Photo by Daniella Zalcman via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr Maybe actor Dennis Farina was taking his former role as an L&O detective too seriously when he packed his suitcase and headed to LAX this morning. Authorities arrested Farina on charges of carrying a concealed weapon when a .22 caliber handgun was found in his carryon. Homicide detectives are working on the case of an infant found dead inside a Lancaster home......

The police are speaking to persons of interest in regards to yesterday's shooting death of 19-year-old Samantha Padilla. A 30-year-old Ramona Gardens woman may have been arrested, but LAPD officials could not confirm that to KNBC. However, the shooting is being considered a domestic incident and not random. Padilla was on her way to her job at LAX. In Valley Village on Huston St. last night, two friends walking home from a bar were accosted......

Photo by ~db~ via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr It's official: Police have identified the Green Skeleton Bandit who was fatally shot earlier this week when he was caught in the act of robbing the AutoZone in NoHo by a US Marshal. He was 24-year-old Lawrence Dean Smith Jr. of Palmdale who used a knife and wore a skeleton-themed sweatsuit in his robberies. Fight for the right to ficus! Local activists in......

Two North Hollywood news items melded into one last night when, as reported on LAist, a US Marshal walked in on a robbery in progress at an auto parts store in NoHo Arts, fatally shooting one suspect who is believed to be the "Skeleton Bandit." The robber had recently unsuccessfully held up a local Jack in the Box and a mini mart dressed in an outfit initially described as a skeleton costume, but as reported......

When plain old ski masks just won't do, what's a neighborhood robber to do? For one thief in such a predicament, the solution was to don a skeleton costume and to hit up a Jack In the Box and a mini mart in North Hollywood in an attempt to get some cash. The heist at the Jack In the Box on Lankershim was a bust, and so was the mini mart, where, according to ab7.com,......

Santee Village Apartments | Photo by atomicshakespeares via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr It's not the same thrill as being singled out as a draft pick when it's the police who want you: "An arrest warrant has been issued by the Irvine Police Department for St. Louis Cardinals utilityman Scott Spiezio on six charges stemming from a Dec. 30 incident." Police in Burbank are investigating the mysterious death of 47-year-old Glen Giles,......

Two robberies at gunpoint took place late last night in Hollywood, resulting in injuries to the victims. The first incident, which was reported at 1:44 a.m. was a home invasion in an apartment at 1750 Wilcox Avenue. According to the Daily News, the victim "was standing in front of his apartment building when two men walked up, pointed a gun at him and demanded to be brought to his apartment." The tenant led the robbers......

The fountain at the LA Central Library is rather strange and fantastical "I'll have a footlong Subway club on white, hold the mayo, and GIVE ME ALL YOUR MONEY!" Police are looking for the man who held up a Subway sandwich store at gunpoint Monday on Beverly in the Wilshire area. The owner and manager of a Burbank apartment building was found liable for their role in the murder of one of his tenants, who......

Just like yesterday, when we announced that while the federal government can rob medical marijuana dispensaries, citizens can't, we find that LAPD officers are not allowed to rob drug dealers. In a separate case from the widely known Rampart Division Scandal, a group of rogue officers held up at least 30 drug dealers in a two year period ending in 2001 according to CBS2 News. After the robberies, which included taking the drugs, money......

Just because the federal government can legally rob a medical marijuana dispensary in Los Angeles, it doesn't mean you can too. On Friday, in two separate incidents in the Valley, a dispensary on Cahuenga Boulevard in North Hollywood and Golden State Collective, 10369 Balboa Blvd., in Granada Hills, both got robbed in takeovers. On Sunday, the Granada Hills robbers were caught, according to the Daily News:During the heist, one shot was fired, ricocheting off......

Post-holiday shopping took a gruesome turn in the parking lot of the Target store in Gardena last month when three women robbed another woman of her earrings and slashed her face. According to CBS2.com: The victim had returned to her vehicle after shopping at the Target in the 2100 block of West Redondo Beach Boulevard at 2:27 p.m. Dec. 27th when a woman reached through the driver's door window and yanked a three-inch gold hoop......

LAPD detectives in the San Fernando Valley have an unusual series of convenience store holdups on their hands. Eleven late night robberies have occurred in the past month from North Hollywood to San Fernando, with two women as the gun-wielding perps. The Daily News reports that the pair's m.o. is to hit 7-11 stores between midnight and 4 a.m. They don hooded sweatshirts, and while one stands watch at the door the other holds the......

If good things come in threes, it seems bad things come in twos, at least today in LA: Edward Gage, a 31-year old Lancaster man, has been arrested for an alleged Christmas Day rape of a 16-year-old girl. When Gage's victim ignored his attempts to get directions as she walked to a friend's house, he pulled her shirt and tried to remove her clothing. She punched him in the face and got away! Francisco Santiago......

The robbery spree of an OC couple in their twenties came to an end this week after a purse-snatching and pepper-spraying incident at a Wal-Mart. The two are also suspected of a robbery in Santa Ana, and were taken into custody after police stormed their Surf Cove home. Yesterday in Pomona Superior Court, the three white men accused of attempted murder, assault, and hate crime against a black man in Claremont last year were convicted......

Tuesdays are a slow day for the networks. Dancing With the Stars will soon require someone to pass out every week in order for the show to remain interesting and House seems like it jumped the shark a while ago. For satisfaction we'll have to delve deep into cableland or pay-TV. 8:00pm TCM Crime Drama Marathon TCM - Starting out with The Lineup and following on with Armored Car Robbery, and Follow Me Quietly 8:00pm......

It's Veterans Day, and, to commemorate, let's check in on Iraq and see how some Veterans-to-be are doing. Turns out, things weren't so festive today there. A civil war continues to rage and officials announced that, with the 853rd death this past week, 2007 is now the deadliest year yet for American troops in the ongoing Middle East quagmire, surpassing 2004's total of 850. So far, 3,860 U.S. soldiers and 4,164 coalition troops from......

Morning rush hour is from 5 a.m. to noon. Evening rush hour is from noon to 7 p.m. Friday's rush hour starts Thursday morning. That and more unwritten LA rules of the road as told by Sue Doyle at the Daily News. Locally based and world-renown Architect Frank Gehry receives some moldy and cracked press today on NPR. Who doesn't like cartoons? "Most animated shows are covered by a different union from the Writers......

Applications for citizenship in September tripled. Why? People want to vote so they are not voted out of this country. Who knew you could be so productive in an hour? A group of five younger adults, one a 14-year-old male, carjacked people, did some armed robbery and kidnapping. All were caught except one. It's been five years since the Valley tried to become its own city. The movement failed when put to the ballot......

The country's safest city (some years, anyway), is getting less and less so: a shooting this morning at a Simi Valley tire store left two dead and two injured. Police have ruled out robbery and suspect a personal motive in the attack. There are a few updates on the potential water cutbacks -- although Los Angeles is okay for now (thanks to the Owens Valley), the time may come when water rationing will be......

Feeling lucky punk? Well, are ya? LAist hopes you are: Win a pair of VIP passes to LA Weekly's Detour Festival on October 6 and a pair of tickets for The Crystal Method at The Roxy next Tuesday. Good luck! Prosecutors plan to refile charges against Phil Spector. Jeez, what's a murderer brutha gotta do to walk free? Britney Spears "dined" at Acapulco in Burbank last night and the paparazzo’s freaked. It's like they'd......

Nearly 12 years after his infamous acquittal in the criminal trial in which he was charged with murdering his ex-wife and her beau, OJ Simpson is locked up on multiple felony charges. View Simpson's in-custody status / charges (.pdf). This time there was no Brentwood stakeout, no Ford Bronco, and somewhere in heaven Johnnie Cochran isn't the least bit surprised. Friday he was questioned, earlier today he was booked, and tonight, ordered "held without......

We can see it now, a new bestseller hitting the shelves just before Christmas: "If I Did It: Confessions of a Sports Memorabilia Armed Robber." Ohhhh, OJ Simpson, you and a cadre of other celebrities just like to entertain the masses in a different way. A special way. The "criminal" way!Las Vegas police arrested former football star O.J. Simpson on Sunday in connection with a hotel room break-in, CNN said. A source with the......

A dead blue whale washed up on the shores of a beach near Ventura today; scientists from all over the state are at the scene to examine the body and determine why it beached. Lucille Ball and Larry King had streets renamed in their honor this week: the block surrounding the CNN building in Hollywood will now be known as Larry King Square, while the intersection of Melrose and Plymouth Boulevards has been rechristened......

Neither Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton, Nicole Richie, or even Britney Spears know how to get themselves into more ridiculous trouble than OJ Simpson who seems to be bent on getting himself thrown in jail. In a bizarre and breaking story, the former USC Trojan is currently being questioned by the Las Vegas Police for an alleged armed robbery in a locked hotel room involving OJ Simpson collectibles. Simpson is claiming that the team of......

Recent major events for the LAFD include last night's apartment fires in North Hollywood and Westchester. Busy day on LAPD's blog: a drive-by shooting yesterday, a labor day homicide, Congressman Xavier Becerra's office burglarized, two fatal Skid Row stabbings, a Carl's Jr. robbery and a fatal shooting this morning in South LA. Sparked by the recent heat-reated power outages, Matt Littman at the Huffington Post asks if Los Angeles is in permanent decay: "It......

Lindsay Lohan to be jailed. Check. Nicole checks into jail. Check Glendale Galleria is getting in trouble with service unions for alleged illegal interrogations, spying, discrimination, and threats of firing. Check. Car thief found in trash can after foot chase in Wildomar. Check. The fourth freeway closure (the 60 last night) this week due to an accident. Check. Four possible Encino bank robbery suspects arrested. Check. "Britney Spears chopped off her hair back a......

Was last night's earthquake cause to some full moon effect madness? Breaking News: "A man from the San Fernando Valley has contracted this year's first human case of West Nile virus in Los Angeles County, health officials said Thursday." (NBC4) A female suspect has been shot by police in a Sylmar Bank robbery. (KABC) "A SWAT standoff in the parking lot of a Taco Bell ended early this morning with the arrest of a......

LAPD has released a DVD of an unusually high resolution security video of a La Brea liquor store robbery that took place around 6:30 pm Thursday night one block away from Hollywood Blvd. The clerk, Vladimir Akkerman, 69, was standing behind the counter near the cash register when the man asked him the price for a half gallon of milk. The suspect returned the milk to the refrigerator case and walked back to the......

If it were not for the LAPD's e-policing program, we would have never known about the below incident near our home. Are you signed up? Maybe you should be. COMMUNITY ALERT NOTIFICATION LOS ANGELES POLICE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF FILL IN TEXT HERE [hehehehe] It is not very often that we have a armed street robbery in Studio City but on Thursday June 7th we had one. At approximately 3:55am the vict was walking......

Best Lede of the Day "There are parts of the city of Los Angeles that are so ugly they could kill you." (LA City Beat) McPheeverback Fans of Katharine McPhee may be surprised to learn that her debut album is sassy, sexy and promiscuous. And all that is conveyed just on the cover. "It's definitely suggestive and a much sexier image than I have had in the past," McPhee told andPOP last week about......