Martha Adams

"Inside the Kill Box: Fighting the Gulf War" offers a comprehensive examination of Operation Desert Storm through extensive film clips and interviews with key participants in the conflict. The two-hour Discovery Channel documentary is airing two days before the 10-year anniversary of the start of the war, which involved more than 700,000 NATO coalition troops (500,000 of them American) pitted against Saddam Hussein's forces of more than 1 million.

"Inside the Kill Box: Fighting the Gulf War" offers a comprehensive examination of Operation Desert Storm through extensive film clips and interviews with key participants in the conflict. The two-hour Discovery Channel documentary is airing two days before the 10-year anniversary of the start of the war, which involved more than 700,000 NATO coalition troops (500,000 of them American) pitted against Saddam Hussein's forces of more than 1 million.

As part of a plan to promote professional growth and share educators' knowledge, three elementary school principals in the Simi Valley Unified School District have been assigned to different campuses. The reassignments are done periodically so schools can benefit from principals with various areas of expertise. District officials also believe reassignments help principals grow and learn.

Mayor James K. Hahn kicked off last week by donning a hard hat, climbing into a cherry-picker lift and triumphantly removing a pair of moldy tennis shoes hanging from a utility line in Lincoln Heights. The symbolic gesture, carefully scripted for television cameras, was intended to show that the mayor has heard secessionists loud and clear.

Two weeks after she was born, Lilly Sayenga of Pasadena saw her first DVD, "Baby Einstein." At 5 months, Dakota Benjamin of Los Angeles held a bottle in her mother's arms and quietly watched all of "A Love Affair," a feature film starring Warren Beatty and Annette Bening. At 2 years old, Georgia Miller of Sierra Madre sat on her mother's lap at her computer and started manipulating the mouse.

David Chalk worked in secrecy for decades, helping the government process uranium for nuclear weapons during the Cold War. That conflict is over, but he feels he's still paying the price--with his health. Chalk believes the bone cancer that ravaged his left upper arm and required 30 cobalt treatments is tied to radiation exposure, although he has never been able to prove it.

Eddie Murphy may soon star in a more serious role, playing former Washington Mayor Marion Barry in an HBO film. An HBO spokeswoman said Friday that the network is working with Spike Lee and Murphy on the project, though she said it's in the early stages of development. Lee would direct the movie, and Murphy would play Barry, who, during his third term as mayor, was videotaped smoking crack cocaine in a hotel room during an FBI sting operation. He eventually served six months in federal prison on a misdemeanor drug possession conviction and was elected again to the D.C. Council in 1992.

On the morning of his would-be wedding day, Franz Wisner woke up in bed with John Dawkins. A raging party had left his friends scattered around him, including at the foot of his bed. Wisner wandered through the sprawling rented house on the scraggy Sonoma coast and surveyed the damage: empty Cabernet bottles, stains on the chairs, a broken deck rail. Wisner's girlfriend of nearly a decade had dumped him only days before, sending him into shock.

Down by the sea in Santa Monica, a month of electricity can cost a mere $2.32 with a bit of determination, a tiny home and energy-efficient appliances. In landlocked Compton, a somewhat bigger house with a pool also generates an electricity bill with triple digits--but without the decimal point.