Rewards

A week after the Los Angeles Police Department identified its 10 most wanted street gangsters, two City Council members proposed Friday that rewards of up to $50,000 be offered for information leading to the capture and conviction of the fugitives. The proposal, by Councilmen Tony Cardenas and Jose Huizar, must be approved by the full council.

The City Council on Friday approved $50,000 rewards for information that leads to arrests and convictions of people on the Police Department's list of 10 most-wanted gang members. "These are individuals where cases have already been made," said Councilman Tony Cardenas. "The problem is we can't bring them to justice until we have them physically in our custody." The Police Department released the list this month as part of a new campaign to reduce gang violence, which increased 15.7% last year.

The Internal Revenue Service estimates that the difference between what Americans owe in federal taxes and what they actually pay every year is about $345 billion annually. In an effort to close this huge "tax gap," Congress and President Bush in December enacted a measure designed to give people more motivation to tattle on dishonest employers, employees, co-workers, acquaintances and former spouses.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger offered a $50,000 reward Saturday for information leading to the arrest of the person responsible for the killing of a 4-year-old Hayward girl, who was shot in the head March 5 in a drive-by shooting thought to be gangrelated. Datasha Wilson died three days after she was hit by gunfire from a car as she stood in the front yard of a home in Hayward, a San Francisco suburb.

Riding a surge of public support for the citizen soldiers fighting an unpopular war in Iraq, California lawmakers are scrambling to issue them special license plates, waive car registration fees, offer free parking at state parks, even cut the price of their fishing licenses.

The U.S. handed over its largest reward in the campaign to wipe out Al Qaeda-linked militants in the southern Philippines, giving $10 million to Philippine informants in the killing of two top terrorism suspects. Four masked informants collected on promised $5-million rewards against Abu Sayyaf chieftain Khadafi Abubakar Janjalani, who was slain in a September clash on southern Jolo island, and against his presumed successor, Abu Solaiman, who was killed on Jolo in January. More than 7,000 U.S.

Federal and local officials on Tuesday announced a $110,000 reward for information leading to arrests and convictions in the attempted firebombing of a prominent UCLA eye doctor's car last month. A group known as the Animal Liberation Brigade claimed responsibility on a website for the act, which authorities described as "domestic terrorism." On June 24, an incendiary device was lighted next to a car parked at the Westside home of Dr.

A Wernersville, Pa., woman who found $20,000 in cash at a convenience store last month is getting a $500 reward from the armored car company that lost it. Joi Lyn Honer found the stack of $20 bills by a cash machine in Brigantine, N.J., during Labor Day weekend and turned the money in to police. "I'm grateful," she told the Press of Atlantic City. "I didn't do it for the reward, but I think I have $500 that I didn't have three days ago, and that's really helpful to me."

Nicole Harvey died alone, in a gutter. The 21-year-old college student was shot, and her body, consumed by flames, was found in Playa del Rey in January. The Los Angeles City Council and county Board of Supervisors moved quickly to offer a reward for information from the public that would break open the case and lead to a conviction. But as in scores of other reward cases, the $55,000 has gone unclaimed and the crime remains unsolved. Offering rewards is older than Wild West "Wanted" posters.

City officials offered a $50,000 reward Friday for information leading to the arrest or identification of suspects in a shooting that killed a man as he was leaving a Los Angeles quinceanera more than two months ago. Morris Moran, 27, was leaving the party at 601 S. Western Ave. on Sept. 8 when two men approached him from behind and one of them shot him in the back, Los Angeles police said.