Hot Topic

How to dress like a jerk Kids can be found jerkin' in streets, classrooms, grocery stores and even on top of ice cream trucks, so it's no surprise that jerkin' fashion stands out. Jerkin' style is about invention: cutting off skinny jeans to create "half-calves," wearing colorful shoelaces as belts or screen printing your crew's name on T- shirts. You can put together pieces — skinny jeans, Vans, a colorful T — to replicate the look, or check out the offerings at Hot Topic or Zazzle.

It seems we can chill out a bit about the hot topic of whether the new  iPad   has a   heat issue . Next to a couple of Android tablets, they're not so hot. Our friends over at PC World actually whipped out an infrared thermometer and measured the heat output of the iPad 2 against popular Android tablets Asus   Eee Pad Transformer Prime   and  Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 LTE . They took readings of...

In major league clubhouses, behind batting cages, on the diamonds and in the grandstands, even in Washington, it seems everyone is talking about baseball and steroids. Everyone that is but Barry Bonds, one of six major league players reported to have received a new designer steroid from a Burlingame, Calif., supplement company, the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO).

Reggie Miller will be a TNT analyst alongside Marv Albert and Steve Kerr for the NBA All-Star game next Sunday in Orlando, Fla., with the network airing exclusive coverage of All-Star weekend starting Thursday. The former UCLA star knows the scene well, having played in five All-Star games during a distinguished NBA career (1987-2005) spent exclusively with the Indiana Pacers. Raised in Riverside and currently residing in Los Angeles, Miller, 46, scored more than 25,000 points and made more than 2,500 three-pointers during a career that included several memorable playoff battles against the New York Knicks and a trip to the 2000 NBA Finals against the champion Lakers.

TODAY The Situation Room With Wolf Blitzer The economy: White House economic advisor Austan Goolsbee; assassination attempt: former Iraqi prime minister Dr. Ayad Allawi. 3 p.m. CNN McLaughlin Group 6:30 p.m. KCET SUNDAY Today Easter brunch; energy bars and drinks. (N) 6 a.m. KNBC Good Morning America (N) 6 a.m. KABC State of the Union With Candy Crowley The economy, jobs: White House economic advisor Lawrence H. Summers; U.S.-Israeli relations, Mideast peace prospects: Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren.

Teen retailer Hot Topic Inc., struggling with weak sales and earnings, is cutting staff and closing 40 to 50 stores by early next year. The City of Industry chain, which operates 680 Hot Topic stores and 155 Torrid stores for plus-sized teen girls, said it would cut about 14% of management positions as part of "a cost reduction plan to meet the challenges of the current environment. " The company plans to shutter 15 Hot Topic locations and two Torrid stores in next two months, with the rest to follow next year, Chief Financial Officer Jim McGinty said in a conference call.

The caller's name is Avery, and as the call progresses he seems a case study in incendiary talk radio rhetoric. In a slightly shaky voice, Avery reads from a book by Laura Ingraham, a syndicated conservative radio host whose show is on a couple of hours later on the local right-wing talk station, 104.1 The Truth. The passage speaks about the need to emulate the country's founding fathers and fight back against the federal government. Avery says, "We have to say when enough is enough and we take up arms like our forefathers did ?"

Teen apparel retailer Hot Topic Inc. said its second-quarter loss nearly doubled as same-store sales fell. The loss for the quarter ended Aug. 4 was $1.7 million, or 4 cents a share, compared with a loss of $905,000, or 2 cents, a year earlier, City of Industry-based Hot Topic said. Revenue rose less than 1% to $161.7 million. Analysts expected a loss of 3 cents a share on revenue of $160.5 million. Same-store sales, or stores open at least a year, fell 5.8% during the quarter.

Incorporation in the Saddleback Valley is the hot topic of the year. Why? Because now the involved citizens realize that they need concerned representation in their own area. But that parochial concept called "local control" has to be re-thought in suburban Orange County. The Saddleback Valley area has a natural boundary and universal issues. The trees must be preserved everywhere. The freeway system impacts all communities. We are a valley of hills with a similar environmental and geological impact; developers want to put buildings on them.

Snoop Dogg, the rapper and actor who attended a USC practice last season and caught a football that was tossed to him by LenDale White after a touchdown, has not visited a Trojans workout or stood along the Coliseum sideline this season. But Snoop Dogg was a hot topic of conversation among the Trojans on Wednesday.

Christopher Hitchens, the engaging and enraging British-American author and essayist whose polemical writings on religion, politics, war and other provocations established him as one of his generation's most robust public intellectuals, has died. He was 62. Hitchens died Thursday night at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, said his literary agent, Steve Wasserman. Hitchens was diagnosed with advanced esophageal cancer in June 2010, when his memoir, "Hitch-22," hit the bestseller lists.

Excitement surrounded the Clippers on the first day of training camp Friday. Excitement over having Blake Griffin back and ready. Excitement about having a healthy Eric Gordon and Chris Kaman. Excitement over having Caron Butler in the fold and excitement about the Clippers' playoff possibilities. And there is something that could take that excitement level even higher: getting free-agent DeAndre Jordan back on the team. Jordan has been considering an offer from the Clippers and one that is expected to come from the Golden State Warriors.

By now, of course, the key details of former national security advisor and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's "No Higher Honor: A Memoir of My Years in Washington" have already made it to public view. Among them: She clashed over policy with Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld. Libyan strongman Moammar Kadafi had an unnerving fixation on his "African princess," which revealed itself in a bizarre private dinner in his kitchen. She regretted the timing of a vacation just as Hurricane Katrina was bearing down on New Orleans.

Abundant sunshine has made Southern California one of the brightest markets for residential solar power in the country. Some might say too bright. Encouraged by federal tax credits and a municipal rebate, so many Los Angeles residents sought to add rooftop solar panels at the start of the year that the Department of Water and Power had to suspend its Solar Incentive Program in April because of overwhelming demand and funding concerns. But on Thursday — at 10 a.m., to be precise — the DWP will relaunch the program, albeit with reduced rebates and a new online system to process applications.

Once again, an event that claimed to showcase the Sept. 17 bout between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Victor Ortiz instead focused on an absent Manny Pacquiao. Both Mayweather (41-0, 25 knockouts) and Ortiz (29-2-2, 22 KOs) mentioned Pacquiao throughout their news conference Wednesday at LA Live. Mayweather declared he wanted to face Pacquiao in his next fight. Ortiz said such statements were offensive and would come back to haunt Mayweather. "I'm tired of hearing he's fighting Pacquiao next," said Ortiz, who will defend his World Boxing Council welterweight title in Las Vegas.

A sense of urgency surrounds the annual National Cable & Telecommunications Assn. convention in Chicago this week as big media firms grapple with a host of business challenges that threaten their livelihood. An onslaught of new technologies, devices and digital-content-delivering platforms and the nation's growing wealth divide are challenging the cable television industry to no longer take for granted customers who shell out $70 to $100 a month for service. Young consumers, in particular, do not seem to share their parents' affinity for their pricey cable and satellite TV packages, and are increasingly drawn to the Internet and to services such as Netflix and Hulu for entertainment.

Hot Topic Inc. said its fiscal second-quarter loss narrowed as revenue inched up. For the three months that ended Aug. 2, the teen clothing retailer lost $450,000, or a penny a share. That compares with a year-earlier loss of $1.7 million, or 4 cents a share. The City of Industry firm said results included a penny-per-share charge related to its online music initiative. Revenue climbed 3% to $166.8 million. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters had predicted a loss of 2 cents a share, excluding one-time events, on revenue of $166.

Hot Topic Inc. said its fourth-quarter earnings rose on lower expenses as sales fell. The City of Industry clothing retailer said its profit increased to $11.9 million, or 27 cents a share, from $8.9 million, or 20 cents, a year earlier. Analysts had expected earnings of 26 cents, according to Reuters. The company, which also operates the Torrid plus-size chain for young women, said sales fell 8% to $220.7 million.

Beleaguered teen retailer Hot Topic Inc. announced the resignation of Chief Executive Betsy McLaughlin amid continuing weak sales and earnings. Board member Lisa Harper, a former CEO of children's retailer Gymboree Corp., is to take the helm of the City of Industry-based company, which operates 653 Hot Topic stores and 151 Torrid stores. McLaughlin, who became CEO in 2003, will stay three months to assist the transition, the company said Monday in a statement. Hot Topic has posted year-over-year revenue declines for seven straight quarters.

Dinner with Phil Jackson here, a huge mistake for the big guy because I know now he's capable of giving more than one-word answers. It's Friday night at a highly recommended Mexican restaurant, 16 regular-season games remaining in the career of the greatest all-time NBA coach, and we're talking Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant . It begins with a question that has nothing to do with either superstar: Is there a chance he might regret...