LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Federal authorities opened the latest front in their war on California’s massive medical marijuana industry this week, filing property forfeiture lawsuits in a bid to shut down three dispensaries and sending warning letters to 34 people.

The moves by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles are the latest in an ongoing crackdown on what federal prosecutors say is a flourishing network of illegal cannabis suppliers operating across California under the cover of the state’s medical marijuana law.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Residents of a southern California city went to the polls on Tuesday to vote on the recall of three elected officials accused of a failure of leadership following the fatal beating of a schizophrenic homeless man by police in Fullerton.

Recall organizers said Fullerton city councilmen Dick Jones, Don Bankhead and Pat McKinley put the interests of police over the community, allowing a culture of lax oversight that ultimately led to the death of 37-year-old transient Kelly Thomas.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A civil rights group sued the state of California and its prison system on Thursday, saying the long-term confinement of inmates in a special high-security unit at Pelican Bay State Prison amounted to torture and human rights violations.

The lawsuit demands reforms and seeks class-action status for more than 500 current prisoners who have been held in the Special Housing Unit at the super-maximum-security prison in Northern California for between 10 and 28 years.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A convicted killer who hanged himself on California’s death row did so using an extension cord for an appliance in his cell and had not previously been considered a suicide risk, a prison spokesman said on Wednesday.

James Lee Crummel, 68, was found hanging in his one-man cell at San Quentin State Prison near San Francisco on Sunday, five months before Californians are due to vote in November on a ballot measure aimed at repealing the state’s death penalty.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A convicted killer sentenced to die for the 1979 murder of a teenage boy has hanged himself on California’s death row, months before voters in the state are due to decide whether to abolish the death penalty, prison officials said on Tuesday.

James Lee Crummel, 68, was found hanging in his cell at San Quentin State Prison, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokesman Sam Robinson said in a written statement.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A U.S. bankruptcy judge on Tuesday ordered that Los Angeles police detectives be given audio tapes of discussions between a Manson Family member and his former lawyer, which they believe could help solve murders committed by the infamous cult.

Judge Brenda Rhoades’ ruling means Los Angeles Police Department detectives can review some eight hours of recordings made more than 40 years ago by late Texas attorney Bill Boyd and convicted killer Charles “Tex” Watson.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A convicted killer sentenced to death for the 1979 murder of a 13-year-old boy has hanged himself on California’s death row, months before voters in the state are due to decide whether to abolish the death penalty, prison officials said on Tuesday.

James Lee Crummel, 68, was found hanging in his cell at San Quentin State Prison, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokesman Sam Robinson said in a written statement.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Los Angeles police detectives are seeking to review old audio tapes of conversations between Manson Family member Charles “Tex” Watson and his former lawyer, hoping they will shed light on any additional murders the cult may have committed.

The eight hours of recorded discussions between Watson and attorney Bill Boyd were made more than 40 years ago and have surfaced as a part of a bankruptcy case involving Boyd’s now-defunct Texas law firm.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A 22-year-old college student who went missing in Yosemite National Park in California two days ago has been found safe about five miles (eight kilometers) from the campsite where he was last seen, a park spokesman said on Monday.

Authorities combing the nearly 1,200-square-mile (3,100-square-km) park spotted John Paul Chaufan Field by helicopter at about 3:15 p.m. on Monday and made contact with him, Yosemite spokesman Scott Gediman said.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Authorities combed Yosemite National Park in California on Monday for a 22-year-old college student who disappeared after walking away from the rest of his group during a weekend trip into back-country areas of the park.

John Paul Chaufan Field, a senior at the University of California at Santa Cruz, was last seen at mid-morning on Saturday at a campsite near Kibbie Lake in the park’s Hetch Hetchy area, Yosemite spokesman Scott Gediman said.