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DEKLE BEACH, Fla. >> Tropical Storm Hermine was intensifying Saturday as it moved slowly up the Atlantic Coast with heavy rains, wind and storm surges making a mess of the holiday. Hermine (her-MEEN) already caused 2 deaths, damaged homes and businesses and left hundreds of thousands without electricity from Florida to Virginia. “This is not a beach weekend for anyone in the Mid-Atlantic to the northeast,” said Eric Blake, a hurricane specialist at the National Hurricane Center in Miami. At 2 p.m. Saturday, Hermine was centered 90 miles east of Duck, North Carolina, with top sustained winds of 70 mph (110 kph), moving east at 10 mph (17 kph). Tropical Storm Waings were in effect as fa...

The mother of Syed Rizwan Farook has denied in a court document that she had any knowledge and did not participate in the San Beardino Dec. 2 terrorist attack by Farook and wife Tashfeen Malik that killed 14 people and wounded 22. Neither Rafia Farook nor her daughter Saira Khan took took part “in any way with the tragic attack,” the court document said. The statement was included in a claim of interest filed Wednesday in federal court for the $280,756.17 in life insurance benefits left behind by Syed Farook, who died with Malik in a shootout with law enforcement a few hours after the deadly, Islamic State-inspired attack. The disputed money has not been paid out. It is in the custody of th...

The fire buing in the Cherry Valley area was slightly bigger and further contained Wednesday moing, but firefighters remain conceed that winds and dry fuel could cause the blaze to explode. • PHOTOS: The Bogart fire bus brush in Cherry Valley “With any hot spots, that wind change is always a conce,” said Cal Fire Capt. Liz Brown adding that 20-mph wind gusts are expected throughout the day. Most of the vegetation buing is a combination of chaparral and short grasses, and it’s those tinder-dry grasses that are worrisome for fire officials. The Bogart fire, named for the park it started in, covered 1,250 acres and was about 20 percent contained by sunrise, officials said. Evacuations southeas...

TARZANA >> Los Angeles police responded to Chris Brown’s residence in Tarzana Tuesday and later served a search warrant on the home as the singer took to social media to deny any wrongdoing and to condemn police. At a news conference Tuesday afteoon, LAPD Lt. Chris Ramirez said police were serving a search warrant on the home, and an unknown number of people were exiting the residence. The house is located in a posh, hillside neighborhood of one-and two-story homes that are nearly all protected by locked iron gates. A call initially came at 3:11 a.m. from the 5000 block of Corbin Avenue, police said earlier. “It came out as a female requesting help,” Officer Drake Madison of LAPD’s Me...

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...

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles and a funeral home company have settled dueling litigation conceing the lease of land at six Catholic cemeteries for the operation of mortuaries, including one in Long Beach. Lawyers for S.E. Funeral Homes of Califoia Inc. filed paperwork Aug. 18 in Los Angeles Superior Court stating that the resolution includes the sale and transfer of the mortuaries to a subsidiary of the archdiocese in a deal scheduled to close Nov. 30. No additional specifics were given. S.E. Funeral Homes filed suit in September 2014, alleging breach of contract and seeking a court order to prevent the archdiocese from taking possession of the premises. The archdiocese countersued in June...

EXPOSITION PARK >> There were big crowds once again for the final day of the 13th aual FYF Fest at Exposition Park to see more than 20 acts close out the eclectic festival. The vibe at the Sunday concert was relatively relaxed and chill with the day headlined by LCD Soundsystem, the electronic dance rock collective who reunited to play the festival circuit. Also on the bill for the last day was 68-year-old Grace Jones, Blood Orange, which consists of singer-guitarists Dev Hynes, and young hip hop acts Rae Sremmurd and Young Thug. While Saturday’s event saw long lines both inside the event grounds and to get into the main gate, on Sunday the line to get into Exposition Park ran a littl...

EXPOSITION PARK >> Kendrick Lamar celebrated a homecoming of sorts at the FYF Fest on Saturday, headlining the main stage just a few miles north of his hometown of Compton and, over the course of a terrifically compelling set, underscoring his standing as one of the top rappers in the game today. Lamar, alone on stage for most of his performance, his band positioned in the wings, offered all the things for which the 29-year-old hip-hop artist has been rightly celebrated during his rapid ascent in the past two or three years. Passionate poetry both personal and political that flows smoothly from the mic. A deep understanding of the soul and jazz and funk that predates hip-hop and inspir...

EXPOSITION PARK >> The 13th aual FYF Fest got started this year under cool temperatures as thousands of music fans came to Exposition Park to see more than 30 bands perform on several stages during day one of the festival. Saturday’s headliner was Long Beach native Kendrick Lamar who was joined on the eclectic bill by fellow hip hop artist Vince Staples and the psychedelic Australian band Tame Impala. • Photos: Inside day one of FYF Fest 2016 The festival, which started in 2004 as a cluster of punk-rock-oriented shows at various venues in Echo Park, has grown into one of the most popular area music events and the Saturday crowd seemed to be into the mix of well-known acts and up-and-co...

The “Great Food Truck Race” on Food Network has always been smitten with Southe Califoia competitors. This season is no different. The show, which debuts Sunday night, features the owners of Bigmista’s Barbecue & Sammich Shop and Bigmista’s Moing Wood, both in Long Beach. The barbecue restaurants are run by husband-and-wife team Neil and Phyllis Strawder, best known for their signature wood-smoked brisket. In the opening episode, the contestants are involved in a fuel-cake eating contest at a Los Angeles theme park. “I leaed a really big lesson, and that was – I never want a food truck. It is really hard work,” Neil Strawder said during a phone interview Tuesday. Strawder, a familiar fa...

AMATRICE, Italy — Rescue crews aided by sniffer dogs dug through crumbled homes Thursday looking for earthquake survivors as Italy again anguished over how to secure its ancient towns and mode cities from the country’s highly seismic terrain. After a night of uninterrupted, flood-lit search efforts, firefighters and rescue crews worked in teams around the hard-hit area in central Italy, pulling chunks of cement, rock and metal from mounds of rubble where homes once stood, searching for signs of life. Authorities say at least 241 people were killed and hundreds injured in the quake that struck at 3:36 a.m. Wednesday. At least 470 aftershocks have since rattled the area — one as strong as mag...

Califoia legalizing recreational marijuana could grow the industry there to $6.5u2009billion in 2020 — and also serve as a “watershed moment” for the industry in and outside the United States, according to a report released Tuesday. Market research firms ArcView and Newu2009Frontier delved into Califoia’s massive and uniquely complicated caabis industry to project its direction and what may be in store if voters pass Propositionu200964 in November. If the Adult Use of Marijuanau2009Act succeeds and is implemented by 2018, Califoia’s legal marijuana sales likely will climb by $1.6u2009billion within the first year, according to the ArcView and Newu2009Frontier market report. That would put t...

Los Angeles, San Feando Valley and Santa Monica BevMo: Beer and wine tasting, 4-7 p.m. Friday. Cost $5. 7100 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood,310-882-6971; 3212 Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica,310-453-5600; 10984 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles,310-473-9600; 330 N. La Cienega Blvd., Los Angeles,310-855-0169; 2533 PCH, Suite A, Torrance, 310-257-0034; 1775 N. Victory Place, Burbank, 818-847-2175. www.bevmo.com Colorado Wine Co.: Wine tasting, 1-4 p.m. Sunday. Four wines. Cost $12. 2305 Colorado Blvd., Los Angeles.323-478-1985. www.cowineco.com Rosso Wine Shop: Wine tasting, 5-8 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Three wines. Cost $10. 3459 1⁄2 N. Verdugo Road, Glendale. 818-330-9130.www.rossowineshop....

A 28-year-old man was convicted Monday of robbery and burglary but acquitted of a murder charge stemming from the death of his female cohort, who was shot by an 80-year-old homeowner during a break-in at a Bixby Knolls residence. Jurors found Gus Polly Adams guilty of one count each of first-degree residential robbery and first-degree residential burglary in coection with the July 22, 2014, break-in and shooting in the 3900 block of Country Club Drive. The panel also found true allegations that Adams inflicted great bodily injury and elder abuse in the commission of the crime. He faces up to 13 years in prison and is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 9. Adams and his accomplice, 28-year-old A...

It was another golden summer for Long Beach and neighboring communities, as the Press-Telegram area’s athletes tued out an impressive haul of Olympic medals and memories. In all, the unofficial Team Long Beach delegation are coming back home with three gold medals and a bronze. Two of the gold medalists belong to a squad that could unofficially be called Long Beach’s own, the USA women’s water polo team. Much of the roster lives in the city, and many are well-known around town. That would include Rachel Fattal, a Seal Beach native who played for Los Alamitos High, and Courtney Mathewson, who coached at Long Beach City College for two years. Both eaed gold medals with a dominant 12-5 win over...

RIO DE JANEIRO >> Matthew Centrowitz, gold medal around his neck, was still trying to find his bearings at the dizzying height of the top step on the Olympic Stadium medal podium Saturday night when he was approached by Lord Sebastian Coe. Coe, the president of the track and field’s global goveing body and two-time Olympic 1,500-meter champion, was presenting gifts to the medalists as part of the medal ceremony. As the pair shook hands, Coe smiled and leaned close to Centrowitz. “Welcome to the club,” Coe said. Centrowitz, Maryland-bo, Oregon-bred, became the first American to join global distance ruing’s most exclusive club in more than a century, wiing the Olympic 1,500 final with a...

RIO DE JANEIRO >> The Paralympics will go ahead in Rio next month but organizers say deep budget cuts mean one venue will close down, facilities will be dismantled and the workforce will be reduced. Poor ticket sales have compounded existing financial challenges in recession-battered Brazil that have already hit operations at the Rio Olympics, which close Sunday. Rio has less than three weeks to prepare for Paralympics, the piacle of the disability sport calendar where organizers hoped to build on progress made at the well-attended games in London four years ago. But Rio organizers have reported sales of just over 290,000 tickets for the Sept. 7-18 Paralympics. “At this point, it is d...

RIO DE JANEIRO >> In the shadow of mighty Usain Bolt, Allyson Felix achieved something unprecedented in women’s track and field Friday by wiing her fifth Olympic gold medal. And together with the rest of the 4x100-meter relay team, she brought the United States closer to its biggest medal haul in decades. The tally could have been higher, too, had the U.S. men’s 4x100 team not been disqualified after finishing third in the subsequent final. The women’s team was smooth, despite the rocky path to the final. Ruing the second leg in the relay, Felix kept the U.S. up there with the mighty Jamaicans, before English Gardner and Tori Bowie brought the baton, tightly clenched in their hands, ho...

RIO DE JANEIRO >> With her arms raised in victory, coach Silvia Neid ran onto the field to join the celebration of Germany’s first Olympic gold medal — even jumping onto the players’ dogpile. What a way to go out. Dzsenifer Marozsan scored early in the second half Friday and Germany went on to give Neid a 2-1 victory over Sweden for the nation’s first Olympic title in women’s soccer. Neid, a two-time FIFA Women’s Coach of the Year, is stepping down following the Olympics. The win at the iconic Maracana Stadium gave her one more championship to cap her 11-year career as Germany’s coach. “What I felt was pure joy, because I know that was what we had eaed and what we have worked so hard ...

RIO DE JANEIRO >> Max Holt did a little bit of everything. At the net, digging balls from just off the floor, finishing points with big, leaping swings. He and David Lee stuffed the Italians with stellar blocking. Setter Micah Christenson contributed his own blocks and even a kill to end the third set. Matt Anderson, Aaron Russell and Taylor Sander provided power hitting from every coer. Mighty Italy just had a little more in a match that will surely become an Olympic volleyball classic. For nearly 2 1/2 hours Friday, the young, overachieving Americans stayed with an Italian group that U.S. coach John Speraw considers the world’s most talented and destined for gold in Brazil. The Amer...