Leaving

“Downton Abbey" is going to look quite different when it returns for a fourth season. On Friday Siobhan Finneran -- better known to fans as O'Brien, Lady Grantham's constantly scheming, severely coiffed maid -- confirmed that she is leaving the beloved costume drama. Finneran follows co-stars Dan Stevens and Jessica Brown Findlay out the door, though it seems likely her character will do so under less tragic circumstances than theirs: In the Season 3 finale, O'Brien was jockeying hard for a new job that would allow her to see more of the world.

LONDON - Prime Minister David Cameron moved Monday to beat back a brewing rebellion within his Conservative Party over Britain's membership in the European Union, rejecting demands for a speedy public vote on exiting the trading bloc but insisting that he would offer such a referendum by the end of 2017. As he met with President Obama in Washington - where Cameron lobbied for a U.S.-EU free-trade pact - the British leader found himself on the defensive at home against members of his party who want their country to withdraw from the 27-nation EU as soon as possible.

Michele and Russell Poland's credit was shot, but they managed to buy their suburban dream home anyway. After a business bankruptcy and a home foreclosure, they turned to a rare option in this era of tightfisted banking - a subprime loan. The Polands paid nearly $10,000 in upfront fees for the privilege of securing a mortgage at 10.9% interest. And they had to raid their retirement account for a 35% down payment. Most borrowers would balk at such stiff terms. But with prices rising, the Polands wanted to snag a four-bedroom home in Temecula near top-rated schools for their 5-year-old son. By later this year, they figure, they'll be able to refinance into a standard loan.

The Legislature is poised to offer health insurance to millions of additional low-income Californians, with the federal government covering much of the cost. The expansion would be a boon to counties, which collectively spend billions of dollars caring for the indigent uninsured. One sticking point, though, is what to do with the more than $4 billion in sales taxes and vehicle license fees the state has been sending back to counties every year to help pay for public health programs - and that the Brown administration wants to reclaim.

Two-fifths of the elderly spend more than they earn, often forcing them to dip into savings to pay bills, according to a new study. Among those 65 and older, 40% shell out more on housing, medical care and other costs than they take in from Social Security, pensions and other sources, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute. An additional 14.3% of that age group spend more than 75% of their incomes on regular expenses, leaving little cushion for unexpected financial setbacks, the study showed.

Veteran "KTLA 5 Morning News" anchor Michaela Pereira will be leaving the station at the end of May to join CNN's new morning show in New York. Pereira will be the news anchor for the show, which will be hosted by Chris Cuomo and Kate Bolduan. The announcement was made jointly by KTLA and President of CNN Worldwide Jeff Zucker, who is aggressively shaking up the struggling network's lineup and personalities. "I've been looking forward to this announcement since I first joined CNN," Zucker said in a statement.

Casey Kasem, who gained a national radio audience after "American Top 40" launched in 1970, and his wife, Jean, are listing their Westside estate for sale at $42 million. With 12,000 square feet of living space, seven bedrooms and nine bathrooms, the home has been the site of intimate interviews and sleepovers for as many as 20 youngsters a night. The yard has served as the site of elaborate celebrity-studded gatherings and paintball battles. The syndicated radio host bought the property for Jean Kasem in 1989 as a gift.

Few rites of passage are more fraught with collective angst than the kids leaving home. Parents stare at empty bedrooms and brood over noiseless dinners. Young people discover that freedom brings unwanted responsibilities and challenges they may not be ready to handle. Relationships change. No blueprint sets forth how to break away or even when, since some children fly the nest at 18, some bolt in their 20s, and some never summon the gumption — or these days have the money or job — to go at all. "Nobody is correctly equipped to manage what's happening," noted Los Angeles-based author and psychotherapist Stacy Kaiser.

My wife and I just returned from a vacation to the Fiji Islands, Australia, New Zealand and Tahiti. We had to pay a tax before leaving their countries: $5 per person before leaving Fiji, $20 per person before leaving Australia and $2 per person before leaving New Zealand. If that is their law there was nothing we could do about it. However, I feel that our country is missing the boat. I don't know how many visitors come to the United States yearly but I wouldn't be far from wrong if I guessed that millions of visitors come to this country every year.

Dear Amy: Recently I reconnected with a woman I knew more than 25 years ago. We e-mailed, texted and spoke by phone. A few months ago, I was in her hometown and she came to my hotel. We had a few drinks and spent the night together. We continued our conversations, and recently I was at a convention where she also was and we spent the week together. We virtually skipped the convention and just enjoyed each other's company. More recently, I was back in her town and we spent another few days together.

If Sir Alex Ferguson had stuck with his original plan, today we might be praising his pasta and Chinese noodles rather than his decision to start Robin van Persie over Wayne Rooney. Or if he had chosen to pursue his interest in U.S. history, particularly the Civil War and the JFK assassination, he might have become a master teacher of men rather than a master motivator of them. But then again, if Ferguson hadn't passed on those two options to become the most successful coach in British soccer history, we wouldn't be calling him sir. After all few chefs, and even fewer U.S. history buffs, get knighted by the queen.

With its announcement Thursday, Hollywood Park did little to refute the theory that horse racing is a sport in need of hospice. They raced at the Inglewood track Friday, but it wasn't business as usual. Nor will it be the rest of this meeting and the track's final one, which ends Dec. 22. For people in the business, and fans of the sport, the next six months of racing at the place universally known as Hollypark will be an emotional saddle sore. The bulldozers are at the gate.

NEW YORK - It has been six months since Donna Graziano packed a barbecue into her car, drove 15 miles from her Brooklyn home to Staten Island, and began cooking for residents of a neighborhood ravaged by Superstorm Sandy. Her one-woman effort in a seaside park expanded into an aid hub that has drawn donations of food, generators, clothes, diapers and household goods, and has become the go-to center for locals seeking advice on everything from emergency aid to mold removal. Now, the city's parks department says it is time for Graziano's Cedar Grove Community Hub to dismantle its five tents so that the park and nearby beach can welcome summer visitors and begin a major dune reinforcement project.

A spindly solar-powered aircraft took to the skies Friday from Moffett Federal Airfield, near San Francisco, on a pioneering coast-to-coast flight that will not use one ounce of fossil fuel. The plane, called Solar Impulse HB-SIA, has an immense 208-foot wing covered with 12,000 solar cells that soak up the sun's rays and power the plane's four electric motors while simultaneously charging batteries. That means the plane can keep flying at night. The goal is not speed, because it's traveling a leisurely 43 mph. Nor is it endurance, because it's making the trip in five legs.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- The horse with the short name and the long stride won the Kentucky Derby here Saturday. Fans of Orb, and headline writers worldwide, rejoiced. Orb's daddy was Malibu Moon; thus the short name with its perfect family connection. Other choices might have been Full, Half or Neil Armstrong. But the owners, cousins Dinny Phipps and Stuart Janney, got it right, just as their wonderful horse did, in front of 151,616 at Churchill Downs. Joel Rosario got it right too. The super jockey from the Dominican Republic left the Southern California jockey colony last year to head east in search of new adventures.

LAS VEGAS - Robert Guerrero is from Gilroy, California's garlic capital of the world. His greatest fight stages have been in San Jose and Ontario. And his most compelling pre-fight publicity stop was on evangelist Pat Robertson's "700 Club. " Guerrero, who is Floyd Mayweather Jr.'s opponent Saturday, is a 7-1 underdog to pull an upset for the World Boxing Council welterweight title at the MGM Grand. This looks one-sided, right? This scrapper of a family man taking on the undefeated, polished king of bling.

Heavy rains have caused severe flooding in the African nation of Djibouti, leaving 150,000 people homeless, the French Foreign Ministry said Saturday.

I'm working out harder now than I ever have, and I'm not doing that just to be part of rebuilding.' Karl Malone, on possibly leaving the Utah Jazz for an NBA title contender

Actress Lindsay Lohan violated her probation Thursday by leaving a Newport Beach rehabilitation facility where she was to begin 90 days of treatment in a reckless driving case, prosecutors said. Mark Heller, Lohan's attorney, told Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge James Dabney on Thursday morning that his client had already begun her therapy at the Morningside Recovery facility after opting not to go to a Long Island recovery center. Heller told the judge the facility met all the conditions of Lohan's plea agreement in a case in which she was also convicted of lying to police.

Shortstop Hanley Ramirez was reinstated from the disabled list Monday, more than two weeks before he was initially projected to return from thumb surgery. Ramirez was moved into the Dodgers roster spot that previously belonged to Clayton Kershaw , who was put on the bereavement list because of a death in his family. Kershaw has left the team but is expected to take his scheduled turn in the rotation Friday in San Francisco. Kershaw has to be out a minimum of three games and a maximum of seven.