Rick

Michele and Russell Poland's credit was shot, but they managed to buy their suburban dream home anyway. After a business bankruptcy and a home foreclosure, they turned to a rare option in this era of tightfisted banking - a subprime loan. The Polands paid nearly $10,000 in upfront fees for the privilege of securing a mortgage at 10.9% interest. And they had to raid their retirement account for a 35% down payment. Most borrowers would balk at such stiff terms. But with prices rising, the Polands wanted to snag a four-bedroom home in Temecula near top-rated schools for their 5-year-old son. By later this year, they figure, they'll be able to refinance into a standard loan.

Forget about the thrill of hoisting a national championship trophy or cutting down the nets. The players on the Louisville basketball team wanted to win an NCAA title to make their coach, Rick Pitino, follow through on a promise: The 60-year-old known for his dapper suits had vowed to get a tattoo if his squad finished on top. Pitino got inked on Friday morning, according to  a Darren Rovell story for ESPN . The simple design featured an...

Rick Neuheisel knows USC as an opponent as a player and coach. He was a quarterback for the Bruins in 1981-83 and also faced the Trojans as a coach at Washington before coming to coach at UCLA. A look at how he has fared: 1982: Neuheisel, in his second year on the UCLA roster after making the team as a non-scholarship player, played in his first rivalry game as the holder for kicks. Early on, he tried to turn an extra-point attempt into a two-point play and was hit hard, separating his shoulder.

"Home Run" is the heartfelt and deeply religious story of a baseball star's struggle with alcoholism and the Christian faith-based recovery group that gets him through. The first moments seem promising as images of a peaceful stretch of farm country fill up the screen. A weathered red barn sits in the distance next to a sprawling white farmhouse with a wraparound porch. But as the camera goes in close, something is wrong - the red is too red, the worn spots too worn. The metaphor is seriously overplayed and we are only in the first inning.

The ready-made edginess of hit men, hookers and gangsters is a foundation that a story can either build on or coast on. Writer-director Brian Peterson's "The Misadventures of Rick the Strangler" at the Electric Lodge takes the lazy route with formulaic characters aimed at those who like their comedy crude and incoherent. Mob executioner Rick's misadventures ensue from his predilection for feeding his victims' severed digits to his dog. This unique take on finger food lands Rick (Jonathan Brooks)

In the clear blue water 150 feet down, off Palemano Point on Hawaii's Big Island, Captain Rick Rogers swam along the ocean floor, concentrating on the light white swirls of staghorn reef below him. As tiny bubbles of air escaped from his tank, his black flippers propelled him above the coral, next to schools of reddish mempache and juicy turquoise uhu fish. The scene was breathtaking, but Rogers didn't care about nature. He was looking for man-made objects only: porcelain plates, pieces of cannons, a sunken iron anchor.

So all this time, the third season of “The Walking Dead” has been an earnest entreaty on the benefits of democratic rule? I'm kidding, of course, but the final act of “This Sorrowful Life,” a generally effective episode of the show that nonetheless got a little winded from getting everything in place for next week's finale, included a scene where Rick pulled his tiny band of survivors aside and told them that what he said at the end of...

Los Angeles County Assessor Rick Auerbach announced Tuesday that he will retire in March, before the end of his term later this year. "I've been with this office for 39 1/2 years now, been assessor for 10," he said. "I feel it's the right time. I've accomplished a lot of what I wanted to do." Auerbach, 61, asked the county Board of Supervisors to allow his assistant, Robert Quon, to lead the agency until a new assessor is elected in November. Quon has indicated that he will not be a candidate to permanently lead the largest property assessment agency in the nation, with more than 2.3 million real estate parcels, 1,450 employees and a budget of more than $157 million.

There are a lot of lies involved in the zombie apocalypse. The biggest lie, and the most common one, is also the most necessary: "It's going to be all right. " It's the lie of Woodbury, the lie of the phone call. And the reason it's so seductive is that it's all anyone has wanted to believe since the nightmare started, and they're willing to accept just about anything - madness, murder - to make it true. Conversely, it's the same lie that Michonne has never really let herself believe, which is why she's running from a Woodbury death squad as the episode opens.

Every time Rick and Ron Rabune try to tell people back home about the football program they are involved in, they run into problems. USC? People can think only of the Trojans. Carolina? North Carolina comes more often to mind. This season, there's a short cut. They can tell them it's South Carolina--alternately known as USC and Carolina--and to tune in the Gator Bowl today, when the ninth-ranked Gamecocks will play seventh-ranked Louisiana State at Jacksonville, Fla.

Pastor Rick Warren and his wife have launched a petition about mental illness after their son's suicide. “Join Kay and I, and the Saddleback Family, in our effort to urge educators, lawmakers, healthcare professionals, and church congregations to raise the awareness and lower the stigma of mental illness … and support the families that deal with mental illness on a daily basis,” the petition reads. Matthew Warren, 27, shot himself April 5 at his home in Mission Viejo.

It will be “nearly impossible” to trace where pastor Rick Warren's son bought the shotgun he used to take his own life last week, an Orange County Sheriff's Department official said. The gun that 27-year-old Matthew Warren used to shoot himself in his Mission Viejo home on April 5 was unregistered, had its serial numbers scratched off and was purchased online, said department spokesman Jim Amormino. A source close to the investigation confirmed it was a shotgun. “It's going to be nearly impossible to trace where he bought the weapon or who owned it previously,” Amormino told The Times.

When in pain, pray. When you worry, worship. When in grief, share it in your small group. The Facebook post, sent in the early morning hours Friday by famed pastor Rick Warren, was short on words but deep in meaning. Since the suicide of his son a week earlier, the pastor of Orange County's sprawling Saddleback Church is indeed sharing his grief. But his “small group” includes not only his parishioners, but nearly a million Twitter followers as well as those who read his Facebook page.

Was it the public outcry that got to him, or Reebok's decision to drop him as a pitchman? In either case, rapper-mogul Rick Ross has issued an apology for lyrics contained in his guest appearance with rapper Rocko on the track "U.O.E.N.O" that seemed to condone date rape. Here's the statement Ross released Friday morning: “Before I am an artist, I am a father, a son, and a brother to some of the most cherished women in the world. So for me to suggest in any way that harm and violation be brought to a woman is one of my biggest mistakes and regrets.

When in pain, pray. When you worry, worship. When in grief, share it in your small group. The Facebook post, sent in the early morning hours Friday by famed pastor Rick Warren, was short on words but deep in meaning. Since the suicide death of his son a week earlier, the pastor of Orange County's sprawling Saddleback Church has indeed been sharing his grief. But his "small group" includes not only his parishioners, but nearly a million Twitter followers as well as those who read his Facebook page.

Rick Warren said on Twitter Thursday that he forgives the person who sold his son the gun he used to kill himself. Warren revealed Thursday that the gun was purchased  on the Internet and was not registered. "Someone on the internet sold Matthew an unregistered gun.I pray he seeks God's forgiveness. I forgive him. #MATTHEW 6:15" Warren later wrote on Twitter: "God never allows more on you than he puts in you to bear it. " Sheriff's Department records show no one in the Warren family is registered to carry a concealed weapon in Orange County, and authorities have said they were struggling to determine where 27-year-old Matthew Warren obtained the weapon.

The gun Rick Warren's son used to kill himself was unregistered and purchased on the Internet, the pastor tweeted Thursday afternoon. Warren's tweet read: Someone on the internet sold Matthew an unregistered gun.I pray he seeks God's forgiveness. I forgive him. #MATTHEW 6:15 - Rick Warren (@RickWarren) April 11, 2013 Sheriff's Department records show no one in the Warren family is registered to carry a concealed weapon in Orange County, and authorities have said they were struggling to determine where 27-year-old Matthew Warren obtained the weapon.

Rick Ross' controversial lyrics that seemed to promote date rape resulted in the superstar rapper-mogul being dropped as a spokesperson for Reebok. After intense pressure from a number of organizations, including anti-sexism collective UltraViolet, the athletic company announced Thursday it had parted ways with Ross. “Reebok holds our partners to a high standard, and we expect them to live up to the values of our brand. Unfortunately, Rick Ross has failed to do so,” Reebok said in a statement to The Times.