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Los Angeles Times - Top News
\n \n Headlines from latimes.com\n \n \n

\n \n Drivers of recalled Toyota Prius and Lexus hybrids advised to monitor brakes\n - Take care with potholes and bumps and leave extra room to stop, U.S. transportation officials say. If there\'s a noticeable\n change in the brake performance, contact a dealer immediately.\n

\n \n \n Reacting to Toyota Motor Corp.\'s decision to recall 2010 Prius and Lexus hybrids, the National Highway\n Traffic Safety Administration on Tuesday advised owners of the affected vehicles to contact a dealer immediately if they noticed\n a change in the performance of their brakes.\n

\n \n Obama kicks off first bipartisan leaders meeting\n - President Obama kicked off his latest bipartisan push on Tuesday morning as he met with Democratic and Republican congressional\n leaders to discuss jobs and the economy.\n

\n \n As storm approaches Southern California, evacuations ordered for L.A. hillsides\n - Foothill areas north of Los Angeles are under a flash flood watch as another winter storm approaches, threatening burn areas\n with more mudslides and prompting mandatory evacuations for hundreds of homes.\n

\n \n Some icebreakers at the Olympics\n - Here are 10 stories to watch during the Winter Games in Vancouver\n

\n \n No gold on the home turf\n

\n \n FDA aims to rein in radiation-based medical scans\n - The announcement comes five months after the FDA began looking into reports of problems with CT scanning at Cedars-Sinai Medical\n Center.\n

\n \n \n The Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday it will work with doctors and manufacturers to reduce\n unnecessary radiation exposure from medical scans, a problem that has been growing for decades.\n

\n \n Iran begins plan to produce higher-grade uranium, official says\n - The exact status of the plan is unclear, but Western diplomats fear it represents a provocative escalation in the controversy\n over Tehran\'s nuclear ambitions.\n

\n \n \n The head of Iran\'s Atomic Energy Organization said that his country began a plan Tuesday to produce\n higher-grade uranium at its fuel production plant near the central town of Natanz.\n

\n \n Pakistani Taliban confirm leader\'s death\n - Hakimullah Mahsud was injured in a missile strike by a U.S. drone last month. He is the group\'s second leader killed in six\n months.\n

\n \n \n The Pakistani Taliban confirmed Tuesday that their leader, Hakimullah Mahsud, died from injuries suffered\n in a U.S. drone missile strike last month, an attack that forces the insurgency to find a new leader for the second time in\n six months.\n

\n \n Over 60 feared dead, 400 hurt in Afghan avalanches\n - More than 2,000 people have been rescued. Hundreds of soldiers and other emergency workers toil to free them.\n

\n \n \n A series of avalanches engulfed a mountain pass in Afghanistan, trapping hundreds of people in their\n buried cars and killing as many as 64 people so far, authorities said Tuesday.\n

\n \n Despite budget crisis, state spent $75 million on vehicles, office furniture\n - The top spenders were Caltrans, with $10.4 million for vehicles, and the DMV, with $1.7 million for furnishings. An additional\n $2 million went to conferences and meetings, report shows.\n

\n \n \n Even as the state grappled with a budget crisis last year, bureaucrats spent nearly $45 million on\n new vehicles, almost $30 million on new furniture and more than $2 million on off-site meetings and conferences, a legislative\n panel has found.\n

\n \n Villaraigosa sets sights on City Council\'s pet projects funds\n - To plug a shortfall, he\'s seeking to borrow $40 million from accounts that are used for neighborhood initiatives. But some\n of the funds can\'t easily be touched, council aides say.\n

\n \n \n Members of the Los Angeles City Council have more than a dozen accounts squirreled away that they\n dip into for pet projects. They have set aside money for security cameras around MacArthur Park, artistic bike racks in Hollywood\n and a program that sends city workers to pluck abandoned shopping carts off the streets of the San Fernando Valley, to name\n just a few.\n

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