Elliott Tramel Nowden, 45, seen above in a booking photo provided by the Los Angeles Police Department, was charged Wednesday, April 24, 2024, with murder in the stabbing death of a woman who boarded the Metro B (Red) Line train in North Hollywood on Monday, April 22. He has a prior conviction for attacking someone on a Metro train, according to court records. (Photo courtesy of the LAPD) A man suspected of fatally stabbing a woman on a Metro B (Red) Line train in the Studio City area — and who has a prior conviction for attacking someone on a Metro train — was charged Wednesday with murder. E ..read more

VAN NUYS — A former athletic trainer who worked at two high schools in the San Fernando Valley pleaded no contest Monday to felony charges stemming from the sexual assaults of 12 teenage girls. Richard Alexander Turner, now 65, was immediately sentenced to 36 years in state prison and ordered to register as a sex offender for life following his plea to one count of rape, three counts of sexual penetration of an unconscious person by fraud, four counts of sexual penetration with force and five counts of sexual battery by fraud, according to Deputy District Attorney Cindy Wallace. The plea came ..read more

Sprouts Farmers Market has agreed to pay $265,000 to settle sexual harassment and retaliation allegations from employees in the San Fernando Valley, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced this week. The EEOC said Thursday, April 18, it found “reasonable cause” to believe that Sprouts employees faced retaliation for complaining about sexual harassment in violation of Title VII, which protects workers and job applicants from employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin. The EEOC declined to release information on the specific allegations s ..read more

Massive work begins on the $92 million Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing stretching across the 101 Freeway in Agoura Hills this week. All lanes of the southbound 101 Freeway from Cheseboro Road to Liberty Canyon Road were being closed Monday through Friday this week from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m. and closures will continue for weeks. Workers prepare for a night of construction of the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing over the 101 Freeway at Liberty Canyon in Agoura Hills on Monday night, April 16, 2024. (Photo by Gene Blevins/Contributing Photographer) Heavy canes start putting in the multi ..read more

Authorities said Wednesday that the crash on the northbound 101 Freeway in Studio City that killed a Los Angeles Fire Department recruit was not believed to have been a criminal hit-and-run. The crash that occurred about 5:10 a.m. Monday near Vineland Avenue in Studio City took the life of 22-year-old Jacob Fuerte, who was driving a Jeep that collided with another vehicle, according to the California Highway Patrol and the LAFD. CHP officials said Fuerte, a Riverside resident, collided with a 2021 Ford driven by a 36-year-old Montclair man who was not injured. “Initial investigation suggests a ..read more

Local elected officials and advocacy groups are buoyed by signals that President Joe Biden will sign a declaration expanding the 346,177-acre San Gabriel Mountains National Monument by one-third within the next few weeks. Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif. and Rep. Judy Chu, D-Pasadena, who have bills stalled in Congress that expand the monument by adding 109,167 acres of federal forest land, while designating 30,000 acres of protected wilderness and adding 45.5 miles to the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System, reacted positively to a Washington Post report published on Thursday, April 11. But nei ..read more

Adapting to the sweeping effects of climate change will cost Los Angeles County and its 88 cities about $12.5 billion for projects that prevent flooding, wildfire damage and fatalities from extreme heat exposure and diseases, according to a report from the environmental watchdog group Center for Climate Integrity. The study, “Los Angeles County’s Climate Cost Challenge,” released April 2 by the center, advocates such projects as applying coating that cools urban streets and reduces ambient air temperatures by up to 10 degrees; planting trees to expand the urban shade canopy; and building up sh ..read more

Ridership on LA Metro trains and buses rose significantly in February over the same time last year, marking the fifteenth consecutive month of increases, the transit agency reported on Thursday, April 4. Total ridership jumped 9.4% in February 2024, as compared to February 2023, equaling more than 23 million total boardings for the month. Ridership on the system plummeted during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, as offices and schools closed and riders stayed home. LA Metro has been trying to get back to pre-pandemic levels and the newest figures show bus and rail ridership reached ..read more

When the Route Fire burned about 5,000 acres near Castaic in August 2022, prompting closure of the 5 Freeway at The Grapevine followed by weeks of lane closures for repairs, motorists exited onto The Old Road detour, bringing traffic misery to the Santa Clarita Valley. Detours from the primary north-south freeway link between Southern and Northern California also occur during snowstorms, fog, flooding and road work, repeating the scenario ad nauseam with miles of snarled traffic both on the freeway and along the deteriorating side road. The dirt bike path under the bridge supporting the In ..read more

The fire raced up their living room walls, blew out the windows and rained shards of glass onto the couple as they fled their Eagle Rock home for their lives on Feb. 4. A few weeks later, while staying at a hotel in nearby Pasadena, Renèe Dominique and Brian Smith were walking their dog past an old Baptist church when they noticed a poster about Ash Wednesday — the Lenten journey that culminates on Easter Sunday. The poster read: “Remember you are dust; to dust you will return.” Brian Smith and partner Renee Dominique with their dog Kirby in front of Pasadena City Hall on Wednesday, March ..read more