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May 20, 2012

L.A. NOW

Breaking news and features about Los Angeles and Southern California.

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Motorist dies after his car plunges into the water at L.A. port

A man died Saturday afternoon after his car flew off the road and plunged into the water near Pier 300 at the Port of Los Angeles. Witnesses called authorities at 2:55 p.m. after seeing the vehicle land upside down in about 10 feet of water, said Los Angeles fire spokesman Brian Humphrey. Rescue divers working in murky conditions were able to extract the driver, an adult male, about 10 minutes later, Humphrey said. The car had filled with water.

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Fontana pallet yard and tire business erupt in flames

Eighty-foot flames licked the sky Saturday night in Fontana as a pallet yard and truck tire business erupted in a massive fire that burned three commercial buildings and sent one firefighter to the hospital.

About 60 units responded to the five-alarm fire that broke out about 6 p.m. in the 14000 block of Slover Avenue, just south of the 10 Freeway, said San Bernardino County Fire spokesman Otto Schramm. Engine companies, bulldozers, foam units and fire investigators swarmed the industrial area that sits on county land just west of Fontana. 

This is probably one of the largest fires in a commercial structure in our county in quite some time, Schramm said.

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Solar eclipse weather: Good for California, Southwest; cloudy elsewhere

The weather forecast looks good for Los Angeles, most of California, and the rest of the U.S. Southwest for Sunday's solar eclipse. But clouds threaten the view in much of Asia and the U.S. Northwest, South and Midwest.

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Burglars steal pet Yorkshire terrier, owner heartbroken

Michelle Reiter lost $4,000 in cash, a 32-inch TV and a laptop computer when her Glendale home was burglarized May 7. But also stolen that day was something far more valuable her 11-year-old teacup Yorkshire terrier, Sophie.Since that time she has been frantically searching for Sophie, not only because shes her greatest love, but because Sophie needs periodic medication for her bowels. Sophie was reported stolen after burglars entered Reiters home between 9 a.m. and 2 p.

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'Carmageddon' downtown brings street closures, expected gridlock

Officials are urging motorists to avoid downtown L.A. on Sunday if possible due to numerous street closure and crowds related to various sporting events.

Tens of thousands of cycling, hockey and basketball fans will converge at Staples Center in a weekend packed with post-season games and the final stage of the 2012 Amgen Tour of California events that authorities are warning will close streets and delay traffic in the downtown area.

The heaviest traffic will be generated by crowds overlapping to attend the Kings game and the bike-race finish.

INTERACTIVE: Amgen Tour of Calif.

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Solar eclipse 2012: Fever is spreading to view historic event

Solar eclipse fever was spreading Sunday.

Special solar eclipse glasses have sold out at the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles.

The city-run observatory is one of the few local places known to sell eclipse glasses, but its stock of 2,500 pairs ran out late Friday night, spokeswoman Susa Szotyori said.

"The glasses are completely gone," Szotyori said. She said the observatory's gift shop had fully expected to have plenty of glasses, which sold for $2.99 each, available through the Sunday eclipse.

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Famed battleship Iowa's final journey delayed

The final journey of the famed battleship Iowa was delayed Sunday morning, postponing plans to move the massive ship by tug from the San Francisco Bay to its permanent home as a museum in the Port of Los Angeles.

A weather system approaching the West Coast is expected to bring waves as high as 30 feet on Wednesday, serious enough to endanger the 887-foot-long ship, said Lisa Lacher of the Pacific Battleship Center. Once that system has passed, the four-day tow of the battleship will be rescheduled.

After the ship is guided out of the San Francisco Bay, a 7,200-horsepower tugboat will haul the battleship down the California coast on a four-day journey to Los Angeles. Once there, it will be anchored three miles off Seal Beach for a thorough hull cleaning, then towed to the outer harbor of the Los Angeles Port for a grand entry."

The historic ships permanent home will be San Pedros Berth 87.

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'Carmageddon': 'This is a great test,' one sports fan says of downtown crowds

Kings fans Terri Bain, 53, and her family figured they'd better leave their Hermosa Beach house early for Staples Center if they wanted to avoid the traffic.

So they left at 8 a.m. and were downtown within 40 minutes.

Once there, they met up with Bains daughter, Staci Wikstrom, 38, and her husband, David, 41, who drove in from Las Vegas.

You can feel the excitement in the air, David said, as hundreds of cyclists in the Amgen Tour of California rode past on Figueroa Street toward the finish line of the 750-mile bike race.

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Kings, cycling fans arriving early at downtown's LA Live

Hoping to avoid traffic and parking hassles, Kings fans Chris Egebjerg, 51, and Marion Bushra, 49, decided to take the train from Pasadena to Staples Center on Sunday. The two arrived downtown at 10 a.m. and said they planned to have breakfast at the Pantry restaurant before heading over to the Kings playoff game at the arena a couple of blocks away.We just make a day out of it, said Egebjerg, who said he has used public transit before to attend hockey games downtown.

Kings fans Craig Ogaz, 44, and his brother Brian, 52 also arrived early.

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Two men shot in apparent gang attack in Boyle Heights

Two men were shot inside a car in Boyle Heights early Sunday morning in an apparent gang-related attack, police said.

The victims whose names and ages were not available were driving near First and Clarence streets when they were cut off by another vehicle about 12:30 a.m., said Sgt. Rick Colombia of the Los Angeles Police Department.

The suspects in the second vehicle then asked the victims where they were from, Colombia said.

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Crime alerts for Venice, Arlington Heights and 10 other L.A. neighborhoods

Crime reports are up significantly for the latest week in 12 L.A. neighborhoods, according to an analysis of LAPD data by the Los Angeles Times Crime L.A. database.

Five neighborhoods reported a significant increase in violent crime.

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Children, young adults suffer most from solar eclipse blindness

Children and young adults are most likely of all age groups to suffer from blindness when they look at the sun during a solar eclipse, according to NASA.

"Eclipse blindness" can occur when people look at solar eclipses repeatedly or for a long time without proper protection. It can be temporary or permanent, and it is particularly dangerous because the damage to the eyes happens without any pain, according to B. Ralph Chou, an optometry professor who wrote a report for NASA.

The blindness does not occur "for at least several hours after the damage is done," Chou wrote.

"The danger to vision is significant," Chou wrote.

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Battleship Iowa begins its final voyage

The battleship Iowa, a storied vessel that languished for years in the U.S. Navy's mothball fleet, was scheduled to begin its final journey Sunday, from San Francisco to its permanent home as a museum in the Port of Los Angeles.

Four tugboats were set to guide the Iowa, among the biggest U.S. battleships ever built, under the Golden Gate Bridge and out of the San Francisco Bay.

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Navy ship San Diego commissioned amid tradition and pomp

The ship is new but the order was nearly as old as the U.S. Navy itself, modified only slightly to fit the specifics.

"Officers and crew of San Diego," said Linda Winter, wife of former Navy Secretary Donald Winter, "for our families, for our friends, for the city of San Diego and for our nation: Man our ship and bring her to life."

And with that, as the crowd cheered and the Navy band struck up "Anchors Aweigh," sailors and Marines sprinted aboard the newest ship in the San Antonio-class of amphibious transport dock ship, the San Diego.

As a crowd of 6,000 on Navy Pier watched, a new chapter of the century-old relationshipbetween the city of San Diego and the Navy hadbegun.

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Solar eclipse 2012: Snow, clouds threaten eclipse on Mount Fuji in Japan

Clouds were threatening a view of the eclipse on top of Mount Fuji in Japan. A crew of climbers at the peak, sponsored by Panasonic featuring its solar power technology, was battling fierce winds and snow atop the 12,388-foot peak.

But the camera crew was able to get a brief glimpse of a partial eclipse. "The weather up in the mountains are often very unpredictable," an announcer said.

Mount Fuji, the highest point in Japan, is directly under the full path of the annular eclipse -- one in which the moon blots out all but the sun's outer edge, blocking all sunlight except for a "ring of fire." ("Annular" means "ring" in Latin.

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'Carmageddon' downtown: 'No major issues' around LA Live so far

Despite concerns about gridlocked streets and clogged freeways in and around downtown because of various sporting events, transportation officials said Sunday that there had been no major problems and were cautiously optimistic that this would continue through the evening."There have been no major issues today," said Christopher Rider, a spokesman for the city's Department of Transportation. Rider said it was clear that many Los Angeles Kings fans arrived at Staples Center earlier than normal to avoid congestion.The worst of the traffic downtown appeared to be from about 11:45 a.m. to 12:30 p.

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Small brush fire reported in Elysian Park near Dodger Stadium

A small brush fire was sparked in Elysian Park just east of Dodger Stadium at about 1 p.m. Sunday, city fire officials said.The slow-moving fire concentrated in a half-acre of dense brush was not threatening any structures, said L.A. City Fire Department spokesman Matt Spence.

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Solar eclipse 2012: Map shows best spots, best times for viewing

An interactive NASA Google map shows the best spots for viewing Sunday's solar eclipse, a once-in-a-generation event thrilling the Pacific Rim.

The Google map, available here, allows users to click on any location on Earth and see when the eclipse begins, hits its maximum and ends. The only trick is that you'll have to convert the time from Universal Time. But we've done the calculations for big cities below.

With NASA's eclipse website beginning to crash under the weight of eclipse frenzy, flat maps of the eclipse path by Jay Anderson, who runs the website Eclipser, are listed below. NASA has linked to Anderson's maps, and Anderson's website credits the eclipse tracks to NASA eclipse expert Fred Espenak.

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Metro officials stunned by fatal shooting of bus driver

Metro officials were stunned by the fatal shooting Sunday of one of their bus drivers by a passenger in West Hollywood.

"It's a tragedy. We don't know why this happened," said Metro's Chief Executive Officer Art Leahy, who went to the scene and then to the driver's division to speak with other employees. "It's a tragedy, everybody at MTA feels horrible about it," Leahy said. "It's the first time I've ever known this to happen in my career here. ...

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'Carmageddon' downtown: Some came by bike, others by train

Some came on their bikes. Some on the train. Some on both.

Gabriel Sajardo, 44, said he had never ridden Metros Red Line commuter train before.

But on Sunday the Santa Clarita resident and Kings fan decided to take the train from the North Hollywood Station to 7th and Flower streets downtown. He stepped on the train about 8:30 and was downtown before 9 a.

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Metro bus driver fatally shot in West Hollywood

A Metro bus driver was fatally shot Sunday morning at the corner of Santa Monica Boulevard and West Knoll Drive in West Hollywood, authorities said.A suspect has been detained in the shooting, according to a tweet by L.A. County Sheriff Department spokesman Mike Parker. The shooting occurred shortly after 9 a.m.

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