Remembering 'the last Jewish man of Boyle Heights'

It took Eddie Goldstein's dying for me to finally wear a yarmulke. Grateful for a bobby pin, I somehow kept it from slipping...

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Aaron Swartz, Coder and Activist, Dead at 26

We often say, upon the passing of a friend or loved one, that the world is a poorer place for the loss. But with the untimely death of programmer and activist Aaron Swartz, this isn’t just a sentiment; it’s literally true. Worthy, important causes will surface without a champion equal to their measure. Technological problems will go unsolved, or be solved a little less brilliantly than...

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Sony Pictures executive: “Zero Dark Thirty” “does not advocate torture”

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Sony Pictures executive Amy Pascal lashed out on Friday at a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) who accused Osama bin Laden film “Zero Dark Thirty” of promoting torture and urged fellow Academy members not to vote for it in the Oscars race.In a strongly worded statement, Pascal said the “attempt to censure one of the great films of our time should...

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City Room: Cuomo Declares Public Health Emergency Over Flu Outbreak

With the nation in the grip of a severe influenza outbreak that has seen deaths reach epidemic levels, New York State declared a public health emergency on Saturday, making access to vaccines more easily available.There have been nearly 20,000 cases of flu reported across the state so far this season, officials said. Last season, 4,400 positive laboratory tests were reported.“We are experiencing...

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Treasury Will Not Mint $1 Trillion Coin to Raise Debt Ceiling

WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department said Saturday that it will not mint a trillion-dollar platinum coin to head off an imminent battle with Congress over raising the government’s borrowing limit. “Neither the Treasury Department nor the Federal Reserve believes that the law can or should be used to facilitate the production of platinum coins for the purpose of avoiding an increase in...

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Syrian rebels say they've seized strategic Taftanaz air base

BEIRUT – After weeks of fighting, Syrian rebels said Friday that they had seized a strategic air base in northwestern Idlib...

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Student Appeals Suspension for Refusing to Wear RFID Tracker

A Texas high school student on Friday asked a federal appeals court to overturn a lower court’s order upholding her school suspension for refusing to wear around her neck an RFID-chip student ID she claims is the “Mark of the Beast.”The Northside Independent School District in San Antonio began issuing the RFID-laden student-body cards when the semester began in the...

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Flu Deaths Reach Epidemic Level, but May Be at Peak

Deaths in the current flu season have officially crossed the line into “epidemic” territory, federal health officials said Friday, adding that, on the bright side, there were also early signs that the caseloads could be peaking. Officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, speaking on a telephone news conference, again urged Americans to keep getting flu shots. At the same...

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DealBook: Regulators Propose Overhaul of Benchmark Interest Rate

LONDON — European regulators called for a major overhaul of a benchmark interest rate on Friday, but stopped short of demanding direct regulatory oversight after a rate-rigging scandal.The recommended changes to the euro interbank offered rate, or Euribor, come after a $1.5 billion settlement by the Swiss bank UBS, where some traders were found to have altered that rate as well as the London interbank...

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Irvine City Council overhauls oversight, spending on Great Park

Capping a raucous eight-hour-plus meeting, the Irvine City Council early Wednesday voted to overhaul the oversight and spending...

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Top U.S. General Says Stopping a Syrian Chemical Attack Is 'Almost Unachievable'

If Syrian dictator Bashar Assad decides to use his chemical weapons, there won’t be a thing the U.S. military can do to stop him, America’s top military officer conceded on Thursday. Nor will the U.S. step into a “hostile” atmosphere, with or without Assad, to keep those chemicals under control.It’s been a month since U.S. intelligence learned that Assad’s forces were mixing some of their...

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Adele to join in Hollywood’s Golden Globe party

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Pop star Adele is set to attend the Golden Globes ceremony in Beverly Hills on Sunday in what will be her first public appearance since giving birth to a boy in October.Golden Globe organizers said the 24-year-old British singer would be attending as a nominee, rather than a performer. Her “Skyfall” theme song for the latest James Bond movie is in the running for best original...

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F.D.A. Requires Cuts to Dosages of Ambien and Other Sleep Drugs

WASHINGTON — For two decades, millions of Americans have taken Ambien to help them sleep at night. But for years, the Food and Drug Administration has gotten complaints that people felt drowsy the morning after taking the medicine or its successors, and sometimes got into car accidents. On Thursday, after laboratory studies and driving tests confirming the risks of drowsiness, the agency...

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Electronic Records Systems Have Not Reduced Health Costs, Report Says

The conversion to electronic health records has failed so far to produce the hoped-for savings in health care costs and has had mixed results, at best, in improving efficiency and patient care, according to a new analysis by the influential RAND Corporation. Jim Wilson/The New York TimesDr. Alvin Rajkomar tracks patient data on a Samsung Galaxy Note. A new report questions whether electronic...

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Through new budget, Brown maps out sweeping change in state

SACRAMENTO — The days of catastrophic deficits behind him, Gov. Jerry Brown is set to propose a state budget Thursday that would...

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Video: Watch the Entire <em>Dark Knight</em> Movie Trilogy in Three Minutes

Director Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, which concluded last summer with The Dark Knight Rises, is probably one of the most well-executed comic book hero franchises in recent memory. So good, in fact, that every now and then it’s nice just to have a little taste – even when there isn’t time to watch all three flicks back to back.Luckily, the folks at Screen Rant...

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“Homeland,” “Girls” win Directors Guild TV nominations

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The directors of hit television dramas “Homeland” and “Mad Men” were among those nominated for Directors Guild of America (DGA) awards on Wednesday.They were joined by Lena Dunham for her coming-of-age HBO series “Girls” and actor Bryan Cranston for ABC’s “Modern Family” in the comedy category.AMC’s “Breaking Bad” director Rian Johnson and Greg Mottola, director of HBO’s “The...

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Pap Test May Prove Useful at Detecting More Types of Cancer, Study Suggests

The Pap test, which has prevented countless deaths from cervical cancer, may eventually help to detect cancers of the uterus and ovaries as well, a new study suggests. For the first time, researchers have found genetic material from uterine or ovarian cancers in Pap smears, meaning that it may become possible to detect three diseases with just one routine test. But the research is...

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Shares Rise as Companies Report Earnings

Stocks rose on Wall Street on Wednesday after corporate earnings reports got off to a good start. The Dow Jones industrial average climbed 61.66 points to 13,390.51. The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index gained 3.87 points to 1,461.02, and the Nasdaq composite rose 14 to 3,105.81. Stocks are facing their first big challenge of the year as companies start to report earnings...

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Boy accused of killing neo-Nazi father opts not to testify

The Riverside boy accused of murdering his neo-Nazi father decided not to take the witness stand Tuesday, bringing an end to...

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Rogue Planet Confirmed Orbiting Around 'Eye of Sauron'

LONG BEACH, California – Astronomers have confirmed that a controversial exoplanet called Fomalhaut b actually does exist and have calculated its potential orbit. The results show that the object is even stranger than scientists could have imagined, dubbing it a “rogue planet.”The uncertainty about this object started in 2008, when scientists released an image taken with NASA’s Hubble space...

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