Court Case

The time slot was an unforgiving one and the venue even worse. When Foster the People ambled onstage at noon on the final full day of the nearly weeklong South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas, in March, it was exhaustion rather than excitement that filled the convention center hall. The scant and weary crowd was hardly befitting for a band that would soon have a top 10 album in "Torches" and become the hottest thing going in Los Angeles. "To a spectator who knew nothing about the back story, we are a band that came out of nowhere," said the trio's leader, Mark Foster.

When filmmaker Sofia Coppola set out to tell the story of the "bling ring," she wanted the movie to have an authentic, docudrama sensibility. So the daughter of Francis Ford Coppola reached out to the Los Angeles Police Department investigator who cracked the case of the starry-eyed youths from the San Fernando Valley. Four years ago, their lust for stardom and money led them to raid the homes of young Hollywood, making off with Paris Hilton's designer clothes and Lindsay Lohan's artwork.

All but unnoticed by most of the news media, a criminal case working its way to trial in a federal courtroom in Alexandria, Va., could create perilous new restrictions on both Americans' political speech and the right of their free press to report national security issues. The constitutional implications of these proceedings are alarming enough on their own.

Imagine walking out of 2012 and into a courtroom from the pre-laptop era. Court clerks fill out dockets, then pull apart five carbon copies to hand to attorneys, who shake their heads in disgust and go back to their offices to re-enter the data in modern, usable formats. Hearings are delayed and frustrated plaintiffs, defendants and lawyers get back on the freeway after learning that the court's official paper file has been misplaced and that there is no instantly retrievable digital version, so no possibility of proceeding.

In homes across the Netherlands, family doctors are carrying out euthanasia at the request of patients seeking a dignified final release from incurable or terminal illness. Dr. Herbert Cohen, one such practitioner, says he has been involved in "up to a dozen" mercy killings in the last three or four years and has always informed the police beforehand. He has never been prosecuted. "Before they die, they say the most marvelous things.

Question: A homeowner successfully sued our association, the association's attorneys and their law firm. A copy of the lawsuit was obtained from the courthouse, and the homeowner has been using the blank reverse side for his personal stationery. He makes no comment regarding the suit, he merely wraps all his bills and packages using the lawsuit paper. He is having a field day spreading the word without saying a word.

When filmmaker Sofia Coppola set out to tell the story of the "bling ring," she wanted the movie to have an authentic, docudrama sensibility. So the daughter of Francis Ford Coppola reached out to the Los Angeles Police Department investigator who cracked the case of the starry-eyed youths from the San Fernando Valley. Four years ago, their lust for stardom and money led them to raid the homes of young Hollywood, making off with Paris Hilton's designer clothes and Lindsay Lohan's artwork.

The Supreme Court's decision to hear arguments on the fate of President Obama's healthcare law sets the stage for a ruling just as the presidential election shifts into full swing, putting the law — and the justices — in the center of the campaign. Both sides see the case as posing a profound legal dispute over the size and scope of the federal government, reminiscent of the 1930s court battles over President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal. At stake now is whether Congress has the power under the Constitution to require all Americans to buy health insurance — a linchpin of the new law. Conservatives have made the "individual mandate" a key part of their argument that Obama and congressional Democrats tried to expand government regulation to an unprecedented degree.

Child actress Edith Fellows had made about 30 films by the age of 13 when she starred in a heart-wrenching, high-profile 1936 custody case, which was driven, she later said, by "my money — past, present and future. " Abandoned as an infant by her mother, she was being raised by her paternal grandmother, who brought Edith, then 4, to Hollywood from South Carolina after a "talent scout" guaranteed her a screen test for a $50 fee. The address they were given led to a vacant lot, and her grandmother responded to the con man's ruse by cleaning houses so that they could afford to stay.

UC San Diego Chancellor Richard Atkinson agreed Monday to pay up to $275,000 to a former Harvard University professor who had accused him of impregnating her and tricking her into having an abortion on a promise to father her child at a later date. The court-approved settlement between Atkinson and Lee Perry came three days into a jury trial on a charge by Perry that Atkinson had caused her emotional distress by threatening to destroy her academic reputation and encouraging her to kill herself.

If you have a dispute that can't be resolved, you may consider taking it to Small Claims Court, which is designed to be far cheaper and quicker than regular court. In this forum there are no attorneys or juries — you present your own case and the person you're suing gets the chance to tell his or her side of the story. Some key things to know: •How much can I ask for? The maximum amount an individual can sue for in Small Claims Court in California is $10,000. For businesses, the limit is $5,000.

President Obama's decision to defy Senate Republicans and appoint four top agency officials on his own authority sets the stage for a contentious constitutional battle over the powers of the presidency and the role of Congress. To Republicans, Obama's action amounted to "an extraordinary and entirely unprecedented power grab," according to House Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio, who said the move would have "a devastating effect on the checks and balances" in the Constitution. To Democrats, who have the majority in the Senate, the blame rested on an obstructionist GOP minority, which has been stalling appointments, said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.

Over the last five years, the Salton Sea's shoreline has been steadily receding into the desert, creating a "bathtub ring" of exposed lake bed around the 360-square-mile body of murky water that straddles Imperial and Riverside counties. Once, it was one of the most productive fisheries and wildlife habitats in the state, but the shrinking Salton Sea has hit hard times. Along with imperiling the fish that live in the hyper-saline water and the migratory birds that stop along their annual journey, the shrinkage exposes a pesticide-laden lake bed that could contribute to the dust storms that have given the region some of the dirtiest air in California.

The Supreme Court's decision to hear arguments on the fate of President Obama's healthcare law sets the stage for a ruling just as the presidential election shifts into full swing, putting the law — and the justices — in the center of the campaign. Both sides see the case as posing a profound legal dispute over the size and scope of the federal government, reminiscent of the 1930s court battles over President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal. At stake now is whether Congress has the power under the Constitution to require all Americans to buy health insurance — a linchpin of the new law. Conservatives have made the "individual mandate" a key part of their argument that Obama and congressional Democrats tried to expand government regulation to an unprecedented degree.

The day the Supreme Court gathered behind closed doors to consider the politically divisive question of whether it would hear a challenge to President Obama's healthcare law, two of its justices, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, were feted at a dinner sponsored by the law firm that will argue the case before the high court. The occasion was last Thursday, when all nine justices met for a conference to pore over the petitions for review. One of the cases at issue was a suit brought by 26 states challenging the sweeping healthcare overhaul passed by Congress last year, a law that has been a rallying cry for conservative activists nationwide.

The Supreme Court heard arguments last week in a case that pits religious freedom against freedom from discrimination. It's a close call, but religious freedom should prevail. Cheryl Perich was a teacher at a Lutheran school in Michigan who taught secular and religious subjects and led students in prayer. After a leave for treatment of what was diagnosed as narcolepsy, she was pressed by the school to resign. She returned to the school anyway to find her position occupied by another teacher.

The most troubling thing about the current drug accusation against Lance Armstrong is that, at first blush, it doesn't seem to be all that troubling. Famous cyclist, seven-time winner of the Tour de France, is accused of enhancing his performance. Yawn. Yet another of his former teammates points a finger, and does so on national television, CBS' "60 Minutes," no less. The teammate, Tyler Hamilton, with little comprehensible reason to lie, fesses up to his own drug-enhancing use and goes into detail about wheres, whens and hows of Armstrong's use. In some cases, he does so as an eyewitness.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said Monday that it would review old unsolved homicide cases to determine whether any are linked to a man accused of four home invasion killings this fall in the South Bay. The move came amid questions raised by The Times about how John Wesley Ewell was able to stay out of jail at the time of the killings even though he had recently been convicted of second-degree burglary for stealing from a Home Depot...

Child actress Edith Fellows had made about 30 films by the age of 13 when she starred in a heart-wrenching, high-profile 1936 custody case, which was driven, she later said, by "my money — past, present and future. " Abandoned as an infant by her mother, she was being raised by her paternal grandmother, who brought Edith, then 4, to Hollywood from South Carolina after a "talent scout" guaranteed her a screen test for a $50 fee. The address they were given led to a vacant lot, and her grandmother responded to the con man's ruse by cleaning houses so that they could afford to stay.

The time slot was an unforgiving one and the venue even worse. When Foster the People ambled onstage at noon on the final full day of the nearly weeklong South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas, in March, it was exhaustion rather than excitement that filled the convention center hall. The scant and weary crowd was hardly befitting for a band that would soon have a top 10 album in "Torches" and become the hottest thing going in Los Angeles. "To a spectator who knew nothing about the back story, we are a band that came out of nowhere," said the trio's leader, Mark Foster.