warning or concern about a teacher, but nothing comes of it after four years, those notes are tossed out or put in an "expired" file. more ›

The man we appropriately dubbed "Father of the Year" was convicted Monday for charges stemming from a troubling boating incident involving his 7-year-old son in August 2011. Sloan Steven Briles pleaded guilty to one felony count of child abuse and endangerment and one misdemeanor count of resisting an officer. more ›

When the parents of a 15-year-old in Irvine found evidence that their son might be smoking, they knew exactly who to call to discipline him: Paul Kim, a member of their church congregation. more ›

A prolific "upskirt" photographer in San Diego County was arrested after police said they found thousands of pictures on his phone of women who didn't know them were being photographed. A local store caught the alleged creep taking pictures on a surveillance video and tipped off the police. more ›

A local boot camp instructor on trial for kidnapping, child abuse, extortion and more used disturbing methods for disciplining troubled children in his program. Videos show kids at the boot camp led by Kelvin McFarland aka "Sgt. Mac" being forced to drink until they puke — and then being forced to drink some more. Another video shows a child in tears being screamed at to carry a tire — the child also nearly pukes. more ›

LAPD detectives are investigating a tip they got this week that someone had buried a dead baby in the Angeles National Forest way back in 2010. The death was never reported until now. Detectives know that the baby died while in the care of its parents, but they don't know how. It was 6 weeks old at the time of its death. more ›

A Baldwin Park man was convicted of child abuse for shooting at a little girl's dog. The girl was playing with her dog back in May when States pulled out a gun. The little girl ran away from him into the house, while States shot at her dog. He missed, but he continued waving the gun around, once even pointing it at the dog while the girl held it in her lap. more ›

A 21-year-old Fullterton woman has accepted a plea deal for the death of her newborn son, and will not be charged with his murder. Yanira Bernice Valderrama is accused of drowning the baby boy in a toilet then hiding his body in a trashcan, according to the OC Register. more ›

Quartz Hill resident Stacey Barker, 26, has been convicted in the murder of her 2-year-old daughter, Emma Leigh Barker, reports the Daily News. The girl's body was found in March of 2009 near a highway in Sylmar. Barker originally told police that she had been knocked out and while she was unconscious, her daughter was kidnapped. The story prompted a 12-hour manhunt in the area for the kidnapper and the child. more ›

Under a new ordinance in Orange County, registered sex offenders are now unable to go into state parks without written permission from the county. If found, they could be charged with a misdemeanor and fined or sent back to jail, reports the OC Register. The ordinance was approved preliminarily by the county's Board of Supervisors, and will go to a final vote on April 5. more ›

Have you entered LAist's contest to win Arcade Fire tickets yet? Head on over and comment to become eligible: are you a wine drinker or a beer drinker when at the Bowl? Or, are you like some people we know who bring in a couple of forties and a bucket of fried chicken? An infant was shot and killed last night in MacArthur Park; the baby was hit by a stray bullet while his... more ›

Photo at Universal Studios by nopantsxris via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr more ›

I don’t know who first said “never judge a book by its cover,” but I think it is safe to assume that for a theatre junkie such as myself, that a play should never be judged by its title. I mention this because as I go through my weekly play-picking ritual, I tend to avoid attending any and all plays that are about love and romance. It just seems to go against my bitter, jaded, and jealous proclivities. But while attending the Idiot Box at the Open Fist Theatre, I noticed that the theatre was also showing a late-night play called Do Do Love by Laura Richardson and donating some of the show’s proceeds to an organization called Hollygrove (see note at the end of this article). Normally, something with the word “love” in the title is a no-go for me, but knowing that for a few dollars I can get some of the theatre that I so crave and do something to help out a great organization totally sealed the deal for me, all anti-romance proclivities aside. And surprisingly, in retrospect, I can say that Do Do Love, was not the mushy-schmaltzy romance that I expected it be, but rather a complex aggregate of plot that dismantled my personal sense of individuality as I had previously understood it to be. more ›

Grand Theft Auto, Doom, and Counterstrike are the reasons why young people kill, homicide "expert" Jack Thompson continues to preach. Crying when he recalls the prayer that he claims to say whenever he drops his teenage son off at school. Forgetting, somehow, that the first recorded murder ever was between two brothers. A murder that any so-called expert, and anyone who regularly prays, should know about: Cain murdering Abel. The first two kids ever... more ›

LAist loves the Howard Stern Show. We're Sirius subscribers, we have been known to defend his good name, we listened while he was #1 in LA, we're rooting him on as Sirius approaches 7 million subscribers, we even stood in line in Pasadena to get "Miss America" signed. So when we got the opportunity to interview long-time producer, and former intern, Mike Gange, we had lots of questions that we were dying to know... more ›