California, Homeless | featured news

A Los Angeles County judge ordered the co-founder of frozen yogurt giant Pinkberry on Thursday to stand trial for allegedly assaulting a homeless man on the side of an East Hollywood road after the victim testified that the entrepreneur repeatedly struck him with a tire iron.

The City of Fullerton, California, has reached a $1 million settlement with the mother of a mentally ill homeless man who died last year after a beating he received at the hands of police officers.

Three transients have been stabbed to death since last month. Some are banding together for protection, and police and missions are helping. Cary Singletary is 6-foot-2, an ex-boxer who once worked nightclub security, alternating coffee and water to stay alert through the small hours. Now, encamped on the streets of downtown Santa Ana, he's the unofficial sentry for what he calls "my people," a group of homeless whose wary existence is now shadowed by a new peril: a serial killer.

Saying sex offenders are being forced to choose between prison and homelessness, a Los Angeles judge issued an opinion this week blocking enforcement of provisions a state law restricting how close those offenders can live from parks or schools.