Perez

A freshman Democrat from Los Angeles won the unanimous support of his party colleagues Thursday to be the next leader of the California Assembly, a choice that would make John A. Perez the first openly gay lawmaker to hold the powerful post. Perez, a 40-year-old former labor union official and a cousin of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, is slated to be confirmed as the next speaker in a floor vote set for early January. The choice of Perez ended several contentious weeks of infighting among the Assembly's ruling Democrats -- who hold a 50 to 29 edge over the GOP -- and came only after his chief rival, Assemblyman Kevin de Leon (D-Los Angeles)

The way Louie Pérez remembers it, there was nothing more all-American than growing up Mexican American in Los Angeles in the 1960s. Yes, there were serious economic and social roadblocks to Latinos joining the middle-class mainstream. But Pérez and his friends danced to the same music as their non-Latino peers, wore the same clothes - Sonny and Cher furry vests, anyone? - and tuned in and turned on to the same groovy counterculture experiments. They stood shoulder to shoulder for the same social causes, and many of them died fighting in the same southeast Asian war. "The Chicanos in the '60s didn't live in a vacuum," Pérez, principal lyricist and multi-instrumentalist of the legendary East L.A. rock band Los Lobos, said recently.

Bob Bell, Socker co-managing general partner, said Monday that he has fined midfielder Hugo Perez $4,500 and suspended him for two weeks, retroactive to Sept. 1. Last Thursday, Bell said he planned to suspend Perez for the 1987-88 season because Perez tried out for Ajax Amsterdam, a European club team, in July without telling the Sockers. Bell said Perez was planning to join the renowned Dutch club after his contract with San Diego expires June 30, 1988.

SAN DIEGO — A Marine staff sergeant pleaded not guilty Thursday to a charge of murdering the 22-year-old wife of a fellow Marine as the prosecutor announced that the victim's blood and a possible murder weapon were found in the defendant's car. A judge ordered Staff Sgt. Louis Perez, 45, held in jail on $3-million bail in the killing of Brittany Dawn Killgore, whose body was found dumped near Lake Skinner in Riverside County. Killgore had been set to attend a dinner cruise in San Diego with Perez and his girlfriend on April 13 but instead sent a text message to a friend saying she was in "distress" and needed help, Deputy Dist.

A plan to let oil companies leave large parts of decommissioned drilling rigs in the ocean off California's coast, saving them hundreds of millions of dollars, is sailing through the Legislature at a time when the Gulf of Mexico spill has made the industry politically toxic. The "rigs to reef" idea, which proponents say would create marine habitat, has been around for more than a decade. Former Gov. Gray Davis vetoed such a proposal in 2001, citing a lack of proof that abandoned oil rigs help the environment.

SAN DIEGO — A Marine staff sergeant pleaded not guilty Thursday to a charge of murdering the 22-year-old wife of a fellow Marine as the prosecutor announced that the victim's blood and a possible murder weapon were found in the defendant's car. A judge ordered Staff Sgt. Louis Perez, 45, held in jail on $3-million bail in the killing of Brittany Dawn Killgore, whose body was found dumped near Lake Skinner in Riverside County. Killgore had been set to attend a dinner cruise in San Diego with Perez and his girlfriend on April 13 but instead sent a text message to a friend saying she was in "distress" and needed help, Deputy Dist.

Kicker Louis Perez, who has made 23 of 33 field goals in his two-year career, needs one more to move into a fourth-place tie with Norm Johnson and Efren Herrera. Perez has made eight of 12 field goals this season, including all six attempted from inside the 40-yard line. . . . Tailback Daron Washington has surpassed Kevin Williams as the Bruins' leading rusher with 389 yards and five touchdowns. Williams, who has been hampered by injuries this season, has 388 yards and three touchdowns.

Former Los Angeles Police Officer Rafael Perez, who recently stopped cooperating with prosecutors investigating the Rampart police corruption case, should not be moved from a jail to a state prison to finish his sentence for stealing cocaine, a Superior Court judge ruled Friday. Judge Robert Perry said he was concerned about Perez's safety.

The California Supreme Court's chief justice has called for an evaluation of an Orange County judge after he reduced charges against an Anaheim father who burned his 5-year-old son's hand on a gas flame for stealing gum, officials said Tuesday. Chief Justice Ronald M. George has called on the presiding judge in Orange County to evaluate Judge James O. Perez in the wake of media reports about the case, said Lynn Holton, press officer for the state Supreme Court.

The state Assembly soon could have a new top leader, or at least an heir apparent, as a testy battle to replace Speaker Karen Bass comes to a head a year before her term ends. A freshman Democrat from Los Angeles has edged ahead in the sweepstakes to succeed Bass (D-Los Angeles), who has presided over a year and a half of budgetary turmoil -- and she has thrown him her support. Assemblyman John Perez, a cousin of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa who is heading into just his second season in Sacramento, could make history by becoming the first openly gay Assembly leader.

Among all the painfully underfunded programs in California, which ones should receive extra money if the state were to suddenly bring in an extra billion dollars a year? That's like asking a cash-strapped homeowner who comes into a few thousand dollars which house repair he would tackle after years of deferring the most basic projects. Replace the dying furnace or the balky toilets? How about the dangerously faulty electrical wiring? Chances are the homeowner wouldn't put a new granite countertop at the top of the list, yet that's in effect what a pair of legislative proposals, SB 1500 and 1501, by Assembly Speaker John A. Perez (D-Los Angeles)

SAN DIEGO -- A body, possibly of a Marine wife missing since Friday, has been found in rural Riverside County near Lake Skinner, the San Diego County Sheriff's Department said Tuesday. Authorities also have arrested a 27-year-old woman on suspicion of homicide in connection with the disappearance of 22-year-old Brittany Dawn Killgore, Sheriff's Capt. Duncan Fraser said. The suspect, Jessica Lynn Lopez, was found Tuesday morning in a San Diego motel after an apparent suicide attempt and was taken to UC San Diego Medical Center, Fraser said.

Adrien Broner is unbeaten, cocky, 22, and a world champion who survived the mean streets of Cincinnati. Eloy Perez is unbeaten, humble, 25, and a challenger who's made continued sacrifices since leaving home five years ago to train in the agricultural town of Salinas, Calif. The pair fight Saturday night on HBO as the co-main event in St. Louis to the featured battle between former junior-welterweight champion Devon Alexander and Marcos Maidana. "This can be war, a fight of the year," Perez said.

Choose any significant soccer event in Southern California over the last 38 years, and chances are Ralph Perez was there. The 1984 Olympic Games? He worked as a statistician "just so I could get to the games. " The World Cup a decade later? He was a technical advisor. Major League Soccer? He was with the league from the start and even helped coach the Galaxy to two MLS Cup wins. He also founded programs at Cal State Los Angeles and Cal State San Bernardino, ran teams at Cal State Fullerton and Whittier College and might be the only man in history to coach teams in all three divisions of NCAA play, the MLS, the Olympics and the World Cup. All of that won him a lifetime achievement award last month at the National Soccer Coaches Assn.

While working as the town's top administrator, Cudahy's then-city manager also served as a director of a private utility that sold water to the small Los Angeles County city, boosting his income by as much as $23,580 a year and raising conflict-of-interest questions. In the dual roles, George Perez was both seller and buyer — setting rates for the water that was sold to the city, and then advising the city on buying the water. Perez was fired from his more than $200,000-a-year job as city manager in March with little explanation, but he remains president of Tract 180 Water Co. Cudahy's former city attorney, who was terminated along with Perez, serves as the water company's lawyer.

Presidential election results seemed to indicate clear winners Sunday in Guatemala and Nicaragua, two Central American countries where democracy has been dramatically weakened by violence and political abuse. In Nicaragua, President Daniel Ortega, a one-time Sandinista revolutionary who now professes to be a born-again Christian, looked set to be reelected, based on preliminary results, after eviscerating the constitution to become eligible for a third term. In Guatemala, retired army Gen. Otto Perez Molina, who had the edge going into Sunday's vote, was well on the way to victory, according to partial results.

In the opening minutes of "Sin Mapa," the new documentary about Calle 13, the camera pans across a small group of curanderos (shamans) from Amantani, a tiny island in the middle of Peru's Lake Titicaca, who are gathered for a special ceremony. They brandish coca leaves, kantuta ("flowers of the earth") and a llama fetus adorned in the colors of the Peruvian flag. Their guest of honor is Calle 13's MC Rene Perez, a.k.a. Residente, come to escape the shallow trappings of overnight success.

SAN DIEGO -- A body, possibly of a Marine wife missing since Friday, has been found in rural Riverside County near Lake Skinner, the San Diego County Sheriff's Department said Tuesday. Authorities also have arrested a 27-year-old woman on suspicion of homicide in connection with the disappearance of 22-year-old Brittany Dawn Killgore, Sheriff's Capt. Duncan Fraser said. The suspect, Jessica Lynn Lopez, was found Tuesday morning in a San Diego motel after an apparent suicide attempt and was taken to UC San Diego Medical Center, Fraser said.

Guatemalan voters pick a president Sunday at a moment when deepening drug crime threatens the nation's feeble justice system and doubts hang over both candidates. Rampant violence by encroaching Mexican drug traffickers provides an ominous backdrop to the sharp-elbowed runoff between the front-runner, retired Gen. Otto Perez Molina, and congressman Manuel Baldizon, who came in a distant second in the initial round of voting in September. Both men vow aggressive action. The rightist Perez Molina promises to use army troops to attack traffickers and says he will cut the murder rate in half, while the populist Baldizon has called for greater use of the death penalty.

At L'Epicerie Market in Culver City, the escargots arrive in a small heap on the plate, not served in the usual shells but napped in a silky white wine sauce with ribbons of ham and velvety leaves of sautéed spinach. The dish is escargots in the style of Périgord in southwest France, and the flavors just sing. My visiting French professor is impressed just as much by the beautiful Muscadet we're drinking from Pierre Luneau-Papin. Sur lie — aged on the lees — it's rich and nuanced.