Extraordinary

Rodney and Renee Brooks live near 101st and Central Avenue in Watts, and it was in that house - a modest two-story, brown stucco cube - that they raised six extraordinary children. Jason is at Harvard, working on a PhD in education. Veronica went to Columbia for a master's in finance. Amanda graduated from Boston College and is in a master's program at Hunter College. Virginia is studying for a master's at Southern Methodist while working 60 hours a week in three jobs.

It was a remarkable day in Dodgers history, one in which there were so many twists and turns that a fan, well, almost needed a program to keep up. Here's a recap of Saturday's events: - The Dodgers close the biggest trade in their history, obtaining first baseman Adrian Gonzalez, pitcher Josh Beckett, outfielder Carl Crawford and utility fielder Nick Punto from the Boston Red Sox in exchange for first baseman James Loney and four prospects, three...

The man trying to provide Rep. Todd Akin the softest possible landing after the congressman's foolish comments about pregnancy and rape was former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a strong supporter of Akin during his run to represent Missouri in the U.S. Senate. In the furor over Akin's remarks and increasing pressure for him to drop out of his race against Sen. Claire McCaskill,  Huckabee used his syndicated radio program Monday to give the embattled candidate a safe venue to express remorse and his determination to remain in the race.

Engineers said Friday that the Curiosity rover happened to catch a picture of its own ride crash-landing on Mars - a wink-of-an-eye serendipity that some dismissed as a statistical impossibility, but appears to have been confirmed by a thorough review of landing data. The final seconds of Curiosity's eight-month-plus journey to Mars called for a spacecraft to lower the rover to the surface using a "sky crane" - three ropes. The ropes were then cut, and the last of the spacecraft, known as the "descent stage," cast itself toward the horizon.

Don't be deterred by its seemingly grim topic - "Trial by Fire: Lives Re-Forged" is a gripping, emotionally potent, often startling documentary about a remarkable group of burn survivors and their physical and psychological triumphs over adversity. Director Megan Smith-Harris masterfully interweaves the harrowing stories of a cross-section of Americans who, then-ranging from ages 13 to 31, were ravaged by burn injuries as a result of largely accidents: an outdoor fireplace calamity, a high school chemistry lab explosion, an overnight house fire, a race car crash and more.

The Bathtub is a place of myths and wonders, a broken down teardrop of Louisiana marsh and mud in"Beasts of the Southern Wild"and the setting for an extraordinary new drama whose fierceness, like its 6-year-old heroine Hushpuppy, grabs on and won't let go. Director Benh Zeitlin and his co-writer Lucy Alibar, a playwright whose "Juicy and Delicious" was the inspiration, have created characters that are wondrously indelible, distinctive of voice and...

Long before the free agency madness begins, the Lakers' front office puts together a list. General Manager Mitch Kupchak and executive Jim Buss rank the players they covet once July 1 hits. It doesn't matter whether the Lakers can afford the player. It doesn't matter whether he is interested. No free agency signing or trade happens without Kupchak first picking up the phone. So even with Steve Nash proclaiming publicly he couldn't envision himself joining the Lakers, Kupchak recalled Buss providing a stern reminder.

SAN LUIS, Ariz. - The powerful Sinaloa drug cartel is believed to be behind one of the most sophisticated and well-engineered smuggling tunnels ever found along the U.S.-Mexico border, according to U.S. drug enforcement officials who announced the discovery Thursday in Yuma. The “fully operational” tunnel is a 755-foot passageway, tall enough for a 6-foot person to walk through, that burrows under the border fence, a park and a water canal. It connects a small, nondescript warehouse on the U.S. side to an inoperative ice manufacturing plant behind a strip club in Mexico.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - It was a most unusual burglary. Thieves got in through the bathroom window and walked past the flat-screen TV, DVD player, expensive camera and a couple of brand-new cellphones. Instead, they took 20 external hard drives and some digital camera memory cards. It didn't make sense to Zanele Muholi, an art photographer and activist, the victim of the April theft. Unless … Something cold shifted inside her. Could this be another hate crime against lesbians?

From 1936 to 1951, some of America's most evocative and vital social photography was created by a pioneering cooperative of artists known as the Photo League. This Manhattan-based group's vital history and stunning output are examined in Daniel Allentuck and Nina Rosenblum's fine documentary "Ordinary Miracles: The Photo League's New York. " The film utilizes a rich array of stirring black-and-white stills from such Photo League members as Sid Grossman (co-founder and League school director)