Rules

A federal administrative judge ruled that pomegranate juice maker Pom Wonderful used deceptive advertising when it implied its products could treat or prevent serious diseases and other medical conditions. Judge D. Michael Chappell upheld much of a 2010 Federal Trade Commission complaint against the Los Angeles company owned by Lynda and Stewart Resnick. The judge said in his decision issued Monday that Pom used "insufficient" evidence to back its claims that Pom products "treat, prevent or reduce the risk of heart disease, prostate cancer or erectile dysfunction.

China Daily, the largest English-language newspaper in China, carried a front-page headline last week: "Village Gratitude Shows Integrity of Task. " Not clear what that's about, and the opening sentence isn't much help: "On a hot afternoon, Zhou Yi picked up a bag of freshly boiled eggs that had been left on the doorstep of the committee office in Chaqulak village in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. " I figured this must be some feel-good story about the noble, uncorrupted country folk taking care of the less fortunate in their midst.

First of three parts Tiffany Lee wanted a car. She was weary of the two-hour bus ride to her job at a UCLA Health System clinic. She hated having to ask friends to drive her 7-year-old son to his asthma treatments. But as a single mother with three children, bad credit and a $27,000-a-year salary, she couldn't find a bank or dealership willing to give her a loan. Then a friend steered her to Repossess Auto Sales in Hawthorne. Another buyer might have balked at the deal she was offered.

Resolving a key issue in a $890-million transit contract, federal officials announced Wednesday that a Japanese firm's plan to build up to 235 cars for Los Angeles-area light-rail lines complies with requirements that American workers be used for final assembly. In its decision, the Federal Transit Administration rejected assertions by local labor organizations, community activists and two competing companies that Kinkisharyo International's production plan would violate "Buy America" requirements by climate-testing a few rail cars in Japan and not the United States.

The most ambitious federal mortgage program to date aimed at millions of underwater homeowners is poised to take off in the coming two weeks, yet some key issues could hinder borrower participation. One of them involves something most owners know nothing about: Who was your mortgage insurer on your underwater loan? Though it was announced by the Obama administration late last year, "HARP 2.0" — the second version of the Home Affordable Refinance Program — will finally hit full stride around the middle of this month, when Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac finish tweaking their automated underwriting systems to accept applications, and lenders and mortgage insurance companies start handling large volumes of requests.

If you are a teacher in debt, there's good news and bad news. There are literally dozens of programs that could potentially help wipe out your student loans. But most of them have narrow requirements that may lock you out. Just ask Troy Dale, a high school counselor from Ellis, Kan. He and his wife have $23,000 in student loans that they've been paying down for nearly a decade. At their current rate, they'll still be paying off their student debts when their oldest child enrolls in college.

— One of the key attractions of FHA home mortgage financing is going, going, but not quite gone. Sellers and buyers who move fast can still make the most of it. Sometime this summer, the Federal Housing Administration plans to slash maximum "seller concessions" from 6% of the home price to 3%. Seller concession rules allow buyers to look to the property seller to pay for a variety of services and taxes connected with the transaction —...

What's in a face? David Perrett has spent his career trying to find out. The author of "In Your Face: The New Science of Human Attraction" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), Perrett is an experimental psychologist at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland and head of its Perception Lab. Using computer graphics, Perrett's team tweaks faces on-screen to explore how they help us choose the best mates, whether you can trust a face, the cuteness factor in babies and what faces reveal about overall human health.

A massive hit when it was released earlier this summer in Hong Kong, "3D Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy" at least partially passes the truth in advertising test, as this soft-core erotic film designed to be projected in 3-D hurls all manner of objects, fluids and indescribable what-nots toward the screen. (Whether it provides any ecstasy, extreme or otherwise, will be up to the predilections of the individual viewer.) Now please adjust your irony-meter: "3D Sex and Zen" is not opening, at least initially, as a three-dimensionally projected film in Los Angeles; it's only playing in regular 2-D. While obviously taking something away from the experience, for better or worse this allows the viewer to focus more on the (ahem)

OLYMPIC URBAN LEGEND : Athletes during the Ancient Greek Olympic Games were amateurs. Until the 1970s, competition in the Olympic Games was reserved for amateur athletes, which in this sense is defined strictly as "athletes who do not get paid to perform their sport. " Slowly but surely various Olympic sports relaxed their rules to allow for professionals to compete in the Olympics and today, there are few Olympic events that only allow amateurs to compete in them (boxing is a notable exception)

The campaign for president has moved into an anxious phase for political junkies: A lot is going on, but nothing is really happening. Mitt Romney has largely consolidated support among his Republican base, matching the support that President Obama has among Democrats. Now, the two sides are testing the messages they will deploy with increasing intensity over the next five months as they seek to motivate their supporters and woo the undecided few. All that produces a lull in political news, which gets filled with pseudo-events and polls - lots of polls.

In the road war between L.A. motorists and cyclists, I usually side with the two-wheelers -- not because I pedal much myself (I'm more of a scooter aficionado than a biker) but because a contest between a 4,000-pound metal behemoth and a Schwinn cruiser isn't a fair fight. When they collide, the biker is nearly always the one who is going to be hurt or killed.

In a setback for federal regulators, a federal judge threw out many of the fraud allegations against former IndyMac Bancorp Chief Executive Michael W. Perry in a case stemming from the collapse of the onetime Pasadena mortgage lender. U.S. District Judge Manuel Real tossed five of seven public filings late Monday that had supported civil claims filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission. He also ruled that Perry could not be forced to repay allegedly ill-gotten gains. Perry's lead attorney, Jean Veta of Covington & Burling in Washington, said the SEC suit "should never have been filed" and that she would contest the remaining accusations at a non-jury trial scheduled for June 26 before Real.

A federal appeals court in Washington has upheld a key part of the Voting Rights Act, one that requires states and localities with a history of discrimination against minorities to "pre-clear" changes in their election procedures with the Department of Justice or a federal court. The reasoning behind the 2-1 ruling is persuasive; Chief JusticeJohn G. Roberts Jr.and other members of the Supreme Court should exercise judicial restraint by refusing to reconsider it. In an earlier, 2009 decision, the chief justice recognized that Congress has the power to enforce the 15th Amendment's guarantee of a right to vote.

The fate of trainer Doug O'Neill, charged by California Horse Racing Board enforcement officials with a substance abuse violation involving one of his horses, will be addressed Thursday morning at a board meeting at Hollywood Park. These are usually low-profile procedural meetings, but the item on the agenda involving O'Neill, whose I'll Have Another will take a run at racing's coveted Triple Crown in the Belmont Stakes June 9, has triggered much interest and speculation. Racing's enforcement officials ruled that an O'Neill-trained horse, Argenta, tested positive for high levels of carbon dioxide after a race Aug. 25, 2010, at Del Mar. High levels of carbon dioxide are considered evidence of the use of a "milkshake" to illegally boost a horse's stamina.

A federal administrative judge ruled that pomegranate juice maker Pom Wonderful used deceptive advertising when it implied its products could treat or prevent serious diseases and other medical conditions. Judge D. Michael Chappell upheld much of a 2010 Federal Trade Commission complaint against the Los Angeles company owned by Lynda and Stewart Resnick. The judge said in his decision issued Monday that Pom used "insufficient" evidence to back its claims that Pom products "treat, prevent or reduce the risk of heart disease, prostate cancer or erectile dysfunction.

I seem to suffer some sort of auditory process disorder that forces me to do the opposite of what my wife tells me. I've always been that way with authority figures. When teachers used to say, "OK, class, take out a piece of paper," I instead launched right into dismantling my mechanical pencil. In junior high, this especially seemed to happen with cute teachers I planned to one day marry. To this day, whenever an attractive authority figures asks me to do something, I do the exact opposite.

Considering the controversy over last year's nominee-expanding rule changes, it's no wonder the TV academy's modifications for the 2010 Emmy Awards seem less dramatic. But just as last year's nips and tucks demonstrated the organization's commitment to maintaining a fair process, this year's adjustments show that the Emmys can change alongside the business that they honor. "There's a general critical consensus and industry consensus that prime-time TV has moved into an extraordinary new era," says John Leverence, the TV academy's senior vice president of awards, who has overseen the process since 1980.

WASHINGTON - A widow who conceived a baby from the sperm of her late husband is not automatically entitled to Social Security survivors benefits to help raise the child, the Supreme Court ruled Monday. The 9-0 decision rejected the claim that a biological child of a married couple, even one born years after the father died, always qualifies as his survivor under the Social Security Act. Instead, the justices upheld the government's multi-part definition of who deserves survivors benefits.

MOSCOW - Stiff new penalties aimed at opposition protesters were given preliminary approval Tuesday by Russian lawmakers loyal to President Vladimir Putin, the target of mass rallies and demonstrations before his March election victory. The bill, which opposition parliament members termed draconian and protested by threatening to file out of a legislative session, calls for fines of up to $50,000 and up to 200 hours of community service for organizers of rallies and demonstrations that grow violent or exceed the approved number of participants.