Highway

Students at 99th Street Elementary School near Watts caught a glimpse of what for most is a rare sight: fathers reading to them. Sitting in chairs built for bodies much smaller than their own, about 150 men participated in the school's fifth annual Donuts With Dads event Thursday. But they do more than tell stories, school officials said. "Having the men come in is motivating to the students," said Erica Jones, a third-grade teacher. "To have a dad feel it's important to be here and read translates the same message to the child.

As the flurry of complaints about Blizzard of 2013 cleanup pile up in eastern New York, some local officials find their jobs in jeopardy. Four days after the blizzard began and two days after Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo sent more than 400 snowplows and 700 workers to help dig out Suffolk County, conditions on the main avenue in front of the restaurant Lisa Steffens manages in Ronkonkoma were still worse than any she'd seen in more than a decade....

MOUNTAIN HOME VILLAGE - Smoke from the warm fire inside Fred Richardson's home hung in the mountain air outside his house Wednesday, masking the heartbreak inside and throughout the tiny creekside town where he lived for seven decades. His son, Steve, grieved silently on the front porch. Along with the wind sifting through the pines and sycamores, the only other sound came from traffic winding down the mountain highway just a few blocks away - the same highway that took his father's life.

Video footage of mischievous motorists cutting across traffic and ripping a set of tire-smoking doughnuts has again hit YouTube, causing an uproar among concerned citizens and authorities. The most recent videos, one shot in Oakland and the other in West Covina, show the latest in a string of incidents witnessed across the country as organized groups perform audacious choreographed tricks -- typically reserved for the most daring Hollywood stunt drivers -- on public streets. Such events have also been reported and prosecuted in Washington, D.C. , and Atlanta.

BEIJING - When a thick quilt of smog enveloped swaths of China earlier this month, it set in motion a costly chain reaction for the world's No. 2 economy. Authorities canceled flights across northern China and ordered some factories shut. Hospitals were flooded with hacking patients. A fire in an empty furniture factory in eastern Zhejiang province went undetected for hours because the smoke was indistinguishable from the haze. In coastal Shandong province, most highways were closed for fear that low visibility would cause motorists to crash.

From land or sea, the Big Sur coastline dazzles. This 90-mile stretch of rugged Central California landscape draws millions of visitors annually, most of whom are content to pull over at Highway 1 viewpoints to catch a quick glimpse of the rocky Pacific shoreline. But I wanted more. I wanted a window on the sea. The bed High above the ocean, Ragged Point Inn & Resort offers a spot of green in a landscape of browns and blues. The 17-acre park-like resort [19019 Highway 1, Ragged Point; (805)

At dusk, driving north on Interstate 15 near the California-Nevada border, Loren Gill descends a graceful mountain straightaway and sees before him the twinkling lights of the Promised Land. But this isn't Las Vegas - that's still 40 miles away. Instead, Gill spies the stopover at Primm, Nev. With three casinos and sundry services, it's a roadside curiosity turned welcome mat to Nevada's casino culture. As the district manager of Affinity Gaming, which runs the three gambling establishments, it's Gill's job to make sure that a good number of the 40,000 cars, pickups, RVs and semis that pass here each day ignore the siren call of the Strip, if just for a moment.

The truck driver convicted of manslaughter after a fatal 2009 collision on Angeles Crest Highway in La Cañada Flintridge is taking his case to an appeals court. Marcos Costa, 46, was sentenced to seven years and four months in prison after his 2011 conviction in the deaths of Palmdale resident Angel Posca, 58, and his 12-year-old daughter, Angelina. His case will be heard by the 2nd District Court of Appeal on Jan. 29. Angel Posca was driving through the intersection of Angeles Crest Highway and Foothill Boulevard on July 1, 2009, when Costa's truck, which had lost its brakes, barreled down Angeles Crest and slammed into the car before striking a building.

Can government play a positive role in economic development? To understand who built what in the construction of the American economy from its pre-industrial origins, a look at one of the drivers of U.S. innovation - venture capital - is instructive. For more than three decades American venture capitalists have concentrated their activities and earned their returns in a very small number of industrial domains. In booms and in slumps, in bull markets and in bear markets, the information and communications technology and biomedical sectors together have consistently accounted for 80% of venture capital investment.

Christmas Eve travelers heading to the Big Sur area on Highway 1 on Monday will have to detour after a rock slide caused by heavy rain shut the coastal roadway in both directions. The blockage is seven miles south of Big Sur, according to Caltrans . "If you're going to Hearst Castle or Cambria, you'll be fine," Caltrans spokesman Colin Jones said. But those heading to Big Sur and points north -- Monterey and Carmel -- will need to take the 101 Freeway north to Highway 68 west.