Cooley says DNA solving old cases
District Attorney Steve Cooley on Tuesday cited a dramatic increase in the number of old cases being solved in California since voters approved a measure expanding the collection of DNA samples from felons.
Less than a year after Proposition 69 was passed by the state's voters, there have been close to 1,700 so-called ``cold hits'' in the state so far this year involving previously unsolved cases, Cooley said.
The number of cold hits in 2002 was just over 200, the county's top prosecutor said at a forum co-sponsored by the Los Angeles County Sexual Assault Coordinating Council and the District Attorney's Crime Lab Advisory Board.
Cooley said he expects the county could see ``incredible results'' in identifying the most violent offenders, getting them into the court system and behind bars and preventing crime by taking them off the streets.
- City News Service
Metrolink train strikes empty car
OXNARD - A Metrolink train struck an empty vehicle near Oxnard just before 6 a.m. Tuesday, officials said.
No injuries were reported at the crash scene between Oxnard and Camarillo and it is not clear why the car was abandoned on the railroad tracks, said Metrolink spokeswoman Denise Tyrrell.
The train, which did not derail, was traveling from Montalvo in Ventura County to Union Station in downtown Los Angeles. The Ventura County and Oxnard fire departments as well as the California Highway Patrol responded to the non-injury collision.
- Daily News
Condor chick died of West Nile virus
VENTURA COUNTY - A three-month-old California condor chick that recently died tested positive for West Nile virus, officials said Tuesday.
Observers noticed a rapid decline in the chick's health and tried to remove it from the nest, but it died before it could be treated, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reported.
A necropsy at the San Diego Zoo determined the cause of death was probably West Nile virus complicated by secondary fungal pneumonia.
The chick hatched in the wild in Ventura County on May 19. Both of the chick's parents had been inoculated with a West Nile vaccine in June 2003 and again in June 2004, and all California condors have been inoculated at least once, with the exception of chicks hatched in the wild.
- Daily News
Supervisor's wife named to panel
Barbara Yaroslavsky, a longtime advocate on children's issues and the wife of Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, was confirmed by the City Council on Tuesday to serve on the city's Commission on Children, Youth and Their Families.
The council vote 12-0 to confirm the appointment, after Yaroslavsky pledged to be a ``vocal advocate'' on behalf of children, particularly those in poorer areas of the city.
- Daily News
Firefighter injures fingers in blaze
SHERMAN OAKS - A firefighter crushed several of his fingers while trying to extinguish a blaze in the attic of a Sherman Oaks home, officials said Tuesday.
The firefighter, whose name was not released, was taken to an area hospital for treatment of the non-life-threatening injury after the 4:30 p.m. blaze. Thirty firefighters from the Los Angeles Fire Department extinguished the blaze on the 16100 block of Woodvale Road in 27 minutes, spokesman Brian Humphrey said. The cause of the fire and the amount of damage was not immediately available, Humphrey said.
- Daily News
