California is the first U.S. state to formally begin examining how to broadly adapt to cryptocurrency and related technologies, following a path laid out by President Joe Biden in March.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order on Wednesday for California agencies to move in tandem with the federal government to craft regulations for digital currencies. It also calls for the state to explore incorporating broader blockchain technologies into state operations.

Ohio was the first to attempt to accept virtual currency for government services in 2018, though the program was soon discontinued. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis says his state will begin accepting cryptocurrency for government services later this year.

Kin Cheung/AP

As CNBC reported, Newsom's directive should have California's Business and Economic Development Office working with California's Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency and the state's financial protection and innovation office.

Newsom's Senior Adviser and Director of the Office of Business and Economic Development in California Dee Dee Myers said, “Of the 800 blockchain businesses in North America, about a quarter of them are in California, dramatically more than any other state,” they said. “We’ve heard from so many that they want to be here, and we want to help them do that responsibly.”

Lawyers representing families of victims and survivors of the condominium collapse in Surfside, Florida, last June have told a judge that they've reached a nearly $1 billion tentative settlement.

Harley S. Tropin is a lawyer representing the plaintiffs. He announced the settlement during a hearing on Wednesday before Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Michael Hanzman. Still pending final approval, the settlement involves insurance companies, developers of an adjacent building and other defendants.

“I’m shocked by this result — I think it’s fantastic,” Hanzman said. “This is a recovery that is far in excess of what I had anticipated.”

Earlier this year, Hanzman had approved an $83 million settlement to compensate people who suffered economic losses such as condominium units and personal property, the Associated Press reported.

The 12-story building called the Champlain Towers South condominium collapsed suddenly in the early-morning hours on June 24 and almost instantly destroyed dozens of individual condo units, burying victims under tons of rubble. Rescuers worked for weeks digging through mountains of concrete to find survivors, then later to recover the remains of those who died. A total of 98 people were killed.

The grandfather and uncle of a 3-year-old girl killed last fall during an exorcism at a Northern California church have been arrested this week in connection with her death.

The child died last September after family members performed a ceremony because they believed she was "possessed by an evil spirit," court documents show. The Santa Clara County medical examiner's office ruled the death a homicide caused by asphyxiation.

The San Jose Police Department said on Friday that police arrested the child's grandfather and uncle on charges of child abuse leading to the death of the victim. The child's mother was arrested and charged in January. It was not immediately known if the girl's grandfather and uncle have an attorney who can speak on their behalf.

The grandfather told the Mercury News last week that he performed a ceremony on the child to “liberate her of her evil spirits,” the Associated Press reported. He didn’t reveal all of the details of the exorcism but said his granddaughter was asleep when she got to the church, and he said that the ceremony took two hours.

“If you read the Bible, you’ll see that Jesus casts away demons and made sick people healthy again,” he said. “It’s not when I want to do it, it’s when God, in his will, wants to heal the person. The preacher is like an instrument of God; what we do is what God says.”

Another fall for stocks on Friday had the S&P 500 flirting with a 20% drop from its peak set early this year, putting it within the grasp of what Wall Street calls a bear market.

The benchmark index was down 0.4% for the day in afternoon trading and on pace for its seventh straight losing week. Rising interest rates, high inflation, the war in Ukraine, and a slowdown in China's economy are all punishing stocks and raising fears about a possible U.S. recession. The last bear market was in 2020, an unusually brief downturn that sliced 34% off the S&P 500.

The index finished the week off with a 3 percent loss, which was its seventh straight weekly decline, the New York Times reported. It's the longest window of losses since 2001.

Surprisingly low earnings reports from Target and Walmart this week didn't help either which contributed to dragging the markets even lower. The New York Times points out that since World War II, recessions almost always follow bear markets.

After a six-week trial, a civil jury in Virginia was still discussing the defamation claims by Johnny Depp and his ex-wife Amber Heard on Tuesday. A verdict was still pending in the case as the jury finished their day on Tuesday.

The trial has featured lurid testimony with explicit details about the movie stars' short and volatile marriage. But the question the jury needs to answer is whether Heard defamed Depp in an op-ed in which she wrote that she was "a public figure representing domestic abuse."

The jury was also tasked with deciding a counterclaim filed by Heard. She said she was defamed when Depp's former lawyer called her abuse allegations a "hoax."

Craig Hudson/AP

Throughout the trial, various spectacles have played out, outside of the courtroom. Fans have stood outside to catch a glimpse of the stars and wave. On Tuesday, Court TV captured images of a large Pirates of the Caribbean replica ship traveling by.

The lawsuit filed by Depp asks for $50 million in damages related to defamation claims against Heard and that 2018 op-ed she wrote for the Washington Post. Heard said she was a "public figure representing domestic abuse,” but didn't mention Depp by name in the article.

Amid the weeks of trial proceedings, Heard laid out over a dozen alleged examples where she says she experienced abuse, including at least one incident of alleged sexual abuse she claims Depp committed against her. Depp also claimed that Heard physically attacked him in the past.

The seven-member jury was tasked with deciding if two passages from the Washington Post piece, plus the headline, defamed Depp. A verdict form given to the jury will guide them on how to determine that. The jury will have to decide if Heard acted with "actual malice," since she is a public figure. Heard's lawyers told the seven jury members that if she suffered even a single incident of abuse, they must find that Depp's libel claim then fails.

Heard has filed a $100 million counterclaim against Depp after Depp's former lawyer called the allegations she has made a "hoax." The jury will have to decide if Depp's former lawyer's three published statements were about Heard, were false, and if they were seen by people other than Heard. They must also decide if Depp's former attorney also made those statements with "actual malice," as the Associated Press reported.

Actor Kevin Spacey has been ordered by a Los Angeles judge to pay around $31 million to MRC Entertainment, the producers of Netflix's hit series "House of Cards," after he was kicked off of the show for alleged sexual misconduct behind the scenes.

The order came down last year to pay MRC after claims of sexual misconduct on young crew members forced show leadership to push for his exit. Superior Court Judge Mel Red Recana confirmed the award that had been previously ordered in October 2020.

Spacey denies the allegations and had filed an appeal to overturn the judgment.

The award ordered was for around $29.5 million in damages plus $1.5 million in costs and fees to be added on top of that, Variety reported.

Earlier this year, the BBC reported, Spacey's lawyers tried to have the $31 million award thrown out by saying, in his defense, what was called sexual misconduct on set was just some "sexual innuendos" or "innocent horseplay" which didn't violate MRC Entertainment's anti-harassment policy.

Judge Recana ruled on Thursday that Spacey's legal team failed "to demonstrate that this is even a close case." Therefore, Spacey will have to pay the award originally handed down in October.

MRC argued that Spacey owed them damages after they were forced to kick him off of the sixth season of the show, and the production company said they had to cut the season down from 13 episodes to eight.

Crime scene tape did not stop a food delivery robot in Los Angeles from getting where it needed to be on Monday.

The Los Angeles Police Department had set up the tape at a suspected shooting at a high school, which later turned out to be a hoax, USA Today and "Today" reported.

According to the news outlets, the robot rolled down a sidewalk when it stopped at an intersection before the crime scene.

When it got to the police tape, it seemed to contemplate what to do until what appeared to be a TV cameraman lifted up the tape, and the robot continued on its way, the media outlets reported.

Officers looked a bit confused as it passed by them, the news outlets reported.

According to the news outlets, officers were called to Hollywood High School around 9:45 a.m. for reported shots fired call, USA Today reported.

The newspaper reported that Los Angeles School District's Superintendent Alberto M. Carvalho later tweeted that officers had determined the call was a hoax.

Officials in California said the man who was arrested after plowing his car into dozens of police recruits out for a run in Los Angeles Wednesday was released from jail.

The Associated Press reported that Nicholas Joseph Gutierrez was arrested Thursday on suspicion of attempted murder.

According to jail records, the 22-year-old was released from custody at 9:49 p.m. Thursday, CNN reported.

ABC News reported that the LA County Sheriff's Department said Gutierrez was released "due to the extreme complexity of the investigation, which includes ongoing interviews, video surveillance review, and additional evidence needed to be analyzed."

Officials said 25 Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies and police officers from the STAR Explore Training Academy were struck in Whittier just before 6:30 a.m.

During a press conference Wednesday, Sheriff Alex Villanueva said that five of those injured suffered critical injuries, four recruits suffered moderate injuries, and 16 others had minor injuries and were taken to nearby hospitals.

Villanueva added that the injuries ranged from head trauma, broken bones and loss of limbs.

The Los Angeles Unified School District and union leaders said Friday they reached a deal on a new contract for workers after a strike that shut down the nation’s second-largest school system for three days.The agreement includes a pay raise for workers such as bus drivers, custodians, cafeteria workers, special education assistants and other support staff. Union leaders from Local 99 of the Service Employees International Union say that will raise the average pay for those workers significantly.The deal must still be voted on by the full union.The roughly 30,000 workers represented by the union walked off the job from Tuesday to Thursday amid stalled contract talks. Classes resumed Friday.District superintendent Alberto Carvalho, SEIU Local 99 Executive Director Max Arias and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass announced the deal together.Members of United Teachers Los Angeles, the union representing 35,000 educators, counselors and other staff, joined the picket lines in solidarity.

America is jammed with parking spots.

Related video above: UN says nations nowhere near climate goals

Approximately 2 billion parking spots cover the country, enough to pave over the entire state of Connecticut. From baseball stadiums in Los Angeles to malls in Atlanta, parking lots are bigger than the buildings they surround.

Cities have built so much parking through a policy few people know — minimum parking requirements. Cities don't just require parking spaces for nearly every office, mall, store, movie theater, bowling alley, restaurant and other building, those requirements often include a certain number of spots for every building.

Mandatory parking minimums helped shape the modern makeup of American cities. They become a self-fulfilling prophecy, in effect. More parking spaces mean bigger parking lots. Bigger parking lots mean more buildings isolated from roads and sidewalks, separated from arterial infrastructure by vast oceans of asphalt. Faced with so much mandatory automotive-centric infrastructure, many people abandon walking and choose to drive.

Parking requirements have come with other downsides, and a growing number of cities and towns — in both Republican and Democratic-led areas — are now reforming their parking rules. The effort to end parking requirements has gained federal support as well.

In their zoning codes, many cities mandated that any new or re-purposed real estate projects include a minimum number of off-street parking spaces, often based on the size of the development or type of land use.

But now, U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia, a Democrat from California, recently introduced a bill that would eliminate parking minimums for new affordable residential, retail, industrial and commercial construction. Separately, he introduced legislation to scrap parking requirements close to public transit.

Affordable housing, environmental and public transportation advocates say parking minimums reduce the supply of housing and raise costs. Developers often bundle the costs of parking in rent or housing prices.

It costs about $28,000 to build a parking spot, according to WGI, a construction engineering company. Construction costs are highest in New York City, where it's notoriously difficult to find a spot. A new parking spot in the city runs up to $36,000, not including the cost of buying the land.

Parking rules deter developers and businesses that can't afford to construct the required parking and spaces that could have held apartments have instead been swallowed up by parking mandates.

They also increase traffic congestion, carbon emissions and make cities less walkable, critics say.

They are unequal because everyone pays for them — even people who don't own or can't afford a car.

"It damages the economy because everything everywhere has to include the cost of parking," said Donald Shoup, a professor of urban planning at UCLA and an evangelist of anti-parking mandates. "It's a long train of consequences."

Arbitrary rules

Parking requirements began a century ago.

By the 1920s, New York City, Los Angeles and other U.S. cities were jammed with cars on the curbs. To manage this problem, cities began adding newly-invented parking meters in their densest areas, hoping to both keep the number of cars to those who truly needed them and to make some money at the same time. They also created off-street parking requirements for new buildings,

The mandates accelerated during the postwar period as more people drove, highways developed and suburbanization swept the country.

Minimum parking laws "spread faster than any other planning regulation ever has," Shoup said. "They went from nowhere to everywhere."

Policymakers, planners and developers designed cities and suburbs with the goal of providing everyone — even if they didn't drive — ample places to park.

"Planners were responding to what people wanted without thinking there would be terrible effects in the long run," he said.

The requirements were often arbitrary and puzzling, said Tony Jordan, the co-founder of Parking Reform Network.

A few examples Jordan has found: Tiny Woodbury, Georgia, population 905, has dozens of specific parking mandates, including separate regulations for heliports and helistops. (Five spaces per helistop, and one per 1,000 square feet of heliports.)

SeaTac, Washington, requires one parking spot at butterfly and moth breeding facilities for every 150 square feet of office or retail space.

Dallas requires one parking space for every million gallons of capacity at a sewage treatment plant, but two parking spaces for a water treatment plant.

"Take a sample of any 10 municipalities almost anywhere in the country and you'll find a similar set of contradictions and headscratchers," Jordan said.

Cities reverse course

In Shoup's influential 2005 book, "The High Cost of Free Parking," he recommended that cities should remove off-street parking requirements, charge demand-based prices for curb parking – the lowest prices that will leave one or two open spaces on each block to alleviate parking shortages – and spend the meter revenue to improve public services.

His ideas are having a moment.

Last year, 11 cities ended their minimum parking mandates, including Raleigh, Anchorage and Lexington, Kentucky, according to the Parking Reform Network, a nonprofit group that researches and advocates for parking policy changes.

California became the first state to pass legislation ending parking minimums for new developments close to public transit.

Four cities have ended them so far in 2023, including Richmond, Virginia.

"The parking minimums have contributed to urban sprawl, lack of abundant and affordable housing, and automobile dependency," said a staff report by Richmond's Department of Planning.

Richmond and other cities will allow property owners to decide how much parking to add to their proposed developments, allowing market forces to determine how many parking spots are needed.

Some cities, including Nashville, are moving in the exact opposite direction of parking minimums, creating maximum parking requirements that cap the number of spots developers can build.

Affordable housing

Cities are looking for ways to reinvent their public spaces after the damaging impact of the pandemic. They also face a lack of affordable housing.

Scrapping minimum parking requirements could help both challenges. Instead of developers setting aside land to build parking, it could be turned into smaller apartment complexes, advocates say.

In Buffalo and Seattle, which ended parking minimums in 2017 and 2012 respectively, nearly 70% of new homes built after parking reforms would not have been allowed under the previous rules, according to research from Sightline Institute, a non-partisan sustainability advocacy group.

In Buffalo, developers built less parking than previously required and made parking an amenity, charging individual users fees rather than bundling it into rent or housing prices, researchers at the University at Buffalo found.

Seattle developers built 40% less parking than would have been required prior to the reforms, resulting in 18,000 fewer parking spaces, researchers at Santa Clara University found.

"These findings highlight the impact that policymakers can have by reducing or eliminating off-street parking requirements," the researchers said.

A better policy, Brookings Institution researchers said in a 2020 report on parking minimums, would be to let developers and businesses decide how much off-street parking to build.

In places where demand for parking is high, developers will choose to build spots, the researchers predict.

But in places with an oversupply of parking spots and a shortage of affordable housing, they say, "parking minimums are 20th-century relics that deserve to be retired."

The Los Angeles Rams and quarterback Matthew Stafford will reportedly pay for a photographer's hospital bill after she fell off a stage during the team's Super Bowl victory parade.

Video of the incident went viral and Stafford was criticized online for turning his back to the woman after she fell. Stafford's wife, however, reportedly checked on the woman, who suffered a fractured spine.

In a statement to NFL.com, the Rams and the Staffords said they have been in contact with the photographer.

"As we told Kelly, we will be covering all her hospital bills and replacing her cameras. We wish her a speedy recovery," the statement says.

A GoFundMe account was set up for the photographer. It had raised nearly $50,000 as of Friday.

The page thanked everyone for their support and added that she is resting at home.

Businessman Jim "Mattress Mack" McIngvale has reportedly bet $5 million on the Cincinnati Bengals to beat the Los Angeles Rams in Super Bowl LVI.

According to ESPN, McIngvale, who owns furniture stores in Texas, drove to Louisiana Friday to place the bet, which Caesar's Sportsbook said is the largest single wager it's ever taken.

The $5 million wager isn't the only money McIngvale has on the game. ESPN says he placed another $4.5 million on the Bengals last week.

The Rams are a four-point favorite to beat the Bengals.

McIngvale is known to make large bets on sporting events. He bet $2 million on Essential Quality in the 2021 Kentucky Derby. The horse crossed the finish line in fourth place.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. —

Former Cincinnati Bengal, Andrew Whitworth received the prestigious 2021 Walter Payton Man of the Year award.

NFL description of the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award:

Considered the league's most prestigious honor, the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award presented by Nationwide recognizes NFL players who have exhibited excellence on the field, and whose passion to impact lives extends beyond the game.

Although Whitworth is now a member of the Los Angeles Rams, his acceptance speech hit close to home as he recalled a moment during this season when a fellow player spoke about how much his work in Cincinnati meant to him.

The offensive-tackle said that rookie Derrick Barnes, a linebacker for the Detroit Lions and a Covington native, spoke about the time Whitworth spent at the local Boys & Girls Club when he was a young player in Cincinnati.

"He said, 'Hey man, you're not going to remember me...you spent time with me when you were a young player in Cincinnati at the Boys & Girls Club, and it meant the world to me,'" Whitworth recounted. "He goes, 'You know what, the main thing I wanted to say, Whit, I made it. I made it to the NFL, Big Whit.'"

Barnes was sitting in the crowd during Whitworth's acceptance speech.

"On that Tuesday off day, when every guy that's sitting in this room knows I'd rather be at home, I made an investment in him — and I didn't even know it," Whitworth said. "None of us know when the moment's going to present itself. The key is to always be available when it does."

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Whitworth, the oldest offensive tackle to ever play in an NFL game at 40, will face off against his former team in the Super Bowl on Sunday.

After 11 seasons with the Cincinnati Bengals, Whitworth said his family will always love Cincinnati and support the team and he's happy that they have finally reached the Super Bowl.

After the Ram's NFC Championship Game win, Whitworth said "It's really cool and really special, having a relationship with a lot of the staff over there and some players. The city is a special place to us. I told Zac Taylor (the Bengals head coach) this when we spoke after the conference championship games that both places have my heart and people I believe in. It's really special to play in this game and to play against a [team] that means so much to me."

To watch Andrew Whitworth's Walter Payton Man of the Year acceptance speech, click here.

Snoop Dogg is now the owner of the Death Row Records brand, the label which launched his career. Blackstone, the global investment firm which manages private equity funds that control the group he bought the brand from made the announcement on Wednesday.

Snoop Dogg bought the Death Row Records brand from MNRK Music Group just before his latest album called B.O.D.R. is set to be released on Feb. 11, Blackstone said in a statement.

“I am thrilled and appreciative of the opportunity to acquire the iconic and culturally significant Death Row Records brand, which has immense untapped future value. It feels good to have ownership of the label I was part of at the beginning of my career and as one of the founding members," Snoop Dogg said. "This is an extremely meaningful moment for me. I would like to personally thank the teams at Blackstone, MNRK and especially David Kestnbaum, who worked collaboratively with me over several months to make this exciting homecoming a reality. I’m looking forward to building the next chapter of Death Row Records,” he said.

As the Guardian reported in a profile of his career, then known as Snoop Doggy Dogg, he released his first debut single in October of 1993. Hits like "Gin & Juice," and "Nuthin' But A 'G' Thang" followed leading the artist to enormous success which lasts until this day with various ventures in the entertainment world, even outside of music.

Snoop Dogg has released 20 studio albums and sold over 40-million copies of those albums globally, garnering multiple number one spots on the Billboard charts and he has received 20 Grammy nominations.

As NPR reported, Tupac Shakur was Death Row Record's star artist for a period in the late 1990s before he was shot and killed in Las Vegas in 1996. Another hit artist and producer on the label, Dr. Dre, released his first solo album with the brand called "The Chronic," and Snoop Dogg's own debut album "Doggystyle" was also released by Death Row.

As preparations for a huge Super Bowl at Los Angeles' record-breaking SoFi stadium continue ahead of the big event, the stadium is creating an interesting challenge for residents in Inglewood, California.

SoFi Stadium, not far from Los Angeles International Airport, will possibly give some local residents an opportunity to make some money charging fans for parking at their nearby homes. As Sports Illustrated reported, some residents said they might try to charge fans up to $1,000 a car to park in their yards before going to the stadium for the event. Residents say that traffic has increased in the area as well.

Another challenge could be the weather. As NBC reported, the area could experience unseasonable heat during the game, which will be felt by fans as the now-iconic SoFi stadium is the first open-air, indoor-outdoor venue for the NFL.

The National Weather Service issued a heat advisory for Los Angeles County that will last from Wednesday through Sunday evening. The service warned of an increased risk of heat-related illnesses.

Security will be a major focus for police as the event nears. Authorities said this week there were no known security threats to the Super Bowl yet. Officials on Tuesday outlined the coordinated law enforcement effort to keep those at the game at SoFi Stadium and the Los Angeles region safe. They say fans attending the game can expect an enormous police presence at the stadium, which will have a tightly monitored security perimeter.

Meanwhile, patrol officers, tactical teams, K-9 units and paramedics will be deployed across Los Angeles County.

The stadium covers 3.1 million square feet making it the largest for the National Football League. It is the first football stadium to be built within Los Angeles in nearly 100 years.

Fred Roggin, a long-time Los Angeles-based sports anchor for NBC said, “What does this mean for Los Angeles? It’s huge!” Roggin told the Los Angeles Times, “This Super Bowl is an enormous event, not only for the city of Los Angeles but for the return of football to L.A. with the Rams. When Stan Kroenke [the owner of the Rams] decided to come back and build that stadium, his dream and hope was that the Rams would be in the first Super Bowl in L.A.”

LOS ANGELES — The weather at this Sunday’s Super Bowl game is expected to be unseasonably hot.

A rare wintertime heat advisory was issued for California.

Temperatures during game time could reach 90 degrees Sunday.

High temperatures in Los Angeles during this time of year are usually in the mid-60s.

Players and spectators likely won’t feel the full force of the heat inside SoFi Stadium because the indoor-outdoor arena is able to maintain a controlled temperature.

Still, the National Weather Service is advising people to take precautions, including drinking plenty of water and wearing lightweight, loose-fitting, light-colored clothing.

The high temperatures are expected to set a record for the warmest day ever on which the big game has been played.

Milwaukee police Officer Herbert Davis was shot by a suspect Thursday night.

Now, his family has started fundraising to send him to Super Bowl LVI in Los Angeles.

It's no secret he's a big Cincinnati Bengals fan.

Davis, 26, wore his gear when he was released from the hospital Friday.

His family shared video with WISN 12 showing Davis watch the end of the Bengals-Chiefs game Sunday night.

We all know the Bengals kicked a last-minute field goal to give them the victory and send them to the Super Bowl for the first time since 1989.

Davis got emotional watching the kick and score.

His family started a GoFundMe page to help raise the money needed.

Their goal is $25,000.

"Physically, he will heal," his sister wrote on the page. "Our family knows the healing process doesn't end with physical capabilities. He has a long haul ahead. He started as a police aide at 19 years old and has 7 years of service. Herb is a hero. He will forever hold that title."

The page said Davis' fiancee is also part of the MPD family.

Funds raised will also help with family travel and medical expenses.

"Go Bengals!!! Thank you for all the love and support he's been given," Davis' sister wrote.

Super Bowl LVI is Feb. 13. The Bengals will play the San Francisco 49ers.

The suspect charged with shooting Davis remains in the Milwaukee County Jail on $1 million cash bail.

The Los Angeles City Council has approved a measure to ban new oil and gas wells and phase out existing ones.

The measure would shut down oil and gas fields in the city after a decade of complaints from residents about negative health impacts including nosebleeds, wheezing and coughing. Residents of the city blamed air pollution on the sites.

Activists say that Black and Latino residents of the city are the most affected by pollution from the sites.

The Los Angeles City Council voted on Wednesday for a plan that would phase out new wells over a period of five years. As CNBC reported, over half a million Los Angeles residents live within a quarter-mile of an active oil and gas well, which can release various pollutants including benzene and hydrogen sulfide.

Phaseouts like these are part of what is being seen as a statewide movement in California to move away from fossil fuel production to meet ambitious, but possible climate goals. There's also a strong public health motivation to the movement.

As the Associated Press reported, California's oil and gas regulator proposed in October to ban new oil and gas wells that lie within 3,200 feet of schools, homes, and hospitals.

Existing wells could potentially be subject to new pollution controls.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Police body-camera video shows a harrowing rescue in California, where a small plane apparently lost power and crashed on railroad tracks shortly after takeoff from a suburban Los Angeles airfield.

The Federal Aviation Administration says the Cessna crashed around 2:10 p.m. Sunday and a Metrolink train came roaring through only minutes later.

Luckily, a police station was only blocks away and four officers were able to pull the bloodied pilot onto the pavement moments before the train smashed the plane to pieces.

No other injuries were reported.

A police sergeant who joined the rescue says he requested that Metrolink stop the train, but there may not have been enough time.

Valentina Orellana-Peralta's dream of becoming an American citizen and studying robotics ended days before Christmas on the dressing room floor of a Los Angeles clothing store, where she was fatally shot by police.

A day after video released by the Los Angeles Police Department raised new questions about the fatal shooting Thursday, Valentina's mother described clutching her daughter and praying in the dressing room moments before the girl was struck by a round from a police rifle.

A distraught Juan Pablo Orellana Larenas, who flew to Los Angeles from their native Chile, told reporters Tuesday that his daughter had once assured him the U.S. was "the safest country in the world."

In tears, Valentina's mother, Soledad Peralta, described taking cover in a dressing room after hearing screams while shopping for a Christmas dress for the girl.

"We sat down and held each other and prayed," said Peralta, adding that Valentina fell to the floor after being shot.

She spoke at a news conference outside LAPD headquarters alongside civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump and others.

"She died in my arms," her mother said. "I couldn't do anything. To see a son or daughter die in your arms is one of the greatest and most profoundly painful things you can imagine. Valentina meant the world to me and her family and friends. Now our sweet angel is gone forever. Valentina give us strength to find justice. My daughter, I love you."

Orellana showed a skateboard his daughter had ordered online for Christmas — which he said she will now ride with the angels.

"I have no words to describe what I'm going through, especially during this holiday season," her father said. "I cannot sleep... All she wanted was to become an American citizen. I once told her, let's leave this country. 'No, papa,' she said. "This is the safest country in the world, a country of opportunity.' Now my daughter is dead at the hands of the state."

Peralta said she was taken away and Valentina's body remained on the floor of the dressing room.

LAPD on Monday released edited surveillance camera footage and police body camera videos showing the events that led to the shooting death of the teen by an officer firing at a suspect.

The video shows a 24-year-old suspect identified as Daniel Elena-Lopez entering the Burlington Coat Factory store in North Hollywood with his bike and wearing a tank top and shorts. He takes the escalator upstairs with his bike.

Moments later, he returns to the escalators wearing a multicolored jacket and long pants before swinging his bike lock at customers, according to police. He is seen attacking several female customers.

Several body camera videos released by police show a woman on the floor covered in blood as officers arrive and attempt to find the suspect, who, according to a police statement on Friday, was a short distance away.

An officer can be heard on the body camera footage firing three bullets toward the suspect, who later falls to the ground. Video shows the officer firing a rifle at the suspect.

Valentina was killed by a gunshot wound to the chest, coroner records show.

"The girl's American dream has been taken from her," Valentina's uncle, Rodrigo Orellana, told CNN affiliate Chilevision from their native Chile this week.

"Everyone fled to dressing rooms and, unfortunately, the bullet found her," he said. "They're supposed to be the best police department in the world and they shot her."

Police Capt. Stacy Spell said the investigation is in its early stages. The incident will also be reviewed by representatives from the California Department of Justice, the state Attorney General's Office and the Office of the Inspector General, according to Spell.

Anthony Barksdale, a CNN law enforcement analyst and former Baltimore deputy police commissioner, said the video raises questions.

"Was the use of the patrol rifle justified?" he asked Monday night on CNN. "And ... if you're going to fire a (.223) round inside of a department store, those rounds can easily rip through a body and keep right on moving through the drywall. So the use of force must be looked at."

Barksdale said that the suspect did not appear to be moving toward a victim or an officer when he was shot.

The police department released three 911 calls and radio transmissions of the shooting.

Police were called following numerous reports of an assault with a deadly weapon and a possible shooting in progress at the store.

In one call a store employee tells the operator there's a "hostile customer in my store attacking customers" and "breaking things."

While she is on the phone, the woman is also repeatedly heard yelling at people to evacuate the store. She explains to the operator that the suspect is using a bike lock to attack people.

The suspect died at the scene. A steel or metal cable lock was found near his body, officials said. No firearm was recovered from the scene.

The assault victim was transported to a hospital with head and arm injuries. Police do not believe the woman knew the suspect.

The officer who fired the fatal shots is on "paid administrative leave, per department protocols for officer involved shootings, for at least two weeks," a police official told CNN.

Last week, Police Chief Michel Moore said: "This chaotic incident resulting in the death of an innocent child is tragic and devastating for everyone involved. I am profoundly sorry for the loss of this young girl's life and I know there are no words that can relieve the unimaginable pain for the family."

Related video above: LeBron accused of 'intentional elbow' in recent altercation with Pistons center Stewart

LeBron James' celebration of Thursday's overtime victory over the Indiana Pacers has landed the Los Angeles Lakers forward with a fine from the NBA.

The $15,000 punishment was handed to James "for making an obscene gesture on the playing court," said the NBA in a statement on Friday.

"The incident occurred with 1:17 remaining in the fourth quarter of the Lakers' 124-116 overtime win against the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday at Gainbridge Fieldhouse," said the NBA statement.

James made the gesture after making a deep three-point shot.

The NBA has consistently fined players between $15,000 to $25,000 for performing a routine popularized by former NBA star Sam Cassell when he was playing for the Milwaukee Bucks, reported The Athletic.

James was also warned for using "profane language during media availability in response to league imposed discipline," according to Byron Spruell, who is president of the NBA's League Operations in the NBA statement.

Last weekend, James was ejected after his elbow bloodied the eye of Detroit Pistons player Isaiah Stewart. That altercation then sparked a confrontational reaction from Stewart and an on-court scuffle.

Stewart was subsequently hit with a two-game suspension without pay by the NBA for "escalating" the situation and "repeatedly and aggressively" pursuing James, who himself received a one-game ban for the first time in his 19-year NBA career for "recklessly hitting" the Pistons center in the face.

This is only the second time he's been ejected from a game in his career.

After the Wednesday's win over the Pacers, James said the one-game suspension was "some bulls--t."

LOS ANGELES —

Vanessa Bryant wants a judge to punish Los Angeles County officials for destroying photos of Kobe Bryant's helicopter crash that were allegedly shared, according to court papers filed by her lawyers.

Related video above: How Vanessa Bryant found out about the deaths of her daughter and husband

"Law enforcement officials whose job is to investigate wrongdoing know that the first step in investigating a complaint is to preserve evidence and that destroying evidence is improper," said the motion, filed on Monday. "Yet that is exactly what Sheriff (Alex) Villanueva himself ordered Department personnel to do after the Department received a citizen's complaint that a Sheriff's deputy was showing photos of the crash site at a bar in Norwalk. That order was highly irregular — unprecedented in deputies' experience — and out of the chain of command."

Photos of the January 2020 helicopter crash that killed the NBA legend, his daughter, and seven others, were allegedly shared with people outside of the investigation. In March 2020, L.A. County Sheriff Villanueva said all of those photos had been deleted. Bryant is suing the county over the alleged photo sharing claiming emotional distress, and a violation of privacy.

"In these circumstances, it is simply unfair to let Defendants argue that the photos were contained and that the risk of trauma is illusory," said Bryant's lawyers in a motion filed Tuesday. Lawyers request summary judgment, trial, and an order precluding defendants from arguing that the photos were not spread electronically.

"While the County continues to have the deepest sympathy for the grief Ms. Bryant has suffered, the request by her lawyers for sanctions is an attempt to distract attention from the fact that none of the routine investigative photos taken by County employees have ever been publicly disseminated," said Skip Miller, partner of the Miller Barondess law firm and outside counsel for L.A. County.

The matter is expected to be discussed on Nov. 29 in Los Angeles.

ATLANTA —

Eddie Rosario capped a remarkable NL Championship Series with a three-run homer, sending the Atlanta Braves to the World Series for the first time since 1999 with a 4-2 victory over the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers on Saturday night.

The Braves won the best-of-seven series four games to two, exorcising the demons of last year's NLCS — when Atlanta squandered 2-0 and 3-1 leads against the Dodgers — and advancing to face the AL champion Astros.

Game 1 is Tuesday night at Minute Maid Park in Houston.

The Braves will be going for their first Series title since 1995, when they beat Cleveland with a team that included Hall of Famers Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, Jon Smoltz and Chipper Jones — a no-nonsense group that became better known for numerous postseason flops during a momentous run of 14 straight division titles.

This flashy team is led by a far more unlikely hero.

Rosario, acquired in a flush of deals just before the July 30 trade deadline that rebuilt the Braves' depleted outfield, set an Atlanta franchise record and became only the fifth player in baseball history to record 14 hits in a postseason series.

Will Smith worked a 1-2-3 ninth for his fourth save of the postseason after a brilliant relief stint by winner Tyler Matzek, who escaped a huge jam in the seventh by striking out the side. The left-hander has 11 strikeouts with runners in scoring position in the seventh inning or later this postseason.

Spurred on by chants of “Eddie! Eddie! Eddie” from the raucous sellout crowd of more than 43,000, Rosario finished 14 of 25 (.560) against the Dodgers, with three homers and nine RBIs.

His final hit was certainly the biggest of the 30-year-old Puerto Rican's career.

With the score tied at 1 in the bottom of the fourth, Rosario came up after pinch-hitter Ehire Adrianza extended the inning with a two-out double into the right-field corner. Slow-running catcher Travis d'Arnaud was held at third by coach Ron Washington, surely aware of who was up next.

Rosario got into an extended duel with Walker Buehler, who stepped up to start on three days' rest after ace Max Scherzer wasn't able to go because of a tired arm.

Rosario swung and missed the first two pitches. Then he fouled one off. Then he took a ball. Then he fouled off two more pitches.

Finally, he got one he liked from the Dodgers' 16-game winner — a cutter that Rosario turned into a 105 mph rocket down the right-field line, higher and higher, straight as an arrow until it landed well back into the seats below the Chop House restaurant.

Rosario knew it was gone, dancing down the line after delivering a 361-foot finishing shot to a highly paid team that won 106 games during the regular season — 18 more than the NL East-winning Braves — but came up short in its bid to become baseball's first repeat champion since the 2000 New York Yankees won their third straight title.

The Braves will be looking to bury their city's reputation for playoff misery. From four World Series losses in the 1990s to the NFL Falcons blowing a 28-3 lead in the 2017 Super Bowl, Atlanta again finds itself on cusp of an extremely rare feat.

A championship.

Those ‘95 Braves remain the city's lone team in the four major sports — baseball, football, basketball and hockey — to capture a title. Freddie Freeman said after a Game 5 loss that the city's history would remain an issue “until we kill that narrative.”

They're four wins from doing just that.

After starter Ian Anderson allowed Cody Bellinger's run-scoring single in the fourth on his next-to-last hitter of the night, the well-rested Atlanta bullpen took over.

A.J. Minter struck out four in two innings of work. Luke Jackson failed to get an out in the seventh, giving up AJ Pollock's run-scoring double, but Matzek stranded runners at second and third with three straight strikeouts — the last of them by Mookie Betts on three pitches.

Matzek returned to the mound for a 1-2-3 eighth before handing off to Smith.

The Braves jumped ahead with back-to-back, two-out doubles off Buehler in the first — the second of them by Austin Riley, whose shot down the left-field line one-hopped into the Dodgers bullpen.

With their pitching staff in disarray, the Dodgers scuttled plans to start Scherzer. The right-hander had complained of a dead arm after Game 2, and he was still struggling to bounce back after a workout Friday.

Buehler, who had been projected to go in Game 7 if the series went that far, was bumped up to start for Scherzer on just three days' rest.

Scherzer, the Dodgers insisted, would be ready to go Sunday night.

Now, he's got all winter to rest up.

TRAINER'S ROOM

The Dodgers brought an extra pitcher to Atlanta after LHP Justin Bruihl felt something in his arm while warming up for Game 5. But Bruihl remained on the roster after assuring manager Dave Roberts he felt good enough to take an inning in Game 6. As it turned out, he wasn't needed.

UP NEXT

Dodgers: After a steak of seven straight victories in elimination games was snapped, they won't play another game that counts until the 2022 season opener against the Colorado Rockies. That comes on March 31 at Dodger Stadium.

Braves: Charlie Morton is set to go against his former team in the opener of the World Series. He memorably came out of the bullpen in Game 7 of the 2017 Series to pitch four innings of two-hit ball, closing out the lone title in Astros history with a 5-1 win over the Dodgers.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Three Los Angeles police officers have been charged with falsifying records reporting that people they stopped were gang members or associates.

Prosecutors say the members of the Police Department's Metropolitan Division were charged with conspiracy in a 59-count complaint with obstructing justice and multiple counts of filing a false police report and preparing false evidence.

In a news release, the LA County DA's office said Braxton Shaw, Michael Coblentz, and Nicholas Martinez are the officers being charged.

Prosecutors said in the statement that the officers are accused of falsifying field interview cards they use to conduct interviews while out on duty.

The cards, prosecutors say, contained false information and misidentified dozens of people as a gang member.

The officers' union said Friday it expects the department to ensure the officers are accorded their due process rights and that any proven mischaracterizations are corrected.

The Police Department says 21 additional officers are under investigation.

The department also says it's no longer using the state's gang database other than to remove individuals from it.