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...

  One day after meeting with victims' families mourning  a shooting rampage in Southern California ,   Gov. Gavin Newsom traveled  to the Northern California community of Half Moon Bay, where two shootings left seven people dead. The suspected shooter is in custody and will be arraigned Wednesday in connection with the attacks at plant nurseries 30 miles south of San Francisco. The San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office said four people were found dead at the Mountain Mushroom Farm, where the suspect worked, and a fifth was taken to a hospital with life-threatening injuries. Three bodies were found at a second scene – a farm where the suspect used to work – a short time later. The county coroner's office was working to identify the victims, some of whom were migrants, and notify their next of kin. Sheriff Christina Corpus said on Tuesday the victims were five men and two women. A survivor was in stable condi...

  At least three people were killed in a random shooting early Tuesday in Yakima, Washington, and police are still searching for the suspect. Yakima police chief Matt Murray said the shooting was reported at a Circle K convenience store at about 3:30 a.m., and responding officers found three people dead. The shooting comes just one day after a mass shooting in Half Moon Bay, California, and also follows Saturday's deadly rampage at a popular ballroom in Monterey Park, California. Police also found a second shooting scene at an Amm convenience store across the street, Murray said. He did not say if anyone was believed to have been injured at the second shooting scene. "It appears to be a random situation," Murray said during a news conference. "There was no apparent conflict between the parties. The male just walked in and started shooting." Murray said police have security camera video and eyewitnesses from Circle K. Police initially believed the shoot...

 A 7-year-old boy died and his mother suffered serious injuries after a pack of dogs attacked them in Idaho over the weekend, officials said. The attack, which Shoshone-Bannock Tribes said involved four dogs, took place on Jan. 21 on the Fort Hall Reservation in the southeastern part of the state, 40 miles south of Idaho Falls. According to a news release posted on Facebook Tuesday, Fort Hall Police Department officers were dispatched to a home for a report of a boy who had been attacked by multiple dogs. When officers arrived, they found the boy unconscious. The boy's mother was also severely injured when she tried to fight off four dogs – two Rottweilers and two mixed breeds, tribal authorities said. The mother and son were taken by ambulance to a hospital, where the boy was pronounced dead. The mauling The mother and son lived in an RV behind the home where the dogs...

  Two students were killed Monday in what police believed was a gang-related shooting at a Des Moines charter school dedicated to helping at-risk youth. The founder of the facility was also shot and wounded in the attack. An 18-year-old suspect has been arrested, the police said in a statement Monday night. The shooting took place at Starts Right Here, a facility affiliated with the Des Moines school district. Police said the victims killed were 16 and 18 years old. The person wounded was identified as 49-year-old William Holmes, known as Will Keeps, the founder and CEO of Starts Right Here. He remains hospitalized in serious condition, the police said.  The Des Moines Police Department said detectives arrested a suspect, 18-year-old Preston Walls. He has been charged with two counts of murder in the first degree, attempted murder and criminal gang participation. "The incident was definitely targeted. It was not random. There was nothing random about this," Sgt. Paul Parizek ...

  A closely watched gauge of economic activity shows the U.S. is likely to tip into recession sometime this year. The Conference Board's Leading Economic Index, which consolidates several measures of the economy's trajectory, declined in December  — its tenth consecutive monthly drop. Several indicators pulled the index down, including a shorter average workweek for employees, weaker manufacturing orders and diminished consumer expectations. Over the past six months, the index has shrunk 4.2% — the fastest six-month decline since the beginning of the pandemic and one that "continues to send an ominous sign about the economy's near-term prospects," economists from Oxford Economics said in a research note. The drop indicates "an economy barreling towards a recession," they wrote. Oxford predicts a recession will begin sometime between April and June of this year. The Conference Board data aligns with other recent surveys, including one from the National As...

  Around 500 people were evacuated from their homes on Friday after a fire broke out in Guryong Village, one of the last remaining slums in South Korea’s capital Seoul, according to fire officials. The fire broke out around 6:28 a.m. in the fourth district of the village, said Shin Yong-ho, an official with the Gangnam Fire Station, in a televised briefing. First responders arrived around five minutes later, he said. No deaths or injuries have been reported so far. Around 60 homes are believed to have burned down, Shin said, adding most structures are made from vinyl plywood panels. Videos on social media show the fire engulfing what looks like rows of homes, with huge plumes of thick black smoke hanging above the slum as sirens wail nearby. More than 800 response personnel have been mobilized, including firefighters, police, and government workers, while 10 helicopters have been deployed to assist with the response, Shin said. South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, who is in Switze...

  How Often Does Your Credit Score Update? There are three major credit bureaus: Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. When your lender reports your loan and credit activity, your credit report is updated with the new information. But this isn't done in real-time. There's a process bureaus go through to make sure the data is valid. This can take anywhere from a few hours to several days. And if there's an error or something looks out of place, the bureau has to stop and verify the information before it goes into your file. This can delay your report from being updated quickly. Lenders report information at least once per month, and when the data is added to your report, it's likely to produce a new credit score. How Often Do Credit Card Issuers Report to the Credit Bureaus? There isn't one answer to this question. Most lenders, especially credit card issuers, report once per month to the bureaus. The day they report your payment activity sometimes, but not always, coin...

  You can reduce your risk of an early death for any reason by nearly 20%, just by eating more foods from your choice of four healthy eating patterns, according to a new study. People who more carefully followed any of the healthy eating patterns — which all share a focus on consuming more whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and legumes — were also less likely to die from cancer, cardiovascular illness, and respiratory and neurodegenerative disease. The results of the study, published Monday in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, show “there is more than one way to eat well and derive the attendant health benefits,” said Dr. David Katz, a lifestyle medicine specialist who was not involved in the study. People often get bored with one way of eating, study coauthor Dr. Frank Hu said, “so this is good news. It means that we have a lot of flexibility in terms of creating our own healthy dietary patterns that can be   tailored to individual food preferences, health conditi...

 Amazon   has started notifying its employees affected by its new round of layoffs, as a part of its plan to reduce its headcount by around 18,000 people, the media reported. It, however, remains unclear as to how many employees are being affected in this particular round. Still, the company already laid off 2,300 employees in Washington of which the majority worked in Seattle, where one of the company's headquarters is located, reports The Verge. Amazon started its first round of layoffs last November. At the time, there were reports that around 10,000 people would be affected, including members of its hardware and services, human resources, and retail teams. Earlier this month, Amazon confirmed the layoffs and their massive scale, saying that including the ones from last year, Wednesday's round, and potential additional cuts in 2023, they would affect 18,000 employees overall. A memo from CEO Andy Jassy posted on the company's website announced that...

  SBI Card Fees and Charges (Full List) 2023: Applying for SBI credit card, or SBI Card, is much simpler these days. Most people apply for the SBI Card because of several benefits. However, there are many fees and charges that you should know before applying for an SBI credit card. As per the rules, the SBI Card is required to communicate details related to fees and charges to the customer when they apply for the card. Following are the fees and charges levied on the SBI Credit Card: Annual fees The annual fee is a one-time charge. Customers have to pay a certain amount as an annual fee to the SBICPSL (State Bank of India Cards and Payment Services Limited) for using the SBI Credit Card. The annual fee will be charged directly to the cardholder account and will be reflected in the month's card statement. Cash Payment Fees SBI cardholders can pay their dues at select branches of the State Bank of India (SBI) by paying a service fee of Rs 250+ applicable taxes. For this, they have to...