TRAVEL
April 5, 2013 | By Susan Spano
Here's a quiz derived from National Council for Geographic Education curricula and questions devised for the National Geographic Bee. The bee, celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, will draw the winners of state contests to Washington, D.C., to compete May 20 to 22 in the nationals. First prize includes a $25,000 college scholarship and a trip to the Galápagos Islands. No prizes given for correctly answering these geography-related questions, just bragging rights. (Note: The questions get progressively tougher.)
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
March 26, 2013 | By Michael J. Mishak and Howard Blume, Los Angeles Times
SACRAMENTO - When Michelle Rhee wants to make a point about what she sees as the coddling of American children, she refers to her daughters' abundant soccer trophies. "My daughters suck at soccer," she says to crowds that roar with knowing laughter. The former District of Columbia schools chancellor is pitch perfect in the role of outraged parent and education reformer, distilling complex policy debates into bare-knuckled banter. In Rhee's world, as she recently told crowds in Los Angeles and Sacramento, teacher seniority protections are "whack," principals can be "nutty" and charter schools can be "crappy.
TRAVEL
March 17, 2013 | By Brett Zongker
A spring break in the nation's capital is a rite of passage for some families, but if the airfare from the West Coast to the East has stretched your vacation budget, take heart. Many places are free, thanks to government funding (although the sequester may cause some changes in hours or personnel). Here are some suggestions on how to make the most with the least: Smithsonian: No visit to Washington, D.C., is complete without a visit to the nation's museums. First-time visitors learn fast that a trip to the Smithsonian is not a visit to one place.
NATIONAL
March 11, 2013 | By Wes Venteicher
WASHINGTON -- A drive-by shooting early Monday morning in Washington, D.C., injured at least 11 people. None of the victims' injuries are life-threatening, a Washington Metropolitan Police Department spokeswoman said Monday. The department is investigating whether a 12th person was hurt when two cars sped by a street corner in an up-and-coming part of the city, opening fire on a crowd gathered outside a building. Police have not yet released any information on the shooters' potential motives.
NEWS
March 8, 2013 | By Mary Forgione, Los Angeles Times Daily Travel & Deal blogger
The Batman mask worn by George Clooney , the slinky Catwoman suit worn by Halle Berry and other Hollywood film items will be donated to a Smithsonian museum on Friday (today). In an afternoon ceremony in Washington, D.C. , Warner Bros. Chairman Barry Meyer is scheduled to turn over more than 30 artifacts from 13 of his studio's films to the National Museum of American History . The pieces are dominated by superheroes but draw on a little of the studio's past, too. Among the items being donated to the Smithsonian are the overcoat worn by Bette Davis in "Now, Voyager" (1942)
ENTERTAINMENT
February 9, 2013 | By Liesl Bradner
What's remarkable about photojournalist Leonard Freed's book "This Is the Day: The March on Washington" (Getty: $29.95), a photo essay documenting the historic Aug. 28, 1963, civil-rights march, is that it includes only one photograph of Martin Luther King Jr. A wide-angle shot of the crowd gathered at the base of the Lincoln Memorial shows a barely discernible King at the podium giving his celebrated "I Have a Dream" speech. Freed's "focus was on seeing the event from multiple points of view, from students to clergy to the national park rangers," said Paul Farber, instructor of urban studies at the University of Pennsylvania who worked closely with the photographer's widow, Brigitte, to select 75 images from his archive of 500 black-and-white photos (Freed died in 2006)