Drag

The Stanley Cup, newly engraved with the names of Kings players, executives and staffers, will be making a few appearances in Southern California this week before continuing its travels and, eventually, finding its way back to the region. On Tuesday the Cup will visit six local rinks, where fans who have won special raffles will have their pictures taken with the trophy. Proceeds from those raffles will go to help youth hockey programs at the Ontario Ice Skating Center, L.A. Kings Icetown in Riverside, KHS Ice Arena in Anaheim, Aliso Viejo Ice Palace, Glacial Gardens in Lakewood and Ice Chalet Palos Verdes.

ALEPPO, Syria - The elderly woman, covered in a long black gown and matching headdress, was despondent. Tears of anguish flooded her eyes. She stood at the entrance to the cobblestone streets of the Old City, pleading with the rebel fighter. "Why can't you get the bakeries running?" she implored, saying she had spent four hours seeking fresh bread for her family. "We are not accustomed to living like this. " At the receiving end of her exhortations was a strapping 27-year-old country boy with a white T-shirt, sandals and a rifle who called himself Abu Mohammed.

Chicago Tribune CHICAGO - Teachers and school officials negotiated late into the night Thursday after beginning the day optimistic that Chicago schools could reopen Monday. Before talks began on the fourth day of the teachers strike in the nation's third-largest district, Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis rated her confidence "a 9" on a scale of 1 to 10. Her words buoyed teachers, but optimism was tempered with caution. "We're most optimistic that the union leadership will make sure our demands are met," said Michelle Gunderson, a fourth-grade teacher.

Chicago public school teachers flooded the city's downtown Loop on Monday as a strike over stalled labor negotiations threatened to stretch longer than some people had expected. Teachers wearing red shirts and carrying "ON STRIKE" placards protested against the Chicago Public Schools as the city's administrators and the teachers union failed to come to terms over pay and other issues. Negotiations remained gridlocked as of Monday evening. Some parents struggled to cope with the sudden shutdown despite the district's contingency plans to keep schools open to at least host Chicago students.

The European debt crisis is pushing the continent into recession and dragging down the global economy, according to a forecast released Thursday by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Growth in the world's seven major industrialized economies is expected to slow to just 0.3% in the third quarter of this year, and 1.1% in the fourth quarter, the group said. Deep problems in Europe are driving that slowdown, with the Eurozone's three largest economies -- Germany, France and Italy -- forecast to contract a combined 1% in the third quarter and 0.7% in the fourth quarter.

RuPaul became famous for his over-the-top drag performances and later, his VH1 show, "RuPaul's Drag Race. " But recently, the 51-year-old performer has turned his focus inward, embarking on a hiking regimen in his hometown of Los Angeles that, he says, has changed his life physically, emotionally and spiritually. We talked to him about what making that change was like, and the impact it's had on his life. How did you get into hiking? It started when I quit smoking. I was around 40, and I knew that I needed to get out of the house and occupy myself.

The NHRA on Wednesday unveiled its 2013 schedule, a 24-race season that once again starts and ends in Pomona. The season opens with the Winternationals at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona on Feb. 14-17 and ends with the NHRA Finals there Nov. 7-10. The Glendora-based National Hot Rod Assn. also said it would have a new race in New England, the NHRA New England Nationals in Epping, N.H., on June 20-23. The current title sponsor of the sport's premier series is Coca-Cola Co.'s Full Throttle beverage, but that will change to another Coke brand, Mello Yello, next year under a sponsorship extension through 2018.

She first spotted the dog toddling down a rural highway in Northern California. He was small, maybe 25 pounds, and looked out of sorts. The address on his collar was a post office box. She called the phone number listed. Disconnected. Who was the dog's owner? Answering that would prove more troublesome than anyone imagined. The woman scooped up the French bulldog. He had a black head, a white body, big eyes and what she thought was a cigarette burn on his neck. She hauled him to the local post office.

A man who allegedly broke into actor-rapper LL Cool J's home suffered a broken nose and jaw at the action star's hands Wednesday morning after what police sources described as a "knock-down, drag-out" fight. LL Cool J, who rose to fame with the aptly named hit song "Mama Said Knock You Out" and portrays a special agent on the CBS drama "NCIS Los Angeles," proved life imitates art and nabbed the burglar inside his expansive Studio City house. When Los Angeles police arrived at the Blairwood Drive home around 1 a.m. Wednesday, LL Cool J had detained the battered and bruised suspect.

In less than 4.5 seconds, rookie Courtney Force put her mark on the Force family's legendary place in NHRA drag racing. The 24-year-old Courtney, youngest daughter of John Force, the record 15-time funny car champion from Yorba Linda, won her first funny car competition Sunday in the National Hot Rod Assn.'s premier Full Throttle Series. She did so by defeating reigning funny car champion Matt Hagan in the final round of the O'Reilly Auto Parts Northwest Nationals in Seattle with a pass of 4.238 seconds at 293.54 mph on the 1,000-foot dragstrip.