LA Times: Town criers in the age of Twitter

A growing group of L.A.-area residents share a passion for listening to police scanners and spreading that news online, in real time, via Twitter. 'It's like theater,' one says.

Read the full story at the LA Times

USFS to OK night aerial drops on So Cal fires

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The U.S. Forest Service has decided to allow nighttime aerial attacks on wildfires in Southern California in a change of policy spurred by controversy over a 2009 blaze that grew to 250 square miles and threatened Los Angeles suburbs, congressional representatives announced Thursday.

Photo of Station Fire above JPL. Credits to Eecue,
 used without his permission, I'll apologize next time I see him;)

It appears that next year (2013) the USFS will contract one helicopter for night flights / water drops for the southern portion of USFS Region 5, AKA Southern California. LA County helicopters already got the go ahead to fly at night a few years ago, as long as the crew were comfortable with the task, but it's good to see that the feds are back on board.

"Old Fire" Arsonist Convicted, faces Death Penalty

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (AP) - A jury on Wednesday found a California man guilty of murdering five people who had heart attacks after he deliberately started a blaze that ballooned into a massive wildfire.

Jurors in San Bernardino found 30-year-old Rickie Fowler guilty of setting the Old Fire in the foothills above San Bernardino in October 2003 that burned 91,000 acres and torched 1,000 buildings over nine days.

Read more at KFI news.

EDACS Failure; you can't blame this on Obama

Oakland PD's EDACS system failed Monday as President Obama was leaving after giving a campaign speech. This left 100 officers who were keeping downtown protestors at bay unable to communicate.

Meh, who needs direct tactical channels...

Read more at sfgate.com

Fullerton releases Kelly Thomas 911 call

Wednesday, after months of speculation, the City of Fullerton released an audio recording of the now infamous "Slidebar phone call" that lead to the eventual death of schizophrenic homeless man, Kelly Thomas. The July 5th, 2011 call, from an employee of the Slidebar to the Fullerton PD, reported that a "creepy homeless guy", known as Kelly, was walking through the parking lot near the Fullerton transportation hub, pulling on car door handles. The female RP, who's name has been redacted, is believed to be a manager at the Slidebar.

picture from FullertonsFuture.org

Listen to the call here (right click to download) 

The recording was released after Fullerton resident Richard Dwyer filed a public records request in July, claiming that the caller was coached by the Fullerton PD to exaggerate Thomas' activities to quicken police responce. The recording does not show any coaching from the police dispatcher.

KFI's Mike Nolan involved in plane crash

KFI news is reporting that traffic reporter Mike Nolan "KFI In the sky," was involved in a plane crash this afternoon. Mike and one other person aboard were transported to the hospital and are in stable condition.

KFI reports that Nolan's single engine Cessna 182 had engine problems around 6:30 Friday afternoon and crashed, hitting some power lines, in a rural area near Corona. "Emergency officials say Mike and his passenger were extremely lucky," reported KFI reporter Amy King, the two were able to get out of the plane before it burst into flames. totaltrafficla.com is reporting that Mike "is in the hospital with non-life threatening injuries." Sounds like he may have some broken bones, but it sounds like he is in much better shape then his plane.

Press Enterprise story

KTLA 5 story

KABC 7 story

A 2002 interview w/ Mike Nolan

We hope you have a speedy recovery Mike!

Los Angeles Metro finally starts to get their act together!

I know this really has nothing to do with Disaster Communications but it is so rare that anyone in Los Angeles city government does anything right I felt that I needed to write something about it. 

thesource.metro.net has revealed that starting sometime this summer the Los Angeles Metro rail lines will begin running 'till 2:00 AM on weekends, and it appears that Metro is considering 24 hour rail service, but I'm not holding my breath.