Richard Solomon

A four-night stand by Santana, three-night engagements by Vicente Fernandez, Juan Gabriel and Michael Flatley's "Lord of the Dance" and a double bill of Stevie Nicks and Boz Scaggs are among the highlights of the Greek Theatre and Universal Amphitheatre seasons, both of which begin subscription sales on Sunday. Santana, inducted this year into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, will be at the Greek Aug. 13-16; Flatley's dance extravaganza will be there Aug. 25-27.

Tyler Funk's last-second three-pointer hit the front of the rim and bounced away as Los Angeles Price held off Orange Lutheran, 73-70, in the Southern Section Division 4AA boys' basketball championship game. Allen Crabbe, a senior guard who has signed with California, scored 22 points for Price (29-3), which won its second straight section title and 10th in 11 finals appearances since 1999. "Last year we won it in overtime [over West Hills Chaminade] so it was exciting, but this feels just as great.

Joshua Smith's balance was a bit wayward Thursday night, but he never lost his sense of humor. In the final minutes of UCLA's 86-84 victory over California at Pauley Pavilion, the Bruins' freshman center teased teammates Malcolm Lee and Brendan Lane after they fouled out. "I was like, 'Now you know how I feel,' " the foul-prone big man said. Smith had been relegated to the bench after sustaining a possible concussion 5:39 into the game when he fell and bumped his head on the floor.

President Bush bypassed the Senate on Friday to name a scholar accused of anti-Muslim bias to the board of a federally funded foreign policy think tank. Bush appointed Daniel Pipes to the board of the Institute of Peace, which was chartered by Congress to study ways to solve international conflicts. Pipes has spoken out on the danger posed to the United States by Islamic militants and presides over a group that monitors and critiques what U.S.

Missed free throws, so many lost chances. A half spent getting badly outrebounded, more lost chances. Bad shooting, blown layups, chances lost over and over. The mistakes added up to a 72-64 loss for USC against California in a Pac-12 Conference game Saturday night at the Galen Center. The defeat brought to a stop a slight hint of momentum for the Trojans (6-9, 1-1), who had won two games in a row and were aiming for a 2-0 conference start for only the second time in 11 seasons.

Katrina is not a happy clown. Accustomed to having free run of the Third Street Promenade, Katrina will soon be tethered in a performance zone, with a $120 license affixed to her baggy clown suit. She will only be able to work the movie lines with the forbearance of the enforcers of a new law aimed at imposing order on the chaotic street-performer scene at the Promenade. "This is not good for me," Katrina, whose civilian name is Kathryn Mara, told the Santa Monica City Council Tuesday night.

Former King Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia, an unpredictable and crafty political survivor whose fortunes were entwined with U.S. military involvement in Indochina, died Monday of natural causes in Beijing, where he had undergone medical treatment, Chinese state media reported. He was 89. Sihanouk had various forms of cancer, diabetes and hypertension and had sought medical care in China since 2004, when he abdicated in favor of his son due to old age and health problems. He died two weeks short of his 90th birthday.

Allen Crabbe shares more than a name with his father. The father would sneak out of his Philadelphia home to play basketball until 2 in the morning. The son would call his high school coach a few hours after practice to re-open the gym and weight room late into the night. The father would shovel snow off concrete just to play. The son would cut short a vacation just to get back on the court. Father and son often hit gyms together over the last few years, staying until the teenager made between 800 and 1,000 shots during sessions that lasted several hours.

It's possible that victory in the Persian Gulf brought at least a rhetorical end to the much-discussed Vietnam syndrome. But the Administration's new diplomatic initiative may do more than that: For if in fact Washington achieves the aim of establishing a normalization of relations between Washington and Hanoi in two years, the deeply seated demons of the Vietnam War may finally be exorcised from the American psyche. Then the war truly will be over.

The Bush Administration is refusing to let any of its senior officials testify to Congress next week about its policy toward China, congressional Democrats complained Wednesday, raising the possibility that China could become a partisan issue for the first time in nearly a decade. The Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on Asia sought repeatedly to have an Administration witness appear at a hearing next week on U.S.-China relations.