Author: Shelby Grad

With the Academy Awards in Hollywood this weekend, millions will be looking up at the stars.

But if you look to the ground on the sidewalks of Tinseltown, you see stars too. On a night that celebrates the hot new performers and movies, the Hollywood Walk of Fame is a history lesson in show business.

Since its beginning in 1960, the Walk of Fame has proved a perennial draw
to tourists eager to see the stars. An

estimated 10 million visitors come each year to the 18-block stretch.

The original plans called for 1,529 of the biggest stars of film, stage,
radio, television and music to eventually be immortalized in the concrete
using brass set in salmon-colored terrazzo stars surrounded by black
backgrounds.

As of March 2010, there were more than 2,300 stars on the walk, representing 2,100 individuals or organizations.

The Walk of Fame was conceived in the 1950s by business leaders in Hollywood
as a way to beautify the area’s historic core.

The groundbreaking ceremony on
Feb. 8, 1960, featured actresses
Linda Darnell and Gigi
Perreau, as well as veteran actors
Francis X. Bushman and
Charles Coburn,
using shovels to scoop up the dirt.

In addition, about 500 stars on the walk are currently blank,
essentially acting as placeholders for future honorees.

Although the area near the famed intersection of Hollywood and Vine had
been a central point for the fledgling movie industry before World War II, the
area’s glamour had long since faded by the time producer
Stanley Kramer’s star
became the first actually set into the sidewalk on March 28, 1960.

Seven types of stars can be found on the Walk of Fame.

The most common, by far, has been awarded for work in the field of motion pictures.
Performers are also recognized for work in the fields of television, radio, live
performance and recording.

Fifteen "special stars" have
been awarded to events or companies,
including the 1969 Apollo moon landing and news organizations such as the Los Angeles Times and Variety.
There is even a star for well-known lingerie model Victoria’s Secret Angels, which was granted in 2007 to the
well-known lingerie wearing models.

Gene Autry
is the only person to be awarded stars in the five fields recognized on the
Walk of Fame: film, TV, radio, live performance and music. During his lifetime, Autry emerged as both a
top moneymaking entertainer and a powerful businessman. As his 1998 obituary said,
"He was enormously successful at almost anything he tried — radio, records,
songwriting, television, real estate and business, as well as movies and museums."

The late Bob Hope
and romantic crooner
Tony Martin,
who turned 96 on Dec. 25, 2009, are next with
four stars each. Thirty-three people, including
Frank Sinatra,
Danny Kaye and
Jack Benny, have been awarded stars in three fields.

Only two women have three stars, Dinah Shore and Gale Storm, a radio and television star best known for the program "My Little Margie."

In addition, there are four special markers at Hollywood
Boulevard and Vine Street to commemorate the Apollo landing in 1969.

The Times’ Hollywood Star Walk virtual tour
follows the actual order of the more than 2,400 terrazzo stars on the
Walk of Fame, which stretches along Hollywood Boulevard and Vine
Street. This order was created based on work by Times researchers to
catalog the locations and generate points on a map for each. Each
star was photographed.

The virtual tour is powered by an in-depth database — created
using more than a century of the archives of the Los Angeles Times. On
the database pages, the locations of the terrazzo stars appear on a map
as close as possible to their precise location. In addition, those maps
may include other places meaningful in the star’s life.

— Megan Garvey and Anthony Pesce

Photo: The Feb. 8, 1960, groundbreaking ceremony with,
from left, L.A. County Supervisor Ernest Debs, E.M. Stuart, Gigi Perreau,
Linda Darnell, Harry M. Sugarman, Francis X. Bushman and Charles Coburn. Credit: Times file

A new Times database puts readers on the sidewalks of Hollywood, using more than a century of archives to track the lives of the stars, including current Oscar nominees Jeff Bridges, James Cameron, Matt Damon, Morgan Freeman, Sandra Bullock and Meryl Streep.

Getting through Hollywood is going to be a chore this weekend as streets close for Sunday’s Academy Awards. A portion of Hollywood Boulevard is already shut down between Highland Avenue and Orange Drive, and L.A. officials said more closures would occur Sunday morning:

— Hollywood Boulevard will be closed from La
Brea Avenue to Cahuenga Boulevard.

— Highland Avenue will be closed between
Franklin Avenue and Sunset Boulevard.

— Many smaller streets in the area will also be closed.

— The southbound Highland Avenue offramp from the Hollywood (101) Freeway will
be closed.

— Metro subway trains will bypass the Hollywood and Highland station
beginning after the last scheduled train Saturday. The trains will continue
to bypass the station until 6 a.m. Monday.

— Parking restrictions will be in place on Hollywood, La Brea, Vine, Highland and many other streets on Sunday, and
violators will be towed.

RELATED:

A new Times database puts readers on the sidewalks of Hollywood, using more than a century of archives to track the lives of the stars, including current Oscar nominees Jeff Bridges, James Cameron, Matt Damon, Morgan Freeman, Sandra Bullock and Meryl Streep.

Photo: Scenic artist Dena D’Angelo sprays paint on the base of the giant
Oscar statue placed Friday morning at Hollywood Boulevard and
Highland Avenue in Hollywood, which marks the entrance to the red carpet
for the 82nd Academy Awards presentation this Sunday. Credit: Al Seib / Los
Angeles Times

At the Twin Towers Correctional Facility, Jaime Iniguez was awakened Friday morning and told to get ready to leave.





Iniguez, 53, was serving a four-month sentence for drunk driving, his
second DUI offense. He wasn’t scheduled to be released for another
month.





"It’s time to celebrate," said Iniguez as he put on his belt outside the downtown jail complex.





Iniguez is a member of a distinct group that benefits during a sour economy: jail inmates.





When times are flush, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has
the money to keep jails open and staffed, and the vast majority of
sentenced inmates serve most of their time behind bars.





But when times get tough and tax revenues shrink, the department has
repeatedly looked to its jail operations to make cuts, freeing
thousands of inmates who’ve served only a fraction of their sentences.

The length of jail stays has ebbed and flowed in tune with L.A.
County’s budget for more than two decades, leaving the county during
financial crunches with some of the weakest jail sentences in the
nation.

Read the full story here.

–Jack Leonard and Ruben Vives

Security guards and a customer restrained a gunman after a shootout at a Long Beach bank this morning.

Authorities released few details, but KTLA News quoted sources as
saying that three people were shot and that the gunman was in custody.
Long Beach Police Department officials confirmed a bank robbery had
occurred and that a suspect was wounded, but they declined to give further details.

The wounded, including the suspected robber, were taken to a local hospital where they were treated for non-life-threatening injuries, said Lisa Massacani, a spokeswoman
for the Long Beach Police Department.  

Police responded to a report of a robbery at the Farmers & Merchants bank on Bellflower Boulevard near the 405 Freeway about 10:30 a.m., Massacani said. The bank is near the Los Altos shopping center, a bustling marketplace that has a Sears, Trader Joe’s and Target.

Witnesses described a dramatic scene.

Southern California Edison meter reader Alice Ramirez told The Times
that she was making her rounds at 10:30 a.m. and was about to open the door
of the bank to read its meter when she heard four gunshots. At first it
sounded like heavy hammering and I thought it was construction work.
Then I looked through the glass and saw at least three people lying on
the floor. I ran out to the parking lot and saw two people in cars and
yelled, ‘I just heard gunshots,’ called 911.”

Ramirez said a few moments later a man emerged from the bank,
motioning with his hands and shouting,
“Those were gunshots. Go, go, go!”

Police investigators were interviewing about 15 bank employees and
customers just outside the entrance. Some of them were obviously shaken,
teary-eyed and being consoled by friends and colleagues.

As his daughter, a clerk at the bank, was being interviewed by
investigators, Jesus Obeso, 62, waited just outside the yellow police
tape staring at the bank building. 

“My daughter said a man entered wearing a motorcycle helmet. But he
didn’t take it off. Then she heard the gunshots and like everyone else
she fell to the floor. She said a customer ran out and grabbed the
shooter from behind, holding tight and yelling, ‘I need help, I need
help!’”

Obeso’s daughter told him that security officers grabbed the man and that
everyone was running out of the building. Police arrived with shotguns,
and customers shouted at them, “Go inside; they caught him.”

Obeso said his daughter was not wounded by gunfire and was in good condition, although she was shaken. Law enforcement personnel wearing shirts with the word
“forensics” could be seen entering and leaving the bank.

Strewn across the bank floor were a red motorcycle helmet, gloves, a
gun holster and shell casings.

Bill Brant, 45, of Lakewood was working in his garden Friday morning when  his ex-wife called and said  there was a shooting at the bank, where  his mother  worked as a teller.

Brant’s mind immediately went to the worst possibility: that his mother had been wounded.

He rushed to the bank and found out his mother, Nancy Brant, was fine. He was able to cross police lines and talk to her.

"She’s fine, but she was just shaken up."

After they spoke, police took his mother back into the bank for more questioning. Brant waited on the sidewalk, breaking down in tears.

He said Nancy Brant has worked as a teller at the bank for nine years, and that he’s worried about her every day when she goes to work, mostly because he said the bank does not have protective glass shields around   the tellers.

"You never know what’s going to happen," he said.

— Louis Sahagun and My-Thuan Tran in Long Beach

Photo: KTLA

Three people were shot and wounded during an attempted robbery at a Farmers & Merchants Bank in Long Beach Friday, authorities said.

[Updated at 1:10 p.m.: The wounded, including the suspected robber, were taken to a local hospital where they were treated for non-life-threatening injuries, said Lisa Massacani, a spokeswoman for the Police Department.  

Police responded to a report of a robbery at the bank on Bellflower Boulevard about 10:30 a.m., Massacani said.]

Witnesses described a dramatic scene.

Southern California Edison meter reader Alice Ramirez told The Times that she was making her rounds at 10:30 a.m. and about to open the door of the bank to read its meter when “I heard four gunshots. At first it sounded like heavy hammering and I thought it was construction work. Then I looked through the glass and saw at least three people lying on the floor. I ran out to the parking lot and saw two people in cars and yelled, ‘I just heard gunshots,’ called 911.”

Ramirez said a few moments later a man emerged from the bank, motioning with his hands and shouting out to anyone within earshot, “Those were gunshots. Go, go, go!”

Authorities released few details, but KTLA News quoted sources as saying that three people were shot and that the gunman was in custody. Long Beach Police Department officials confirmed a bank robbery had occurred but declined to give further details.

Police investigators were interviewing about 15 bank employees and customers just outside the entrance. Some of them were obviously shaken, teary-eyed and being consoled by friends and colleagues.

As his daughter, a clerk at the bank, was being interviewed by investigators, Jesus Obeso, 62, waited just outside the yellow police tape staring at the bank building. 

“My daughter said a man entered wearing a motorcycle helmet. But he didn’t take it off. Then she heard the gunshots and like everyone else she fell to the floor. She said a customer ran out and grabbed the shooter from behind, holding tight and yelling, ‘I need help, I need help!’”

She told him that security officers grabbed hold of the man and that everyone was running out of the building. Police arrived with shotguns, and customers shouted at them, “Go inside; they caught him.”

Obeso said his daughter was in good condition, complaining only of some discomfort. Law enforcement personnel wearing shirts with the word “forensics” could be seen entering and leaving the bank.

Strewn across the bank floor were a red motorcyle helmet, gloves, a gun holster and shell casings.

— Louis Sahagun and My-Thuan Tran in Long Beach

The parents of the man shot to death after pulling a gun on Pentagon police guards Thursday had reported him missing in January and asked local authorities to hold him, concerned about his mental health.

[Updated at 12:48 p.m.: The family of the gunman, John Patrick Bedell, released the following statement Friday, according to the Hollister (Calif.) Free Lance:

"We are devastated as a family by the news from yesterday. To the outside world, this tragedy is the first and only thing they will know of Patrick. To us, he was a beloved son, brother, grandson, nephew, and cousin. We may never know why he made this terrible decision. One thing is clear though — his actions were caused by an illness and not a defective character.



"We wish for the speedy and complete recovery of the two officers involved. The family asks that you respect their privacy in this terrible time."]

The parents of Bedell, 36, of Hollister filed a
missing-person report on Jan. 4, said San Benito County Sheriff Curtis
Hill.

Hill said the report stemmed from a call the family received from a Texas state trooper on Jan. 3.

The trooper said he had stopped their son for speeding on a freeway heading west outside Amarillo, Hill said.

The trooper used Bedell’s cellphone to call Bedell’s parents, apparently trying to determine whether there was sufficient cause for a mental-health hold on Bedell.

“There’s an inference in [the report] that he was concerned about his mental health,” Hill said.

It’s unclear what Bedell’s mother told the trooper. Apparently finding no cause to hold Bedell, the trooper let him go, Hill said.

Hill said Bedell’s mother called San Benito County sheriff’s deputies the next day to report her son missing and to ask for a mental-health hold in the event he was located. Deputies went to the Bedell house later. By then, his mother said, he had returned home, but she told deputies she couldn’t find him.

The missing-person case remained open until Jan. 18, when deputies returned to the Bedell home. His father told them he’d returned and to cancel the missing-person report, which they did, Hill said.

[Updated at 12:34 p.m.: In the San Benito County sheriff’s Jan. 4 missing-person report, Bedell’s father said Patrick and Patrick’s brother had been in an argument about three weeks before. The father said he had not seen Patrick since Dec. 30. His son, he said, had been living and working in San Jose, but he didn’t know where.



According to the report, the Texas state trooper told Bedell’s mother, Karen, that he was concerned for her son’s mental health because his car appeared to be in disarray. He said that Bedell had told him he was on his way to the East Coast.



Bedell’s mother told the officer that he was OK, according to the report. She spoke briefly with her son, who said he was OK.



The father told San Benito County deputies that he was concerned for his son’s safety. He said Bedell had a medical marijuana card, had been detained for mental evaluation before and had no friends or relatives on the East Coast.



On January 18, deputies returned to the Bedell home. Bedell’s father said his son had returned a few days before, and asked his parents “not to ask him any questions about where he was,” according to the report. Deputies removed his name from the missing-persons database.]

In 2006, Orange County court records show, Bedell was arrested and charged with cultivating marijuana and resisting arrest. The marijuana charge was later dropped and he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor of resisting arrest. He served three years’ probation, which ended in August, and for which he did Caltrans community service, according to court records.

[Updated at 1:26 p.m. Irvine police arrested Bedell at his apartment on Amherst Aisle after neighbors reported him growing marijuana on a balcony.



Seeing the plants, officers obtained a search warrant for his apartment. Four days later, they returned and found 16 marijuana plants, along with an irrigation system, lights and other growing equipment. Bedell was alone in the apartment, according to the police report, and was arrested. He refused to leave under his own power and officers had to carry him to the patrol car.



Officers confiscated cards listing his name and a business, One Gram Cannabis, said Irvine police Lt. Henry Boggs.]

Bedell had recently attended San Jose State University as a graduate student, studying electrical engineering, said Pat Harris, university spokeswoman. He’d enrolled in courses in the fall of 2008 through fall of 2009, she said. He hadn’t enrolled for the 2010 spring semester, but “he was a student in good standing. He was not on academic probation” nor did he have a criminal record at the university, Harris said.

–Sam Quinones

Photo: John Patrick Bedell

Credit: Federal Bureau of Investigation

At least one person was shot during a bank robbery in Long Beach on Friday morning.

The shooting occurred at the 2300 block of Bellflower Bouelvard at the Farmers and Merchants Bank. Long Beach police confirmed a bank robbery occurred there but provided no further details.

KTLA News reported that the suspect appeared to be in custody and that the shooting occurred in the bank. 

The bank is in a major Long Beach shopping district near a Target, Trader Joe’s market and a Sears store. Streets were blocked off in the area.

–Ann M. Simmons

[For the record, 12:10 p.m.: A previous version of this post incorrectly stated that there is a Whole Foods market in the shopping district.] 

Photo: Scene at bank robbery in Long Beach. Credit: KTLA News.

Los Angeles International Airport is among nine airports nationwide to get body-scanning equipment, according to the Transportation Security Administration.

Three other California airports — San Jose, San Diego and Oakland — will also be getting the equipment, the TSA announced in a statement on Friday.

“Explosive Trace Detection technology is a critical tool in our ability to stay ahead of evolving threats to aviation security,” TSA Acting Administrator Gale Rossides said in a statement. “Expanding the use of this technology at checkpoints and at departure gates greatly enhances security to keep the traveling public safe.”

There have been increased calls for body-scanning equipment since the failed Christmas Day bombing attempt on a Detroit-bound jet. But some have expressed concerns about workers viewing the bodies of passengers.

The new scanners will be placed in the passenger security-line areas, officials said.

— Shelby Grad

In a letter addressed to parents and community members, a South Los Angeles elementary school principal apologized Thursday for “questionable decisions” about which prominent African Americans to highlight in a parade marking the culmination of Black History Month.

Lorraine Abner’s letter did not name the individuals. But her apology came after three teachers at Wadsworth Avenue Elementary School were suspended while the Los Angeles Unified School District investigates allegations that they had their first-, second- and fourth-grade students carry pictures of O.J. Simpson, Dennis Rodman and RuPaul at last Friday’s event.

“Unfortunately, questionable decisions were made in the selection of noteworthy African American role models,” the letter said. “As the principal, I offer my apology for these errors in judgment.”

Abner could not be reached for comment Thursday. 

LAUSD spokeswoman Gayle Pollard-Terry said Simpson appeared on a school-approved list of Black History Month figures, which dates back to 1985. But she said the names of Rodman and RuPaul, among others, were added in pencil when teachers were selecting which prominent African Americans their classes would honor in the parade.

Pollard-Terry said the principal did not see the amended list, which LAUSD Superintendent Ramon C. Cortines called a lack of oversight.

Some civil rights activists and groups, including the Los Angeles branch of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, protested Wednesday that those choices made a mockery of black history and reinforced racial stereotypes at a school that is predominantly Latino. They want the teachers, who are white, to be fired and the principal, who was not on campus last Friday, to be reprimanded.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa expressed “shock and outrage” at the teachers’ alleged actions.

“These teachers undermined the school’s well-intentioned celebration, and they did so at the expense of elementary school students,” Villaraigosa said in a statement. 

But some parents said the incident had been blown out of proportion.

“I don’t see why they chose them and not Barack Obama, but I don’t think it is worth firing them,” said Lizeth Santos, who was collecting her 4-year-old daughter from Wadsworth on Thursday afternoon.

Other students carried pictures of Obama, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Harriet Tubman in the parade, which took place on the school playground, Pollard-Terry said.

Abner said the school would be working with the district’s Office of Human Relations, Diversity and Equity to help students and adults learn from the experience; providing lessons that reflect “a multicultural curriculum that is culturally relevant"; and maintaining open communication with parents and the community to “grow from this experience.”

The teachers have not been identified and could not be reached for comment.

— Alexandra Zavis

The parents of Chelsea King said they will fight for changes in sex-offender laws as a result of their daughter’s slaying.

Chelsea, 17, was raped and killed, allegedly by a registered sex offender now in custody. She was last seen jogging around a lake near her home in San Diego County.

Brent King, her father, said on two morning TV new shows Friday that laws need to be changed so that registered sex offenders are restricted from being around children.

"Kids [need to be] kids and be safe," Brent King told NBC’s "Today" show. "And predators should not be allowed within their reach."

The suspect, John Albert Gardner III, 30, was charged Wednesday and faces the death penalty if convicted of murder. Authorities said DNA from semen found on Chelsea’s clothing linked him to the crime.

 Gardner, 6 feet 2 and
weighing 230 pounds, pleaded guilty in 2000 to molesting a
13-year-old girl.

A psychiatrist at the time recommended that
Gardner be given the maximum sentence of at least 10 years in prison. San
Diego County prosecutors recommended a six-year term. "It is my opinion
that [the defendant] would be a continued danger to underage [girls] in
the community," said the psychiatrist in the court documents.

According to the Megan’s Law website, Gardner lived in Lake
Elsinore, in Riverside County, but was visiting his mother in San Diego
County last week.

Brent King told NBC he will have more to say about specific changes in the law at a later date.

His wife, Kelly, said current law "lets every child in this country down."

The couple said their 13-year-old son has taken his sister’s killing particularly hard but that he’s heartened by the outpouring of support from the community.

Photo: Brent King and his wife, Kelly, and their son thank a gathering of
about 4,000 people Tuesday at St. Michael’s Church for their help and prayers. Credit: Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times

At least 200 inmates received early releases from the L.A. County jail system this week because officials couldn’t find beds for them as the Sheriff’s Department attempted to downsize the population of a detention facility in Castaic.

The action occurred as the Sheriff’s Department is trying to cuts its budget by about 9% by reducing deputy overtime and slashing the inmate population at the north facility of the Pitchess Detention Center.

Sheriff’s Department spokesman Steve Whitmore said the inmates were released beginning Tuesday. Sheriff’s Department policy requires that most male inmates serve at least 80% of their sentence. Whitmore said these inmate were released after serving only about 50% of their sentence because there was nowhere else to place them.

The releases came the same day Sheriff Lee Baca told The Times in an interview he didn’t believe the proposed cuts would require early releases. Whitmore said Baca was informed about the early releases after the interview.

It remains unclear how many more inmates will be released early. 

On Tuesday, Baca said the department was "still a long way away" from accelerating the early releases of inmates from the county jail system.

Baca said he was considering $128 million in cuts over the next 16 months — or about 9% of the sheriff’s nearly $1.3-billion general fund budget.

Most of the savings — about $58 million — would be achieved through reductions in overtime. Sheriff’s officials said many of the uniformed deputies assigned to administrative duties would work schedules that otherwise would be filled by deputies accruing overtime.

The sheriff’s command staff, including Baca himself, also would help fill gaps in law enforcement staffing, whether it is out on the streets or in the jails.

— Andrew Blankstein

Photo: L.A. Times file

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa expressed shock over allegations that three teachers at a South Los Angeles elementary school encouraged students to celebrate O.J. Simpson, Dennis Rodman and RuPaul during Black History Month.

The teachers have been suspended as the L.A. Unified School district investigates. According to officials, children at Wadsworth Avenue Elementary School were carrying pictures of the men at a parade Friday on the school playground.

"I am shocked and outraged by the actions of these teachers at Wadsworth Elementary School," Villaraigosa said in a statement. "These teachers undermined the school’s well-intentioned celebration, and they did so at the expense of elementary school students. Their actions were not only cynical, but did a terrible disservice to the students, their families and all of the teachers who work hard on a daily basis to build trust and a productive learning environment."



Los Angeles Unified School District spokeswoman Gayle Pollard-Terry said Supt. Ramon C. Cortines learned about the incident Tuesday and had the teachers, who are white, pulled from their classrooms for the duration of an investigation. The suspension is without pay for the first three days.

"The superintendent believes there are better choices," Pollard-Terry said.



Other students were carrying pictures of President Obama and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.



The teachers have not been identified and could not be reached for comment.



District officials did not provide specific details about what the teachers did, saying the investigation was still ongoing.



Some community leaders aren’t satisfied with the suspensions and are calling for the dismissal of the instructors, who teach first, second and fourth graders.



"I just can’t fathom what these teachers were thinking of except to make a mockery of African American history," said Leon Jenkins, president of the Los Angeles branch of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People.



L.C. "Chris" Strudwick-Turner of the Los Angeles Urban League likened the episode to a series of racially provocative incidents at UC San Diego, where a Feb. 15 off-campus party mocked Black History Month.



"These kinds of things build on each other," she said. "When something like that happens in [San Diego] and there is no immediate consequence, that emboldens others. That’s why I was glad that LAUSD took them out of the classroom right away."



[Updated at 1:38 p.m.: Pollard-Terry said Simpson appeared on the approved list of Black History Month figures, which dates back to 1985. But the names of Rodman and RuPaul, among others, were added in pencil when teachers were selecting which prominent African Americans their classes would honor in the parade. The school principal did not see the list, which Cortines called a lack of oversight, said Pollard-Terry.]



She said the three teachers were believed to have suggested at least some of those names for the list.



The district dispatched a human relations and ethnic diversity team Wednesday to help the school prepare lessons that are "more appropriate for Black History Month," she added.



Strudwick-Turner said the Los Angeles Urban League has been told by people who attended the parade Friday that the teachers had been asked to instruct their classes on a notable African American and that they had selected Simpson, Rodman and RuPaul.

The mayor said in his statement that he hopes the situation will be resolved. "I urge the Los Angeles United School District to take swift and appropriate action with respect to the teachers involved. We cannot stand for such myopic behavior by those whom we entrust to teach and inspire the next generation," he said.

— Alexandra Zavis

Photos: (left to right) O.J. Simpson, Dennis Rodman, RuPaul. Credit: KTLA News

More breaking news in L.A. Now:

O.C. alert system broke down during tsunami
advisory

DNA match of semen found on Chelsea King’s
clothing led to sex offender’s arrest, officials say

Campuses prepare for rallies against education
cuts

Baca says early inmate releases ‘inevitable’
if budget crisis continues

Officials in Orange County found problems with the new AlertOC system when they try tried to notify residents of a possible tsunami surge last weekend.

As the system tried to dial out to an estimated 109,000 home and business land lines simultaneously, only about 34,000, or 30%, of those calls initially succeeded because the network was overloaded, officials said.



“It does have its limitations. That’s why it’s just one of our components to alert residents,” said Katie Eing, emergency services coordinator for the Newport Beach Fire Department

Only a fraction of the lines were reached because the local phone switches couldn’t handle the influx of outgoing calls, she said.

About 75,000 numbers didn’t receive the first call. A second round of calls connected an additional 15,000. Still, about 60,000 people were not given instructions to avoid the coast.

Read the full article here.

— Joseph Serna, Daily Pilot

Map: A representation of the timing of Saturday’s tsunami advisory. Credit: Los Angeles Times

Authorities arrested John Albert Gardner III in connection with the death of Chelsea King after a state lab linked semen found on the teen’s clothes to him, authorities said.

Gardner, a registered sex offender, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to the killing of King, who was last seen jogging near a San Diego County lake.

During a brief court hearing in San Diego, Gardner, 30, said through an attorney that he denied killing King. Handcuffed and dressed in a jail jumpsuit, Gardner himself did not address the court.

Gardner was arrested Sunday afternoon outside a restaurant near Lake Hodges. Authorities said the arrest was made after semen found on King’s clothing was run through a national DNA database and was matched to Gardner.

The 230-pound Gardner, who is registered as living in Lake Elsinore, had been visiting his mother in Rancho Bernardo last week, officials said.

The California Department of Justice told Fox 5 San Diego that detectives were able to arrest Gardner two hours after the match came in.

In 2000, Gardner pleaded guilty to molestation charges involving a 13-year-old girl.

He served five years of a six-year prison term and wore a global-positioning system tracking device until 2008, when his parole term ended.

A dive team found King’s body on a tributary of Lake Hodges, in a wooded area that had been the focus of an extensive search after a shoe was found there Saturday. A diver working his way up the tributary saw debris about 10 feet from the water. That discovery led to the grave.



The site is about half a mile from the parking lot at Rancho Bernardo Community Park, where King had left her car before heading out on the trail.

San Diego County prosecutors said Gardner could be eligible for the death penalty with the charges filed Wednesday. The prosecutors’ office will decide at a later date whether to seek a death sentence.

— Shelby Grad

More coverage by Times reporters Richard Marosi and Amina Khan in San Diego: Among the gated enclaves, anger and fear over Chelsea King’s killing

Photo: John Albert Gardner III in court. Credit: pool photo

More breaking news in L.A. Now:

Villaraigosa shocked at celebration of O.J.
Simpson, RuPaul, Dennis Rodman at L.A. Black History Month event

O.C. alert system broke down during tsunami
advisory

Campuses prepare for rallies against education
cuts

Baca says early inmate releases ‘inevitable’
if budget crisis continues

A son of Robert F. Kennedy is criticizing the Los Angeles Police Department for displaying items in a homicide exhibit in Las Vegas that included
the dress shirt worn by the senator when he was assassinated in 1968.

"I am the son of Robert F. Kennedy, who was murdered in Los Angeles more
than 40 years ago. As the child of a crime victim, I am guaranteed by
the state Constitution that my family and I will be treated with respect
and dignity," Maxwell Taylor Kennedy wrote in an opinion piece for the L.A. Times.  "Yet I was horrified to learn earlier this week that the Los Angeles
Police Department had included the shirt, tie and jacket my father was
wearing when he was assassinated in an exhibition at the California
Homicide Investigators Assn. conference in Las Vegas."

The shirt was among a number of items in the display at the conference, which is being hosted by
the LAPD.

Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck removed the items Tuesday and issued an apology to the Kennedy family.

"The last thing we want to do is traumatize a victim’s family, and I
am very sensitive to that," Beck told The Times. "But at the same time, we want to
preserve the history of the city of Los Angeles and improve the quality
and understanding about our homicide investigations."

Maxwell Kennedy said he was glad the items were removed. "I’m pleased he did so. But he should also remember that such items are
personal property, entrusted to the state’s care, not to be exploited," he wrote.

— Shelby Grad

Three teachers at a South Los Angeles elementary school have been suspended for allegedly encouraging students to celebrate O.J. Simpson, Dennis Rodman and RuPaul for Black History Month, officials said Wednesday.

Children at Wadsworth Avenue Elementary School were carrying pictures of the men at a parade Friday on the school playground, said Los Angeles Unified School District spokeswoman Gayle Pollard-Terry.
She said Supt. Ramon C. Cortines learned about the incident Tuesday and had the teachers, who are white, pulled from their classrooms pending an investigation.

The suspension is without pay for the first three days.

“The superintendent believes there are better choices,” she said. 

Other students were carrying pictures of President Obama and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
The teachers have not been identified and could not be reached for comment.

  District officials did not provide details about what the teachers did, saying the investigation was still ongoing.
.Some community leaders aren’t satisfied with the suspensions and are calling for the dismissal of the instructors, who teach 1st, 2nd and 4th grade.

“I just can’t fathom what these teachers were thinking of except to make a mockery of African American history,” said Leon Jenkins, president of the Los Angeles branch of the National Assn. for  the Advancement of Colored People.

L. C. "Chris" Strudwick-Turner of the Los Angeles Urban League likened the episode to a series of racially provocative incidents at UC San Diego, where a Feb. 15 off-campus party mocked Black History Month.
“These kinds of things build on each other,” she said. “When something like that happens in [San Diego] and there is no immediate consequence, that emboldens others. That’s why I was glad that LAUSD took them out of the classroom right away.”

Pollard-Terry said Simpson, Rodman and RuPaul were included on a list of prominent African Americans approved by the school for study during Black History Month. She said the three teacher were believed to have suggested at least some of those names for the list. Strudwick-Turner said the Urban League has been told by people who attended the parade that the  teachers had been asked to instruct their classes on a notable African American and that they had Simpson, Rodman and RuPaul.

The district had dispatched a human relations and ethnic diversity team Wednesday to help the school prepare lessons that are “more appropriate for Black History Month,” she added.

–Alexandra Zavis

Students were sent home from Huntington Beach High School on Wednesday after police discovered what appeared to be an explosive device.

Police were called to the school about 9:30 a.m. to investigate a report that a student was in possession of fireworks, according to Huntington Beach Police Lt. Russell Reinhart.

The school was evacuated – and students later dismissed – after police found what looked like a bomb.

A bomb squad determined that it was a fake device.  Police arrested a student in connection with the incident and charged him with possession of a facsimile of a bomb.

The student was taken to Orange County Juvenile Hall.

— Kate Linthicum

Photo: A Huntington Beach firefighter gets into position while an Orange County Sheriff’s bomb squad retrieves a suspicious item believed to be a bomb that forced the evacuation of Huntington Beach High School. Credit: Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times.

A registered sex offender pleaded not guilty to the killing of Chelsea King, a 17-year-old last seen jogging near a San Diego County lake.

During a brief court hearing in San Diego, John Albert Gardner III, 30, said through an attorney that he denied killing King. Gardner, handcuffed and dressed in a jail jumpsuit, did not address the court.

Gardner was arrested Sunday afternoon outside a restaurant near Lake Hodges after unspecified evidence linked him to the crime, authorities said.
The 230-pound Gardner, who is registered as living in Lake Elsinore, had
been visiting his mother in Rancho Bernardo last week.

In 2000, Gardner pleaded guilty to molestation charges involving a
13-year-old girl.

He served five years of a six-year prison term and wore a
global-positioning system tracking device until 2008, when his parole
term ended.

A dive team found King’s body on a tributary of Lake Hodges in a wooded
area that had been the focus of an extensive search since Saturday,
after a shoe was found there. A diver working his way up the tributary
saw debris about 10 feet from the water. That discovery led to the grave.





The site is about half a mile from the parking lot at Rancho Bernardo
Community Park, where King had left her car before heading out on the
trail.

[Updated at 3:53 pm: San Diego County prosecutors said Gardner could be eligible for the death penalty with the charges filed today. The office will decide at a later date whether to seek the death penalty.]

— Amina Khan in San Diego

Photo: San Diego police investigate vandalism at the home of Gardner’s mother. Credit: Fox 5 San Diego

The warden of a federal prison in San Bernardino County was indicted Wednesday on charges of disclosing confidential information about a pending criminal investigation and then lying to investigators about having done so, authorities said.

Scott A. Holencik, warden of a Federal Bureau of Prisons facility in Adelanto, is charged in a six-count indictment, which includes two felony counts of making false statements to investigators, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angles.

Holencik, 45, is accused of lying to investigators from the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General last year in connection with a probe into Internet postings that disclosed confidential information.

If convicted of all counts, Holencik faces a maximum of 14 years in federal prison, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

[For the record: An earlier version of this story incorrectly said the prison was in Riverside County. It is in San Bernardino County.]

— Scott Glover

More breaking news in L.A. Now:

L.A. mayor finalizes first list of city job
cuts

Prosecutors decline to charge paparazzi
arrested during ‘Bachelor’ taping

Body of newborn found by trash collector in
Redondo Beach

Man sentenced for taking kickbacks at Los
Angeles Air Force Base

L.A. County probation workers elude punishment
for misdeeds

Michael Jackson’s children never in any danger
from stun gun, attorney says

Woman slain by gunfire in Lancaster

LAPD apologizes to family of slain Sen. Robert
F. Kennedy for homicide exhibit items

When an earthquake struck South America last weekend, the ground rumbled in Chile, the sea rose in the Pacific, and a day on Earth got shorter.

Not by much.

Earthlings ended up losing 1.26 millionth of a second of a day. You can’t sense it. Nor can your dog — the one you insist senses approaching earthquakes — feel it.

But while other experts charted the shift of tectonic plates and the swell of ocean waters wrought by the quake, geophysicist Richard Gross mathematically calculated the temblor’s disruption of the day. The thrust quake — in which plates underground move vertically — caused mass to move everywhere, according to Gross.

[Updated at 5:26 p.m.: "On average, the mass of the Earth got a bit closer to the rotation axis," he said.  As a result, he said, the planet rotates faster — “just like a spinning skater brings her arms in closer to her body to rotate faster,” he said. When the planet rotates faster, the day shortens. Gross studies the Earth’s rotation and how it is affected by cataclysmic forces of nature.]

“Anything that moves mass around on the Earth, I take a look at,” said Gross, who works at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge. And it takes a mega-earthquake to attract Gross’ attention.

The magnitude 6.7 Northridge earthquake didn’t even register on the scale of throwing off the Earth’s rotation. “I didn’t look at that earthquake,” Gross said.

“It takes something like the Chilean or Indonesian earthquake before I look at it.”

While the Chilean quake shortened the day by 1.26 microseconds — the unit of time for millionths of a second — the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake that triggered the catastrophic Asian tsunami shaved 7 microseconds off the day, according to Gross’ calculations.

Of course, losing just 1.26 microseconds a day would take a couple of millenniums to add up to one single second of lost time. (2,174 years to be more precise.)

Gross suggests that it’s not worth tallying that way. “It takes a lot of these big earthquakes to add up to even a second,” he said. “The bigger changes are in the liquid core within the Earth.” Those changes can throw off a day by a whopping three or four milliseconds, he said. “Those are the things that cause us to have a leap second every year or so.”

Winds and ocean currents are other forces plying the Earth, changing its shape and the length of its day, according to Gross.

Far from evoking that textbook illustration of a smooth round ball of continents and blue oceans, Gross describes Earth as a planet of unevenly distributed mass wobbling as it rotates around its imperfectly balanced axis, its physique woefully pear-shaped. “It’s a bit fatter south of the equator,” he said.

“The Earth is not completely elastic. It’s kind of like putty,” he said. “If you have a sudden shock to it, it will continue to deform later in response to that shock.”

Gross only mathematically calculated these minute changes in day lengths. He is not sure it can be physically observed, even by sophisticated GPS equipment. “We have a network of receivers located globally,” he said. “I don’t think those GPS observations are going to be accurate enough. I’m going to look at the measurements, of course, but I would be surprised if I find anything.”

So why do the math at all? “For the most part, the Earth’s rotation changes all the time and doesn’t have much practical consequence except here at JPL,” Gross said. “We need to know this to navigate spacecraft to planets like Mars or Saturn.” Since JPL’s tracking stations for those craft are on Earth, “we need to know how Earth’s orientation is changing.”

— Carla Hall

Map: A representation of the force of the Chilean quake. Credit: NOAA