Morning blotter -- May 22, 2007

A little update from the trenches of Los Angeles this morning ...

• Brandon Funches of South Los Angeles was apparently arguing with his girlfriend Monday in Sun Valley when he drove through the guardrail of a railroad crossing, parked his car in the path of a speeding train, killed himself and critically injured the woman.
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  latimes.com
  
• The Daily News' Troy Anderson follows experts on terrorism who say we're not any more prepared for a terrorist attack than we were before 9-11, with street gangs funding terrorist groups and draining resources from law enforcement agencies working to head off future attacks.
  dailynews.com
  
• A 17-year-old boy walking around Universal Citywalk is arrested in connection with the shooting of Marat Manukyan.
  dailynews.com
  
• Deputies arrested Luke Richardson, a 42-year-old Lancaster man, on felony hit-and-run charges in connection with an illegal drag race.
  dailynews.com
  
• A pedestrian while waiting to cross a street is killed by a sheared lightpole broken when a truck slammed into it in a chain-reaction crash.
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• Homicides are down 8 percent, writes the Los Angeles Times' Jill Leovy at the Homicide blog.
  
• Daily News editorial says there's much talk but little action on a new city anti-gang plan.
  

  The chickens in City Hall have laid a big, fat egg in their efforts to confront L.A.'s gang crisis without actually doing anything about it.

  In January, civil-rights attorney Connie Rice issued a massive city-funded report about the epidemic, calling for a "Marshall Plan" to combat gang violence.

  In response, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa put forward a warmed-over anti-gang plan without any significant new money or creative solutions. He asked for a thorough audit of how the city spends existing anti-gang funds, while promising additional funds for anti-gang efforts to come.

  dailynews.com