Executives

After struggling for months with wobbly finances and internal dissension, the director of UCLA Medical Center announced Tuesday that he will leave his job to take a top post at the University of Kentucky's medical center. Dr. Michael Karpf, 58, has been with UCLA since 1995 and oversaw the school's three hospitals and 18 primary-care clinics.

Allen E. Puckett, one of the engineers who after World War II built Los Angeles-based Hughes Aircraft Co. into the nation's leading defense electronics firm - dominant in the markets for air defense, radar systems, tactical missiles and satellites - has died. He was 94. One of the nation's top technologists and defense executives during the Cold War, Puckett died March 31 at his home in Pacific Palisades after suffering a stroke. His wife, Marilyn, confirmed his death. "Allen Puckett was one of the guiding spirits of Hughes Aircraft," said Malcolm Currie, a former deputy defense secretary who later followed in Puckett's footsteps as another president of the company.

A Superior Court jury in Los Angeles has awarded $2.5 million to a former executive of bankrupt Newport Beach home builder Baldwin Co. after finding that the owners reneged on a promise to make him a partner in the company. The jury found that brothers James and Alfred Baldwin breached their contract with Robert B. Burns, who headed their company's Los Angeles-Ventura division. However, the jury awarded damages only against James Baldwin, who directly supervised Burns' division.

High-level Los Angeles officials were scrambling Wednesday after the City Council approved an ordinance that could have inadvertently boosted the pay of its top executives - a move portrayed by Council President Herb Wesson as "a mistake. " The council voted unanimously for a two-year salary plan covering non-union employees. A document prepared for the council suggested that there would be three increases over the next 15 months - 2.75% in June, 2.75% in December and 2.75% in June 2015 - for about three dozen department heads, including top executives at the police, planning, parks, library and transportation departments.

The Securities and Exchange Commission said Thursday that it has charged two executives of American Telephone & Telecommunications Corp. with fraud for selling securities in the firm that purportedly was set up to offer long-distance telephone service via the Internet. The company is not related to telecommunications giant AT&T Corp.

Cleanup and confession were the dominant Olympic themes emanating from here Thursday as the Salt Lake Organizing Committee named a new president and an American member of the International Olympic Committee admitted giving a job to the son of an IOC member who resigned last month because of the bribery scandal.

The late Marvel Comics editor Mark Gruenwald got his wish: His ashes were blended with ink and made into a comic book. "This is something that he really wanted because he really loved comics. He wanted to be part of his work in a very real sense," said Mark Harras, Marvel's editor in chief. The ashes of Marvel's senior executive editor were mixed at a printing plant in Canton, Ohio, for use in "Squadron Supreme," a reprint of a limited edition 1985 comic he wrote, Harras said Thursday.

Creative Artists Agency senior executive Sandy Climan was hired Thursday as an executive vice president of MCA Inc., the first high-level departure from the agency since former Chairman Michael S. Ovitz announced in August that he is leaving to join Walt Disney Co. Climan's exit had been expected in the wake of the Ovitz departure, but the destination was a surprise to Hollywood executives.

Exactly who was Jose Menendez? The Hollywood community and police investigators have been furiously pressing that question since Menendez--a relatively little known entertainment executive whose career nonetheless connected with some of the biggest names in show business--was shot dead with his wife, Mary Louise, in their Beverly Hills home last Sunday night.

Timothy D. Cook Title: Chief executive Age: 50 Education: Bachelor's in industrial engineering, Auburn; MBA, Duke Career: Joined Apple in 1998 and became chief operating officer in 2005. Cook acted as interim CEO during Steve Jobs' leaves in 2004, 2009 and 2011. Scott Forstall Title: Senior vice president of iPhone software Age: 42 Education: Bachelor's in symbolic systems, Stanford; master's in computer science, Stanford Career: Joined Apple in 1997.

 When San Fernando was on its way to winning the City Section Divison I championship last season, the Tigers were relying on pitching and defense. Now Sylmar (13-3, 5-0) is showing the Tigers how it's done. On Tuesday in the first game of a big two-game Valley Mission League series, pitcher Victor Ramirez allowed three hits, struck out four and walked none in Sylmar's 2-0 victory over San Fernando. The Spartans handed two-time All-City pitcher Alonzo Garcia his first-ever loss in league play over the last three seasons.

It's hard to get executions right. This week, the Supreme Court denied appeals by Louisiana and Missouri death row inmates who argued that they were entitled to know the source of the drugs with which they are to be executed, and that denial of that information compromises their right to due process. It's unclear why the court refused to hear the cases, but the underlying argument remains potent. Another challenge is underway in Oklahoma, where two inmates are seeking stays of execution because state officials have revised protocols on the fly as the lethal drugs they usually use have become more difficult to obtain.

WASHINGTON - President Obama used his executive power and a hot-button issue to try to stoke support from a key election-year constituency Tuesday, as he issued two directives aimed at ensuring federal contractors pay women as much as men for equal work. Surrounding himself with female supporters at the White House, Obama signed an executive order prohibiting federal contractors from retaliating against employees who talk about how much money they make. Advocates say secrecy about salaries is a major contributor to the gap in average pay between male and female workers in the United States, which the White House says means women make 77 cents for every dollar earned by men. The president also ordered contractors to report data to the government showing the compensation paid to employees by gender and race.

A capacity crowd will be ready for some baseball as the Dodgers play their home opener Friday afternoon against the San Francisco Giants. Whether the Dodgers were ready for all of those fans will be determined by what happens before, during and after the game. Along with spending for the product on the field -- the richest collection of talent in baseball history -- the Dodgers have invested more than $150 million the last two seasons on the ballpark itself, upgrading the infrastructure and adding some fan-friendly features.

Four minutes before Hyun-Jin Ryu threw the first pitch of the Dodgers' home opener Friday, Time Warner Cable hit the send button. Vin Scully had just handed the ceremonial first pitch to Sandy Koufax, two of the most beloved sports figures in Los Angeles history teaming up to welcome baseball back to Dodger Stadium. It was a goosebump moment in person and on television, except that most of Southern California cannot see the Dodgers on television. In an email blast to DirecTV subscribers demanding their Dodgers, TWC put the blame on DirecTV.

MEXICO CITY - The government of President Enrique Peña Nieto says a proposed new telecommunications law would finally break up Mexico's powerful and much-criticized TV and telephone monopolies. The proposal and other reforms have generated considerable praise abroad for Peña Nieto and his Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which ruled the country for seven decades before a 12-year hiatus and a return to power in late 2012. But a growing number of domestic critics are reading the fine print of the telecommunications plan and finding many things to worry about.

The recent death of In-N-Out Burger's chairman and chief executive, H. Guy Snyder, was caused by an accidental overdose of a prescription painkiller, according to an autopsy report from the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office. Snyder, who headed the Irvine-based burger chain for six years, died last month at the age of 48. He was the second brother to run In-N-Out Burger to die unexpectedly.

As I learned in the fourth grade when my first crush told me oh-so eloquently to "Get lost, creepo!," not everything you go after in life will work out as planned. Now, at the ripe, old age of 28, nothing has reminded me of that schoolyard lesson more than when I recently pitched my first show to a TV network. After working in TV and film for the past seven years, from an intern to a production assistant to the writers' office, I decided to move from New York to Los Angeles. I'd been out here eight months when, during a meeting, I ran an off-the-cuff show idea by development executives.

SACRAMENTO - Gov. Jerry Brown has built a war chest of $19.7 million to fund his bid for an unprecedented fourth term, easily eclipsing the money raised by his challengers, according to new campaign reports filed with the state. Brown has raised nearly $3 million this year and spent nearly $95,000, his report shows. Top contributors include several labor unions, Netflix Inc. co-founder Reed Hastings, Napster co-founder Sean Parker and several descendants of the founders of the Gap Inc., the clothing company where Brown's wife, Anne Gust Brown, was once an executive.

Tim Warner, chief executive of Cinemark Holdings Inc., admits he'd never heard of the popular science fiction series "Doctor Who. " So the Montana native was skeptical when executives at BBC Wordwide approached him about the idea of screening a simulcast of the 50th anniversary episode of the cult-classic British TV series in Cinemark theaters across Latin America and the U.S. In late November, hundreds of "Whovians" showed up at more than...