Results tagged “christmaseve”

The L.A. County Coroner has identified six of the nine badly burned bodies found inside the Covina home that was terrorized by "Santa Shooter" Bruce Pardo on Christmas Eve. According to abc7.com , the casualties were attributed to the shootings as well as the torching of the house. So far, the Coroner's office has determined:

Joseph Ortega, 80, of Covina, died from multiple gunshot wounds, and 70-year-old Alicia Ortega was shot in the abdomen. Also killed was Teresa Ortega, 51, who was shot in the leg but died from burns and smoke inhalation. Multiple injuries, including burns, gunshot wounds and smoke inhalation, were cited in the deaths of three others: Alicia Ortiz, 46, of Upland; Charles Ortega, 50, of West Covina and his wife, Cheri, 45.

Bruce Jeffrey Pardo killed nine people, and then himself, on Christmas Eve. Dressed in a Santa Suit, the distraught man entered the Covina home of his ex-wife's family and went on a shooting rampage, then torched the home. Following what has become known as the "Santa Massacre" Pardo went to his brother's home and committed suicide.

Earlier suspicions that a ninth body could be inside the scene of a mass murder in Covina has been confirmed, the Chicago Tribune confirms. A man dressed as Santa Claus walked into his ex-in-laws home on Christmas Eve and began shooting before lighting the place on fire. He was later found dead after he apparently committed suicide at his brother's home in the Sylmar neighborhood of Los Angeles. UPDATE: Now the coroner's office is saying they will not confirm the ninth body. A 2 p.m. press conference is expected to update the press on what's going on.

Sad. Clad in a Santa Suit on Christmas Eve, Bruce Jeffrey Pardo arrived at his ex-wife parent's Covina home and shot and killed at least eight people. Here's how it played out, as described by the LA Times:

Once again, Metro will be offering free rides to transit users on Metro Bus and Rail lines Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. The free fare program runs from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. December 24th-25th and 31st to January 1st. According to Metro, "the free rides are being offered during this period to promote safety during the holiday season. Metro is an option for people attending holiday parties so they don’t have to drive." Unfortunately, Metro's late night weekend service on the Red Line ends December 27th, which means in the new year we're going to have to get a lot better at hailing cabs instead of climbing aboard the subway in the post-closing time hours.

If good things come in threes, it seems bad things come in twos, at least today in LA:

Whats even more shocking than Jamie Lynn Spears being preggers? That it may not be Casey Aldredge's baby. Thats right, reports are that the real daddy is an older man that would surely be charged ith statutoryw rape charges if revealed - Showbiz Spy

Within 48 hours, building fires in Los Angeles did not take a holiday vacation.

LAist Featured Photos contributer, mil8, went along with his neighbor and friend on "an annual trip down to Skid Row to hand-out clothes, blankets and hygiene kits to LA's down & out in hopes to spark a better next year for them." This year he brought a camera. More photos after the jump in a YouTube photo collage video.

This scary Santa is a relic from my childhood. It's a mechanical bank toy, the kind you drop a penny in to make it twitch and shake. Circa 1960 (4 years before my birth) it still kind of-sort of works, if the rusted contact points connect with 2 D batteries...and you pray hard. As I recall, it has always been freakish, even when new. It makes a whirring/jangling sound, lurching back and forth on its undersized aluminum rooftop, jerking that bell with robotic menace. Or should I say Cylonic, cuz it's blue eyes change to eerily glowing red! Although it was working fine last week, this morning it decided to be stubborn and refused to jingle jangle and glow for its photo. I firmly believe it's possessed.

Christmas Eve is here. And today is no time for cynicism, irony or nastiness of any sort. Time instead to make something nice to eat, clink your glass with a loved one, and count your blessings with total sincerity.

Making sure that many have a safe holiday, fire fighters will be on watch because of SoCal's low humidity and high winds, a perfect mixture for wildfire. As of this posting, the Los Angeles Fire Department has not issued a Red Flag Warning.

Photo by ellwoodite via LAist Featured Photos Flickr Pool

Craby Joe's has been at the corner of 7th and Main in Downtown LA since 1933, and earned its place in local lore as a watering hole near and dear to the well-known downtrodden of the literary scene, like John Fante and Charles Bukowski. In honor of the bar's closing night, there will be a gathering of local historians and preservationists, and anyone else wishing to hoist a memorial last drink at Craby Joe's from 10 p.m. until last call on Christmas Eve. The night is being called a wake, in order to properly, and ceremoniously, say goodbye to the bar, whose "now-dead neon sign blinked gaily in the opening credits for Barfly and its pickled eggs were the day's only protein for too many."

This is the summer cookie that works well in winter - especially in LA, where women are still wearing flip-flops on Christmas Eve! At every holiday party, the dessert table is full of heavy chocolate confections, heady alcoholic affairs (figgy pudding!) and dense fruit-cake-y type items. If I'm just not up for making sugar cookies (and the insane hours it takes to decorate them all!), I make these instead. They're lighter, fresher. Oh so yummy and oh so different from everything else on the table. Candy cane confections be damned!

CLASSICAL: There's other classical music about town tonight besides Chanticleer. The Calder Quartet is the Colburn Conservatory’s first quartet-in-residence, and these new faculty members will show their chops with a program that includes Philip Glass, Quartet No. 2 “Company” by Philip Glass; Quartet in A minor “Rosamunde” by Franz Schubert and Terry Riley's “Cadenza on the Night Plain.”

It’s a holiday tradition at this blogger's house (long before I had kids, which says a lot about me) — sitting down and watching the 1964 classic Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. What’s not to love about a quirky cast of characters teaching a lesson about acceptance? Well, I suppose the lesson of incessant marketing of the show is not a great lesson, but like many things around Christmas I choose to blatantly ignore what I don’t like.

It's tamale season! Every year around this time, our family spends one Sunday wrapping tamales for Christmas Eve. It's easiest to make the meat the day before, then have the wrapping party the next day. This is not a solo project. Stock up on beer and make something easy, like chili, and invite all of your friends over. Call every Mexican restaurant/deli/store in your phone book and find one that sells the masa pre-prepared. Some...

If you're looking for 20-25 ft. waves, you better at least head up to Point Conception or past Eureka for even higher ones. If 7-14 ft. waves are your style, then stay LA.The surf will build throughout today and tonight, peaking Wednesday. By Thursday, the swell is expected to diminish into the 5- to 7-foot range, Seto said. A rainstorm from the Northwest is expected Thursday through Saturday, bringing more than an inch of...

Although most of us here at LAist are gourmet vegan chefs, a few of us (hi!) get our meals via drive-thru's not just daily, but several times a day.

Now that Thanksgiving is over, many of us are feeling guilty about overeating and we're starting to sweat the next month. My philosophy is to go ahead and enjoy the food when it is a special event, like Christmas Eve. What you really have to watch are the little unhealthy habits that the season brings - mindless cookie munching in the breakroom, triple-macchiattos to keep your energy up, and fast food meals eaten on-the-run as you rush from store to store. Luckily, there are a few chains that will keep the guilt factor down while still getting you out the door quickly.

Quick, yet deadly: this weekend's Malibu Fire is 90% contained. We thought NBC had a policy of not giving car chases attention, a respectable position to take. Those days must be over. Anyway, it's always interesting when a car chase gets off freeway at the exit by your house like the one this morning on the 101. That would make number eight on our list for witnessed car chases. More cost effective and more...

Lindsay Lohan fires mom, Dina Lohan, as her manager - OK Magazine

Florida fucks up every day. They're a blight to this country. We love 'em, but they blow. Big Time. The hide in the corner of the nation in shame and they should. Every day we will list three or four troubling things that they should be sorry about. We won't stop until they change their motto from "The Sunshine State" to "We're Really Really Sorry". 4. Palm Beach County's homicide rate rose by 26%...

If you watch television or read the newspaper today, or if you did those things yesterday, it seems to us that something is missing. The newspaper will tell you about holiday sales, the television will show you stories about Christmas trees that catch fire, or recipes to make low-fat desserts, but there's very little, if any, stories about Jesus, the reason for most of our celebrations this time of year. We don't expect the...

Happy Holidays!

Hope for DVDs in your stockings and lots of trips to your cinema center - this weekend and next week will be reruns of just about everything including late night programming. I guess the idea is that you're supposed to be spending time with people you love or like or something. Today - Saturday College Basketball is scattered all over the tube from morning 'til night. "A Christmas Carol" (TCM, 11:00 a.m.) This is...

Pershing Square has once again transformed into a frozen wonderland of twisted ankles and bruised tailbones. This lovely, downtown park spends most of the year as a grassy knoll and concrete potty, but for a few brilliant weeks during the deep freeze of our LA winter, it becomes a glorious, outdoor ice skating rink for the entire city to enjoy. Hockey clinics, open-air movies, community and family events and live music make this a...

So we don't have an official Little Italy? Psahw! Screw it! Stop visiting Canter's in Fairfax Village so much and head a little more South to Little Ethiopia once in awhile. Many have been, but most have passed through. At the very least, watch the video on TurnHere. Food enough of a reason? Hey, even vegan food! Or shopping? It's the holiday season after all. Skip the last minute Christmas Eve World Market/Cost Plus...