President Obama is back in town Wednesday for an appearance on the "Tonight Show" with Jay Leno, taking time away from campaigning in swing states just under two weeks away from the Nov. 6 election.

The LAPD said the area likely to be most affected by Wednesday's visit are streets surrounding Los Angeles International Airport and areas of Burbank between 4:25 p.m. and 8:45 p.m.

Obama has visited the Southland a handful of times this year for fund-raising events. Earlier this month, he attended several star-studded fund-raisers on the Westside and made a brief appearance in downtown L.A. In May and June, he was in L.A. for events including dinner at actor George Clooney's home, and a gala at "Glee" creator Ryan Murphy's home.

How will you avoid getting caught up in the traffic from Obama's visit? Do you look forward to presidential visits to the Southland or are you tired of the added traffic? Let us know in the comments section or by tweeting @LANow.

Some social media users are already posting about the expected traffic:

LAPD warns of traffic snarls during Obama's visit

Storified by @lanow's curation of social media � Wed, Oct 24 2012 10:00:24

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-- Samantha Schaefer

The Riverside County man accused of killing his girlfriend then stuffing her body into a suitcase has been returned to the United States after being captured in Mexico on Tuesday night, authorities say. 

Joseph Dorsey, 28, is charged with murdering his girlfriend Christine Stewart, 47, and disposing of her body in a 3-foot-long suitcase. The suitcase was found in a San Diego County motel room in August, two days after Stewart was reported missing.

Officials from the district attorney's office say Dorsey will remain in custody in Riverside County while he awaits trial.

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-- Wesley Lowery

Follow Wesley Lowery on Twitter and Google+.

A 39-year-old surfer killed in a shark attack off the waters of Central California is survived by a wife and a young daughter, friends said.

Francisco Javier Solorio Jr. of Orcutt was described as an avid surfer who had been coming to the surf spot since he was a boy.

"He loved the ocean," friend Kilian Garland told KSBY-TV.

Solorio was dragged by a friend to the beach after he sustained a massive bite on his upper torso that turned the water surrounding him red, Santa Barbara County sheriff’s officials said. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

“His friend saw the shark bite him,” said sheriff’s Sgt. Mark Williams. “It was a pretty bad bite.”

Solorio’s surfboard had bite marks on it, said Lt. Erik Raney of the sheriff’s Santa Maria station. The Santa Barbara County coroner’s office is expected to consult with a shark bite expert to examine both Solorio’s wounds and the marks on the board.

The odor of natural gas wafting across central Glendale prompted multiple evacuations Wednesday morning as firefighters worked to determine the source.

The Glendale Police Department and City Hall complex, as well as the Los Angeles County Superior Courthouse on Broadway were temporarily evacuated as a precaution.

Reports of a "strong odor" of natural gas were reported Wednesday morning from the 200 to 800 blocks of North Brand Boulevard, and east to the City Hall complex on Broadway and Isabel Street, city spokesman Tom Lorenz said, adding that there was no immediate danger.

"It's not uncommon for odors to be carried in the air," he said.

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-- Jason Wells, Times Community News

Map: Approximate location of evacuations along North Brand Vouleavard and the City Hall Complex on Broadway and Isabel Street shown in red. Credit: Google Maps

A Moreno Valley man who hung an effigy of President Obama from a tree called the incident a "misunderstanding" Tuesday, saying it was a Halloween party prop "getting all blown out of proportion."

Eddie Million spoke to reporters after he was questioned by Secret Service agents late Tuesday, the Press-Enterprise reported.

"It's down. It's gone. We didn't want to hurt the president," Million told the newspaper. "It was just for a party."

Million said he bought the Obama mask last Halloween and decided to put it on a human-like figure and hang it because he was looking for "something spooky" for his annual Halloween party.

But then someone complained, the media found out and the police stopped by Million's home on Monday.

"I started thinking how bad it looked, and I took it down immediately," Million said. "If I had it to do all over again, I absolutely wouldn't have done it. It was not meant to offend anybody. It was just supposed to be a decoration."

The Secret Service declined to talk to the Press-Enterprise, but Million said he was told the incident "could have been construed as a threat to the president."

"They said my name is going to be on file," he said.

It wasn't the first time a political effigy has brought the Secret Service to the Southland around Halloween. In 2008, agents investigated a West Hollywood man who hung a life-size mannequin of then-vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin from a noose outside his home.

Also that year, a Redondo Beach resident drew attention for a "Nobama" Halloween display that included a bloody effigy of the would-be president with a giant butcher knife through its neck.

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— Kate Mather

Follow Kate Mather on Twitter or Google+.

A woman who tussled with Bob Hope Airport security officers over a container of applesauce for her elderly mother seems poised to draw the ire of another federal official — this time a U.S. District Court judge.

Transportation Security Administration agents arrested Nadine Hays in 2009 after she refused to give up an ice chest containing the snack. Criminal charges stemming from that incident were dropped in October 2010 after Hays reported six months of good behavior.

In April 2011, she filed a federal civil rights lawsuit. In its amendments and iterations, the suit has named dozens of defendants.

Despite an admonishment from U.S. District Court Judge Patrick Walsh that her "kitchen sink" approach was inappropriate, her latest amended complaint includes more than 60 defendants, even listing the United States itself, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the head of that agency, Janet Napolitano, the Burbank Leader reported.

Walsh has granted Hays numerous extensions in the matter, noting he was not inclined to give another one.

In her latest complaint, Hays alleges she was arrested in the 2009 incident based on a falsified citizen's arrest form and tampered evidence, including a surveillance tape that she claims was altered.

They are the same allegations she made in an earlier complaint, which was dismissed in May.

Attorneys representing the TSA urged Walsh to dismiss the case "because [Hays] has failed to follow multiple orders issued by the court even after being expressly warned that noncompliance could lead to dismissal," according to court records.

In the 2009 incident, Hays was charged with misdemeanor battery after she allegedly made a fist and struck a TSA agent's hand as she tried to take the ice chest from her during a security check at Terminal B.

Hays has said the ice chest contained her 93-year-old mother's applesauce, cheese and milk, which were needed because of her mother's medical condition.

Hays has denied striking the agent.

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-- Mark Kellam, Times Community News

Large commercial marina owners operating on public tidelands will pay more rent, the Newport Beach City Council decided Tuesday at a special meeting — but they won't see the changes until 2015.

After months of back-and-forth with harbor stakeholders, the council voted 4 to 3 to adopt a set of proposed changes to the way commercial marina rents are calculated, as laid out in presentations by City Manager Dave Kiff and Councilman Michael Henn.

Harbor business owners who operate large commercial marinas will eventually pay about 18.5% of their gross slip revenue, or an amount that would translate to about $1.97 per square foot right now. That increase will be phased in at a rate of about 2.5% of gross slip revenue per year, from 2015 to 2020, the Daily Pilot reported.

Currently, marina operators pay about 36 cents per square foot, or about 3.4% of gross slip revenue under an annual permitting system. The adopted changes — unlike earlier iterations of the proposals — allow marina owners to choose between a longer-term lease or continue with an annual permit. Both options are subject to rent increases.

The increases are one aspect of Newport's ongoing effort to update decades-old fees for various city-administered public tideland uses, though Kiff stressed that Tuesday's vote affects only large commercial marinas. The city, he said, is legally bound to charge rent in line with fair market values. The city tripled mooring fees in 2010, and at Tuesday's meeting, laid out some possible rent structures for yacht clubs, shipyards, fuel docks and other harbor users to be discussed at future meetings.

Through a series of actions in the last year, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck has emerged as a leading voice in the national debate about illegal immigration.

His first move made it easier for unlicensed drivers — a group dominated by illegal immigrants — to avoid having their cars impounded. He then spoke in favor of issuing driver's licenses to illegal immigrants. Last month, he took that stance a big step further, announcing that suspected illegal immigrants arrested for low-level crimes would no longer be turned over to federal authorities for deportation.

Why has Beck made this such a legacy issue? Times reporter Joel Rubin explains in a story:

A decade ago, Charlie Beck watched as William J. Bratton arrived in Los Angeles and began rebuilding a department deeply tarnished by the Rodney J. King beating, riots and corruption scandals. Bratton made many changes as chief, but Beck was particularly taken by his aggressive effort to rebuild the LAPD's broken relationship with the African American community, which over and over Bratton said was a cornerstone to his success.

Beck carried the lesson with him when he replaced Bratton three years ago as chief of the nation's second-largest police force. With nearly half of the city's population Hispanic and the federal government's aggressive efforts to identify and deport illegal immigrants sowing fear in immigrant communities, Beck believed that his success or failure as chief rested heavily on whether he could replicate Bratton's success — but this time with Latinos.

In an interview, Beck said he was driven to act on some level by his sense that he can and should help level the playing field for illegal immigrants, whom he said have suffered unfairly from crude federal immigration laws. But Beck said those personal views were not as important as his more practical belief that extending an olive branch to immigrants in Los Angeles was vital to the LAPD's crime-fighting efforts.

What do you think of Beck's actions?

Beck's shift has won wide support at City Hall and among immigration advocates. But he has also endured loud criticism that he is going soft on criminals and is out of line by picking and choosing the people who should be subject to the nation's immigration laws. Some of the harshest attacks came on the issue of relaxing car impound rules. The L.A. police union accused Beck of overstepping his legal authority and filed suit to block the plan. Others warned that the chief would have "blood on his hands" because the rules would allow unlicensed drivers back on the roads more quickly, where they could cause accidents.

Share your views below.

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Photo: LAPD Chief Charlie Beck has made reaching out to illegal immigrants a key component of his management strategy. Credit: Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times

The body found in the charred rubble of an Inglewood home Saturday was confirmed to be that of the man police believe opened fire on a family of six, killing a father and his 4-year-old son.

The Inglewood Police Department said the man who was found wearing body armor, clutching a handgun and with what appeared to be a gunshot wound to the head was identified as Desmond John Moses, 55, of Inglewood.

The Los Angeles County coroner's office confirmed the body had been identified but declined to release information about the cause of death, saying the person's next of kin had not been notified.

Police believe Moses walked into his neighbors' home about 4 a.m. Saturday and began shooting at the family of six before setting fire to his own home.

Moses apparently blamed the family for an eviction notice he had received from their landlord.

Filimon Lamas, 33, and his wife, Gloria Jimenez, 28, tried to protect their four children when the shooting started. Lamas was found slumped over three of his children; Jimenez, despite being shot in both legs and her pelvis, jumped a fence and ran from the home cradling their 4-year-old son, who had been shot in the head.

Lamas and the 4-year-old boy died. Jimenez, a 7-year-old daughter and 6-year-old son were hospitalized after the attack. An 8-year-old boy was not hurt.

Both Inglewood and Hawthorne police have started funds to help the family. Community leaders and family members gathered Tuesday at the 1950s-themed Hawthorne diner owned by Lamas, remembering him as a hard-working man devoted to his family.

"He was a hero," his sister, Emma Lamas, said.

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— Kate Mather and Angel Jennings

Photo: Desmond John Moses; credit: Inglewood Police Department

Sacramento County officials detained a man for questioning early Wednesday in the triple homicide of a young Rancho Cordova mother and two small children, they said.

The white Chrysler minivan missing from the scene of the violent homicides was located at a Denny's restaurant in Rocklin about 2 a.m., Sacramento County Sheriff's Sgt. Jason Ramos told the Sacramento Bee.

An adult male believed to be in possession of the van was found inside the restaurant by Rocklin police officers and detained without incident, the Sacramento Bee reported.

Authorities said they believe the van was stolen from the duplex where the woman and her two toddlers were found dead. Deputies were called to a home in the 10100 block of Desoto Way on Tuesday after the woman's husband, who is also the children's father, came home and found the bodies, Ramos said.