Blacks

Often film sequels are slam dunks at the box office, a seamless continuation from where a previous hit left off. But as the new installment of the 15-year-old franchise "Men in Black" proves, getting to the big screen isn't always a cakewalk. One of the most troubled productions in recent Hollywood memory, Sony Pictures' latest movie in the Will Smith-Tommy Lee Jones sci-fi-comedy franchise encountered multiple script rewrites, a discontented star and a three-month production shutdown as writers and studio executives scrambled to fix a project that nearly fell apart . By the time it was over, the studio had run up a tab of nearly $250 million - making "Men in Black 3" one of the most expensive releases of the summer.

The Rev. Hamel Hartford Brookins, an influential bishop and former pastor of the First African Methodist Episcopal Church of Los Angeles who became a political power broker, civil rights leader and mentor to former Mayor Tom Bradley, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and many others, has died. He was 86. The son of Mississippi sharecroppers, Brookins rose to prominence in the 1960s and '70s as an articulate, self-assured champion of black political empowerment. He died Tuesday at a Los Angeles retirement center where he had been receiving hospice care, a church spokesman said.

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.

The small gangs of destructive knuckleheads who style themselves as anarchists have been the bane of Occupy Wall Street protests this spring. On May Day, the brats in black smashed store windows, bashed cars and fought with police on the streets of Seattle, Oakland, Montreal and other cities. Their antics stole attention from the thousands of peaceful protesters who may have had serious things to say about the expanding divide between rich and poor.

In Mexico, the story of the country's black population has been largely ignored in favor of an ideology that declares that all Mexicans are "mixed race." But it's the mixture of indigenous and European heritage that most Mexicans embrace; the African legacy is overlooked.

Hair is nothing if not a powerful subject for African Americans. In Chris Rock's new documentary "Good Hair," which opened Friday, he sets out to explore the complexities of living with black hair. He visits beauty salons, hairstyling competitions, science labs and Indian temples. He interviews a cavalcade of celebrities, salon owners and their clients in multiple cities. Through the ages, people of all ethnicities have obsessed about hair. Ancient Romans, Assyrians, Greeks and Egyptians wore wigs; so did Marie Antoinette and Thomas Jefferson.

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.

Nearly half of the Latino and African American students who should have graduated from California high schools in 2002 failed to complete their education, according to a Harvard University report released Wednesday. In the Los Angeles Unified School District, the situation was even worse, with just 39% of Latinos and 47% of African Americans graduating, compared with 67% of whites and 77% of Asians.

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.

More black agents joined a racial discrimination lawsuit against the Secret Service on Thursday, adding new claims that they frequently endure racial slurs. The 19, who include some former agents, join 38 others in a lawsuit first filed in February. They claim their white colleagues and supervisors regularly use a racial epithet to refer to criminal suspects and black leaders of other countries.

The gig: As a kid Jamon Hicks spent many afternoons in courtrooms where his mother was a clerk. He still spends a lot of his time in courtrooms, but now Hicks, 32, is a trial attorney with the Cochran Firm in Los Angeles. Also, last month Hicks became president of the California Assn. of Black Lawyers, an organization founded in 1977 that now has more than 6,000 members, including lawyers, judges, law professors and students. Growing up in court: Hicks was raised in Inglewood and Baldwin Hills, and after day care or school he was often whisked to courtrooms where his mother was finishing her workday.

The misbegotten "Virginia" wants to be many things: small-town satire, coming-of-age story, teen romance, portrait of an eccentric and damaged soul, with dabs of crime caper and road trip for good measure. Nothing adds up, though, in this directorial effort from screenwriter Dustin Lance Black ("Milk"). Set among the hangdog hicks and arcade attractions of a fictional Southern beach town, the loosely autobiographical movie aims for roller-coaster passion but only flatlines. In a committed performance that can't overcome the material's shortcomings, Jennifer Connelly plays the title character, an unreliable bottle blond with a history of schizophrenia who's meant to have the poignancy of Blanche DuBois.

SAN DIEGO -- Bud Black was a member of Mike Scioscia's original coaching staff with the Angels. Three of those coaches ascended to managerial jobs - Black with the San Diego Padres, Joe Maddon with the Tampa Bay Rays and Ron Roenicke with the Milwaukee Brewers. Never in Scioscia's 13 years had one of his coaches left involuntarily - until this week, that is. Hitting instructor Mickey Hatcher , another of Scioscia's original coaches, was fired by General Manager Jerry Dipoto . "Your initial reaction is surprise," Black said.

The Angels Gate lighthouse, graced by its distinctive vertical black stripes, gleams brighter at the entrance to Los Angeles Harbor today after an extensive restoration project. "Ain't she pretty?" asked Allan Johnson of the Cabrillo Beach Boosters Club, brushing his fingers across the octagonal base of the structure that has shined a reassuring beacon for coastal skippers entering the harbor for 99 years. On the eve of Thursday's unveiling forU.S. Coast Guardbrass and other dignitaries, San Pedro civic leaders made a final inspection of the cast-iron, wood and stucco tower that rears 73 feet into the air above the end of the breakwater, two miles offshore.

Often film sequels are slam dunks at the box office, a seamless continuation from where a previous hit left off. But as the new installment of the 15-year-old franchise "Men in Black" proves, getting to the big screen isn't always a cakewalk. One of the most troubled productions in recent Hollywood memory, Sony Pictures' latest movie in the Will Smith-Tommy Lee Jones sci-fi-comedy franchise encountered multiple script rewrites, a discontented star and a three-month production shutdown as writers and studio executives scrambled to fix a project that nearly fell apart . By the time it was over, the studio had run up a tab of nearly $250 million - making "Men in Black 3" one of the most expensive releases of the summer.

Men in Black (1997): $251 million domestic, $339 million international Men in Black II (2002): $190 million domestic, $251 million international

The Justice Department's civil rights division said Thursday it had found insufficient evidence to prosecute four white Riverside police officers involved in the 1998 shooting death of a 19-year-old black woman who passed out in her car with a gun in her lap. "Tyisha Miller's death was a terrible tragedy," said Assistant U.S. Atty. Gen. Gerald Boyd.

Spiegel Inc. and Ebony magazine, responding to a growing black consumer market, said Tuesday that they plan to launch a new clothing catalogue for contemporary black women. The nation's largest mail-order catalogue company, Spiegel is designing a line of clothing in conjunction with Ebony magazine that the companies say reflects fashion trends among black women. The company's catalogue, expected to be mailed to 1.

It was September 2010 and anticipation for Dustin Lance Black's directorial debut at the Toronto International Film Festival was running high. A year earlier, the "Milk" screenwriter had made a splash at the Oscars with his moving acceptance speech touching on the difficulty of growing up gay, transforming him into a hero for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. Now, his Southern-set film, "What's Wrong With Virginia" - starring Jennifer Connelly and Ed Harris - was unspooling in Toronto's special presentation section alongside the works of Danny Boyle, John Sayles and Clint Eastwood.

President Obama's conversion from nay to yay on same-sex marriage raises an interesting political question: What happens to his support among black voters who, in most states where the issue has been on the ballot, have been overwhelmingly against it? In spite of eloquent pleas from NAACP chapters and progressive black clergy, the black electorate remains unmoved. In fact, until his announcement Wednesday, Obama's views seem to have been shaped by that same community, especially the black church.