Voters favor cuts to balance the budget — yet they object to most of the cuts that could be made, a Los Angeles Times/USC Poll shows.Californians object to increasing taxes in order to pare the state's massive budget deficit, and instead favor closing the breach through spending cuts. But they oppose cuts—and even prefer more spending—on programs that make up 85% of the state's ...

Councilman Bill Rosendahl wants the committee to consider air traffic controllers' concerns about the blocked views that the upgrade of the Tom Bradley International Terminal will create.Reacting to the concerns of air traffic controllers, Los Angeles City Councilman Bill Rosendahl said Tuesday that he wants a council committee to monitor the efforts to resolve any safety issues that might arise f...

The university's efforts to boost enrollment of non-Californians — who bring in $23,000 a year each — may prove controversial. But schools say they could help bolster besieged budgets.From Boston to China and across the Internet, University of California campuses this year are taking unprecedented and potentially controversial steps to recruit out-of-state and international students fo...

Air traffic controllers say it would be unsafe. LAX officials say modern technology will solve the problem.A multistory centerpiece of the modernization plan for Los Angeles International Airport would block the direct view of air traffic controllers for a busy portion of the complex, including gates, aircraft ramps and taxiways, officials acknowledge.

The state is borrowing $40 million a day from the federal government to provide assistance to jobless workers, but has resisted changing the formulas it uses to determine and fund those benefits.California's fund for paying unemployment insurance is broke.

Bernard Parks says DWP's generous benefits will render the fund 'unsustainable.' He withdrew the proposal after hundreds of workers protested at City Hall and his council colleagues denounced the plan.The Los Angeles City Council scuttled a plan to seek power over the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power's retirement benefits Tuesday after hundreds of the utility's workers showed up to denoun...

Most people wouldn't look forward to boot camp. But an increasing number of Marine recruits are spending six to nine months on a wait list, anticipating the day they'll become 'something bigger than themselves.'They arrived from places throughout the western United States, and now several hundred of them are waiting nervously in the USO lounge attached to the Lindbergh Field international airport....

Controller's report on redevelopment agency finds $520,000 in dubious spending and $500,000 in inappropriate payments to three top administrators as the City Council provided no 'meaningful oversight.'Bell's former Chief Administrative Officer Robert Rizzo and two other top officials got a portion of their lucrative compensation by taking hundreds of thousands of dollars from a fund that was supp...

Some of the new gift stores, beverage stands and restaurants at Los Angeles International Airport could be in place by summer, officials say.The overhaul of gift stores, beverage stands and restaurants at Los Angeles International Airport moved ahead Wednesday when the City Council approved the first round of new concession contracts and rejected further investigation of the bidding process.

It is the first federal commitment to Villaraigosa's so-called 30/10 initiative, which seeks to dramatically accelerate a dozen MTA transit projects.Los Angeles won a major federal loan Friday that will speed construction — perhaps by as much as 10 years — of a light-rail transit line from the Crenshaw district to a station near Los Angeles International Airport.

USC trustee and alumnus Ming Hsieh donates $50 million to fund a new cancer research center. The Annenberg Foundation gives $50 million to its namesake School for Communication & Journalism.USC on Friday plans to announce two donations totaling $100 million that will fund a new institute for cancer research and a high-tech building for journalism studies.

The first change since the rate fell to 0.1% in 2008 reflects worries about the economy. Tokyo also plans to buy $60 billion in government bonds and other assets.Japan's central bank cut its key interest rate to virtually zero in a surprise move Tuesday and is looking to set up a $60-billion fund to buy government bonds and other assets as it tries to inject life into a faltering economy.

Prompted by a scandal involving CalPERS, it would require that 'placement agents' who make pension fund deals with investment managers register as state lobbyists.After a yearlong scandal involving alleged influence peddling and corruption, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday signed a bill that will regulate the activities of outside deal-makers who help investment managers secure government pe...

Probe focuses on $150,000 in consulting fees paid by one ex-SEIU official to another to under a confidential agreement, sources say.As part of a lengthy corruption investigation, federal authorities have been examining $150,000 in consulting fees paid to a disgraced former Los Angeles labor leader under a confidential agreement signed by Andy Stern, then president of the powerful Service Employees...

The 700,000-member Service Employees International Union's endorsement could boost the Proposition 19 campaign, which has been relying on grass-roots outreach.The state council of the Service Employees International Union, the largest labor union in California, has endorsed Proposition 19, the initiative on the November ballot that seeks to legalize marijuana.

The Board of Referred Powers votes 4 to 1 to award three contracts to Areas USA and one to the THS-Marbella Food Service Partnership. The board threw out all bids for the most lucrative contract.A 2 1/2-year effort to overhaul concessions for passengers at Los Angeles International Airport made significant progress Monday when a special City Council panel approved four of five food and beverage co...

Lobbyists and lawyers in selection for airport concessions include former councilman, council aides, former assistant city attorney and a former district attorney.With hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts up for grabs, the companies competing for restaurant and gift shop business at Los Angeles International Airport have tapped into the deep reservoir of lobbyists, lawyers and publicists a...

Business license taxes were illegally raised over the last decade, bringing to $5.6 million the amount owed back to taxpayers—more than a third of the city's general fund.State auditors Thursday said they had found a third instance in which the city of Bell collected taxes illegally, bringing to $5.6 million the amount owed to taxpayers and raising questions about how the struggling town wi...

The victim's head was covered in a bag and his hands were bound, but it was not immediately clear if the death was a suicide or a homicide.A man whose head was covered in a bag and whose hands were bound was found dead Wednesday morning in a restroom at Terminal 3 at Los Angeles International Airport, authorities said.

The Board of Referred Powers votes 4 to 1 to give the contacts to a partnership involving the Hudson Group, Magic Johnson Enterprises and Concourse Ventures, which is headed by Johnnie Cochran's widow.The push to overhaul restaurants, beverage stands and gift stores at Los Angeles International Airport took a major step forward Monday when a special City Council panel approved three retail contrac...

Unreliable financing by the state hurts its ability to compete, the business program says.UCLA's Anderson School of Management wants to end its reliance on state funds under a controversial proposal that would be the first such shift to self-sufficiency in the cash-strapped UC system and could provide a model for other programs seeking freedom to raise tuition and faculty salaries.

A firm that stands to lose its food and retail contracts at LAX is one of several bidders with ties to council membersIt seemed an obvious idea: Bring in new concessionaires to improve the food and shopping at Los Angeles International Airport, giving a distinctive L.A. flair to a drab facility that receives often-dismal ratings from passengers.

There have been dozens of such incidents reported near the airport this year. Aiming the high-powered beams at pilots is illegal and can cause temporary blindness, officials say.Two Coast Guard helicopters were forced to land at Los Angeles International Airport in the last week after being flashed with laser beams, the latest of 63 such incidents reported near the airport so far this year and par...

The money from a tax on car owners goes to a fund for clean-energy technologies. But backers say it was not to be used for corn ethanol, which they say harms the environment as much as oil.California's energy commission has promised millions of dollars to a struggling corn ethanol business founded by a political ally — and generous campaign contributor — to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger d...

The Fair Political Practices Commission is looking into whether laws were broken when employees of the pension fund took private jet trips at investment firms' expense. State ethics officials launched an investigation Thursday into the private jet trips and other luxury travel that the embattled public pension fund allowed its top investment staff to accept, without public disclosure, from financi...

California's public pension system allowed senior portfolio managers to take private jet trips around the world, paid for by firms seeking business with the agency.The state's embattled public pension fund for years allowed its top investment staff to accept private jet trips around the world and other luxury travel from financial firms with whom they were doing business — without disclosing...

The money, part of a $26.1-billion state aid measure, will prevent further cuts in health and mental healthcare services for patients on Medi-Cal and support in-home care for the frail and elderly. Los Angeles County expects more than $60 million from Washington to fund health services for the poor after Pre...

Professor Jeffrey S. Siker presented his academic paper at the Catholic Biblical Assn. of America's international conference. Obama quotes Bible passages that appeal to the broadest base, Siker said. When President Obama cites the Bible in his public speeches, he expresses a faith rooted in the African Ameri...

L.A. Councilman Bill Rosendahl voices frustration at continuing postponements over selecting shops and restaurants for the airport. The Los Angeles City Council panel reviewing the contentious competition for new shops and restaurants at Los Angeles International Airport delayed a decision yet again, with me...