Extra, Extra: Beer Saves Lives

"modelo" Photo by pink_fish13 via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr

• Sad news for childhood memories. "Larry Harmon, who turned the character Bozo the Clown into a show business staple that delighted children for more than a half-century, died Thursday of congestive heart failure. He was 83," reports the Associated Press.
• Two Cypress women are safe today after escaping a burglar by offering him a beer. The burglar calmly took the beer while choking one of the women, then they all moved to the living room and sat in the most awkward silence ever experienced. Homer Simpson was right, "Here's to alcohol, the cause of—and solution to—all life's problems."
• There was a fire in East LA this morning at what seems to be a factory that smelts lead batteries and other material. Don't worry though, a HAZMAT teams said the gases aren't toxic.
• LA residents are trying to save money/go green by taking mass transit these days, but some are getting frustrated with the inability of Metro to keep its schedule. Bottleneck Blog heard one man's struggle, and is now going to call Metro and petition a law that Metro Board Members must commute by bus a few days a week.
• A Honda veered off the road, over-corrected, then slammed into an SUV early this morning in San Juan Capistrano. The driver and passenger of the Honda died and the SUV passengers were taken to the local hospital.
• Foothill Transit taxpayers beware! Your money is going towards a transportation conference for 8 Foothill Transit employees in Paris. All the conference rooms in America must have been booked...
• A Los Amitos church accountant is being sued by her church for stealing over $100,000 in offerings and donations since 2000 in order to make improvements to her home. Freda Kaye Holt was planning to sell her home after the improvements then move out of state.
• We've been reporting on all of the strange cat slayings in La Quinta, and unfortunately the death toll has risen to 6.
• A mummified body was found in an abandoned Beverly Hills home recently and Police are asking the community to help them ID the corpse. So, if anyone knows of a homeless man they haven't seen in a year, call the Police.