Science

E-mail exchanges in 2007 among top executives contradict the investment bank's claims that it did not aggressively bet against the housing market, panel chairman Sen. Carl Levin says. Goldman denies the allegations.

Goldman Sachs executives bragged in internal e-mails in 2007 that they were making "some serious money" as the real estate bubble burst, according to documents released Saturday by a Senate subcommittee.

Investors are snapping up foreclosed homes in hopes of making a quick killing.

The musty smell of neglect greeted the two investors as they stepped past the waist-high weeds and peeling paint to cross the threshold of the latest prize: a boarded-up two-story house in South Los Angeles.

Alfredo Figueroa has made it his mission to guard huge carvings known as geoglyphs. His biggest concern was damage from off-roaders. Now he worries that solar energy plants could do even more harm.

After a rough ride through narrow desert washes, Alfredo Figueroa came to a clearing and ordered the vehicles to halt.

At least 10 are reported killed as twisters roar through at least 15 counties. Arkansas, Alabama and Louisiana also are hit.

Tornadoes ripped through four states in the South, leaving broken crosses in front of a flattened church, splintering houses and overturning vehicles as they killed 10 people, including two children.

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham threatens to pull his support in a dispute with Democrats over a separate immigration measure.

Two of President Obama's top domestic policy initiatives — energy and immigration — appeared on the brink of collapse on Saturday after a Republican senator at the center of both efforts threatened to jump ship in a dispute with Democrats over timing.

Mississippi official say the death toll has risen to nine from a devastating tornado that flattened homes and businesses in the state. More than a dozen others have been injured.

Nearly 60 years after the publication of 'The Catcher in the Rye' you can still see much of the New York that he saw.

Holden Caulfield was a flâneur . That's not generally how we think of him, this archetype of adolescent alienation, this detester of phonies, this poor little lost boy whose voice — by turns knowing, childlike, cynical and bereft — drives J.D. Salinger's iconic 1951 novel, "The Catcher in the Rye." Yet, from the moment, about a quarter of the way through the book, he arrives by train at Manhattan's now-demolished original Pennsylvania Station building, he is our guide on one of the 20th century's great literary walking tours.

For the second year in a row, Obama avoids the term being pushed by Armenian American groups and their congressional allies as he marks the day of remembrance of the 1915 killings by Ottoman Turks.

Despite pressure from activists and lawmakers, President Obama on Saturday again refused to declare the 1915 mass killings of Armenians a genocide.

The ‘varsity’ students on decathlon teams keep the others loose and sometimes earn top scores.

Students like El Camino Real's Daniel de Haas keep the type-As loose and ready for the Academic Decathlon.

Homicide detectives with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department were investigating the deaths of two men who were struck and killed by a freight train in Rosemead early Saturday.

A major Westside intersection will be closed this weekend and next as part of the massive project to widen the 405 Freeway.

A 737 with 124 people on board came within feet of a Cessna that was practicing landings. An FAA spokesman says an air traffic controller misjudged the distance between the two planes.

Federal safety regulators are investigating the near-collision of a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 and a small private plane that was practicing landings Monday at Bob Hope Airport in Burbank.

The Republican was on the Wall Street bank’s board, and the Democrat was mayor of Oakland when the city was involved in a complex financing deal with the firm.

As a main theme of his campaign for governor, Jerry Brown has attacked Wall Street bankers for fueling the nation's economic troubles.

Current interest award goes to ‘Zeitoun’ by Dave Eggers, who also garners the first Innovators Award.

Rafael Yglesias took the top fiction honor Friday at the 30th annual Los Angeles Times Book Prizes for his novel "A Happy Marriage," while Dave Eggers won the current interest award for "Zeitoun," about a Syrian immigrant swept up in the chaos of post-Katrina New Orleans.

Sales of cars such as those made by Mercedes-Benz and BMW are soaring in China amid rising prosperity.

In one corner of the exhibition hall, Ferrari was unveiling its ultra-exclusive 599 GTO. In another, Porsche was doing the same for its sleek Panamera 4.

The odd locale, the 84-year-old Chester Building, is believed to be one of the most populous roosting sites for the birds in North America, local avian experts said.

Two dozen naturalists gathered on the roof of a downtown Los Angeles parking structure at sundown Friday to witness an unusual spectacle: tens of thousands of migrating birds spiraling into an abandoned brick chimney for the night.

An international network of observers keeps track of eruptions. A meteorologist in the busy Alaska center describes how it works.

Until the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland grounded jets across Europe, few people appreciated the danger volcanic ash posed to aircraft. When the ash gets sucked into jet engines, it melts and can jam up the machinery and damage other internal parts.

The insurer had postponed its planned hike for two months amid public outcry, and a spokeswoman says there won’t be an increase in May.

Thousands of Anthem Blue Cross policyholders who faced steep rate hikes on May 1 will get at least a temporary reprieve after California's largest for-profit health insurer extended a two-month postponement prompted by public outrage over the proposed increases.

More than 20% of the all-electric hatchback’s first year of production has been reserved, Nissan says. The car goes on sale in December.

Nissan Motor Co. said Friday that buyers have already reserved more than 20% of the first year's production of its Leaf electric vehicle.

Gov. Jan Brewer signs a bill that opponents say encourages racial profiling. President Obama calls the measure 'misguided.' A federal review is underway.

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer on Friday signed the toughest law against illegal immigration in the country, shrugging aside warnings from religious and civil rights leaders — and President Obama — that it would lead to widespread racial profiling.