Barriers

CINCINNATI - The Rev. Chris Beard is a theological conservative, make no mistake about it. He believes the Bible is the word of God. He believes the Holy Spirit speaks to him directly. He believes, as an article of faith, that abortion and same-sex marriage are wrong. Still, when a group of religious leaders in Ohio held two days of meetings in Cincinnati recently to talk about economic and racial justice, issues usually associated with the political left, there was Beard, a fourth-generation Pentecostal preacher with a disarming smile, a shaved head and a set of convictions that knock holes in the stereotypes about white evangelical Protestants.

Since 2002, at first in secret and later with great fanfare, Google has been working to create a digital collection of all the world's books, a library that it hopes will last forever and make knowledge far more universally accessible. But from the beginning, there has been an obstacle even more daunting than the project's many technical challenges: copyright law. Ideally, a digital library would provide access not only to books free from copyright constraints (those published before 1923)

The frenzied response to the BP oil well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico has featured any number of wing-and-a-prayer options from engineers and elected officials. But the debate over a sand-barrier plan that skeptical scientists are referring to as "The Great Wall of Louisiana" has been the most politically charged. Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal, Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) and angry parish presidents have hammered the Obama administration in past weeks over what they characterize as a glacial federal approval process for the state's plan to construct 128 miles of sand berms, dredging up 102 million cubic yards of seabed in the process, to bolster the state's barrier islands and absorb oil before it reaches sensitive coastal marshes.

Dee Gordon made an opening-day roster for the first time this spring, which meant he was also in a major league uniform Sunday for his first Jackie Robinson Day, baseball's annual tribute to the former Dodger who broke baseball's color barrier in 1947. "I'm definitely honored," said Gordon who, like all big leaguers, wore Robinson's No. 42 on Sunday. "Wearing his number [shows] my respect for him. Last year I was in triple A and I watched those guys wear the jerseys and I thought, 'you know what?

Over the last 15 years, Omid Djalili, a British-born Iranian comedian and actor, who wryly refers to himself as "a Middle Eastern person," has become gradually famous by breaking down cultural differences and ethnic barriers. His appealing stand-up routines hinge on making audiences laugh at their own prejudices, exploring British attitudes to "otherness" and observing that what various ethnic and religious groups have in common is as important as what divides them.

Re "Peak-hour bus lanes are urged," April 26 Bus lanes on Wilshire Boulevard are a great idea, but I am dismayed at the persistence of the parochial attitude of Los Angeles City Council members. Why does Councilman Bill Rosendahl think that the Brentwood bus lanes should be suspended pending implementation in other districts? This kind of thinking is the problem, not the lack of innovative ideas and opportunities for progress. Designate the bus lanes, study the one-way couplet, build the subway and stop putting up parochial barriers to real solutions.

What a great story about disabled actor Richard Robert Redlin appearing in "Hart to Hart." ("Richard Robert Redlin Looks Forward to a Different Role," May 6). From my experience as an extra, I do think terrible, old barriers are being torn down. I had polio in one leg and walk with a limp. However, it has not stopped directors from putting me in scenes with Warren Beatty, Robert Wagner, Danny Aiello and Connie Sellecca. Let me tell you, there are few greater triumphs than a director looking across a sea of extras and picking a disabled person to do a scene.

The scene is a downtown sidewalk. It is noon, and the streets are bustling with liberated workers. You are in the midst of this, with a lunchtime errand like everyone else, trying to make your way toward a department store. You are in a wheelchair. At the entrance to the store are two heavy glass doors that seem to say physically disabled people not allowed. The second scene is an employment office in a nearby building.

Does the City Council of Santa Ana know how to keep a promise? For thousands of Northwest residents, the answer is no! On June 19, the council voted 6 to 1 to convert temporary traffic barriers that were placed two years ago into permanent structures even though they promised originally to remove them when local Caltrans work was completed on the Main Street Bridge. So what happened? The Santa Ana City Council instead chose to respond to the two-year lobbying effort of a vocal group called the Floral Park Neighborhood Assn.

Residents in the foothill communities hit by the Station fire cheered when officials trucked in thousands of white concrete highway barriers and placed them in front of their homes. The hulking "K-rails" helped channel rainwater and mud away from homes during this week's storm. But now, officials said the barriers could stay on the streets for up to five years -- the length of time the risk of mudslides is expected to last in hillside areas of Glendale, La Crescenta, La Cañada Flintridge and other locations.

NEW YORK - As baseball celebrates the 65th anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier for the Dodgers, the new stewards of his old team are working to embrace his family in the incoming ownership group. Sharon Robinson, the daughter of the late Hall of Fame infielder, confirmed Sunday the Dodgers' incoming owners have invited the Robinson family and its foundation to play a significant role with the team. "We hope that we will be involved," Sharon Robinson said.

The only woman in a sea of men in suits, Dorothy Townsend can't help but stand out in the official photograph of the Los Angeles Times team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 1966 for coverage of the Watts riots. The picture also inadvertently documents Townsend's other historic role at the newspaper. After insisting on being reassigned from "the women's pages" in early 1964, she became the first female staff writer to cover local news in a city room long populated only by men. Townsend, who wrote for The Times from 1954 to 1986, died March 5 of cancer at her Sherman Oaks home, said her cousin, Louise Hagan.

On Feb. 28, 1946, Jackie Robinson and his wife, Rachel, boarded an American Airlines flight in Los Angeles bound for Daytona Beach, Fla., for spring training. There he would try to prove that he was good enough to join the Montreal Royals, the top minor league team in the Brooklyn Dodgers' organization, and integrate professional baseball. It would be more than a year before Robinson played his first game with Brooklyn, on April 15, 1947, breaking Major League Baseball's color line and forever changing baseball and society.

Maria Elena Felipe sat in the viewing area of a San Diego immigration courtroom growing frustrated as she watched her son struggle to answer questions. She couldn't help him. Ever Martinez Rivas, 32, was 29 miles away, in a detention center, his image appearing on a large video screen in the front of the room. At each question from a judge, Martinez stared blankly and stayed silent for long periods, she recalled. At one point, the judge asked Martinez if he understood what she was saying.

Ayeet Timothy Odeke, basketball coach at Nkumba University in Kampala, gets the look - the same one Bill Walton might have given John Wooden years ago - when he instructs his players on the proper way to put on their socks and lace up their shoes at the start of each season. "If you didn't get the words, the face would talk to you," Odeke explained. "Are you mad? Are you crazy?" It was 10 years ago, at a basketball clinic in Uganda, when Odeke was exposed to certain Wooden life lessons for the first time: Don't mistake activity with achievement.

During a harrowing five and a half hours on a listing ship, Costa Concordia survivor Georgia Ananias of Downey cited "extreme language barriers" as one of the obstacles she and her family faced during their struggle to survive. "The information only came out in Italian and Spanish," she told KPCC , talking about the announcements made while the ship was going down. Ananias pieced together some of the words from her limited Spanish.  She and her family were among the last off the cruise ship that became submerged Jan. 13 near Isola del Giglio off Italy's west coast.

Re "Farmers Market Tragedy Evokes Thoughts on Driving Skills, Habits," July 27: Your editorial suggests that new laws are needed to require the aged be tested more often for their driving competence. And indeed, this may be needed. But what are more needed are city ordinances and laws that require temporary physical barriers that would make it virtually impossible for a vehicle to injure some number of gathered people, which would also protect against a possible mechanical malfunction.

The Calabasas City Council's decision to leave in place a temporary street barrier has kept alive an issue that caused a painful rift between residents of two halves of a housing tract, the city's transportation chairman said Monday. "It bothered me that the council didn't do anything at the last meeting to make a decision either to construct a permanent barrier or eliminate it entirely," Peter Eason, chairman of the city's Traffic and Transportation Committee, said.

Dear Liz: I have an adjustable-rate mortgage that is currently at 3.125%. I'd like to fix the rate, but no one will even discuss it with me because my house has been appraised at less than $100,000 and the balance of the mortgage is $144,319. I have never been late, and my credit scores are above 800. What can I do? I don't want a mortgage modification. I just want a fixed rate. Answer: If your loan was backed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, and if it was originated before June 1, 2009, you may be in luck, thanks to recent improvements to the federal government's Home Affordable Refinance Program, or HARP.

Phileas Fogg went around the world in 80 days. I did it in 23. And I bet I visited more amazing sites than he - India's Taj Mahal, Easter Island, Tibet, Cambodia's Angkor Wat, the African plains, to name a few - all without having to endure the tramp steamers, bone-jarring trains and elephants that Fogg used in 1872. I traveled by private jet. The price of a seat, and all that went with it, was $64,950. The trip was sold by National Geographic Expeditions, which each year offers at least one and sometimes four around-the-world tours by private jet, a leased Boeing 757-200 that is configured with only 77 super-large and dreamily comfortable seats.