Defense

We're at the point where any San Diego Chargers victory can be summarized in two words. This goes back to Nov. 19, when between updates I saw a 24-7 San Diego deficit against Denver turn into a 35-27 Chargers victory and I text-messaged a friend to ask what happened. My buddy's reply: "LT happened." Flash-forward to Sunday, when the Chargers had to deal with a strong Oakland Raiders defensive effort, a shaky performance by quarterback Philip Rivers and a 14-7 Raiders lead in the fourth quarter.

Re "Budget proposals target Pentagon," Feb. 25 Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel's attempt to contain military spending will create a serious fuss. Members of Congress will try to protect their districts' industries. Hawks will rage over an increased risk of attack. But will anyone point out that, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, in 2012 the United States (population 318 million) accounted for 39% of the entire globe's military spending. China, the next highest spender (population 1.3 billion)

FT. BRAGG, N.C. - He called her "my panda" and "my baby. " She called him "papa panda sexy pants. " They had a three-year affair in Afghanistan, Iraq, Germany and the United States, but they were hardly equals. She was a junior officer assigned to his staff. He was a one-star general. Brig. Gen. Jeffrey A. Sinclair now stands accused of sexually assaulting the woman, a captain, who says he forced her to engage in oral sex after she tried to break off their affair. The general is also charged with threatening to kill the captain and her family, sexually harassing other female officers, abusing his government credit card, and possessing alcohol and pornography in a war zone.

 Former UCLA linebacker Sean Westgate is returning to Oak Park to be the team's defensive coordinator, new Coach Tim Kenney said. Westgate was known for his hustle and toughness in high school and college.   Eric.sondheimer@latimes.com  

For what it's worth, the Clippers have held their last four opponents below 100 points. They are 3-1 in those four games, having lost to the lowly Cleveland Cavaliers, 88-82. But there are signs of the Clippers making strides on defense. “You could see it coming, our defense,” Clippers Coach Doc Rivers said. “We have absolutely lost our pace offensively, and so it's nice that our defense is helping us win games right now.” The Clippers are no longer giving up over 100 points per game like they were earlier this season.

Re "Dysfunction at the jails," Editorial, July 11 The Times fails to acknowledge the summation presented by your chief witness at the county's new jails commission, Sheriff's Capt. Michael Bornman. Bornman was asked what needed to be done to improve the jails. He said repeatedly that the department had already fixed problem after problem. His list of improvements at the jails was so long he had to write them down. As he went through his list, he said (and this is a quote often repeated in his summation)

Re "Go native," Letters, Jan. 26 The cries for the obliteration of lawns in L.A. continue. The anti-lawn activists look at lawns while we use lawns. A green lawn can be walked upon and sat upon, and children and pets can play on it. It is an easy-to-maintain, utilitarian surface that is aesthetically restful. Native gardens, touted as water-friendly replacements, require the normal garden tasks of purchasing and installing plants, grooming, weeding and, yes, watering. A look around my hometown reveals native gardens that have been abandoned by owners, probably due to maintenance issues.

Nineteen games into the season and the Clippers are talking about their defense. Or in this case, their lack of defense. They gave up 107 points in a loss to the Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday night, seemingly with ease. The Clippers didn't close out on three-point shooters. They didn't rotate on defense. They gave up layups and dunks. Simply put, the Clippers were just poor on defense. “I think we should have it,” Blake Griffin said of defending properly. “I've said it over and over, but defense is one of those things that you can really control a lot just by your intensity and being down and ready.

It's hard to hear the details of Ethan Couch's crimes without flinching. Last June, the 16-year-old Texan plowed his father's pickup truck into a group of Good Samaritans helping a disabled vehicle on a narrow residential street in a Ft. Worth suburb. He killed four, including a mother and daughter, and permanently maimed two of his seven teenage passengers, one of whom landed on his head, and is permanently paralyzed. But it's even more painful to hear about the punishment handed down Thursday by Texas State District Judge Jean Boyd, who sentenced Couch to 10 years' probation after he pleaded guilty to four counts of intoxication manslaughter, according to the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram , and two counts of intoxication assault causing serious bodily injury.

The emphasis Lakers Coach Mike Brown stressed on defense comes in many shapes and forms. There are DVDs. Brown wowed the Lakers' front office with these during his job interview so much that he quickly became the favored candidate. He then distributed them to all his players before the lockout so they'd get a head-start on learning and executing his defensive concepts. There are terms. The main one Brown reiterates involves "shrinking the floor," which entails closing off baseline drives.

The six state attorneys general who have declined to defend their states' bans on same-sex marriage in court got some encouragement this week from U.S. Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. In a speech to the National Assn. of Attorneys General, Holder said that it was sometimes appropriate for attorneys general to abandon their usual obligation to defend the constitutionality of state laws. This page supports same-sex marriage unreservedly. But even so, we worry that Holder's comments will embolden additional state attorneys general - Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conservatives - to pick and choose which of their states' laws they will defend in court.

Attorneys for a man charged with killing eight people in a Seal Beach salon three years ago have accused Orange County prosecutors and sheriff's deputies of running an unconstitutional jailhouse informant operation that ensnared their client and other inmates. Scott Dekraai's public defenders say that the district attorney's office oversaw an "unchecked and lawless custodial informant program" which resulted in systemic constitutional violations and kept defense attorneys in the dark about the so-called jailhouse snitches.

The headlines on the Pentagon budget unveiled by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel this week were all about austerity: the smallest U.S. Army since 1940; fewer aircraft, ships and armored vehicles; even some modest belt-tightening on future military pay and benefits. But one category of military spending largely escaped the budget ax: nuclear weapons. The United States has about 1,600 long-range nuclear weapons on active duty - more than any other country, including Vladimir Putin's Russia.

Mr. Smiley Face came to town, providing DeAndre Jordan and the Clippers a chance to do their usual thing against the Houston Rockets. Have a nice day. Dwight Howard actually didn't look happy for most of the Rockets' 101-93 loss Wednesday night at Staples Center, perhaps mindful that he was not the best defensive player on the floor. That title went to Jordan, a 6-foot-11, 265-pound block of granite with an equally massive accelerator. He was citius , altius , fortius without needing a passport to Sochi.

Chokwe Lumumba, 66, a human rights activist and nationally prominent attorney who became mayor of Jackson, Miss., last year, died Tuesday at a Jackson hospital, city officials said. The cause wasn't immediately clear. As an attorney, Lumumba represented Tupac Shakur in cases including one in which the rapper was cleared of aggravated assault in the shootings of two off-duty police officers who were visiting Atlanta from another city when they were wounded. Shakur died in 1996. Lumumba also represented Lance Parker, one of the defendants in the attack on truck driver Reginald O. Denny at the beginning of the 1992 Los Angeles riots.

WASHINGTON - Signaling his frustration with events in Afghanistan, President Obama ordered the Pentagon on Tuesday to step up plans to withdraw all U.S. troops by January if Afghan leaders don't sign a bilateral security agreement. In an unusually blunt statement, the White House said Obama had telephoned Afghan President Hamid Karzai to make it clear that he had authorized new contingency planning before a two-day meeting of NATO and allied defense ministers in Brussels this week that will focus on long-term security efforts in Afghanistan.

Defense is USC's bread and butter, its faithful standby. If shots aren't falling, if calls go against them, if the hardwood cracks in two and a chasm appears, suspending play indefinitely -- it's cool, no worries, don't sweat it. The Trojans can still rely on their rock-solid defense, which is built on players being aggressive, knowing if they get beat, a teammate has their back. But against Washington State on Thursday, that defense, which was ranked first nationally in scoring defense (54.7)

WASHINGTON - The Army will shrink to its lowest troop levels since before World War II under a budget proposed Monday by the Obama administration that seeks to downsize the Pentagon from the wartime buildup of the last 13 years, and calls for retiring hundreds of aging aircraft and warships. The proposals reflect changing fortunes in the once-sacrosanct Pentagon budget. Congress has already ordered nearly $500 billion in defense spending cuts over the next decade, and automatic budget cuts - only partially rescinded - have caused a harsh reevaluation of military needs as the nation closes out the punishing ground wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

NEW ORLEANS - Defense won the NBA All-Star game. No joke. Well, maybe a chuckle is in order. The East wasn't exactly hand-in-the-face tough during a game that featured a record 318 points and zero blocked shots, but it did manage to stop the West when it needed to Sunday during the final minutes of a 163-155 victory. BOX SCORE: East 163, West 155 Carmelo Anthony's record eighth three-pointer was part of a game-ending 10-0 run at the Smoothie King Center that helped the East break the record of 155 points set by the West in 2003.