LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Five former elected officials from the scandal-plagued California city of Bell were convicted on Wednesday of misusing municipal funds by collecting exorbitant salaries in a case that drew national attention as a symbol of public corruption.

The trial stemmed from an explosive scandal in Bell, a small, mostly blue-collar municipality near Los Angeles, following revelations in 2010 that its city manager, Robert Rizzo, was paid a salary of $787,000 – or nearly twice that of President Barack Obama.

LOS ANGELES, March 19 (Reuters) – The venerable Hollywood
trade magazine Daily Variety published its last printed edition
on Tuesday, ending an 80-year era by beckoning readers to a
recently revamped website and announcing plans to launch a new
weekly version of the publication.

The glossy magazine, under new ownership since last autumn,
bid farewell to its daily paper-and-ink audience in a front-page
inset headlined: “VARIETY ANKLES DAILY PUB HUBBUB,” using the
Variety-coined verb it typically uses to report departures of
studio executives.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, its former leader Cardinal Roger Mahony and an ex-priest have agreed to pay a total of nearly $10 million to settle four child sex abuse cases brought against them, lawyers for the victims said on Tuesday.

Mahony, who retired in 2011 as head of the largest U.S. archdiocese and is now in Rome taking part in choosing a new pope, was accused of helping a confessed pedophile priest evade law enforcement by sending him out of state to a Church-run treatment center, then placing the priest back in the Los Angeles ministry.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, its former leader Cardinal Roger Mahony and an ex-priest have agreed to pay a total of nearly $10 million to settle four child sex abuse cases brought against them, lawyers for the victims said on Tuesday.

Mahony, who retired in 2011 as head of the largest U.S. archdiocese and is now in Rome taking part in choosing a new pope, was accused of helping a confessed pedophile priest evade law enforcement by sending him out of state to a church-run treatment center, then placing the priest back in the Los Angeles ministry.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A magnitude 4.7 earthquake struck deep beneath a mountain range in Southern California on Monday, jangling the nerves of tennis stars competing in the nearby desert town of Indian Wells and rattling urban areas as far away as Los Angeles, but no damage or injuries were reported.

Automated sensors initially reported the quake as a flurry of three tremors in rapid succession at magnitudes of 5.1 or higher, but seismic strength was quickly downgraded to between 4.6 and 4.7 before scientists determined that only a single quake of that size had actually occurred.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – An earthquake of modest intensity, measured at a 4.7 magnitude, struck deep beneath a mountain range in the Southern California desert on Monday, rattling populated areas as far away as San Diego and Los Angeles, but no damage or injuries were reported.

Automated sensors initially reported the quake as a flurry of three tremors occurring in rapid succession at magnitudes of 5.1 or higher, but the seismic strength was quickly downgraded to between 4.6 and 4.7 before scientists determined that only a single quake of that size had actually struck.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Two longtime fixtures of Los Angeles politics, City Councilman Eric Garcetti and Controller Wendy Greuel, ventured into a head-to-head race for mayor on Wednesday after decisively forging past six other candidates in a non-partisan primary election.

Garcetti emerged as the top vote-getter, with nearly 33 percent of Tuesday’s tally, followed by Greuel, a onetime colleague of his on the City Council with 29 percent, as the two Democrats advanced to a runoff general election set for May 21.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Great white sharks off the coast of California gained new protection on Friday as regulations took effect designating them candidates for listing under the state’s Endangered Species Act.

The world’s largest predatory fish, whose fossil record by some estimates dates back some 16 million years, has been off-limits to commercial and sport fishing under California law since 1994.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Great white sharks off the coast of California gained protection on Friday as regulations took effect designating them candidates for future listing under the state’s Endangered Species Act.

The world’s largest predatory fish has been off-limits to commercial and sport fishing under California law since 1994. But great whites, particularly as juveniles, are still caught as unintentional “bycatch” in gill-net fishing for halibut, swordfish and white sea bass off California and Mexico’s Baja Peninsula.

LOS ANGELES, March 1 (Reuters) – Actress Bonnie Franklin,
best known as a single working mother in the hit CBS comedy “One
Day at a Time” in an era when U.S. television was redefining
families in pop culture, died on Friday at age 69.

She died at her Los Angeles home of complications from
pancreatic cancer, surrounded by relatives and friends,
according to a statement issued by the CBS network on behalf of
her family.