Maps

The Los Angeles Police Department's online crime map intended for public use has failed to include nearly 40% of serious crimes reported in the city, a Times analysis has found. The omissions, which date back at least six months, include thousands of crimes known to LAPD officials and are included in their official crime statistics. Among the 19,000 incidents between Jan. 1 and June 13 that do not appear at lapdcrimemaps.

There are nearly 30,000 city blocks in Los Angeles, and over the last several weeks, my colleague Maloy Moore and I have examined them all. We've considered each one's size and population density, its racial and ethnic makeup, its proximity to landmarks, its topography and history. Then we listened to what readers told us about the deeply rooted perceptions that make them see a block as belonging in one community instead of another.

Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton conceded Thursday that the LAPD's crime map had significant omissions but said it will stay online while the problems, first identified by The Times, are corrected. Bratton -- speaking at a news conference to announce a gang crackdown -- said that despite significant omissions, the crimes that are plotted on the map are accurate. He said he believed it remains a valuable public service.

A freeway overpass in the San Fernando Valley may seem an unlikely place to discover buried treasure, but that's exactly where authorities struck pay dirt this week when police received a handwritten map that led them to a cache of stolen valuables by the 118 Freeway. Police say the hot goods -- mainly expensive jewelry -- may be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

It's fair to say that Dan Long has seen more of the universe than anyone but God. Month after month, year after year, Long has sat in a windowless room atop a windy mountain peak, watching the heavens scroll by on 12 monitors connected to the Apache Point Observatory's 98-inch telescope. He saw stars, galaxies and clusters of galaxies banded together like giant herds of animals on an unending savanna roll by.

Los Angeles' road to the 21st century has been rocky -- and kooky -- according to an unusual exhibition that opened Wednesday at the downtown Central Library. More than 100 maps reflecting changes and growth during the city's existence are being displayed in a colorful exhibit called "L.A. Unfolded." There's the mysterious "Mesmer City," shown in 1924 as prosperously thriving between Culver City and Mar Vista.

ANDRE Mueller is a virtual explorer of virgin territory. One morning, off the southwest coast of Iceland, the 25-year-old German physics student noticed a wispy line -- a wrinkle, almost -- in the elaborate patchwork of satellite imagery that makes up Google Earth. He zoomed in for a closer look. It was smoke. At the end of the trail, he discovered what appeared to be three boats.

Google Inc.'s replacement of post-Hurricane Katrina satellite imagery on its map portal with images of the region before the storm does a "great injustice" to the storm's victims, a congressional subcommittee said. The House Committee on Science and Technology's subcommittee on investigations and oversight Friday asked Google Inc. CEO Eric Schmidt to explain why his company was using the outdated imagery. The subcommittee cited an Associated Press report on the images.

Google Inc., whose motto is "Don't Be Evil," has launched an initiative designed to highlight some. A scan of the globe using the Google Earth satellite mapping program shows a large swath of Central Africa trimmed in orange. Zoom in and the words "Crisis in Darfur" appear, along with icons of flames marking 1,600 villages destroyed in fighting between government militias and rebels that has led to the deaths of more than 200,000 people.