SCIENCE
June 5, 2012 | By Rosie Mestel, Los Angeles Times
The gap in life expectancy between black and white Americans is smaller than it has ever been, thanks largely to a decline in the number of deaths resulting from heart disease and HIV infection, a new analysis has found. That's the good news. The bad news is that the gap is still large: A black baby boy born today can expect to live 5.4 fewer years, on average, than his white counterpart, and a black baby girl will die 3.7 years earlier, on average, than her white counterpart. What's more, the narrowing of the gap between 2003 and 2008 is due in part to a troubling development among whites: They are more likely than in the past to die from overdoses of powerful prescription medications like OxyContin and Vicodin, along with other unintentional poisonings.
NEWS
June 13, 1999 | MARISA ROBERTSON-TEXTOR, SPECIAL TO THE TIMES
Welland Rudd isn't a typical American. He's never eaten Thanksgiving turkey or watched fireworks on the Fourth of July. At 52, he has yet to set foot on U.S. soil. Rudd isn't a typical Russian, either. Although he speaks the language fluently and has lived his whole life in Moscow, he cuts an unusual figure here. What sets him apart is the cafe-au-lait color of his skin.
BUSINESS
February 21, 2012 | Greg Braxton and Meg James
More than 20 years after he last played pro basketball, former Lakers star Magic Johnson is ready for a whole new game: running his own TV network. The Hall of Famer, who has become a successful business mogul, is preparing to launch Aspire, a 24-hour channel with a focus on what Johnson called positive, uplifting images of African Americans. The basic cable outlet will join other channels targeting black viewers, such as BET and TV One, and will offer opportunities for blacks who have struggled to find work in mainstream Hollywood.
BUSINESS
November 11, 1997 | CHUCK PHILIPS, TIMES STAFF WRITER
A top PolyGram executive has been demoted after suggesting in a court deposition that if record companies were prevented from hiring people with criminal records, no African Americans would be working in the music industry. The remark triggered a furor within the Dutch-owned entertainment conglomerate that is expected to continue today with a meeting at PolyGram's New York headquarters between company Chairman Alain Levy and civil rights leader the Rev. Jesse Jackson.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
August 2, 2004 | Joy Buchanan, Times Staff Writer
Would-be lawyer Arletta Brimsey spent years of her life learning the law, only to discover that, no matter how many times she tried, she could not pass California's bar exam. Then she met Alfred Jenkins. A retired Los Angeles prosecutor who became Brimsey's mentor, intellectual drill instructor and uncompromising taskmaster, Jenkins tutored her until she passed in 1994, 10 years after graduating from law school. She is now a Los Angeles deputy city attorney.
ENTERTAINMENT
April 19, 2013 | By Randy Lewis
It was an emotional roller-coaster at the 2013 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony Thursday night in Los Angeles, even more so than usual for the annual event. Consider disco queen Donna Summer , whose husband and three daughters accepted the award for her posthumously, 11 months after the singer and songwriter lost her battle with cancer. Or 80-year-old producer Quincy Jones -- the most nominated Grammy Award winner ever -- who said his induction into the Rock Hall made him feel “that finally, I have arrived.” Also enduring a long wait for recognition was Heart, whose founding sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson were finally admitted to what's historically been the boys' club of hard rock music after a decade of eligibility.