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L.A. Marathon 2014: Live race updates

By Gary Klein — Sun, 9 Mar 2014 07:13:00 PDT

A field of 10 elite women have begun the 29th annual Asics L.A. Marathon with temperatures in the 50s.

'Reconciliation' takes hold in embattled Syria town

By Patrick J. McDonnell — Sun, 9 Mar 2014 07:00:00 PDT

Syrian rebels in battle-scarred Tal Khalakh have turned in their arms and signed loyalty pledges to the government. Similar truces, though tenuous, are spreading in some areas.

TAL KHALAKH, Syria — For more than a year, Ghassan Eid didn't speak to his son, Khaled, who abandoned his job as a policeman and joined the armed rebels.

Preview: Lakers vs. Thunder

By Eric Pincus — Sun, 9 Mar 2014 06:00:00 PDT

The Oklahoma City Thunder (46-16) have not played their best basketball of late, still adjusting to the return of point guard Russell Westbrook from a knee injury.

Dodgers reliever Paco Rodriguez looks for happier ending this season

By Kevin Baxter — Sun, 9 Mar 2014 06:00:00 PDT

Left-hander Paco Rodriguez had five great months in 2013, but it all fell apart in September. This year he wants to finish strong, but first he has to make the team.

PHOENIX — For a relief pitcher it's not how you start but how you finish that counts.

Cultural production of ignorance provides rich field for study

Michael Hiltzik — Sun, 9 Mar 2014 05:00:00 PDT

Robert Proctor is one of the world's leading experts in agnotology, a neologism signifying the study of the cultural production of ignorance.

Robert Proctor doesn't think ignorance is bliss. He thinks that what you don't know can hurt you. And that there's more ignorance around than there used to be, and that its purveyors have gotten much better at filling our heads with nonsense.

Driver Jimmie Johnson looks for more success at Las Vegas racetrack

By Jim Peltz — Sun, 9 Mar 2014 05:00:00 PDT

He has four victories in NASCAR Spring Cup events at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and will start fifth in Sunday's Kobalt 400.

LAS VEGAS — "I love coming back here," Jimmie Johnson said of Las Vegas, but it's not to gamble or take in a show.

Managing construction projects is in Deryl McKissack's genes

By Ronald D. White — Sun, 9 Mar 2014 05:00:00 PDT

Deryl McKissack is part of the fifth generation of her family to be involved in design and construction. Her firm manages $15 billion in projects.

The gig: Deryl McKissack, 52, is president and chief executive of McKissack & McKissack, a construction management and design firm with offices in Los Angeles, Washington, Chicago and Baltimore. The firm manages about $15 billion in construction projects. It has 160 employees. "We're managing the construction process, providing inspections, overseeing schedules and budgets," McKissack said. "With program management, you are managing more than just one project. You are managing an entire capital program for a client."

Getting better financial data from homeowner association

By Donie Vanitzian — Sun, 9 Mar 2014 05:00:00 PDT

If homeowners are unable to determine their association's financial health from the reports provided, the board has failed to meet its legal obligation.

Question: Our board is very lax when it comes to financials. We don't get timely information, and the information we do get from management and our treasurer is so sparse that owners and the board alike don't have any idea where our association stands. Is there some kind of format that financial statements must follow?

Can landlord be liable for property manager's unlawful action?

By Anky van Deursen — Sun, 9 Mar 2014 05:00:00 PDT

A building's owners get a complaint saying their property manager sexually harassed a tenant. Are they liable?

Question: My wife and I purchased a 10-unit residential building as an investment. This is our first time owning a rental property, and we quickly realized it's a lot of work. We hired a property manager to deal with all of the details, and for a while everything seemed to be fine. Last week, however, we received a notification from the Department of Housing and Urban Development that one of our tenants had filed a complaint against us, claiming that our property manager had sexually harassed her. We know nothing about this — can we be liable for what the property manager did here? We hired him so that we wouldn't have these kinds of headaches!

Pasadena's mature tech scene aims to emerge from Silicon Beach shadow

By Andrea Chang — Sun, 9 Mar 2014 05:00:00 PDT

No longer content to let the Westside hog L.A.'s tech spotlight, Pasadena techies are uniting to market the city as a thriving technology hub — and, in turn, land investment dollars and credibility.

Ask anyone about L.A. tech these days and they'll almost certainly point to Santa Monica and Venice, where hundreds of start-ups have emerged in the last few years.