Demonstrations

Rosalind Gonzales has lived in her Norwalk house 30 years, raising her two now-adult sons there. She told state officials Tuesday that she's not ready to move -- even though her home might have to be demolished to make room for an expanded Santa Ana Freeway. "I don't want to move," the 58-year-old nurse's aide said. "You just can't throw me somewhere else and tell me to start over again. Life is too short." Gonzales was among more than 250 people who attended a public hearing on the proposed $1.

Deep inside my writerly brain, down where my earliest memories reside, there is a voice. It speaks to me in Spanish. I write in the language of Shakespeare and Steinbeck. That's the language I was educated in, here in L.A. The language of the British Empire, of American Manifest Destiny, of California and the West. But Spanish gave me my first words: mamá, agua . And it was the language on the covers of the first works of grown-up literature I held in my hands, the Guatemalan novels my immigrant father brought into our Hollywood home.

Father Louis Vitale has lost track of how many times he has been arrested. More than 200, he figures, maybe 300. The gaunt Franciscan friar figures he's spent a year and a half behind bars. At 76, he is ready to go to jail again. Last month, he appeared before a federal magistrate in Santa Barbara.

When Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. announced in 2009 that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and four other accused Sept. 11 conspirators would be tried in a civilian federal court, we said that his decision "makes an eloquent statement about the Obama administration's determination to avenge the victims of terrorism within the rule of law. " But the five never made it to civilian court; instead, thanks to domestic politics, they are being tried for murder and...

Students and fellow educators are rallying behind a fired Jordan High School teacher they say was sacked for encouraging political activism among her students. About 60 students rallied Wednesday at the Watts campus, while a colleague of the fired teacher said he and 15 other instructors planned to resign or transfer to other schools to protest the dismissal of Karen Salazar, a second-year English teacher. The dust-up has gone digital as well.

In a protest staged by the Writers Guild of America, West, about 150 pickets rallied outside the production studio of the new TV game show "Temptation" Thursday morning to support a walkout by most of the show's writers.

I hope we'll see the same worldwide demonstrations for peace on Dec. 7, the 45th anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, as we did on Aug. 6. VERNE KANNIANEN JR. Diamond Bar

The months-long confrontation between Iran's budding opposition movement and a hard-line government determined to stamp it out escalated sharply over the weekend, as parts of the capital became engulfed in fiery political protest and demonstrations broke out across the country on the occasion of an important Shiite religious holiday. Opposition websites reported as many as nine people killed in Tehran and the western city of Tabriz on Sunday during Ashura, a commemoration of the 7th century martyrdom of Imam Hussein, a grandson of the prophet Muhammad.

I'm sure you'll get barraged with complaints about Chief Gates' aggressive handling of the Operation Rescue demonstrations, but for all those silently thankful, I'll say it: Thank you, Chief Gates! It's time the tail stopped wagging the dog on this issue. A woman considering an abortion is in fact considering denying the responsibility associated with rearing that child. Few women undertake such a decision lightly, and those who would force the woman to follow through and bear the child under such circumstances cannot claim to have the child's welfare at heart, gut-level sloganeering notwithstanding.

Of all the astounding things that Rihab Assad has witnessed during these days of tumult, one stood out for her: the sight of a woman with a megaphone leading a crowd of demonstrators in chants. "And all of these men just chanting after her, repeating what she said," said Assad, an office manager in her 40s who lives in Cairo. "To me, this was something entirely new. " For many Egyptian women, the massive street demonstrations that have shaken the authoritarian rule of President Hosni Mubarak have also raised hopes of a more personal brand of liberation.

MOSCOW — Russian riot police cleared a Moscow park early Wednesday of a weeklong encampment considered a local version of the Occupy movement, and hours later clashed with antigovernment protesters outside a Stalinist skyscraper in a different part of downtown. The dispersal of several dozen protesters at the park encampment, called Occupy Abai, preceded a nighttime confrontation at Kudrinskaya Square, where several hundred protesters had gathered to oppose President Vladimir Putin.

The political climate in Congress is so noxious these days that even a law that originally passed with overwhelming bipartisan support because it provided much-needed help to abused women is now a partisan issue. That's shameful. Republicans in the House should drop their attempts to undermine the Violence Against Women Act and instead move swiftly to reauthorize and strengthen the existing program, as the Senate has already done. First enacted in 1994, the law has been renewed twice without a fight.

It's after-hours at the Huntington Meats in the Farmers Market and the canvas curtains are drawn. A dozen students sit on folding chairs circled around the worktable. On it lies splayed a whole hog, fresh from the farm, shaved naked, an apple stuffed in its mouth. Its nose is still a little bloody. Want to know where your meat really comes from? Take a butchery class. Over the next two hours, butchers Jim Cascone, Bob Ore and John Escobedo will take this whole animal and, using just a couple of knives and a band saw, reduce it to the cuts of meat you might recognize from the supermarket meat counter.

Don't forget to bring water to your workout, and not just to quench your thirst. Two water bottles are handy for this simple drill, demonstrated below by celebrity personal trainer Mike Donavanik (www.mikedfitness.com). What you're going to do is leap in a skating motion from one bottle to the other, picking up each bottle in its turn. Just remember to keep your core tight through the entire drill and to not overreach when you pick up the bottle. Why you should try it: It's a great plyometric exercise that will work your legs, butt and core and improve hand-eye coordination.

University of California police and administrators should use mediation instead of confrontation when dealing with most student protests, but pepper spray might remain a necessary tool of last resort, according to a UC draft report on campus civil disobedience. The new study, released Friday, urged that campus police be trained to defuse potentially volatile situations and that UC officials not even mobilize police at peaceful demonstrations. In the rare instances when force is required, the report recommended the campus police try "hands-on pain compliance" such as arm twisting or pressure points "before pepper spray or batons whenever feasible.

Research in Motion, hoping for a boost for its struggling smartphones, gave developers a sneak peek at its upcoming BlackBerry 10 operating system, expected to be released sometime this year. At the company's BlackBerry World 2012 event in Orlando, Fla., on Tuesday, new Chief Executive Thorsten Heins unveiled a prototype of the system in front of 5,000 customers, developers and other attendees. In a 47-second video that the company also shared online, a customer uses a BlackBerry 10 smartphone to scroll through emails and crisp photos; quickly type, with the help of predictive text, on a touch screen; watch videos; and sync the phone to a television screen.

Hundreds of thousands of Sri Lankans took to the streets and joined hands Wednesday in demonstrations to urge their government to start peace talks with Tamil Tiger rebels. It was the largest display ever by Sri Lankans of all ethnic groups for an end to the separatist war launched by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam 18 years ago. The rebels say Sri Lanka's 3.2 million Tamils need a homeland to prosper away from domination by the Sinhalese, who make up 14 million of the country's 18.

CAIRO - At least 11 people were killed Wednesday when unknown attackers armed with guns and firebombs clashed with protesters near Egypt's Defense Ministry in an escalation of violence highlighting political divisions that threaten the country ahead of this month's presidential election. Assailants stormed about 500 demonstrators at dawn, many of them supporters of Hazem Salah abu Ismail, an ultraconservative Islamist preacher recently disqualified from the presidential race. Police did not intervene for hours, and authorities said as many as 200 people were wounded in the nation's worst violence in months.

Numerous streets in downtown Los Angeles and beyond will be closed Tuesday for May Day marches. According to the Los Angeles Police Department, the following streets downtown will be affected, beginning as early as 7 a.m. and continuing until 7:30 p.m: •Broadway between 11th and Temple streets •Olympic Boulevard between Hill and Main streets •9th between Hill and Broadway •8th between Spring and Broadway ...