Approves

More than $2 billion in disaster loans was approved by the U.S. Small Business Administration to those affected by Superstorm Sandy , the agency said Friday. About 32,500 residents and businesses benefited from loans in what the agency called the third-largest natural disaster in the U.S. that it has responded to. The tropical cyclone struck in late October. “Since Hurricane Sandy struck the East Coast in October, SBA has worked diligently to approve loan applications and get money into the hands of storm victims as quickly as possible,” SBA leader Karen G. Mills said.

Authorities are worried that an arsonist who has set more than a dozen trees in Sylmar ablaze may be looking to up the ante, a Los Angeles Fire Department official said Wednesday. In response, the Los Angeles City Council also agreed to up the ante. A motion increasing the reward from $10,000 to $25,000 for the arsonist's capture and conviction was unanimously approved Wednesday, thanks to some nudging from the Los Angeles Fire Department. The reward will be in place for six months.

SACRAMENTO -- An Assembly subcommittee voted Wednesday to restore $418 million to California's judiciary, but not before one lawmaker shared some tough words for the state's court system. “While the state grappled with a budget crisis, court administrators sometimes have acted fiscally irresponsible,” Assembly Budget Committee Chairman Bob Blumenfield (D-Woodland Hills) said in his statement. He noted that the judiciary spent almost half a billion dollars upgrading the database for court records, then abandoned the struggling project.

Lawmakers in Connecticut, the site of the Dec. 14 massacre that renewed a national debate over gun control, passed a bipartisan measure that increases background checks for buyers and bans the sale of semiautomatic rifles like the one used in Newtown's Sandy Hook Elementary School. The Senate passed the bill 26-10 yesterday, and the House of Representatives approved it 105-44 in Hartford. The legislature is controlled by Democrats, and Democratic Governor Dan Malloy, 57, has said he will sign the measure.

A minority of voters living in a daisy chain of small, suburban and relatively upscale enclaves around the county's outer rim were largely responsible for last fall's razor thin defeat of a $90-billion transit tax that received lopsided ballot box support, a Times analysis shows. The review comes as several of Los Angeles' senior politicians have joined state lawmakers to push for a reduction of the threshold for passage of such measures, arguing that the current two-thirds requirement is undemocratic and hinders the region's growth.

The Miami Dolphins unveiled their new logo Wednesday, part of a redesign to give the team a fresh look next season. The Dolphins have also designed new uniforms, but those won't be unveiled until April 25. The new logo features a more realistic looking Dolphin, and he's not wearing a helmet anymore. (That was the best part of the old logo.) PHOTOS: Super Bowl logos through the years However, probably the two biggest names in Dolphins history tweeted their approval of the new look.

Despite a last-minute intervention by Los Angeles City Councilman Eric Garcetti, the city's Planning Commission moved forward Thursday with a bold development project that could add two towering skyscrapers to the Hollywood skyline. If the project is approved by the City Council, New-York-based developer Millennium Partners will be able to build more than 1 million square feet of apartment, office and retail space on fewer than five acres of land surrounding the iconic Capitol Records building.

WASHINGTON - The acting chief of the CIA's operations wing ran a secret "black site" prison overseas after the 2001 terrorist attacks and later signed off on the decision to destroy videotapes of brutal interrogations, according to current and former U.S. officials. The woman, who remains undercover, now is one of several candidates that CIA chief John Brennan is considering to head the National Clandestine Service, which conducts espionage overseas and runs the agency's paramilitary operations.

NEW YORK - The legal fallout from Facebook Inc.'s botched initial public offering last year isn't over, although regulators approved the $62-million plan by Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. to repay brokerages that lost money in the debacle. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's approval Monday does not stop the government or other parties from taking further legal action against Nasdaq for losses suffered in the Facebook IPO fiasco in May. Swiss banking giant UBS, for one, tallied its losses at $357 million and wants more money back than the settlement could offer.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has approved Nasdaq OMX Group Inc.'s proposal to pay brokerages as much as $62 million as compensation for last year's botched Facebook Inc. initial public offering. Nasdaq's trading system was overwhelmed by high volume on the first day that Facebook's stock traded, delaying trade confirmations and contributing to a chaotic and costly day for investors in the social media company. By some accounts, Wall Street firms lost as much as $500 million because of Nasdaq glitches during the Facebook IPO last May. Brokerages complained that they didn't get confirmation that trades were going through, leaving investors in the dark about whether they owned the stock, or at what price.