Honors

 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.

A federal appeals court in Washington has upheld a key part of the Voting Rights Act, one that requires states and localities with a history of discrimination against minorities to "pre-clear" changes in their election procedures with the Department of Justice or a federal court. The reasoning behind the 2-1 ruling is persuasive; Chief JusticeJohn G. Roberts Jr.and other members of the Supreme Court should exercise judicial restraint by refusing to reconsider it. In an earlier, 2009 decision, the chief justice recognized that Congress has the power to enforce the 15th Amendment's guarantee of a right to vote.

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.

Fleet Week , which has been a New York City tradition since 1984, starts Wednesday (that's today) with a parade of tall ships and war ships that will be docked and open to the public through Tuesday. Members of the Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard will be aboard ships and participating in parachute jumps and other equipment demonstrations. There are lots of free activities to go and see. In honor of Fleet Week, Gray Line New York honors all military personnel in uniform with a free tour of Manhattan on its double-decker buses.  The deal: Members of the military (all branches, not just sailors and Marines)

The Clio Awards, the ad industry's most familiar--and most humiliated--competition, is about to give Madison Avenue a dose of, well, Madison Avenue. Clio, with the help of two ad women, is desperately trying to resell itself in a new and improved package and repair an image tattered last year when one gathering erupted in a statue-grabbing ruckus and another ceremony was canceled because the Clio Awards owner couldn't pay his bills. The 1992 awards ceremony is scheduled for Sept.

For the second consecutive year, The Times has been recognized as one of the nation's top 10 Sports sections for daily and Sunday editions among papers with circulations of 175,000 and above in the annual judging by the Associated Press Sports Editors. In addition, Times sportswriters were recognized with top-10 awards in the explanatory journalism, beat reporting and breaking news categories. David Wharton and Baxter Holmes were recognized among the 10 best of 2011 in the explanatory category for their story detailing the finances of athletic programs in the Pac-12 Conference.

On Dec. 16, 1944, 21-year-old Army Cpl. Gordon Hearne found himself in an hours-long gun battle with German soldiers in the Belgium countryside — one of countless such stories that marked the beginning of the Battle of the Bulge, Germany's last major offensive and a turning point in World War II. On Saturday, Hearne, now 87, was formally thanked by King Albert II of Belgium for his service. In a ceremony at Taix French Restaurant in Echo Park, Hearne was awarded the Knight of the Order of the Crown by Belgium's consul general in Los Angeles.

The legacy of Harvey Milk has had a very good year. Three decades after California's first openly gay elected leader was gunned down in San Francisco City Hall, Milk has been celebrated by an Oscar-winning film, named to the state Hall of Fame and lauded by President Obama. But despite those posthumous accolades, a legislative push to create a day of recognition for Milk became one of the most contentious issues in the Capitol this year. The proposal, which passed the Legislature on Thursday, is among more than a dozen gay rights bills offered in the aftermath of Proposition 8, last November's ballot initiative that outlawed same-sex marriage in California.

None of them will become valedictorian, but some of the brightest 17- and 18-year-olds in Huntington Beach will be graduating summa cum laude before they ever set foot on a college campus. For years, high schools have been retreating from singling out students as valedictorians and salutatorians to ease the competition and pressure that the quest for the top class rankings can place on teenagers. Some high schools have found a solution in recognizing dozens of valedictorians.

Thirteen Los Angeles Police Department officers were recognized for heroism during a recent ceremony in Hollywood. Police Chief Charlie Beck last week presented the officers and detectives with the department's highest honors, the Medal of Valor and the Purple Heart. This was the second year the Purple Heart was bestowed on officers who suffered grave injuries in the line of duty. The officers included men and women, some injured or put at risk while on patrol, on undercover assignments or headed home after work.

As cities and schools across California celebrated the 82nd birthday of slain gay rights activist Harvey Milk, Orange County elected leaders remained steadfastly silent. Activists, for the second year, asked Orange County supervisors Tuesday to recognize Milk's birthday with a proclamation, but the board declined the opportunity, as it did last year. One of the supervisors, Janet Nguyen, walked from the board room shortly after the activists began their presentation. Last year, Nguyen also left the meeting as the activists spoke.

Kareen Sandoval was among the first to spot her tree, a skinny little thing about 9 feet tall with dark shimmering leaves. "Look how beautiful you are," she said, reaching for the trunk. "I want you to grow big and strong and never get knocked down. " Along 8th Street in Westlake on Saturday, volunteers planted 62 trees, but this was about more than mere beautification. Every tree honored a mother from the neighborhood, each one a woman whose volunteer work has made a difference in Westlake and Pico-Union, just west of downtown Los Angeles.

Thirteen Los Angeles Police Department officers were recognized for heroism during a recent ceremony in Hollywood. Police Chief Charlie Beck last week presented the officers and detectives with the department's highest honors, the Medal of Valor and the Purple Heart. This was the second year the Purple Heart was bestowed on officers who suffered grave injuries in the line of duty. The officers included men and women, some injured or put at risk while on patrol, on undercover assignments or headed home after work.

Chandler NBA's top defender Tyson Chandler , the catalyst for the New York Knicks' defensive improvement, was voted the NBA's defensive player of the year. Chandler beat out Oklahoma City's Serge Ibaka and three-time champion Dwight Howard of Orlando to become the first Knicks player to win the award. Chandler received 311 points, including 45 first-place votes, from a panel of 121 sportswriters and broadcasters throughout the United States and Canada.

SAN DIEGO - A Marine sergeant who criticized President Obama on Facebook was notified Wednesday that he is being dismissed from the service with an other-than-honorable discharge. Gary Stein, 26, a nine-year veteran who served in Iraq, will be demoted to lance corporal, and his discharge status will make him ineligible for most federal veterans benefits, after Brig. Gen. Daniel Yoo accepted the unanimous recommendation of an Administrative Separation Board. The panel found that he made disparaging comments about Obama that were detrimental to good order and discipline and violated military law. Civilian lawyers for Stein said they would continue to fight in federal court to prevent Stein from being dismissed or to win his reinstatement.

For her work in a Burbank classroom, Rebecca Mieliwocki earned a trip to the White House. Mieliwocki, a seventh-grade English teacher at Luther Burbank Middle School, was recognized Tuesday by President Obama as the National Teacher of the Year. She was cheered loudly at the event, which also honored the winners of each state's teacher of the year awards. Obama pointed out a particularly boisterous group. "This is Rebecca's crew right here, who are very proud. Auntie, cousins?"

Lawmakers honored the Dalai Lama with a human rights award Tuesday as President Obama faced criticism for delaying a meeting with the exiled Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader. The Dalai Lama and the president will not meet until after Obama visits Chinese President Hu Jintao in Beijing in November. China reviles the Dalai Lama as a separatist and pressures foreign governments not to meet with him. The administration, which needs Chinese support for crucial foreign policy, economic and environmental goals, wants to establish friendly ties between Hu and Obama.

The Pac-12Conference announced its all-conference, all-freshman and all-defensive teams Tuesday and no USC players were among the honorees . USC finished 1-17 in conference play and enters this week's Pac-12 tournament with a 6-25 record. "If you don't win, you don't get anything," USC Coach Kevin O'Neill said. "That's just the way it is. " Awards and all-conference teams are chosen through a vote of league coaches, who cannot vote for their own players. O'Neill said he thought sophomore guard Maurice Jones and Byron Wesley were worthy of recognition.

This post has been updated. See below for details . Art continues to be very fashionable. In the wake of recent exhibitions that included last year's Rodarte show at LACMA and the late Alexander McQueen at New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art, another fashion designer has received honors from the fine art world. New York City's Museo del Barrio declared designer Narciso Rodriguez one of the "25 most influential Hispanics in America" in an announcment that it will be honoring the Cuban American next month during its annual gala.

Though she was raised by two teachers, Rebecca Mieliwocki never figured she'd end up in front of a classroom. She first aspired to be a lawyer, then worked in publishing. Unfulfilled, she decided to take up the family profession. And on Monday, after 14 years in the classroom, she was named the National Teacher of the Year. "I was not doing work that I felt was making a difference on the planet," she said. "It was shocking to me as anybody that being a teacher was absolutely the right fit. " Mieliwocki, a seventh-grade English teacher at Luther Burbank Middle School in Burbank, will be recognized by President Obama on Tuesday during a ceremony at the White House.