Ben

"Ben and Kate" is a sweet, smart new show from Fox that may turn out to be the best new comedy of the fall season. Certainly, it is the most original, combining silly, often physical humor with the more sensitive homespun sort while also showcasing one of the most fascinating yet under-used relationships on TV: a brother and sister. Kate Fox (Dakota Johnson) is a twentysomething single mom, which means she'll be handling the voiceover. A bar manager, she's trying to create some stability for her 5-year-old daughter Maddie (Maggie Elizabeth Jones)

Heat vs. Spurs: How they match up A look at the two teams before Game 1 of the NBA Finals LeBron James is right when he says he's way better than the player who couldn't carry Cleveland past San Antonio in the 2007 NBA Finals. It's also true that James' Miami Heat has a much better supporting cast than those Cavaliers did. The problem for Miami in these Finals could be what hasn't changed much since then: the Spurs. The core of Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili is playing as well collectively as it ever has, and Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich has perfectly aligned his role players Tiago Splitter, Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green to provide big-time contributions.

It is a strange time for a torch-passing. That is probably the last thing in the world Ben Howland is thinking about right now. But he is the UCLA men's basketball coach, and in Los Angeles, he owns one-half of the huge college sports marquee. UCLA basketball has the legacy of excellence and John Wooden, which are one and the same. The other half has, apparently, headed north, to Seattle. In retrospect, it appears that we merely got to borrow Pete Carroll from the pros for the better part of a decade.

Back home again in New York, Kentucky Derby winner Orb is the horse to beat in the Belmont Stakes. Orb was made the 3-1 morning-line favorite in a field of 14 entered for Saturday's final leg of the Triple Crown at Belmont Park, and trainer Shug McGaughey is confident his colt can bounce back from his fourth-place finish behind Oxbow in the Preakness. "He's been here for three weeks, and I think it has to be a help not only mentally but being familiar with the footing as well," McGaughey said.

Before Ben Crenshaw reached the 18th green Sunday at Riviera, his wife, Julie, had a feeling he was going to win the L.A. Open. "He had that fight in his eyes," she said. "He was ready to make a birdie. I knew he was going to do it." Crenshaw, tied for the lead with his playing partners, T.C. Chen and Danny Edwards after 17 holes, did indeed make a birdie, sinking his putt from 18 feet. Julie, who had been sitting behind the green, jumped into the arms of her twin sister, Kimberly.

For most parents, Down's Syndrome isn't something we remember to discuss without our children. That is, of course, not until we happen to be out in public and they point to a person with the chromosome abnormality, then to our embarrassment, blurt, "Who's that? " Do we mumble some benign answer or just turn the grocery cart down another aisle? Unfortunately, this picture book doesn't help adults know what to say at that moment.

As Stephen Sondheim observed, “There are giants in the sky.” Vintage children's stories of the dark-hued Grimm variety are as much cautionary as they are folkloric. If little boys and girls aren't careful, they could well become dinner. In his world premiere of “Wolves” at the Celebration, playwright Steve Yockey fractures a familiar yarn - the Red Riding Hood story - into a prismatic and sometimes lacerating reflection of the monsters that lurk in the streets of the big city - and also within.

Boston, 1711. It was the middle of the night. A terrible fork of lightning illuminated the small room and moments later deafening thunder boomed. Five-year-old Ben's brothers and sisters ran for cover. But Ben didn't run. He gazed at the sky in fascination. Off in the distance, lightning had struck a house. Josiah, Ben's father, came into the room and saw the house burning. He said solemnly. "It is the will of God." "Our neighbors house is burning and it is the will of God, father?

"I've always thought of the elderly as a great resource," says historian Keith Berwick, who has settled in Ojai. "They're a mine of information about the past." "I was just up visiting my 87-year-old mother in Northern California," said Berwick, a one-time television interviewer and former UCLA history professor who is writing a book on the presidency.

There is something haunting "The Apparition," stalking its dark corners and lying in wait to make itself seen. That something would be the wildly successful "Paranormal Activity" franchise, liberally and frequently borrowed from here as something of a default centering position. After a brief opening explaining a 1970s parapsychology experiment that seems to set it up as yet another fake-found-footage endeavor, the film switches to present day and a more conventional movie style.

WASHINGTON - The Federal Reserve's unprecedented stimulus efforts are starting to box in the nation's central banker. Its bond purchases have helped fuel economic growth since the financial crisis. But Fed policymakers now must figure out how and when to start dialing back the support - and signal that to nervous investors - without derailing the recovery. Mixed messages from the Fed on Wednesday roiled financial markets, sending the Dow Jones industrial average at one point beyond the 15,500 mark for the first time before swinging about 250 points.

Jeff Hanneman Founding member of metal band Slayer Jeff Hanneman, 49, a guitarist and founding member of the thrash metal band Slayer whose career was irrevocably changed after a spider bite, died Thursday of liver failure at a Los Angeles hospital, according to spokeswoman Heidi Robinson-Fitzgerald. Hanneman was born Jan. 31, 1964, in Oakland and co-founded the speed metal pioneers in Huntington Park in the early 1980s. He and Kerry King played screaming guitars, vocalist Tom Araya played bass and Dave Lombardo played drums (Paul Bostaph later replaced Lombardo)

Area basketball coaches are seeing a lot of off-court action these days. Now that the Lakers are out of the playoffs, head coach Mike D'Antoni can turn his attention to moving into the house he and his wife, Laurel, just bought in Manhattan Beach for $6.9 million and working on his tan. Set on a walk street, the ocean-view home features a three-stop cherry-paneled elevator, which should come in handy for carting beverages from the...

Join us Tuesday for a live video chat with Ben Percy, author of "Red Moon. " Part modern werewolf thriller, part allegorical tale, it's a big, juicy novel that debuts the same day. Out live chat will be here at 10 a.m. PDT (1 p.m. Eastern) -- join us. The book both is and isn't a departure for Percy. It's less literary fiction than his novel "The Wilding" or his 2007 book of short stories "Refresh, Refresh. " But like those books, it's also close-up with nature and deals with physical force and violence.

Ben Pleasants L.A. poet and playwright Ben Pleasants, 72, a Los Angeles poet and playwright who also championed the work of Charles Bukowski and John Fante in literary critiques, died of a heart attack April 18 in Crescent City, his wife, Paula, said. Born Aug. 6, 1940, in Weehawken, N.J., Pleasants graduated from Hofstra University on New York's Long Island in 1962 and within a few years enrolled in graduate English courses at UCLA. Beginning in the mid-1960s he wrote for the Los Angeles Free Press and regularly contributed book and theater reviews to The Times from the late 1960s until the mid-1980s.

Ben Affleck announced to the Twitterverse last week that he would live on less than $1.50 a day and take part in the Live Below The Line challenge. The actor tweeted, "1.4 billion people live on less than $1.50/day. I'm joining Live #BelowTheLine on behalf of @ easterncongo . Will you?" The challenge, which involves living on less than $1.50 a day, is meant to bring awareness to the billions of people around the world living below the poverty line.  What Affleck neglected to include in his tweet to rally others to take this noble challenge was that he would be doing the challenge for only one day. PHOTOS: Who is your celebrity dream dinner date?

--Ben the beer-loving bear has been banned from the only saloon in Lahoma, Okla. "Somebody squealed," said Bob Prince, the bartender and proprietor. He bought the 170-pound black bear a few weeks ago and said he figured Ben would attract business. "Then the health department said the only animal allowed in a bar was a Seeing Eye dog," Prince said. "I told them Ben's pretty smart and I was teaching him to be a Seeing Eye bear, but they wouldn't have it."

"Will Ben always be merely the shadow of the man I used to know?" asks Kathy, 40, a pale woman with dark circles under her eyes. "I'm grateful that he's alive, but he's in terrible pain. I don't know how we're going to go on." Two years ago, Ben, 43, a construction worker, was part of the team rebuilding a freeway after the Loma Prieta earthquake.

Former UCLA basketball Coach Ben Howland has listed his home in a gated Bel-Air neighborhood for $1,899,950. Built in 1999, the stone-clad home features an elevator, a home theater, five bedrooms, four bathrooms and close to 4,700 square feet of living space. The nearly half-acre lot includes a swimming pool with spa, a covered patio and a barbecue center. During Howland's 10 years at UCLA, he won four conference titles and coached the team to three Final Fours. Jordan Cohen of Re/Max Olson & Associates is the listing agent.

Good Ben Hunting! Ben Affleck is getting an honorary degree from Brown University. Is this life imitating art? The Academy Award-winning producer and philanthropist, 40, is set to receive the honorary degree from the Providence, R.I.-based university along with five others at the institution's commencement ceremony May 26, according to Brown. The Ivy League university will be giving the "Argo" actor/producer/director a doctorate of fine arts. The other honorary doctorates will be awarded to MIT professor Junot Diaz, Brown bacteriologist Stanley Falkow, Brown's Tougaloo College President Beverly Wade Hogan, physician Risa Lavizzo-Mourey and Miami Dade College President Eduardo Padron.