Usc

Times are tough enough for Californians; they're even tougher for Californians' teeth. "One-quarter of all adults and 28% of children in California have untreated dental caries [cavities]," says Len Finocchio, a senior program officer at the California Healthcare Foundation, a health advocacy group. "Our research tells us that many people in California have been avoiding routine care that might have cost about $100 for a checkup and cleaning, and then find themselves in the emergency room, where they get only an antibiotic, a bill that can average over $600 and instructions to see a dentist."

The USC men’s tennis team continued its domination, winning its fourth consecutive NCAA championship with a 4-2 victory over Virginia at Athens, Ga. USC endured rain delays and a venue change to defeat the Cavaliers in a match that started Tuesday at 5 p.m. and ended Wednesday around 1 a.m. USC, winner of 20 NCAA men’s tennis championships, became the first school since Stanford to win four consecutive titles. The Cardinal won in 1995 through '98.

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.

Re "2 held in slayings of USC grad students," May 19 I was a USC graduate student in the 1970s. I had come from Ohio car-less and poor and was forced to live off campus because USC could not provide housing. When a late class required me to walk home at night, I made sure that morning to wear tennis shoes and dark clothing so my footsteps would be softer and my body less visible. Gang members confronted us routinely; one student in my complex was beaten up as he was running for safety.

Rats fed fructose-laced drinking water for six weeks performed more slowly in a maze-navigating task, UCLA researchers have found. (Read this L.A. Times opinion article .) They think the effect is due to changes in the way the brain responds to insulin as a result of exposure to fructose. “Our study shows that a high fructose diet harms the brain as well as the body,” study senior author and UCLA professor Fernando Gomez-Pinilla said in a release about the finding, which was published in the Journal of Physiology (postdoc Rahul Agrawal was first author)

Bob Kahl slips in through a side door of the vast, abandoned hangar and looks at what's left of the assembly plant where he worked for nearly 40 years. He remembers the hum of power tools, the biting aroma of cutting oil, swarms of workers plugging away on a labyrinth of yellow scaffolding. All that's left is a few piles of broken concrete and a sea of colorless dust that coats a Palmdale factory floor the size of two football fields. "Welcome to the birthplace of America's space shuttle fleet," said Kahl, 60, smiling.

Watching Alzheimer's disease steal away the memory, talents and very selves of its victims is hard enough for the people who love them. Now, a new pill formulated by a respected pharmaceutical company and approved by the Food and Drug Administration will do little to help most patients and will bring misery to some, say two medical investigators. The drug, Aricept 23 mg, is no more effective on the whole than the disappointing ones already on the market - but is more likely to cause gastrointestinal problems, wrote Drs. Steven Woloshin and Lisa Schwartz of Dartmouth Medical College in an article published Thursday in the medical journal BMJ. The new formulation was devised to serve commercial objectives, they say, and was approved despite a poor showing in company-sponsored tests.

Hollywood High School keeps its doors open 12 months a year to ease overcrowding. The year-round schedule allows the campus to run hundreds more students through its cramped classrooms. It also chips away at their education. Teachers skip pages of material, assign less homework and give fewer tests because their school year has been slashed by 17 days. Hundreds of pupils take the Stanford 9 exam shortly after returning from an eight-week vacation.

The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Commission, teetering on the brink of financial ruin, approved a controversial deal Monday to surrender day-to-day control of the historic venue to USC. The 8-to-1 vote would virtually end public stewardship of the 88-year-old stadium, a jewel of its South Los Angeles neighborhood built to honor World War I veterans and financed with public money. USC has long sought control of the Coliseum, decrying the property's outdated condition as unfit for the school's Trojan football team, which plays there.

The parents of two USC graduate students slain near the campus last month have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the university, saying the school misled them when it claimed that it ranks among the safest in the nation. Ming Qu and Ying Wu, both 23-year-old electronic engineering students from China, were fatally shot April 11 while sitting in a parked BMW in the 2700 block of Raymond Avenue. No arrests have been made, but Los Angeles police say they believe the killings were the result of a robbery gone wrong.

USC's Sept. 8 against Syracuse at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., will kick off at 12:30 p.m. PDT and will be televised by ABC, USC announced Tuesday. The Trojans open the season against Hawaii on Sept. 1 at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The kickoff time for that game and others are to be determined. USC, led by quarterback Matt Barkley, is regarded as a front-runner for the Pac-12 Conference championship.

The top-seeded USC men's tennis team defeated rival UCLA, 4-1, in a wild NCAA semifinal at Athens, Ga., and earned a chance to win its fourth consecutive national championship Tuesday. The Trojans (32-1) will meet third-seeded Virginia at 2 p.m. PDT in Athens. USC beat the Cavaliers in last year's final. Virginia defeated seventh-seeded Pepperdine to reach the championship match. Lightning and thunder interrupted action midway through the first sets of both semifinal matches, forcing them to move indoors to be played out on two courts apiece.

The USC men's tennis team won its fourth consecutive NCAA championship Tuesday night, defeating Virginia, 4-2, at Athens, Ga. The Trojans (33-1) beat the Cavaliers (29-2) for the fourth year in a row in the NCAA tournament and the second consecutive year in the final. After losing the doubles point, USC won four singles matches. Freshman Yannick Hanfmann clinched the championship with a 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (4) victory over Justin Shane . USC's Steve Johnson beat Jarmere Jenkins , 6-3, 6-2, for his 66th consecutive victory in singles.

In the stream of photos on their Facebook pages, Javier Bolden and Bryan Barnes look like the life of the party. The young men hung out with a group that dubbed itself "No Respect Inc.," a "party crew" that followed a local DJ to parties and other events across South Los Angeles. The photos show Bolden and Barnes dancing, shirtless, showing off their tattoos and muscles, and striking poses with young women. Under one photo Barnes took of himself in December, he wrote: "Merry Christmas To All Da Females Dat Didnt Have A Good Christmas :)"

Shell casings and signals from one of the victim's cellphones led police to arrest two men in the slayings of two USC graduate students from China - a botched robbery that focused a harsh global spotlight on the campus that is a magnet for foreigners. At a news conference Friday evening, Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck identified the suspects as Bryan Barnes, 20, of Los Angeles and Javier Bolden, 19. Barnes was taken into custody Friday afternoon by a team of LAPD SWAT officers, along with FBI and other federal agents, who raided an apartment near the USC campus.

The parents of two USC graduate students slain near the campus last month have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the university, saying the school misled them when it claimed that it ranks among the safest in the nation. Ming Qu and Ying Wu, both 23-year-old electronic engineering students from China, were fatally shot April 11 while sitting in a parked BMW in the 2700 block of Raymond Avenue. No arrests have been made, but Los Angeles police say they believe the killings were the result of a robbery gone wrong.

Odds are slim that the cast of "Jersey Shore" will ever enroll at USC. But if they could, TV's legendary sybarites would find that gym-tan-laundry is just the beginning at a new luxury apartment complex near campus. Nearly every detail at West 27th Place is upmarket, from the fountains, landscaping and custom outdoor light fixtures to the granite countertops and big-screen HD television sets in every unit. There are also televisions in the well-appointed gym, along with a professional-grade Sundazzler -- a walk-in tanning booth that resembles a science-fiction movie prop.

Torii Hunter Jr., the son of Angels outfielder Torii Hunter, will make an unofficial visit to UCLA. Hunter is a wide receiver from Prosper (Texas) High School, where he will be a senior in the fall. Hunter had 40 receptions for 701 yards and 12 touchdowns last season. He has received offers from Arkansas, Texas Tech and Oklahoma State. UCLA coaches have already started recruiting their 2013 class, holding the first of two junior days this weekend. Among those scheduled to attend were: Murrieta Vista Murrieta defensive back Su'a Cravens, whose offers include UCLA, Arkansas, Clemson, Florida, Michigan, Nebraska, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Stanford, Texas A&M and USC. Rancho Cucamonga defensive back Tahaan Goodman, whose offers include UCLA, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas A&M. Rancho Cucamonga defensive back Chris Hawkins, whose offers include UCLA, Michigan, Nebraska, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Stanford and Texas A&M. Phoenix Mountain Pointe offensive lineman Kenny Lacy, whose offers include UCLA, Arkansas, Kansas State, Nebraska and Oklahoma State.

USC continued to build depth in its future running back corps Thursday when Justin Davis of Lincoln High in Stockton announced he would play for the Trojans in 2013. The 6-foot, 195-pound Davis is the second tailback in 48 hours to commit to the Trojans. Ty Isaac of Joliet Catholic in Joliet, Ill., announced Tuesday that he would attend USC. High school players cannot sign letters of intent until February.