Torrance Ca

Mike Daniels and his companion Crystal Lakey were looking forward to living in a more secure, quiet neighborhood just outside Torrance where they could raise their two children in a home with a yard. But only four days after moving from Inglewood to an unincorporated Los Angeles County area, the attacks began last weekend on the African American couple. First it was Latino gang graffiti sprayed Saturday night on the outside retaining wall of Daniels' home. The graffiti included a racial slur.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday began testing indoor air and tap water in a South Bay neighborhood where residents have complained of health problems that they fear are caused by two nearby toxic chemical sites. The tests, to be completed in two to three weeks, are part of a $1.7-million program announced two months ago to search for possible contaminants in the neighborhood east of Torrance.

A Torrance man was stabbed to death shortly before dawn Friday as he struggled with an intruder in his home near the San Diego Freeway, authorities said. California Highway Patrol officers arrested a Torrance resident in his 20s who was running along the freeway away from the crime scene, but authorities refused to identify the man Friday. "We are satisfied that he is our suspect," said Torrance Police Sgt. Ronald Traber.

A man who headed the U.S. subsidiary of a Japanese printing company was among the four people killed when their small plane crashed into a Torrance medical building, an employee said Tuesday. Shimpei Matsumoto, who is the son of Daicolo Corp. President Hajime Matsumoto, was killed in the crash shortly after the plane took off Sunday from Torrance Municipal Airport, said Daicolo employee Moses Cabrera.

Authorities are on the lookout for fake Torrance city payroll checks after two were cashed at a San Pedro liquor store. "If they went to the trouble of making up a check that looks authentic, they wouldn't have made just a few," Torrance Treasurer Thomas C. Rupert said. Police Detective Jeff Harris said he anticipates that more checks will surface. Two men cashed the checks for $276 and $278 Saturday at Scheffler Liquor, 230 S. Gaffey St.

About 200 janitors and union organizers picketed Wednesday in front of Harbor/UCLA Medical Center in Torrance asking for better wages and lower health-care payments. The janitors are employed by Pedus Care but work at four county-run health facilities: Harbor/UCLA, Olive View, High Desert and El Monte Valley centers. Since Aug. 23, Pedus Care has been negotiating with the Service Employees International Union over wages and health care benefits for janitors. Janitors, whose average pay is $6.

Water officials are hoping to build a small desalination plant in Torrance as part of an effort to purge South Bay aquifers of briny water and at the same time gird the region against drought. The $3.5-million demonstration plant would filter salty ground water by reverse osmosis and produce 1.3 million gallons of drinking water a day--enough, water officials say, to supply about 2,400 households.

Furious that their representatives on a region-wide hydrogen fluoride task force were not given a chance to contribute to a draft report, Torrance City Council members this week rejected the document, which suggests that the highly toxic chemical should not be banned.

Torrance recently received an international award for its Sister City program with Kashiwa, Japan. The 21-year-old program received recognition for its student cultural exchange program, which pairs young people with a host family in Japan. Torrance was one of 23 cities worldwide that received the Sister Cities International award for exemplary success in developing ongoing relations with their foreign counterpart.

A pipe bomb that was safely deactivated after it was discovered in a Torrance neighborhood Monday night has joined the list of a growing number of bomb-related incidents in the South Bay in recent weeks. The bomb was found on a curb in the 17100 block of Crenshaw Boulevard about 9 p.m. and forced authorities to evacuate about 70 residents, said Torrance Police Lt. John Spindler. Residents were not allowed to return to their homes for two hours.