King

First of three parts Tiffany Lee wanted a car. She was weary of the two-hour bus ride to her job at a UCLA Health System clinic. She hated having to ask friends to drive her 7-year-old son to his asthma treatments. But as a single mother with three children, bad credit and a $27,000-a-year salary, she couldn't find a bank or dealership willing to give her a loan. Then a friend steered her to Repossess Auto Sales in Hawthorne. Another buyer might have balked at the deal she was offered.

The Kings were five points out of a playoff spot and stood a wobbly 11th in the Western Conference on Dec. 22, the day Darryl Sutter made his debut as their coach. The team he took over was flailing. General Manager Dean Lombardi thought he had acquired the final pieces for a contender six months earlier when he traded for center Mike Richards and signed free-agent winger Simon Gagne, but the offense was sputtering. Coach Terry Murray's defense-oriented foundation had become the team's ceiling, leaving no room for skill or creativity.

In the remote northeastern corner of Guatemala, archaeologists have found what appears to be the 9th century workplace of a city scribe, an unusual dwelling adorned with magnificent pictures of the king and other royals and the oldest known Maya calendar. This year has been particularly controversial among some cultists because of the belief that the Maya calendar predicts a major cataclysm - perhaps the end of the world - on Dec. 21, 2012. Archaeologists know that is not true, but the new find, written on the plaster equivalent of a modern scientist's whiteboard, strongly reinforces the idea that the Maya calendar projects thousands of years into the future.

For Willie Mitchell , it has been nine years since he just missed out on the chance to play in the Stanley Cup Final, and two years since his hockey-playing future was in serious doubt because of a lingering concussion. So what's another week of waiting for the Cup puck to drop? That may seem like an interminable amount of time for some of his younger Kings teammates, but not for the 35-year-old defenseman. Rest is embraced, not rejected, by the team's "over-35 crowd," Mitchell said.

A King of Infinite Space A Novel Tyler Dilts AmazonEncore: 262 pp., $14.95 paper Tyler Dilts doesn't waste any time establishing the intentions of his debut mystery, "A King of Infinite Space. " First, there's that title, drawn from "Hamlet": "O God, I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams. " Then, there's his narrator, a Long Beach police detective named Danny Beckett, as steeped in the absurdities of existence as the playwright for whom, presumably, he is named.

'American Masters: Johnny Carson: King of Late Night' Where: KOCE When: 9 p.m. Monday Rating: TV-PG (may be unsuitable for young children)

If you are looking for a cinematic way to celebrate Easter Sunday, why not catch a big-screen presentation of 1927's silent "The King of Kings"? H.B. Warner plays the title role, but the real star is director Cecil B. DeMille, the king of biblical epics. Picked as the best film about Jesus in a Time magazine poll, "The King of Kings" is notable for its early Technicolor resurrection scene. As the ads said, "Supreme in Theme, Gigantic in Execution." Live musical accompaniment by the Cabeza de Vaca Arcestra.

In the end, they brought Michael Jackson to the one place where his life always made sense -- beneath a spotlight and in front of his adoring fans. The superstar, in a gleaming gold coffin, was celebrated in a Staples Center memorial service that was beamed around the world and, like the icon himself, strove mightily to be all things to all people.

Wearing one glove, Michael Jackson reached into the pop culture zeitgeist and influenced an entire generation, giving pieces as simple as military badges and a fedora an imprint that, for a time, was as powerful as his music. At the height of his career in the mid-1980s, he was a fresh representation of how a male pop singer could look, with his perfectly chiseled face, long curls, white T-shirt, black pegged pants, white ankle socks and black loafers.

Cirque du Soleil's tribute to the king of pop, " Michael Jackson: The Immortal World Tour," fuses visuals, dance and music to immerse audiences in the late pop star's creative inspirations. The show presents a fantasy-tinged take on the source of the performer's creativity as well as his love of music, dance, fairy tale and nature. Staples Center, 1111 S. Figueroa St., L.A. 8 p.m. Fri.-Sat., 4 p.m. Sun. $50-$175. staplescenter.com

  Anyone out there have some cheese they can give Shane Doan? He needs it to go with his whine. In the locker room after the Phoenix Coyotes' 4-3 overtime loss to the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday, a loss that eliminated the Coyotes from the playoffs, Doan called out the refs for their penalty decisions over the last three games of the series. "I know they always try their best and I know they are going to make mistakes," Doan said.

PHOENIX — As hockey fever grips Los Angeles, Dodgers President Stan Kasten said he plans to explore whether the Kings could play in an NHL Winter Classic game at Dodger Stadium. "Facility-wise, we could certainly handle it," Kasten said. The NHL has yet to award its New Year's Day showcase to a warm-weather city. The Dodgers could offer baseball's largest stadium and the iconic backdrop of the San Gabriel Mountains. Kasten, former president of the NHL Atlanta Thrashers, said technology would allow ice to remain playable for an outdoor hockey game at Dodger Stadium but said he was unsure if the league would be interested.

Hint No. 1 that this was something big. Text messages. "It's one of those signs you've done something unusual," he said. Hint No. 2 that this was something extra big. An outpouring of fan support, post-midnight, adjacent to LAX after the Kings' flight had landed. "It was like driving down a hallway lined with human flesh," he said. "You couldn't see anything except people screaming and Kings jerseys. It was a feeling that not anyone will forget ever, I think on the Kings team.

The voice on the phone was animated, a Kings fan talking about the team's run to the Stanley Cup Final with the passion typical of their loyal, long-suffering audience. "It's been unreal what they've done and what they've accomplished so far," Wayne Gretzky said Wednesday. "It's been unreal for the organization and it's been great for hockey in California and L.A. We live in L.A., so we're seeing it first-hand how fans are rallying around the Kings and hoping that they bring home the Stanley Cup. "It's been fun to watch.

The MapMyFitness universe wants users to take a hike and give its new design and functionality a workout. And maybe you'll get to be king of the hill. The hiking, biking, fitness, running and walking tracking site and community is beta testing three new features: updated routes, personal challenges and courses. They let you check up on details around your run, walk or ride, check in on well-trod paths and check out how you're doing on your path to fitness.

GLENDALE, Ariz.--Greetings from Glendale, where it’s 97 degrees and expected to climb as the day goes on. Advice from locals if you’re visiting is to stay hydrated, so be careful. The Kings, who will have a second chance Tuesday night to win the Western Conference title and clinch a berth in the Stanley Cup finals, had a full morning skate at Jobing.com Arena. A few of their Manchester callups joined the session.

The kernel of Betsy Carter's third novel, "The Puzzle King," is a powerful bit of family lore that takes up no more than a paragraph of her 2002 memoir, "Nothing to Fall Back On": the story of the time, in 1936, that her mother's German-born American aunt, Flora, traveled back to her native country to get dozens of her relatives out. The gift she brought for the American consul was a copy of that year's hottest book in the States, "Gone With the...

Imagine inner tubing down a water slide only to realize you've been riding along the back of a hissing 250-foot-long snake and are about to plunge into the gaping mouth of the fang-bearing and venom-spewing King Cobra. The new racing slide debuting in early July at Six Flags Great Adventure's Hurricane Harbor in New Jersey sounds more like a terrifying psychotic nightmare than a fun-filled day at the water park. PHOTOS: King Cobra water slide at Six Flags Great Adventure With King Cobra installations already in place in Turkey and Russia, the new Hurricane Harbor water park attraction marks the United States debut of the snake-themed water slide.

Special-teams play is considered crucial to playoff success, but the Boston Bruins won the Stanley Cup a year ago with a so-so power play and the Kings reached the Western Conference finals this spring without getting significant production with a man advantage. The Kings also won their first three games against the Phoenix Coyotes despite scoring only two power-play goals, each generated during a two-man edge in Game 2. But their power play's failings were magnified Sunday when they had a chance to advance to the Stanley Cup finals but were stymied six times in a 2-0 loss that sent the series back to Jobing.com Arena in Glendale, Ariz., on Tuesday.