Lew / Flickr

Do you need your assault-style rifle to have more than 10 bullets attached to it, at the ready to pierce unsuspecting deer, paper targets and beer cans?

Really? The Los Angeles City Council today dove into a contentious debate and did what congress has been unable to do: It banned 11-round-plus magazines for rifles:

More »

Picture Youth

Did you know that cops can snoop into your email without a warrant, without your permission, without you even knowing?

In cases where the message has been opened or stored on a server for at least 180 days, it's true. It's a contentious issue, and the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Legal Policy says it's backing new guidelines that would require warrants:

More »

turkeychic / Flickr

Ever had a landlord just keep your deposit without any real good reason?

Yeah, everybody has. And there's not much you can do about it.

Today California Sen. Mark Leno announced that he's introducing legislation that would hit landlords with potentially higher penalties when a court finds they improperly withheld your cash:

More »

CIndiK / Flickr

Citing Director Tony Scott's fatal dive off the Vincent Thomas Bridge in San Pedro last summer, a California legislator is proposing that new and rebuilt state bridges contain "suicide barriers."

San Francisco state Assemblyman Tom Ammiano says it's too easy to jump off bridges like the Vincent Thomas:

More »

Google Maps

The famous Beverly Hills courthouse, home to many an appearance by Lindsay Lohan and other celebrities, is slated to close alongside 9 other regional courthouses as a result of budget cuts.

The powers that be in the gilded city aren't too happy about that.

The Beverly Hills Chamber of Commerce this week asked the county to reconsider:

More »

Jimmy Gomez

An Eastside state legislator was quick to propose fixing an 1872 rape law that got a defendant a new trial for having sex with a woman he duped into believing he was her boyfriend.

California's Second District Appeals Court yesterday said L.A.-area suspect Julio Morales should get a new trial because the old law does not specifically protect unmarried women from rapists who impersonate their boyfriends. The letter of the law only protects married women from people who would impersonate a husband in order to get sex:

More »

LGEPR / Flickr

So you're rushing to make that last minute LCD TV buy from Amazon, knowing that California will start collecting taxes on such purchases starting at 12 a.m. Saturday.

Well, you'd still be a tax cheat. And we're not just looking at you, Mitt Romney.

No, the state of California warned this week that ...

More »

ABC7 / Facebook

Weekley.

An LAPD officer who writes under the psuedonym of Jack Dunphy is questioning the injuries claimed by Venice skateboarder Ronald Weekley, Jr. in a take-down by Los Angeles cops that was captured on video.

Dunphy writes a fresh critique of news coverage of the controversy, singling out KTLA News for what he describes as "disregard for honest journalism," on the conservative blog PJ Media:

More »

ABC Los Angeles

Weekley.

The family of Ronald Weekley Jr., that Venice skateboarder tackled by police and punched by one cop in a takedown captured on video, has hired the same attorney who represents the parents of teen shooting victim Trayvon Martin.

The attorney was introduced to the press yesterday during a news conference at the First Baptist Church in Venice. The Los Angeles Times says Weekley told journalists that at least one cop called him a "dumb ape" dumb ass during the confrontation.

In a statement sent to the Weekly and other outlets, family and friends say ...

More »

change.org

Daniel Larson.

A man who has been behind bars since 1998 was ruled innocent by a federal judge two years ago. But that hasn't translated to freedom.

Today Bryan Banks, the football player who was previously falsely imprisoned for rape, along with family and other supporters of Daniel Larson, called on California Attorney General Kamala Harris to open Larson's cell for good.

They delivered ...

More »

California pols unleash the Siri-bot! (Sort of.)

In a time-wasting attempt to earn back an iota of public approval, California Governor Jerry Brown just OKed a new law that (sort of, not really) allows texting while driving.

The law, proposed by L.A.-area Assemblyman Jeff Miller, says that you can now send and receive texts on the road -- as long as you're "using an electronic wireless communications device that is specifically designed and configured to allow voice-operated and hands-free operation."

But unless your phone is able to boot into voice-command mode on its own...

More »

Antonio Villaraigosa

Mayor Villaraigosa with LAPD Chief Beck.

A Second Amendment rights group called Sons of Liberty LA says it plans to protest and intervene during the city of Los Angeles' annual gun buyback program this weekend.

The city plans to offer up to $200 in gift cards for weapons turned into cops at six locations across the city Saturday (PDF).

Sounding radical and maybe even a little scary, the group states:

More »

ep_jhu

You're in a committed, same-sex relationship, but you can't get married in California. And suddenly your partner, who intended to write you into his will, dies. Then his sister steps in, and you get nothing.

That actually happened, according to an L.A.-based legal claim made by Brent Beckwith, who survived the death of his partner of nearly 10 years. The National Center for Lesbian Rights, which supported Beckwith's legal case, claimed victory over the weekend.

A California appeals court declared that ...

More »

BuildNDestroyMagazin

A previous Black Riders "raid."

Members of the Black Riders Liberation Party, self-described as the Black Panthers for the modern era, say their Watts headquarters was raided by authorities today in retaliation for the group's participation in Tuesday's raucous May Day rallies in L.A.

A spokesman for the state parole agency says phooey -- it was just a routine check-up on a parolee who happens to be a leader of the Black Riders.

His name is ...

More »

The federal government has been getting all up in your business lately. One federal whistle blower last year said he believes the National Security Agency is storing all our emails. You know, just in case. And President Obama recently flip-flopped on medical marijuana, saying flat out that pot businesses were fair game for federal agents, even in states like California, where they're somewhat legal.

Now it's time for Big Government to get deeper inside your car and ride with you on your way to work and school:

More »

LinkedIn

If he keeps this up, Chief Cummings will be the new Sheriff Baca in no time.

[Update: Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who hand-picked Cummings and has been lovingly tugging at the chief's puppet strings ever since, totally humiliated his political plaything this afternoon by demanding -- via passive-aggressive "open letter" -- that the LAFD go back to its old method of full disclosure. More, after the jump. Originally posted at 12 p.m.]

More »

Rush Limbaugh and the "slut" in question.

Advertisers running for the hills can't spook Rush Limbaugh, America's most popular (and most conservative) talk-show host. Nor can half a nation of angry feminists.

But ace celebrity lawyer Gloria Allred -- now there's a fembot to get scared of. We're talking the same L.A. attorney who helped force Herman Cain out of the Republican primaries, and recently set a liberating legal precedent for girls who want to slam their cheating exes online. (Allred called it a "victory for women's rights.)

Now she's asking a county attorney in Palm Beach County, Florida...

More »

King Fantastic

Free Reese.

Killer Reese One, the lyrical half of Venice hip-hop duo King Fantastic, released a presser last month saying he was "taken into custody" by L.A. sheriff's deputies on February 3 -- but he won't say why.

When he was apparently released on February 10, the rapper Tweeted: "my official statement on the charges...i stole the mona lisa and sold it for meth. but honestly, respect game, i can't discuss it." And that was probably a good idea...

More »

amber10_79

While California's cop lobbyists and legislators have claimed texting-while-driving is creating more death than the Grim Reaper in order to justify increasingly needless laws, a new study says cellphone-related traffic deaths are going down.

So which one is it?

This is the classic strategy of overstating death and destruction to back laws, and then saying the laws have been effective in ending such mayhem, if you as us.

More »

Bay City Bombers

Meet Stacey Blitsch, the new face of women's rights.

Gloria Allred, L.A.'s biggest name in celebrity litigation, has long fallen on the sexier side of women's rights. She's gone after pervy politicians like Herman Cain and Arnold Schwarzenegger for their rampant womanizing, and can side, poker-faced, with a sexting porn star as if it was the most serious human-rights case since Dred Scott v. Sandford.

Allred's latest crusade for she-justice:

The superstar attorney represented two semi-famous hotties who had slammed their ex, a douchey-sounding Manhattan lawyer named Matthew Couloute Jr., on LiarsCheatersRUs.com. He freaked out ...

More »