Los Angeles Times

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  • A flaky winter in Yosemite

    L.A. Times - Science
    27 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Even with California's volatile weather, where exceptions are the rule, the season has been the driest in 30 years. Without snow, hotels offer rock climbing and archery to frustrated skiers.Reporting from Yosemite National Park -- Winter in the high country is usually a season of icy quiet. Birds leave, bears hibernate, and only a few hardy people on skis or snowshoes pass through en route to snow-covered granite domes.

  • California high court backs panel's new state Senate districts

    Los Angeles Times - Top News
    28 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Even if a GOP-backed proposal to scrap the new plan qualifies for the November ballot, the map produced by a citizens commission is 'clearly the most appropriate' for the election, the court says.The California Supreme Court decided unanimously Friday that candidates for state Senate this year should run in new districts drawn by a citizens commission, a plan that may give Democrats a two-thirds majority in the upper house.

  • latimesgoodnews: The Catalina Island fox is making an astounding comeback after its population was decimated by distemper: http://t.co/w3YJLffn #goodnews

    Twitter / latimesgoodnews
    23 Jan 2012 | 7:39 pm
    latimesgoodnews: The Catalina Island fox is making an astounding comeback after its population was decimated by distemper: http://t.co/w3YJLffn #goodnews

  • When David Lee Roth talks, it's 'A Different Kind of Truth'

    L.A. Times - Most E-mailed Stories
    29 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    The Van Halen frontman discusses the band's new tour, new album (his first with the group in 28 years), Eddie Van Halen and almost everything else.It's an old joke, but when David Lee Roth delivers the punch line it sounds more like a mission statement: "How many lead singers does it take to put in a lightbulb? One. You hold the bulb and wait for the world to revolve around you."

  • Adult education on L.A. Unified's chopping block

    L.A. Times - California | Local News
    28 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    With financial woes in Sacramento and new freedom on spending earmarked funds, the district proposes a budget that has no money to help adults get high school diplomas, learn English or acquire career skills.Adult education teacher Planaria Price is used to the ups and downs of budget planning in the giant Los Angeles Unified School District.
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    Los Angeles Times - Top News

  • California high court backs panel's new state Senate districts

    28 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Even if a GOP-backed proposal to scrap the new plan qualifies for the November ballot, the map produced by a citizens commission is 'clearly the most appropriate' for the election, the court says.The California Supreme Court decided unanimously Friday that candidates for state Senate this year should run in new districts drawn by a citizens commission, a plan that may give Democrats a two-thirds majority in the upper house.

  • California orders hike in number of super clean cars

    28 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    The state's air board issues new rules to automakers as part of its effort to cut greenhouse gases.California, long a national leader in cutting auto pollution, pushed the envelope further Friday as state regulators approved rules to cut greenhouse gas emissions from cars and put significantly more pollution-free vehicles on the road in coming years.

  • California bill seeks to limit detention of arrestees facing deportation

    28 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Legislation would counter Secure Communities program by limiting local law enforcement's role in holding people for immigration authorities.A bill being drafted by a state legislator would limit local law enforcement from holding arrestees on behalf of immigration authorities seeking to deport them.

  • Clamor grows to rein in California pension benefits

    28 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Gov. Jerry Brown pledges to cut spiraling costs, but key parts of his rollback plan apply mainly to future workers. Activists want quicker action.Gilbert Robles retired as a state parole agent at age 53, able to collect a $101,195 annual pension — 94% of his final salary. Last year, six months after he retired, the Arcadia resident accepted a political appointment with the same agency that pays an additional six figures.

  • U.S. may rely on aging U-2 spy planes longer than expected

    28 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    The Pentagon has proposed delaying a plan to replace the U-2s with RQ-4 Global Hawk drones because of Defense Department cutbacks.Wars have come and gone. But for more than half a century, the CIA and U.S. military have relied on a skinny sinister-looking black jet to go deep behind enemy lines for vital intelligence-gathering missions.
 
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    L.A. Times - Most E-mailed Stories

  • When David Lee Roth talks, it's 'A Different Kind of Truth'

    29 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    The Van Halen frontman discusses the band's new tour, new album (his first with the group in 28 years), Eddie Van Halen and almost everything else.It's an old joke, but when David Lee Roth delivers the punch line it sounds more like a mission statement: "How many lead singers does it take to put in a lightbulb? One. You hold the bulb and wait for the world to revolve around you."

  • New Web reality series puts USC in a bad light

    27 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    The James Franco-produced 'Undergrads' depicts students drinking, partying and having run-ins with police. Administrators and students say the show doesn't accurately portray the campus."Undergrads," the USC-centered Web reality series, focuses on a bacchanal a la "The Hangover": Amorous, good-looking young people hooking up, wild parties, run-ins with the law and booze. Lots and lots of it.

  • HPV study finds 7% of U.S. teens, adults carry virus in mouths

    27 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Infection with human papillomavirus heightens the risk of developing cancer of the mouth and throat. The findings indicate that most cases of oral HPV can be traced to oral sex, rather than to kissing or casual contact.A new study showing an estimated 7% of American teens and adults carry the human papillomavirus in their mouths may help health experts finally understand why rates of mouth and throat cancer have been climbing for nearly 25 years. The evidence makes it clear that oral sex practices play a key role in transmission.

  • A flaky winter in Yosemite

    27 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Even with California's volatile weather, where exceptions are the rule, the season has been the driest in 30 years. Without snow, hotels offer rock climbing and archery to frustrated skiers.Reporting from Yosemite National Park -- Winter in the high country is usually a season of icy quiet. Birds leave, bears hibernate, and only a few hardy people on skis or snowshoes pass through en route to snow-covered granite domes.

  • Virus outbreak in Riverside, Orange counties worries horse owners

    27 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Animals had to be euthanized in Indio and San Juan Capistrano because of the equine herpes virus-1. Both sites have been placed under quarantine by state veterinarians.An outbreak of a deadly virus has horse trainers and owners in Riverside and Orange counties fearful for the health of their animals.
 
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    L.A. Times - California | Local News

  • Adult education on L.A. Unified's chopping block

    28 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    With financial woes in Sacramento and new freedom on spending earmarked funds, the district proposes a budget that has no money to help adults get high school diplomas, learn English or acquire career skills.Adult education teacher Planaria Price is used to the ups and downs of budget planning in the giant Los Angeles Unified School District.

  • California orders hike in number of super clean cars

    28 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    The state's air board issues new rules to automakers as part of its effort to cut greenhouse gases.California, long a national leader in cutting auto pollution, pushed the envelope further Friday as state regulators approved rules to cut greenhouse gas emissions from cars and put significantly more pollution-free vehicles on the road in coming years.

  • California high court backs panel's new state Senate districts

    28 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Even if a GOP-backed proposal to scrap the new plan qualifies for the November ballot, the map produced by a citizens commission is 'clearly the most appropriate' for the election, the court says.The California Supreme Court decided unanimously Friday that candidates for state Senate this year should run in new districts drawn by a citizens commission, a plan that may give Democrats a two-thirds majority in the upper house.

  • San Fernando's acting chief personally asked for ticket's dismissal

    28 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Lt. Jeff Eley, who has been put on leave, sought dismissal of a running-a-stop-sign citation that one of his officers had issued to a local congressional aide, records show.San Fernando's acting police chief personally asked a court to dismiss a running-a-stop-sign citation that one of his officers had issued to a local congressional aide, court records show.

  • Mourners bid passionate farewell to Etta James

    28 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Hundreds of fans swap memories as her songs play in the background during a public viewing at an Inglewood mortuary.The setting sun cast a golden glow Friday over hundreds of mourners who came to pay their respects to singer Etta James at the Inglewood Cemetery Mortuary.
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    L.A. Times - California Politics

  • Cal State threatens to withhold $7 million from Northridge campus

    28 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Cal State says CSUN must reduce current enrollment to abide by budget-related targets or risk losing the funding.Students and faculty at Cal State Northridge are protesting new budget-related restrictions that are aimed at reducing enrollment and are making it harder to register for classes at the San Fernando Valley campus.

  • Clamor grows to rein in California pension benefits

    28 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Gov. Jerry Brown pledges to cut spiraling costs, but key parts of his rollback plan apply mainly to future workers. Activists want quicker action.Gilbert Robles retired as a state parole agent at age 53, able to collect a $101,195 annual pension — 94% of his final salary. Last year, six months after he retired, the Arcadia resident accepted a political appointment with the same agency that pays an additional six figures.

  • California high court backs panel's new state Senate districts

    28 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Even if a GOP-backed proposal to scrap the new plan qualifies for the November ballot, the map produced by a citizens commission is 'clearly the most appropriate' for the election, the court says.The California Supreme Court decided unanimously Friday that candidates for state Senate this year should run in new districts drawn by a citizens commission, a plan that may give Democrats a two-thirds majority in the upper house.

  • San Fernando's acting chief personally asked for ticket's dismissal

    28 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Lt. Jeff Eley, who has been put on leave, sought dismissal of a running-a-stop-sign citation that one of his officers had issued to a local congressional aide, records show.San Fernando's acting police chief personally asked a court to dismiss a running-a-stop-sign citation that one of his officers had issued to a local congressional aide, court records show.

  • 2 key aides leave Austin Beutner's campaign for L.A. mayor

    28 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    The high-level political consultants, who have advised Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, resign just days after Austin Beutner gives a major policy speech attacking City Hall.Two high-level political consultants have left the campaign of Los Angeles mayoral candidate Austin Beutner just days after he gave a major policy speech attacking City Hall.
 
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    L.A. Times - Orange County News

  • Virus outbreak in Riverside, Orange counties worries horse owners

    27 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Animals had to be euthanized in Indio and San Juan Capistrano because of the equine herpes virus-1. Both sites have been placed under quarantine by state veterinarians.An outbreak of a deadly virus has horse trainers and owners in Riverside and Orange counties fearful for the health of their animals.

  • Police seized knife sharpener from O.C. killing suspect's bedroom

    26 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Police also found a book about notorious crimes when they searched the home of Itzcoatl Ocampo the day after he was arrested on suspicion of stabbing four homeless men.Authorities seized a Life Magazine book titled "The Most Notorious Crimes in American History" and a knife sharpener from serial killing suspect Itzcoatl Ocampo's Yorba Linda home the day after he was arrested in the stabbing deaths of four Orange County homeless men, according to court documents.

  • Sevenly hopes to change the world one T-shirt at time

    25 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    The Fullerton company is following a recent trend in business models — for-profit firms that donate a major percentage of their revenue to charitable causes. In Sevenly's case, it's nearly 30%.At Sevenly, a business started by young entrepreneurs in Orange County, a key to the operation is the number seven.

  • Attorney visits Ocampo after getting second court order

    21 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Lawyer spends 30 minutes with former Marine accused of killing four homeless men. An arraignment has been postponed to Feb. 17.The defense attorney for a former Marine accused of fatally stabbing four homeless men visited with his client for about 30 minutes Friday after being rebuffed by the Orange County Sheriff's Department multiple times.

  • Taco Bell trying 'First Meal' breakfast and fresh 'Cantina' menus

    21 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    The Irvine-based fast-food chain, which struggled last year, is hoping for a turnaround with breakfast items as well as tests of healthier fare to compete with more upscale rivals.Taco Bell struggled last year but is now staking its hopes for a turnaround on new menu items, including a "First Meal" breakfast lineup as well as tests of more healthful fare to compete with more upscale rivals.
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    L.A. Times - National News

  • U.S. seems to have largely escaped winter

    27 Jan 2012 | 10:10 pm
    A combination of factors has trapped winter's cold air over Canada and Alaska, making for unseasonably warm weather in the Lower 48.The temperature in Minneapolis didn't fall to zero degrees this winter until Jan. 12. On Jan. 5., the daytime high in Rapid City, S.D. (a record-setting 71 degrees), was higher than in balmy Miami (69 degrees). And just a couple of days before New Year's, visitors to Park City, Utah, skied on man-made snow and dined al fresco — without their parkas.

  • Romney, Gingrich seek Latino vote in Florida

    27 Jan 2012 | 8:29 pm
    The Republican candidates outline their views in back-to-back speeches before the Hispanic Leadership Network. Rick Santorum also plays up his interest in Latin American policy.Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich dueled for Florida's Latino voters as they raced across the state Friday — with Romney netting the backing of Puerto Rico Gov. Luis G. Fortuño and Gingrich announcing his support for legislation allowing children brought into the country illegally to earn citizenship by joining the military.

  • Mitt Romney leading polls in Florida

    27 Jan 2012 | 8:26 pm
    Mitt Romney has pulled ahead of Newt Gingrich in Florida with a nine-point lead, according to a Quinnipiac University poll. 'I think if Romney wins this, it's over for Newt,' one pollster says.After months of gyrating front-runners and inconclusive voter tests, a victory by Mitt Romney in the looming Florida primary would send the 2012 campaign down a well-worn path — pointing the most established GOP contender toward a highly competitive race against President Obama in the fall election.

  • President Obama warns colleges about rising tuition

    27 Jan 2012 | 8:24 pm
    Universities that fail to cut costs could risk losing some federal aid, he says. He also wants to expand government student loan programs.President Obama embraced the idea of federal action to restrain the rapidly increasing cost of higher education, giving a boost to a long-simmering policy idea that has gained steam amid growing frustration with rising tuition.

  • 'Barefoot Bandit' gets federal sentence

    27 Jan 2012 | 8:24 pm
    A judge gives Colton Harris-Moore 6 1/2 years in prison for the theft of airplanes, boats and guns. 'I'm lucky to be alive,' the 20-year-old says in his first public statement since his arrest.Colton Harris-Moore's nearly four-year odyssey as the "Barefoot Bandit" came to a conclusion Friday when a federal judge sentenced him to 61/2 years in prison for the theft of airplanes, boats and guns in an audacious swath of crime that stretched from Washington state to the Bahamas.
 
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    L.A. Times - Business

  • Facebook IPO filing reportedly could come 'as early as next week'

    28 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Facebook's initial public offering of stock has been anticipated for months and is speculated to be worth as much as $100 billion whenever it arrives.

  • U.S. fourth-quarter GDP falls short of expectations

    28 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    The nation's broadest measure of U.S. economic output rose at a 2.8% annual rate — many analysts had predicted 3% — in the October through December period, and signs point to economic weakness ahead.The U.S. economy ended last year on firmer footing with modestly stronger growth. But output fell short of what analysts expected, and signs point to weakness ahead.

  • Buyers more cautious at Sundance Film Festival

    28 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Nearly every major film buyer bought at least one movie; they just paid less.This year's Sundance Film Festival didn't produce a blizzard, but it did generate some strong flurries.

  • U.S. may rely on aging U-2 spy planes longer than expected

    28 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    The Pentagon has proposed delaying a plan to replace the U-2s with RQ-4 Global Hawk drones because of Defense Department cutbacks.Wars have come and gone. But for more than half a century, the CIA and U.S. military have relied on a skinny sinister-looking black jet to go deep behind enemy lines for vital intelligence-gathering missions.

  • Chevron earnings dragged down by refinery business

    28 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Chevron reports a profit of $5.12 billion in the fourth quarter, down 3.2% from a year earlier. Its refinery and marketing business swings to a $204-million loss.Refining losses marred the fourth-quarter performance for Chevron Corp., the nation's second-biggest oil company, leaving it with a profit decline compared with 2010 and dropping it below Wall Street expectations.
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    L.A. Times - Education

  • Adult education on L.A. Unified's chopping block

    28 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    With financial woes in Sacramento and new freedom on spending earmarked funds, the district proposes a budget that has no money to help adults get high school diplomas, learn English or acquire career skills.Adult education teacher Planaria Price is used to the ups and downs of budget planning in the giant Los Angeles Unified School District.

  • Cal State threatens to withhold $7 million from Northridge campus

    28 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Cal State says CSUN must reduce current enrollment to abide by budget-related targets or risk losing the funding.Students and faculty at Cal State Northridge are protesting new budget-related restrictions that are aimed at reducing enrollment and are making it harder to register for classes at the San Fernando Valley campus.

  • New Web reality series puts USC in a bad light

    27 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    The James Franco-produced 'Undergrads' depicts students drinking, partying and having run-ins with police. Administrators and students say the show doesn't accurately portray the campus."Undergrads," the USC-centered Web reality series, focuses on a bacchanal a la "The Hangover": Amorous, good-looking young people hooking up, wild parties, run-ins with the law and booze. Lots and lots of it.

  • More college freshmen see getting good job as key goal, poll finds

    26 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    The UCLA survey asks first-year students to select reasons they are pursuing higher education. The 85.9% who cite job concerns is the most in the 40 years the question has been asked.Seeing their parents struggle with unemployment and other money worries over the last few years, the nation's current batch of college freshmen increasingly view a bachelor's degree as a necessary ticket to better jobs, according to a UCLA survey being released Thursday.

  • Cap on new Cal State campus presidents' pay urged

    25 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    The California State University board chairman wants the executives' compensation to be no more than 10% above what their predecessors made.The chairman of California State University's governing board said Tuesday that he will propose capping the pay of new executives at 10% above what their predecessors made in the wake of stinging criticism of recent salary decisions.
 
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    L.A. Times - Environment

  • New California rules require cleaner cars

    27 Jan 2012 | 4:40 pm
    California, long a national leader in cutting auto pollution, pushed the envelope further Friday when state regulators approved a suite of rules designed to cut greenhouse gas emissions from cars and put far more more pollution-free vehicles on the road in coming years.

  • Florida Legislature drops anti-videotaping language

    26 Jan 2012 | 3:53 pm
    The Florida Legislature has dropped a controversial provision that would have made it a crime to photograph or videotape on agricultural facilities without consent.

  • Scientists were asked to downplay Deepwater Horizon spill rates

    25 Jan 2012 | 4:22 pm
    Estimates of the amount of oil spewing from BP’s blown-out deep-sea well were an ongoing subject of debate and controversy during the Deepwater Horizon disaster, which wound up on the record books as the nation’s largest offshore oil spill.

  • L.A. has a coal problem

    24 Jan 2012 | 9:05 am
    When protesters were arrested at the management offices of a huge coal-fired power plant in Arizona in  December, it highlighted a very untidy fact about electricity in green-conscious L.A.: about half of it comes from coal.

  • National climate change strategy proposed for wildlife

    20 Jan 2012 | 6:20 pm
    The United States has no national strategy for curtailing its contributions to climate change, but it does now have a partial strategy for responding to its effects. On Thursday, the Obama administration released a draft of the National Fish, Wildlife and Plants Climate Adaptation Strategy , a plan to coordinate responses to global warming across the country.
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    L.A. Times - Religious News

  • Obama's former church expands its vision

    22 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    With fewer distractions these days, Trinity United in Chicago plans a sustainable urban community as part of a growing green ministry.Trinity United Church of Christ hasn't changed its priorities. But four years after the Protestant church on Chicago's South Side came under siege during the 2008 presidential campaign, it faces fewer distractions.

  • Egypt Islamists get majority of parliament seats in final tally

    21 Jan 2012 | 9:24 pm
    Top-vote-getter Muslim Brotherhood and the new parliament face big problems: unemployment, inflation, strikes, shrinking foreign investment and foreign currency reserves and declining tourism.A new political era in Egypt began Saturday as Islamist parties won nearly three-quarters of the seats in parliamentary elections to inherit a nation mired in economic crisis and desperate to move beyond military rule and the corrupt legacy of deposed President Hosni Mubarak.

  • 'Pirate man' recalled as neighborhood character

    18 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Homeless victim Paulus Smit liked the freedom of the streets, a scavenger who called dumpsters 'the gettin' place.' Despite his appearance, neighbors, friends and children remember him warmly.In many ways, Paulus Smit had made the Yorba Linda library his home. It was there that he read his favorite car magazines and daily newspapers and on sunny days, more often than not, sat under one of the magnolia trees. He was not consistently homeless, yet Smit, 57, had become a friendly fixture in the small town, where horse trails run along sidewalks and residents feel connected.

  • Priest gets 3 years in prison for stealing from church

    13 Jan 2012 | 10:54 pm
    Msgr. Kevin McAuliffe stole about $650,000 from his Las Vegas-area parish over nearly a decade to feed a gambling addiction. His parishioners had urged the judge to show mercy.For years, Msgr. Kevin McAuliffe lived something of a double life.

  • Mormons feel rooted and happy, but marginalized, poll finds

    12 Jan 2012 | 7:16 pm
    Mitt Romney's success in the GOP race is one element of what is called the Mormon Moment. And at this moment, many Mormons feel particular hostility from evangelical Christians, a Pew survey finds.Mormons sometimes refer to themselves as a "peculiar people," a reference to what they believe is a unique covenant with God. Yet as they bask in what has been called the Mormon Moment — and may soon be the Mitt Moment — a new survey suggests that many also hold uncommon views about their place in American life, feeling deeply rooted but outside the mainstream.
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    L.A. Times - Science

  • California orders hike in number of super clean cars

    28 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    The state's air board issues new rules to automakers as part of its effort to cut greenhouse gases.California, long a national leader in cutting auto pollution, pushed the envelope further Friday as state regulators approved rules to cut greenhouse gas emissions from cars and put significantly more pollution-free vehicles on the road in coming years.

  • U.S. seems to have largely escaped winter

    27 Jan 2012 | 10:10 pm
    A combination of factors has trapped winter's cold air over Canada and Alaska, making for unseasonably warm weather in the Lower 48.The temperature in Minneapolis didn't fall to zero degrees this winter until Jan. 12. On Jan. 5., the daytime high in Rapid City, S.D. (a record-setting 71 degrees), was higher than in balmy Miami (69 degrees). And just a couple of days before New Year's, visitors to Park City, Utah, skied on man-made snow and dined al fresco — without their parkas.

  • An exquisite Mexico beach, cursed by plastic

    27 Jan 2012 | 6:45 pm
    Sea currents act like a conveyor belt, depositing trash on a remote stretch of sand in an ecologically rich region of coral reef and mangrove forests. Locals can only pick up the pieces, bit by bit.Just off a rutted dirt road, a beach as white as flour pops into view from behind a wall of sea grape and rustling palms. Pelicans slice over turquoise waters, and not a single person stirs the quiet.

  • A flaky winter in Yosemite

    27 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Even with California's volatile weather, where exceptions are the rule, the season has been the driest in 30 years. Without snow, hotels offer rock climbing and archery to frustrated skiers.Reporting from Yosemite National Park -- Winter in the high country is usually a season of icy quiet. Birds leave, bears hibernate, and only a few hardy people on skis or snowshoes pass through en route to snow-covered granite domes.

  • HPV study finds 7% of U.S. teens, adults carry virus in mouths

    27 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Infection with human papillomavirus heightens the risk of developing cancer of the mouth and throat. The findings indicate that most cases of oral HPV can be traced to oral sex, rather than to kissing or casual contact.A new study showing an estimated 7% of American teens and adults carry the human papillomavirus in their mouths may help health experts finally understand why rates of mouth and throat cancer have been climbing for nearly 25 years. The evidence makes it clear that oral sex practices play a key role in transmission.
 
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    L.A. Times - World News

  • India's biometric ID number plan divided by bureaucracy

    28 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    The prime minister decides the two agencies fighting to collect and control fingerprints, retinal scans and other data will share in the duties. 

  • France's proposed genocide law fuels Turkey's anger

    27 Jan 2012 | 6:46 pm
    Relations between France and Turkey has been strained further since the French Parliament approved legislation that would make it illegal to deny the Armenian genocide.The object of the game is to see how hard a hand on the computer screen can slap a cartoon image of French President Nicolas Sarkozy. It made its debut only hours after the French Senate passed legislation Monday that would criminalize denial of the Armenian genocide.

  • An exquisite Mexico beach, cursed by plastic

    27 Jan 2012 | 6:45 pm
    Sea currents act like a conveyor belt, depositing trash on a remote stretch of sand in an ecologically rich region of coral reef and mangrove forests. Locals can only pick up the pieces, bit by bit.Just off a rutted dirt road, a beach as white as flour pops into view from behind a wall of sea grape and rustling palms. Pelicans slice over turquoise waters, and not a single person stirs the quiet.

  • Violence flares across Syria amid Assad effort to clamp down

    27 Jan 2012 | 6:42 pm
    More than 120 people have been killed in the last two days, the opposition says, signaling one of the bloodiest stretches of Syria's 10-month-old uprising.A renewed wave of violence swept across Syria on Friday as the government of President Bashar Assad sought to counter mass protests and armed insurgents in cities and towns brimming with rebellion against his rule, according to opposition accounts.

  • In South Korea, quirky barber and his shop retain following

    27 Jan 2012 | 6:42 pm
    Lee Nam-yul is a third-generation old-school barber with a preference for scissors over electric cutters. He and his ramshackle shop are a fixture in Seoul.For more than 46 years, they've been inseparable, this quirky barber and his ramshackle excuse for a shop. People who know them both say it's hard to tell which is more eccentric.
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    L.A. Times - Africa

  • Egypt bars U.S. official's son, other NGO staffers from leaving

    26 Jan 2012 | 6:06 pm
    Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood's son, Sam, is among the Americans targeted in Egypt's investigation of foreign funding of nongovernmental groups. 

  • Somalia raid shows extent of U.S. reach

    25 Jan 2012 | 9:31 pm
    The rescue of a U.S. aid worker and a Danish colleague held hostage since October was carried out by Navy SEALs from the unit that killed Osama bin Laden.The Navy SEALs parachuted into the darkness, landing more than a mile from their objective: a small bush camp in north-central Somalia where an American aid worker and a Danish colleague were being held captive.

  • Tanzania's Hadza group sheds light on ancient social networks

    25 Jan 2012 | 7:06 pm
    The Hadza, who live primitively in Tanzania, have social networks similar to modern ones. People prefer the company of those with attitudes similar to their own, a study finds.Long before Facebook made it possible to share photos of your breakfast with hundreds of friends and let them know just how you feel about your latest parking ticket, humans were forming social networks with essentially the same structure people use today.

  • Egypt marks anniversary of 'Arab Spring' revolution

    25 Jan 2012 | 5:25 pm
    Crowds throng Cairo's Tahrir Square to celebrate free elections and commemorate the revolution that ousted President Hosni Mubarak, and to curse ruling generals for crushing dissent.Tens of thousands of Egyptians poured into Tahrir Square in celebration and protest Wednesday, the anniversary of the revolution that brought down President Hosni Mubarak and set the nation on a troubled and still unfulfilled path toward democracy.

  • Egypt's new parliament holds inaugural session

    23 Jan 2012 | 5:41 pm
    Egypt's 498 elected lawmakers are sworn in. The first post-Mubarak parliament is dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood and other religious groups.Men in pressed suits and polished shoes, some carrying holy books and sporting beards, rushed past concrete barricades and hurried beneath a silver dome to begin setting laws for a nation that for generations had oppressed and imprisoned many of those now rising to power.
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    L.A. Times - Asia

  • India's biometric ID number plan divided by bureaucracy

    28 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    The prime minister decides the two agencies fighting to collect and control fingerprints, retinal scans and other data will share in the duties. 

  • Eiko Ishioka dies at 73; graphic designer and art director

    28 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    The Tokyo native who later moved to New York began her convention-defying career in Japanese advertising but eventually expanded it to include design work for Broadway, the movies and Cirque du Soleil.As Japan's preeminent graphic designer and art director in the 1970s and early '80s, Eiko Ishioka helped build her reputation by heading media campaigns for Parco, a major boutique shopping complex chain.

  • France's proposed genocide law fuels Turkey's anger

    27 Jan 2012 | 6:46 pm
    Relations between France and Turkey has been strained further since the French Parliament approved legislation that would make it illegal to deny the Armenian genocide.The object of the game is to see how hard a hand on the computer screen can slap a cartoon image of French President Nicolas Sarkozy. It made its debut only hours after the French Senate passed legislation Monday that would criminalize denial of the Armenian genocide.

  • In South Korea, quirky barber and his shop retain following

    27 Jan 2012 | 6:42 pm
    Lee Nam-yul is a third-generation old-school barber with a preference for scissors over electric cutters. He and his ramshackle shop are a fixture in Seoul.For more than 46 years, they've been inseparable, this quirky barber and his ramshackle excuse for a shop. People who know them both say it's hard to tell which is more eccentric.

  • U.S. still taking cautious approach to North Korea aid

    24 Jan 2012 | 8:22 pm
    U.S. officials are not ready to resume aid despite a leadership change in North Korea, which is set to receive aid from China and South Korea. 
 
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    L.A. Times - Europe

  • France's proposed genocide law fuels Turkey's anger

    27 Jan 2012 | 6:46 pm
    Relations between France and Turkey has been strained further since the French Parliament approved legislation that would make it illegal to deny the Armenian genocide.The object of the game is to see how hard a hand on the computer screen can slap a cartoon image of French President Nicolas Sarkozy. It made its debut only hours after the French Senate passed legislation Monday that would criminalize denial of the Armenian genocide.

  • Scotland can stop painting its Forth Rail Bridge

    26 Jan 2012 | 6:29 pm
    At least for 25 years or so. A new long-lasting paint for the famous span means the once-endless job no longer is.Crossing Scotland's iconic Forth Rail Bridge takes just two minutes. Painting the Victorian-era wonder takes forever. Or so the story goes.

  • France breast implant company founder arrested

    26 Jan 2012 | 5:37 pm
    Jean-Claude Mas of Poly Implant Prothese, which is embroiled in an international health scare, has acknowledged using silicone not approved for medical use.The founder of a breast implant company at the center of an international health scare was arrested Thursday in an early-morning police raid on his luxury home in the south of France.

  • EU imposes Iran oil embargo

    24 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    The European Union's oil boycott is part of a U.S.-led campaign of sanctions to pressure Iran to return to talks over its nuclear enrichment program.Europe slapped a boycott on Iranian oil Monday, signaling that the Islamic Republic's second-largest market is likely to dry up as part of a U.S.-led sanctions campaign that has already inflicted serious damage on Iran's economy and sharply increased tensions.

  • Europe continues work on long-term solution to debt crisis

    23 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    European officials will forge ahead with crafting a long-term plan to tackle the region's debt crisis as banking and government negotiators continue trying to reach an agreement that will lighten Greece's debt burden.
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    L.A. Times - Latin America

  • An exquisite Mexico beach, cursed by plastic

    27 Jan 2012 | 6:45 pm
    Sea currents act like a conveyor belt, depositing trash on a remote stretch of sand in an ecologically rich region of coral reef and mangrove forests. Locals can only pick up the pieces, bit by bit.Just off a rutted dirt road, a beach as white as flour pops into view from behind a wall of sea grape and rustling palms. Pelicans slice over turquoise waters, and not a single person stirs the quiet.

  • Brazil buildings collapse; at least 4 dead, 18 missing

    26 Jan 2012 | 5:34 pm
    Three large structures in Rio de Janeiro fall for as-yet-unknown reasons. Survivors say there was no time to flee.Rescue workers in Brazil searched for survivors Thursday after three large buildings collapsed in downtown Rio de Janeiro, killing at least four people and leaving 18 or more missing.

  • Tracking down Colombia's missing manhole covers

    24 Jan 2012 | 4:31 pm
    Thieves steal 10,000 manhole covers a year in Bogota, which are sold as scrap or passed off as new to other cities. One manufacturer used GPS tracking and a private eye to solve the mystery.The clue that cracked the case of Bogota's vanishing manhole covers came from a GPS chip embedded in one of the strangely coveted items.

  • Mexico City's parking space holders in a tight spot

    24 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    The franeleros , who block off spaces and charge a few cents per car, are being forced out by newly installed parking meters in an upscale Mexico City district.They stand at the curb, waving a red rag like an urban matador. "Hay lugar, hay lugar!" they call to passing motorists. ("There's space.")

  • In Mexico, false suicide reports shine light on Tarahumara plight

    18 Jan 2012 | 7:12 pm
    The Indians were hit by drought and a freeze that led to a food shortage. Aid starts flowing after reports that 50 had killed themselves because they were not able to feed their children.It took false reports of mass suicide for Mexicans to rally in great number to the aid of the legendary Tarahumara Indians, who are facing a season of starvation. But publicity about their plight has exposed the chronic marginalization and growing perils, including drug violence, faced by many indigenous communities, activists say.
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    L.A. Times - Middle East

  • France's proposed genocide law fuels Turkey's anger

    27 Jan 2012 | 6:46 pm
    Relations between France and Turkey has been strained further since the French Parliament approved legislation that would make it illegal to deny the Armenian genocide.The object of the game is to see how hard a hand on the computer screen can slap a cartoon image of French President Nicolas Sarkozy. It made its debut only hours after the French Senate passed legislation Monday that would criminalize denial of the Armenian genocide.

  • Violence flares across Syria amid Assad effort to clamp down

    27 Jan 2012 | 6:42 pm
    More than 120 people have been killed in the last two days, the opposition says, signaling one of the bloodiest stretches of Syria's 10-month-old uprising.A renewed wave of violence swept across Syria on Friday as the government of President Bashar Assad sought to counter mass protests and armed insurgents in cities and towns brimming with rebellion against his rule, according to opposition accounts.

  • Crisis takes toll on Syria economy

    26 Jan 2012 | 11:02 pm
    Months of unrest, increasing sanctions and questionable fiscal policies are all playing a role. Yet the effect on President Bashar Assad's grip on power remains unclear.In the maze of alleyways that makes up the Old City of Damascus, traders finger worry beads and stare dejectedly from deserted shops that sell handicrafts, clothing and spices.

  • In Syria, dozens reported killed in latest violence

    26 Jan 2012 | 8:03 pm
    Arab League officials, meanwhile, are preparing to seek U.N. condemnation of the regime of President Bashar Assad, who has rejected calls for him to step down.Dozens of people were reported killed Thursday as violence raged across Syria, and Arab League officials who are calling on President Bashar Assad to relinquish power prepared to take their case to the United Nations.

  • Egypt bars U.S. official's son, other NGO staffers from leaving

    26 Jan 2012 | 6:06 pm
    Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood's son, Sam, is among the Americans targeted in Egypt's investigation of foreign funding of nongovernmental groups. 
 
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    L.A. Times - Commentary

  • McManus: A Gingrich presidency?

    29 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    It would be just like its chief: Noisy, combative and prone to self-generated crises.A couple of weeks ago, I wrote that if Mitt Romney won the South Carolina primary, the Republican presidential race would be over and he would be the nominee. But Romney didn't win, and that means it's time to consider the unthinkable: What would life under President Gingrich be like?

  • Patt Morrison Asks: The Internet Archive's Brewster Kahle

    28 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    The founder of the Internet Archive on his love of libraries, Web pages and pretty much all forms of information.Brewster Kahle has the gleeful air of a man who has just found something wonderful and wants to tell his friends all about it. And his friends are the 2 billion people, and counting, who are on the Internet every day.

  • Big California, little fixes

    27 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Californians are so busy bickering about incremental change, they're ignoring the state's real problems.We are told that in California politics and government, 2012 is shaping up as a very big year. That there will be — says Gov. Jerry Brown as he channels the philosopher Thomas Hobbes — "a war of all against all." That parties and interest groups are headed to the ballot with initiatives to gore one another's oxen. That we are about to decide the big questions of taxes and budgets and schools and maybe pensions.

  • Kinsley: Sex! Lies! Political scandal!

    27 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Just how much do we still care about the foibles of our politicians?Many years ago, when Sen. Ted Kennedy was challenging President Carter for the Democratic presidential nomination, I quit my job at a national magazine in protest of the owner's refusal to publish an article I had edited about the senator's extramarital activities. At that time, there was a general consensus among Washington journalists that one didn't do that sort of thing. ("That sort of thing" being reporting on politicians' extramarital affairs. Having the affairs was OK.)

  • Friends, Romans, voters

    26 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    In 64 BC, Quintus Cicero helped his brother Marcus Cicero become consul of Rome. His advice still holds true today.A political system in gridlock, conservatives and progressives at each others' throats, military threats looming in the Middle East: Welcome to the last days of the Roman Republic.
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    Sandy Banks - latimes.com

  • Adult education on L.A. Unified's chopping block

    28 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    With financial woes in Sacramento and new freedom on spending earmarked funds, the district proposes a budget that has no money to help adults get high school diplomas, learn English or acquire career skills.Adult education teacher Planaria Price is used to the ups and downs of budget planning in the giant Los Angeles Unified School District.

  • High cost, low-level collars

    21 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    A 'bait car' sting that would not have fooled a savvy crook snares a small-time thief while it robs the LAPD of time to fight serious crimes.If being desperate and dumb was a felony, Elaine Lamb would deserve hard time.

  • Sheriff should pay more attention to his recruits

    16 Jan 2012 | 8:16 pm
    Once-rejected deputy accused of getting heroin into jail in a burritoIt must have seemed like a good deal at the time.

  • Gangs are not the only evil

    14 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Edwin Johns Jr. was a hard-working college student gunned down a block from home. He didn't deserve to die, but really, what kid does?She's a mother and a high school teacher. She works in South Los Angeles but lives in a different neighborhood, one that affords her family the luxury of an arms-length relationship with crime.

  • A steep drop in crime, but do you feel safer?

    7 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    L.A. had fewer crimes last year than it did in 1957 — the mayor calls the numbers 'mind-boggling' — but the statistics may not be equally reassuring to everyone.A newsroom has its own way of tracking a city's trend toward diminishing crime.
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    L.A. Times - Meghan Daum

  • Daum: Newt's debt to Clinton

    26 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Most Americans, even 'values voters,' seem to have accepted that being a good spouse is not necessarily a requirement for being a good president.So it's official. No one really cares that Newt Gingrich is an egotistical, vainglorious scoundrel, at least where women are concerned. Sure, his ex-wife went on TV two days before the South Carolina primary and re-dished a bunch of dirt about their marriage, but based on Saturday's outcome, it seems GOP voters got over the whole family values thing a long time ago.

  • Daum: Santorum and the mythic power of the zealots

    12 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    The GOP candidate is a man enthralled with mythic power — and it's making him speak in tongues.If you think Rick Santorum is a weird, pious wackadoo, try being a female walking around certain ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods in Israel with your ankles showing.

  • Daum: Mitt Romney's dog days

    29 Dec 2011 | 2:00 am
    The Irish setter, the car-top crate and Republican presidential politics.Surely you've heard the story about Mitt Romney's dog. If you haven't, just wait. The more desperate the GOP primary campaign gets, the more likely you are to hear it again.

  • Daum: Christopher Hitchens gets the last laugh

    22 Dec 2011 | 2:00 am
    The late Christopher Hitchens came up with some valid points in his Vanity Fair essay, but if women want the truth about why they're not funny, they're going to have to look in the mirror.As fans of the late Christopher Hitchens cycle through the five stages of grief, it's interesting to see which of his opinions can still inspire the kind of anger that is unlikely to ever fade into acceptance. There are, of course, the obvious candidates: his characterization of Bill Clinton as "a rapist" or his vilification of Mother Teresa as "a fanatic, a fundamentalist, and a fraud." There is also his oh…

  • The 'hot mess' of politics

    15 Dec 2011 | 2:00 am
    Along with a lot of celebrities, political figures including Gingrich are lucky Americans' tolerance for screw-ups is fairly high.A delightfully useful and versatile term has been floating around a lot lately: "hot mess." Usually it refers to a person, often (but not always) a woman, whose behavior is exceedingly self-destructive but who remains exceedingly compelling nonetheless. (Type "hot mess" into Google and names such as Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears and Charlie Sheen make a strong showing.)
 
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    L.A. Times - Jonah Goldberg

  • Goldberg: Newtzilla conquers all?

    24 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Newt Gingrich has remarkable healing powers, and his atomic breath is formidable. Will it be enough?Newtzilla is back.

  • Goldberg: People Inc.

    17 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    The war on corporate personhood is nothing more than a novel ploy to increase corporate regulations."Corporations are people, my friend," Mitt Romney declared in a testy back-and-forth with hecklers last summer in Iowa.

  • Goldberg: Romney's authenticity problem

    10 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    It feels less guaranteed every day that rank-and-file Republicans would vote for their nominee in huge numbers no matter what.Mitt Romney is the most improbable of presidential candidates: a weak juggernaut. He is poised to sweep every primary contest — a first for a non-incumbent. And yet, in Republican ranks there's an abiding sense that he should be beatable — and beaten.

  • Goldberg: Conservative establishment divided against itself

    27 Dec 2011 | 2:00 am
    Those denouncing it don't seem to realize they're apart of it.I've made a disturbing discovery: I am a member of the conservative "establishment." I felt like Michael Douglas at the end of "Falling Down": "I'm the bad guy?"

  • Ron Paul's naive promises

    20 Dec 2011 | 2:00 am
    The Texas libertarian has big plans for his presidency — if he's elected. But moving into the White House won't turn the lone voice of dissent into someone who can persuade Congress to carry out his wishes.So now it's Ron Paul's turn.
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    David Lazarus - latimes.com

  • Healthcare system woes clearly seen in cataract patient's case

    27 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    A woman scheduled for surgery finds herself caught in the middle of a contract dispute between Blue Shield and UCLA.Karen Fairbank has cataracts and is scheduled for surgery in March at UCLA's Jules Stein Eye Institute. With her high-deductible Blue Shield of California policy, she was facing about $3,000 in out-of-pocket expenses.

  • Citibank deems frequent-flier miles taxable, but does the IRS?

    25 Jan 2012 | 6:58 pm
    The bank is sending tax forms to customers who received thousands of airline miles as a reward for opening a checking or savings account. The IRS should say what implications that has for taxpayers.Frequent-flier miles clearly have value — why else would people want them? But do they also represent taxable income?

  • Lakers fan claims foul by Ticketmaster

    20 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    A customer seeking a ticket refund says a service rep warned she could be 'blacklisted' by Ticketmaster if she called American Express to try to get points used for her purchase returned.Ticketmaster is no stranger to irate customers.

  • AT&T jacks up 'measured' phone service rate because it can

    17 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    The state Public Utilities Commission no longer regulates basic rates, so AT&T doesn't have to justify the 25% increase to $15.37 a month.With bills for pretty much everything steadily rising, some people try to keep a lid on monthly costs by opting for "measured" phone service.

  • Give consumers their day in court

    13 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    A string of Supreme Court rulings in favor of companies that force wronged consumers into arbitration instead of allowing them to pursue lawsuits shows change is needed. A Senate bill aims to do that.The Supreme Court once again gave its backing this week to the notion that businesses can deny consumers the right to file lawsuits and can instead require any disputes to be mediated by an arbitrator.
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    L.A. Times - Points West | Steve Lopez

  • A peculiar parking pattern

    25 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    A high number of cars parked at downtown L.A. meters carry disabled placards that let owners park for free.Cris Lombardi, a Hollywood camera operator and downtown Los Angeles resident, loves strolling the city when he's not working. In particular, he likes photographing buildings under construction, such as the Broad Museum.

  • Love, disease and a killing

    22 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    A man kills his terminally ill wife. Maybe he ended her pain, but he hasn't found peace for himself.A series of heavy doors slid open, one by one, at the Pima County Jail. And finally I was sitting with 53-year-old Sanford "Sandy" Garfinkel, who had just been sentenced to 16 years in prison for killing his terminally ill wife by holding a pillow over her face.

  • Santee Education Complex tries to whet appetite for healthy food

    18 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    A garden and student-run bistro at the South Los Angeles high school, and the youths' enthusiasm for them, exemplify the kind of creativity in promoting healthful eating that L.A. Unified needs more of.The cafeteria lunch offering at Santee Education Complex on Friday included a sad little hamburger on a bun the color of sawdust, cold sweet potato nuggets and a bag of sliced apples.

  • Early morning tie-up exposes L.A.'s bureaucratic incompetence

    14 Jan 2012 | 9:49 pm
    The city, and other entities, have many entrenched problems that have nothing to do with budget shortfalls.It was a traffic jam; we know them all too well. But the doozy in Sherman Oaks last Monday, on the first day of school after a three-week holiday break, was particularly annoying to Alexandra Pettus.

  • A Malibu beach and a gun-toting legislator: It's good to be home

    11 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Even while the columnist is on vacation, California is still the Wild West.On vacation, I generally try to ditch the Blackberry and tune out breaking news.
 
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    L.A. Times - Bill Plaschke

  • Growing as a team, Clippers now need to play like grown-ups

    26 Jan 2012 | 7:10 pm
    The Clippers are the best team in the city, but their tough-guy act doesn't work, as evidenced by their fourth-quarter meltdown against the Lakers.The Clippers need to chill.

  • Dodgers should sign Clayton Kershaw, long term

    24 Jan 2012 | 11:03 pm
    Gap between Cy Young winner Clayton Kershaw's $10 million arbitration request and Dodgers' $6.5 million offer is huge, and nothing good can come if it goes to a hearing. A multiyear deal sounds better.Prince Fielder was fool's gold, and Dodgers fans shouldn't waste one moment of regret that the big lug will spend the next nine years clogging the payroll, the basepaths and eventually the training room for the Detroit Tigers.

  • This Sunday is twice as good for NFL fans

    21 Jan 2012 | 6:40 pm
    Super Bowl might be every team's fantasy, but the conference championship games are much more real.One of the hidden truths in professional football will make its annual appearance Sunday, bitten by frost, pelted by rain, awash in beauty.

  • Dwight Howard makes a convincing case to Lakers

    21 Jan 2012 | 1:06 am
    Orlando center dominates Andrew Bynum in Magic's victory, the latest argument that Lakers should go after him.The club official had ended the group interview, but I walked alongside Dwight Howard as he left the Orlando Magic locker room late Friday night and introduced myself as a reporter from Los Angeles.

  • Lakers have no fight, and that's no good

    20 Jan 2012 | 1:15 am
    They fall flat in a 98-87 loss at Miami, proving again they are not built for a championship run.Darkness descended upon South Beach on Thursday, omnipotent and overpowering for one team, just plain frightful for the other.
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    L.A. Times - George Skelton

  • Poll shows strong support for Jerry Brown's tax hike proposal

    26 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Voters overwhelmingly back funding for education and raising levies on the wealthy. 'We're in a good place,' governor's strategist says.Gov. Jerry Brown has California voters right where he wants them — hating the notion of whacking schools even more than the prospect of paying a higher sales tax.

  • The pension clock is ticking

    23 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Brown wants 'something real' in the way of reform, but he isn't conveying a sense of urgency in resolving the complex issues.It's the norm in January: After the governor proposes a new budget and delivers his State of the State address, legislators slide into hibernation until spring.

  • No longer on national stage, Jerry Brown addresses California's needs

    19 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    His State of the State speech shows that he's a full-time governor without ambitions for higher political office. But the old 'Gov. Moonbeam' emerges to back the bullet train.This is a first for Gov. Jerry Brown. And it puts California ahead of the game.

  • Voters need facts, not myths

    16 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    State government's level of taxing and spending is about the same today as it was decades ago, when Ronald Reagan was governor.Californians are heading into an intense, critical debate over the level of public service they're willing to pay for. So it's time to puncture some myths.

  • California GOP needs more like Rep. Kevin McCarthy

    12 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Improving the Republican Party's chances of winning statewide races depends on finding savvy people like the House Republican whip.Listening for two hours to House Republican Whip Kevin McCarthy, I didn't once hear the word "Obamacare." And in an election year. How refreshing!
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    L.A. Times - Entertainment News

  • Television review: 'Luck' pays off down the stretch

    28 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    HBO's meandering new racetrack series starring Dustin Hoffman pays off down the stretch.I wondered if it was just a show drowning in pretension, the work of people hoping that novelty would disguise a lack of professional rigor.

  • 'Q'Viva': Jennifer Lopez, Marc Anthony take a gentle approach

    28 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony aren't harsh toward 'Q'Viva' contestants — or toward each other.Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony wanted their upcoming talent show, "¡Q'Viva The Chosen!," to stand apart from an already cluttered slate of song and dance reality TV offerings.

  • Screen Actors Guild votes to approve merger plan

    27 Jan 2012 | 9:37 pm
    The Screen Actors Guild national board of directors voted overwhelmingly to approve a plan to merge with its sister union, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.The Screen Actors Guild national board of directors voted overwhelmingly to approve a plan to merge with its sister union, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.

  • Sundance 2012: 'A Fierce Green Fire' tells environmentalist tale

    27 Jan 2012 | 8:18 pm
    Documentaries focused on environmental issues are something of a staple at Sundance.

  • Sundance 2012: The unbelievable truths of 'The Imposter'

    27 Jan 2012 | 8:15 pm
    "The Imposter" screening is just the sort of thing that makes people say truth is stranger than fiction."The Imposter" screening is just the sort of thing that makes people say truth is stranger than fiction.
 
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    The Envelope - Ultimate Awards Site

  • 'A Fierce Green Fire' tells environmentalist tale

    27 Jan 2012 | 8:18 pm
    Documentaries focused on environmental issues are something of a staple at Sundance.Documentaries focused on environmental issues are something of a staple at Sundance.

  • Sundance 2012: The unbelievable truths of 'The Imposter'

    27 Jan 2012 | 8:15 pm
    "The Imposter" screening is just the sort of thing that makes people say truth is stranger than fiction."The Imposter" screening is just the sort of thing that makes people say truth is stranger than fiction.

  • Brad Pitt won't face himself in best picture race

    27 Jan 2012 | 8:14 pm
    Brad Pitt can relax -- he won't be competing against himself in the best picture race. At least, not as a producer.Brad Pitt can relax -- he won't be competing against himself in the best picture race. At least, not as a producer.

  • Photos: Countdown to the 18th annual SAG Awards

    27 Jan 2012 | 7:36 pm
    A dramatic arrivals area, an impressive set and intimate dinner setting is being constructed for the world's leading stars at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.A dramatic arrivals area, an impressive set and intimate dinner setting is being constructed for the world's leading stars at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.

  • Video: Watch the stage being set for the SAG Awards

    27 Jan 2012 | 6:22 pm
    Massive lighting trusses already have been raised into place. A temporary stage, with a distinctively Art Deco feel, has been erected. Massive lighting trusses already have been raised into place. A temporary stage, with a distinctively Art Deco feel, has been erected.
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    L.A. Times - Movie News

  • 'The Innkeepers,' 'Kill List' are singular horrors

    29 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    The idiosyncratic films are part of a new wave of art-house horror.The films "The Innkeepers," written and directed by Ti West, and "Kill List," directed and co-written by Ben Wheatley, are idiosyncratic takes on the notion of the horror film, made by filmmakers who tell their stories with a mix of suspenseful invention and wicked irreverence. Both open in Los Angeles on Friday and are already available via video-on-demand platforms. And both belong to a new wave of movies emerging from the festival circuit that appeal to both the art-house/cinephile set and hard-core horror fans.

  • Catching up with Madonna

    29 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    The Material Girl is back with her directorial effort 'W.E.,' due in theaters Friday. Then there's the Super Bowl performance, new album 'MDNA' and a tour.On a fall afternoon in New York's Central Park, hundreds of curious onlookers and paparazzi watched as two comely young actresses, Abbie Cornish and Andrea Riseborough, performed a scene on a park bench. When a rock band sound check across the park disrupted the scene , the movie's director trotted off to ask the band for a reprieve.

  • Sundance 2012: 'A Fierce Green Fire' tells environmentalist tale

    27 Jan 2012 | 8:18 pm
    Documentaries focused on environmental issues are something of a staple at Sundance.

  • Sundance 2012: The unbelievable truths of 'The Imposter'

    27 Jan 2012 | 8:15 pm
    "The Imposter" screening is just the sort of thing that makes people say truth is stranger than fiction."The Imposter" screening is just the sort of thing that makes people say truth is stranger than fiction.

  • Oscars 2012: Brad Pitt won't face himself in best picture race

    27 Jan 2012 | 8:14 pm
    Brad Pitt can relax -- he won't be competing against himself in the best picture race. At least, not as a producer.
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    L.A. Times - Music News

  • Catching up with Madonna

    29 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    The Material Girl is back with her directorial effort 'W.E.,' due in theaters Friday. Then there's the Super Bowl performance, new album 'MDNA' and a tour.On a fall afternoon in New York's Central Park, hundreds of curious onlookers and paparazzi watched as two comely young actresses, Abbie Cornish and Andrea Riseborough, performed a scene on a park bench. When a rock band sound check across the park disrupted the scene , the movie's director trotted off to ask the band for a reprieve.

  • When David Lee Roth talks, it's 'A Different Kind of Truth'

    29 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    The Van Halen frontman discusses the band's new tour, new album (his first with the group in 28 years), Eddie Van Halen and almost everything else.The Van Halen frontman discusses the band's new tour, new album (his first with the group in 28 years), Eddie Van Halen and almost everything else.

  • 'Q'Viva': Jennifer Lopez, Marc Anthony take a gentle approach

    28 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony aren't harsh toward 'Q'Viva' contestants — or toward each other.Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony wanted their upcoming talent show, "¡Q'Viva The Chosen!," to stand apart from an already cluttered slate of song and dance reality TV offerings.

  • 'American Idol' producer Nigel Lythgoe joins Music Center board

    27 Jan 2012 | 2:57 pm
    Lythgoe is one of three new appointments to the Music Center board.Lythgoe is one of three new appointments to the Music Center board.

  • Album review: Lana Del Rey's 'Born to Die'

    27 Jan 2012 | 2:35 pm
    Del Rey presents songs about the ragged life as invented by someone who doesn't look to have ever swigged burnt 3 a.m. truck-stop coffee.Del Rey presents songs about the ragged life as invented by someone who doesn't look to have ever swigged burnt 3 a.m. truck-stop coffee.
 
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    Entertainment news - latimes.com

  • Television review: 'Luck' pays off down the stretch

    28 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    HBO's meandering new racetrack series starring Dustin Hoffman pays off down the stretch.I wondered if it was just a show drowning in pretension, the work of people hoping that novelty would disguise a lack of professional rigor.

  • 'Q'Viva': Jennifer Lopez, Marc Anthony take a gentle approach

    28 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony aren't harsh toward 'Q'Viva' contestants — or toward each other.Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony wanted their upcoming talent show, "¡Q'Viva The Chosen!," to stand apart from an already cluttered slate of song and dance reality TV offerings.

  • Screen Actors Guild votes to approve merger plan

    27 Jan 2012 | 9:37 pm
    The Screen Actors Guild national board of directors voted overwhelmingly to approve a plan to merge with its sister union, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.The Screen Actors Guild national board of directors voted overwhelmingly to approve a plan to merge with its sister union, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.

  • Sundance 2012: 'A Fierce Green Fire' tells environmentalist tale

    27 Jan 2012 | 8:18 pm
    Documentaries focused on environmental issues are something of a staple at Sundance.

  • Sundance 2012: The unbelievable truths of 'The Imposter'

    27 Jan 2012 | 8:15 pm
    "The Imposter" screening is just the sort of thing that makes people say truth is stranger than fiction."The Imposter" screening is just the sort of thing that makes people say truth is stranger than fiction.
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    FindLocal - latimes.com

  • Directors John Landis and Joe Dante talk horror

    27 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Landis has a book out on the genre and Dante has a DVD of movie trailers. They'll sign these new releases in L.A.From the earliest days of cinema, audiences have loved to be scared. The three-minute film from French cinema pioneer Georges Méliès, "The Haunted Castle," hit screens in 1896 with celluloid skeletons, ghosts, witches and even the devil himself, and our appetite for thrills hasn't abated since. Franchises such as "Saw" and "Paranormal Activity" continue to redefine the horror genre while setting records at the box office.

  • Golden Dragon parade rings in the new in Chinatown

    26 Jan 2012 | 6:35 pm

  • L.A. Times Travel Show takes off

    26 Jan 2012 | 6:27 pm

  • Wilco will love you @ The Los Angeles Theater

    26 Jan 2012 | 6:17 pm

  • Punk rock and media art collide in MOCA program

    12 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Southern California's early punk and media art scene is the focus of the film program 'Strange Notes and Nervous Breakdowns' at MOCA. It's part of the museum's 'Under the Big Black Sun' exhibition.The early SoCal punk scene wasn't all guitars, mosh pits and visions of chaos — although there was a good dose of that, thanks to bands such as the Germs and Black Flag. Rather, the music was experimental, arty and all over the map.
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    Arts&Culture - latimes.com

  • PST: Eleanor Antin revisits 'Before the Revolution'

    28 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    The re-imagining of black ballerina Eleanora Antinova, a signature Antin creation, at the Hammer Museum shows an artist still in revolutionary mode.The re-imagining of black ballerina Eleanora Antinova, a signature Antin creation, at the Hammer Museum shows an artist still in revolutionary mode.

  • PST, A to Z: 'The House That Sam Built,' 'In Words and Wood'

    27 Jan 2012 | 7:27 pm
    Charles and Ray Eames may be the most celebrated PST designers, but two exhibitions centered on midcentury woodworker Sam Maloof give them a run for their money.Charles and Ray Eames may be the most celebrated PST designers, but two exhibitions centered on midcentury woodworker Sam Maloof give them a run for their money.

  • Vermeer's 'Girl With a Pearl Earring' coming to San Francisco

    27 Jan 2012 | 6:29 pm
    You may have seen Scarlett Johansson impersonate her onscreen; now you can see her in the flesh, or, should we say, in the oil...You may have seen Scarlett Johansson impersonate her onscreen; now you can see her in the flesh, or, should we say, in the oil...

  • 'American Idol' producer Nigel Lythgoe joins Music Center board

    27 Jan 2012 | 2:57 pm
    Lythgoe is one of three new appointments to the Music Center board.Lythgoe is one of three new appointments to the Music Center board.

  • Dance review: La La La Human Steps with U.S. debut of 'New Work'

    27 Jan 2012 | 2:43 pm
    "Dancing in the dark" would make an impeccable subtitle for Édouard Lock's provocative "New Work.""Dancing in the dark" would make an impeccable subtitle for Édouard Lock's provocative "New Work."
 
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    L.A. Times - TV News

  • Buyers more cautious at Sundance Film Festival

    28 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Nearly every major film buyer bought at least one movie; they just paid less.This year's Sundance Film Festival didn't produce a blizzard, but it did generate some strong flurries.

  • Viacom executives again among America's highest paid

    28 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Billionaire Sumner Redstone last year got a 39% boost in compensation — to $21 million — for his role as executive chairman of Viacom Inc.

  • Television review: 'Luck'

    28 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    HBO's meandering new racetrack series starring Dustin Hoffman pays off down the stretch.Making my way through HBO's new racetrack drama"Luck," I wondered at times if I was looking at a new rule-breaking version of the art form, a Monet perhaps, or a "Ulysses." Or I wondered if it was just a show drowning in pretension, the work of people hoping that novelty would disguise a lack of professional rigor.

  • Netflix stock surges 22% after strong earnings report

    27 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Investors rushed to buy Netflix Inc. stock Thursday while there was mixed reaction among media analysts about prospects for the Los Gatos, Calif., video subscription company.

  • Movie Projector: 'Grey' leads 'One for the Money,' 'Man on a Ledge'

    27 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Liam Neeson's new action-adventure thriller is expected to take in $12 million to $14 million, enough to beat two other new offerings.Liam Neeson's new action-adventure thriller looks to have the edge on what is likely to be a crowded movie weekend without a breakout hit.
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    Entertainment news - latimes.com

  • Television review: 'Luck' pays off down the stretch

    28 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    HBO's meandering new racetrack series starring Dustin Hoffman pays off down the stretch.I wondered if it was just a show drowning in pretension, the work of people hoping that novelty would disguise a lack of professional rigor.

  • 'Q'Viva': Jennifer Lopez, Marc Anthony take a gentle approach

    28 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony aren't harsh toward 'Q'Viva' contestants — or toward each other.Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony wanted their upcoming talent show, "¡Q'Viva The Chosen!," to stand apart from an already cluttered slate of song and dance reality TV offerings.

  • Screen Actors Guild votes to approve merger plan

    27 Jan 2012 | 9:37 pm
    The Screen Actors Guild national board of directors voted overwhelmingly to approve a plan to merge with its sister union, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.The Screen Actors Guild national board of directors voted overwhelmingly to approve a plan to merge with its sister union, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.

  • Sundance 2012: 'A Fierce Green Fire' tells environmentalist tale

    27 Jan 2012 | 8:18 pm
    Documentaries focused on environmental issues are something of a staple at Sundance.

  • Sundance 2012: The unbelievable truths of 'The Imposter'

    27 Jan 2012 | 8:15 pm
    "The Imposter" screening is just the sort of thing that makes people say truth is stranger than fiction."The Imposter" screening is just the sort of thing that makes people say truth is stranger than fiction.
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    L.A. Times - Sports

  • Victoria Azarenka beats Maria Sharapova for Australian Open title

    28 Jan 2012 | 4:25 am
    The 22-year-old from Belarus wins her first major and claims the No. 1 ranking in women's tennis with the straight-set victory.MELBOURNE, Australia -- Victoria Azarenka routed Maria Sharapova, 6-3, 6-0, to win the Australian Open women's title on Saturday night and secure the No. 1 ranking, all in her first Grand Slam final.

  • Adam Rippon erases doubts at U.S. Figure Skating Championships

    28 Jan 2012 | 1:11 am
    Adam Rippon, a two-time world junior champion who's faltered at the senior level, skates a strong short program and stands second to his friend and training partner, two-time U.S. champ Jeremy Abbott.Reporting from San Jose -- Adam Rippon knew what was at stake as he waited for Friday's short program at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships. It was time to put up or shut up for a skater who had fallen far short of the expectations created by successive world junior titles in 2008 and 2009.

  • Mark Cuban, Dennis Gilbert eliminated from Dodgers' bidding race

    27 Jan 2012 | 11:39 pm
    At least eight bidders reach the next round, including groups of Magic Johnson/Stan Kasten and Rick Caruso/Joe Torre.The owner of the reigning NBA champions will not be the next owner of the Dodgers.

  • A miniature success amid Phil Mickelson's woeful play at La Jolla

    27 Jan 2012 | 8:51 pm
    Phil Mickelson misses the cut at the Farmers Insurance Open in La Jolla, but he gives his fans a brief flash of that Phil magic from the rough on No. 8.Reporting from La Jolla -- It is taking some real searching to find the silver lining in Phil Mickelson's currently cloudy golf game these days.

  • Lakers face road test, starting in Milwaukee

    27 Jan 2012 | 8:49 pm
    With their 1-6 road record, the Lakers have a challenge ahead: Saturday at Milwaukee followed by seven of their next eight games on the road.Reporting from Milwaukee — Oh, great. The road.
 
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    L.A. Times - Auto Racing

  • New Formula One track in Texas launches ticket sales

    22 Jan 2012 | 7:05 pm
    Premier seats can be purchased for the inaugural race Nov. 18 at Circuit of the Americas in Austin.Officials for Circuit of the Americas, a $300-million racetrack being built in Texas for Formula One's return to the U.S. market, said Sunday they have launched the ticketing process for buying premier seats to the inaugural race Nov. 18.

  • Ryan Villopoto and supercross return to Dodger Stadium

    20 Jan 2012 | 5:25 pm
    Supercross rider Ryan Villopoto, leading in this season's standings, returns to Dodger Stadium, where he won last year.Supercross returns to Dodger Stadium on Saturday night with reigning champion Ryan Villopoto hoping to repeat his win in the series' inaugural race at Chavez Ravine a year ago.

  • Supercross season opens at Angel Stadium on Saturday

    6 Jan 2012 | 5:55 pm
    Reigning supercross champion Ryan Villopoto is a marked man as the 17-race season begins at Angel Stadium on Saturday.The 17-race supercross season opens Saturday night at Angel Stadium with several former champions hoping to challenge reigning title holder Ryan Villopoto.

  • IndyCar Series tries to steer through tragedy and upheaval

    18 Dec 2011 | 7:37 pm
    After Dan Wheldon's death at Las Vegas, Indy officials try to strike balance on oval and road courses. A new race car and incomplete schedule are other issues for sport trying to boost interest.Two months after the nation was stunned by a 15-car crash that killed driver Dan Wheldon, the Izod IndyCar Series is trying to reestablish momentum heading into next season.

  • 'Perfect storm' of factors led to Dan Wheldon's fatal crash

    15 Dec 2011 | 6:38 pm
    The IndyCar Series says Wheldon died of blunt-force trauma to the head but that no one factor can be singled out as the cause of the 15-car crash at Las Vegas on Oct. 16.No one factor caused the 15-car crash that killed IndyCar driver Dan Wheldon at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, but one ingredient was the unusual situation in which drivers had "almost unlimited" freedom to race wherever they liked around the track, the Izod IndyCar Series said Thursday.
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    L.A. Times - Baseball News

  • Mark Cuban, Dennis Gilbert eliminated from Dodgers' bidding race

    27 Jan 2012 | 11:39 pm
    At least eight bidders reach the next round, including groups of Magic Johnson/Stan Kasten and Rick Caruso/Joe Torre.The owner of the reigning NBA champions will not be the next owner of the Dodgers.

  • Dodgers made late push to sign Prince Fielder

    27 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    The team is said to have offered a seven-year, $160-million deal that was topped by Detroit after the Tigers learned Victor Martinez probably would sit out the 2012 season because of a knee injury.Prince Fielder's landing in Detroit was a big surprise, but it turns out the Tigers were not the most unexpected entrant in the sweepstakes.

  • Richest man in L.A. might join a bid for the Dodgers

    25 Jan 2012 | 9:08 pm
    Billionaire philanthropist Patrick Soon-Shiong, a minority owner of the Lakers, has met with some who are trying to buy the Dodgers from Frank McCourt.The richest man in Los Angeles has not bid for the Dodgers.

  • Bob Daly says selling Dodgers to Frank McCourt was 'horrible mistake'

    25 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Daly, who owned 10% of the team during the Fox era, says, 'We didn't realize what a bad guy [McCourt] was.' Daly doubts the sale to a new owner will be completed by April 30.Eight years ago this week Bob Daly , you know, the Movie Guy, joined Fox in selling the Dodgers to Frank McCourt .

  • Dodgers should sign Clayton Kershaw, long term

    24 Jan 2012 | 11:03 pm
    Gap between Cy Young winner Clayton Kershaw's $10 million arbitration request and Dodgers' $6.5 million offer is huge, and nothing good can come if it goes to a hearing. A multiyear deal sounds better.Prince Fielder was fool's gold, and Dodgers fans shouldn't waste one moment of regret that the big lug will spend the next nine years clogging the payroll, the basepaths and eventually the training room for the Detroit Tigers.
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    L.A. Times - Dodgers

  • Mark Cuban, Dennis Gilbert eliminated from Dodgers' bidding race

    27 Jan 2012 | 11:39 pm
    At least eight bidders reach the next round, including groups of Magic Johnson/Stan Kasten and Rick Caruso/Joe Torre.The owner of the reigning NBA champions will not be the next owner of the Dodgers.

  • Dodgers made late push to sign Prince Fielder

    27 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    The team is said to have offered a seven-year, $160-million deal that was topped by Detroit after the Tigers learned Victor Martinez probably would sit out the 2012 season because of a knee injury.Prince Fielder's landing in Detroit was a big surprise, but it turns out the Tigers were not the most unexpected entrant in the sweepstakes.

  • Richest man in L.A. might join a bid for the Dodgers

    25 Jan 2012 | 9:08 pm
    Billionaire philanthropist Patrick Soon-Shiong, a minority owner of the Lakers, has met with some who are trying to buy the Dodgers from Frank McCourt.The richest man in Los Angeles has not bid for the Dodgers.

  • Bob Daly says selling Dodgers to Frank McCourt was 'horrible mistake'

    25 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Daly, who owned 10% of the team during the Fox era, says, 'We didn't realize what a bad guy [McCourt] was.' Daly doubts the sale to a new owner will be completed by April 30.Eight years ago this week Bob Daly , you know, the Movie Guy, joined Fox in selling the Dodgers to Frank McCourt .

  • Dodgers should sign Clayton Kershaw, long term

    24 Jan 2012 | 11:03 pm
    Gap between Cy Young winner Clayton Kershaw's $10 million arbitration request and Dodgers' $6.5 million offer is huge, and nothing good can come if it goes to a hearing. A multiyear deal sounds better.Prince Fielder was fool's gold, and Dodgers fans shouldn't waste one moment of regret that the big lug will spend the next nine years clogging the payroll, the basepaths and eventually the training room for the Detroit Tigers.
 
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    L.A. Times - Angels

  • Angels, Dodgers see Yu Darvish slip away

    18 Jan 2012 | 9:00 pm
    The clubs were after the Japanese right-hander, who signed with the Texas Rangers for $60 million, since he was a teenager. But the pitcher followed an unwritten protocol and played first in Japan for several seasons.Clay Daniel remembers the first time he saw Yu Darvish in person. It was at a 2002 tryout on an island off the coast of Japan, when the lanky right-hander, who signed a six-year, $60-million deal with the Texas Rangers on Wednesday, was only 16.

  • Q&A: Angels General Manager Jerry Dipoto

    15 Jan 2012 | 7:10 pm
    New GM Jerry Dipoto has been on the job less than three months, and already he has remade the Angels into championship contenders by signing premium free agents Albert Pujols and C.J. Wilson.Jerry Dipoto has been on the job less than three months and he's already accomplished so much as Angels general manager.

  • Will the Angels get their money's worth from Albert Pujols?

    13 Jan 2012 | 7:45 pm
    The Angels signed Pujols to a deal worth about $240 million. It won't all be recouped in ticket, concession and jersey sales, but the franchise's value may rise.Albert Pujols can lead the Angels to a few World Series championships, win several most-valuable-player awards, set the all-time home run record and pass 3,000 hits, and he would not pay for himself.

  • Kendrys Morales agrees to one-year deal with Angels

    12 Jan 2012 | 12:23 am
    Morales, who hasn't played since breaking his leg in the first half of the 2010 season, and the Angels avoid arbitration with the deal.The Angels and first baseman/designated hitter Kendrys Morales avoided salary arbitration by striking a deal for the 2012 season Wednesday.

  • Howie Kendrick says that staying with Angels was top priority

    10 Jan 2012 | 7:09 pm
    At news conference to formally announce four-year, $33.5-million contract extension, the All-Star second baseman points to the team's off-season free-agent acquisitions as driving force behind his decision.Howie Kendrick said he was fully aware of what effect an impressive season could make on his value as a free agent before 2013, but remaining an Angel trumped taking on the speculative venture.
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    L.A. Times - Basketball

  • Ricky Rubio leads Timberwolves past Spurs

    28 Jan 2012 | 12:30 am
    The rookie guard has 18 point and 10 assists for Minnesota in an 87-79 win.Ricky Rubio scored nine of his 18 points in the fourth quarter and had 10 assists, leading the Minnesota Timberwolves to an 87-79 victory over the San Antonio Spurs on Friday night at Minneapolis.

  • Lakers face road test, starting in Milwaukee

    27 Jan 2012 | 8:49 pm
    With their 1-6 road record, the Lakers have a challenge ahead: Saturday at Milwaukee followed by seven of their next eight games on the road.Reporting from Milwaukee — Oh, great. The road.

  • Clippers' Chris Paul says hamstring 'feels great'

    27 Jan 2012 | 6:15 pm
    The star point guard has played in two games since returning from a left hamstring injury. Paul has made only five of 17 shots but has 19 assists since his return.Sidelined with a strained left hamstring for five games this month, Chris Paul had plenty of time to observe the Clippers from their bench and perhaps see a new side of his team.

  • Letters: Here's how you know Lakers-Clippers is a real rivalry

    27 Jan 2012 | 6:14 pm
    Lakers fans never used to even acknowledge the team across the hall. That has changed.If nothing else, with the recent emergence and, perhaps, dominance of the Clippers, it gives Lakers fans a real reason to chant "Beat L.A.! Beat L.A.!"

  • Mo Williams makes the most of his time with Clippers

    27 Jan 2012 | 1:37 am
    The backup guard gets limited minutes, but it's not limiting his effectiveness. In his last five games, he's scored 26, 25, 26, 16 and 18 points.This isn't the way Clippers guard Mo Williams hoped his season would go, coming off the bench and being a sparkplug instead of a starter.
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    Clippers - latimes.com

  • Clippers' Chris Paul says hamstring 'feels great'

    27 Jan 2012 | 6:15 pm
    The star point guard has played in two games since returning from a left hamstring injury. Paul has made only five of 17 shots but has 19 assists since his return.Sidelined with a strained left hamstring for five games this month, Chris Paul had plenty of time to observe the Clippers from their bench and perhaps see a new side of his team.

  • Letters: Here's how you know Lakers-Clippers is a real rivalry

    27 Jan 2012 | 6:14 pm
    Lakers fans never used to even acknowledge the team across the hall. That has changed.If nothing else, with the recent emergence and, perhaps, dominance of the Clippers, it gives Lakers fans a real reason to chant "Beat L.A.! Beat L.A.!"

  • Mo Williams makes the most of his time with Clippers

    27 Jan 2012 | 1:37 am
    The backup guard gets limited minutes, but it's not limiting his effectiveness. In his last five games, he's scored 26, 25, 26, 16 and 18 points.This isn't the way Clippers guard Mo Williams hoped his season would go, coming off the bench and being a sparkplug instead of a starter.

  • Clippers get a uniformly ugly win over Grizzlies

    27 Jan 2012 | 1:16 am
    Blake Griffin, Chris Paul help Clippers hold off Memphis, 98-91, while wearing ABA uniforms.A night after playing with emotion, determination and a chip on their shoulders, the Clippers looked drained and not as focused against the Memphis Grizzlies on Thursday night.

  • Clippers' Eric Bledsoe close to return

    27 Jan 2012 | 12:18 am
    The guard will play in two D-League games and is expected to play Sunday in Denver. But there aren't a lot of minutes available.Slowly, the Clippers are starting to become whole.
 
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    L.A. Times - Sparks

  • California high court backs panel's new state Senate districts

    28 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Even if a GOP-backed proposal to scrap the new plan qualifies for the November ballot, the map produced by a citizens commission is 'clearly the most appropriate' for the election, the court says.The California Supreme Court decided unanimously Friday that candidates for state Senate this year should run in new districts drawn by a citizens commission, a plan that may give Democrats a two-thirds majority in the upper house.

  • California orders hike in number of super clean cars

    28 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    The state's air board issues new rules to automakers as part of its effort to cut greenhouse gases.California, long a national leader in cutting auto pollution, pushed the envelope further Friday as state regulators approved rules to cut greenhouse gas emissions from cars and put significantly more pollution-free vehicles on the road in coming years.

  • California bill seeks to limit detention of arrestees facing deportation

    28 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Legislation would counter Secure Communities program by limiting local law enforcement's role in holding people for immigration authorities.A bill being drafted by a state legislator would limit local law enforcement from holding arrestees on behalf of immigration authorities seeking to deport them.

  • Clamor grows to rein in California pension benefits

    28 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Gov. Jerry Brown pledges to cut spiraling costs, but key parts of his rollback plan apply mainly to future workers. Activists want quicker action.Gilbert Robles retired as a state parole agent at age 53, able to collect a $101,195 annual pension — 94% of his final salary. Last year, six months after he retired, the Arcadia resident accepted a political appointment with the same agency that pays an additional six figures.

  • U.S. may rely on aging U-2 spy planes longer than expected

    28 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    The Pentagon has proposed delaying a plan to replace the U-2s with RQ-4 Global Hawk drones because of Defense Department cutbacks.Wars have come and gone. But for more than half a century, the CIA and U.S. military have relied on a skinny sinister-looking black jet to go deep behind enemy lines for vital intelligence-gathering missions.
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    L.A. Times - Boxing

  • Manny Pacquiao has backup plan if Mayweather bout doesn't occur

    19 Jan 2012 | 8:32 pm
    Promoter Bob Arum says the Filipino boxer will name another boxer whom he'll fight if there's no deal for a super-bout with Floyd Mayweather Jr. in Las Vegas.Manny Pacquiao on Thursday selected his next opponent — that is, if he fails to reach a deal for a super-bout against Floyd Mayweather Jr., Pacquiao's promoter Bob Arum said.

  • Boxing trainer Freddie Roach subject of HBO reality series

    19 Jan 2012 | 7:05 pm
    'On Freddie Roach,' a six-part series directed by Peter Berg, covers Roach's standing as the world's top boxing trainer as well as his struggle with boxing-related Parkinson's symptoms.Freddie Roach was on track to marry his high school sweetheart and become an arborist caring for ornamental trees.

  • Muhammad Ali's legacy still both butterfly and bee

    16 Jan 2012 | 6:42 pm
    As Muhammad Ali turns 70, it would be easy to say happy birthday and recite his accomplishments as a boxer and humanitarian. But in his heyday, Ali was complicated; he could treat average people like royalty, but he treated Joe Frazier with disdain and disrespect.Muhammad Ali turns 70 on Tuesday, and for many of those 70 years, he has had us all on the ropes.

  • Manny Pacquiao, Floyd Mayweather Jr. already fighting

    10 Jan 2012 | 8:37 pm
    Mayweather makes a challenge on Twitter for a May 5 bout. Pacquiao (and promoter Bob Arum) are looking for a later date.Hours after Floyd Mayweather Jr. urged Manny Pacquiao to "step up punk" and fight him May 5, the Filipino boxing star answered with his own message:

  • Ruling opens way for Pacquiao-Mayweather bout

    6 Jan 2012 | 6:50 pm
    Judge delays Floyd Mayweather Jr.'s jail sentence until June, leaving open the possibility of a super-fight against Manny Pacquiao in May.A judge in Las Vegas on Friday delayed Floyd Mayweather Jr.'s sentence for a domestic violence conviction, thus freeing the undefeated boxing champion to go ahead with a bout in May — possibly in a super-fight against Manny Pacquiao.
 
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    L.A. Times - College Basketball

  • USC's Dewayne Dedmon out for the season

    27 Jan 2012 | 8:58 pm
    The 7-foot sophomore suffered a torn medial collateral ligament in his left knee and a bone bruise during the Trojans' loss to Colorado on Thursday.Dewayne Dedmon watched film with his USC teammates at practice Friday, resigned to the fact that he won't be able to help them on the court the rest of the season.

  • John Wooden's teachings resonate from UCLA all the way to Uganda

    27 Jan 2012 | 7:20 pm
    John Wooden's philosophy, particularly his Pyramid of Success, has helped break down international barriers via sport. In a recent visit to UCLA, Ugandan coaches absorbed his wisdom in a taped lecture.Ayeet Timothy Odeke, basketball coach at Nkumba University in Kampala, gets the look — the same one Bill Walton might have given John Wooden years ago — when he instructs his players on the proper way to put on their socks and lace up their shoes at the start of each season.

  • UCLA senior guards excel with a little extra rest

    27 Jan 2012 | 5:45 pm
    Bruins seniors Lazeric Jones and Jerime Anderson played fewer minutes but made big contributions in Thursday's rout of Utah. Coach Ben Howland says he'll try a similar game plan against Colorado.UCLA Coach Ben Howland used two words to summarize the Bruins' performance against Utah on Thursday.

  • USC's struggles continue in 74-50 loss to Colorado

    27 Jan 2012 | 1:13 am
    Sophomore 7-footer Dewayne Dedmon suffers a knee sprain early in the first half. Maurice Jones finishes with 13 points as the Trojans fall to 0-8 in conference play.If USC was wondering what else could possibly go wrong this season, the struggling Trojans got an answer Thursday night.

  • UCLA gets confidence boost with win over Utah

    27 Jan 2012 | 12:53 am
    The Bruins benefit from a much stronger showing on defense in their 76-49 victory. Joshua Smith scores 14 points, while Jerime Anderson and David Wear both score 13.This was a must-see game ... in 1983.
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    L.A. Times - College Football

  • Mourners back Joe Paterno at memorial service

    27 Jan 2012 | 12:35 am
    Penn State football stars and friends pay tribute to the longtime coach. Nike Chairman Phil Knight defends Paterno's handling of child sex abuse allegations involving a former assistant coach that led to Paterno's firing.Crediting him with building not just better athletes but better men, former Penn State football stars and others paid tribute to Joe Paterno in a huge campus memorial service Thursday that exposed a strong undercurrent of anger over his firing.

  • Joe Paterno's funeral 'a celebration' of ex-Penn State coach

    25 Jan 2012 | 8:40 pm
    Thousands of students, alumni and fans take to streets in and around campus to say last goodbyes. Roman Catholic Mass is attended by a who's who of Paterno and Penn State connections.STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Quiet mourners lined the route of Joe Paterno's funeral procession Wednesday, watching with grief and reverence as the electric-blue hearse carrying the Penn State coach's casket slowly drove by.

  • Thousands line up to pay respects to Joe Paterno

    25 Jan 2012 | 12:06 am
    Mourners gather at Penn State's spiritual center to say their final goodbyes to the longtime coach.They stood outside for hours on a winter afternoon in State College, Pa., waiting to pay their respects to the late Joe Paterno . The line snaked down a long block on the Penn State campus.

  • Chip Kelly says he will stay at Oregon

    24 Jan 2012 | 12:15 am
    Coach will not pursue an opportunity with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers so he can take care of some 'unfinished business' with the Ducks.Oregon football Coach Chip Kelly announced Monday that he's remaining with the Ducks, though he says he was flattered by the interest shown in him by the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

  • Joe Paterno could have taken a cue from John Wooden

    23 Jan 2012 | 11:30 pm
    Joe Paterno could have been to college football what John Wooden was to college basketball. But the former Penn State coach had too little time to recraft his reputation after the Jerry Sandusky scandal.In a perfect world, Joe Paterno would have been John Wooden.
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    L.A. Times - Golf

  • A miniature success amid Phil Mickelson's woeful play at La Jolla

    27 Jan 2012 | 8:51 pm
    Phil Mickelson misses the cut at the Farmers Insurance Open in La Jolla, but he gives his fans a brief flash of that Phil magic from the rough on No. 8.Reporting from La Jolla -- It is taking some real searching to find the silver lining in Phil Mickelson's currently cloudy golf game these days.

  • Kyle Stanley leads Farmers Insurance Open by one shot

    27 Jan 2012 | 8:50 pm
    The 24-year-old from Gig Harbor, Wash., shoots four-under-par 68 and is a stroke ahead of Brandt Snedeker after two rounds at Torrey Pines.Reporting from La Jolla -- Kyle Stanley said his game plan is to play boring golf, which might not be the best slogan to sell the PGA Tour.

  • Tiger Woods in the hunt at Abu Dhabi

    27 Jan 2012 | 6:27 pm
    Woods is two strokes off the lead and tied with Rory McIlroy, who takes a two-shot penalty for brushing sand away on the fringe. Denmark's Thorbjorn Olesen leads.ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — Maybe those swing changes are paying off for Tiger Woods.

  • Torrey Pines North Course is the place to be, as usual

    26 Jan 2012 | 9:38 pm
    Kyle Stanley and Spencer Levin share the lead after shooting 10-under 62s. Phil Mickelson will be flirting with the cut again after a 77 on the South Course.Reporting from La Jolla — Kyle Stanley is listed at 5 feet 11 inches tall and 165 pounds. Stanley says that's really 160. Or maybe less.

  • Rory McIlroy shares the lead in Abu Dhabi

    26 Jan 2012 | 7:05 pm
    Tiger Woods opens with a no-bogey 70, three shots behind the U.S. Open champion and Robert Karlsson.ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — Even after a round of bogey-free golf, Tiger Woods was left three strokes behind playing partner Rory McIlroy.
 
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    L.A. Times - High School Sports

  • Mater Dei overwhelms St. John Bosco, 86-71

    27 Jan 2012 | 11:40 pm
    Santa Ana Mater Dei's Katin Reinhardt makes five three-pointers in the first quarter and leads the Monarchs to an 86-71 victory over Bellflower St. John Bosco.A capacity crowd of close to 1,400 packed the St. John Bosco gym Friday night for a Trinity League game for first place, with Braves fans thinking their team had a chance to compete with No. 1-ranked Santa Ana Mater Dei.

  • St. John Bosco wrestling phenoms are stealth weapons

    26 Jan 2012 | 8:19 pm
    Brothers Anthony and Zahid Valencia don't look the part of wrestling powerhouses, but that's one more advantage that has helped them become No. 1 in their weight classes.Moisture, condensation, fog -- whatever you want to call it -- has made it impossible to peek through two windows on the door of the St. John Bosco wrestling room to see what's happening inside.

  • Brendyn Taylor, shaking off rust, helps Fairfax beat Westchester

    26 Jan 2012 | 12:12 am
    The Lions upset the Comets, 53-46, to tighten Western League basketball race.Brendyn Taylor is starting to play like the Brendyn Taylor of old, which means the Western League basketball race is about to get very interesting.

  • Pacific Hills stays perfect in league with 68-56 win over Windward

    24 Jan 2012 | 11:41 pm
    Brandon Taylor scores 34 points to help the Bruins improve to 20-3 overall and 4-0 in the Alpha League. He was 10 for 10 in free throws.If anyone wants to know how much high school basketball has changed in the last decade, all you need to do is take a trip to watch one of the ambitious small private school teams and you'd be impressed by the immense talent on the court.

  • Santa Margarita's Harry Welch on administrative leave

    24 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    The football coach's Eagles recently won a Division I state championship game. Harry Welch, the only coach to win CIF state championship football bowl games at three schools, has been put on administrative leave at Santa Margarita High, Diocese of Orange spokesman Stephen Bohannon said Monday.
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    NHL - latimes.com

  • Kings' Jonathan Quick as tough on himself as he is on opponents

    27 Jan 2012 | 6:35 pm
    Quick, the first Kings goaltender to make an NHL All-Star roster since 1981, has his team in playoff position despite its league-worst scoring output.It was late in the Kings' 3-1 loss to the Colorado Avalanche last Saturday when goaltender Jonathan Quick finally lost his cool.

  • Canadiens rout Detroit, ending Red Wings' win streak at seven

    25 Jan 2012 | 9:42 pm
    Montreal jumps to a 4-0 lead in the first period, and Detroit goaltender Jimmy Howard is pulled for the second time in 42 starts this season.MONTREAL — David Desharnais had two goals and an assist, and the Montreal Canadiens ended Detroit's seven-game winning streak with a 7-2 victory over the Red Wings on Wednesday night.

  • Ducks' winning streak halted by Stars, 1-0

    24 Jan 2012 | 11:01 pm
    Dallas goalie Kari Lehtonen stops 27 shots as the Ducks' five-game winning streak comes to an end.DALLAS — Kari Lehtonen made 27 saves for the 18th shutout of his career, defenseman Alex Goligoski scored in the first period and the Dallas Stars ended the Ducks' winning streak at five games with a 1-0 victory on Tuesday night.

  • Mathieu Perreault's hat trick leads Capitals past Bruins, 5-3

    24 Jan 2012 | 10:06 pm
    Perreault's first three-goal game helps Washington deal with the absence of Alex Ovechkin because of a suspension.WASHINGTON — Mathieu Perreault got the first hat trick of his career, including the tiebreaking goal in the third period, to lead the Washington Capitals to a 5-3 victory over the Boston Bruins on Tuesday night.

  • Kings' Kyle Clifford gets 'hat trick' in 4-1 win over Senators

    24 Jan 2012 | 1:15 am
    The Kings' left wing records a Gordie Howe hat trick, a goal, an assist and a fight.Four words almost always bring forth a smile and a knowing nod.
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    L.A. Times - Anaheim Ducks

  • California high court backs panel's new state Senate districts

    28 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Even if a GOP-backed proposal to scrap the new plan qualifies for the November ballot, the map produced by a citizens commission is 'clearly the most appropriate' for the election, the court says.The California Supreme Court decided unanimously Friday that candidates for state Senate this year should run in new districts drawn by a citizens commission, a plan that may give Democrats a two-thirds majority in the upper house.

  • California orders hike in number of super clean cars

    28 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    The state's air board issues new rules to automakers as part of its effort to cut greenhouse gases.California, long a national leader in cutting auto pollution, pushed the envelope further Friday as state regulators approved rules to cut greenhouse gas emissions from cars and put significantly more pollution-free vehicles on the road in coming years.

  • California bill seeks to limit detention of arrestees facing deportation

    28 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Legislation would counter Secure Communities program by limiting local law enforcement's role in holding people for immigration authorities.A bill being drafted by a state legislator would limit local law enforcement from holding arrestees on behalf of immigration authorities seeking to deport them.

  • Clamor grows to rein in California pension benefits

    28 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Gov. Jerry Brown pledges to cut spiraling costs, but key parts of his rollback plan apply mainly to future workers. Activists want quicker action.Gilbert Robles retired as a state parole agent at age 53, able to collect a $101,195 annual pension — 94% of his final salary. Last year, six months after he retired, the Arcadia resident accepted a political appointment with the same agency that pays an additional six figures.

  • U.S. may rely on aging U-2 spy planes longer than expected

    28 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    The Pentagon has proposed delaying a plan to replace the U-2s with RQ-4 Global Hawk drones because of Defense Department cutbacks.Wars have come and gone. But for more than half a century, the CIA and U.S. military have relied on a skinny sinister-looking black jet to go deep behind enemy lines for vital intelligence-gathering missions.
 
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    L.A. Times - Kings

  • Kings' Jonathan Quick as tough on himself as he is on opponents

    27 Jan 2012 | 6:35 pm
    Quick, the first Kings goaltender to make an NHL All-Star roster since 1981, has his team in playoff position despite its league-worst scoring output.It was late in the Kings' 3-1 loss to the Colorado Avalanche last Saturday when goaltender Jonathan Quick finally lost his cool.

  • Canadiens rout Detroit, ending Red Wings' win streak at seven

    25 Jan 2012 | 9:42 pm
    Montreal jumps to a 4-0 lead in the first period, and Detroit goaltender Jimmy Howard is pulled for the second time in 42 starts this season.MONTREAL — David Desharnais had two goals and an assist, and the Montreal Canadiens ended Detroit's seven-game winning streak with a 7-2 victory over the Red Wings on Wednesday night.

  • Ducks' winning streak halted by Stars, 1-0

    24 Jan 2012 | 11:01 pm
    Dallas goalie Kari Lehtonen stops 27 shots as the Ducks' five-game winning streak comes to an end.DALLAS — Kari Lehtonen made 27 saves for the 18th shutout of his career, defenseman Alex Goligoski scored in the first period and the Dallas Stars ended the Ducks' winning streak at five games with a 1-0 victory on Tuesday night.

  • Mathieu Perreault's hat trick leads Capitals past Bruins, 5-3

    24 Jan 2012 | 10:06 pm
    Perreault's first three-goal game helps Washington deal with the absence of Alex Ovechkin because of a suspension.WASHINGTON — Mathieu Perreault got the first hat trick of his career, including the tiebreaking goal in the third period, to lead the Washington Capitals to a 5-3 victory over the Boston Bruins on Tuesday night.

  • Kings' Kyle Clifford gets 'hat trick' in 4-1 win over Senators

    24 Jan 2012 | 1:15 am
    The Kings' left wing records a Gordie Howe hat trick, a goal, an assist and a fight.Four words almost always bring forth a smile and a knowing nod.
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    L.A. Times - Horse Racing

  • Havre de Grace is third straight female to win Horse of Year honors

    16 Jan 2012 | 10:40 pm
    It's the first time in American horse racing history that females have won the top award three years in a row. Havre de Grace, who won five of seven races, follows Rachel Alexandra (2009) and Zenyatta (2010).In an unprecedented development in the history of American horse racing, Havre de Grace became the third consecutive female to win Horse of the Year honors at the 41st Eclipse Awards dinner on Monday night in Beverly Hills.

  • Out Of Bounds wins Derby prep at Santa Anita

    7 Jan 2012 | 7:52 pm
    Garrett Gomez guides gangly colt to victory in the Sham Stakes, handing Breeders' Cup Juvenile Sprint champ Secret Circle his first setback.Jockey Garrett Gomez turned 40 on New Year's Day, which only means he's getting wiser and better based on the way he has been riding at Santa Anita.

  • Mike Smith rides Mr. Commons to Sir Beaufort Stakes victory

    26 Dec 2011 | 8:20 pm
    Mike Smith rides Mr. Commons to Sir Beaufort Stakes victory at Santa Anita. The attendance of 44,679 is the largest for an opening day since 1994.Trainer John Shirreffs said he was eating at a Pasadena restaurant Christmas day when he overheard a bartender ask another worker, "Are you going to the races tomorrow?"

  • Santa Anita opener brings a sense of renewal

    25 Dec 2011 | 6:40 pm
    Horse racing has been written off in many quarters as a dying sport, but the start of Santa Anita's annual winter/spring meet suggests a sport very much alive as buildup to Triple Crown races begins.This is a great time of year for people who are sick of hearing that their sport is dying.

  • Q&A: David Milch on horse racing and iconic TV series

    25 Dec 2011 | 4:55 pm
    The writer and producer takes on a favorite topic — horse racing — with HBO's 'Luck.'Writer-producer David Milch has captured the attention of America with his crime dramas "Hill Street Blues," and "NYPD Blue," and he brought an uncensored version of the Old West to HBO's "Deadwood" too.
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    L.A. Times - Pro Football

  • NFL replay system is still under review

    27 Jan 2012 | 8:05 pm
    Even with all the technology, calls continue to be controversial and evidence is often far from incontrovertible. Some call for changes, including giving coaches more challenges.Back when "CSI" helped launch a new breed of forensic science dramas on television, prosecutors complained that real-life cases were being unduly influenced: Jurors walked into courtrooms expecting to see conclusive scientific evidence for every crime.

  • Peyton Manning, Jim Irsay say they're on same page

    27 Jan 2012 | 7:45 pm
    A week of squabbling leads to a joint statement by key figures with Colts.Peyton Manning and Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay insist they are just fine after a week filled with complaints and comments suggesting a rift had developed following one of the most miserable seasons in team history.

  • Patriots' Tom Brady must work quickly against Giants defense

    27 Jan 2012 | 7:10 pm
    Everything in the New England offense begins with the quarterback, and the New York defense will pressure Brady to get rid of the ball.What the New England Patriots offense must do to be successful against the New York Giants in the Super Bowl (Feb. 5, 3:30 p.m. PST, Ch. 4):

  • Buccaneers hire Rutgers' Greg Schiano as head coach

    26 Jan 2012 | 11:16 pm
    Schiano, who helped turn around Rutgers' football program during his 11-year tenure as coach, takes over a Tampa Bay team that allowed the most points in the NFL this season.The Buccaneers are counting on Greg Schiano to lead them back to respectability and transform Tampa Bay into consistent winners — much in the same way he made Rutgers matter again.

  • Super Bowl XLVI summons the higher ire of New York vs. Boston

    26 Jan 2012 | 8:51 pm
    The Giants and New England Patriots stir up anew a bitter rivalry that has involved Yankees, Red Sox and Mets and is strewn with such figures as Babe Ruth, Bucky Dent and Bill Buckner.The rivalry that has produced the Curse of the Bambino, Bucky Dent, Bill Buckner, David Tyree's catch and disagreeing forms of clam chowder — exposing the nastiness of arrogance and an inferiority complex along the way — has returned.
 
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    L.A. Times - Soccer

  • U.S. women's soccer team beats Costa Rica, qualifies for Olympics

    27 Jan 2012 | 11:05 pm
    Two late goals help push the Americans to a 3-0 victory in a game that was closer than most expected.In the end, what matters is that the U.S. women's soccer team is going to the Olympics. What the players won't soon forget is how hard they had to work get there.

  • Olympic bid on line as U.S. women's soccer team faces Costa Rica

    26 Jan 2012 | 8:47 pm
    The U.S. rolled through group play in the qualifying tournament, outscoring its three opponents 31-0. But if it loses Friday, it won't be going to London.The U.S. women's soccer team dominated the first round of the CONCACAF Olympic qualifying tournament in Vancouver, Canada, outscoring its three opponents 31-0 and rolling into the semifinals undefeated.

  • Ricardo Clark leads U.S. to exhibition victory

    22 Jan 2012 | 12:16 am
    He scores on a header in stoppage time to help the Americans defeat Venezuela, 1-0.Reporting from Glendale, Ariz. -- Juergen Klinsmann called Saturday's friendly with Venezuela a good test for his U.S. national soccer team. Good thing it wasn't the final exam.

  • Juergen Klinsmann puts U.S. soccer on fast track

    21 Jan 2012 | 11:24 pm
    New U.S. Coach Juergen Klinsmann says the national team is well behind the world elite. To make up ground quickly, he's instituted European-style training methods in advance of World Cup qualifying.Reporting from Glendale, Ariz. -- Hey, America, Juergen Klinsmann has a message for you: You've fallen behind the rest of the world in soccer.

  • David Beckham wants another MLS Cup

    19 Jan 2012 | 10:48 pm
    The chance to defend a title is one of the reasons the English star chose to re-sign with the Galaxy.The Galaxy officially welcomed David Beckham back into the fold Thursday — never mind the fact he'd never really left.
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    L.A. Times - Tennis

  • Victoria Azarenka beats Maria Sharapova for Australian Open title

    28 Jan 2012 | 4:25 am
    The 22-year-old from Belarus wins her first major and claims the No. 1 ranking in women's tennis with the straight-set victory.MELBOURNE, Australia -- Victoria Azarenka routed Maria Sharapova, 6-3, 6-0, to win the Australian Open women's title on Saturday night and secure the No. 1 ranking, all in her first Grand Slam final.

  • Novak Djokovic defeats Andy Murray to reach Australian Open final

    27 Jan 2012 | 7:44 pm
    The defending champion and No. 1-ranked male tennis player needed 4 hours 50 minutes for a 6-3, 3-6, 6-7 (4), 6-1, 7-5 victory. Djokovic faces Rafael Nadal on Sunday for the title.MELBOURNE, Australia — If anyone knows how Novak Djokovic feels after sweating and scrapping for almost five hours in the Australian Open semifinals, it's his next opponent — Rafael Nadal.

  • Rafael Nadal beats Roger Federer to reach Australian Open final

    26 Jan 2012 | 9:52 pm
    Nadal's four-set victory gives him an 8-2 edge over Federer in Grand Slam matches. Maria Sharapova and Victoria Azarenka will meet for the women's title Saturday.MELBOURNE, Australia — Only the trophy and the tears were missing from this latest Grand Slam installment of Rafa vs. Roger.

  • Maria Sharapova, Victoria Azarenka reach Australian Open final

    26 Jan 2012 | 1:37 am
    Sharapova beats Petra Kvitova and can take the No. 1 ranking in the world if she beats Azarenka in the final Saturday. Azarenka advances with a win over defending champion Kim Clijsters.MELBOURNE, Australia — Maria Sharapova advanced to the Australian Open final and gave herself a chance to regain the No. 1 ranking after beating Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova, 6-2, 3-6, 6-4, on Thursday.

  • Maria Sharapova reaches semifinals of Australian Open

    24 Jan 2012 | 11:32 pm
    Sharapova will play Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova, with both players trying to take the No. 1 ranking. Roger Federer will face Rafael Nadal in men's semifinals.MELBOURNE, Australia — Maria Sharapova maintained her perfect record in Australian Open quarterfinals, defeating Ekaterina Makarova, 6-2, 6-3, on Wednesday.
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    L.A. Times - USC Trojans

  • Up next for USC: Saturday vs. Utah

    28 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Trojans hope to notch their first Pac-12 Conference victory against a Utah team that is winless on the road this season.When: 8.

  • USC's Dewayne Dedmon out for the season

    27 Jan 2012 | 8:58 pm
    The 7-foot sophomore suffered a torn medial collateral ligament in his left knee and a bone bruise during the Trojans' loss to Colorado on Thursday.Dewayne Dedmon watched film with his USC teammates at practice Friday, resigned to the fact that he won't be able to help them on the court the rest of the season.

  • USC's struggles continue in 74-50 loss to Colorado

    27 Jan 2012 | 1:13 am
    Sophomore 7-footer Dewayne Dedmon suffers a knee sprain early in the first half. Maurice Jones finishes with 13 points as the Trojans fall to 0-8 in conference play.If USC was wondering what else could possibly go wrong this season, the struggling Trojans got an answer Thursday night.

  • USC's Garrett Jackson adjusts to life on a struggling team

    25 Jan 2012 | 10:31 pm
    Jackson is now a starter on a Trojans team that has lost eight games in a row. But as USC plays host this week to Colorado and Utah, it faces two teams with losing road records.Garrett Jackson has never been through something like it.

  • USC falls quietly to Oregon State, 78-59

    22 Jan 2012 | 12:37 am
    The Trojans had not surrendered more than 66 points in a game this season until running into the Beavers.CORVALLIS, Ore. -- Jared Cunningham had 18 points and five assists to lead Oregon State to a 78-59 victory over USC on Saturday night.
 
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    L.A. Times - Auto Industry News

  • Saturday Drive: Audi TT RS

    28 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Start off your weekend of motoring with a quick take on what's grabbed our attention recently.The car: 2012 Audi TT RS

  • California orders hike in number of super clean cars

    28 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    The state's air board issues new rules to automakers as part of its effort to cut greenhouse gases.California, long a national leader in cutting auto pollution, pushed the envelope further Friday as state regulators approved rules to cut greenhouse gas emissions from cars and put significantly more pollution-free vehicles on the road in coming years.

  • A big bet on electric vehicle manufacturing goes bust

    27 Jan 2012 | 8:15 pm
    Production of electric vehicles and batteries was supposed to create high-tech jobs in Indiana. Think City and Ener1 set up shop, enticed by government incentives. But soon they filed for bankruptcy.For politicians betting on electric vehicles to drive job growth, the view from inside Think City's plant here is their worst nightmare: 100 unfinished vehicles lined up with no word on whether they will be completed.

  • Ford has its strongest year in a decade

    27 Jan 2012 | 6:44 pm
    The automaker has a more than 200% increase in net income in 2011, but its fourth-quarter profit misses estimates on overseas losses.Ford Motor Co., with a more than 200% increase in net income for 2011, reported its strongest year in a decade as American automakers continue to recover from the tailspin of 2008 and 2009.

  • Honda small-claims hearing attracts owners of Civic hybrids

    26 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    The case of fuel efficiency in Honda Civic hybrids may inspire other owners of the car to file similar claims against the auto giant.Honda Civic owners from Sacramento to Carlsbad, Calif., took off from work to attend an unusual Small Claims Court case in Torrance, where a lone consumer has sued American Honda Motor Co. over fuel economy claims.
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    L.A. Times - Food & Dining

  • Market Watch: On the cusp of grapefruit season

    27 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Southern California has three fine locally adapted hybrids at their peak now: Oroblanco, Melogold and Cocktail.Midwinter is prime citrus season for both the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California districts, with an abundance of excellent mandarins, oranges, tangelos and lemons. The one laggard is conventional grapefruit, which, as grown in these two areas will be too sour for most palates for a couple of months or more. By compensation, we have three fine locally adapted grapefruit-like hybrids, Oroblanco, Melogold and Cocktail "grapefruit," which are at their peak right now.

  • Dashi , the heart of Japanese cooking

    26 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    At the heart of so much of Japanese cooking is the fragrant broth called dashi . And at the heart of dashi are the delicate pink petals of katsuobushi , shaved flakes of dried bonito fish.

  • When diners' eyes feast on their cellphones

    26 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Some restaurants try to accommodate smartphone addicts and even join in. Others try to discourage the diner distraction.Ding. Bzzzt. Bap. Beep. That's the sound of conversation in restaurants these days. Where cellphones once posed a nuisance as people chatted loudly into them during meals, they now present a whole new set of etiquette issues as entire tables disappear into the Internet via small glowing screens.

  • Critic's Choice: Southeast Asian noodle restaurants

    26 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Southern California's one big bowl of noodles for anyone who loves Southeast Asia's many incarnations. And we're not just talking about pho and pad Thai. Look to the Central Vietnamese restaurants of Westminster for your fix of mi quang , neon-yellow rice noodles in a curry-like sauce with a party of garnishes, or bun bo Hue , spicy beef and pork noodle soup, often garnished with banana flower and amaranth. Or craving Cambodian seafood soup or tom yum noodles with chunks of crispy pork belly? Here's where to go, from recent Find columns.

  • Market Watch: Mushroom vender's crop fits in a trailer

    20 Jan 2012 | 12:47 pm
    Although most of the larger farmers markets in Southern California have at least one vendor of cultivated mushrooms, the great majority of these buy from large commercial producers and so must sell in the non-certified section or under a second certificate arrangement. There's not necessarily anything wrong with that, but it takes just a glance at the pristine and tender shiitake and oyster mushrooms that Fred Ellrott grows and picks himself, to see that there is a real advantage to the consumer in buying mushrooms direct from the producer.
 
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    L.A. Times - Health

  • HPV study finds 7% of U.S. teens, adults carry virus in mouths

    27 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
     A new study showing an estimated 7 percent of American teens and adults carry the human papillomavirus in their mouths may help health experts finally understand why rates of mouth and throat cancer have been climbing for nearly 25 years. Oral sex practices play a key role in transmission.

  • Robotic technology to treat lung cancer

    25 Jan 2012 | 3:30 pm
     The da Vinci robotic technology allows doctors to perform more precise surgeries. The technique also enables patients to recover more quickly with fewer complications in many cases. Dr. Gavin Henry uses it over traditional lobectomy surgery to treat patients with lung cancer.

  • OB-GYNs, neurologists call for domestic violence screening

    25 Jan 2012 | 3:20 pm
     The confirmed high rates of domestic abuse — or interpersonal violence — led two major physicians' groups to call for routine screening of patients for signs of abuse.

  • Couple decide to implant frozen embryos

    21 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
     Grateful for the in vitro fertilization that enabled a couple to become parents, one believed donating the extra embryos to advance reproductive technology or treat debilitating diseases would be best. The other imagined more kids or donating the embryos for another couple to do the same.

  • Being glued to your cell is a problem, experts say

    18 Jan 2012 | 1:53 pm
     Would you rather give up your toothbrush or your cellphone for an entire week? A whopping 22 percent of people said they'd forgo brushing, and 40 percent of iPhone users would, too. About the same amount said they'd go shoeless instead of giving up their phones.
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    L.A. Times - Fashion & Style

  • A history of men's hairstyles

    29 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Short or long, loose or gathered, men's hairstyles have cycled through many phases throughout history.The ancient story of Samson and Delilah shows how important a man's hairstyle can be. The tale has inspired sculptors, composers and screenwriters, and Samson's long locks are part of a long list of classic men's hairstyles. What follows is a look at other memorable men's hairdos throughout history and in pop culture.

  • Custom shirts, cut from a different cloth

    29 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    As prices have dropped, more men are buying dress shirts made for them. Purveyers include J.Hilburn, ShirtsMyWay, Indochino, Bespoken Clothiers and Anto Distinctive Shirtmaker.Custom-made men's dress shirts were once considered the privileged peacockery of the moneyed set — a dash of sartorial swagger that could be afforded only by Hollywood A-listers, Wall Street bankers and monocle-wearing aristocrats of a bygone era.

  • Where to buy a custom-made men's shirt

    29 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Now that a guy no longer needs a linebacker's physique, a Rat Packer's swagger or cartoon bags of money to justify the purchase of a made-to-measure dress shirt, here are a few local options — at different levels of wallet strain — worth exploring:

  • Costly turf war on men's balding heads

    29 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Medications and surgery to counter balding are popular but can be expensive. More effective treatments might not be too far off.Vin Diesel has embraced his baldness. And it's doubtful Michael Stipe spends much time browsing for toupees. But not all of the 40 million American men with follicularly challenged scalps are going quietly into that bald night. They're raging — with Rogaine, among other things.

  • More men coloring their hair

    29 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    An increasing number of men are dyeing their hair, whether to cover up gray for professional reasons or just to look cool.For most men, it's about staying competitive in a youth-focused workplace. For others, it's a need to keep up with new young wives. And for some, well, they just like the sleek black tops on those "Jersey Shore" boys.
 
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    News - latimes.com

  • California high court backs panel's new state Senate districts

    28 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Even if a GOP-backed proposal to scrap the new plan qualifies for the November ballot, the map produced by a citizens commission is 'clearly the most appropriate' for the election, the court says.The California Supreme Court decided unanimously Friday that candidates for state Senate this year should run in new districts drawn by a citizens commission, a plan that may give Democrats a two-thirds majority in the upper house.

  • California orders hike in number of super clean cars

    28 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    The state's air board issues new rules to automakers as part of its effort to cut greenhouse gases.California, long a national leader in cutting auto pollution, pushed the envelope further Friday as state regulators approved rules to cut greenhouse gas emissions from cars and put significantly more pollution-free vehicles on the road in coming years.

  • California bill seeks to limit detention of arrestees facing deportation

    28 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Legislation would counter Secure Communities program by limiting local law enforcement's role in holding people for immigration authorities.A bill being drafted by a state legislator would limit local law enforcement from holding arrestees on behalf of immigration authorities seeking to deport them.

  • Clamor grows to rein in California pension benefits

    28 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Gov. Jerry Brown pledges to cut spiraling costs, but key parts of his rollback plan apply mainly to future workers. Activists want quicker action.Gilbert Robles retired as a state parole agent at age 53, able to collect a $101,195 annual pension — 94% of his final salary. Last year, six months after he retired, the Arcadia resident accepted a political appointment with the same agency that pays an additional six figures.

  • U.S. may rely on aging U-2 spy planes longer than expected

    28 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    The Pentagon has proposed delaying a plan to replace the U-2s with RQ-4 Global Hawk drones because of Defense Department cutbacks.Wars have come and gone. But for more than half a century, the CIA and U.S. military have relied on a skinny sinister-looking black jet to go deep behind enemy lines for vital intelligence-gathering missions.
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    L.A. Times - Real Estate News

  • Tax relief on mortgage debt forgiveness ends in 2013, so hurry

    29 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    The tax-relief law allows homeowners to exclude from income certain debts forgiven by their lenders. The tax break expires Dec. 31, 2012, but keep in mind that a short sale or foreclosure can take many months. The window is closing rapidly on one of the most important tax-relief provisions enacted by Congress during the housing crisis to help financially strapped homeowners.

  • A quirky Spanish Revival in Los Feliz

    29 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    A.F. Leicht designed quirky Spanish Revival houses in Los Angeles as well as evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson's landmark Angelus Temple. His interiors often had irregular-shaped or curved walls, rooms or hallways. This Los Feliz villa, with rounded rooms, fancifully shaped living room French doors and elliptical master bathroom, captures his signature style.

  • Tenant with disability wants to keep companion pet

    29 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    A tenant with anxiety disorder is urged by his psychiatrist to get a companion animal. But in exchange for allowing a dog, the manager wants to raise his rent. Is that allowed?Question: For several years I have been undergoing psychotherapy for a nervous illness, which has now been diagnosed as a general anxiety disorder. I live at an apartment complex that does not allow pets, but my psychiatrist has recently urged me to get a companion animal, which she thinks would give me a positive relationship that would alleviate my anxiety.

  • Consumer bureau reviewing real estate appraisal fee disclosure

    29 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Some appraisers are being paid less than half the fee, while the balance flows to an appraisal management company. The new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is working on a real estate issue that gets to the core of the agency's purpose: bringing clarity and better disclosures about the often opaque and costly fees that home buyers, sellers and refinancers are hit with at closings.

  • Chris Paul buys Avril Lavigne's Bel-Air mansion for $8.495 million

    29 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    L.A. Clipper Chris Paul may be quick down the court, but he moves pretty fast when it comes to buying multimillion-dollar real estate too.
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    L.A. Times - Travel

  • Cooking up gourmet adventures across the West

    29 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    A guide to the hotels, resorts and other locales in the West that offer travelers hand's-on cooking lessons.Cooking classes are sprouting like shiitake mushrooms across the West, often in gorgeous locations. For travelers who want to plan their gourmet adventures, we've found restaurants, hotels, lodges, resorts and culinary academies where they can improve their home-chef skills with hands-on lessons, demonstrations or tutoring by noted chefs.

  • 12 places to visit in 2012

    29 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    From historical celebrations to Oregon wines to a diamond jubilee in Britain to Warhol in Arkansas, here are a dozen places to explore and enjoy. New Mexico: This year, New Mexicans mark 100 years of statehood. But much of the state's appeal stems from its human history that goes back much further. (In 2010, Santa Fe celebrated 400 years of cityhood.) Explore here: the adobe architecture and art galleries of Santa Fe; the vintage signage along old Route 66; the lingering hippie vibe of Truth or Consequences. Don't forget the Lightning Field, an art installation outside Quemado where (for $150…

  • Travel updates for 2012

    29 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Here are a dozen travel-news tidbits that will make you a better informed consumer in the new year. Think of what follows as a travel tapas buffet — tidbits that just might whet your appetite for more. Here are a dozen pieces of information for the 2012 traveler.

  • Cruises: Drinking in the ambience aboard Rotterdam VI

    22 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    With a more traditional vibe than other liners, Holland America's Rotterdam makes for smooth sailing.Rarely has a city been as in love with a shipping company as Rotterdam, Netherlands, is with the Holland America line.

  • Smaller legs of world cruises can be a deal

    22 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    If you can't take a full world cruise, a smaller segment can still be filled with adventure and cost a lot less. These days only a fraction of passengers are there for the long haul.The British couple — she in a long black dress, he in a traditional tux — leaned against the elevator's polished wood paneling as they headed back to their cabin after an evening performance in the main showroom. Embarrassed at my casual clothes and running shoes, I stammered, "We decided not to dress up and went to the buffet instead of the main dining room."
 
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    Travel - latimes.com

  • Cooking up gourmet adventures across the West

    29 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    A guide to the hotels, resorts and other locales in the West that offer travelers hand's-on cooking lessons.Cooking classes are sprouting like shiitake mushrooms across the West, often in gorgeous locations. For travelers who want to plan their gourmet adventures, we've found restaurants, hotels, lodges, resorts and culinary academies where they can improve their home-chef skills with hands-on lessons, demonstrations or tutoring by noted chefs.

  • 12 places to visit in 2012

    29 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    From historical celebrations to Oregon wines to a diamond jubilee in Britain to Warhol in Arkansas, here are a dozen places to explore and enjoy. New Mexico: This year, New Mexicans mark 100 years of statehood. But much of the state's appeal stems from its human history that goes back much further. (In 2010, Santa Fe celebrated 400 years of cityhood.) Explore here: the adobe architecture and art galleries of Santa Fe; the vintage signage along old Route 66; the lingering hippie vibe of Truth or Consequences. Don't forget the Lightning Field, an art installation outside Quemado where (for $150…

  • Travel updates for 2012

    29 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Here are a dozen travel-news tidbits that will make you a better informed consumer in the new year. Think of what follows as a travel tapas buffet — tidbits that just might whet your appetite for more. Here are a dozen pieces of information for the 2012 traveler.

  • Cruises: Drinking in the ambience aboard Rotterdam VI

    22 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    With a more traditional vibe than other liners, Holland America's Rotterdam makes for smooth sailing.Rarely has a city been as in love with a shipping company as Rotterdam, Netherlands, is with the Holland America line.

  • Smaller legs of world cruises can be a deal

    22 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    If you can't take a full world cruise, a smaller segment can still be filled with adventure and cost a lot less. These days only a fraction of passengers are there for the long haul.The British couple — she in a long black dress, he in a traditional tux — leaned against the elevator's polished wood paneling as they headed back to their cabin after an evening performance in the main showroom. Embarrassed at my casual clothes and running shoes, I stammered, "We decided not to dress up and went to the buffet instead of the main dining room."
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    Travel - latimes.com

  • Cooking up gourmet adventures across the West

    29 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    A guide to the hotels, resorts and other locales in the West that offer travelers hand's-on cooking lessons.Cooking classes are sprouting like shiitake mushrooms across the West, often in gorgeous locations. For travelers who want to plan their gourmet adventures, we've found restaurants, hotels, lodges, resorts and culinary academies where they can improve their home-chef skills with hands-on lessons, demonstrations or tutoring by noted chefs.

  • 12 places to visit in 2012

    29 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    From historical celebrations to Oregon wines to a diamond jubilee in Britain to Warhol in Arkansas, here are a dozen places to explore and enjoy. New Mexico: This year, New Mexicans mark 100 years of statehood. But much of the state's appeal stems from its human history that goes back much further. (In 2010, Santa Fe celebrated 400 years of cityhood.) Explore here: the adobe architecture and art galleries of Santa Fe; the vintage signage along old Route 66; the lingering hippie vibe of Truth or Consequences. Don't forget the Lightning Field, an art installation outside Quemado where (for $150…

  • Travel updates for 2012

    29 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Here are a dozen travel-news tidbits that will make you a better informed consumer in the new year. Think of what follows as a travel tapas buffet — tidbits that just might whet your appetite for more. Here are a dozen pieces of information for the 2012 traveler.

  • Cruises: Drinking in the ambience aboard Rotterdam VI

    22 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    With a more traditional vibe than other liners, Holland America's Rotterdam makes for smooth sailing.Rarely has a city been as in love with a shipping company as Rotterdam, Netherlands, is with the Holland America line.

  • Smaller legs of world cruises can be a deal

    22 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    If you can't take a full world cruise, a smaller segment can still be filled with adventure and cost a lot less. These days only a fraction of passengers are there for the long haul.The British couple — she in a long black dress, he in a traditional tux — leaned against the elevator's polished wood paneling as they headed back to their cabin after an evening performance in the main showroom. Embarrassed at my casual clothes and running shoes, I stammered, "We decided not to dress up and went to the buffet instead of the main dining room."
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    Travel - latimes.com

  • Cooking up gourmet adventures across the West

    29 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    A guide to the hotels, resorts and other locales in the West that offer travelers hand's-on cooking lessons.Cooking classes are sprouting like shiitake mushrooms across the West, often in gorgeous locations. For travelers who want to plan their gourmet adventures, we've found restaurants, hotels, lodges, resorts and culinary academies where they can improve their home-chef skills with hands-on lessons, demonstrations or tutoring by noted chefs.

  • 12 places to visit in 2012

    29 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    From historical celebrations to Oregon wines to a diamond jubilee in Britain to Warhol in Arkansas, here are a dozen places to explore and enjoy. New Mexico: This year, New Mexicans mark 100 years of statehood. But much of the state's appeal stems from its human history that goes back much further. (In 2010, Santa Fe celebrated 400 years of cityhood.) Explore here: the adobe architecture and art galleries of Santa Fe; the vintage signage along old Route 66; the lingering hippie vibe of Truth or Consequences. Don't forget the Lightning Field, an art installation outside Quemado where (for $150…

  • Travel updates for 2012

    29 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Here are a dozen travel-news tidbits that will make you a better informed consumer in the new year. Think of what follows as a travel tapas buffet — tidbits that just might whet your appetite for more. Here are a dozen pieces of information for the 2012 traveler.

  • Cruises: Drinking in the ambience aboard Rotterdam VI

    22 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    With a more traditional vibe than other liners, Holland America's Rotterdam makes for smooth sailing.Rarely has a city been as in love with a shipping company as Rotterdam, Netherlands, is with the Holland America line.

  • Smaller legs of world cruises can be a deal

    22 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    If you can't take a full world cruise, a smaller segment can still be filled with adventure and cost a lot less. These days only a fraction of passengers are there for the long haul.The British couple — she in a long black dress, he in a traditional tux — leaned against the elevator's polished wood paneling as they headed back to their cabin after an evening performance in the main showroom. Embarrassed at my casual clothes and running shoes, I stammered, "We decided not to dress up and went to the buffet instead of the main dining room."
 
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    Travel - latimes.com

  • Cooking up gourmet adventures across the West

    29 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    A guide to the hotels, resorts and other locales in the West that offer travelers hand's-on cooking lessons.Cooking classes are sprouting like shiitake mushrooms across the West, often in gorgeous locations. For travelers who want to plan their gourmet adventures, we've found restaurants, hotels, lodges, resorts and culinary academies where they can improve their home-chef skills with hands-on lessons, demonstrations or tutoring by noted chefs.

  • 12 places to visit in 2012

    29 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    From historical celebrations to Oregon wines to a diamond jubilee in Britain to Warhol in Arkansas, here are a dozen places to explore and enjoy. New Mexico: This year, New Mexicans mark 100 years of statehood. But much of the state's appeal stems from its human history that goes back much further. (In 2010, Santa Fe celebrated 400 years of cityhood.) Explore here: the adobe architecture and art galleries of Santa Fe; the vintage signage along old Route 66; the lingering hippie vibe of Truth or Consequences. Don't forget the Lightning Field, an art installation outside Quemado where (for $150…

  • Travel updates for 2012

    29 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Here are a dozen travel-news tidbits that will make you a better informed consumer in the new year. Think of what follows as a travel tapas buffet — tidbits that just might whet your appetite for more. Here are a dozen pieces of information for the 2012 traveler.

  • Cruises: Drinking in the ambience aboard Rotterdam VI

    22 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    With a more traditional vibe than other liners, Holland America's Rotterdam makes for smooth sailing.Rarely has a city been as in love with a shipping company as Rotterdam, Netherlands, is with the Holland America line.

  • Smaller legs of world cruises can be a deal

    22 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    If you can't take a full world cruise, a smaller segment can still be filled with adventure and cost a lot less. These days only a fraction of passengers are there for the long haul.The British couple — she in a long black dress, he in a traditional tux — leaned against the elevator's polished wood paneling as they headed back to their cabin after an evening performance in the main showroom. Embarrassed at my casual clothes and running shoes, I stammered, "We decided not to dress up and went to the buffet instead of the main dining room."
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    All The Rage

  • Fashion News: Rihanna gets a TV show. Alice Dellal does a video.

    Susan Denley
    27 Jan 2012 | 10:31 am
    A lot of folks were startled when Chanel selected the somewhat punky Alice Dellal -- socialite, sometime model and tattooed drummer in the band Thrush Metal -- as  the new "face" of Boy Chanel handbags. Turns out she was startled too. "So weird...so unexpected," she says in the video above, in which she talks about being selected and shares her thoughts about the handbags. "Chanel means elegance, casual elegance," she says. Rihanna has signed on as an executive producer for a fashion series on a British cable channel Sky Living. The show is centered on a…

  • Spotted: Caity Lotz, Anna McCord, Andrea Riseborough at Sundance

    Jenn Harris
    26 Jan 2012 | 4:24 pm
    A fabulous, versatile winter coat is a must-have for anyone braving the snow on Main Street at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. We spotted celebrities Caity Lotz, Anna Lynne McCord and Andrea Riseborough keeping stylishly warm in winter jackets. Lotz, star of the new thriller "The Pact," attended night 1 of Chefdance (a food festival taking place during the film festival) in a Topshop faux fur leather belted coat, available for $150 at Topshop NYC (212) 966-9555. Also in a killer coat was "90210" star McCord, who visited the Variety Studio at Sundance in…

  • Fashion News: Joan Rivers has more plastic surgery

    Susan Denley
    26 Jan 2012 | 10:42 am
    Joan Rivers had her 734th cosmetic procedure on the opening show of season two of "Joan & Melissa: Joan Knows Best?" -- and the number isn't a typo. Rivers, 78, has never made a secret that she's had a lot of work done, but that number, given on the WE television show, most likely includes things like Botox as well as surgery. [OC Register] Juliette Lewis is not the woman having sex with famed fashion photographer Terry Richardson in a photo making the rounds on the Internet, her publicist says. Not sure what Richardson has to say about it. [CBS News] In case you…

  • L.a Eyeworks annual sale starts Jan. 26

    Melissa Magsaysay
    25 Jan 2012 | 11:56 am
    It's a sale that's been known to draw hundreds of customers who are on the hunt for affordable statement-making eye wear. L.a Eyeworks' annual sale knocks a selection from the brand's sunglasses frames down 30% to 70% off the original price, and it runs Thursday through Saturday. The event has been known to attract a sizable crowd, often with a line snaking out the front door. But when $300 frames are going for under $100, it's no wonder people are snapping up several pairs of colorful or funky frames to add to their growing eye wear collection. Their optical frames…

  • Fashion: Tim Gunn confesses. Divas rock Paris couture shows.

    Susan Denley
    25 Jan 2012 | 10:53 am
    During Milan's showing of men's ready-to-wear for fall earlier this month, Prada broke the mold by replacing models with actors such as Adrien Brody and Gary Oldman. In Paris on Tuesday, lingerie brand Etam grabbed headlines by enlisting Grace Jones, Chaka Khan, Gloria Gaynor, Sister Sledge and the Pointer Sisters to model and perform on the runway. [The Cut] "Project Runway's" Tim Gunn, now a co-host on the daytime talk show "The Revolution,"  had his own surprising moment on Tuesday's show. He revealed that, after a difficult breakup with a romantic…
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    Technology

  • CES 2012: New tools for a better home network

    Jon Healey
    13 Jan 2012 | 8:51 pm
    Connected devices were a top trend at the Consumer Electronics Show this year, as they have been for several years. But there's no point in having a television that displays Twitter feeds or a refrigerator that can send recipes to your oven if your home network is barely functional. Here are my favorite networking gadgets and technologies from this year's show, based on the dangerous assumption that they all will work as advertised when they actually hit the market later this year: D-Link showed off several intriguing products, including a portable Wi-Fi hotspot that can share files…

  • CES 2012: The disruptive power of gesture and voice recognition

    Jon Healey
    13 Jan 2012 | 6:26 pm
    At a panel discussion at the Consumer Electronics Show this week, Mike Masnick of TechDirt noted that we typically don't recognize disruptive technologies until after the fact. He's probably right, but sometimes you really can see a technology rocking an industry in real time. That's the case today with gesture and voice recognition. These aren't new technologies, but judging from CES, they are finally poised to metastasize. Microsoft's Kinect motion sensors, of which more than 18 million have been sold, have prompted industries far removed from video games to rethink how people will use…

  • CES 2012: The bumps on the road for connected cars

    Jon Healey
    12 Jan 2012 | 6:57 pm
    Like television makers, leading automobile manufacturers want application developers to imbue cars with some of the energy and innovation seen in smartphones. And like their counterparts in the TV industry, they haven't settled on a standard way of doing so. The mishmash of approaches means that drivers may have to wait longer for their favorite apps to become available in the models of their choice, as different manufacturers follow divergent paths toward the connected car. The differences surfaced at this week's Consumer Electronics Show, where a host of car brands demonstrated the…

  • CES 2012: Phone-to-phone gaming and more with Alljoyn [Video]

    Jon Healey
    12 Jan 2012 | 4:42 pm
    Some times the coolest new things you see at the Consumer Electronics Show aren't gadgets or apps or even 55-inch OLED TV sets (although, admittedly, those are cool). Sometimes they're just technologies, which is what digital stereoscopic displays and gesture recognition were before they became 3D TV sets and XBox Kinect. A good example this year is Alljoyn, an open-source software project coming out of an innovation lab run by Qualcomm. Alljoyn enables nearby users of an app to interact with each other, even when there's no local data network. Multiple people in the room can join…

  • CES 2012: ng Connect promotes new uses for broadband

    Jon Healey
    12 Jan 2012 | 10:24 am
    Broadband speeds have increased steadily in the United States, reaching an average of 5.8 Mbps in mid-2011. That's 50% faster than in mid-2009, and it's likely to keep going up. But aside from streaming movies and doing video chats on Skype, what will people do with all that bandwidth? Alcatel-Lucent, a leading supplier of networking gear to telecommunications companies, is trying to give the public and broadband service providers a better idea of what connectivity can deliver. Just as important, it's trying to show DSL and cable-modem providers how they could offer new services,…
 
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    L.A. NOW

  • 2 people are shot at Hollywood restaurant

    Jill Jones
    28 Jan 2012 | 12:56 am
    A man and a woman were shot Friday night at a Hollywood restaurant, authorities said. The shooting took place at the Pink Pepper, a Thai restaurant in the 1600 block of North La Brea Avenue, about 10:15 p.m., said Norma Eisenman, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Police Department. The victims have been taken to a hospital but their conditions were unknown, she said. There is no information yet about the shooter, Eisenman said. No other details were immediately available. ALSO: Lily the Chihuahua dies after being hit with golf club TSA mistakes insulin pump for gun, causing LAX security scare…

  • Female student sexually assaulted at UCLA

    Jill Jones
    28 Jan 2012 | 12:53 am
    A female UCLA student was sexually assaulted early Friday in a part of campus once colloquially known as "the rape trail." UCLA police are looking for the suspect, who was described as white, 6 feet tall, 150 pounds and about 21 years old, with short brown hair and blue eyes, according to a crime alert issued by the campus police department. The attack occurred about 2:20 a.m. at the top of the Saxon steps, which connect the Saxon Suites dormitories with Gayley Avenue. A man called out to the female student climbing the steps, according to a statement from UCLA. After a brief…

  • Los Angeles regional weather forecast

    yyAMCopy
    27 Jan 2012 | 11:00 pm
    Extended Forecast » More forecasts: Long Beach | Pasadena | San Diego | Santa Monica | Van Nuys

  • 2 key aides leave Beutner's campaign for L.A. mayor

    Rich Connell
    27 Jan 2012 | 9:51 pm
    Two high-level political consultants have left the campaign of Los Angeles mayoral candidate Austin Beutner just days after he gave a major policy speech attacking City Hall. Sean Clegg said he and Ace Smith, both from San Francisco-based SCN Strategies, resigned Friday over “strategic differences.” Beutner said the parting was mutual. Beutner spent 15 months as Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s “jobs czar,” ran the Department of Water and Power on an interim basis and tried to make the city more business-friendly.  On the campaign trail, however, he has grown…

  • Junipero Serra High teacher accused of sex with student

    Steve Marble
    27 Jan 2012 | 8:50 pm
    A Catholic high school teacher in San Juan Capistrano has been charged with engaging in unlawful sex with a 14-year-old girl he met on campus, authorities said Friday. Ricardo Aldana, 37, who at the time of the alleged incident was a Spanish teacher and boys' soccer coach at Junipero Serra Catholic High School, befriended the victim when she was 13, the Orange County district attorney’s office said. In June, after the girl turned 14, Aldana massaged her shoulders while they were alone in his classroom, according to prosecutors. They allegedly exchanged frequent text messages and spoke…
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    Culture Monster

  • PST, A to Z: ‘The House That Sam Built,’ ‘In Words and Wood’

    Sharon Mizota
    27 Jan 2012 | 7:03 pm
    Pacific Standard Time will explore the origins of the Los Angeles art world through museum exhibitions throughout Southern California over the next six months. Times art reviewer Sharon Mizota has set the goal of seeing all of them. This is her latest report. Charles and Ray Eames may be the most celebrated PST designers, but two exhibitions centered on midcentury woodworker Sam Maloof give them a run for their money. “The House That Sam Built: Sam Maloof and Art in the Pomona Valley, 1945-1985” at the Huntington, and “In Words and Wood: Sam Maloof, Bob Stocksdale and Ed Moulthrop,”…

  • Vermeer's 'Girl With a Pearl Earring' coming to San Francisco

    Mike Boehm
    27 Jan 2012 | 6:01 pm
    You may have seen Scarlett Johansson impersonate her onscreen; now you can see her in the flesh, or, should we say, in the oil: Johannes Vermeer’s “Girl With A Pearl Earring” will come to the De Young Museum in San Francisco next January, the first stop on a three-venue American tour of paintings from the Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis, the Hague. The Dutch museum is sending 35 paintings on a two-year tour, announced Friday, first to the United States, then to two museums in Japan, while it undergoes renovations. “Girl With a Pearl Earring: Dutch Paintings From the Mauritshuis,”…

  • 'American Idol' producer Nigel Lythgoe joins Music Center board

    David Ng
    27 Jan 2012 | 2:52 pm
    Nigel Lythgoe, the uber reality-TV producer who was instrumental in launching Fox's "American Idol" and "So You Think You Can Dance," is joining the board of directors of the Music Center in downtown Los Angeles, the organization announced Friday. Lythgoe is one of three new appointments to the Music Center board. The others are Julia A. Stewart, the head of DineEquity, the parent company of the Applebee’s and IHOP chain restaurants; and Bertrand Valdman, a senior vice president at Edison International, the parent company of Southern California Edison. The Music…

  • Dance review: La La La Human Steps with U.S. debut of 'New Work'

    Laura Bleiberg
    27 Jan 2012 | 12:48 pm
    “Dancing in the dark” would make an impeccable subtitle for Édouard Lock’s provocative “New Work,” which had its U.S. debut at the Irvine Barclay Theatre on Thursday night. The ultra-athletic artists of Lock’s company, La La La Human Steps, whirled, kicked and wriggled at highest velocity. This iconoclastic style has brought both celebrity and notoriety to the Montreal choreographer. In “New Work,” Lock has gone one step further, designing a nearly dark lighting scheme, brightened only by precisely angled overhead and side spotlights. The dancers' faces and bodies were…

  • Monster Mash: Dudamel to Carnegie Hall; Charlie Chaplin musical

    David Ng
    27 Jan 2012 | 9:45 am
    New York, New York: Gustavo Dudamel will conduct the Simon Bolivar Symphony at Carnegie Hall next season. (New York Times) Summer tradition: The Public Theater in New York said its two Central Park productions this year will be Shakespeare's "As You Like It," starring Lily Rabe, and a revival of the musical "Into the Woods." (Playbill) Movie legend: The new musical "Becoming Chaplin" is expected to open on Broadway during the 2012-2013 season. (Theatermania) Accused: A New York art dealer has been charged in a $4-million fraud for selling works by Picasso,…
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    Daily Dish

  • Our favorite recipes for National Chocolate Cake Day

    Jenn Harris
    27 Jan 2012 | 2:38 pm
    Today is National Chocolate Cake Day -- as if we needed an excuse to indulge. To celebrate, we're sharing some of our favorite recipes for rich, satisfying chocolate cake: Nancy Silverton's bittersweet chocolate cake with hot fudge sauce and cioccolati perugini Classic flourless chocolate cake Mint chocolate cake Royal Sonesta double chocolate cake Old-fashioned milk chocolate cake with milk chocolate frosting Two-toned honey chocolate marble cake Enjoy! And whatever you do, don't forget the milk! ALSO: Test Kitchen video tip: Storing spices Good Food Awards winner: Dandelion…

  • Today's Eat Beat: Lemon tart

    Noelle Carter
    27 Jan 2012 | 2:29 pm
    What do you do when life hands you lemons? Make a lemon tart, of course! In today's Eat Beat, Food editor Russ Parsons demonstrates how to make Lazy Mary's lemon tart. You can find the recipe here. Catch our televised recipe demonstrations on KTLA-TV Channel 5 every Wednesday and Friday toward the end of the 1 p.m. news hour; you can also watch the videos on Food's homepage. ALSO: Go behind the scenes at the Test Kitchen 134 recipes for your favorite restaurant dishes Browse hundreds of recipes from the L.A. Times Test Kitchen -- Noelle CarterTwitter.com/noellecarter Video: KTLA

  • Test Kitchen video tip: Storing spices

    Noelle Carter
    27 Jan 2012 | 2:00 pm
    Nothing can kill a good recipe faster than a lack of spice. Even kitchen staples such as dried herbs and spices have an expiration date and can lose their potency over time. Properly stored, spices can last a year or two at most, with whole spices generally lasting longer than ground. Store your spices in a cool, dry place, away from moisture, and keep them tightly sealed. Whenever I open a new spice jar, I date the back so I can keep tabs on how long it's been open. Once a year, I'll rummage through the collection and check on them. Spices that still have some potency should have…

  • Green Truck to visit the LAPD festival of skid row artists

    Jenn Harris
    27 Jan 2012 | 1:40 pm
    Food truck fare is known for being tastebud-friendly, but not necessarily healthful. The Green Truck and Gardein team is trying to accomplish both. In January, Green Truck, a food truck dedicated to organic, sustainable cooking, and Gardein, makers of meatless protein products, got together to launch the "Cheat on Meat" campaign. The Green Truck and Gardein food carts travel to various L.A. communities to sell and distribute samples of their wholesome products. "Part of Gardein’s mission is to make healthy vegan, nutritious food available to the people who need it most --…

  • Test Kitchen tips: Taming a chile pepper's heat

    Noelle Carter
    27 Jan 2012 | 10:00 am
      At first glance, chile peppers -- like a brightly-colored little habañero -- might come across as unassuming, or even cute. But they can pack a shocking punch if not used carefully in the kitchen. Generally speaking, the smaller the chile, the more intense the heat. Be cautious when working with chiles; the oil from a chile can burn if it comes in contact with your skin or eyes. If possible, wear gloves or place your hands in food-grade plastic bags before handling. After working with the chiles, be sure to wash your knives, cutting board and anything else thoroughly with hot soapy…
 
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    Travel - latimes.com

  • L.A. Times Travel Show: Exhibitors preparing for Saturday opening

    27 Jan 2012 | 4:12 pm
    Exhibitors were working hard Friday to get their booths ready for the L.A. Times Travel Show, which opens to consumers Saturday.

  • LA Times Travel Show: Making your pictures sing

    27 Jan 2012 | 11:37 am
    At the Los Angeles Times Travel Show Saturday and Sunday, LA Times photographers will share their expertise with you and help you create vivid photographic memories. Kathy M.Y. Pyon will focus on our everyday technology--camera phones and point-and-shoots--in a session called "Great Photos From the Littlest Gadgets." Here are some of her pictures and the ideas behind them. The Travel Show is open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at the LA Convention Center; tickets cost $10.

  • Rick Steves shares favorite hidden travel destinations in Europe

    27 Jan 2012 | 9:00 am
    Rick Steves will appear this weekend at the Los Angeles Times Travel Show to talk about -- what else? -- Europe. Steves wrote his first "Europe Through the Back Door" guidebook in 1980 and has churned out about 40 books since then.

  • San Diego: Pass offers half-off museum admissions during February

    27 Jan 2012 | 8:00 am
    A Valentine's Day idea for those who love to save a buck: museum-hopping. In San Diego, tickets to more than 40 museums will be half-price for the month of February.

  • New rule on advertised airfares begins -- and Spirit isn't happy

    26 Jan 2012 | 12:45 pm
    If airfares seem a little higher than usual, it's not because the airlines have raised their prices. The Department of Transportation's long-awaited new rules on what airlines can advertise as posted ticket prices go into effect Thursday. I think of it as the "no surprises" rule.
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    Company Town

  • Screen Actors Guild votes to approve merger plan

    Richard Verrier
    27 Jan 2012 | 9:29 pm
    The Screen Actors Guild national board of directors voted overwhelmingly to approve a plan to merge with its sister union, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. The board voted 87% to 13% in favor of a historic merger agreement with AFTRA that includes a proposed constitution and dues payment plan for what would be the largest labor group in Hollywood. SAG represents about 125,000 actors; AFTRA has 70,000 members, including actors, broadcasters, disc jockeys, singers and dancers. At least 40,000 people are members of both unions. The union is to be called SAG-AFTRA.

  • On Location: 'Killing Season' for De Niro, Travolta in Georgia

    Dima Alzayat
    27 Jan 2012 | 7:13 pm
    Robert De Niro and John Travolta are about to do battle in the Appalachian Mountains, further evidence of Georgia's rising star in film production. The veteran actors will head to the North Georgia mountains next week to begin filming "Killing Season," in which De Niro plays an American military veteran living in a remote cabin in the woods and Travolta stars as a vengeful former Serbian soldier disguised as a tourist. "Killing Season" producer Millennium Films scours the globe for film tax credits, shooting films in Israel, South Africa, Canada and Bulgaria,…

  • NBC overpaid for Golden Globes, former top exec says

    Joe Flint
    27 Jan 2012 | 6:26 pm
    A former top executive at NBC said he thought the network overpaid for the Golden Globes in 2010 when it signed a long-term deal to keep the awards show on its network. Marc Graboff, who until recently was NBC's president of West Coast business operations, testified Friday that he warned his bosses at the network that the price tag for the Golden Globes, which ended up being an average of $21.5 million per show, was too high. "This is the kind of deal we shouldn't rush to make," Graboff emailed then NBCUniversal Chief Executive Jeff Zucker and NBCUniversal Television…

  • Viacom executives again among America's highest paid

    Meg James
    27 Jan 2012 | 5:35 pm
    Billionaire Sumner Redstone got a 39% boost in compensation last year in his role as executive chairman of Viacom Inc. The 88-year-old media mogul and his top two lieutenants together collected compensation packages in 2011 totaling nearly $100 million. Viacom Chief Executive Philippe Dauman was awarded $43 million in salary, stock and other benefits, according to the company's proxy filed late Friday with the Securities & Exchange Commission. While still sizable, Dauman's compensation was considerably less (a 49% decrease) than in the previous year when he earned the…

  • The Morning Fix: 'Grey' to top box office. Will HBO's 'Luck' win?

    Joe Flint
    27 Jan 2012 | 9:20 am
    After the coffee. Before deciding whether to commit to HBO's "Luck." The Skinny: I have to report the box-office results this Sunday, so I'm lacking my usual Friday enthusiasm. Headlines today include previews of the weekend box office, NBC's Super Bowl hype machine, and the latest from the legal battle between the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. and Dick Clark Productions over the TV rights to Golden Globe Awards. The Daily Dose: Even though the results of a trial over who controls the television rights to the Golden Globes could potentially see the awards show's…
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    L.A. NOW

  • Man dies after being shot in head during home-invasion robbery

    Kimi Yoshino
    27 Jan 2012 | 4:01 pm
    A 29-year-old man died Friday morning after being shot in the head during a home-invasion robbery in Downey earlier this week. Israel Macias had been on life support since being shot just before midnight Monday at his home in the 9300 block of Elm Vista Drive. Downey police Sgt. Dan Baker said three male suspects forced their way into Macias' residence "looking for valuables." Once inside, a struggled ensued, spilling outside to the frontyard, where one of the suspects fired at least two rounds from a handgun, wounding Macias in the head. Five adult relatives of Macias were also…

  • Woman wanted in Palmdale killing captured in Belize, FBI says

    Robert Lopez
    26 Jan 2012 | 11:29 pm
    A woman wanted in connection with a slaying in Palmdale has been returned to the United States after being captured in Belize, the FBI said Thursday night. Larene Eleanor Austin, 29, was apprehended without incident Wednesday in connection with the 2010 killing of Lanell Barsock, the FBI said. Barsock's body was found in a garage by a friend in June 2010, according to the Los Angeles County coroner's office. She had a bag over her head and had been shot.Austin allegedly tried to frame Barsock's boyfriend in the killing, but Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department deputies…

  • Search of Calabasas landfill fails to find gun used in teen’s slaying

    Richard Winton
    26 Jan 2012 | 9:23 pm
    After two days of searching a landfill, Los Angeles police and community volunteers have abandoned efforts to find the gun used in the slaying of a well-liked 17-year-old El Camino Real High School soccer player, officials said. Francisco Rodriguez was gunned down in Winnetka as he stepped into his frontyard after a girl knocked at his door. Two suspects have been arrested: Elizabeth Ibarra, 19, who police believe lured the victim outside, and Jason Schumann, 24, who allegedly fired the shots from a vehicle. Schumann has been charged with murder and is being held on $2-million bail. Ibarra…

  • Police investigate body found near Silver Lake

    Dalina Castellanos
    26 Jan 2012 | 1:17 pm
    A body was found Thursday on Riverside Drive near Silver Lake, authorities said. The body was found in a bush near the 2 Freeway on-ramp about 9 a.m. by CHP officers, said Officer Cleon Joseph of the Los Angeles Police Department. An investigation was being conducted by the LAPD. No other information was available. ALSO: 80-year-old man rips mask off 'KISS' robber Driver 'just kept going' after hitting 4-year-old, family says 'Puffy Coat Bandit' suspect indicted for seven bank robberies -- Dalina Castellanos  

  • Man charged in Old fire may change plea related to 2003 blaze

    Jill Jones
    26 Jan 2012 | 7:45 am
    The man accused of setting a 2003 wildfire that destroyed 1,000 homes, charred mountain communities around Lake Arrowhead and led to five deaths may change his plea of not guilty when he appears in a San Bernardino County court Thursday morning. Rickie Lee Fowler could face the death penalty for causing five deaths in the Oct. 25, 2003, blaze, known as the Old fire, which leveled San Bernardino's Del Rosa neighborhood and sent a firestorm up the San Bernardino Mountains, devastating communities including Crestline and Cedar Glen. Those who died in the fire suffered heart attacks. Court…
 
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    Jacket Copy

  • This Sunday: The critic's art and Gil Scott-Heron too

    Jon Thurber
    27 Jan 2012 | 5:51 pm
    At a time when everyone seems to have an opinion and a venue for expressing it, the art of criticism may seem hard to grasp and even harder to do. Times Book Critic David L. Ulin obviously does this kind of thing for a living. He reads and thinks, thinks and reads ... and when he gets tired of reading and thinking, he does it some more. In our lead piece on Sunday’s Arts & Books cover, Ulin looks at the critical range of two writers perhaps better known for their novels: John Updike and William H. Gass.  Working with Updike’s “Higher Gossip” and Gass’ “Life Sentences:…

  • Mary Otis, animated [video]

    Carolyn Kellogg
    27 Jan 2012 | 1:13 pm
    Los Angeles author Mary Otis is the latest to get the animation treatment from the innovative magazine Electric Literature. Electric Literature is released simultaneously in print and e-book formats, and frequently leverages multimedia forms to explore different aspects of storytelling. For its animations, Electric Literature asks a contributor to select a single sentence from the piece that appears in the magazine. That sentence is handed over to an animator, who gives it an artistic rendering that may or may not have much to do with the story itself. It's one creative work spawning a…

  • Atheist writers clash over how to not worship a nonexistent God

    Carolyn Kellogg
    27 Jan 2012 | 11:35 am
    Two prominent British atheist authors are clashing over the best way to not worship a lack of a God. Writer Alain de Botton wants to erect a $1.5-million "temple for atheists" in London, complete with a 151-foot tower reaching toward a godless sky. De Botton finds Richard Dawkins' approach to atheism "aggressive" and "destructive." He told the Guardian, "Normally a temple is to Jesus, Mary or Buddha, but you can build a temple to anything that's positive and good. That could mean a temple to love, friendship, calm or perspective. Because of Richard…

  • America's most literate cities and more book news

    Carolyn Kellogg
    26 Jan 2012 | 7:51 pm
    Central Connecticut State University released its annual list of most literate cities Wednesday; Washington D.C. took the top spot. As in years past, Los Angeles didn't fare well. Why should we? We've only got the largest book festival in the country, vibrant independent booksellers, major univeristies, a fantastic public library system, highly literate public radio shows.... Sigh. We ranked No. 59. Oh well -- New York, the center of publishing, was only No. 22. The Books are no more! The band, that is. I had no tickets and I must scream. Author Harlan Ellison appeared at the Los…

  • Art meets books: Very cool and far away

    Carolyn Kellogg
    26 Jan 2012 | 4:24 pm
    An intriguing museum exhibition that's all about print is taking place in February and March. Unfortunately for Angelenos, it's at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Print/Out will exhibit more than 200 works of printed materials such as artists' books from MOMA's collection, including pieces by Martin Kippenberger, Ai Weiwei, and SUPERFLEX. It's the first such exhibit since 1996. The museum writes: Over the last two decades, the art world has broadened its geographic reach and opened itself to new continents, allowing for a significant cross-pollination of…
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    Money & Company

  • Online car-selling scam nets $4 million, prosecutors say

    Tiffany Hsu
    31 Dec 2011 | 12:00 pm
    For more than three years, six foreign nationals ran an Internet vehicle-selling scam that bilked customers out of more than $4 million without delivering a single car, motor home or boat, according to a federal indictment out of Los Angeles this week.  The indictment charges six people from Germany, Russia, Romania and Latvia with conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud and money laundering. Starting in 2007 through 2010, the group put vehicles up for sale on auto-trading websites such as EBay Motors, Edmunds.com and Craigslist and collected at least $4 million from customers, according to…

  • Retail Roundup: L.L. Bean's duck boots, McDonald's mobile, Lowe's

    Shan Li
    31 Dec 2011 | 8:00 am
    -- Maine retailer L.L. Bean says the duck boot is back in style, at least among fashion-conscious, trend-hungry college students around the country. This year, the nearly century-old outdoor apparel company sold about 400,000 pairs of the hunting boots -- which have hardy rubber soles -- up from 150,00 just four years ago, the Associated Press reported. The boot is benefiting from a vintage fashion sense prevalent among college students, the AP said, and also new styles that updated the classic boot with bright pops of color (such as pink) for the spring. This would be the same sartorial…

  • Kimberly-Clark to launch 'designer' toilet paper roll covers

    Shan Li
    30 Dec 2011 | 4:52 pm
    Apparently, even toilet paper rolls can be fashionably dressed. That's the rather whimsical tack taken by consumer products giant Kimberly-Clark Corp., which is launching a "spring line" of colorful covers to hold extra rolls and add pizazz to the bathroom. The company tapped interior designer Jonathan Adler to be the creative brain behind the "collection" -- and the three designs bear his signature stamp of graphic prints combined with bold color (and fancy descriptions such as "chevron pink," "clover green" and "barjello blue"). The…

  • CDR Financial Products founder pleads guilty in municipal bond case

    Stuart Pfeifer
    30 Dec 2011 | 3:39 pm
    A Beverly Hills financial firm and its founder pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges that they defrauded government agencies by steering investment contracts to firms that paid them kickbacks. David Rubin, 50, and his company, CDR Financial Products Inc., were accused of running sham auctions for government agencies looking to invest money raised through municipal bond offerings. The contracts were awarded to favored firms that secretly paid kickbacks to CDR, not always the firm offering the highest returns, the government alleged. Rubin, who sobbed at Friday’s plea hearing in New…

  • Energy Department predicted the 2011 boom in U.S. fuel exports

    Ronald D. White
    30 Dec 2011 | 2:26 pm
    The 2011 Argus Americas Crude Summit, held in Houston last January, was named "Life After Macondo" and focused on the aftermath of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill. But American consumers might have been far more interested in a presentation that ventured far from that script. Joanne Shore, team leader and lead operations research analyst at the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration, and colleague John Hackworth essentially explained why Americans were about to pay more for gasoline in 2011 than they ever had before. Shore's and Hackworth's…
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    L.A. NOW

  • 2 people are shot at Hollywood restaurant

    Jill Jones
    28 Jan 2012 | 12:56 am
    A man and a woman were shot Friday night at a Hollywood restaurant, authorities said. The shooting took place at the Pink Pepper, a Thai restaurant in the 1600 block of North La Brea Avenue, about 10:15 p.m., said Norma Eisenman, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Police Department. The victims have been taken to a hospital but their conditions were unknown, she said. There is no information yet about the shooter, Eisenman said. No other details were immediately available. ALSO: Lily the Chihuahua dies after being hit with golf club TSA mistakes insulin pump for gun, causing LAX security scare…

  • Female student sexually assaulted at UCLA

    Jill Jones
    28 Jan 2012 | 12:53 am
    A female UCLA student was sexually assaulted early Friday in a part of campus once colloquially known as "the rape trail." UCLA police are looking for the suspect, who was described as white, 6 feet tall, 150 pounds and about 21 years old, with short brown hair and blue eyes, according to a crime alert issued by the campus police department. The attack occurred about 2:20 a.m. at the top of the Saxon steps, which connect the Saxon Suites dormitories with Gayley Avenue. A man called out to the female student climbing the steps, according to a statement from UCLA. After a brief…

  • Los Angeles regional weather forecast

    yyAMCopy
    27 Jan 2012 | 11:00 pm
    Extended Forecast » More forecasts: Long Beach | Pasadena | San Diego | Santa Monica | Van Nuys

  • 2 key aides leave Beutner's campaign for L.A. mayor

    Rich Connell
    27 Jan 2012 | 9:51 pm
    Two high-level political consultants have left the campaign of Los Angeles mayoral candidate Austin Beutner just days after he gave a major policy speech attacking City Hall. Sean Clegg said he and Ace Smith, both from San Francisco-based SCN Strategies, resigned Friday over “strategic differences.” Beutner said the parting was mutual. Beutner spent 15 months as Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s “jobs czar,” ran the Department of Water and Power on an interim basis and tried to make the city more business-friendly.  On the campaign trail, however, he has grown increasingly harsh in…

  • Junipero Serra High teacher accused of sex with student

    Steve Marble
    27 Jan 2012 | 8:50 pm
    A Catholic high school teacher in San Juan Capistrano has been charged with engaging in unlawful sex with a 14-year-old girl he met on campus, authorities said Friday. Ricardo Aldana, 37, who at the time of the alleged incident was a Spanish teacher and boys' soccer coach at Junipero Serra Catholic High School, befriended the victim when she was 13, the Orange County district attorney’s office said. In June, after the girl turned 14, Aldana massaged her shoulders while they were alone in his classroom, according to prosecutors. They allegedly exchanged frequent text messages and spoke…
 
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    Money & Company

  • Online car-selling scam nets $4 million, prosecutors say

    Tiffany Hsu
    31 Dec 2011 | 12:00 pm
    For more than three years, six foreign nationals ran an Internet vehicle-selling scam that bilked customers out of more than $4 million without delivering a single car, motor home or boat, according to a federal indictment out of Los Angeles this week.  The indictment charges six people from Germany, Russia, Romania and Latvia with conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud and money laundering. Starting in 2007 through 2010, the group put vehicles up for sale on auto-trading websites such as EBay Motors, Edmunds.com and Craigslist and collected at least $4 million from customers, according to…

  • Retail Roundup: L.L. Bean's duck boots, McDonald's mobile, Lowe's

    Shan Li
    31 Dec 2011 | 8:00 am
    -- Maine retailer L.L. Bean says the duck boot is back in style, at least among fashion-conscious, trend-hungry college students around the country. This year, the nearly century-old outdoor apparel company sold about 400,000 pairs of the hunting boots -- which have hardy rubber soles -- up from 150,00 just four years ago, the Associated Press reported. The boot is benefiting from a vintage fashion sense prevalent among college students, the AP said, and also new styles that updated the classic boot with bright pops of color (such as pink) for the spring. This would be the same sartorial…

  • Kimberly-Clark to launch 'designer' toilet paper roll covers

    Shan Li
    30 Dec 2011 | 4:52 pm
    Apparently, even toilet paper rolls can be fashionably dressed. That's the rather whimsical tack taken by consumer products giant Kimberly-Clark Corp., which is launching a "spring line" of colorful covers to hold extra rolls and add pizazz to the bathroom. The company tapped interior designer Jonathan Adler to be the creative brain behind the "collection" -- and the three designs bear his signature stamp of graphic prints combined with bold color (and fancy descriptions such as "chevron pink," "clover green" and "barjello blue"). The…

  • CDR Financial Products founder pleads guilty in municipal bond case

    Stuart Pfeifer
    30 Dec 2011 | 3:39 pm
    A Beverly Hills financial firm and its founder pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges that they defrauded government agencies by steering investment contracts to firms that paid them kickbacks. David Rubin, 50, and his company, CDR Financial Products Inc., were accused of running sham auctions for government agencies looking to invest money raised through municipal bond offerings. The contracts were awarded to favored firms that secretly paid kickbacks to CDR, not always the firm offering the highest returns, the government alleged. Rubin, who sobbed at Friday’s plea hearing in New…

  • Energy Department predicted the 2011 boom in U.S. fuel exports

    Ronald D. White
    30 Dec 2011 | 2:26 pm
    The 2011 Argus Americas Crude Summit, held in Houston last January, was named "Life After Macondo" and focused on the aftermath of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill. But American consumers might have been far more interested in a presentation that ventured far from that script. Joanne Shore, team leader and lead operations research analyst at the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration, and colleague John Hackworth essentially explained why Americans were about to pay more for gasoline in 2011 than they ever had before. Shore's and Hackworth's…
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    L.A. Times - Opinion Blog

  • Phyllis Diller's second act [Mimi Pond cartoon]

    Alexandra LeTellier
    27 Jan 2012 | 5:19 pm
    (Click on the cartoon to see it at full size.) ALSO: Hollywood forever [Mimi Pond cartoon] The Richard Simmons vortex [Mimi Pond cartoon] Acts of random transit in L.A. [Mimi Pond cartoon] Cartoon by Mimi Pond / For The Times

  • The dogs on the trail of the severed head

    Karin Klein
    27 Jan 2012 | 2:12 pm
    As Times writer Gale Holland reported in her column Friday, the woman walking the dogs that found the severed head in the Hollywood Hills has unfortunately been subjected to various sorts of harassment. So let me add to it here. I'm sure that Lauren Kornberg has been through an undeservedly tough time, a traumatic time, just as Holland reports. But Kornberg, a professional dog-walker who was caring for nine dogs at the time, also is quoted as talking about the squirrels and other wildlife that at least one of the nine dogs with them usually…

  • Romney wins the pandering prize for his debate comments on Israel

    Michael McGough
    27 Jan 2012 | 12:37 pm
    Not surprisingly, there was a good deal of pandering at Thursday’s Republican presidential debate. With the exception of Ron Paul,  the candidates took a hard line on easing relations with Cuba, a sop to Florida's die-hard anti-Castro Cubans. But the worst panderer was Mitt Romney on the subject of the Middle East. "I believe the best way to have peace in the Middle East is not for us to vacillate and to appease, but is to say we stand with our friend Israel,” he said. “We are committed to a Jewish state in Israel; we will not have an inch of difference between ourselves…

  • President Obama, winner of Florida debate?

    Alexandra LeTellier
    26 Jan 2012 | 10:06 pm
    You can say one thing about the Republican candidates for president: They’ve been debating each other for so long that they can now swap stinging personal attacks without getting visibly angry. Mitt Romney was on the offensive in Jacksonville, Fla., Thursday evening. He needed only a little prompting to accuse Newt Gingrich of shilling for Freddie Mac, one of the government-backed mortgage firms that conservatives loathe, and of being soft on illegal immigration. “Our problem is not 11 million grandmothers,” Romney said, responding to Gingrich’s reluctance to deport foreign-born…

  • How Cynthia Nixon's "gay by choice" might play in court

    Karin Klein
    26 Jan 2012 | 4:46 pm
    When actress Cynthia Nixon described herself as "gay by choice" in a New York Times magazine interview, she not only set off a storm of reexaminations of the evidence on whether homosexuality is a matter of nature or nurture, but threw a verbal monkey wrench into the legal question of gay rights. As Times science writer Karen Kaplan summarized, "The scientific consensus seems to be that there is indeed a biological basis for homosexuality -- though it's not necessarily 100% determined by either genes or by environmental factors." Science is painting a complex portrait…
 
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    Pop & Hiss

  • In rotation: Goldfrapp's 'The Singles'

    Nathan Jackson
    27 Jan 2012 | 7:48 pm
    In rotation: Goldfrapp's 'The Singles.' A series in Sunday Calendar about what Times writers & contributors are listening to right now... Alison Goldfrapp has exhibited two personas in her last decade-plus as the frontwoman of the electro-chic collaboration with composer Will Gregory that bears her name. Over the course of five albums, the British singer has been a blackberry-lipped robot-vixen, the kind that might throat you with her heel, only to drift away uninterested a minute later. She’s also been a pagan goddess, drawing wisdom from unlikely sources, like the fugue of…

  • In rotation: 'The Original Sound of Cumbia: The History of Colombian Cumbia & Porro'

    Nathan Jackson
    27 Jan 2012 | 7:34 pm
    In rotation: 'The Original Sound of Cumbia: The History of Colombian Cumbia & Porro.' A series in Sunday Calendar about what Times writers & contributors are listening to right now... The profoundly sexy rhythms that permeate “The Original Sound of Cumbia” stretch back generations and share a common ancestor with the sound that sprung from New Orleans in the early 1800s and gradually spread across North America. When the slave ships on both the Caribbean coast of Colombia and the Louisiana Gulf Coast brought in men and women from Africa, they imported music, too, and that…

  • Album review: Lana Del Rey's 'Born to Die'

    Randall Roberts
    27 Jan 2012 | 2:25 pm
    Were we allowed a glimpse of Lana Del Rey’s imaginary shopping list based on the references within her debut album, "Born to Die," we would see, scribbled in pen with each "i" flower-dotted: Diet Mountain Dew, cocaine, Bacardi rum, a white Pontiac, heart-shaped sunglasses, a Bugatti Veyron sports car, cigarettes, a Jesus for the dashboard, Cristal champagne, Chevron gas, maraschino cherries (for tongue-tying the stems, of course), Pabst Blue Ribbon on ice, and cherry Schnapps. You can almost see the self-proclaimed Lolita singer, 25 but oozing teen-aged naughtiness,…

  • Michael Jackson's legacy set in concrete at Grauman's

    Gerrick D. Kennedy
    26 Jan 2012 | 5:00 pm
    Michael Jackson's three children led a celebration that immortalized their late father in front of Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood on Thursday.Prince, Paris and Prince “Blanket” Michael II capped the hour-plus ceremony, which also featured dance tributes, song medleys and video montages, by imprinting the King of Pop’s hand and footprints in concrete. PHOTOS: Michael Jackson hand and footprint ceremony The ceremony was held on a massive stage erected in front of Gruman’s under a promotional backdrop for the new Jackson-themed Cirque du Soleil show “Immortal,” which…

  • Merle Haggard out of hospital, home to recuperate* [Updated]

    Randy Lewis
    26 Jan 2012 | 3:32 pm
    Country singer and songwriter Merle Haggard has been released again from a hospital in Macon, Ga., and has returned to his home in Redding, Calif., to recuperate from a bout of pneumonia and other medical issues, his spokeswoman said Thursday. The 74-year-old singer also was treated for three stomach ulcers, esophageal diverticulitis and had eight polyps removed from his colon while hospitalized last week in Georgia with double pneumonia. He was released late last week and planned to drive home to recover, but returned shortly after to seek more aggressive treatment. Haggard had part of a…
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    Readers' Representative Journal

  • 2011 a year of record growth for latimes.com

    Deirdre Edgar
    27 Jan 2012 | 2:30 pm
    A note to the staff from Managing Editor/Online Jimmy Orr: No better way to put it:  2011 was a remarkable year for journalism at the Los Angeles Times on the digital front. Not only did our overall readership soar by unparalleled numbers but we recorded significant growth in every major category. We’ll go through a few of those categories here, but suffice it to say that we’re reaching more readers and engaging with them better than ever before. Much of our success can be attributed to the fact that we are jumping on news when it happens.  Year-over-year readership on our…

  • Artist looks back on a year of drawing The Times

    Deirdre Edgar
    20 Jan 2012 | 2:38 pm
    Los Angeles artist Erik Shveima set out last Jan. 1 on a personal project to draw the Los Angeles Times every day of 2011. In a guest post, he looks back on the endeavor: This past year the paper kept me up at night. Not because I worry about its future (although I do, in fact, worry about its future), but because of what that worry compelled me to do. In late 2010 I decided to dedicate the coming year to drawing the Los Angeles Times — the front page in particular — every day.  By the end I would have a portrait of the year’s news, a 21st century commonplace book dedicated to the…

  • Seattle residents to Times reporter: 'Who are you calling wimps?'

    LATimes
    19 Jan 2012 | 10:23 pm
    Times Northwest correspondent Kim Murphy's recent story about the snowstorm in western Washington state -- in particular its headline, "Snow wimps: Seattle is shut down by first real snow of the season" -- didn't sit well with a number of Seattle residents, many of whom seemed to take special offense because the story originated from a Los Angeles news organization. Murphy's story has been a topic of discussion for the Seattle Times and Seattle's KING-5 News ("The LA Times?! I will listen to the LA Times when it describes the…

  • What's in a name? Depends on whether you use the tilde

    Deirdre Edgar
    13 Jan 2012 | 1:25 pm
    An article Sunday about recent missteps by a leading Mexican presidential candidate prompted a critical response from one reader. But Jose Suarez of Los Angeles wasn’t upset by anecdotes about the candidate’s inability to name a book he’d read or to quote the price of tortillas. Suarez questioned The Times’ spelling of the candidate’s name: Enrique Pena Nieto. “I noticed you keep calling him Pena Nieto even though his name is Peña Nieto,” Suarez wrote. “I cannot understand why a newspaper doesn't respect the spelling of a presidential candidate of a country.

  • Offsite audience drives latimes.com growth in November

    Deirdre Edgar
    3 Jan 2012 | 4:22 pm
    A memo to the staff from Managing Editor/Online Jimmy Orr and Senior Vice President/Digital Emily Smith: New Year’s resolution No. 1:  Send monthly note out earlier (this note is for November).  Yikes. But November was a great month.  So let’s recap it.  We continued to break new ground in real-time reporting for the benefit of our Southern California readers.  Our audience grew by 13.5% year over year, according to ComScore.  For those keeping count, this makes nine consecutive months of double-digit growth (ComScore). Where did SoCal go for live,…
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    Show Tracker

  • Saturday’s Highlights: "The Pregnancy Project” on Lifetime

    Ed Stockly
    27 Jan 2012 | 10:00 pm
    Click here to download TV listings for the week of Jan. 29 - Feb. 4 in PDF format TV listings for the week of Jan. 29 - Feb. 4 in PDF format are also available at latimes.com/entertainment/news/tv Weekly TV Listings and more can be found at: www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/tv This week's TV Movies ALEXA VEGA, of "Spy Kids," stars in the new fact-based drama “The Pregnancy Project” at 8 and 10 p.m. on Lifetime. SERIESUltimate Factories: The docu-series visits a Frito-Lay factory to see how potato chips are made in this new episode (8 and 11 p.m. National…

  • Weekend Talk Shows

    Ed Stockly
    27 Jan 2012 | 7:10 pm
    Click here to download TV listings for the week of Jan. 29 - Feb. 4 in PDF format TV listings for the week of Jan. 29 - Feb. 4 in PDF format are also available at latimes.com/entertainment/news/tv Weekly TV Listings and more can be found at: www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/tv This week's TV Movies TODAY Good Morning America (N) 7 a.m. KABC  The Chris Matthews Show GOP presidential candidates: Andrew Sullivan, Newsweek; Katty Kay, BBC; Michael Duffy, Time; Kathleen Parker. (N) 5 p.m.; Sunday. 5:30 a.m. KNBC  McLaughlin Group (N) 6:30 p.m. KCET  SUNDAY Today Viewer photos. (N) 6 a.m.

  • 'Simpsons' marathon set to celebrate the show's 500th episode

    pdayla
    27 Jan 2012 | 6:03 pm
    Love 'The Simpsons' but hate your good health? Then Fox has cooked up an event catered specifically to you. In celebration of the 500th episode of "The Simpsons," the network is sponsoring a fan marathon of all 500 episodes of the series, in order, all at once on Feb. 8. The hope is to crown a new Guinness World Record holder for longest continuous television viewing -- a record set in 2010 by three viewers of another Fox series, "24." Kevin Coon, Victor Lopez and Farris Hodo beat out 100 other participants in the "24" marathon showing by staying awake…

  • SAG Awards: We predict Sunday's big TV winners

    Elena Howe
    27 Jan 2012 | 4:06 pm
    SAG loves to boast about the size of its voting membership. (Nearly 100,000 final ballots served!) Next year, though, when it randomly picks 2,100 members to choose nominees on the television side, it might want to somehow find a few who actually … you know … watch TV. That way, we wouldn’t be asking, “What the heck is ‘Suits’ and why are you nominating Patrick J. Adams for lead actor in a drama?" (No offense, he’s Canadian, so we’re sure he’s a nice guy and all.) Now that we’ve unloaded that burden, let’s figure out who, apart from Mr. Adams, might win the Actor on…

  • TV THIS WEEK: Jan. 29 - Feb. 4

    Ed Stockly
    27 Jan 2012 | 3:42 pm
    Click here to download TV listings for the week of Jan. 29 - Feb. 4 in PDF format TV listings for the week of Jan. 29 - Feb. 4 in PDF format are also available at latimes.com/entertainment/news/tv Weekly TV Listings and more can be found at: www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/tv This week's TV Movies   SUNDAY Make sure to watch the “18th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards” — because if there were no actors, most movies and TV shows would be little more than 30 to 120 minutes of sets and scenery, and maybe a little music. (TBS, 5 p.m.; TNT, 5 and 7 p.m.) For a pastime famously…
 
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    Technology

  • Two teens send a Lego man into near space

    27 Jan 2012 | 9:44 pm
    Two Canadian high school students have successfully launched a Lego man almost 80,000 feet above sea level--high enough to capture video of the plastic toy hovering above the curvature of the Earth. Now the results of their experiment have gone viral, racking up more than 600,000 views on YouTube in just two daysand inspiring the young engineers to make their small astronaut his own Facebook page--Lego Man in Space. The Toronto Starreports that the two teens, Matthew Ho and Asad Muhammed, were inspired to do the project about a year and a half ago when Ho saw a YouTube video of MIT students…

  • Aneesh Chopra, the first White House chief of technology, resigns

    27 Jan 2012 | 7:58 pm
    Aneesh Chopra, the first White House chief of technology, has resigned after almost three years on the job. Chopra's resignation was announced in a post on the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy's blog that did not explain why he's leaving the Obama administration. The Washington Post reported that he is rumored to be considering a run for lieutenant governor in Virgina. "When President Obama came into office in January 2009, the administration found a federal government relying too heavily on 20th century technology," John P. Holdren, director of the Office of Science and…

  • Apple's Tim Cook responds to accounts of poor factory conditions

    27 Jan 2012 | 6:38 pm
    Apple Inc.'s chief executive responded to a wave of negative attention to conditions at overseas factories that make its products, saying the insinuation that Apple doesn't care about the welfare of its workers is "offensive." "Unfortunately, some people are questioning Apple’s values today," Tim Cook wrote in an e-mail to Apple employees. "Any accident is deeply troubling, and any issue with working conditions is cause for concern." A series of articles in the New York Times has brought new focus on Apple's highly profitable production strategy,…

  • Facebook IPO filing reportedly due 'as early as next week'

    27 Jan 2012 | 3:47 pm
    Facebook's initial public offering has been anticipated for months and is speculated to be worth as much as $100 billion whenever it arrives. And right about now, that's the biggest question for the world's largest social network -- when will the IPO filing arrive? According to a Friday report from the Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed sources, Facebook could file for its IPO "as early as next week." When next week? The Journal says "Facebook could file papers for the IPO as early as this coming Wednesday, but that timing is still being discussed, said a person…

  • Thomas Edison, Steve Jobs top young adult list of greatest innovators

    27 Jan 2012 | 3:02 pm
    Alexander Graham Bell. Thomas Edison. Marie Curie. Steve Jobs. Which of these people would you consider the greatest innovator of all time? A few weeks ago the Lemelson-MIT Program put a similar question to 1,000 young adults ages 16 to 25, and stodgy old purists can breathe a sigh of relief. Thomas Edison trumped everyone. "Though part of the 'Apple Generation,' many young Americans surprisingly chose Thomas Edison (52%), as the greatest innovator of all time, demonstrating that education around the history of invention exists in today's curriculum," the organization…
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    Money & Company

  • Online car-selling scam nets $4 million, prosecutors say

    Tiffany Hsu
    31 Dec 2011 | 12:00 pm
    For more than three years, six foreign nationals ran an Internet vehicle-selling scam that bilked customers out of more than $4 million without delivering a single car, motor home or boat, according to a federal indictment out of Los Angeles this week.  The indictment charges six people from Germany, Russia, Romania and Latvia with conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud and money laundering. Starting in 2007 through 2010, the group put vehicles up for sale on auto-trading websites such as EBay Motors, Edmunds.com and Craigslist and collected at least $4 million from customers, according to…

  • Retail Roundup: L.L. Bean's duck boots, McDonald's mobile, Lowe's

    Shan Li
    31 Dec 2011 | 8:00 am
    -- Maine retailer L.L. Bean says the duck boot is back in style, at least among fashion-conscious, trend-hungry college students around the country. This year, the nearly century-old outdoor apparel company sold about 400,000 pairs of the hunting boots -- which have hardy rubber soles -- up from 150,00 just four years ago, the Associated Press reported. The boot is benefiting from a vintage fashion sense prevalent among college students, the AP said, and also new styles that updated the classic boot with bright pops of color (such as pink) for the spring. This would be the same sartorial…

  • Kimberly-Clark to launch 'designer' toilet paper roll covers

    Shan Li
    30 Dec 2011 | 4:52 pm
    Apparently, even toilet paper rolls can be fashionably dressed. That's the rather whimsical tack taken by consumer products giant Kimberly-Clark Corp., which is launching a "spring line" of colorful covers to hold extra rolls and add pizazz to the bathroom. The company tapped interior designer Jonathan Adler to be the creative brain behind the "collection" -- and the three designs bear his signature stamp of graphic prints combined with bold color (and fancy descriptions such as "chevron pink," "clover green" and "barjello blue"). The…

  • CDR Financial Products founder pleads guilty in municipal bond case

    Stuart Pfeifer
    30 Dec 2011 | 3:39 pm
    A Beverly Hills financial firm and its founder pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges that they defrauded government agencies by steering investment contracts to firms that paid them kickbacks. David Rubin, 50, and his company, CDR Financial Products Inc., were accused of running sham auctions for government agencies looking to invest money raised through municipal bond offerings. The contracts were awarded to favored firms that secretly paid kickbacks to CDR, not always the firm offering the highest returns, the government alleged. Rubin, who sobbed at Friday’s plea hearing in New…

  • Energy Department predicted the 2011 boom in U.S. fuel exports

    Ronald D. White
    30 Dec 2011 | 2:26 pm
    The 2011 Argus Americas Crude Summit, held in Houston last January, was named "Life After Macondo" and focused on the aftermath of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill. But American consumers might have been far more interested in a presentation that ventured far from that script. Joanne Shore, team leader and lead operations research analyst at the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration, and colleague John Hackworth essentially explained why Americans were about to pay more for gasoline in 2011 than they ever had before. Shore's and Hackworth's…
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    Varsity Times Insider

  • Boys' basketball: Fairfax State Preview Classic is Saturday

    Eric Sondheimer
    28 Jan 2012 | 1:42 am
    There should be lots of top basketball action on Saturday at Fairfax High in its state preview classic. Here's the schedule: La Canada vs. Oceanside El Camino, 10:30 a.m.; Notre Dame vs. Francis Parker, noon; Santa Monica vs. Alemany, 1:30 p.m.; Harvard-Westlake vs. Torrey Pines, 3 p.m.; Price vs. Windward, 4:30 p.m.; Fairfax vs. Serra, 6:30 p.m.; Orange Lutheran vs. Loyola, 8 p.m. In the Southern California Shootout on Saturday at Azusa Pacific University, here's the schedule: Flintridge Prep vs. Alta Loma, 10:30 a.m.; Rowland vs. Los Osos, noon; Bishop Amat vs. Keppel (girls),…

  • Boys' basketball: Aaron Holiday scores 34 points in win

    Eric Sondheimer
    28 Jan 2012 | 12:04 am
    Freshman Aaron Holiday had 34 points and senior Cole Huff added 22 points to help Campbell Hall defeat Brentwood, 75-73, in an Alpha League game. Leland King had 34 points and Tra Holder 24 points for Brentwood. In the Moore League, Long Beach Poly defeated Compton, 66-56. Roschon Prince scored 33 points. Etiwanda defeated Glendora, 55-40, in the Baseline League. Jordan McLaughlin had 14 points and Sam Flemming 13. In the Marmonte League, Joshua Cohan contributed 20 points and 13 rebounds and Jeremy Lieberman had 20 points and five assists in Calabasas' 77-57 win over Agoura. Westlake…

  • Boys' basketball: Anthony January scores 38 points for Taft

    Eric Sondheimer
    27 Jan 2012 | 11:49 pm
    Woodland Hills Taft (19-3, 6-0) turned loose 6-foot-7 Anthony January on Friday in its West Valley League showdown with El Camino Real, and January scored 38 points and had 10 rebounds in a 70-58 victory. Julian Richards had 20 points and Maleke Haynes 17 for El Camino Real. Taft hasn't lost a league game since 2005. Birmingham defeated Granada Hills, 49-46. Crenshaw moved closer to the Coliseum League championship after a 76-43 win over Dorsey. Brandon Baker scored 22 points and Andre Edwards 21 points. In the Western League, Fairfax defeated Venice, 65-48. Reggie Theus Jr., Ronny Price…

  • Boys' basketball: Alemany stays on top in Mission League

    Eric Sondheimer
    27 Jan 2012 | 11:38 pm
    Mission Hills Alemany continues to roll, improving to 19-3 overall and 8-1 in the Mission League after a 76-45 victory over St. Francis. Marqueze Coleman scored 24 points and Max Guercy added 16 points, 10 assists, seven rebounds and four steals. Bear Henderson had 16 points and Jerico Richardson 11. Alemany will play Santa Monica on Saturday in the Fairfax State Preview Classic at 1:30 p.m. Loyola held off Chaminade, 58-53. Jaron Martin had a chance to tie the game but he missed on a shot with 11 seconds left. He finished with 26 points for Chaminade. Parker Cartwight led Loyola with 18…

  • Boys' basketball: Mater Dei assumes first place in Trinity League

    Eric Sondheimer
    27 Jan 2012 | 11:18 pm
    Making eight of 11 shots from three-point range in the first quarter, Mater Dei got off to a terrific start and came away with an 86-71 win over St. John Bosco in a battle for first place in the Trinity League. Xavier Johnson scored 23 points, Katin Reinhardt 22, Elijah Brown 14 and Stanley Johnson 14 in helping the Monarchs improve to 19-2 and 6-0. St. John Bosco (16-5, 5-1) received 30 points from Isaac Hamilton. Mater Dei opened a 32-11 lead after the first quarter. St. John Bosco closed to within nine points in the third quarter. The two teams have a rematch next Friday at Mater Dei. --…
 
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