Hundreds of inmates at the Terminal Island federal prison on the harbor front spent one of the coldest periods in decades in frigid cells with no heat and only blankets for warmth before they were transferred temporarily to another facility. As outside temperatures plunged into the low 40s at night,…
SANTA ANA — A woman accused of embezzling nearly $353,000 over six years as the office manager of a small business in Santa Ana made her initial court appearance Wednesday, Feb. 27, on dozens of felony charges. Martha Jean Czerkawski, 56, was charged Monday with 109 felony counts of possession of checks with the intent…
Just before dawn Wednesday at the Greater Community Missionary Church in Pacoima, most of those gathered in the parking lot were bundled up in at least two jackets as they waited for shuttles to whisk them from the emergency shelter back to the streets. All month, the 138-bed shelter has been at capacity, and part…
Two years to the day from when a twin-engine Cessna 310 plunged into a Riverside neighborhood, killing four of the five people on board, the National Transportation Safety Board indicated that investigators are close to announcing a likely cause. The five people, all from San Jose, had flown down to watch daughters of two of…
The California Supreme Court on Wednesday, Feb. 27, refused to hear an appeal from an open space preservation group, ending a three-year legal battle that tried to stop construction of up to 760 homes on the hillsides and former oil fields of West Coyote Hills. The court did not explain its reasoning. Friends of Coyote…
Edward Nixon, the youngest brother of President Richard Nixon and an active participant in the presidential library in Yorba Linda, died Wednesday, Feb. 27, at the age of 88. Ed Nixon was the youngest of the five Nixon boys, and the last surviving sibling. He lived in Bothell, Wash., near Seattle. Ed Nixon, left, with…
A long-simmering, multi-million dollar dispute among coastal Orange County water and sewage districts took a major step toward resolution Wednesday, when a Superior Court judge issued a tentative ruling that Moulton Niguel Water District is obligated to pay outstanding bills to the South Orange County Wastewater Authority. Moulton Niguel wants to terminate funding obligations for…
A 30-year-old Sylmar man who was caught on video punching two women in the face last month at a downtown Los Angeles hot dog stand has been charged with five counts of battery, authorities said. City Atty. Mike Feuer’s office on Wednesday said Arka Sangbaran Oroojian was charged Friday and faces…
Atmospheric river storms pounding Northern California with rain have also brought epic snow to the Sierra. Meteorologist Jim Mathews says that since 1950 only six years have surpassed the total “snow water content” that California has right now. The state’s snowpack — measured using the snow’s…
Ira Gitler — who turned his childhood obsession with jazz into a career as a major behind-the-scenes figure as a critic, magazine editor, record producer and historian who documented the rise of modern jazz — died Saturday at a nursing center in Manhattan. He was 90. He had heart surgery five…
