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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...

SANTA ANA >> Angels star outfielder Mike Trout was not injured in a car accident on the 55 Freeway Wednesday night. The Orange County Fire Authority responded to a pair of separate but related crashes each involving two vehicles at 8:50 p.m. in the southbound lane of the 55 Freeway at McFadden Avenue, Capt. Larry Kurtz said. Emergency persoel had to cut one person from a vehicle using the Jaws of Life, Kurtz said. Two people were injured. One victim went to Hoag Hospital and the other was transported to Orange County Global Medical Center, Kurtz said. Photos from the scene showed a white Chevy Sonic and a black Mercedes sedan with damage. Information about their medical conditions was...

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...

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...

NORCO >> With Darth Vader and company claiming their old ranch, Disneyland’s horses may head to a new home not so far, far away … in Horsetown USA. The Walt Disney Co. is proposing to build a horse training facility in Norco where it can prep animals for its Anaheim-based resort. Melissa Britt, communications manager for Disneyland Resort, said employees were notified late Wednesday about plans to relocate roughly 16 draft horses from a temporary home in Anaheim to 2961 Valley View Ave. in Norco. According to an application submitted to the city this month, the 5.3-acre site — dubbed Circle D Ranch as an homage to a long-standing corral at Disneyland — would include horse, hay and carr...

Flanked by his wife and two daughters, Kobeu2009Bryant gried wide Wednesday as the Losu2009Angeles City Council declared Aug.u200924 to be Kobeu2009Bryant Day. Bryant’s wife, Vanessa, is pregnant with the couple’s third daughter, and the retired Lakers superstar told his other two girls, Natalia and Giaa, they would need to help explain to their sister why Bryant had a day named in his honor. • PHOTOS: City of LA celebrates Kobe Bryant Day in council chambers “She’s going to have no idea that I was actually an OK basketball player,” he joked. Bryant retired from the Lakers in April, after 20u2009seasons, five championships and rising to No.u20093 on the NBA’s all-time scoring list. Aug.u200...

Julie Jeffs had taken a 6 a.m. flight from Michigan last week and arrived late in the moing to LAX, where she expected to spend a long day hunkering down at the Tom Bradley Inteational Terminal before hopping on an 11:30 p.m. red eye to Fiji. But the airline ticket counter wouldn’t be open until 7 p.m., so Jeffs was unable to get a boarding pass and clear security, denying her access to the extensive variety of gourmet restaurants near the gates at the newly revamped terminal at Los Angeles Inteational Airport. So she began looking for a sit-down restaurant, lugging around a 50-pound suitcase so she could have a decent meal and a cold glass of beer. It was a long search. There are just two ...

The first bus fare decrease in the Orange County Transportation Authority’s history will go into effect along with its largest-ever service overhaul in October, board members voted this week. Fare reduction, approved 12-0 by the transportation authority board, applies only to the day pass, which will drop from $5 to $4 for six months starting Oct. 9, the same date as the bus service changes. The day pass decrease, recommended by OCTA’s consultant CH2M, is part of a fare study that is one of several initiatives aimed at boosting ridership. OCTA logged its peak ridership in 2007 with 69 million boardings, but dropped to 43 million boardings last fiscal year, a 37 percent fall-off, the authori...

IRVINE — Former USC star and Raiders quarterback Todd Marinovich was arrested after he was found naked with marijuana in someone else’s backyard, police said Monday. The 47-year-old was cited for trespassing, possession of a controlled substance, possession of drug paraphealia and possession of marijuana, Irvine police Commander Mike Hallinan said Monday. Police received a complaint call At about 9 p.m. Friday, police received a complaint call. “The caller stated that there was a naked person on Venta Spur Trail,” said Hallinan, referring to a paved bike and walking path that runs along a greenbelt between homes. Hallinan said that Marinovich, an Irvine resident, was in a backyard of a home...

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...

Near the coer of Linden Avenue and East Sixth Street in Long Beach, a decades-old apartment building, with a skirt of dead grass out front and a back laundry room with piles of dead flies, slouches in the shadow of a building with new lofts offering wood-style plank floors and pendant lights. A one-room apartment in the 1963-built Linden building goes for $795 a month. A studio in the other building, a mere few steps down the alley past an overflowing dumpster, fetches $1,650 a month. As the landscape of the neighborhood changes, residents in the Linden building such as Paula Lopez, who sells handmade tamales and lives with another adult and three kids, fear new property ownership will trans...

HAWAIIAN GARDENS >> Earthy colors such as sandstone, amber and terra cotta set the tone inside The Gardens Casino, a Southland gambling destination on the verge of completing a $90-million transformation. The project, which attracted a visit from Gov. Jerry Brown nearly three years ago, has been called a renovation effort but may be more accurately described as a construction project. When the goveor stopped by in December 2013, the Carson Street venue was known as Hawaiian Gardens Casino, where players sat at card tables beneath a giant white tent. At the time, the renovation project was expected to cost $45 million. Casino general manager Ron Sarabi said during a Friday tour of the ...

LAS VEGAS — Nate Diaz and Conor McGregor really don’t like each other. Or apparently press conferences for that matter. Just five months after their press conference for UFC 196 broke into a wild melee, the pair and their camps hurled insults, profanities and drinks at each other Wednesday at the UFC 202 press conference at the David Copperfield Theatre at the MGM Grand. Diaz and McGregor are the main event Saturday in a welterweight rematch of their scintillating March showdown, shockingly won by Diaz via a second-round rear-naked choke. McGregor arrived nearly 25 minutes late to the presser Tuesday, which also featured UFC President Dana White and light heavyweights Anthony Johnson and Gl...

The 15 Freeway, the main artery in and out of the High Desert, remains closed Wednesday moing as firefighters battled the out-of-control Blue Cut fire in the Cajon Pass oveight. The massive wind-driven wildfire devoured 30,000u2009acres and multiple homes and buildings by Wednesday moing, forcing more than 80,000 people to evacuate their homes. No portion of the perimeter has containment lines. “Dozens” of buildings were destroyed, according to San Beardino County Fire Chief Mark Hartwig. • Photos: The Blue Cut fire bus 30,000 acres and is still out of control A day after playing defense because of the erratic and unpredictable path of the flames, crews on the Blue Cut fire are in more of a...

The 15 Freeway, the main artery in and out of the High Desert, remains closed Wednesday moing as firefighters battled the out-of-control Blue Cut fire in the Cajon Pass oveight. The massive wind-driven wildfire devoured 30,000u2009acres and multiple homes and buildings by Wednesday moing, forcing more than 80,000 people to evacuate their homes. No portion of the perimeter has containment lines. • Photos: The Blue Cut fire bus 30,000 acres and is still out of control The mandatory evacuation area includes Phelan/Piñon Hills south of Phelan Road from Sheep Creek Road to Green Road, including the Desert Front Road area, the San Beardino Sheriff’s Department said Wednesday moing. • Live updates...

RIO DE JANEIRO >> A Brazilian judge ordered Wednesday that the passports of American swimmers Ryan Lochte and Jimmy Feigen be seized, confining them to the country as authorities investigate their claim they were robbed at gunpoint during the Rio de Janeiro Olympics. It was not immediately clear whether the swimmers were still in Brazil. The office of Judge Keyla Blank confirmed the order Wednesday in a statement. The U.S. Olympic Committee said police went to the athletes village Wednesday moing to try to collect the passports, but the swim team had already moved out. Spokesman Patrick Sandusky declined to say whether Lochte and Feigen were still in the country. “As part of our stand...

CAJON PASS >> A massive wind-driven wildfire devoured 18,000u2009acres and multiple buildings with “bewildering” speed Tuesday, forcing tens of thousands of people to evacuate and defying firefighters’ efforts to stop its spread. Sheriff’s officials estimated they evacuated 34,500 homes, which equates to about 82,600u2009residents, according to the U.S. Forestu2009Service, as the Blueu2009Cut fire raced north. • Live updates: Follow live updates from the Blue Cut fire By evening, nine hours after the fire started, no portion of its perimeter had containment lines to keep the flames from spreading. Gov.u2009Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency, and 700u2009firefighting persoel were...

CAJON PASS >> A massive wind-driven wildfire devoured 15,000 acres and multiple buildings with “bewildering” speed Tuesday, forcing tens of thousands of people to evacuate and defying firefighters’ efforts to stop the spread. Sheriff’s officials estimate they evacuated 34,500 homes – which equates to about 82,600 residents, according to the U.S. Forest Service – as the Blue Cut fire raced north. By evening, nine hours after the fire started, no portion of its perimeter had containment lines to keep the flames from spreading. Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency, and 700 firefighting persoel were battling the fire. • LIVE UPDATES: Follow live updates from the Blue Cut fire Im...

CAJON PASS >> More than 500 firefighters are battling a 5,500-acre brush fire Tuesday that has forced evacuations in the Cajon Pass area. • LIVE UPDATES: Follow live updates from the Blue Cut fire There is an imminent threat to structures and to rail traffic in the Cajon Pass, and two firefighters received minor injuries, according to the U.S. Forest Service. “We have some structures destroyed,” U.S. Forest Service spokesman Bob Poole said Tuesday afteoon of the fast-changing developments. “I don’t have a number. I don’t know where.” • PHOTOS: Firefighters are attacking the Blue Cut fire in the Cajon Pass Mandatory evacuations have been ordered for all of the Cajon Valley west of the ...

SAN BERNARDINO >> BNSF Railway Co. shut down train operations through the Cajon Pass in both directions Tuesday as a result of the Blue Cut fire, said spokeswoman Lena Kent. More than 500 firefighters are battling a 5,500-acre brush fire that has forced evacuations in the Cajon Pass area. “We do have a train that is close to the fire that is in the process of safely being moved away from the area,” she said. The Associated Press reported that a freight train was stopped by the fire and its crew had to flee. The Blue Cut fire was reported just after 10:30 a.m near Kenwood Avenue in the Cajon Pass, according to the U.S. Forest Service. Winds are blowing to the north, pushing smoke into ...