Lynwood Ca

They call themselves the Regulators. They wear tattoos of a skull-faced man holding a shotgun, fire screaming from its barrels. They refuse to testify against their buddies. They've been accused of extorting and intimidating those outside their ranks. No, they're not members of a street gang. They're Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies at the Century station in Lynwood. And their "club" is part of a culture that's dogged the nation's largest sheriff's department for years.

A Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy shot and killed a man suspected of breaking into a Lynwood-area business, officials said Saturday. An informant flagged down two deputies from Century Station about 11 p.m. Friday, saying someone was breaking into the business in the 11600 block of Atlantic Avenue, said Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy Art Spencer. The deputies split up, one approaching from the front of the business and the other from the back, Spencer said.

Former Lynwood Mayor Paul H. Richards II was ordered Monday to serve nearly 16 years behind bars, a sentence that federal prosecutors described as one of the longest in any U.S. public corruption case. Richards, a 50-year-old former attorney, was convicted in November of steering city contracts to a front corporation he secretly owned. The scheme could have netted Richards more than $6 million, although he managed to siphon off only $500,000 before authorities interrupted, they said.

An appellate court that banned parents who lack teaching credentials from educating their children at home agreed to rehear the matter on Wednesday. The initial ruling by the 2nd District Court of Appeal caused alarm among the state's home-school families, who teach an estimated 166,000 students. It was also criticized by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, state Supt. of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell and conservative leaders around the nation. The ruling has never been enforced. An attorney representing parents Phillip and Mary Long, the couple at the center of the case, argued in seeking the rehearing that the ruling relied on outdated legal decisions, misinterpreted California's education code and failed to consider parental rights and religious freedom.

Lennox International Inc., a maker of heating and cooling equipment, plans to close its hearth-products plant in Lynwood and consolidate U.S. factory-built fireplace manufacturing operations at its Union City, Tenn., facility. The consolidation will be completed by the end of the second quarter of 2008 at a projected cost of about $5 million, the company said Friday.

The Lynwood City Council, at a special meeting Friday, decided against forming a controversial public-private partnership with a Newport Beach businessman to handle the city's waste collection. Despite appeals from businessman Kosti Shirvanian, who said his venture is the "future of the industry,'' the council awarded the contract to a competitor that the city staff had concluded would provide greater revenue.

A lobbyist representing a leading Southern California billboard company pleaded guilty Monday in U.S. District Court to giving a $7,500 "illegal gratuity" in 2001 to then-Lynwood Mayor Paul H. Richards to help win his support for a deal sought by the firm, Regency Outdoor Advertising.

Councilman Arturo Reyes has been fined $24,000 for violating campaign laws in his 1998 race, the Fair Political Practices Commission announced Friday. The action also names the Committee to Elect Arturo Reyes. The violations included failing to report campaign contributions, making campaign expenditures with non-campaign money, and "failure to maintain detailed records and accounts necessary to prepare campaign statements."

Even by Los Angeles-area gangland standards, the shooting at California and Sanborn avenues Sunday morning was a bloody piece of work--a minute's worth of gunplay in Lynwood that turned a car ride into a triple murder. Victor Perez, 19, of Compton, and two others died after gunmen pelted their late-model Oldsmobile with bullets at 1:20 a.m. Sunday, authorities said. A fourth occupant of the car escaped harm by ducking in the rear seat.

Former Lynwood Mayor Paul H. Richards II was convicted Tuesday on corruption charges for steering no-bid city contracts worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to a consulting firm he secretly owned. A federal court jury found the onetime political power broker guilty of 35 counts of extortion, fraud, money laundering and making false statements to investigators.

A pet shop owner charged last year with abusing cats, dogs and other animals -- some smothered to death or left to die in trash bins -- pleaded no contest Wednesday to animal cruelty and could be sentenced to as many as six years in prison, the L.A. County district attorney's office said. Under a deal with prosecutors, Young Sam Park, 53, of Los Angeles pleaded no contest to seven felonies and three misdemeanors, including animal cruelty, neglect and practicing veterinary medicine without a license.

By all appearances, there was going to be a historic changing of the guard Tuesday night at Lynwood City Hall. Four council members recalled from office were to step down and their newly elected replacements were to be sworn in. An overflow crowd filled the council chambers as the city manager prepared for the new council members to take over. But the ousted council members didn't budge.

Lynwood city leaders thought they had a winner when they proposed a 70,000-seat NFL football stadium in their working-class city. This week, voters punted the mayor and three council members out of office -- capping years of investigations, allegations of corruption and grandiose ambitions for the city. Mayor Louis Byrd and council members Fernando Pedroza, Alfreddie Johnson Jr.

Lennox International Inc., a maker of heating and cooling equipment, plans to close its hearth-products plant in Lynwood and consolidate U.S. factory-built fireplace manufacturing operations at its Union City, Tenn., facility. The consolidation will be completed by the end of the second quarter of 2008 at a projected cost of about $5 million, the company said Friday.

They call themselves the Regulators. They wear tattoos of a skull-faced man holding a shotgun, fire screaming from its barrels. They refuse to testify against their buddies. They've been accused of extorting and intimidating those outside their ranks. No, they're not members of a street gang. They're Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies at the Century station in Lynwood. And their "club" is part of a culture that's dogged the nation's largest sheriff's department for years.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday signed a state Senate bill authorizing Los Angeles County officials to take over the recall election targeting four Lynwood City Council members. The county registrar-recorder's office will now run the Sept. 25 special election. The council members had resisted moving forward with the recall, even after county election officials had verified petitions signed by thousands of Lynwood residents.

Civil rights attorneys representing 81 plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit accused Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies on Tuesday of engaging in a three-month wave of wanton shootings, beatings and excessive force while working out of the Lynwood station. In a lawsuit lodged in U.S. District Court, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and other attorneys asked the federal court to take over control of the Lynwood sheriff's station.

After spending a decade in prison for a shooting that his brother long ago admitted, a Lynwood man may finally gain his release as the result of a federal appeals court ruling. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 3-0 Monday that the state must release Jesus Avila or retry him within 90 days. His brother, Ernesto, who was never charged, could eventually be prosecuted.

A Los Angeles man was indicted Monday on 26 counts of animal cruelty and practicing veterinary medicine without a license for allegedly abusing cats, dogs and other animals, some of which were smothered to death or left to die in trash bins, authorities said. Young Sam Park, 52, pleaded not guilty in Los Angeles County Superior Court to 23 felony counts and three misdemeanor counts that were outlined in the grand jury indictment.

For years, the battle for control of the city of Lynwood has been shrouded in accusations of political corruption and cronyism. A former mayor is serving a 16-year sentence in federal prison for embezzlement. Five current and former City Council members have been charged with padding their salaries with public funds. And an effort is underway to recall four of the five current City Council members.