WORLD
May 1, 2012 | By Henry Chu and Dawn C. Chmielewski, Los Angeles Times
LONDON — Over 60 years, Rupert Murdoch built a media empire using his properties and their profits not just to break down the doors to the British establishment, but also to control it. So Tuesday's scathing declaration by a British parliamentary committee that Murdoch is "not a fit person to exercise the stewardship of a major international company" may mark the moment when the once-tamed establishment lost its fear of the country's most powerful...
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
April 26, 2012 | By Tony Perry, Los Angeles Times
SAN DIEGO - A Marine sergeant who criticized President Obama on Facebook was notified Wednesday that he is being dismissed from the service with an other-than-honorable discharge. Gary Stein, 26, a nine-year veteran who served in Iraq, will be demoted to lance corporal, and his discharge status will make him ineligible for most federal veterans benefits, after Brig. Gen. Daniel Yoo accepted the unanimous recommendation of an Administrative Separation Board. The panel found that he made disparaging comments about Obama that were detrimental to good order and discipline and violated military law. Civilian lawyers for Stein said they would continue to fight in federal court to prevent Stein from being dismissed or to win his reinstatement.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
April 22, 2012 | By Shane Goldmacher and Anthony York, Los Angeles Times
SACRAMENTO — As the sun set behind Monterey Bay on a cool night last year, dozens of the state's top lawmakers and lobbyists ambled onto the 17th fairway at Pebble Beach for a round of glow-in-the-dark golf. With luminescent balls soaring into the sky, the annual fundraiser known as the Speaker's Cup was in full swing. Lawmakers, labor-union champions and lobbyists gather each year at the storied course to schmooze, show their skill on the links and rejuvenate at a 22,000-square-foot spa. The affair, which typically raises more than $1 million for California Democrats, has been sponsored for more than a decade by telecommunications giant AT&T.
NATIONAL
April 18, 2012 | By David G. Savage
WASHINGTON - Foreign political organizations like the Palestinian Liberation Organization and multinational corporations cannot be sued for the torture or murder of persons abroad, including Americans, under the terms of a 1991 U.S. anti-torture law, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously Wednesday. Only individual perpetrators of such crimes can be held liable, the court said. The decision is a setback for human rights activists who have sought to extend American law to target inhumane conduct aboard.
BUSINESS
April 11, 2012 | By Walter Hamilton, Los Angeles Times
Their Occupy-like grievances were familiar as activists staged a day of protests throughout California to oppose income inequality and other issues. Their choice of locations was not. Rather than parks or other public venues, these protesters demonstrated outside the well-tended homes of executives from some of California's largest corporations. The Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, an offshoot of the embattled national group ACORN, organized the protests outside the homes of the well-known, such as Hewlett-Packard chief Meg Whitman in Northern California.
BUSINESS
April 8, 2012 | By Roger Vincent, Los Angeles Times
The former Marina del Rey headquarters of automotive legend Carroll Shelby was sold along with two office buildings for $6.5 million. Shelby, once a race car driver, set up shop for his fledgling car company Shelby-American at 1042 Princeton Drive in March 1962, his website said. That year he introduced his first Cobra sports car, and in 1963 a Cobra won the United States Road Racing Championship. The company operated out of a red brick industrial and office complex built in the late 1950s that, according to books on Shelby, had previously been leased by playboy race car driver and entrepreneur Lance Reventlow.