Brian Banks

Re "Cartels push drug violence to new depths," May 28 This article has only one line about drugs heading north to the U.S. Nearly all of the wealth generated by the drug trade comes from Americans, so in a real sense, we share responsibility for those 50,000 deaths over the last six years. The number is similar to all the American deaths we had in the Vietnam War. We need to escalate the dialogue about legalizing drugs in our country, as Portugal did in 2001. That country reduced the number of drug addicts and its prison population.

Los Angeles mayoral candidate Eric Garcetti won the endorsement of another City Council colleague on Thursday. At a news conference in Silver Lake, Councilman Tom LaBonge said he was supporting Garcetti over City Controller Wendy Greuel because Garcetti has a proven track record of revitalizing neighborhoods. "Wendy's a friend of mine, Eric's a friend of mine, but you make a judgment about what's best right now for the city," LaBonge said. "You've got to know how to move bureaucracy and move community, and Eric knows how to do that.

The teenage hiker still missing in the Trabuco Canyon area of Orange County apparently couldn't keep up with her friend as the two tried to make their way out of the brush, possibly because of a twisted ankle, her father said. Russ Jack told the Los Angeles Times on Thursday morning that some information had been gleaned from his daughter's friend, Nicholas Cendoya, 19, who was rescued Wednesday night. Cendoya and Kyndall Jack, 18, called authorities Easter Sunday and said they were lost.

The Florida Marlins couldn't have picked a better time to break out of their slump. The Marlins scored their first run in 25 innings in the eighth and added two more in the ninth as they rallied for a 3-2 victory over the Montreal Expos on Friday night. Pinch-hitter Brian Banks' run-scoring single with one out in the bottom of the ninth gave the Marlins their second victory in 10 games and 16th walkoff victory.

Faced with an early five-run deficit against the defending National League champions, it would have been easy for the Colorado Rockies to fold. Not this team, and not at Coors Field. Charles Johnson and Preston Wilson each hit a three-run home run, and the Rockies rallied to defeat the San Francisco Giants, 12-7, Monday. "It looked a little bleak there," Rocky Manager Clint Hurdle said. "We're kind of like a duck on top of a pond.

Defense attorneys for a man who pretended to be a Rockefeller and is now charged with the cold-case murder of his San Marino landlady's adult son wrapped up their case Wednesday. They focused on an enduring mystery in the nearly 30-year-old whodunit: What happened to the victim's wife? Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter's lawyers called only two witnesses in his defense: a pair of handwriting experts who testified that they were all but sure Linda Sohus was the person who wrote several postcards mailed to her friends and family weeks after she and her husband went missing in early 1985.

The two hikers missing for days in Orange County's Trabuco Canyon were eventually found not far from each other, each about a half mile from where they had parked their car, authorities said. "From the map's perspective, it appears they were pretty close," Orange County sheriff's Lt. John Park told reporters Thursday afternoon. Nicolas Cendoya, 19, was found the night before off a gravel road that had been traversed by rescue crews and volunteers who had come to join in the search, about 200 yards up a ridge.

A prominent local entrepreneur and philanthropist has purchased Doheny Glatt Kosher meat market as controversy about its products continue to swirl through the Los Angeles Jewish community. Shlomo Rechnitz, who, according to his tumblr blog, has spent years in the healthcare and medical supply industry, is also an "extraordinarily huge player in the international Jewish world of philanthropy," Rabbi Meyer May said. Rechnitz purchased the business from former owner Michael Engelman on Sunday, May said.

A 19-year-old Marine private was indicted by a federal grand jury in Los Angeles on Friday on charges of wrecking a 57-car Southern Pacific freight train that derailed near Palm Springs in late August, killing an apparent stowaway. Brian Andrew Banks, stationed at the Marine Corps Air-Combat Training Center at Twentynine Palms, was also accused of stealing television sets as part of a gang of enlisted men who raided slow-moving trains in the desert during a four-month period last summer.

The Texas Rangers believe they have nothing else to lose so they might as well play loose and enjoy the rest of the season. It is a philosophy that would be best duplicated by the reeling Cleveland Indians, who dropped a 7-6 decision Sunday to the Rangers--the sixth loss in seven games for the AL Central leaders. "You know what they say about the first-place teams playing clubs that are 10, 12 games out," said Juan Gonzalez, who hit one of the Rangers' five solo home runs.