Misunderstanding

I would like to clarify a misunderstanding regarding an article on Nov. 10 (On View by Mary Lou Loper). In the article in question, the Iranian Education Foundation stated that they are an offshoot of the Beverly Hills Education Foundation. While they are a worthy organization with fine goals, they are a totally separate entity from the Beverly Hills Education Foundation. ISABEL BRONTE, executive director Beverly Hills Education Foundation Inc.

For the last week Rick Ross has been engulfed in a firestorm over recent lyrics that seemingly promote date rape. Although the track, "U.O.E.N.O. " (a collaboration with Future and Atlanta emcee Rocko; warning: link contains profanity) has been out for more than a month - it's lifted from Rocko's latest mixtape - the largely forgettable song has started to gain traction from the masses due to Ross' controversial guest verse. "Put Molly all in her champagne/ She ain't even know it/ I took her home and I enjoyed that/ She ain't even know it," he raps on the track.

Assemblywoman Mary Hayashi (D-Hayward) has pleaded not guilty to a felony grand theft charge that she shoplifted at Neiman Marcus in San Francisco. The incident, caught on video surveillance, occurred Sunday afternoon when the lawmaker left the department store with a shopping bag containing leather pants and other clothing worth $2,445 that she hadn't paid for, prosecutors said. Hayashi, who faces one count of grand theft, pleaded not guilty Thursday and is out on bail. Her spokesman, Sam Singer, called the incident "a mistake and a misunderstanding.

For those of us not directly invested in Apple, the stock's trajectory over the last six months has been a thrill ride to rival anything you'll find at Magic Mountain. Since hitting an all-time peak of $705 in mid-September, the shares have been on a long slide, reaching $419 before recovering a bit to almost $462 last week. At the peak, learned Wall Street analysts were speculating about how high Apple could go and whether the sky really was the limit; at the current trough, they're all but proclaiming the end of the Apple era. Here are the questions on everyone's lips: Who's right?

For the last week Rick Ross has been engulfed in a firestorm over recent lyrics that seemingly promote date rape. Although the track, "U.O.E.N.O. " (a collaboration with Future and Atlanta emcee Rocko; warning: link contains profanity) has been out for more than a month - it's lifted from Rocko's latest mixtape - the largely forgettable song has started to gain traction from the masses due to Ross' controversial guest verse. "Put Molly all in her champagne/ She ain't even know it/ I took her home and I enjoyed that/ She ain't even know it," he raps on the track.

The Chumash tribe wants aircraft from nearby Santa Ynez Airport to stop flights over the reservation and its casino. Chumash officials said in a Sept. 12 letter that they want Santa Barbara County to "cease and desist" allowing flyovers or face a lawsuit. "It's just a misunderstanding," said Jim Kunkle, of the airport authority. The misunderstanding apparently refers to the tribe's belief that it has control of airspace above its reservation.

A Baptist minister, calling it a "misunderstanding" spawned by grief, said Wednesday he did not perform a marriage ceremony at the burial of a young engaged couple killed in a small plane crash. "It wasn't really a wedding ceremony," said the Rev. Rayburn Blair. "There was no exchange of vows, and there was no civil ceremony. It was a reflection of their commitment to each other to be married."

Calling the incident a "misunderstanding," police released a 26-year-old man who had been questioned after he returned two Anaheim children missing for more than a week, authorities said Friday. Michael Robert Cocco, identified as a longtime family friend, was taken into custody for questioning late Thursday after he returned the children, an 11-year-old boy and his 7-year-old sister, to their grandparents, Kermit and Peggy Lopp, with whom they had been living.

A new bill of rights for California car buyers provides grace periods for used-car purchases, caps dealer compensation on loans and features other provisions that are some of the strongest consumer protections in the country, according to state legislators and consumer advocates. The law, which went into effect July 1, applies to motor vehicles bought in California from a dealer for personal, family or household use.

Inside a dimly lighted living room in the heart of the Javanese forest, Dede Koswara blankly examines his bulky hands, which have morphed to the size of catcher's mitts. He shuffles along on blackened, bloated feet, a prisoner of his own mutinous body. For years, the slender construction worker watched helplessly as his limbs broke out in a swath of grotesque bark-like warts that sapped his energy and limited his mobility. At one point, he seemed to sprout contorted yellow-brown branches 3 feet long.

PHOENIX - Infielder Justin Sellers disputed a West Sacramento police account of his arrest for alleged violations while he was riding a motorcycle last month, saying it was the result of a misunderstanding. Sellers, 27, is facing misdemeanor charges of reckless driving and evading arrest, but said he was working to get them dismissed. “They did me wrong,” he said. Sellers said he takes batting practice in the off-season with the son of a West Sacramento police officer, who offered to take him on a ride-along.

In recent days, Brooklyn College has found itself targeted by a vehement campaign against its political science department's decision to co-sponsor a forum on Thursday in which two speakers are expected to advocate a position that the campaigners heartily object to. City and state politicians have even called for defunding the college. The position in question is that Americans ought to boycott, divest from and apply sanctions toward Israel. (BDS is the movement's common abbreviation.)

Patients diagnosed with lung cancer that is considered incurable appear to misunderstand the purpose and likely effect of a treatment aimed at making them more comfortable, a new study says. The result may not only be a failure of communication between physicians and their patients: The misunderstanding also may prompt some lung cancer patients and their families to choose aggressive treatments near the end of life rather than opt for care that makes their final days more comfortable.

I realized how far out of hand things had gotten the day my 4-year-old daughter came home from preschool with news that one of her friends had been out sick the last few days. Oh, that's a shame, my wife and I said. Our daughter leaned forward, and in a concerned voice confided, "I think it's stress. " Thus, we have science interpreted by a 4-year-old. And she's not alone in drawing such a conclusion: Stress has become the default explanation for a wide range of human conditions.

Each morning, Angad Singh carefully wraps yards of fabric into a tight turban atop his head before heading out into a world that doesn't always understand him or his Sikh faith. "Where are you from?" they ask the 22-year-old, who was born and raised in the San Fernando Valley, if they ask anything at all. "Are you Muslim?" "Why are you wearing that?" "People don't know who we are," said Singh, who is about to begin classes at UCLA Law School. "I can tell they have [other] questions they are too afraid to ask. " Sikhs make up the fifth-largest religion in the world, with more than a quarter of a million followers in the U.S. and close to 20,000 in Southern California, but they are little understood.

'Peace, Love, and Misunderstanding' MPAA rating: R for drug content and some sexual references Running time: 1 hour, 36 minutes Playing: At Landmark Theater, West Los Angeles

It is either denial or the ability to live in the moment, but my Parkinson's doesn't bother me too much psychologically. Every now and then, though, the universe kicks me in the butt and says, "You ain't who you used to be, oh, formerly graceful one; runner and yoga master; judo, aikido and karate master (if pink belts count); great ballroom dancer; master of stage and podium."

Artists and writers have been weighing in on political matters for a long time now. But when a filmmaker as controversial as Oliver Stone announces a 10-part television series about American history, it makes you wonder: Do we really want a history lesson from a guy who thinks LBJ had a hand in killing Kennedy? Stone laughs a little when asked how his new "The Untold History of the United States" fits into a feature film career that includes projects like "JFK," which suggested that the Mafia, the CIA and Lyndon Johnson had roles in assassinating the president.

There is something kind of groovy about "Peace, Love & Misunderstanding. " The mellow yellow comedy stars Jane Fonda as a 70-something hippie with a passion for pot and protest suddenly dealing with the prodigal daughter who is back in the picture after revolting against that lifestyle years ago. It's not "On Golden Pond" by any stretch, but it is nice to have Fonda back in the fractious family way. Written by first-timers Christina Mengert and...

Assemblywoman Mary Hayashi (D-Hayward) has pleaded not guilty to a felony grand theft charge that she shoplifted at Neiman Marcus in San Francisco. The incident, caught on video surveillance, occurred Sunday afternoon when the lawmaker left the department store with a shopping bag containing leather pants and other clothing worth $2,445 that she hadn't paid for, prosecutors said. Hayashi, who faces one count of grand theft, pleaded not guilty Thursday and is out on bail. Her spokesman, Sam Singer, called the incident "a mistake and a misunderstanding.