Green Light

An advisory committee's hearty 20-to-2 vote to recommend approval of the obesity drug Qnexa on Wednesday means it's highly likely the FDA will allow the medication to be marketed when the agency issues its final report later this year. If approved, Qnexa will be the first new prescription weight-loss medication in 13 years. But people looking for a quick way to lose five or 10 pounds may find Qnexa too troublesome to bother with. According to the manufacturer of the medication, Vivus Inc., and FDA officials, Qnexa should be carefully prescribed and patients should be closely monitored while on the drug.

The effect of Sunday's solar eclipse was slightly evident at Dodger Stadium in the fifth and sixth innings, the day's fading sunlight growing even dimmer across the ballpark's right-field corner. Then matters suddenly brightened for the Dodgers when rookie Scott Van Slyke slugged a pinch-hit, three-run home run that erased a St. Louis Cardinals lead and led the Dodgers to a 6-5 victory and a sweep of their three-game series. Van Slyke homered in only his ninth big league at-bat and after getting the green light from Manager Don Mattingly to swing at a 3-and-0 pitch from reliever Marc Rzepczynski.

Citing extensive safety improvements, state regulators Thursday cleared the way for completion of the first leg of the Expo light rail project by approving a controversial street-level crossing next to Dorsey High School. In its decision, the California Public Utilities Commission adopted recommendations made in June by one of the agency's hearing officers, who supported a revised plan that called for two station platforms, speed restrictions for trains, motor vehicle gates and other safety improvements for a proposed rail crossing at Farmdale Avenue and Exposition Boulevard.

When director George Lucas hired illustrator Ralph McQuarrie in 1974 to do a series of paintings visualizing scenes from his script for an intergalactic war movie he was trying to sell, McQuarrie liked the concept for the space fantasy. He just didn't think it would ever get made. "My impression was it was too expensive. There wouldn't be enough of an audience. It's just too complicated," he recalled in a 1999 interview with the San Diego Union-Tribune. "But George knew a lot of things that I didn't know.

Re "At least 18 die in Gaza factional fighting," May 16 I know that as an American this will not carry much weight, but I want the leaders of Hamas and Fatah to know that I wholeheartedly support their causes. I wish both sides victory in this escalating civil war. RICH SIEGEL Los Angeles

The controversial Kensington gold mine in southeast Alaska has won an important go-ahead from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which approved an amended permit that will allow the mine to dump millions of tons of waste into a nearby lake. The project has been the subject of a national environmental fight over whether navigable lakes and rivers can be used as repositories for toxic mine tailings. The Corps last week announced it was extending Coeur Alaska's permit until 2014 and reiterated that the company could construct a tailings storage facility in Lower Slate Lake, below the mine.

Excite, one of the Internet's most popular portal sites, was forced to admit an embarrassing oversight last week when it learned that adult advertisements were appearing in Web site searches that were supposed to be child-safe. The Redwood City, Calif., company quickly amended its ad placement policy so that X-rated ads no longer pop up in "green light" searches on its http://magellan.excite.com/ Web site.

Barack obama says preventing genocide isn't a good enough reason to stay in Iraq. "By that argument you would have 300,000 troops in the Congo right now -- where millions have been slaughtered as a consequence of ethnic strife -- which we haven't done," he told the Associated Press. "We would be deploying unilaterally and occupying the Sudan, which we haven't done. Those of us who care about Darfur don't think it would be a good idea."

It's been three years and several false starts, but a spokeswoman for producer Dino De Laurentiis tells us that film maker Michael Cimino will be back to work early this fall directing the remake of "The Desperate Hours," with Mickey Rourke reprising the Humphrey Bogart role from the 1955 film. The tense suspense drama was based on the Joseph Hayes play about an escaped convict who holds a man and his family hostage.

Dear Traffic Talk: I travel on Riverside Drive from Tujunga to Van Nuys Boulevard to get to work. The problem is that none of the traffic signals on Riverside is synchronized. It is rare that you can drive and make two consecutive lights. The speed limit is 35 mph, but the signals are not aligned with the speed at all. Can you please have these signals synchronized? Also: There are signs on the freeways of Southern California that a fine of $1,000 will be issued if anyone is caught littering.

An advisory committee's hearty 20-to-2 vote to recommend approval of the obesity drug Qnexa on Wednesday means it's highly likely the FDA will allow the medication to be marketed when the agency issues its final report later this year. If approved, Qnexa will be the first new prescription weight-loss medication in 13 years. But people looking for a quick way to lose five or 10 pounds may find Qnexa too troublesome to bother with. According to the manufacturer of the medication, Vivus Inc., and FDA officials, Qnexa should be carefully prescribed and patients should be closely monitored while on the drug.

Televisions, computer monitors and smartphones display only a fraction of the colors the human eye can see. But thanks to a new technology developed by a Silicon Valley nanotechnology company, they may soon get a lot more colorful. Nanosys, which works with materials up to 100,000 times thinner than a human hair, has crafted a thin film laden with minuscule particles that can be placed inside a display to dramatically boost the color range it can show. "Around 30% of what the eye can actually perceive in the real world, your TV can reproduce faithfully," said Jason Hartlove, chief executive of the Palo Alto company.

Reporting from St. Louis — The way St. Louis mismanaged its bullpen during a game-changing eighth inning Monday wasn't the only fundamental breakdown the Cardinals suffered in their Game 5 loss to the Texas Rangers. They also ran themselves out of potential rallies in the seventh and ninth innings when outfielder Allen Craig , who has stolen five bases in his career, was thrown out trying to steal second base with Albert Pujols at the plate. After the game, Manager Tony La Russa called the plays "mix-ups" but refused to say anything more.

Joe Wizan, a former head of 20th Century Fox's motion picture division and an independent producer of films such as "Jeremiah Johnson" and "… And Justice for All," has died. He was 76. Wizan, a longtime resident of Malibu, died Monday at an assisted-living facility in Westlake Village of complications from a long illness, said his wife, Melanie. In a career that began in the mailroom of the William Morris Agency in the late 1950s, Wizan went from being a successful talent agent to becoming an independent producer in 1970.

California's effort to curb global warming, which was put on hold by a court decision , will be able to proceed on schedule once officials conduct a new environmental review, according to attorneys analyzing the case. A San Francisco Superior Court judge ruled that the California Air Resources Board failed to properly evaluate alternatives to the so-called cap-and-trade program , which would allow industries to purchase pollution allowances rather than cut their own carbon emissions.

Reporting from Mesa, Ariz. Would you give a green light to a guy who got caught stealing almost half the time last season? Matt Kemp was thrown out 15 times last season. He stole 19 bases. Of the other five major leaguers thrown out at least 15 times, none stole fewer than 32 bases. "They've always had confidence in me to get the job done," Kemp said, "Even last year, when I was not as successful, they still had the green light on. " The Dodgers will have the green light on again for Kemp this season, according to Manager Don Mattingly . However, in his role as the Dodgers' new baserunning coach, Davey Lopes will be empowered to turn off the light if necessary.

Federal officials Tuesday approved construction of the first two California solar energy projects to be built on public land in the sun-drenched Mojave Desert and Imperial Valley. The go-ahead from U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar could bolster the chances for seven other major solar projects in the state awaiting approval from him and the U.S. Energy Department. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is banking on the building boom to infuse the state with more than $30 billion in new investments in green energy and create more than 12,000 high-paying construction and manufacturing jobs from about two dozen planned wind and solar facilities.

How to Bixi 1. Find the nearest station on the pocket-sized fold-out Bixi map, available around town, or download the unofficial iPhone app. 2. Following the touch-screen guidance (in French or English), insert your credit card into the kiosk, select a plan, OK the terms and conditions and receive a five-digit code. 3. Choose a bike and enter the code to remove it from its slot. 4. When you're done, return the bike to any Bixi station by inserting the front wheel into a slot.