Adults

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.

Beneath the massive trees of the Malibu mountains, four small groups of people clad head-to-toe in red, green, yellow or blue stand around several long tables playing a heated game of flip cup. "Get it, blue!" a young woman shouts into a bullhorn. "You got this, green!" hollers another. It looks a little like a frat house basement dragged into the light of day, but this competition is much more innocent. It's part of Adult Color Wars, a weekend designed to give adults a chance to relive their days at camp.

Often considered the most popular entertainer of the 20th century--his extravagant performances set still-unchallenged attendance records--Liberace (dubbed "Mr. Showman" in tribute to his flashy theatricality) sued a London columnist in 1956 for implying he was gay. He won.

In some parts of Koreatown and South Los Angeles, one in three adult residents is in the country illegally, according to a study released Tuesday by researchers at USC. Countywide, about one in 10 adults is an immigrant who crossed the border illegally or overstayed a visa, the study found. Many of those immigrants have put down roots here: Half have been in the country for more than a decade, and 12% are homeowners. Many are also the parents of American citizens. In Los Angeles County, one in five children has a parent living in the country illegally, according to the study.

If you want to give zip-lining a try, your Southern California options are plentiful. Most have physical requirements participants must meet, so be sure to call or check the website before you book. Catalina Zip Line Eco Tour: This two-hour aerial tour of Catalina Island is comprised of five zip lines, and guides provide information about local wildlife and history along the way. Tours leave 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays to Fridays, and 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. From Jan. 1 through May 24 and fromSept.

My letter is in regard to the economic situation in which I find myself and many young Americans my age. I am a 22-year-old Moorpark College student. Part of the reason I chose to attend a junior college is because I could not afford to pay for my general education at a four-year university. I am at this time still living at home. This is a big problem for many young adults who find themselves unable to attain higher education and want to leave the house and lead a life of their own. My parents often tell me that at my age they had been married a year and had a child (and)

It's graduation time again, and according to the National Center for Education Statistics, about 1.78 million students will walk across a stage and pick up a college diploma. Then they will face terrifying statistics about employment, pressure to make their 20s the best years of their lives, and slogans that suggest that what you do right after college may not matter anyway. What not enough graduates are hearing, however, is that - recession or not - our 20s are life's developmental sweet spot.

Roughly 9 million American adults ( 4.1% to 4.4% of the population ) are thought to suffer from  attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). And even among those who have been diagnosed and medicated for the condition, life can be a continuing cycle of disorganization, procrastination, missed deadlines and unfinished business. A form of psychotherapy that focuses on changing patterns of thought and behavior that are counterproductive can help these adults, a new study concludes.

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder has traditionally been considered to be a problem of children. But research over the last two decades shows the disorder often persists into adulthood and that adults can benefit from treatment of their symptoms. Identifying older teens and adults with ADHD should become easier — and prevalence rates will increase — based on a proposal under consideration by the nation's psychiatrists, according to information reported Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Assn.

NEWTOWN, Conn. - A gunman massacred 20 children and six adults at a suburban elementary school here Friday morning before killing himself in what appeared to be the second-deadliest school shooting in U.S. history, authorities said. Sources said Adam Lanza, 20, earlier killed his mother at home and then drove her Honda to Sandy Hook Elementary School equipped with firearms that were registered to one or both of his divorced parents. Clad in military fatigues and carrying two semiautomatic pistols, he entered the school, argued with someone in the hallway and then opened fire on staff members and children around 9:30 a.m., a law enforcement source said.

A student who was fatally stabbed at Cleveland High School attended an adult school in Woodland Hills, law enforcement authorities said Wednesday night. The victim was a student at West Valley Occupational Center, Los Angeles Police Department Cmdr. Sharon Papa told The Times. He was believed to be 18 years old. The student was attacked on one of the school's handball courts about 4 p.m. after an argument with two men who were described as being between 18 and 20, authorities said.  School police and LAPD officers saturated the area and began searching for the two men. Police said they did not believe that the two men were students at the school.

An adult school student was stabbed Wednesday afternoon in an altercation at Cleveland High School in Reseda and later died of his wounds, law enforcement authorities said. The victim was a student at West Valley Occupational Center in Woodland Hills, according to Los Angeles Police Department Cmdr. Sharon Papa. He was believed to be 18. The student was attacked on one of the school's handball courts about 4 p.m. after an argument with two men who were described as being between 18 and 20, authorities said.

Be careful what you wish for. That was the lesson imparted by young-adult authors during a Sunday morning panel titled "Modern Cinderella Stories" at the L.A. Times Festival of Books . Audience members braved the early heat at the Young Adult Stage to listen to Jessica Morgan and Heather Cocks, authors of “Messy,” the follow-up book to “Spoiled.” They tell the story of Molly Dix, who after her mother dies discovers that her father...

Top officials of the Boy Scouts of America have unanimously recommended allowing gay boys into the ranks of one of the nation's oldest and most traditional youth groups while continuing to exclude homosexual adults as leaders. Scouting's executive committee described the proposal as an effort to acknowledge changes in society while respecting the religious organizations that sponsor many Scout troops across the country. It also aims to move the organization beyond a controversy that has rocked its foundation in the last several months.

Babies wise up fast. By the time infants are 3 months old, their unfinished brains are laced with a trillion connections, and the collective weight of all those firing neurons triples in a year. But the indecipherable babbling and maladroit wiggling so beloved by parents just leave scientists in baby labs scratching their heads. What do those little people know, and when do they know it? A team of French neuroscientists who compared brain waves of adults and babies has come up with a tentative answer: At 5 months, infants appear to have the internal architecture in place to perceive objects in adult-like ways, even though they can't tell us. "I think we have a pretty nice answer," said Sid Kouider of the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris, whose findings were published Friday in the journal Science.

A 16-year-old boy has been charged as an adult in the slaying of an off-duty paramedic during an alleged carjacking attempt in Oakland, prosecutors said Thursday. Five other teens are facing charges in connection with the April 2 killing of Quinn Boyer, 34, who was shot at point-blank range after he had dropped off his father from a doctor's appointment, police said. Boyer died two days after the attack. Christian Burton and the five other teens are accused of watching Boyer in his parked vehicle near Keller Avenue and Hanson Street in the Oakland hills, according to police.

The split-level house of American dreams and boomer memories probably has never been used so evocatively or been as central to a movie as it is in "The Playroom. " In the 1975-set coming-of-age drama - a kids'-eye view of adult malaise - that house is essentially a character, showcasing the generational disconnect through a cataclysmic night for one family. Directed by Julia Dyer from a script by her late sister, Gretchen Dyer, the film uses the upper-middle-class setting effectively, even as it resorts to heavy-handed symbolism and melodrama in its dour, mostly unforgiving portrait of parental dysfunction.

The article, "Rome Builds Orange a Great Wall" (Jan. 31), by Beverly Beyer and Ed Rabey, was exciting to us. We are traveling to Orange, France, in May to formalize their joining us in our Sister City movement. We have invited our City Council, members of the Orange Sister City Assn. and residents of Orange, Calif., to join us on the trip to Europe, including three nights in Orange for the ceremonies. We have had many exchanges of students to Orange, New South Wales, Australia, and Queretaro, Mexico, but this is the first that a group of adults have been offered the opportunity.

A group of adult education students held a rally Wednesday to demand greater funding for adult education programs. About 30 members of the group United Adult Students gathered at the Evans Community Adult School in downtown Los Angeles to gather signatures for petitions that will be presented to lawmakers in Sacramento on Thursday. With about 10,000 signatures already in hand, they are calling on Gov. Jerry Brown to dedicate greater funding to adult education and to keep programs located in local K-12 school districts.

Marketers increasingly are focused on teenagers and young adults who are coming of age during the digital revolution -- creating shifts in viewing behavior that likely will have profound consequences for television companies. Ratings giant Nielsen on Tuesday released a study that explored viewing behavior of the so-called millennial generation -- the demographic roughly between the ages of 14 and 34. The report found that younger Americans are more multicultural than older Americans.