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ELECTION DAY
Voters are projected to turn out Tuesday in record numbers in California -- as high as 80 percent in some counties -- despite some morning rain in LA County. Registrars also are readying for a last-minute flood of mail-in ballots that could delay final results in some races. Voters are considering 12 statewide propositions, including Proposition 8, a measure that would amend the state Constitution to ban gay marriage. (NBCLosAngeles.com Elections)
Electrical service was interrupted Tuesday morning at two polling places in the Mid-City area of Los Angeles, but voting continued despite the power outages. Problems were reported at the Tom Bradley Youth & Family Center, 5213 W. Pico Blvd., and at the Seventh Day Adventist Church, 4394 W. Washington Place, said Brooks Baker of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.
Polling workers moved the operations outside in each case, and voting continued. DWP Crews were sent to provide generators at each location and to repair the problems.
PARKING RESTRICTIONS SUSPENDED FOR VOTERS
Parking restrictions within one block of polling places in the city of Los Angeles will not be enforced on Election Day. Drivers will not be required to pay parking meters or abide by time limits on meters, nor will street cleaning and preferential parking restrictions be enforced.
SLICK ROADS SNARL MORNING COMMUTES
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A tractor-trailer crash spread fuel into lanes and forced the shutdown of the rain-slickened eastbound side of the 210 Foothill Freeway for hours on Tuesday morning. It was one of several major accidents on a rainy morning in Southern California. The California Highway Patrol says the big-rig tipped over in a multi-vehicle crash shortly after 3 a.m. on the eastbound side at Sierra Madre Boulevard. Just before 5 a.m., another big-rig overturned on the Foothill Freeway a few miles west of the earlier incident.
WOUNDED TEEN STAGGERS INTO HIGH SCHOOL GYM, DIES
Authorities say a teenager bleeding from a gunshot wound staggered into the Bell High School gymnasium in Bell, Calif., on Monday night and died in front of stunned students and parents attending a basketball clinic. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department says the 18-year-old, identified as Luis Rosas, of Bell, was shot once in the upper torso while playing basketball on an outdoor court at the high school. He then went into the gym and died in front of about 40 people. Nobody has been arrested.
HOMELESS CAMP SLAYINGS STILL A MYSTERY
Police say they have no eyewitnesses and no suspects and have yet to establish a motive for the shooting deaths of five people at a Long Beach homeless encampment. Three men and two women were found dead Sunday in a seedy neighborhood of warehouses and apartment buildings where the homeless gather near the intersection of two freeways. Some of the victims were shot more than once. Investigators spent the day combing the area for clues. And they issued a plea for the anonymous caller who directed police to the scene to come forward in the hope that he had more information. Authorities identified two of the victims as 34-year-old Vanessa Malaepule and 44-year-old Lorenzo Perez Villicana. The others' names are being withheld until their families can be notified. (NBCLosAngeles.com VIDEO)
MOTHER SENTENCED FOR PARTICIPATING IN RETALIATION MURDER
A woman found guilty of second-degree murder for driving her son and some of his friends to a Long Beach park where a 13-year-old boy was stabbed to death was sentenced Tuesday to 15 years to life. Long Beach Superior Court Judge Arthur Jean also denied a defense request for a new trial for 31-year-old Eva Daley. She was found guilty of second-degree murder for the slaying on June 25, 2007, of Jose Cano. The prosecution said Daley knew exactly what was going to happen when she drove her son and his friends to the park where the stabbing took place. According to prosecutors, the slaying could have been in retaliation for either the stabbing of Daley's son about six months earlier or for an incident earlier that night when gang members threw flares toward Daley's apartment complex.
WITNESS TESTIFIES ABOUT SPECTOR'S RANT AT JOAN RIVERS' PARTIES
A security guard for Joan Rivers says murder defendant Phil Spector was ejected from two of the star's Christmas parties for brandishing a gun and declaring that all women should be shot. Vincent Tannazzo, a retired New York City police detective who now occasionally works for Rivers, testified yesterday at the music producer's retrail for the 2003 killing of 40-year-old Lana Clarkson in his Alhambra mansion. The security guard says Spector turned toward a woman leaving a Rivers party and said, "I ought to put a bullet in her head right now." He also said Spector was "ranting" and that he used an obscenity to describe women. The trial, now in its second week, is expected to last two months. (NBCLosAngeles.com)
4 MARINES ARRESTED IN KILLING OF SERGEANT, WIFE
Four Marines have been arrested in the shooting deaths of a Marine sergeant and his wife last month in their Riverside County home. The sheriff's office says the Camp Pendleton-based Marines ransacked the Winchester home and likely killed the couple for financial gain. Sheriff's deputies discovered the bodies of Jan Pietrzak and his wife Quianna Jenkins-Pietrzak on Oct. 15 after receiving a call from the Marine Corps because the sergeant had not shown up for work. The suspects include Pvt. Emrys John, Lance Cpl. Tyrone Miller, Pvt. Kevin Darnell Cox and Pvt. Kesuan Sykes.
SOCAL MAN TRIED TO BURN SLEEPING FAMILY, POLICE SAY
Police say a Garden Grove man tried to kill his sleeping family by barricading them inside their house and setting fire to it before a daughter returned home and foiled his plot. Don Nguyen is expected to be arraigned Tuesday on five counts of attempted murder. He's being held on $1 million bail at the Orange County Jail. Police say Nguyen planned to kill his wife, son, daughter-in-law, grandchild and a boarder as they were sleeping at about 1 a.m. Sunday in their Garden Grove home. He allegedly put steel bars on the back door and wired several rooms shut, then doused the doors and windows with gasoline. He was discovered by a daughter who returned home from a date and dismantled the door barricades.
3 ARRESTED IN ALLEGED FORECLOSURE SCAMS
Three Southern California residents have been arrested for allegedly scamming struggling homeowners with false promises of stalling foreclosures. The state attorney general's office says the suspects, who called their business First Gov or Foreclosure Prevention Services, charged homeowners $1,500 to $5,000 for their services. They allegedly promised to renegotiate mortgages, reduce payments and to have delinquent loan amounts transferred to the renegotiated principal. It was not immediately clear how many people signed up for the services. Authorities arrested Saul Amador of West Covina, Jesus Flores of Baldwin Park and Rosa Conrado of San Bernardino. Arrest warrants have been issued for two other men: Juan Perez of Grand Terrace and David Giron of Ontario.
LAKE HILLS MAN BEATEN IN HOME INVASION ROBBERY
Authorities searched Tuesday for three assailants who broke into a home in the Lake Hills area and beat the homeowner before he managed to escape from the residence. The home invasion robbery took place in the 17300 block of Woodentree Lane near Flora Way at about 1 p.m. Monday. The three robbers entered and held a man at gunpoint, then bound him and beat him. One assialant shot at him but missed, police said.
WEATHER FORECAST
After spotty rain on Tuesday morning, the forecast calls for partly cloudy skies with just a slight chance of showers in the afternoon. Highs will be in the mid-60s and around 70 in Los Angeles and vicinity, the mid-to-uuper-60s in the San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys, the lower-to-mid-60s in the Santa Clarita Valley, and the upper-50s to lower-60s in the Antelope Valley. Air quality will be in the mostly good range. (NBCLosAngeles.com Weather)
