Sisters

Secretary of Defense Leon E. Panetta's decision to rescind restrictions on women in combat is being compared to President Harry Truman's order to end racial segregation in the armed services (which took years to implement) and Congress' vote in 2010 to end the "don't ask, don't tell" policy that allowed for the expulsion of openly gay service members. But in some ways Panetta's decision is even more significant than those earlier actions. Although regulations excluding women from ground combat units date back only to 1994, the practice long predates those rules and reflects notions about differences between the sexes that until recently were almost universally held across a variety of cultures.

Her famous brother-in-law had not yet been elected president. But he already had been vice president, as well as a U.S. senator and a congressman from California, and Clara Jane Nixon wanted to preserve some of his family history. So, beginning in 1967, the Newport Beach homemaker set out to track down and collect the furniture, books and other belongings that had filled the modest boyhood home of Richard M. Nixon. She hoped that one day the artifacts might be displayed in a museum.

There was a stirring of excitement in the paddock at Santa Anita on Thursday before the seventh race, an allowance optional claiming race for fillies and mares 4-year-olds and up. Call it the Zenyatta effect. Zenyatta's half-sister, Eblouissante, was set to run in her second race, a 1 1/16-mile test on the dirt, and fans of the 2010 Horse of the Year wanted to see her half-sister up close. Eblouissante didn't disappoint, improving her race record to 2-0 after 1 3/4-length triumph over second-place Pink Blossom under jockey Corey Nakatani.

SAN FRANCISCO - They were known simply as the San Francisco Twins. At 5-foot-1 and about 100 pounds apiece, the fashion enthusiasts were an integral part of the city fabric for four decades. With matching furs, hats and high-end purses, they completed each other's sentences, posed for countless tourist snapshots and modeled for the likes of Reebok, Joe Boxer and IBM. Now one is gone. Vivian Brown, 85, who had Alzheimer's, died in her sleep Wednesday, leaving behind Marian, who was eight minutes younger.

With a bio that's often read like a tragic country song, the Texas singer-songwriter Steve Earle has pulled his act together in recent years and regained a lot of the footing he'd lost after starting out so promisingly a quarter-century ago as one of the most acclaimed young writers of his era. Earle is back to relying on his own pen in one of his strongest collections of songs, full of sharply etched observations on mortality, faith, the dirty side...

You couldn't have asked for a more sweetly engaging debut than the Living Sisters ' 2010 album, “Love to Live,” a title that embodied the sheer joy the three original members -- Inara George, Eleni Mandell and Becky Stark -- displayed through the blending of their voices. Thankfully, that recording wasn't just a one-off side project for the three women, who are otherwise engaged in various indie rock and pop projects around L.A. Now, the trio becomes a quartet with the addition of Alex Lilly, the onetime backup singer for George in the Bird and the Bee who subsequently stepped into the lead spot when she formed Obi Best.

Pay-TV channel Starz is trying to chart a new orbit. Early next year, its parent company, Liberty Media, plans to spin off the premium network and its sister channel Encore into a new, stand-alone, publicly traded company. Such a move would normally be cause for celebration. But for Starz, the separation comes amid uncertainty. Its track record producing original shows has been mixed. The market is getting increasingly crowded not only from Starz's traditional competitors, HBO and Showtime, but also from new rivals including Netflix, Amazon and Redbox.

The New York felon who set a Christmas Eve trap for firefighters left a note saying he wanted to burn down the neighborhood and "do what I do best: killing people," police said Tuesday. Investigators found human remains in the burned-out home of ex-con William Spengler, 62, a day after his rampage in Webster, a Rochester suburb. Officials said the remains probably were those of Spengler's missing sister, Cheryl, 67. Spengler apparently set the blaze in or near his home and lay in wait, killing two firefighters and seriously wounding two more before taking his own life, officials said.

Stepping across grass-tufted sidewalks on her way to the bus, Meredith Kensington passes sparkling lights and Christmas cheer. But she can't feel the holiday warmth. She wants to spend the holidays with three siblings she cannot find. She lost contact with her sister and brother 15 years ago when they entered the byzantine bureaucracy of the Los Angeles County foster care system. She never had a chance to meet one of her half brothers before he followed them into the system, soon after his birth eight years ago. Each holiday season, Kensington renews her effort to find Marilyn and Aubrey Langston and Eddie Sanchez.

The late Hector "Macho" Camacho will not step into the ring anymore, but that hasn't stopped him from being involved in a fight. There was a three-day wake and viewing for Camacho, who was shot and killed last week in Puerto Rico. On Day 2 of the wake Tuesday, a fight broke out between his girlfriend, another woman who says she's his longtime girlfriend, and his sisters. "I am the actual girlfriend of Macho, and those who don't like it better not bring it," Cynthia Castillo, who claimed to be Camacho's girlfriend at the time of his death, told ESPN Deportes.