Judges

Trial judges are, on the books, elected officials, and even the vast majority of those whose names never appear on a ballot are subject to election challenge every six years. Should voters not call them to account for their performance, as they do with any other politician, on election day? Should they not encourage opponents to challenge incumbent judges? Or are judges different from members of Congress or city councils? Judges are most definitely different. The last thing we want or need in California is trial judges who sit on the bench with one eye on justice and the other on how any particular ruling is going to play with the public.

Respiratory therapists, nursing aides, surgical technicians and other patient care workers plan to stage a walkout starting Tuesday morning at five University of California medical centers. More than 12,000 workers from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees are expected to participate in the two-day strike over staffing, pay and pension reform, union officials said. An additional 3,400 workers from the University Professional and Technical Employees union plan a one-day sympathy strike.

NEW YORK - The next wave of union protesters isn't blue collar. It's lawyers, paralegals, secretaries, helicopter pilots, judges, insurance agents and podiatrists. These white-collar workers are not exactly the picture of the labor movement, but they are becoming a more essential part of it as they turn to unions for help in a tough economy as bosses try to squeeze out more profits. "Employers have been downsizing, asking employees to take on larger roles, making them work more hours," said Nicole Korkolis, spokeswoman for the Office and Professional Employees International Union.

Gov. Jerry Brown on Tuesday appointed 13 judges to Superior Court seats, including four posts in Los Angeles County. All but one of the appointees are Democrats. Brown filled the Los Angeles County Superior Court vacancies with Julie Fox Blackshaw, deputy counsel to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa; H. Jay Ford, currently a commissioner in the county court; Gregorio Roman, a deputy public defender; and private-practice lawyer Douglas Stern of Rancho Palos Verdes. Blackshaw was a federal court special master from 2002 to 2010, and before that served as legal counsel for a Los Angeles police review commission.

Christine Ha said she wanted to be taken seriously on "MasterChef. " As the show's only sight-impaired competitor -- and, indeed, the one and only blind competitor in the history of reality TV cooking shows -- she didn't want to be a fluke, or an oddity, or a competitor who would be pitied for her "handicap. " But she did want to win. And win she did. But did she deserve it? VIDEO: Fall TV Preview Christine scored the Season 3 title of best home cook in America, as well as a $250,000 grand prize and a cookbook over Josh Marks in a hard-fought battle.

Car dealers have found a new way to profit from people with money trouble: leasing them hand-me-down vehicles. The deals are pitched to customers as the cheapest way to drive a used car off the lot, with the added benefit of an easy escape for those who can't keep up with the payments. Few customers are told about the advantages on the other side of the trade. Leases can allow dealerships to sidestep interest rate caps, and there are fewer financial disclosures rules than with a conventional car loan.

SACRAMENTO - A panel of federal judges Thursday threatened to hold Gov. Jerry Brown and other state officials in contempt of court if they do not quickly produce a plan to remove thousands of convicts from California's packed prisons. In a blistering 71-page ruling, the jurists rejected Brown's bid to end restrictions they imposed on crowding in the lockups. The state cannot maintain inmate numbers that violate orders intended to eliminate dangerous conditions behind bars, they said.

Former Israeli President Moshe Katsav was sentenced Tuesday to seven years in prison for rape, sexual harassment and obstruction of justice, capping an emotionally charged trial that many Israelis viewed as a national embarrassment. The Tel Aviv panel of judges who found Katsav guilty in December said their seven-year sentence was intended to show that no one is above the law in Israel and that rape is a serious crime. "The defendant is a symbol," Judge George Karra said as he read the sentence.

It's turkey season in Mississippi, and Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was tramping through the countryside here this month in pursuit of the big birds. His hunting partners, as usual, included Charles W. Pickering Sr., the federal judge who President Bush recently elevated to the U.S. court of appeals; and his son, Rep. Charles W. "Chip" Pickering, a four-term Republican member of Congress. For turkey hunters, this country is unrivaled.

After six weeks of sweat and tears, mishaps and triumphs in the kitchen, Dean McDermott was announced the winner of "Rachael vs. Guy: Celebrity Cook-off," on Sunday night's finale episode. Woo hoo, "Daddy D!" He was clearly the favorite to win from the start, having been the only one with any culinary know-how. Let's take a look at how he beat fellow competitor Carnie Wilson in the finale. It was home cook Wilson on one side of the kitchen and budding chef McDermott in the other.

After fatally shooting his unwanted houseguest in the head, Robert Charles Redd stuffed the man's body into a recycling bin and wheeled it into a room of his Pico Rivera home. When the stench of death grew too overpowering a couple of days later, Redd wheeled the bin out into the backyard and tipped Joseph Rubalcaba's corpse into a shallow grave that he topped with plants. Last month, a Norwalk jury convicted Redd, 53, of second-degree murder. But in an unusual move, a judge recently reduced Redd's conviction to voluntary manslaughter, finding that Redd feared for his life when he fired the fatal shot.

TUCSON - Young people granted immigration relief and work permits under a new Obama administration program still won't be able to obtain driver's licenses in Arizona, a federal judge has ruled. Although the decision is a win for Republican Gov. Jan Brewer, who issued the executive order denying driver's licenses to this particular group, it's just the first battle in a case that will probably be argued on constitutional grounds. U.S. District Judge David G. Campbell on Thursday turned down a request for a preliminary injunction blocking Brewer's order but stated that the plaintiffs - a contingent of immigrant rights groups - would probably prevail on their claim that the governor's order violates guarantees of equal protection under the U.S. Constitution.

On May 24 at China's Hong Kong Convention Center an outfit called Intelligence Squared will host a formal debate during the debut of the newest spinoff of the Art Basel franchise of international art fairs. The motion under consideration will be: "The Market Is the Best Judge of Art's Quality. " Honest. That's the topic for debate. I figure the program harbors two, maybe three minutes of chat -- tops. The panel is a retread of a 2011 program held at London's Saatchi Gallery.

San Jose Sharks forward Raffi Torres was suspended for the remainder of his team's Western Conference semifinal playoff series against the Kings - a ban of up to six games - for what the NHL judged was an illegal hit to the head of Kings center Jarret Stoll on Tuesday. The decision was announced Thursday by Brendan Shanahan, the league's director of player safety, after a hearing in New York that was attended by Torres. Stoll, one of the Kings' primary penalty-killing forwards and a valued third-line center, probably sustained a concussion from the hit, which occurred near the end of the second period of the Kings' 2-0 victory in the series opener.

The federal judge who oversaw a dramatic, forced transformation of the Los Angeles Police Department has freed the department from the final vestiges of federal oversight. In a brief, three-line order Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Gary Feess formally lifted the binding agreement the U.S. Department of Justice imposed on the LAPD in 2001, which spelled out dozens of major reforms the police agency had to implement and frequent audits it was required to undergo by a monitor who reported to Feess.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory on Tuesday said it planned to appeal a National Labor Relations Board judge's order to rescind disciplinary actions against five engineers and scientists. "Caltech respectfully disagrees with the decision and intends to appeal," JPL spokeswoman Veronica McGregor said in a brief statement. Administrative Law Judge William G. Kocol had ordered JPL, which is operated by the California Institute of Technology for NASA, to remove disciplinary letters from the employee files of the five.

In a high-profile case of a retired Navy officer convicted of killing the neighborhood bully, a judge reduced the conviction Thursday from murder to manslaughter and gave the killer a lighter sentence than prosecutors and the victim's family had sought. Superior Court Judge William Mudd said the victim, John Harper Jr.

By all accounts, Michael B. Mukasey is not someone who is easily intimidated. As a federal judge, he stared down convicted terrorists. He presided over a fiercely independent Manhattan federal court nicknamed the "Sovereign District of New York." He is little interested in politics or politicians. And if confirmed as attorney general, his independent streak could pose problems for President Bush.

A National Labor Relations Board judge has ordered NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to rescind disciplinary actions against five scientists who shared emails at work about a Supreme Court decision on background security checks for JPL employees. Administrative Law Judge William G. Kocol ordered JPL to purge disciplinary letters related to the case from the employee files of Dennis Byrnes, Scott Maxwell, Larry D'Addario, Robert Nelson and William Bruce Banerdt. The five were accused of violating rules against unsolicited spam and bulk email.

The TV career of Edgar Allan Jones Jr. began with a phone call in early 1958 from a producer who needed to cast someone knowledgeable about the law. Although Jones taught law full time at UCLA, he was nervous at the prospect of auditioning: His only acting experience had been a walk-on part in a high school production of "Julius Caesar. " Several professional actors also vied for the job, but the role went to the amateur. Jones was cast as the judge on KABC-TV's "Traffic Court," one of the medium's earliest nonfiction courtroom shows.