Jurors said overwhelming evidence against a 16-year-old girl charged with killing her mother and stepfather left them with little choice but to find her guilty Friday of first degree-murder.

Several members of the Compton jury said they were unconvinced by Cynthia Alvarez's testimony this week that she was helpless to stop her parents from being killed by her boyfriend.

The jurors, who declined to give their names, said notes that Alvarez wrote to her boyfriend while he was hiding inside her Compton home shortly before the October 2011 killings showed she played an active role in the crimes....

The union representing nearly 13,000 University of California patient-care workers announced plans Friday to strike later this month, but UC officials said they would seek a restraining order to prevent any such action.

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees3299 issued a 10-day notice to the UC Office of the President and set the strike date for May 21 and 22. The union represents respiratory therapists, licensed vocational nurses, pharmacy technicians and other workers at both the campuses and the medical centers.

Union officials said the university is putting...

With the Los Angeles mayoral runoff election now 11 days away, rivals Wendy Greuel and Eric Garcetti will face off in a live televised debate Friday night at 7.

The debate, to be broadcast on KABC-TV (Channel 7), comes a day after Cal State L.A. released a poll showing the candidates virtually tied among likely voters in the May 21 runoff, with Greuel at 46% and Garcetti at 45%.

With the campaign entering its final stretch this week, the candidates and their allies are running a series of hard-hitting TV ads that portend a confrontational debate between Greuel, the city controller, and Garcetti,...

After its two-year, $45-million makeover, Echo Park Lake will soon shed the green tarp-covered fence that lines its circumference, revealing to the public a similar-but-spruced-up version of the neighborhood’s landmark.

“Welcome to 29 acres of paradise,” L.A. City Engineer Gary Moore said at news conference Friday, where officials announced the lake would reopen June 15.

Before it was refilled and restocked with plants, the lake was completely drained and cleaned. During the clean up, Moore said, workers found two guns, one toilet, 20 Frisbees and a pay telephone. But, in a...

Although it's Mother's Day this weekend, some small recognition does need to go out to some fathers out there who go the extra mile, also — including wearing their daughter's child-sized backpack around town so she doesn't have to. Photographer Candice C. Montgomery caught this special moment between a man and his daughter on the Metro Red Line with her Canon 40D.

Each week, we're featuring photos of Southern California submitted by readers. Share your photos on our Flickr page or reader submission gallery. Follow us on Twitter or visit latimes.com/socalmoments for more on this photo...

Councilman Tom LaBonge says that like most Angelenos, he appreciates artistic murals. But in the appropriate place. And brightly-colored monster characters tattooed from Chris Brown's curb to the 2nd floor of his Hollywood Hills designer home isn't one of them.

The perpetually-embattled singer's art work garnered him a citation from the city of Los Angeles for alleged "unpermitted and excessive signage" on his home near the Cahuenga Pass. The fanged, cartoonish demons painted by the singer on his Jay Vanos-designed modernist home have cost Brown a fine of $376.32 to pay for the inspector sent...

While the man who was carjacked by Christopher Dorner is getting most of the attention in his bid for a piece of a $1-million reward, little attention has been paid to nine other parties who also unsuccessfully staked a claim to the cash.

If Richard Heltebrake -- who saw Dorner and called authorities while the wanted former police officer was exchanging gunfire -- can’t get a portion of the reward, what chance did they have?

Based on most of the claims, not any.

A dozen parties filed claims under the Los Angeles Police Department’s revised guidelinesseeking a portion of the money...

Los Angeles mayoral candidate Eric Garcetti said Friday that Wendy Greuel’s dwindling campaign treasury would only bolster his argument that her campaign is being sustained by the independent spending on her behalf.

With 11 days left before the May 21 runoff election, City Councilman Garcetti’s latest campaign finance report shows that he has 10 times as much cash-on-hand as his rival, who reported $275,000 in her bank account and debts of nearly $535,000.

“She’s now broke,” Garcetti said after appearing at a Mexican Mother’s Day event at San Antonio Winery...

Michael Jackson’s makeup artist testified Friday that although the singer once asked her if she had painkillers, she never broached the subject of his addiction with him.

Karen Faye said that during Jackson’s 2005 molestation trial in Santa Maria she would spend a lot of time with the performer, arriving at 3 a.m. to help him get ready, and felt it was not appropriate to confront him about his misuse of prescription drugs.  

“I was a place of safety for him, and peace,” Faye said. “And I didn’t want to bring up the allegations in my time with him. I wanted...