Abuse

Those searching for answers to the question " Is medical marijuana good medicine? " will find few in Dr. David Sack's Times Op-Ed article.   On the one hand, Sack concedes, "Marijuana can effectively treat neuropathic pain, and it has been shown to improve appetite and reduce nausea," an acknowledgment substantiating the plant's therapeutic utility. However, he later warns that cannabis' ability to provide relief for certain other conditions, such as lupus and anxiety, remains unproven.

Jurors awarded an elementary school special needs student $1.4 million after she was sexually assaulted five times by a male classmate during an after-school program in Chatsworth. Santa Monica jurors made the decision Tuesday after an eight-day trial about how much the Los Angeles Unified School District should pay for the injuries the girl suffered because of inadequate supervision at the Superior Street Elementary campus. The jurors apportioned about $731,000 of the damages to the district, with the remainder apportioned to the perpetrator, according to attorneys.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa spoke publicly for the first time Monday about the breakup of his 20-year marriage, saying he was responsible for the split even as he refused to talk about what caused it. In a somber meeting with reporters at City Hall, Villaraigosa declined to answer questions about whether the break with his wife, Corina, was triggered by another romantic relationship.

There is more than just a little bit of Ron Hextall living in the body of Kings goalie Jonathan Quick. That is, the once-hot-tempered goalie Ron Hextall, not the current calm corporate Ron Hextall, the Kings' assistant general manager, destined to run an NHL team someday. Quick waved his stick and verbally went after both referees after the Kings lost, 2-1, in overtime to the Sharks in Game 3 of their Western Conference semifinal series at San Jose on Saturday night. He received a game misconduct for his actions but escaped supplementary discipline from the NHL. The league said Sunday that Quick would not be fined or suspended.

Vietnam veteran John Otte did his best to forget the war. He got married, raised two sons and made a career working at credit unions. But as Otte neared retirement, memories of combat flooded back. Starting in 2005, he filed a series of claims with Veterans Affairs for disability compensation, contending that many of his health problems stemmed from the war. The VA agreed, and now the 65-year-old with two Purple Hearts receives $1,900 a month for post-traumatic stress disorder and diabetes - and for having shrapnel scars on his arms.

As part of a settlement with federal regulators, 13 lenders this week are starting to pay out $3.6 billion to more than 4 million troubled borrowers whose homes were in foreclosure proceedings in 2009 and 2010. A chart released Tuesday by the regulators showed that most of the borrowers would receive $300, the minimum allowed under the settlement terms. The maximum of $125,000 would go to 1,135 borrowers whose homes were seized while they were serving in the military or who were current on their payments.

Having been born to one of the most famous couples of this century--America's greatest modern writer, F. Scott Fitzgerald and his talented flapper wife Zelda Sayre--Scottie Fitzgerald was thrust a heavy mantle, particularly as their only child. Add to that the heady cocktail of parental alcoholism, prescription drug abuse, numerous failed suicide attempts and schizophrenia. Talent and tragedy were genetically passed on to Scottie as surely as her blond hair and blue eyes. Until now, very little was known about the Fitzgeralds' daughter beyond her school days.

KAMPALA, Uganda - He is a celebrity across eastern and central Africa, a gospel music star known to many as the "Dancing Priest. " But for years he also was a keeper of painful secrets - his own and many others'. In going public, Anthony Musaala has forced the Roman Catholic Church in Uganda to confront a problem it had insisted didn't exist. And he may stir a debate far beyond Africa's most Catholic of countries. The Ugandan priest has been suspended indefinitely by the archbishop of Kampala for exposing what he calls an open secret: Sex abuse in the Catholic Church is a problem in Africa as well as in Western Europe and North America.

SHE MADE a name for herself in the '90s with movies like "A League of Their Own" and "Tank Girl," but Lori Petty likes to say she was an accidental movie star. Moving to New York at age 18, she worked as a waitress in between auditions and slept on friends' couches, at the YMCA, or, on occasion, in Central Park. "It was so comfortable it was like home," Petty recalls as she sits at a deck cafe overlooking the Santa Monica beach, her big blue eyes and cropped hair rendering her immediately recognizable to "Point Break" fans sitting nearby.

The Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services has been under much scrutiny lately, following a series of highly publicized child deaths, a disgusting case of child abuse in Palmdale and, more recently, the publication of a scathing internal report, which The Times wrote about in the Feb. 14 article, “ Report excoriates L.A. County agency in child deaths, torture .” Contrary to what some people believe, front-line social...

Another tragedy at a Bangladesh clothing factory, another announcement by Wal-Mart about additional steps it will take to beef up worker safety, this time by inspecting all of its suppliers' facilities itself. Not that the retailing giant hasn't made real efforts already to improve employee safety in notoriously bad factories overseas, but the deaths of more than 1,100 people at the Rana Plaza factory last month should signal that a piecemeal, go-it-alone approach is insufficient, even for the biggest retailer in the world.

The federal judge who oversaw a dramatic, forced transformation of the Los Angeles Police Department has freed the department from the final vestiges of federal oversight. In a brief, three-line order Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Gary Feess formally lifted the binding agreement the U.S. Department of Justice imposed on the LAPD in 2001, which spelled out dozens of major reforms the police agency had to implement and frequent audits it was required to undergo by a monitor who reported to Feess.

Responding to new allegations of financial malfeasance and abuse, Los Angeles County officials have decided to stop sending children to a private foster care agency that has been responsible for more than 1,100 youths in recent years. The action was taken after an examination of Teens Happy Homes, published in The Times last month, revealed questionable spending and repeated instances of abuse. Fresh allegations surfaced in an ongoing audit obtained by The Times that found at least $100,000 in suspect payments: Nearly $30,000 went toward chief executive Beautina "Tina" Robinson's personal expenses, including her car and credit card bills.

A group of parents and students have filed a federal lawsuit against the Compton school district alleging a pattern of abuse and racial profiling of Latinos by school police. One family alleged that school police targeted a student's father for arrest and deliberately got him deported to Mexico after he filed a complaint against an officer. In another incident, school officers allegedly beat, pepper sprayed and used a chokehold on a bystander who was taking video of an arrest on his iPod, and erased cellphone videos taken by students.

Federal regulators said Friday that they would continue to allow sales of generic Opana, a narcotic painkiller similar to OxyContin, even though the pills are prone to abuse. Like OxyContin, Opana is an extended-release narcotic designed to offer pain relief over several hours. When extended-release pills can be crushed, they are popular among addicts who snort the powder or liquefy and inject it, releasing the full dose at once. In response to growing criticism of its widely abused OxyContin, Purdue Pharma introduced a tamper-resistant formulation in 2010.

Los Angeles school district officials knew of sexual misconduct allegations in 2009 against a teacher at a Wilmington campus who was arrested more than three years later, the district's top administrator confirmed Tuesday. The teacher, Robert Pimentel, 57, was arrested in January. Some of the charges result from alleged conduct at De La Torre Elementary that occurred well after senior administrators apparently became aware of concerns raised by parents in 2009. L.A. schools Supt.

"The Actress, the Producer and Their Porn Revolution" (by Ralph Frammolino and P.J. Huffstutter, Jan. 6) tells a tale that is more revolting than revolutionary--and not because of sex and nudity. Ginger Lynn Allen may or may not be the mother of Steve Hirsch's child, but she certainly was his friend and lover, plus an instrumental partner in helping him create a financial empire that will keep him in luxury for the rest of his life. Yet this magnanimous character apparently doesn't think for a second to come to her aid as she approaches 40, seriously ill, stripping for salivating yahoos to support herself and her young son. How does this louse sleep at night?

Learning abuse--the lack of air conditioning in Los Angeles schools. TERESA JANICS Glendale

Two prominent defenders of Proposition 13 spoke out on Tuesday against "gimmicks" used by some companies to avoid paying additional property taxes when buying real estate in California. Responding to a Los Angeles Times story that ran Sunday, the presidents of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn. and the Small Business Action Committee said they would be open to narrow legislation to fix the law, which appears to allow such deals. The statements mark a shift for two organizations that have long led the fight against changes to Proposition 13, the 1978 ballot initiative that transformed property taxes in California and sparked a nationwide tax revolt.

KAMPALA, Uganda - He is a celebrity across eastern and central Africa, a gospel music star known to many as the "Dancing Priest. " But for years he also was a keeper of painful secrets - his own and many others'. In going public, Anthony Musaala has forced the Roman Catholic Church in Uganda to confront a problem it had insisted didn't exist. And he may stir a debate far beyond Africa's most Catholic of countries. The Ugandan priest has been suspended indefinitely by the archbishop of Kampala for exposing what he calls an open secret: Sex abuse in the Catholic Church is a problem in Africa as well as in Western Europe and North America.