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Quarterfinal action began with a pair of upsets Friday afternoon at the Farmers Classic at UCLA's L.A. Tennis Center. Ricardas Berankis of Lithuania defeated France's fourth-seeded Nicolas Mahut, 6-4, 6-4, to reach his first ATP tour semifinal. He is the first qualifier to reach the semifinals at the Farmers Classic since Carsten Ball in 2009. Ball advanced to the championship before losing to Sam Querrey. Rajeev Ram advanced with a 7-6, 6-3 victory over third-seeded Leonardo Mayer of Argentina.

Respiratory therapists, nursing aides, surgical technicians and other patient care workers plan to stage a walkout starting Tuesday morning at five University of California medical centers. More than 12,000 workers from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees are expected to participate in the two-day strike over staffing, pay and pension reform, union officials said. An additional 3,400 workers from the University Professional and Technical Employees union plan a one-day sympathy strike.

Plantar fasciitis. If you haven't had to deal with it personally, just ask around. Chances are you know lots of people who can describe it in great detail: stabbing heel pain and agonizing steps followed by a frustratingly slow recovery. Plantar fasciitis - an inflammation of the plantar facsia, a thick band of tissue that runs along the arch from the heel to the toes - has become so ubiquitous that podiatrists can practically make the diagnosis before a patient even sets foot in their office.

WASHINGTON - Apple Inc., one of the most successful and valuable companies on the planet, will be tested Tuesday when Chief Executive Tim Cook testifies about the company's controversial tax practices before a hostile Senate subcommittee. Should the company, as Apple and Cook argue, be applauded for creating hundreds of thousands of jobs and paying $6 billion in federal taxes last year, among the most of any U.S. corporation? Or should Apple be reviled for stashing a hoard of cash overseas so it could legally skirt an additional $15 billion in taxes over four years, making it potentially one of the country's biggest tax avoiders?

Keegan Bradley had no thoughts about a course record, or the possibility of a 59, after consecutive bogeys in the middle of his opening round in the Byron Nelson Championship at Irving, Texas. Until his 136-yard wedge shot on his final hole Thursday. "It was going right at it. [A 59] crossed my mind for a second, and it would be unbelievable if I buried this," Bradley said. "But I had three feet to shoot 60. I was actually very nervous, uncomfortable over it and thank God I made it. " Bradley shot 10-under-par 60, completed by that short birdie at the 428-yard ninth hole, to break the TPC Four Seasons course record and match the best round ever at the Nelson.

Trial judges are, on the books, elected officials, and even the vast majority of those whose names never appear on a ballot are subject to election challenge every six years. Should voters not call them to account for their performance, as they do with any other politician, on election day? Should they not encourage opponents to challenge incumbent judges? Or are judges different from members of Congress or city councils? Judges are most definitely different. The last thing we want or need in California is trial judges who sit on the bench with one eye on justice and the other on how any particular ruling is going to play with the public.

After days of silence during which long-held resentment toward Abercrombie & Fitch Co. began to boil over, Chief Executive Michael S. Jeffries tried to stem a backlash against the teen-focused retailer. Jeffries, in a statement Thursday, discussed criticism that the company lacks women's XL and XXL sizes in favor of catering toward young, good-looking customers. "A&F is an aspirational brand that, like most specialty apparel brands, targets its marketing at a particular segment of customers," he said in the statement.

Having been born to one of the most famous couples of this century--America's greatest modern writer, F. Scott Fitzgerald and his talented flapper wife Zelda Sayre--Scottie Fitzgerald was thrust a heavy mantle, particularly as their only child. Add to that the heady cocktail of parental alcoholism, prescription drug abuse, numerous failed suicide attempts and schizophrenia. Talent and tragedy were genetically passed on to Scottie as surely as her blond hair and blue eyes. Until now, very little was known about the Fitzgeralds' daughter beyond her school days.

In 1986, lawmakers decided the problem of illegal immigration had to be dealt with. More than 3 million people were living in the United States after crossing the border illegally or overstaying their visas. A new law signed by President Ronald Reagan gave legal status and a path to citizenship to most of those unauthorized residents - helping many secure a slice of the American dream but also giving fuel to critics who sought to turn "amnesty" into a pejorative. Less than 30 years later, the number of immigrants living in the country illegally is thought to have nearly quadrupled, and the freighted baggage of amnesty looms over new efforts to reform the nation's immigration laws.

REWARI, India -- India passed anti-rape legislation Thursday that included a controversial provision setting the age of sexual consent at 18. Reformers argued the law, which was passed in a hurried response to public anger over the fatal mid-December rape of a 23-year old physiotherapy student, should set the age at 16 to prevent wrongful arrests in a changing society. However, conservatives prevailed, fearful a lower age would encourage premarital sex and undermine Indian morality.

Spending in the hotly contested two-year race for Los Angeles mayor exceeded $33 million on Saturday, breaking previous records as unlimited outside money continued to play a dominant role in Tuesday's contest. Candidate super PACs and so-called "independent expenditure" donors, which do not have to abide by the city's campaign contribution limits, provided 41% of the $25.6-million total raised just for candidates Wendy Greuel and Eric Garcetti since the contest began in March 2011, according to campaign reports.

By Kari Howard The stories I read spark musical connections every day. It's a bit more rare when the walk to work does. But one of my favorite moments this week came when I was strolling down Broadway past Grand Park in downtown LA, a section that used to be a parking lot for the criminal courts building. A woman was walking in the other direction talking on the phone, vexation in your voice. And I overheard her say this: “They turned it into a damn park!” It made me laugh - it was a bizarro-world Joni Mitchell lyric in reverse: “They paved paradise/And put up a parking lot.” Months ago, I had watched the parking lot being unpaved so paradise could be put up, so another of the song's lyrics had resonance: “They took all the trees/Put 'em in a tree museum.” The first thing the construction workers did?

Not all playoff victories are created equal. Nor are losses. But the way the Kings won Game 2 could loom large over this Western Conference semifinal series, with Game 3 on Saturday night at San Jose. The Sharks had rallied from a two-goal deficit and were carrying a lead into the final two minutes of play Thursday night at Staples Center. Normally, if a team scores three times against Kings goalie Jonathan Quick, that is enough to win, a point on which both coaches agreed. "First off, if you score three goals you should win in the playoffs," Kings Coach Darryl Sutter said.

Keegan Bradley shot a one-under-par 69 in a round that started and ended with bogeys, good enough for a three-stroke lead after two rounds in the Byron Nelson Championship at Irving, Texas. A day after setting the TPC Four Seasons course record with a 60, also with two bogeys, Bradley went into the weekend at 11-under 129. That is the lowest 36-hole total at the Nelson since 2001. Tom Gillis, who shot 63 in the first group of the day off the No. 10 tee, and Sang-Moon Bae were tied for second.

Marcel Melanson was a hero in Compton. The fire battalion chief led teams that raced to help victims of car crashes and street violence. Three years ago, he got national exposure as a star of a BET reality TV program that followed Compton firefighters on emergency calls. "We're constantly battling the perception of the city," he told the Los Angeles Times when the show premiered. "It's constantly thought of as this bad place. " On Friday, he was back in the public eye, but under very different circumstances.

MARAAT NUMAN, Syria - Each morning, after saluting the Syrian flag and before the warplanes take off, soldiers at army bases across Syria are given political orientation. During the lectures, conscripts and career officers alike are repeatedly told that opposition forces are fueled by sectarian hatred and want to tear the country apart. The message - of a war waged by Sunni Muslims against Syria's Alawite and Shiite minorities - is well understood. To Syrian soldiers, "It has essentially become sectarian; the Sunnis fight out of fear and the Alawites fight out of conviction," said Muhammad Zinedden, a Sunni conscript who defected in February from the 17th Engineering Regiment in Raqqa province.

A man walked into a Costa Mesa nail salon about noon Sunday, doused himself in flammable liquid and set himself on fire, police said. A woman from whom the man had been estranged, either his wife or his girlfriend, was inside the salon at the time, according to a Costa Mesa police spokesman. Someone grabbed a fire extinguisher and doused the flames and the man was rushed to a nearby hospital, police said. The man was not immediately identified by authorities, and there was no word on his condition Sunday evening.

Lionel Messi broke the 39-year-old record for goals scored during a European club season with his hat trick during Barcelona's 4-1 victory over Malaga on Wednesday night. Messi's third goal of the night was his 68th of the season, breaking the previous single-season record of 67 set by Bayern Munich's Gerd Muller in 1972-73. After converting penalty kicks in the 35th and 59th minutes, the 24-year-old Messi chipped goalkeeper Carlos Kameni, knocking the ball into an empty net in the 64th minute for his ninth hat trick of the season.

NEW DELHI - The disaster caused shocking loss of life among young, mostly female garment workers, awoke the conscience of a nation, spotlighted dismal working conditions and spurred loud calls for construction and labor reform. So far, that description could apply equally to the collapse of the Rana Plaza factory complex in Bangladesh three weeks ago and to the Triangle shirtwaist factory fire in New York in 1911. The Triangle fire would prove a turning point in safeguarding American workers after 146 mostly young Jewish and Italian immigrants died, including many who jumped to their deaths because they were trapped behind locked doors.

Yes, it was that hot Sunday. The scorching temperatures set records at three Los Angeles County weather stations Sunday, topping out at 103 degrees at Burbank's Bob Hope Airport. The old record there, 100 degrees, was set in 1976. In the High Desert, Lancaster had a reading of 98, breaking by one degree the old record, set in 1996.  And in the mountains on the Grapevine, the weather station at Sandberg recorded a temperature of 91. That smashed the old record of 83 set in 2012.