CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
April 25, 2012 | By Sam Allen, Los Angeles Times
Bell resident Robert Mackin is frustrated that his monthly water rate keeps rising, by about 50% in the last few years. He writes the check to his water provider, Golden State Water Co. But he is actually served by six separate agencies that each play a role in delivering his water — and charging him for the service. "I'll be honest, I don't really have an idea of what all these agencies do … it's hard to understand," Mackin said. "When the bill comes in, I look at the total and write the check.
NATIONAL
February 6, 2012 | By Lisa Mascaro, Washington Bureau
In the first legislative battle of the year, congressional Republicans and Democrats are back at it: another episode of one-upmanship over extending a payroll tax cut for American workers. The tax holiday, which Congress extended as 2011 closed, expires at the end of the month, and both parties say they want to avoid a lapse that would hit Americans with a tax increase of $20 a week for the typical worker. But the problem remains the same: how to pay for the $160-billion package?
WORLD
February 4, 2012 | By Jonathan Kaiman and Barbara Demick, Los Angeles Times
At first glance, the newspaper ad depicting an enormous locust looking over the Hong Kong skyline seems like a plug for a horror movie. In fact, it's the latest slap in the face to the millions of mainland Chinese tourists who flood Hong Kong each year, bringing with them what many in the territory see as less-than-refined social habits in addition to their bulging wallets. Mainland tourists stand accused of littering, spitting, urinating in public, smoking cigarettes in inappropriate places and other breaches of etiquette that offend the more fastidious sensibilities of many Hong Kong natives.
ENTERTAINMENT
February 2, 2012 | By Mike Boehm, Los Angeles Times
For the second time this season, Center Theatre Group's hopes of gaining some regard on Broadway — and with it, perhaps some cash — appear to have run aground because of decisions by commercial producers outside the L.A. nonprofit theater's control. "Clybourne Park," Bruce Norris' Pulitzer Prize-winning sequel to Lorraine Hansberry's classic 1959 drama, "A Raisin in the Sun," has been a critically acclaimed smash in its current run at the Mark Taper Forum, but a transfer to Broadway may be off because of a dispute between Norris and Scott Rudin, a key producer in the planned April staging at the Walter Kerr Theatre.
OPINION
January 15, 2012 | By Robert M. Sapolsky
Now that Michele Bachmann has dropped out of the race for the GOP presidential nomination, we are left with an array of the usual suspects in American politics — namely a bunch of men who seem to spend much of their lives bragging about how tough they are. We have Rick Perry waxing macho about the number of executions he's overseen in Texas and Rick Santorum threatening to bomb Iran. There's Newt Gingrich proclaiming that the race is going to boil down to being between "Newt and not-Newt.
SPORTS
January 5, 2012 | Staff and Wire Reports
The Sacramento Kings fired Coach Paul Westphal on Thursday, cutting ties after two-plus seasons amid a slow start and an escalating dispute with young center DeMarcus Cousins . Geoff Petrie , the Kings' president of basketball operations, made the announcement ahead of the team's home game against Milwaukee on Thursday night. Assistant Keith Smart , let go by the Golden State Warriors this summer after one season, signed a deal to become the team's head coach — with Westphal's blessing.