With lawn chairs and bottles of water, cousins Philip Colette, 19, and Winston Shields, 18, sat in the Westfield Topanga Mall parking garage on June 28 with a calm anticipation. In preparation for the release of the Apple iPhone the following day, the boys had arrived at 5:45 p.

With college costs on the rise and new questionable practices in the student loan industry recently revealed, the United States Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee passed the Higher Education Access Act of 2007 and the Higher Education Amendments of 2007 on June 20.

With the rolling Santa Monica Mountains on one side and the spectacular Los Angeles skyline on the other, the Fran and Ray Stark sculpture collection has at last found its home among the gardens and terraces of the J. Paul Getty Museum. Donated by the legendary late film producer, Ray Stark, and his wife Fran, the collection of 28 modern and contemporary sculptures is now permanently on display throughout the campus of the Getty Center.

Los Angeles County made a $2 million contribution for the Performing Arts Center to be built on campus. The project is estimated to have a total cost of $100 million, more than $70 million of which has already been raised through a combination of public and private funds.

A month before she turned 21, my mother was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. She had visited the gynecologist at 17, complaining of horrible cramps and painful menstrual periods. However, the doctor had simply told her that it was nothing – that it was just the way she was.

With the immigration debate at the forefront of the nation’s mind, Cornerstone Theater Company’s latest play, “Los Illegals,” written by Michael John Garces, could not have had better timing. Surrounding the lives of a group of Hispanic immigrants as they struggle to find work and make better lives for themselves in the United States, the play makes a concerted effort to advocate on the behalf of the immigrants nationwide.

Variety can often be the spice of life. Everyone enjoys a little salt and a little sugar, a little comfort, a little excitement. British singer Carina Round delivers enough variety to send the average listener running in the opposite direction. With her latest album, “Slow Motion Addict,” Round skips from one musical style to another, resulting in a combination of songs sounding like Kelly Clarkson meets Regina Spektor meet Alanis Morissette.

By mid-December 2006, the upcoming year was looking up for the hotel workers in the Los Angeles International Airport area. On Nov. 27, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa signed the Century Corridor living-wage ordinance into law, mandating that the hotels located near the airport provide their employees with a living wage of $9.

Pahrump, Nev. just passed a law that every other city in the United States should hastily adopt. The new legislation has made it illegal to fly any foreign flag without flying a U.S. flag right next to it. This really is a brilliant idea. For the American flag, physical representation of the land of the free and the home of the brave, is undoubtedly extremely superior to every other country on the globe.