Wills

A five-year court battle over the "Star Trek" financial empire ended this week when a California appeals court disinherited the daughter of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry for having challenged his will.

GLENDALE, Ariz. — As the sun and the Phoenix Coyotes sank slowly in the West, the key question after the Kings' 4-0 conference finals victory Tuesday was whether the NHL, which has operated the Coyotes franchise for three years, will suspend one or more of its players for the frustration-driven fouls they committed. The lesser of the evils was Shane Doan's hit on Kings forward Trevor Lewis at 16 minutes 29 seconds of the second period at Jobing.com Arena. Doan, the Coyotes' captain, drove Lewis into the boards after Lewis had turned his back, and got a major boarding penalty and a game misconduct while Lewis was treated for a cut and bloodied nose.

James D. Gunderson, the target of a State Bar investigation for allegedly making himself the beneficiary of millions of dollars in bequests from the estates of his elderly Leisure World clients, has surrendered his license to practice law, authorities said Monday. State Bar prosecutors said Gunderson agreed to resign after they told him that they were prepared to file conflict-of-interest charges against him that could have led to his disbarment.

I'm a lifelong Democrat and a career educator. So I'm predictably appalled by Wisconsin's Republican Gov. Scott Walker, who has cut spending for schools and stripped teachers - and most of the state's public workers - of collective bargaining rights. But I'm also appalled by the recall campaign against Walker by Wisconsin Democrats, who Tuesday chose Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett to run against Walker in a June 5 special election - a rematch of the 2010 contest. The recall epitomizes the petty, loser-take-all vindictiveness of contemporary American politics.

Your editorial, "Living Wills: Do They Work?" (Aug. 13), covers several important and valid points, but one aspect was not mentioned: California declarations or durable power of attorney for health care forms are not effective in the event of a sudden emergency. Ambulance personnel are required to provide CPR unless they are provided with a separate non-hospital do not resuscitate (DNR) order. If this concerns you, ask your doctor or local hospital for more information about a non-hospital DNR order, contact Choice in Dying, 200 Varick St., New York, N.Y., 10014, or call (800)

In keystroke bursts of poetry, defiance and humor, Egyptian activists are posting their wills on Twitter. The electronic missives, vibrant with immediacy and edged with wit, specify how organs should be donated and small sums of money spent. One activist asked that his picture not be posted on Facebook so as to spare his mother pain. Another sought to calm the country's deepening sectarianism by arranging for a grave in a cemetery shared by Christians and Muslims. "Bury me in the grassy island in [Tahrir]

The beheading of American Paul M. Johnson Jr. in Saudi Arabia and now South Korean Kim Sun Il in Iraq (June 23) is a painful and powerful reminder that we, the U.S., are intruders in a part of the world where we have no business. Unless, of course, you are talking about oil. Take the oil out of the equation and Americans would be just as scarce in the Middle East as they now are in Africa, where deaths from crimes against humanity are rampant. We are engaged in a test of wills; President Bush is determined to maintain a presence in the Middle East, and the Muslim world is determined that it will not happen.

Anyone with heirs or assets needs a will. But only some people benefit from hiring an attorney--at a cost ranging from a few hundred to several thousand dollars--to write one. Whether you need help depends largely on your age, assets and family situation. This short quiz can help you decide. 1. My total assets, including cash, life insurance, securities, equity in real estate and personal effects, amount to a: less than $100,000 b: between $100,000 and $600,000 c: more than $600,000. 2.

Re "Living Wills: Not a Be-All and End-All," Commentary, Nov. 12: The authors do a disservice to California residents by arguing vigorously that it is useless to fill out living wills. In California, "living will" is the commonly used term to refer to the legal mechanism that the authors themselves approve of at the end of their article -- the appointment of a surrogate health-care decision maker. California has led the way in developing effective living wills. The current version of this statute is the Advanced Health Care Directive (Probate Code Sections 4700-4701)

A man who says that he is the adopted son of the late Rev. James Cleveland wants to lay claim to a share of the fortune left behind when the Grammy-winning singer known as the "King of Gospel" died in February. Andre M. Cleveland of Northridge, a rhythm and blues record producer, asserted at a news conference Tuesday that he is entitled to half of the Cleveland estate, estimated at $6 million.

It's technically called an egg "donation. " But if you're a young Asian woman, donating your eggs to an infertile couple can fetch enough cash to buy a used car or perhaps a semester at college. The same market forces that drive the price of cotton, copper and other commodities - supply and demand - have allowed Asian women to command about $10,000 to $20,000 for their eggs, also known as gametes or ova. Women of other ethnic groups typically get about $6,000 when they can sell their eggs, but they often can't for lack of demand, according to donation agencies and fertility clinics.

ALBUQUERQUE - How many of these could you answer? What is conserved in an inelastic collision? (Momentum.) Where were the Boer wars fought? (Modern-day South Africa.) What compositional technique did the 19th century French Romantic composer Hector Berlioz create? ( Idée fixe.) And what is the difference between the surface areas of two spheres with radii of four and six? (80 pi) The Granada Hills Charter High School students here for the national Academic Decathlon competition have spent months studying the guides those questions came from.

Dear Liz: Last year I bought an electric vehicle, motivated in part by the $7,500 federal tax credit. I consulted with my tax preparer, a CPA, to ensure I would generate enough income to fully use the one-time, use-it-or-lose-it credit. In December 2011, I informed her of the exact type of that year's income (earned income, capital gains, dividends, interest and so on) and detailed all my deductions. She assured me that based on those numbers my tax burden was $8,600, more than sufficient to use the credit.

Google Inc.is facing a $25,000 fine for impeding a Federal Communications Commission investigation into the tech giant's data-collection practices. The world's largest Internet search engine came under fire two years ago when it was revealed that its popular but controversial street-mapping program - in which Google's cars snap photos of homes, intersections and other neighborhood features - was also picking up sensitive information from home wireless networks, including emails, passwords and Internet usage history.

This year's Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach perhaps was best summed up by James Hinchcliffe, who finished third, when the driver was asked to describe the IndyCar race: "I don't know where to start," he said. Indeed, in a race that at times bordered on chaotic because various pit-stop strategies, penalties and accidents kept shuffling the leaderboard, Australian Will Power emerged with his second Long Beach victory. Power, who won the race on the city's ocean-side streets in 2008, was running low on fuel and had to slow slightly in the closing laps Sunday but held off a charging Simon Pagenaud.

Four years ago, while expecting a third child, my biggest concern about having a summer baby was the likely discomfort of being pregnant in the July heat. Little did I know then that having a son with a summer birthday would mean the difficult decision I am facing now that he is 4: whether to enroll him in kindergarten on schedule or hold him back for an extra year of preschool. "Holding back," also known as "redshirting," began as something parents did to maximize their children's athletic potential.

The State Bar of California, in a rare public disclosure, said Tuesday that it is investigating an Orange County attorney who prepared numerous wills and trusts making himself the recipient of millions of dollars in cash, stock and real estate. In a departure from the organization's policy of refusing comment on such matters, State Bar President Harvey I. Saferstein said that probate lawyer James D.

"Obsessions" (at the Los Feliz) is a modest, engaging and sensitive independent feature that is impressive in various ways even though it ends unsatisfactorily. The film has no distributor, so there is a possibility that its makers--executive producer Vic Burner, cinematographer-director Jacob Eleasari and his co-writer, Randall Ullmer--could still work out a more satisfying finish. It's a drama of psychological suspense in which a battle of wills develops between a pretty religious fanatic (d.

Lakers Coach Mike Brown and center Andrew Bynum have had some, uh, entertaining moments in their first season together. Bynum hated it when Brown kissed him on the forehead after a late tip-in during a victory over Boston. Bynum also didn't like being yanked for his well-documented three-point attempt last month against Golden State. But Brown said they were fine. "Are we on good terms? I hope we've never been on bad terms," he said Friday. "I feel like we have a good coach-player relationship, a good person-to-person relationship.

WASHINGTON — Iran's top nuclear official offered hope that Tehran may be flexible in upcoming international talks about its disputed nuclear program, indicating that the regime may be willing to halt production of the enriched uranium that most worries the West. Fereydoun Abbasi, head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, said in an Iranian TV interview broadcast Monday that Iran wants only enough 20%-enriched uranium for its medical needs. The United States and its European allies are worried that Iran could refine the 20%-enriched uranium it is producing into weapons-grade fuel for a nuclear bomb in a matter of months.