The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Center activated its alert system Thursday to issue an El Niño watch.

The alert means that conditions in the eastern tropical Pacific are favorable enough that El Niño has a more than a 50% chance of forming by the summer or fall.

Though it’s too early to predict with much confidence, if El Niño re-emerges it could produce wetter weather in the southern United States next winter, bring more rain to California, temper the Atlantic hurricane season and push up global temperatures in 2015, experts say.

The El Niño cycle begins every two to...

A Burbank police officer pleaded guilty Thursday to lying to federal authorities who were investigating an alleged plot involving his girlfriend and her estranged husband.

Anthony Valento, 43, appeared in U.S. District Court on Thursday afternoon to enter the guilty plea for making false statements, part of a plea greement, the Burbank Leader reported.

Valento's girlfriend, Gayle Bassett, who sat next to him in court, agreed to plead guilty to conspiring to deprive her husband, Jeremy Bassett, of his constitutional rights by attempting to have him "prosecuted for a restraining order violation...

Two Southern California high schools were placed on lockdown Thursday as police investigated a bomb threat and a call of a student being held hostage at gunpoint. The two unrelated reports were deemed hoaxes by authorities.

Beverly Hills police received a call about 2:45 p.m. from a person claiming to be a 16-year-old being held hostage by a man with a gun at Beverly Hills High School, said Lt. Lincoln Hoshino.

Though many students had already gone home, those who remained were placed on lockdown while officers conducted a full search of the campus. No evidence of a gun or hostage was found,...

Ex-NFL star Darren Sharper and an acquaintance acknowledged that they had sex with two women in New Orleans "without their knowledge or permission," according to an arrest warrant released Thursday.

Sharper, 38, who has been charged with seven rape and drug counts in connection with two alleged attacks in Los Angeles, was taken into custody again last week after New Orleans police issued the warrant for his arrest. He remains in a Los Angeles jail pending a court hearing Friday afternoon.

Two women told New Orleans police that Sharper and his friend — identified as Erik Nunez, 26 —...

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A blind man who fell off the edge of a subway platform Thursday afternoon and into the path of an oncoming Metro train survived the accident mostly unharmed, officials said.

"It really is a miracle," Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority spokeman Paul Gonzales told The Times. "It's something you only see on TV."

The man, an unidentified 47-year-old Los Angeles resident, had been using a cane to feel his way toward the edge of Metro's Wilshire/Vermont subway platform, Gonzales said. 

The operator of the incoming Red Line train saw the man and honked...

A man has been banned from the Glendale Galleria for three years after being arrested on suspicion of indecent exposure inside a department store, police said.

Keane Dean, 25, of Santa Clarita was banned from the mall after his Feb. 28 arrest at Macy's for allegedly inappropriately touching himself, said Glendale police spokeswoman Tahnee Lightfoot.

Prosecutors this week charged Dean with indecent exposure, vandalism and burglary, according to Los Angeles County Superior Court records.

Dean’s arrest marks the second time since Jan. 17 that police have arrested someone for indecent...

Two Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies pleaded not guilty Thursday in connection with allegations that they assaulted a handcuffed inmate, according to a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office.

Deputies Joey Aguiar and Mariano Ramirez were the latest in a string of 21 current and former sheriff's officials charged by federal authorities in connection with the FBI's three-year investigation into brutality and other misconduct in the Sheriff’s Department.

Last month, federal authorities allegedthat Aguiar and Ramirez violated the civil rights of the inmate by assaulting...

A 67-year-old man who was working outdoors on his property died Thursday after suffering numerous bee stings, the San Diego County Sheriff's Department said.

When deputies, responding to an emergency call, arrived at the Valley Center property, the man was already unresponsive, officials said. The man may have disturbed a beehive while burning brush.

The county medical examiner will determine the cause of death. The man's name was not released.

About 55 people die in the U.S. each year from bee, wasp or hornet stings, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Counties in California have failed to properly document how $1.7 million in Indian gaming money was distributed, according to an audit released Thursday by the California state auditor’s office.

State lawmakers earmarked $39 million for the Indian gaming special distribution fund between the fiscal years 2010 and 2013, money which was then distributed to local governments to offset the impact of casinos in the area. The money often funds public safety, public health and roads projects.

In all, the audit reviewed 12 grants of casino funds in San Diego, Riverside, Butte and Lake counties.