Author: Tony Barboza

Los Angeles has grown by about 1 million people in the last three decades, but you wouldn’t know it from the way water has been trickling out of taps and sprinklers lately.

The city had the lowest recorded water use in 31 years, according to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, which announced Tuesday that usage in February declined to 1979 levels.

Officials tied the decreased water usage to restrictions that went into effect in 2007, prompted by an ongoing drought. The current regulations limit watering to Mondays and Thursdays, prohibit watering between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. daily and outlaw hosing down driveways and sidewalks, among other provisions.

“Angelenos understand the urgency for water conservation, their actions show it,” Lee Kanon Alpert, president of the Los Angeles Board of Water and Power Commissioners, said in a statement.

Citywide, water use was down more than 20% compared to February 2007, officials said. The reductions varied among commercial, residential and industrial ratepayers, but the largest cutbacks were among single-family homes, which have used nearly 30% less water since February 2007, according to the DWP.

The news that water customers have cut back is a rare piece of good news for the utility, which is in the midst of a tense standoff with the mayor and city council over proposed rate hikes.

— Tony Barboza

A San Marino man has been arrested for cultivating more than 700 marijuana plants in a sophisticated grow house near the El Monte Airport, police said Tuesday.

Neighbors had reported their suspicions about a townhouse on the 10900 block of Basye Street, with people coming and going at all hours of the night and blacked-out windows.

Detectives staked out the home and pulled over Alexander Moy, 33, of San Marino as he drove away Monday afternoon, said El Monte Police Det. Ralph Batres.

Police obtained a search warrant for the home, where they found at least 700 marijuana plants in different stages of cultivation, along with commercial lighting and temperature control devices.

The operators of the grow house also had cut into the electrical meter to steal power from the utility Southern California Edison, Batres said.

Moy was a renter at the home, which the owner apparently did not know was being used for pot cultivation.

He is being held on $50,000 bail and is scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday.

The arrest in El Monte came a day after two men were arrested for cultivating pot in Malibu Creek State Park, where park rangers seized 900 plants and 3,000 seeds.

— Tony Barboza

UCLA police have arrested a 63-year-old man in connection with a string of
sexual assaults on students in recent weeks.

Calixto Marcellana Nitro of Bakersfield was arrested near Stein Plaza on Westwood Boulevard about 6:20 p.m. Monday after he reached out with his hand and grabbed a young woman’s crotch, campus police said Tuesday.

Police believe he is responsible for at least seven sexual assaults
on students on or near the campus between March 8 and April 7.

Officers who were observing places where other incidents had occurred apprehended the suspect Monday, said Nancy Greenstein, a UCLA Police Department spokeswoman.

The arrest came the same day authorities released a sketch of the suspect, prompting more victims to come forward. Police said Nitro had a pattern of waiting in the path of women using their cellphones or
who were distracted in some way, then attacking them.

Nitro was booked on suspicion of sexual battery, a misdemeanor, and
released on his written promise to appear in court May 12.

— Tony Barboza

Photo: Sketch of the suspect. Credit: UCLA Police Department.

A small Southern California charter high school has a fighting chance to snag the biggest graduation speaker of them all: the leader of the free world.

Environmental Charter High School in Lawndale has been selected as one of six finalists in the White House’s Race to the Top High School Commencement Challenge. The winner will receive the honor of President Obama speaking at its graduation ceremony.

More than 1,000 schools nationwide entered the contest, meant to reward a top public school based on performance data and student-written essays about how their school has helped them prepare for college.

Principal Jenni Taylor said students and teachers were overwhelmed when they received a phone call last week from the White House.

The public charter school of about 460 students was founded in 2000 with a focus on environmental
stewardship and community service. Students must complete a senior
thesis project that challenges a social inequity in Los Angeles and
apply to a four-year university to graduate.

The school serves a mostly low-income population in and around
Lawndale and boasts a graduation rate of more than 86%. Of those
graduates, about 92% are accepted into four-year universities,
administrators said.

Taylor credits a group of student leaders — four seniors and one junior — with spearheading the application, which was submitted along with a rhyming YouTube video that begins with these verses:

We will not accept the status quo,

Which leaves our habitat in a state of woe.

We are not taught to memorize information.

Instead we learn by doing, sharing inspiration.

Later this week, a film crew will visit the school to produce a video that will be posted on the White House website on the competition.

The public will be able view videos for each of the finalists in the next few weeks and vote online for their three favorite schools. The short list will be sent to the president’s desk for a final decision.

Taylor said that clinching Obama as commencement speaker when some 76 seniors graduate in June would spotlight the school’s nontraditional approach to education and “show the nation there are new ways to do things.”

“We feel like what we’re doing can be a model for education reform, so it’s about making a point about educational reform and what it takes to inspire kids and get kids into college,” she said.

The other finalists are:

Blue Valley Northwest High School (Overland Park, Kan.)

Clark Montessori Junior High and High School (Cincinnati)

Denver School of Science and Technology (Denver)

Kalamazoo Central High School (Kalamazoo, Mich.)

MAST Academy (Miami)

— Tony Barboza

Photo: Student Gabriel Avenna demonstrates vermiculture, a form of using earthworms to compost food scraps. Credit: Environmental Charter High School

UCLA police have detained a suspect in connection with a string of sexual assaults on students in recent weeks, authorities said Tuesday.

The arrest comes after authorities released a sketch Monday of a man they believe is responsible for five sexual assaults from March 8 to April 6 on students on or near campus, said Sgt. Robert DeFrancesco of the UCLA Police Department.

The attacker appears to have a pattern of targeting women who are using their cellphones or distracted in some way, according to police. 

Further information was not immediately available.

–Tony Barboza

Photo: Sketch of the suspect. Credit: UCLA Police Department.

A La Cañada Flintridge woman has been sentenced to seven years in prison for selling thousands of works of fake art — including pieces ostensibly by Picasso, Dali and Chagall — in rigged television auctions.

Kristine Eubanks, 52, was sentenced Monday after pleading guilty in 2007 to filing a false tax return, transporting stolen property and federal fraud. Prosecutors said she operated an art auction television show called the "Fine Art Treasures Gallery," which aired on Friday and Saturday nights on DirecTV and the Dish Network and claimed to sell art found at “estate liquidations all over the world.”

In 2007, Eubanks and her husband, Gerald Sullivan, admitted to selling the bogus works of art — including purported Picasso lithographs — with forged signatures and manipulating the auctions of legitimate pieces in a scam that ran from 2002 to 2006.

“If they had legitimate pieces, they would have phones ringing in the background just to drive up the price, when no one had actually called,” Assistant U.S. Atty. James Bowman said of the major frauds section.

The scam brought in more than $20 million and duped more than 10,000 collectors across the country, prosecutors said. Eubanks and Sullivan were arrested in 2006, when investigators seized $3.8 million and nearly 1,000 pieces of art.

The government is still notifying thousands of collectors who may have bought forgeries.

At Monday’s sentencing, U.S. District Court Judge Gary A. Feess called the scheme “audacious in its scope” and “blatantly illegal,” prosecutors said.

Sullivan, 54, the company’s accountant, is scheduled to be sentenced next month and faces a maximum of six years in prison on similar charges.

–Tony Barboza

A Desert Hot Springs police officer and a former officer have been charged with using excessive force when they stunned three unarmed suspects, two of whom were handcuffed, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.

Officer Anthony Sclafani, 40, and former officer David Raymond Henderson, 51, surrendered voluntarily and were booked Tuesday in downtown Los Angeles before an afternoon court appearance.

A federal grand jury indicted the men last year on civil rights charges for three incidents in 2004 and 2005.

Sclafani allegedly used an X26 Taser gun in February 2005 to stun a man who was handcuffed and in police custody in the Desert Hot Springs jail, according to the indictment and an interview with Asst. U.S. Attorney Steven Arkow.

In a separate incident the next day, Sclafani allegedly used a Taser to stun a woman detained in the jail and pepper sprayed her face and eyes.

Henderson is charged with stunning a handcuffed man during an arrest in August 2004 when he worked for the department.

Calls to the Desert Hot Springs Police Department were not immediately returned.

Henderson’s attorney, Vicki Podberesky, said she could not comment because she had not seen the charges. An attorney for Sclafani did not immediately return phone calls or an e-mail message.

— Tony Barboza

Two employees of a Compton auto shop were fatally shot and a third injured after a group of men tried to rob the store, authorities said Tuesday.

Deputies responded to a burglary-in-progress call just before 8 p.m. Monday at Custom City Auto in the 300 block of North Long Beach Boulevard, said Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Sgt. David Infante.

When deputies arrived, they found three workers inside with gunshot wounds, and they saw a green van matching a description of the suspects’ vehicle driving away.

Deputies pulled the van over a few blocks away at Ward Avenue and Compton Boulevard, and, after a brief foot pursuit, arrested the six men inside.

Five of the men were questioned in connection with the robbery and killings. One, however, became unresponsive in the back of a patrol car and was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead of an apparent heart attack.

Two workers were pronounced dead at the scene and a third was sent to the hospital. Authorities had not yet identified the victims. Calls to the auto shop early Tuesday went unanswered.

— Tony Barboza

[Updated at 10:05 am: A previous version of this post showed a map of North Long Beach Boulevard in Long Beach. The map has been updated to show the 300 block of Long Beach Boulevard in Compton.]

Map: The location of the shooting. There have been 111 homicides within two miles of this location since Jan. 1, 2007, according to the Times’ Homicide Report database.

Portions of the sea walls protecting Naples Island in Long Beach from the ocean are "in imminent danger of collapse" and could send homes sliding into the water if not replaced soon, officials said Monday.

The assessment came in a recent verbal report that an engineer and city staff gave to Councilman Gary DeLong, whose district includes Naples.

On Tuesday at a special study session, Long Beach officials will consider spending up to $9.5 million to rebuild the most severely damaged sections of the concrete sea walls.

The fear is that if some of the sea walls buckle or crumble, oceanfront properties could fall into the water.

The city has long known about the deterioration of the neighborhood’s sea walls, first built in the 1923 to protect properties from dredged canals. The 20-foot-deep structures were rebuilt after being damaged by the 1933 earthquake.

Workers have been repairing salt water corrosion and maintaining the walls annually, but DeLong said they are getting too old to justify continuing to patch them up.

“We’re 70 years into a 50-year life span,” he said. “Any money on maintenance is just throwing good money after bad because they just need to be replaced.”

One alternative, according to a report the council will hear Tuesday, is to spend $1 million reinforcing the most damaged portions, extending their life by another five to 10 years.

Within the next 10 to 25 years, the city will need to replace all the neighborhood’s sea walls, at a cost of $60 million.

Such a plea for funds will probably be met with a critical eye, especially as the city faces a
multimillion-dollar deficit in the coming year.

DeLong said urgent action is needed to save money in the long term.

“If we don’t act quickly, it has the potential to become a far more significant problem,” he said.

— Tony Barboza in Orange County

The deadly shooting of a man and woman inside an RV near Lake Elsinore was being investigated as a possible homicide, authorities said Tuesday.

Riverside County Sheriff’s deputies responded about 4:30 a.m. Monday to a call of a man down at an RV park in the 24600 block of Glen Ivy Road in an unincorporated area northwest of Lake Elsinore, said Sgt. Joe Borja.

Security guards told deputies that residents heard shots fired inside an RV, and the guards entered the vehicle to find a man and woman dead inside with gunshot wounds.

The 57-year-old man and 49-year-old woman were pronounced dead at the scene. Police were not releasing their names until their families could be notified.

— Tony Barboza

After weeks of summer-like sunshine, rain is returning to Southern California.

A storm is heading toward the Los Angeles area and could drop between a quarter to half an inch of rain starting Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service.

A cold front from the north should bring scattered showers followed Thursday by thunderstorms.

Strong winds also are predicted to blow Thursday afternoon.

— Tony Barboza

A multiple-vehicle crash on the westbound 210 Freeway was causing a traffic headache Tuesday morning for commuters making their way through the Pasadena area.

A commuter bus with no passengers collided with a gasoline tanker and at least one other vehicle about 5:55 a.m. just west of Sierra Madre Boulevard, said California Highway Patrol Officer Patrick Kimball.

The three right lanes and the Sierra Madre Boulevard on-ramp were blocked by the wreckage and at least one person was injured and taken to Huntington Memorial Hospital, Kimball said.

Authorities advised commuters to avoid the westbound 210 in the area for most of the morning, saying the accident could block traffic for up to four hours.

–Tony Barboza

Photo: Officials work around an MTA bus, a tanker truck and a passenger vehicle that crashed on the westbound lanes of the 210 Freeway. Credit: Al Seib / Los Angeles Times

A three-mile stretch of Orange County beaches have reopened after being closed for six days because of a major sewage spill.

Orange County health officials instructed lifeguards Monday afternoon to remove signs and allow beach-goers back into the water from the breakwater at Dana Point Harbor to Capistrano Bay Community Beach.

The decision was made after water quality tests met state standards on Saturday and Sunday, officials said.

An underground waste water pipeline in Rancho Santa Margarita ruptured Tuesday afternoon, sending an estimated 500,000 gallons of raw sewage gushing into a creek that empties into the ocean at Doheny State Beach in Dana Point. The spill was one of the largest to reach Southern California waters in several years.

The cracked pipe was repaired by late Friday, Santa Margarita Water District officials said.

An advisory warning of elevated bacterial levels remains in effect for 300 yards south of San Juan Creek at Doheny State Beach, which has long had problems with contamination and has been listed among the 10 filthiest beaches in the state.

— Tony Barboza

Cities around the nation have done just about everything to publicize their bids to host Google’s new broadband Internet network, holding parades and parties, producing online videos and taking ice-cold dips in Lake Superior.

The city of Long Beach, however, took a more serious route, sending more than 700 letters with the application it submitted to the Internet giant Friday, the deadline for consideration.

“We wanted to focus on substance — having a strong, solid application that was adult and responsible,” said Councilman Robert Garcia, who sponsored the motion directing the city to apply for the broadband service called Google Fiber.

“We bring to the table the most diverse city in the country, a city just the size they’re looking for," Garcia continued. "Hopefully, Google will take interest.”

Google announced plans last month to build a 1-gigabit-per-second fiber-optic broadband network in at least one trial location, the first outpost of an envisioned nationwide system. The speed would be about 100 times faster than a typical high-speed Internet connection.

Other communities nationwide have tried to garner attention to their bids through publicity stunts. The city of Topeka, Kan., renamed itself “Google, Kansas” for the month of March, and the mayors of Duluth, Minn., and Sarasota, Fla., jumped into an icy lake and a shark-infested tank, respectively.

With a population of about 475,000, Long Beach just qualifies for one of Google’s guidelines — that the winning city have from 50,000 to 500,000 customers.

Long Beach officials hope the 706 letters penned by community leaders, technology experts and elected officials boost the city’s bid by offering an air of seriousness and professionalism.

Are city leaders worried that letters might be a bit too old-fashioned to woo a tech firm?

“No,” Garcia said. “It’s an online application, so they’re all PDFs.”

— Tony Barboza

The monolithic rock face of Yosemite National Park’s El Capitan will grace a new quarter to be released this summer by the U.S. Mint.

Designs unveiled Wednesday in Washington, D.C., show the 3,000-foot rock formation towering over the Merced River on one side of the 25-cent coin. George Washington will keep his place on the heads side.

The Yosemite coin, which will first be circulated in June, is one of five new designs announced to kick off the America the Beautiful Quarters Program.

Over the next 12 years, the U.S. Mint will issue 56 new quarters depicting national parks, forests and wildlife refuges in the order in which the sites were established.

Other honorees include Yellowstone National Park, Grand Canyon National Park, Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas and Oregon’s Mt. Hood National Forest.

Congress set aside the land that would become Yosemite National Park in 1890, and since then, El Capitan, a favorite among climbers, has become an icon of California’s wilderness.

The design was one of several candidates made in consultation with representatives of Yosemite National Park, according to the U.S. Mint.

— Tony Barboza

Photo: An artist rendering shows Yosemite National Park as one of five new commemorative quarters. Credit: U.S. Mint

A rescue helicopter combed the waters off Malibu on Wednesday after receiving a mysterious mayday transmission from a boater, authorities said.

“This is King Fisher I, mayday, mayday, mayday, come back Coast Guard,” a man’s voice was heard saying over the radio about 2:09 a.m., according to U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Matthew Schofield.

The man made no further transmissions. The radio call was traced to an area about 30 miles offshore from Point Dume.

A U.S. Coast Guard rescue helicopter flew search patterns over the area but had not found any stranded or distressed vessels.

The Coast Guard has posted an audio recording of the transmission online and is asking anyone who recognizes the voice to call (310) 521-3801.

— Tony Barboza

More breaking news in L.A. Now:

Actor Robert Culp dies after falling at his
Hollywood home

Ex-fire chief for Fillmore used city funds to
pay for abortion, big-screen TV, prosecutors allege

Firm floats plan to rotate Hollywood sign
around L.A.

Officials believe truck torching connected to
earlier attacks on Hemet police

Two men killed in Santa Fe Springs collision

L.A. County emergency crews respond to
simulated toxic spill in Carson

Officers ramp up traffic enforcement around
Blue Line in downtown L.A.

Two struck by car in Koreatown gang attack

Dr. Phil is a ‘terrible, terrible man,’ San
Diego judge says at sentencing of shoplifters

Father says he warned of abuse against
2-year-old

Customs officers intercepted 12 alleged drug smugglers in a 24-hour period at the San Ysidro and Otay Mesa border crossings and seized 763 pounds of marijuana, methamphetamine and cocaine worth an
estimated $1.16 million, authorities said Friday.

The spate of arrests took place between 6 a.m. Thursday and 6 a.m Friday.

In three cases, authorities said the alleged smugglers were U.S. citizens who tried to walk across the San Ysidro border crossing with marijuana strapped to their bodies.

About 7 a.m. Thursday, customs officers working with a drug-sniffing dog arrested a 19-year-old man — a U.S. citizen who lives in Tijuana — after he allegedly was found to be carrying four pounds of marijuana duct-taped to his sides and back.

Less than 15 minutes later, customs officials said another officer working with a dog discovered another U.S. citizen — a 30-year-old woman who also lives in Tijuana — with two packages of marijuana strapped to her body under a girdle.

Just after midnight Friday, officers stopped a 16-year-old girl from Chula Vista, discovering five packages of marijuana hidden in her shoes, stuffed in her bra and strapped around her stomach.

Each suspect was arrested and booked into a local jail or juvenile hall, according to a news release issued by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials.

— Tony Barboza

Photo: A 19-year-old U.S. citizen was arrested after allegedly trying to walk across the border from Mexico with four pounds of marijuana strapped to his body.

Credit: U.S. Customs and Border Protection

One animal rights activist pleaded guilty and another pleaded no contest this week to charges related to protests held against UCLA researchers and juice company executives, prosecutors said Friday.

Kevin Richard Olliff, 22, pleaded no contest Friday to felony stalking and conspiracy charges, a day after Linda Faith Greene, 62, pleaded guilty to similar charges. Both are affiliated with the Animal Liberation Front, an underground network of activists that has claimed responsibility for sabotaging animal research labs, setting fires, flooding properties and making death threats against researchers.

Last year, Los Angeles County grand jurors indicted Olliff and Greene on charges that they had harassed UCLA scientists who use animals in their research and held threatening protests near the homes of executives of the POM Wonderful juice company.

Olliff and Greene were among five activists named in a 2008 injunction that barred contact between animal rights activists and UCLA researchers.

As part of a negotiated settlement, prosecutors said Olliff signed a plea agreement saying “I admit that I am an animal rights activist who engaged in demonstrations targeting specific professors, researchers and business people at the personal residences and at their workplace, including the UCLA campus."

Olliff faces up to three years in state prison, and is scheduled to be sentenced in May.

Greene signed a plea agreement acknowledging she worked for the North American Animal Liberation Press Office website and had posted “specific and personal identifying information about persons engaged in lawful scientific research involving animals.”

Greene’s settlement requires five years of strict probation, during which she cannot belong to animal rights organizations and must stay away from victims’ homes and workplaces and UC property. She is scheduled to be sentenced next month.

UCLA officials welcomed the news.

"While we respect the rights of those who take a different view of animal research, we are committed to protecting our researchers from harassment and providing an environment where they can continue their work toward cures and a greater understanding of the human body," Chancellor Gene Block said in a written statement.

— Tony Barboza

The state has rejected all seven bids it received for the Orange County Fairgrounds because they were too low.

In a letter to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday, State Department of General Services Acting Director Ronald Diedrich said he was rejecting all the bids because the offers were “not in the best interest of the citizens of California because they do not contain the highest and most certain return for the state.”

In January, the state auctioned off the 150-acre piece of prime property in Costa Mesa to try to chip away at the budget deficit.

The high bid of $56.5 million came from an outlet mall developer, Newport Beach-based Craig Realty and partner Dwight Manley, a former sports agent. Even the winner, however, came in woefully short of the state’s expected $96-million to $180-million price tag.

Eric Lamoureux, a spokesman for the general services department, which is charged with selling the fairgrounds and other state assets, said officials are looking at other options, but did not specify if another auction would be held.

“Obviously, what we’re seeking here is maximum revenue possible to try to shore up the state’s budget,” he said.

[For the record: An earlier version of this post incorrectly said the state expected to receive $9.6 million to $180 million for the property.]

— Tony Barboza in Orange County

Photo: A Ferris wheel at the Orange County Fairgrounds. Credit: Christine Cotter / Los Angeles Times