Cookbooks and wine guides for holiday gift-giving

Whether the cook on your holiday gift list is interested in reading about family and food in Soviet Russia or the preparation of classic French dishes such as jambon au foin ("ham in hay"), baking pies or making authentic pasta carbonara, this fall has been an excellent season for food and wine books.

Los Angeles cooks and authors are heavily represented: Valerie Gordon's "Sweet: Inspired Ingredients, Unforgettable Desserts," Kevin West's "Saving the Season: A Cook's Guide to Home Canning, Pickling, and Preserving," the long-awaited "The A.O.C. Cookbook" by Suzanne Goin and Caroline Styne, and "Bountiful: Recipes Inspired by Our Garden" by Todd Porter and Diane Cu.

Here are highlights of the cookbook season.

"The World Atlas of Wine, Seventh Edition" by Hugh Johnson and Jancis Robinson (Mitchell Beazley, $55)

British wine writer Hugh Johnson's "The World Atlas of Wine" has long been every wine lover's bible. Johnson is an erudite and engaging writer, pouring decades of wine knowledge into succinct paragraphs that place each country and region in context. And the brilliantly detailed maps have been essential to understanding why certain vineyards and appellations produce the wines that they do. For the last few editions Johnson has been joined by another stellar wine writer, Jancis Robinson. The two have just signed off on the seventh edition of "The World Atlas of Wine." It's also available in an e-book format for the iPad. Of course, the world of wine today is very different from when the book was first published in 1971. There are now about 215 maps, including those for coastal Croatia, Swartland in South Africa, northern Virginia — and Ningxia in China. (SIV)

"The New California Wine: A Guide to the Producers and Wines Behind a Revolution in Taste" by Jon Bonné (10-Speed Press, $35)

Jon Bonné's new book is a wonderful, engaging read with a cast of characters who think outside the box, care about sustainability and have a strong curiosity and work ethic. This is a new generation of California winemakers who aren't hedge fund directors or dot-com entrepreneurs. If they want to buy a piece of land to plant a vineyard, it takes years to save up. Some are children of winemakers, others grew up in wine country and always wanted to do something with wine and still others are hard-core dreamers with an itch to make wine. Their wines can be classic or wildly experimental, definitely hands-on and most often made in small quantities. They tend to be lower in alcohol, more subtle in style than the wines that have garnered top scores in recent years. More important, they tend to be food-friendly too. (SIV)

"Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking: A Memoir of Food and Longing" by Anya von Bremzen (Random House, $26)

Hunger, to paraphrase the old line, makes the best sauce. Judging from Anya von Bremzen's splendid new "Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking," it also makes for a pretty good memoir. The essence of "Mastering" — named after Julia Child's first book with what seems a very Soviet-style mix of cynicism and irony — is Von Bremzen's personal history of growing up in the Soviet Union. While most food memoirs are recollections of meals past, "Mastering" is more about meals missed — in both senses of the phrase. There are constant shortages and hunger. But there is also the intensity of unexpected, almost miraculous feasts that the well-fed may never experience (even if in retrospect they don't measure up as such). (RP)

"Daniel: My French Cuisine" by Daniel Boulud, Sylvie Bigar, Thomas Schauer and Bill Buford (Grand Central Life and Style, $60)

Is there anyone who has done more for French cooking in the United States than Daniel Boulud? If you have any doubts, you need only pick up his new cookbook, "Daniel: My French Cuisine." This is one seriously gorgeous book, and it has the air about it of a magnum opus. While previously he has mostly aimed at home cooks, "Daniel" is a full-fledged chef book, a kind of document of where his cooking stands at this stylistically advanced stage of his career. In addition to the main body of the book, there is also a fascinating series of essays by New Yorker writer Bill Buford ("Heat") detailing the making of several classic French dishes, and almost as if Boulud couldn't publish a cookbook without including at least something you could make at home, there's a short section of the sorts of dishes he says he cooks for friends on Sundays. (RP)

"Manresa: An Edible Reflection" by David Kinch and Christine Muhlke (10-Speed Press, $50)

David Kinch's cooking at Manresa restaurant in Los Gatos looks like it comes from another world, yet it is definitively Californian, rooted in nature, whether it's the soil of Love Apple Farm or the Pacific Ocean. Leafing through the pages of his new cookbook, that becomes utterly clear. Eric Wolfinger's photos of Kinch's plates, utterly abstract yet perfect, alternate with his equally gorgeous shots of land and sea (the cover is the exterior of an abalone shell shot so close it looks like Japanese raku pottery). It's some trick, plating food so that it looks absolutely perfect but almost accidental, but it's one Kinch has mastered. It's the artifice of cooking carried to an extreme that the hand of the cook almost disappears. Call it exquisitely natural. (RP)

"Sauces & Shapes: Pasta the Italian Way" by Oretta Zanini De Vita and Maureen B. Fant (W.W. Norton, $35)

Why in the world would we need another pasta cookbook? Surely everything that possibly could be said has been covered to death by now. Well, pick up "Sauces and Shapes" and find out just how wrong you are. It's the companion piece to 2009's "Encyclopedia of Pasta" by the same authors. One of the most delightfully nerdy books around, "Encyclopedia" was more than 350 pages of everything you could possibly want to know about pasta history, geography, literature and, yes, cooking — without a single recipe. This new book fills that gap, thoroughly, admirably and entertainingly. (RP)

"In the Charcuterie: The Fatted Calf's Guide to Making Sausage, Salumi, Pates, Roasts, Confits, and Other Meaty Goods" by Taylor Boetticher and Toponia Miller (10-Speed Press, $40)

One of the best-known of the new charcutiers is the Bay Area's Fatted Calf, so it's probably only reasonable that when founders Taylor Boetticher and Toponia Miller wrote a cookbook that they should call it "In the Charcuterie," despite the fact that that title sells the book short. "In the Charcuterie" is much more than a guide to hams and salumi. In reality, it's nothing less than a thorough overview of our growing infatuation with good meat. There are guides to choosing cuts, to parsing the differences among the heritage breeds and to DIY butchery large and small. And, of course, there's lots of good information on how to cook meat. But where the book really shines — and at least partially justifies the title — are on the kinds of quick-cooked charcuterie items that are easily approachable by any reasonably ambitious home cook: pâtés, terrines, confits and meat pickles. (RP)

"One Good Dish: The Pleasures of a Simple Meal" by David Tanis (Artisan, $25.95)

Amid this season's flurry of massive cookbooks from important chefs comes this modest entry from a former Chez Panisse chef. What he means by one good dish is "tasty, simple and real," i.e., something a home cook could make without devoting the entire weekend to one recipe. Browsing through sections named "Eating With a Spoon (Pleasure in a Bowl)," "A Dab of This and That (Superior Homemade Condiments)" and "Strike While the Iron Is Hot (Scorched, Seared, and Griddled)," I kept slipping torn pieces of paper next to recipes I want to try. At the end of an hour, my book was bristling with strips of paper. (SIV)

"Bountiful: Recipes Inspired by Our Garden" by Todd Porter and Diane Cu (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, $35)

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Jonathan Gold | L.A. restaurant review: Colonia Taco Lounge is a new jewel in the crown

Are we living in the golden age of the California taco? We may be — or at least it can seem as if we are when your tummy's full late on a Saturday night. Nobody finds it odd that Roy Choi, the local chef with the most international attention on him at the moment, became famous making Korean short rib tacos on a truck, nor that Walter Manzke, one of the half-dozen chefs in town capable of running a high-end French kitchen, opened the taquería Petty Cash. Wes Avila, who has cooked with Alain Ducasse, prepares diver scallops and Cook Pigs Ranch pork at his Guerrilla Tacos with the same care he took with those exalted ingredients at Le Comptoir.

You can find tacos here from almost every region of Mexico, from Baja sting ray tacos to Zacatecas goat tacos; from Sinaloan marlin tacos to Yucatecan tacos made with pit-roasted pork. You can find tacos made from every conceivable part of the pig. You can find the crisply fried shrimp tacos at the Mariscos Jalisco truck in Boyle Heights, which to a lot of people I know is enough. If you spend a half hour on the road either east or south of downtown Los Angeles, you are nearly guaranteed to discover a kind of taco whose existence you had never even contemplated. Did you know that Toluca-style lamb barbacoa tacos vary in small but important ways from Guerrero-style lamb barbacoa tacos? Neither did I, until just last week.

This brings us in a roundabout way to the Colonia Taco Lounge, the newest and possibly most consequential restaurant from Ricardo Diaz, in the southwest corner of La Puente, an area not previously noted for its fine cuisine.

You may remember Diaz from Cooks Tortas in Monterey Park, which was dedicated to whimsically constructed Mexican sandwiches, or from Dorado's, his ceviche bar up the street. He was one of the people behind Guisados, which introduced the Eastside to a kind of stew-based taco popular in Mexico City; he is set to open the crunchy-taco house Duro in Silver Lake, and he continues to serve the region's best guacamole, aguachile and fried huauzontle at his Bizarra Capital in Uptown Whittier. Diaz comes from the clan that has run the El 7 Mares seafood chain for a generation. He was raised in the Mexican family-restaurant tradition.

So it may come as a surprise that, unlike his other restaurants, Colonia is basically a bar — a family-friendly bar perhaps, with plenty of kids crowded in on Sunday mornings when the soccer games are on the corner TVs, but a bar nonetheless, windowless, fragrant and gloomy even at noon. A bartender slings all sorts of tequila and mescal, as well as the inevitable craft beers and cocktails like the cucumber/vodka Pepino Vaso, which you may or may not prefer to the Streetcart Named Margarita. I tend to prefer the micheladas: iced beer zapped with chile, seasonings and lime. One version is made with puréed green chiles and Sour Apple Saison ale from Epic Brewing Co. in Utah, and you can nurse a tart, massive Applechelada through at least a half-dozen tacos.

When you walk into Colonia, after your eyes adjust to the dimness, you wander over toward the far corner of the bare dining room, where the day's list of tacos and cocktails is scrawled on a series of chalkboards on the wall. You will attempt to parse the difference between the tacos caseros, in which the fillings are prepared to order, and the tacos guisados, involving stews that have been simmering all afternoon. You will notice the fair selection of vegetarian tacos, including one with cheese and butter-soft chayote squash as well as the deep-fried doradito tacos stuffed with gooey mashed potatoes. (They probably won't make the seared queso fresco "campion" taco for you without the bacon bits — it's one of those "substitutions politely declined" places — but you could always ask.)

You will try to figure out the surf 'n' turf plate, which includes one taco with horchata-battered shrimp and another taco made with smoked beef. The "nachostada," a fried tortilla heaped with melted cheese, tomato salsa and spicy chorizo, is an invention that would be formidable enough to make the reputation of any food truck in town.

And then you order at the counter, settle into a booth and watch in amazement as taco after taco appears on your table, served one at a time: tacos of braised lamb barbacoa; of pork belly stewed with jalapeño oil; of soft, stewed pork skin, chicharrones with avocado and a spoonful of beans; or with carnitas cooked down to a luscious softness with pumpkin. If you are lucky, you may be able to experience the tacos made with duck confit and guacamole, which sell out in a flash.

Delicate tongue tacos with green salsa are especially good, as are the tacos of chicken tesmole, an herb-intensive Oaxacan preparation thickened with corn. The best tacos in the house may be the ones made with florets of battered, fried cauliflower — crunchy, soft and then crunchy again; the sulfurous funkiness of the vegetable mellowed and made soulful by the sharpness of the capers in the salsa and the merest touch of cream.

Your table is covered two-deep with tiny plastic plates no longer containing tacos. You have seen the bottom of a michelada or two. You are probably not contemplating dessert, but the squares of jellied quince served on sharp queso añejo are worth considering, as are the soft little cylinders of sweet potato dabbed with cream.

Colonia may have seemed like the end of the earth when you drove over here, but on the way home you may notice that it is a mere five minutes past San Gabriel if you're coming from the west.

Colonia Taco Lounge

LOCATION: 13030 E. Valley Blvd., La Puente, (626) 363-4691

PRICES: Appetizers, $5-$9; tacos, $2.50-$5; desserts, $4-$5

DETAILS: Open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays to Thursdays, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. Credit cards accepted. Full bar. Lot parking.

RECOMMENDED DISHES: "Nachostadas," cauliflower tacos, chicken tesmole tacos, duck tacos, "campion" tacos, sweet potatoes with cream.

jonathan.gold@latimes.com

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Chef Thomas Keller on making caviar pop at your party

Holiday meals tend to pass by in a blur of turkeys, hams, roast beef and sweet potatoes. How do you break through that to make an impression on your guests? Caviar is one sure cure. And it's one that can be delivered on a range of budgets.

Though caviar is synonymous with luxury, opulence and indulgence, if you know what you're doing it can still be served at a relatively modest price and still deliver the goods. There is a wide range of caviar products, and the trick is knowing which ones are best used in which situation.

For example, hackleback caviar is delicious, affordable and easily obtained. I like to serve it with avocados and Melba toast, which offers an interesting contrast of textures — the firm saline "pop" of the caviar, the creamy avocado and the crisp, wafer-thin toasts.

At the French Laundry and Per Se, we use California white sturgeon caviar, which is extremely high quality and is sustainably raised along the Sacramento River. This is what we use in my signature dish Oysters and Pearls. It is more expensive, so you want to serve it in a way that will show off the quality, such as using it as a topping for deviled eggs.

Another domestic caviar comes from the paddlefish, which is a close relative of sturgeon raised in the Southeast. It offers a tremendous bang for your buck, as the quality is very good but the price is affordable. A sunchoke panna cotta is the perfect foil for the caviar: It is rich, nutty, slightly sweet yet subdued enough to let the flavors of the caviar shine through. Even better, most of the dish can be prepared in advance and quickly finished at the last minute.

Pressed caviar is essentially a paste made from eggs that have been damaged and can no longer be sold as whole. While the texture and appearance of the caviar has been lost, the taste remains, making this an economical way to impart the flavor of caviar into a dish, such as when we use it as a stuffing for a confit of salmon.

And then, of course, there is the glory of Ossetra caviar, the best quality caviar that is commonly available. With an ingredient this special (and this costly), you really want to present it in the simplest way possible: buckwheat and buttermilk blini. It is incredibly simple yet sophisticated and allows the caviar to be at center stage. The contrast of textures and temperatures between the ice cold, briny caviar and the hot, buttery blini is indulgent perfection.

But please resist the urge to serve this with caviar garnishes such as minced onion, eggs and capers, no matter if they are considered classic. Caviar this good is best unadorned.

food@latimes.com

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Texas cruises past Texas Tech, 41-16

Case McCoy passed for two touchdowns and ran for another, and Texas kept its Big 12 Conference title hopes alive with a 41-16 win over Texas Tech at Austin.

Joe Bergeron ran for 102 yards and a touchdown for the Longhorns (8-3, 7-1 Big 12), who end their regular season on Dec. 7 at No. 9 Baylor. If Texas wins that game and No. 7 Oklahoma State loses to No. 20 Oklahoma, the Longhorns would win their first league championship since 2009.

Texas Tech (7-5, 4-5) ended its regular season with its fifth consecutive loss under first-year Coach Kliff Kingsbury. The Red Raiders came in with the nation's top passing offense, but Texas sacked freshman quarterback Baker Mayfield seven times.

Mike Davis caught touchdowns of 47 and seven yards for Texas. Malcolm Brown also rushed for 128 yards for the Longhorns, who pounded out 281 yards on the ground. Anthony Fera kicked field goals of 37 and 49 yards, tying the Texas record by making 15 in a row this season.

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Dak Prescott rushed for a three-yard touchdown in overtime to lead Mississippi State past Mississippi, 17-10, in the Egg Bowl at Starkville.

The Bulldogs are 6-6, 3-5 in the Southeastern Conference; the Rebels are 7-5 and 3-5.

ETC.

Fox returning to work with Broncos

John Fox is returning to work Monday, less than a month after undergoing open-heart surgery, and he plans to coach the Denver Broncos in their game against the Tennessee Titans on Dec. 8.

What hasn't been determined is whether Fox will coach from the sideline or the booth. The team issued a statement Thursday saying that "while no formal restrictions will be placed on his workload upon his return, he will continue to be monitored by our medical staff as his well-being remains our No. 1 priority."

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Antonio Cromartie did not practice for the second straight day because of an ailing hip, and the New York Jets cornerback's status remains uncertain for Sunday's game against the Miami Dolphins.

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Calgary Flames rookie forward Sean Monahan will miss at least the next two games because of a hairline fracture in his foot and defenseman Dennis Wideman is expected to be sidelined six to eight weeks because of a broken hand.

The Flames said Monahan's status is week to week. Calgary (8-12-4) plays at the Ducks on Friday and the Kings on Sunday.

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Adam Scott birdied his first six holes en route to a course-record 10-under 62 to take a three-stroke lead after the first round of the Australian Open at Sydney.

Scott is attempting to join Robert Allenby as the only golfers to win all three Australian majors in the same year. Allenby won the Australian PGA, Australian Masters and Australian Open in 2005.

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Majestic Stride won the $100,000 Vernon O. Underwood Stakes by 2 1/2 lengths at Betfair Hollywood Park, giving trainer Jeff Bonde his second straight victory in the race.

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USC never leads in falling to Villanova, 94-79

PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas -- More than 20 months removed from his last game, Dylan Ennis finally got onto the court for Villanova.

And the Wildcats immediately reaped the benefits against USC.

Ennis scored 12 of his 14 points in the first half, James Bell led Villanova with 17, and the Wildcats never trailed on the way to beating the Trojans, 94-79, on Thursday in the quarterfinals of the Battle 4 Atlantis.

Ennis sat out last season after transferring from Rice, and his debut was delayed this season because of a broken right hand.

"He's got an intangible that is really valuable, his energy," Villanova Coach Jay Wright said of Ennis, whose most recent game had been March 20, 2012, for Rice. "He's got great energy off the court, as a student, as a person, teammate. And on the court he's got great energy. I was more concerned that he would be out of his mind because he's so excited to be back playing."

Ennis was fine every step of the way, and so was Villanova. The Wildcats (5-0) will play No. 2 Kansas in Friday night's semifinals. USC (4-2) will meet Wake Forest in the consolation round.

Darrun Hilliard scored 16 points, Ryan Arcidiacono scored all 14 of his points in the first half and JayVaughn Pinkston scored 12 for Villanova.

Pe'Shon Howard scored 23 points for USC, which finished with seven assists and 16 turnovers.

"Villanova played an excellent basketball game," USC Coach Andy Enfield said. "Give them a lot of credit. I've been following Jay Wright for the last 12 years. Just an excellent basketball team and they played at a high level today, especially in the first half."

Villanova made eight three-pointers in the first half on the way to a 48-37 lead at the break, and an 18-6 second-half spurt put things away. The Wildcats' lead was down to 59-50 with 11:45 left and swelled to 77-56 over the next five minutes. Villanova set a record for single-game points in the 3-year-old event, and held the Trojans to 41% shooting.

"It wasn't too tough," Ennis said, asked to describe how he kept his emotions in check. "I've been practicing with the team every day. This is family to me. Whenever you go somewhere with family, you're comfortable and I was comfortable today."

Byron Wesley scored 15 and Roschon Prince added 12 for USC.

Maybe it was being 2,500 miles from home or playing a game that started at 10 a.m. Los Angeles time, but for whatever reason, the Trojans weren't sharp in the opening minutes. Villanova got two deflections and a steal on the game's first possession to set the tone for a first half in which the Wildcats were in control throughout.

"They hit us in the mouth," Howard said.

USC trailed 11-2 early, eventually got within 27-26, but played catch-up all day.

It was the first of 12 games to be played in three days in the Bahamas, though the dramatics actually started ahead of schedule Wednesday night when members of the USC and Texas-El Paso staffs exchanged some heated words at a pre-tournament gathering.

Enfield — whose profile soared enormously and quickly last season, when he led little-known Florida Gulf Coast into the Sweet 16 round of the NCAA tournament — was quoted in December's issue of Men's Journal talking about UTEP Coach Tim Floyd, saying he "shows up every day at work and realizes he lives in El Paso, Texas. And he's [angry] that he didn't get the USC job."

The relationship with Floyd, a former coach of the Trojans, and Enfield has been tenuous for some time amid allegations that USC tampered with a recruit who was committed to the Miners.

"I regret that the situation happened and I apologize to the USC fans, but this is about the players," Enfield said Thursday. "We're moving on."

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Shoppers carve out time for Thanksgiving bargain hunting

At 6 a.m. on a chilly Thanksgiving, hours before most Americans awoke, let alone began roasting their turkeys, Manny Rios Jr. was rushing into a Kmart store in Burbank.

Fueled by free coffee and doughnuts catered by the retailer, the 47-year-old North Hollywood postman, his son Alex, 19, and a few dozen others steered their carts past fully staffed cash registers and a glittering display of Christmas trees.

Rios' targets: a $39.99 7-inch Android tablet discounted more than 40%, a $179.99 RCA television that was 25% off and a Proscan DVD player marked down to $14.99 from $29.99.

"Everyone's just passing Thanksgiving now — it's a fading holiday," the veteran of 16 years of Black Friday shopping said nostalgically. "By this time next year, stores are going to get rid of Black Friday entirely and go straight to Gray Thursday."

Retailers this year have moved up the gift-buying calendar, driven by stressful months of weak sales and uncertain consumer confidence. In addition, the key Thanksgiving-to-Christmas span is one weekend shorter than last year, which gives merchants less time to pack in the purchasers.

As a result, major retailers waiting until the day after Thanksgiving to open their doors are now in the minority.

On Thursday, more than 900 Old Navy stores opened at 9 a.m. and stayed open until 4 p.m., with the majority reopening from 7 p.m. through midnight the next night. More than 300 Gap stores and 30 Banana Republic locations were also welcoming guests on Thanksgiving morning. Several other chains held back, but only until Thanksgiving evening.

Morning traffic was light at the stores on the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica, though coffee shops and cafes were packed. Retail employees said most shoppers likely assumed that stores would be closed on Thanksgiving.

"I didn't know what to expect," said Erin Watterman, 42, a visitor from Los Gatos, Calif., who along with her husband and two daughters were the only people waiting to enter Old Navy at 8:50 a.m. "I would have thought there would have been more people but I'm happy to see there aren't because we can shop in peace."

Around noon, with two dozen stores open, batches of people began showing up to stroll the outdoor avenue and browse the merchandise. But many residents stayed in, some out of a belief that so-called Shopgiving events were insulting to an American tradition.

A poll from the University of Connecticut found that 9 in 10 Americans said they didn't plan to bargain hunt on Thanksgiving. Only 7% said they would shop on turkey day, compared with the 27% who said they intended to hit stores the day after.

Rick Caruso, the magnate behind shopping centers such as the Grove and the Americana at Brand, said his properties remained officially closed on Thanksgiving even as certain tenants welcomed patrons.

"Maybe I'm just old-fashioned, but a holiday should be a holiday, and people should be at home with their family and friends," Caruso said. "I would prefer to see stores closed."

Many shoppers compromised, staying home while scouring retailers' websites for deals Thursday.

Fry's Electronics, which rolled out online-only deals on Thanksgiving, saw its website crash in the morning under the weight of too many eager Internet shoppers. Product pages were slow to load or didn't load at all, and many customers found themselves unable to complete their purchases.

Overall, holiday sales will increase 4.5% to 5.5% compared with last year's season, according to Moody's Investors Service.

"It's not bad, it's not great," Moody's analyst Maggie Taylor said.

Retailers were prepared for massive crowds, and some even had behind-the-scenes teams monitoring traffic flow remotely.

Down a nondescript alleyway behind a Target store in Fullerton, a small group of investigators kept an eye on video feeds of the chain's stores around Southern California, Las Vegas and Hawaii.

They had a direct line to crowd-control personnel at the stores, which opened at the same 8 p.m. slot as JCPenney, Macy's, Kohl's and others. A backup generator stood ready in case power failures interfered with the Target team's visuals.

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2 officers hurt in Inglewood standoff as gunman holds 2 hostages

Two Inglewood police officers were injured Wednesday when a gun battle broke out at a home and then turned into a tense, hours-long standoff after the suspect barricaded himself inside the house with two female hostages.

The dramatic incident unfolded in the normally quiet block of well-kept, single-family homes after the suspected gunman was seen trying to drag a screaming teenage girl by the hair, according to law enforcement authorities and witnesses.

Late Wednesday, the suspect surrendered to authorities and the two hostages were giving statements to police, an official with the Los Angeles County district attorney's office said.

When officers first arrived on the scene shortly after noon, the shooter opened fire from inside the home and police fired back, authorities said.

A male officer was shot once in the chest but was "saved by his bulletproof vest," said Lt. Oscar Mejia of the Inglewood Police Department. He was pulled out of the line of fire by other officers who had swarmed the scene in the 10700 block of 5th Avenue.

A female officer was injured when she apparently fell from a wall while trying to aid the officer who was struck in the chest, Mejia said. She was treated at a hospital and released. The officer who was shot was being treated Wednesday night and was in good condition, police said. Both officers have been with the department at least 10 years.

The gunman was described as 45 years old and having a criminal history, said Lt. Dave Dolson of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

The hostages were the suspect's girlfriend and her daughter, authorities said. The daughter, believed to be about 14, reportedly received a cut when the man tried to drag her by the hair.

As officers went door-to-door evacuating residents, crisis negotiators talked to the gunman on a cellphone. He made no specific demands, according to police.

Several neighbors said they were preparing for Thanksgiving when the commotion erupted.

One neighbor, who did not want to be identified, said she was cooking when she heard screaming about 12:30 p.m.

She ran outside and saw a man dragging her 14-year-old neighbor into the house.

Another neighbor, Kimberly Edwards, was on her way to the store to pick up supplies for Thursday's dinner when she saw several police officers and a man pleading with them to rescue his sister, who he said was being held captive in the house.

"I saw a panicked brother scream at the police officers: 'Please get my sister out of that house, please get my sister out of that house,'" Edwards said.

Shortly after, Edwards heard a barrage of gunfire. She said she saw a female officer stagger down the street and then collapse. Another officer came to her aid and carried her away, she said.

An elderly woman who lives across the street was cooking a pie when a bullet whizzed through her front door.

"There were so many gunshots, oh my God, it was like you were in a war zone," she said.

Walter Maye said he heard about 15 gunshots. "I thought: God, what is going on," he said.

The 70-year-old Maye stood at 5th Avenue and 104th Street on Wednesday night, watching his neighbors being escorted out of the area by officers.

"It's a shame," he said.

alicia.banks@latimes.com

ruben.vives@latimes.com

Times staff writers Ari Bloomekatz, Kate Linthicum and Robert J. Lopez contributed to this report.

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Selected new California labor laws

Most are effective on Jan. 1, 2014

Wage and Hour Laws

Minimum wage: Raises the current $8-an-hour state minimum wage to $9 on July 1, 2014, and to $10 per hour on Jan. 1, 2016.

Domestic employees: Creates a Domestic Workers Bill of Rights and provides overtime for certain in-home workers, such as personal attendants for the sick, disabled and elderly.

Meal and rest periods: Extends meal and rest protections to "recovery" periods taken to prevent heat illness. An employee cannot be required to work during such a period. Provides monetary penalties for denying the rest breaks.

Damages for minimum wage violations: Requires payment of damages to employees as well as penalties for employers cited for minimum-wage violations by the state labor commissioner.

Protections for exercising rights under labor code: Bans employers from retaliation or adverse action against workers who assert their rights, such as complaining about wage theft. Establishes a civil penalty of up to $10,000 per employee per violation.

Lien on property: Allows the filing of a lien on employers' real property if they don't pay fines or back wages ordered by the state labor commissioner.

Whistle-blower protections: Protects employees from retaliation when filing a report alleging a violation of wage and hour laws.

Immigration: Prohibits employers from threatening to contact immigration authorities after a worker files a formal complaint about an alleged violation of wage and overtime requirements.

Business license revocation: Permits the state to suspend or revoke an employer's business license for reporting — or threatening to report — to federal law enforcement a worker's immigration status.

Source: Times research, California Chamber of Commerce

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NFL Thursday: Lions, Cowboys and Steelers have upper hand

NFL today

GREEN BAY (5-5-1) AT DETROIT (6-5)

TV: Channel 11, 9:30 a.m. PST.

Line: Lions by 6. Over/under: 50.

Sam Farmer's pick: The Lions have lost two games in a row, and Coach Jim Schwartz's chair is getting toasty. But Detroit should be able to beat a hobbled Green Bay team that is on its fourth quarterback in Matt Flynn. Lions 28, Packers 20

OAKLAND (4-7) AT DALLAS (6-5)

TV: Channel 2, 1:30 p.m. PST.

Line: Cowboys by 91/2. Over/under: 471/2.

Farmer's pick: The Cowboys are coming off a big NFC East victory over the New York Giants, and the Raiders lost another close one. Oakland should keep things close against a bad defense, but Dallas has the edge in this traditional home game. Cowboys 24, Raiders 17

PITTSBURGH (5-6) AT BALTIMORE (5-6)

TV: 5:30 p.m. PST, Channel 4.

Line: Ravens by 21/2. Over/under: 401/2.

Farmer's pick: If history is a guide, this game will be very close and very physical. The last four meetings were decided by a field goal. Pittsburgh's Ben Roethlisberger has collected six touchdowns and no interceptions in the last two games. Steelers 21, Ravens 20

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Supreme Court to hear cases on Obamacare and birth control

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to jump into a growing legal dispute between the Obama administration and businesses run by conservative Christians over whether a company must pay for birth control drugs that conflict with its owner's religious beliefs.

The decision to hear the cases, which could affect millions of women with employer-provided health plans, means that for a second time, the justices will decide the fate of a key part of President Obama's healthcare law.

Last year, the court in a 5-4 decision upheld the requirement that individuals obtain basic health insurance or pay a tax penalty. The new cases test whether employers who offer insurance can be required to pay for the full range of approved contraceptives even if they have moral objections to some of them.

The cases also raise the issue of whether a corporation, rather than just individuals, can raise claims regarding religious freedom. In 2010, in the campaign spending case known as Citizens United, the justices ruled that corporations have rights to speech protected by the 1st Amendment, but they have never said whether corporations can claim a religious belief.

The family that challenged the law argues that what's really at stake is its personal beliefs. "Business owners should not have to choose between violating their faith and violating the law," said David Green, founder of Oklahoma-based Hobby Lobby Stores Inc., a nationwide chain of more than 500 arts and crafts stores with 13,000 full-time employees.

He and his family object to the requirement that they pay for workers' health plans that cover emergency contraception, including the "morning after" pill, and IUDs. Those methods of contraception, by preventing a fertilized egg from developing, amount to abortions, they say.

The family won a ruling from a federal appeals court exempting the company from this part of the law on the grounds that it infringed on its right to religious freedom.

The Obama administration appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing that a for-profit corporation has never been accorded personal religious rights. Doing so, administration lawyers said, could open the door to allowing companies to limit many legal rights of workers.

The justices said Tuesday that they would hear the Hobby Lobby case and a similar challenge brought by a Mennonite-run woodworking business in Pennsylvania.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said the administration was confident that the court would uphold the law, saying it "seeks to ensure that women and families — not their bosses or corporate CEOs — can make personal health decisions based on their needs and their budgets."

Leading women's rights advocates have called the birth control benefit crucial to workplace freedom for women.

"Bosses have no business meddling in their employee's deeply personal healthcare decisions," said Marcia Greenberger, co-president of the National Women's Law Center.

But defenders of religious rights said these family-run businesses were acting based on their "owner's deep religious commitments," said Notre Dame law professor Richard Garnett.

"They are not trying to limit what employees or customers do or believe. They are instead seeking protection against an imposition by the government."

The Affordable Care Act said most employers must provide basic health insurance that covers "preventive services" at no cost to workers. That includes cancer screening and other tests. The administration issued a rule saying that the requirement also covers the "full range" of approved contraceptive methods.

The "direct medical cost of unintended pregnancy was estimated to be nearly $5 billion in 2002," Obama's lawyers told the court.

When Catholic bishops complained about the so-called contraceptive mandate, the White House agreed to exempt religious employers such as churches. It also said nonprofit, religiously affiliated schools, colleges and hospitals could avoid paying directly for such benefits. Their insurers were told to cover the cost.

Exempting private, for-profit corporations would go too far, the administration has said. Dozens of private employers have sued, and lower courts have split on the issues involved.

There is also the issue of whether federal law or the Constitution require that the government give some people a special exemption to some laws because of their religious beliefs.

The Supreme Court rejected that view in a 1990 opinion by Justice Antonin Scalia. While the 1st Amendment protects the free exercise of religion, he said, it does not give believers a right to ignore laws that apply to everyone.

In response, Congress passed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act in 1993, which tipped the balance in favor of religious claims. It said the government "shall not substantially burden a person's exercise of religion," except to further a compelling interest.

Judges have looked to the 1993 law to decide the cases involving the contraceptives. But the Mennonite family also contended its constitutional rights to the free exercise of religion were at issue.

In the Hobby Lobby case, the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver said that if corporations had free-speech rights in politics, they also had rights to religious freedom. The U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago adopted the same view this month.

But the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia took the opposite view in ruling against Conestoga Wood Specialties Corp., the company run by a Mennonite family.

"A for-profit secular corporation cannot engage in the exercise of religion," the judges in that case said.

The court said it would hear both cases in March, meaning they would probably rule in late spring.

The cases are Sebelius vs. Hobby Lobby Stores and Conestoga Wood Specialties vs. Sebelius. If the court rules for the family-run businesses, its opinion is expected to make it clear that the administration may not enforce the contraceptive mandate against other owners with similar objections.

david.savage@latimes.com

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New L.A. County sheriff watchdog role is filled

A corruption-tackling prosecutor has been selected to head a new agency that will scrutinize the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, with the power to conduct investigations inside the troubled jails and elsewhere.

After months of searching, the Board of Supervisors offered the job Tuesday to Deputy Dist. Atty. Max Huntsman, a supervisor in the district attorney's public corruption division who has been among the lead prosecutors in the trial of Bell city officials, according to county sources familiar with the decision.

Huntsman, 48, accepted the job of inspector general, and an announcement is expected Wednesday. Huntsman declined to comment.

Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas confirmed the selection, saying that Huntsman had shown himself willing to take on cases despite the possibility of political blow-back.

"He has a reputation for standing up even when it's uncomfortable or unpopular," Ridley-Thomas said.

Creating the office of inspector general was one of the key recommendations last year of a blue-ribbon commission that investigated allegations of violence inside the nation's largest jail system.

The commission, which included several former judges and a police chief, concluded that there was a pattern of excessive force by deputies in the county jails.

The panel called for an inspector general who would report to the Board of Supervisors and provide independent oversight of the Sheriff's Department, conducting its own investigations, monitoring jail conditions and reviewing the department's audits and inspections.

Currently, three civilian agencies oversee at least some aspects of the department's operations: Attorney Merrick Bobb serves as special counsel to the Board of Supervisors and issues regular reports on the department; the Office of Independent Review, headed by former federal prosecutor Michael Gennaco, monitors sheriff discipline; and the county ombudsman office handles citizen complaints

In turning to Huntsman, a Yale Law School graduate, the board chose a veteran prosecutor who has experience in handling public corruption as well as police misconduct cases.

County sources said Huntsman's experience in reviewing force incidents for the district attorney's office was one of the factors that made him an attractive candidate to oversee the Sheriff's Department. Among Huntsman's previous assignments was a stint in the Justice System Integrity Division, where he prosecuted police officers and worked with D.A. investigators to probe officer-involved shootings and in-custody deaths.

One of his most high-profile cases in the division ended in the failure to convict an Inglewood police officer caught on camera picking up a 16-year-old boy and slamming him onto the hood of a police cruiser. Huntsman helped try the case twice, but two juries deadlocked on assault charges against Officer Jeremy Morse. The district attorney's office decided against a third trial.

In the office's Public Integrity Division, however, Huntsman has claimed several high-profile victories. Among them were the convictions of former Los Angeles city commissioner Leland Wong, accused of accepting bribes; former Vernon Mayor Leonis Malburg, who was charged with voter fraud for living outside the city; and Patrick T. Lynch, former general manager of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, one of six men charged in a sweeping corruption scandal.

Huntsman is currently prosecuting Bell's former assistant city manager, Angela Spaccia.

jack.leonard@latimes.com

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Kobe Bryant: Deal makes him 'want to run through a wall' for Lakers

— Kobe Bryant was all smiles during his news conference a day after receiving a two-year, $48.5-million contract extension.

But sometime between saying this would "probably" be his last contract and later jabbing the NBA for vetoing the Chris Paul trade (he's still irritated), Bryant's became serious when defending the Lakers' decision to extend his contract without seeing him play a game since April.

"It makes me want to run through a wall for them," he said Tuesday. "Kind of just adds more fuel to the fire. Prove to everybody that [the Lakers] are right and everybody else is wrong."

The sum of money touched off an instant debate — is it too much for a 35-year-old player coming off a torn Achilles' tendon?

The extension guaranteed Bryant would be the NBA's highest-paid player next season ($23.5 million) and in 2015-16 ($25 million). It also guaranteed the Lakers could sign only one maximum-salary free agent next summer, not two.

So Lakers General Manager Mitch Kupchak found himself in the position of defending the deal, which was signed Monday.

"We looked at his career, we looked at what we think he's going to do when he gets back," Kupchak said in a conference call Tuesday. "And the reality is two years from now, we'll look back and see what he actually did do. Maybe we got a deal. Maybe we didn't."

Kupchak later added, "He will be back and he will play at a high level. I can't begin to say he's going to average 27, 28 [points] like he did last year. I don't know. We'll have to wait and see."

Bryant practiced three times with the team last week, two of which involved full contact. He then scaled back because of general soreness in his left foot, the same one in which he tore his Achilles'.

"Maybe you could have waited two or 21/2 months, then maybe you have more information," Kupchak said. "But now you're deep into the season and ... you don't really want to open up a negotiation. And it could also cut both ways."

As in, maybe Bryant isn't as willing to take a pay cut if he's playing well.

Bryant took a "substantial" drop from the $30.5 million he made this season, Kupchak said.

"A lot of people look at it and say, 'Well, that's not maybe a huge financial pay cut.' But it was a negotiation that we felt was pretty quickly accomplished and fair on both sides," Kupchak said. "We're comfortable."

Bryant said the Lakers could "absolutely" still put together a championship team despite giving him more than one-third of the estimated salary cap of $62.9 million next season.

"I think the fans are, God bless them, they're fans and they have good intentions and have a good spirit about it, but I don't think they understand the cap.... I think we'll be all right," he said.

Bryant went through a solid individual workout Tuesday and was eager to go through some more practices next week to measure his speed on the court.

He won't play Wednesday at Brooklyn or Friday at Detroit, Coach Mike D'Antoni said.

The Lakers play a home game Sunday against Portland but won't practice again until Tuesday. Their next game after that is three days later at Sacramento, perhaps a target for Bryant's return.

"We'll see, but you kind of start looking at some of those dates," Bryant acknowledged. "Those three days [of practice] when we get back [next week] are going to be huge to kind of see what I can do and what I can't do."

Bryant didn't have to do much negotiating for an extension. Talks were practically nonexistent.

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49ers snap losing streak in 27-6 win over Redskins

LANDOVER, Md. — If Colin Kaepernick and Robert Griffin III have become the future of football suddenly put on hold, consider Kaepernick the one more likely to get going again.

The young, mobile quarterbacks who have struggled in 2013 after breakout years in 2012 faced off for the first time Monday night, and Kaepernick clearly outperformed his counterpart as the San Francisco 49ers broke a two-game losing streak with a 27-6 win over the Washington Redskins.

Kaepernick completed 15 of 24 passes for 235 yards — the first time in five games he has topped 200 yards — with three touchdowns and no passes intercepted.

The Redskins bottled up Frank Gore (13 carries, 31 yards), essentially daring Kaepernick to throw the ball, and the quarterback responded by showing some veteran-like chemistry with veteran Anquan Boldin.

"We showed people we can pass the ball," Gore said. "That's big for this team."

Boldin finished with five catches for 94 yards and two touchdowns — a 19-yard grab at the pylon in the first quarter and a six-yard, wide-open-in-the-end-zone reception in the third.

Vernon Davis also had a touchdown catch for the 49ers (7-4), who are tied for second with the Arizona Cardinals in the NFC West and are three games back of the Seattle Seahawks with five to play.

"We knew what type of game this was for us. We're right in the hunt," Boldin said. "We've got to come out with a win."

A loss would've put the defending NFC champions in trouble in their quest to return to the playoffs, but they're nowhere as bad off as the Redskins (3-8), who have dropped three straight and sit alone in last place in the NFC East a year after a late-season run that won the division.

Griffin was intercepted for the 11th time Monday night, more than twice the number of times he was picked off all last season.

He completed 17 of 27 passes for 127 yards and was sacked four times, and Washington tallied only 190 total yards.

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Obama uses heckler to make point on immigration

President Obama told a heckler who interrupted a speech on immigration Monday that he would not circumvent Congress and try to halt deportations by executive order because the U.S. is "a nation of laws."

"Please use your executive order!" shouted the heckler, who was standing behind Obama on stage, close enough to be in the television camera shot, during an event in San Francisco's Chinatown as the president began a two-day visit to California. Urging Obama to give immediate relief to those separated from their families at Thanksgiving, the man yelled, "You have the power to stop deportations!"

"Actually, I don't," Obama responded, signaling security personnel not to remove the heckler or other protesters who joined in the shouting. "These guys don't need to go," Obama said. "He can stay there.… I respect the passion of these young people."

But the solution to the problem "won't be as easy as just shouting," Obama said to the young man. "If you're serious about making that happen, then I'm willing to work with you.

"The easy way out is to try to yell and pretend like I can do something by violating our laws. What I'm proposing is the harder path" of trying to get the law changed.

It was a dramatic beginning to a California trip otherwise dominated by Democratic fundraising events, mostly closed to the public. After the immigration event and two fundraisers in San Francisco, the president flew south for two events in Beverly Hills: a reception at the home of entrepreneur and former basketball star Magic Johnson and a dinner hosted by Hollywood mogul Haim Saban.

At Johnson's home, Obama leaned on sports analogies to criticize politics as practiced in Washington.

"Nobody played a team game better than he did," Obama said about Johnson, "and that's what we need in this country more than anything."

He blamed partisanship for holding up action on issues like immigration.

"What's stopping us is a failure of our politics and a lack of ambition," Obama said. "Our politics all too often encourages people to think selfishly or short-term."

The nation needs "that sense that we're in this together," he said.

Before the twin fundraisers, White House officials said, Obama met with the family of Gerardo Hernandez, a Transportation Security Administration officer killed in a violent attack at LAX on Nov. 1. He also met with Tony Grigsby and James Speer, two TSA officers wounded by gunfire that day.

In San Francisco, Obama used his speech to make a new appeal to Republicans to pass immigration measures before the end of the year.

As the prospects for immigration legislation in Congress have faded, activists have been increasing pressure on Obama to take executive action to reduce the record number of deportations during his administration.

Last year, Obama approved a step to shield one group of people from deportation, the so-called Dream Act youth, who were brought to the country illegally as young children. The administration justified that action as an exercise in prosecutorial discretion, the legal basis being that the executive branch has authority to say that some cases for deportation are less urgent than others.

That principle can't be extended to cover everyone, administration lawyers have said. Immigration advocacy groups say, however, that some additional groups could be covered if Obama was willing to act.

Obama urged House Republicans to act on immigration even if that required passing several separate measures rather than one comprehensive package like the one approved by the Senate this year.

"It's Thanksgiving. We can carve that bird into multiple pieces," Obama said. "As long as all the pieces get done, and we actually deliver on the core values we've been talking about for so long, I think everybody's fine with it."

Obama had suggested a piece-by-piece approach before but not in such vivid terms.

Some House Republicans may be interested in that approach if they can finesse the intraparty politics. House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) said recently that his caucus was committed to considering immigration legislation, but he did not lay out a time frame.

The issue splits Republicans, and GOP lawmakers are particularly divided over the idea of providing a pathway to citizenship for more than 11 million immigrants in the country who have overstayed their visas or entered illegally. Obama has insisted that any immigration overhaul must include a pathway to citizenship.

"The speaker is sincere in wanting to get something done," Boehner spokesman Brendan Buck said after the president spoke, "and we're pleased the president said he can accept the step-by-step approach we're taking in the House."

The two Monday night fundraisers benefited the joint House and Senate campaign committee for Democratic candidates. Tickets for the event at the home of Johnson and his wife, Cookie, ranged from $2,500 to $15,000 per person. The dinner hosted by Saban and his wife, Cheryl, cost $16,200 per person.

Obama was scheduled to appear at another fundraiser, on behalf of the Democratic National Committee, on Tuesday morning before heading to Glendale for an appearance with entertainment industry officials at Dreamworks Animation. The company's chief executive, Jeffrey Katzenberg, has been a leading fundraiser for Obama.

christi.parsons@latimes.com

kate.linthicum@latimes.com

Parsons reported from Washington and Linthicum from Los Angeles.

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Bulls' Derrick Rose to miss rest of NBA season

Derrick Rose's comeback turned out to be a cameo, and the Chicago Bulls' worst nightmare became a reality again.

The Bulls' hopes about contending for a championship this season took a serious hit. Their long-term plans appear to be up in the air too.

The team said Rose will miss the remainder of the season after having surgery Monday morning in Chicago to repair a torn medial meniscus in his right knee. For the Bulls and their point guard, it's an all-too-familiar spot.

"I felt for him. He is a great person, first and foremost," Coach Tom Thibodeau said before Chicago played at Utah.

Rose was injured Friday night at Portland, a huge setback for him and the organization.

The 2010-11 NBA most valuable player missed all of last season after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in Chicago's 2012 playoff opener against Philadelphia.

He has played in only 50 NBA games — 49 in the regular season and that lone playoff game — since the Bulls' run to the Eastern Conference finals during his MVP season.

With Rose back, the Bulls were expected to challenge LeBron James and the Miami Heat for supremacy in the Eastern Conference and contend for their first championship since the Michael Jordan-Scottie Pippen era.

===

The Minnesota Timberwolves are trading former No. 2 overall draft pick Derrick Williams to the Sacramento Kings for Luc Mbah a Moute.

Two people with knowledge of the deal say the agreement was reached Monday night. The people requested anonymity because neither team has announced the deal.

Williams was the No. 2 overall draft choice in 2011. But he never was able to carve a niche in Rick Adelman's rotation and it became increasingly clear early this season that he had no role on the Timberwolves. Williams is averaging 4.9 points in under 15 minutes per game this season. Mbah a Moute is averaging 4.4 points and 3.0 rebounds in nine games for the Kings.

ETC.

Trio of QBs up for Maxwell Award

Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston, Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel and Alabama quarterback AJ McCarron are finalists for the Maxwell Award, given to college football's player of the year.

Winston, who is being investigated in a sexual assault case by authorities in Tallahassee, Fla., is also up for the Davey O'Brien National Quarterback Award, with McCarron and Manziel.

Manziel won the O'Brien last season, along with the Heisman Trophy.

===

Kentucky Coach Mark Stoops suspended leading rusher Raymond Sanders for Saturday's game against Tennessee for violating a team rule.

Sanders, who has a team-best 464 yards in 107 carries with three touchdowns, sat out most of the first half of last week's 59-17 loss at Georgia in what the coach said afterward was for disciplinary reasons. Stoops says he received more information Monday morning leading to the latest punishment, though he didn't say what rules the running back broke.

===

North Carolina junior tight end Eric Ebron said he'll make himself available for the NFL draft after the season.

Ebron has 50 catches for 774 yards and three touchdowns for the Tar Heels (6-5, 4-3 Atlantic Coast Conference) heading into Saturday's home finale against No. 24 Duke.

The Angels hired Nick Francona, son of Cleveland Indians Manager Terry Francona, as coordinator of major league player information and promoted baseball operations intern Jeremy Zoll to coordinator of advance scouting.

—Kevin Baxter

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Storm brings winter to Southwest

A wintry storm dumped heavy snow and rain across the Southwest on Sunday and forced the cancellation of hundreds of flights in what could be a preview of nasty traveling weather for Thanksgiving.

Some parts of northern New Mexico were buried under nearly a foot of snow as a storm system blamed for killing eight people across the West continued east, also sloshing through Oklahoma and Texas.

The storm was expected to reach the East Coast possibly by Wednesday, the busiest travel day of the Thanksgiving holiday. More than 43 million Americans are expected to travel more than 50 miles for the holiday weekend, according to AAA.

"This is more of a January, February-type weather event," National Weather Service meteorologist Dennis Cain said of the storm as it crossed Texas, resulting in the cancellation of more than 600 incoming and outgoing flights at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, according to FlightAware.com.

Oklahoma, Arkansas and northern Texas were bracing for the worst of the storm early Monday, with a possibility of freezing rain.

"We think by Tuesday through Thursday, it's going to be fairly nice," said Cain, who works in the weather service's Dallas/Fort Worth office. "By Thursday, we should have quite a bit of sunshine. Should be no problem for people going to Grandma's house for Thanksgiving."

But the East Coast — parts of which were gripped by below-freezing temperatures Sunday — can't necessarily expect the same.

"The timing of the impending winter storm could not come at a [worse] time," AccuWeather.com senior meteorologist Kristina Pydynowski said in a forecast for the East Coast that called for snowfall Wednesday from the Appalachians to New York's St. Lawrence Valley and northern New England.

"The potential exists for a foot of snow to fall from Bradford, Pa., to Burlington, Vt.," added AccuWeather.com meteorologist Eric Wanenchak.

Travel conditions were expected to be good for the rest of the country, according to AccuWeather.

matt.pearce@latimes.com

Times staff writer Soumya Karlamangla contributed to this report.

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Impressive win casts aside doubts about Manny Pacquiao's boxing future

In the last major fight Bob Arum promoted in the Far East, he walked out of a Philippines arena to a burning sun, mourning the destruction Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier delivered to each other in their third bout, the "Thrilla in Manila" in 1975.

Sunday, Arum looked outside to cloud coverage in Macao, China, and beamed with delight.

Arum's fighter, Manny Pacquiao, is back.

In Pacquiao's decisive victory over Brandon Rios on Saturday night Pacific time, the Filipino star buried thoughts of retirement, which his trainer, Freddie Roach, said he would have suggested had Pacquiao lost.

And Arum quickly chose April 12 for Pacquiao's next fight, probably in Las Vegas.

Pacquiao's relevance was revived after he out-punched the younger and bigger Rios, 281-138, and showed no damage from his knockout loss to Juan Manuel Marquez 11 months ago.

"Many Manny punches," Roach said. "Manny fought the perfect fight. Body shots killed Rios. Manny let him off the hook. I wanted the knockout. But overall, I was very pleased with his performance."

With Roach saying, "If it were up to me, I'd prefer a rematch with [unbeaten Timothy] Bradley or Marquez," Arum said, "We'll decide on an opponent in the next couple of weeks. I was thrilled that we saw the old Manny Pacquiao. Fast, lots of punching, quick hands."

The judges had Pacquiao winning 119-109, 120-108 and 118-110.

Pacquiao didn't score a knockdown and his reluctance to try to finish Rios was the most telling effect of the Marquez defeat.

But unbeaten Floyd Mayweather Jr., arguably the best boxer in the world, doesn't knock out people either. Despite the obstacles keeping Mayweather and Pacquiao from fighting, such a bout remains compelling after Pacquiao's Macao showing.

Robert Garcia, Rios' trainer, said that "Manny Pacquiao has many great fights left."

As for Rios, he was quite impressed.

"I got beat by the best fighter in the world," Rios told The Times. "I tried my [butt] off, but he was the better man. I couldn't handle his angles. I wouldn't say he hurt me, but his speed kills."

Rios (31-2-1) was paid $4 million to fight Pacquiao (55-5-2) and he'll resurface soon enough.

"I don't care, I'll fight anybody," Rios said.

Possibilities include Mike Alvarado, with whom Rios fought two grueling bouts within the last 13 months, Bradley and Ruslan Provodnikov, Pacquiao's former sparring partner who watched the bout in Macao and who Arum said is on the short list of possible Pacquiao opponents in April even though Roach also trains him.

Another winner was Macao, Arum said, as China's gambling mecca served as a strong host, a sellout crowd of more than 13,000 filling the Venetian hotel's arena, allowing Arum to receive a site fee that included a guaranteed $8 million to cover any shortfall from pay-per-view sales in the U.S.

Arum said he'd be "very happy" if Pacquiao-Rios generated 700,000 in HBO pay-per-view buys.

"We're going to do a program with Manny now where he fights once a year in the U.S. and once in Macao or Singapore," Arum said. "Huge gate, huge activity, giving more money to us than Las Vegas. The best casino customers from all over the world come here. This couldn't have been any more successful."

Pacquiao told friends after the bout he was looking forward to rolling up his sleeves to help his countrymen recover from the devastating typhoon that recently swept through the Philippines.

"My victory is a symbol of my people's comeback from a natural disaster and national tragedy," he said.

Pacquiao also said he missed training at Hollywood's Wild Card Boxing Club and is pleased about the next fight being in the U.S.

"It was important for me that I could come back from my knockout loss and put on a good show," Pacquiao said. "That's what I wanted to prove to myself and everyone."

lance.pugmire@latimes.com

Twitter: @latimespugmire

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When LAPD officers were accused, union dug up dirt to fight back

As far as news releases go, the one the Los Angeles police union put out was highly unusual.

It dealt with Brian C. Mulligan, a Hollywood executive turned banker, who had been arrested by LAPD officers. In the news release, the union portrayed Mulligan as a drug-abusing liar and accused him of trying to "shake down" the Police Department.

The evidence? A secret recording that a police officer in nearby Glendale had made of Mulligan a few days before his arrest. Sounding agitated and paranoid, Mulligan admitted on the recording to using a potent type of bath salts, a synthetic drug that can cause paranoia. The union embedded in the release a link to the recording, which it had uploaded to its website.

It was a counterattack on Mulligan. The Deutsche Bank executive had gone public with a strange, troubling account of his arrest, in which he was badly injured. Officers, he said through an attorney, had kidnapped him, forced him to go to a motel and then beat him in a brutal, unprovoked attack when he tried to flee. He also denied the officers' claim that he had admitted using bath salts and marijuana, and he accused the officers of lying in their arrest report to cover up the alleged abuse.

How the audio recording made its way into the hands of the Los Angeles Police Protective League and its decision to publish it are at the heart of a lawsuit filed recently by Mulligan. In it, and in a related lawsuit, Mulligan has accused union officials of conspiring with a lawyer in the L.A. city attorney's office and a media consultant to "publicly vilify" Mulligan and pressure him to drop his demands for millions of dollars in damages.

The union has stoutly defended its right to publish the audio recording, saying in a court filing that it was acting "to defend the reputation of the two officers" who arrested Mulligan and was free to release the recording because it was not confidential.

An attorney for Eric Rose, the union media consultant named in the recent lawsuit, echoed that idea, saying Rose and the union had the right to disseminate Mulligan's "very public truthful admission which he finds embarrassing."

The case offers a look into how the union mobilized to defend officers who its officials feel have been wrongly accused.

::

The odd events that ended with Mulligan's arrest began late one night in May last year. Officers from the LAPD's Northeast Division were dispatched to a neighborhood near Occidental College after people reported a man trying to get into locked cars, according to police and court records. They came upon Mulligan, who matched the man's description, walking in the street and stopped him.

In Mulligan's car parked nearby, an officer found what appeared to be bath salts, which are not illegal to possess, according to a recounting of events by the Police Commission, which oversees the LAPD. Although they noticed he was "sweating profusely and appeared unsteady," the officers determined Mulligan was not drunk or under the influence of illegal drugs.

Mulligan asked the officers to bring him to a motel, according to accounts given by the officers and a police supervisor who was at the scene. They agreed, dropping him off at one nearby. The officers told investigators they advised Mulligan to stay in the room and left his car key with the motel manager.

About an hour later, the same officers encountered Mulligan again when they saw him "screaming and dragging a metal trash can in the street," police reports show. Mulligan tried to open the doors of several cars and then ran away from the officers, according to the LAPD's official account of the incident. The officers gave chase and said they found Mulligan snarling and thrashing and swiping at them as if he believed his hands were claws. They claimed Mulligan charged at them. The officers said they pushed him to the ground and kicked and struck him in the torso with a baton, according to police records.

When it was over, Mulligan's nose was broken in several places and his shoulder blade fractured. After an internal investigation, the Police Commission found the officers' use of force was justified.

Mulligan's account of the night differs dramatically. He claimed the officers took him to the motel against his will and then attacked him when he fled, beating him in the face and on the head and deliberately breaking his shoulder blade.

After reviewing the case, prosecutors for the district attorney and city attorney chose not to pursue any criminal charges against Mulligan.

That August, Mulligan had hired an attorney, who went to the media with Mulligan's account of the night and claimed the officers had fabricated their report. Rose took note of the news reports on Mulligan's claims. In an email to Tyler Izen, president of the L.A. Police Protective League, Rose warned that "the BS story concocted by Brian Mulligan from Deutsche bank is getting legs," court records show. He ended by asking Izen, "Is there anything we can put out or say to discredit this guy"?

Weeks later, court records show, Rose learned from an acquaintance about the existence of the audio recording the Glendale officer made. In it, Mulligan acknowledged snorting bath salts as many as 20 times. Saying he knew he sounded paranoid, Mulligan told the officer he feared a helicopter was following him.

Rose and Izen set out to get the recording. They turned first to LAPD Chief Charlie Beck and other top LAPD officials for help, but were told the department didn't have a copy. Izen then asked Glendale police directly but was rebuffed.

Later, when he learned Glendale officials had given a copy of the recording to LAPD officers investigating the force used to arrest Mulligan, Izen and Rose once again pressed the LAPD. Beck and other senior officials were aware of the recording and the union's desire to get a copy, but Beck refused to hand it over, emails show.

The union then turned to Cory Brente, a veteran lawyer who handles cases involving LAPD officers for the city attorney's office. That office declined to comment on the case. Brente did not respond to phone calls and emails.

Brente asked a detective who was working on the Mulligan investigation to make him a copy of the recording, according to court records. While at home and using his personal email account, Brente sent the recording to Izen on Oct. 10, 2012, court records show. He followed it up with messages to Izen, advising the union to hold off on releasing the recording and then spring it on Mulligan if he again denied using drugs.

"This would certainly sink his case and his reputation," Brente wrote.

"I will defer to you as the defender of your members to do what you think is in their best interest," Brente concluded.

The news release went out a few days later.

joel.rubin@latimes.com

richard.winton@latimes.com

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Iran agrees to nuclear limits

GENEVA — Six world powers and Iran reached a preliminary agreement early Sunday to curb Tehran's disputed nuclear program after a marathon negotiating session, potentially ending a decade of diplomatic stalemate.

After four days of talks that repeatedly appeared ready to collapse, officials announced that they had agreed on a six-month deal aimed at giving Iran limited sanctions relief in return for temporary curbs on its nuclear program.

The deal could ease the threat of war and reduce tension between the U.S. and Iran, but it could also prove difficult to implement, and the follow-up long-term agreement could be far more difficult to nail down, U.S. officials acknowledge.

"Iran, like any nation, should be able to access peaceful nuclear energy, but because of its record of violating its obligations, Iran must accept strict limitations on its nuclear program that make it impossible to develop a nuclear weapon," President Obama said in a late-night statement aired from the White House.

"The burden is on Iran to prove to the world that its nuclear program will be exclusively for peaceful purposes," Obama said.

Mohammad Javad Zarif, the Iranian foreign minister, said on his Twitter account at 3:03 a.m. Geneva time, "We have an agreement."

The deal, described by Obama as "an important first step toward a comprehensive solution," is intended to open the way for what is likely to be even tougher bargaining to reach a comprehensive agreement.

U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry, speaking in Geneva, said that limiting Iran's nuclear program would expand the time Tehran would need to reach a nuclear weapons capability.

"It will make our ally Israel safer," he said in a news conference.

But the deal was quickly denounced by leading Republicans in Washington.

"Amazing what WH will do to distract attention from O-care," Sen. John Cornyn of Texas said in a Twitter statement.

Obama administration officials have said an agreement would ease what has been long viewed as one of the world's most urgent security challenges. Iran is believed by some experts to be close to acquiring bomb-making capability, and the administration has threatened to use force, if necessary, to prevent it from acquiring a nuclear weapon.

Even though the six countries and the new government in Iran were eager for a deal, they had clashed over a series of issues related to how closely supervised Iran's huge nuclear program would be and how much relief it would get from the penalties that have been crushing its economy.

A senior U.S. official said the agreement would halt progress at nuclear facilities at Fordow and Natanz and the partially built heavy-water reactor at Arak. It also calls for more intrusive inspections of Iran's nuclear facilities and for the "neutralization" of its medium-enriched uranium, which is considered a threat because it can be readily converted to bomb fuel.

Iranian news agencies said the deal recognized Iran's "right to enrich" uranium, but U.S. officials denied that.

Zarif acknowledged after the announcement that the right demanded by Iran was not spelled out in the text of the agreement. But in a news conference, he said it did not need to be specified because it was Iranians' inalienable right.

Under the deal, Iran will be allowed to continue producing low-enriched uranium, suitable for energy generation, and it won't be required to send its nuclear material out of the country, as Western governments previously demanded, said the official Fars News Agency.

As part of the deal, Iran agreed not to install any additional centrifuges, and not to begin operating any of the thousands that are not yet operational. But the deal doesn't require Iran to dismantle any of its centrifuges, a demand made by Israel.

The agreement will allow Iran to accumulate more low-enriched uranium, to eight tons from the current seven. But it also provides that by the end of the six-month period it must turn that extra material into an oxide form that makes it at least temporarily unusable as bomb fuel.

Sanctions on the use of gold and other precious metals in trading will be lifted, as will sanctions on insurance and the transportation industry.

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Herrington brothers' teams stay alive in high school playoffs

It's like old times for the Herrington brothers. Mike, 55; Rick, 53; and Dean, 49, won Southern Section football titles coaching together in 1995, '98, '99 and 2000 at Newhall Hart.

Dean took over at Mission Hills Alemany as head coach in 2006 and brought in Rick in 2008. Now both Hart, still coached by Mike Herrington, and Alemany have advanced to section semifinals.

"We had some great success when we were together through the years," Mike Herrington said. "Almost every week, after both of our games, we meet at a local restaurant having pizza. There were a lot of smiles on the faces of Alemany and Hart assistant coaches last night."

Hart (10-2) received 284 yards rushing from Connor Wingenroth and four touchdown passes from Brady White in a 33-12 upset victory over top-seeded Palos Verdes in the Northern Division playoffs on Friday night.

Alemany (10-2) held off Anaheim Servite, 21-19, in a Pac-5 Division quarterfinal behind quarterback Alif Grayes, who passed for 170 yards and ran for 73 yards.

"It's just nice to keep playing," Dean said. "You get to practice on Thanksgiving and being in the semifinals in the Pac-5 is a big accomplishment."

Hart will meet West Torrance in its semifinal. Alemany will be a heavy underdog against top-seeded Bellflower St. John Bosco in its semifinal.

"St. John Bosco should be in the Pac-12, not the Pac-5," Dean said.

Western semifinalists

Gardena Serra (12-0) and West Hills Chaminade (10-2) are seeded Nos. 1 and 2 in the Western Division, and both will have to survive competitive semifinal games.

Serra will get a rematch against Mission League rival La Cañada St. Francis (10-2). Chaminade will play Lompoc (11-1), which got 131 yards rushing from Derrick Portis and 126 yards rushing from A.J. Florez in a 42-10 rout of Santa Monica.

The biggest challenge for Chaminade will be trying to block one of the best defensive linemen in the state, Lompoc's 280-pound Ainuu Taua.

"You mean what three guys are going to block him?" said Chaminade Coach Ed Croson.

No. 1 falls

Quarterback Cole Norris passed for 474 yards and five touchdowns to help Newport Harbor defeat No. 1-seeded La Habra, 49-48, in a Southeast Division quarterfinal. He completed a 16-yard touchdown pass to Quest Truxton with 50 seconds left.

Chatsworth star

Justin Santos, a junior running back, has rushed for 211, 254 and 271 yards in his last three games to help Chatsworth advance to a City Section Division II semifinal even though the Chancellors were 2-7 late in the season.

Serious injury

Jordan Walker, a junior linebacker at Corona Santiago, suffered a spinal injury in an Inland Division playoff game against Upland, Coach Jeff Steinberg said. Walker was listed in critical condition Saturday at Loma Linda University Medical Center.

eric.sondheimer@latimes.com

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Wine review: 2011 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay

This is an elegant Napa Valley Chardonnay from Chateau Montelena, very much still in the style that won the famous Paris Tasting of 1976 and launched California Chardonnay onto the world wine scene. Silky on the palate, the 2011 has aromas of pear, citrus and honeysuckle. A bright acidity and a discrete touch of oak gives the ripe fruit flavors a lift. A wine to savor.

This would be a great bottle to take to a holiday dinner with people who would appreciate its finesse. It shows best with shellfish or fish in sauce — coquilles St. Jacques, lobster with drawn butter or Dungeness crab, but also a simple roast chicken.

Region: Napa Valley

Price: $40 to $50

Style: Elegant and nuanced

What it goes with: Fish and shellfish in sauce, lobster or crab, a simple roast chicken

Where to find it: Green Jug in Woodland Hills, (818) 887-9463, http://www.greenjug.com; Lincoln Fine Wines in Venice, (310) 392-7816, http://www.lincolnfinewines.com; K&L Wine Merchants in Hollywood, (323) 464-9463, http://www.klwines.com; the Wine Club in Santa Ana, (714) 835-6485, http://www.thewineclub.com; the Wine Country in Signal Hill, (562) 597-8303, http://www.thewinecountry.com; and Woodland Hills Wine Co. in Woodland Hills, (800) 678-9463, http://www.whwc.com.

irene.virbila@latimes.com

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UCLA, Arizona State look to change perceptions and forge new reality

UCLA was a weak crosstown underling to USC. Arizona State was undisciplined and would fade like a cheap paint job in the Tempe, Ariz., sun.

These were things you could set your Rose Bowl watch by.

Recognizing change can take time.

As Arizona State and UCLA meet at the Rose Bowl on Saturday in a crucial Pac-12 Conference game, they are two highly regarded football programs getting image makeovers under second-year coaches.

Todd Graham's No. 19 Sun Devils, 8-2 overall, 6-1 in Pac-12 play, can clinch the South Division with a victory. Jim Mora's No. 14 Bruins, 8-2 overall, 5-2 in conference, would take a giant step toward a spot in the Pac-12 championship game with a win.

"It is something we talked about when we walked in the door here — win the championship," Graham said. "There hasn't been a day go by this season that we haven't talked about the Pac-12 South championship and the Rose Bowl championship."

In Westwood, there is mostly one-game-at-a-time coach-speak. But there is also an undertone that getting to the conference title game for a third consecutive season would leave unfinished business.

"We need to move another step forward," Mora said. "Our goal is to win the Pac-12 championship, but the first step is you've got to win the Pac-12 South championship."

That step could be a doozy.

This does not look like a traditional Arizona State team, which folded on cue last season, losing four consecutive games, including two in November. The heartbreaker was a 45-43 loss to UCLA on Ka'imi Fairbairn's last-second, 33-yard field goal. The Sun Devils finished a game behind the Bruins in the division.

The season before, UCLA reached the title game by beating Arizona State, 29-28, when Sun Devils kicker Alex Garoutte missed a 46-yard field goal on the last play.

"It has been a little tiring being on the opposite end the past couple years," Arizona State quarterback Taylor Kelly said.

The Sun Devils lost their last four regular-season games in 2011 and finished a game behind UCLA, which went to the title game because division winner USC was on NCAA probation and ineligible to play for the championship.

Arizona State has not spun in every season, but did it enough to give legs to the fade theory.

The Sun Devils started 4-2 in 2009 but lost their last six games. Arizona State was 7-2 — and 4-0 in conference play — with four games left in 2002, and lost the next three. A year earlier, a 4-2 start was tarnished by an 0-5 finish. In 2000, it was a 5-2 start, then a 1-3 finish, followed by a bowl loss.

"We heard things in the past few years that we weren't a November team," Kelly said. "Some things are perception, how people take it." But he acknowledged, "Some teams do let the grind get to them in November."

Not this team, Kelly said. Arizona State toughed out wins at Utah and at home against Oregon State the last two weeks.

"There is a different feeling from last year," Kelly said. "The relationships are better. I know that sounds corny, but we hang out with each other. There's a crazy belief in one another."

UCLA is trying to keep one championship-game streak alive and end another. The Bruins played in the first two Pac-12 title games, but lost both.

Their first appearance was tainted by a 6-6 record, which included a 50-0 loss to USC to end the regular season, the Trojans making it clear that the best team in Pac-12 South was not going to the title game.

It was UCLA's 12th loss in 13 games against the Trojans. But the Bruins exorcised some demons with a convincing 38-28 victory over USC last season on their way to the championship game. Now UCLA is two wins away from a return trip — again earned.

"It would be phenomenal to go again," senior linebacker Jordan Zumwalt said. "Shoot, we not only have to get there, we've got to win it."

A conference championship might prompt some skeptics to accept that this is a new and improved UCLA football program.

"Coach Mora is trying to bring talent into this place, and funding and everything else this school needs in order to compete with the [Southeastern Conference] teams and others playing for the national title," Zumwalt said. "To do that, we've got to win games and go to the Pac-12 title game."

There would be personal vindication as well. The Bruins have 12 seniors on scholarship who remember less pleasant seasons.

"To go to a third title game in a row, and finally get one, bring it back home, that would be amazing for us," senior defensive end Cassius Marsh said. "It would be especially satisfying for the seniors, who have been here for all the ups and downs."

chris.foster@latimes.com

Twitter: @cfosterlatimes

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Three L.A. restaurants that are good brunch bets

It's the holidays. The relatives are here, and you're tired of cooking and cleaning and then doing it all over again the next day. You need to get them out of the house — for brunch. Please, not a buffet. No mob scenes. You need a restaurant with a chef who has really thought about the meal that bridges breakfast and lunch. How about salmon slow-smoked over foraged "rabbit tobacco" or a sumptuous octopus hash with smashed fingerling potatoes? Maybe a classic omelet or shirred eggs? To start the meal, of course, you'll have a strong cup of coffee from a micro-roaster or perhaps a mimosa stained fuchsia with prickly pear fruit. Why not?

Bucato

At this terrific new Culver City restaurant, chef and owner Evan Funke makes an Italian brunch that would be perfect if only the Italians had anything more than cappuccino and a brioche in the morning. Start with freshly fried doughnuts with a heart of warm, melting Nutella or dreamy toast heaped with avocado smashed with olive oil. Then — and it's a big then — you can have that meaty octopus hash or a swatch of crisp pork belly with velvety peppers and creamy white grits. Or those same grits with grilled shrimp, green garlic and escarole. And why not braised rabbit topped with a sunny egg? Oh, just have everything.

3280 Helms Ave., Culver City; (310) 876-0286, http://www.bucatola.com. Brunch 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. Brunch items, $6 to $17.

Girasol

At Studio City's new Girasol, chef C.J. Jacobson turns out a highly original brunch. I'd expect no less after his stint last year at Noma in Copenhagen. His prickly pear fruit mimosa is brilliant. So is the house-cured gravlax, slow-smoked and served with crème fraîche subtly flavored with bonito shavings. There's a grilled octopus gazpacho made with tomatillos, an elegant Maine lobster Benedict with sautéed wild spinach and the world's best hollandaise, and even steak and eggs with a pile of incredibly crisp Kennenbeck potato skins and a garnish of pickled California black walnut. Something for everyone.

11334 Moorpark St., Studio City, (818) 924-2323, http://www.girasolrestaurant.com. Brunch 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sundays. Brunch items, $7 to $28.

Farmshop

The dining room at Farmshop in the Brentwood Country Mart is washed in light in the mornings, a lovely spot for brunch. And the menu at this 3-year-old restaurant is just what you'd expect from a chef who worked with Thomas Keller: simple and classic, relying on great ingredients and impeccable technique. If you crave an omelet made with beautiful eggs, chanterelles, soft herbs and Jersey milk ricotta, this is the place. The shirred eggs come with wild greens, carrots, goat cheese and olive tapenade. Not to forget the plate of pastrami with sunny-side up eggs. Or the basket of house-made pastries.

225 26th St., Brentwood, (310) 566-2400, http://www.farmshopla.com. Brunch 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. Brunch items, $8 to $18.

irene.virbila@latimes.com

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USC beats West Alabama, 73-57, but will be missing J.T. Terrell

More notable than USC's 73-57 beating of West Alabama on Thursday night at the Galen Center was an announcement before the game.

J.T. Terrell, who had led the Trojans with 20 points in their opening loss to Utah State and who led USC last year in Pac-12 Conference scoring, is ineligible for the rest of the fall semester because of academic reasons.

USC Coach Andy Enfield said it's possible Terrell, a senior guard, could regain his eligibility as soon as the Long Beach State game Dec. 19, depending on when first-semester grades are posted.

Terrell will miss at least five games, including the trip to the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament in Nassau, Bahamas, where USC (4-1) next plays Thanksgiving Day against Villanova.

"We're hoping to get J.T. back after the semester," Enfield said. Enfield said Terrell, a captain, is also not practicing with the team. Terrell was not at the game Thursday to comment.

Enfield said the Trojans will miss Terrell for as long as he is out. "He's our senior captain, our most athletic player, a double-figures scorer last year, a starter," Enfield said.

"But they have to be student-athletes. USC has an unbelievable academic support system. If he can't succeed, it's not USC's fault, it's your fault. I love the kid, but he needs to be a student-athlete."

There was not much of a basketball game being played Thursday even without Terrell.

West Alabama, a Division II school, trailed USC 45-25 at halftime when three Trojans — Byron Wesley, Omar Oraby and Nikola Jovanovic — each had nine points and walk-on Devon Pflueger played three minutes.

Wesley finished with a team-high 15 points to go with eight rebounds while Oraby had 13 points and eight rebounds and freshman Jovanovic ended up with 14 points and six rebounds.

The first-half highlight for the Tigers was the 15 points from forward Sandy Underwood, who hit seven of his first 12 shots. The second-half highlight for USC was when Oraby blocked a shot and chased the ball full speed to the other end of the court, almost getting the steal too. The ball trickled off his fingers, but the time he took forced the Tigers into a shot-clock violation.

When Trojans freshman Roschon Prince missed a dunk and Desmond Raymond hit a three, the USC lead was down to 62-54.

But the Trojans woke up long enough for point guard Pe'Shon Howard to hit freshman Julian Jacobs for a fastbreak dunk and shortly after that Wesley found Jovanovic for a fastbreak layup to put USC ahead 66-54 with 3 minutes 32 seconds left.

The Tigers ended up outscoring USC 32-28 in the second half.

"We lost some focus," Enfield said of the desultory second half. "We missed lots of easy shots. When we play teams we are more athletic and bigger than, the only way they can beat us is at the three-point line and we let them make 11 threes."

Oraby agreed with his coach about the second-half lapses.

"We have to do a better job in the second half of not relaxing," Oraby said. "Against bigger teams, better teams, it won't be easy if we let teams back in the game."

diane.pucin@latimes.com

Twitter: @mepucin

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Kings fall to Devils, 2-1, in OT on Jaromir Jagr's landmark goal

New Jersey's Jagr scored a milestone and game-winning goal in overtime in the Devils' 2-1 victory over the Kings on Thursday night at Staples Center, handing the Kings and goalie Ben Scrivens their first loss in five games.

Overtime and open ice were the perfect recipe for the dynamic Jagr, who, with his 690th career goal in the NHL, tied the retired legend Lemieux for ninth-place all-time. It came shortly after Jagr exited the penalty box — the Kings and Devils put on an entertaining stretch of three-on-three action when Jagr and Kings captain Dustin Brown went off just 17 seconds into overtime.

BOX SCORE: New Jersey 2, Kings 1 (OT)

New Jersey started off the play by capitalizing on Kings center Anze Kopitar's turnover in his own zone. The Devils Marek

Zidlicky cleverly held up and waited for Jagr to join the play.

"I kind of got the pass from behind. I didn't even see the goalie," Jagr said. "I didn't see the net.… That's the move — hold it, hold it, hold it. But you always put it top shelf — I'm not that good. That's the only [way] I had a chance — just outpatient the goalie. That's how I put it in. But I didn't really see the net, to be honest with you."

Jagr, in fact, has scored 121 game-winning goals in his career, tying another legend's record, Gordie Howe's mark.

"We definitely had lots of shots and lots of opportunities," Kopitar said. "I don't think the power play was as good as we needed it to be. We spent quite a bit of time in their zone. But we didn't finish it off."

The Kings are used to seeing this sort of work in the goal from the Devils' Cory Schneider, who was traded to New Jersey from Vancouver in the summer. He made 34 saves against the Kings.

"It's tough to score … best goaltending in the league over there," Kings Coach Darryl Sutter said.

It was the first time the Devils have been at Staples Center since they lost to the Kings in the 2012 Stanley Cup Final.

Almost 46 minutes went by and the Kings and the New Jersey Devils were unable to produce a single goal. That should not come as a big surprise, considering their meeting last week in Newark, in which the first goal of the game did not come until less than seven minutes remained and Dwight King scored.

And just like that, the offense returned at Staples Center Thursday.

The Devils and the Kings traded goals within a span of 1:05 in the third period, with New Jersey's Ryan Carter striking first at 5:52.

He essentially froze Kings defenseman Alec Martinez and flipped a backhander at the net, which went between the legs of Kings defenseman Willie Mitchell and beat Scrivens in the top corner.

It was just the seventh shot of the game for the Devils. They had only five shots through two periods and the Kings held them to two in the first. That tied a season low for the Kings who allowed two shots by the Tampa Bay Lightning in the second period on Tuesday. The Devils finished with 15 shots; the Kings took 35.

But the Kings' response was swift and decisive with the goal going to Justin Williams at 6:57, tapping in a rebound after center Kopitar did the heavy lifting, attacking with speed down the left wing. For Williams, it was his team-leading ninth goal of the season. Kopitar has 11 points in his last 10 games. Brown had the second assist on the goal.

lisa.dillman@latimes.com

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Wine review: 2011 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay

This is an elegant Napa Valley Chardonnay from Chateau Montelena, very much still in the style that won the famous Paris Tasting of 1976 and launched California Chardonnay onto the world wine scene. Silky on the palate, the 2011 has aromas of pear, citrus and honeysuckle. A bright acidity and a discrete touch of oak gives the ripe fruit flavors a lift. A wine to savor.

This would be a great bottle to take to a holiday dinner with people who would appreciate its finesse. It shows best with shellfish or fish in sauce — coquilles St. Jacques, lobster with drawn butter or Dungeness crab, but also a simple roast chicken.

Region: Napa Valley

Price: $40 to $50

Style: Elegant and nuanced

What it goes with: Fish and shellfish in sauce, lobster or crab, a simple roast chicken

Where to find it: Green Jug in Woodland Hills, (818) 887-9463, http://www.greenjug.com; Lincoln Fine Wines in Venice, (310) 392-7816, http://www.lincolnfinewines.com; K&L Wine Merchants in Hollywood, (323) 464-9463, http://www.klwines.com; the Wine Club in Santa Ana, (714) 835-6485, http://www.thewineclub.com; the Wine Country in Signal Hill, (562) 597-8303, http://www.thewinecountry.com; and Woodland Hills Wine Co. in Woodland Hills, (800) 678-9463, http://www.whwc.com.

irene.virbila@latimes.com

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