(Subscription required) Riverside County Superior Court Judge Jay K. Kiel traded a career in finance for criminal prosecution and the bench, bringing an emphasis on preparation, fairness and independence to a demanding felony calendar.

(Subscription required) The unanimous court held that prosecutors need only show that displaying a gun would cause a reasonable person to fear bodily harm, regardless of whether the victim was actually frightened.

Actress Leah Remini is heading toward trial in her defamation and harassment suit against the Church of Scientology, which called her a liar and an abuser of aging relatives after she ended nearly 40 years of church membership in 2013. A state appeals court narrowed Remini’s lawsuit in July, saying some of the post-2013 slurs she attributed to church officials — such as calling her a “religious bigot” and a “one-woman hate machine” — were not the types of factual accusations that can constitute libel.

Orange County’s South Junior High School earned its second Civic Learning Award of Excellence for its innovative and replicable civic engagement programs and for its broad inclusion of students in civic learning.