Little voices sing big

Three years ago, the little choir at Dorsey High School had nine barely trained members who were shunned by the more popular students.

Today, the choir has 33 vibrant voices, many coming from poor neighborhoods and broken homes. Most of the students still don’t know how to read music.

But tonight they’ll sing their hearts out on the brightly lighted stage at New York’s famous Carnegie Hall.

“This is just like the top of the mountain, I tell you,” says the choir’s musical director, who raised $30,000 for the choir’s trip, the first airplane ride for many. Page B1

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CIA firing for classified leaks

The Central Intelligence Agency reveals it has fired a senior agency officer for leaking classified information to news organizations.

The information dealt with the agency’s formerly secret network of prison facilities for high-ranking suspected terrorists. The firing is the latest in a series of high-profile crackdowns in Washington on spy agency and Bush administration officials accused of unauthorized leaks.

The agency would not reveal the employee’s name, but a spokesman noted, “That is a violation of the secrecy agreement that everyone signs as a condition of employment with the CIA.” Page A1

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Scientists recover ancient ice

Japanese researchers unveil an ice sample drilled from nearly 2 miles beneath the Antarctic continent.

The cylindrical ice samples, taken over two years of drilling from various depths, are believed to be about a million years old, the oldest ever retrieved. Scientists hope that they contain tiny pockets of air that can help reveal clues to ancient climate changes, as well as help with predictions about future changes. Page A22

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Governor seeks federal disaster aid

Schwarzenegger spent 15 minutes in an armored limousine with President Bush to make a pitch for a federal disaster declaration over California’s aging levee system before a disaster.

Officials nixed that request, saying it was “legally inappropriate.” But they did promise to speed environmental permits and possibly share the expensive costs of fixing the levees, which the governor has focused on this year.

The chief executives’ meeting came in San Jose at the start of Bush’s four-day state visit, which will include the Napa Valley, West Sacramento and Rancho Mirage. Page B1

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New lives from money sent home

She might have spent her life peddling used clothes in Kenya, in an arranged marriage or possibly with a chronic, life-shortening disease.

Instead, Susan Wauna got a college degree, a hotel management job and a life full of her own choices.

All thanks to the money sent back to Kenya by her older sister, a nanny in Italy. These are but two of the millions of lives around the world touched by the billions of dollars in overseas earnings sent home, the new foreign aid. Last in a four-part series. Page A1

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Some careful editing

Chinese President Hu Jintao tells a Connecticut audience that his country’s rapid economic growth should be no threat to the U. S. and that he sees both countries sharing strategic interests and a future partnership. The Yale speech was broadcast back to China, except for the part about gradually opening China’s political system. Page A16

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CALENDAR

A virgin queen, yet again

After Sarah Bernhardt, Cate Blanchett and untold other actresses, it’s Helen Mirren’s turn to channel the multifaceted Queen Elizabeth I, in a finely acted but tedious HBO miniseries that begins tonight. Page E1

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All she wrote?

Hollywood super-producer Brian Grazer has filed for legal separation from his writer-wife Gigi after a union of eight years. Does separation inevitably mean the marriage is toast? A Brian associate says no. Gigi’s pop says not necessarily. Brian says nothing. But, say, isn’t Gigi’s upcoming novel about a nasty divorce? Page E1

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Nobody was saved

Imagine an America in which Hollywood is “Holywood,” underwear ads feature the Ten Commandments and televangelists control the president. Now imagine, as humorist Tony Hendra does in a new novel, that Jesus returns as a blue-collar Latino. In morphing from spoofy to earnest, alas, the book falls from grace. Page E13

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A-minors

Upground, a brash band out of East L.A., rocked the Temple Bar in Santa Monica with its exuberance, eclecticism and finesse. But some of its members had to high-tail it out of the drinking establishment immediately after performing, because they were underage. One had final exams at Garfield High the next day. Page E9

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BUSINESS

Not exactly a win

Time was when Ford Motor Co. and General Motors competed to see who could sell the most cars and trucks. These days their competition is measured mostly in money lost, and by that calculus, Ford’s beating the pants off its Detroit rival.

Its first-quarter loss of $1.2 billion -- that’s $14.4 million a day -- was four times GM’s. Ford says its bad numbers are traceable to a hefty $2.5-billion charge for a massive restructuring plan that eventually will see the closing of 14 plants in North America and the loss of 34,000 jobs. Without that charge, the company would have posted a profit of $454 million. Page C1

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People power

Comfortably in advance of the air-conditioning season, Southern California Edison opened its new 1,000 megawatt Mountainview power plant in Redlands. The first major such SCE facility in the L.A. area in 30 years, it is environmentally kind and has the advantage of being located in the Inland Empire, the state’s fastest-growing area. The plant will serve about 685,000 homes. Page C1

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TIM RUTTEN: ‘A number of prominent commentators called for jailing three of the (Pulitzer) prize winners.... [These demands] didn’t come from people normally dismissed as part of the lacy fringes of the lunatic extreme, but from analysts.’ Regarding Media, Calendar, E1.

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COMING SUNDAY

The hidden fees

in our 401(k)s

As many employers scrap traditional pensions and doubts grow about the future of Social Security, Americans’ hopes for a secure retirement depend more than ever on their 401(k)s. Yet obscure fees and deductions are quietly eroding the value of these nest eggs. “Retirement At Risk,” a three-part series, begins in Sunday’s Los Angeles Times. On the Web: latimes.com/retire

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SPORTS

Already a champ

When Elton Brand leads the ascendant Clippers into the playoffs tonight, the people of Peekskill, N.Y., will be following events closely. Brand, 6 foot 8 and 265 pounds of affability and politeness, is the most popular man in the economically depressed town an hour north of Manhattan. Raised by a discipline-minded single mother in a housing project, he brought the town respect in the form of two state high school championships and, with his NBA millions, a learning center for underprivileged kids. Page D1

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ON LATIMES.COM

Dusting off the Enterprise

Star Trek scuttlebutt: A new “Star Trek” movie has been announced with “Lost” creator J.J. Abrams at the helm. Read how the Trekkie community is responding -- and it’s not all dancing in the street -- in a special Web Buzztracker.

latimes.com/entertainment

Foreign aid forum: With the final installment in our remittance series, view our narrated slide gallery of the people we’ve visited and share your views at our readers’ forum.

latimes.com/remit