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Despite being more famous than any other judge at the criminal courthouse in downtown Los Angeles, Lance Ito's courtroom is the hardest to find. Each courtroom is adorned with a placard at the door naming its presiding judge. But Ito's placard holder stays woefully empty. Since the judge became a household name more than a decade ago presiding over the O.J. Simpson murder trial, his placard has been stolen time and again. He's tried replacing it, he's tried gluing it, but the darn thing just keeps disappearing.

The misbegotten "Virginia" wants to be many things: small-town satire, coming-of-age story, teen romance, portrait of an eccentric and damaged soul, with dabs of crime caper and road trip for good measure. Nothing adds up, though, in this directorial effort from screenwriter Dustin Lance Black ("Milk"). Set among the hangdog hicks and arcade attractions of a fictional Southern beach town, the loosely autobiographical movie aims for roller-coaster passion but only flatlines. In a committed performance that can't overcome the material's shortcomings, Jennifer Connelly plays the title character, an unreliable bottle blond with a history of schizophrenia who's meant to have the poignancy of Blanche DuBois.

To protect jurors from intense media coverage of the O.J. Simpson double murder trial, prosecutors Friday asked Judge Lance A. Ito to sequester jury members from the time they are selected until their discharge, meaning they could be kept from their families and jobs for months.

It was September 2010 and anticipation for Dustin Lance Black's directorial debut at the Toronto International Film Festival was running high. A year earlier, the "Milk" screenwriter had made a splash at the Oscars with his moving acceptance speech touching on the difficulty of growing up gay, transforming him into a hero for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. Now, his Southern-set film, "What's Wrong With Virginia" - starring Jennifer Connelly and Ed Harris - was unspooling in Toronto's special presentation section alongside the works of Danny Boyle, John Sayles and Clint Eastwood.

ROUND 1: Referee Tony Weeks gave final instructions, and the fight's underway. Mayweather throws a left hook. Mayweather jabs. Cotto keeps his head down, leading with his left. They're separated twice. Cotto tries a hard right, Mayweather dodges. It happens again. Mayweather sneaks a left to the body. Judges: Robert Hoyle, 10-9 Mayweather; Patricia Morse Jarman, 10-9 Mayweather; Dave Moretti, 10-9 Mayweather. ROUND 2: Cotto picks up Mayweather and leans him to ropes.

Reporting from Sacramento -- The proposal is simple: Raise taxes on cigarettes to pay for cancer research. The push for it is quintessentially Californian, melding celebrity salesmanship and the whims of state voters, who have increasingly been called on to decide key policy questions. The pitchman for Proposition 29, which will appear on the June ballot, is seven-time Tour de France champion and cancer survivor Lance Armstrong, who is asking voters to increase taxes on a pack of cigarettes by $1. On Wednesday, he announced a $1.5 million contribution from his Texas-based foundation to the Yes on 29 campaign.

It was no short story, but a long beat-down. Manny Pacquiao's trainer Freddie Roach had speculated that an early Pacquiao onslaught and Cotto's recent history of first-round trouble made the bet of a first-round KO one of Saturday night's best Vegas gambles. Cotto had other plans, obviously, and the quality of the Puerto Rican's recovery from his only loss, an ugly beating by the heavy hands of since-tainted Antonio Margarito inside this same MGM Grand Garden Arena in July 2008, was about to be severely tested against the 2008 fighter of the year who needed only two rounds to smash his last foe, Ricky Hatton, in May. The showdown between the Filipino idol and the pride of Puerto Rico made for a festive prelude for the sellout crowd of 16,200, with vocal throngs saluting their favorites as promoter Top Rank unveiled an Ultimate Fighting-like video montage before the ring walks -- Pacquiao to "Eye of the Tiger," and Cotto to Kanye West's "Stronger."

I was in a Sunset Boulevard restaurant the other day when I heard an argument at the bar on the other end of the room. I was not personally at the bar because I do not spend my lunch hours drinking anymore. My attention was focused there due to the couple engaged in debate. I had noticed them in the first place because they were the epitome of what a quasi-hip young L.A. couple ought to be, emerging from a clothing ad in Buzz or Vanity Fair, a Ken and Barbie for the '90s.

On Thursday, Oct. 8, 1964, the day the police decided my mother killed my father, I woke up late, the kind of late that snaps you out of your favorite dream, the one where you're wrapped in the arms of your favorite TV hunk--mine was Dr. Kildare--and he's just about to . . . when bang your unconscious tells you the sun is out, the lights are on all over the house and you're going to be late for school because nobody got you out of bed. We were a family of five. I was 14 and the oldest.

The California Supreme Court on Thursday salvaged thousands of tough criminal sentences that had been put in question by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that the state's sentencing law was unconstitutional. Although the state high court decided that hundreds, perhaps thousands, of inmates may have their sentences reconsidered, it also said trial courts were free to uphold them under a new, stopgap sentencing law passed in March to resolve the constitutional flaws.

ROUND 1: Referee Tony Weeks gave final instructions, and the fight's underway. Mayweather throws a left hook. Mayweather jabs. Cotto keeps his head down, leading with his left. They're separated twice. Cotto tries a hard right, Mayweather dodges. It happens again. Mayweather sneaks a left to the body. Judges: Robert Hoyle, 10-9 Mayweather; Patricia Morse Jarman, 10-9 Mayweather; Dave Moretti, 10-9 Mayweather. ROUND 2: Cotto picks up Mayweather and leans him to ropes.

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.

Reporting from Sacramento -- The proposal is simple: Raise taxes on cigarettes to pay for cancer research. The push for it is quintessentially Californian, melding celebrity salesmanship and the whims of state voters, who have increasingly been called on to decide key policy questions. The pitchman for Proposition 29, which will appear on the June ballot, is seven-time Tour de France champion and cancer survivor Lance Armstrong, who is asking voters to increase taxes on a pack of cigarettes by $1. On Wednesday, he announced a $1.5 million contribution from his Texas-based foundation to the Yes on 29 campaign.

Federal prosecutors announced Friday that they have closed a two-year inquiry without filing criminal charges in a case that sources said related to doping allegations involving seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong and his cycling team. Although the grand jury investigation was confidential, details about various former teammates and associates who were subpoenaed to testify about alleged use of banned substances were widely reported in the media. Armstrong's team received sponsorship from the U.S. Postal Service.

Just after graduating from San Ramon Valley High School, Joshua D. Corral joined the Marine Corps, leaving behind his close-knit Bay Area hometown of Danville. A little more than a year later, he was brought back home to a hero's welcome, with more than 3,000 of his neighbors somberly saluting as a motorcade bearing his casket proceeded down flag-draped streets. His death Nov. 18 was announced at his old school's Friday night football game. In text messages, emails and hushed hallway conversations, word had already spread: The fun-loving student everyone knew as "Chachi" had been killed in combat in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province, on the Pakistani border.

Writing doesn't happen just like that. Except when it does. Either way, writers have to be prepared for all eventualities, and that means having the right space, the right instruments and the right mind-set to get down to business. Here, we speak with four original screenplay contenders about where their latest script idea came from, and how they first create their space (whether an office, a noisy coffeehouse or an RV) before they create that next prize-bait screenplay. Thomas McCarthy ("Win Win")

As firefighters battled flames and evacuated northeastern San Diego County in October, a group of Cedar fire survivors did what they wished someone had done for them five years ago. They headed out on fire watch. David Kassel, 53, the group's founder, drove over to Billi-Jo Swanson's horse ranch with his fire hose to help wet down brush. Steven Murray, 54, rode his motorcycle above San Vicente Dam to investigate reports of flames climbing the hill.

It started as a tweet from one of the world's greatest cyclists: "Hey LA -- get out of your cars and get on your bikes. Time to ride. 7:30 tomorrow am. Griffith Park, LA Zoo parking lot. See you there." The Twitter message from Lance Armstrong alerting L.A. to the pickup bike ride struck a chord with hard-core and amateur cyclists alike. Richard Ponce, 19, of Silver Lake was one of those who responded, calling friends to join. "I've been following Lance Armstrong, and he's always been a hero to me," Ponce said Thursday, perched atop his yellow bicycle in the zoo's parking lot. "He comes to L.A., brings everybody together."

"8," the work-in-progress play by screenwriter Dustin Lance Black that dramatizes the legal battle over Proposition 8, will make its Los Angeles debut March 3 in a staged reading directed by Rob Reiner. The play will be performed for one night only at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre. The production will serve as a fundraiser for the American Foundation for Equal Rights. Black and Reiner are founding board members of the advocacy organization, which has fought to overturn the controversial ballot initiative that outlawed same-sex marriage in California.