Planned

Los Angeles Fire Chief Brian Cummings vowed Thursday to press ahead with a controversial plan to reassign dozens of city firefighters from fire engines to ambulance duty, despite an outcry from groups representing  city firefighters and the department's top commanders. The plan would add 11 new ambulances to the LAFD's fleet by removing one member per shift from 22 firetrucks across the city. The chief said the change is necessary to reshape the department to fulfill its primary task: providing emergency medical care.

Federal authorities intend to remove endangered species protections for all gray wolves in the Lower 48 states, carving out an a exception for a small pocket of about 75 Mexican wolves in the wild in Arizona and New Mexico, according to a draft document obtained by The Times. The sweeping rule by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service would eliminate protection for wolves 18 years after the government reestablished the predators in the West, where they had been hunted to extinction. Their reintroduction was a success, with the population growing to the thousands.

SACRAMENTO - Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday promised lawmakers "the battle of their lives" if they balk at his bid to overhaul state education. A day after Democratic state senators announced their differences with him over his proposal to change the way schools are funded, the governor came out swinging. "This is not an ordinary legislative measure. This is a cause," a combative Brown said at a Capitol news conference, flanked by 20 school superintendents who support his program.

The last vestiges of the controversial Bowl Championship Series, conceived years ago on a cocktail napkin, will be phased out this week at a swank Pasadena hotel. College football power brokers are meeting in Southern California to tie up loose BCS ends as they pin down the particulars for a new four-team playoff beginning in the 2014 season. "We've done a lot of the heavy lifting," BCS Executive Director Bill Hancock said. On this week's agenda for the BCS commissioners: • Picking a name for the new system.

Apple's stock is on a tear following the electronics giant's announcement it would buy back $60 billion in stock and boost its dividend 15% to $3.05 a share. The huge buyback plan and dividend increase eclipsed a somewhat disappointing second-quarter earnings report in which profit dipped for the first time in a decade. The company also forecast that its earnings in the current quarter would be lower. Apple shares are up more than $20 to $426.79 in after-hours trading. The stock closed at $406.13, up $7.64, in regular trading.

After a bumpy 17-year process that once proposed developing thousands of homes on its famous Hollywood back lot, NBCUniversal won unanimous approval Tuesday from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors for a plan that lets it expand its Universal Studios theme park. The $1.6-billion project will include nearly 2 million square feet in office and production space, a bike path along the adjacent Los Angeles River that would eventually allow cyclists to pedal to Studio City, and a Harry Potter-themed attraction.

BOSTON - Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has told investigators that he and his older brother planned the Boston Marathon bombings only a week or so before the race, that they were operating alone, and that they received no training or support from outside terrorist groups, officials said Tuesday. His comments appear to support investigators' theory that the attack was hastily conceived by two siblings who were self-radicalized. Writing answers from his hospital bed because he was shot in the throat, the 19-year-old accused bomber also said that his slain older brother, Tamerlan, was "upset" by the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and that anger was the motivation to plant two crude homemade bombs along the crowded race route.

JOINT BASE LEWIS-McCHORD, Wash. - U.S. Army Sgt. John Russell pleaded guilty Monday to second-degree murder in the fatal shooting of five fellow service members and the attempted murder of another in Iraq in 2009 after the government agreed not to seek the death penalty. Russell, 48, was dispassionate and matter-of-fact as he gave his first public account of his methodical march with an M-16 rifle through the Camp Liberty combat stress center - the only mass killing of Americans by a U.S. serviceman during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

If you go A number of cruise lines journey to Hawaii from the West Coast, October through April: Princess Cruises , (800) 774-6237, http://www.princess.com , from Los Angeles and San Francisco. Carnival, (888) 227-6482, http://www.carnival.com , from Long Beach. Celebrity Cruises, (888) 245-4254, http://www.celebritycruise.com , from Los Angeles and San Diego. Holland America LIne, (877) 932-4259, http://www.hollandamerica.com , from San Diego.