Spectators

Online videos of previous races of the California 200 show spectators standing dangerously close to the speeding off-road vehicles, with no concrete barriers separating them from the cars. The California 200 race in the Mojave Desert was the scene of a tragedy Saturday when eight people died after an off-road vehicle slammed into a crowd about 7:48 p.m., just after dusk. Witnesses described a chaotic scene in which the victims had no chance to flee. A video taken in August 2009 shows off-road vehicles speeding through the desert and becoming airborne a few yards away from a crowd of cheering spectators.

At the heart of the massive preparations for the London Summer Olympics, beneath the logistics of housing 10,500 athletes from more than 200 countries, providing venues to showcase their skills and transporting millions of people physically and emotionally, lies the personal vision of Sebastian Coe. The chairman of the London Organizing Committee (known as LOCOG) hopes the athletes and spectators who come to his hometown will come to love it as he does, that they will see an ancient city with new sensibilities, a cosmopolitan place with homey touches that will survive past the Aug. 12 closing ceremony.

He was one of the late arrivals, a young man who naively showed up at 11:30 a.m. to find a dozen people lined up outside Department N on the fourth floor of Superior Court in Van Nuys. Actually, there were a baker's dozen--just enough for a jury, plus one alternate. They were waiting for 11:45, when a Department N bailiff would hand out the precious slips of paper granting the bearer admission to the afternoon session of the drama that is the murder trial of Lyle and Erik Menendez.

Cheers broke out from crowds gathered on the National Mall. Workers peered out windows and looked up from sidewalks. Motorists pulled to the side of the road to catch a glimpse of the spectacle: The space shuttle Discovery piggybacking on a modified 747, flying low over the monuments of the nation's capital before landing at Dulles International Airport on the way to its permanent new home with the Smithsonian, at the National Air and Space Museum's...

Being a spectator at a "sideshow" is now illegal in the city. The City Council gave its second and final approval Tuesday to an ordinance that allows authorities to cite spectators of the late-night car rallies known for high-speed stunts. The law allows police to cite spectators with infractions for their first two offenses and a misdemeanor for their third. The ordinance also allows authorities to confiscate cars of drivers who participate in sideshows.

For the second time in nine months a crash at a major open-wheel auto race in the United States has killed three spectators, raising questions about safety at the events. "Every once in a while, unfortunately, auto racing raises the black side of itself," Lowe's Motor Speedway President H.A. "Humpy" Wheeler said Sunday as authorities tried to piece together evidence from a fatal accident at the track Saturday night.

Spectators at school basketball and football games are being searched with hand-held metal detectors under a new policy intended to thwart gang confrontations. Use of metal detectors at varsity games was sought by police who provide security at the games after a youth was seen carrying a gun at a Jan. 29 game at Fremont High School. Police confiscated 60 weapons in a record 4,592 calls to Oakland schools through the end of January this school year, said Oakland Police Sgt. Harold Boutte.

Three spectators were killed and at least eight injured when struck by debris that flew into the stands after a three-car crash in the VisionAire 500 Indy Racing League event Saturday night. Spectators sitting in the area where the crash occurred said a tire and suspension parts flew into the fourth-turn grandstands at Lowe's Motor Speedway and struck the spectators. Area hospitals reported treating at least eight people, including one child who was in critical condition.

A racing boat apparently hit debris in the water during a 50-lap race Sunday and flew up a river bank into a crowd of spectators, injuring 24 people, including 11 children, police said. The Three Rivers Regatta, regarded as the premier U.S.

A spectator at a cockfight can be charged with a crime in California, the Supreme Court affirmed Tuesday. The justices rejected a challenge to a state law dating back to 1868 which makes it a crime for "any person who, for amusement or gain, causes any bull, bear, cock or other animal . . . to fight with like kind of animal or creature." Anyone who "aids, abets or is present at such fighting . . . as a spectator is guilty of a misdemeanor," according to the law.

Homer Osterhoudt was born and raised in Cooperstown, N.Y., site of the Baseball Hall of Fame since 1939. Every summer, when the immortals of the diamond visited for the annual induction ceremony, the longtime mail carrier was waiting on Main Street, camera at the ready. His photographs capture shards of hardball splendor: a dapper Babe Ruth giving his induction speech, Dizzy Dean warming up on the sidelines. "You read about these big-time players in the newspapers," Osterhoudt said, "and here I am taking photographs of them.

With apologies to Yogi Berra and thanks to Rick Santorum, the fat lady has thrown up. It's over. Mitt Romney is the only Republican presidential candidate still on his feet. And he won't need to lean on California to win the GOP nomination. Californians really won't matter when they finally vote June 5. There had been much speculation - even predictions - that California's primary would be "relevant" and perhaps "decisive. " Or that we could play a crucial role by denying the frontrunner the clinching delegates, thus thrusting the nomination fight into a historic "brokered" convention in August.

On Feb. 21, it will be two years since Antron Brown and Susan Zimmer never met and became joined forever. It was Brown's 200th-something National Hot Rod Assn. event, Zimmer's first. Brown is a drag racer, one of the best on the NHRA circuit. He drives in what is known as a top-fuel dragster, the sexiest class of racing on the 23-event national circuit that begins this weekend at Fairplex in Pomona, and will end with its grand finale right back there Nov. 8-11. The top-fuel dragster is long and skinny, with a 7,000-horsepower engine behind the driver's cockpit.

When the Rose Parade floats are gone and spectators head home, what's left behind? About 50 tons of trash, five tons of cardboard and 3,500 beverage containers. A team of 80 workers swept through the parade route Monday night and Tuesday morning, cleaning up debris and scrubbing streets and sidewalks after Pasadena's largest event, which attracted hundreds of thousands of people this year. The Rose Bowl game, held at the stadium a few minutes walk from Old Pasadena, produced about 50 tons of trash, 30 tons of cardboard and 100,000 beverage containers.

President Obama played coin-flipper, color commentator and spectator as he attended his first Army-Navy game as commander-in-chief Saturday. The 112th meeting of the two service academies was played for the first time in the Washington area, drawing not only the president but also Vice President Joe Biden and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. Obama flipped a special Ronald Reagan centennial coin to determine home field advantage before the game. It came up tails, as called for by the Army captains.

Coach Rex Ryan of the New York Jets on Monday was fined $75,000 by the NFL for screaming an obscenity at a spectator. Ryan made the foul-mouthed remark during halftime of the Jets' loss to New England on Nov. 13 at MetLife Stadium after a spectator suggested that Patriots Coach Bill Belichick is superior to Ryan at his job. As Ryan walked into the tunnel minutes after the Jets gave up an 80-yard touchdown drive, a spectator yelled, "Hey,...

The Indian army on Sunday cracked down on a human wave of well-wishers, thrill-seekers and amateur aid-givers who flooded flattened villages where thousands had died, and political leaders appealed for cash--not relief goods--as authorities struggled to bring order to the aftermath of India's worst earthquake in half a century.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday for the first time took up the question of whether the conduct of courtroom spectators may deprive a defendant of a fair trial and require the reversal of a criminal conviction. The justices heard arguments in a San Jose murder case in which three members of the victim's family had worn buttons with small photos of him during part of the trial.

A string of angry shouts, including "I hate you! I hate you!" tore through a packed Santa Ana courtroom Friday as the man accused of killing eight people and wounding a ninth at a Seal Beach beauty salon made his first court appearance. The defendant, Scott Dekraai, showed no emotion amid taunts from the spectators, who included dozens of the victims' family members and friends. Prosecutors said they would seek the death penalty against Dekraai, who is charged with eight felony counts of special circumstance first-degree murder, and one felony count of attempted murder in connection with the worst mass killings in Orange County history.

Investigators were scrambling to determine what caused a powerful World War II vintage racing plane traveling at up to 400 mph to plunge toward spectators at the fabled Reno air races late Friday afternoon, leaving a shattered trail of twisted debris and broken bodies. At least three people were confirmed dead, including the pilot, and more than 50 were injured, about 15 of them critically. Because of the number and the extent of the injuries, the death toll could rise, officials said.