Emergencies

In yet another scathing critique of government health officials, a federal judge refused Friday to stay his order making emergency contraceptives available to consumers of all ages without a prescription. Calling government efforts to restrict the sale of drugs such as Plan B "frivolous and taken for the purpose of delay," U.S. District Judge Edward R. Korman of New York wrote that the medications would be available to all unless the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled otherwise by noon Eastern time on Monday.

Dear Liz: A few years ago I finished paying off my debt and now am in the very low-risk credit category. I have savings equal to about three months' worth of bills and am working to get that to six months' worth. I'm wondering, though, about an emergency that may require me to pay in cash (such as a major power outage that disables debit or credit card systems, or the more likely event that I forget the ATM or credit card at home). How much cash should a person have on hand? Is there a magic number?

Dear Liz: A few years ago I finished paying off my debt and now am in the very low-risk credit category. I have savings equal to about three months' worth of bills and am working to get that to six months' worth. I'm wondering, though, about an emergency that may require me to pay in cash (such as a major power outage that disables debit or credit card systems, or the more likely event that I forget the ATM or credit card at home). How much cash should a person have on hand? Is there a magic number?

WASHINGTON - A defiant President Obama dismissed as a "sideshow" the controversy over his administration's handling of last year's armed assault in Benghazi, Libya, accusing critics of trying to make political hay from the deaths of four Americans. "We dishonor them when we turn things like this into a political circus," Obama told reporters Monday. Obama's angry remarks were his first since House hearings last week about the September 2012 attack on the U.S. facility in Benghazi, and his first public reaction to fresh evidence indicating the White House weighed political calculations as it released information in the days that followed.

United Airlines, the world's largest airline, is downgrading the "operational emergencies" it declared at six airport locations to force mechanics to work overtime, the machinists union said. The union, the International Assn. of Machinists, said the decision to pull back on the mandatory overtime was made after discussions this week between the union and United.

Airplane control problems last summer could have led to disaster for then-Sen. Barack Obama and his presidential campaign, according to a report released Friday by the National Transportation Safety Board. On July 7, 2008, a McDonnell Douglas MD-81 en route to Charlotte, N.C., and carrying Obama and 50 other passengers and crew made an emergency landing in St. Louis. An evacuation slide within the tail cone had inflated shortly after takeoff from Chicago.

It was the Cat Lady again. The night before, the amiable, elderly caller had rung up the Los Angeles Police Department's 911 emergency command center five times. Monday morning, she called the Police Department twice more, as she has done almost daily for 18 years, to ramble on about her "kittens." "Those cats sure do get around," sighed Lisa Turner, a police operator, before gently persuading the woman to hang up.

For the duration of the strike, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has established emergency service on seven of the San Fernando Valley's busiest routes. There are fewer buses on those lines, however, and MTA officials cautioned passengers to expect to wait twice as long as usual between buses. For example, they said, if a bus normally reaches a particular stop every 20 minutes, buses on the emergency lines will probably arrive up to 40 minutes apart.

A state of emergency declared after ethnic violence flared in the Central Asian republic of Kirghizia in June has been lifted, Tass reported Wednesday. The official Soviet news agency said the state of emergency "accomplished its task" and conditions in the republic had stabilized. The clampdown was imposed on June 7, along with a curfew in the capital of Frunze and the town of Osh, about 200 miles to the south, where fighting between ethnic Kirghiz and Uzbeks claimed more than 210 lives.

Big Wall Street investment companies are pulling back slightly on their borrowing from the Federal Reserve's emergency lending program. A central bank report Thursday said that they averaged $32.6 billion in daily borrowing over the last week. That compares with $38.1 billion in the previous week and $32.9 billion before that. "Conditions in this particular part of the financial markets are easing up somewhat," said T.J. Marta, a fixed-income strategist at RBC Capital Markets who viewed the pullback as a positive sign.

It came with us always. First the old upright, then the Baldwin, then the Steinway grand, no matter how often we moved, or how far - she'd no more have left it behind than she'd have left me. There was, in those days, much shouting and storming about, the screeching of tires as my father sped off in the night. When I was 10, they split up for good, and we landed near Palo Alto, where my mother was left, a single mother in the suburbs, in her 40s, in the 1950s, a decade that did not take kindly to divorcees.

In yet another scathing critique of government health officials, a federal judge refused Friday to stay his order making emergency contraceptives available to consumers of all ages without a prescription. Calling government efforts to restrict the sale of drugs such as Plan B "frivolous and taken for the purpose of delay," U.S. District Judge Edward R. Korman of New York wrote that the medications would be available to all unless the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled otherwise by noon Eastern time on Monday.

Michelle Knight, the longest-held of three women kidnapped and imprisoned in a Cleveland house for years, was discharged Friday from the hospital where she had been cared for after her ordeal. Reportedly in good spirits, Knight left MetroHealth Medical Center on the same day state officials announced that DNA testing had established that Ariel Castro, being held on kidnapping and rape charges, was the father of the 6-year-old girl born to another of the imprisoned women. Like her fellow captives, Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus, Knight asked for privacy.

Eight years after he testified in the Michael Jackson molestation trial that the pop star never touched him, an Australian choreographer has filed a claim against the singer's estate alleging "childhood sexual abuse. " Attorneys for Wade Robson, who knew Jackson and stayed at the singer's Neverland Ranch as a teenager, has asked a Los Angeles judge to allow him to make a late claim as creditor in Jackson's estate. Most of the specifics are under seal, but the documents filed May 1 and publicly available state Robson's claim to monies comes from "childhood sexual abuse.

TEHRAN - Iranian presidential candidates began registering Tuesday for the national election next month to choose a successor to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Although there has been considerable political suspense over who will run, voter enthusiasm has appeared lukewarm as many Iranians are focused on economic survival in a nation battered by Western sanctions. About two dozen potential presidential hopefuls have emerged publicly so far. Office-seekers must register by Saturday to be considered for inclusion on the ballot.

For more than two decades, Wanda Remo has battled one illness after another. Asthma, chronic lung disease, heart disease, high blood pressure, arthritis, depression, chronic pain, strokes. Specialists treat her lungs, her heart and her joints. Her litany of ailments brought her to emergency rooms six times last year, between numerous additional visits to a federally subsidized health clinic in South Los Angeles. "You are one of the million-dollar patients," her doctor, Derrick Butler, tells the 57-year-old as she leans on her walker during one appointment.

Gov. Brian Schweitzer declared a state of emergency amid wildfires, including one northeast of Missoula that has crept to within a mile of several homes and destroyed at least one. Higher humidity and clouds were helping firefighters contain that nearly 28-square-mile blaze, which began Friday and rapidly grew, leading to evacuation orders for about 200 homes. A fire spokesman estimated containment at zero percent, "only because there isn't a lower number."

He left no angry manifesto. The last night he was alive, Jacob Tyler Roberts stayed up late drinking and shooting pool with a buddy. Roberts told his friend Sean Cates that he needed a gun, but he didn't say why. The pair, hanging out in Portland, Ore., smoked pot, got drinks from a 7-Eleven and ended up at a Denny's at 3 a.m. The two crashed at Cates' apartment, and when Cates woke up, Roberts was gone - along with Cates' AR-15 rifle....

OAKLAND - Teams have made a habit of turning Angels castoffs into All-Star closers ( Fernando Rodney ) and reliable setup men ( Darren O'Day , Joel Peralta ), but in 6-foot-7 right-hander Dane De La Rosa , the Angels may have a reliever who can turn the talent tide back toward Anaheim. De La Rosa kicked around the minor leagues for 10 years, playing three seasons of independent-league ball, and Tampa Bay had little need for him when it traded De La Rosa in the final week of spring training to the Angels for Steven Geltz , a pitching prospect with a low ceiling, literally - he's 5-9. But since his April 9 recall from triple-A, De La Rosa, who mixes a 94-mph fastball with a big curve and changeup, has emerged as a key piece in an injury-ravaged bullpen, taking a 2.31 earned-run average in 11 appearances into Monday night's game.