Darren Aronofsky's dark ballet thriller also wins for best director and cinematography. James Franco is named best actor, 'The Kids Are All Right' wins best screenplay and 'The King's Speech' wins best foreign film."Black Swan," director Darren Aronofsky's dark ballet thriller about a dancer descending into madness, won top honors at the Film Independent Spirit Awards on Saturday, where it was nam...

Lourdes Garcia, Bell's director of administrative services, testifies that she was uncomfortable writing a memo for Chief Administrative Officer Robert Rizzo that greatly misrepresented city officials' pay.A ranking Bell administrator who earned about $422,000 and admitted helping cover up her boss' exorbitant salary was offered limited immunity in exchange for her testimony in a corruption case a...

Belgium's consul general in Los Angeles hosts an event honoring them for their service. The veterans bring some poignant memories and much self-deprecating humor.The men filed in slowly, one wearing a vintage green uniform emblazoned with a Purple Heart. Another rolled in on a chair, his head held high with a Veterans of Foreign Wars hat laden with medals. Some had lost frozen fingers, others toes...

As protests in Egypt underscore the hazards of relying on imported oil, a bus and bike-riding scientist at UCLA is working on clean fusion energy that could wean us from foreign fuel.The story of how I ended up in the basement of a UCLA physics building, getting a tour of a plasma facility with a young scientist working on the development of clean fusion energy, begins with the uprisings in the Mi...

Eight Southern California hospitals have signed up for a system called InQuickER that lets patients pay a fee of $14.99 to $24.99 to set up an appointment online for emergency care. If they're not seen within 15 minutes, they get their money back.Lakewood Regional Medical Center last week joined a small but growing number of Southern California hospitals that allow patients to make emergency room ...

Reflecting the struggles many cities face, the town fails to make a payment on the bond issued in flusher times to renovate City Hall. But an official says reserves will be drawn down to cover the payment.The San Joaquin Valley town of Chowchilla — known for its dairy farms and prisons — has defaulted on a municipal revenue bond, underscoring the tight times and drastic choices faced b...

In his last days in office, governor names chief of staff Susan Kennedy and health secretary Kim Belshe to Health Benefit Exchange Board, which will negotiate insurance rates and ensure tax credits and subsidies are disbursed.In one of his final acts as governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed two of his top aides to a powerful new panel that will help negotiate health insurance rates for individ...

HP shares tumbled after Hurd's resignation in August after an investigation found that he violated standards of business conduct.The Securities and Exchange Commission has begun an inquiry into Mark Hurd's departure as chief executive of Hewlett-Packard Co., according to two people familiar with the matter.

The 17-year-old from South Korea apparently exchanged blows with a 19-year-old friend, who died after the fight at First Lutheran High School in Sylmar.Los Angeles police have arrested a 17-year-old exchange student from South Korea in connection with a schoolyard fight in Sylmar that left a 19-year-old friend dead.

The plan restricts or bans fishing along 15% of Southern California coast, including several areas backed by environmentalists, and leaves out some areas prized by recreational and commercial fishermen.More than 350 square miles of ocean from Point Conception to the U.S.-Mexico border — about 15% of the Southern California coast — will be protected under a network of marine reserves n...

The rising costs of providing police services to a neighboring town eventually drained the city's reserves and led to its loss of insurance. The fiasco raises questions about the economic viability of other nearby cities.This summer, the small city of Maywood made national headlines when it laid off most of its workers, disbanded the Police Department and contracted most city services to the neigh...

The inquiry focuses on overseas trips paid for by foreign governments jockeying to help their homeland firms secure state contracts.The state's ethics enforcement agency disclosed Wednesday that it is investigating several present and former leaders of California's $43-billion bullet train project to determine if they violated regulations on receipt of gifts.

The women behind KnockOuts for Girls transform lives by providing training, discipline and scholarships.The last thing Cece CuzaHoward ever thought she would learn was how to throw a decent punch. Raised in a devout Quaker household, she found the whole concept of boxing foreign.

The travel was funded by governments of nations whose companies may seek contracts on the massive project. Disclosure of information on such trips is generally required by state ethics regulations.Officials directing the California High-Speed Rail Authority have taken a series of overseas trips paid for by foreign governments jockeying to help their homeland firms win contracts on the multibillion...

The agency wants documents involving nine current and former officials, auditors, underwriters and financial advisors who participated in the sale of bonds, documents show. The subpoena requires people to testify under oath.The Securities and Exchange Commission has launched a wide-ranging investigation of Bell's sale of more than $70 million in bond issues, the latest agency to probe the scandal-...

In a polite but contentious exchange, the California gubernatorial candidates question each other's fitness to lead the state. The candidates vying to be California's next governor had their first face-to-face debate Tuesday evening, a polite but contentious exchange in which Republican Meg Whitman and Democrat Jerry Brown largely stuck to their campaign stump scripts, questioning each other's fit...

Authorities say the officer accepted $52,000 in bribes in a sting in exchange for allowing what he believed were drug-laden cars to pass through his lane without inspection.An inspector for U.S. Customs and Border Protection was charged Friday with conspiring to smuggle cocaine and methamphetamine through his inspection lane at the California- Mexico border crossing in Calexico, federal authoritie...

George Shultz warns of the dangers of dependence on foreign oil, and backers of Proposition 23 respond with attacks on him and his co-chairman in the opposition campaign, Thomas F. Steyer.The fight over Proposition 23 , a November ballot initiative to suspend California's global warming law, turned ugly this week, with personal attacks and emotionally charged rhetoric on both sides.

Governor says the trip, paid for by a Chinese tycoon, will help raise revenue for California. Watchdogs and economists question whether such efforts are effective.While the state government limps through its 10th week without a budget, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is flying to Asia on Thursday with an entourage of about 30 state employees — most of their travel courtesy of a Chinese billionair...

The decision by a divided appeals court says the risk of state secrets being exposed outweighs the alleged victims' right to seek damages from a Boeing subsidiary they say aided in the renditions.Five foreign men who say they were kidnapped and tortured by the CIA cannot sue the Boeing Co. subsidiary that helped spirit them away for interrogations because of the risk of secret intelligence matters...

A seventh agrees to concessions that include 5% co-payments in exchange for fewer annual unpaid furlough days.Six Los Angeles city employee unions have blocked Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa from seeking to impose higher healthcare costs on its members, even as a seventh labor organization agreed to a wide range of concessions.

The decision by three judges from the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upsets gay couples in California who had hoped to wed when a temporary hold expired Wednesday. But a legal expert says the ruling could be a strategic victory for Prop. 8 opponents. A federal appeals court decided Monday to put same-sex ...

A big increase in the denials had prompted an outcry by Hollywood, the performing arts community and research institutions. The nation's immigration chief has launched a effort to quell the outcry from Hollywood and the performing arts community about a spike in visa denials, processing delays and requests...

Executives tell City Council members in a spirited exchange that they acted to protect the utility's credit rating and customers, not punish the city for not raising utility rates. Executives with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power on Tuesday issued a sharply worded defense of their decision to wi...

The SEC said a Morgan Stanley analyst showed Whitman a rosy report of EBay stock — and then released it — to court her business. The bank agreed to a settlement but admitted no wrongdoing. When the Securities and Exchange Commission accused Wall Street firms of putting investors at risk by issuin...

Army reservist becomes the subject of a military investigation after marrying a translator he met while serving in the Mideast. When David Bloom of Los Angeles shipped to Iraq in 2005 with the U.S. Army Reserves, the last thing he expected to find there was a wife. But the first time he set eyes on an Iraqi...

Supervisors will study spending plan that could result in hundreds of layoffs and draw $36 million from reserve funds and other sources to close $85-million shortfall. Another bleak year of government cuts is in store for Orange County, officials said Monday as they released a proposed budget that could eli...