Blind man tests DMV's exam methods

Have you heard the one about the blind man who walked into the Department of Motor Vehicles office in Santa Monica, took an eye test and left with a new driver's license? OK, that's not 100% accurate. He didn't walk out with his new license; it arrived...

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In a world of change, dancing puppets still delight

One day, maybe not so many days from now, the Bob Baker Marionette Theater will be gone. Its debt will prove at last too much to bear. Its boxy white buildings will be sold. And people will be sad, particularly those who talked for years about going...

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Boy who shot neo-Nazi dad just another killer, prosecutor says

The 10-year-old son of a Riverside neo-Nazi leader was just another killer when he shot his sleeping father on the couch on an early May morning last year, a prosecutor told a judge Tuesday. Sitting unshackled, the now 12-year-old boy listened as Chief...

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Taiwanese will no longer need visas to visit U.S.

Yi-Shen Chou has spent more than 30 years in the U.S., first as a motel operator and now as a Monterey Park retiree who enjoys line dancing and computer games. His family — a half-dozen brothers and sisters and numerous nieces and nephews — remains...

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Victims' relatives divided on ending death penalty

Past California governors joined with crime victims Tuesday to announce their opposition to a proposal to end the death penalty, while a second set of victims said ending capital punishment would give them closure. Former Gov. Gray Davis joined Pete...

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Mac Taylor, California's prop master

Whoever it was who coined "Lies, damn lies and statistics" didn't trust numbers. You won't find Mac Taylor subscribing to that. He's the state legislative analyst; his name is there in your ballot pamphlet as the source of independent information about...

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L.A. council to consider new tax proposals

With thousands of employees out the door and years of crushing deficits still on the horizon, the Los Angeles City Council is preparing an urgent appeal to voters for more taxes to prevent further cuts in parks, police, fire and other services. The...

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2nd surfer attacked by shark in less than a week

A 25-year-old surfer was seriously injured Tuesday when he was bitten by a shark in Humboldt County, authorities said. The attack came after a 39-year-old surfer was killed last week after being bitten by an apparent great white shark while riding waves...

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Woman guilty in death of Bay Area nursing student

SAN FRANCISCO — An Alameda County jury Monday convicted a Union City woman of first-degree murder for killing her onetime friend in a hospital parking garage in May 2011, the result of years of jealousy over a man. The attorney representing Giselle...

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Female mechanics, clients repair and talk about bikes each Monday

The last man was scooting out of the Bicycle Kitchen when Emerald Tutwiler arrived for "Bicycle Bitchen" on Monday night. The east Hollywood repair cooperative sets an evening aside for an all-female group of mechanics and their clients to work on bikes...

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L.A. schools fail to gain union backing for grant application

An effort by the Los Angeles Unified School District to win a high-profile $40-million grant has unraveled after the L.A. teachers union declined to sign the application, a condition for the competition imposed by the federal education department. The...

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For these high school grads, pomp with different circumstances

The school band played "Pomp and Circumstance." The girls donned rhinestone-bejeweled caps and sparkly stilettos. And a nervous announcer offered the students a pre-ceremony warning: If you don't tell me how to pronounce your name, I'll get it wrong....

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PETA seeks memorial where 1,600 pounds of fish died in Irvine

On behalf of the animal rights group PETA, an Irvine woman is asking the city to erect a memorial at the street corner where 1,600 pounds of fish died this month when a container truck crashed into two other vehicles. Dina Kourda, a volunteer with People...

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At polluted Santa Susana lab site, sacred cave attracts tribe's bid

The Chumash tribe has expressed interest in buying a 450-acre slice of a contaminated nuclear research facility in the hills between the Simi and San Fernando valleys, hoping to preserve a cave that its members consider sacred. The tribe's inquiries...

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Death sentence of California's longest-serving inmate overturned

By Maura Dolan, Los Angeles Times October 30, 2012 SAN FRANCISCO — A federal appeals court Monday overturned the death sentence of California's longest-serving death row inmate on the grounds that his defense lawyer failed to investigate and...

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Prosecutors say Craigslist ad for car sparked Downey rampage

The shooting rampage, carjacking and kidnapping involving a Downey family had its roots in a Craigslist ad the family had placed in an attempt to sell their Chevy Camaro, prosecutors said Monday. Authorities allege that the gunman responded to the ad,...

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State strips 23 schools of API rankings for cheating

The third-grader had good news: She was doing great on her standardized tests, she proudly told a teacher at the school. How did she know? the instructor asked. "My teacher points out the answers that I need to correct," she said. With that, the fate...

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Wildlife biologist Jeff Sikich knows how to get his mountain lion

Jeff Sikich shinnied up a charred oak in the Allegheny Mountains of western Virginia, shined his flashlight down into the hollowed-out trunk and gazed into the wary eyes of a mother bear 10 feet below. As he fired a sedative dart into the black bear's...

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Alarcon suggests making Verdugo Hills Golf Course a historic site

L.A. Councilman Richard Alarcon is hoping to save the Verdugo Hills Golf Course from residential development by adding it to the city's list of historic and cultural monuments, citing its history as a detention center for Japanese Americans during World...

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Preservationists build coalition to save undeveloped Silver Lake parcel

This is one part of Silver Lake that has no lake view. In fact, the only views are from atop a corkscrew drive that looks out over a pair of freeways, the 5 and the 2. Residents, however, see this 10.2-acre stretch of undeveloped land — along Riverside...

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San Diego mayoral candidates draw lines in the mud

SAN DIEGO — After a campaign filled with negative TV commercials and name-calling, San Diego voters will choose between two philosophically opposed candidates to succeed termed-out Mayor Jerry Sanders, a moderate Republican. Rep. Bob Filner, a liberal...

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Taiwan tries to recruit California students to its universities

Taiwan's minister of education, Wei-Ling Chiang, traveled to California last week to address a rarely discussed trade imbalance with the United States. "Just 3,561 American-born students are enrolled in Taiwanese universities, while about 24,000 Taiwanese...

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Higher DVR usage becomes a mixed blessing for TV industry

One of the most popular new shows of the fall television season is NBC's "Revolution," a drama about post-apocalyptic America. But the real revolution is how people are watching it. About 9.2 million viewers tuned in to a recent episode, a so-so performance....

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San Francisco Giants fans cheer the team's World Series title

Thousands of fans crowded the San Francisco Civic Center plaza Sunday night to watch the Giants clinch the World Series on a hastily erected Jumbotron — an undulating mass of happy humanity."No way was I going to miss this," said Eric Reynolds, 42, of...

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Prop. 36 seeks to ease California's three-strikes law

Dale Curtis Gaines has never been convicted of a violent offense, but his prison term of 27 years to life is longer than many sentences imposed on rapists, child molesters and killers. Gaines was sent to prison under California's tough three-strikes...

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