Los Angeles Police Department

A federal appeals court has rejected a bid by the union representing rank-and-file Los Angeles police officers to block strict financial disclosure requirements for hundreds of specialized officers. The unanimous ruling by a panel of judges from the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals released Friday likely brings an end to a lengthy and contentious challenge by the Los Angeles Police Protective League and clears the way for the LAPD to impose the controversial policy.

Prosecutors have charged Stanley Howse, one of the founding members of the rap group Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, with gun possession by a felon, the latest in a series of legal troubles for the popular Grammy-winning rapper. Known as Flesh-N-Bone, Howse was pulled over April 2 in Santa Clarita by Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies, who noticed that a brake light was out on his car, said Jane Robison, a spokeswoman for the district attorney's office.

By most available accounts, John Floyd Thomas Jr. spent the last two decades living a relatively quiet life. In 1989, he got a job processing workers' compensation claims for the state. One co-worker described him as friendly and religious, known for sending out e-mails quoting Scriptures. Other sources said he quit smoking soon after landing the job, talked about setting long-term goals and adhering to his Christian faith.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Police Chief William Bratton were right to be outraged this week when the City Council's closely divided Budget and Finance Committee voted to ignore their budget recommendation and imposed a hiring freeze on the Los Angeles Police Department. It's true that city officials are currently struggling to close the worst budget deficit since the Depression. But the mayor and the chief are right when they argue that halting the LAPD's growth is false economy.

Under the threat of a lawsuit that it almost certainly would have lost, the city of Los Angeles nine years ago entered into a consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice that required the Police Department to embark on an ambitious program of reform. The decree was sweeping -- it included hundreds of specific requirements -- and its goal was nothing less than the transformation of a proud, sometimes stubborn police culture. The same department whose officers beat Rodney G.

Until it all went bad, Randolph Franklin used to talk with pride about his life in the Los Angeles Police Department. Wear a badge for nearly half of your 50 years and somewhere along the way it becomes more than just a job. He was proud as well of the life he built on Woodlawn Avenue -- an unremarkable street set amid the gang violence and poverty of the city's southern swath. It's an odd place for a cop to live.

The Los Angeles Police Department on Thursday bestowed its highest honor for bravery in the line of duty on 25 officers. Five of the recipients were women -- more than in any previous year in the department's history. The annual Medal of Valor ceremony is one of the department's proudest: a chance to highlight moments of crisis when officers "performed an act displaying extreme courage while consciously facing imminent peril," according to the award guidelines.

A judge Monday postponed deciding whether to free the Los Angeles Police Department from years of federal oversight. More than eight years ago, following the Rampart corruption scandal, the LAPD was forced by the U.S. Department of Justice to agree to a sweeping set of reforms aimed at improving officers' behavior and the department's ability to maintain order in its own house. In 2007, U.S. District Judge Gary A.