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LOS ANGELES >> The music manager who helped introduce N.W.A to the masses has died. Jerry Heller was 75 years old. Heller’s cousin, Gary Ballen, says Heller died Friday night at a hospital in Thousand Oaks after suffering a heart attack while driving earlier in the day. Heller co-founded Ruthless Records with Eazy-E, which released N.W.A’s seminal album “Straight Outta Compton” in 1988, launching the West Coast gangsta rap movement. Ruthless was also behind such artists as J.J. Fad, Michel’le and Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. Actor Paul Giamatti played the veteran music manager in last year’s hit film “Straight Outta Compton.” Heller sued the film’s producers for defamation after its release,...

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...

Ryan Lochte lost two major sponsors when Speedo USA and Ralph Lauren aounced Monday they were dumping the swimmer over a drunken incident during the Rio Olympics that he initially described as an armed robbery. Speedo USA also said it would donate $50,000 of Lochte’s fee to Save The Children to benefit needy youngsters in Brazil. “While we have enjoyed a wiing relationship with Ryan for over a decade and he has been an important member of the Speedo team, we caot condone behavior that is counter to the values this brand has long stood for,” the swimsuit giant said in a brief statement. “We appreciate his many achievements and hope he moves forward and leas from this experience.” Shortly aft...

RIO DE JANEIRO >> Inteational Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach chose a curious way over the weekend to try to spin the Rio Olympic Games as a success. “I think this is a really iconic games,” Bach said. “It is also games in the middle of reality. They were not organized in a bubble. They were organized in a city where there are social problems, social divides, where real life continued, and I think it was very good for everybody.” If Bach had only actually ventured into that reality. The first Olympic Games held in South America ended Sunday the same way they began 17u2009days earlier: with Bach in a state of denial. Bach, the IOC and Riou20092016 organizers promised these woul...

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...

BEIJING >> For the Olympics, it’s so-long Rio, hello Asia. The next three Olympics are headed for relatively calmer ports of call in South Korea, Japan and China following the organizational drama surrounding the 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia and the just completed Summer Games in Brazil, although challenges remain, especially when it comes to finances and generating enthusiasm among home audiences. A look ahead to the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea, the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics and the 2022 Beijing Winter Games. All three countries have hosted the Olympics before and enjoy a shared reputation for prosperity and a deft hand at organizing major events. PYEONGCHANG 201...

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...

Rio de Janeiro >> In a sort of victory lap before the victory, Usain Bolt held up his left arm, his index finger extended into a wet night, as he walked slowly clockwise from a tuel entrance, around the Olympic Stadium curve to his blocks in Lane 6 and the start of the Olympic Games 200-meter final. Such audacity would have been laughable from any other sprinter. Then again there never has been any other sprinter like Bolt. Besides, the result Thursday night was never in doubt, even the most remote of chances for an upset vanquished before the race even hit the homestretch. Bolt once again reduced the rest the field at a major championships to spectators, racing to a 19.78 victory in ...

RIO DE JANEIRO — Three American Olympic swimmers plaed to meet with Brazilian law enforcement Thursday to discuss a reported robbery targeting 12-time medalist Ryan Lochte and his teammates, a U.S. Olympic Committee official said. USOC spokesman Patrick Sandusky said late Thursday moing that Jack Conger, Guar Bentz and Jimmy Feigen were scheduling a time and place to meet with authorities. “All are represented by counsel and being appropriately supported by the USOC and the U.S. Consulate in Rio,” Sandusky said. Conger and Bentz were released by local authorities early Thursday after being pulled from a flight at the Rio de Janeiro airport amid uncertainty over what truly took place during ...

RIO DE JANEIRO >> A Japanese joualist asked American hurdlers Briaa Rollins, Nia Ali and Kristi Castlin how they were going to celebrate their historic sweep of the Olympic Games 100-meter hurdles medals, the one and only 1-2-3 of the Rio Games so far. Was there going to be a girls’ night out? the reporter asked the trio as a late Wednesday night became an early Thursday moing in Rio. “Well every night we’re together is girls’ night out,” Castlin said. Such was the case at the Olympic Stadium Wednesday, the U.S. hurdlers putting on yet another exhibition of a dominance unmatched in any single event by another nation in women’s track and field. Rollins, the 2013 world champion, was in c...

NBC 10 a.m. – Noon Track & Field (LIVE) Men’s 400m Hurdles – Gold Medal Final Canoe/Kayak – Sprint Gold Medal Finals Noon – 2 p.m. Women’s Volleyball – Semifinal (LIVE) 2 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. Women’s Diving – Platform Semifinal Men’s Cycling – BMX Quarterfinals 3:30 p.m. – 5 p.m. Men’s Water Polo – Semifinal (LIVE) Synchronized Swimming – Team Qualifying 8 p.m. – Midnight Track & Field – Gold Medal Finals (LIVE) Men’s Shot Put Women’s Javelin Men’s 1500m Decathlon Women’s 400m Hurdles Men’s 200m Women’s Diving – Platform Gold Medal Final Men’s Beach Volleyball – Gold Medal Final (LIVE) 12:35 a.m. – 1:35 a.m. Men’s Beach Volleyball – Medal Round 1:35 a.m. – 4:30 a.m. Primetime Encore NBC...

RIO DE JANEIRO >> It was as close as a two-goal game in the third quarter Wednesday. But, eventually and somewhat inevitably, the U.S. women’s water polo team worked its way into position to go for a gold medal. “As you could tell, that was a battle today,” attacker Courtney Mathewson said. “I think my skin is like magenta colored.” The Americans wore down Hungary for a 14-10 victory and now will face Italy in the Olympic finale Friday. Maggie Steffens scored a team-high four goals for the U.S. Maddie Musselman added a pair. “I can’t help but smile,” Musselman said. “It’s just so enjoyable. We have two more days, one more game with this group of girls. It’s emotional because I love th...

KNBC/4 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Track and field (Men’s 3,000 steeplechase; decathlon); Equestrian (team jumping - gold medal) 1-3 p.m. Men’s volleyball: U.S. vs. Poland (quarterfinal) 3-5 p.m. Canoe/kayak (sprint qualifying); Women’s water polo (semifinal); Gymastics (exhibition gala) 8 p.m.-midnight Track and field (Women’s long jump; women’s 200; women’s 100 hurdles; men’s 200 semis; decathlon); Women’s diving (platform qualifying); Women’s beach volleyball (gold medal) 12:35-1:35 a.m. Women’s beach volleyball (medal round) 1:35-4:30 a.m. Primetime encore NBCSN 5-9 a.m. Canoe/kayak (sprint qualifying); Track and field (men’s 3,000 steeplechase; decathlon) 9-11 a.m. Men’s soccer: Brazil vs. Honduras...

RIO DE JANEIRO — The United States women’s field hockey team placed fifth at the Olympics, the program’s best finish in 20 years. The Americans lost their quarterfinal match to Germany on Monday. Their final ranking is based on their second-place finish in pool play. The Americans also placed fifth at the 1996 Games in Atlanta. Their only better finish was third at the 1984 Games. This year’s squad set program records for most wins in pool play with four, and most goals in an Olympic match, with six against Japan. The Americans defeated No. 2 Argentina and No. 3 Australia in their first two matches, then knocked off Japan and India to take the lead in Pool B. The United States led its final...