Jaime

Jaime Escalante, the charismatic former East Los Angeles high school teacher who taught the nation that inner-city students could master subjects as demanding as calculus, died Tuesday. He was 79. The subject of the 1988 film "Stand and Deliver," Escalante died at his son's home in Roseville, Calif., said actor Edward James Olmos, who portrayed the teacher in the film. Escalante had bladder cancer. "Jaime didn't just teach math. Like all great teachers, he changed lives," Olmos said earlier this month when he organized an appeal for funds to help pay Escalante's mounting medical bills.

PHOENIX - A federal judge sentenced a Phoenix man Wednesday to nearly five years in prison for purchasing firearms for a Mexican drug cartel, triggering a chain of events that included the death of an elite Border Patrol agent and the unraveling of the failed federal gun-tracking operation called Fast and Furious. Jaime Avila Jr., 25, was a "straw purchaser" of the firearms for the cartel, and his purchases included two rifles found at the scene of the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian A. Terry, who was killed two years ago this week in the desert south of Tucson.

Garfield High will pay tribute to prominent former math teacher Jaime Escalante on Thursday at the East L.A. campus with a gathering of the school's ROTC, leadership students, band and drill team, administrators, staff and current and former students. The memorial service for Escalante, who died Tuesday at age 79, is planned from 7 to 7:20 a.m. at 5101 E. 6th St.

Actress Jaime King plays feisty Lemon Breeland on the CW's hit show "Hart of Dixie. " It's all ruffles, debutante ball gowns and derby hats in Blue Bell, the fictional town where Breeland lives, but in real life, King is more of a fashion risk-taker than a Southern belle. From her start as a teen model, King has proved to be a true fashion chameleon, able to wear a variety of looks and appear polished and on trend. Give the girl a paper bag and she can find a way to rock it. King mixed a flowy floral dress with a motorcycle jacket at the recent Samsung Galaxy Note II launch, chose an embellished Giambattista Valli peplum outfit for the CFDA Vogue Fashion Show and looked svelte in a white Calvin Klein collection dress at the Elle Women in Hollywood event.  At the recent launch of Rachel Zoe's "Major Must Haves" collection for  Jockey at Sunset Tower, King gave different shades of purple a whirl in a Christian Dior fall 2012 eggplant top and a skirt with sheer panels.

There was a time in East Los Angeles when el maestro's el maestro's gruff voice bounced off his classroom walls. He roamed the aisles, he juggled oranges, he dressed in costumes, he punched the air; he called you names, he called your mom, he kicked you out, he lured you in; he danced, he boxed, he screamed, he whispered. He would do anything to get your attention. " Ganas ," he would say. "That's all you need. The desire to learn." Nearly three decades later, Jaime Escalante finds himself far from Garfield High School in East Los Angeles, the place that made him internationally famous for turning a generation of low-income students into calculus whizzes.

The importance of Latinos in next week's mayoral election was highlighted again Wednesday as a new round of dueling attacks ads emerged seeking to undermine both candidates' appeal to Spanish-speaking voters. In one spot appearing on Spanish-language television channels, longtime Democrat Wendy Greuel is criticized for having been registered as a Republican in the early 1990s during the era of former Gov. Pete Wilson - a figure reviled by many Latinos for his sponsorship of a ballot measure to deny immigrants in the country illegally certain government benefits.

MADRID - Ever had such a great vacation abroad that you wished you could overstay your tourist visa and settle there for good? Spain is weighing a plan that would let you do just that - for a price. The Spanish government is considering offering residency to foreigners who buy property worth about $200,000 or more. With discounts as deep as 50% along the Mediterranean, a 1,100-square-foot three-bedroom beachfront apartment in Alicante goes for $130,000. Or how about a 1,200-square-foot four-bedroom with a view of Barcelona's skyline for $175,000?

On the very first page of "The Kid," we learn Precious has died, leaving behind an orphan 9-year-old son, Abdul. Just like that, Sapphire, whose novel "Push" was adapted into one of 2009's most acclaimed films, "Precious," moves aside her troubled and inspiring creation so that this can be Abdul's story. Told from his point of view, it is a harrowing, sometimes bewildering tale. He didn't fully grasp the severity of his mother's AIDS; he doesn't understand that he no longer has a home.

The U.S. government has agreed to pay $880,000 to the estate of Roxanna Brown, the 62-year-old Southeast Asia scholar who died in federal custody last year. Brown was arrested in May 2008 amid a federal investigation into donations of allegedly looted Thai antiquities to four Southern California museums. Four days later, while awaiting a court hearing, Brown suffered a perforated ulcer and died in her cell at a federal detention center in Seattle.

Average employee pay at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power rose 15% over the last five years, despite an economic slump that ravaged the city's budget, records released Tuesday show. DWP workers received significantly more generous pay increases than other city workers, who received an average raise of 9% over the same period. The median household income for Los Angeles residents - the public utility's customers - fell over roughly the same period, from $48,882 in 2008 to $46,148 in 2011, the latest year for which U.S. census numbers are available.

The St. Louis Cardinals on Tuesday removed Jaime Garcia from their division series roster, a day after he lasted only two innings in his Game 2 start against the Washington Nationals because of an ailing shoulder. An MRI exam revealed that the left-hander has a strained rotator cuff and inflammation in his throwing shoulder. He'll be replaced by rookie right-hander Shelby Miller. Garcia's health was a concern after he sat out two months because of shoulder fatigue, but he had pitched well since returning in mid-August and won his last three regular-season starts.

“Artifacts,” Jaime Scholnick's two-gallery show at CB1 Gallery, is a double-barreled doozy that treats the eye to a cornucopia of visual thrills while giving the mind even more to mull over. Pleasure and pragmatism intermingle as Scholnick brings anger and playfulness into a loaded mixture of style and substance, art and politics, fun and loathing. The first gallery features fantastic sculptural reliefs, both wall-mounted and freestanding. Each is made of chunks of polystyrene packing material that Scholnick has scavenged from downtown dumpsters and covered with a rainbow of Day-Glo colors.

Artist Jaime Scholnick has taken a shine to tweaking the GOP -- literally. As part of her new show, “Artifacts” -- which just opened at downtown's CB1 gallery -- she's showing a series of bright, sparkly portraits of Bush administration figures: George W., Condoleezza Rice and Donald Rumsfeld among them. Scholnick created the caricatures, which are made of jewel-toned glitter and acrylic paint, at the end of 2007. It was the artist's way of venting her frustration with the White House at the time.

Vin Scully is not the only beloved Dodgers Hall of Fame announcer planning on returning next season. The Dodgers announced Friday that Jaime Jarrin would be back for a 55th season next year as the team's lead Spanish-language broadcaster. Jarrin agreed to a three-year contract extension. Jarrin is the second-longest tenured broadcaster in Major League Baseball, trailing only Scully, who announced Sunday he would return next year for his 64th consecutive season. A native of Ecuador, Jarrin began broadcasting Dodgers games in 1959, the year the Dodgers won their first World Series in Los Angeles.

Though their names may not be as well-known to many Southern California diners, Jaime Martin del Campo and Ramiro Arvizu are among the biggest stars in the Mexican cooking world. They're the chefs and owners of the beloved Bell landmark La Casita Mexicana , which was selected as one of the best Mexican restaurants in L.A. by Los Angeles Times Magazine in 2003 and 2004. But beyond that, Del Campo and Arvizu are kings of Spanish-language media, having done countless cooking shows on Univision and Telemundo.

Christian Jaimes has read precisely 363 books. He exclaims the figure with dead-serious fervor, rocking back and forth in a blue child-size library chair at the Toberman Neighborhood Center in San Pedro. At summer day camp, the 9-year-old can flip through "The Adventures of Captain Underpants," his favorite series, as much as he wants — as long as he finishes his math homework first. Today, it's a three-digit multiplication worksheet. "After I'm done with my work I always, always like to read," says Christian, chocolate brown eyes wide.

Five years ago, when she was 13, Tina Roa joined a gang and began covering her body with gang tattoos. Now the Fillmore teenager has two kids, is going to beauty school and has left gangs behind. But until Wednesday, when she stopped by the Free Gang Tattoo Clinic, the 10 tattoos followed her everywhere she went. "I want to change my life," Roa said moments after many of her tattoos were burned off with a laser. "I want to get away from all the violence."

A former gang member died Thursday morning in what police called a gang-related shooting--making 1998 the second year in a row that Santa Paula has reported Ventura County's first homicide of the year. As officers spent New Year's Day searching for suspects, community leaders pointed to the killing as further evidence that the city needs to deal with its gang problems. Louie Fonseca, 27, was found at 1:48 a.m. bleeding in the street in the 100 block of Marin Road.

Jaime and Jorge Jarrin spent manyFather's Dayweekends apart, with Hall of Fame Spanish-language Dodgers broadcaster Jaime working games while son Jorge grew up and later worked as KABC's helicopter traffic reporter, "Captain Jorge. " Now they're together, Jaime enriching his legacy as the nation's first daily Spanish-language radio play-by-play man by remaining on Dodgers radio broadcasts, and Jorge taking over with color commentator Manny Mota on Fox Deportes' first-year television coverage of 50 of the team's games.

The U.S. entered the CONCACAF Olympic qualifying tournament with high expectations. But it's going home empty-handed after Jaime Alas' goal in stoppage time lifted El Salvador to a 3-3 tie in the final game of group play Monday in Nashville, ending the Americans' Olympic soccer dreams. The U.S. was about a minute shy of the victory it needed to advance to the tournament semifinals as the winner of its group when Alas charged up the center of the American defense and uncorked a blast from 25 yards out that bounced once before eluding backup U.S. keeper Sean Johnson, who got a hand on the shot but couldn't stop it. That not only knocked the U.S. out of the tournament, but also it changed El Salvador's fortunes, with the Central Americans leaping from elimination to the top of the Group A standings ahead of Canada, which tied Cuba, 1-1, in Monday's first game and advances as the group runner-up.