Personnel

Amid a financial crunch that has forced painful cutbacks at arts institutions across the country, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art is forging ahead on many fronts. The board of trustees continues to grow. Construction of a new building for temporary exhibitions, funded by Stewart and Lynda Resnick and scheduled to open next year, is on track. LACMA visitors currently have a choice of three large special exhibitions as well as permanent collection galleries.

A Navy officer could face punishment, including discharge, after testifying Thursday that she moonlighted for the alleged prostitution ring run by the so-called D.C. Madam while stationed at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md. Lt. Cmdr. Rebecca C. Dickinson managed the Naval Academy's food services between September 2004 and May 2007, Navy officials said. She also taught a course on leadership for the department of leadership, ethics and law. She testified Thursday in U.S.

Now that "American Idol" voters have kicked Navy sailor Phil Stacey off the singing competition, is the Pentagon considering sending him to Iraq? Navy and Pentagon officials weren't saying Thursday what was next for Stacey, an active-duty petty officer 3rd class and a vocalist with the Navy Band Southeast in Jacksonville, Fla. During the competition, Stacey was temporarily assigned to the Los Angeles recruiting district.

A government analyst testified Thursday that semen recovered from a woman who was killed with two of her young daughters matched the DNA of a soldier acquitted of the decades-old crime. Jennifer Lehn, a forensic analyst for the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, told a military court that there was virtually no chance someone other than Master Sgt. Timothy B. Hennis matched the semen sample. She described the odds as 1 in 12.

The Marine Corps announced Thursday that it had dropped charges against Lance Cpl. Justin L. Sharratt, who was accused of murdering three Iraqi brothers in November 2005. Sharratt was one of eight Marines initially accused in the slayings of 24 civilians in the Iraqi town of Haditha after a roadside bomb killed a Marine. Four enlisted men were charged with the killings and four officers with dereliction of duty for not ordering a war crimes investigation. Lt. Gen. James N.

CAMP PENDLETON -- Some 500 recruits from India Company, 3rd Recruit Training Battalion, are on a fast-paced, single-file, five-mile march over dusty, weed-choked hills. Each recruit -- average age 19 -- carries a 60-pound pack on his back, an 8-pound rifle in his hands and a desire in his heart to become a Marine. Key to achieving that dream is their drill instructor, the DI. Within a mile, feet hurt, faces flush, backs ache and lungs burn. Still, their DIs demand that the recruits push on.

The Marine Corps announced Wednesday that a 65-year-old Florida man being held on a charge of deserting from Camp Pendleton in 1965 had been released from the brig at Camp Lejeune, N.C., and would be discharged without a court-martial. Marine officials had been pondering what to do with Jerry Texiero, who had deserted to avoid being sent to Vietnam. Texiero, who has lived under a false name in Tarpon Springs, Fla.

Washington Mutual Inc. on Wednesday told 1,000 employees who work at a call center in Chatsworth that it would move their jobs to Texas and Costa Rica to cut costs. The positions will be phased out starting in two months, with some employees offered work at a new Washington Mutual center in San Antonio -- where most of the jobs are being moved -- and others given job-search assistance, the Seattle-based thrift said.

The Army has charged seven paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division with engaging in sex acts in videos shown on a gay pornography website. Three of the soldiers face courts-martial on charges of sodomy, pandering and engaging in sex acts for money, according to a statement released by the military Friday. Four other soldiers received what the military called nonjudicial punishments. The Army has recommended that all the paratroopers involved be discharged.

The Navy has begun a criminal investigation after Social Security numbers and other personal data for 28,000 sailors and family members were found on a civilian website. The Navy said the information was in five documents and included people's names, birth dates and Social Security numbers. Navy spokesman Lt. Justin Cole would not identify the website or its owner but said the information had been removed. He did not provide any details about how the information ended up on the site.