Southern California

Across Southern California, there are college basketball teams with records so dismal they might as well start talking about next year. Loyola Marymount is 1-16. UC Irvine is 4-11. Pepperdine, in its first season after the return of former coach Tom Asbury, is 4-13. It's a bit different at Long Beach State, where this year is looking pretty good -- and the words "last year" are forbidden. The 49ers, 6-25 last season, are 9-7 and lead the Big West Conference with a 4-0 record.

An Australian company announced Thursday it had suspended its plan to build a controversial offshore liquid natural gas terminal 27 miles from Los Angeles International Airport, citing the downturn in the world economy. A spokeswoman for Woodside Natural Gas said the company planned to bring the project back when conditions changed. "Woodside's in this for the long haul," said Laura Doll, the company's vice president for public and governmental affairs.

Venture capitalists slammed shut their wallets during the last three months of 2008, investing 45% less in Southern California start-ups than during the same period a year earlier, according to a report scheduled for release today. The sharp fourth-quarter decline, to $422 million from $764 million, turned what was expected to be a full-year gain into a loss, according to the Dow Jones VentureSource report. Venture funding to the region's businesses in 2008 fell 20% to $3.2 billion.

It was hard to find a cynic in Southern California on Tuesday. Not downtown, where tears streamed down Alesia Adams' face as President Barack Obama finished reciting the oath of office, projected on 15 massive screens at the new L.A. Live entertainment district. "Thank you, Lord," she whispered, as her husband, James, tightly embraced her and their two daughters.

Rain is expected throughout Southern California through Wednesday, but so far forecasters say it is not expected to trigger mudslides in areas burned by recent wildfires. The Saturday showers brought scattered road closures and power outages, and may have contributed to several traffic accidents still under investigation.

The all-important Sierra Nevada snowpack remains well below normal, signaling that California may be headed for a third consecutive dry year. When state workers took the second snow measurement of the winter Thursday, they found that statewide, the snow's water content was 61% of the average, over many years, for this point in the season. The figure was even lower in the northern Sierra, which feeds the state's biggest reservoirs.

A Granada Hills office manager who ran six family planning clinics across Southern California was sentenced to three years and four months in prison Friday for performing abortions on women, some of whom were not given pain medication during the procedures. Bertha Pinedo Bugarin, 49, who has no medical license, sobbed uncontrollably as she told Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Sam Ohta that she felt deep remorse for what she had done and begged the court's forgiveness.

As the regional economy continues to sputter, vacancy rates are beginning to climb at warehouses and distribution centers for industrial goods, putting the already hard-hit Inland Empire at further risk of decline and threatening facilities in Los Angeles and Orange counties as well. After years of high occupancy and rapid construction of cargo hubs, immense spaces are now standing empty.

Southern Californians took advantage of breaks in the wet weather Saturday to enjoy the outdoors before rainfall begins again and continues off and on through Monday. At Mountain High Resort in Wrightwood, a fresh blanket of powdery snow fell shortly before sunrise, creating one of the best days of the season for skiers and snowboarders, who were carving up the runs under sunny to partly cloudy skies. "We are having an amazing day," said resort spokeswoman Laura Johnson.

Four days of on-again, off-again rain and strong wind continued to snarl rush-hour traffic, trigger mudslides, flood intersections and inflict scattered power outages Monday, but the National Weather Service said relief was in sight. Only a 20% chance of rain has been forecast for the next few days, although that will rise again to 50% by late Friday.