News roundup

DWP ordered to pay back

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power overcharged the school district, county and other government agencies for more than a decade and now must return more than $220 million, a judge ruled Thursday.

Six government entities sued in 2000, saying that under state law the DWP can only charge them for the cost of producing the electricity they use - less than what the utility had billed them. Kerry Cavanaugh
reports the decision.

Villaraigosa divorce started
Just four days after Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa publicly announced his separation after two decades of marriage, his wife promptly filed for divorce late Tuesday.
Wasting little time, Corina Villaraigosa filed a standard, 10-page petition in Los Angeles County Superior Court seeking dissolution of the marriage because of "irreconcilable differences." Troy Anderson reported the details.

The bare-bones filing had few details, noting assets and liabilities were yet to be determined. But the speed with which it was filed highlighted what some have said has been a longstanding and growing estrangement between the couple.

The filing came just one day after a somber mayor held a news conference in which he deflected inquiries about the reasons for the split but said he took responsibility for the breakup and felt "a personal sense of failure."

"When you've been married for 20 years, that's a big thing," he said at the time. "It's been a stable kind of anchor for the family, and so when you're not able to continue, it's difficult."

But the mayor also refused to say whether he'd been romantically involved with other women since he took office July 1, 2005.

LAUSD graduation rates continue decline

Los Angeles Unified has the sixth-lowest graduation rate among large school districts in the nation, according to a study released Tuesday by the Editorial Projects in Education Research Center.

The study, whose findings are disputed by LAUSD officials, said the district has a high school graduation rate of 45 percent, compared with a national average of 70 percent. Details reported in today's Daily News by Harrison Sheppard and Naush Boghossian.