Shelters

On May 17, 1987, Gene Ackley was carried by friends from a sea of wine bottles in a Gardena motel room to the safe harbor of a Costa Mesa white clapboard house. There--with the help of fellow alcoholics at Charlie Street, a free 10-day program run entirely by volunteers--he came off a three-week blackout bender into the beginning of a new life.

TULTITLAN, Mexico - The travelers, with bloodshot eyes and sleep-wrinkled clothes, press around a man with a map of Mexico taped to the wall. He speaks, and his finger traces various routes north to the border. All roads lead to trouble. Up here, kidnappers and drug killers. Over there, Mexican army checkpoints. Farther along, a giant desert, with poisonous snakes and deadly heat. Listeners rise on tiptoes to see better. A woman asks for a piece of paper; she wants to remember the name of the Mexican state bordering Arizona.

The scope of devastation left by the second-deadliest tornado blast in U.S. history continued to emerge Saturday as stunned survivors combed the wreckage of homes churned into matchsticks and aid workers and volunteers struggled to get food, water and generators to thousands displaced across seven Southern states. Hundreds who spent the night in emergency shelters hastily erected in hardest-hit Tuscaloosa, Ala., scoured the remnants of their homes and businesses for photos and keepsakes, mostly in vain.

The play's the thing Re " Playing role of patience ," Column One, March 23 I thoroughly enjoyed the article about the life of a theatrical understudy. I've been working in the film and television industry for the last 35 years - not as an actor but as a set lighting technician - and in that time have developed a profound respect for those who suffer the trials and tribulations of the acting life. Some actors can be a pain, of course - a diva is a diva, male or female - but I've found most actors to be amazing, interesting people.

Eight months pregnant and running away from an abusive boyfriend, Donna found refuge two months ago at Precious Life, a temporary shelter for homeless pregnant women in Los Alamitos. At that time, she was certain she would give her baby up for adoption once it was born. Now, as 22-day-old Brandon sleeps peacefully on her lap, she is certain she won't give him up. She feels energized now and ready to face the world again.

Khadijah Williams stepped into chemistry class and instantly tuned out the commotion. She walked past students laughing, gossiping, napping and combing one another's hair. Past a cellphone blaring rap songs. And past a substitute teacher sitting in a near-daze. Quietly, the 18-year-old settled into an empty table, flipped open her physics book and focused. Nothing mattered now except homework. "No wonder you're going to Harvard," a girl teased her. Around here, Khadijah is known as "Harvard girl," the "smart girl" and the girl with the contagious smile who landed at Jefferson High School only 18 months ago. What students don't know is that she is also a homeless girl.

Shawnine Mackay, who often sleeps on the street near Hollywood Boulevard by lowering herself out of her wheelchair onto the ground, said she would love to be able bed down in one of Los Angeles County's dozens of homeless shelters. But shelter workers have repeatedly turned her away because of her dog, Molly, who is trained to help her detect and cope with seizures.

Cao Thi Nguyen and her baby were marooned in a strange land without family or options. The young woman, who moved here from Vietnam two years ago to marry a South Korean man, had been kicked out of her home after a fight with her husband's family. Unable to speak Korean, the slight 29-year-old wandered the streets of Seoul for months until she found a refuge designed to help the growing number of foreign brides in the country -- nearly half of whom report suffering domestic abuse.

Re "County Keeps Shelters Open Until April 30. The article on the shutdown of the shelters for the homeless caught my attention. Most of the homeless out there are either drug and alcohol abusers or mentally ill. In either case, they do not have to be a burden on the community. I have a small (16-bed) nonprofit center, [Mountain View Recovery Center]. I have no funding and am nearly self-supporting. I rent a house, paying too much money, and men work and pay enough to keep us open.

Federal officials on Tuesday announced a new national shelter system to help locate temporary housing for victims of hurricanes and other natural disasters. The shelter system is a key part of preparations for hurricane season, which begins June 1. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Craig Fugate, the new director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, called for the public to help prepare for storms, mostly by devising family evacuation plans.

After more than 50 years as a veterinarian in Burbank, there's nothing small about Martin Small's contribution to Burbank's animal shelter. "I have never done anything more satisfying than what I've done since I've been here," he said. After spending the last several years working full time to establish the shelter's medical program, Small, 82, is now an on-call surgeon. Before he set foot in the shelter in 2004, cats suffered from contagious respiratory diseases and dogs were prone to kennel cough and parvovirus.

UNDERRATED 'Borgen' on LinkTV : Viewers drawn into AMC's "The Killing" (adapted from the taut Danish import, "Forbrydelsen") should seek out the similar aesthetics of this political drama, a Denmark-born twist on "The West Wing" covering European politics, the media and a cunning prime minister, played by Sidse Babett Knudsen. Plus, with NBC reportedly working on an adaptation, you can get onboard before the series (with English subtitles) shoots itself in the foot in the States.

Over the last year and a half, a stretch of South La Brea Avenue has become home to a cluster of men's boutiques that are tapping into the vibe of American heritage, military surplus and nostalgia, a vibe that continues to resonate with consumers. The 100 block was already home to Stussy (street wear), Union (sneakers) and American Rag Cie and its World Denim Bar. Now the troika of Feal Mor, General Quarters and Shelter Half, with their rough-hewn wood, brick walls, weathered flags and canvas tents, have made the area a kind of mecca for the manly man and a true "guy's gulch.

A Pekingese with a pear-shaped body - apparently the sought-after Peke physique - and gray mane worthy of a Shetland pony won the coveted Best in Show title on Tuesday at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, the Oscars of the canine world. Just a day before, Uggie, the Jack Russell terrier that was the breakout star of the movie "The Artist," fetched the prize for best film dog at the Golden Collars Awards presentation and is rumored to be appearing at the Oscars show. He was the toast of the Golden Globes stage last month.

The Department of Animal Services has become an unruly place where equipment is unaccounted for, at least $125,000 is missing and up to $1.3 million in potential revenue was overlooked over the last two fiscal years, a new report has found. The audit, conducted over two years and released Tuesday, describes policy and possible ethics breakdowns across the agency, with particular focus on poor supervision and management. In one example, department officials could not show investigators whether donations were spent legitimately.

Take Shelter Sony, $30.99; Blu-ray, $35.99 Writer-director Jeff Nichols re-teams with his "Shotgun Stories" star Michael Shannon for "Take Shelter," a film about a blue-collar, small-town family man who worries that a recurring apocalyptic dream is either a prophecy or a sign that he's mentally ill. "Take Shelter" is more ponderous than it needs to be and too predictable as the hero suffers one setback after another. But Nichols is less concerned with those losses than he is in how people react to a loved one's mania.

Saints and sinners walk the same streets and sometimes the blessed are hard to find. But, across Los Angeles, several people have dedicated their lives to finding the silent ones who live under freeways, hugging the toothpick bodies that sleep in stinky tents, and feeding the souls who, even after all this, still believe in God. Every day at 10 a.m., Billy Soto packs his gray van with sandwiches, juice, hot chicken and rice and drives through downtown Los Angeles to feed the homeless.

Chilly and windy overnight temperatures throughout the Antelope, Santa Clarita and San Fernando valleys caused three area emergency homeless shelters to open over the weekend. "Actually it hasn't been cold enough in most areas. They've opened mostly because of wind," said Paul Rossi, program coordinator for the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, which administers funding for 20 county shelters.

The State Department's decision to provide refuge for three U.S. pro-democracy workers in Egypt illustrated the widening gulf between Washington and an ally it considers key to stability in the Middle East. After a month of friction over the status of Americans working to promote democracy in Egypt, U.S. officials confirmed Monday that they had agreed to provide shelter in the U.S. Embassy in Cairo to the three, who fear they could be arrested or physically harmed because of their activities.

Michael Shannon stands 6 feet, 3 inches. Big guy. Carries a big, George Costanza-size wallet too, which he plops on the table at the RH Restaurant at West Hollywood's Andaz Hotel with sincere apologies. "It's ridiculous," he says. "My whole life is in here. " A glimmer of Shannon's life can also be seen on screen in "Take Shelter," the critically praised drama in which the 37-year-old actor plays a father worried about losing his family as well as his mind. We talked to Shannon about the film, being a dad and taking on the role of the evil Gen. Zod in Zack Snyder's upcoming "Superman" reboot.