CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
April 27, 2013 | Steve Lopez
At Valley Academy of Arts and Sciences in Granada Hills, every student has an iPad. That's 1,200 iPads, and if L.A. Unified Supt. John Deasy can figure out how to pay for 660,000 more of them, every student in the district will have a tablet in the next few years. A good idea? "It's magical," declared a student at Valley Academy who loves his iPad. Maybe. But I've got lots of questions. Like many parents, my wife and I have tried to make sure our daughter reads real books and doesn't get addicted to everything digital.
NATIONAL
April 24, 2013 | By Brian Bennett
WASHINGTON -- Investigators believe that the two homemade bombs used in the Boston Marathon blasts were triggered by long-range remote controls for toy cars. A joint FBI and Department of Homeland Security intelligence bulletin sent to state and local law enforcement Tuesday night said the bombs likely included components taken from remote-controlled toy cars, and were more sophisticated than previously believed. After combing the blast sites on Boylston Street for evidence, investigators have finished a preliminary reconstruction of the bombs that killed three people and injured more than 260 runners and bystanders near the finish line of the Patriots Day race on April 15. FULL COVERAGE: Boston Marathon attack “Based on preliminary analysis of recovered evidence, each device likely incorporated an electrical fusing system using components from remote control toy cars such as a transmitter and receiver pair operating at 2.4 GHz, an electronic speed control used as the switch mechanism and sub-C rechargeable battery packs at the power source,” read the bulletin, according to an official.
BUSINESS
April 22, 2013 | By Chad Terhune
Toy maker Hasbro Inc. reported modest revenue growth in the first quarter, backed by solid sales of Furby, My Little Pony and Transformers games. The Pawtucket, R.I., company also said Monday that an online contest to create a new token for its iconic Monopoly game was "tremendously successful. " Fans voted to eliminate one of the eight game tokens that players use and create a new one. A cat token beat out a toy robot and a guitar to replace the iron, which had been a staple of the board game since the 1930s.
ENTERTAINMENT
April 19, 2013 | By Steve Appleford, Los Angeles Times
Harkham will appear at the Festival of Books Saturday at 2 p.m. on the panel "Drawing the Story" with Leela Corman and Derek Kirk Kim. More information: latimes.com/festivalofbooks Sammy Harkham is like a lot of comics fans: He's cared deeply about the genre since adolescence and feels both joy and pain as it continues to soar and occasionally stumble from the cultural backwater. He also wants it to be art, to aim high (and low) without ever losing its raw, unpredictable energy.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
March 28, 2013 | By Cindy Chang, Los Angeles Times
A jury has awarded $1.1 million to a Palmdale teenager who, while holding a toy gun, was shot in the back by a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy. Deputy Scott Sorrow used excessive force when he shot William Fetters on May 10, 2009, a jury found Wednesday. Fetters was 15 at the time of the shooting. "He's had a lot of emotional distress being the victim of a wrongful shooting," said Fetters' attorney, Bradley Gage. "He's hopeful that the verdict will send a message to the Sheriff's Department that it needs to protect the community better.
ENTERTAINMENT
March 20, 2013 | By Christie D'Zurilla
Pink stopped her concert mid-song Sunday in her hometown, Philadelphia, to check in on a little girl who was crying in the audience. Rock star as mama bear - who knew? It was midway through an acoustic version of just that tune, "Who Knew," when Pink's attention went to the girl in the crowd. PHOTOS: Pink on stage "OK, hold on," she said to her guitarist, "one second. Is everything OK right here? Is this little girl all right? ... Why is she crying? Why is she upset?"