1 injured, traffic delayed after car veers off overpass in Sacramento
MAJOR BACKUP. THANKS FOR JOINING US HERE FOR OUR NEWS AT 11. I’M EDIE LAMBERT. I’M GULSTAN DART. LET’S TAKE YOU THERE. THIS IS HAPPENING ON SOUTHBOUND HIGHWAY 99 NEAR MARTIN LUTHER KING JUNIOR BOULEVARD. LOOK AT THE BACKUP RIGHT NOW. THE TAIL LIGHTS TELL THE STORY RIGHT NOW. YOU CAN SEE HOW SLOW THINGS ARE RIGHT NOW AS THEY’RE TRYING TO SQUEEZE PEOPLE. IT LOOKS LIKE, THROUGH 1 OR 2 LANES. NOW, HERE’S A LOOK AT THE SCENE EARLIER. AND WE HAVE A PICTURE HERE. AND YOU CAN SEE BASICALLY WHAT HAPPENED. CHP SAYS THAT THE CAR WAS ON MLK WHEN IT CRASHED OFF THE OVERPASS. SO THERE IS WHAT YOU’RE LOOKING AT FROM ABOVE. THAT’S THE OVERPASS. AND THEN IT LOOKS LIKE PART OF THE RAILING THERE IS GONE. THE CAR APPEARS TO HAVE PLUNGED DOWN HIGHWAY 99. PEYTON HEADLEE IS ON THAT OVERPASS RIGHT NOW. THAT’S A SERIOUS ACCIDENT. PEYTON. YEAH, IT’S A SERIOUS ACCIDENT, AND IT IS QUITE A MESS. SO WE’RE ON THE MARTIN LUTHER KING BOULEVARD OVERPASS RIGHT NOW, AND YOU CAN SEE WHERE IT CRASHED THROUGH THE RAILING, THROUGH THE FENCE, AND DOWN ONTO HIGHWAY 99. YOU CAN ACTUALLY SEE THE CAR ON THE BACK OF THAT TOW TRUCK THERE. JUST LOOKING AT IT. IT’S HARD TO TELL FROM WHERE WE ARE AT RIGHT NOW THAT THAT IS A CAR JUST BY HOW CRUSHED AND SHATTERED IT IS. THERE’S A NUMBER OF CHP OFFICERS DOWN THERE HELPING SWEEP UP SOME OF THE DEBRIS LOADED ONTO THE TOW TRUCK AND REDIRECT TRAFFIC INTO THOSE FAR RIGHT TWO LANES. THOSE ARE THE ONLY LANES WHERE TRAFFIC IS GOING THROUGH RIGHT NOW. SO ACCORDING TO THE CALIFORNIA HIGHWAY PATROL, WE KNOW THAT THAT CAR CAME OFF OF MARTIN LUTHER KING BOULEVARD ONTO THE NORTHBOUND SIDE OF 99. CHP SAYS THEY DON’T BELIEVE THE VEHICLE LANDED ON ANY OTHER VEHICLES, BUT IT CAUSED SEVERAL OTHER CRASHES, THOSE OF WHICH WERE MINOR AND NO INJURIES. THE SACRAMENTO FIRE DEPARTMENT SAYS ONE PERSON WAS TRANSPORTED IN SERIOUS CONDITION. THAT PATIENT WITH SERIOUS INJURIES IS THE DRIVER OF THE VEHICLE THAT WENT OFF THE OVERPASS. SO AGAIN, THERE’S A LOOK AT THAT CAR DOWN THERE IN THE NORTHBOUND LANES OF HIGHWAY 99, COMPLETELY SHATTERED, THE WINDSHIELD IS SHATTERED. AND MY PHOTOGRAPHER, ALAN JUST SHOWED YOU THE ENGINE. AND THE OPPOSITE SIDE OF MARTIN LUTHER KING BOULEVARD. HERE YOU CAN SEE IT JUST SITTING OVER THERE. SO IT’S HARD TO TELL WHAT HAPPENED HERE, HOW THIS CAR ENDED UP DOWN ON THE HIGHWAY, AND HOW PARTS OF IT ARE STILL UP HERE ON THE OVERPASS. AND YEAH, YOU CAN SEE THAT MASSIVE BACKUP ON THE NORTHBOUND LANES OF HIGHWAY 99. SO IF YOU’RE HEADED THROUGH HERE THIS EVENING, AVOID. IF POSSIBLE, LOOK FOR A DIFFERENT ROUTE. THEY ARE GETTI
1 injured, traffic delayed after car veers off overpass in Sacramento
A person was taken to the hospital after driving their vehicle off an overpass and landing on Highway 99 in Sacramento, according to the California Highway Patrol. CHP said the car went off of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and landed on the northbound side of Highway 99. That crash caused several other small crashes on the highway, but no injuries have been reported. The Sacramento Fire Department said the transported patient was the the driver of the vehicle, who sustained serious injuries. It is unclear what caused them to drive off the overpass. KCRA 3’s Peyton Headlee is at the scene gathering more information. She said you can see the damage caused where the vehicle hit the overpass railing and fence. Part of the engine of the vehicle can still be seen on the overpass. There are traffic delays on Highway 99 due to the crash. See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel
A person was taken to the hospital after driving their vehicle off an overpass and landing on Highway 99 in Sacramento, according to the California Highway Patrol.
CHP said the car went off of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and landed on the northbound side of Highway 99. That crash caused several other small crashes on the highway, but no injuries have been reported.
The Sacramento Fire Department said the transported patient was the the driver of the vehicle, who sustained serious injuries. It is unclear what caused them to drive off the overpass.
KCRA 3’s Peyton Headlee is at the scene gathering more information.
She said you can see the damage caused where the vehicle hit the overpass railing and fence. Part of the engine of the vehicle can still be seen on the overpass.
There are traffic delays on Highway 99 due to the crash.
Officials, including Multnomah County District Attorney at the Card Rhino press conference
PORTLAND, Ore. – The Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office has indicted and arraigned five people accused of operating a large-scale retail theft “fencing” operation connected to a secondhand store known as Card Rhino.
Prosecutors allege the business knowingly purchased stolen merchandise at steep discounts and resold the goods for significant profit.
Photo via the Multnomah County Sheriffs Office
According to the indictment, Card Rhino — a secondhand store in Multnomah County — accepted new-in-the-box merchandise stolen from retailers by what authorities describe as some of Portland’s most prolific “boosters,” or repeat retail thieves.
Investigators say the stolen goods were either delivered directly to Card Rhino or first exchanged fraudulently at retail stores for gift cards. Those gift cards were then sold to Card Rhino. The store allegedly paid only a fraction of the items’ market value — in some cases, “pennies on the dollar.”
Prosecutors further allege that businesses associated with Card Rhino transported the stolen merchandise to related operations and resold the products online at substantial markups.
Search Warrants Yield Thousands of Items
On March 18, 2025, the Portland Police Bureau and investigators with the District Attorney’s Retail Theft Task Force executed search warrants at three locations tied to the investigation:
Direct Deals HQ LLC/Limit Deals, 19300 S.W. Boones Ferry Road, Suite 2C, Tualatin
Great Deals 2.0, 5305 N.E. 121st Ave., Suite 509, Vancouver, Washington
Photo via Multnomah County Sheriffs Office
Police reported seizing more than 31,000 pieces of evidence, including approximately $14,000 in cash, gold and silver, as well as high-value new merchandise. Authorities estimate the total value of the seized property exceeds $300,000.
Defendants and Charges
Five people have been charged in connection with the alleged operation:
Nickolas Ragsdale (Case 25CR62909) faces 68 charges, including multiple counts of money laundering, conspiracy to commit first-degree theft, theft in the first degree, aggravated identity theft and identity theft.
Alisha Scott (Case 26CR06975) faces 37 charges, including money laundering, conspiracy to commit theft, first-degree theft, organized retail theft, identity theft and aggravated identity theft.
Aaron Scott (Case 26CR06966) faces 27 charges, including money laundering, conspiracy to commit money laundering, theft in the first degree and identity theft.
Chris Woodley (Case 26CR06961) faces 14 charges, including conspiracy to commit first-degree theft and money laundering.
Michael Burgess (Case 26CR06983) faces four charges, including theft in the first degree, organized retail theft and conspiracy to commit first-degree theft.
All defendants have been indicted and arraigned. As with all criminal cases, they are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in court.
My first reaction, when I heard about the proposed $2.3-million fence around MacArthur Park, was skepticism.
Yeah, the park and the immediate neighborhood have long dealt with a nasty web of urban nightmares, including homelessness, crime and a rather astonishing open-air drug scene, all of which I spent a few months looking into not long ago.
But what would a fence accomplish?
Well, after looking into it, maybe it’s not the worst idea.
Skepticism, I should note, is generally a fallback position for me. It’s something of an occupational duty, and how can you not be cynical about promises and plans in Los Angeles, where each time you open the newspaper, you have to scratch your head?
I’m still having trouble understanding how county supervisors approved another $828 million in child sexual abuse payments, on top of an earlier settlement this year of $4 billion, even after Times reporter Rebecca Ellis found nine cases in which people said they were told to fabricate abuse allegations.
The same supes, while wrestling with a budget crisis, agreed to pay $2 million to appease the county’s chief executive officer because she felt wronged by a ballot measure proposing that the job be an elected rather than appointed post. Scratching your head doesn’t help in this case; you’re tempted instead to bang it into a wall.
Drone view of MacArthur Park looking toward downtown Los Angeles.
(Ted Soqui/For The Times)
Or maybe a $2.3-million fence.
The city of L.A. is primarily responsible for taking on the problems of MacArthur Park, although the county has a role too in the areas of housing, public health and addiction services. I made two visits to the area in the last week, and while there are signs of progress and slightly less of a sense of chaos — the children’s playground hit last year by an arsonist has been fully rebuilt — there’s a long way to go.
In a story about the fence by my colleague Nathan Solis, one service provider said it would further criminalize homelessness and another said the money “could be better used by funding … services to the people in the park, rather than just moving them out.”
The vast majority of people who spoke at the Oct. 16 meeting of the Recreation and Parks Commission, which voted unanimously to move forward with the fence, were adamantly opposed despite claims that enclosing the space would be a step toward upgrading and making the park more welcoming.
“Nothing is more unwelcoming than a fence around a public space,” one critic said.
“A fence can not solve homelessness,” another said.
The LAPD underwater dive unit investigates activity in MacArthur Park Lake.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
Others argued that locking up the park, which is surrounded by a predominantly immigrant community, recalls the ridiculous stunt that played out in June, when President Trump’s uniformed posse showed up in armored vehicles and on horseback in what looked like an all-out invasion of Westlake.
But another speaker, Raul Claros — who is running against Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez in the 1st District — said he’d spoken to residents and merchants who support the fence, as long as it’s part of a greater effort to address the community’s needs.
Claros said he has three questions: “What’s the plan? What’s the timeline? Who’s in charge?”
Hernandez, by the way, is not opposed to the fence. A staffer told me there’s a fence around nearby Lafayette Park. Other fenced parks in Los Angeles include Robert Burns Park, adjacent to Hancock Park, and the L.A. State Historic Park on the edge of Chinatown, which is locked at sunset.
As for the long-range plan, the Hernandez staffer said the councilwoman has secured and is investing millions of dollars in what she calls a care-first approach that aims to address drug addiction and homelessness in and around the park.
Eduardo Aguirre, who lives a couple of blocks from the park and serves on the West Pico Neighborhood Council, told me he’s OK with the fence but worried about the possible consequences. If the people who use the park at night or sleep there are forced out, he said, where will they go?
“To the streets? To the alleys? You know what’s going to happen. It’s a game,” Aguirre said.
Last fall I walked with Aguirre and his wife as they led their daughter to her elementary school. They often have to step around homeless people and past areas where dealing and drug use, along with violence, are anything but infrequent.
Families and others should be able to feel safe in the park and the neighborhood, said Norm Langer, owner of the iconic Langer’s deli on the edge of the park.
A visitor takes in the view at MacArthur Park.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
“I completely understand why you’re skeptical,” Langer told me, but he said he’s seen improvements in the last year, particularly after fences were installed along Alvarado Street and vendors were shut down. Police say some of the vendors were involved in the drug trade and the resale of stolen merchandise.
“The point isn’t to limit access,” Langer said. “The fence is intended to improve safety and quality of life for the people who live, work, and spend time here. It gives park staff a fighting chance to maintain and restore the place, especially at night, when they can finally clean and repair without the constant chaos that made upkeep nearly impossible before.”
LAPD Capt. Ben Fernandes of the Rampart division told me police are “trying to make it not OK” to buy and use drugs along the Alvarado corridor. Drug users often gather in the northeast corner of the park, Fernandes said, and he thinks putting up a fence and keeping the park off limits at night will help “deflect” some of “the open-air usage.”
The park has a nice soccer field and a lovely bandstand, among other popular attractions, but many parents told me they’re reluctant to visit with their children because of safety concerns. If a fence helps bring back families, many of whom live in apartments and have no yards, that’s a good thing.
But as the city goes to work on design issues, questions about enforcement, opening and closing times and other details, it needs to keep in mind that all of that is the easy part.
It took an unforgivably long time for L.A. Mayor Karen Bass and other elected officials to acknowledge a social, economic and humanitarian crisis in a place that’s home to thousands of low-income working people.
A shift in demographics. Affordable apartments transformed into luxury condos. A coffee shop called something like “Brew Slut.”
The signs of gentrification take many forms. A newly opened art gallery can serve both as a communal space and a harbinger of the displacement to come. Remodeled homes might boost a street’s curb appeal but then drive up rents in the ensuing months and years.
There are plenty of ways to tell when gentrification is coming to a community; rising home prices and an influx of trendy shops are classic omens. But in the modern market, developers are flipping houses at the highest rate since 2000, and the houses they churn out are often homogeneous: boxy, black and white, minimalist. They’re adorned with trendy house number fonts and chic drought-tolerant gardens, and they can be an obvious sign of gentrification on the way.
Take a stroll through your neighborhood and keep an eye out for these trends. If you spot a few, gentrification may be on the way. If you spot a bunch, it might be well underway.
The gentrification font
If Neutraface starts speckling the homes and fences around your neighborhood, your rent might soar soon.
The sleek typeface and its many knock-offs have become so commonplace that they’ve become a meme, and the Guardian even declared it “the gentrification font.” It crowns countless brand-new builds across L.A., and like certain wines and cheeses, it pairs well with cheaply done fixer-uppers or the aforementioned box houses.
House numbers are presented in a chic font.
(Jack Flemming / Los Angeles Times)
“The Shake Shack font has invaded,” said Steven Sanders, a Highland Park resident who has lived in the rapidly changing neighborhood since 2015. When Sanders moved there, the median single-family home value was around $463,000, according to Zillow. Today, it’s $1.002 million.
There’s nothing specifically wrong with the font; it’s clean, modern and easy to read. Ironically, it’s named after Richard Neutra, an iconic architect who often stressed affordability in his work.
If a for-sale house has a Neutraface house number, the listing price will probably be anything but affordable.
Gentrification bonus point: if the font is also brass or gold.
Black-and-white paint jobs
This two-story home features a black-and-white exterior.
(Jack Flemming / Los Angeles Times)
Gentrification, in terms of housing, has become a monochromatic movement. Gone are the green-colored Craftsmans or the pink-hued bungalows of old; today, newly built homes are overwhelmingly white, black or a brutal combination of the two.
“Taste aside, a black house in an era of climate change is ridiculous,” said Adam Greenfield, a transportation and land-use advocate.
Gentrification bonus point: if a black-and-white exterior comes with an accent door — a splash of bright blue, yellow or turquoise to showcase that the property isn’t completely devoid of character. Just mostly devoid of character.
Excess security cameras
Multiple cameras are posted outside an Eagle Rock home.
(Jack Flemming / Los Angeles Times)
If you’re taking a stroll down your street and feel watched — not by anyone specific, but by a small army of Ring doorbells, Nest cameras and other electronic eyes making sure you don’t pick a Meyer lemon or that your dog doesn’t defecate on the decomposed granite — brace for a new brand of neighbor.
Surveillance systems and the context behind them, in which owners view their neighbors and passersby as potential package-stealers, are all too common in gentrifying communities. For if it were truly a high-crime place, there would still be chain link and barred windows.
There’s plenty of evidence that smart doorbells lead to racial profiling, and while there’s nothing inherently wrong with security systems, they generally detract from the community feel instead of adding to it.
“It’s the degradation of the social fabric that for so long we all took for granted,” Greenfield said. “It’s legitimate to walk up to a neighbor’s door to ask for or offer something, and security cameras and warning systems discourage that. We can’t let fear win in our society.”
Gentrification bonus point: if they come with a speaker with a disembodied voice that barks at passersby in a condescending tone: “Hi! You are currently being recorded.”
Privacy fences
Sometimes, surveillance systems aren’t enough. Many modern homeowners moving into new neighborhoods don’t even want to be seen by neighbors, so they install privacy fences or towering hedges to shield themselves from anyone walking by.
Greenfield calls them “f— you fences.”
“Many people were raised in the suburban sprawl, where they don’t have as much access to other people. Then they move to denser areas and import those suburban norms of separation and privacy,” Greenfield said.
Lola Rodriguez, a Lincoln Heights resident who grew up in the area, said if a home in the neighborhood is ever hidden from view, it’s usually someone who just moved in.
Gentrification bonus point: if the privacy fence is chic and stylish, like the horizontal trend that has taken over in some areas.
Box houses
This modern five-bedroom home listed by Avo Atnalian in the hills of Highland Park is on the market for $2.498 million.
(Avo Atnalian)
One of the more uninspired architectural trends of the last century, modern box houses forgo attempts at character or ornamentation, instead serving as shrines to simplicity. They worship at the altar of minimalism, squeezing out as much square footage as zoning laws will allow.
They’re clean, they’re simple, and they’re a likely sign that a new demographic is moving into a neighborhood.
“It’s jarring seeing a bright white box house jammed between older houses with more character,” Rodriguez said. She prefers the neighborhood’s stock of century-old bungalows over the new homes being built.
The polarizing style isn’t for everyone, but it’s a hit for deep-pocketed buyers eyeing extra space. And box houses are quicker and cheaper to build for profit-minded developers, who will keep cranking out supply as long as there’s demand.
Gentrification bonus point: if the box house includes a glass garage door.
This modern home features a glass garage door.
(Jack Flemming / Los Angeles Times)
Drought-tolerant gardens
To be clear, the ecological benefits of drought-tolerant landscaping make it a net positive for Southern California. Limited water usage is absolutely a good thing.
But such gardens aren’t always cheap, and if they start popping up in neighborhoods where most residents can’t afford to spend thousands of dollars, sometimes tens of thousands, on their yard, it could be a sign of gentrification.
Most carry the same look: a handful of shrubs, succulents and cacti surrounded by gravel or decomposed granite, giving it a sandy, desert-like quality.
Drought-tolerant plants outside an Eagle Rock home.
(Jack Flemming / Los Angeles Times)
Kerry Kimble and Steven Galido, two real estate agents with the Agency, said they’ve noticed an increase in drought-tolerant gardens in neighborhoods such as Echo Park, Highland Park and Silver Lake, where displacement has already been happening for years.
The majority of Kimble’s listings are in northeast L.A., and she said she’s noticed a surplus of succulents.
Galido said some developers add drought-tolerant gardens to attract potential buyers.
“Developers remodel homes for the taste of the gentrifier,” he said.
The pair are currently listing a 106-year-old duplex in Angelino Heights, a neighborhood protected by a Historic Preservation Overlay Zone, which preserves a community’s architectural feel by limiting new building designs and renovations. But not every neighborhood enjoys such protection.
Firestick plants fill the gardens of many homes in gentrified neighborhoods.
(Jack Flemming / Los Angeles Times)
Gentrification bonus point: if the garden is riddled with Firestick plants — the trendy, orange-tipped succulents that seem to anchor every lawn in those “up-and-coming” neighborhoods.
Little Free Libraries
Listen, these are lovely. Unlike surveillance systems and privacy fences, little libraries actually evoke a sense of community, bringing neighbors together over a shared love of literature (even though most generally seem to be stocked exclusively with James Patterson novels and unreadable how-to books).
A Little Free Library is posted outside a home.
(Jack Flemming / Los Angeles Times)
The charming, birdhouse-like structures certainly don’t cause gentrification, despite what a handful of critics have claimed over the years. But they definitely seem to be a product of gentrification, usually popping up in areas where home prices are rising and well-to-do residents are moving in.
Gentrification bonus point: if a smart doorbell camera watches over the library, making sure nobody takes more than their fair share of books.
Pointed listing language
Sometimes, the clearest sign of gentrification is hearing how people are talking about a neighborhood and the homes within it. There’s a wealth of such examples posted daily on Zillow, Redfin and other listing sites as real estate agents take on certain tones to market properties to potential buyers.
For example, if a listing brags about the home being some kind of port in a storm, a refuge from the area around it, a ship of gentrifiers might be sailing in. One listing in Boyle Heights is touted as an “urban oasis.” Another in South L.A. promises to add “a touch of serenity to urban living.”
Also pay attention to whether a listing is marketed as an actual place to live or simply an investment opportunity. This listing near Leimert Park asks potential buyers to “come see your future investment today.” An Elysian Heights listing touts its use as an Airbnb.
Gentrification bonus point: if the language sounds like an extra flowery wellness ad, such as this listing in East L.A.: “Imagine stepping into a world where every corner whispers tales of renewal.”
