Slew

An early chance for the Obama administration to reshape the nation's judiciary -- and counter gains made in the federal courts by conservatives -- appears close to slipping away, due to a combination of White House inattention and Republican opposition. During President Obama's first year, judicial nominations trickled out of the White House at a far slower pace than in President George W. Bush's first year. Bush announced 11 nominees for federal appeals courts in the fourth month of his tenure.

Los Angeles school officials lost a chance this week to test whether the booming charter movement can take on all the problems of the district's traditional, and often troubled, schools. On Tuesday, the Board of Education denied proposals from three major charter organizations that had sought to run newly built neighborhood schools, which would have included substantial numbers of limited-English speakers, special education students, foster children and low-income families. That is exactly the population that charter schools have been criticized for not sufficiently reaching.

A double-decker white tour boat sailed Wednesday afternoon toward a crescent of giant steel propellers towering above the seawater and spinning in a stiff winter wind. The boat's guest of honor, U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, rose to laud his hosts and to assure them that his country was taking steps to "get our act together" on offshore wind power. "We see Denmark as a leader and an example in wind, especially offshore," Salazar told a cabin filled mostly with European journalists and wind-energy officials.

Here in San Diego's Mission Bay -- a nearly 7-square-mile playground of amusement parks, beaches, marinas, restaurants, hotels and souvenir shops -- the words on the lips of merchants and hotel owners are "Fourth of July weekend." And it's not the annual fireworks displays they are talking about. It's the tourists -- or lack of them so far this summer. All fingers are crossed that the upcoming holiday weekend will kick-start the summer tourism season.

Electronics giant NEC Corp. of Tokyo said it would cut 20,000 workers worldwide to slow mounting losses, joining a slew of other Japanese corporate heavyweights that are slashing jobs to survive the deepening global downturn.

Rapid, mass vaccination of the young presents a new logistical problem, one that many communities aren't yet able to solve. "There are really two avenues to do this," says Dr. Peter Szilagyi, a pediatrician and expert in child immunizations at the University of Rochester Medical Center. "One is to grab every child when they are already there [at the doctor's office], use reminder mechanisms to bring people in and have special hours like weekends and evenings -- just make it very efficient.

Sometimes it's best to simply tear up the game plan, throw all the bits of paper in the air and see where they land. That's what Galaxy Coach Ruud Gullit did Saturday night, when he reshaped the Los Angeles lineup at halftime and turned a 1-0 deficit into a 2-2 tie with the Houston Dynamo. Two of the players that Gullit left on the field did all the damage. David Beckham provided the passes. Landon Donovan provided the goals, his fourth and fifth of the season.

LAS VEGAS -- When NASCAR's top drivers left Las Vegas Motor Speedway a year ago, many were in an ornery mood. The track had just undergone a face-lift that the drivers complained had made the 1.5-mile oval treacherous, and a spree of crashes prompted some to say they had spent the weekend in "Spin City."

Unless your name is Clooney or Blanchett and you're looking for a red carpet, starting today it's probably best to avoid parts of Hollywood Boulevard. Preparations have begun for the 80th annual Academy Awards ceremony at the Kodak Theatre on Feb. 24, and organizers announced a slew of road and sidewalk closures. From 10 tonight until 6 a.m. Monday, the boulevard will be closed from Orange Drive to Highland Avenue. The same stretch will be closed from 10 p.m. Monday until the early morning of Feb 26. If you're on foot, it won't be much easier to get around.

Christmas came early this year for Southern California snow junkies. Skiers and snowboarders woke up Sunday to the best of gifts from Mother Nature, who overnight had dumped up to 8 more inches of snow on Big Bear ski resorts. All told, a weekend storm left slopes covered in as much as a foot of the white gold. After the bone-dry season of last year, Shane McCallon, 19, was eager to get started.