A man in his forties was hit and killed by a semi-truck this afternoon directly outside a fire station in the industrial eastside of downtown. The intersection of Santa Fe and Olympic, where the incident occurred, has heavy truck traffic due to its location near the convergence of the 5, 10, 101 and 60 freeways as well as the industrial nature of the area. No 9-1-1 calls were made since a witness ran up to......

A 48-year-old man in San Bernardino County is the third person this year to die from the West Nile Virus. "The Rialto man, who died Aug. 27, also suffered from preexisting medical conditions, which increased his chances of dying from the virus, officials said. They did not know how the victim, whose name was not released, contracted the virus" reported the LA Times. There have been 132 cases of the virus reported in the state......

As everyone says, you probably didn't know his name but you knew his voice. The man with the deep classic voice guiding moviegoers through trailers (he did over 5,000!) and heard in commercials (and he did over 350,000, wow) died yesterday at the age of 68. Don LaFontaine lived in the Hollywood Hills and passed away of complications from Pneumothorax, a condition resulting from a collapsed lung. Two videos are below: his recent Geico commercial......

A person was hit and killed by a Metrolink train near Corbin Ave. in Northridge around 7:15 a.m. this morning delaying service along the Ventura County Line. As of 8:15 a.m., the Los Angeles Fire Department was still on scene and said it was going to be a "difficult recovery" of the body. Both side of the tracks were blocked off. It seems that Metrolink is experimenting with Twitter and giving some updates via that......

The Orange County Health Care Agency reported late this morning that they have confirmed the second West Nile Virus related death this year. On Monday, the agency reported the first virus related death, 72-year-old woman from Buena Park, of 2008 The latest victim was a 64-year-old man from Garden Grove who died sometime this month. The total number of cases in Orange County has risen to 32, the highest number of infections since 2004. Four......

An 11:00 p.m. street race on Colorado Blvd. (b/w Eagle Rock Blvd & Townsend Ave.) in Eagle Rock claimed the lives of three people last night. Included in the dead are a pregnant woman who was driving, a teenage girl in the back seat and a man who was ejected onto the street. News reports to not clearly indicate if they were involved in the race or not. Two others were transported to the hospital......

The Orange County Health Care Agency has reported the first 2008 death in California resulting from the West Nile virus infection. The victim was a 72-year-old woman from Buena Park. Deanne Thompson, spokesperson for the agency told LAist that Southern California is seeing the biggeset increase in West Nile since 2004 when there were 62 cases in the OC alone. This year, the county has reported 26 cases not including "four asymptomatic dramatic blood donars."......

A 31-one-year old robbery suspect committed suicide last night at the LAPD's Hollywood Division jail facility, according to police in a released statement. During routine cell checks that take place every half hour on a schedule, Donald McMasters was dead around 10:45 p.m. after apparently hanging himself. He was arrested around 3:30 p.m. yesterday afternoon. According to Officer Aguirre, when suspects are detained, shoe laces, belts and other objects that can be used for inflicting......

The eastbound 105 freeway was shut down in the Willowbrook area after a dead body was found a little before 5:30 a.m. near the Wilmington Avenue Exit. Initial reports said that all lanes would reopen by 9:30, but as of 9:05 a.m., SigAlert indicated traffic as a-okay, save for the 110/105 connector.......

At Point Fermin last year where one person was found dead, another injured | Photo by Marshall Astor - Food Pornographer via Flickr There are a lot of falls over at and near Point Fermin and the Sunken City, whether it is accidental or suicidal. The battle for safety precautions over natural views of the ocean can be a contentious one with the community. There comes a point where you can't stop people from......

At Point Fermin last year where one person was found dead, another injured | Photo by Marshall Astor - Food Pornographer via Flickr One person is dead (now reported as a 50-year-old woman) after they went over the side of a cliff near Point Fermin 1:40 p.m. this afternoon in San Pedro (map). No preliminary reports on how this happened are out yet, but this cliff is no stranger to incidents like today (Update:......

George Furth, a Tony-award winning playwright and the man behind the books for "Company," the 1970 Broadway musical as well as "Merrily We Roll Along," died yesterday in Santa Monica for reasons yet to be announced. Furth worked with Stephen Sondheim, who wrote the music and lyrics for the two musicals, on the short lived murder mystery "Getting Away With Murder" in 1996. He also wrote the play "Twigs." As an actor, Furth worked on......

Singer and legend Issac Hayes was found by relatives unconscious next to a still-running treadmill this afternoon at his home in Tennessee today. He was later pronounced dead at a hospital in Memphis around 11 a.m. PST. Hayes, who won Grammy awards and an Oscar for his theme song from "Shaft," was scheduled to headline at the Sunset Junction Music Festival in Silver Lake later this month.......

One person was killed and at least three others were wounded in a shooting at a Samoan Flag Day celebration at Victoria Park in Carson around 10:30 p.m. Wednesday night, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy Ricardo Pedroza. The other three victims were a woman, a man, and a boy between 10 and 13 years old, according to reports. Police are still looking for the suspect.......

A man at a station in downtown Los Angeles has died after being hit by a Metro Subway train in an apparent suicide this evening. At 8:36 p.m., Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics were called to the 7th Metro Station where the Red, Purple and Blue lines serve passengers. When rescuers arrived, they found a man of around 35 years of age wedged under a North Hollywood bound Red line train 100 ft. from the......

Up to four armed men stormed a home this afternoon and were engaged by one of the armed residents at the home, leaving one of the suspects dead and the others fleeing, according to the Daily News. At about 2:45 p.m.on the 24300 block of Burbank Boulevard in Woodland Hills, up to four reportedly African-American males in their twenties entered the home with force before fleeing in a silver sedan with one accomplice dead in......

A week ago Wednesday, LAPD's Special Weapons And Tactics Team responded to an incident where a Edward Kaddis, 61, had earlier shot and killed his brother, William Kaddis, 64, according to a statement by the LAPD today. After the shooting, Kaddis then barricaded himself inside the home refusing to come out. Police, responding to a shots fired call at the building near Crenshaw and Olympic found the dead brother lying on the ground with a......

One innocent person dead at the hands of an officer is bad enough. Now there could be two. 5-year veteran of the Inglewood Police Department Brian Ragan is on leave for the second time in 10 weeks after he shot and killed a man who allegedly was pointing a gun at him. Ragan was responding to a family disturbance call, knocked on the door and, according to police, Kevin Wicks, a postal worker was holding......

A lot of us grew up with The Golden Girls, from their unprecedented success on NBC's Saturday night sitcom lineup to the now-ubiquitous Lifetime reruns. It was a show that probably shouldn't have been a hit--four elderly women sharing a home in Miami in the mid-1980s--but thanks to its incredibly sharp (and still funny) dialogue and the talents of its four leading ladies, the show has earned its place as a pop culture icon. One......

Olga Rutterschmidt, 75, second from left and Helen Golay, 77, background at the Criminal Courts building in downtown Los Angeles on Tuesday, July 15, 2008. Rutterschmidt moments later received the same sentence..(AP Photo/Genaro Molina, Pool) They befriended homeless men, gave them life insurance policies for two years, killed them by running over them, claimed their deaths as hit and runs and collected on the insurance. Nearly $3 million was collected between the two men......

View Larger Map The LAPD has released a break down of events that occurred last night in Hollywood that occurred around 8:45 p.m. where two pedestrians were killed during a short police pursuit. Here, in their own words, is their version of what happened accompanied by a handy LAist map: "A West Traffic Division Officer was in the area of Highland Avenue near Camrose Avenue when he observed a 2005 Honda Civic travelling on the......

Two years ago the community joined City Council President Eric Garcetti on the Great Hollywood Walkabout conducted by Deborah Murphy who then made recommendations which included reclassifying Hollywood Boulevard to include a pedestrian priority classification. Then and today, Hollywood Boulevard is still classified and engineered as a Major Highway. This morning, a vehicle involved in killing two pedestrians on the boulevard last night still sat in the middle of the street. The two victims were......

Shortly before 9:00 p.m., an LAPD West Traffic Division officer attempted to pull over a car for reckless driving on Hollywood Blvd. The suspect did not stop, prompting a short pursuit before hitting two pedestrians between Wilcox and Cahuenga and then crashing the vehicle. Both pedestrians, a male and a female between the ages of 35 and 40, were pronounced dead at the scene and the driver of the vehicle was treated for wounds and......

A crash between a vehicle and a semi this morning on the eastbound 210 Freeway has left one man dead at the scene, reports the Los Angeles Fire Department. It happened at around 8:00 a.m. when the vehicle somehow ended up under the semi near Lowell Steet. A SigAlert has been issued. Yesterday, four people died in a single-car accident on the 10 Freeway.......

26-year-old skateboarder and photographer Lee Grivas was found dead in his apartment by a neighbor in Hollywood on July 1. There were no signs of physical trauma and it appears to be from a heroin overdose. Applegate and Grivas dated on and off but his drug problem was a factor that often split them up. Right now, there is no official cause of death and is currently being ruled as an accident or suicide pending......

Last year in May, Edith Isabel Rodriguez died at Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital. Her death became national headlines because Rodriguez was dying (literally throwing up blood on the floor) in the waiting room as nurses and other hospital staff continued to ignore her as they walked by. Rodriguez's husband, Jose Prado, and another person in the waiting room called 911 explaining that she was in need of help. But dispatchers refused saying she......

"He definately knew how to make everyone laugh," wrote a friend of Staff Sgt. Du Hai Tran on an LA Times comment board. Tran, 30, of Reseda was killed Friday by a roadside bomb in Baqubah, Iraq. He is the 501st soldier from California (24th from Los Angeles) to be lost due to the war.......

Traffic diverted to Griffith Park at Hyperion/Fountain. Taken at 2:04 p.m. by LAist reader and friend, Lisa Borodkin Shortly before noon, a crash on the 2000 block of Hyperion Avenue between a postal truck and car resulted in the death of a postal worker. The female employee, between the ages of 25 and 30, was thrown from the truck before the vehicle landed on her, according to Los Angeles Fire Department spokesperson d'Lisa Davies.......

George Carlin once said that "anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac." Obviously, George lived here in LA. Almost his entire professional career was based here in the city of dreams, where he made his come true while influencing, inspiring, irritating, and entertaining so many different lives. People passed his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at the corner of Vine and Selma and......

Photos of George Carlin via his MySpace profile Comedian George Carlin died of heart failure at 5:55 p.m. today at Saint John's Hospital in Santa Monica. It was announced a few hours later, shortly before 9 p.m., by his publicist. He was admitted into the hospital for chest pains earlier in the afternoon. In honor of the comic genius who made millions laugh, loved words and called bullshit when it was needed during his......