Los Angeles County

Despite a reeling economy, crime in Los Angeles and many other parts of Southern California fell in 2008 for the sixth consecutive year, challenging the widely held theory that crime rises at times of economic tumult. The continued decline, while less pronounced than in previous years, comes even as other major American cities, including New York and Chicago, have seen increases in some crimes, notably homicides.

Christine Arce had been eyeing a loft in downtown Los Angeles for six months, but the $1,550 monthly listed rent was just out of reach. The fashion sales representative called back recently on a whim and found the property managers were offering just enough to bring her in -- a $100 monthly reduction and the first month free. "I was totally surprised," said Arce, 32. She may have been pleased, but for landlords her good fortune represents a grim new reality.

Typically, a foreign consulate in the United States doles out passports, helps travelers in crisis and serves as a liaison to the home country. But the Mexican Consulate in Los Angeles has become an almost de facto public agency in recent years, forming partnerships with government officials and nonprofits here to provide healthcare, offer mental health counseling, fight labor violations and hold literacy classes.

One in five Los Angeles County residents -- nearly 2.2 million people -- are receiving public assistance payments or benefits, a level county officials say will rise significantly over the coming months as the fallout from the recession continues.

The low prices and interest rates stimulating sales of residential real estate have done nothing to help the market for commercial buildings. The big deals for offices, shopping centers and warehouses that dominated much of the last 10 years in commercial real estate have been notably absent in recent months, as developers find they cannot obtain financing to buy or construct new buildings and potential tenants stay put or go out of business.

A leading California foundation plans today to announce a broad campaign to help Los Angeles immigrants become more active citizens with a new $3.75-million, five-year program to help them learn English, improve job skills and increase civic participation. The California Community Foundation in Los Angeles also is set to release a 75-page report that documents the essential and dynamic role immigrants play in the regional economy and suggests ways to help them become even more productive.

By the time he was rescued last year, the 5-year-old South Los Angeles boy was so malnourished his kidneys were failing. His hands were so badly burned he could barely open them. Child welfare officials traced his history, trying to make sense of what had happened.

A little bit of the future is coming to Los Angeles freeways later this year in the form of "smart" road studs that gauge road conditions and traffic flow and open and close a freeway lane accordingly. Caltrans has contracted with a New Zealand company to pilot the "dynamic-lane" system on the 110 Freeway where traffic backs up in a tunnel at the single-lane connector to northbound Interstate 5.

Los Angeles County transportation officials are considering prices of 25 cents to $1.40 per mile for solo motorists who use the high-occupancy toll lanes that have been proposed for the 110 and 10 freeways.

Three officer-involved shootings in Los Angeles County left one man dead and two suspects injured this weekend, authorities said Sunday. Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies shot and killed an alleged gang member Saturday night after confronting him outside a party in Compton. Gang enforcement officers on patrol near West 137th Street and South Wilmington Avenue saw one of two alleged gang members walking with a gun, said Deputy Oscar Butao.