Investigations

More than 1,000 Toyota and Lexus owners have reported since 2001 that their vehicles suddenly accelerated on their own, in many cases slamming into trees, parked cars and brick walls, among other obstacles, a Times review of federal records has found. The crashes resulted in at least 19 deaths and scores of injuries over the last decade, records show. Federal regulators say that is far more than any other automaker has experienced. Owner complaints helped trigger at least eight investigations into sudden acceleration in Toyota and Lexus vehicles by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in the last seven years.

More than 750 law enforcement officials conducted sweeps in five counties Thursday, aimed at breaking the back of the Vagos Motorcycle Club, an organization founded in the 1960s that authorities say is tied to dealing drugs and weapons. Twenty-two people were arrested in Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside, Orange and Ventura counties, culminating a three-year investigation aimed at curtailing the operations of the Vagos organization.

Medco Containment Services Inc. lost a $266-million contract with Maryland after drugstores refused to work with the managed-care company, prompting a state investigation of some of the largest retail pharmacy chains. The state revoked the contract after about 60% of the state's drugstore chains--including Rite Aid Corp., Giant Food Inc. and CVS Pharmacy Inc.--refused to fill prescriptions covered by Medco's reimbursement plan.

The frantic knocking of home health nurse Orphia Wilson startled the boy's parents awake just after dawn. Their 3-year-old son, who suffered from chronic respiratory failure and muscular dystrophy, had stopped breathing. The boy's mother raced to his side and began performing CPR as Wilson stood by. It was too late. Jexier Otero-Cardona died at a Hartford, Conn., hospital the next day. In the months that followed Jexier's May 2005 death, Connecticut health officials discovered that Wilson had fallen asleep, then ignored -- or possibly turned off -- ventilator alarms that signaled the boy was not getting enough oxygen, state records show.

A Food and Drug Administration report made public Wednesday shows that bacterial contamination at Chiron Corp.'s flu vaccine plant in Britain is more widespread than previously thought, raising doubts about the company's ability to deliver flu shots in 2005.

A federal grand jury is investigating Joe Arpaio, the Arizona sheriff known for his aggressive stance on illegal immigration, for possible abuses of power in launching investigations of local officials who disagree with him, authorities said Friday. Two Maricopa County officials have been subpoenaed to appear before the grand jury to testify about Arpaio's actions against county officials since they moved to cut his budget in late 2008. Since then Arpaio and County Atty. Andrew Thomas, an ally, have filed criminal charges against two county supervisors, have said dozens of other county workers are under investigation and have filed a federal racketeering lawsuit accusing the entire county political structure of conspiring against them.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger replaced most members of the state Board of Registered Nursing on Monday, citing the unacceptable time it takes to discipline nurses accused of egregious misconduct. He fired three of six sitting board members -- including President Susanne Phillips -- in two-paragraph letters curtly thanking them for their service. Another member resigned Sunday. Late Monday, the governor's administration released a list of replacements.

Among the ranks of prison guards, only the most trusted are chosen to open a new penitentiary and lay down the law to the first busloads of inmates. Three times in a 15-year career, D.J. Vodicka got the call. He helped inaugurate Corcoran, Calipatria and Salinas Valley -- not a country club lockup among them, he liked to say. At 6 feet 6 and 280 pounds, with a head shaved clean, he was a guard's guard.

With former Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton on board, Virginia-based Altegrity Inc. is launching a global investigations company with ties to the city. Bratton is chairman of the new firm, Altegrity Risk International. He's tapped former L.A. City Councilman Jack Weiss to run the company's Los Angeles office and former Deputy Police Chief Michael Berkow as president of its security consulting unit. Bratton retired from the Los Angeles Police Department in August after eight years to work for Altegrity Inc., which had more than $900 million in revenue last year and is headed by Mike Cherkasky, former chief executive of the Kroll Group.

A senior member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform wants his panel to investigate whether insurance giant American International Group Inc. and other providers have unnecessarily denied and delayed costly medical treatment for civilian contractors injured in Iraq and Afghanistan. Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.) also called for an investigation into the Labor Department's role in overseeing the federally financed insurance system for civilians working overseas.

As USC Coach Lane Kiffin and his staff blazed the recruiting trail the last couple of weeks, players and parents questioned them about the specter of possible NCAA sanctions against the Trojans football program. "Obviously, it was something that came up at times," Kiffin said. According to several players, coaches told them that they expected the program to be fine, that USC might forfeit some games from previous seasons or, perhaps, lose a few scholarships if sanctions were imposed.

A new federal investigation into braking problems with Toyota Motor Corp.'s Prius hybrid is just one in a series of possible glitches that may be linked to the vehicle's complex electronics, including headlights that fail inexplicably, records and interviews show. Thursday, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it had opened a formal investigation into the 2010 model Prius after getting 124 complaints from drivers of a brief loss in braking power, which has been blamed in four crashes, two of which resulted in injuries.

California's largest for-profit health insurer is moving to dramatically raise rates for customers with individual policies, setting off a furor among policyholders and prompting state insurance regulators to investigate. Anthem Blue Cross is telling many of its approximately 800,000 customers who buy individual coverage -- people not covered by group rates -- that its prices will go up March 1 and may be adjusted "more frequently" than its typical yearly increases. The insurer declined to say how high it is increasing rates.

Federal agents are investigating a suspected "drop house" in Reseda, where more than a dozen illegal immigrants, mostly Central Americans, were being held against their will, authorities said. Los Angeles police were called late Sunday to the single-story stucco home in the 7900 block of Newcastle Avenue after someone inside dialed 911 on a cellphone and reported that smugglers were not allowing anyone to leave, authorities said. Police freed 14 people Sunday and discovered two others hiding nearby Monday.

Even as Israel defended its handling of last year's military offensive in the Gaza Strip, officials said Friday that the government was considering heeding international calls to open a new inquiry of its army's actions. Officials cautioned that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had made no final decision and that his Cabinet remained divided. Israel had flatly rejected calls for an independent inquiry and insisted that its internal military investigation of the Gaza operation was sufficient.

Defending the most controversial decision of his career -- if not his life -- former British Prime Minister Tony Blair declared Friday that he had no regrets over going to war in Iraq, calling it the right decision in a post-Sept. 11 world and one he "would take again." For more than six hours, Blair gave a stout defense of the war before an investigative panel whose proceedings were televised nationwide in a riveting moment of political theater. Britons who ditched soap operas and game shows to watch their former leader submit to a prolonged public grilling saw Blair insist that he tried to resolve the standoff with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein diplomatically, that he made the best judgment he could and that the Iraqi people are better off for it. "I had to take this decision as prime minister.

San Bernardino County officials said Thursday that they are making changes at the Department of Behavioral Health after three county therapists failed to report a bloodied knife and pair of jeans to law enforcement officials at the site of a fatal stabbing. The therapists arrived on the afternoon of Jan. 8 to look for evidence of drug use at an independent living home for seven mentally ill felons in the 300 block of South Bixby Way in Upland, according to the San Bernardino County district attorney's office.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has launched an internal investigation into its permitting and oversight in a San Joaquin Valley farming community dominated by a hazardous-waste facility, agricultural pesticide spraying and truck exhaust that may be contributing to health problems including severe birth defects. EPA regional administrator Jared Blumenfeld said the internal investigation would run concurrently with a broader inquiry in which state and local agencies will examine health and environmental issues facing Kettleman City, a town of 1,500 mostly poor, Spanish-speaking farmworkers.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger directed state public health and environmental officials Friday to visit Kettleman City to conduct "a thorough investigation" into the causes of birth defects in the San Joaquin Valley farming community. Schwarzenegger's intercession comes more than a year after activists petitioned state agencies to investigate whether a large toxic dump near the community might be causing cleft palates and other defects among the mostly low-income Latino residents. The dump, operated by Houston-based Waste Management, is the largest hazardous waste facility west of the Mississippi.

A Los Angeles County Superior Court spokeswoman wearing several identification badges was grabbed by a sheriff's deputy in a downtown L.A. courtroom and pushed hard against a wall with her arms pulled behind her before being handcuffed, according to eyewitnesses. Sheriff's officials have launched an internal affairs investigation into why the deputy detained and handcuffed Vania Stuelp, a deputy public information officer. Stuelp, who sought medical treatment after the incident, has filed a complaint about the deputy's actions, sources said.