Courthouses

Every month for nearly 10 years, Ezzedin abu Azza's family traveled to the gates of Abu Salim prison in Tripoli to deliver a package of clothes, food and medicine, not knowing whether it ever reached him. They hadn't seen him since the day in 1993 when the 23-year-old was taken away for questioning by state security agents. But still they made their journey from Benghazi every month. Then, in 2002, the family was told he had died, six years earlier. Photos: A journey from Libya back to Egypt Here in this eastern city that has long simmered with resentment over the brutal rule of Moammar Kadafi, the Abu Azzas were among the lucky ones.

The pile of unread magazines and novels on her bedside table is Judge Betty Fletcher's only regret in letting retirement elude her. Fletcher, who turns 88 this month and relies on a walker to navigate airports and courthouse corridors, retired a dozen years ago yet still works full time, on what is known as senior status, for the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. She travels throughout the court's nine-state region for hearings and spends seven days a week poring over foot-high stacks of written filings.

Senior U.S. 9th Circuit Judge Cynthia Holcomb Hall, a trailblazer for women in the federal judiciary who evoked both controversy and feminine tradition during a legal career that spanned six decades, died at her Pasadena home Saturday after a long battle with cancer. She was 82. A controversial choice for the U.S. Tax Court when President Nixon appointed her in 1972, Hall weathered critics' efforts to have her thrown off the bench because of concerns that her husband's job heading the tax department of a Los Angeles law firm posed potential conflicts of interest.

A tear rolled down Eweis Abdullah's cheek, but his voice didn't crack or waver. He had told his story of injustice often over the years; a cadence settled over it. He was born a farmer's son, running through his father's wheat fields and growing into a man who raised cattle and chickens at the edge of Cairo. The land became more valuable as the city grew, and local police officers, armed with pistols and threats, decided they wanted it. "I was a well-known merchant. I was respected," he said as he stood in a downtown courthouse hallway unrolling papers that recorded years of outrage.

On walls across Libya's second-largest city are the same scrawled graffiti: Game Over. Days after protesters took control of Benghazi after fierce attacks by Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi's militia and alleged mercenaries left many dead and injured, demonstrations continued at the courthouse where they began a week ago. People called for Kadafi's resignation and expressed support for anti-government efforts in the capital, Tripoli, and other cities....

A panel of local House members led by Rep. Adam Schiff (D- Burbank) will examine the battle against last year's Station fire at a public meeting next month in Pasadena. Among those scheduled to address the panel are top officials of the U.S. Forest Service and Los Angeles County Fire Department. Schiff called for a congressional inquiry after The Times reported that the Forest Service misjudged the threat posed by the fire and scaled back its assault at the end of the first day. The next morning, aircraft that the agency's commander ordered did not reach the blaze until about two hours after the appointed time.

After months of attacking each other in legal papers, Frank and Jamie McCourt brought the core of their divorce battle before a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge Monday. Arriving nearly 15 minutes apart, they walked through a packed hallway outside the court filled with reporters — and their lawyers. She had five. He brought six. The question at the center of the case: Is Frank the sole owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, or do they both own the team? Although both spouses uttered nothing more than their names when they were sworn in — leaving the sparring to their attorneys — Frank McCourt is expected to testify as early as Tuesday.

Several hundred demonstrators opposed to Arizona's hard-line stance on illegal immigration marched Thursday to the federal courthouse here, where a judge the previous day had issued a last-minute injunction against most of the state's controversial immigration law. Three people were arrested in a carefully choreographed act of civil disobedience, when they stepped onto the cordoned-off steps to the building's plaza. Demonstrations are expected to escalate Thursday. "We live here in a climate of fear," said Alfredo Gutierrez, a former state senator who joined about 100 people on the two-mile march from the state Capitol at 4:30 a.m and was one of those arrested.

Lindsay Lohan will spend 13 days in county jail, Los Angeles County Sheriff's officials confirmed Tuesday, shortly after the 24-year-old actress began serving her sentence for violation of court-ordered probation. The jail term — a fraction of the 90 days to which she had been sentenced — results from the sheriff's policy of early release of nonviolent offenders to reduce overcrowding in the jails. Lohan surrendered at the Beverly Hills courthouse, walking briskly through a crowd of media and even a shower of confetti from fans.

Television trucks, attorneys and a few members of the public congregated at the federal courthouse in San Francisco on Thursday afternoon, waiting for a verdict in the Proposition 8 same-sex marriage trial. But as the sun set, no ruling had come. A rumor had swept through the blogosphere and San Francisco City Hall that U.S. District Court Chief Judge Vaughn R. Walker planned to issue his long-awaited ruling on whether Proposition 8, which bans same-sex marriage in California, violates the U.S. Constitution.