This alert was sent via nixle and bears forwarding and repeating.  Scammers are out there.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has been advised that citizens are receiving phone calls from individuals who are representing themselves as Department employees. The caller usually tells the citizen that there has been a warrant issued for their arrest for failure to appear for Jury Duty. The caller will tell the victim that they have to pay a sum of money or deputies will come and arrest them. The caller will instruct the victim to either get a Money Order, conduct a wire transfer, or buy a Gift Card (usually Green Dot) and send it to “pay the fine.”

BE ALERT, BE ADVISED, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department or any Government Agency will NEVER call and solicit money for fines. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department does not solicit warrant information by phone. The Sheriff’s Department or any Government Agency will NEVER ask you to get a Money Order, Gift Card, or wire transfer. Sheriff Department personnel will never go to your home to collect a fee for a warrant.

BE AWARE, NEVER give your personal information to anyone over the phone. DO NOT give callers information about your bank account, pin numbers, Social Security number or any type of identifying information.

Phone Scam Thieves are just that “Thieves” they will try and trick you into giving them money and information. If you receive a call protect yourself, your information and DO NOT SEND MONEY!

If you receive a phone call, always verify who the caller truly is, DO NOT use a phone number they provide you as verification. Usually numbers provided by the thief will go to a voice recording/message. Call your local Sheriff Station to verify any solicitation.

If you have sent money or believe that you are a victim of a crime, please call your local Sheriff’s Station or Police Department and report the incident.

If you receive a suspicious phone call/solicitation that you believe is not from a real government agency, please contact The Department of Consumer Affairs at (800) 593-8222. You can also file a complaint on the DCA website at dca.lacounty.gov.

As I write this the Colby Fire has grown to well over 125 acres.  Friends in Azusa are under mandatory evacuation orders.  A friend just tweeted that 2 folks were in custody for this ARSON  fire.  ABC7 Tweeted just now its 3.

Tweet that 3 have been arrested

WTF..as if we don’t have enough to worry about these assholians are out there starting fires putting so many at risk. Read the rest of this entry →

I just got this alert from the LA County Sheriff via nixle.  Apparently there’s more than a sucker born every moment out here in the SGV and other areas service by SoCalEddy.

The short version of the scam is that a caller calls someone, tells them their power will be shut off if they don’t immediately pay their bill via a prepaid debit card.  Yes, a prepaid debit card that the scammer sends the victim out to get,  then gives them the info needed to use it.  Goes without saying you hangup and report the number used to contact you to the police with the details of what they wanted you to do.  Common sense says that you would go to your nearest SCE office or their web site to make an immediate payment, but common sense flew out the window long before they picked up the phone.  Sad.

The full press release after the jump.  Read the rest of this entry →

No matter how cute and romantic it is DON’T POST IT ON YOUTUBE if its illegal

The full details of the arrests is on the KTLA website.  For the life of me I can’t imagine why they posted it on youtube and bragged about it on other social media.  It was just dropping clues as to where they can be found for the arrests.  I give these guys an “A” for creativity, a “C” for the idea to do it on a Sunday morning where traffic is light, and an “F” for getting caught.

Print and bring this voucher to CPK 2/25-28

Hat tip to my friends at Arcadia PD  for this tip regarding a fund raiser for the fallen officers due to shoot outs or outright assassination by Chris Dorner last week.   (You remember Chris Dorner, the ex-LAPD officer on a bizarre vendetta to prove he was wrongfully terminated by LAPD )

20% of your total bill will be donated to the respective police associations for Officer Crain and Detective McKay who wound up dying as a result of shooting by McKay.

To participate all you need to do is print out the flyer to the right of this post and present it to your server at the time you order at California Pizza Kitchen February 25-28 2013.

This article was originally published at 8Asians.com and has been reposted here with permission.

Terminator Salvation. Sherlock Holmes 1,2, and 3. Lego: The Piece of Resistance. Godzilla. Stephen King’s It. Death Note. Justice League. What do all these disparate movies past, present, and future have in common? One amazing Taiwanese American producer, Dan Lin.

And you might have heard of his latest film Gangster Squad, an LAPD period movie about a battle to take back LA from the mafia. Named back in 2008 by Variety as one of top 10 producers to watch, Lin has definitely lived up to the title, and with all the classic blockbusters being tacked to his name, he and everything he does will be worth watching for long after Gangster Squad hits the streets this Friday.

Here are 8Questions with Dan Lin about his new film and more from a roundtable press interview:

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Hat tip to @Waltarrrrr who tweeted this morning.  The stealing of the tip jar at Antigua Bread in Highland Park was all caught on video.  Do you recognize the thieves?  If so you might want to tip them off their antics were caught on video or let Antiqua Bread know how to get in touch with them.

When I was a Valley dweller back when we were first married in Valley Village our neighborhood started experiencing gang related activity and auto thefts.  We were in the LAPD’s North Hollywood divisions policing territory.  They worked with us to establish a Neighborhood Watch and worked with us on a variety of community issues.  We became friends with several of the officers that patrolled our area. Community Policing now as outlined in the video has grown and is helping to make the neighborhoods in North Hollywood safer.

On a sidebar if you haven’t subscribed to the LAPD’s YouTube channel yet you might want to consider as aside from the infomercials and PSA’s they also have regular crime tips and vids seeking info on crimes.  You can subscribe on their channel HERE.

UPDATE:

We just received word that the vote, and all action at City Hall, has been POSTPONED until further notice.

Please continue to Support Unionized Medical Cannabis Workers, and your right to Safe Access, in LA by writing a letter to your council person at www.ufcw770.org/cannabis.

Sorry for any inconvenience. Here’s my original post:

The city is set to vote to ban collectives this Friday.

Yes, you read that right.

Currently there are 8 votes in favor of banning ALL L.A. medical marijuana collectives. In order to overturn that, we need to make sure Busciano, LaBonge, or Krekorian lean in our favor. If all three of them vote to ban… It’s referendum time.

Unless we turn just ONE VOTE by Friday, all LA collectives will be banned.

To be clear, there could very well be 8 votes to ban right now because 3 of those votes have been holding their cards close to their chest.

If you can (and you care) please show up this Friday, June 22, 2012 at 9am, at LA City Hall East () for a press conference with Union Members, Patients, and Community Allies, to preserve safe access. This is important and very real; your voice can help keep collectives open to the law-abiding citizens who use them.

Please call and write to your councilmember in the meantime: www.ufcw770.org/cannabis

The 2012 edition of my Watts Happening Ride took place this past picture-perfect Saturday, and it was my complete pleasure to share the following landmark people, places and events I’ve discovered there with the 28 cyclists who joined me:

1. The last residence of jazz great Jelly Roll Morton
2. The childhood home of Nobel Prize Winner Ralph Bunche
3. The location of the 1969 Black Panthers shootout
4. The Hotel Dunbar, centerpiece of the Historic Central Avenue Jazz Corridor
5. The location of the 1974 SLA shootout
6. The actual fictional location of the Sanford and Son Salvage Yard
7. The Watts Towers of Simon Rodia
8. The location of the incident setting off the 1965 Watts Riots
9. The home of Eula Love, killed by police in 1979 as a result of a past-due gas bill dispute
10. The motel where legendary singer Sam Cooke was killed
11. The flashpoint of the 1992 Los Angeles Riots
12. The location of Wrigley Field, demolished in 1966.

Unfortunately, the above annotated timelapse video abruptly ends at the third-to-last location we visited, leaving me to discover that I need to get a bigger memory card if I want to capture the entire 33-mile, six-hour tour on camera the next time — and there will be a next time. I hope you’ll join me.

The first Watts Happening Ride I organized five years ago was a simple there-and-back to Watts Towers from the Cornfield downtown, spurred on by the lamentable fact that as a native angeleno I had spent my whole life to-date never having been to the true treasure that is the amazing, inspiring and enduring work of Simon Rodia.

In its various editions since (the last one taking place in 2010), the Watts Happening Ride’s destinations have grown well beyond the iconic towers to include a variety of landmarks involving people, places and events in and around South Los Angeles.

The 2012 incarnation of the Watts Happening Ride will be departing from Silver Lake on Saturday, February 18 at 9 a.m., and will include the addition of a couple locations I’ve recently found. So if you’re not heading out of town for the long weekend and have a hankering to get your bike-riding discovery on, I hope you’ll join me.

For the latest info and any updates, the ride’s Facebook page is here.

When: February 18, gathering at 8:30 for a 9 a.m. departure
Start/Finish: Silver Lake’s Happy Foot/Sad Foot sign (northwest corner of Sunset Boulevard & Benton Way)
Distance: 32.95 miles (route map)
Pace: Casual
Terrain: Flat
Weather: In the event of rain that morning, the ride will be canceled and rescheduled to a later date.
Approximate Time: 5-6 hours
Optional Partial Ride: If doing the full route isn’t feasible, consider joining the ride at approximately 9:30 a.m. downtown on Spring Street (anywhere between 2nd & 9th streets) for the roughly 9-mile portion to the Watts Towers. The 103rd Street Blue Line station is near to the towers and can be an alternative to get you back into downtown.
Things You’ll Need (in no particular order): A functioning bicycle; $7 for the half-hour optional tour of Watts Towers; snacks and water for along the way; money for a late lunch at King Taco.

Screencap from LA Times' LA Now blog

Bonus points for Best Mugshot Ever and a first paragraph that cracked me up. Story here.

The number of versions of “Blade Runner“, which had already jumped the shark, has now jumped the Loch Ness Monster: director Ridley Scott plans to make yet another “Blade Runner” movie. It is not yet known whether the new “Blade Runner” will be a sequel, prequel, reboot, or otherwise. Either way, what can Angelenos expect if the new “Blade Runner” is again set in Los Angeles?
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The handmade sign on the front door of mobster James “Whitey” Bulger‘s former home on 3rd Street in Santa Monica reads: “Go Away. People Live Here”. That’s the message I’d like to send to mobsters in Los Angeles and across the country. But they seem to keep popping up near where I live, or vice versa.
Read the rest of this entry →

Had to go down to the Central Library Friday afternoon to pick up a book I’d put a hold on. Opted to leave the bike at home and instead catch the No. 4 bus from Silver Lake to Pershing Square, where I walk along Fifth Street from Hill past the park, Olive, the Biltmore and Grand. When I leave the library with book in hand, I decide not to return the way I came and instead step on Hope south to 7th and go underground, hopping the Red Line back up to Vermonica from there to stride the rest of the way home. On impulse I veer into the parking lot to make a stop at the Rite Aid, which puts me in the direct trajectory of a young lady who steps out from behind a car wanting to know if I speak English. I successfully fight back the urge to ask “What other do you think this loaf of Wonder Bread might speak?” and instead politely confirm that I do have a passing familiarity with that language. In turn, she casts out a weary line about trying to get Pizza Hut’s finest for her kids, but her debit card was refused and could I maybe spare some—.

“Sure!” I said, cutting her off. “I’ll buy the pizzas for you. How many you need?”

As expected she hadn’t set up for the curveball I pitched and the words stumble out of her mouth wondering if it would be OK if I just gave her the cash. I told her all I had was my debit card at which she shook her head. Her “Thanks anyway,” confirmed my suspicions that the pizza story was a fiction, and for their sake hopefully the children were, too.

Out from the Rite Aid the young lady starts for me again until realizing she’d hit me already and sharply turns away as if I don’t exist. As I head east on Santa Monica Boulevard I wonder if it’ll ever dawn on her that duh, she missed an opp for free pizza that if nothing else could’ve helped fuel the drive to her next fix. Oh well.

I pass the stately Cahuenga branch of the library where I startle a homeless woman who is changing clothes in the relative privacy of the library’s locked-up lower entryway. I pass the Little Temple club, cross Virgil, and look down upon the shack that used to be the beloved Jake’s Jay’s Burgers, but now since its eviction is home to the latest in a succession of nondescript and noninteresting eateries.

Next I eye a small mural and double back to get this snap of it (after the jump; click for slight enlargification):

Read the rest of this entry →