Scars

In "If God Is Willing and Da Creek Don't Rise," airing Monday and Tuesday on HBO, Spike Lee returns to New Orleans, the scene of his post-Katrina documentary "When the Levees Broke" to assess what might be called the damage being done by the recovery. He also assesses the actual recovery, the illusory recovery, the psychological recovery, and the assault on the recovery that is the BP oil spill — an unfortunate and unavoidable late addition that, though not specifically related to Katrina or the following flood, fits his larger themes of class war and bad luck and enlarges his portrait of a land that can seem beleaguered by God or cursed through voodoo but which most definitely shows the scars of human mismanagement, corruption and greed.

Richard "Scar" Lopez, a founding member of Cannibal & the Headhunters, the East Los Angeles vocal group that scored a national hit in the mid-1960s with "Land of 1000 Dances," has died. He was 65. Lopez died of lung cancer July 30 in a convalescent hospital in Garden Grove, said Gene Aguilera, who managed the group a decade ago during its local comeback. They were four high school students in East L.A. — Frankie "Cannibal" Garcia, Lopez, Robert "Rabbit" Jaramillo and his brother, Joe "Yo Yo" Jaramillo — when they emerged on the national music scene in 1965.

On the surface, everything appears fine. More than fine, actually. Hiroki Kuroda, who didn't win more than nine games in either of his first two seasons, already has seven. Along with Clayton Kershaw, the 35-year-old right-hander from Japan has stabilized a Dodgers rotation that has been hindered by health problems and inexperience. Kuroda is 10 1/2 months removed from the day he was hit in the head by a ball off the bat of Rusty Ryal of the Arizona Diamondbacks. His start on Friday will be his second at Chase Field since the incident; he had no problems in the first, pitching 7 1/3 innings and earning a win. But even if the memory of taking a line drive off his skull hasn't affected his pitching — he goes into his start with a 3.27 earned-run average — Kuroda acknowledges that something about him has changed.

For many, Yellowstone National Park is a place where nature gives a lifetime of memories — the beauty of the landscape, the wildlife and the geysers. For me, Yellowstone is a reminder of a turning point in my life, one that resulted in a death sentence. It's a memory I'd rather forget. I was the vice president for public relations at the California Institute of Technology in the fall of 2006 when I took a vacation to Yellowstone. I normally didn't like to take vacations. I did conference calls from cruise ships and wrote e-mails from beach houses.

There are few truths to be found in the smoldering ash heap that is "Jonah Hex," but here are the ones that matter: John Malkovich is responsible for the Fourth of July fireworks tradition (who knew?); Megan Fox looks better fighting in a bustier than tight white "Transformers" jeans (no-brainer); definitely consider a cosmetic surgeon to deal with those unsightly facial scars, don't get in a pique and try to do it yourself (duh). This latest DC Comics transmogrification into mega-action mess stars Josh Brolin as Jonah, a bounty-hunting latter-day saint with an ax to grind and a face that even a mother couldn't love (see cosmetic surgery tip above)

Is the BP oil spill turning into President Obama's equivalent of Hurricane Katrina, a disaster that will scar the rest of his presidency? Not quite; not yet. In 2005, when Katrina flooded New Orleans, the federal government's tragically inadequate response became a symbol of then-President George W. Bush's inattention to the hard work of managing the nation's domestic business. When it comes to inattention, Barack Obama is no George W. Bush. But the 40-day-old drama of the uncontrolled oil flow from BP's well, now the largest spill in U.S. history, has become a public test of his competence at handling an unanticipated crisis.

Azusa city leaders have rejected a rock mining company's plan to dig into a hillside above the San Gabriel Valley, a plan that residents in neighboring Duarte said would have scarred the mountainside, affected air quality and cut off access to a popular trailhead. After a six-hour meeting that ended Tuesday morning, the Azusa City Council voted 3 to 2 against the mining proposal. Vulcan Materials submitted a request last year to shift its operations from Fish Canyon to an area that borders Duarte.

When he slid too early into second, got his knee stuck in the dirt a bit and heard a "pop" in his right groin on Friday, Torii Hunter thought he had damaged something in the area that was repaired by a sports hernia operation last November. "I was like, ‘What the heck just happened?' " said Hunter, who had doubled off the left-field wall in an exhibition game against Colorado. Hunter got the answer — and a huge dose of relief — when he was examined Saturday by Dr. Lewis Yocum , who told the Angels center fielder the "pop" was some scar tissue breaking up in the incision from his surgery.

Before he was deployed to Iraq, Scott Shore refused to take aspirin for headaches. Six years later, suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, he takes six medications daily for ailments ranging from depression to insomnia. "Just to leave my house and take my kids to the park is a struggle," said the 34-year-old Mission Viejo resident, who also receives counseling from the Department of Veterans Affairs. But another part of Shore's therapy began in January with the Soldiers Project.

Lt. Col. Brian Birdwell is in Texas now. Army Chaplain Henry A. Haynes is in South Carolina. Eight years ago today, they were inside the Pentagon at 9:39 a.m., when American Airlines Flight 77 hit its mark. The world tends to give its fullest attention to anniversaries that end in zero or five -- not eight. There will be bagpipes and drums in New York. The president will lay a wreath at the Pentagon. Most of the nation will take a collective pause and move on. But for those like Birdwell and Haynes, directly touched by the terrorist attacks on Sept.