Foxes

They may be cute, but a new report warns that those little red foxes found along the California coast pose a big threat to most ground-nesting birds, including several endangered species. From the Ballona wetlands near Marina del Rey to the rugged Palos Verdes Peninsula to the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve in Orange County, the list of birds on the red fox's menu includes gnatcatchers, quail, avocets, snowy plovers, and even herons and egrets.

Top agents at International Creative Management on Wednesday completed the buyout of the agency from longtime Chairman and Chief Executive Jeff Berg and private equity firm Rizvi Traverse Management - ending a long-running management drama at one of Hollywood's leading agencies. Staff members of the 400-person firm celebrated with a champagne breakfast. Twenty-nine agents are now partners who will own and control the Century City-based firm, which has been renamed ICM Partners.

Like lovers in Paris, San Joaquin kit foxes will always have Bakersfield. The rare little foxes come out mostly at night. They find fabulous food everywhere: chunks of cheeseburger from dumpsters, shreds of taco on windblown wrappers. And the accommodations: What can beat a cozy den in the student quarter — specifically, beneath portable classrooms in the Panama-Buena Vista Union School District? The 17,000-student district isn't crazy about the foxes, especially when about one-third of its 23 elementary and junior high schools have to deal with them on a regular basis.

Restaurant chain California Pizza Kitchen Inc. will move its headquarters to Playa Vista after signing a sublease with Fox Interactive Media. CPK officials and staff will relocate this summer from their longtime headquarters on Century Boulevard near Los Angeles International Airport to the top floor of 12181 Bluff Creek Drive, said real estate broker Dave Toomey of Cresa Los Angeles. The pizza chain will occupy 33,000 square feet on the fifth floor, which has a large private balcony with views of Marina del Rey, Toomey said.

The first documented outbreak of canine distemper in desert kit foxes has spread beyond its origins at a construction site west of Blythe and could take a heavy toll on the species, state wildlife biologists said Tuesday. Biologists have nearly given up hope of containing the deadly virus. It was first diagnosed in October during construction at the $1-billion Genesis Solar Energy Project site, about 25 miles west of Blythe. Eight of the cat-sized foxes died there. Since then, distemper has been detected in living kit foxes and two dead ones up to 11 miles south of Genesis, said Deana Clifford, wildlife veterinarian for the California Department of Fish and Game.

The Colorado Foxes defeated the San Diego Nomads, 1-0, in penalty kicks in a Western Soccer League game at Southwestern College Saturday night. The Foxes (9-4) outshot the Nomads, 5-4, in penalty kicks after two 10-minute overtimes. The Nomads are 4-7. Former Socker Paul Wright, playing his first game of the season for the Nomads, was ejected for misconduct in the second half.

National Park Service biologists have begun releasing endangered foxes on two of the eight Channel Islands, part of a captive breeding program begun six years ago to protect the species. The releases of 40 adult foxes and pups began this month and will continue through November. The plan calls for 23 on San Miguel Island and 17 on Santa Rosa Island, which are 55 miles and 40 miles west of Ventura, respectively.

The population of endangered wild foxes on Santa Catalina Island soon could recover to levels not seen in a decade since canine distemper decimated them, biologists said Monday. Standing beside a sign posted along a main road urging people to watch for foxes, Carlos de la Rosa, the Catalina Island Conservancy's chief conservation and education officer, said, "Soon we'll have more than 1,300 foxes. But reaching that number is not, in and of itself, as great an achievement as bringing them back from the brink of extinction to a population that is stable and able to sustain itself."

The Navy today will begin trapping red foxes that are threatening the survival of two endangered bird species at a wildlife refuge within the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station, a base spokesman said Friday. "The first traps are going to be set this weekend," said Curt Sandberg, acting public information officer at the base.

A mother red fox was reunited with her six offspring Monday in the safety of a zoo miles from their former home near a new stretch of the Costa Mesa Freeway. The mother fox and the last of her 12-week-old pups arrived at the Los Angeles Zoo a day after they and five other pups were captured by a team of wardens from the California Department of Fish and Game.

UNDERRATED 'The West Wing' : As we careen into election season, there was something so soothing about seeing some of President Josiah Bartlet's Cabinet reconvene for a wittily self-aware PSA about walking (and, if possible, talking, in keeping with series creator Aaron Sorkin's signature style). Though there are laughs in the pointless political jockeying of "Veep" and its predecessor "In the Loop," we could use more of the Bartlet administration's ambition and good intentions.

About three years ago, producer Graham Broadbent visited the offices of Peter Rice, who was then running Fox Searchlight Pictures. Stacked near Rice's DVD player were discs of the senior citizen comedies "Cocoon" and "Cocoon: The Return. " "There have to be movies for older audiences," Rice told Broadbent. "There have to be. " Broadbent replied, "I think we may have something for you. " The movie Broadbent pitched that day was "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,"a comedy starring Judi Dench and Bill Nighy about a fledgling retirement home in India.

BEIJING - The Fox Tower in southeastern Beijing, a centuries-old fortress-like building with deep-set red windows and curving eaves, has stood through the fall of the Qing Dynasty, the reign of Mao Tse-tung and the crush of urban development. But for 45-year-old Sinologist Paul French, one historical event stands out above the rest: One morning in 1937, the mutilated corpse of a 19-year-old British woman was found at the base of the tower, her organs removed with surgical precision.

Soon, anyone who wants to know how much a political candidate spent on a commercial will be able to find out with the click of a button. The Federal Communications Commission voted Friday to require local television stations to publish on their websites detailed information about political advertising, including the cost of specific commercials. Although such material is already required to be made available to the public, anyone seeking to know what candidates are spending, and on what programs, typically has to visit a local television station and make a request to see what's known as the "public files.

Rumors that Megan Fox is pregnant popped up again Monday, but the actress and husband Brian Austin Green still haven't confirmed or denied the news. In late March, Star magazine cited an unnamed source who said Fox, 25, and Green, 38, had just found out about the pregnancy and were telling only “close friends and family members” at that time. E! Online put its stamp on the news Monday, citing an exclusive, unnamed, nondescript source as giving confirmation of the baby on board - and saying pretty much nothing else.

The first documented outbreak of canine distemper in desert kit foxes has spread beyond its origins at a construction site west of Blythe and could take a heavy toll on the species, state wildlife biologists said Tuesday. Biologists have nearly given up hope of containing the deadly virus. It was first diagnosed in October during construction at the $1-billion Genesis Solar Energy Project site, about 25 miles west of Blythe. Eight of the cat-sized foxes died there. Since then, distemper has been detected in living kit foxes and two dead ones up to 11 miles south of Genesis, said Deana Clifford, wildlife veterinarian for the California Department of Fish and Game.

Humboldt County health officials are warning residents about a possible rabies outbreak after three residents killed aggressive foxes. Two weeks ago, a woman was bitten by a fox that tested positive for the disease. She killed the fox with a rake and is being treated. Two other people approached by foxes shot the animals in the head, killing them. Authorities say the foxes' aggressive behavior means they were probably infected.

An animal rights group said Friday that it will press its fight to halt the removal of red foxes from a national wildlife refuge near Seal Beach, despite the animals' threat to two endangered species of birds. Harold Baerg, president of Huntington Beach-based Animal Lovers Volunteer Assn., said he was "astonished and dismayed" at the disclosure Thursday that 250 red foxes have been trapped and removed from the 5,000-acre Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station since 1986.

On the eve of the anticipated approval of the Dodgers' sale, the team appeared to resolve a potentially significant hurdle. In a court filing Thursday, the Dodgers said Fox Sports would get confirmation from the new owners that Time Warner Cable would not be directly or indirectly involved in the purchase of the team. The court is expected to approve the sale in a hearing Friday. Under its settlement with the Dodgers, Fox had the right to challenge any sale in which rival Time Warner Cable was involved.

Ann Romney weighed in publicly Thursday about the firestorm over a Democratic strategist's remark that she'd never “worked a day in her life” - arguing that her choice and the choice of other women to stay home and raise their children should be respected. With a smile, the wife of the presumed Republican nominee brushed off Hilary Rosen's comments on CNN on Wednesday night that she'd “never really dealt with the kinds of economic issues that a majority of the women in this country are facing” and should not be advising her husband about the economic struggles women are facing in the recession.