The paparazzi's extreme Britney coverage is costly to taxpayers | Photo by pointnshoot via Flickr Citing that there are already laws on the books, the LAPD opposed a proposal to make a "personal safety zone" paparazzi law to the Police Commission today. 3rd District Councilman Dennis Zine introduced the idea after the LAPD used $25,000 to transport Britney Spears to UCLA Medical a mere 6 or so miles in order to keep her safe......

Sheperd Fairey Mural Photo for Whiskerino by Osmany Rodriguez, LAist BFF Sons and daughters of Thebes, behold: this was Dennis Kucinich, greatest of men. Behold, what a full tide of misfortune has swept over his head: "The Nevada Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that MSNBC is not required to include [Kucinich] in its scheduled Democratic presidential debate." In Xan-Vegas did Heidi Fleiss/ A stately pleasure-dome decree/ Where Sex, the profane river, ran/ Through caverns measureless......

The Police Commission approved earlier this month to agree with the LAPD federal consent decree that officers in specialized units dealing with narcotics and gangs must "disclose all of their sole and jointly owned assets, liabilities and income every two years. Refusal to disclose such information would bar officers from working in those units." And refusal is what they will do if the city writes the policy down as law. 500 LAPD officers in these specialized units will request transfers or retire before abiding by this 'draconian' financial disclosure requirement....

In the wake of the most recent King-Harbor tragedy, where concerned witnesses called Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department 9-1-1 to report that the medical staff was doing nothing about a woman dying on the floor of the hospital, only to be told that 9-1-1 would not dispatch any help, comes a plan by the LAPD to improve their handling of 9-1-1 calls. Yesterday officials told the L.A. Police Commission that they were beginning to......

Rioting continued yesterday in the LA County jails in Castaic. The LA Times reports more than 500 inmates were involved, nearly 100 were injured and 28 had to be hospitalized. In law enforcement news, 13-year-old Devin Brown had slowed the car he was driving to no more than 2mph when he was killed by the LAPD officer who claimed to fear for his life. The Police Commission seems to have used good judgement in......

There's a cynical news saying: If it bleeds, it leads. Well, there was lots of blood in the news yesterday and the stories aren't going anywhere. In case you need to catch up: Up in Goleta yesterday, 44-year old Jennifer Sanmarco walked into a postal processing plant where she'd once worked. She shot and killed 5, seriously injured one and then committed suicide. This morning there are reports that an ex-neigbor of Sanmarco's has......

We don't hear much about the Hip Hop Summit Action Network on this side of the country. Their focus has always seemed a little East Coast but the grant and support they've given in association with Pepsi for the launch of the Imperial Courts Music and Arts Development Project in Watts is very interesting. We're not sure that a music studio would be at the top of our list of needs for the long......

Those crazy meteorologists keep saying the rain is coming but it's sunny right now so we're just going to ignore them. Besides that, this week the only things we're more obsessed with than "American Idol" and "Project Runway" is crime. NBC 4 reports that LAPD and Beverly Hills Police have formed the Hillside Burglary Task Force to deal with the rash of West Side residential crimes over the last two months. Meanwhile, in another......

We're just so excited that our police commission "unveiled a plan Tuesday aimed at discouraging officers from using flashlights as weapons, except in emergencies." No longer will foot chases end with perps getting tackled and pummeled with aluminum lights. We're so relieved. Except for one thing: we didn't even know the flashlight was okay to use as a weapon by our police department. Unlike the baton choke hold that was in fashion under former......

The proliferation and profitability of storefront psychics in Los Angeles is one of those persistent urban mysteries, such as the absence of baby pigeons in New York City. The recent vote by the Los Angeles Police Commission suggests that it might be explained by good old fashioned people being easily suckered. The soothsaying industry will remain marginal after the Commission decided yesterday to not officially regulate it. In contrast, Riverside and San Francisco allow psychics......

Woody Guthrie once sang that "some will rob you with a six-gun, and some with a fountain pen." Others, it seems, tend to be far less subtle, as they can simply rob you with a tow-truck. In L.A., there's almost nothing as annoying as getting your car towed. So it's great to see the Police Commission approve a plan to take down bandit tow-truck drivers. Such truckers tow away cars under false pretenses, and charge......