Signal

The young staff at the Alexander Science Center has been hard hit by seniority-based layoffs, the main factor behind a turnover of at least 28 teachers in the last five years - this in a school with a faculty of about 28. Teachers say that the students at the USC-adjacent campus have suffered from the lack of stability and that the faculty has felt frustrated and voiceless. But now, three instructors from the Alexander science school are among the freshman class of delegates to the House of Representatives for United Teachers Los Angeles, the teachers union in the L.A. Unified School District.

Boeing, the Chicago-based company that has built some of the world's most sophisticated aircraft, has turned to a very basic food staple to test airplane Wi-Fi: potatoes. About 20,000 pounds of potatoes were used as stand-ins for passengers during tests at the company's laboratories to ensure onboard Wi-Fi signals are consistent through the cabin without interrupting the navigation and communication systems, the company said Wednesday. The sacks of potatoes replicate the way human passengers reflect and absorb electronic signals, said Boeing spokesman Adam Tischler.

SAN FRANCISCO - A showdown over the fate of the country's largest medical marijuana dispensary heads to federal court here Thursday, and the outcome could hint at what lies ahead as a growing number of states opt for legalization. This fall, Oakland became the first municipality to sue federal prosecutors in an attempt to block them from shuttering a medical cannabis facility. Harborside Health Center, with facilities in Oakland and San Jose, has more than 108,000 members in its patient collective.

Forrest N. Shumway, a law-trained businessman who expanded his uncle's Signal Oil & Gas Co. from a local operation into one of the country's most powerful, diverse business conglomerates, has died. He was 85. Shumway, who helped engineer the merger that created Allied-Signal Corp. while also serving on USC's board of trustees, died of complications of cancer at his La Jolla home on Dec. 4, said his son Garrett. Born March 21, 1927 in Skowhegan, Maine, Shumway joined the Marines after high school and went on to get his bachelor's in political science and a law degree, both from Stanford University.

CAIRO - Anger between Egypt's rival political camps erupted into street battles Wednesday after Islamist supporters of President Mohamed Morsi tore down tents belonging to antigovernment demonstrators, raising the possibility of widening violence over the nation's proposed constitution. Pro-Morsi factions overran about 200 protesters camped outside the presidential palace in north Cairo. The clashes came after the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party called thousands of its members into the streets in a counter-demonstration to drive opposition movements from the presidential palace.

A year ago Cal State Northridge-based radio station KCSN-FM (88.5) began to promote its "Smart Rock" format, programming that incorporates the eclecticism of the far more established public station KCRW-FM (89.9) with regular doses of pop music's "heritage" acts. Within months, audience donations nearly doubled. Now if only the station's signal, which barely makes it from the San Fernando Valley campus to Griffith Park, had increased by as much. "If I get one more email from somebody who tells me precisely the corner they're at, people literally telling me the precise longitude and latitude where they lose the signal…," said KCSN general manager Sky Daniels.

WASHINGTON - In his first news conference since winning reelection, President Obama on Wednesday showed himself ready to go toe-to-toe with Republicans over fallout from the deadly attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya, even as he left open the door to compromise over year-end tax increases. Speaking in the East Room, the typically cool Obama displayed a rare flash of anger in defending Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, whom some Republicans have accused of spreading inaccurate information about the Sept.

BEIJING - China on Thursday unveiled the men who will lead the country for the next decade after a Communist Party congress that was more about pomp and pageantry than real political change. With little deviation from the script, President Hu Jintao stepped down as party general secretary, a position he has held for the last decade, to make way for Xi Jinping, his long-ago-anointed heir. Hu appears to be leaving office entirely, giving up even his position on the Central Military Commission.

The fact that climate change got some attention at Wednesday's presidential press conference could be viewed as progress by environmentalists, after they watched the issue go virtually ignored during the just-concluded campaign. President Obama made many of the right sounds for activists on the issue. In response to a question from the New York Times's Mark Landler, Obama said America must “make sure that this is not something we're passing on to future generations, that's going to be very expensive and very painful to deal with.” But the president also signaled that reducing carbon emissions comes nowhere near the top of his agenda, at least as he looks forward to the start of his second term.

CAIRO - Egypt and Turkey are forging an alliance that showcases two Islamist leaders maneuvering to reshape a Middle East gripped by political upheaval and passionate battles over how deeply the Koran should penetrate public life. The relationship may foreshadow an emerging regional order in which the sway of the United States gradually fades against Islamist voices no longer contained by militaries and pro-Western autocrats. Each country has a distinct vision of political Islam, but Turkey, which straddles Europe and Asia, and Egypt, the traditional heart of the Arab world, complement each other for now. Turkey's strong economy may help rescue Egypt from financial crisis, while Cairo may further Ankara's ambition to rise as a force among Islamic-backed governments.