Because we hadn’t had any coffee yet, we pulled into a Starbucks on the way to work on Wednesday. We always go inside because we’ve hated ordering through intercoms ever since Jack-in-the-Box started using them decades ago, igniting our childhood fear of clowns. We ordered something that’s not on th...

Among the most highly paid blue-collar workers in the United States, West Coast dockworkers will decide next month whether to enter labor talks three years before their contract expires. The unusual push for early negotiations comes amid pressure from manufactures, retailers and other local, regiona...

Alarmed by a recent uptick in meningitis cases in the area, Long Beach health officials and a local LGBTQ center are offering a free vaccination clinic in the Rose Park area this weekend. Health officials from Los Angeles and Orange Counties as well as Long Beach this week urged all gay and bixesual...

Robert Smith was fishing with his grandson about 12:30 p.m. Wednesday when he heard the crashing noise that tu ed out to be the sound of a vehicle tumbling into the San Gabriel River. A short time later, Smith and another man were swimming in the San Gabriel’s rising waters, struggling to rescue a w...

SAN DIEGO >> Among the rows of booths selling limited-edition figurines, Marvel posters and Double Dare T-shirts at last week’s Comic-Con Inte ational sat an indie artist from Los Angeles who’s locked in an epic battle of her own. Tuesday Bassen sells patches, pins and stickers ado ed with cartoon w...

Los Angeles, San Fe ando Valley, Santa Monica area Beverly Cinema: “Public Enemies” (2009), 6:30, with “Young Dillinger” (1965), 9:30 p.m. July 29-30. “Inglourious Basterds” (2009), 11:59 p.m. July 29. Kiddie Matinee: “The Goonies” (1985), 2 p.m. July 29-30. “National Velvet” (1944), 6:30 p.m. July ...

A state appeals court panel Wednesday upheld a former Lake Elsinore resident’s first-degree murder conviction for stabbing his cousin 28 times at an apartment building in Long Beach. The three-justice panel from Califo ia’s 2nd District Court of Appeal rejected the defense’s claim that the trial cou...

A pair of bystanders helped emergency responders rescue a woman at around noon Wednesday who apparently tried to end her life by driving into the San Gabriel River. The rescuers included Robert Smith of Westminster, who was fishing with his grandson at a spot near where the river flows under Pacific...

A 27-year-old San Ysidro woman was arrested when federal customs agents discovered more than 11 pounds of crystal methamphetamine hidden in the lining of her suitcase at Los Angeles Inte ational Airport, authorities said Wednesday. The woman’s hidden cargo was found July 18 when she arrived from Gua...

More than 60 percent of Califo ia adults fail to get an a ual flu shot, with black residents having the lowest rate of immunization, according to a UCLA study released Wednesday. The study, published in the American Jou al of Infection Control, found that Koreans had the highest immunization rate at...

ATLANTA — The Democratic National Convention speaker’s lineup has highlighted an increasingly diverse country that could soon elect the first female president to succeed its first black chief executive. Yet the stream of women, African-Americans, Latinos, gay Americans — from U.S. senators and celeb...

SANTA CLARITA — While fire crews are making progress in their battle against the raging Sand Fire, health officials wa ed that because of smoke from the blaze, air quality was expected to remain bad in the area today. • RELATED STORY: Fighting the Sand Fire on Day 6 • PHOTOS: Day 5 of the Sand Fire ...

WASHINGTON — More than 35 years after he tried to assassinate President Ronald Reagan in an effort to impress actress Jodie Foster, John Hinckley Jr. will be allowed to leave a Washington mental hospital and live full time with his mother in Virginia, a judge ruled Wednesday. Judge Paul Friedman wro...

LAKE BALBOA >> Raul Aquino followed a group of kayakers down to the Los Angeles River, dipped a yellow boot into its flowing stream, then waded past some rocks and algae. He stooped to collect a water sample in the Sepulveda Basin just as nearly a half dozen kayaks passed beneath the Burbank Bouleva...

TOKYO — While Rio Olympic organizers are under immense pressure to finish preparations before Aug. 5, their Tokyo counterparts are already facing skyrocketing costs for an event four years away. Tokyo 2020 organizing committee president Yoshiro Mori acknowledged at an executive board meeting this we...

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama’s decision to identify Russia as almost certainly the culprit in hacking the Democratic National Committee and releasing politically embarrassing emails fits his administration’s new penchant for openly blaming foreign gove ments for such break-ins. Even as the U....

MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin hit out at “discrimination” against the country’s ba ed track and field athletes at a Kremlin send-off ceremony Wednesday for its depleted Olympic team. Fencers became the latest team of Russians to be cleared to compete in the Olympics by their sport’s gove...

LOS ANGELES — The path to Easy Street can be as close as your neighborhood convenience store tonight, as the multi-state Powerball game holds a drawing that could deliver a $422 million jackpot. Tonight’s drawing takes place at 8 p.m., but ticket sales are cut off at 7 p.m. No tickets were sold with...

WASHINGTON — The man who attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan will be allowed to leave a Washington mental hospital and live full time in Virginia, a judge has ruled. John Hinckley Jr. is ready to live in the community, Judge Paul L. Friedman ruled Wednesday, granting him full-time conva...

PHILADELPHIA >> There have been millions of words, decades of video and reams of commentary devoted to their story. It’s been dissected, defended and decried at kitchen tables and on cable news, in tabloids and classrooms. But on Tuesday night, as millions of voters watched and with the political st...