Torre

Mike Scioscia will have ample opportunity in the coming months to enact change in baseball's postseason schedule, a format the Angels manager criticized heavily in October, as his team played nine playoff games in 21 days. Scioscia, along with Dodgers Manager Joe Torre, was named by Commissioner Bud Selig on Tuesday to a 14-member special committee that will address on-field issues in the game. In addition to playoff scheduling, Selig said on a conference call that the group will examine issues such as pace of game, instant replay, umpiring, the strike zone and interleague play.

SAN JOSE - The San Jose Sharks were fined $100,000 by the NHL on Saturday because of General Manager Doug Wilson 's public criticism of the league's decision this week to suspend Sharks forward Raffi Torres . The NHL said in a statement that $25,000 was for violating a league rule prohibiting formal team statements to the media within 48 hours of a disciplinary suspension. The remaining $75,000 was for "the inappropriate nature of the comments. " BOX SCORE: Sharks 2, Kings 1 Torres delivered an open-ice hit to Kings center Jarret Stoll in Game 1 of the teams' Western Conference semifinal series, resulting in a suspected concussion for Stoll.

The gig: Martha de la Torre is the chief executive and co-founder of El Clasificado, a Spanish-language publication distributed weekly throughout Southern California. The 60-page directory of classified ads is targeted to Latino immigrants and functions as a "Spanish-language PennySaver," said De la Torre, 53. The privately held company posted $16 million in sales last year, up 8% from 2009, she said. It has 130 employees. Reluctant entrepreneur: Born to Ecuadorean immigrants who settled in the South Bay, De la Torre enrolled in Loyola Marymount University's accounting program.

San Jose Sharks forward Raffi Torres was suspended for the remainder of his team's Western Conference semifinal playoff series against the Kings - a ban of up to six games - for what the NHL judged was an illegal hit to the head of Kings center Jarret Stoll on Tuesday. The decision was announced Thursday by Brendan Shanahan, the league's director of player safety, after a hearing in New York that was attended by Torres. Stoll, one of the Kings' primary penalty-killing forwards and a valued third-line center, probably sustained a concussion from the hit, which occurred near the end of the second period of the Kings' 2-0 victory in the series opener.

New York Yankee Manager Joe Torre tried to downplay the significance of his lineup shake-up for Game 2 against the Oakland A's Wednesday night, but some detected a hint of panic in his moves. Torre benched leadoff batter Chuck Knoblauch and moved No. 2 hitter Derek Jeter to the leadoff spot, catcher Jorge Posada moved from seventh to second, left fielder David Justice moved from fifth to third, and power-hitting Glenallen Hill batted seventh as the designated hitter.

When Jose A. Torre Jr. was in elementary school, his Sunday school teacher challenged him to memorize the names of all 66 books in the Bible. "He not only learned them forwards, but he learned them backwards," recalled Steve Baeder, 61, a pastor at West Cypress Church in Cypress. Torre, who was called "Joey" during his childhood, was always up for a challenge, his relatives and friends said. He was an all-or-nothing type of guy, one who was rambunctious, full of energy and always smiling.

A San Fernando councilman who publicly revealed that he was having an affair with a colleague last year has resigned. Councilman Mario Hernandez's resignation came just days after the City Council unexpectedly fired the city's police chief. Hernandez submitted his letter of resignation Tuesday, saying: "Unfortunately, our city became entangled in my personal life back in November and once again faces the same challenge today. I wish to apologize to the community. " Residents who gathered outside Tuesday night's council meeting expressed disgust with the council.

San Fernando Councilwoman Maribel de la Torre was charged Friday with vandalism and battery of her former lover and fellow council member, the latest chapter in a City Hall soap opera that has residents of the small town fed up. The Los Angeles County district attorney's office filed the two misdemeanor charges against the 41-year-old councilwoman in the June 28 incident, which Mario Hernandez reported to San Fernando police. De la Torre allegedly attempted to strangle her then-colleague and smashed his laptop computer, according to authorities.

If you thought that asteroid that scorched through the Russian sky last week was something out of the ordinary, think again. An interactive map that's going viral shows the location, size, and chemical makeup of every asteroid and meteor that has slammed into the Earth since 2,300 BC. If only we had dashboard cameras back then to capture the very first one! The map was created by Javier de la Torre, a blogger in New York and cofounder of mapping company CartoDB.

Two San Fernando council members who publicly acknowledged having an affair last November have taken out restraining orders against each other after an alleged violent confrontation, city officials said. Councilman Mario Hernandez and Councilwoman Maribel de la Torre sought the court orders after the June 28 incident, officials said. De la Torre is also the subject of a related police investigation. An officer responding to a call at Hernandez's home on June 28 found the residence had been ransacked and noticed red marks and scratches on the councilman's neck, according to a police report.

San Jose winger Raffi Torres' jarring hit of Kings center Jarret Stoll on Tuesday triggered a sizable ripple effect that could alter the tone and course of the teams' Western Conference semifinal playoff series. The ripples could spread far enough for the Kings to lose a valued penalty killer for a while and for the NHL to severely punish Torres, a multiple repeat offender under the league's often murky code of justice. Torres was suspended Wednesday pending an in-person hearing scheduled Thursday in New York with the NHL's Department of Player Safety.

With his hands clasped behind his back and his nose inches away from the wall, legendary singer Tony Bennett contemplated the photograph before him. The grayscale image featured a young woman stretching her fingers toward the camera's lens, covering her face. "The beginning of true creativeness comes from the hand," he said. Bennett and his wife, Susan Benedetto, were at Esteban E. Torres High School in East Los Angeles on Friday to launch the expansion of their New York City-based nonprofit organization Exploring the Arts.

Marimar Torres of Marimar Torres Estate not only runs her winery in the Russian River Valley, but also loves to cook and entertain at her house in Sausalito. Some years ago she wrote " The Catalan Country Kitchen: Food and Wine From the Pyrenees to the Mediterranean Seacoast of Barcelona ," a book that I helped edit. When I asked Torres what wine she'd had recently that stuck in her memory, she told me it was the Graham's 1994 vintage Port. "We are part of a group of wineries in Europe called Primum Familiae Vini made up of wineries that are both prestigious and family-owned (and also non-competitive)

If you thought that asteroid that scorched through the Russian sky last week was something out of the ordinary, think again. An interactive map that's going viral shows the location, size, and chemical makeup of every asteroid and meteor that has slammed into the Earth since 2,300 BC. If only we had dashboard cameras back then to capture the very first one! The map was created by Javier de la Torre, a blogger in New York and cofounder of mapping company CartoDB.

Major League Baseball will not expand its instant replay system this year, according to Joe Torre, the league's executive vice president of baseball operations. Commissioner Bud Selig told the Los Angeles Times four months ago that expanded replay would be in place for the 2013 season "for sure. " Torre told The Times that the timetable has been delayed one year. "Next year, there will be something, for sure," Torre said. "It's not like we're afraid to do something. I don't want to do something unless we feel like it's the right thing to do. " Torre, who is Selig's point man on the issue, said he understood the commissioner's oft-stated intention to broaden the replay system to include calls of fair balls, foul balls and trapped balls.

The Dodgers should not give Don Mattingly a contract extension for Mattingly's benefit. The Dodgers should give their manager a contract extension for the Dodgers' benefit. So said Joe Torre on Friday, with the Dodgers preparing for what might be the most anticipated season in team history. If the Dodgers were to give Mattingly an extension before opening day, Torre said, they could enhance their chances of winning by removing an element of uncertainty. "I think it would give them an air of security," Torre said.

Re "I Think, Therefore I Am," Jan. 4, Commentary (or as we "middle class" prefer to say, cogito, ergo sum ): I am a member of Adela de la Torre's victimized "middle class." I am terribly sorry that De la Torre bemoans the middle-class focus on emotions rather than reason. However, it happens to be the middle class that provides the means for De la Torre to pontificate from her ivory tower. De la Torre should be aware that it is both unwise and ignorant to generalize about classes (or races)

Three weeks after removing Assemblyman Anthony Portantino as chairman of the higher education committee, Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez (D-Los Angeles) reinstated the La Canada-Flintridge Democrat. "I think the speaker did the right thing, and I'm happy to have my committee back," said Portantino, who declined to elaborate on the explanation Nunez gave for the removal. Nunez had also removed Assemblyman Hector De La Torre (D-South Gate) as chairman of the powerful rules committee.

A now-retired principal twice failed to report accusations of sexual misconduct by a teacher who this week was charged with molesting 12 students at a Wilmington elementary school, officials said. In 2002 and 2008, the principal was told that the teacher, Robert Pimentel, 57, inappropriately touched a student. But the principal failed to tell law enforcement authorities, as required by law, said L.A. schools Supt. John Deasy. The Los Angeles Police Department began investigating Pimentel only last March, when they learned of more recent allegations at George de la Torre Jr. Elementary School.

A former Los Angeles Unified School District teacher was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of committing lewd acts and sexually abusing 20 children and an adult, law enforcement authorities said. Robert Pimentel, 57, who taught at George de la Torre Jr. Elementary School in Wilmington, was taken into custody by Los Angeles Police Department detectives, who had launched an investigation in March after several fourth-grade girls said they had been inappropriately touched. Prosecutors filed 15 charges against Pimentel involving a dozen of his alleged victims.