Mistake

It was billed as a "shocking tell-all" and a "world exclusive," but the National Enquirer's March 26 cover story landed with a thud. TMZ, Page Six and other major players in celebrity gossip ignored the article in which a masseur claimed John Travolta offered money for sex. FOR THE RECORD: An earlier version of this article used the term "masseuse"; it should have said "masseur. " Five weeks after the issue left the checkout aisle, a DUI attorney from Pasadena put the anonymous masseur's tawdry tale in a lawsuit and it became an overnight pop culture sensation, topping Google News, trending on Twitter and meriting a segment on "Good Morning America.

Without even waiting a decent interval for mourning, JPMorgan Chase Chairman Jamie Dimon launched his defense campaign over the disclosure that he presided over a $2-billion trading loss in derivatives within days of the disclosure itself, choosing the comforting confines of NBC's "Meet the Press" for the campaign kick-off . Dimon's theme was essentially as follows: "Hey, everybody makes mistakes -- sure, we lost $2 billion, but we've still...

First of three parts Tiffany Lee wanted a car. She was weary of the two-hour bus ride to her job at a UCLA Health System clinic. She hated having to ask friends to drive her 7-year-old son to his asthma treatments. But as a single mother with three children, bad credit and a $27,000-a-year salary, she couldn't find a bank or dealership willing to give her a loan. Then a friend steered her to Repossess Auto Sales in Hawthorne. Another buyer might have balked at the deal she was offered.

Barely four years after Wall Street's wrong-way bets plunged the world into a financial crisis, JPMorgan Chase & Co. admitted it lost $2 billion from a trading portfolio that was supposed to have helped the bank manage credit risk. "These were egregious mistakes," said Chief Executive Jamie Dimon, who is considered one of the world's savviest bankers. "We have egg on our face, and we deserve any criticism we get. " The announcement stunned the financial industry, in part because it came from such a highly regarded bank.

Without even waiting a decent interval for mourning, JPMorgan Chase Chairman Jamie Dimon launched his defense campaign over the disclosure that he presided over a $2-billion trading loss in derivatives within days of the disclosure itself, choosing the comforting confines of NBC's "Meet the Press" for the campaign kick-off . Dimon's theme was essentially as follows: "Hey, everybody makes mistakes -- sure, we lost $2 billion, but we've still...

CINCINNATI - The Rev. Chris Beard is a theological conservative, make no mistake about it. He believes the Bible is the word of God. He believes the Holy Spirit speaks to him directly. He believes, as an article of faith, that abortion and same-sex marriage are wrong. Still, when a group of religious leaders in Ohio held two days of meetings in Cincinnati recently to talk about economic and racial justice, issues usually associated with the political left, there was Beard, a fourth-generation Pentecostal preacher with a disarming smile, a shaved head and a set of convictions that knock holes in the stereotypes about white evangelical Protestants.

Lady Luck or Lady Liberty? Las Vegas edged out the Big Apple on a postage stamp that bears the likeness of Sin City's diminutive replica of the New York City landmark instead of the original. It wasn't intentional, U.S. Postal Service officials said, but there are no plans to correct the mistake. Though 2 billion of the stamps were issued Dec. 1 -- and 3 billion were printed -- the agency learned of the discrepancy only last month. "A stamp collector looked at the image and noticed that's not the original, that's the replica, the Las Vegas version," said Roy Betts, manager of community relations for the Postal Service in Washington.

'Don't ask, don't tell," the policy delusion that acknowledges that gays and lesbians serve in the military but pretends they aren't there, is in its final days. Sooner rather than later, this discriminatory law is going to be overturned. The momentum is unmistakable. For the first time since the policy's implementation in 1993, the Senate Armed Services Committee has agreed to hold public hearings. The lone member of Congress who is a veteran of the Iraq war, Rep. Patrick J. Murphy (D-Pa.

Newt Gingrich continues to try to dig out of the hole into which he’s fallen, calling Rep. Paul Ryan to apologize for comments on Ryan's Medicare overhaul and defiantly appearing on Fox News Channel to push back at the suggestion that his fledgling presidential campaign has suffered a mortal wound. “I made a mistake,” Gingrich said on Greta Van Susteren’s program Tuesday evening. “And I called Paul Ryan today who is a very close, personal friend, and I said that. The fact is that I have supported what Ryan has tried to with the budget.” He said Ryan’s plan was “one I am happy to say I would have voted for. I will defend.

RE: St. Thomas Aquinas Church ("Salvation for a Chapel," Oct. 15). With the prominence and growth of Ojai, the ecclesiastic authorities are remiss to turn over this magnificent house of worship for the paltry sum of $300,000 (approximately). In the future, we will hear the oft-repeated political phrase: "I made a mistake." RUTH WHELAN TREND Ventura

Which is it? Either Magic Johnson, the face of the Dodgers, is clueless on how the organization will be run ... Or he knew he wasn't telling the truth when he became the dominating voice of last week's news conference and told the media enough already with the questions about Frank McCourt. We can all understand "enough already with Frank McCourt," but the Guggenheim folks should have taken that into consideration when they bought the Dodgers. Now they have some explaining to do. But so far for Magic, it's been one turnover after the next.

Mitt Romney didn't exactly fire Richard Grenell, who is gay, as his foreign policy spokesman. But when the religious right got wind of Grenell's hiring, his job started to shrink. Grenell was told to sit in on conference calls with reporters and not say anything, which is tantamount to firing him. He was told to be silent not merely on gay issues. He was told not to talk about anything, even foreign policy. A spokesman who is not allowed to speak - even internally - doesn't have much of a job. So Grenell quit, three weeks after he was hired.

Los Angeles County officials were justifiably criticized for the rushed and, at least initially, haphazard manner in which they excavated the historic remains discovered when construction crews working on La Plaza de Cultura y Artes accidentally struck the vestiges of a 19th century cemetery. The earth under the courtyard of the new downtown museum, dedicated to Mexican and Mexican American heritage, yielded the bones and artifacts of more than 100 people. They were most likely a mix of Mexican, Spanish, European, African and Indian settlers who had been buried in a Catholic cemetery.

Dear Liz: Last year I bought an electric vehicle, motivated in part by the $7,500 federal tax credit. I consulted with my tax preparer, a CPA, to ensure I would generate enough income to fully use the one-time, use-it-or-lose-it credit. In December 2011, I informed her of the exact type of that year's income (earned income, capital gains, dividends, interest and so on) and detailed all my deductions. She assured me that based on those numbers my tax burden was $8,600, more than sufficient to use the credit.

They were sellers of pastel-toned huggable plush toys with names like "Baby Frenz Forever" and "Jungle Pals. " At the same time, authorities say, they were receiving bricks of U.S. dollars wrapped in cellophane that were drug proceeds to be laundered into clean pesos for drug lords in Mexico and Colombia. On Monday, authorities announced charges against the City of Industry-based Woody Toys Inc. and seven owners, employees and customers in what marks the second case in two years involving toy exporters allegedly acting as conduits for the drug trade.

Women are more likely than men to mistake the gas pedal for the brakes, according to federal safety regulators. "The most consistent finding across data sources was the striking overrepresentation of females in pedal misapplication crashes, relative to their involvement in all types of crashes," the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said in a report supporting its proposal this week to require automakers to make brake-throttle override...

VERO BEACH, Fla. -- On the first day of a new exhibition season, an old problem resurfaced. Two innings into the opening game of Joe Torre's managerial reign and a spring that will probably be the Dodgers' last in Dodgertown, Matt Kemp tried to go from first to third on a single to left field, diving head-first into the corner bag where James Loney was standing. But third base coach Larry Bowa didn't unleash one of his trademark tirades on the 23-year-old right fielder, whose similar mistakes last season became too common for the liking of some of the veterans.

Ed Bieler is an entertaining and well informed radio host. When he made a mistake, Larry Stewart was more than willing to write about it in detail. He was Mr. Bieler's biggest critic and no doubt happy to see him go. I will miss Superfan. BRIAN LOCKWOOD Glendale

Free advice time, Magic Johnson edition: Do not do it. Don't ever prop up Frank McCourt again. And most definitely, do not sit next to him again at Tuesday's home opener. That was hard to watch, and just as difficult to understand. Los Angeles almost universally opened its arms to the news that Magic's group won the Dodgers' bidding war for three reasons: 1) Magic is local sports icon; 2) he has spent the past 32 years living in Los Angeles; 3) his name is not Frank McCourt.