Threats

Hollywood Boulevard was temporarily closed Thursday over a bomb scare at a Hooters restaurant. Los Angeles Police Department officials said a man walked into Hooters with an ice chest he claimed had a bomb inside. The suspect was later taken into custody. He told officers: "I was just joking," according to a law enforcement source. The LAPD bomb squad is sweeping the restaurant to determine whether there is a threat. ALSO: Exotic snakes on the loose at Torrance park Alleged O.C. drug dealer charged with murder in overdose death Coastal commissioner resigns after Vietnam 'carpet bombing' remark    

Commenting on the horrific explosions in Boston, President Obama insisted Tuesday that "the American people refuse to be terrorized. " Brave words, but also accurate ones. In the years since 9/11, residents of this country have acquiesced in an array of inconveniences and encumbrances, hoping they are contributing to their own protection but often suspecting that this or that precaution is either arbitrary or useless. But even as they alternate between stoicism and resentment, Americans have continued to travel, socialize and take part in communal celebrations such as the Boston Marathon and New Year's Eve festivities in Times Square.

Los Angeles police said Tuesday night that a bomb threat that forced employees at the KTLA-TV studios in Hollywood to be evacuated was a hoax. "It was a hoax call," Los Angeles Police Department Officer Christopher No told The Times. "The guy called and said, 'there was a bomb'.... He said it was going to blow. " Employees would be allowed back into the studios, police said. Bomb squad personnel, along with search dogs, scoured the property at 5800 Sunset Blvd. for about two hours but found no suspicious devices, police said.

Los Angeles police bomb squad members were responding to the KTLA-TV studio in Hollywood after a man called up and said he was going to detonate explosive devices on the property, authorities said Tuesday evening. A man called 911 and said he was "going to detonate" three devices, which were on the north side of the station at 5800 Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood, Officer Christopher No of the Los Angeles Police Department told The Times.  Employees were evacuated, KTLA said in a Tweet.

- Glenn McGovern joined the Air Force fresh out of high school and was plunged into a world of threats and intrigue. Assigned to protect U.S. bases worldwide, he studied the tactics of Germany's Red Army Faction, the attack style favored by Hezbollah and the IRA's pattern of bombings. He became enamored of the "Art of War," an ancient Chinese military treatise that counsels to know thyself, know thy enemy . But it was after a civilian policing career, when McGovern joined the Santa Clara County district attorney's office as an investigator, that he found his passion - one that would turn him into an expert on attacks against law enforcement.

WASHINGTON - Skilled in tracking foreign terrorists, Jarret Brachman once was a sought-after expert on Al Qaeda, advising several federal agencies and speaking regularly around the country. Now the former research director of the Combating Terrorism Center, a think tank at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, has turned his focus away from Islamic militants. He spends most of his time consulting with federal, state and local law enforcement agencies about threats from domestic extremists and antigovernment militias.

BEIJING -- After meeting with top Chinese leaders Saturday, Secretary of State John Kerry said  Beijing had pledged to work with the United States to urge North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons. "There is no question in my mind that China is serious, very serious, about denuclearization," said Kerry, appearing exultant but weary at a Saturday night news conference at a hotel near the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing. He said there was “more agreement than disagreement” from the Chinese.

Kaufman County, Texas, still doesn't have justice for its two slain prosecutors. But it has a new district attorney and yet another man charged with making threats against public officials. "There is danger," Erleigh Norville Wiley, a Kaufman County judge appointed by Gov. Rick Perry to become the county's top prosecutor, told reporters Thursday afternoon. "But, I mean, we're all in danger in Kaufman County until we've figured out who's done these horrible things to Mike and Cynthia and Mark.” Investigators were still following leads in the recent slayings of Dist.

Aside from the reporters outside, it was "business as usual" at a Burbank high school Wednesday, a day after a 16-year-old student allegedly threatened via Twitter to shoot another, the district's superintendent said. Jan Britz said Burbank police have handled the majority of the investigation, which began Tuesday evening when the alleged threats were reported to authorities. Several callers reported the Twitter message, one of which identified the alleged suspect and victim both as John Burroughs High School students, Burbank Police Sgt. Darin Ryburn said.

A 16-year-old high school student was arrested in Burbank on Tuesday night after allegedly threatening on Twitter to shoot another student at his school, police said. Authorities received several calls about the alleged threat about 6 p.m. Tuesday, Burbank Police Sgt. Darin Ryburn said. One of the callers identified the alleged suspect and victim both as John Burroughs High School students. Though the alleged threat did not specifically name the alleged victim, the caller "knew who the suspect was talking about," Ryburn said.