Free Republic

Full title: AT&T and DirecTV colluded in an illegal plot that kept Dodgers games off the air, DOJ lawsuit alleges AT&T and DirecTV acted as ringleaders in an illegal plot against the Dodgers Channel that kept Los Angeles sports fans from watching their favorite team on television, according to a major lawsuit filed Wednesday by the Justice Department. The anti-collusion suit alleges that DirecTV -- and its corporate parent, AT&T -- shared private negotiating information in 2014 with other TV providers, including Cox Communications and Charter Communications, in order to gain a collective advantage over Time Warner Cable, which was...

A stuntman who worked on the USA Network series “Shooter” sued series star Tom Sizemore and Paramount Pictures Corp. Friday, claiming he was struck and seriously injured by an SUV driven by the allegedly drunken actor last summer. Steve DeCastro and his wife, Carly DeCastro, are the plaintiffs in the Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit. They are seeking unspecified damages on allegations of negligence, unusual risk, battery, assault, intentional infliction of emotional distress and loss of consortium.

Ed Edelman, the longtime Los Angeles County supervisor whose crusading policymaking influenced many aspects of local life including child welfare, health services and environmental preservation, has died. He was 85. During his 20 years on the Board of Supervisors, Edelman championed efforts to improve the way county government treated its most vulnerable citizens while also fighting to protects parts of the Santa Monica Mountains from development.

Back in 1933, a 22-year-old Lucille Ball had just landed her first movie role in Roman Scandals and signed a contract with RKO. What's a soon-to-be movie star to do? Buy a house, of course. Which is why she snatched up this bungalow on the border of West Hollywood so she could be close to all the action.

... Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, will make a rally stop at the Anaheim Convention Center on Wednesday, according to his campaign website ... Sen. Bernie Sanders will be making a campaign stop in Irvine on Sunday and another Tuesday at the Anaheim Convention Center ... Hillary Clinton, the Democratic front-runner, also is expected to be in Orange County next week, according to a campaign email sent Saturday. No other event details were immediately available ...

SpaceX personnel will recover Dragon by ship and then haul the spacecraft to Long Beach for processing. Dragon is the only robotic cargo vessel currently flying that's capable of bringing material safely from the ISS down to the ground. The other freighters — Orbital ATK's Cygnus spacecraft, Russia's Progress vessel and Japan's H-II Transfer Vehicle — are all designed to burn up in Earth's atmosphere and therefore are packed with garbage, not cargo, when they depart the orbiting lab.

Laguna Beach's LSD culture in the 1960s, a cranky widower befriended by his chatty neighbors and a man who's dealing with the fallout from his reality show days are all stories that will be told at the Newport Beach Film Festival this year. At this, the 17th annual festival, there are more than 400 features, short films and documentaries from 50 different countries. It's a chance to see things that likely won't appear elsewhere, especially in the United States. The festival starts this Thursday and runs until the following Thursday. "The largest misconception about any film festival is that these...

REGIONAL BREAKDOWNS: SoCal is head over heels for Trump (Trump 49 percent; Cruz 34, Kasich 13) , Central Valley leans Trump (Trump 39, Cruz 26, Kasich 18), and Inland Empire for Cruz (Cruz, 43, Trump 30, Kasich, 9). Silicon Valley and the Bay Area? Kasich trounces Trump 43-36, with Cruz at 14.

Full title: 'Night Stalker' movie will premiere in Santa Ana, about 20 miles from the Mission Viejo site of his last crime A new film – “The Night Stalker,” starring Lou Diamond Phillips as Richard Ramirez – is set to premiere in Orange County in early June after producers decided the movie should be seen in an area that the serial killer terrorized in 1985. “We wanted to open in a place where he had an impact,” producer Matt Brady said. The film will be screened at The Frida Cinema, the art house theater in downtown Santa Ana, about 20...

Digital First Media will be the next owner of The Orange County Register and The Press-Enterprise, a bankruptcy judge ruled Monday. U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Mark Wallace approved a request from Freedom Communications to approve the newspaper company’s sale to Digital First Media, the second-highest bidder in last week’s newspaper auction, a deal worth around $52 million to creditors. None of the major players objected to the deal. Digital First Media, the nation’s second-largest newspaper company by circulation, won after the auction’s top bid by Chicago-based Tribune Publishing, owner of the Los Angeles Times, ran into antitrust problems. Digital First...

ORANGE – Jim Reeves grew up eating burgers at Watson’s. The 57-year-old, who says his family moved to Orange in 1893 “in a covered wagon ... before Watson’s opened,” says his parents also ate at Watson’s. So did his grandparents. Watson’s, which opened in 1899 as the drugstore in downtown Orange, is one of the county’s oldest businesses. It’s where Tom Hanks filmed part of “That Thing You Do!” It’s also where George W. Bush once stopped in for a malt. In Orange, Watson’s is an icon. Now, that icon and the town around it are about to change. A...

LOS ANGELES -- A trio of former first ladies, including Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton, and current first lady Michelle Obama will be among those attending Friday's funeral service for Nancy Reagan at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum... Former President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, are also expected to attend, along with former first lady Rosalynn Carter, according to officials at the Reagan Library. Former President Lyndon Johnson's daughters Luci and Lynda are expected to attend, along with Tricia Nixon Cox, a daughter of President Richard Nixon. The White House announced Monday that Michelle Obama will...

A 96-year-old Laguna Woods man has been charged with molesting two girls, ages 10 and 11, authorities said Monday. Kenneth Leroy Collins is scheduled to be arraigned on Friday on four felony counts of lewd or lascivious act with a minor under 14, according to court records.

Three people were stabbed, one with a flagpole, and 12 people were arrested during a brawl on Saturday morning between self-described Ku Klux Klan members and counter-protesters at an Anaheim park, police said. Initially arrested were five Klan members – four men and a woman – and seven counter-protesters – five men, a male juvenile and a woman. Seven people were booked in the Anaheim jail on assault or abuse charges. Police are seeking one additional suspect who can be seen in a video of the altercation punching a Klansman.

The 5 Freeway was expected to be closed until at least Saturday night, and possibly until Sunday, after a fiery chain-reaction crash triggered by suspected street racing left three people dead on the 5 Freeway in Commerce, authorities said. The fatal collision, involving up to eight vehicles, occurred shortly after midnight on the 5 east of Washington Boulevard and prompted the full closure of the heavily-traveled freeway, according to the California Highway Patrol's incident log. CHP Officer Doris Peniche told KTLA that witnesses saw two Dodge vehicles -- a Charger and a Challenger -- speeding in southbound lanes at approximately...

Three people were stabbed, including one who was critically wounded, and 13 were arrested when a Ku Klux Klan rally in Anaheim erupted in violence Saturday, police said.

"High pressure literally means there's more air in the atmosphere above you. And it pushes down on the air. And when it does that, it compresses it, and it literally heats up through compression," said Bill Patzert, climatologist for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Canada Flintridge. That mass of high pressure "needs to flatten out and go away" for storms to return to Southern California, said National Weather Service meteorologist Dave Bruno. But that doesn't mean hopes for an El Nino-style Southern California winter have been dashed. Experts say it might be simply too early for El Nino-influenced rains...

Full title: 'Oh my God, they let Hannibal Lecter out': Deputy D.A. says O.C. Sheriff was too lax with escaped inmate A deputy district attorney compared one of the men who escaped Friday from the Central Men's Jail to a movie villain and contended the Sheriff's Department was too lax in its handling of the suspect after it was warned about his violent past. "He's diabolical," said prosecutor Heather Brown, who is handling the 2012 case against Hossein Nayeri on charges of kidnapping and torture. "My first reaction was: Oh, my God, they let Hannibal Lecter out. He is sophisticated,...

At 5:45 Saturday evening, a full moon will rise over the Saddleback Mountains and shine down upon Orange County. As it does, will the moonbeams bring mayhem and madness with them? Maybe. But rest assured, the county's law enforcement officers will be more than ready to keep the peace. There has always been a perception among cops, firefighters and emergency room personnel that there's more (and often stranger) crime on the night of a full moon. "When something crazy or weird happens, I look up at the sky to see if the moon is full," says Newport Beach police Officer...

LOS ANGELES Another El Nino-fueled storm soaked Southern California on Wednesday and brought with it flooding, mudflows and even a small tornado that struck Orange County in the early afternoon. Pea-sized hail and 45-mph winds made their way south from San Luis Obispo, forcing the region to recognize that the season of storms has commenced. As much as 5 inches of rain was expected to drop across the Southland. Still, Wednesday's rain was fickle, with clouds parting at times to allow the sun to shine. A flash-flood warning was issued for the Ventura County coast around Solimar Beach, and landslides...