Reporters

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.

The Los Angeles Fire Commission on Tuesday delivered a strong rebuke of a highly anticipated report by the fire chief regarding a controversial plan to beef up the number of ambulances assigned to firehouses. The report by LAFD Chief Brian Cummings was intended to quell criticism of his plan to reassign 22 firefighters per shift from engines to ambulances, a move he said was necessary to address a growing load of 911 calls for medical help. But several members of the five-person civilian board that oversees the department, including the panel's president, slammed the chief's report as vague and unfocused, asking for major revisions before they would consider it acceptable.  “Because I'm a schoolteacher, I write in red,” President Genethia Hudley-Hayes said, waving the chief's report to show how she had marked it up with a red pen. “On every page of this report I had questions.

Keegan Bradley had no thoughts about a course record, or the possibility of a 59, after consecutive bogeys in the middle of his opening round in the Byron Nelson Championship at Irving, Texas. Until his 136-yard wedge shot on his final hole Thursday. "It was going right at it. [A 59] crossed my mind for a second, and it would be unbelievable if I buried this," Bradley said. "But I had three feet to shoot 60. I was actually very nervous, uncomfortable over it and thank God I made it. " Bradley shot 10-under-par 60, completed by that short birdie at the 428-yard ninth hole, to break the TPC Four Seasons course record and match the best round ever at the Nelson.

WASHINGTON - The former top federal prosecutor in Arizona retaliated against the lead whistle-blower in the Fast and Furious gun-smuggling scandal by leaking an internal report that suggested the whistle-blower once favored allowing illegal gun sales as a way to track weapons to drug cartels in Mexico, the Justice Department's inspector general's office said Monday. Dennis K. Burke, who resigned from the U.S. attorney's office following the Fast and Furious matter, told investigators that he leaked an internal memorandum to a television producer in which ATF Special Agent John Dodson discussed an earlier case involving gun trafficking on the border.

You can do a lot with smartphones these days, but unless you're downloading the best apps for your device, you aren't really using it to its full potential. So if you aren't sure what to download, just make sure you have these 10 apps on your iPhone or Android device. Google Maps This app comes preinstalled on Android devices and should be the first app downloaded on iPhones. Besides top-notch design, the app is the best free voice navigation app for driving directions.

WASHINGTON - President Obama forced out the head of the IRS on Wednesday, seeking to restore the public's faith in the tax agency while asserting a measure of control over a rapidly growing political problem. Making a hastily scheduled statement at the White House, Obama denounced the targeting of conservative groups by the Internal Revenue Service as "inexcusable" and pledged to "do everything in my power to make sure nothing like this ever happens again. " "Americans are right to be angry about it, and I am angry about it," he said.

One day in 1967, a fashion model named Kelly Lange got into a line at a Buena Park shopping mall, figuring "they were giving something away." The handouts turned out to be applications for two positions as "Ladybirds" on KABC-AM (790) radio. The lucky duo would become the first female traffic/weather reporters in this area to patrol in helicopters. Lange was chosen for the 6 a.m.-to-9 a.m. segment and re-christened Dawn O'Day. Another applicant, a film studio secretary named Lori Ross, got the afternoon shift as -- surprise -- Eve O'Day.

Columnist Robert Novak is clearly relishing his role at the center of the growing scandal over who in the Bush administration leaked the identity of a CIA operative. "Smiling like a Cheshire cat," said his liberal friend and sometime sparring partner, MSNBC's Bill Press. A Washington fixture for more than 40 years, Novak delights in writing not an opinion column but a reported one. While others opine and pontificate, Novak prides himself on breaking news.

Two teenagers have been indicted in Georgia on adult charges of shooting a 13-month-old child to death and wounding his mother during a robbery last week. Though the defendants are charged as adults, neither will face the death penalty because both were younger than 18 at the time of the incident, Dist. Atty. Jackie Johnson of the Brunswick Judicial Circuit said in a statement sent by email to reporters on Thursday. On Wednesday a Glynn County grand jury indicted De'Marquise Elkins, 17, on nine counts, including malice murder, in the slaying last week of Antonio Santiago, who was being pushed in a stroller a few blocks from his home in Brunswick, Ga. Also charged was Dominique Lang, 15, on seven counts including felony murder.

MEXICO CITY - On the eve of Mexico's Day of the Dead this year, authorities in Veracruz declared triumphantly that they had solved one of the decade's most notorious slayings of a journalist in Mexico. They trotted before reporters a sad-sack figure, one Jorge Antonio Hernandez Silva. They proclaimed him guilty of the April slaying of Regina Martinez, a highly respected reporter for the national Proceso magazine. He had confessed, the Veracruz government said, and the motive was robbery.

DALIAN, China - Among fishermen in this historic seaport city, the danger of steering their boats near North Korean waters is well known. North Koreans took three Chinese ships and their crews hostage a year ago, and Chinese maritime officials have repeatedly warned fishing operators over the last several years that they would be slapped with heavy fines if they got too close. Still, the Korean waters were highly attractive for their abundance of fish. And so it came as little surprise to fishermen like Cao Zhanyuan when he and many others in China learned Monday that a boat off the coast here had been seized by North Koreans this month.

When battling street gangs across Los Angeles County, sheriff's deputies rely too heavily on suppression and not enough on gang intervention, according to a study released Monday. By not doing more to connect with the communities they police, the report found, sheriff's deputies are missing an opportunity to gain the public's trust. However, the report - put out by Merrick Bobb, special counsel to the county Board of Supervisors - acknowledged that crime rates inside sheriff's jurisdictions have fallen dramatically, and comparably to the areas patrolled by the LAPD, which more commonly uses gang interventionists.

WASHINGTON - The FBI obtained a sealed search warrant to read a Fox News reporter's personal emails from two days in 2010 after arguing there was probable cause he had violated espionage laws by soliciting classified information from a government official, court papers show. In an affidavit, an FBI agent told a federal magistrate that the reporter had committed a crime when he asked a State Department security contractor, Stephen Jin-Woo Kim, to share secret material about North Korea in June 2009.

LAREDO, Texas -- A recent wave of kidnappings in Nuevo Laredo was prominently featured in a recent Sunday edition of El Mañana, one of the largest and most long-standing Spanish-language newspapers on the border. But the story carried no byline, and no residents were quoted or pictured. "People don't want to go out for interviews - they say, 'No, we may get kidnapped,'" said Ninfa Cantú Deándar, who runs the paper with her siblings. Because of threats from Mexican cartels, the paper - published in the twin cities of Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, and Laredo, Texas - is operating very differently these days.

When Medicare disclosed average charges from thousands of U.S. hospitals for 100 common procedures last week, only one hospital was near the top in every category: Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Be it a cardiac stent, a hip replacement or a pacemaker, Cedars-Sinai's list prices for these routine treatments ranked among the top 5% in the country. For example, the average charge at Cedars-Sinai for gallbladder surgery with complications was $153,302 in 2011 compared with the U.S. median charge of $42,380, government data show.

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.

In May 1997, the Los Angeles Times published J.R. Moehringer's heartfelt story "Resurrecting the Champ," chronicling the sad life of a professional boxer who was homeless and living on the streets. More than just a tale about the downfall of a sports figure, the article also dealt with Moehringer's relationship with "The Champ," as well as the writer coming to terms with his own father's abandonment of the family when he was a baby.

This town has always been a place of secrets. Half a century ago, the federal government swooped down, buy ing up property, bulldozing homes and raising great fences around a series of high-security laboratories. Here, nestled amid the bucolic splendor of Southern Appalachia, the government produced uranium for the atomic bomb. And here, in the event of an accident, the ridges could theoretically contain the disaster.

WASHINGTON - Are large numbers of homeowners who have negotiated short sales with lenders at risk because of a startling omission in the American credit system? Do their credit reports and scores indicate that they were foreclosed upon, rather than having negotiated a mutually agreeable resolution with their lender? The answer appears to be yes, and recently two federal agencies - the Federal Trade Commission and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau - were asked to investigate why. The reality is this: The credit reporting system now in place does not have a separate code that distinguishes a short sale from a foreclosure.

Felons released from prison are committing new crimes at roughly the same rate they did before Gov. Jerry Brown switched their supervision to county probation, but a new report says repeat offenses are up. The study, released by the state corrections department Thursday, holds that there is "very little difference between the one-year arrest and conviction rates of offenders released pre- and post-Realignment. " That was the message highlighted in a press statement from the corrections department.