New York

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa spoke publicly for the first time Monday about the breakup of his 20-year marriage, saying he was responsible for the split even as he refused to talk about what caused it. In a somber meeting with reporters at City Hall, Villaraigosa declined to answer questions about whether the break with his wife, Corina, was triggered by another romantic relationship.

Chris Nelson , the newest Angel, strode into the clubhouse just after 8:30 Sunday morning, found his corner locker and began to unpack. It didn't take long. "They just told me to take my essential stuff," Nelson said. "That's all I need, a couple of bats, a glove and some spikes. " You can hardly blame Nelson for packing light. After spending the first nine years of his career with the Colorado Rockies organization, the infielder has been with three teams in the last three weeks after the Angels claimed him Saturday when the New York Yankees put him on waivers.

Often considered the most popular entertainer of the 20th century--his extravagant performances set still-unchallenged attendance records--Liberace (dubbed "Mr. Showman" in tribute to his flashy theatricality) sued a London columnist in 1956 for implying he was gay. He won.

A word of advice. Never use the phrase "just a burger" with Nancy Silverton. I did and was promptly challenged on every aspect of burger-making, starting with where to buy the meat, what grind, size of patty, how to cook it, what to serve with it, what pickle, what bun, what ketchup, what mayonnaise, what mustard, what cheese, how thick to slice the avocado, what bacon, what smoke on the bacon, what occasion. The co-founder of Campanile restaurant and La Brea Bakery may be famous for more sophisticated food, but to her, the burger is one of the great American dishes, and exactly the thing that she likes to give friends for an end-of-summer barbecue.

Vietnam veteran John Otte did his best to forget the war. He got married, raised two sons and made a career working at credit unions. But as Otte neared retirement, memories of combat flooded back. Starting in 2005, he filed a series of claims with Veterans Affairs for disability compensation, contending that many of his health problems stemmed from the war. The VA agreed, and now the 65-year-old with two Purple Hearts receives $1,900 a month for post-traumatic stress disorder and diabetes - and for having shrapnel scars on his arms.

Veteran "KTLA 5 Morning News" anchor Michaela Pereira will be leaving the station at the end of May to join CNN's new morning show in New York. Pereira will be the news anchor for the show, which will be hosted by Chris Cuomo and Kate Bolduan. The announcement was made jointly by KTLA and President of CNN Worldwide Jeff Zucker, who is aggressively shaking up the struggling network's lineup and personalities. "I've been looking forward to this announcement since I first joined CNN," Zucker said in a statement.

WASHINGTON - President Obama said Friday he wanted to put more Americans to work by slashing the amount of time it takes to grant federal approval for big job-creating projects. But Obama's choice of venue for his remarks - a Baltimore company that makes mining and pumping equipment - provided fodder for Republicans. They noted that the company president had, just the day before, testified on Capitol Hill in support of the Keystone XL pipeline, which the Obama administration has delayed for years over environmental concerns.

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.

NEW YORK - The next wave of union protesters isn't blue collar. It's lawyers, paralegals, secretaries, helicopter pilots, judges, insurance agents and podiatrists. These white-collar workers are not exactly the picture of the labor movement, but they are becoming a more essential part of it as they turn to unions for help in a tough economy as bosses try to squeeze out more profits. "Employers have been downsizing, asking employees to take on larger roles, making them work more hours," said Nicole Korkolis, spokeswoman for the Office and Professional Employees International Union.

Pianist Van Cliburn, who died of bone cancer Feb. 27, did not go in for routine blandishments -- no matter that he was a paragon of Southern gentlemanliness.  “But I'm a great audience,” he told me some years ago, explaining how he would rather “sit back and enjoy the artistry of others” than perform himself. Indeed, that desire did not go unrequited. Days before his death and an hour before their Fort Worth recital,  Joshua Bell  and his piano accompanist Sam Haywood visited Cliburn at his home near the Bass Performance Hall, knowing the end was near.

When: 10 a.m. PDT. Where: Red Bull Arena, New York. On the air: ESPN2, ESPN Deportes; Radio: 1150. Records: Galaxy 5-3-2, Red Bulls 6-4-3. Record vs. Red Bulls (2012): 0-1-0. Update: The Galaxy ends its three-game trip against a New York team that sits atop Major League Soccer's Eastern Conference. The Galaxy arrived in the Big Apple with momentum, having defeated the Union in Philadelphia, 4-1, on Wednesday with its powerful front line back together.

Staff writer Tim Hubbard looks at two first basemen who have been surprising through the season's first quarter, and another who is off to a dreadful start. ON THE UPSWING Mark Reynolds, Cleveland Despite averaging more than 27 home runs per season, Reynolds is known for his ability to not hit the ball. After all, he did strike out more than 200 times three times. But in the last three years, it has been Reynolds' batting average that has kept fantasy owners at arm's length.

Ruling out foul play, federal investigators were looking at a fractured rail as the possible cause of the Connecticut train crash that left dozens of commuters injured and is expected to disrupt travel in and out of New York City for weeks to come. Earl Weener, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board, said in a media briefing that investigators had discovered that a section of the eastbound track was fractured at the rail joint. A portion of that track will be sent to a lab for analysis, Weener said.

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.

Residents of a Tribeca apartment building are fuming over a new exhibition of photographs in which they star -- and which were taken without their knowledge. Some of the residents are considering legal action, the New York Post reported. The apartment building is luxurious, a tower of glass and steel. The photographs, aimed at its windows from afar, are mysteriously muted and voyeuristic. The subjects of the photos? Outraged. PHOTOS: Arts and culture in pictures by The Times L.A. native Arne Svenson's “The Neighbors,” which opened at the Julie Saul Gallery in Chelsea on Saturday and had showed at L.A.'s Western Project earlier this year, feels a little more like Hitchcock's 1954 “Rear Window” than contemporary photography.

Taylor Mead, an underground cinema legend whose comic charm and sense of the surreal inspired Andy Warhol and other seminal figures in the alternative film world, died Wednesday in Denver. He was 88. A fixture of bohemian New York who was also a poet and artist, Mead was visiting family in Colorado when he had a stroke, said his niece, Priscilla Mead. Called "the Charlie Chaplin of the 1960s underground," Mead was an elfin figure with kewpie-doll eyes who appeared, by his count, in 130 films, starting with the 1960 art house classic "The Flower Thief.

NEW YORK - Scott Elyanow had clung to the red, long-sleeved sweatshirt with the words "Marblehead High School" for 20 years. It had softened with age, like the memory of the long-ago love who had given it to him. But Elyanow was nearing 40, and what he had gained in years and wisdom he hadn't gained in living space - his apartment measures 275 square feet, including the bathroom, kitchen and an entryway with overhead clearance of 5 feet, 7...

Having been born to one of the most famous couples of this century--America's greatest modern writer, F. Scott Fitzgerald and his talented flapper wife Zelda Sayre--Scottie Fitzgerald was thrust a heavy mantle, particularly as their only child. Add to that the heady cocktail of parental alcoholism, prescription drug abuse, numerous failed suicide attempts and schizophrenia. Talent and tragedy were genetically passed on to Scottie as surely as her blond hair and blue eyes. Until now, very little was known about the Fitzgeralds' daughter beyond her school days.

NEW YORK - As Bank of America Corp. pulls itself free from a swamp of mortgage liabilities, new troubles keep threatening to suck it back under. BofA agreed to settle a big insurer's claims over faulty mortgage bonds for $1.7 billion Monday. But it found itself threatened with new legal action for failing to abide by a landmark settlement aimed at saving homeowners from foreclosure. The Charlotte, N.C., bank said it would settle a lawsuit dating from the financial crisis with mortgage insurance specialist MBIA Inc. The insurer had been pressing BofA for more than $5 billion in damages.

Eastern Conference semifinals No. 2 Knicks vs. No. 3 Pacers Season series: Tied, 2-2. Key stat: Indiana held Atlanta to 89.3 points per game in the first round, limiting the Hawks to 33% shooting in the final two games. Outlook: It may seem like old times with these teams rekindling a playoff rivalry that saw them go head to head six times from 1993 to 2000, but about the only reminder of the Pacers of Reggie Miller and the Knicks of Patrick Ewing could be Spike Lee watching the action at Madison Square Garden.