The L.A. Times reports:

A 49-year-old woman died after being viciously stomped by a homeless man on skid row in a case that city officials said Tuesday underscores the need to improve conditions in the troubled district.

Authorities are trying to determine the relationship between the suspect and his alleged victim, Kristi Morales. Witnesses said he knocked her to the ground last Wednesday just after 9 p.m. near 5th and San Julian streets and stomped her for several minutes.

Police said a passerby attempted to intervene three times, but each time, the suspect, 52-year-old Gregory Hampton, knocked the Good Samaritan to the ground and continued beating Morales.

Hampton has a nice little criminal record:

Hampton has a criminal record dating back more than 30 years, with at least 42 arrests as an adult for violence, narcotics and burglary.

It would be interesting to know whether there were any convictions for serious or violent offenses resulting from any of those 42 arrests. The L.A. Times story doesn’t say. I can’t find any other story that does. This AP story says his record consists mostly of property crimes — but if any of those are residential burglaries, they would be strikes.

Perhaps more details will emerge in the coming days.

Bad news for the Fourth Circuit: Luttig resigns.

The logic: why stay on? Racial and gender politics dictate that he couldn’t be nominated for the next High Court vacancy anyway.

And you can’t buck racial and gender politics.

Allah sends the link to this story about a reporter fired for posting anonymous comments on the Internet:

A daily newspaper fired its courthouse reporter after he posted anonymous opinions on the public forum portion of the publication’s Web site, including comments critical of his own employer, the reporter said.

[Name redacted] said he was fired last month from the Lancaster Intelligencer Journal, where he had worked for more than six years. He declined to discuss the content of his postings.

Editor Ray Shaw confirmed that [name redacted] no longer worked at the newspaper but declined to comment further on a personnel matter.

Wow. Maybe Hiltzik did get off easy.

UPDATE 5/23/14: I have redacted the name of the person who was fired.