L.A. Marathon: Streets across city to close early Sunday [Map]

The Los Angeles Marathon will close a swath of city streets to traffic extending from Dodger Stadium to Santa Monica beginning early Sunday morning and lasting through the better part of the afternoon, authorities said.

The race begins on Sunday at 6:55 a.m. for wheelchairs, 7:00 a.m. for hand cycles and 7:25 a.m. for all other participants.

Officials warn that traffic will be affected in many areas of the city, especially for those traveling in the vicinity of the event, which follows the same route as last year and roughly tracks east to west along Sunset and Santa Monica boulevards in Los Angeles, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills and Santa Monica. 

Staggered street closures begin at 3:15 a.m. Sunday near the stadium and last from seven to nine hours along the 26.2-mile route. In addition, Caltrans will be closing off- and on-ramps or lanes to exit and entry point to the 101, 110 and 405 freeways.

The city Department of Transportation said it will strictly enforce a restricted, no-parking policy for the marathon during listed times. Vehicles that have not been moved will be cited and impounded at the nearest official police garage

Course maps and event information are available at LAmarathon.com or trafficinfo.lacity.org. Those seeking to use public transportation can contact Metro at (323) GO METRO (466-3876) or visit the agency’s trip planner site at metro.net.

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AEG move could help L.A.'s bid for NFL team, councilwoman says

An influential L.A. councilwoman expressed hope the decision to halt the sale of AEG will bring stability to the company and boost L.A.'s chances of luring an NFL team to Los Angeles.

Billionaire Philip Anschutz announced he has decided not to sell AEG, which owns Staples Center, LA Live and the Los Angeles Kings. AEG is behind the effort to build an NFL stadium in downtown Los Angeles and lure professional football back to the city.

Councilwoman Jan Perry, who represents the area that includes AEG properties Staples Center and LA Live, said she hopes the decision will bring “a measure of stability and certainty” to the company as it seeks to lure an NFL team to Los Angeles.

“When Phil Anschutz said he was going to sell off the company, I don’t think that strengthened AEG’s hand in its negotiations with the NFL," she said. "It’s always difficult to change [owners] in midstream.”

AEG: A look back

In September, the Los Angeles City Council approved plans for the $1.2-billion plan, which included a 72,000-seat stadium.

The deal was hailed as an effort to make downtown Los Angeles — home to the Lakers, Clippers and Kings — a professional sports powerhouse, sparking new economic activity and bringing major renovations to the struggling Los Angeles Convention Center next door.

But it remained a question as to whether AEG could lure the NFL back to L.A.

Anschutz said he plans to resume a more active role in the company. He announced in September he was seeking bidders in a sale that some insiders said could have fetched up to $7 billion.

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Photo: A rendering of AEG's proposed NFL stadium, Farmers Field, in downtown Los Angeles. Credit: AEG

Rally planned to protest L.A. County court closures

Hundreds are expected to rally outside the Stanley Mosk Courthouse in downtown Los Angeles on Thursday to protest broad cuts to the county court system, including the closure of 10 regional courthouses.

The Save Our Courts Coalition -- comprised of groups including SEIU Local 721, ACLU Southern California, People for Community Improvement and others -- has planned an 11 a.m. march and mock trial in the street in front of the courthouse.

“We’re going to do everything we can to stop these closures because, if the judges have their way, we’re the ones who will be left behind," SEIU Local 721 President Bob Schoonover said in a statement. "Our neighbors and family members will be taking five-hour bus rides across the county just to have their day in court. That’s just not fair.”

The Los Angeles Superior Court's plan comes as the system works to close a $56-million to $85-million budget shortfall by the beginning of the fiscal year July 1, said Mary Hearn, a court spokeswoman.

Court officials have said years of budget cuts by the state have left no option but to reduce services, close courtrooms and lay off workers. The L.A. County court system already has laid off hundreds of employees and left more positions unfilled.

On Wednesday, several legal aid organizations filed a lawsuit against the system and the state, saying the court's plan to reduce the number of courts handling landlord disputes "shuts the courthouse doors on many of the county's most vulnerable residents."

Lawsuit filed against L.A. County courts over changes for eviction cases

Saying that a Los Angeles County Superior Court plan to reduce the number of courts handling landlord disputes "shuts the courthouse doors on many of the county's most vulnerable residents," several legal aid organizations filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the court system and the state.

In the 21-page filing, the organizations said the reduction in the number of courthouses hearing such cases from 26 to five throughout the county will create difficulties for low-income tenants and people with disabilities fighting eviction.

Some people will have to travel up to 32 miles to litigate their cases, court officials have said. The trips "to the courthouse for these tenants will require numerous transfers and travel to unfamiliar areas and will be prohibitively difficult and expensive," the lawsuit states.

The plan to send eviction cases, known as unlawful detainers, to designated "hub" courthouses is scheduled to begin Monday.

The cases will be heard only in Pasadena, Long Beach, Santa Monica, the Antelope Valley Courthouse in Lancaster and the Stanley Mosk Courthouse in downtown Los Angeles.

The lawsuit, filed in a federal court in downtown Los Angeles, seeks to halt the plan and demands a jury trial.

Attorneys with Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles County, Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, Disability Rights Legal Center and Western Center on Law & Poverty filed the suit on behalf of several plaintiffs, including two disabled people facing eviction.

Red Line delayed after man runs onto tracks

A segment of the Metro Red Line was briefly suspended during rush hour Wednesday evening after a man who appeared to be drunk ran into a tunnel at the Wilshire/Vermont Station, officials said.

The man sprinted onto the tracks heading in the direction of MacArthur Park about 6:45 p.m., prompting a power shutdown on the line, said Metro spokesman Luis Inzunza.

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputies pursued the suspected trespasser but were unable to locate him, authorities said.

Service was suspended between Wilshire/Vermont and the 7th St/Metro Center Station in downtown Los Angeles for about 25 minutes, Inzunza said. Trains were delayed by about 30 minutes but returned to a normal schedule within an hour.

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LAUSD to pay Miramonte victims $30 million; teacher due in court

Now that the Los Angeles Unified School District has agreed to a $30-million settlement in the Miramonte Elementary School case, the teacher accused of lewd acts against dozens of children is set to appear in court next month.

Mark Berndt, 61, faces 23 felony counts of lewd conduct involving the alleged spoon-feeding of semen to students that were blindfolded and the placement of cockroaches on their faces.

Berndt has been in custody since his arrest in February 2012 and is being held in lieu of $23 million bail. Detectives had been investigating the alleged abuse for more than a year after a drugstore photo processor showed police disturbing images of blindfolded and gagged children being spoon-fed a liquid.

FULL COVERAGE: Teacher sex-abuse investigations

The alleged victims were boys and girls between 7 and 10 years old. Berndt had been teaching in the district since 1979 and was respected by parents of former students. Nearly 200 legal claims have been filed against the Los Angeles Unified School District by parents in the wake of Berndt’s arrest.

On Tuesday, lawyers representing parents in 58 of those claims announced a $30-million settlement with LAUSD. The mediation lasted about six months and involved more than a dozen law firms.

Attorneys said they wanted to spare children painful litigation and testimony.

PHOTOS: Parent uproar over sex-abuse claims

The settlements are the first in a case that rocked the nation's second-largest school system and prompted a flurry of new policies to better protect students. Each of the alleged victims will receive about $470,000 under the preliminary deal. It is the largest payout in a case involving a single teacher in the district.

Man charged in crash that led to 2 men losing legs

A Paramount man was charged Tuesday with drunken driving after he allegedly drove his BMW into two men standing outside a downtown L.A. strip club, severing their legs, prosecutors said.

Terrence Conrad Meeks, 40, was scheduled to be arraigned on charges including a special allegation that more than one person was injured, the Los Angeles County district attorney's office said. If convicted, he faces up to five years in state prison.

Meeks is accused of leaving Sam's Hofbrau on Olympic Boulevard near McGarry Street early Sunday and  allegedly ramming his BMW into the men, pinning them against a parked Mini Cooper, prosecutors and police said.

One victim's legs were both severed below the knees; the other man's right leg was crushed and later amputated, prosecutors said. Both remain hospitalized.

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L.A. Catholics hold all-night prayer vigil before papal election

An all-night prayer vigil at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Angels in downtown Los Angeles was set to end Tuesday morning for the start of the conclave to elect a new pope.

The special prayers began at 7 p.m. Monday and were expected to last until 7 a.m. Tuesday. It was to be followed by a special Mass.

The cathedral serves the Los Angeles archdiocese of over 5 million Catholics and is the heart of all 287 parish churches. Thousands of miles away, the 115 cardinals who will choose the new pope took part in a morning Mass on Tuesday at St. Peter’s Basilica.

In the afternoon, the 115 cardinal-electors — those younger than 80 who are eligible to vote — will go to the Pauline Chapel for further prayers. They will then walk to the Sistine Chapel, chanting prayers as they go, to begin the secret election called the conclave. The doors will be locked behind them.

Endeavour shuttle helps draw 1 million visitors to Science Center

More than 1 million people have visited the California Science Center since space shuttle Endeavour arrived about four months ago, a considerable boost for the Exposition Park museum that had averaged about 1.6 million visitors a year.

Science Center officials initially guessed about 2 million people would see the shuttle in the first year after the display opened Oct. 31.

But now the museum  estimates that at least 2.5 million people could see the retired orbiter in its first year at the Science Center.

"In terms of numbers, it's exceeded our expectations," said Science Center president Jeffrey Rudolph.

"It's surpassed them," said Lynda Oschin, whose foundation made what was described as an "extraordinary" financial contribution to bring the shuttle to Los Angeles. The Mr. and Mrs. Samuel and Lynda Oschin Foundation was formed in honor of Oschin's late husband, a Los Angeles businessman and philanthropist.

"I never dreamed that it would be this important to L.A.," Oschin said. "To see all the people come out, all the children ... it's mind boggling to me, the whole thing. It's still unbelievable to me."

The Science Center had long dreamed of obtaining a space shuttle — aerospace curator Ken Phillips first pitched the idea to Rudolph two decades ago. NASA awarded the orbiter to the California Science Center in April 2011 after a competitive national search.

It’s the only museum outside the East Coast with a shuttle.

The two other museums that house orbiters — the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in New York and the Smithsonian Institution’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia — both reported increased attendance since their own displays opened. The final shuttle, Atlantis, will be showcased at a new facility at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, which is expected to open later this year.

For now, Endeavour is housed in a temporary display pavilion. But museum officials are already drawing up designs for the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center, an air and space wing, expected to open in about five years. The shuttle will be displayed vertically in the new wing.

On Monday, the museum unveiled another orbiter-themed exhibit: "Mission 26: The Big Endeavour," which documents the shuttle's celebratory flight over California and its 12-mile, three-day trek from Los Angeles International Airport to Exposition Park last year.

The exhibit is the second to accompany the temporary pavilion. The new display includes photographs of the shuttle's move (including images from Times photographers), video and a bulletin board where visitors can post their own messages about the shuttle.

It also includes a rotating display of Endeavour-related projects from Century Park Elementary School in Inglewood. When Amy Davis' fifth-grade class saw the shuttle fly over the school in September, one student was so moved by the experience he began to cry. Davis wrote the Science Center, which later asked her class for help in putting together the new exhibit.

Davis teared up when talking about her students' work.

"To see their work and everything here — it just validates who they are as scholars," she said. "I tell them every day how brilliant they are, how beautiful they are, how much they can go out and change the world. And this proves it to them."

Tori Morris, 10, and her classmates were excited to see their projects unveiled.

"This is like, very amazing to see our projects in a museum because not a lot of schools have this opportunity," Morris said. "This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance."

School groups were just part of the stream of visitors that filled the display pavilion Monday. Guests stopped almost immediately after entering, snapping photos of the shuttle in awe.

"Keep moving," a museum attendant said.

Sharon Carbonneau and her family spent Monday at the museum as part of their vacation from Albuquerque, N.M. It wasn't the reason they visited Los Angeles — that was Disneyland — but still something they wanted to see.

"It's just a piece of history," Carbonneau said. "We may never get a chance to see it actually launch but we figured we could come and see a piece of history."

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Photo: Fifth-graders from Century Park Elementary School look at pictures of space shuttle Endeavour at the opening of a new exhibit Monday at the California Science Center. Credit: Al Seib / Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles area jolted by earthquake

Holly Lawson was working in a campground kiosk at Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, about 60 miles south of the epicenter of Monday's earthquake, when the windows in her tiny kiosk began to rattle.

The rolling rumble lasted about six seconds, she said, and she could see a man outside in his truck as it swayed back and forth.

"The truck was actually physically moving," Lawson said.

A San Diego native, she had already guessed the temblor's magnitude by the time the shaking stopped.

"I'm always concerned about these windows when we feel a quake," she said. "We're surrounded by them."

Lawson, who lives in Anza, near the quake's epicenter, got a call from her teenage son soon after, who reported there had been a loud, sudden crack of sound before the shaking began. Their home, which is a manufactured house, had experienced small cracks after a similar earthquake about a year ago, and Monday she told her son to search for damage to the walls, water lines and propane lines.

Meanwhile, campers in nearby RVs came one by one to ask if that had, indeed, been an earthquake "or if they were just going crazy," said Lawson.

Mary Ann McKennon, a volunteer camp host and Idaho native, said she didn't know what was going on at first.

"My first thought was that we've been having some funky winds, and sometimes they blow pretty hard," she said. Soon she saw the truck outside rocking, too.

"I didn't like it at all," said McKennon, who has worked on and off at the campsite for 6 years. "Do you ever get used to them?"

Although some lifelong Southern Californians didn't bat an eye at Monday's quake, it was a different story for Minnesota transplant Shannon Haber. Even though she's lived here since 1996, Haber said, she definitely has not gotten used to earthquakes.

“I was just a little frightened,” Haber said. “There was small shaking and it made me nervous because I’m 23 floors up.”

Haber was working in Los Angeles Unified School District headquarters in Westlake when the earthquake shook at 9:56 a.m. more than 100 miles away in Anza in Riverside County. The shaking was the biggest and longest-lasting she could remember.

“It was a slow, swaying motion,” she said. “It sort of felt like I was on a boat, a sort of wavy feeling that lasted 10 to 20 seconds. … No one else reacted around me. They’re all veterans of earthquakes.”

In Anza, about 10 customers had sat down to a late breakfast at a Diner 371 when the quake struck about 20 miles away.

Nothing was broken and no one was hurt, said Diner 371 waitress Michelle Padaron, 30, who was stocking tables with napkins when the quake struck.

After four seconds of shaking, customers quickly returned to their meals of burgers, burritos and eggs, Padaron said.

 "Everyone just kind of looked up, then looked at each other, and that was it," Padaron said.

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