BRIEFLY.

Activist enters not-guilty plea

A Pacoima gang member who became director of a program that finds jobs for other ex-gang members pleaded not guilty Wednesday to methamphetamine possession.

Mario Antonio Corona, director of job development for the Communities in Schools anti-gang program, faces one count each of transportation of a controlled substance and possession for sale of methamphetamine.

Communities in Schools is one of the largest anti-gang programs in the San Fernando Valley, according to the District Attorney's Office.

Corona, 30, was arrested Feb. 28 in Sylmar when officers allegedly found a pound of meth in his vehicle. He was released on $40,000 bail the next day, but was re-arrested on an immigration hold.

Corona, whose gang moniker was "Big Spider," earned an undergraduate degree from California State University, Northridge, and a master's degree in social work from USC and become one of the most respected gang-intervention activists in Los Angeles.

Corona is due back in court April 3.

-- City News Service

Man with knife killed by officer

NORTH HOLLYWOOD -- A man was killed by a Los Angeles Police Department officer Monday after he lunged at the officer with a large knife, police said Wednesday.

Responding to a domestic violence call about 12:20 a.m., Officer Jeff Beck, 36, an 11-year veteran, fired two shots at 34-year-old David Weisman after Weisman refused to drop a 12-inch knife and lunged at the officer, said Officer Karen Smith.

Beck and his partner, Officer Paul Tajii, 25, had been told a person was armed in the 5000 block of Cahuenga Boulevard.

Police said the officers were met by a man who claimed Weisman assaulted him. After Weisman refused to open the door to the apartment he was in, officers obtained a key from the apartment manager. The officers entered and the altercation ensued. Weisman was shot in the upper torso. He was taken to a local hospital, where he died.

Neither officer was injured in the incident and LAPD's Force Investigation Division is investigating the shooting.

-- Daily News

Homeowners lead Weiss recall drive

Frustrated with what they see as rampant overdevelopment in their community and a lack of response to their concerns, Westside homeowners groups are leading a charge to recall Councilman Jack Weiss.

The group will begin collecting signatures to put the recall on the ballot, and they're seeking to form a political action committee to raise money and campaign if the recall vote goes forward.

Weiss represents the Westside and a southern section of the San Fernando Valley. Homeowners groups in Encino and Sherman Oaks have not signed on to the recall effort.

Weiss' office said the recall effort is misguided. "Jack Weiss won his re-election in 2005 with 72 percent of the vote," spokeswoman Lisa Hansen said. "This effort is sour grapes being orchestrated by a guy who ran and got 21 percent of the vote and who wants to engineer a multimillion-dollar special election because he didn't like those results."

-- Daily News

Judge won't junk tax refund suit

WOODLAND HILLS -- A federal judge refused to dismiss a proposed class-action lawsuit in which the lead plaintiff, who works in Woodland Hills, claims the Indian business conglomerate he works for is forcing non-U.S.-citizen employees to sign over their income tax refunds, lawyers said Wednesday.

Gopi Vedachalam, an employee of information technology outsourcing and management consulting firm Tata America International Corp., alleges his employer and its parent, Tata Consultancy Services, required non-U.S.-citizen workers to endorse and hand over to the conglomerate their federal and state tax refund checks.

The suit also alleges that until at least July 2005, Tata required non-citizen employees to sign power of attorney agreements delegating an outside agency to calculate and submit their tax returns.

-- City News Service