Rain

First of three parts Tiffany Lee wanted a car. She was weary of the two-hour bus ride to her job at a UCLA Health System clinic. She hated having to ask friends to drive her 7-year-old son to his asthma treatments. But as a single mother with three children, bad credit and a $27,000-a-year salary, she couldn't find a bank or dealership willing to give her a loan. Then a friend steered her to Repossess Auto Sales in Hawthorne. Another buyer might have balked at the deal she was offered.

If the Angels were in the English Premier League, they'd be in danger of being relegated to the second division right now. They didn't look like they belonged on the same field as the Texas Rangers on Friday night. Josh Hamilton continued his torrid slugging with his major league-leading 16th and 17th homers, a towering shot to right in the second inning and a laser to right in the fourth, and Yu Darvish weathered a 1-hour, 56-minute rain delay to throw 51/3 solid innings to lead the Rangers to a 10-3 victory at the Ballpark in Arlington.

In the remote northeastern corner of Guatemala, archaeologists have found what appears to be the 9th century workplace of a city scribe, an unusual dwelling adorned with magnificent pictures of the king and other royals and the oldest known Maya calendar. This year has been particularly controversial among some cultists because of the belief that the Maya calendar predicts a major cataclysm - perhaps the end of the world - on Dec. 21, 2012. Archaeologists know that is not true, but the new find, written on the plaster equivalent of a modern scientist's whiteboard, strongly reinforces the idea that the Maya calendar projects thousands of years into the future.

Rain Dragon A Novel Jon Raymond Bloomsbury: 272 pp., $16 paper FADE IN: A car idles in the foggy pre-dawn, pointed at the end of a cul-de-sac. Inside, an attractive 30-ish couple, DAMON and AMY, are worn from travel. She is dark-haired, pale-skinned and tense, and she leans against the passenger window. Behind the wheel, he carefully watches her mood as they evaluate the appearance of an owl in front of them. Good omen or bad? They can't decide, and continue on, lost.

A low pressure system sitting off Cape Cod doused New England and the mid-Atlantic Coast with rain, while cold Canadian air pushed into the northern high plains and headed for the Midwest. The National Weather Service said one to two inches of rain fell over parts of New England during a 24-hour period, with two inches measured at Providence, R. I., and more than an inch in New York City. Heavy rain during the weekend was also reported in Hartford, Conn., and Portland, Me. Cold air followed a frontal system across Manitoba and Saskatchewan into the northern plains.

Sitting in a waiting room full of sniffling and sneezing people, Keith Varga can tell this allergy season is different from most. It's worse. "I've had allergies since I was a child, but they usually don't flare up until mid-March or early April, never this early," said Varga, of Santa Ana. What's producing so many red eyes and itchy noses? A season of sustained rainfall. While the hills may be green and lush, for allergy sufferers, the hills are also alive with pollen and mold spores.

'Even the Rain' Rating: Unrated Running time: 1 hour, 44 minutes Playing: At Landmark, West Los Angeles; ArcLight, Hollywood; Laemmle Playhouse, Pasadena; Town Center, Encino.

Two days of warmer temperatures in Southern California will give way to a storm late Friday, the National Weather Service says. Showers should hit the Los Angeles area sometime Friday night and continue into Saturday, said weather specialist Bonnie Bartling. The coast and valleys could see 1 to 2 inches of rain, and the mountains are expected to get even more. "If anybody is going up to the resorts, they want to think about the driving conditions in the mountains," Bartling said.

My, my, what a dolorous recital of calamity we have in the weather story ("Storm Batters California for Second Day," Part A, Feb. 18)! For long we have been on our knees supplicating the Great Spirit for rain. The Great Spirit has responded. How about a little exultation, not to mention gratitude? Glory be! Rain at last! VICTOR BOESEN Pacific Palisades

Considering how ambitious it is, how many different narrative strands it employs, the Spanish film "Even the Rain" does a remarkably good job keeping its disparate elements involving and in harmony. A behind-the-scenes look at the trials of movie-making, a commentary on both recent historic events and those 500 years in the past, as well as a film political enough to be dedicated to the memory of radical historian Howard Zinn, "Even the Rain" is a lot for Spanish director Icíar Bollaín to attempt.

La Niña, the demon diva of drought, has ended, but what comes next could be even more foreboding: La Nada. La Nada, or "nothing" in Spanish, is climatologist Bill Patzert's nickname for when surface sea temperatures in the equatorial Pacific Ocean are about normal. That means ocean temperatures are not too warm, which would trigger an El Niño and would typically mean a rainy winter in Southern California. The sea also is not too cold, which produces a La Niña and usually means a dry season.

CHICAGO - The Dodgers started the day fretting about a hamstring injury to slugger Matt Kemp, then enduring a 2-hour 41-minute rain delay at Wrigley Field. When the game against the Chicago Cubs did start Sunday, the Dodgers quickly had another worry when third baseman Jerry Hairston Jr. injured his left hamstring running to first base and had to leave. And one more concern surfaced in the ninth inning when Javy Guerra blew his third save this season, raising anew the question of how long he'll be the Dodgers' closer.

A new pair of ads for iPhone 4S may have personal assistants around town a little concerned. Siri has gone Hollywood, helping celebrities figure out things like rain and where to find organic mushrooms. In a departure from Apple's earlier ads that used celebrities only for warm and authoritative voice-overs, a couple of new TV ads feature actor Samuel L. Jackson and "New Girl" actress Zooey Deschanel engaging with Siri. Fans note that Sam Jackson doesn't curse and Zooey Deschanel doesn't sing in these ads. You'll have to wait for the parodies that will certainly come.

Steady rain all but canceled Friday afternoon's one-hour practice session for the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. Reigning Izod IndyCar Champion Dario Franchitti drove one lap around the 1.97-mile course on the city's seaside streets, then pulled his car in for the day. Scott Dixon, his teammate at Target Chip Ganassi Racing, also attempted a lap but hit a large patch of standing water, spun and crashed lightly into the wall. No other drivers went out on the 11-turn course.

Remember all that talk about the dynasty the Galaxy was building? Never mind. The New York Yankees of soccer looked more like the Seattle Mariners on Saturday, bumbling, fumbling and stumbling in a 3-1 loss to the New England Revolution. "We were certainly beat tonight from the opening kickoff. It's that simple," said Coach Bruce Arena, whose team fell to 1-2 in MLS play and 1-3-1 overall. "We were very poor. " And there may have been some collateral damage in this latest loss after Arena, irate over his team's poor first half, took his anger out on David Beckham, pulling him in favor of Michael Stephens at the start of the second half.

Peter Guber is bringing some Hollywood flash, and drama, to the Dodgers. A longtime player in film and television, Guber, 70, has had a hand in some of the best-known movies of the last four decades — including "Batman," "Rain Man" and "Midnight Express" — but also has a checkered record, stemming primarily from his troubled tenure as head of Sony Pictures. Guber and Magic Johnson have joined forces before, including on the Dayton, Ohio, single-A affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds, which they continue to own. Guber also once owned the Dodgers' triple-A affiliate when it was located in Las Vegas.

Winter storms that brought rain to California's Central Coast caused a big rock slide on Highway 1 that has shut traffic in both directions about 25 miles south of Big Sur, according to Caltrans. The road closed around 3 p.m. Sunday and remained shut Monday with no estimated time of reopening. "The rock slide is due to rain over the weekend," Caltrans spokesman Jim Shivers said, adding that road crews were on site and assessing the damage. The closure is near Limekiln Creek near the town of Lucia.  Northbound travelers who want to go to Big Sur, where all businesses remain open, should head east on California 46 near Cambria and connect with the 101 Freeway north.

The race at today's Auto Club 400 NASCAR race might not be to the finish line as much as it is to beat the rain. Drivers were certainly aware of the impending weather system that by mid-afternoon should be soaking the Fontana area. So, you can probably expect a more robust start of the race as they try to put themselves in the best position when the rains come. They need to complete 100 of the scheduled 200 laps in order for the race to be official. But, with the sky turning dark as driver introductions started, the stands appear to be filling despite a multi-car pileup on Interstate 10 at Cherry Avenue, one of the main arteries to the track.

  Tony Stewart was declared the winner of the Auto Club 400 in Fontana on Sunday when officials called the NASCAR Sprint Cup race after an approximately 30-minute rain delay. Stewart clearly had the best car and worked his way up from his starting position of ninth to take the lead by the 85th lap. The race was without a caution period until Lap 123 when rain started falling in Turn 3. They continued under caution for six laps before red flagging the race.