L.A.'s revamped teacher evaluation system getting mixed grades

Third-grade teacher Kelly Vallianos wanted to find an engaging way for her students to learn about measuring perimeters. One...

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A Google-a-Day Puzzle for Nov. 25

Our good friends at Google run a daily puzzle challenge and asked us to help get them out to the geeky masses. Each day’s puzzle will task your googling skills a little more, leading you to Google mastery. Each morning at 12:01 a.m. Eastern time you’ll see a new puzzle posted here.SPOILER WARNING:We leave the comments on so people can work together to find the answer....

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Review: “Liz & Dick” Is Bad, But You Knew That

NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) – Lifetime’s “Liz & Dick” is very bad, just as you knew it would be.Let’s not pretend it ever had a shot at being decent. The decision to cast Lindsay Lohan as Oscar-winning screen legend Elizabeth Taylor told us right up front that the filmmakers were more interested in trashy publicity than quality. She isn’t good, but no one could be good with this dialogue.On an online...

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Lobbying, a Windfall and a Leader’s Family

Gilles Sabrie for The New York TimesPing An, one of China’s largest financial services companies, is building a 115-story office tower in Shenzhen. The company is a $50 billion powerhouse now worth more than A.I.G., MetLife or Prudential. SHENZHEN, China — The head of a financially troubled insurer was pushing Chinese officials to relax rules that required breaking up the company in the aftermath...

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Dave Roberts brings diversity to the San Diego County supervisors

DEL MAR — In January, when he joins the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, Dave Roberts will be the only Democrat among...

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A Google-a-Day Puzzle for Nov. 24

Our good friends at Google run a daily puzzle challenge and asked us to help get them out to the geeky masses. Each day’s puzzle will task your googling skills a little more, leading you to Google mastery. Each morning at 12:01 a.m. Eastern time you’ll see a new puzzle posted here.SPOILER WARNING:We leave the comments on so people can work together to find the answer....

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One Direction makes Billboard history, holds off Aguilera, Del Rey

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – British boyband One Direction made Billboard chart history on Wednesday after storming to the top of the 200 album chart with their second album “Take Me Home,” holding off competition from Christina Aguilera, Soundgarden and Lana Del Rey.“Take Me Home” notched the third-biggest opening week sales of the year with 540,000 units sold according to figures from Nielsen SoundScan,...

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Scientists See Advances in Deep Learning, a Part of Artificial Intelligence

Hao Zhang/The New York TimesA voice recognition program translated a speech given by Richard F. Rashid, Microsoft’s top scientist, into Mandarin Chinese. Using an artificial intelligence technique inspired by theories about how the brain recognizes patterns, technology companies are reporting startling gains in fields as diverse as computer vision, speech recognition and the identification of promising...

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New Zealand Wants a Hollywood Put on Its Map

WELLINGTON, New Zealand — Standing by his desk in New Zealand’s distinctive round Parliament building, known locally as the Beehive, Prime Minister John Key proudly brandished an ornately engraved sword. It was used, he said, by Frodo Baggins, the protagonist of the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, and in the films it possesses magical powers that cause it to glow blue in the presence of goblins. ...

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Middle East shifts may weaken Iran's influence with Palestinians

CAIRO — Iran for years has supplied Hamas with weapons as part of its own struggle against Israel, but the conflict in the Gaza...

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A Google-a-Day Puzzle for Nov. 23

Our good friends at Google run a daily puzzle challenge and asked us to help get them out to the geeky masses. Each day’s puzzle will task your googling skills a little more, leading you to Google mastery. Each morning at 12:01 a.m. Eastern time you’ll see a new puzzle posted here.SPOILER WARNING:We leave the comments on so people can work together to find the answer....

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Ex-’Price is Right’ model gets $8.5M in damages

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The producers of “The Price is Right” owe a former model on the show more than $ 7.7 million in punitive damages for discriminating against her after a pregnancy, a jury determined Wednesday.The judgment came one day after the panel determined the game show’s producers discriminated against Brandi Cochran. They awarded her nearly $...

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Inquiry Sought in Death in Ireland After Abortion Was Denied

DUBLIN — India’s ambassador here has agreed to ask Prime Minister Enda Kenny of Ireland for an independent inquiry into the death of an Indian-born woman last month after doctors refused to perform an abortion when she was having a miscarriage, the lawyer representing the woman’s husband said Thursday. The lawyer, Gerard O’Donnell, also said crucial information was missing from the files...

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News Analysis: Case Casts a Shadow on a Hedge Fund Mogul

In 2010, the billionaire hedge fund manager Steven A. Cohen gave a rare interview to Vanity Fair. He said that he wanted to combat persistent rumors that his firm, SAC Capital Advisors, routinely violated securities laws by trading on confidential information.“In some respects I feel like Don Quixote fighting windmills,” Mr. Cohen said at the time. “There’s a perception, and I’m trying to fight that...

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Growing up with grandma

NEW YORK — Each day at 5 a.m., Denise Peace rises and begins the task of waking and feeding five grandchildren, ages 2 to 17,...

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A Google-a-Day Puzzle for Nov. 22

Our good friends at Google run a daily puzzle challenge and asked us to help get them out to the geeky masses. Each day’s puzzle will task your googling skills a little more, leading you to Google mastery. Each morning at 12:01 a.m. Eastern time you’ll see a new puzzle posted here.SPOILER WARNING:We leave the comments on so people can work together to find the answer....

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Chevy Chase Exiting “Community”

NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) – Chevy Chase is leaving “Community” after a rocky run on the NBC series.The actor is leaving by mutual agreement with the show’s producers, a person close to the show told TheWrap. He will appear in most of the 13 episodes of the show’s upcoming fourth season, but not the final one or two episodes. Chase...

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National Briefing | West: California: Toll Rises From Poisonous Mushroom Soup

A third person has died from eating soup made from poisonous mushrooms at a senior care center, authorities said Wednesday. The person’s name was not released. Three other people were sickened at the Gold Age Villa in Loomis. The caretaker who prepared the soup, who was among those sickened, apparently picked them from the backyard of the six-bed facility and did not know they were poisonous. ...

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Tech Start-Ups Find a Home on the Prairie

DES MOINES — As Ben Milne sought money for the mobile-payment company he began developing here three years ago, investors responded with rejections by the dozens. Eventually, he coaxed $1 million from a pair of local investors. His app, Dwolla, has since attracted more than 100,000 users, and now moves $30 million to $50 million in transactions a month. So when he decided to seek a...

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LAFD looks at ways to speed up emergency response times

Los Angeles Fire Department officials, facing criticism over slow response times to 911 calls, are considering two new strategies...

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A Google-a-Day Puzzle for Nov. 21

Our good friends at Google run a daily puzzle challenge and asked us to help get them out to the geeky masses. Each day’s puzzle will task your googling skills a little more, leading you to Google mastery. Each morning at 12:01 a.m. Eastern time you’ll see a new puzzle posted here.SPOILER WARNING:We leave the comments on so people can work together to find the answer....

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“Hitchcock” trains lens on the love story of Alfred and Alma

NEW YORK (Reuters) – She won Oscar gold for her uncanny performance as Britain’s Queen Elizabeth, but Helen Mirren‘s latest portrayal finds her as the power behind the throne — or, more precisely, the director’s chair.In “Hitchcock,” Mirren stars opposite Anthony Hopkins as legendary director Alfred Hitchcock’s devoted wife Alma Reville, and early buzz...

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