Investigations

A federal consumer safety agency launched an investigation Thursday into this week's accidental death of an Orange County child caught in a washing machine. Scott Wolfson, a spokesman for the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, said investigators will examine the front-loading washer to determine if the design poses a safety risk.

Does Los Angeles-area state Sen. Roderick Wright live in the district he represents? Where the veteran Democrat currently makes his home doesn't actually matter under state law, elections experts say. Where he lived while running for office is the key question. The residency matter, and the issue of whether Wright correctly reported his address while seeking the 25th District seat he won last year, surfaced last week when the Los Angeles County district attorney's office confirmed it is investigating Wright.

As the paparazzi trailed his movements, a top Los Angeles County coroner's investigator probing the death of Michael Jackson went to the pop star's longtime dermatologist's office Tuesday to collect additional medical records. Coroner Assistant Chief Ed Winter visited Dr. Arnold Klein's Beverly Hills office after the physician failed to turn over records he had promised to provide to authorities earlier this month, said Craig Harvey, operations chief for the coroner's office.

For those who live in the tabloid cross hairs, the fake name is essential. Privacy-seeking celebrities have standard pseudonyms for checking into hotels, booking spa appointments, reserving restaurant tables, advertising for help and setting up visits to the doctor's office. But when those attempts at anonymity make their way beyond the exam room door and onto a prescription pad, a Hollywood convenience becomes a crime.

It came as fast and swift as a punch thrown seconds after the opening bell. Boxer Floyd Mayweather held a media conference call Tuesday to promote his return to the ring Sept. 19 at Las Vegas' MGM Grand in a welterweight fight against Juan Manuel Marquez, but questions about two separate police cases quickly came up. "My main thing is to focus on the fight," Mayweather said. "Anything else, I'm not worried about. I try to focus on positive things." Las Vegas police are investigating a shooting outside a skating rink, and last week seized two handguns, ammunition and two bulletproof vests from Mayweather's home and two cars.

Big Tujunga Canyon residents and others reeling from the Station fire called Monday for a federal investigation into what they termed a poor initial response to the deadly blaze by the U.S. Forest Service . "It was beyond irresponsibility, beyond neglect," said Cindy Marie Pain, who lost her Big Tujunga Canyon home to the fire, which broke out in the Angeles National Forest on Aug. 26. Pain and other residents said they were outraged by...

U.S. Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. is poised to appoint a criminal prosecutor to investigate alleged CIA abuses committed during the interrogation of terrorism suspects, current and former U.S. government officials said. A senior Justice Department official said that Holder envisioned an inquiry that would be "narrow" in scope, focusing on "whether people went beyond the techniques that were authorized" in Bush administration memos that liberally interpreted anti-torture laws.

Media law experts and journalism groups expressed outrage Thursday that Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies obtained phone records from a notable Hollywood gossip journalist during a leak investigation, calling the action a serious violation of the reporter's rights. Several said they believed that sheriff's investigators violated state and federal law when they obtained a search warrant for the records of TMZ founder Harvey Levin as they tried to identify who gave him details about Mel Gibson's anti-Semitic tirade during a 2006 drunk-driving arrest.

The Beverly Hills financial advisory firm at the center of the investigation that derailed New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson's hopes of becoming commerce secretary has had a series of run-ins with federal and state agencies -- and a growing list of former clients is now suing it for allegedly bilking local governments. CDR Financial Products Inc.

The former chairman of the California Horse Racing Board is the focus of a criminal investigation for allegedly keying a longtime nemesis' pricey foreign car in Hollywood Park's parking lot last month, the Inglewood Police Department said Monday. Richard Shapiro, who directed the CHRB for four years until his December resignation, allegedly scratched horse owner Jerry Jamgotchian's 2007 Jaguar XJS after an April 24 CHRB meeting.