Sundays

Brian Price, once a wrecking ball on UCLA's defensive line, has beaten long odds to return to the NFL after two off-season surgeries aimed at keeping his hamstrings attached to his pelvis, rather than breaking loose and coiling down the backs of his thighs. For Price, who will start at defensive tackle Sunday for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, his excruciating recovery was a 10-step process. Meaning just two months ago, he could run only 10 steps. "You have these doubts in your head at times," said Price, a second-round pick of the Buccaneers in 2010 who, because of his congenitally malformed pelvis, spent the last half of his rookie season on injured reserve.

Chivas USA today AT NEW YORK RED BULLS When: 4 p.m. PDT. Where: Red Bull Arena, Harrison, N.J. On the air: TV: Univision Deportes. Records: Chivas USA 4-6-1, Red Bulls 8-3-1. Record vs. New York: First meeting. Update: This game lost much of its intrigue when Chivas USA had its new star, former Red Bull striker Juan Agudelo, called up to the U.S. national team Sunday. Chivas defender Ante Jazic (Canada)

In the Sample Ballot and Voter Information pamphlet, Conrad DeWitte claims that closing the Fullerton Public Library on Sundays resulted in a 40% loss of the service hours available to students and working people. Prior to the Sunday closing, the library was open 63 hours per week. Now, after Sunday closing, it is open 59 hours per week--a reduction of four hours. Students and working people, of course, are not able to use the library during school and working hours, but the late afternoons, evenings and Saturday are still available.

A man was recovering Monday after a fight in a Dodger Stadium parking lot following Sunday's game, renewing questions about how quickly and effectively security responds once a game ends. The fight began about 9 p.m. after a minor traffic accident. According to Los Angeles police, Arthur Morales, 30, knocked the victim to the ground while his pregnant girlfriend watched, stunned. At that point, Morales' friends got out of the vehicle and joined in. "They held the victim down on the ground and ... the fourth one kicked and punched him in the head," LAPD Cmdr.

I read with great interest "Customer Is Last in Germany" (April 23), not with an interest in regard to lack of service but, rather, with an eye for what effect the closing statutes had on family life in Germany. Although the Germans cannot chase the mighty mark (or sale) on Sundays, it must have some positive effect on family life. It wasn't too long ago that we too had no malls and most stores were closed on Sundays. I remember Sunday mornings when most of my friends and their families got dressed in their "Sunday best" and went to church in the morning.

The Croatian parliament has passed a law forcing shops to close on Sundays in a concession to the Roman Catholic Church. The church has campaigned for years for Sundays to be devoted to family or Mass in Croatia, which is almost 90% Roman Catholic. But Croatians have begun spending weekends in shopping malls that have flourished across the country in the last few years and remain open seven days a week. The law takes effect Jan. 1. It allows Sunday shopping over the summer and Christmas holidays.

Could it be that the honeymoon is over? Will the winning end and the losing start? Will St. Louis fans wake up one morning, roll over, and see Georgia for who she really is? Eewweee! BOB ARRANAGA Pasadena Sundays just aren't the same. While I agree there are quite a few other activities to do in Southern California, unfortunately, I don't surf. Bring back football! PHIL ZAVALOS Santa Monica

In an effort to increase parking space for beach traffic on weekends, the City Council has revised the traffic enforcement code on parking in loading zones on Sundays. "The controversy has been how to handle yellow curbs--loading zones. In previous years, our loading zones have been enforced Monday through Saturday," said City Clerk Verna L. Rollinger. "On Sunday you could park in a yellow space, so if you could find yourself a yellow curb on Sunday, you had a parking space all day long."

What a difference a road makes. Highway 39, the winding mountain road that provides the only access to Crystal Lake and other recreational areas of the Angeles National Forest from Azusa, quietly reopened this spring, breathing new life into a mountain resort that dates to the 1930s. Now forest officials are working to fully reopen trails and campgrounds at Crystal Lake, which is open for day use. The natural lake at almost 6,000 feet was closed after the Curve Fire of 2002 destroyed about 20,000 acres as well as hiking trails and campsites in the area.

It is a bookworm's dream come true. The San Pedro Regional Branch Library plans to extend its hours and open its doors on Sundays. The increased hours were made possible because more money was allotted in the Los Angeles city budget for eight regional libraries. The extended hours are scheduled to begin in October. The library will be open Sundays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The hours will be extended to 8 p.m. on weekdays and to 6 p.m. on Saturdays. The facility is at 931 S. Gaffey St.

PHOENIX -- For the second time in a major league career that has lasted all of two weeks, Scott Van Slyke found his name in the Dodgers' starting lineup. The first time, he batted third. On Monday, he batted fourth. "Necessity is a good word," Manager Don Mattingly said. "I'd feel better if he were back there hitting sixth or seventh and not in the heart of the order. "I don't mean that in a bad way toward him. " The Dodgers had 10 home runs in their injury-depleted starting lineup Monday - eight from Andre Ethier , one from Justin Sellers and one from Van Slyke.

Placing surreal moment atop surreal moment - on Sunday at Staples, they were piling up like pancakes - the sun starts to vanish about 5:30 p.m. at L.A. Live. What they call an annular solar eclipse has begun, a cockeyed celestial event that looks as if it were penciled out by Picasso. First thought: They've assigned me to cover the Apocalypse. Second thought: Wow, the 110 is really gonna be a mess. Sunday was just another Sunday here in the City of Playoffs, except that you had this cosmic convergence of a major bike race, a hockey playoff game, a basketball playoff game and a playoff eclipse, all within hours of each other at L.A. Live, the softest spot in our city's stuccoed soul.

Going against the partisan tendencies in Washington, both sides of the aisle readily took the opportunity to condemn the recently uncovered “super PAC” ad proposal that would have attempted to bring the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. into the campaign discussion. It takes something particularly noteworthy to lead Karl Rove and David Axelrod to agree on anything, but the proposed ad campaign, detailed earlier by The Times, seems to have done the trick. Rove, in an appearance on "Fox News Sunday," was particularly dismissive of the proposal, which was originally sent to TD Ameritrade founder Joe Ricketts.

Jeremy Irons stars as the ruthless Rodrigo Borgia, who became Pope Alexander VI, in Showtime's period drama"The Borgias," now in its second season. You really seem like you're having fun with this role. I'm glad about that. I've always believed that in the theater or movies, whatever, the audience's enjoyment is increased if the actors seem to be enjoying what they're doing. What's fun about the Borgia pope? The great thing about doing series television is you have time.

Though Carl Davis has composed scores for such films as 1981's "The French Lieutenant's Woman," over the past three decades, he's become one of silent cinema's greatest champions, composing and conducting scores for countless silent films as well as orchestrating existing scores for such silents as Charlie Chaplin's 1931 masterwork"City Lights. " In March, the U.S.-born, London-based composer earned kudos for conducting the 46-piece Oakland East Bay Symphony in his score for the restored 5 1/2-hour version of Abel Gance's 1927 epic "Napoleon.

A rare "ring" solar eclipse is coming to California on Sunday evening - the first of its kind to be visible from the continental United States since 1994. From our vantage point in Southern California, the moon will block about 85% of the sun's diameter, leaving behind a crescent-shaped sliver. But those farther north will see the moon nudge its way into the center of the sun, leaving a ring of fire visible around the moon's edge. Scientists call this an annular eclipse. ("Annulus" means "ring" in Latin.)

Circulation continues to drop at U.S. newspapers, though the rate of decline slowed from the previous six-month reporting period. Figures released Monday by the Audit Bureau of Circulations show average weekday circulation fell 8.7% in the six months that ended March 31 compared with the same period a year earlier. Sunday circulation fell 6.5%. That's a slight improvement from April through September of last year, when average weekday circulation dropped 10.6% from a year earlier and Sunday circulation fell 7.5%.

"700 Sundays" began as a sad calculation. Right before my 50th birthday, I found myself thinking about how life has been like an express train whizzing by as I stand on the platform watching the blur, the wind and noise almost knocking me over. I thought of my father and our all too short relationship. He died when I was just 15 years old. He worked at two, sometimes three jobs, and our one day together was Sunday. I remember doing the math on a piece of paper and figured that we had roughly 700 Sundays.

SAN ANTONIO - After Thursday night's 105-88 loss to the Spurs, Clippers players said that they understand the task ahead. Down 2-0 in their playoff series with San Antonio, they acknowledged that they need to win their next two games at home. History suggests they especially need to win Game 3 on Saturday, as no NBA team has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit to win a series. But after back-to-back 16- and 17-point losses, getting wins in Los Angeles may be easier said than done.

Successful, micro-targeted neighborhood music festivals have been proliferating — including Make Music Pasadena, the Eagle Rock Music Festival, Venice's Abbott Kinney Music Festival and Echo Park's Culture Collide — and now we can now add "The Nice Stretch of West Hollywood That's West of Fairfax Avenue but East of the Sunset Strip Festival. " Sunday's festival is actually called the Hudson Block Party, and for a second year the classy-casual bar and restaurant that throws it has booked an unexpectedly buzzy bill of local and national acts, including White Rabbits, LP and Haim.