Lindsay William-Ross

Some figures released by California Attorney General Kamala D. Harris today indicate that the homicide rate has gone down 9.6% statewide, and is at its lowest since 1966. Further, California saw a 6.4% overall decline in violent crimes. The figures represent data gathered by the Department of Justice from the state's largest jurisdictions for 2010. Harris attributes the work of law enforcement for the drop in the statistics: "The decline in homicides and other...

Photo by www.voteJoeC.com via Flickr Shots rang out last night around 8:30 p.m. in a South Los Angeles neighborhood, striking a man, and fatally striking his two-year-old nephew, who he held in his arms. The man and child were "not the intended targets," the Los Angeles Police Department told ABC7. The bullets that struck both victims in the head traveled far, according to authorities. LAPD Capt. Mark Olvera explains: "It looks like [the bullets]...

The courtyard of Bastide (Lindsay William-Ross/LAist) Food trends of note: Cupcakes, food trucks, food truck backlash, nose-to-tail butchery...and pretending to close for remodeling when you're really closing down for good. The latest local restaurant to qualify under the latter: West Hollywood's Bastide. Eater confirms that it's not a new decor that has the contemporary French courtyard restaurant under lock-and-key. Bastide has long had a rep for being home to the revolving kitchen door. In,...

A Pasadena woman trying to be a good sport by helping out a man asking her some questions from a parked car was given what the Star-News is politely calling "an unpleasant surprise." That surprise? He was naked, except for a baseball cap. On his head. Authorities say the man, thought to be white or Hispanic and between 20 and 30 years old, waved the woman over near California Boulevard and Catalina Avenue at...

Will Norton (via Facebook) 18-year-old Will Norton was on his way home after his high school graduation when the tornado struck Joplin, Missouri, and now the young man, poised to attend the OC's Chapman University in the fall is missing. Norton, according to a CNN iReport, was yanked out of his vehicle through the sunroof, by the force of the storm. The iReport explains: Will's father attempted to grab onto Will as the windshield...

Photo from a 2009 protest (Emmanuel Uche/LAist) Several dozen protests are being held statewide today to spotlight the perils of cuts made to funding for public education. Locally, such protests are taking place in Long Beach, Sherman Oaks, Studio City, Valley Village, Van Nuys and elsewhere in Los Angeles, according to ABC7. Outside Millikan Middle School in Sherman Oaks, the crowd chanted "No more cuts! No more cuts!" and were clad in dark clothing,...

The woman whose body was discovered among the trash at heavily-used Wilmington facility has been identified as 24-year-old Latrecia Lavrea Hill of Long Beach, according to the Daily Breeze. Hill's body was found by workers at the trash sorting venue Friday evening, however it is not yet known from which truck the body was delivered. The coroner says the cause of death will remain deferred until they have the results of toxicology studies. The...

A Family Radio "Judgment Day" billboard in Houston, TX (Photo by gsloan via Flickr) The rapture came...and went...on Saturday, and, well, we're all still here. Today, former porn actress Jennifer Ketcham explores the post-nonapocalypse issue in the Huffington Post, namely if those "true believers" who made significant plans and life changes to prepare for the May 21st rapture can sue Bay Area-based prophet Harold Camping. Camping, of Oakland-based Family Radio, mounted an extensive billboard...

The Thirsty Crow's signature house drink (Lindsay William-Ross/LAist) This news ought to put the cherry in the Manhattan of bourbon-loving Silver Lakers, and their fellow imbibing Angelenos: Esquire has hailed The Thirsty Crow as one of the nation's best bars. Esquire says this year's list was compiled using a slightly different philosophy than in prior years. On their list in 2011: New places. Most less than two years old. Which is trickier than it...

Photo by Tim Pearce, Los Gatos via Flickr California can stall no more, says the Supreme Court today, in a 5-4 ruling that affirms the state's proposed prisoner release plan is among the actions needed to address the system's overcrowding, according to the Sacramento Bee. The court believes that conditions in California prisons reflect "serious constitutional violations," which must be tended to expediently. Those violations represent what the court hails as "cruel and unusual...

Graph via Gallup The results of a new Gallup poll show that a majority of Americans believe that same-sex marriages should be recognized as equal to traditional marriages under the law. At 53%, this result marks the first time since Gallup began tracking the issue that those polled were more in favor of recognizing same-sex marriages by law. However, Gallup notes that the results have remained consistently divided among political party lines and by...

Scott and Jean Adam (via Quest) The man accused of killing local couple Jean and Scott Adam after hijacking their yacht in the Gulf of Arden has pleaded guilty in a federal court in Virginia, according to the Associated Press. Mohamud Hirs Issa Ali of Somalia is "among 15 suspects from Somalia and Yemen facing charges related to the February hijacking of the yacht Quest." The Adams were Christian missionaries based in Marina Del...