Faces

The Obama administration's new plan to stimulate refinancings of FHA mortgages is likely to help large numbers of homeowners — even those who are deeply underwater — cut their monthly costs by switching to a loan with a rate below 4%. Here's a quick overview of the "streamline refi" program and what it will take for you to qualify. First, the baseline criteria: Your current home loan must be FHA-insured and must have been put on the Federal Housing Administration's books no later than May 31, 2009.

After months searching for work and feeling increasingly discouraged, Natalie Cole caught a break — an offer of a part-time position at a Little Caesars Pizza shop in Compton. The manager scheduled her orientation and told her she had to pass a food safety test. She took the test — and failed. But rather than study and take it again, she shrugged it off. "I guess I am not working for a reason," she said. PHOTOS: A life spent battling poverty Cole isn't a victim of the struggling economy.

Distancing himself from Republicans on housing issues, President Obama pitched a $5-billion to $10-billion plan to help a key segment of struggling homeowners — those still making monthly payments, but on underwater mortgages. Obama proposed Wednesday to help about 3.5 million people with good credit who are unable to refinance at historically low rates because their homes are worth less than their mortgages. He argued that those homeowners — and the country — couldn't afford to let the housing market bottom out, as many Republicans, including presidential candidate Mitt Romney, have advocated.

The bizarre and complicated world of thoroughbred blood testing and sanctions reached the mainstream Thursday, when the California Horse Racing Board penalized the trainer who has won the first two legs of the sport's Triple Crown. The seven-person, governor-appointed board, ruling on a case that has been argued and litigated since the summer of 2010, suspended Doug O'Neill for 45 days and fined him $15,000. The penalty actually carried an additional 135 days of suspension, but that will be voided if there are no further findings involving O'Neill in the next 18 months.

Often film sequels are slam dunks at the box office, a seamless continuation from where a previous hit left off. But as the new installment of the 15-year-old franchise "Men in Black" proves, getting to the big screen isn't always a cakewalk. One of the most troubled productions in recent Hollywood memory, Sony Pictures' latest movie in the Will Smith-Tommy Lee Jones sci-fi-comedy franchise encountered multiple script rewrites, a discontented star and a three-month production shutdown as writers and studio executives scrambled to fix a project that nearly fell apart . By the time it was over, the studio had run up a tab of nearly $250 million - making "Men in Black 3" one of the most expensive releases of the summer.

'Faces of Iraq and Afghanistan' Where: Oceanside Public Library, 330 N. Coast Highway, Oceanside When: 9 a.m.-8 p.m. Mondays and Tuesdays; 9 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays; closed Sundays. Through July 31. Info: (760) 435-5600; oceansidepubliclibrary.org

HAWAII BOWL NEVADA (8-4) VS. SOUTHERN METHODIST (7-5) When: 5 PST. Where: Aloha Stadium, Honolulu. TV: ESPN. About Nevada: The Wolf Pack had three 1,000-yard rushers this season, the first NCAA team to do that. About Southern Methodist: Since receiving the death penalty in 1987, the Mustangs have won two or fewer games in a season nine times. The bowl represents a homecoming for SMU Coach June Jones, a former Hawaii coach. Prediction: Southern Methodist 40, Nevada 38. -- Orlando Sentinel

USC tonight AT OREGON STATE When: 5:30. Where: Gill Coliseum, Corvallis, Ore. On the air: Radio: 710. Records: USC 12-7 overall, 4-3 in Pacific 10 Conference; Oregon State 8-11, 2-5. Update: The Trojans will be trying for their first road win outside of Los Angeles -- they defeated UCLA by 21 points at Pauley Pavilion earlier this month. While USC is coming off a 26-point win over Washington and is in a five-way tie for second in conference play, Oregon State is reeling from three consecutive losses and is tied for last with Oregon.

'Faces of America With Henry Louis Gates Jr.' Where: KCET When: 8 p.m. Wednesday Rating: TV-PG (may be unsuitable for young children)

This is really a cold case. Nearly 150 years after the Civil War ironclad the Monitor sank, an effort was launched Tuesday to identify the remains of two of its sailors. Officials in Washington unveiled forensic reconstructions of the faces of the two crew members, whose skeletal remains were discovered inside the Union warship's gun turret after it was raised from the ocean floor off the North Carolina coast in 2002.   "Our hope is that someone seeing the sculptures may recognize the face as an ancestor," Mary H. Manhein, director of Louisiana State University's Forensic Anthropology and Computer Enhancement Services lab, said at the Navy Memorial in Washington.

WASHINGTON -- A class-action lawsuit was filed Wednesday against Facebook Inc., Morgan Stanley & Co., and the other Wall Street banks that underwrote the Facebook's initial public offering, alleging they misled most shareholders about revenue projections for the social network. The suit, filed in federal court in New York, alleged that the IPO prospectus and registration statement were "false and misleading" and violated the Securities Act.

Congratulations to Mark Zuckerberg on his surprise wedding last Saturday. I certainly hope his marriage gets off to a better start than Friday’s initial public offering of shares in his social networking colossus, Facebook.  Wall Street analysts are now saying the opening share price of $38 was too high for investors wary of buying into a business that delivers millions of messages and photos from college drinking parties but produces a comparatively modest revenue stream.

Two men charged in state court in connection with the brutal beating of San Francisco Giants fan Bryan Stow will each face federal charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm, authorities said Tuesday. Marvin Norwood and Louie Sanchez were arrested last year and charged with felony assault and mayhem in the attack on Stow in one of the parking lots at Dodger Stadium on March 31, 2011. The U.S. attorney's office added the weapons charges in a 14-page indictment. If convicted of the charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm, each man faces up to 10 years in federal prison.

It's become one of the core questions in a presidential reelection year - are you better off now than you were four years ago? For President Obama, a new poll has an ominous answer.   Thirty percent of respondents in a ABC News/Washington Post survey said they are not as well off financially now than they were when Obama became president, compared with 16% who said they are better off. More than half said things are about the same.   It's no wonder Obama has tried to reframe the question.

SACRAMENTO - Efforts to ease California's foreclosure woes, among the worst in the nation, are running into roadblocks at the state Capitol. A rare legislative conference committee called to rescue a pair of stalled foreclosure-prevention bills is bogged down in marathon sessions. Meanwhile, Gov. Jerry Brown is pushing to use some of California's share of the $25-billion national mortgage settlement to plug holes in the state's budget, dismaying housing activists. Since the start of the real estate bust, foreclosures have been a persistent drag on the state's homeowners and economy.

Kerry Wood arrived in the majors 14 years ago, a fresh-faced kid with No. 34 on his back, slinging fastballs at 100 mph, delivering breaking pitches that were often unhittable and striking out 20 batters in just his fifth start. On Friday, he left the game after one final, emotional appearance with the Chicago Cubs. Fittingly, "Kid K" struck out the last batter he'll ever face and retired at 34, ending a career that was eye-popping at times but hampered by injuries.

One year before the 2010 election, Gavin Newsom's abrupt withdrawal from the governor's race leaves the campaign without a candidate conveying the message most aligned with California's zeitgeist of the moment: a call for sweeping reform. With Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown the lone (if still formally undeclared) Democratic candidate, and a Republican field of former EBay Chief Executive Meg Whitman, ex-Rep. Tom Campbell and Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, the race now presents two fundamental, thematic choices: Brown and Campbell argue, in slightly different ways, that fixing California is a matter of making government work better; Whitman and Poizner essentially contend that fixing California means getting government out of the way. At a time when Californians have record-low regard for state government, none of the four has mounted a challenge to the status quo as strongly as did Newsom.

I want to address Scott Collins' review of Will & Company's "Faces of America" ("DeLeon's 'Faces' Skims Ethnic Surface," Calendar, April 1). I saw this remarkable piece of work at the Los Angeles Theatre Center in which Fran DeLeon, in a one-woman show, portrayed nine characters with beautiful clarity and intuitiveness. DeLeon captured the essence of each character, staying true to playwright Colin Cox's pithy script in weaving the common thread through the vignettes: that the many races and cultures that make up our America are so diverse and not understood by one another; that each culture has a need to express its traditions and lifestyles and that this expression is often persecuted rather than honored.

SAN DIEGO —Two members of a Mexican organized crime group that terrorized border communities were found guilty Wednesday of taking part in the strangling deaths of two men whose bodies were later dissolved in lye and dumped at a ranch outside San Diego. The mens' ruthless tactics were the trademark of a gang that broke off from the drug cartel waging war in Tijuana nearly a decade ago, according to prosecutors. The Palillos, or Toothpicks, came to the San Diego area in 2003 after splitting from the notorious Arellano Felix drug cartel.

A middle school student is faced with an in-school suspension for having an image of San Antonio Spurs  forward Matt Bonner shaved into the back of his head. Patrick Gonzalez of Woodlake Hills Middle School in San Antonio, Texas, said he's always been a huge fan of Bonner. "Ever since I can remember," he told FOX station KABB. With the Spurs playing against the Clippers in the Western Conference semifinals, he decided to display his admiration for his favorite player on his head.