Motel

A former Culver City motel recently reopened as the Upward Bound House Family Shelter, providing temporary emergency housing for homeless families with children. In preparation for the opening, 18 interior designers shared paint, swapped rugs and otherwise volunteered their services to decorate the units before residents moved in. "These people are sleeping in their cars," volunteer coordinator Dara Lasky said. "They need the extra three months to get their lives together." Beyond the good deeds, the volunteerism resulted in good ideas — design inspiration that just might translate to do-it-yourself projects for budget-minded families.

Cao Thi Nguyen and her baby were marooned in a strange land without family or options. The young woman, who moved here from Vietnam two years ago to marry a South Korean man, had been kicked out of her home after a fight with her husband's family. Unable to speak Korean, the slight 29-year-old wandered the streets of Seoul for months until she found a refuge designed to help the growing number of foreign brides in the country -- nearly half of whom report suffering domestic abuse.

Police were seeking information Wednesday on a British motivational speaker and spiritual healer who was arrested in Ventura in connection with the killing of a Las Vegas woman. Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department officers were responding to a missing person's report Nov. 30 when they found the body of Ginger Candela, 44, in her garage. The residence had been ransacked and numerous items had been taken, according to a Las Vegas police statement. Police suspect Michael Lane, 34, of killing Candela.

A man accused of killing his wife, model Jasmine Fiore, did not acknowledge the killing in a suicide note left on his laptop computer but expressed his love for her repeatedly and wrote that he was jealous and angry, police said. Buena Park Police Sgt. Bill Kohanek on Tuesday said the 1 1/2 -page "suicide letter" was recovered by investigators from Ryan Jenkins' laptop after the former VH1 reality show contestant hanged himself in a Canadian motel room not far from the border after a pursuit by U.S. authorities.

The Dalai Lama said his visit to the motel where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968 was sad but inspirational. The Tibetan spiritual leader was in Memphis to receive the International Freedom Award from the National Civil Rights Museum, which incorporates the site of the Lorraine Motel. "This history event gives us conviction today [that] the struggle for justice, against inequality, discrimination . . . can be won," the Dalai Lama said.

Dottie Martin has a kinship with Route 66. Her junior and senior high schools in Edwardsville, Ill., were right on the Mother Road. So when it was time for her to drive back to Seattle after her high school reunion, Martin took the long way home, traveling along what's left of America's first transcontinental highway. In San Bernardino County, a longtime wish came true as Martin pulled into the Wigwam Motel for a night in a tepee. "I had never slept in a wigwam," she said of her desire to soak up the nostalgia and kitsch of decades past.

Rock 'n' roll is in the air this weekend as the American Cinematheque screens a Frank Zappa double feature: 1971's "200 Motels " and 1979's " Baby Snakes" tonight at the Aero Theatre. And on Friday the Aero will show a new 35-millimeter print of director Michael Wadleigh's cut of his 1970 Oscar-winning "Woodstock ," with an introduction by Hal Lifson, pop culture historian and author of "1966! The Coolest Year in Pop Culture History." www.americancinematheque.com 'Night Flight' salute Meanwhile, the Don't Knock the Rock 2009 festival winds up tonight at the Silent Movie Theatre with a tribute to "Night Flight," the seminal late-night show from 1981 that included music videos, short films, cartoons, interviews, concerts and cult movies.

The international manhunt for Ryan Jenkins, suspected of killing his former wife and dumping her mutilated body in a Buena Park trash bin, ended Sunday in the woodsy tourist town of Hope, British Columbia. Authorities said the former reality television contestant hanged himself. At a Sunday night news conference, Buena Park police said they were disappointed that Jenkins would not face the first-degree murder charge they had sought. "The sadness of this all is that Mr. Jenkins will not stand before an Orange County jury for his crimes," said Buena Park Police Lt. Steve Holliday.

Determined to prevent the Mongols motorcycle club from using a Lancaster motel to host its annual meeting this weekend, the city's mayor has taken steps to shut down the establishment. Mayor R. Rex Parris said the members of the Mongols, which law enforcement agencies consider a violent biker gang, are not welcome in Lancaster because they "are engaged in domestic terrorism . . . and they kill our children."