Death

In the latest chapter of an almost operatic family tragedy, the brother of murder-suicide suspect Josh Powell has died in Minneapolis after apparently throwing himself from a seven-story parking structure. A spokesman at the University of Minnesota, where Michael Powell was a graduate student, confirmed to the Los Angeles Times that the death occurred off campus and said the Minneapolis Police Department was investigating. Powell, 30, had been engaged in a legal battle with the parents of his missing sister-in-law, Susan Cox Powell, over the proceeds of as much as $3.5 million in life insurance paid out after Josh Powell killed himself and the couple's two young boys in February 2012.

On Wednesday, actor Robert Blake stopped by “Piers Morgan Tonight” to promote his new self-published memoir, “Tales of a Rascal,” but the appearance descended almost instantly into a meltdown of “Tiger Blood” proportions. In 2005, the “Baretta” star was acquitted of killing his wife, Bonnie Lee Bakley, but was later found liable for her death in a civil suit. Given the high-profile nature of the case, it wasn't so unreasonable for Morgan to broach the subject, but Blake didn't seem to agree.

It was an emotional roller-coaster at the 2013 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony Thursday night in Los Angeles, even more so than usual for the annual event. Consider disco queen Donna Summer , whose husband and three daughters accepted the award for her posthumously, 11 months after the singer and songwriter lost her battle with cancer. Or 80-year-old producer Quincy Jones -- the most nominated Grammy Award winner ever -- who said his induction into the Rock Hall made him feel “that finally, I have arrived.” Also enduring a long wait for recognition was Heart, whose founding sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson were finally admitted to what's historically been the boys' club of hard rock music after a decade of eligibility.

The San Fernando Valley is 260 square miles of suburbia. Actually, make that suburbia on nutritional supplements. And antidepressants. With perhaps a little cosmetic surgery south of Ventura Boulevard, where the big money is. Or maybe - now that it's grown to more than 1.7 million people in nearly three dozen cities and neighborhoods rich and poor - the Valley isn't even a suburb anymore. It begins just 10 miles northwest of Los Angeles City Hall, sprawling west to the Simi Hills, north to the Santa Susana Mountains, and east to the Verdugo and San Gabriel mountains.

For Jung Joon, the moment of truth arrives for his clients as they slip into the casket and he pounds the lid in place with a wooden hammer. Insights arise, he says, as they are confronted with total, claustrophobic darkness, left alone to weigh their regrets and ponder eternity. Jung, a slight 39-year-old with an undertaker's blue suit and a preacher's demeanor, is a resolute counselor on the ever-after who welcomes clients with the invitation, "OK, today let's get close to death."

Methadone, a potent opiate once used almost exclusively to treat heroin addicts, is increasingly being prescribed by doctors as a pain medication and abused by drug users searching for a cheap, easy way to get high, physicians and federal drug officials say. The drug, which comes in pill or liquid form, recently has come under scrutiny in the death of former Playboy model Anna Nicole Smith. A doctor in Studio City prescribed methadone to Smith for pain treatment before she was found dead Feb.

Marc Christian MacGinnis, who won a multimillion-dollar settlement in 1991 from the estate of his ex-lover, actor Rock Hudson, after convincing a jury Hudson had knowingly exposed him to AIDS, has died. He was 56. Known as Marc Christian, he died of pulmonary problems June 2 at Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank. The details were confirmed Friday by his sister, Susan Dahl, who said she did not publicly announce his death earlier because of her brother's wish for privacy.

What? Me crying?! No, I was just, uh… slicing some onions while watching “Downton Abbey.” You know how it is on Sunday night, the weekend is over and you just want to mindlessly chop vegetables watching your favorite British period piece. What? Doesn't everyone do that? OK, fine. So maybe I was crying. Can you really blame me? “Downton Abbey” is a show that triggers a wide range of emotions in its audience - frustration, fascination, amusement, titillation, boredom.

When it came to mass recognition in the United States, the late Latin music star Jenni Rivera used to say she wasn't Coca-Cola, and maybe she wasn't Pepsi either. But she wasn't going to let anyone tell her she wasn't at least akin to Fanta. The sentiment - more colorfully expressed in Rivera's words according to friend and manager Pete Salgado during a recent interview in Studio City - may partly explain why the Mexican regional superstar floated under the radar of most non-Spanish-language outlets before her death last year.

The news accounts, now 70 years old, offer only fragments of the "ghastly drama" that surrounded the marriage of Mary Kenan Flagler Bingham, "the richest woman in America." She was the widow of Standard Oil co-founder Henry Flagler and her estate was worth between $60 million and $100 million. Her bridegroom was Judge Robert Worth Bingham, a Kentucky lawyer without independent means. Their wedding in 1916 made headlines, even in New York. And so did her mysterious death eight months later.