An off-duty LAPD Officer was shot early this morning around 12:30 a.m. by Long Beach Police responding to a "person with a gun" call. Few details about what led officers to shoot have come out so far as Long Beach officials are only saying that when officers contacted the suspect, the shooting occurred. 26-year-old Officer Jason Geggie, a one and a half year veteran of the force assigned to the Central Traffic Division, was booked......

Photo by Chris Roberts Yesterday, the District Attorney's office filed a total of four counts of criminal charges against Dr. Christopher Thompson of Mandeville Canyon, the suspect in the Fourth of July Mandeville Canyon "Road Rage" incident in which he allegedly slammed on his brakes causing two cyclists behind him injury (see photos/background here). Thompson was charged with two counts of reckless driving (23105(a) of vehicle code) and two counts of felony battery (2403(d)......

Arthur Paul Carmona, 26, an advocate for people wrongly accused of crimes who was wrongly accused himself and incarcerated for 2 1/2 years as a teenager in Orange County was killed this weekend. His name became widely known when he was arrested when he was 16 and convicted of robbing two juice bars in Irvine and Costa Mesa:His mother mustered support for her son and political and community outrage followed over police tactics that led......

The eighth grade student who was shot by a classmate at Oxnard's Green Junior High School on Tuesday died in hospital Wednesday. 15-year-old Lawrence King was shot twice at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday in a computer lab where at least 20 students were working. 14-year-old classmate Brandon McInerney was behind the trigger, according to witnesses. *UPDATE 12:30 p.m.: The 14-year-old suspect was charged with attempted murder (likely to be upgraded to murder) with a hate-crime enhancement......

California Highway Patrol Officer Joshua Blackburn, charged with stealing $1 million worth of cocaine being held as evidence, has had his arraignment postponed at his lawyer's request until early next month, KTLA is reporting. The 32-year-old Murietta man (pictured) has been with the CHP for six years, and remains in the Orange County Jail on $4 million bail. His arraignment had been scheduled for yesterday, but the alleged drug nabber's attorney has stated that he......

Apparently, a liver transplant is "experimental." 17-year-old Nataline Sarkisyan was fighting leukemia when a bone marrow transplant from her brother failed. Doctors at UCLA Medical Center told CIGNA Healthcare that she needed a liver transplant on December 11. CIGNA denied funding the operation, citing the procedure was experimental and outside the scope of coverage. In an e-mail statement before she died, the health care company said "there was a lack of medical evidence showing the......

Very much like in the picture above, Don Vito, Bam Margera's rotund and lovable lazy-eyed uncle, was accused of feeling up three girls in Colorado last year, and today he was found guilty of fondling two of them. When the verdict was read, the 51-year-old Vincent Margera fell to the floor and cursed "just kill me now." He was acquitted of a third count of sex assault on a child. He faces a sentence......

Last week's devastating Agua Dulce/Santa Clarita Valley wildfire was started accidentally by a "male juvenile" playing with matches, the L.A. County Sheriff's Department announced Tuesday. The Buckweed Fire blackened over 38,000 acres, destroyed more than 60 structures, and led to an estimated $7.4 million in damages. On October 22, one day after the blaze began, a detective questioned a "boy" who "admitted to playing with matches and accidentally starting the fire," according to the Sheriff's......

This past Sunday I dropped by a fundraiser event for Barack Obama in Koreatown, invited by my friend who works for Senator Mark Ridley-Thomas. Not really having kick-started my analysis of candidates out there yet, my only real knowledge of Obama, silly as it may sound, was that he is a) Democratic and therefore b) NOT BUSH. Hey, these are the important things. Although we had difficulty parking, and we basically had to cram......

The party is over in apartment 269 after Irvine cops acting on complaints from neighbors discovered a small brothel in the OC. One woman was charged with pimping and two were popped for whoring via Craigslist - at bare bottom rates. The three woman, all Los Angeles residents, allegedly advertised their services on Craigslist.com, and met the men in a two-bedroom unit at the Villa Coronado apartment homes in Irvine, authorities said. Kyung Ah......

The Phil Spector jury, after 6 ballots, concludes that they are deadlocked at 10 and 2. Spector watched, leaning back, chin down, eyes fixed and unblinking. Mistrial for Phil! Once again, a celebrity gets into hot water and walks away relatively unscathed. Lana Clarkson -- pictured here, in an early appearances as a trophy wife in Fast Times at Ridgemont High -- didn't walk away at all. Her last minutes were spent in Phil......

Eric Richardson of Blogdowntown snaps the above shot from a downtown commercial shoot yesterday: "Pictured is one scene from the commercial being shot, where a gaggle of females drop their workout to come press up against the window and see some brown guy. I would hope this'll make more sense by the time we see it on TV." Out best guess is that he is made out of chocolate. Los Angeles could soon be......

- City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo vs. District Attorney Steve Cooley. Ehhhh, both are whiners. - They say Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has wanderlust and doesn't pay attention to the issues at hand. He's a Leo -- save that wanderlust for us in the Sagittarius clan. - Worst reason not to ban smoking: "... it's kind of stupid because so many people smoke [in Glendale]." Uhhhhhhh. - Al Gore's youngest daughter got married last night in Beverly......

At last night's 10th Annual Los Angeles Political Roast, a fundraiser for the American Diabetes Association, there was more than just poking fun at the no-nonsense East Coast talking LAPD Chief - William Bratton. The LA Times did not get into it (LAObserved did), but there was a little tiff between Mayor Villaraigosa and District Attorney, Steve Cooley. The DA took a swing at the Mayor's supposed marriage situation and later while Mayor V......

LAist Exclusive! The Los Angeles Republican's Coalition apparently had their email list hacked on Monday, spamming as many as 1,500 subscribers. The one-line message unintentionally originated from the Congressional email address of a field representative for Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles). It read: "I've started to get spam through the address. Please, unsubscribe." The broadcast wasn't well received by the list's owner, because it suggested that the GOP organization was sending out junk mail to list......

Little Miss Sunshine - It's no surprise that this movie was a hit. It's one of the funniest movies of the year, and one of the sweetest comedies I've seen in a long time. All this and it has a brain too. Altered - Whatever happened to those Blair Witch kids? One of them, Eduardo Sanchez, directed this horror film about "alien abduction and a quartet of returnees who vow revenge against the creature......

It took two weeks for the Santa Monica jury to reach its decision on the old man who ended the lives of 10 in 2003, but this morning they agreed that yes, he was guilty of vehicular manslaughter. The 89-year-old Weller was accused of 10 counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence after he plowed through the crowded Santa Monica's Farmer Market killing 10 and injuring 63 three summers ago. On Wednesday the jurors,......

One sentence roundup: And I’m sure Bedrockist.com is where the Flintstones would point their, um, rockputer to see what the mayor said in his latest news conference about all those layoffs at the quarry. - Ironic Sans The Los Angeles District Attorney charged a pregnant Burbank woman with involuntary manslaughter Monday for allegedly fatally assaulting a 75-year-old parking attendant over a $5 parking fee. - Burbank Leader Over the next two decades, neon signs......

San Bernardino County District Attorney Michael A. Ramos has filed attempted manslaughter charges against deputy Ivory Webb, who shot Elio Carrion 5 times at close range on January 29. After the car Carrion was riding in was pulled over, a bystander pulled out his video camera. It is almost unbelievable that victim Elio Carrion, an airman home from Iraq, survived. It's miraculous that the shooting was caught on tape. But most amazing of all is......

So when we heard that KCRW's Chris Douridas was arrested, we figured it was for the usual Hollywood fare -- drug possession, drunk and disorderly, etc. But Douridas, who's been with KCRW 15 years, was arrested on Jan. 6 outside the Circle Bar in Santa Monica for allegedly drugging and trying to kidnap a 14-year-old girl. That one we didn't expect. According to the LA Times story this morning: Douridas, 43, was arrested shortly......

Tamara Gregory is an LA native who enjoys all the perks that our metropolis has to offer. She is a film producer and author. Her first novel, Passport Diaries, which brings an African American perspective to the Chick Lit genre, goes on sale tomorrow. A perfect beach-read, the novel follows LA-based assistant District Attorney, Kia Carson, as she embarks on a European vacation that also becomes a journey of self-discovery about global culture and......

The Daily Bruin ledes with a story with no pictures but a warning: Do Not Use Any Water for Drinking! The entire campus and much of West LA is without drinkable tap water after a pipe burst near the university yesterday. While UCLA covers all the precautions being taken to protect its students, the Los Angeles Times notes that it's going to be hard to get breakfast this morning as bagel joints, doughnut stores......

LAist has been following the story of the Compton pre-teens killed on a joyride organized at a slumber party. The Los Angeles Times reports that investigators are trying to determine how "the driver — a pajama-clad 13-year-old girl — was able to get her mother's car keys, and whether she had taken the four-door white Mazda on previous joyrides, as several friends reported. The collision occurred about 6:20 p.m. Saturday after several youths had......

Pete Carroll and USC football took a sigh of relief this week as the sexual assault investigation into running back Hershel Dennis did not produce enough evidence, and no charges will likely be filed. As a result, Carroll reinstated Dennis. LAist feels Carroll handled the situation well. As USC's football coach, Pete Carroll cannot control everything his players do off-the-field, but if he's going to suspend one of his best players merely because he's......