Claims

Inland Empire officials on Thursday morning lodged a legal claim against Los Angeles in an attempt to force the city to hand them control of L.A./Ontario International Airport, which has been in serious decline. The city of Ontario filed the claim -- the first step toward bringing a lawsuit -- a day after rejecting Los Angeles World Airports' offer to sell the once popular aviation hub for almost $475 million. Negotiations have been underway for several months. In addition to the transfer of ownership,  the action seeks to terminate a 1967 joint powers agreement in which the Los Angeles airport department became the operator of Ontario on the condition that it improve the facility.

Los Angeles City Administrative Officer Miguel A. Santana said Thursday he was shocked by a legal claim filed by an Inland Empire group attempting to gain control of L.A./Ontario International Airport. Santana, who has been moderating talks over a possible airport transfer, said he thought the parties were having productive discussions. The legal action, he said, could undermine further efforts to reach a deal. “It violates the spirit of the negotiations,” Santana said. “We've spent a lot of time and resources to set up a fair process.

Prosecutors filed a criminal charge against disgraced former KPMG partner Scott London, saying he gave a stock-trading friend inside information about his firm's clients in exchange for cash, jewelry and expensive dinners. The criminal case filed Thursday in federal court in Los Angeles conflicted with the version a contrite London gave reporters earlier this week; London said that the information he gave his buddy was sparse and that his involvement in the stock trades was minimal.

SANTIAGO, Chile - Chilean authorities on Monday exhumed the body of Pablo Neruda to check claims by a former chauffeur that the Nobel Prize-winning poet may have been killed by government agents shortly after the 1973 overthrow of his friend, President Salvador Allende. Under a special tent and wearing protective clothing, a team of forensic pathologists that included a U.S. toxicologist gathered in the coastal resort town of Isla Negra to oversee the exhumation. Neruda died on Sept.

Bathed in the neon glow of the Palm Tree L.A. lounge, Jay Park downs a shot of soju and keeps his eyes on the flat-screen. Steve Nash is pushing the ball up court while Kobe Bryant lurks at the three-point line. Dwight Howard bumps for position near the hoop. The Lakers may still be on the bubble for a playoff spot and that other L.A. squad is suddenly the sexy team in town, but here in the punchy loud Koreatown bar, it's all about purple and gold. For years, the Lakers claimed a steady fan base in the sprawling Korean American community, but this season the intensity has been amplified - with games now broadcast in Korean, a first in the NBA. Time Warner Cable, which invested nearly $3 billion for regional TV rights to Lakers games for the next two decades, hired four Korean Americans as play-by-play announcers and color commentators, adding a fifth person just days ago. For Park and others, it has brought a new intimacy to the action.

What's a healthful food and what's a healing food? Is there a difference? At least since the mid-19th century, when the Battle Creek Sanitarium opened its doors and people flocked there to follow John Harvey Kellogg's regime of whole grains, nuts and frequent enemas, many Americans have sought food as medicine. I have a shelf of books with titles such as "Food - Your Miracle Medicine" and "The Food Pharmacy," and my smartphone is filled with snapshots of the "super foods" on display at a trade show: acai and goldenberry, chia, coconut and flax, goji berries and hemp, maca root and other berries, nuts, seaweeds and roots I've never heard of (yacon, lucuma, camu, maqui)

The family of Trayvon Martin, the teen who was shot dead by a Neighborhood Watch volunteer last year in an Orlando, Fla., suburb, appears to have settled a civil suit claiming wrongful death against the subdivision's homeowners association. Citing Seminole County court records, the Orlando Sentinel reported on Friday that the settlement could total $1 million or more. A few pages of the document were made available to the public, but the amount of the settlement was blacked out. The agreement stipulated that those involved would keep the dollar amount private.

WASHINGTON -- First-time jobless claims unexpectedly climbed to a four-month high last week, the Labor Department said Thursday, providing more evidence that the economic recovery might be heading into another spring slowdown. The number of people filing initial claims for unemployment benefits rose to 385,000 for the week ending Saturday, an increase of 28,000 from the previous week's revised figure, the Labor Department said. Economists polled by Bloomberg had estimated that claims dropped slightly last week to 353,000.

SEOUL -- In what is becoming a daily ritual, North Korea has threatened the United States, saying it is prepared to strike with “smaller, lighter and diversified” nuclear weapons. The statement from the North Korean military, relayed early Thursday by the Stalinist regime's official news agency, seemed aimed at rebutting assessments by U.S. intelligence that North Korea's nuclear weapons are too large and heavy to be deployed on ballistic missiles. The U.S. has also said it doesn't believe North Korean missiles are capable of reaching the U.S. mainland or Hawaii.

Writers on E!'s "Fashion Police" have filed claims with the California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement saying the series has broken state labor laws by not paying them regular and overtime hours. The writers allege they are owed more than $1 million in back wages by E!. "Fashion Police" features several hosts, including Joan Rivers and Kelly Osbourne, commenting on celebrity fashion. The series is produced by Rivers' daughter, Melissa. PHOTOS: Celebrities by The Times The complainants say that "Fashion Police" ignores state laws that require an employer to pay hourly employees their regular wage rate for all time worked in an eight-hour period.