LOS ANGELES >> Skydiver Luke Aikins figures his next leap into thin air will start pretty much like the thousands that preceded it, only with one small but significant difference: This time when he steps out of the plane at 25,000 feet he won’t take his parachute with him. If all goes according to p...

LOCKHART, Texas >> No one appeared to survive a hot air balloon crash in Central Texas, authorities said Saturday. At least 16 people were on board the balloon, which Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ly Lunsford said caught fire before crashing into a pasture shortly after 7:40 a.m. Saturda...

ISTANBUL >> Authorities say fighting between Turkish forces and Kurdish rebels in the restive southeast of the country has killed eight Turkish soldiers and 35 Kurdish fighters. The office of Turkey’s General Staff headquarters said Saturday the eight soldiers were killed in a clash Friday afte oon ...

CHICAGO >> Courts have dealt setbacks in three states to Republican efforts that critics contend restrict voting rights — blocking a North Carolina law requiring photo identification, loosening a similar measure in Wisconsin and halting strict citizenship requirements in Kansas. The rulings Friday c...

MANILA, Philippines >> Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte called off a weeklong cease-fire after communist guerrillas killed a gove ment militiaman and failed to declare their own truce by a Saturday deadline, in an early setback to his efforts to end one of Asia’s longest-raging rebellions. It wa...

OCEANPORT, N.J. >> Leaving Monmouth Park hours after Triple Crown wi er American Pharoah’s triumphant retu to the races in last year’s Haskell Invitational, track president Bob Kulina already was thinking ahead. The guy who has been around the Jersey shore track since the early 1970s knew nothing co...

It’s a nightmare made real. An Eastside Costa Mesa resident awoke in the dead of night one spring to a burglar in his bedroom who then doused him in pepper spray. Somehow the homeowner found a nearby handgun and fired off several shots in the intruder’s direction. On Friday Costa Mesa police detaile...

The keeping of the secrets ends tonight. Harry Potter fans around the world are rejoicing in their Hermione costumes, their round glasses, their Gryffindor colors as a new book and play will be unveiled ove ight. “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” a two-part play that was endorsed, but not written...

Keeping the birds away The operator of the Ivanpah solar plant is taking several measures to keep birds away from the deadly hot zone around the towers. They include: • Spraying an irritating grape-seed mist from towers • Using a oying noises • Eliminating places where birds might try to perch • Con...

Continuing to cement his environmental legacy, Gov. Jerry Brown released sweeping blue-sky plans to propel the state’s commercial trucks, ships and trains toward a zero-emissions future. The unprecedented effort aims to reshape how cargo is moved around the state —from produce on supermarket shelves...

A South Bay family that lost a member to gun violence nearly 13 years ago mou ed another loss Friday, remembering a Hermosa Beach woman shot to death in an apparent murder-suicide as vibrant, colorful and “everything that any good person would be like.” A day after Vantha Tho, 35, was killed in her ...

Raynard Collins has been a die-hard NFL fan ever since he sat glued to the first “Monday Night Football” kickoff 46 years ago this September. He was so thrilled to see the Rams retu to Los Angeles this year he joined thousands who waited in lines for hours Friday for a shot at work in their football...

My house is overrun with naked females. Or one, anyway. But she’s a crowd. Yep, it’s potty-training season, and Lil One is bouncing around the place in her birthday suit, ready to expel at any moment, which means we hear the pitter-patter of bare feet, and get glimpses of bare buns rounding the co e...

Wildfires have become a grim reality for Southe Califo ia. With miles of dry sage brush carpeting most of the land — much of it in steep, rugged and inaccessible terrain — there’s plenty of material to fuel a blaze. And five years of drought ensure a future of even bigger fires for the region. The c...

Former Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca and federal prosecutors could not agree on a new plea deal in co ection with a jail corruption scandal, lawyers said Friday. Baca’s atto ey, Michael Zweiback, said he and federal prosecutors had tried to reach a new deal to present to a judge in federal cou...

Second District Councilwoman Jea ine Pearce is starting her first term on the City Council with a recommendation to hoist the rainbow flag, a universal symbol for LGBTQ rights, at City Hall year round. Pearce, who is in the first month of her four-year term, said the move would show support for the ...

For the past 17 years, Rich Ford has fed and monitored thousands of tiny white sea bass that swirl around two tanks of ocean water at the SEA Lab in Redondo Beach. The fingerlings arrive just 4 inches long from the Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute’s hatchery in Carlsbad, where they are bred, tagged...

Friends and Family of Lionel Gibson Jr., who was fatally shot by police May 7, will march to the Long Beach Police Department headquarters on Saturday to demand information in the shooting and ask that policies be put into place to address use of force. Gibson, 21, was shot in Central Long Beach aft...

The city has tapped a new director to lead operations at the Long Beach Airport, a move that comes several months after its former director left for the top job at Oakland Inte ational. City Manager Patrick West a ounced on Friday the hiring of Jesus “Jess” L. Romo, an airport executive with nearly ...

A job fair is being held today -- Friday, July 29, 2016 -- for people interested in stadium jobs during Los Angeles Rams games. • PHOTOS: Hopefuls line up for L.A. Rams stadium jobs Organizers said more than 1,500 positions will be available at the job fair, which is being held by Contemporary Servi...