Dog

Two 17-year-old girls have been sentenced for torturing and butchering an elderly woman, less than three weeks after a pair of 10-year-olds were charged with murdering a toddler. Again, a troubled nation is asking, how could this happen? Edna Phillips, 70, was throttled with her dog's leash and stabbed or slashed 86 times. The mental images of the crime have shocked the nation just as the video pictures of little James Bulger being led to his death did last month.

Michelle Reiter lost $4,000 in cash, a 32-inch TV and a laptop computer when her Glendale home was burglarized. But also stolen that day was something far more valuable — her 11-year-old teacup Yorkshire terrier, Sophie. Since that time, she has been frantically searching for Sophie, not only because the dog is her greatest love, but because Sophie needs periodic medication for her bowels. Sophie was reported stolen after burglars entered Reiter's home on May 7 in the 600 block of Beulah Street through a rear bathroom window and ransacked the inside, according to Glendale Police Department reports.

The alarm over potential bank runs in Greece and Spain this week has highlighted an often-overlooked fact: Europe's debt crisis is also, in many ways, a major banking crisis. In capitals such as Athens, Madrid and Rome, large portions of the sovereign debt racked up by spendthrift governments are owed to the countries' own banks, locking governments and the banks in an embrace so tight that disaster for one would almost certainly spell doom for the other. International bailouts for Greece, Ireland and Portugal have helped to keep not just their governments but also their banks afloat, as well as financial institutions in other parts of Europe with large exposure to those nations' debts.

I love my dog. Sure, he has issues - what lover doesn't? He wheezes when he sleeps, or when he's awake. There is an unexplainable darkness to his soul that emerges when he's under extreme stress. He also has a taste for the blood in mosquito bites. (The vet thinks he might be a vampire.) Being from L.A., our dog is prone to anxiety attacks and an almost debilitating sense of envy, particularly when coming upon younger, fitter dogs, which almost all dogs are. The last time we weighed him, he was close to 300 pounds.

The biggest home in Los Angeles County is ready for a new nickname: The 56,500-square-foot Manor, dubbed Candyland after owner Candy Spelling, has been sold to another wealthy socialite, British heiress Petra Ecclestone, in an all-cash deal for $85 million. As steep as that price is, it's not a record or even close to what Spelling was asking. The priciest Southland home transaction was the 2000 sale of an 8-acre estate in Bel-Air to financial executive Gary Winnick in a deal that included the trade of other land, for a total value of about $94 million.

CINCINNATI - The Rev. Chris Beard is a theological conservative, make no mistake about it. He believes the Bible is the word of God. He believes the Holy Spirit speaks to him directly. He believes, as an article of faith, that abortion and same-sex marriage are wrong. Still, when a group of religious leaders in Ohio held two days of meetings in Cincinnati recently to talk about economic and racial justice, issues usually associated with the political left, there was Beard, a fourth-generation Pentecostal preacher with a disarming smile, a shaved head and a set of convictions that knock holes in the stereotypes about white evangelical Protestants.

How the Dog Became the Dog From Wolves to Our Best Friends Mark Derr Overlook/Duckworth: 287 pp., $26.95

How is it that more rock fans aren't talking about Dr. Dog ? The Philadelphia group possesses an encyclopedia's worth of knowledge of '60s and '70s pop and rock. Its expert "Shame, Shame" was an underrated gem from 2010, and its follow-up, "Be the Void," scuffs up the edges of the group's well-crated sound for jangly instrumentation and a raucous, feel-good core that's awfully tough to resist. Orpheum Theatre, 842 S. Broadway, L.A. 8 p.m. Fri. $22.50. http://www.ticketmaster.com .

When a man walked down the street today, he was introduced to a dog. For some reason he bit it.

Alicia Silverstone's new video has much of America saying Ewwwwwww! The "Clueless" actress who is known for her healthy, vegan cooking and animal rights activism, posted a video on her website Tuesday that shows her feeding her child. The clip has gone viral. Why? It's all in her method as she seemingly takes her maternal nesting instinct to a new level. The video shows her feeding her child Bear Blu like he's...a baby bird. She chews of his food and then -- how else to say this?

BALTIMORE — In the midst of the greatest time of his professional life, horse trainer Doug O'Neill is being followed around by an asterisk. Reporters want to know about his Kentucky Derby-winning horse, I'll Have Another. They want to know about O'Neill himself — how he got started, who he is, what he thinks about any number of topics. They want to know about young jockey Mario Gutierrez, who should have been way too green to ride the kind of race he did at Churchill Downs. They want to know about owner J. Paul Reddam, who made his money in the loan business and who named the horse by reprising a scene at home, where he sits on the couch, eats a cookie and requests another one from his wife.

Authorities launched Burbank's largest manhunt in 20 years in search of a missing FBI agent who was believed to be suicidal and possibly carrying a handgun, officials said Saturday. More than 150 law enforcement personnel joined in a search that began Friday and fanned through the rugged Verdugo Mountains and other parts of Los Angeles County looking for Stephen Ivens, 35, a Los Angeles-based agent specializing in national security affairs. He was last seen Friday at his home in the 1700 block of Scott Road in Burbank.

If you know anything at all about Del Mar, it's that the seaside town north of San Diego is the place to play the ponies. The horses aren't the only thoroughbreds in the track's history; you'll hear it connected to such names as Bing Crosby, W.C. Fields, Red Skelton, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, jockey Willie Shoemaker and, my favorite, Seabiscuit. But I'd encourage a Del Mar visit any time except the July 18-Sept. 5 racing season, just for the peace and quiet. The bed. I was here for a family wedding at L'Auberge del Mar Resort & Spa (1540 Camino del Mar; [800]

Fallout from the British phone-hacking scandal continues to rattle News Corp., even as strong performances from the media giant's cable television and film groups helped it post a 47% jump in net income in its third quarter. News Corp. on Wednesday reported net income of $937 million for the quarter ended March 31, compared with $639 million a year earlier. Revenue increased to $8.4 billion, up 2% from a year earlier. Before discussing the New York company's financial results with Wall Street investors, Chief Operating Officer Chase Carey offered a spirited defense of his boss, Rupert Murdoch.

George Karl tends to get up early when he's home in Denver. Having two black Labrador retrievers that expect to be fed at sunrise can create that habit. It was during a reflective moment just after daybreak Monday that something dawned on the Denver Nuggets coach. "I sat on my porch and just kept saying to myself, 'They're not that much better than we are,' " Karl recalled Wednesday. He was referring to the Lakers, who were supposed to easily brush aside Karl's Nuggets in their first-round playoff series on the way to bigger challenges.

LANSING, Mich. - Mitt Romney is making a play for his native Michigan, which last voted for a Republican for president nearly a quarter of a century ago. His task is made infinitely more difficult because of his opposition to the auto bailouts that many credit with saving the industry, a fact that was illustrated when he took the stage here Tuesday, not far from a GM plant. As protesters outside the Lansing Community College auditorium where he appeared criticized Romney's opposition to the bailouts, the presumptive GOP nominee was introduced by Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, a Republican who has called the $80-billion federal loans to GM and Chrysler successful.

In the middle of several nights, Ramon Sessions woke up dazed and confused. He then searched around his Manhattan Beach residence, wondering about his pet dog's whereabouts. Sesh, his 6-month-old Staffordshire terrier, wasn't there, though. The dog remained in Cleveland for nine days with Sessions' cousin after the Cavaliers traded him to the Lakers. It turns out Sessions' arrival to the Lakers involved much more than learning the offense, playing with new teammates and getting settled in a new area.

How many ways are there to give a dog a pill? Many more than I ever imagined. Earlier this month, I recounted my adventures in adopting a beautiful husky mix from the San Gabriel Valley Humane Society days after the shelter's roof collapsed. My new dog was very sick. So I asked for advice on how to get her to swallow pills. I didn't know it then, but by asking that question I was inviting myself into the great family of dog owners. "Have you tried peanut butter?"

As a hurricane barreled toward the Florida Keys, John Schappert, the chief operating officer of Zynga Inc., was on a charter boat to catch lobsters with half a dozen friends. When the winds kicked up and large waves tossed the small craft about, several passengers felt too seasick to dive. But Schappert insisted on diving until he caught close to a dozen lobsters before he was willing to call it a day. "Most of us were begging to get back to shore," recalled Steve Chiang, a close friend who was on the boat that day in July.

A group of downtown residents and their dogs were romping on a small patch of grass next to the glass edifice that headquarters the Los Angeles Police Department when the playful mood was broken. "Hey, hey, look out!" someone shouted. A dog off its leash ran into the street, and was causing drivers to swerve. A similar incident had occurred just hours before, one park visitor said, when another dog escaped its owner and ran into the street, only to be saved by a homeless person.