Arrivals

Picking up someone at Los Angeles International Airport when you are alone in the car can be traumatic. There is no way to tell whether or not the flight you are meeting is on time except to leave your car at the curb and enter the terminal. By the time you've done this, your car will be ticketed by security. I have a suggestion. Why couldn't the airlines put up a computerized sign outside their terminals for motorists to view? This sign would designate the arrivals for say, 30 minutes, telling the on-time and late arrivals.

TUCSON - Young people granted immigration relief and work permits under a new Obama administration program still won't be able to obtain driver's licenses in Arizona, a federal judge has ruled. Although the decision is a win for Republican Gov. Jan Brewer, who issued the executive order denying driver's licenses to this particular group, it's just the first battle in a case that will probably be argued on constitutional grounds. U.S. District Judge David G. Campbell on Thursday turned down a request for a preliminary injunction blocking Brewer's order but stated that the plaintiffs - a contingent of immigrant rights groups - would probably prevail on their claim that the governor's order violates guarantees of equal protection under the U.S. Constitution.

For the past 28 years, Army Archerd has been the human extension of Oscar's red carpet. Standing atop a small wooden platform Monday night, the tuxedoed Archerd once again greeted, announced, schmoozed with and soothed the glittering stream of stars that made their way from the back seats of stretch limousines to the front rows of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. For Archerd, Oscar night is the longest and most terrifying day of the year.

David Beckham's six years with the Galaxy bolstered the fortunes of both the Galaxy and Major League Soccer. But now that the superstar is gone, has it made any difference? It's a mixed bag, but it's still early in the season. Through its first five home games at the 27,000-seat Home Depot Center, the Galaxy's average attendance is down 6% from a year earlier to 21,011. Ticket broker StubHub, which takes over the stadium's naming rights June 1 as part of a marketing partnership with the Galaxy, likewise is "seeing a bit of lag" in the resale market for Galaxy tickets, according to StubHub spokeswoman Alison Salcedo.

It may prove hard to determine exactly who was Los Angeles County's first baby of 2013. In the giddy moments when so many in the region applauded, kissed or clinked their champagne flutes, Candice Campudoni and Martin Robert Hardy of Reseda welcomed their third son, Dorian Martin-Jean Hardy, at Kaiser Permanente's Woodland Hills Medical Center. At the same time, Oxanna and Jose Esquivel of Boyle Heights greeted their fifth child, son Jadian Arian Esquivel, at White Memorial Medical Center in Boyle Heights.

Why is it that Los Angeles International Airport's management cannot apply the same logic to its decision-making and press statements that is used by the users of its airports ["Don't Let Guard Down in Airports," Global Savvy, Nov. 15]? Tom Winfrey of the firm that manages LAX and other airports suggests that new arrivals should only use taxis and vans that bear a decal issued by the local Department of Transportation. First of all, "new" arrivals do not read the Los Angeles Times, therefore would not benefit from Winfrey's advice.

There was uncertainty on the faces of children and adults alike as they arrived by rail Saturday from the Ukraine, the latest drops in a human wave generated by the nuclear power plant accident at Chernobyl. But their solemn looks often dissolved into smiles as grandmothers or young women with bunches of tulips, carnations and lilacs rushed up to embrace friends and family members who came to Moscow from Kiev.

Authorities, who have picked up more than 1,200 immigrants in the past week, braced for the arrival of 1,300 more as coast guards and a pro-Kurdish news agency in Turkey said other ships were on their way. A ship carrying 386 people, more than half of them Kurds, had arrived earlier, and Italy stood firmly by its stated aim to grant asylum to Kurds fleeing persecution.

The quote by Jeannette Schwarz of frogdesign ["Departure in Style," Dec. 4] that Lufthansa Airlines' motivation to renovate its home terminal in Frankfurt was to "get away from the 'cattle car' approach of Southwest Airlines" is offensive, insensitive and nothing short of industrial-strength chutzpah. When Lufthansa can match the No. 1 ranking of customer satisfaction Southwest has earned by offering low fares, on-time departure and arrivals, reliable baggage handling and friendly staff ready to assist passengers, perhaps Ms. Schwarz will recognize that her desire for "the romance of flying" should be seen in the proper perspective.

Amtrak advertises the Coast Starlight, which runs from Seattle to Los Angeles, as its "hottest with the coolest scenery." Not long ago I rode as far as Paso Robles. I'm becoming a grouchy old man who is feeling harassed to distraction by our Internet dot.com, Nasdaq-obsessed society. The old-fashioned train with its semi-fouled-up arrivals and departures and overall tone of another time was a comfort and a great solace to my ragged nerves. At stops I got off and walked the platform, looking at the cars and the locomotives, and all I saw were names of an older and industrial America: wheel assemblies by Buckeye Steel Castings, Timken bearings, GE engines.

CLEVELAND - Amanda Berry, one of the three women who was kidnapped and held prisoner for about a decade in a Cleveland house, returned to the embrace of her family on Wednesday. Berry, now 27, arrived at her sister Beth Serrano's Cleveland home, several miles from the house on Seymour Avenue where Berry, her 6-year-old daughter and two other women were imprisoned. Yellow ribbons were tied to the trees and the front of the house was festooned with balloons, stuffed animals and a huge banner proclaiming: “WELCOME HOME AMANDA.” PHOTOS: Kidnapping victims found Berry and her family entered through a back door, away from a media horde outside the home and moments later her sister came forward.

Actress Lindsay Lohan violated her probation Thursday by leaving a Newport Beach rehabilitation facility where she was to begin 90 days of treatment in a reckless driving case, prosecutors said. Mark Heller, Lohan's attorney, told Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge James Dabney on Thursday morning that his client had already begun her therapy at the Morningside Recovery facility after opting not to go to a Long Island recovery center. Heller told the judge the facility met all the conditions of Lohan's plea agreement in a case in which she was also convicted of lying to police.

Take a walk in certain corners of Southern California this evening and you might find someone trying to give you a book. It will be free. And it will also be a very good book. Shirley is going to the pier and beach in Venice, to give away copies of “My Antonia” by Willa Cather, to fishermen and surfers and anyone else who's interested. Hope, from Beverly Hills, is going to her nearest Department of Veterans Affairs facility to pass out copies of Sandra Cisneros' “The House on Mango Street” to veterans.

NBC's "Chicago Fire" did not exactly generate a lot of heat when it launched last fall. The drama about the truck and rescue squads of a fictional Chicago firehouse lacked the moody darkness, charismatic antiheroes and explosive violence of critical darlings such as "Breaking Bad," "Homeland," "Boardwalk Empire," "Dexter" and "Sons of Anarchy. " The show's retro vibe and focus on heroism were decidedly more "old school" than "new cool. " The template also appeared a bit too close to those of "Rescue Me," "Third Watch" and other recent series centered on emergency workers.

Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello and Raphael -- the turtles, not the artists -- made their way onto smartphones and tablets for the first time Thursday, in a new app called " Rooftop Run . " The new video game is available for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch and lets users control the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as they try to stop an invasion by their enemies, the Kraang. Similar to the game "Temple Run," "Rooftop Run" lets users scroll through a city for as long as they can fight off enemies, collecting power ups so they can attain the highest score possible.

WASHINGTON - While much of the debate over immigration has focused on the fate of the estimated 11 million people in the U.S. without legal authorization, one of the biggest immediate impacts of the reform bill being prepared in the Senate would be a sudden, large surge in legal migration. The U.S. admits about 1 million legal immigrants per year, more than any other country. That number could jump by more than 50% over the next decade under the terms of the immigration reform bill that a bipartisan group of senators expects to unveil as early as Tuesday.

For two centuries, immigrants have been streaming into the United States able to communicate only in their native tongues, those of middle age and older rarely achieving full fluency in English. Ah, but they were white, generally Protestants and of good, clean European stock. Nobody was too upset when they conversed in their native language among themselves, or in stores and in the workplace. It's not easy to learn English. But now, suddenly, the new immigrant groups are Hispanics and Asians.

What a wonderful idea, that of Los Angeles Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores, so enthusiastically endorsed by Chief Daryl Gates, to create a training program for citizens on "how to be arrested" in Los Angeles ("Gates Urges Education on Arrests," Metro, May 23). We can all see the advantages in such a program. Lessons in proper demeanor would be invaluable to anyone contemplating survival in Los Angeles. But we shouldn't just keep it to ourselves. Of course, we should run the videotapes in schools and libraries.

BEIJING - Present your business card with two hands. Go ahead and slurp your soup. Give gifts to clients, but by all means avoid clocks and knives. These are among the cultural hints and etiquette tips that California's new China Trade and Investment Office offered to dozens of political and business delegates traveling here with Gov. Jerry Brown this week. The group arrived Monday, ahead of Brown, who was celebrating his 75th birthday. The trade office will open officially later this week, when Brown and his entourage travel to Shanghai for the official ribbon cutting.

When America got Powerball fever last November, Californians felt left out. Many asked friends in other states to buy tickets, and some even drove to the Arizona border when the jackpot for the multistate game reached $587.5 million. On Monday, Californians no longer had to worry about crossing state lines, because Powerball finally came to the state. Lottery die-hards lined up all across California for their 1-in-175-million chance to win. John Apodaca, 62, of Hawthorne, was part of one line.