Los Angeles County

The most ballyhooed name change of the year became official Friday morning when a Los Angeles County Superior Court commissioner approved the former Ron Artest's request to become Metta World Peace. Amid labor discord that threatens to delay, if not wipe out, the NBA season, there is World Peace. Photos: Famous name-changers He is 6 feet 7, wears No. 15 for the Lakers and once participated in the infamous "Palace brawl. " Anyone now making his acquaintance will be meeting Metta World Peace.

Los Angeles County voters will soon select a new district attorney, and it likely will be their most consequential vote in years. It is hard to overstate the role that the top prosecutor of the nation's most populous county will have as California completely reinvents its justice system. Residents must demand a D.A. who will do his or her utmost to keep them safe, while at the same time embracing reform and ensuring smarter, and less costly, punishment and supervision of nonviolent criminals.

The biggest home in Los Angeles County is ready for a new nickname: The 56,500-square-foot Manor, dubbed Candyland after owner Candy Spelling, has been sold to another wealthy socialite, British heiress Petra Ecclestone, in an all-cash deal for $85 million. As steep as that price is, it's not a record or even close to what Spelling was asking. The priciest Southland home transaction was the 2000 sale of an 8-acre estate in Bel-Air to financial executive Gary Winnick in a deal that included the trade of other land, for a total value of about $94 million.

In a legal victory for Honda Motor Co., a judge has reversed a small-claims judgment that would have forced the automaker to pay a Civic hybrid owner nearly $10,000 for overstating the vehicle's fuel economy. But while the ruling ends a high-profile battle with hybrid owner Heather Peters, Honda still faces numerous legal fights in Small Claims Courts across the country. In an unusual move that garnered national attention, the Los Angeles woman rejected a class-action settlement that would have paid Civic hybrid owners as little as $100 to $200 each and rebates on a new Honda purchase.

Los Angeles police will not pursue through the courts scores of motorists with unpaid tickets from the city's defunct red-light camera program. The city Police Commission voted this week to end its contract with the company that operated L.A.'s cameras until they were shut off last summer. And authorities are now planning to reassign a small group of officers who regularly appeared in court to testify in contested photo enforcement cases. With the cancellation of the contract, officers will no longer have easy access to the photo and video evidence that courts require.

Bob Brickman spent months fighting a ticket he got last fall from a red-light traffic camera at Wilshire and Sepulveda boulevards in West Los Angeles. The 61-year-old from Playa Vista eventually decided to give up the fight and fork over the $476 fine. Now he's regretting paying every penny. City officials this week spotlighted a surprising revelation involving red-light camera tickets: Authorities cannot force violators who simply don't respond to pay them. For a variety of reasons, including the way the law was written, Los Angeles officials say the fines for ticketed motorists are essentially "voluntary" and there are virtually no tangible consequences for those who refuse to pay. The disclosure comes as the city is considering whether to drop the controversial photo enforcement program, with the City Council scheduled to vote on the matter Wednesday.

Most voters have by now received their sample ballots, and those who plan to vote by mail are sending in their applications. The June 5 election is underway right now. It is noteworthy for several reasons. Los Angeles County voters will be selecting a new district attorney, and this is the first time since 1964 that there is no incumbent trying to hold onto the seat. The field is wide open. To win outright in this nonpartisan race, a candidate must get more than 50% of the vote.

Healthcare without insurance is like construction without power tools. It can be done, but it will take longer and require a lot more effort. And at times you'll feel like you're hammering your thumb. "Preventive care is one of the most difficult areas," said John Kim, head of the nonprofit Healthy City project, which has amassed data on medical and social resources in the Los Angeles area. "By the time you get care for the condition you're trying to prevent, you might already have it."

Marc Christian MacGinnis, who won a multimillion-dollar settlement in 1991 from the estate of his ex-lover, actor Rock Hudson, after convincing a jury Hudson had knowingly exposed him to AIDS, has died. He was 56. Known as Marc Christian, he died of pulmonary problems June 2 at Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank. The details were confirmed Friday by his sister, Susan Dahl, who said she did not publicly announce his death earlier because of her brother's wish for privacy.

It's known in many circles as a "quiet crisis" -- a surging population of older Americans over the next 15 years. And for those who serve the homeless in Los Angeles, that portends a dramatically worsening situation. The nonprofit Shelter Partnership spent the last two years studying the plight of Los Angeles County's homeless elderly -- a population, it concluded, of 3,000 to 4,000. The study, which is being released today, marks the first time that the region's elderly homeless population has been studied.

The investigation into a secret clique within the Los Angeles County sheriff's elite gang unit has uncovered allegations that members had matching tattoos of a gun-toting skeleton, which deputies would modify to celebrate their involvement in a shooting, according to sources close to the internal probe. One deputy, who has admitted belonging to a clique called the "Jump Out Boys," has identified about half a dozen other deputies as members, one source confirmed. Those men are expected to be summoned for interviews with internal affairs investigators, the source said.

Los Angeles County prosecutors are examining large property tax breaks extended to the owners of the Old Spaghetti Factory, the now-closed Hollywood landmark, as part of their influence-peddling investigation of Assessor John Noguez. Prosecutors are also looking at more than a hundred Westside properties whose owners got secret, improper tax reductions from a former assessor's office employee who said he broke the rules hoping to generate contributions to Noguez's campaign account.

By all accounts, West Hollywood showered its employees with generosity. The city spent $2,070 at the Beverly Center for six Montblanc pens, given to workers who had reached employment milestones. An additional $1,500 went to Gelson's Market gift cards for city employees. One credit card in the city manager's office, used by various employees, accumulated $121,000 over three years. Then there were the meals. Receipts show that one city councilman, John Duran, charged dozens of meals, often multiple times a week.

A nation still struggling to clear up one housing debacle has run smack into another - soaring rents. The foreclosure mess has pushed millions of former homeowners with tarnished credit into a competitive apartment market across the U.S. Add fresh demand from young workers, few new units and tight standards for home loans, and the result is rental sticker shock not seen in years. Rents are surging from New York to Los Angeles. The average monthly U.S. rent for apartments hit $1,008 in the first quarter, pushing past the all-time high set in the third quarter of 2008, according to the data firm RealFacts.

Cautious growth among white-collar firms kept the Los Angeles County office market flat in the first quarter as average rents and occupancy remained unchanged from a year earlier. A handful of neighborhoods such as Santa Monica, Pasadena and Glendale are tightening in favor of landlords, but others remain relative bargains for renters. "Santa Monica is a classic example of where there is a flood of activity by technology-minded companies that have really created an extensive demand, driving down vacancy and driving up rental rates," said Neal Resnick, managing director of property brokerage Avison Young.

I can still remember the first time I saw Los Angeles. It was December 1980, I was 9 years old, and the view came from the back seat of my older brother Lee's brown Chevette as we climbed up the Grapevine. My two sisters and I were crammed into the car along with all of Lee's earthly possessions - well, most of them, anyway, since the butterfly chair he had tied to the roof flew off somewhere near Kettleman City - which amounted to stacks of paperback books, three typewriters, every issue of Starlog that had been published to date and whatever pots and pans our mother could do without.

Orange County's plan to widen a traffic-clogged stretch of the 405 Freeway is facing unexpected opposition from some residents along the route and has generated new debate over the divergent transportation priorities of L.A. and Orange counties. The plan targets one of the region's biggest traffic trouble spots, where 300,000 cars travel each day between Irvine and the L.A. County border. Without the improvement, Orange County transportation officials said maximum commute times during peak hours will continue to increase.

A Superior Court judge issued a final written ruling Monday ordering Orange County's legal case seeking to roll back deputies' pensions to be handled in the Los Angeles County courts. Judge Thierry P. Colaw agreed with an argument by Orange County's public employee retirement board that the case could not be tried in Orange County because it involved a dispute between two public agencies within the county, and concurred that Los Angeles would be a "neutral county" close enough to be convenient for all parties in the case.

You might have noticed that the cranes are back.  Real estate editor Nancy Rivera Brooks explains that's because commercial real estate is making a comeback in Southern California as developers break ground for offices, warehouses and stores. But the star of the show is apartment construction, with several new projects on track that will deliver more than 6,000 units this year in Los Angeles County, experts say. There are several reasons for the rebound. Land is relatively cheap these days, and interest rates are near historic lows.

About 200 California public schools, including 30 in Los Angeles County, will be eligible to receive funding for additional Advanced Placement courses through an initiative announced Tuesday. The pilot program, created by the College Board, which administers the AP exams, will provide funding for the next three years to schools that currently offer fewer than eight AP courses but have many students with strong AP potential. The College Board will also pay for teachers to attend AP training courses, and schools will receive funding for textbooks and other materials.