Hawaiian Gardens Ca

Federal authorities Thursday accused a south Los Angeles County street gang of a litany of crimes, including the murder of a sheriff's deputy and racially motivated attacks designed to drive African Americans from their town.

Secundino "John" Cabrera has heard it all. A heavyset man with a shaved head and large glasses, not given to chatter, Cabrera has been the one person in town that folks could talk to when no one else would listen. Tough finances, lost jobs, births, deaths, the weather, abusive husbands, football, soccer, kids in jail -- you name it, he's heard it. At 64, Cabrera's life has been the small market that bears his family name in the middle of a block of single-family houses in Hawaiian Gardens.

Federal authorities on Wednesday announced the arrests of 11 additional members of the Varrio Hawaiian Gardens street gang, which is at the center of a massive racketeering case dubbed Operation Knock Out. At least 16 members and associates from other gangs wanted on state and federal charges were also taken into custody in what federal officials said was the second phase of the operation.

A Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy interviewing a woman and a man outside a Hawaiian Gardens apartment was fatally shot Friday when a gunman burst out of the residence, put a handgun to the officer's face and fired, authorities said. Sheriff's deputies fanned out across Hawaiian Gardens late Friday in search of the gunman, who apparently surprised Deputy Jerry Ortiz, 35, as he spoke to the woman in the doorway of her apartment. Authorities said Ortiz probably died instantly.

The name conjures up images of resort living, lush tropics, the beach -- unless you know its thin genesis was a thatched bamboo refreshment shack run by a man some say was a Prohibition-era bootlegger. "You hear the name 'Hawaiian Gardens' and you think of someplace nice and then when you get here you're like: 'Oh, OK,' " said Unaloto Makanesi, 18, whose family moved to the tiny city two years ago, drawn here because they could afford to buy a house.

It should come as no surprise that Los Angeles County's fastest-growing cities, Palmdale, Lancaster and Santa Clarita, saw big increases in assessed property values last year. But Hawaiian Gardens, Lawndale and Pico Rivera? The three working-class towns reported double-digit growth in assessed property values, according to a new report from the Los Angeles County assessor's office, placing them among the top gainers in the region.

After almost a year of contentious proceedings, the owner of the Hawaiian Gardens Casino will go before a state licensing board today to ask for a permanent gambling license. Dr. Irving I. Moskowitz, a multimillionaire hospital owner who now resides in Florida, has gained international attention for funneling millions of dollars to pay for Jewish settlements on land in Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem and in parts of the West Bank.

A 52-year-old employee was stabbed to death Monday in a Quickie Mart. Deputies responding to a robbery call at 4:45 p.m. in the 12300 block of Carson Street found the victim inside the locked store. Police were using dogs to track the suspect, whose left arm reportedly was cut.

A group of peace and local activists urged state regulators Wednesday to deny a permanent gaming license to a Hawaiian Gardens casino owner who has funded right-wing Israeli causes in the Middle East. Dr. Irving Moskowitz has operated a bingo parlor and card club for several years in the southeast Los Angeles County community, drawing praise as a philanthropist and criticism for using profits to buy land for Jewish settlers in Israel.

An early morning fire in a Hawaiian Gardens house Thursday left a woman and her daughter critically burned and two more children seriously hurt, officials said. Maria Cardoza, 30, suffered second- and third-degree burns to her hands, chest and face, is being treated at Torrance Memorial Medical Hospital, said Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy Bob Killeen.