Police search for Nordstrom Rack robbers who took hostages

Los Angeles police continued to search for armed suspects who took 14 hostages at a Nordstrom Rack store in Westchester this...

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Judge Halts California Internet Sex-Offender Law

A federal judge late Friday blocked enforcement of a California voter-approved measure that would have dramatically curtailed the online, First Amendment rights of registered sex offenders.Proposition 35, which passed with 81 percent of the vote in November, would have required anyone who is a registered sex offender — including people with misdemeanor offenses such...

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Simon Rattle to quit Berlin Philharmonic in 2018

BERLIN (Reuters) – Renowned British conductor Simon Rattle said on Thursday he would step down as head of the prestigious Berlin Philharmonic in 2018 when his current contract with the orchestra expires and before he turns 64.“In 2018 I will be nearly 64 years old,” the 57-year-old said in a statement on the Philharmonic’s website. “As a Liverpool boy, it is impossible not to think of the Beatles’...

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Former Lab Technician Denies Faulty DNA Work in Rape Cases

A former New York City laboratory technician whose work on rape cases is now being scrutinized for serious mistakes said on Friday that she had been unaware there were problems in her work and, disputing an earlier report, denied she had resigned under pressure. The former lab technician, Serrita Mitchell, said any problems must have been someone else’s. “My work?” Ms. Mitchell said....

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Mutual Funds Found Big 2012 Gains, Despite Political Worry

ECONOMIC growth remained sluggish and politics often intruded on the markets, yet stocks achieved solid returns last year all the same. It wasn’t the first time that investors scaled a wall of worry, but it might be the only instance when the main source of concern, at least in the fourth quarter, was thought to be a cliff. Tim Kelly/ReutersA computer factory in Kobe, Japan. A resurgence...

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Southbound 5 Freeway at Grapevine reopened

Southbound Interstate 5 at the Grapevine was reopened Friday morning about 8 a.m. but the northbound lanes remained closed because...

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FAA Launches Review of Boeing 787 Dreamliner

The FAA will be conducting a “comprehensive review of the design and production of the Boeing 787,” according to Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood. Concern over Boeing’s new 787 Dreamliner has grown this week after a lithium ion battery caught fire on board one of the new airliners in Boston on Jan. 7, one of several issues that have arisen since the airplane entered service more than...

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Seattle bankruptcy hearing to decide Tully’s sale

SEATTLE (AP) — The auction for beleaguered coffee company Tully’s will likely conclude Friday in federal bankruptcy court, with an ownership group led by actor Patrick Dempsey in position to take over the chain. But Starbucks isn’t’ out of the running.Dempsey — dubbed “McDreamy” in the “Grey’s Anatomy” hospital TV drama — claimed victory last week after an auction.But a company that teamed up with...

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Well: Calling All Cauliflower

At my house we eat cauliflower like popcorn. Using a simple recipe from Alice Waters, we slice it thin, toss in olive oil and salt, and roast. One head of cauliflower is never enough.This week in Recipes for Health, Martha Rose Shulman takes us on a trip to Sicily, where cauliflower is a favorite food. She writes:Every once in a while I revisit the cuisine of a particular part of the world (usually...

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Your Money: She’ll Tell You, It’s Time to Think Ahead

Stuart Isett for The New York TimesOnce Chanel Reynolds had enough emotional distance from her husband's death, she built the site that attempts to convince others to take a couple of hours now to spare themselves countless hours of hardship later. In the days after Chanel Reynolds’s husband was hit while riding his bicycle near Lake Washington here and the best cases just kept getting worse, she...

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Wired Oscars: Share Your Picks for the 2013 Academy Award Nominees

The nominees for the 85th Academy Awards were announced this morning, with Argo, Zero Dark Thirty, Lincoln and Les Miserables leading in nominations for the most prestigious golden statues of bald men awarded annually in the world of film.The nominees were selected by members of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences – after a delay due to technical difficulties with...

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Architecture writer Ada Louise Huxtable, awarded first Pulitzer for criticism, dead at 91

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Ada Louise Huxtable, the architecture critic who was awarded the first Pulitzer Prize for criticism, has died. She was 91.Huxtable, who was the architecture critic for the New York Times from 1963 to 1982 and, later, the Wall Street Journal, died Monday at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, the Journal reported.Huxtable was a firm believer in the power...

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F.D.A. Requires Cuts to Dosages of Ambien and Other Sleep Drugs

The Food and Drug Administration announced on Thursday that it was requiring manufacturers of popular sleeping pills like Ambien and Zolpimist to cut their recommended dosage in half for women, after laboratory studies showed that they can leave people still sleepy in the morning and at risk for accidents. The agency issued the requirement for drugs containing the active ingredient zolpidem,...

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Colleges Expect Lower Enrollment

 An annual survey of colleges and universities found that a growing number of schools face declining enrollment and less revenue from tuition.   The survey, released by the credit reporting agency Moody’s Investors Service on Thursday, found that nearly half of colleges and universities that responded expect enrollment declines for full-time students, and a third of the schools...

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LAPD says serial killer suspect may have more victims

Los Angeles police officials said they plan to comb through scores of old unsolved murders to see whether a reputed 72-year-old...

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Raspberry Pi Quickly Approaches 1 Million Units Sold

The Raspberry Pi Foundation announced yesterday that Element14, a division of electronics maker Premier Farnell, has manufactured their 500,000th Raspberry Pi unit — an impressive pace for the $35 bare-board Linux computer that was released in February of 2012.The milestone becomes even more noteworthy when coupled with the fact that they utilize a second...

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Oprah to interview Armstrong for Jan. 17 show

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Lance Armstrong has agreed to an interview with Oprah Winfrey in which he is to address allegations he used performance-enhancing drugs during a career in which he won seven Tour de France titles.According to Winfrey’s website on Tuesday, this will be a “no holds-barred interview.” It will be the first with Armstrong since his cycling career crumbled under the weight of a massive...

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Economic Scene: Health Care and Pursuit of Profit Make a Poor Mix

Thirty years ago, Bonnie Svarstad and Chester Bond of the School of Pharmacy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison discovered an interesting pattern in the use of sedatives at nursing homes in the south of the state. Patients entering church-affiliated nonprofit homes were prescribed drugs roughly as often as those entering profit-making “proprietary” institutions. But patients in proprietary...

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DealBook: S.E.C. Enforcement Chief, Robert Khuzami, Steps Down

Robert Khuzami, a former terrorism prosecutor who revamped the Securities and Exchange Commission’s enforcement unit, is stepping down from the agency after an aggressive four-tenure.His departure signals the end of an important chapter in the history of the agency, which has been praised for taking significant actions against some of Wall Street’s largest banks after the financial crisis but also...

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Testimony about Colorado massacre resumes in James Holmes hearing

More emotional testimony was expected at a hearing on the Aurora movie theater massacre, as prosecutors continued to lay out their case against the defendant, James Holmes. ...

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First Look: Eye-Catching Tech at 'Digital Experience'

Today may officially mark the first day of CES, but we’ve already got a good idea of what’s in store thanks to pre-show events like Monday evening’s Digital Experience. Over 200 companies showcase their latest innovations — everything from tech notables like Acer and Samsung to up-and-comers like Nest and Lark. With that many companies on exhibit, there’s a lot of noise....

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