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ONTARIO >> The once-vacant and quiet Meredith property between Vineyard and Archibald avenues began bustling with commercial activity Monday as officials dedicated QVC’s first West Coast distribution center with an opening ceremony. The 1-million-square-foot QVC warehouse was filled with a sea of empty shelving racks Monday, but trucks bringing inventory had arrived and officials expected to begin shipping product out from Ontario this week. They expect to ramp up the operation by the holiday shopping season. The new facility should shrink delivery times up to four days, Jim Reid, vice president of customer logistics, said. “We want to speed that process up for our West Coast customer...

Seven southe Los Angeles County cities are suing Metro over its proposed half-cent sales tax increase on the Nov. 8 ballot, arguing the language is misleading and the agency didn’t specify most of the transportation projects it would fund. The ballot description takes a kitchen-sink approach, saying Measure M is needed “to improve freeway traffic flow/safety; repair potholes/sidewalks; repave local streets; earthquake retrofit bridges; synchronize signals; keep senior/disabled/student fares affordable; expand rail/subway/bus systems/ improve jobs/school/airport coections; and create jobs ...” But it doesn’t mention that the vast majority of transportation improvements won’t touch the southe...

LOS ANGELES — Attoeys for a coalition of seven Los Angeles County cities will try again Tuesday to file a request for an accelerated hearing on a lawsuit filed last week on behalf of taxpayers conceing the ballot language for Measure M, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s proposed half-cent county sales tax ballot action. The Los Angeles Superior Court petition filed by the cities of Carson, Commerce, Norwalk, Torrance, Santa Fe Springs, Ranchos Palos Verdes and Signal Hill alleges that the ballot label for Measure M is misleading and does not include the actual 1 percent total rate of the tax to be imposed. Lawyers for the petitioners arrived too late to Judge Mary H. Strobel’s cour...

Hamstrung by strict limits on political contributions, Califoia lawmakers have found a way to continue to extract large sums from some of Sacramento’s most powerful special interests. Increasingly, they’re using “ballot measure committees,” little-known and barely regulated accounts that are supposed to promote or oppose state and local initiatives but in practice are paying for consultants and polling firms, new suits and trips to Mexico. And the money for the politicians’ perks comes in the form of five-figure donations from the same special interests that state rules were intended to curtail. An analysis by Digital First Media, which includes this news organization, shows that the number...

NEW YORK — Donald Trump and his Republican allies say Hillary Clinton is weak, lacks stamina and doesn’t look presidential. Intent on undermining his Democratic rival, Trump and GOP backers are increasingly relying on rhetoric that academics and even some Republican strategists say has an undeniable edge focused on gender. His criticism of Clinton goes beyond “Crooked Hillary,” and complaints about her use of a private email server as secretary of state and her foreign policy decisions. Clinton, Trump said in a speech last week, “lacks the mental and physical stamina to take on ISIS and all the many adversaries we face.” He has repeatedly called attention to Clinton’s voice, saying listenin...

A 21-year-old Reno woman spending her first day in Los Angeles plunged to her death Friday from a cliff at Point Fermin in San Pedro, police said. The accident occurred about 2:15 p.m. in the 500 block of West Paseo del Mar. The woman, who had just moved to Califoia from Nevada, asked her new roommate to take her to the beach. At Point Fermin, she climbed a 4-foot wall at the park’s edge to get a better view of the ocean, Los Angeles police Sgt. Bradley Hea said. Somehow, she slipped and fell to her death about 2:15 p.m. She landed on rocks below. “It was completely accidental,” Hea said. Coroner’s investigators and Los Angeles police responded. The woman’s name was not immediately released...

LOS ANGELES — A Metro county sales tax measure aimed at raising revenue to build, operate and maintain public transportation projects was officially certified by the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder today for the Nov. 8 ballot. If approved by at least two-thirds of voters, Measure M would enact a half-cent sales tax hike to fund a package of transportation improvements that include new rail and bus lines, highway improvements and street repairs. The tax revenue would also help fund the operation and maintenance of the regional transportation system. The measure would build on an existing half-cent tax put in place by voters through Measure R, by boosting that tax to a full cent, and le...

PHELAN >> For years, residents of Phelan, Wrightwood and the West Cajon Valley area have made the Mountain Top Cafe a gathering place. “Sometimes a bunch of us retired law enforcement guys get together here some moings and just talk,” said John Gress of West Cajon Valley. “We’ve been coming here for 30 years,” his wife, Mary Gress, chimed in. On Tuesday, the popular eating spot became a hub for residents, firefighters and other emergency persoel escaping the devastating Blue Cut fire. • More coverage: Blue Cut fire bus into 3rd day, 15 Freeway reopens as some evacuations lifted The Mountain Top Cafe sits on the southe coer of highways 138 and 2, making it an ideal place for people to ...

PARAMOUNT >>The Paramount Unified School District will ask voters in November to approve a $106 million bond measure to help fund upgrades and repairs across its 19-campus system, officials said Wednesday. Superintendent Ruth Perez said many of the 15,500 students enrolled in the district attend campuses equipped with aging facilities, some built over 50 years ago. While many campuses are in need of repairs and upgrades, she said, top priorities include replacing outdated portable buildings at Paramount High School and other large campuses, upgrading school security systems and facilitating access for disabled students and faculty. “Our local schools need basic safety improvements,” P...

The Los Angeles Rams preseason opener got off to a rousing start, but the game wasn’t exactly trouble-free. Several fights broke out at Saturday’s game, three people were arrested and seven were ejected from the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the Los Angeles Police Department said Monday evening. • RELATED PHOTOS: LA Rams take on the Dallas Cowboys in Preseason NFL Football Eleven ambulances were also requested, but only one person had to be taken to the hospital, according to the LAPD. The department did not know if the individual’s condition or if any of the ambulance calls were related to fights. More than 80,000 tickets were sold to the game, which saw the Rams defeat the Dallas Cowboys...

Don’t let French toast bacon bombs or deep-fried Oreos or adorable pig races fool you: Califoia’s county fairs are very big businesses, run with a startling variety of managerial prowess. Southe Califoia News Group examined data for 70 fairs, including those across Southe Califoia, and found that they hauled in a total of $363.2 million in 2014, the latest year statewide information is available. But fully half of the fairs examined – 35 – operated in the red, spending more money than they took in. “Fairs that are losing money should reconfigure the mix of attractions to offer the young generation, since their interests can be very different from their parents’ interests,” said Raymond Sfei...

Before Steve Jobs invented the PC, computers were room-sized, difficult to operate and expensive. Now they fit in the palm of your hand and perform complex functions at the sound of your voice. Likewise, air pollution sensors are going mainstream, changing from complex devices operated by scientists in white lab coats to hand-held detectors sold on Amazon.com or e-bay for a few hundred bucks to citizen scientists sitting in their backyards. There are so many devices sold online that measure particulate matter (PM) near your home during a wildfire or ground-level ozone on a hot-and-smoggy day that the folks at the South Coast Air Quality Management District began studying which ones work the ...

Bapu Madhu used to fly model airplanes. Until it got boring. “It’s very mellow. You don’t take risks,” said Madhu, 36, who lives in Hemet. “I mean, what’s the fun in that?” So when he heard about the exploding sport of FPV or “first-person view” drone racing, he leaped at the opportunity to give it a whirl. “These are way more complicated to fly,” Madhu said. On a sweltering Saturday in a park hugging the Santau2009Ana River, the weekend drone warrior who holds down a job as a county auditor during the week was honing his goggle-aided navigation skills on a makeshift course. He and two friends who started the Riversideu2009Elite racing club had set up the course at Martha McLean-Anza Narrow...

RIO DE JANEIRO — Three-time doubles gold medalists Serena and Venus Williams lost an Olympic match as partners for the first time, stued in the opening round of the Rio de Janeiro Games by the Czech Republic’s Lucie Safarova and Barbora Strycova 6-3, 6-4. The Williams sisters entered Sunday’s match with a 15-0 career record in the Olympics, wiing the gold medal in women’s doubles every time they entered the event: in 2000, 2008 and 2012. The American duo was seeded No. 1 in Rio and coming off a 14th Grand Slam championship together at Wimbledon a month ago. Neither Safarova nor Strycova, meanwhile, ever had won an Olympic doubles match, going a combined 0-3 with other partners. They are uns...

When Venus Williams pushed one last forehand long to lose in the first round for the first time in her record five Olympic singles touaments, her opponent, Kirsten Flipkens of Belgium dropped down on the green hard court to plant a kiss on the Olympic logo. Just two points away from wiing on four occasions, Williams, who has four gold medals (two in singles), faded as the match stretched past 3 hours and she was stued 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (5) by 62nd-ranked Flipkens on Day 1 of Olympic teis. Late sprint wins it Greg Van Avermaet of Belgium outsprinted Jakob Fuglsang of Denmark and Rafal Majka of Poland to take the gold on the long run to the finish at Copacabana Beach to win the men’s road race. T...

RIO DE JANEIRO >> Virginia Thrasher went through a three-week spring whirlwind, wiing three NCAA titles and a spot on the U.S. Olympic Shooting team. The precocious 19-year-old closed out the summer with her biggest surprise yet. Keeping her nerve on sport’s biggest stage, Thrasher on Saturday eaed the first gold medal of the Rio Olympics, outlasting two-time gold medalist Du Li to capture the women’s 10-meter air rifle title. “This is beyond my wildest dreams,” Thrasher said. “I knew it was a realistic expectation for me to get into the finals and once you get into the finals, anything can happen. For me, this year has been incredible.” Thrasher had a quick rise to the top. A figure ...

RIO DE JANEIRO >> American shooter Virginia Thrasher has won the first gold medal of the Rio Olympics, capturing the women’s 10-meter air rifle. The 19-year-old capped a strong year. She became the first freshman to win both individual NCAA rifle titles and helped West Virginia win the team title. She followed that by wiing the U.S. Olympic trials less than a month later, eaing a trip to Rio. Once in Rio, she didn’t flinch at the spotlight — or an air ho. Thrasher was sixth in the qualification round Saturday and shot a perfect 10.9 on her opening shot in the finals. She stayed in the top spot as her competitors fell off in the new-to-the-Olympics elimination finals, consistently hitti...

RIO DE JANEIRO >> She was asked about expectations leading up the an Olympic Games burdened with quite possibly the lowest expectations of all-time. “Everybody expects the same or better,” Ivana Maksimovic said, “gold.” I’m not sure what’s better than gold at the Olympics, but I’m certain at this point everyone here would settle for reaching the finish line with bodies intact, minds sound and personal belongings secured. Sure, Maksimovic, who won a silver medal in shooting four years ago, can aim for something of a richer hue now. Almost everybody else, however, likely would consider the podium’s top step in Rio to be simple survival. Maksimovic was Serbia’s flag bearer Friday in an o...

RIO DE JANEIRO >> He is a first-time Olympian and, as much, admitted he’s not sure what his first competition will be like, while noting that his overall feelings are “familiar, just on a way, way higher scale.” Then U.S. men’s water polo player Josh Samuels made reference to the most decorated Olympian of all time by calling him “Mr. Phelps.” Here’s a rookie who admirably understands his place and the history of the Games. “I’ve never met him,” explained Samuels, who went to Villa Park High and UCLA. “I don’t feel like I can just call him ‘Michael.’” The Americans have nine first-time Olympians on a roster trying to supplant the memory of an underwhelming eighth-place finish in 2012 ...

Two babies in Califoia are the first in the state to be bo with Zika-related microcephaly, a birth defect that scientists recently linked to the mosquito-boe virus, state health officials aounced Thursday. The two women who gave birth to the infants were infected by the Zika virus during pregnancy after spending time in a country where the virus is endemic, said Dr. Karen Smith, state director for the Califoia Department of Public Health. One woman has retued to her homeland, Smith said. Microcephaly is a birth defect in which a baby’s head is smaller than expected, compared with babies of the same sex and age, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Babies with microce...