Media

Those searching for answers to the question " Is medical marijuana good medicine? " will find few in Dr. David Sack's Times Op-Ed article.   On the one hand, Sack concedes, "Marijuana can effectively treat neuropathic pain, and it has been shown to improve appetite and reduce nausea," an acknowledgment substantiating the plant's therapeutic utility. However, he later warns that cannabis' ability to provide relief for certain other conditions, such as lupus and anxiety, remains unproven.

On the eve of an international wrestling meet at the Sports Arena, American officials remain at a loss to explain why the Iranian team - making its first visit to the U.S. since 2003 - has unexpectedly withdrawn and flown home. Los Angeles was supposed to be the second stop in a two-city tour. The Iranians competed in New York earlier this week. Iranian media reported Friday that team officials had security concerns and that U.S. officials refused to guarantee their safety on the West Coast.

Reese Witherspoon is a brunet! The Academy Award-winning actress has gone to the dark side and dyed her signature legally blond tresses brown. Witherspoon was spotted in Nashville over the weekend with the new 'do pulled back in a messy bun and sported her signature wispy bangs. She was photographed with husband Jim Toth, toting around their 6-month old son, Tennessee, according to E! News. The actress most notably went for a darker shade as part of her award-winning role in 2005's "Walk the Line," in which she played Johnny Cash love interest June Carter.

The minimalist, loft-style Glass House was designed to make the most of its ocean and sandy beach views. An 11-foot-tall folding door system allows indoor-outdoor living, while channel glass side walls bring diffused natural light into the interiors. Location: 2316 The Strand, Manhattan Beach 90266 Asking price: $11 million Year built: 2001 Architect: Roger Kurath House size: Two bedrooms, three bathrooms, 3,963 square feet Lot size: 3,503 square feet Features: Exposed H beams, curved walls of glass, spiral staircase, living room fireplace, billiard room, media room, circular glass shower with skylight, ocean-view spa bath tub, two-car garage.

Emma Watson will strip down to raise environmental awareness, even though she won't do it for the "Fifty Shades of Grey" movie. "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" star tweeted her support for James Houston's book of celebrities posing nude to raise environmental awareness. The book's proceeds will go to Global Green USA, a nonprofit focused on sustainability. PHOTOS: Hermione Granger through the years "My friend is supporting GlobalGreenUSA with his book Natural Beauty.

Michelle Knight, the longest-held of three women kidnapped and imprisoned in a Cleveland house for years, was discharged Friday from the hospital where she had been cared for after her ordeal. Reportedly in good spirits, Knight left MetroHealth Medical Center on the same day state officials announced that DNA testing had established that Ariel Castro, being held on kidnapping and rape charges, was the father of the 6-year-old girl born to another of the imprisoned women. Like her fellow captives, Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus, Knight asked for privacy.

WASHINGTON - First came the letter-writing campaigns, then the protests at town hall meetings and now the television ads. The last several weeks in New Hampshire have had the feel of a heated electoral season - but the target of this siege, first-term Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte, isn't on the ballot until 2016. Welcome to Round 2 in the battle over gun control. The first round ended last month, when a proposal to expand the background check system to cover most commercial gun sales fizzled in the Senate.

Is Mexico safe? That's the question that gets a lot of media attention. When six tourists from Spain were raped earlier this month in Acapulco, speculation began anew. But the tourism board in Cancun, 1,200 miles away and in a state for which the U.S. State Department has no advisory, wants the public to feel safe about visiting that region of the country, especially with the spring break vacation period looming. About 45,000 people visit during the spring travel season. “Last year Cancun welcomed almost 4 million visitors, and while none of our tourists were victims of violent crimes, we understand that safety is always a concern when traveling to a foreign country,” said Jesus Almagauer, chief executive of Cancun Convention & Visitors Bureau.

The most powerful labor organization in Los Angeles refused Friday to back away from a campaign mailer in which it urges voters to support Wendy Greuel for mayor because she "will raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. " Even though Greuel has said she supports the higher "living wage" only for workers at large hotels, Los Angeles County Federation of Labor chief Maria Elena Durazo accused the media of "nitpicking" when she was questioned about the accuracy of the mailer, which went to Latino voters.

Judging by the premature election night "projections" and prognostications, America has gone from a democracy to a media-ocracy. DAVID C. NICHOLS Los Angeles

It seemed like a typical dinner party for the well-heeled set: eight women, some dressed in stilettos and skinny jeans, gabbing over glasses of wine and endive spears with goat cheese at a lavish Hollywood Hills home. But amid the Kate Middleton pregnancy chatter and a debate on the best mascara brands, the conversation turned to mobile app strategies and the latest tech companies to score millions of dollars in venture capital funding. Not too long ago, such meet-ups among tech-savvy women - or men, for that matter - were a rarity in Los Angeles.

The proliferation of cellphones and their potential use for cheating has prompted heightened security measures on this year's administration of standardized tests in California schools. The chief concern is that students will take pictures of test items and post them on social media sites, which occurred last year. In response, many schools have begun collecting cellphones from students during testing periods. At the state level, there are checks of social media sites "every 15 minutes" by a team from the state education department and the national Education Testing Service, officials said.

OAKLAND - Grief and disbelief reverberated from the Bay Area to the Central Valley on Monday as questions multiplied about a limousine fire that killed five women and injured four on the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge. Although officials said they had yet to review the limousine's maintenance record or examine its burned-out shell, California Highway Patrol Capt. Mike Maskarich said the 1999 Lincoln Town Car was licensed to carry only eight passengers, though nine were inside. The Saturday night inferno trapped the women as they headed for what was to be a celebratory bridal party at a hotel.

WASHINGTON - President Obama on Wednesday will nominate venture capitalist Thomas Wheeler as the nation's top telecommunications regulator, tapping a major campaign fundraiser with long ties to the media and the telecom industries, White House and industry officials said. Wheeler, managing director of Core Capital Partners in Washington, D.C., would replace Julius Genachowski as chairman of the five-member Federal Communications Commission board. Democratic Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, who was mentioned as a candidate, will take over as acting chairman when Genachowski steps down in the coming weeks.

Los Angeles police said they relied heavily on students and their social media skills in tracking down and arresting a trio of suspects Thursday in the fatal stabbing of an 18-year-old at a Reseda high school. Using tweets from students, police said they were able to identify and ultimately arrest the suspects - two of them reputed gang members - in a Van Nuys neighborhood. Kevin Orellano was stabbed to death Wednesday as he was playing handball on campus, which he had attended before transferring to an occupational center last fall.

Over the last few days, thousands of people have taken to the Internet to play Sherlock Holmes. Armed with little more than grainy surveillance camera videos, cellphone photos and live tweets from police scanners, they have flooded the Web with clues, tips and speculation about what happened in Boston and who might have been behind it. Monday's bombings, the first major terrorist attack on American soil in the age of smartphones, Twitter and...

It's hard not to get irritated with a company that urges you to share all sorts of things but makes it hard for you to say who's part of the party. It's creepier, still, when that company starts feeling less like a social network than like a relentless marketing machine. Facebook blow-back reached a crescendo in recent weeks. Consumer advocates lined up to complain over too much private information being made public. European governments weighed in — demanding users get more control of their profiles.

While the Boston area remains in lockdown as law enforcement officials hunt for the second bombing suspect, local and national radio and television outlets went to all-news mode covering the chase and digging for clues about the two suspected terrorists. All-news cable channels Fox News, CNN and MSNBC were joined by broadcast networks NBC, CBS, and ABC in devoting all their resources to the story and digging into the lives of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and his late older brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who died in a shootout with authorities.

With cellular service in Boston jammed in the aftermath of the marathon explosions this week, many people were left scrambling for ways to let loved ones know they were safe and to search for information on family and friends. Social networks and other websites became the go-to solutions in many cases, as scores of people posted updates saying they were unharmed and offering firsthand accounts and photographs from the scene. Because the Internet wasn't affected, Boston residents used Facebook and Twitter to reach out to large numbers of people at once; they also turned to Apple Inc.'s iMessage, Skype and Google Inc.'s Voice.