Firefighters who went to put out a blaze in Rowland Heights at 11:00 p.m. yesterday found themselves, once the smoke settled, in the midst of a huge pot-growing operation. KTLA reports that the two-story home was believed to be vacant, but in fact the clever pot-growers had boarded up the windows so neighbors couldn't see in, and had rewired the house to bypass the electrical meter. more ›

If you asked Siri, "Find me $250,000 worth of counterfeit iPhone parts," last Thursday, she should have directed you to the nearby cities of Walnut, Rowland Heights and Covina. A three month investigation conducted by detectives from the L.A. County Sheriff's Department, Commercial Crimes Bureau ended in three arrests and the seizure of approximately $250k worth of counterfeit iPhone parts on Thursday, October 20. more ›

A total of four men, all Korean, have been arrested over a period of several days, for their involvement in an alleged hate crime that took place at a Korean restaurant in Rowland Heights. Los Angeles County Sheriff's officials say that a 25-year-old Chinese American man was the victim of robbery and assault with a deadly weapon following a violent confrontation outside the eatery on February 6th. more ›

Two churches in Rowland Heights are part of a hate crime investigation after they were vandalized this weekend, according to KTLA. A Jehovah's Witness church at 19111 Killian Avenue was vandalized with graffiti on it's exterior walls that contained "offensive words, phrases and symbols" sometime between 10 p.m on Friday and before 6 a.m. on Saturday. The graffiti has since been removed and the details of the offensive writing haven't been released. more ›

L.A. County deputies shot and killed a suspect in a meat cleaver attack last night in Roland Heights, reports KTLA. In a statement, sheriff officials said they received a 911 call of an assault with a deadly weapon in the 18500 block of Colima Road. Deputies were met on the scene by a woman who said her son was stabbing her boyfriend. more ›

Ongoing power outages continue across the Southland this afternoon as the worst of the storm hits. As of the last updates released by utilities, about 13,000 customers are without power between the L.A Department of Water & Power and Southern California Edison. more ›

Utility crews across Southern California have been working tirelessly to return power to customers throughout these three storms. The L.A. Department of Water reported 1,700 outages at 10 a.m., half the amount reported earlier in the morning. more ›

There were two headlines from the news today that were similar in context and timing: more ›

Photo by LAist Editor-at-Large Carolyn Kellogg via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr more ›

Maybe local politicians aren't so boring after all. The Daily News says that US Congressman Gary Miller of the 42nd District -- which covers Diamond Bar, Whittier, La Habra Heights and Rowland Heights in LA County -- got into a shoving match with a CNN cameraman. Apparently after being manhandled by the cameraman, who must've wanted a better shot of Arnold, Miller pushed back saying, "do it again, push me again." more ›

Oddly, we're not ashamed to say we're watching American Idol this year. Maybe because they've given away with all pretense of being a legitimate competition, we can give up on thinking of it as a guilty pleasure. There's a subtle wink and a nod between the tv and us every time we sit down and speed through the boring parts to get to the drama. Last night, Simon, Randy and Paula finally widdled it down to the 24 finalists. Twelve men, Twelve women and only one that we can really consider a hometown girl. Amanda Avila is from Rowland Heights which, after we looked it up, we realized can reasonably be called part of LA. LAist doesn't know much about Amanda, she's one of the finalists that hasn't had much screen time until this point, but she graduated from Los Angeles County High School for the Arts so we hold out hope she's worth our love. more ›