Los Angeles County

Trying to inspire wonder, discovery and responsibility in natural and cultural worlds has been the mission for the National History Museum of Los Angeles County since 1913. The museum sees people, as well as the elements surrounding them in the world, as all connected. This philosophy is reflected in its practices at the museum, which offers insightful educational opportunities and promotes curiosity and understanding. The museum safeguards more than 35 million specimens and artifacts and offers three floors of permanent exhibits.

Mike Morgan, the new chief of the Costa Mesa Fire Department, was publicly sworn in at a ceremony Thursday morning, three days after he officially began work in his new post. The former assistant fire chief of Los Angeles County, Morgan replaced interim Fire Chief Steven Parker, who ran the department since August 2006. He received his badge at a ceremony at Fire Station 5, with Mayor Allan Mansoor, City Councilwomen Katrina Foley and Linda Dixon, City Manager Allan Roeder and others in attendance.

A teenager suspected by Newport Beach police of being the lone gunman that got away during a search last month near Fashion Island was killed by Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies, authorities confirmed. Dalton Rahman, 18, was shot by Los Angeles County Sheriffs SWAT team members when he wrested a gun away from one of them as they tried to arrest him, according to a statement released by the sheriff’s department Nov. 6. Newport Beach police said Rahman was the man who eluded capture in early October, when officers went to a parking lot near Fashion Island where three men were reported acting suspiciously.

Bill Barnett, the coach of the Newport Water Polo Foundation 18-and-under team, isn't concerned that the schedules for the girls' teams in the S&R Sport USA Water Polo National Junior Olympics aren't complete. The tournament starts Thursday in Los Angeles County. Barnett always knows what to expect, no matter the opponent. "All the teams there are tough," Barnett said. "[Most teams] are composed of players that have graduated [high school]. We're competing with players that are coming back to our high school.

Los Angeles County coroners will begin investigating whether drugs or alcohol played a role in the fatal motorcycle crash of a 28-year-old Costa Mesan. Police say David Deane’s 2004 Yamaha motorcycle sped across the double yellow lines on an Angeles Crest Highway curve and slammed head-on into a 2006 Dodge Ram pickup truck just before noon on Tuesday. The crash happened near Mt. Wilson, north of Pasadena. An L.A. Los Angeles County helicopter witnessed the accident from above and quickly touched down on the road nearby the crash to provide medical aid, authorities said.

Assemblyman Chuck DeVore proposed a bill this week that would require the state to sell the land occupied by the Los Angeles Coliseum and Memorial Sports Arena. DeVore said USC or private investors could do more with the property than the state has done with it and that its sale would help California deal with its projected $14.5-billion deficit. Preliminary appraisals have placed the property’s value at about $700 million. With a serious injection of funding from a private source, Los Angeles County could even try to court an NFL team, which would bring in a lot of extra tax dollars, DeVore said.

Newport Harbor High senior Chris Manderino, already selected to play in the Orange County All-Star Football Game, will also represent Orange County in the Los Angeles-Orange County Charity Football Classic, scheduled July 28 at Cerritos College. Manderino, the Newport-Mesa District Most Valuable Player and an All-CIF Southern Section Division VI selection, led the Sailors to back-to-back section title games. He was the starting quarterback in 1999, when the Tars went 13-0-1 and won the section crown, but shifted to tailback early in his senior campaign.

A 22-year-old Costa Mesa woman died after a Jeep struck her as she was standing in a traffic lane after a car accident on the 60 Freeway in Los Angeles County on Friday. The woman was headed eastbound on the 60 Freeway just east of Grand Avenue in Diamond Bar about 3:30 p.m. when the 2002 Hyundai Santa Fe she was driving struck the center divider, according to a California Highway Patrol report. The crash flipped the Hyundai onto its side, blocking the carpool lane, where a second car, a 2007 Toyota Yaris, smashed into it, according to the report.

After a high speed chase that moved into Los Angeles County, Costa Mesa police have arrested two men allegedly involved in an armed robbery of a Costa Mesa bank this morning, according to police. Three men entered the Downey Savings at 360 E. 17th St. at about 10 a.m., took control of the bank and grabbed cash before fleeing, police said. The men drove away — using a getaway driver — in a blue car but swapped it later at Cabrillo Street when meeting another suspect driving a black Toyota Sequoia, police said.

A Costa Mesa man’s pre-trial hearing for allegedly threatening his ex-wife, possessing explosives and endangering a child has been moved to Los Angeles County because Orange County judges have all recused themselves, prosecutors said Monday. All future hearings for Ronald Turner, 44, will be in Los Angeles County up until the trial, if it goes that far, prosecutors said, because authorities suspect Turner threatened an Orange County judge along with his ex-wife and Huntington Beach police.

Thirty years ago, a good Indian meal in Orange County was hard to come by. "When we opened in 1982, there were no Indian restaurants in Orange County at that time," said Arun Puri, who owns Royal Khyber Fine Indian Cuisine at South Coast Plaza Village with his wife, Urmil Puri. Almost as a hobby - and to save commuting time - Arun Puri opened an Indian eatery on Jamboree Road and Bristol Street. It would later move to a smaller space near the Costa Mesa-Santa Ana border across from South Coast Plaza, at the invitation of the Segerstrom family.

LOS ANGELES — Newport-Mesa Unified Supt. Jeffrey Hubbard testified Wednesday that racy emails sent between him and a subordinate when he ran the school district in Beverly Hills had nothing to do with why he increased that subordinate's car allowance and gave her a bonus. Karen Anne Christiansen was a top performer, and he and members of the school board believed she deserved more money, he testified on the witness stand in Los Angeles County Superior Court. Prosecutors have alleged that the attention Hubbard received in a "special relationship" with Christiansen, then Beverly Hills Unified's facilities director, led him to enhance her car allowance and give her bonuses without the legally required school board approval.

Bill Barnett, the coach of the Newport Water Polo Foundation 18-and-under team, isn't concerned that the schedules for the girls' teams in the S&R Sport USA Water Polo National Junior Olympics aren't complete. The tournament starts Thursday in Los Angeles County. Barnett always knows what to expect, no matter the opponent. "All the teams there are tough," Barnett said. "[Most teams] are composed of players that have graduated [high school]. We're competing with players that are coming back to our high school.

Newport Beach police on Saturday took into custody a missing 4-year-old girl and her mother, who allegedly abducted her Friday at Fashion Island, authorities said. Symphony Aiton and her mother, Angela Marie Aiton, 34, disappeared about 6:30 p.m., when they were having a supervised, court-approved visitation. With her foster father's permission, Aiton took her daughter to the restroom. They never returned. An Amber Alert was issued. Los Angeles police arrested Aiton on Saturday afternoon after a civilian reported seeing her Jeep Grand Cherokee.

Jamie Rowe, a copy editor and page designer for the Daily Pilot and its sister publications in Orange and Los Angeles counties, has been promoted to web editor for Los Angeles Times Community News, South, effective May 16. Rowe, 27, will oversee the online operations for the Daily Pilot, Huntington Beach Independent, Laguna Beach Coastline Pilot and OC Now, a site that aggregates content from the community newspapers, as well as the Los Angeles...

A variety of companies, two universities and a hospital received recognition as Orange County’s 10 most trusted brands at the first Trust Summit, sponsored by a Newport Beach-based business magazine and an advertising firm. Honorees received etched plastic cubes designed to symbolize the transparency required to earn customer loyalty. Orange County’s most trustworthy brands include Disneyland, Mother’s Market, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and In-N-Out Burger.

A Newport Beach police officer was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving over the weekend in Los Angeles County, according to arrest records provided Tuesday by the California Highway Patrol. Monica Aguilar was arrested Friday night on the eastbound 10 Freeway at Crenshaw Boulevard in Arlington Heights, a Los Angeles neighborhood. Aguilar was pulled over about 9:25 p.m. for driving with tinted windows, according to the CHP. While talking to her, the officer reported noticing signs that Aguilar was intoxicated and gave her a field sobriety exam, said CHP Officer John Harris.

More than 40 years after the incident, the 8-year-old girl with pigtails is now a woman. On Tuesday, she sat across from her attacker in a Santa Ana courtroom, testified against him and then listened as he apologized for his actions. Newport Beach resident Tali Shapiro, who willingly identified herself and discussed the case with the media after providing her testimony, was lured into Rodney James Alcala’s car and sexually assaulted by him in 1968. Alcala, 66, was found guilty Thursday of the murder and kidnapping of a 12-year-old Huntington Beach girl in 1979 and four Los Angeles women in the 1970s.

John Canalis, most recently with the Long Beach Press-Telegram, will begin Monday as the new editor for the Daily Pilot, Huntington Beach Independent and Laguna Beach Coastline Pilot, Times Community News executives announced. Canalis, 38, will oversee the production of the three papers in print and online. He’ll also oversee the youth sports website GameON OC, the staff blog OC Now, and lead Times Community News in its partnership with the Orange County Local News Network.