Brian

What would it take to get you into an electric car today? Forced by state regulators to sell more zero-emission vehicles, automakers are tripping over each other to offer consumers rock-bottom lease deals. For the first time, electric vehicles are penciling out cheaper than their gas-powered counterparts. Honda joined the price war this week by dropping the lease on its Fit EV from $389 to $259 a month. It threw in collision and vehicle theft coverage, maintenance, roadside assistance - even a charging station at your house.

Brian Shaw was the first of four candidates Monday to present his case to the Clippers as to why he should be the team's next head coach. Shaw, the associate head coach of the Indiana Pacers, met with the Clippers' front office at the team's facility and left an impression on team President Andy Roeser, vice president of basketball operations Gary Sacks and director of basketball administration Eric Miller during his interview with them, said two...

Few markets crashed harder than Compton when California's real estate bubble burst. The city's northwest side saw the median home price plummet to $94,000 in 2009, down from $385,000 at the peak. Foreclosures dotted the streets. Families fled, leaving trash and old furniture behind. "There were a lot of empty houses. It was a big mess," said real estate broker Ruben Magdaleno of Re/Max VIP. These days, the working-class community has a new identity: comeback kid. Northwest Compton has posted the most dramatic price jump of any area in Southern California.

As other potential candidates have gotten hired for head coaching jobs, the Clippers have continued their search for a replacement for Vinny Del Negro by having preliminary discussions with several people in the last few days. The Clippers recently have reached out to one of their top choices, Indiana associate head coach Brian Shaw, said two NBA executives who were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter. The Clippers were given permission to speak to Shaw by Indiana's front office, one executive said.

When the writers of "30 Rock" sent Brian Williams lines earlier this fall for his latest cameo, the NBC News anchor had a couple of suggestions. A scene in which he auditioned to be on the show's fictional comedy sketch series was "too blue" for his taste. In another, in which he approached Tina Fey's Liz Lemon about trying out for the program, Williams adopted an alter ego that paid homage to his late uncle Tony Mortarulo. "I'm not saying I want to audition, but Nicky Mortarulo from Scotch Plains, N.J., might be interested," Williams said with a broad grin and his best Jersey inflection.

Maybe Brian the dog is just a better conversationalist than Steve Lopez's marauding raccoons. Lopez enlisted an animal psychic to persuade the raccoons destroying his yard to lay off. Psychic Dana Miller is trying to reason with them -- as Lopez relayed in his Wednesday column -- but conversing with raccoons isn't as easy as chatting with dogs, it seems. Miller had no trouble connecting with Brian, a tiny white Maltese who disappeared three years ago from his Tujunga front yard.

Ask Brian Viloria how his boxing career has gone and he's likely to mumble something about Death Valley and Mt. Everest. He has been a world champion twice, the first time for a year, starting in September 2005, and now, starting last April. In between was the pits, known in boxing as the Alameda Swap Meet in South L.A. The facts: Viloria is 29, the International Boxing Federation champion at 108 pounds, and will defend his title in Manila on Saturday night against Carlos Tamara.

Betty Lou Batey, the fundamentalist who once stole away with her son Brian for 19 months rather than let him live with his gay father, said Wednesday that Brian plans to live with her now that his father has died. Her claim--made in a call to The Times a week after she again disappeared with the 16-year-old--contradicted the contention of Craig Corbett, the longtime companion of Brian's father, Frank Batey, who has insisted that the youth wants to continue living with him in Palm Springs.

'What I did was, mostly it was very little, it was amazingly little. I listened to the radio. To go to the bathroom or to get bathed in any way was like a life risk, because you stop breathing. As much as he can sense the ocean's presence from his cottage atop the Malibu bluff, Brian John May is unable to look upon it from his aging steel hospital bed. As morning creeps in through his windows, Brian knows that he cannot, on his own power, rise to meet the day.

Brian Burke's office is surprisingly small for a man of his physical and professional stature. Windows offer a view of a chilly, gray Toronto afternoon but the gloom is brightened by his children's drawings and family photos on his walls. The personal side of his move from Anaheim, where he led the Ducks to the Stanley Cup in 2007, to Toronto and the job of president and general manager of the Maple Leafs has worked out fine. One daughter from his first marriage visited from Boston last weekend.

Almost three weeks after the Clippers were knocked out of the Western Conference playoffs, the team decided to part ways with Coach Vinny Del Negro on Tuesday. The Clippers told Del Negro, their coach for three seasons, they would not renew his contract when his deal expires at the end of June. Del Negro told The Times that being let go was "hard to take. " He added: "You try not to ever be surprised, but it is a business. " "This was a difficult decision," Clippers vice president of basketball operations Gary Sacks said in a statement.

Former Chicago Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher is in search of a team. And the Minnesota Vikings are said to be in need of a starter at his position. So, naturally, there has been plenty of speculation that Urlacher would end up wearing the purple and gold -- even though the Vikings are NFC North rivals of his former team. On Tuesday the Chicago Sun-Times quoted a source close to Urlacher as saying that the eight-time Pro Bowler was "leaning toward heading to Minnesota and is talking a one to two year contract” with the Vikings.

Los Angeles Fire Chief Brian Cummings rejected a request from members of the City Council to postpone Sunday's start of a controversial plan to shift dozens of firefighters to ambulance duty. Council President Herb Wesson asked Friday that the Fire Department delay the changes, which are designed to address an increase in 911 medical calls, for three days so lawmakers can consider the effects of the reassignments. The council has scheduled a hearing Tuesday to address what critics say are safety issues surrounding the new staffing plan.

Intel on Thursday announced Brian Krzanich has been selected to be the company's sixth chief executive, taking the helm of one of Silicon Valley's most iconic companies at a time when the company is struggling to gain traction in mobile computing. Krzanich, 52, will succeed Paul Otellini, who announced last fall he was stepping down. He assumes a seat that has been held by such valley giants as Andrew Grove.   PHOTOS: The top smartphones of 2013    Krzanich's selection continues a tradition at Intel of selecting a chief executive  from within its ranks, though there were rumors in recent months the company was considering outside candidates as well.  Currently serving as chief operating officer, Krzanich joined Intel in 1982.  The company also announced Renée James, currently e xecutive vice president and general manager of Intel's software and services group , will become president of Intel.

SANDY, Utah — Mike Magee and Charlie Rugg scored early in the first half, and the Galaxy coasted to a 2-0 victory over Real Salt Lake on Saturday night. Brian Rowe became the first goalkeeper to earn a shutout in his MLS debut for the Galaxy (4-1-2) since Brian Perk in a 0-0 draw against Seattle on July 4, 2011. Magee scored on a header in the sixth minute. Juninho fed him a cross off a free kick into the center of the box and Magee put a perfect touch on the pass as he headed it inside the right post.

The post-race fight Friday night between NASCAR Nationwide Series drivers Nelson Piquet Jr. and Brian Scott spilled over into the motor home parking area of Richmond International Raceway afterward and led to the arrests of two Richard Childress Racing crew members. Police said that Michael Searce was arrested on two charges of misdemeanor assault and Thomas Costello was arrested on one count of misdemeanor assault. Both are crew members for Scott. Each was released early Saturday morning.

I watched Neil Armstrong take his giant small step onto the moon at my best friend Brian's house. It was July 20 1969, and just before 8 p.m. in L.A., and the sun was still out. Thinking back, I see light filtering in through curtains, pulled shut possibly to help us better feel the history being made (remotely) before our eyes, on a big square black-and-white TV showing a black-and-white picture beamed from 238,900 miles out in space. Or perhaps they were always closed like that. Things we might otherwise have been doing then and may have been doing right before or afterward included swimming, reading comic books and making recordings on Brian's reel-to-reel.

Jorge Ameer's unwieldy "Sabor Tropical" (Tropical Flavor) is part travelogue and part melodrama, and the two parts don't add up to much more than tedium. Ameer plays an online journalist, accompanying and filming Brian (Matthew Leitch), who's fleeing a romance gone sour, hoping to find sex and fun at Panama's Las Tablas carnival. Ameer takes far too long to get Brian, who comes across as cocky and spoiled, to Las Tablas, where the carnival really is spectacular.

Los Angeles Fire Chief Brian Cummings said Thursday he was pressing ahead with a controversial plan to move dozens of city firefighters from fire engines to ambulances, despite warnings from labor groups that the change would put lives at risk. In the coming days, the chief plans to deploy 11 new ambulances by reassigning one firefighter per shift from 22 firetrucks across the city. Cummings says the department must adjust to fewer fires and a growing number of medical emergencies, and has limited funding to make the change.

Democratic Sen. Max Baucus of Montana, who sometimes crossed his party in the powerful role of Finance Committee chairman, announced Tuesday he would retire at the end of his term - complicating Democrats' efforts to keep control of the Senate in the 2014 midterm election. The move caught many in Washington by surprise. Baucus had stockpiled $5 million - a fortune by Montana standards - and voted last week to oppose compromise gun control legislation, which some viewed as a calculation aimed at winning reelection in his libertarian-leaning state.