Los Angeles Area News (BETA)

Lt. Dan Choi introduces a new documentary film about three gay partners of military personnel. Ben Cartwright has been a passionate advocate for gay rights for 12 years. He is a regular at gay pride marches, has a pod-cast and writes for a gay newspaper in San Diego.

Her life has taken some gnarly turns. But a former surfing champion finds a path to redemption and healing, and shows others the way. It's another beautiful day in paradise and I'm out on the ocean, riding waves with a former national surfing champion and onetime prostitute who's about to join a seminary.

As more pedicabs hustle for customers, operators are becoming scofflaws. The city is moving toward restricting the number of cabs, imposing safety and insurance laws and banning them from busy areas. It's a beautiful summer day and tourists are enjoying the waterfront delights: harbor cruises, the carrier Midway museum, seafood restaurants, the tall ship Star of India.

Is it a punishable offense to be a 'wise Latina'? If you caught even a snippet of the Senate Judiciary Committee's marathon confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor this week, you might think being a "wise Latina" is a punishable offense.

Advocates charge facilities with bias for refusing to accept homeless who rely on animals for help. Shawnine Mackay, who often sleeps on the street near Hollywood Boulevard by lowering herself out of her wheelchair onto the ground, said she would love to be able bed down in one of Los Angeles County's dozens of homeless shelters.

The death of Walter Cronkite elicited tributes from colleagues, presidents past and present, world-famous astronauts and those who hoped in vain to fill his empty anchor chair, all honoring the avuncular face of TV journalism who became the "most trusted man in America."

A celebrity Web site says one of Nadya Suleman's 14 children has been rushed to a California hospital for drinking a nonpoisonous saltwater solution.

A teenage boy was clinging to life in a hospital Friday after being shot in the parking lot of a Norwalk shopping center.

Katherine Jackson is seeking a judge's ruling on whether she can challenge the authority of two men named in her son's will as executors of his estate without being disinherited. The filing late Friday does not formally challenge the appointment of attorney John Branca and music executive John McClain as executors of Michael Jackson's estate.

Police need the public's help in finding a young boy who has been taken by his father, who doesn't have custody of him.

Questions are raised over the death of a teen who was fatally shot by a deputy.

Part of the 710 Freeway will be closed overnight this weekend for a repaving project.

The LAPD is looking for a father who took off with his son after a visit.

How are you going to stay cool this weekend?

A federal judge ends a consent decree Los Angeles accepted a decade ago.

Both the dollar amount and number of equity investments declined from a year earlier.

A large hunting knife was recovered following the Thursday night incident, police said.

Danny Ruiz faces a possible life term if convicted as a third striker.

A non-octuplet child is rushed to St,Jude hospital in Fullerton.

Legendary newscaster died Friday.

President calls unscheduled news conference about his health care plan.

25-50 acre wildfire force evacuations of a few neighborhoods in the Castaic area as of 4pm pt.

Former high school sweethearts Robert McGill and his wife Shirley reunited and married five years ago in what seemed to be a moment of kismet.

Finally, an a-peeling story that'll bring a tear to your eye and allow us to make shallow onion puns.

Prosecutors are treating Michael Jackson's death as a homicide, while the singer's personal doctor, who was with him when he died apparently from a lethal injection of anesthetic, has left California for...

The beach sport has come a long way from the days when playing with a hangover was the rule. Find full coverage of the tournament in » Sports

All of the men had been close friends and business associates.

Activity down more than 15 percent for first half of 2009. "Retailers will remain overly cautious," economist says. "That means no good news for both ports."

Things to do around the South Bay and the Harbor Area.

U.S. citizen detained abroad is facing U.A.E. authorities on Monday. A former Hawthorne man being held on terrorism-related charges in the United Arab Emirates is scheduled to go on trial Monday.

A woman was convicted today for her role in the March 2008 shooting death of an off-duty U.S. Customs and Border Protection employee who was confronted at an ATM.

Some 22,000 city workers are voting on a labor deal that would protect them from layoffs and furloughs but keep them from receiving pay raises until 2011, to help the city reduce its $530 million budget deficit.

A 49-year-old Los Angeles man who had previously served prison time for the stabbing death of a girlfriend was sentenced to death today for the 2006 killing of another girlfriend, who was stabbed 172 times.

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in Los Angeles County dropped to 11.3 percent in June, down from 11.6 percent in May, the state Economic Development Department reported today.

Water service was restored to Terminal 2 at Los Angeles International Airport today, about 20 hours after a water main break flooded a parking lot and forced the shutdown of service to parts of the airport, but the water flowing into the terminal still has not been deemed safe for human consumption.

Tightening down on costs helped Mattel Inc. post an 82 percent jump in second-quarter profits, despite a 19 percent drop in sales. (MAT)

The Michael Jackson memorial service has continued to be a source of controversy in Los Angeles, as the city has been left holding the bill for police and fire services, and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa saying that he will not solicit funds from the Jackson family or AEG, which owns Staples Center, where the memorial was held.

NBC Universal saw its second-quarter profits take a 41 percent tumble, with parent company General Electric Co.’s seeing a 49 percent drop, plagued by declining revenue in its financial services and industrial units. (GE)

Decreases of a penny a day pushed gasoline prices well under the $3-a-gallon mark this week, according to the Automobile Club of Southern California’s Weekend Gas Watch.

The Regents of the University of California has approved the proposed renovation of the Edwin W. Pauley Pavilion, the home of UCLA basketball.

We were all educated over these past few days in the ways of budget politics. Pun fully intended, of course. On this week's Capital Notes Podcast, we examine the status of sputtering budget talks (at least, as of our taping on late Thursday afternoon). Most notably, the battle over Proposition 98 -- Test 1, maintenance [...]

A pretty good jab at the folks in the state Capitol came in today from Treasurer Bill Lockyer, a written statement on the deficit negotiations that now seem slower, not faster. Lockyer says, in part: "With every passing day, the State's credit rating moves closer and closer to the junk pile. If the Governor and Legislature dump [...]

If you took out a calculator, added up some numbers, and hit "equals," you'd expect an answer that was indisputable, right? Now imagine there were certain buttons on the calculator that would make the math turn out differently. Or suppose you and a friend just agreed the calculator's result was flawed and from now [...]

That was the assessment of Assembly Speaker Karen Bass as negotiations over the state's massive budget deficit ended tonight with no deal, a major change in tone from earlier in the day when a deal seemed imminent. The 'Big Five' meeting of legislative leaders and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger ended just before 10:00 p.m., with Democrats saying [...]

The buzz around the state Capitol grows louder this afternoon that a deal is close at hand on a $26.3 billion solution to California's gaping budget deficit. Of course, it ain't over 'til it's over... which means a likely long day for negotiators and those of us left in the Capitol press corps. The details [...]