That Independent Journal

  Three people were killed and four others wounded in a shooting at a short-term rental home in an upscale Los Angeles neighborhood early Saturday morning, police said. The shooting occurred about 2:30 a.m. in the Beverly Crest neighborhood. This is at least the sixth mass shooting in California this month. Sgt. Frank Preciado of the Los Angeles Police Department said earlier Saturday that the three people killed were inside a vehicle. Two of the four victims were taken in private vehicles to area hospitals and two others were transported by ambulance, police spokesperson Sgt. Bruce Borihanh said. Investigators were trying to determine if there was a party at the rental home or what type of gathering was occurring, Borihanh said. Borihanh said police have no information on suspects. With the shooting over, the block was sectioned off as investigators scoured for evidence. The early Saturday morning shooting comes on top of a massacre at a dance hall in a Los Angeles suburb las...

  In one Memphis park, Quintin “Rico” Fields saw it often: Skaters donning headphones and pushing off on a board, losing themselves in the rhythm of long glides and quick jumps. “You’re leaving the world behind … You’re just getting away from stuff,” said Fields, who has long found a community among the bowls and rails of Memphis skateboarders.  Tyre Nichols, 29, was a member of that community too. Friends said he was a “free spirit" who reveled in a sport often intertwined with music and   art. That ended when Nichols died on Jan. 10 after what police first called "a confrontation" following a traffic stop. This week, local prosecutors charged five Memphis officers with second-degree murder and other crimes in connection with his death.  In recent days, skateboarding communities in Memphis and beyond have held tributes and expressed solidarity with Nichols and his family — including many celebrating the joy that skating brought to his life, even amid ...

  Two   mass shootings  in California last week that killed   dozens of   people   in public spaces, as well as a third attack days earlier that killed six family members in their home, have again raised questions about whether such violent incidents inspire new ones. Data on mass public shootings going back to 1966 suggests such attacks are becoming more frequent, said James Densley, co-founder of the Violence Project, a nonprofit research center. But it’s not yet clear if shootings that come close together in time are intertwined. "You find even in random simulations, there are times when there’s a cluster and times when there are not," said James Alan Fox, a criminology professor at Northeastern University who serves on USA TODAY’s Board of Contributors. Are mass shootings happening more often? The frequency of fatal mass shootings has increased from 23 a year in 2010 to 27 a year through the end of 2022, based on five-year averages of dat...

 South Korea -- Frigid winter weather gripped East Asia for the second straight day on Wednesday, causing several deaths and multiple injuries in Japan and a scramble for flights out of South Korea's resort island of Jeju following delays by snowstorms. Heavy snow and record cold temperatures brought widespread disruptions in Japan. South Korea’s Ministry of the Interior and Safety didn’t immediately report any major damage or injuries from subzero temperatures and icy conditions that have affected most of the country since Tuesday. But at least eight roads and 10 sea routes remained closed as of Wednesday afternoon. About 140 homes in capital Seoul and nearby regions reported busted water pressure pumps or pipes as temperatures dipped to around minus 15 to minus 20 degrees Celsius (5 degrees to minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit) across the mainland. A man died in Oita, southern Japan, after being hit by a fallen tree and two more deaths in the northern pre...