Author: Shelby Grad

Prodded by a nationwide union campaign, the Los Angeles City Council is
trying to get out of an arrangement with two banks that was supposed to
reduce the city’s borrowing costs but instead has increased them by $19
million annually.

City Councilman Richard Alarcon said city
officials should refuse to do business with any bank that won’t rework
the terms of the so-called "interest rate swaps," transactions that
were embraced by Los Angeles and other cities over the last decade.

Alarcon
said he did not believe that the banks involved in the transaction,
Dexia Credit Local and Bank of New York Mellon, intentionally sought to
harm the city when the swaps were created. Still, he compared the two
banks to merchants in the San Fernando Valley who sold water for $20
per gallon in the days after the 1994 Northridge earthquake.



"To me, this is tantamount to gouging," said Alarcon, who represents the northeast Valley.

The
City Council followed Alarcon’s lead last week, voting unanimously to
instruct its financial analysts to ask the two banks to rewrite or
cancel the terms of its two interest swaps. Those deals, approved in
2006, cover $316.8 million in debt incurred by a wastewater program
that pays for the repair and replacement of sewer lines and sewage
treatment plants, according to city officials.

Read the full story here.

–David Zahniser

Photo: Alarcon. L.A. Times file

The Los Angeles Police Department said Haim, 38, was pronounced dead after 3 a.m. at a Burbank hospital. He had been living in the San Fernando Valley.

Details of his death were not immediately available. The L.A. coroner’s office was investigating. A police spokesman said more details would be available later.

Haim was a teen star in the 1980s in such movies as "The Lost Boys" and "License to Drive."

He struggled with drug problems but in recent years had attempted a comeback, starring in an A&E reality show called "The Two Coreys" with longtime friend and costar Corey Feldman.

Times TV critic Robert Lloyd described the show this way: "The premise seems to be this: Corey [Feldman] and his wife, Susie, have
welcomed Corey [Haim] into their home in order to make a television show
about, um, welcoming Corey Haim into their home. … This arrangement supposedly has
something to do with helping Corey H. get his career/life back on track
— clearly we’re to regard him, and with some cause, as the more
troubled of the two."

[Updated at 5:56 a.m.: KTLA News quoted police sources as saying detectives were looking into whether Haim died of a drug overdose.]

— Shelby Grad

Photo: Actor Corey Haim arrives at the 3rd Annual Avant Garde Fashion Show at Boulevard3 on March 19, 2009 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Michael Buckner/Getty Images)

A New Jersey man was charged Tuesday for allegedly groping the breasts of sleeping female passengers on a night flight from Newark to Orange County, authorities said.

James Dalton Bratcher allegedly wandered the aisles of the Continental plane Friday and molested two fellow passengers as they slept in their seats, according to federal authorities. Bratcher is accused of grabbing one of the women on two separate occasions during the flight.

Both women told authorities they awoke to see a man later identified as Bratcher walking away from them, according to a criminal complaint.

Bratcher is charged with knowingly causing sexual contact with another person without that person’s permission.

Because the alleged offense occurred on an airplane, subject to federal law enforcement jurisdiction, it is a federal crime. Bratcher made his initial appearance Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Santa. He was ordered held without bond after a prosecutor cited past convictions and argued he was a danger to the public. Bratcher’s federal public defender declined comment.

— Scott Glover

A dispute at a Lancaster movie theater during a screening of "Shutter Island" ended when a man, who had complained about someone nearby talking on a cellphone, was stabbed in the neck with a meat thermometer.

The incident occurred two weeks ago at the Cinemark 22 theater in Lancaster, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

The theater was packed for a 9 p.m. Saturday screening of the Martin Scorsese horror movie when the victim complained about a woman near him who was using a cellphone during the show. She and two men with her left the movie theater. Two men returned a few minutes later and stabbed the victim, said sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore.

"It was vicious and cowardly attack," Whitmore said.

The victim, who was not identified, was hospitalized with serious injuries Two other moviegoers who came to the victim’s aid were also were hurt during the fight, officials said.

The attackers are still at large. Anyone with information on the attack is asked to contact the Lancaster sheriff’s station at (661) 948-8466.

— Richard Winton

Los Angeles Police Department detectives are trying to determine whether the bandit who stole jewelry from the Four Seasons Hotel over the weekend is the so-called “Rico Suave” bandit who has struck hotels in downtown L.A.

In August, the man slicked back his hair and pretended to be a member of a Salsa band playing the Greek Theatre. He talked a clerk at the Wilshire Grand Hotel into giving him the keys to the band’s room and made away with $9,000. On his way out, he gave the clerk the band’s CD.

A few weeks later, he donned a Chivas soccer jersey and hugged members of the team as they left another downtown L.A. hotel, the Marriott, on a team bus. Then, posing as a member of the team’s entourage, he convinced a hotel clerk to give him the teams’ room keys, making away with $10,000.

Now, detectives are investigating whether the bandit has made his biggest score yet, at the Four Seasons Hotel on Oscar weekend.
According to authorities, a man posing as a uniformed hotel worker made his way into the suite of a Florida billionaire who was in town for the Academy Awards. 

The suspect, speaking Spanish, made small talk in the hotel’s elevator with Cuban-born sugar baron Jose Pepe Fanjul. A short time later, police say, he went to Fanjul’s suite, saying he needed to fix an air conditioner vent. He left a few minutes later with at least $40,000 worth of jewelry belonging to Funjul and his wife Emilia, according to police.

On Tuesday, detectives were scrutinizing videotapes from the Four Seasons, comparing it with footage from other burglaries to determine whether this was the work of the Rico Suave burglar.
There are some tantalizing similarities, starting with the slicked-back hair and tall, thin build. Like the other crimes, the Four Seasons heist involved the thief’s playing a character and charming his victims.

Officials said it’s too early to know for sure whether the Four Seasons heist is connected with the others, and they admit they may not know unless the suspect is caught.

“He has all the makings of that rare breed of sophisticated cat burglar,” said Lt. Paul Vernon. “It sounds very similar based on physical appearance and m.o. to the same guy we have been trying to find since October. Until we review the video, we won’t be able to tell for sure. In all these cases, the suspect appears to work alone, is bold and is confident.”

–Andrew Blankstein and Richard Winton

Image: Video camera captures suspect in Four Seasons heist. KTLA News.

More breaking news in L.A. Now:

Burbank middle school teacher arrested for
allegedly having unlawful sex with a student

Convicted killer Rodney Alcala plays ‘Alice’s
Restaurant’ before asking jury to spare his life

Armed man shot in Bell by L.A. County
sheriff’s deputies

U.S. Department of Education’s Office for
Civil Rights targets L.A. Unified for investigation

Former Los Angeles Dodgers center fielder Willie Davis was found dead Tuesday morning in his Burbank home, police said. He was 69.

Authorities said that a neighbor who usually brought breakfast to the former baseball star’s Victory Boulevard home found Davis’ body.

The case is being handled by the Los Angeles County coroner, but authorities said there was nothing to indicate foul play and that it appears that Davis died of natural causes.

Davis, an All-City athlete in several sports at Roosevelt High School in Boyle Heights in the late 1950s, became one of the Dodgers’ early stars after the team moved to Los Angeles from Brooklyn in 1958. Known for his offense, Davis played center field for the Dodgers for 13 seasons starting in 1961. He hit in a team record 31 consecutive games in 1969 and batted .305 or above three years straight in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

But he also committed a World Series-record three errors in one inning against the Baltimore Orioles in 1966.

Davis left the Dodgers in 1973. His last season in the major leagues was in 1979 with the Angels.

After baseball, Davis made headlines in 1996 when he was arrested at his parents’ home near Gardena for allegedly threatening to kill them and burn down the house unless they gave him $5,000. Davis was armed with a set of throwing knives and a samurai sword, officials said.

The Times will have a full obituary later in the day.

The Times’ Mike Hiserman offers an appreciation here.

— Andrew Blankstein

Photo: Willie Davis jumps out of the way as Maury Wills tries to steal home and St. Louis Cardinals catcher Tim McCarver makes the tag. Credit: Los Angeles Times

More breaking news in L.A. Now:

Jewelry heist at Four Seasons Hotel might be
tied to series of downtown hotel burglaries

Burbank middle school teacher arrested for
allegedly having unlawful sex with a student

Convicted killer Rodney Alcala plays ‘Alice’s
Restaurant’ before asking jury to spare his life

Armed man shot in Bell by L.A. County
sheriff’s deputies

U.S. Department of Education’s Office for
Civil Rights targets L.A. Unified for investigation

In the months before his death, Michael Jackson worried about his personal safety but relished his role as a father, his bodyguards said.

In an interview with ABC News, the bodyguards — Mike Garcia, Bill Whitfield and Javon "BJ" Beard — did not directly address the day of Jackson’s death last summer or the role the pop star’s physician, Conrad Murray, might have played. 

But they described day-to-day life with Jackson. They characterized him as a doting father who took his kids through a McDonald’s drive-through, insisting on ordering himself.

"The kids were constantly saying, ‘I love you, Daddy’…. They were like four buddies," Garcia told ABC News.

The bodyguards said Jackson was secretive and obsessed with privacy. They said Jackson once threw a birthday party for one of his children — but only invited a few adults, and no children. They said Jackson wore a hospital mask over his face when he was out in public, hoping to go unnoticed.

Last month, L.A. prosecutors charged Murray with involuntary manslaughter in connection with administering a
combination of surgical anesthetic and sedatives blamed in Jackson’s death. The complaint filed in Superior Court
accused  Murray, a cardiologist caring for the 50-year-old
pop icon during an ambitious comeback attempt, of causing Jackson’s
June 25 death by acting "without due caution and circumspection."

Murray has denied any wrongdoing.

–Shelby Grad

In response to pressure from AIDS Healthcare Foundation officials, state regulators are poised to consider amending state law to require condom use in adult film production. 

On Thursday, the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health standards board is scheduled to consider a petition the foundation filed in December to change state law and require condom use and other safe sex protections for adult-film workers, including increased safety training and testing for sexually transmitted diseases.

Board staff and staff at the state’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health have recommended that the board create an advisory committee to consider amending the law “in order to give greater protection to employees in the adult film industry.” 

“The adult film industry has steadfastly refused to take any steps to protect its workers from diseases spread by blood borne pathogens, resulting in thousands of employees becoming infected with sexually transmitted diseases. Clarification and enhanced enforcement of the rules are called for,” wrote AIDS Healthcare Foundation President Michael Weinstein.

Cal/OSHA spokespersons could not be reached for comment.

 “This is absolute validation that more regulation of this industry is needed,” Weinstein said. “There’s been a lot of squeamishness about addressing porn. But this report says these are people in a workplace and we have an obligation to protect them.” 

The foundation, a Los Angeles-based advocacy group, has been pressuring regulators and the porn industry to better safeguard the health of adult-film performers since an HIV outbreak among Los Angeles-based performers in 2004, Weinstein said. 

Last summer, the foundation sued Los Angeles County after the disclosure that an adult-film performer had tested positive for HIV. In the suit, they alleged public health officials failed to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases and to enforce laws requiring employers to protect workers against exposure to bodily fluids. 

The suit was later dismissed, but the foundation is appealing, Weinstein said. 

–Molly Hennessy-Fiske

More than 343 inmates have received early releases from the L.A. County jail system in the last six days, officials said Monday, up from about 200 reported last week.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department began early releases of some nonviolent offenders last Tuesday amid a new round of cost-cutting.

Sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore said Monday the early releases would continue as the department consolidates operations. He added that it’s too early to know when the releases would end — or if more budget cuts would accelerate them.

Until last week, the sheriff’s policy had
been that male inmates must serve at least 80% of their time before
release. Now, offenders incarcerated for crimes including check kiting,
petty theft and drunk driving will serve only 50% of their time.

The department is trying to reduce its budget by cutting deputy overtime
and decreasing the inmate population at the north facility of the
Pitchess jail in Castaic.

At least 700 of roughly 1,100 inmates have been moved out of
the north facility. Officials realized they didn’t have enough beds at
other jails to house the inmates, so they began early releases of those
in custody for nonviolent offenses.

The department is considering
$128 million in cuts over the next 16 months from its nearly
$1.3-billion general fund budget.

Much of the savings — about $58
million — would be achieved through reductions in overtime, and Baca
said that would inevitably require shutting some parts of the jails.

— Andrew Blankstein

Photo: Sheriff Lee Baca. L.A. Times file

A Sherman Oaks man was sentenced to 18 years in federal prison Monday for his role in a bank fraud scheme and for attempting to have a witness in the case killed, authorities said.

Pavel Valkovich, 28, admitted offering to pay $10,000 to a hit man to do a drive-by shooting on a witness who was prepared to testify against Valkovich in the fraud case, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

The fraud case involved Valkovich and others using stolen personal identifying information to transfer funds from peoples’ bank accounts to PayPal accounts where the defendants could access the funds, according to prosecutors.

Valkovich was sentenced to three years on the fraud conviction and 15 more for solicitation of murder. The sentences are to be served consecutively.

“You’re your own worst enemy,” Judge Percy Anderson told the defendant, according to a release from the U.S. attorney’s office.

— Scott Glover

State Sen. Roy Ashburn (R-Bakersfield) voted against a bill that would have allowed same-sex marriages in California. The bill was later vetoed by the governor. Ashburn also was among the minority in voting against legislation last year that designated May 22 of each year as Harvey Milk Day.

On Monday, Ashburn told a Bakersfield radio station that he’s gay. His statement comes several days after he was arrested on drunk driving charges after allegedly leaving a gay bar in Sacramento.

"I am gay,” Ashburn said. "And so I … those are the words that have been so difficult for me for so long. But I am gay. But it is something that is personal and … I felt with my heart that being gay didn’t affect — wouldn’t affect — how I did my job." 

On PolitiCal, Patrick McGreevy reports that Ashburn’s interview on KERN comes after a week of speculation and Internet innuendo. But should it hurt his political career? Did he do the right thing in his radio interview? Share your views below.

Read more about the Ashburn on PolitiCal, The Times California Politics Blog.

Photo: Roy Ashburn. Credit: California State Senate

Missing: The head of a local surfing icon.

Hermosa Beach officials are looking for the head from a statue of surfer and lifeguard Tim Kelly.

The sculpture stood near the Hermosa Beach Pier for decade, serving as a landmark for beachgoers and those riding along the bike trial.

It was removed a few years ago and replaced with a bronze replica. The original, made of foam and fiberglass, was in storage at the city’s emergency operations center, according to the Daily Breeze.

Rick Koenig of the Hermosa Beach Historical Society Museum noticed the head was missing recently, but he isn’t sure whether it was stolen or simply misplaced.

"We just want it back, because the statue is pretty much worthless without it," he told the Breeze.

According to the city, Kelly was a well-known surfer and beachside figure who died in his 20s in a car accident.

— Shelby Grad

Photo: The bronze statue of surfer Tim Kelly that replaced the original, which is made of foam and fiberglass and is now missing its head. Credit: Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times

Roman Polanski’s wife says her husband’s house arrest in Switzerland has upended her family but that she’s convinced "the matter will be solved."  

Emmanuelle Seigner told the Warsaw magazine Viva! that she and her children don’t live in Polanski’s Swiss chalet, where he’s under house arrest, but visit him frequently. She said the situation has left his children feeling disoriented and that she is afraid.

"I am no longer such a carefree person; I am no longer the same Emmanuelle," she told the magazine.

Seigner did not elaborate on how she believes Polanski’s criminal case will be resolved.

Last month, Polanski’s legal battle to avoid returning to the U.S. got a boost when a Swiss official said extradition proceedings stemming from his three-decade-old child sex case were on indefinite hold.

The Swiss Justice Ministry’s deputy director said authorities would not make any decision on Polanski’s case until courts in California made a definitive ruling on whether the director could be sentenced without returning to the U.S. The issue is not pending before any California court, but Polanski’s lawyers have said they will appeal a lower court judge’s refusal last month to sentence him in absentia.

The apparent reluctance of the Swiss to move on the extradition until all of Polanski’s legal options in the U.S. are exhausted raises the possibility that a conclusion to the celebrated case is months and possibly years away. The time line would depend in part on how long Polanski’s U.S. attorneys — and Los Angeles County prosecutors — pursue various appeals.

Prosecutors maintain that Polanski, who fled on the eve of his 1978 sentencing, faces up to two years in prison for the crime of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor.

— Shelby Grad

Photo: Roman Polanski with his wife, Emmanuelle Seigner, in 2006.
Credit: Thomas Coex / AFP/Getty Images

A candlelight service is scheduled Monday night for a missing girl whose remains were found over the weekend in San Diego County, and authorities were looking for possible links between that case and a man charged in the slaying of 17-year-old Chelsea King.

Amber Dubois, who disappeared last year on her way to school, was identified through dental records after police found her remains Saturday in rugged terrain near Pala. Police had refocused attention on the Dubois case after a registered sex offender was arrested last week in connection with the suspected murder of Chelsea King, a high school senior from nearby Poway.

The suspect, John Albert Gardner III, lived a couple of miles from where Dubois vanished near Escondido High School. Escondido Police Chief Jim Maher did not disclose whether Gardner, who is being held without bail, is linked to the case. He said an unspecified lead led investigators to the remains.

Bill Garcia, a private investigator hired by the Dubois family, told the San Diego Union-Tribune that the tip leading authorities to Dubois’ body did not come from Gardner. 

Dubois was last seen walking to school at about 7:10 a.m. Feb. 13, 2009, carrying a $200 check to purchase a lamb for her 4-H Club project. The girl’s family worked relentlessly to keep the investigation alive. They hired private investigators, raised thousands of dollars to distribute fliers, organized a walk-a-thon and put up a website, bringamberhome.com.



Police spent thousands of hours chasing leads, and Dubois’ face appeared on the cover of People magazine. Last summer, the family hired search dogs that traced her scent to the Pala library, but no witnesses were found, according to local media reports. FBI bloodhounds later found no trace of her there.



No other solid leads emerged until Gardner’s arrest. He is accused of murdering Chelsea King, who went missing during a jog at Lake Hodges on Feb. 25. Authorities discovered a shallow grave a few days later that was believed to contain the 17-year-old’s body. Authorities have not made a positive identification, but said there’s a strong likelihood that the remains are King’s.



Dubois’ father, Maurice, helped in the search for King and was told by police that Gardner was being investigated in connection with his daughter’s case.

Maurice Dubois, 40, of Buena Vista expressed mixed feelings at the time, wanting closure but hoping that a "monster" like Gardner wasn’t linked to his daughter’s case. "I’m living a nightmare. I keep trying to wake up out of it, but it’s not happening," he said last week.

On Sunday, he told reporters he was grateful for the work of investigators: “They are the most dedicated people we could have imagined. That’s all we wanted to say.”



Amber Dubois, a freckled, blue-eyed girl, was described by family and friends as a bookish, sheltered teenager who loved animals. "Amber is a smart and beautiful young lady; she gets good grades, is not into boys, makeup, MySpace or anything like that. Amber is content as long as she has a good book to read," her mother, Carrie McGonigle, wrote on the website.



Gardner’s arrest has angered some residents and victims-rights advocates who say laws designed to protect communities from sex offenders have largely failed.



Gardner in 2000 pleaded guilty to molesting and assaulting a 13-year-old girl. Though a psychiatrist recommended that he be given a maximum term of at least 10 years, prosecutors recommended a six-year sentence.



He served five years of the sentence and wore a global positioning system device until his parole ended in 2008. As required by Megan’s Law, he registered his residence. He lived in Escondido before moving to Lake Elsinore last year, but authorities said he spent time on weekends at his mother’s home in Rancho Bernardo, near Lake Hodges.



Gardner’s preliminary hearing is scheduled for next week.

The candlelight vigil is scheduled for Escondido High School on Monday night.

— Richard Marosi in San Diego, Julie Cart in Los Angeles

Photo: AP

San Bernardino police detectives are trying to sort out a fatal shooting that could be a road rage incident.

The incident occurred between two men Saturday morning at Sierra Way and 9th Street near downtown. 

Police say two men exchanged verbal jabs while driving down the road, and then one of the cars slammed into the other.

Investigators told KTLA News that one of the drivers got out of his car, pulled out a loaded handgun, walked over to the other driver and shot him point-blank in the chest. 

The San Bernardino Sun reported that police are still trying to identify the suspect. The victim was identified as Jose Antonio Vargas Jr., 24, of Rialto.

Photo credit: KTLA

A U.S. judge has ordered a Los Angeles bus company to cease operations after a crash Friday in Arizona that killed six people.

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration made the emergency request Saturday in United States District Court against the owner of Tierra Santa Inc., Cayetano Martinez of Los Angeles.

According to a statement by the Transportation Department, Martinez had "previously been shut down by FMCSA, only to attempt to reincarnate himself as a new carrier and unsuccessfully attempted to gain U.S. Department of Transportation operating authority under a new name. Martinez has shown a persistency and determination to continue operating under new entities and business."

The bus, allegedly operating illegally from Mexico and traveling through Texas and Arizona to Los Angeles, slammed into the back of a pickup truck and rolled over early Friday morning in the Arizona desert, killing six passengers and injuring 16.

Tierra Santa officials could not be reached for comment. Phone numbers for the company did not appear to be working Friday.

The bus began its trip near Durango, in the central Mexican state of the same name. In Arizona, it was headed west on Interstate 10 at 5:30 a.m. when the bus rear-ended a Ford F-150 truck.

The bus swerved left into the median, then right, rolling several times before it landed in a ditch, said state Department of Public Safety spokesman Bart Graves.

"I could hear it turning over and over, and dust was in the air," witness Augustine Vavages told the Arizona Republic newspaper. He said he saw the crash from his home.

Several passengers were thrown from the bus; others were found dead inside the vehicle, Graves said. He said some passengers climbed out of the demolished vehicle, and motorists stopped to help others escape. "They were helping people out of the bus when we arrived," Graves said. "It was pretty tense and emotional."

The Transportation Department said the court order prohibits Martinez “from contracting with or arranging for additional transportation of passengers unless the contracted motor carrier possesses valid operating authority registration from FMCSA.”

— Shelby Grad

Photo credit: Arizona Republic

There was a time in East Los Angeles when el maestro’s el maestro’s gruff voice bounced off his classroom walls. He roamed the aisles, he juggled oranges, he dressed in costumes, he punched the air; he called you names, he called your mom, he kicked you out, he lured you in; he danced, he boxed, he screamed, he whispered. He would do anything to get your attention. 



"Ganas," he would say. "That’s all you need. The desire to learn."



Nearly three decades later, Jaime Escalante finds himself far from Garfield High School in East Los Angeles, the place that made him internationally famous for turning a generation of low-income students into calculus whizzes. Twenty-two years have passed since his classroom exploits were captured in the film "Stand and Deliver."



He is 79 and hunched in a wheelchair at a cancer treatment center in Reno. It is cold outside, and the snow-capped mountains that crown the city where his son brought him three weeks ago on a bed in the back of an old van remind him of his native Bolivia. 

He can’t walk. He struggles to eat. Stomach acids have burned his vocal cords, reducing his voice to a whisper. The doctors who diagnosed his bladder cancer told him recently he has weeks — at best a few months — to live. 



But don’t let the frail man fool you. The teacher is not done teaching. Behind his large square glasses, that intense, mischievous look that once persuaded students to believe in themselves still lives in his eyes. He smiles at nurses, flashes a thumbs up. 

Read the full story here.

–Esmeralda Bermudez

More than a dozen medications are the centerpiece of Jaime Escalante’s dinner table in Reno. The charismatic former Garfield High School math teacher, 79, whom a colleague described as a "rocket" and who was the inspiration for the popular feature film "Stand and Deliver," is now frail, almost deaf and unable to speak above a whisper. He takes an array of supplements daily to battle cancer. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

Everyone has their Oscar winner list. But when The Times’ entertainment team asked L.A. luminaries to pick their favorite movies, it got some unexpected answers. Here’s a sample:

Antonio Villaraigosa: "Avatar" … "I loved the message it sends about interconnection between humans, animal welfare and the environment that sustains us all."

Kobe Bryant: 
"The Hangover"…  " ‘Hangover’ ain’t nominated for no Oscar. I know that! That’s my favorite movie. Man, that was my movie of the year."

Ron Artest: "2012" …  "I would have to say ‘2012.’ Every time I get to the [team] hotel, I watch it. Every single time. The effects were just crazy, and it was interesting."

Mike Scioscia: "It’s Complicated"…  "I just laughed my … off. Meryl Streep is good. I saw her in ‘Doubt,’ now you see her do this, a comedy. She was totally funny."

Joe Torre: "The Hurt Locker" … "It keeps you on the edge of your seat. My wife noticed right away that the cinematography was wonderful. ‘Avatar’ was also amazing. It’s amazing, the technology. There’s no story. It was a run-of-the-mill story … But this movie [‘The Hurt Locker’], it was tense.

Read the full list at the Envelope.

A new Times database puts readers on the sidewalks of Hollywood, using more than a century of archives to track the lives of the stars, including current Oscar nominees Jeff Bridges, James Cameron, Matt Damon, Morgan Freeman, Sandra Bullock and Meryl Streep.

Rains will hit Southern California on Saturday, but it’s going to be a significantly lighter storm than forecasters originally predicted.

The National Weather Service says the storm is stalled off the coast but is expected to move in sometime this afternoon. Scattered shows could continue into Sunday morning. [Updated at 9:18 a.m.: Rain was beginning to fall in some coastal areas as the storm was moving ashore.]

Conditions should dry out by Sunday afternoon, in time for the Academy Awards.

The weather service now predicts about half an inch of rain from the system. Earlier forecasts had called for up to 2 inches.

So far, there have been no evacuations in foothill communities prone to flooding after last year’s huge Station fire. Officials have been racing to clear debris basins above those communities.

— Shelby Grad