Smith

Singer Bobbie Smith of the Detroit soul group the Spinners died Saturday in Orlando. He was 76. Smith, according to a statement released today by the band's manager and reported by Associated Press, died of complications from pneumonia and influenza. He had been diagnosed with lung cancer in November. Along with Henry Fambrough, Smith was one of the group's two remaining original members still performing with the band. His tenor voice was out in front on a number of the Spinners' biggest Atlantic Records hits in the '70s, including "Could It Be I'm Falling in Love," "I'll Be Around," "Games People Play" and the 1974 Dionne Warwick duet "Then Came You. " PHOTOS: The scene at SXSW 2013 Originally calling themselves the Domingoes, Smith and Fambrough formed the group in 1957 with high school classmates Pervis Jackson, George W. Dixon and Billy Henderson.

After months of speculation, Los Angeles County sheriff's investigators confirmed Thursday they believed missing Fox movie executive Gavin Smith was killed and publicly named a convicted drug dealer as a person of interest in the case. The revelation came as investigators announced that the 57-year-old's Mercedes-Benz, missing since his May disappearance, was found last month in a Simi Valley storage locker. Authorities said the storage locker was linked to James Creech, now serving an eight-year sentence for an unrelated drug conviction.

Alex Smith is now a physical away from becoming the starting quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs, with the San Francisco 49ers officially announcing the trade of their former No. 1 overall pick on Tuesday. Just seeing his name in same sentence as the phrase "starting quarterback" -- and with the word "former" nowhere to be seen -- must come as a relief to Smith, who lost the 49ers' top spot to Colin Kaepernick more than midway through last season despite leading the team to the NFC championship the previous year and to a 6-2-1 record before getting hurt in 2012.

AUSTIN, Texas - Of Danny Boyle and Rick Smith's many musical collaborations, DJ'ing a party at South by Southwest should have been the simplest. After all, the “Slumdog Millionaire” director and the producer-keyboardist from the English techno duo Underworld have worked together in the past on such ambitious and varied projects as the sprawling 2012 Olympics opening ceremonies in London and the grotesquely memorable toilet diving scene in “Trainspotting,”...

The Smith Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Las Vegas is celebrating its first birthday and is looking ahead with a schedule of diverse productions. The center , which opened March 10, 2012, hosted more than 450 performances during its first year, many of them in its acclaimed Reynolds Hall. The coming weeks illustrate the variety of acts being booked by Las Vegas ' new showcase for the arts. Highlights include: An evening with Burt Bacharach (March 28)

To celebrate the release of David Bowie's new album, “The Next Day,” Paul Smith has collaborated with the rocker on a T-shirt available as of today. The organic cotton T-shirt, printed with Jonathan Barnbrook's black-and-white album cover artwork with the  words "Paul Smith for David Bowie" scribbled just below it, will certainly be a cool addition to any Bowie fan's closet. But what really interests us is the prospect of additional collaborative pieces. According to the press materials accompanying the T-shirt announcement, Smith and Bowie are longtime friends, and the British fashion designer is quoted as saying there's more to come.

Gun maker Smith & Wesson Holdings Corp. said its fiscal third-quarter earnings more than tripled from the previous year as Americans hurried to purchase firearms amid wrangling by lawmakers around the country over stricter weapons laws. Covering the three months ended Jan. 31, the results span a period in which a mass shooting at a Connecticut elementary school that left 20 children dead elevated the national conversation on firearm restrictions. In response, some gun advocates have rushed to buy firearms in anticipation of tighter laws controlling the sale of guns and ammunition.

In a season full of the unpredictable and, often, the unwieldy, the Lakers found themselves in yet another unfamiliar position. They were back at .500. It took more than two months to get there, but they pried away a 99-98 victory Sunday from the Atlanta Hawks after the buzz of Kobe Bryant's dunk wore off. When the game was secured, Bryant stuck out his chest, actor Jeremy Piven high-fived him on the court before a Staples Center security guard intervened, and the Lakers had 30 wins and 30 losses, their first time at even money since Jan. 1. Champagne corks popped, victory parades were planned and Metta World Peace invited a group of reporters to his house for some late-night sushi.

With large numbers of Los Angeles voters yet to make up their minds, a new poll shows that first-term City Atty. Carmen Trutanich is struggling to stay afloat as Tuesday's primary election approaches. Trutanich is in a statistical dead heat for second place with private attorney Greg Smith. Former lawmaker Mike Feuer enjoys a slight edge over both as the three candidates battle to advance to an expected May runoff. Feuer, who served on the City Council and then in the state Assembly representing the city's Westside, was the choice of 23.8% of those surveyed for the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy/L.A.

In 1965, Barbara T. Smith wanted to make a lithograph. When she was rejected from prominent print studio Gemini G.E.L., she leased a Xerox machine instead, installing it in her dining room. Thus began an intense engagement with the printmaking technology of the 20th century. Smith photocopied nearly everything she could get her hands on: flowers, family photos, food, magazine clippings, her own body in various states of undress. She made illustrated poems, multi-panel grids, many, many books and book-like sculptures.