Tranquilizers

USC scientists have found that a new drug called flumazenil can effectively reverse the effects of an overdose of Valium, Librium and related tranquilizers. Flumazenil also reverses the effect of the drugs when they are used as an anesthetic in surgery. "Surgery patients were totally awake within minutes of receiving (it)," said anesthesiologist Stephen Steen. "You wouldn't know they had had anesthesia."

State fish and wildlife officials needed at least three tranquilizer darts to sedate a 120-pound mountain lion that roamed through a La Crescenta neighborhood Thursday afternoon. Officers with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife were called in after the lion was spotted just before 2 p.m. and didn't appear to be disturbing anything at the home in the 4500 block of New York Avenue, according to Glendale Police Sgt. Tom Lorenz. From there, the lion roamed the area and was seen in the 3300 and 3400 blocks of Thelma Street.

Re: The recent death of the male mountain lion on Guiberson Road in Fillmore. I feel this should have been handled in a positive manner instead of using two trackers armed with guns and their dogs with one thought: to kill. Why weren't they armed with tranquilizers, so the big cat could be relocated? These cats are part of our earth balance. DONNA LeBLANC Ventura

A hefty mountain lion was sleeping off tranquilizer darts Thursday afternoon after roaming in a La Crescenta neighborhood Thursday. Officials had to use at least three tranquilizer darts on the mountain lion Officers with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife were called in after the lion was spotted just before 2 p.m. and didn't appear to be disturbing anything at the home in the 4500 block of New York Avenue, according to ...

After years of decline, the number of prescription drugs used by Americans has begun to rise again as the nation's population grows older, according to a study by the Food and Drug Administration. The study, detailed in Friday's Journal of the American Medical Assn., found that Americans spent about $17.5 billion on prescription drugs in 1982. Consumers paid $14.5 billion for prescription drugs at pharmacies, up 11.7% from the previous year, while hospitals spent $3 billion, a 19% increase.

Drug-related tragedies are everyday media fare, but somehow the message isn't getting through. For a down-to-earth basic guide to keeping kids out of the drug and alcohol loop, tune in at 10 tonight to HBO's "How to Raise a Drug-Free Child." Disregard the portentous score. The value in this no-nonsense half-hour, hosted straightforwardly by Mary Tyler Moore, is its clarity. The first part of the program shows who the young victims are--there are no class boundaries--and how, when, where and why they start using drugs and alcohol.

Elizabeth Taylor, the glamorous queen of American movie stardom, whose achievements as an actress were often overshadowed by her rapturous looks and real-life dramas, has died. She was 79. Hospitalized six weeks ago for congestive heart failure, Taylor died early Wednesday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles with her four children at her side, publicist Sally Morrison said. FOR THE RECORD: An earlier version of this article said Mickey Rooney played Elizabeth Taylor's trainer in "Lassie Come Home.

In Old Hong Kong, members of Triads, organized crime groups would take their disputes to a neutral place, typically a Chinese teahouse. There, the serene atmosphere and formality allowed dissenting parties to reach a mutual agreement. Everyone then shook hands and departed in peace. This method, no longer used in modern Hong Kong, is unlikely to replace the judicial system in litigious-happy L.A.

This has rarely been a tranquil nation. Born in revolution, tested by civil war, energized by protest, the United States has survived turmoil even as it has pursued its constitutional mandate to ensure tranquillity. Today, that elusive sense of domestic peace is tested by new challenges, chief among them persistent poverty and the fraying of our connective infrastructure.

The day it happened, Elena was in bed with a cold. William, her husband of 42 years, brought her aspirin, stroked her hair and asked if she was up for pizza. They planned to watch the Clippers on TV, and pizza always went with basketball. It was one of the small rituals that marked their life together. William never made it beyond the driveway. Instead, he sat in his truck, rolled up the windows, took out a German Luger he had had since the war and shot himself in the head.

MOSCOW - Vladimir Putin, Russia's macho president, is at it again. The head of state has famously tranquilized a tiger, attached a tracking device to a whale and rode a horse bare-chested, feats that helped boost his popularity. This week, dressed in a white coverall, he flew a motorized hang glider to teach endangered Siberian cranes a new migration path. A report on state-run television showed the usually icy Putin looking exhilarated as he soared Wednesday with a co-pilot around a field near the Siberian town of Salekhard, about 1,200 miles northeast of Moscow.

KABUL, Afghanistan - Not long ago, Bamiyan province was considered one of the most peaceful corners of Afghanistan, a remote and scenic enclave that was largely free of the daily violence that roils so much of the country. Now it may become a cautionary tale about the pitfalls of winding down the war here. In the summer of 2011, Bamiyan's tranquil image was such that it was picked as the country's first province for the transfer of fighting duties from Western forces to Afghan troops, a process that is to be replicated across Afghanistan in a prelude to the end of NATO's combat role in 2014.

LAS VEGAS -- Police here took a brief walk on the wild side Thursday, tracking down two escaped chimpanzees -- shooting and killing one animal and tranquilizing  the other, officials said. Several panicked residents called dispatchers shortly after 10 a.m. to report that the chimps were acting aggressively in a northwest Las Vegas neighborhood. Officers moved in to find a male and a female in "an agitated state," said Officer Laura Meltzer, a spokeswoman for Las Vegas police. "The male, which was estimated to weigh 170 pounds, was pounding on cars and damaging vehicles," she said.

Ask a Venturan and he or she will tell you that the city is both the end of Southern California and the beginning of the central part of the state. With a gorgeous coastline, an affinity for agriculture, a happening night life and a healthy enthusiasm for all things vino, this duality isn't just a clever marketing campaign - it's the real deal. The bed. The 76 rooms at Best Western Plus Inn of Ventura (708 E. Thompson Blvd.; [805] 648-3101, http://www.bestwestern.com western.com, doubles from $85.49 in spring)

Keith Miller got a beast of a wake-up call Thursday morning. The 71-year-old had just stepped outside his Altadena home to get the newspaper when he saw "this huge bear, looking like a Volkswagen, staring at me," Miller said. "It ran one way and I ran the other. " Before Miller made it back inside, he turned to see where the bear - which had been snacking on leftover birthday cake tossed in a garbage can - was headed. That's when he saw two cubs scamper up an oak tree in his frontyard.

In Chinese, penjing means “potted scenery.” Beginning Tuesday (today) through May 10, you can see at least 20 penjing, the precursor to Japanese bonsai, during the Landscapes in Miniature exhibit at Lan Su Chinese Garden Portland, Ore.  “In the West, we understand 'garden' to mean plants, but a Chinese garden includes poetry, calligraphy, rock, water and plants,” says Glin Varco, the horticulture manager for the garden....

By all accounts, the 400-pound black bear, now synonymous with Glendale, is very, very smart. Smarter, authorities say, than the average bear. After he discovered Costco meatballs in a resident's refrigerator about a month ago, authorities say, the bear has returned to the same house in the 3800 block of Cedarbend Drive three times seeking the same dinner. He even monitored trash schedules in multiple neighborhoods, nailing down the days when he could nab free food. But on Tuesday, the meatball-lovingbear'sgood fortune ran out. He was felled by multiple tranquilizer darts in a drama that unfolded on morning television, then was carted deep into the Angeles National Forest with what California Department of Fish and Game officials described as a "heck of a hangover.

"Dead in a Zip Code that doesn't matter. " — A homicide detective in "The Wire. " Knuckles' wife said it was wrong. "The detective didn't show respect when he put that picture on Twitter," Maria Rios told me. A cellphone photograph of her just-slain husband covered with a blanket on a Watts street was posted last week on the social media site by a veteran Los Angeles Police Department homicide detective. It wasn't just Rios who was upset. The photo drew the ire of a local blogger who called it callous, and a story on the LA Weekly blog "The Informer" kept the controversy going, launching follow-ups in newspapers and their blogs as far away as London (the Daily Mail)