Lakers Riot

L.A. Lakers fans celebrated their NBA championship victory Sunday night (June 14) by rioting outside the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

Eyewitness reports said that the police officers at the scene were being belted with rocks and bottles. There are also reports of fans starting fires, although it isn’t clear at this stage whether those fires included buildings or vehicles. One unconfirmed report says that at least one police vehicle has been set on fire.

Live footage at 9:15pm local time from a local television station clearly shows rioters attacking signs and shop fronts. Police control of the area at this time would appear to be limited, with vehicle traffic having to turn away as they approach the rioters. Twitter users near the scene are warning people to stay away from the Staples Center Riot area and surrounding streets, describing the scene as chaos. More reports of fires being lit.just grabbed this shot from a live video feed showing rioters attacking a taxi. Immediately after this shot was taken, other vehicles were surrounded and attacked.

strong police presence now outside the center, but rioters are in other streets. More passing cars being attacked. unconfirmed report that the Staples Center is on fire. There were fire brigade vehicles earlier, perhaps confirming the report. reports that police have declared the riot an “unlawful gathering.” TV footage shows rioters dispersing. Some attacks now happening West of the Harbor (110) Freeway. reports of two arrests, police claim to have the area under control. Live helicopter footage still shows people in the area though. This shot was taken earlier….

Jerry Buss

"That's true," Jackson said. "I would always say 'the Buss family' because I don't want to put it out there. But that's right." Wait. So, if Phil wasn't in love with Jeanie Buss, the daughter of owner Jerry Buss, a Lakers executive and one half of America's most powerful sporting couple, there is no Siddhartha presence in the locker room? No closing in on a 10th NBA coaching title -- one more than Auerbach's nine with the Boston Celtics? Remember "The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh," the cornball 1979 sports movie with Julius Erving, about an astrologer named Mona Mondieu who becomes the architect of an outhouse-to-penthouse team?

"Without that relationship, he's not the coach today," Lakers General Manager Mitch Kupchak said a few days before the team was on the cusp of its 15th NBA title and fourth of this decade. "If that's not in place, he's not here." He didn't return for Red Auerbach's record. Or Kobe Bryant's legacy. Or money. Now that Phil Jackson is one win from coaching immortality, the story can be told:“I think Kobe very definitely understands how hard I made the effort to get sufficient talent to win,” Buss said. “I was talking to him on the phone right as the Pau Gasol [trade] came through, and he said, ‘Wow, I can go win with this now.’ I think Kobe and I get along pretty well.”

The team is winning with machine-like efficiency, there are no injuries to worry about, guys are accepting roles, and everyone’s getting along swimmingly. Just what in the hell is going on here? I have no idea, but team owner Jerry Buss seems content with things, and is ready to open up his wallet to keep the good times rolling. Well, sort of. Well enough to open the vault again if Bryant leaves $47.8 million on the table and rips up his contract after this season? “We really don’t address those issues until they come up because we don’t know what the environment is, but we can’t afford to lose Kobe,” Buss said.

Charles Huggins.

On this day, a small group gathered here and tried to tell its story, walking through its rooms and the place that once hosted Vaudeville acts. Anderson County Museum Curator Alison Hinman and two Masons — Charles “Spoon” Huggins and Jake O. Phillips — pulled out more details, expanding on the short tale contained on that metal plaque. “What you are standing in is a barn,” Phillips said. “It is made of solid wood. We have beams that are cut from a single tree.” Once inside, I know why someone else requested that I write about this place.

Blue, like the moon, covers parts of the ceiling. Some places are yellow. Columns surround the walls, and royal blue-cushioned wooden chairs sit in rows along the rim the room itself. It’s a room of reverence, a place mixed with royalty and religion. It is modeled after King Solomon’s Temple. And its blue overtones are for another reason. “Masons used to meet out in the open under the full moon,” Huggins said. “So now, Masonic lodges are called Blue Lodges. This whole room is full of symbolism.”Names pop out even to the transplanted Andersonian. James Orr. G.F. Tolly. J.L. Tribble.

For years — well since 1889 — the city fathers met here. This was this building’s first purpose. It was one of two Masonic lodges in Anderson. In another room, there are rows of photos. Most are black-and-white framed portraits of those men long gone.This city’s street names are under these photos. The men who made this town are here. G.F. Tolly was mayor for at least seven terms in Anderson. One of his descendants, Hinman said, is Fred Tolly, who served on Anderson County Council for a number of years. Then another photo shows James L. Orr, the leader or past master of this lodge. He was also the governor of South Carolina. His funeral — the largest in Anderson — was attended by 2,000 to 3,000 people in this building, Hinman said.