Police were investigating Wednesday a hit-and-run collision in South Los Angeles that left a woman seriously injured.

The 34-year-old woman was crossing the street Monday at 111th Place and Figueroa Street on her way home from work when she was struck by a 1991 gray or blue Toyota Camry, license plate 2VWL540, police said.

The Toyota was traveling westbound on 111th Place and headed southbound onto Figueroa Street after the collision. The female driver left the scene without stopping, as required by law, said Det. Grace Brady of the Los Angeles Police Department.

The victim, a mother of two, sustained life-threatening head trauma and was being treated at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. Detectives were preparing to interview at least five witness who saw the incident, Brady said.

Anyone with information is asked to contact LAPD South Traffic Division at (323) 290-6063 or Crime Stoppers at (800) 222-8477.

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-- Nate Jackson

A former top administrator in Bell who joked about getting "fat together" on the city's dime denied wrongdoing in the public corruption scandal and said she would never do anything to hurt the city's residents.

Angela Spaccia made the statements to KTTV Fox 11 reporter Gigi Graciette during an interview that will air over two nights. It is the first lengthy interview Spaccia has granted since news of her excessive salary broke last summer. She and former city administrator Robert Rizzo are considered the chief masterminds behind the pay and corruption scandal.

"I'm not a pig. I'm not unscrupulous," Spaccia said in the interview. "I've always been the champion of trying to take care of things and people."

Spaccia is facing charges that she misappropriated public funds. She made headlines again this week after prosecutors released damaging e-mails between Spaccia and former police chief Randy Adams. In the e-mails, she quoted what she described as a favorite Rizzo saying: "Pigs get Fat … Hogs get slaughtered!!!! So as long as we're not Hogs … All is well!"

Spaccia told Garciette she was "naïve" and feels betrayed by Rizzo. She said she did not know about contracts that gave him raise after raise for a compensation package that totaled about $1.5 million. But Spaccia had her own lucrative contract. She received about $375,000 in base salary -– more than almost all city managers in the state -– and had a benefits package worth $845,960. Spaccia is also accused of taking $230,000 in illegal loans from the city.

"I feel this immense responsibility to the people of Bell," Spaccia said. "I don't know that they would ever want my help, but that's where my heart is. I feel terrible for these people."

The second part of Spaccia's interview airs Wednesday night.

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Video: Bell's former assistant city administrator Angela Spaccia in an interview with KTTV Fox 11. Credit: KTTV Fox 11

Three men were rescued Wednesday morning from fast-moving water in a flood control channel off the 710 Freeway in Long Beach.

The men, who are transients, had been sleeping on a sandbar in the middle of the channel when they awoke to find themselves surrounded by 3 feet of swift-moving water, said Mike Robideaux, a spokesman for the Long Beach Fire Department.

Firefighters rescued the men about 7:30 a.m. near the eastbound Willow Street onramp, he said.

Authorities shut down the onramp while firefighters aided the men; it was reopened just after 9 a.m., said Capt. Rich Brandt of the fire department.

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-- Nate Jackson

A cook at the Orange County jail in Santa Ana was arrested on suspicion of sexual battery after he allegedly grabbed a female inmate’s breasts while she helped him in the kitchen, authorities said Wednesday.

James Arroyo, 54, was arrested Monday at work, said Orange County Sheriff’s spokesman Jim Amormino. Arroyo, a six-year jail employee, worked in the kitchen where he supervised several women inmates.

“We don’t know if there are other victims," Amormino said. "We know indeed that’s a possibility.”

Authorities also are investigating whether the Fullerton man engaged in other inappropriate activity with female inmates. They found pictures of former inmates and text message exchanges with former inmates on his cellphone, Amormino said.

Dozens of people were arrested Wednesday morning in a massive operation by federal and local law enforcement authorities targeting Armenian organized crime, particularly members of the powerful street gang Armenian Power.

Operation Power Outage involved nearly 1,000 officers and concentrated primarily on suspects who reside in heavily Armenian neighborhoods in Glendale and East Hollywood, but authorities said arrests and indictments also were made in other parts of the country.

Citing the ongoing operation, officials did not immediately release specifics but said nearly 100 individuals had been charged in federal and state court in indictments alleging racketeering, extortion, kidnapping, drug-related offenses and white-collar fraud.

Participating law enforcement agencies included the FBI, the Internal Revenue Service, U.S. Secret Service, Immigration Customs Enforcement, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and the Burbank, Glendale and Los Angeles police departments. [Updated at 10:14 a.m.: The U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services' Office of Inspector General also participated.]

The bulk of the arrests and search warrants had been served without any major incidents. But officials stressed they continued to search for some of the suspects.

The first of several rain storms moved into Southern California, bringing light showers and some rain-related accidents on local roads.

The California Highway Patrol's website noted scattered accidents around the region due to slick roads, and there were reports of a possible rescue Wednesday morning in the L.A. River in Long Beach.

Snow levels will range from 5,500 to 6,000 feet but will drop to 4,000 to 3,000 feet Wednesday night and Thursday, the National Weather Service said.

The snow could affect driving conditions on Interstate 5 near the Grapevine and on Highway 14 in the Soledad Canyon area.

The weather service said southwest winds will blow from 15 mph to 30 mph with gusts up to 45 mph.

The rains should continue through Sunday morning.

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-- Robert J. Lopez

Photo: Dark skies hover over sands of Huntington Beach. Credit: Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times

Police plan to ramp up security this weekend in conjunction with the NBA All-Star game at Staples Center -- an event some say could draw at least 100,000 fans and participants to the Los Angeles' central core.

The Los Angeles Police Department will deploy extra gang officers and foot-patrol units downtown, and K-9 teams will have dogs sniffing arriving cars, limousines and buses for bombs, department officials said Wednesday in a statement.

The LAPD, which is working with the Department of Homeland Security, also will use checkpoints and external cameras to monitor the vicinity of Staples Center, L.A. Live and the Los Angeles Convention Center.

The All-Star game is scheduled for 5 p.m. Sunday, but related events will be held throughout the weekend.

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Digging continued Wednesday in the backyard of a Lennox house where investigators discovered a man's body buried.

After exhuming the body Tuesday, Los Angeles County sheriff's investigators said a second body may be buried on the property. The investigation is ongoing, said Sgt. Brian Thomas of the Sheriff's Department.

Detectives went to the rundown property in the 4800 block of West 112th Street and Inglewood Avenue Monday night when a woman named Jenny Salazar told them at least one body was buried at the home, Thomas said.

Marcos Lomeli, Salazar's ex-boyfriend, is being sought by authorities in the case, officials said.

The body found Tuesday may that of James Stein, 53, the owner of the house, authorities said. Stein's mother reported him missing Dec. 17, and his wife, Gabriela, has been missing since January, police said.

Authorities had previously described the property as a "drug house."

Information on the exhumed body has not been released, said Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter.

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Image: Summary of crimes in Lennox from July 12, 2010 to Jan. 9, 2011. Credit: Mapping L.A.

The California Supreme Court will meet behind closed doors Wednesday to deal with a pressing question in the legal battle over gay marriage in California.

The justices will review a request by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to determine whether Proposition 8's sponsors have the legal standing to defend the ballot measure that reinstated a ban on same-sex marriage.

A federal judge in San Francisco struck down Proposition 8 in August, ruling after a 12-day trial that the 2008 ballot measure violated equal-protection guarantees under the U.S. Constitution. Experts testified during the trial that one's sexual orientation was largely fixed and that matrimony benefits the families of gays and lesbians.

State officials refused to appeal the ruling. Now the 9th Circuit must determine whether Proposition 8's sponsors, ProtectMarriage.com, have legal standing to challenge the trial court's decision.

Depending on the state high court's ruling, the 9th Circuit could either dismiss the appeal on procedural grounds -- limiting the case's effect to California -- or rule on federal constitutional questions that would affect same-sex marriage throughout the country.

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Photo: Both sides battle during the 2008 Proposition 8 campaign. Credit: Los Angeles Times

Eighteen suspected illegal immigrants allegedly trying to enter the United States on a small fishing boat were arrested off the coast of Dana Point, authorities said Wednesday.

Fifteen men and three women between the ages of 20 and 50 were spotted early Tuesday morning aboard a panga about six miles west of Dana Point.

Officers with the U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Customs and Border Protection stopped the boat and detained everyone aboard, according to a statement from the Coast Guard.

The group, all of whom told authorities they were from Mexico, were taken to a Customs and Border Protection station, where they will be fingerprinted and questioned about who arranged the smuggling operation, said Michael Jimenez, a spokesman for the agency.

If a criminal and immigration background check does not turn up anything that would warrant holding the suspects, they will be allowed to voluntarily return to Mexico, he said.

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