CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
April 17, 2012 | By Andrew Blankstein, Los Angeles Times
Attorneys for the family of an unarmed 19-year-old man who was fatally shot by Los Angeles police filed a $120-million claim Monday against the city. The man was shot after he led officers on a high-speed freeway pursuit and called 911 to threaten them with a gun. The Times reported that LAPD officers fired more than 90 rounds at Abdul Arian after he assumed a "shooting stance" and appeared to raise his arms and point a weapon while running backward on the 101 Freeway after the pursuit ended.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
April 13, 2012 | By Thomas Curwen and Andrew Blankstein, Los Angeles Times
The family of Abdul Arian remembered the 19-year-old young man who was fatally shot by Los Angeles police officers after a high-speed chase Thursday morning for his desire to become a police officer. "He wanted to be an LAPD cop," said Hamed Arian, the youth's uncle, "and the LAPD killed him. " But as details of Arian's life emerge, the picture of his ambitions becomes more complicated. A police narrative of the shooting on the 101 Freeway in Woodland Hills suggests a troubled end for the young man who placed a 911 call during the pursuit and told authorities he was armed with a gun. Police did not recover a gun from the scene.
SPORTS
April 3, 2012 | By Jim Peltz
Before a new dawn breaks for the Dodgers under changed ownership, there was this year's first night of baseball at Dodger Stadium. After all the news of a record sales price, investment groups, Magic Johnson and the Dodgers' uncertain future, the ballpark at Chavez Ravine — celebrating its 50th anniversary — reopened its doors for 2012. With an announced 20,009 looking on, the Dodgers defeated the Angels, 4-1, in the second game of their three-game exhibition Freeway Series.
SPORTS
April 2, 2012 | By Lance Pugmire, Los Angeles Times
Albert Pujols has entered a season with a team defending its World Series victory. That team of great expectations finished with a losing record. The season before Pujols led the St. Louis Cardinals to the 2011 World Series, the team failed to make the playoffs. So do big expectations like those confronting the Angels and $240-million addition Pujols help or hurt? "You guys are the ones picking us to win," Pujols said Monday before making his Angel Stadium debut against the Dodgers in the opener of the three-game Freeway Series that moves to Dodger Stadium on Tuesday and Wednesday.
BUSINESS
March 15, 2012 | By Stuart Pfeifer, Los Angeles Times
Advertisements for Lap-Band weight-loss surgery with that catchy telephone number, 1-800-GET-THIN, have quietly been pulled off roadside billboards across Southern California. Billboard companies Clear Channel Outdoor Inc. and Lamar Advertising Co. confirmed that marketing firm 1-800-GET-THIN has let its contracts with them expire. If the ads do not return, it would mark the end to one of Southern California's most aggressive medical advertising campaigns — one marked by controversy.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
February 21, 2012 | By Adolfo Flores, Los Angeles Times
Pressure is mounting on the California Department of Transportation to sell 460 homes it acquired decades ago in Pasadena, South Pasadena and El Sereno to make way for an extension of the 710 Freeway that has been stalled ever since. But officials say it could be years before any decision is made on the properties. Caltrans bought the homes in the 1950s, '60s and '70s to accommodate plans to extend the northern end of the Long Beach Freeway from Alhambra, where it ends now, to the Foothill Freeway in Pasadena.