Roadblock

State lawmakers moved to clear a roadblock that has stalled several thousand construction projects in the Southland that couldn't get required environmental permits and got caught in a court fight over permitting power plants. A compromise forged Wednesday would let the power plant dispute continue but would clear the way for unrelated projects. Supporters said the agreement would save about 57,000 Southern California jobs at 3,000 businesses and public agencies. At issue are pollution permits issued by the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

The Clippers' coaching carousel took many turns this week, as the team interviewed three candidates for their opening, while a fourth coach — Doc Rivers — popped up high on their wish list, said several NBA executives who were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter. The Clippers began by interviewing Indiana associate head coach Brian Shaw on Monday. On Tuesday, the Clippers' front office interviewed former Cleveland Cavaliers coach Byron Scott, followed by former Memphis Grizzlies coach Lionel Hollins, who was in Los Angeles on Thursday and Friday.

No. 3 Huntington Beach Edison (7-0, 2-0) vs. No. 17 Los Alamitos (6-1, 1-1) at Huntington Beach High, 7 p.m. -- Off to its best start in 24 years under Coach Dave White, Edison faces a potential stumbling block; Los Alamitos has beaten the Chargers in Sunset League play the last two seasons. Griffins tailback Nick Richardson is averaging 181 yards and has 13 rushing touchdowns. "He's very, very fast and no one's stopped him," White said. The same could be said for Chargers quarterback Matt Viles, who has completed 62.7% of his passes for 1,976 yards with 16 touchdowns and five interceptions.

A flurry of letters that went back and forth between Southern California Edison and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries late last year reveal the serious hurdles that stand in the way of the San Onofre nuclear power plant's long-term future. The plant had been offline at that point for nearly a year because of unusual wear on tubes that carry radioactive water in the plant's newly replaced steam generators, which were designed and manufactured by Mitsubishi. Edison asked federal regulators in October for permission to restart one of the plant's two units and run it at 70% power for a few months to see if that would alleviate the conditions that led to the wear.

They built the roadblock across the highway out of whatever they could find -- burning tires, the shell of a refrigerator, a rusty bed frame, a palm tree stump, a beaten-up camper shell and eight bodies, one in a makeshift coffin, another stuffed into a suitcase. The young men of the Carrefour suburb of Port-au-Prince then furiously interrogated drivers Saturday about what they were carrying in their cars. They were sick of people from the earthquake-wrecked capital dumping the dead on their streets in the middle of the night.

Well-connected lobbyists, political pressure and a good turnout at committee hearings used to be the special interest recipe for protecting turf in the state budget. Now, a potent new ingredient is being increasingly thrown into the mix: top-shelf litigators. Lawyers are being drafted in droves to unravel spending plans passed by the Legislature and signed by the governor. The goal of these litigators is to get back money their clients lost in the budget process. They are having considerable success, winning one lawsuit after another, costing the state billions of dollars and throwing California's budget process into further tumult.

A 3 a.m. car ride from the airport to downtown Cairo during curfew is a trip between two armed camps fighting for the future of Egypt. Outside the airport Tuesday, the road is immediately blocked by chunks of concrete, and a dozen young men wielding broom handles and a baseball bat approach. When I identify myself as a journalist from the U.S., the well-dressed men smile and say, "Welcome to Egypt," motioning for the driver to pass with me and another passenger. Thirty yards later it is the army that stops us, an officer and several soldiers with an armored personnel carrier as backup.

In the beginning, there was Ma' Bell, Muff, Skull, and five others. They pedaled around downtown together, surprising a few motorists with a sight then quite rare in Los Angeles: bicyclists traveling in a peloton, in the middle of the night, in the middle of the city. "When you're a kid, you do those kinds of adventures," said one of those original riders, an East Hollywood resident in his late 30s who goes by his biking pseudonym, Roadblock. But they weren't kids. They were people in their late 20s and early 30s, most with professional careers.

A car bomb exploded prematurely at a roadblock in Israel's security zone in southern Lebanon today. Israeli military sources and Christian radio stations said the blast killed only the driver, but a Muslim-controlled radio station said there were "many casualties that could not be quickly counted." The Muslim station, Beirut's Voice of the Nation radio, did not cite the source of its report, and the differences could not be reconciled immediately.

A sympathizer of the anti-government "freemen" was charged in federal court in Billings, Mont., with aiding the members holed up on a ranch and preventing their arrest. A federal magistrate ordered Stewart Waterhouse, 37, to be held without bail. Waterhouse is accused of running an FBI roadblock to enter the ranch near Jordan.

Barbara Butkus bought an airline ticket in November to fly from Palm Springs to Washington, D.C., a month later for a family reunion. Just to be on the safe side, Butkus, 80, also bought travel insurance while booking her flight through Orbitz, the online travel agency. The coverage was from Allianz, a leading provider of travel insurance. As it happened, Butkus had to cancel her trip for health reasons. She began experiencing shortness of breath in early December, and her doctor advised her not to travel.

REYHANLI, Turkey - The Syrian opposition fighter arrived unexpectedly at Dr. Mazen Kewara's office at the Syrian American Medical Assn., desperately seeking help. Humanitarian aid was not reaching enough armed rebels and civilians in Syria's Idlib province, an exasperated Abdullatif "Abu Salah" Halaq told the doctor in this Turkish border town. The association could not wait for the needy to ask for assistance, Halaq said; it must try harder to locate those needing medical aid. "Your work here is good, but there are shortages," he said recently, looking at Kewara through bloodshot eyes.

WASHINGTON - Efforts to confirm Chuck Hagel as the nation's new secretary of Defense hit another roadblock Thursday, with Senate leaders saying a vote to move forward with his nomination could be delayed in the face of a “full-scale filibuster” on the part of Republicans. The White House had been pushing to get Hagel confirmed before a scheduled meeting next week of NATO defense ministers in Brussels, where plans for Afghanistan will be among the topics of discussion. White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters traveling with the president in Georgia that it was “unconscionable” that Republicans were holding up Hagel's confirmation ahead of the meeting.

WASHINGTON - In the days immediately after President Obama's reelection victory, White House officials hoped that in a second term he might have better relations with congressional Republicans. The "fever will break," more than one Obama aide forecast. The last several days have demonstrated the opposite. Washington remains caught in a partisan stalemate on the budget, seems headed toward another on gun control and perhaps one on immigration policy as well. That gridlock could inflict significant damage to the Republican Party.

For more than two years, Alfredo Angulo was boxing's version of Elvis. He had left the building. Now he is back, trying to return to the level that got him fights with the likes of Kermit Cintron and James Kirkland, as well as a lucrative offer to fight Sergio Martinez. But the baggage he will take into the Sports Arena ring Saturday night when he goes against Jorge Silva in a prelim of the Amir Khan-Carlos Molina card is heavier than most. Angulo's story, told in complete detail, is "War and Peace.

Re "Exiled leader of Hamas sets foot in Gaza Strip ," Dec. 8, and "The party's over for some in Gaza," Dec. 9 Hamas leader Khaled Meshall is quoted as saying: "This is just the beginning. Today is Gaza. Tomorrow will be Ramallah, Jerusalem and then Haifa and Jaffa. " Meshaal's sentiment that Hamas will someday destroy Israel is regrettable. Unfortunately, Israel will use his comment to justify its refusal to negotiate with Hamas. The blind spot in Israeli perceptions is the country's continued colonial expansion in the West Bank.

Israeli news reports said Friday that three Palestinians may have been killed in custody, not shot to death by soldiers at a roadblock as the military reported. Reports carried by three daily newspapers and army radio conflicted with the official version of a shooting Oct. 1 outside a refugee camp in the occupied Gaza Strip.

Re "College Park's Future Discussed by Officials," Feb. 12. Fifteen years ago Ventura County had a model of a proposed park it was going to build on vacant land at the corner of Highway 1 and Channel Islands Boulevard in southeast Oxnard. It was to be called College Park. The model sat in the lobby of the Government Center. Since I was a county employee, I would walk by and admire the model of College Park. My park. I live within a block of the land. Over the years the county proposed several plans for the park on this land but they encountered roadblock after roadblock.

The city of Santa Maria has settled a lawsuit from a teenage girl who said a police officer threatened and raped her over several weeks before being fatally shot by colleagues attempting to arrest him. Gilbert Trujillo, Santa Maria's city attorney, said Friday that the $185,000 settlement was "an effort to move forward and put this unfortunate chain of events behind us. " The girl was a 17-year-old police Explorer when she became involved with...

The imposing white U.S. Courthouse on Spring Street overlooking the 101 Freeway has hosted some of Los Angeles' most memorable legal dramas. Clark Gable and Charlie Chaplin faced paternity trials there. The House Committee on Un-American Activities convened at the court for hearings on communism in Hollywood. In the summer of 1971, Daniel Ellsberg spoke out against the Vietnam War on its front steps as he defended himself in the Pentagon Papers case. But the grand courthouse now sits at the center of a political battle over its future.