High School

Two 17-year-old girls have been sentenced for torturing and butchering an elderly woman, less than three weeks after a pair of 10-year-olds were charged with murdering a toddler. Again, a troubled nation is asking, how could this happen? Edna Phillips, 70, was throttled with her dog's leash and stabbed or slashed 86 times. The mental images of the crime have shocked the nation just as the video pictures of little James Bulger being led to his death did last month.

A 23-year-old gang member who shot and killed a high school football star he mistook for a rival gangster in 2008 should be put to death, a Los Angeles jury decided Wednesday. Jurors reached the verdict after about a week of testimony in the penalty phase of the trial for Pedro Espinoza, a member of the 18th Street gang. The panel was asked to decide what punishment Espinoza should receive for the slaying of 17-year-old Jamiel Shaw II. Prosecutors said Shaw was killed execution-style because he was a young black male carrying a red Spider-Man backpack, which led Espinoza to believe he was a Bloods gang member.

 Neil Diamond and Katie McNeil were married Saturday, the "Sweet Caroline" singer announced Sunday on Twitter, the same place he told the world of their engagement back in September. "Katie and I got married last night, we wish you all could've been there," the singer-songwriter told his more than 300,000 followers. "It was magical! Love, Neil. " The couple - he's 71, she's 42 - tied the knot in L.A. in front of friends and family, his rep told People. It's McNeil's first wedding, and the third for Diamond, who was previously married to high school sweetheart Jayne Posner, then to Marcia Murphey.

Dorsey High turned its football players loose at Wednesday's City Section track and field championships, and the competition was overwhelmed. Leading the Dons to their 15th boys' championship was 6-foot-5, 215-pound senior Rashard Clark, who plays tight end and is headed to Arizona State for track. He turned in an individual performance that reminded Dorsey alumni of their great 400-meter champion David Gettis, who went on to Baylor and the NFL's Carolina Panthers. First Clark took the baton on the anchor leg of the 400-meter relay team and rallied from three yards back on the final handoff to pass Taft's anchor runner and win in 41.64.

If you are a teacher in debt, there's good news and bad news. There are literally dozens of programs that could potentially help wipe out your student loans. But most of them have narrow requirements that may lock you out. Just ask Troy Dale, a high school counselor from Ellis, Kan. He and his wife have $23,000 in student loans that they've been paying down for nearly a decade. At their current rate, they'll still be paying off their student debts when their oldest child enrolls in college.

Bob Kahl slips in through a side door of the vast, abandoned hangar and looks at what's left of the assembly plant where he worked for nearly 40 years. He remembers the hum of power tools, the biting aroma of cutting oil, swarms of workers plugging away on a labyrinth of yellow scaffolding. All that's left is a few piles of broken concrete and a sea of colorless dust that coats a Palmdale factory floor the size of two football fields. "Welcome to the birthplace of America's space shuttle fleet," said Kahl, 60, smiling.

It's a new era in City Section football, a changing of the guard and perhaps a changing of tactics. The days of domination by quick, big-play running backs such as De'Anthony Thomas of Crenshaw and Milton Knox of Lake Balboa Birmingham could be ending, with a new emphasis on spread offenses that rely on athletic, versatile, strong-armed quarterbacks. The face of the future is Troy Williams, a 6-foot-3, 180-pound junior at Harbor City Narbonne (10-3), which plays Carson (8-5)

Hollywood High School keeps its doors open 12 months a year to ease overcrowding. The year-round schedule allows the campus to run hundreds more students through its cramped classrooms. It also chips away at their education. Teachers skip pages of material, assign less homework and give fewer tests because their school year has been slashed by 17 days. Hundreds of pupils take the Stanford 9 exam shortly after returning from an eight-week vacation.

There's a train wreck slowly unfolding in high school sports, and it's time to examine the damage that might take place. Next month, the 10 sections that make up the California Interscholastic Federation will vote on a proposal to revise transfer rules. Under the current rules, an athlete who transfers without moving has to sit out one varsity season unless receiving a hardship waiver. It's designed to prevent athletes from switching schools simply for sports reasons. Now a new proposal, part of a package of changes being sold to schools, would require a 30-day sit-out period as the lone penalty for transferring.

Reporting from Las Vegas — His jersey soaked, his shoulders glistening with sweat, Ishmael Wainwright managed a weary smile as he posed for celebratory pictures with teammates. The Kansas City 76ers had just won the 17-under invitational division of the prestigious Las Vegas Fab 48 tournament, capping a stretch of three games in 11 hours Monday and eight games in four days. "I just want to go home and go to sleep," said Wainwright, a junior forward from Raytown, Mo., who is coveted by UCLA and other top college programs.

Call it perfect timing in the era of BBCOR bats. Top-seeded Orange Lutheran has put together a baseball team that relies on pitching, defense, bunting and finding ways to score without the aid of a home run. It has led the Lancers (23-4) into the quarterfinals of the Southern Section Division 1 playoffs after a 7-2 win over Vista Murrieta in a second-round game Tuesday at Hart Park. Six of their 10 hits Tuesday were infield singles. Conner Sullivan, who had three singles, started the game sliding into first base to beat out a ball that pitcher Jeff Moberg couldn't handle.

ROME - A bomb exploded at the entrance of a high school in southern Italy named for the wife of a slain anti-Mafia judge, killing a 16-year-old girl and injuring at least four people as students were arriving at school for Saturday classes. Police were investigating the possibility of organized-crime involvement in the attack in the Adriatic port city of Brindisi, but authorities said it was too early to exclude other possibilities. They noted that the school is named for Francesca Morvillo, the wife of anti-Mafia judge Giovanni Falcone.

Junior Khalfani Muhammad of Sherman Oaks Notre Dame High thrives on having a target on his back as the sprinter you have to beat to be considered the fastest teenager in California. "Everybody wants to come after me," he said. "I love it. I love the pressure. " On Saturday at the Southern Section track and field championships, Muhammad recovered from a momentary slip at the start of the Division 3 100 meters to win in a wind-aided 10.45 seconds, the fastest time in the state this year.

The Southern Section track and field championships will be held Saturday at Mount San Antonio College, with field events beginning at 10:30 a.m. and running events at 1 p.m. Sprinter Khalfani Muhammad of Sherman Oaks Notre Dame, the second-place finisher in the state 100 and 200 last year, will be trying to win his first section title in the Division 3 100 and 200. There are lots of standouts in the boys' and girls' ranks, including Gardena...

Right-hander Luke Eubank of Newbury Park is 9-0 with a 1.08 earned-run average, six shutouts, three no-hitters and has given up only 10 walks in 65 innings. "It's the best pitching performance in the last 30 years that I've seen," Newbury Park Coach Matt Goldfield said. On Friday in his latest dominating performance, Eubank struck out six, walked none and finished with a two-hitter as the Panthers defeated Long Beach Wilson, 3-0, in a first-round Southern Section Division 1 playoff game.

MUSIC Proving they have way better taste in music than you did in high school, the kids at Champs Charter School are putting on a music fest with some the best names in the L.A. beat scene, including Shlohmo and Jonwayne, alongside a bevy of food trucks and school group performances. We already feel old marveling at the precocity. Champs Charter High School, 6952 Van Nuys Blvd., Van Nuys. noon Sat. $10. aertalk.com

When you walk onto the court at Sacramento's Power Balance Pavilion, formerly known as Arco Arena, the three-point line looks appealing to those high school players known for making threes. Then the game starts and they begin to understand how difficult it is to shoot in an arena setting. That's going to be one of the biggest challenges for the Southern California teams Friday and Saturday in the state basketball championships. "Whomever makes the most layups and jump shots is going to be victorious," said Los Angeles Windward Coach Miguel Villegas, whose team faces Richmond Salesian on Saturday in the Division IV boys' final.

Marc Christian MacGinnis, who won a multimillion-dollar settlement in 1991 from the estate of his ex-lover, actor Rock Hudson, after convincing a jury Hudson had knowingly exposed him to AIDS, has died. He was 56. Known as Marc Christian, he died of pulmonary problems June 2 at Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank. The details were confirmed Friday by his sister, Susan Dahl, who said she did not publicly announce his death earlier because of her brother's wish for privacy.

Re "Mitt Romney: The early years," Opinion, May 13 Michael Kinsley asks if Mitt Romney's reported high school antic almost 50 years ago of forcibly cutting off another student's hair should affect our assessment of him as a potential president. If Romney had told us that yes, he did it, that he should not have done it and that he was sorry, the case would have been closed. But Romney told us that he doesn't remember the incident. The things I did in high school still come vividly to mind after more than 60 years.

Rank, School (Record) Division 1. ORANGE LUTHERAN (22-3) SS1 2. MATER DEI (21-5) SS1 3. EL TORO (25-5) SS1 4. PACIFICA (23-5) SS2 5. HARVARD-WESTLAKE (23-4-1) SS2 6. LONG BEACH POLY (24-6) SS1 7. RIVERSIDE NORTH (24-5) SS1 8. BONITA (26-2) SS3 9. CYPRESS (24-6) SS2 10. LAKEWOOD (25-6) SS1 11. AGOURA (22-4-1) SS1 12. ALEMANY (21-6-1) SS1 13. LONG BEACH WILSON (23-7) SS1 14. REDLANDS (22-5)