Eric Lee

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a civil rights group partly founded by Martin Luther King Jr., has threatened to fire the president of its Los Angeles chapter because he supports same-sex marriage. The Rev. Eric P. Lee, president of the local SCLC chapter for two years, became an outspoken advocate of same-sex marriage during the recent campaign against Proposition 8, an amendment to the state Constitution that banned such unions.

As elections approach for four of its seven seats, the Los Angeles Unified School District board can claim bragging rights to some significant changes since Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa got involved several years ago. Before he became mayor, the board seemed frozen into inaction whenever the teachers union protested any reform, such as new charter schools. But the mayor-supported majority of the last few years has proved more agile at approving charters, which often provide a better education to students who otherwise would be forced to attend underperforming neighborhood schools.

Until last June, a crusader roamed the streets of East Los Angeles. Dressed as a Los Angeles police officer, he would stop men he apparently believed were Latino gang members, sometimes at gunpoint. At times, as authorities tell it, he would drive them into rival gang turf, where he would drop them off and speed away. He was a one-man vigilante squad, the self-appointed duke of crime suppression. On the streets he came to be known by his very own moniker: "John Wayne."

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a civil rights group partly founded by Martin Luther King Jr., has threatened to fire the president of its Los Angeles chapter because he supports same-sex marriage. The Rev. Eric P. Lee, president of the local SCLC chapter for two years, became an outspoken advocate of same-sex marriage during the recent campaign against Proposition 8, an amendment to the state Constitution that banned such unions.

As elections approach for four of its seven seats, the Los Angeles Unified School District board can claim bragging rights to some significant changes since Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa got involved several years ago. Before he became mayor, the board seemed frozen into inaction whenever the teachers union protested any reform, such as new charter schools. But the mayor-supported majority of the last few years has proved more agile at approving charters, which often provide a better education to students who otherwise would be forced to attend underperforming neighborhood schools.

On the morning of July 10, attorney Jerald Gale was reading an e-mail in his office on the 20th floor of a Koreatown high-rise. That's the last thing the 58-year-old husband, father and avid cyclist remembers before losing consciousness. Gale's heart had gone into sudden cardiac arrest. It wasn't a heart attack, in which blockage cuts off blood flow to the heart. In sudden cardiac arrest, the heart stops pumping because of an electrical problem caused by a rhythm disorder. Gale had been treated for some blockage six years ago, but he was healthy again and under the care of a cardiologist, and he'd had no warning signs that anything was wrong.

Eric Lee has been appointed vice president and chief financial officer at Synthane Taylor, a leading supplier of circuitry materials for the printed circuit board industry.

These companies and/or individuals recently filed for liquidation (Chapter 7) or reorganization (Chapter 11 or 13) in federal Bankruptcy Court in Santa Ana.

Three men were in custody Friday in lieu of $1-million bail each after a pipe bomb exploded in an Arcadia home, injuring one of the men slightly. Arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to possess and manufacture explosive devices were Eric Lee Neiman, 31, an unemployed gunsmith from Arcadia; Dennis William Coronel, 50, a mechanic from Norwalk, and Robert Francisco Funston, 21, an unemployed furniture mover from Sierra Madre, police said.

A man crossing a Laguna Beach street walked into the path of a moving van over the weekend and was killed. Police did not release the name of the man, a native of India working in California, pending notification of relatives. The accident occurred about 6:15 p.m. Saturday in the 900 block of Laguna Canyon Road, where the victim and two friends were crossing the street, said Sgt. Eric Lee, a police spokesman. The pedestrian was not in a crosswalk and was at fault, Lee said.

Until last June, a crusader roamed the streets of East Los Angeles. Dressed as a Los Angeles police officer, he would stop men he apparently believed were Latino gang members, sometimes at gunpoint. At times, as authorities tell it, he would drive them into rival gang turf, where he would drop them off and speed away. He was a one-man vigilante squad, the self-appointed duke of crime suppression. On the streets he came to be known by his very own moniker: "John Wayne."

John Barry: On the cover of the Feb. 1 LATExtra section, the obituary of Academy Award-winning composer John Barry incorrectly included a photo of editor Neil Travis, a fellow Oscar winner. Barry was correctly pictured on Page AA5 of the section; that image is reproduced above. School board political funding: An article in the Jan. 29 LATExtra section about contributions to committees set up to support candidates for the Los Angeles Board of Education said that Service Employees International Union Local 99 set up independent committees to back Eric Lee and Richard Vladovic.

A small landslide caused by a broken irrigation pipe forced the temporary evacuation of three homes Monday about five miles north of the Bluebird Canyon area of Laguna Beach, authorities said. It was in Bluebird Canyon in June that 17 homes were destroyed by a massive slide that injured five people. Officers were called about 3:15 p.m. Monday to Canyon Acres Drive when land behind some of the hillside homes began to move, said Sgt. Eric Lee of the Laguna Beach Police Department.