The judge presiding over Councilman Richard Alarcon's preliminary hearing today is M. L. Villar de Longoria, the sister of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

Nice Column One story by the LAT's Kurt Streeter on confronting his fears of the water so he can help his two-year-old learn to swim.

"Sure, you can get gourmet pie flavors at Pie Hole downtown," writes Aaron Gilbreath at the Paris Review blog. "You can get better coffee most anywhere. You can find more unusual egg breakfasts right across the street. But the burgers here are fat and delicious, the pies are unmatched."

"It was no surprise; he'd been talking about it for months. He even named August as when it would happen."

LA gunshot victim in the Olympics, Councilman Alarcon heads to court, Trutanich goes after ticket scalpers, new deputy mayor, Santa Barbara's Jerry Robert close to collecting from Wendy McCaw, and the geography of JPL.

A really nice, detailed and clearly told cover story in the LA Weekly by Gene Maddaus reconstructs how corruption and under-the-table payments at the Coliseum offices came to be commonplace under general manager Pat Lynch — while the appointed overseers on the Coliseum Commission failed to oversee. It came to light only due to an accident, Maddaus writes.

In her bid to become the first mayor of Los Angeles from the Valley since Sam Yorty, Controller Wendy Greuel has put together an early list of supporters that has some range to it.

A 'Marketplace" reporter made the drive out to the city of San Fernando to do a radio piece on the upset over closure of the town's once-popular J.C. Penney store. The story begins with a historical error but goes on to explore the hopes of some in town that the chain will either reconsider or the Penney's will be replaced by something better.

Kobe Bryant looks to have some fine new shoulders to ride with. The Lakers have agreed to acquire Orlando's Dwight Howard in a complicated deal that would send Andrew Bynum to the Philadelphia 76ers.

It's Marc Duvoisin, currently the deputy managing editor for projects and enterprise. The newsroom's number two job has been open since Davan Maharaj was elevated to editor in December. Here's the memo.

The pop culture and deputy television editor of the LA Times' calendar section gets the newly created job of Books and Culture Editor. Press was a book critic for VLS as well as culture editor at the both the Village Voice and Salon.

John Rabe of KPCC enticed me out to Northridge on Wednesday for an "Off-Ramp" story, and since it was midday in the West Valley, in the middle of a heat wave, and Rabe's an intrepid reporter slash radio host, he brought along the makings of a classic journalism experiment. The temperature was a few notches over 100, but was it hot enough to cook an egg? Find out inside.

NASA has fired up the good camera to take a quick look around the crater where the Curiosity rover landed.

Two years ago, Misty May-Treanor wasn't sure she would even try out for the London Olympics. On Wednesday, she and Kerri Wash Jennings completed their stunning run through three Olympic Games, never losing a match — and only dropping one set. They beat the American team of Jennifer Kessy and April Ross to claim their third gold medal.

The retired space shuttle Endeavour's trip across the south end of Los Angeles will look a lot like last spring's movement of the giant boulder that landed at LACMA. Slow and disruptive — though only for two days.

For more than five years, Sacramento's CBS TV affiliate has been investigating reports by drivers in Northern California who get parking tickets from the city of Los Angeles when they swear they weren’t there. The latest case involves a Sacramento area man who says his new car has never been in LA.

Nick B. Williams Jr., a veteran Los Angeles Times reporter and editor who also was the son of the paper's former editor, died this morning in Texas at age 75.

Berman-Sherman and Barney Frank, DA candidates meet and clash, voters can extend transportation tax, LAT's Julie Cart and her dad, "Braving Beverly Hills" and Sally Ride laid to rest in Santa Monica.

The racial politics of City Hall seldom gets bared this nakedly. City Council President Herb Wesson told a gathering of black ministers in Los Angeles that in the recent political skirmishing over drawing new city council district lines, he was out to protect African American seats. And more.

The real estate industry's name for my old neighborhood in Northridge has gained official status at City Hall. Blue signs marking Sherwood Forest as LA's newest community should be going up shortly. Plus: Part of North Hills jumps to Northridge, officially.

Jared Lee Loughner faces life in prison without parole for last year's attack that killed six bystanders and wounded 13 other people, including his main target, then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

Bloomberg News is moving a story by Chris Palmeri saying that the Museum of Contemporary Art has reversed an earlier decision and will hire a new chief curator. “In the past weeks we have witnessed considerable media attention and criticism directed at MOCA and its leadership, particularly at our director,” the MOCA board’s executive committee wrote in a letter to other trustees.

Chevron said the fire was put out this morning at its oil refinery in Richmond. More than 350 nearby residents showed up at hospital emergency rooms complaining of respiratory issues, but none were admitted, reports say.

Click inside if you want to know what happened in today's match between China and the U.S. team of Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings.

The National Weather Service says the combination of hot temperatures (over 100 in many areas) and higher than usual humidity for the summer "will create a prolonged period of well above normal and possibly dangerous heat." Some of the desert temperatures could take your breath away.

Judith Crist was the critic for many years on the "Today" show and in print at TV Guide and elsewhere. She had two long stints at TV Guide &mdash the first before they fired her in favor of computerized summaries of films, the second after a deluge of reader complaints forced the editors to ask her back.

Blue Line fatals, copter noise complaints, Robert Hughes dies, remembering David Shaw, running Chevron ads during the Richmond fire, San Diego reporter told to "get a life" and a new head of stadium development at the Dodgers.

Hamlisch collapsed and died in Los Angeles on Monday. He has won three Oscars, four Grammys, four Emmys a Tony and a Pulitzer Prize. He had been scheduled to return in September as conductor of the Pasadena Symphony and Pops.

Cord Jefferson, who started Monday as the West Coast editor for the Gawker gossip and blog empire, penned an opening greeting post that says he's "the first California staffer since Seth Abramovitch left in January. I'm also the first staffer (on record) to watch hardcore pornography in Fred Willard's favorite Hollywood peep show." Oh, and he's black.

A couple of readers have noticed the familiar voice of Jennifer York doing traffic reports for KNX 1070 radio. York was the very popular airborne traffic reporter on KTLA Channel 5 for 13 years, until she and the station parted ways in 2004.

Former Dodgers owner Peter O'Malley and members of his family are key players in a group that has agreed to purchase the San Diego Padres for a price believed to be about $800 million. O'Malley, who sold the Dodgers to Fox in 1998, had tried to re-buy the team this year but was bumped from the bidding early.

Officials fighting a major fire tonight at the Chevron refinery in Richmond, north of Oakland and Berkeley, have advised residents to stay inside in Richmond, North Richmond and San Pablo.

The view from NASA's Curiosity rover of the Mars crater and the mountain, more than three miles in height, that the scientists call Mt. Sharp. The image has been "linearized" to remove the fisheye effect of the camera's lens.

The New York Times graphic comparing Usain Bolt's run in the Olympics 100-meter race to previous winners — back to 1896 — is something to see. Watch 'One Race, Every Medalist Ever'

Just your average cigar-smoking, tequila-swigging, pistol-packing lesbian Mexican ranchera singer who may have had a love affair with Frida Kahlo.

Extra time. The U.S. and Canada's women, bitter soccer rivals, are tied at 3-3. In the 123rd minute, just seconds before the game goes to penalty kicks, Alex Morgan scores off a header. The jubilant Americans go into the final on Thursday against Japan, a rematch of the last World Cup final.

Where mayoral race money comes from, Jim Newton on the Board of Supes, Noguez' employees want him to resign, a new co-anchor at NBC4, sucking seawater at the Aquarium of the Pacific and more.

Serena Williams absolutely dominated Russian Maria Sharapova to win the gold medal in women's tennis this weekend. How about 6-0, 6-1 — impressive enough for you? And in Sunday's beach volleyball match, Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh literally reduced one of their Italian opponents to tears with a smothering attack.

Portman and Benjamin Millepied managed to keep it secret until after the fact, so good on them.

Confirmation of the craft's complex soft landing on the surface of Mars came in to Pasadena at 10:31 p.m. PDT, about 14 minutes after it happened. (It takes that long for the communications data to burst across space.) The first thumbnail photos flowed a couple of minutes later, including scenes of the Mars horizon and a picture of a shadow cast on the surface by Curiosity.