Nascent

The hedonistic adventures of Swaggart and other televangelists suggests the existence of a nascent U.S. religiose coterie . . . heaven's devils. ED KYSAR Reseda

What might ringmaster-of-the-subconscious Fellini have done with the peculiar phenomenon of reality TV? The gifted Italian filmmaker Matteo Garrone (the excellent "Gomorrah") gives us his own magically eccentric homage of sorts to that hypothetical with the psychologically astute, dreamlike gut-punch that is "Reality. " Predicated on the idea that the promise of 15 minutes of fame is as treacherous a mental minefield as instant celebrity's fizzled aftermath, Garrone gives us Napoli fishmonger Luciano (Aniello Arena)

Italian police staged raids to arrest about 90 suspected mobsters and prevent the hobbled Sicilian Mafia from forming a new command structure and strategy, authorities said. The blitz, ordered by prosecutors in Palermo, was one of the largest in recent years and was billed as striking at the heart of the nascent hierarchy.

LETPADAUNG TAUNG, Myanmar - For generations, Ko Myint Tin and his ancestors grew wheat, corn and onions on this fertile land in northern Myanmar. These days, he's propagating banners and slogans to protest the seizure of his family's farmland by powerful Burmese and Chinese military interests hungry for the copper beneath the furrows. Ko Myint Tin, 34, said he was pushed into accepting $650 per acre in "crop damage" in 2010 that, once the documents were signed, resulted in his losing control of his 24 acres.

For those who can't schlep to Nashville to rummage through the recordings that Jack White has been putting out since opening his Third Man Records studio and store in the country music capital in March, he's arranging a brief opportunity to shop in L.A. Third Man will set up a pop-up store for three days starting Wednesday, in downtown at 448 S. Main St. The shop, to be called Third Man Records and Novelties West, will be stocked with copies of...

The National Endowment for the Arts has made a significant and lasting contribution to the culture and education of our country. Breaking barriers of ethnic and social boundaries, the programs and perceptions afforded the American people have proved to be of inestimable value and enterprise. However, an effort such as the Federal Theatre Project in the '30s, nascent beginnings of the NEA, after three short years, failed in its cultural mission. Bogged down by government bureaucracy and political cronyism, it became staffed by people who had little or no background in the arts . . . those who would seek to destroy and control rather than nurture and produce.

SUSAN Salter Reynolds' characterization of Venice founder Abbot Kinney as "equal parts shyster and urban visionary" ["Fall's Hush Breaks Over Venice" Oct. 27] is only half-true. No question about it, Kinney was a dreamer and a doer. His wide-ranging accomplishments as an entrepreneurial innovator, pioneering environmentalist, public-spirited philanthropist, as well as being an early entertainment industry mogul, certify him for inclusion in that mythic pantheon of great Americans. By the time Kinney arrived in Southern California in January 1880, the 29-year-old had traveled the world twice, learned five languages and become a tobacco tycoon.

The crowd at downtown Los Angeles' Club Nokia arrived primed and pumped up. Not just to be entertained, but, more palpably, to witness a make-or-break moment. When the Canadian rapper-cum-R&B crooner Drake bounded onstage last month, he was greeted with a hail of applause as well as an eerie cathodic blue glow that quickly settled over the 2,300 capacity auditorium — the side effect of hundreds of camera phones aimed and at the ready for Drake's high-energy opening number, "Forever."

Presidential aide Vincent W. Foster Jr. was buried Friday after an emotional memorial service in which his childhood friend Bill Clinton praised his strength, accomplishments and steady advice. In remarks at St. Andrew Cathedral in Little Rock, Clinton told of Foster's life of achievement and noted how the former White House deputy counsel had been praised in an Arkansas newspaper as one of the state's "best and brightest."

Netflix has attracted more than 20 million subscribers, more than 20,000 movies and television shows for its online service, and more than its share of headaches in Hollywood. There's one thing it has yet to attract: competition. Netflix is the only company that streams a large selection of movies and TV shows online for a monthly fee. That will probably change. Retail giants such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Amazon.com Inc., and Best Buy Co., Internet television provider Hulu, and satellite broadcaster Dish Network Corp.

The Inland Empire has made some big job gains during the last year, but forecasters expect it will lag behind the broader California recovery, with an unemployment rate in the double digits through 2014. The hard-hit area made up of Riverside and San Bernardino counties is expected to see its jobless rate fall to 10.6% in 2014 - above the 8.5% projected for the state as a whole, according to a report from Claremont McKenna College and UCLA released Tuesday. There are some upbeat signs, according to the report.

At first glance, there doesn't seem anything untoward about WellPoint, the insurance giant that owns Anthem Blue Cross, buying contact-lens retailer 1-800-Contacts. The deal "further diversifies the company's revenue stream" and enhances "our efforts to build trusted relationships with consumers across the entire country," said Angela Braly, WellPoint's chief exec. But a major health insurer's acquisition of a major healthcare provider — 1-800-Contacts is the country's largest direct-to-consumer seller of contact lenses — highlights an emerging trend in the medical world and raises troubling questions about conflict of interest.

The Federal Reserve has released guidelines that could encourage the practice of converting lender-owned foreclosed homes into rental properties. By converting foreclosures to rentals with steady cash flow, banks could reduce the number of their "substandard assets," a classification used by banking regulators to determine the health of banks. The central bank also said that lenders could receive Community Reinvestment Act credit for providing housing to low-income and moderate-income people by successfully converting foreclosed homes into rentals.

I pitched a tent Monday night in a neighborhood of the angry, the disaffected and the disillusioned. "Are you aware that the sprinklers come on at night?" a fellow camper asked as I drove my tent stakes into the ground. I wasn't, but hey, a little personal discomfort is the price of revolution, right? The media haven't known quite what to make of the demonstrators who've taken to the streets in Los Angeles, New York and elsewhere. The occupiers have been knocked for not having a clear message, and they've been called the tea party of the left.

Dy, a.k.a. "Dysprosium," a name taken from a rare chemical element and meant to suggest his elusive nature, glides across the underbelly of the edgy city. It's after midnight in Kabul, approaching a favored hour for would-be suicide bombers to enter the city while security forces sleep, so they can strike during the morning rush. Dy, however, is armed only with cans of spray paint, and his intentions are peaceful: to alter the drab contours of this embattled city. Identifying a wall, Dy pulls the paint cans out of his bag and works quickly, writing slogans and crafting images that rail against corruption, repression and the malign influence of drug money.

A mysterious object that is eating interstellar gas and emitting X-rays in a telltale pattern is almost certainly a very young black hole ? the first one people have been able to observe at such an early stage, scientists said Monday. An amateur astronomer first spotted the object 31 years ago, when it was a star in the process of exploding into a supernova. Since then, the Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes have documented that X-rays have been emitted from the former star at a surprisingly steady rate over a 12-year period from 1995 to 2007.

GOP presidential hopeful Fred Thompson is shaking up his still-unofficial campaign. Acting campaign manager Tom Collamore will still advise Thompson, but his political operation now will be run by former senator and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham and a Florida GOP strategist, Randy Enright, said Thompson spokeswoman Linda Rozett.

The documents Chan Share clutched as he left China were forged. It was 1939 and Asians were not allowed to immigrate to the United States. So, like many others, Share claimed he was a "paper son" and had a California-born relative whose records were lost in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

The crowd at downtown Los Angeles' Club Nokia arrived primed and pumped up. Not just to be entertained, but, more palpably, to witness a make-or-break moment. When the Canadian rapper-cum-R&B crooner Drake bounded onstage last month, he was greeted with a hail of applause as well as an eerie cathodic blue glow that quickly settled over the 2,300 capacity auditorium — the side effect of hundreds of camera phones aimed and at the ready for Drake's high-energy opening number, "Forever."

Ford Motor Co.'s surprisingly strong quarterly earnings capped a day of upbeat news that showed the U.S. economy continuing to gain strength in key sectors including manufacturing and housing. The only U.S. automaker to avoid filing for bankruptcy protection this year, Ford on Monday reported a nearly $1-billion profit from July to September, helped by cost-cutting, the government's "cash for clunkers" program and strong demand for its new F-150 pickups. But Ford's strengthening financials underscore the major weakness plaguing the nascent economic recovery.