These days, thanks to science and technology, your family tree isn't just something you can trace by a paper trail, DNA provides significant links among us. Now, a new bill proposed by Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), would allow feds to conduct familial searches in DNA databases to solve cold cases. more ›

Crime alerts soar this summer in Los Angeles, and several neighborhoods are seeing a significant increase in both violent and property crimes. Areas experiencing a surge in violent crimes are Hancock Park, Hollywood, Panorama City and Sawtelle. Red alerts of "violent crime up significantly" are viewable in each location via The L.A. Time's database of Los Angeles County crime reports. more ›

Adult film performers can exhale this Friday knowing that their professional tools are free of disease. A San Fernando Valley porn trade group plans to revive a controversial database that does the dirty job of tracking adult performers' sexually transmitted disease (STD) test results, according to LA Daily News. more ›

Taggers who leave their marks on public property will soon find their handiwork showing up in a new kind of gallery. City officials and the Los Angeles Police Department are launching a four-division pilot program that will centralize visual evidence of tags to create a database that will be used to gather evidence for prosecution and restitution. more ›

The Los Angeles Times is poised to release a database of performance data for teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School District. This is to follow on the heels of a recent analysis published by the paper that examines the efficacy of 5th grade teachers as part of their series "Grading the Teachers." more ›

Lonnie Franklin, Jr., the alleged "Grim Sleeper" serial killer arrested this week and charged with 10 murders, managed to avoid being sent to state prison despite being arrested at least 15 times in the past four decades, according to the Daily News. more ›

Budget cuts for California's 278 State Parks has led to $1.3-billion in backlogged maintenance and repair projects, according to the Sacramento Bee. The underfunding and consequential reduction of staff and services has led to an increase in crime reported in the state parks. “California’s state parks have been starved of funding, which is demonstrated by their deplorable conditions and rising crime rate,” said Elizabeth Goldstein, California State Parks Foundation president. more ›

As news of a study points to California's comparative lack in disciplining doctors--the state ranked 41--the LA Times reminds us of a new law coming into effect on June 27th. A step below restaurant rankings, Doctors will have to provide notice of or post this: "Notice to consumers, medical doctors are licensed and regulated by the Medical Board of California, (800) 633-2322, www.mbc.ca.gov." Once on the Board's website, you can find yourself to their directory of California's 125,000 physicians where felony and misdemeanor convictions, malpractice judgements and more can be found. The California Medical Association has criticized the law, saying it's a way to boost complaints. 6,437 complaints were filed last year, notes the Times. more ›

An Orange County Police Sergeant has been on administrative leave since May over a domestic violence call, but now officials are finding that he used law enforcement databases for dates and to look up rival men. Sgt. Bill Arganda of the Westminster Police Department stands accused of searching the database some 4,000 times and has been accused of domestic violence twice. Of those databases searches, there were "a blond Fox news correspondent, a woman from a gym class, a mother from his daughter's kindergarten class, his ex-wife and ex-girlfriends as well as the new men in their lives," according to the Orange County Register, which dives into the Arganda's history. He is an 18-year veteran. more ›

With tens of thousands of crimes in Los Angeles, the LAPD's crime map tool will never be 100% perfect, but missing 40% of all reported crimes is a far cry from being complete. Thanks to an LA Times investigation--the second about the LAPD's touted crime map--today we learn that 26 homicides, 137 rapes and over 10,000 other nonviolent thefts remain off map, but not intentionally says the LAPD. more ›

Job losses continue to make headlines in all parts of the country, including here in Los Angeles. While there is hope that 2009 will show fewer layoffs than 2008, employees of major corporations, and smaller businesses alike in California are still finding themselves out of work, and our unemployment rate is now 9.3%. more ›

Don't let your money go to waste, especially when not acting on it means the government gets to keep it. The Daily News has launched a nifty database of residents in LA County who are owed money by the IRS. Just plug in your name and city and voila, and you could be surprised. more ›

FOR THE RECORD: An earlier version of this post stated that the Information Technology Agency launched the feature.

Daily News caused quite a stir last week at city hall when they released a database containing every city employee's salary, save for sworn employees (ex. police, fire). You can browse by department or look up by name. Have a friend who works too hard? Now you know they need a raise. Deal with an irritable city employee over the phone recently? Maybe they're overpaid. more ›

Earlier this week came the launch of BlogSoopLA, a searchable restaurant database that brings together the reviews and write ups from local bloggers. The LA outpost is following closely on the heels of the site's origins in New York, and its first sequel in San Francisco. Users of the site can either search for specific dining spots, or browse; listings are sorted by the number of blog posts for each restaurant. Here in LA,... more ›