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3 crosses at predominantly Black and Latino California church set on fire; police investigating possible hate crime

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:24 GMT

Officials were working Thursday, July 6 to determine who set three crosses outside a church in Sylmar on fire early that morning in what local and federal law enforcement were treating as a possible hate crime.By the afternoon, arson investigators with the Los Angeles Fire Department were examining one of the crosses outside Sylmar Christian Fellowship Church at 13901 Polk Street.The investigators had taken the cross to cut a small sample from the charred wood. They wiped the same cross with a solution and took a sample from the residue.  And they took soil samples from around the base of the crosses — all in an effort to determine how they were set on fire.Nearby, Pierre Howard, the church’s pastor for the last 13 years, was adamant the crosses would stay, charred and damaged as they were.“(They) have been through something,” Howard said. “They got a story to tell.”Police and firefighters were called to the church at around 5 a.m. on Thursday. When they arrived, the crosses had cle...

California animal rescuers and advocates seek donations, volunteers to help sick sea lions

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:24 GMT

The largest toxic algae bloom ever recorded off Southern California’s coast is continuing to sicken sea lions and other marine mammals, and it’s unclear how much longer it will last, one marine mammal specialist said Thursday, July 6.More than 1,000 sea lions and dolphins have fallen ill and washed up along California’s coastline over the last several weeks.John Warner, chief executive of Marine Mammal Care Center Los Angeles, which operates an animal hospital in San Pedro, said the hospital typically admits about 20 animals this time of year, but the facility has been at maximum capacity, having treated about 120 creatures since the second week of June.In recent weeks, dozens of sea lions have fallen ill due to a significant algae bloom along the coast and a resting place has been designated for sick sea lions in Marina del Rey on Thursday, July 6, 2023. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)L.A. City Councilmember Traci Park speaks at a press conference to address the rec...

Man wrongfully convicted of 1983 California murder poised to get $3 million settlement

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:24 GMT

A man who spent 37 years in prison after he was wrongfully convicted for a 1983 murder and robbery in Long Beach is poised to receive a $3 million settlement from Los Angeles County.The county Claims Board recommended Monday that the Board of Supervisors settle a lawsuit filed by 62-year-old Samuel Bonner, whose conviction was overturned in 2019 due to prosecutorial misconduct.Andrew M. Stein, an attorney who represents Bonner, declined to discuss the pending settlement. Bonner, a truck driver who lives in California’s Central Valley, could not be reached for comment. He has been free since 2019, when Superior Court Judge Daniel Lowenthal ordered his release and would later declare him factually innocent.Bonner’s case began on Nov. 11, 1982, when he agreed to drive an acquaintance, Watson Allison, to Rose Park in Long Beach to meet with a man named Leonard Polk, according to court records.An undercover police officer followed Bonner’s gray Ford because it looked suspicious, he said,...

Review: ‘Lesson’ provides a spicy literary thriller

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:24 GMT

By Lindsey Bahr | Associated PressThe egos are as vast and thorny as the gardens on the lush estate of a prominent author in ” The Lesson,” an entertaining and erudite chamber piece about a master, a tutor and a family after loss.This is a story that, in different hands, could have easily turned maudlin or melodramatic, but director Alice Troughton, writer Alex MacKeith and composer Isobel Waller-Bridge opted instead for wry lightness within the construct of a slow-burn thriller. It’s as though “The Lesson,” and everyone involved, is winking at the audience through the serious material that lingers, intentionally, on the fine line between pretentious and provocative.Daryl McCormack, of “Good Luck to You, Leo Grande” and “Bad Sisters,” plays Liam Sommers, an aspiring writer who has accepted a job tutoring the son of world-famous author J.M. Sinclair (Richard E. Grant), who also happens to be his literary idol. But the film begins ...

Blow: Court’s affirmative action ruling enshrines racial imbalance

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:24 GMT

There is a recurrent theme in American history: the clawing back of hard-won progress. And the Supreme Court last week used the most specious of arguments to do so with affirmative action.In the majority opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that affirmative action — in this case, the use of race as a factor in university admissions — cannot stand because “eliminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it.” But, of course, neither the court nor America itself has any desire to eliminate all of it. Reading that line was like having someone spit in my face.What the court was really signaling was that it intended to let racial imbalances born of both historical and current injustices be locked in and go unchecked.Affirmative action, however imperfect, is at least an acknowledgment of racialized imbalance and injury, and an attempt to lessen their effects.The court, with this decision, was washing its hands of racial discrimination that is not overt, conscious and codifi...

HGTV star Christina Hall’s former California house lists at $8 million

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:24 GMT

A renovated Newport Beach home previously owned by HGTV star Christina Hall is up for grabs at $7.995 million.The ask is 49% more than the $5.35 million county documents show the 39-year-old host of “Christina on the Coast” and “Christina in the Country” got in June 2021.With its metal roof and board-and-batten siding, this 4,804-square-foot, two-story house sits on over a half-acre lot with a resort-style backyard. Constructed in 1999 and updated by the current owner, it has five bedrooms, five bathrooms and an open-concept floor plan.The listing calls it a “perfect harmony of minimalist aesthetics and efficient space utilization.”RELATED: Peek inside ‘Flip or Flop’ star Christina El Moussa’s new $4.1 million California homeInside are all-white walls, wide-plank, white oak flooring, clerestory windows and a soaring vaulted ceiling with skylights. An oversized center island with seating outfits the gourmet kitchen that opens to the great room.Slide-away glass doors extend the living...

Basketball drama ‘Swagger’ drops season 2 on Apple TV+

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:24 GMT

(new Image()).src = "https://capi.connatix.com/tr/si?token=9be9c680-c459-4acb-af21-654a2ccca384&cid=c2ffed0c-3624-46c0-b10f-97c976d290a3";cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "9be9c680-c459-4acb-af21-654a2ccca384",mediaId: "b8452759-8be3-42fb-a7bf-16830a130e45"}).render("747fe7306e64448398ba7e7faa6253b2"); });Hear our full chat on my podcast “Beyond the Fame with Jason Fraley.” toggle audio on and off change volume download audio WTOP's Jason Fraley chats with the creators of 'Swagger' (Part 1) $(function () { $('.wtop-audio-container .fa-play').on('click', function(){ var audio_filename = $('div.wtop-audio-file').data("mp3-url"); ...

EXCLUSIVO CNN: el equipo del fiscal especial interrogan a testigos sobre la caótica reunión en el Despacho Oval después de que Trump perdiera las elecciones de 2020

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:24 GMT

(CNN) — El equipo del fiscal especial Jack Smith dio señales de mantener el interés en una caótica reunión en el Despacho Oval que tuvo lugar en los últimos días de la administración Trump, durante la cual el expresidente consideró algunas de las propuestas más desesperadas para mantenerse en el poder a pesar de las objeciones de los consejeros de la Casa Blanca.Varias fuentes le dijeron a CNN que los investigadores entrevistaron a varios testigos ante el jurado investigador y durante las entrevistas sobre la reunión, la cual ocurrió unas seis semanas después de que Donald Trump perdiera las elecciones de 2020. Se preguntó a algunos testigos sobre la reunión hace meses, mientras que varios otros han enfrentado preguntas al respecto más recientemente, incluido Rudy Giuliani.El mes pasado, durante dos días consecutivos, Giuliani se reunió con los investigadores para una entrevista voluntaria sobre una variedad de temas, incluida la tumultuosa reunión de diciembre de 2020 a la qu...

Denver weather: Another chance for severe storms, Pinpoint Weather Alert Day

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:24 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) — Friday is a Pinpoint Weather Alert Day for thunderstorms that will move across the Front Range. Denver intersection keeps flooding; what’s being done Some storms could be strong to severe, bringing hail and wind, lightning and heavy rain in the Denver weather forecast. Pinpoint Weather: Severe weather outlook on July 7.Weather today: Afternoon stormsFriday will start with morning fog and partly sunny skies. This will be followed by an increasing chance for showers and thunderstorms in the afternoon and evening. Some of these storms could be strong to severe, especially east of Denver and into the plains.Pinpoint Weather: Daily forecast on July 7. Weather tonight: Storms ending Thunderstorms will wrap up Friday night, and Denver will be left with a mainly cloudy sky. Low temperatures will stay seasonal and fall to the mid-50s. Pinpoint Weather: Overnight temperatures on July 7.Looking ahead: Drier and warmer A drier and warmer pattern will move in on Sunday and la...

Denver violent crimes rose to second highest in May 2023

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:24 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) — Denver hasn't just had its wettest months this spring, it's also had some of its most violent. Police were investigating three overnight shootings in downtown Denver on July 1 that sent several people to the hospital. Data from the Denver Police Department shows that violent crimes from this year are already higher than in years past. The data looked at the monthly number of robberies, aggravated assaults and murders from 2018 to 2023. Both the monthly number of violent crimes and the total number of violent crimes to date are rising in 2023.  16 indicted on 116 felonies in one of biggest drug busts in West Metro This May, there was a near-record level of violent crime in Denver. The Colorado Bureau of Investigation has May 2023 crime data available, and the new numbers are headed in the wrong direction for Denver. There were 640 murders, aggravated assaults and robberies in May, more than any month since 2008 except for July 2022 when there were 684. Violent crime...