Stables

A fire apparently caused by a smoldering cigarette destroyed a trailer parked at a South El Monte horse stable and killed a man sleeping inside, authorities said Monday. The man was burned beyond recognition in the fire, Sheriff's Deputy George Ducoulombier said. The fire in the trailer parked at a horse stable area at 12625 Rush St. was reported at 10:10 p.m. Sunday, he said. "The cause of the fire is still under investigation, but arson experts believe it was caused by a cigarette that ignited a couch inside the trailer," Ducoulombier said.

WASHINGTON - The federal deficit is shrinking more quickly than expected, and the government's long-term debt has largely stabilized for the next decade, the Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday in a report that could strengthen the Obama administration's hand in the budget battles with congressional Republicans. The budget office continues to say the federal government faces a long-range budget problem - mostly caused by the costs of an aging population - but its new forecast pushes the crunch point for that problem off into a considerably more distant future: well after the 2020 presidential election.

Re " 'Polio Pond' Cure Is Due," April 14: San Juan Creek is described as an urban-fed channel that deposits dirty water in Dana Point. In fact, it is an equestrian sewer, with San Juan Capistrano's 1,200 horses living along its banks. Our horse stables are an industry, and they need to process their runoff like all other industries. Dave Solt San Juan Capistrano

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - With nary a thought to Hamlet, trainer Bob Baffert is currently suffering the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. In his current situation, and in a world where oft-misinformed social media stirs the rumor pot to a boil, there is little he can do. Shakespeare might advise not to "take arms against a sea of troubles. " Baffert's friend Wayne Lukas advises the same, but in straighter language. "Bob will take the high road," Lukas said Thursday. The issue is a prickly one. It has created more Internet buzz than an acre of beehives.

Council members rejected four proposals last week to build horse stables on 10 undeveloped acres of city-owned land. The decision brought disappointment to horse owners and trainers, who are struggling to find homes for their animals with the pending closure of Creekside Equestrian Center. The private center, sold in December, housed more than 150 horses. Creekside has given boarders until June 30 to leave.

A Chatsworth stable received permission from the City Council Tuesday to house as many as 50 horses at a time on the nine-acre property, far less than had been sought. Some nearby neighbors on Baden Avenue, who attended Tuesday's meeting, said they had hoped the council would require that the property owners, Michael Lucas and David Freedman, build fully covered stables to house the animals.

A proposed equestrian center on a city-owned field would lead to jobs for the needy if one church has a say. Ocean Hills Community Church is seeking to build and operate the center, citing the chance to provide jobs for the needy helped through the congregation's outreach program. "The next step for us is let's get these people out of this food line and into a work line," said Mark Beimford, president of Ocean Hills Outreach Inc. "This is the reason why we want to operate the equestrian center."

Despite pleas from horse lovers and complaints of betrayal, the Board of Supervisors decided Tuesday that the county cannot provide public stables in Santa Ana Heights. The unincorporated area near John Wayne Airport is one of the few communities in Orange County where zoning allows residents to keep horses, with the number depending on the size of the property.

An angry band of Huntington Beach equestrians delivered petitions containing 998 signatures to the City Council this week demanding that temporary stables be erected on an undeveloped plot of city land. The council members did not vote on the request, which at least four members have previously opposed.

Work began Thursday on a permanent home for the Los Angeles Police Department's first full-time mounted patrol. Grading was begun as the first step toward construction, expected to be completed Oct. 1, of a barn, meeting rooms and offices on a two-acre site in Atwater. The Ahmanson Foundation donated $1.5 million to the city late last year to purchase the property, which housed the Los Feliz Stables, and pay for construction.

Two families, both loving and stable, are vying to adopt a 4-year-old girl with strawberry blond hair and large blue eyes. One is certain to be broken-hearted. The tug of war began in May 2011, when Los Angeles County child protection authorities took the girl away from her drug-addicted mother and placed her in a foster home. Five weeks later, her paternal grandparents found out and moved to get her back. But the Los Angeles Department of Children and Family Services sat on the couple's paperwork for nearly a year, according to a claim they have filed against the county.

Janice Bellucci is a mother of two, the wife of a pastor and a former Girl Scout leader active in volunteer work. She lives in a gated community an hour's drive north of Santa Barbara, with needlepoint pillows on the sofa and a vegetable garden in the backyard. She is also the public face of an organization advocating for the closest thing to an untouchable caste in our society: California's 88,000 registered sex offenders. A former aerospace lawyer, Bellucci is the president of the California chapter of Reform Sex Offender Laws, a national group of offenders, family members, psychologists and attorneys registered as a nonprofit.

CHICAGO — When Mike D'Antoni first arrived in Los Angeles, he hobbled to the table at his introductory news conference and uttered the words that gave every Lakers fan hope. "We would love to be able to play 'Showtime' basketball," he said back in mid-November, a few weeks after his knee-replacement surgery and a few days after being hired instead of Phil Jackson as the Lakers' new coach. After further review, it might be time to slow this offense down. Trying to run is making this team crawl.

WASHINGTON - President Obama is considering White House insider Denis McDonough to serve as his chief of staff, but officials say the decision is caught up in deliberations about the makeup of his national security team. As one of the president's deputy national security advisors and a trusted aide, McDonough is an influential player in the White House foreign policy apparatus. Obama recently named another deputy national security advisor, John Brennan, as his choice to head the CIA. Obama doesn't want to shift McDonough until he has a "stable team" in his inner circle of foreign policy advisors, said one senior Democrat who noted that McDonough and Brennan, who is the administration's anti-terrorism expert, had played key roles.

TAFT, Calif. - A 16-year-old was in critical condition Thursday night after a fellow student interrupted a first-period class at Taft Union High School southwest of Bakersfield, confronted him by name and fired a round from a 12-gauge shotgun into his upper body. The assailant, also 16, tried to shoot a second student and missed before a science teacher was able to talk him down, apparently taking the shotgun as the other students fled from the classroom through a door. Police officers arrived after the teacher had disarmed the assailant and took the teenager into custody.

What an exciting night, and it's all about basketball. It's been nothing but chaos, dysfunctional management and poor public relations around here the last few days, so what a relief to spend some time with the Clippers. It never fails to amaze how some franchises just can't get it right. Here are the Lakers, going on their third coach in the time Vinny Del Negro has been here with the Clippers. "I know that," says Clippers owner Donald Sterling , stability, I guess, just something you take for granted.

Planning commissioners this week increased pressure on the owner of the Huntington Central Park Equestrian Center to correct city code violations that they say have created unsafe conditions there. According to a city review of the center released this month, violations found at the 25-acre site include poor waste removal and drainage systems, inadequate on-site accommodations for some of its workers and inadequate public restrooms.

After first indicating they should not take a "proactive role," California Horse Racing Board officials announced Monday that they would conduct their own assessment of the working and living conditions in the stable areas of California's racetracks. Board officials disclosed that they accompanied health inspectors to the Pomona Fairplex last week to determine if workers were still living in the so-called backstretch after being ordered to leave in March.

BEIJING - At 49, Wang Zeqiang has achieved the Chinese equivalent of the American dream. Raised in the cornfields of eastern China's Shandong province, he founded an auto parts business that today has several dozen employees. He has two houses, two cars and, because he's rich enough to pay the fines for defying the country's family planning policy, two children. Now, all that is missing - what he covets most - is a foreign passport. "In China, there is so much pressure," said Wang, who recently hired a consulting firm to advise him on his first choice, Australia.

With a bear-trap handshake and Lucky Charms smile, "Irish" Tommy Halpenny works the stables at Santa Anita like a country doctor. A character among characters, the veteran blacksmith has forearms the size of your thighs, and his patter, which soothes man and beast alike, is peppered with tings (things) and disses (this is), as per his native Ireland. Irish Tommy is one of about a dozen blacksmiths who work the track - part horsemen, part craftsmen, and in Tommy's case, a dose of blarney.