L.A. mayoral candidates sound off on pot dispensaries

As Los Angeles voters face the possibility of as many as three medical marijuana initiatives on the May ballot, several mayoral...

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Crazy Alien Weather: Lightning-Filled Rocket Dust Storms of Mars

Scientists have modeled the internal workings of lightning-filled “rocket dust storms” on Mars that rise at speeds 100 times faster than ordinary storms and inject dust high into the Martian atmosphere.The Red Planet is a very dry and dusty place, with global storms that sometimes obscure the entire surface. Satellites orbiting Mars have seen persistent dust layers reaching very high altitudes,...

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Singer Tina Turner on path to Swiss citizenship

(Reuters) – Soul music legend Tina Turner has taken the first steps toward giving up her U.S. passport and becoming a citizen of Switzerland, the country she has called home for nearly 20 years.The Zurich suburb of Kusnacht has approved Swiss citizenship for the “Proud Mary” singer, pending confirmation from other authorities in the country, a spokeswoman for Turner said on Friday.Turner, who was...

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Well: Ask Well: Squats for Aging Knees

You are already doing many things right, in terms of taking care of your aging knees. In particular, it sounds as if you are keeping your weight under control. Carrying extra pounds undoubtedly strains knees and contributes to pain and eventually arthritis.You mention weight training, too, which is also valuable. Sturdy leg muscles, particularly those at the front and back of the thighs, stabilize...

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7 Die in Fire At Factory In Bangladesh

A.M. Ahad/Associated PressFirefighters and volunteers worked to extinguish the fire at a small garment factory in Bangladesh’s capital on Saturday. DHAKA, Bangladesh — In the latest blow to Bangladesh’s garment industry, seven workers died Saturday after a fire swept through a factory here not long after seamstresses had returned from a lunch break. Workers said supervisors had locked one of the factory...

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Attack on family in Compton latest incident in wave of anti-black violence

The trouble began soon after they arrived.The black family—a mother, three teenage children and a 10-year-old boy—moved into...

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Man With 4th Amendment Written on Chest Wins Trial Over Airport Arrest

A Virginia man who wrote an abbreviated version of the Fourth Amendment on his body and stripped to his shorts at an airport security screening area won a trial Friday in his lawsuit seeking $250,000 in damages for being detained on a disorderly conduct charge.Aaron Tobey claimed in a civil rights lawsuit (.pdf) that in 2010 he was handcuffed and held for about 90 minutes by the Transportation...

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Dr. Phil to interview alleged girlfriend hoaxer

NEW YORK (AP) — Dr. Phil McGraw has booked the first on-camera interview with the man who allegedly concocted the girlfriend hoax that ensnared Notre Dame football star Manti Te’o.A “Dr. Phil Show” spokesperson confirmed on Friday the interview with Ronaiah Tuiasosopo (roh-NY-ah too-ee-AH’-so-SO’-poh), the man accused of creating an online persona of a nonexistent woman who Te’o said he fell for without...

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F.D.A. Panel Recommends Restrictions on Hydrocodone Products Like Vicodin

Trying to stem the scourge of prescription drug abuse, an advisory panel of experts to the Food and Drug Administration voted on Friday to toughen the restrictions on painkillers like Vicodin that contain hydrocodone, the most widely prescribed drugs in the country.  The recommendation, which the drug agency is likely to follow, would limit access to the drugs by making them harder to...

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All Viewers Pay to Keep TV Sports Fans Happy

Michael Perez/Associated PressNBC cameras at an N.F.L. game last month in Philadelphia. For a glimpse of how out of control sports bidding wars have become, look no further than your cable television bill. Time Warner Cable subscribers in Southern California will eventually see their monthly bills increase thanks to an impending $7 billion deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers, the most lucrative...

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Lawmaker questions Disney's plan for wristband data

A congressman from Massachusetts raised questions Thursday about how Walt Disney Co. will use information it collects when it...

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Vine's Launch-Day Woes Include Bugs and Facebook Block

Twitter’s new social video app isn’t having a smooth launch day.Despite being well-received, Vine has faced a mess of issues since it launched Thursday morning. First, server-side bugs led to users signing into other people’s accounts. Then the app had to disable video-sharing to social networks. And all day long, there’s been the general bugginess of trying to sign...

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Legendary Japanese filmmakers to be honored by Hollywood

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Legendary Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa and three of his compatriots will be honored by the Writers Guild of America (WGA) next month for their lifetime of work on movies that organizers said have “given us all a taste of the sublime.”The WGA’s West branch, which represents the U.S. West Coast writers of TV, films, radio and Internet programming, said that the late Kurosawa...

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The New Old Age Blog: Grief Over New Depression Diagnosis

When the American Psychiatric Association unveils a proposed new version of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the bible of psychiatric diagnoses, it expects controversy. Illnesses get added or deleted, acquire new definitions or lists of symptoms. Everyone from advocacy groups to insurance companies to litigators — all have an interest in what’s defined as mental illness —...

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HCA Must Pay Kansas City Foundation $162 Million

HCA, the nation’s largest profit-making hospital chain, was ordered on Thursday to pay $162 million after a judge in Missouri ruled that it had failed to abide by an agreement to make improvements to dilapidated hospitals that it bought in the Kansas City area several years ago. The judge also ordered a court-appointed accountant to determine whether HCA had actually provided the levels of...

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Ki Suh Park dies at 80; architect helped rebuild L.A. after riots

From rubble and wreckage, Ki Suh Park often saw possibility. It was so as he stood amid the destruction of the Korean War, when...

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CEO Tim Cook Hints at Apple's Future Growth in Q1 Earnings Call

Investors may have cringed at Apple’s revenue numbers in its Q1 2013 earnings call, but CEO Tim Cook took pains to point out that there is still a lot of room for growth when it comes to Apple product sales and profits. There are a number of different ways Apple could continue to expand iPhone and iPad growth: introducing lower-priced options for emerging markets, bringing major changes to...

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Obama inauguration TV viewership down by 17.2 million from 2009

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Some 20.6 million Americans watched President Barack Obama’s inauguration ceremony and related events on television, according to ratings data on Wednesday. That’s down sharply from his first inauguration in 2009.TV ratings company Nielsen said 18 U.S. television networks and cable channels carried live coverage over about six hours of Monday’s swearing-in ceremony, speech...

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Well: Long Term Effects on Life Expectancy From Smoking

It is often said that smoking takes years off your life, and now a new study shows just how many: Longtime smokers can expect to lose about 10 years of life expectancy.But amid those grim findings was some good news for former smokers. Those who quit before they turn 35 can gain most if not all of that decade back, and even those who wait until middle age to kick the habit can add about five years...

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DealBook | The Trade: An Asset So Toxic They Called It ‘Nuclear Holocaust’

On March 16, 2007, Morgan Stanley employees working on one of the toxic assets that helped blow up the world economy discussed what to name it. Among the team members’ suggestions: “Subprime Meltdown,” “Hitman,” “Nuclear Holocaust” and “Mike Tyson’s Punchout,” as well a simple yet direct reference to a bag of excrement.Ha ha. Those hilarious investment bankers.Then they gave it its real name and sold...

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Marijuana still a drug with no accepted medical use, court says

WASHINGTON — Marijuana will continue to be considered a highly dangerous drug under federal law with no accepted medical uses,...

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Google Ad Bleeding Slows as Larry Page Dismisses Mobile Fears

Investors like what they’re hearing from Google, despite a sickly-sounding Larry Page. The Google CEO argued on Tuesday’s earnings call that mobile won’t hinder his company’s core ad business because distinctions between devices are becoming moot.After-hours traders sent Google shares up more than 5 percent late Tuesday afternoon after the company beat Wall Street expectations for the quarter....

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“Zero Dark Thirty” heads to Europe: will torture controversy follow?

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Best Picture Oscar nominee “Zero Dark Thirty” rolls out in several Western European countries starting Wednesday, absent – at least for now – the firestorm of criticism that has accompanied its U.S. release.The movie has been a lightning rod for detractors in the U.S. over its perceived endorsement of torture, an allegation that director Kathryn Bigelow and Sony executives...

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