Feelings

Torii Hunter's first at-bat in Angel Stadium on Friday night was delayed by a standing ovation, which the Detroit Tigers right fielder acknowledged by waving his helmet. When Hunter took his position in the first inning, fans in the right-field bleachers rose in unison, one row of spectators holding up a large “THANK U TORII” sign. For Hunter, who hit .286 with 105 homers and 432 runs batted in during a five-year stint with the Angels in which he was also the heart and soul of the club, it wasn't just about appreciation.

The Lakers have to shoot for the moon against the favored San Antonio Spurs. Just ask Metta World Peace. "They said there wouldn't be a man on the moon and a man went to the moon," the Lakers' loquacious forward said. "Is it true? Some people say the pictures are fake, though. I believe it. It was the first time. There's a first time for everything. If a man can go to the moon, we can do it. And we've got Dwight Howard too? Superman can go to the moon. " The Lakers concluded their strange, circuitous orbit around the regular season with a seventh-place finish in the Western Conference, earning a first-round playoff date with the Spurs on the last day of the regular season with a $100-million payroll littered by injuries and, at times, stunning ineffectiveness.

SACRAMENTO - An estimated 400,000 Californians who have been unemployed for more than six months soon will be feeling the bite of federal spending reductions. As of April 28, they'll be getting a 17.7% cut in their weekly unemployment benefits that are paid out by the U.S. Treasury. The state Employment Development Department announced the cuts Wednesday. They are part of the automatic federal government budget cuts known as the sequester, which took effect March 1 after Congress and President Obama failed to agree on an alternative austerity plan.

Ten minutes into his band's performance Friday night at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, singer Damon Albarn of Blur realized he hadn't introduced himself. So after a hard-driving rendition of Blur's song "There's No Other Way," the frontman took a second to address the tens of thousands of music fans sprawled across the manicured grounds of the Empire Polo Club. "For those of you out there who are unfamiliar with us," he said, "we're from England. " The audience might've guessed.

Melissa Mead ran in the Boston Marathon for the first time Monday. She will remember it more now because of the explosions near the finish line. Mead was among at least 35 runners from the Newport-Mesa area who ran in one of the world's oldest and most prestigious footraces. Mead, of Costa Mesa, is a Newport Harbor High School and UC Irvine alumna. The 23-year-old finished the race in about 3 hours, 49 minutes, some 20 minutes before an explosion went off near the finish line, the Daily Pilot reported.

In the beginning, it was about losing a few pounds. Hans Svanoe, 64, would leave his house in Encino at 5:30 a.m. and walk for an hour before driving over the hill to Century City, where he works as a butler. A what? "A corporate executive butler," said Svanoe, who caters to the domestic needs of media mogul Haim Saban and his business partner, Adam Chesnoff, when they're at the office. Before that, the Norwegian-born Svanoe was a domestic for Milton Berle, who once responded to a Svanoe quip by saying: "I'll tell the jokes around here.

CAIRO - The Mass was celebrated as if from centuries past: A bearded priest veiled in incense chanted for grace in a church along the Nile, near the spot where Christians believe Jesus and his mother sought refuge in an earlier age of bloodshed and uncertainty. Marianne Samir knelt and prayed for the Coptic Christians killed in a spasm of sectarian violence that has further shaken a nation engulfed in economic and political anxieties. "I feel unsafe," said Samir, a high school philosophy teacher with a cross tattooed on her wrist.

On the official website for the low desert city of Indio, the letter "I" is a cherry-red electric guitar propped up with a stack of amplifiers - a nod to the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, which has edged out the date shake as the town's most famous homegrown product. With Coachella's 13th installment set to kick off Friday, Indio's civic leaders are attempting to rebrand the once-sleepy exurb as "The City of Festivals," an internationally known tourist destination. Last week, after more than a year of debate, the City Council voted 4-0 to allow Goldenvoice, the concert promoter behind Coachella and its country-music offshoot, Stagecoach, to expand its offerings from three to five weekends a year through 2030.

It was the Starbucks sting. The defining moment in the KPMG insider-trading scandal took place over coffee at a Starbucks in the San Fernando Valley, where the accountant at the center of the case was set up by his longtime friend. Scott London thought the friend, jeweler Bryan Shaw, invited him for a casual get-together until the man handed London an envelope containing $5,000 in cash. It was clear the money was a payoff for supplying privileged information that London gleaned from his job at KPMG.

Everyone knew the Dodgers granting the starting third base job to Luis Cruz in the off-season was iffy material. The Dodgers too. Cruz, though, had earned the spot. He forced their hand with solid play. Cruz came out of seemingly nowhere in the second half last season to hit .298 with six homers and 40 RBI in 283 at-bats. The Dodgers hoped they had uncovered a late bloomer, Cruz having mostly bounced around the minors for 11 seasons. Qualifiers in hand, they crossed their fingers and said he was their starting third baseman.