December 2009 Archives

City News Service

A snowstorm that blanketed the Washington, D.C. area -- closing two airports -- was moving into New England today, and numerous flights out of Southern California were either delayed or cancelled as the storm impact rippled across the
continent.

By midmorning Pacific Time, planes were being delayed on the ground at
LAX for three hours if they were headed towards Philadelphia or Newark,
the FAA reported. Flights to other airports in the Tri-State Region around New York were
experiencing only slight delays, however.

A record setting snowfall of about 16 inches of snow had closed Reagan National and
Baltimore-Washington International airports Saturday. At least 38 flights into the region from
LAX<NO1>ZZTO<NO> were cancelled Saturday.

The backlog of holiday travelers was evident Saturday afternoon at Los Angeles International
Airport, as flights into Chicago and virtually every major airport north of Charlotte started
experiencing delays.

Snowplows at Andrews Air Force Base, however, cleared the way for President Barack
Obama's plane to land as he returned from climate change summit in Copenhagen.

Gardena police and SWAT officers arrested two people after a nearly 12-hour standoff in the 1200 block of 168th Street, officials said this afternoon.

Officers arrived at the house at 6 a.m. to serve a "high risk" search warrant, but the home's occupants refused to let officers inside, said Gardena police spokeswoman Kimanh Nguyen.

Officers negotiated with the suspects to surrender by using tear gas and a tractor to rip a hole in the house, said Lt. Steve Prendergast.

Two suspects surrendered at about 4:30 p.m., and were arrested, he said. He would not elaborate on why the officers were at the house or what charges the suspects were arrested for.

Torrance police shut down the intersection of Crenshaw Boulevard and 229th Street at 1 p.m. today to do some follow-up investigation into an earlier traffic collision.

Officials expect to reopen the intersection by 2 p.m.

 

A short police pursuit ended in a traffic collision in Torrance this morning, officials said.

Torrance police officers attempted to pull over a car for a minor traffic violation at about 10:45 a.m. near the corner of Plaza del Amo and Maple Avenue.

Instead of stopping, the car sped away and police followed. The fleeing vehicle stopped when it hit an empty car near Cabrillo Avenue and Middlebook Road. The driver was arrested there without incident, Anderson said.

Police do not know why the suspect fled, but are investigating a possible weapons violation, Anderson said. The suspect's identity was not immediately available.