Richard Harmon

The Federal Trade Commission announced Friday that it has filed a complaint against two Southland gemstone dealers for allegedly engaging in deceptive sales practices that defrauded hundreds of investors out of millions of dollars. A court-appointed receiver took control Thursday of Newport Gems in Newport Beach and RIME in Beverly Hills at the FTC's request after U.S. District Judge Manuel L. Real granted a temporary restaining order barring the firms from using further illegal sales tactics.

The Federal Trade Commission announced Friday that it has filed a complaint against two Southland gemstone dealers for allegedly engaging in deceptive sales practices that defrauded hundreds of investors out of millions of dollars. A court-appointed receiver took control Thursday of Newport Gems in Newport Beach and RIME in Beverly Hills at the FTC's request after U.S. District Judge Manuel L. Real granted a temporary restaining order barring the firms from using further illegal sales tactics.

Although it is based on a popular Danish series, the show that AMC's "The Killing" most quickly evokes — with its brooding skies, ominous waters and complicated murder-mystery cast — is "Twin Peaks," a fact that AMC seems more than happy to leverage. "Who Killed Rosie Larsen?" is the show's promo, a direct homage, or rip-off, of "Who Killed Laura Palmer?," a question that kept American audiences enthralled for two seasons (though in hindsight it feels like more.) But "The Killing," which premieres Sunday, is not "Twin Peaks," nor was it meant to be; although they both revolve around the murder of a young girl under the lachrymose skies of Washington state, the similarities end there.

Martial arts star Jean-Claude Van Damme would seem to be a godsend for a poor young widow with two children and a ranch coveted by a stop-at-nothing developer. In "Nowhere to Run" (citywide) the loner Van Damme plays does in fact seem just that: He can take care of the bullies with dispatch, save horses from a burning barn--and even knock over a water tower with a tractor just in time to keep some butane tanks from catching fire and exploding. What's more, he's great with kids (and motorcycles).

The Democrat challenging Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia (R-Cathedral City) in a tough Imperial Valley race accused her Thursday of misusing state property for campaign purposes. Democrat Steve Clute also accused a Garcia campaign consultant who works as her chief of staff of violating legislative rules intended to keep state employees from doing campaign work while being paid by taxpayers.

Lawmakers admonished state administrators Wednesday for expenditures such as furnishings costing up to $7,000 per employee, an airplane for Caltrans inspectors valued at nearly $1 million, a $429,000 boat and 1,300 cars, motorcycles and trucks costing $34 million. "I find these expenditures to be an insult and very disrespectful to every furloughed state employee, to every taxpayer who has been working very hard to make ends meet, who is driving an old car on its last legs when this state chooses not to do the same," said Assemblywoman Audra Strickland (R-Thousand Oaks)

Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia (R-Cathedral City) caused a political ruckus when she told a classroom of La Quinta High School seniors that she wouldn't kick Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger out of her bed. Garcia, 44, made the remark Oct. 10 while she was speaking to an economics class, shortly before she was scheduled to appear before the school's Young Republican Club. Garcia, who is in a tight race for reelection, had been the object of Gov.

Hundreds of thousands of ballots from the Nov. 7 election have yet to be counted throughout the state, including a third of the votes cast in Riverside County, election officials said Wednesday. The uncounted ballots could affect a number of tight elections across Southern California, including a City Council race in Alhambra and a state Senate seat in Orange County.

Joann Byrne is right about we who were taught good grammar becoming a dying breed (Orange County Voices, Jan. 26). Understanding the basics of English grammar was once a prerequisite for any office job, let alone a high-level one. Not so today. A magazine editor recently returned something I'd submitted with suggestions for revision that contained several sentence structure errors. My one-time boss refused to correct errors in punctuation or sentence structure because that's how his teachers taught him to write.

It takes something special to get a reaction out of Ronnie Harmon. Most defenders don't get close enough to the elusive running back to tackle him, let alone aggravate him. On first impression, however, it doesn't appear as if safety Stanley Richard, the Chargers' first-round pick, is going to play football like most defenders. In Thursday afternoon's Charger practice at UCSD, Richard ran step for step with Harmon and then he tried to rip the ball from Harmon's arms. Richard persisted.

Last fall, a small company called CleanAir Transit announced the "Santa Barbara Success Story": By acquiring a proven technology and a respected board of directors, it was setting out to become the nation's first company to build buses that run on electric batteries. That would be no small triumph. The company could expect to gain a significant share of an estimated $3.6-billion worldwide market in pollution-free shuttles serving airports, downtown shopping loops and recreational complexes.