The Desert Tortoise Council recently honored Professor Brian Todd and two other researchers for giving threatened tortoise species a head start in life.
Summary:
In the first four months of 2021, the District Attorney’s Office declined to file charges on 537 Santa Clarita Valley criminal cases already 156% of the total number of declined cases for the entire previous year. If the trend holds for the rest of the year, it will represent a 369% increase in rejected cases. Of those rejected cases, 60% are the result of new policy directives by L.A. County District Attorney George Gascón, fueling concerns among some government leaders that Gascón’s plan to reform the system is threatening public safety.
Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies had already arrested 25-year-old Alfredo Alvarez, of Newhall, 11 times in the previous 12 months, before he was accused of helping someone he’d just met outside of jail with another allegation. According to witnesses, Alvarez was a lookout as his alleged accomplice pulled a knife on two diners and demanded their cellphones in front of the county’s oldest restaurant, the Saugus Cafe