news.yourdailyslice.com

USC to get papers of Modernist architecture's unsung hero

Edward H. Fickett designed thousands of airy tract homes across the region. His widow has signed an agreement to donate drawings, blueprints, brochures and photos to his undergraduate alma mater.

To the cognoscenti, Edward H. Fickett was the award-winning architect behind the Port of Los Angeles, La Costa Resort & Spa, Edwards Air Force Base and tens of thousands of airy, affordable tract homes throughout Southern California.

Beyond the Box Score

The Sports Professor, Rick Horrow, goes beyond the box score to talk sports business and chats with Falcons owner Arthur Blank.

California to use new type of nationwide school tests

Through a federal grant, California will join 43 other states in replacing oft-maligned standardized exams.

With a federal award of $330 million, California and 43 other states joined Thursday to replace the much-maligned year-end English and math standardized tests with new nationwide tests that could better measure student learning and teacher performance.

Bell assessed illegal sewer fees

Property owners overpaid $621,737 in levies that were raised in 2007, California controller says. The finding comes several weeks after auditors found taxpayers were overcharged $2.9 million for a 'retirement tax.'

The city of Bell assessed property owners for sewer fees without getting required voter approval, according to the state controller's office, marking the second time auditors have found that taxpayers in the working-class city were overcharged.

An image of border harmony

Old family photo memorializes a time of vibrant connection

Not long ago, my wife put up a black-and-white photograph in our living room. It shows her grandparents, very young — supposedly on a street in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.

Marine mammal enthusiasts getting a show from blue whales

Unusually large numbers of the gigantic creatures off the Southern California coast are a boon for charter boat operators. A biologist believes the cetaceans are following vast clouds of krill.

Unusually large numbers of blue whales dining off the Southern California coast are providing marine mammal enthusiasts a rare opportunity to see Earth's largest creatures lolling in the waves and spouting misty plumes.

Police identify woman in basement babies case

L.A. police say Janet Mann Barrie, a nurse, owned the trunk in which the remains of two babies were found in MacArthur Park. The next step, officials say, is determining to whom the children belonged.

She poses for the camera in front of a boxy Dodge roadster, wearing a flapper-style hat, a fur stole and an uneasy smile.

L.A. doctor arrested for allegedly prescribing painkillers to homeless people who didn't need them

Authorities believe the people were recruited and paid for Vicodin prescriptions that were turned over to drug dealers who sold them by the pill at a huge mark-up. Dr. Zhiwei Lin is to be arraigned Friday.

A Los Angeles physician was arrested Thursday for allegedly prescribing pain medication to homeless people who didn't need the drugs, according to records and authorities.

Differing views given of suspect in strangling of Santa Monica model

Prosecutors describe Kelly Soo Park as a fraud artist capable of 'taking care of business.' The defense describes her as a law-abiding mortgage broker and churchgoer who cares for an ailing mother.

Prosecutors have characterized the woman accused of killing an aspiring model in 2008 as a globetrotting fraud artist, flush with cash and capable of "taking care of business."

Court papers identify Pasadena officers who shot and killed parolee

Papers in a wrongful-death suit name Charles Glen Reep and Michael Alvarado as the policemen who fatally shot Leroy Barnes Jr. in 2009 during a traffic stop. A union had fought release of the names.

Two Pasadena police officers, whose names were kept secret after they shot and killed a parolee last year, were identified this week in federal court papers filed by an attorney representing the dead man's family.

Border activist's littering conviction is overturned

Daniel Millis had been charged for leaving gallon bottles of water for illegal border crossers in a U.S. desert wildlife preserve.

A federal appeals court on Thursday overturned the littering conviction of an Arizona activist who left gallon-size bottles of water for illegal immigrants crossing into the United States through a desert wildlife preserve.

Tax-fraud conviction voided because judge didn't stop trial to let defendant go to son's deathbed

A federal appeals court says the jurist also prejudiced the jury by not telling panelists Garth Kloehn was absent the last day of trial because his son had died.

A federal judge's refusal to halt a businessman's tax-fraud trial so he could be at his son's deathbed was cause to overturn the businessman's conviction, an appeals court has ruled.

Gubernatorial candidate Brown says he can bring Californians together

At campaign stops in Oakland and City of Commerce, the Democrat says he wants to bridge Sacramento's partisan divide, deplores rival Whitman's 'negativity' and announces he will launch ads next week.

A fired-up Jerry Brown previewed his general election themes in two gubernatorial campaign stops Thursday, framing the state's present straits as a chance to bring Californians together for a common purpose.

Brown's office reconsidering motion seeking to send Lisker back to prison

After serving 26 years for his mother's killing, Bruce Lisker was freed last year after his conviction was overturned. The state sought this week to have him returned to prison on procedural grounds.

A spokesman for California Atty. General Jerry Brown said Thursday that his office was reconsidering a move to have a man whose murder conviction was overturned last year sent back to prison on procedural grounds.

Chinese consider rival Potash bid

Chinese investors approach Canadian pension fund over a possible rival bid for the fertiliser giant Potash Corporation.

Official: 4 Miami airport concourses evacuated

By 2010-09-03T06:19:05Z

MIAMI (AP) -- A bomb squad investigated a report of a suspicious package after police evacuated four of six concourses at Miami International Airport for several hours on the eve of the Labor Day travel period, an airport spokesman said Friday....

Official: 4 Miami airport concourses evacuated (AP)

AP - A bomb squad investigated a report of a suspicious package after police evacuated four of six concourses at Miami International Airport for several hours on the eve of the Labor Day travel period, an airport spokesman said Friday.

Earl weakens but still powerful as it passes NC (AP)

AP - The last ferry left for the mainland and coastal residents hunkered down at home as Hurricane Earl closed in with 105 mph winds early Friday on North Carolina's dangerously exposed Outer Banks, the first and perhaps most destructive stop on the storm's projected journey up the Eastern Seaboard.

Mount Si crashes party, tops Woodinville 28-6

Mount Si won the first game at remodeled Pop Keeney Stadium in Bothell, beating Woodinville in the nonleague football opener for both schools.

Indians 6, Mariners 3: Doug Fister implodes, hitters go AWOL final six innings

Storm finds the range, wins Game 1

The highly anticipated matchup started with both teams hitting the snooze button. Phoenix and Seattle combined for 2-for-14 shooting from the field. Sue Bird snapped her team out of the offensive funk, sinking an 18-foot jumper that started a 17-5 run.

Gates visits US forces in southern Afghanistan

By ANNE GEARAN 2010-09-03T06:01:03Z

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) -- As the last of 30,000 U.S. reinforcements arrive in Afghanistan, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Friday got a firsthand look at operations in the dangerous south where Afghan and international troops are ramping up security....

Storm finds the range, wins Game 1 | WNBA playoffs

NZ tycoon unwraps packaging ambitions with US deal

The reclusive New Zealand billionaire buying the U.S. maker of Hefty brand trash bags to create the world's second-biggest packaging business started out as a tow truck driver and bounced back from the brink of bankruptcy more than a decade ago to become his country's richest person.

3 dead in plane crash off San Francisco Bay

A small plane that crashed into a shallow lagoon off San Francisco Bay on Thursday, killing three people, belonged to the founder of a local steel company who was believed to be among the dead.