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Amid anxiety over rising costs from the federal healthcare law, California received better-than-expected insurance rates for a new state-run marketplace, but many consumers still won't be spared from sharply higher premiums. Three years after President Obama's landmark law was passed, the state unveiled the first details Thursday on what many Californians can expect to pay for coverage from 13 health plans offering policies in the state's exchange, in which as many as 5 million people will shop for coverage next year.

For Kings fans, Staples Center is exactly how the slogan goes: "The Sports and Entertainment Capital of the World. " For Danny Zollars, senior director of game operations, Staples Center before a Stanley Cup playoff game is just another day at the office, one with frigid temperatures and a massive TV screen to which he holds the remote. It's easy for fans to look up at the video board and take in the scene around them. But the scene behind the scenes involves hundreds of working hands, a command center with nearly as many monitors and Zollars, who coordinates it all. For every Oz, there must be a wizard behind the curtain.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa spoke publicly for the first time Monday about the breakup of his 20-year marriage, saying he was responsible for the split even as he refused to talk about what caused it. In a somber meeting with reporters at City Hall, Villaraigosa declined to answer questions about whether the break with his wife, Corina, was triggered by another romantic relationship.

WASHINGTON - He was a high school dropout, sometime junior college student and failed Army recruit. But Edward Joseph Snowden found his calling in America's spy services, using his computer skills to rise from a lowly security position to life as a well-paid private contractor for the National Security Agency. At age 29, he rented a bungalow with his girlfriend north of Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, and claimed to earn $200,000 a year. On Monday, hours after he admitted disclosing a trove of intelligence secrets to the media, Snowden checked out of the glitzy Mira Hotel in Hong Kong, where he had holed up for weeks, and dropped out of sight.

When I think of actress Lupe Ontiveros, who passed away from liver cancer at 69 Thursday night, what stays with me most is her strength. Her women tended to be strong and resilient, no-nonsense types, whether they were running a theater company as she did in "Chuck & Buck," dealing with a rebellious daughter in "Real Women Have Curves," or picking up after some well-heeled white family, as she did in"The Goonies. "There was a "I have seen it all" quality that danced in her eyes, more bemused by the frailties of the human race than bitter about them.

A man with no risk factors for prostate cancer can go his whole life without ever taking a PSA test, according to the American Urological Assn. In a new clinical guideline unveiled Friday, the urologists said that only men between the ages of 55 and 69 should even consider getting a PSA screening test if they have no signs or symptoms of prostate cancer. Men should only get tested after discussing all the pros and cons with their doctors, and if they decide to get tested, they should not get tested again for at least two years, the guideline advises.

What Congress giveth, Congress taketh away. And so it was that on Jan. 1 most wage earners found themselves a little light in the paycheck. The reason, of course, is that lawmakers late last year allowed the 2-percentage-point cut in the employee portion of the FICA tax to expire. That benefit was enacted in 2010 to put more cash in taxpayers' wallets during the tough economic downturn. But the greater tax burden doesn't mean would-be home buyers need to put off taking advantage of some of the lowest mortgage rates in eons.

Chrysler Group will recall more than 200,000 of its vehicles, including its Ram pickup truck,  Dodge Challengers and Chargers and Jeep Liberty and Patriots for a variety of problems. In the biggest recall, the automaker will inspect and fix about 120,000 Chrysler 300s, and Dodge Challenger and Chargers sedans from the 2011 and 2012 model years because of an airbag problem. The wrong-sized crimps were used in building the airbag wiring harness, and that can can cause the airbag warning light to illuminate.

Nearly 1.5 miles beneath Earth's surface in Canada, scientists have found pockets of water that have been isolated from the outside world for more than 1 billion years. The ancient water, trapped in thin fissures in granite-like rock, has been bubbling up from a zinc and copper mine for decades in Timmins, Ontario. Only recently have scientists been able to calculate the age of this water and determine that it is the oldest ever discovered - possibly as old as 2.6 billion years, when Earth was less than half its current age. And it may harbor life.

Americans spend billions on hair-care products each year, a remarkable investment for a part of the body with no real function. We clean it, nourish it and style it -- and we definitely mourn its loss. Lots of products and procedures promise to restore thinning or disappearing hair. One especially intriguing option is the HairMax LaserComb, a hand-held laser device that supposedly revives hair follicles.

So, there you are in the sunscreen aisle, where the number of products on the shelves is approximately equal to the number of grains of sand on a beach. How to choose? Read the labels. Your decision may still not be easy, but new labeling regulations should help. "The new regulations will make a significant difference," says Latanya Benjamin, a dermatologist at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford University. "They standardize the basics of what to look for in a sunscreen.

He was headed downtown, traveling along the 110 when - just like in the cartoons - a light popped on over Pervaiz Lodhie's head. If this city truly wants to improve the look of the busy industrial landscape, he decided, it should at least replace the burned-out and flickering fluorescent tubes in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum & Sports Arena sign that towers 160 feet above the freeway. Lodhie then went a step further. He agreed to supply the light bulbs. Lodhie, who owns a Torrance-based LED lighting business, made the commitment when he met with representatives of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in early 2011 to discuss development of a "green corridor" between downtown Los Angeles and the harbor.

BEIJING - In China's southern Hainan province, a school principal and a housing authority official were arrested after they allegedly took six girls ages 11 to 13 out to sing karaoke, got them drunk and spent the night with them in a hotel. A principal in Anhui province was arrested on suspicion of molesting nine girls, and a 50-year-old math teacher in the same province was charged with raping a 7-year-old girl. A kindergarten security guard was arrested, accused of molesting children.

CHICAGO - It wasn't long ago that the Kings' Jonathan Quick had to listen and, presumably, read about all the other great goaltenders in the NHL. Especially from Kings Coach Darryl Sutter. Sutter raved about the All-Star goalie from his Calgary days, Miikka Kiprusoff, and made comparisons last season between Kiprusoff and Quick, suggesting Quick still had to prove his worth over a period of time. Again, last season, he shrewdly engaged in more motivational tactics with Quick, using the Sharks' Antti Niemi as the impetus.

Re "MTA vote seals the deal for Leimert Park light-rail stop," May 24 Hurray for the people of Leimert Park for getting a stop on the planned Crenshaw light-rail line - and for those of Chinatown, Little Tokyo and Mariachi Plaza, who previously won their own stations. Too bad that Los Angeles International Airport doesn't have its own "community members" to do battle over the idiotic decision to avoid the airport again in planning station locations. Years ago, whoever was in charge of building the Green Line apparently forgot that LAX existed.

"I'm home," a group of actors chanted on Sunday to beats hammered out on plastic buckets at a Metro Blue Line station in South-Central. For many members of the Watts Village Theater Company, the location was indeed home. Actors recited poems about growing up in nearby neighborhoods. The performance at the Willowbrook station marked the fourth straight year the theater company has appeared under a Metro program called Meet Me @Metro, which promotes the use of light rail. The first three years, the group appeared at Union Station downtown and near Long Beach and Pasadena.

Roosters, famously, crow in the early morn -- but scientists don't fully understand why they unleash their voices when they do.  After all, roosters have also been known to make a racket when other animals or birds are about, when a car starts, or when lights turn on in the middle of the night.  So do they crow because they see the morning light, or because they hear other roosters? Or do they have some kind of internal body clock that lets them know that's it's time to unleash their peals?

"Don't go there," a well-traveled friend said when I mentioned my plans to visit Capri, a sunny island off southern Italy. Why? "You're not going to want to come home," he said. I laughed. My friend, a know-it-all author, loves to give advice. I didn't need it; I already knew I would fall in love with Capri. It's been one of Europe's favorite island getaway for more than 2,000 years, enthralling a cast of characters ranging from Roman emperors to 21st century luminaries and A-listers.

After years spent fighting for a light-rail station in Leimert Park, South Los Angeles community members got their wish Thursday with the approval of full funding for a stop in the heart of L.A.'s African American community. To cheering and applause from dozens of supporters, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority approved $80 million for an underground station in Leimert Park Village along the planned north-south route of the Crenshaw Line. "The line goes through a very significant community, one with historic context," said Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, a director on the Metro board.

The 1920s vintage of this restored Spanish Revival-style house in Hollywood Hills is evident in its Malibu tile fireplace, period lighting and hand-crafted doors. A courtyard with a fountain sits off the media room of the walled and gated home. Location: 2125 Castilian Drive, Los Angeles 90068 Asking price: $2.695 million Year built: 1929 House size: Three bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms Lot size: 18,521 square feet Features: Formal dining room, fireplaces in the living room and library, breakfast room, butler's pantry, media room, master suite balcony, wood-beam ceilings, inlaid wood floors, terrace with pergola, panoramic views About the area: In the first quarter, 78 single-family homes sold in the 90068 ZIP Code at a median price of $950,000, according to DataQuick.