TUESDAY BRIEFING

All the presidents’ faces, for $1 apiece

Every U.S. president will get his face on a new series of $1 coins to be circulated beginning next year -- even those whose administrations were tarnished by scandal.

The U.S. Mint says it is introducing the series to encourage greater use of the $1 coin, which has been a tough sell in this country. The new coins will be similar in size and color to the Sacagawea “golden dollar” now in circulation but will feature a portrait of every president, beginning with George Washington and followed by a new image every three months. Page A10

*

Barbie and Bratz in a doll brawl

When kids get too old to fight over dolls, they let their lawyers handle it. Mattel is escalating a lawsuit over MGA Entertainment’s Bratz dolls, alleging that MGA stole its plans for the brassy little fashionistas.

The companies have lately been filing Bratz-related lawsuits about as often as Mattel’s Barbie switches outfits. This time, Mattel contends that MGA enticed Mattel employees to steal proprietary information. Page C1

*

Villaraigosa vetoes hazing settlement

L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa vetoes the City’s Council’s approval of a $2.7-million payment to a firefighter who says he was the victim of discrimination and harassment. The firefighter says he was harmed by racial hazing, but photographs have surfaced showing him taking part in crude firehouse pranks himself. Page B1

*

Kremlin critic in intensive care

A former KGB operative who says Russian security agents were involved in several killings is transferred to intensive care at a London hospital, where tests show poison in his system.

Alexander Litvinenko remains in serious condition, hospital officials say. He has publicly accused the Kremlin of involvement in the murder of a longtime critic of Russia’s war in Chechnya. Litvinenko also has said Russian agents may have been involved in bombings that Russia cited as justification for its military action in Chechnya.

A friend of Litvinenko says he thinks “someone very high up in the Moscow security services” ordered him killed. The Kremlin calls such talk “sheer nonsense,” and the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service issues a statement saying Soviet and Russian security agencies hadn’t conducted any assassinations since 1959. Page A5

*

Gunman shoots 5 at German school

An 18-year-old who left an online note saying “The only thing I learned intensively at school was that I’m a loser” returns to his junior high school in Germany and shoots four students and a janitor before killing himself.

Students and teachers at the school in the town of Emsdetten flee as gunshots echo through the corridors and smoke canisters explode. Police find the suspect dead next to a knife, pipe bombs and two rifles with sawed-off barrels. Page A5

*

Lopez Obrador swears he won

Losing presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, calling himself “the legitimate president” of Mexico, takes an “oath of office” at a ceremony attended by as many as 100,000 people.

Lopez Obrador, who contends he was cheated out of the presidency by the winning candidate, Felipe Calderon, also swore in a 12-member shadow cabinet. Calderon has no comment on the ceremony, but others call it a farce. One critic says Lopez Obrador “has become a parody of himself, a bad joke.” Page A4

*

A Bush insider talks about family

“The traditional path to making a name for yourself in our family is running for elective office, and I couldn’t do that because, for one thing, all the really good offices were taken,” says Dorothy Bush Koch, whose close relatives include two presidents and the governor of Florida.

Koch, known to her family as “Doro,” has written a book about her father, George H.W. Bush, which probably will serve as the official presidential memoir. Observers who like to read between the lines might see meaning in statements she made Sunday at a Miami book fair; she said twice that she admired her father for ending the Cold War “without a shot being fired.” Page A15

**

A reunion at last

Because of military deployments, Gardena’s Vasquez family hasn’t had a Thanksgiving together for 13 years. But Thursday, all of them will share a turkey dinner. Page A10

**

CALENDAR

A magical Hansel and Gretel

The big forest is populated by colorful, fantastical, bright-eyed creatures who add a mystical atmosphere to the new production of Engelbert Humperdinck’s “Hansel and Gretel,” now at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Reviewer Chris Pasles calls it handsome, ingenious and, above all, family-friendly. Page E3

*

New festival sparkles in Vienna

Vienna’s yearlong celebration of Mozart’s 250th birthday is slowly winding down. Mozart tourism, as a result, has peaked. But the New Crowned Hope Festival has recently opened with a wide variety of new works. Jessica Rivera, right, performs at the festival in the opera “A Flowering Tree.”

Vienna entrusted festival director Peter Sellars with a nearly $13-million budget to create the four-week event within the Mozart year. Included are a new opera by John Adams, new films from the Middle East, a new video work by Bill Viola, plus other art installations and several Kronos concerts. Page E1

*

A ‘Classic’ that comes to life

Television specials these days aren’t always special. The first hint that this new NBC Tony Bennett special --”Tony Bennett: An American Classic” -- really is special comes right away as the fabled singer, well, sings to an empty Los Angeles Theater.

With the second verse, out slides Barbra Streisand to join him. Reviewer Robert Lloyd praises the “unusual care and expense and an evident respect for its subject.” It is an efficient hour that “in broad strokes tells both the singer’s story and the story of his times, while keeping the focus on the man as musician, even when surrounded by celebrity guests and dancers.” Page E10

*

The film asks: Why do we learn?

When you think about it (which is what “The History Boys” wants us to do), formal education these days seems to have shifted from the mental exercise associated with the pursuit of knowledge into some kind of expensive personal credentialing.

The film is based on the hit play by Alan Bennett and stars the original National Theater cast. It’s set in a middle-class private boys’ school in Yorkshire, England, in the 1980s. It’s the old versus the new, romanticism versus pragmatism. But, reviewer Carina Chocano asks, is it a paean to the possibilities of education or a eulogy? Page E1

**

LATIMES.COM

This time, he’s the Inaugurator

As Sacramento prepares for Gov. Schwarzenegger’s second inauguration, Robert Salladay’s Political Muscle blog reports that, unlike the first time around, when the post-recall hangover cast the affair in somber tones, this gala won’t skimp on the pomp.

For big-money donors to the reelection campaign, that means big-ticket chances to schmooze in style. See an invitation to the events and find out what $50,000 can get you on inauguration day.

latimes.com/politicalmuscle

*

Lakers’ young guy looking good

Not surprisingly, the Lakers’ Andrew Bynum was a major topic of conversation after his 12-point, 13-rebound, four-block performance Sunday night against the Bulls.

Listen to audio clips as Lakers bloggers Andrew and Brian Kamenetzky discuss the 19-year-old center with Coach Phil Jackson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bynum’s personal Obi-Wan Kenobi. (He’s too tall to be a Yoda.) Hear from Bynum himself, too, and share your thoughts on how the Lakers are doing.

latimes.com/lakersblog

**

SPORTS

The kick returner who returned

In last season’s Notre Dame-USC football game, kick returner Desmond Reed lined up for a kickoff. The ball sailed toward him. He dropped back, planted his right foot and crumpled to the ground, his knee blown out, his athletic career threatened.

USC planned for a season without Reed.

But he worked at his rehab with a determination steeled by a grandmother and an aunt who shepherded him through a troubled childhood. Come Saturday’s USC-Notre Dame game, Reed will be out there again, ready to return kicks. Page D1

*

A new tone to Clippers-Lakers

All right, it’s still not a rivalry of epic proportions. But the Lakers-Clippers competition will be renewed tonight at Staples Center, where the Lakers will be the home team.

The Lakers lead 126-43 in their all-time competition. But the two teams split their series 2-2 the last two years, the Clippers did better in the playoffs, and the Clippers have a new attitude about their more-celebrated hallway rivals.

“We go into these games expecting to win,” says Clippers forward Elton Brand. That’s a change. Page D1

*

Dodgers seem to agree with Pierre

Baseball’s free-agent market is almost devoid of legitimate power hitters.

But the Dodgers are moving quickly to get some speed. They’ve come to terms, in principle, with the fleet center fielder Juan Pierre.

It’s a five-year deal, according to sources, worth around $44 million.

A leadoff hitter through most of his career, the 29-year-old Pierre is durable, having played in 162 games in each of the last four years. He has also proved hard to strike out. Page D1

**

BUSINESS

Imagine them all on the 710 at once

It’s a new record for any United States port.

More than 800,000 cargo containers of shoes and socks and dolls and doodads moved through the Port of Los Angeles last month. End to end, that’s a cargo conga line of 3,030 miles.

It’s a sign of resurgent operations under new port management. What a change from last year’s sluggish growth, when many wondered whether Long Beach would become the No. 1 container port.

Through October, L.A.’s cargo container flow is up 13% over the same period last year. Long Beach is up 9%, and Oakland is up 7%. Other ports show just modest growth. Page C1

*

State’s housing holding steady

The nation’s housing slump spread its financial tentacles a bit farther in the third quarter, infecting places like Phoenix and Florida’s eastern coast.

But new data from the National Assn. of Realtors show that a majority of California’s real estate markets, though growing at a much slower pace than before, are still recording year-over-year growth.

This includes the Los Angeles real estate market, the Inland Empire and the San Francisco Bay Area.

The reasons include a healthy economy, with jobs continuing to grow, and a smaller supply of new or under-construction homes. Page C1