Youth

It's been only six weeks since Zac Sunderland overcame raging seas, broken vessel parts, near-collisions and even a pirate scare to become the youngest person to circumnavigate the planet in a sailboat alone. The Thousand Oaks sailor left Marina del Rey in June 2008 when he was 16, turned 17 last November while in the middle of the Indian Ocean, and returned home safely in July. But already there's a line forming among young global adventurers -- the youngest a 13-year-old girl from the Netherlands -- who are out to break his record.

When Abby Berendt Lavoi graduated from college, she got a job in New York making television commercials as a full-time contractor for one of the largest media companies in the world. She was eligible for health insurance only after she had been working there for a year. Ten months into the job, Berendt Lavoi came down with painful stomach cramps. Terrified, she used Google to find a hospital that would accept patients without insurance, and underwent surgery to remove an ovarian cyst the size of a softball.

Fasi Zaka settles his 320-pound frame into a swivel chair in the small, stuffy FM studio, pulls his microphone close and lets it rip. An upwardly mobile caller seeks a girlfriend and wonders whether he should move overseas for love and fortune. Adopting an exaggerated posh South Asian accent, Zaka gently mocks the man's concerns. "I want young girl. I am engineer," he says, speaking in a clipped, whiny fashion for comic effect. "Give me green card. I love America," he continues, before letting out a belly laugh and moving on to the next caller: "OK, buddy, hope you get someone."

A social worker who grew up in New York after emigrating from Cuba as a child was picked Tuesday by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to run the city's anti-gang programs. Villaraigosa praised Guillermo Cespedes as the innovative architect of his 2-year-old Summer Night Lights program, aimed at reducing violence by keeping the lights on until midnight at parks in some of the city's most crime-ridden areas. In the first year, the mayor said, Cespedes oversaw "every painstaking detail" at eight parks.

A proposal to place a novel whose teen protagonist is raped and considers suicide on a reading list for high school students is raising concerns among Temecula school district trustees. The school board is expected to decide Tuesday whether to allow the book, "Speak," by Laurie Halse Anderson, to be taught in sophomore English classes. The book first came before the board in August, but trustees delayed action after they heard a summary of the plot, which involves a teenage girl dealing with the aftermath of getting drunk at a party the summer before her freshman year and being sexually assaulted by a senior.

A former student who was sexually assaulted by a Los Angeles assistant principal now feels "worthless and guilty," according to a probation report obtained by The Times. The school official, Steve Thomas Rooney, was sentenced to eight years in state prison this week for molesting the victim and three other students. "I think Mr. Rooney is a terrible man who ruined my life," she told a probation investigator seeking to determine his suitability for probation. The report paints a picture of a respected educator who used his position to sexually abuse the youngsters he was meant to protect.

A 16-year-old boy seen riding a bike away from a brush fire near Yucaipa on Wednesday is suspected of starting a dozen fires that ravaged the area over the last three years, including two large blazes earlier this month. San Bernardino County prosecutors said they were still weighing what charges to bring against the high school student, who was not immediately identified because of his age. Authorities said he has been linked to recent blazes, including the 860-acre Pendleton Fire that destroyed two structures and the Oak Glen fire that charred more than 1,100 acres.

Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. and Education Secretary Arne Duncan on Wednesday pledged federal support to fight a surge in youth violence in Chicago and other cities, calling the brutal beating death of a teenager on the city's South Side a wake-up call for the country. But neither offered specifics or outlined any strategies on how the government would help quell the increase in the number of violent deaths among teens. Duncan and Holder were sent to Chicago by President Obama to meet with officials, parents and students from Christian Fenger Academy High School after the beating death of a 16-year-old sophomore was captured on a cellphone video.

Every Friday night, a group of noisy youngsters shuffles through a side door at First Baptist Church of Glendale. They laugh, shove and talk over one another as they enter a large, brightly lighted room with three long tables. Inside, silver-haired Armen Ambartsoumian waits for them to settle down so the session can begin. Ambartsoumian, an international chess master who is determined to groom Glendale's next generation of elite players, demands their focus. This can be a chore when dealing with more than two dozen kids ages 5 to 18. Once the players unpack their black-and-white boards and chess pieces, Ambartsoumian instructs them to pair up and play.

His left eye still swollen shut, Vashion Bullock doesn't deny fighting in the melee that claimed a Chicago high school student's life last month. He's watched the grainy cellphone video and seen himself standing shirtless in the middle of the mob. But to him, the footage is a 2 1/2 -minute clip of his world without context, broadcast endlessly on television and the Web. This mob included students who made the honor roll, held after-school jobs, played sports and planned for college.