Guards

As lifeguards begin their busy summer season, the bronzed guardians of California's beaches find themselves at the unlikely center of the battle over costly public pensions. The six-figure salaries of some full-time municipal lifeguards have fueled talk radio segments and blog comments in recent weeks, with some commentators expressing surprise at the pay for those who patrol the beaches. For local government, the larger concern is over the pensions that lifeguards receive when they retire.

SAN ANTONIO - Spurs guard Patty Mills has heard all the jokes. The Internet makes it almost impossible to avoid them. He's aware some call him M.L. Carr, Mark Madsen or other NBA players known for their antics on the bench instead of production on the court. And Mills has no problem being the towel-waving 12th man during the NBA Finals. Actually, he is enjoying the experience. "They're great guys and I've gotten to know them on a personal basis," Mills said.

Forgive me for doing something very foolish. I'm going to make a prediction on the top high school boys' basketball teams for 2010-11 before the travel-ball season has begun, meaning there are lots of transfers that will take place before the new school year begins. So barring someone 6-foot-10 arriving from Mississippi or a couple players from Lancaster moving to Orange County, here are the teams to beat: Long Beach Poly. With two guards, a forward and a center returning from a 28-5 team, the Jackrabbits start out as the No. 1 team in California.

MIAMI - Stretching his legs, Manu Ginobili grimaced a little. He did a quick drill and cringed a little more during Saturday's practice at AmericanAirlines Arena. At 35, it isn't getting any easier for this member of the Spurs' Big Three. Production is down for the 11-year veteran entering Game 2 of the NBA Finals on Sunday. "I'm happy with the way I move that ball," Ginobili said after arriving late to the arena Saturday. "I made a few mistakes defensively, but we all learned from that.

Action sports and high fashion may not seem like the most likely of companions, but in the past decade designers have done more than dip a toe into surf culture; they have embraced the easygoing, sun-drenched lifestyle common to Southern California and found plenty of inspiration. The fashion industry's love affair with surfing became most apparent about 11 years ago, when Karl Lagerfeld sent models clutching Chanel-logoed surfboards down the runway as they modeled clothes for spring 2003.

More than a dozen female prison guards in Maryland helped a group of inmates in a dangerous national gang run a drug-trafficking and money-laundering ring from inside the walls, prosecutors contend. A federal indictment unsealed Tuesday said 13 female guards at the Baltimore City Detention Center smuggled drugs, cellphones and prescription pills to inmates in the Black Guerrilla Family gang by hiding the contraband in their hair, shoes and underwear. "The inmates literally took over the asylum," said Stephen E. Vogt, special agent in charge of the Baltimore FBI office, at a news conference Tuesday.

After a school massacre in Connecticut, the National Rifle Assn. suggested that public schools should each post one armed sentry to provide security. Now politicians in California are debating the proposal. One risk nobody has thought of yet: What if the guards are embarrassed by the students' superior knowledge and possession of firearms? ALSO: Ted Rall: A year in cartoons Photo gallery: Ted Rall cartoons McManus: The perils of political punditry Follow Ted Rall on Twitter @TedRall

When a security firm contracting with Los Angeles County went bankrupt earlier this year, hundreds of workers were not paid for their hours guarding county clinics, Sheriff's Department buildings and Fire Department facilities. On Tuesday, Supervisor Gloria Molina urged county lawyers to find a way to pay them about $200,000 in wages she said they are due, prompting a bitter exchange among her colleagues. International Services Inc., which placed nearly 800 guards in county facilities, filed for bankruptcy after its president and chief executive, Ousama "Sam" Karawia, 45, was charged with multiple counts of conspiracy, grand theft, making false statements and insurance fraud.

Your editors are very righteous that the "lessons of the poll guards must not be obscured." Your editors did not spell out the lessons that they had in mind, but I suspect that different people will come up with very different lessons. For example, I learned that non-citizens (both legal green-card holders and illegals) need have no hesitation to register and vote in any and all U.S. elections. Because of this poll guard settlement, it is unlikely that in the future anyone will feel that they can afford to even think about enforcing the probable felony violations of our registration and voting laws.

BENGHAZI, Libya - Face down on a roof inside the besieged American diplomatic compound, gunfire and flames crackling around them, the two young Libyan guards watched as several bearded men crept toward the ambassador's residence with semiautomatic weapons and grenades strapped to their chests. "We are finished," one of the guards says he remembers thinking. Both are veterans of the ragtag revolutionary forces that toppled Moammar Kadafi. Over the last year, while assigned by their militia to help protect the U.S. mission in Benghazi, the pair had been drilled by American security personnel in using their weapons, securing entrances, climbing walls and waging hand-to-hand combat.

MIAMI - The Miami Heat is at the point when it's too late to alter much of its defensive strategy. Instead, the Heat just needs to play smarter when it comes to stopping San Antonio Spurs point guard Tony Parker . He scored 10 of his game-high 21 points in the fourth quarter of the Spurs' Game 1 victory Thursday at AmericanAirlines Arena. "We would like to get our hands active," said Heat Coach Erik Spoelstra . "He's a clever player. He's seen every coverage you possibly can. We hope our pressure has a cumulative effect.

They milled around the room aimlessly, their faces painted - some ghost white, others in different colors like a tribal mask - and they followed the instructions: They glided when they were told to walk as if they were filled with air, then slowed to a deliberate shuffle when told to act like they'd been shackled. "How does that feel?" said their instructor, Sabra Williams, of the Actors' Gang. "What emotions does that trigger?" The group of about a dozen were grown men, prisoners at the California Rehabilitation Center in Norco, a place where they don't typically let themselves be seen acting foolishly or displaying the kind of emotion that could make them seem vulnerable.

A sailboat carrying 80 to 90 bales of marijuana ran aground in Newport Beach on Monday after the  U.S. Coast Guard  attempted to stop and board it, authorities said. During a routine patrol, a Coast Guard crew spotted a sailboat entering Newport Harbor near Balboa Island and decided to board it for an equipment check, authorities said. As Coast Guard officials approached at 1 a.m., the sailboat veered right and came ashore at Ruby Avenue and South Bayfront. Two men jumped from the boat and ran away, authorities said.

Poised and polished in an electric-blue blazer, 31-year-old urban planner Aja Brown prepared to make her case to an audience full of voters - many of them skeptics - that if elected mayor she could be the new face of Compton. With her youthful energy, master's degree in planning from USC and a near-decade of experience working in cities, she hopes to convince residents that she has what it takes to move Compton beyond years of chaotic politics, financial meltdowns and a reputation for corruption.

KABUL, Afghanistan - The International Committee of the Red Cross said Friday that it has temporarily suspended operations in Afghanistan after an attack this week in the eastern city of Jalalabad in which a security guard was killed and a staff member wounded. The closure comes as aid agencies across the war-torn country grow increasingly concerned about their ability to carry out humanitarian work after the withdrawal of foreign combat troops by the end of 2014. "Because of the incident in Jalalabad we suspended all our activities in Jalalabad and our offices are closed until further notice," Robin Waudo, a spokesman for the Red Cross in Afghanistan, said in a telephone interview.

Midway through his election-night victory speech, Eric Garcetti turned toward the cluster of family on the stage behind him and invited his wife to step forward. He thanked her for "making our life work" under the stress of his run for mayor of Los Angeles, saying, "None of this would be possible without Amy Wakeland. " It was a rare moment in the spotlight for Wakeland, a powerful player in Garcetti's political life but one who fiercely guards their family's privacy. With Garcetti's inauguration five weeks away, Wakeland, 43, will soon need to reconcile her fondness for a low profile with the platform that her husband's position will offer to advance causes that she has worked on for years.

A man outside a Commerce topless club attempted to run over security guards with his vehicle early Friday morning but was shot multiple times by the guards, sheriff's officials said. The exchange occurred just after midnight at Nicola's, a topless club on the 900 block of S. Gerhart Avenue , according to Lt. John Roberts of the Los Angeles County sheriff's East Los Angeles station. Roberts said the suspect was asked to leave the club, and he subsequently attempted to ram about four security guards with his vehicle.

Four guards at a prison in central Denmark who ate a cake baked for them by inmates were hospitalized with suspected narcotic poisoning. Minutes after eating the cake in the wing of Nyborg prison that houses members of the Black Cobra motorcycle gang, a female guard complained of not being able to feel her hands and legs. Lars Erik Siegumfeldt, a spokesman with the Danish Prison and Probation Service, said the guards would not have been suspicious of the gift. "Normally the guards and the inmates are very close in the Danish system," he said.

Flynn Robinson Guard in Lakers 1971 championship team Flynn Robinson, 72, a flashy guard who was a member of the 1971-72 Lakers team that brought Los Angeles its first NBA title, died Thursday at Keck Hospital in Los Angeles from complications related to cancer. He had been battling multiple myeloma for about two years, according to the Lakers. His scoring binges with the championship team earned him the nickname "Instant Offense" from longtime Lakers announcer Chick Hearn.

Action sports and high fashion may not seem like the most likely of companions, but in the past decade designers have done more than dip a toe into surf culture; they have embraced the easygoing, sun-drenched lifestyle common to Southern California and found plenty of inspiration. The fashion industry's love affair with surfing became most apparent about 11 years ago, when Karl Lagerfeld sent models clutching Chanel-logoed surfboards down the runway as they modeled clothes for spring 2003.